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

by Gallup Press

For all of these reasons, great managers reject conventional wisdom’s story. Their rejection does not mean that they think all persistence is wasted. It simply means that persistence focused primarily on nontalents is wasted. Nor does their rejection mean that they ignore a person’s weaknesses. Each employee has areas where she struggles, and these areas must be dealt with. We will describe in more detail how great managers deal with a person’s weaknesses later in this chapter. But it does mean that great managers are aggressive in trying to identify each person’s talents and to help her cultivate those talents. This is how they do it: They believe that casting is everything. They manage by exception. And they spend the