First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently

by Gallup Press

Jeff B., the software sales manager, is not only a sincere, passionate and conceptual man, he is also, it turns out, a rotten planner. “I’ve never been good at tactics,” he confesses. “I am excellent at ground zero, building trust face-to-face. And I am excellent at 20,000 feet, finding patterns, playing out scenarios. But I’m terrible in between. That’s where Tony’s so good. When we look at a situation, he asks different questions than me. I’ll ask, ‘What if?’ or, ‘Why not?’ He’ll ask, ‘How many?’ or, ‘When?’ or, ‘Prove it.’ If I went to the board with my half-baked ideas, I’d get shot down every time. But with the two of us working on the same idea, our case ends up looking so convincing, they haven’t been able to turn us down once. As I say to Tony, individually we’re not much, but together we have a brain.”