First, break all the rules : what the world's greatest managers do differently / Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

In First, Break All the Rules , Gallup presents the remarkable findings of its massive in-depth study of great managers--those who excelled at turning each employee's talent into performance.

The world's greatest managers differ in sex, age, and race. They employ different styles and focus on different goals. Despite their differences, great managers share one trait: They break virtually every rule conventional wisdom holds sacred. They don't believe that, with enough training, a person can achieve anything he sets his mind to. They don't try to help people overcome their weaknesses. They disregard the golden rule. They even play favorites.

Companies compete to find and keep the best employees using pay, benefits, promotions, and training. But these well-intentioned efforts often miss the mark. The front-line manager is the key to attracting and retaining talented employees. This amazing book explains how the best managers select employees for talent rather than for skills or experience, how they set expectations, how they motivate people, and how they develop people.

Gallup's research--based on 80,000 managers in 400 companies--produced twelve simple questions that distinguish the strongest departments of a company from the rest. First, Break All the Rules introduces this essential measuring stick and proves the link between employee opinions and productivity, profit, customer satisfaction, and rate of turnover.