Better Believe it: Managers Matter.

Mahalo to Matt Sunshine for pointing out a great interview Worthwhile Magazine’s Kevin Salwen did with Gallup’s Curt Coffman. Coffman briefly talks about the main points made in the books he’s written for Gallup (and devoted much of his career to studying):
These are so important I’m printing them here in short order to entice you to click in and read the rest, for it’s essentially a 2-page primer on the description of a “great manager.”

-Great managers fire faster – they do it out of genuine caring.
-Great managers develop talent; bad managers chase it out the door.
-Problem: the managers largely aren’t happy either.
-An organization has as many cultures as it has managers and work groups.
-Managers have 3 – 4x more influence than the leaders of a company.
-The company culture is communicated through the manager.
-There is an important difference between having a clear model and systemizing the “best way.”
-Focusing on strength does not mean ignoring weaknesses, it means managing around them and building smarter partnerships.
-Promoting your star performers is not always the right move to make.
-Jobs are changing: it’s no longer about the “hands of an associate; it’s about the head and the heart, the instincts and ideas.”

I will take the risk of sounding like a broken record on this, for I’ve been up on this soapbox before … if you are a manager, or aspire to be a leader, read these books!

First read First, Break All the Rules.
Then, pick up Now, Discover Your Strengths.
Round off your study with Follow This Path.