Nutshell review - An average follow on book to First, Break All the Rules. Really nothing that new or revolutionary not already covered or implied in the original work.

This book, based on the extensive research and data collected by Gallup, gives a great help for managing an operation or a team. Currently I am engaged in a hotel takeover and we will be conducting the Gallup review in a few weeks. This book helps to focus on the important factors while giving hints and examples of how to improve productivity, employee and guest satisfaction and how to create a work environment pleasant for all parties. It is structered well and easy and fst to read. Is a must for everyone in a leading position.

There are a few good books on supervision, and a lot of impractical but "brilliant" books on "leadership" but this is the first that I've read that I could really apply to my job. I wish the three crushing layers of bureacracy above me would read this book too. I like the empirical data and real names. That gives this book much more credibility than the average management book for me. It's also a good way to do a self-report card in my relationship with each employee. Some of them are demanding and now I think "what does she really need to do the job, and am I providing it" instead of just responding to complaints without any analysis of the underlying situation. Bottom-level / front-line staff can be very good at manipulating managers or conversely very good at making a manager so defensive that we can't reply to them. With this book in my toolkit, I can stay above the emotions of the workplace and either fix what needs to be fixed or send the employee to EAP.

My other two favorite books are Making Work Work by Morgenstern and Healing the Downsized Organization. They are also very practical.

Basic principles, we easily overlook.
Helped me change the approach I use to involve staff in decision making.
Sensible information that can be applied to any level of leadership or management in any setting.
My coworkers have appreciated the change.

Overall this is a great book. It's packed with good information, backed with solid research, great statistics, real examples and well written. Normally I'd give it a 5 star rating. When compared against other books in its genre, it's a great book and deserves your attention.

However, I found much of this book a rehash of the material in "First, Break All the Rules". The ideas are important enough that I went ahead and forced my way through the book. However I was definitely disappointed that the "Long-Awaited Follow-Up" as the cover advertises didn't really contain anything dramatically new that was not already covered in "First, Break All the Rules".