Curt Coffman

What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently
By Curt Coffman & Marcus Buckingham

Great managers break the rules of conventional management wisdom.

Select people based upon talent not experience, skills and knowledge
Focus people through clarity of desired outcomes, not steps or process
Motivate people through the discovery of strengths versus fixing weaknesses
Creating growth by finding the right "fit" between the person's talents and demands of the role
Get really close to people and believe a relationship is what creates performance
Play favorites and spend most of their time with the most productive people
These are just a few of the discoveries made from the study of over 250,000 managers/leaders and what distinguishes the best from the rest.

creating culture as your competitive advantage
By Curt Coffman & Dr. Kathie Sorensen

There are three critical levels of great cultures:

MacroCulture - leaders who are "more interested than interesting," always painting a compelling vision, set the right strategy with the right people and are the ambassadors of the future.
MicroCulture - local team members who create the right outcomes and determine the success of key initiatives and strategy. Members feel a charge to "create positive and personal energy in one another," that is driven by quality relationships built on trust and pressure to achieve.
BridgeCulture - the managers who are always "connecting people to a purpose," and creating a "line-of-sight" to how every person/role creates value through attracting and keeping customers (the only way organizations can build growth).
Top cultures from big to small (Google, Zappos, and Nordstrom to the local grocery store, restaurant or coffee shop) have some key characteristics in common.

Some are:

Specific about the practices, rituals and even "weirdness’s" that distinguish their culture
Have sticky values like "paranoid collaboration," "bad news fast," "fearless," etc.
Examine and move from excellence, when you study average, you get average
Know precisely their "religion" and their "science"
Move decisions as close to the action as possible
Everyone sees how what they do both attracts and keeps customers

From the study of over 1 million employees and what attracts, keeps and energizes them…

Having a clear focus, great manager, right talent and quality relationships (good friends) are the keys to personal and professional success.

Individuals want to be part of a team that has high standards and expectations to achieve the success they never even thought possible. They are constantly raising the bar for themselves and others through tracking personal bests and encouraging pressure to perform from team members. Having best friends at work is a driver of accountability and work-life balance.

People leave managers not companies. Great managers are the foundation of great organizations. How we select, focus and recognize managers can be the best predictor of results. Great managers of people have strange practices like playing favorites of high performers, getting very close to the people that report to them, firing people faster than bad managers out of genuine respect for the person and customizing plans to fit the needs of each person.