Notes on First Break All the Rules by Jim Harter and Marcus Buckingham

I recently finished reading First, Break All The Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently by Jim Harter and Marcus Buckingham. Someone recommended it a while back, and I enjoyed reading it. I liked its definition of "talent" and how to screen for it. I liked some of the contrarian/non-obvious points of view it explained, like how the best managers treat each person differently (rather than uniformly) for various reasons.

​Below are my major notes and takeaways.

---

Preamble
Code to take strengths finder assessment and employee engagement survey

Foreword
Employee engagement

Intro
Best managers break these conventional rules
Everyone has unlimited potential so work on their weaknesses
Golden rule
Treat everyone the same (no favorites)

1 the measuring stick
How to measure quality of human capital
Q12 items in survey most important and had most signal
I know what is expected of me at work
I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right
At work I have the opportunity to do what I do best everyday
In the last 7 days I have received recognition or praise for doing good work
My supervisor or someone at work seems to care about me as a person 
There is someone at work who encourages my development 
At work my opinions seem to count
The mission or purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important 
My fellow employeees are committed to doing quality work
I have a best friend at work
In the last 6 months, someone at work has talked to me about my progress
In the last year, I’ve had opportunities to learn and grow
Extremeness of language important to measure differences 
Manager not senior leadership matters more
Q12 items linked to profitability and productivity
Managers trump companies

2 wisdom of great managers
People don’t change much. Don’t try to change them but rather figure out where and if they can use their strengths. 
4 basic roles of great managers
Select the person
Talent not just intelligence, experience, or determination 
Set expectations
Outcomes not steps
Motivate the person
Focus on strengths not weaknesses 
Develop the person
Help find the right fit not just the next rung on the ladder

3 the first key: talent
Recurring pattern of thought or behavior that can be productively applied 
Excellence is impossible without talent
Beyond just experience, brainpower, and willpower
Talent more important
Your filter is your source of talent
Skills, knowledge, and talents
Skills
Learn step by step
Practice 
Knowledge
Factual 
Experiential
Talents
Innate patterns and filters
Example: love of precision for accountants 
3 kinds of talents
Striving
Explains the why if a person
Motivations
Thinking
Explains the how of a person
Emotional or intellectual
Relating talents
Explains the who of a person
Who they trust
Cannot teach talent. Need to select for it. 
Competencies, attitudes, habits not as clearcut and overlap with habits
Can’t change someone’s attitude or motivations
Talent isn’t rare or special; it’s just an innate pattern; everyone has some. Key is matching role to talent. 
Know what talents you are looking for
Study your best
Excellence and failure not opposites but similar; middle is what you want to avoid

4 the second key: managing by remote control
Don’t hand all decisions and authority to employees. Manager must direct them. 
Define the right outcomes and measure performance against those
Standardize the ends not the means
Rules of thumb are better than strictness
Don’t break the bank. Need to be careful with things that require accuracy and safety. Standardized steps
Standards rule. Conform to industry or shared standards.
Don’t let the steps overshadow the outcome
There are no steps that guarantee customer satisfaction but some create dissatisfaction 
Accuracy
Availability 
Partnership
Advice
How to pick outcomes
What is right for your customer
What is right for your company 
What is right for the individual

5 the third key: focus on strengths
Manage around weaknesses 
Don’t try to fix people 
Casting is everything 
Put each person in right role 
Manage by exception
Manage each person differently 
Don’t treat same or like you like to be treated
Ask employee about their preferences, goals, meeting cadence, relationship preferences, etc.
Keep notes on each
Spend the most time with your best people
Key management role is not control or instruction but rather catalyzing talent into performance
Run interference for best players
When stars acting up, they are trying to get back your attention 
Treat each as deserves to be treated 
Tell best people why you value them so much
Don’t use averages to manage
How to manage around a weakness
Is the non-performance trainable
Is it a trigger issue
If not then it’s a talent issue and it won’t work
Non-talent vs weakness when that talent is required for the role
Options
Devise support system
Tools
Find a complementary partner
Find partner who balances you
Find them a different role or way out
If spend most of your time managing around someone’s weaknesses, then not the right fit and made a casting error

6 the fourth key: find the right fit
Blind, breathless climb
Help each person find the right role for them as they want to grow
Steer employees where they have the best chance of success
Peter principle: promote people out of their area of competence
A rung too far
Conventional career path wrong
Convey meaningful prestige on every role
One rung doesn’t necessarily lead to another
Don’t promote just because of excellence. Focus more on if they have the talents for the other role. 
Create heroes in every role
Make every role performed to excellence respectable
Levels of achievement
Becoming expert and tracking progress with rising title but same kind of work
Broadbanding
Pay based on competence in role
Superstars should still be paid more than those with higher role but less competence
Define pay bands so top end of lower role overlaps with bottom end of above role
Superstars should earn multiples of average person in the role 
Switching to management path typically involves a significant pay cut (but later can have higher maximum)
Managers should be happy paying star employees below them significantly more than they earn
Great managers hold up mirror for employees 
Constant feedback
Spend time 1:1 with each
Build close relationships with employees including knowing and caring about their personal life
Create safety net in case of taking a risk in a job switch 
Trial period with monthly checkins and test at end; if experiment doesn’t work, then go back to normal role
The art of tough love: removing someone from a role or trial period
Level of underperformance that’s unacceptable: anything around the average
How long to wait: not long
Talents constitute an enduring pattern and don’t change much so employee not performing isn’t just a matter of not trying hard enough; don’t need to mask your true feelings when talking
Casting error just need to say this role isn’t a fit

7 turning the keys: the art of interviewing for talent
Make sure the talent interview stands alone
Understand if their recurring patterns of thought and action fit the role
Ask open ended questions and watch their pattern of responses
What do you like most about selling
How closely do you think someone should be supervised 
Believe and trust what he says even if you want to interpret it differently 
Listen for specifics
Look for recurring behaviors that have plenty of examples
Tell me about a time you overcame resistance to your ideas when looking for assertiveness 
Look for very specific time mentioned and how quickly it was top of mind
Clues to talent
Rapid learning
What things have they been able to learn quickly or can do effortlessly
Satisfactions
Ask what greatest source of satisfaction, what gives strength, what find fulfilling
Know what to listen for
Have clear filter for how a top performer responds
Know how the best reply
How do they react when doubted
Try on a question on your best and average performers and look for patterns to see if it’s a good distinguishing question 
Keep a record of how people later perform compared to how they replied to your question
Performance management 
Simple routine
Frequent interaction 
Focus on future 
Strengths interview when someone just starting 
What did you enjoy most about prior job or about this job/what keeps you here
What do you think your strengths are (skills, knowledge, talent)
What about your weaknesses
What are your goals for your current role with specifics and timeline 
How often would you like to meet with me to discuss your progress
Are you the kind of person who will tell me how you’re feeling or do I have to ask
Do you have any personal goals you want to tell me about
What is the best praise you ever received 
Have you had any meaningful partnerships or mentors? Why do you think those relationships worked so well?
Future growth and career goals? New skills you want to learn? Any specific challenges you want to experience? How can I support you?
Anything else you want to talk about that might help us work together 
Write down and believe whatever they say
Schedule first performance planning meeting
Performance planning meetings
How to prepare
Have them answer these 3 questions
What actions have you taken towards goals and include specifics and timelines
What discoveries have you made
What partnerships have you built
Begin meeting going over his answers
After 10 minutes, direct conversation to the future
What is your main focus and primary goals over next time period
What new discoveries are you planning
What new partnerships are you hoping to build
Write down their answers and use those to evaluate their performance
Career discovery questions
How do you describe success in your current role and can you measure it
What do you do that makes you as good as you are
Which parts of your current role do you enjoy most
Which parts of your current role are you struggling with? What does that tell you about your skills, knowledge, talents
What can you do to manage around that (training, partnerships, etc.).
Imagine your ideal role. It’s 3pm on Thu. What are you doing? What are you deriving from it?
Keys of your own
Employee is the star. Manager is the agent. 
Managing your manager
Schedule your own performance management meeting with your manager
Prepare your own review of your last 6 months and goals for next 6 months
Master keys
Manager more influential than company
Set up internal university
Teach the language of great managers
Gathering force
Appendices
Talents/strengths domains
Executing
Influencing
Relationship building
Strategic thinking