While researching their best-selling book, \u201cFirst, Break All the Rules,\u201d co-authors Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman interviewed over 80,000 managers in more than 400 companies. They wanted to learn what separates managers who are truly great from those who are just adequate.\u00a0 Surprisingly, among the great managers, Buckingham and Coffman found more differences than similarities.\u00a0 However, they did find one common belief that was held by all the great managers: \u201cPeople don\u2019t change that much.\u201d\u00a0 This common belief led the great managers to behave very consistently in four critical roles.\u00a0 To learn more about those critical roles, please continue reading below.<\/p>\n
\u201cConsider how hard it is to change yourself and you\u2019ll understand what little chance you have when trying to change others.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>~ Jacob M. Braude<\/em><\/p>\n Great managers accept that nobody is good at everything . . . everyone has both strengths and weaknesses. They also recognize that trying shore up people\u2019s weaknesses is a fool\u2019s errand, so they don\u2019t waste their time trying.\u00a0 Instead, they focus on people\u2019s strengths and try to make them better at what they already do well.<\/p>\n This idea that you should work on developing people\u2019s strengths rather than trying to correct their weaknesses led Buckingham and Coffman to the \u201cFour Keys\u201d of great managers. These are the four key roles that distinguish great managers from their not-so-great counterparts.<\/p>\n Hiring.<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0 Great managers hire for talent, not simply for knowledge, experience, and skills.\u00a0 NOTE:\u00a0 Buckingham and Coffman make a distinction between talent and skill.\u00a0 Skills can be taught, talents cannot.\u00a0 You can teach someone to run a piece of machinery or to handle bookkeeping tasks, but you can\u2019t teach someone to run a 50-yard dash in record time.\u00a0 Knowledge, experience, and skills are important, but those can all be developed on the job.\u00a0 So great managers focus their attention on whether or not an applicant already has the talent he or she will need to be successful in a particular job because, as we\u2019ve said, you can\u2019t teach talent.<\/p>\n Setting expectations.<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0 Great managers are focused on outcomes, not on the way a person must achieve those outcomes.\u00a0 Not-so-great managers cling the flawed theory that there is one, and only one, best way to perform a particular task and that their job is to make sure people are following each and every step of the process laid out for them without deviating or cutting any corners.\u00a0 More enlightened managers, recognizing that there is always more than one way to skin a cat, give their people leeway to do it \u201ctheir way\u201d . . . as long as the expected outcome is achieved.<\/p>\n Motivating.<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0 Not-so-great managers are committed to \u201cfixing\u201d the weaknesses they perceive in their people.\u00a0 In the view of Buckingham and Coffman, great managers let their people \u201cbecome more of who they already are.\u201d\u00a0 Think about it.\u00a0 Would you be more motivated by a manager who encourages you to grow and develop in a role where you can excel?\u00a0 Or by a manager who wants to make you better in an activity for which you have no talent, interest, or passion?<\/p>\n Developing.<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0 There\u2019s an old saying that, \u201cWhen you promote your best salesperson to sales manager, you lose a good salesperson and gain a lousy sales manager.\u201d\u00a0 That saying recognizes that selling and managing are very different activities, and that just because you\u2019re good at one doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019ll be good at the other.\u00a0 So in developing people, great managers focus, not just on the next rung of the ladder, but on where an individual\u2019s strengths and talents can be put to the highest and best use.<\/p>\n Above all, great managers recognize that each individual is unique . . . a unique blend of knowledge, experience, skills, talents, and behaviors. So to get the best from people, a one-size-fits-all management approach will not work.\u00a0 Instead, great managers customize their approach to each individual in a way designed to identify that individual\u2019s unique strengths and abilities, and then to put those strengths and abilities to the best use possible.<\/p>\n Sounds like a lot of work, doesn\u2019t it? It is.\u00a0 But that\u2019s why only the great managers do it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" While researching their best-selling book, \u201cFirst, Break All the Rules,\u201d co-authors Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman interviewed over 80,000 managers in more than 400 companies. They wanted to learn what separates managers who are truly great from those who are just adequate.\u00a0 Surprisingly, among the great managers, Buckingham and Coffman found more differences than similarities.\u00a0<\/p>\n