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1 " There has to be a way to redirect employee's driving ambition and to channel it more productively. There is. Create heroes in every role. Make every role, performed at excellence, a respected profession. "
― Marcus Buckingham
2 " Talent is the multiplier. The more energy and attention you invest in it, the greater the yield. The time you spend with your best is, quite simply, your most productive time. "
― Marcus Buckingham , First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently
3 " In the minds of great managers, consistent poor performance is not primarily a matter of weakness, stupidity, disobedience, or disrespect. It is a matter of miscasting. "
4 " ...every time you make a rule you take away a choice and choice, with all of its illuminating repercussions, is the fuel for learning. "
5 " Forcing your employees to follow required steps only prevents customer dissatisfaction. If your goal is truly to satisfy, to create advocates, then the step-by-step approach alone cannot get you there. Instead, you must select employees who have the talent to listen and to teach, and then you must focus them toward simple emotional outcomes like partnership and advice....Identify a person's strenths. Define outcomes that play to those strengths. Find a way to count, rate or rank those outcomes. And then let the person run. "
6 " Define excellence vividly, quantitatively. Paint a picture for your most talented employees of what excellence looks like. Keep everyone pushing and pushing toward the right-hand edge of the bell curve. "
7 " In fact, over the last twenty years, authors have offered up over nine thousand different systems, languages, principles, and paradigms to help explain the mysteries of management and leadership. "
8 " Simply put, this is one insight we heard echoed by tens of thousands of great managers: People don't change that much.Don't waste time trying to put in what was left out.Try to draw out what was left in.That is hard enough. "
9 " Managers are encouraged to focus on complex initiatives like reengineering or learning organizations, without spending time on the basics. "
10 " The secret to living a strong life is right in front of you, calling to you every day. It can be found in your emotional reaction to specific moments in your life. "
― Marcus Buckingham , Find Your Strongest Life: What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently
11 " The greatest managers in the world do not have much in common. But despite their differences, these great managers do share one thing: Before they do anything else, they first break all the rules of conventional wisdom. "
12 " Our talents come so easily to use that we acquire a false sense of security: Doesn't everyone see the world as I do? Doesn't everyone feel a sense of impatience to get this project started? Doesn't everyone want to avoid conflict and find the common ground? Can't everyone see the obstacles lying in wait if we proceed down this path? Our talents feel so natural to us that they seem to be common sense. "
13 " Remember the Golden Rule? "Treat people as you would like to be treated." The best managers break the Golden Rule every day. They would say don't treat people as you would like to be treated. This presupposes that everyone breathes the same psychological oxygen as you. For example, if you are competitive, everyone must be similarly competitive. If you like to be praised in public, everyone else must, too. Everyone must share your hatred of micromanagement. "
14 " Of the twelve, the most powerful questions (to employees, guaging their satisfaction with their employers) are those witha combination of the strongest links to the most business outcomes (to include profitability). Armed with this perspective, we now know that the following six ar ethe most powerful questions: 1) Do I know what is expected of me at work?2) Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?3) Do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?4) In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for good work?5) Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?6) Is there someone at work who encourages my development?As a manager, if you want to know what you should do to build a strong and productive workplace, securing 5s to these six questions would be an excellent place to start. "
15 " If you want to change your life so that others may benefit from your strengths, then change your values. Don't waste time trying to change your talents. "
16 " People leave managers, not companies "
17 " The talented employee may join a company because of its charismatic leaders, its generous benefits, and its world-class training programs, but how long that employee stays and how productive he is while he is there is determined by his relationship with his immediate supervisor. "
18 " The Four Keys of Great Managers:1. "When selecting someone, they select for talent ... not simply experience, intelligence or determination."2. "When setting expectations, they define the right outcomes ... not the right steps."3. "When motivating someone, they focus on strengths ... not on weaknesses."4. "When developing someone, they help him find the right fit ... not simply the next rung on the ladder. "
19 " The difference between a pebble and a mountain lies in whom you ask to move it. "
20 " In most cases, no matter what it is, if you measure it and reward it, people will try to excel at it "
