We were first introduced to this book by our national consulting company Technology Assurance Group who uses it in their Performance Management course.  Then later I received a copy from a well respected sales rep with Great America Leasing Company.  This book is awesome.
 
Marcus Buckingham is a Gallop Poll expert who has more knowledge about business based on incredible amounts of solid data collected from a huge number of scientific polls done on a variety of businesses.  Everything I have read from this author has rung true and we try to utilize his material to better Diverse CTI.  
 
In this particular book he makes some important assertions that will most assuredly revolutionize your business.  Here are some of those conclusions.
o    Employees don't quit because of company direction or leadership, conflicts with employees, product problems, but they quit because of a deficiency in the relationship with their direct immediate manager.
o    Employees don't change that much.  If they weren't created with a particular interest or bent  Buckingham calls a "talent" you probably won't train the "talent" into them no matter how much energy you expend on them.
o    Four core activities a manager must be permitted to have control of in the company and skills he must become proficient at that make employees happy, flexible, and loyal to their immediate manager, (which keeps them working there) and ultimately to the company direction.  
•    Select the people they will manage
•    Set expectations for that person
•    Motivate the person
•    Develop the person
o    Talents are not what you normally think of as talents and are broken down into categories in this book and therefore can be sought after when interviewing for perspective employees to fill a specific job description.  This approach offers greater success in finding a "match" for both the prospective employee and your company .
 
Buckingham has boiled everything down to twelve questions you want to your employees to able to truthfully answer - "I strongly agree".
 
I would have to rewrite the book to account for all the amazing insights offered in it.  First Break All The Rules is one of the books our leadership has studied chapter by chapter and is on our required reading list for all managers.  I would say it is one of the foundation stones leading to our success in maintaining our company culture at Diverse CTI.

Tom Cochran