first, break all the rules

Started this book with great hesitation and without much expectation (This book was first recommended by a trainer from our leadership center, any recommendation from the leadership center or from HR has to be approached with caution :-)), "First, Break All The Rules", is written by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, both seasoned Gallop employees (I guess Marcus is not with Gallup anymore, but that is not important, atleast not for us ;-)) and hence I expected this book to be in some way a marketing material for Gallup – it is that and a bit more.

That 'bit more' is what is interesting (obviously!). The core of the first part is: "we can’t change basic traits of people by a day’s training” this is something I very strongly believe in and hence I started reading with some genuine interest.

Yes we can’t, we can’t change the basic nature of a person so easily. This concept is something we have seen in the previous posts on “Personality”, A person’s trait is 50% genetic and rest 50% is molded thru early life experiences (‘parents have no role’ – I can’t get over this point!) and it is nearly, as they say, cast in stone. It is Fairly impossible to change; unless the individual takes an extraordinary effort to change (after realizing his basic traits -which, by itself, is a big challenge). So, the book begs managers not to waste time focusing on talents that people don’t possess, but accept and nurture the talents that they possess.

The book says:
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.

I have different team leads, one of them is always in the thick of the things, pretty vocal, an extrovert by nature. The other leader is calm, keeps to himself and communicates in a limited but effective manner. Bottom line is, they get things done and their respective teams are happy to work with them. I admire them both. I cannot search of the absent qualities in them and ignore their strengths. Each one is different and this difference is the strength of my team.
Net-net; Conducting half a day 'Assertiveness' session is not going to make a person any more assertive than what he was before the session.

Okay, we saw the point that i agree with the authors whole heartedly; there is also a point in the book that i am really appalled at; more about it in the next post.

Note: Since 1997, Gallup has polled some 3 million individuals across 80 thousand units. Gallup uses 12 questions to measure the engagement of employees. The result of these surveys is extensively used in this book.