Despite their obvious differences in style, we wanted to discover what, if anything, these great managers had in common. Their ideas are plain and direct, but they are not necessarily simple to implement. It is easier to believe that each employee possesses unlimited potential. It is easier to imagine that the best way to help an employee is by fixing his weaknesses. It is easier to treat everyone the same and so avoid charges of favoritism.
Conventional wisdom is comfortingly, seductively easy.
The revolutionary wisdom of great managers isn't. Their path is much more exacting. It demands discipline, focus, trust, and, perhaps most important, a willingness to individualize. In this book, great managers present no sweeping new theories, no prefabricated formulae. All they can offer you are insights into the nature of talent and into their secrets for turning talent into lasting performance.