Title: The One Thing You Need To Know
Author: Marcus Buckingham
Price: £12.59
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 289
ISBN: 074326326X
You will instantly wonder why it requires 289 pages for the author to tell you one thing, but stick with it – it’s well worth it.
It doesn’t lead up to ‘the one thing’, but rather provides a series of fascinating insights. They help you understand which of your actions will have the most far-reaching influence in virtually every situation, and when you know it, you will end up doing things completely differently as a result. It will help managers to motivate and bring the best out of their people. And it will help leaders develop organisational success.
This is a thoroughly enjoyable and very useful book. You could read it all in one go, or dip into a chapter at a time. Marcus Buckingham explains the difference between great managers and great leaders in a friendly, conversational ‘stories over a coffee’ way. You may be tempted to stop reading, thinking that you have heard it all before, but you haven’t. Many of the conventional wisdoms are challenged in this book, resulting in some very different ideas.
By the end, you will be able to think about any organisation you’ve worked for where a strategy didn’t work. When you reflect on who was leading and who was managing, this will explain why the strategy was not successful – even when the idea was good, or the leader seemed more than capable of delivering it.
Useful? 4 stars
Well-written? 5 stars
Practical? 4 stars
Inspirational? 4 stars
Value for money? 4 stars
Overall 4 stars
All ratings out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Bobby Chatterjee , HR business partner, Lloyds TSB
