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Great at Work: How Top Performers Do Less, Work Better, and Achieve More

Morten T. Hansen

3.80 · Rating details · 2,021 ratings · 208 reviews

Wall Street Journal Business Bestseller
A Financial Times Business Book of the Month
Named by The Washington Post as One of the 11 Leadership Books to Read in 2018

From the New York Times bestselling coauthor of Great by Choice comes an authoritative, practical guide to individual performance—based on analysis from an exhaustive, groundbreaking study.

Why do some people ...more

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Hardcover, 320 pages

Published January 30th 2018 by Simon Schuster (first published January 2018)

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Jan 30, 2018 Will Once rated it it was ok

Disappointing. There is nothing wrong with the book's main thesis that we should "work less, then obsess". In other words, do fewer things but focus more on doing them well. Can't argue with that. There are six other principles including such obvious nuggets as "work smarter, not harder".

The problem is how the book justifies this point of view. Most of the book is argument by anecdote. Person X did this and it worked out ... therefore we should all do this. That's hardly a strong argument as the ...more

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Mar 03, 2018 John rated it really liked it

Shelves: reviewed-by-me

As business books go, this is a good one. Morten T. Hansen's Great at Work is an attempt to explain how high-performers outdo their peers and deliver higher-quality work. The essential teaching of the book is that such performers "do less, then obsess": That is, they are very good at prioritizing, focusing on the top one to three things -- then they really bear down on those things to the exclusion of everything else. There's a lot more going on, but I think almost anyone would appreciate ...more

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Feb 26, 2018 Mehrsa rated it it was ok

If you attend 45% less meetings, you will be 74% more effective. There's all sorts of "real numbers" and stats like this in the book and I call BS. What does it even mean to be great at work? I think there are a lot of great tips in here that are pretty obvious--my personal favorites are do less and then obsess and don't follow your passion. But the book sells itself as scientifically rigorous when it's just a nice self-help that is fairly obvious. I would actually recommend Essentialism, which ...more

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Jan 10, 2018 Christopher Lawson rated it it was amazing

Do Less Fluff

In GREAT AT WORK, Professor Morten Hansen reveals the results of his extensive research study, which began in 2011, and examined the activity of 5,000 workers. The author was trying to figure out exactly which factors contributed to one being an especially superior worker. The researchers whittled down the factors to just seven "Smart Practices." These seven factors, as a whole explained about 2/3 of what makes someone really effective.

The biggest factor leading to superior ...more

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Jun 10, 2019 ☘Misericordia☘ ~ The Serendipity Aegis ~ ⚡ϟ⚡ϟ⚡⛈ ✺❂❤❣ rated it it was amazing

Shelves: consulting, knowledge, favorites, cognitive-improvement, business

A surprisingly sane account by a BCG alumnus and an academic on how to get work to be healthier and more productive.

Basically: the 'work not 12 hrs a day but using your head', principle. Supplied with sane storytelling, nice academic research bells and whistles, large statistical pool and a nice self-review of methods used (incl. their up and downsides).

Very clear writing. Rational line of thinking. Good text structuring. Well thought-out considerations. Lots of good logic (which is rarer than ...more

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Nov 08, 2018 Paul Fulcher rated it liked it

Shelves: 2018

Morten T. Hansen 2018 book Great at Work: How Top Performers Do Less, Work Better, and Achieve More reminded me in many respects of Angela Duckworth's Grit and Carol Dweck's Mindset, both of which he references, although the title is more directly self-explanatory and the focus is very much on the world of work.

He develops seven rules (and yes he admits - 'it always seems to be 7 doesn't it') for high performers, based on a detailed study of 5000 people. There are the usual anecdotes in the ...more

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Oct 20, 2018 Liz rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobook, non-fiction, work

Really useful tips. This book both reassured me that the majority of my work habits are fundamentally good and helped me identify ways to improve my work life (and sanity!). Recommended.

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Feb 21, 2018 Dave rated it it was amazing

Shelves: biz

Hansen undertook a 5 year study to find out what makes top performance at work. He's also worked with Jim Collins on his follow up to Good to Great, so Hansen has credibility.

While he frames his 7 keys to performing better as a challenge to the conventional wisdom, the ideas have been around. But those ideas have not been wrapped up together and do not have the credibility of Hansen's study.

The first and most important key - work less, then obsess. Hansen gives the example of the 91 year old Hansen undertook a 5 year study to find out what makes top performance at work. He's also worked with Jim Collins on his follow up to Good to Great, so Hansen has credibility.

While he frames his 7 keys to performing better as a challenge to the conventional wisdom, the ideas have been around. But those ideas have not been wrapped up together and do not have the credibility of Hansen's study.

The first and most important key - work less, then obsess. Hansen gives the example of the 91 year old three star sushi chef who only makes 20 types of sushi in a restaurant with no bathroom underneath the stairs to the subway. The chef's singular focus on perfecting sushi earned him three Michelin stars not the decor. He also leads this chapter with the story of the team that first reached the south pole and survived, they had less money and less modes of transportation than the better financed team. But since they had fewer resources they focused on getting the best dogs and only sled dogs. The other team was spread thin and had coordination issues - those are the problems with doing too much. Most people who read Hansen do too much.

Ryan Holiday in Perennial Best Seller encourages a draw-down period and a singular focus. Cal Newport does as well in Deep Work. These books lack Hansen' study and seem to rely on anecdotes. The authors seem armaturist compared to Hansen.

Second, the next step after doing less is to redesign your job to focus on providing value rather than goals. SMART goals have come under criticism for leading people to focus on the the wrong the things. The Tyranny of Metrics by Jerry Mueller also brings this up - people measuring the wrong things just because they can be measured.

Third is your learning loop. This could be my favorite chapter because I already took the idea of using a feedback loop from product management in agile development and applied it to work in my own LinkedIn post https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/you-jo...

Fourth is passion and purpose. Hansen is right that following your passion is terrible advice. He advocates linking it with purpose - providing value. A lot this too is simply rethinking a job to see the greater good that it achieves. Every job helps someone - start with that and then make it bigger. You are helping a bigger goal that that person. What Hansen misses Cal Newport add in his So Good They Can't Ignore you book - you need to have already practiced the skills to go along with passion and purpose.

The next three keys focus on working together. I found these less helpful although there is a general idea that we work together too much in some cases.

Fifth is Forceful Champions. People inside and outside an organization do not make decisions rationally - see Scott Adams' Win Bigly or Robert Cialdini's Influence and Pre-suasion. Hansen encourages appealing to emotions because facts and reason don't work. Cialdini's work is more about selling outside the company, bringing the same tactics inside is tougher. I know that it can be done, but you risk everyone hating you. With customers it's different because you don't have to see them everyday and they know they are being sold. Long term these transactional tactics hurt relationships ,the people you have to work with are not going to like it. It is successful and they will like you less because of your success and tactics. Hansen doesn't acknowledge that as a cost of getting ahead.

Sixth is Fight and Unite, Hansen states we have too many meetings, true, because people are unprepared, true, or don't pay attention, true. People are afraid to differ, true, or if they do it becomes personal, all too true. Hansen gives some suggestions for encouraging vigorous debate and then uniting behind the final outcome. This is what successful companies do.

Seventh is the two sins of collaboration - under and over collaboration. Go back to focusing on value to find the Goldie locks.

Putting all seven ideas together, supporting them with data and anecdotes, and writing in an easy to read manner make this a five star book. I read it over the course of one day. Seven is the magic number, this a more practical and modern 7 Habits of Highly Effective people, which is just what the author was going for. ...more

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Apr 14, 2018 Tyler Weir rated it it was amazing

If you’ve read Grit(Duckworth) and Mindset(Dweck) I think you’ll appreciate this book.

I loved it.

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Mar 15, 2018 Carsten Hansen rated it really liked it

Shelves: business-leadership, business-entrepreneur, business-sales, arc-business

This book asks some important questions, why do some people perform better than others with comparable skills, why do some deliver higher quality work and use less time.? These important questions and it makes for an interesting book with a number of surprising and interesting findings. Overall, I found a lot of the conclusions could be used directly to improve my work output, both in terms of quality and speed and also how I can improve upon my habits outside of work.
The only detractor for me ...more

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Apr 29, 2019 Lloyd rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is brilliant! Concrete, understandable, data-backed, and applicable behaviors for me to be more successful in work and life! I greatly look forward to exploring these ideas with colleagues and friends.

The author makes it very accessible with phrases like “passion and purpose” aka p-squared.

I didn’t read much of the final section where the author unpacks their research and statistical methods, but it gives me confidence in the material and is sorry missed from most self-help books.

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Jan 21, 2019 Jorge DeFlon rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: liderazgo-leadership, software-development, project-management, agile-software-development, reto-lectura-2019

It is an easy-to-follow, coherent and informative book on how you can excel at work in this digital age regardless of your industry.

It presents seven clear principles that the data shows that if you follow them, it is very likely that you will become one of the best employee and / or manager of your organization.

highly recommended
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Es un libro fácil de seguir, coherente e informativo sobre cómo puede ser excelente en el trabajo en esta era digital. independientemente de ...more

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Jan 02, 2019 Nathan Brant rated it really liked it

This was a good read. On page 198 the definition of burn-out made me sit up and shake my head. I thoroughly enjoyed the re-worked twin ideas of passion and purpose. In particular, the notion that there are many different kinds of professional passion (achievement, creative, people, learning, and competence). Finally, I personally could benefit from the practice of "do less and then obsess.". Enjoy!

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Mar 17, 2018 Josh rated it liked it · review of another edition

Great at Work by Morten Hansen is a book about improving your performance in the workplace. Hansen distills workplace performance into seven elements which, based on his research, have the largest impact on your productivity at work. These are divided into two groups: elements related to how you personally work and elements related to how you work with others. A recurring theme among the elements is focus, narrowing the scope of what you do to target the most important activities of your work. ...more

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Dec 18, 2019 KC rated it liked it

Work smarter, not harder/longer. Easy right? Why would we want to work dumb? This book addresses those questions and provides a framework on how exactly to "work smart"

The seven practices of work smart are:
(1) Work scope practice—Select a tiny set of priorities and make huge efforts in those chosen areas
(2) Targeting—Focus on creating value, not just reaching preset goals
(3) Quality learning—Eschew mindless repetition in favor of better skills practice
(4) Inner motivation—Seek roles that match ...more

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May 06, 2018 Cody Ray rated it really liked it

Nice overview of an academic study across 5000+ employees. The author presents a framework for increasing your own performance in the workplace with 7 rules to put into practice.

My main concern is that it could've gotten the entire message across much more concisely. But still well worth the read.

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Apr 20, 2018 Danielle Annett rated it really liked it

Well researched! Great fundamental tips to integrate into your life. I would highly recommend this to anyone looking to increase their performance habits. A great way to see how to be at your best in both home life and work life.

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Feb 08, 2018 Melissa rated it it was amazing

Wow, there is a lot in this book. Though I read it through once, I can tell I'm going to need to come back to chapters after I've tackled some of the recommendations. In fact, that's a recommendation of the book -- start with one thing, and give it 15 minutes of the day, with careful measurement of your progress and feedback. I also really like the "do less, then obsess" theme suggesting that we need to work smarter, not more, or harder. The book is also full of great examples.

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Aug 08, 2018 Jacquelyn Merryfield rated it really liked it

I really liked this. Took away a few things I want to implement in my own work.

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May 31, 2018 Darren rated it really liked it

Many people assume that a company’s top performers are often those who are working all-possible hours, working their metaphorical tail off and achieving a lot in the process. The reality can be different, and often those who have achieved ‘greatness’ at work are working less, but better. This book shows you how this can be achieved.

The core of this book and its message is built on extensive research and observation of over 5,000 managers and front-line employees, conducted over five years. You Many people assume that a company’s top performers are often those who are working all-possible hours, working their metaphorical tail off and achieving a lot in the process. The reality can be different, and often those who have achieved ‘greatness’ at work are working less, but better. This book shows you how this can be achieved.

The core of this book and its message is built on extensive research and observation of over 5,000 managers and front-line employees, conducted over five years. You might argue that it is based around, or confirms, existing preconceptions that focussed, quality work can achieve more in less time than the opposite that is often seen as the norm, viewed often as a ‘badge of honour’ or ‘badge of war’. This may be obvious and true, but the ‘how’ (is it achieved) part is the possibly unanswered bit. The author brings this research to light and makes it actionable through his so-called seven ‘work smarter’ practices that are said to be applicable to any business sector and can be utilised by anyone. Application, rather than special knowledge, is the key.

Accompanying information about the individual practices are mini case-studies, taken from the research to highlight matters through a real-world lens, such as a Japanese sushi chef, whose simple preparation has led to his restaurant (hidden away under a subway station underpass) being awarded three Michelin stars. It was enjoyable and informative, with each chapter concerning one specific ‘work smarter’ practice that is concluded with the means to self-evaluate your own performance, strengths and weaknesses. Once you know yourself better, the packaged advice can help you find a personal route to this effective, credible success.

It seemed to be a good package, even if you don’t consider you are so ineffective or otherwise in need of change. We can all do with a bit of polishing to what we do, and if we are as-perfect as we believe, what’s the harm in checking out an otherwise credible book to get confirmation that we cannot improve on perfection (no matter how delusional we may, in fact, be). The book’s price is more than reasonable for what you get. It is something you may consult on many occasions and even after any analysis and ‘remedial work’ that may be necessarily, there is a good chance that you will dip back into it and find a different interpretation or nugget to extract for future use.

It is definitely worthy of closer inspection, whether you are a boss/manager looking to inspire your staff better, or a ‘humble worker’ wanting to maximise your work effect whilst minimising your presence at work! ...more

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Apr 23, 2018 The Harry L. Davis Center for Leadership added it

Shelves: recommended-reading

You’ve heard it before: Work smarter, not harder. Morten Hansen’s latest book, Great at Work, brings new meaning to that hackneyed idea with a set of seven work-smart practices that apply in a wide range of industries and functions. Hansen and his team undertook a comprehensive study of individual performance at work, and tested their theories in a survey of 5,000 managers and employees—from ER nurses to CEOs. They share seven practices that anyone can partake in to become great at work.

This ...more

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Feb 25, 2018 Ceil rated it liked it

Shelves: business

Good solid research and discussion of the difference between activity (necessary and not even close to sufficient for success) and accomplishment (ideally with the least activity possible) -while Hansen doesn't frame the argument that way, it's a terrific contribution to the growing literature that says the most successful people - as Warren Buffet says - "say no to almost everything." That lets them, as Hansen says, "do less. Then obsess" over what you do do.

Other nuggets:
Focus on creating ...more

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Oct 24, 2018 Annie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: recommend

The book is logically structured around the 7 practices to be great at work:

Mastering Your Work
* Put a lot of effort into a few important priorities.
* Create value not just reach goals (for example, the report was done on time but does anyone read it).
* Develop useful skills (don't become complacent in routine tasks).
* Seek roles that match your purpose (what are you contributing to the world) and your passion (how much you enjoy what you're doing).

Mastering Work With Others
* Gain support from ...more

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Jul 29, 2018 Imaculate Mosha rated it really liked it

Shelves: self-help

Morten shows how individual and organisational productivity can be enhanced by several pillars including:
-Disciplined collaboration
-Passion and Purpose
-Do less and stress
-Fight and unite
-Work life balance.

Backed by research it tears down the old approach of working longer. I found the book eye-opening and almost applicable to all knowledge workers.

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Sep 26, 2018 Nick Jordan rated it it was ok

I would think that this would be the exact leadership book for me: research-based by an expert in the field. Instead, like so many books of the past several years, it is a blog post or an article fluffed into a book. Grab the book from the library shelf, read the Epilogue, apply what you want from that, and skip the rest.

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Sep 01, 2018 Claudius rated it did not like it

Had to read this for work. Extremely gendered and lacking good advice for women in the workplace. Not a single novel concept explored, and so superficial a nail etching glass digs deeper. Would give zero stars if possible.

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Jun 22, 2018 Yiwen rated it did not like it

Shelves: gave-up

Just read the first chapter and you will get the gist.

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Nov 15, 2018 Robert rated it did not like it

Shelves: non-fiction

Gives a catchy, rhyming name to basic common sense and supports it with an anecdote.

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Nov 10, 2019 Michelle rated it really liked it

My reluctance to grant this book five stars instead of four is because of the history of some of the "Great" books. Some have not lasted well with the test of time. Hopefully, this book will, as there were a number of items I found useful.

The author found seven "work smart" practices attributed to strong performance-- around work scope practice, targeting, quality learning, inner motivation, advocacy, rigorous teamwork, and disciplined collaboration. His mantra, repeated throughout the book? "Do My reluctance to grant this book five stars instead of four is because of the history of some of the "Great" books. Some have not lasted well with the test of time. Hopefully, this book will, as there were a number of items I found useful.

The author found seven "work smart" practices attributed to strong performance-- around work scope practice, targeting, quality learning, inner motivation, advocacy, rigorous teamwork, and disciplined collaboration. His mantra, repeated throughout the book? "Do less, then obsess". After analyzing 5,000 people, he categorized them into four types: the "accept more, then coast", which were those who took on a lot of priorities but didn't put in very much effort; those who were very good at focusing on top priorities but didn't make enough effort ("do less, no stress"); employees who took on many responsibilities and then became overwhelmed ("do more, then stress"); and fourth, those who choose a few select number of priorities and put forward "obsessionlike" effort to complete then ("do less, then obsess").

While people are commonly told to follow their passion in life. He warns us that it is instead the marriage and alignment of passion with a sense of purpose that facilitates success. He also disputes another common perception about collaboration. While prevalent advice is that collaboration is on its face good, and that more of it is even better, based on his research, he finds that top performers actually collaborate less, carefully selecting what to be/become involved with, and what to avoid, channeling their efforts and time into those most advantageous and aligned with their passion and purpose. He refers to this as "disciplined collaboration".

He also discusses what he calls the "complexity trap", where the juggling of more priorities taxes our mind, essentially reflecting what has been called by others as "switching costs". And, while the word "obsession" tends to have a dysfunctional, negative connotation in our society, he notes that it can actually be productive (and to me seems he really means "heightened focus", which may sound more palatable). He also discusses Occam's razor, "which stipulates that people should pursue the simplest explanation possible in science and other areas. Applied to the workplace, we can express this idea as follows: As few as you can, as many as you must. Instead of asking how many tasks you can tackle given your working hours, ask how many you can ditch given what you must do to excel” (p. 30).

He contrasts the traditional view of productivity ("a person’s work productivity=output of work/hours of input") against what he views as a better equation: "the value of a person’s work=benefits to others x quality x efficiency” (p. 51). Speaking of metrics, he also reminds us that while we live in the age of the "quantified self", we should be selective in what we measure, and we should chunk intended changes into micro-behaviors of as little as 15 minutes a day.

He talks about the "stall point"-- that spot where our performance, after increasing, begins to plateau and suggests, among other things, to de-automate routines. He also provides some practical tips to debate better and to listen better.

Having just also finished reading Angela Duckworth's book "Grit", I especially appreciated his discussion of passion and purpose as follows: "Passion is ‘do what you love,’ while purpose is ‘do what contributes’. Purpose asks, ‘What can I give the world?’ Passion asks, ‘What can the world give me?’” (p. 90-91).
...more

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Dec 13, 2018 Caira rated it really liked it

Great at Work
In the self help novel, Great at Work (2018), author Morten Hansen educates and advises readers of the best ways to achieve greatness in their work life and improve lifestyles. He elaborates on how top performers do less and work better, but achieve more. Knowing your own individualistic skills that contribute to your job, you can dedicate greater time to smaller tasks and be able to excel in that position. Many confuse ‘doing more’ as being productive and beneficial for their Great at Work
In the self help novel, Great at Work (2018), author Morten Hansen educates and advises readers of the best ways to achieve greatness in their work life and improve lifestyles. He elaborates on how top performers do less and work better, but achieve more. Knowing your own individualistic skills that contribute to your job, you can dedicate greater time to smaller tasks and be able to excel in that position. Many confuse ‘doing more’ as being productive and beneficial for their career, but Hansen proves that ‘more’ can lead to greater stress and less understanding of the tasks at hand. Hansen studied several jobs and employees who were given more tasks and others who were given less, and noticed how those given more, performed mediocre, their work met expectations, but were not as impressive. Those given less tasks, actually accomplished better work ethics and excelled in performance. Hansen’s chapters are organized in a way that each chapter has its own advice in inspiring readers to know their work habits and skills, understanding throughly, finding their strengths and motivations in work, and working effectively independently and in groups. The text is easy to read because Hansen wants his readers to truly take in his advise and relate these ethics in their life. He studies multiple job professions and how accuracy and work load influences success and health. His research sounds reasonable and believable because of the variety of jobs and people studied, showing that certain factors can impact people of all job types. Great at Work was an intriguing book because I was able to relate and imagine myself needing these advisements for my future careers. The graphs shown throughout the book, also helped me gain insight of just how doing less and working smarter creates top notch performers. His style is simplistic and truthful and his encouragement can be game changers in the working world. You hear the saying, “balance is key” all the time, and it is true. Balance is essential in reducing stress and anxiety in all areas of our life. Hansen’s states that less stress was found in those who were able to balance family time, work, and self interests. You cannot overload or over due things or another section of your life is getting less attention. Like Hansen mentions, he says to find that skill or passion which you really excel in and put most of your effort and time into that, and you will notice improvements. Because, when you have a passion or drive for something, you are willing to put the effort in and go the extra mile. Hansen explains that devoting time into something you love can lead to greater success. It is easy to take numerous small tasks and get them done, without meaningful results or deep understanding. This would feel almost as if your work did not mean much or not a lot was accomplished. With a smaller amount of big tasks, you can dedicate meaningful time and research into that task and gain insight and gain a sense of achievement in doing so. Focusing time and energy on tackling one significant project is much more efficient than rushing through small assignments. This allows one to fully dive into one large task and engage in it. At the end of the day, achieving more with fewer tasks can bring you closer to your goals than completing many small, useless tasks. To be able to master your personal skills, effectively contribute to individual or collaborative work, and find that balance of work and your energy, you will become an exceptional employee.
...more

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