This book is the culmination of over 80,000 interviews conducted by The Gallup Organization. This is insightful work; no pundit-speak and no ivory tower theorizing. The authors stress that good managers spend more time with their best performers than with their less productive counterparts, that they fit people into the right roles and hire for talent rather than experience, that they focus on strength rather than weakness, and that they clearly define the right results as opposed to the right steps. Buckingham and Coffman also illustrate ways to promote and compensate people for honing their valuable talents instead of seeking new tasks that will take them up the company ladder. Buckingham, a senior lecturer in Gallup's Leadership Institute, delivers the text as if he knows what he's talking about, which he does. M.D.B. © AudioFile, Portland, Maine