Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham, Donald O. Clifton
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Book Reviews of Now, Discover Your Strengths
Book Review: Test + Book = A+
Summary: 5 Stars
"Now, Disover Your Strengths", the follow up to "First Break All The Rules," is great for two reasons:1) You get to take the StrengthsFinder test online and discover what your top five patterns of strength are in your life.
2) The book will help you go deeper with your strengths and find out how the best of the best use their strengths to get better.
Too many reviews on here focus on the fact that you can only take the test once, or the book does not go deep enough. Stop trying to find out what you are not, and start finding out what you are! Most people who want to take the test over and over again do so to validate what they think they are, and not how they were created. This test is meant to be taken once, in order to measure your instinctive responses to the questions, not your thought out answers. Unlike other psychometric tests, the StrengthsFinder tells you how you respond, your initial reactions, how you are.
I work with this tool on a daily basis and have seen over 500 results of this test and done many one on one interviews to follow up and help people go deeper in their strengths. 9 out of 10 people are amazed with the results and how accurate this test is. Most of the 10% who have questions can figure it out and be happy with some counseling and deeper discovery of their strengths.
The [money] is worth the price to take the test, and the book does an adequate job of going deeper with your strengths. The whole theory of focusing on what you are good at works, I have seen it and fully endorse this book and what it brings to the field of Leadership Development and Management.
Book Review: Strengthening your ME Inc.
Summary: 5 Stars
Arguing strongly and persuasively for the uniqueness of the individual in the face of the sameness of basic human nature, The Gallup Organization continues its assault on traditional management practices, particularly those based upon uniformity of approach and improvement by focusing on identified weaknesses. In this follow-up book to "First, Break All the Rules", the authors re-present the logic for their application of this Positive Psychology approach in the workplace and introduce their 34 themes of Talent. Although the accompanying web based assessment tool is labeled the StrengthsFinder, it is built to understand yearnings, rapid learning, and satisfactions in order to detect a person's 5 dominant Talents. Talents, while enduring and unique, are only a part of Strengths, as these must be combined with Knowledge and Skills to develop our Strengths.
As was the case with "First, Break All the Rules", this book is well researched, well written, and easy to comprehend. It superbly weaves stories and examples into the narrative to bring the points to life, making it also an enjoyable read. Although Part III is titled, Put Strengths to Work, this book is not nearly as helpful in that regard as Buckingham's more recent book, "Go Put Your Strengths to Work". And, with the upgraded version of this book, "StrengthFinder 2.0" now on the Amazon market for $11.97 (and qualifying for free shipping), one might ask, why buy this one? I can better answer that question after my copy of 2.0 arrives next week!
Dennis DeWilde, author of
"The Performance Connection"
Book Review: The Principle Alone is Worth Its Weight in Gold
Summary: 5 Stars
Even if the book just had the cover with no contents it would still be work the price. Most team leadership and management seminars I've attended teach the same worn out - non-working - concept: be committed to helping your employees improve in their weak areas. They don't always say it right out, but that's the gist of their message. I don't think they are consciously aware of it, but their motivation seems to be selling more training based on all those weaknesses.
Think about it, we go to training (professional development/self-help anyway) to improve on our weak areas: time management, communication skills, organization skills, assertiveness, etc. What if we capitalized on our strengths and stuctured our organizations so people were doing things they are either gifted or developed in already? Imaging the productivity.
Instead of sending people to weakness training, we could make them members of "best practices" committees working with others talented in the same strenghts to get even better. I understand that we must improve in some areas of weakness, but the self-improvement movement seems to have carried it to an extreme.
Again, I have to give kudos to Marcus for this timely and useful book. I think it will prove useful for years to come.
One note: I would read this book in the following sequence:
-First, Break All the Rules
-Next, Discover Your Strenghts
-The One Thing You Need to Know
It will make for a phenomenal educational program in this sequence.
Book Review: Everyone can benefit
Summary: 5 Stars
NOW, DISCOVER YOUR STRENGTHS is a fitting sequel to FIRST, BREAK ALL THE RULES also by the Gallup Organization. Marcus Buckingham was one of the co-authors of the earlier book.This book provides practical information on how to Individualize management based on each person's Strengths which are related to their talents. Gallup has styled a StrengthsFinder Profiler which can used by organizations and is available for individual evaluation to purchasers of the book.
There are 34 Themes identified which suggest broad talent areas. The authors assert that "...you will be most successful when you craft your role to play to your signature talents most of the time." It's also true with managers directing their staff. There are numerous examples of real-life success stories as well as ample information on each of the 34 Themes - both from the individual's standpoint and for the manager.
As pointed out in the earlier book also, it's counter-productive to evaluate everyone based on the same criteria and focus on weaknesses. It's far better to recognize what each position's talents are and hire people with those talents; with existing staff, move people around as practical to optimize each person's talents.
Another key point repeated in the newer book is not to promote people above where their talent and value is; they are more likely to fail and/or be unhappy. Find a way to reward and challenge them while they're doing what they excel in.
NOW, DISCOVER YOUR STRENGTHS is a valuable resource for everyone.
Book Review: Mentoring, not hand-holding
Summary: 5 Stars
I've read quite a few of these kinds of books starting way back when with "What Color is Your Parachute," through "The Acorn Principle" and "Please Understand Me." This has been a long-term process of discovering my interests, talents, abilities, skills, knowledge, preferences, and potential - always with the intention of finding my true calling in life.But this book is not just another addition to that list; this is a superior method for focusing in on very specific talents and strengths and clarifying your own thinking about your life choices. The assessment and categories of strengths are more straightforward than taking the Meyers-Briggs or other similar tests. The book confirms some of what I already knew, but completely clarified the concept of natural talent combined with skills and knowledge creating the strengths that one can use throughout their life.
People have complained in other reviews that some of the book is "fluff" or that it doesn't tell you what job to go get. This is only true for people who want one 250-page book to answer some of the greatest of life's questions. I greatly appreciate that the authors give simple, straightforward examples and their own theories quickly and pointedly. They leave it up to ME to make decisions based on that information.
If you are prepared to do the work over the course of time and use this book as a mentor (not a nanny who tells you what to do) you will gain great insight into yourself and your path.