Managers “define and pervade” the work environment by the rules they set and how they treat and interact with their workers. Managers play an important role in the life of their direct reports. If your employees’ lower-level needs remain unaddressed, then everything you do for them further along the journey is almost irrelevant.” This is where you should focus your time and energy. “The key to building a strong vibrant workplace lies in meeting employees’ needs at Base Camp and Camp 1. The metrics of achievement for this study included sales volume, profit, customer satisfaction scores, employee turnover levels and productivity. The study examined how great managers discover, hire, direct and retain talented employees. The second study used various measurements of corporate success to identify the best managers. “Great managers do share one thing: Before they do anything else, they first break all the rules of conventional wisdom.” Even if a company offers inspiring leadership, solid benefits and perks, good pay and worthwhile training programs, employees base their tenure on their relationship with their direct supervisor. The major finding stated, “Talented employees need great managers.” Great managers inspire good people to stay with a company.

One study interviewed more than a million employees from different sorts of companies and industries to find out what the most talented of them want from their workplaces. Managers can gain many practical lessons, methods, tactics and strategies from data gathered in two large-scale studies of management-employee interaction conducted over a 25-year period by the Gallup Organization.

First break all the rules