12: The Elements of Great Managing »

Rodd Wagner is a principal of The Gallup Organization. At Gallup, Wagner interprets employee engagement and business performance data for numerous Fortune 500 companies. He holds an M.B.A. from the University of Utah Graduate School of Business. Wagner, his wife, Nora, and their three children live near Minneapolis, Minnesota.

James K. Harter, PH.D. is chief scientist for The Gallup Organization's international workplace management practice. Some of his research has been popularized in the business bestsellers First, Break All the Rules and How Full Is Your Bucket? Harter has worked for The Gallup Organization since 1985, and lives in Omaha, Nebraska, with his wife, RaLinda, and their two sons.

How do great managers inspire top performance in employees? How do they generate enthusiasm, unite disparate personalities to focus on a common mission, and drive teams to achieve ever-higher goals?

More than a decade ago, The Gallup Organization combed through its database of more than 1 million employee and manager interviews to identify the elements most important in sustaining workplace excellence. These elements were revealed in the 1999 bestseller First, Break All the Rules.

12: The Elements of Great Managing is that book's long-awaited sequel. It follows great managers as they harness employee engagement to turn around a failing call center, save a struggling hotel, improve patient care in a hospital, maintain production through power outages, and successfully face a host of other challenges in settings around the world.

Gallup's study now includes 10 million employee and manager interviews spanning 114 countries and conducted in 41 languages. In 12, authors Rodd Wagner and James K. Harter weave the latest Gallup insights with recent discoveries in the fields of neuroscience, game theory, psychology, sociology, and economics.

Written for managers and employees of companies large and small, 12 explains what every company needs to know about creating and sustaining employee engagement.

About the Authors
Rodd Wagner is a principal of The Gallup Organization. Upon joining the company in 1999, he gravitated toward the study of high-performing managers and how human nature affects business strategy. At Gallup, Wagner interprets employee engagement and business performance data for numerous Fortune^r 500 companies. Wagner was formerly the research director for the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram, a reporter and news editor for The Salt Lake Tribune, and a radio talk show host. He received an M.B.A. from the University of Utah Graduate School of Business. Wagner, his wife, Nora, and their three children live near Minneapolis, Minnesota.

James K. Harter, Ph.D., is chief scientist for The Gallup Organization's international workplace management practice. He has authored or coauthored more than 1,000 research studies for profit and non-profit organizations. Some of this research has been popularized in the business bestsellers First, Break All the Rules, and How Full is Your Bucket?, and in academic articles, book chapters, and publications such as USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. He is coauthor of "Manage Your Human Sigma," published in the Harvard Business Review. Harter has worked for Gallup since 1985. He lives in Omaha, Nebraska, with his wife, RaLinda, and their two sons.

National Post (Canada)

...what the reader gets is not a passel of platitudes on how to get the most out of employees...but, rather, a professional analysis of the information gathered.