Hundred Percenters: Challenge Your Employees to Give It Their All, and They'll Give You Even More, Second Edition

by Mark Murphy

Book Overview

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

The groundbreaking guide to inspiring 100% performance from employees--updated with expanded research findings

In this new edition of his guide to unleashing employees' full potential, Mark Murphy explains why true employee motivation is not achieved by focusing on making your people "happy." The most effective leaders are the ones who respect their people enough to push them to deliver real results--to...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0071825568
• ISBN13: 9780071825566
• Release Date: October 2013
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Effective Leadership for the Long Haul

Most employees don't feel too thrilled with work; in fact, some hate their jobs so much, they're actually going out of their way to disrupt the productivity of their fellow employees. At least one out of ten employees fall into that category; chances are, they were driven to this state of total negativity by a boss who's clueless with the nuances of employee engagement. Either they're too harsh on their people, or they're too placating. According to Mark Murphy, the ideal boss knows how to get 100% effort out of their employees by understanding what motivates them; they don't want the easy way out. They want to be challenged, to perform at superior levels and they want to feel as though their efforts are going to be beneficial for their careers. In other words, they need to feel as though they're valuable members of the organization. The management skills necessary to make all this good stuff happen are not overly complex; in fact, they're really simple. However, as we've seen in so many organizations that comprise the shaky landscape of corporate America, getting management to understand these principles is anything but "easy". Therein lies the challenge. Throughout the pages of this fine book, are examples of mistakes managers typically make in dealing with employee relations. Murphy then offers realistic suggestions to produce a favorable outcome. It's great stuff. Employee motivational expert Paul Herr (Primal Management: Unraveling the Secrets of Human Nature to Drive High Performance) estimates the failure to get employees fully engaged and motivated about their jobs is costing America at least one trillion dollars per year in lost productivity; getting that turned around isn't that difficult, as long as the struggling companies out there have a willingness to change their ways. Getting them to read and heed this book would certainly help.

Must read for managers!

This is my first book review, but I believe that "Hundred Percenters" provides managers and leadership with such powerful--and timely--information that it was worth taking my time to submit a review. CIO Insight Magazine named this book a "Must Read for Fall." And they were right on. I've never see a leadership book filled with so many brilliant discoveries about leadership. You'll learn about the Stages of Accountability, and how to manage people in Denial, Blame, Excuses or Anxiety. There's an entire chapter on the science of goal setting, and creating the kind of goals that have inspired the world's greatest performers to achieve such extraordinary results. SMART Goals can seem pretty DUMB after you read the research in the book. And I've seen it work: If you follow Murphy's goal-setting approach, your employees will blow you away with their achievements. You'll learn what motivates and demotivates every personality type in your company. The "Shoves & Tugs" conversation they describe to motivate people is pure genius. Learning about Talented Terrors was a real eye-opener (those people with brilliant skills but a terrible attitude). I can now see their destructive impact and I'm a lot more comfortable having a specific script to manage them. I was blown away by the science of conducting Employee Engagement Surveys, and why, for example, you should never use a 5 point scale for your surveys. Or why you should never ask employees if they're satisfied. Literally every chapter is filled with research and specific techniques that will blow you away. This is a revolutionary book that will forever change how you think about leadership.

Mark Murphy has done it again

I have several Talented Terrors on my staff and was in denial about the true impact of their negativity and the toll it was taking on everyone around them. I was shocked to discover that I wasn't being a Hundred Percent Leader. The truth is I was avoiding and appeasing and frankly lost sight of the role I should really be playing as a leader....until I read Mark Murphy's book. Now I have the ammunition, confidence and game plan I need to be an effective leader for everyone on my team. And I'm actually looking forward to the results of my next 360.

Finally- someone has the guts to take SMART goals to task!

If I had a dollar for every unachieved SMART goal I've seen quietly swept under the rug, well, let's just say I could buy far more than a leadership book. But boy am I glad I bought and read this book. I finally understand why SMART goals leave me cold--- they're uninspiring. Ok, so specific and measurable I can buy- that's common sense. However, also true to their name, SMART goals are achievable and realistic, two factors that fail to light the needed fire under my ass (or anyone else's that I know of) to go above and beyond. For overachievers like me, SMART goals are simply boring, but even worse, for low performers SMART goals are a dream. They are the perfect excuse to give no more than the status quo demands while looking like you're giving it your all. By the time I finished Chapter One of Hundred Percenters, I not only had justification of my long held suspicion that SMART goals are not all that smart, I also knew what to use in their place--- HARD goals: Heartfelt, Animated, Required and best of all, Difficult. HARD goals inspire and push everyone involved to give way more than the status quo. So your top performers, who want to achieve the impossible, are the ones who are now living the dream, while your low performers are left to make a choice--- become a Hundred Percenter or be revealed for the slackers they really are. Do HARD goals work? Well, as I look back on my life, every great achievement I've ever had sure seems to follow this approach. And I've never seen any truly exceptional achievement (business, science, arts, sports, whatever) that didn't follow this. I only wish I had made every goal in my life HARD. I assigned my first HARD goal today for my team. And let me tell you, there was electricity in that room--- excitement about achieving something greater than we've ever before done--- about being asked to push past the status quo. I never got that from a SMART goal. Hundred Percenters is a breath of fresh air in the leadership genre. Murphy is funny and engaging while clearly making a case for why his techniques are needed and showing readers exactly how to execute them. There are scripts (lots of them) that use real-life language to bring the techniques to life, and there's no annoying chest beating---just facts, techniques and follow through. Murphy's company, Leadership IQ, has done some impressive studies and the numbers sprinkled throughout the book are pretty shocking--- like the fact that 72 % of employees (from a study of over 500,000) admit they are not working as hard as they could. Oh, and if you think knocking SMART goals off its throne was long overdue, don't miss the appendix where Murphy takes on the weaknesses of 5-point scales, especially as they apply to employee surveys. We're giving Leadership IQ a call to get pricing on their survey tool, the Hundred Percenter Index. It'd be nice if we actually started getting real value and improvement from our employee surveys (i

A must read!

Never, have I read a more compelling outline for success, than in "Hundred Percenters", by Mark Murphy. Our greatest heroes, athletes, musicians, artists, etc. have been taught how to unleash their full potential and achieve extraordinary results. Finally, Mark Murphy has assembled the research and techniques that teaches everyone else how to realize their full potential and start achieving extraordinary results. His pragmatic formula translates as a lesson of personal and professional integrity. Kudos to Mark for this refreshing concept that really works!