Introduction : breaking all the rules -- Chapter 1. The measuring stick. A disaster off the Scilly Isles : what do we know to be important but are unable to measure? -- The measuring stick : how can you measure human capital? -- Putting the twelve to the test : does the measuring stick link to business outcomes? -- A case in point : what do these discoveries mean for one particular company? -- Mountain climbing : why is there an order to the twelve questions? -- Chapter 2. The wisdom of great managers. Words from the wise : whom did Gallup interview? -- What great managers know : what is the revolutionary insight shared by all great managers? -- What great managers do : what are the four basic roles of a great manager? -- The four keys : how do great managers play these roles? --

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. No matter how generous its pay or how renowned its training, the company that lacks great front-line managers will suffer. The authors explain how the best managers select an employee for talent rather than for skills or experience how they set expectations for him or her -- they define the right outcomes rather than the right steps how they motivate people -- they build on each person's unique strengths rather than trying to fix his weaknesses and, finally, how great managers develop people -- they find the right fit for each person, not the next rung on the ladder. And perhaps most important, this research -- which initially generated thousands of different survey questions on the subject of employee opinion -- finally produced the twelve simple questions that work to distinguish the strongest departments of a company from all the rest. This book is the first to present this essential measuring stick and to prove the link between employee opinions and productivity, profit, customer satisfaction, and the rate of turnover