Now, Discover Your Strengths
by Donald O. Clifton, Marcus Buckingham
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Book Reviews of Now, Discover Your Strengths
Book Review: A truism, streteched to book length.
Summary: 1 Stars
Having read the many positive reviews on this book, as well as the slick high-production-value promotional collateral put out by it's authors and publisher, I hoped for something that would really help me identify and conceptualize how I could best/better apply my inherent talents and personality tendencies in the real world.
I knew I was in trouble right away when the book justified it's thesis not by scientific experiment and data, but rather by vague references to polling (the authors are employees of, or otherwise tied in with the Gallup polling organization) and anecdotal assertions about celebrities like Warren Buffet and Colin Powell.
IF you MUST know what this book actually says, I can save you the time and money required to buy and read the book by conveying it's content in one sentence: It's important to consider and apply your inherent personality traits to maximize your career success. The book is nothing but a book-length repetition of this same message. The proof it vaguely offers to back up this intuitive "truistic" assertion is shallow and fluffy. Most disappointingly, that is all they wrote.
The "personality test" is a great selling gimmick, but the information it returns reminds me of a horoscope or a fortune cookie. It is vague, and general and difficult to relate to any particular practice, nor does the book offer practical means to turn these purported traits into practical beneficial action. If you're trying to decide whether to, say, stay on as a used car salesman, or retreat to some hermitage to write your magnum opus, this book will be of no practical help. It just repeats the same message over and over, page after page after chapter after chapter. Fluffity, fluff, fluff, fluff.
I must admit that I did get ONE practical idea from this fluffball book: Apparently anyone can make a mint by taking some specious bromide, e.g. "Doing whatever you want is good for you", and stretch it into a couple hundred pages of baseless repetitive assertion of that same idea, and have it lapped up by folks willing to pay a good buck to hear what they want to hear.
Book Review: This book is a strong Second...
Summary: 3 Stars
For a manager who desires increased productivity and a happier work place, start with "First Break all the Rules." It has much better advise about how understand and manage people to their maximum productivity than any other management book I have ever read. This is a follow-up book that goes more deeply into the basic "talents" that people have. At first I thought it was almost devoid of content when set against the marvelous first book from the Gallop Organization. But now that I have used its concepts for six months I am rereading it again and again. The on-line "Strengths Finder" is very much geared toward corporate (or non-profits) organizations and finding strengths that help you in an organization. But once you have these defined, and if you actually use them in your organization, these "themes" are extremely helpful. Because you not only use them yourself to understand why you are good at some things and struggle with others, your manager and coworkers can also use them to understand you better. This really works best if the entire organization works toward a strengths-based organization, but I have seen miracles in the groups that blazed the path first at our company. One manager (who has no empathy) told me that she uses the themes like a black box. "I can't really understand what it is like to have Harmony or Woo, but now I know if I put X type of person in Y type of situation, Z will result. It has simplified my life as a manager tremendously. No longer do I ask someone with Harmony to go to meetings filled with controversy, I send someone with Woo. When the details are critical, I give the job to a Deliberative person. When thought and planning are required, I make sure that the team has plenty of Strategic and Arrangers. But when I need the fire put out now, I ask an Activator to get it done now. My people are much, much happier, the work expectations are much clearer, and our productivity is up. The concepts in this book and in First Break All the Rules have made a huge impact on our company, our employees, and our stress levels. I highly recommend it!
Book Review: Buy "First, Break All the Rules" and forget this book.
Summary: 2 Stars
I read "First, Break All the Rules" and found its advice sound and useful. The key finding is that the best managers work hard to understand what their employees true *talents* are and then shape the job to allow the employee to perform to their maximum. It doesn't pay to focus on people's weaknesses; focus on their strengths. The message to the individual is the same, find your talent and grow it rather than spend all of your time on your weaknesses. Unfortunately, "Now, Discover Your Strengths" makes the same point but without all the loads of useful management advice. "Discover" has you take a web based quiz to find your top 5 strengths. What if you have more than 5 strengths? Too bad, for you won't be told how you scored on the other strengths. Does "Discover" help you discover that you should focus on your artistic or writing talents? NO. Your talents in this book are "Deliberative" or "Woo" or "Context". Basically, if you want to get a take on the way you approach life and work, then this book may help you and tell you how to get your manager to treat you, but it won't find your *talents*. I fully recommend reading the first book and thinking hard about what you do well at and enjoy doing. Save your money and don't buy this book.
I see this book as an attempt by Gallup to position themselves as an integral part of the review process at major corporations and make money from every employee taking the quiz. This wouldn't be a bad thing for employees, but managers and you'd be better served by the first book by itself.
I found the quiz a bit confusing and marked an awful lot of the questions with "no preference". After reading the book, I wanted to take the quiz again (as the book implies you can), but Gallup *refuses* to allow you to take the quiz more than once. This means that your spouse or friend that you loan the book to won't be able to take the test until they fork over money for a new copy of the book. If you get a used or a returned copy, I hope the previous owner didn't take the test and then return the book!
Book Review: If you liked First Break All The Rules, you'll enjoy this
Summary: 4 Stars
We all have asked or been asked the interview question, "What are your strengths?" Buckingham and Clifton provide convincing rationale for asking that question as well as concrete terminology to answer the question. But this is not a "get you through the interview" book. The authors clearly articulate why you should be asking this question to both yourself and to those you hire."First Break All the Rules" (the precursor to Now Discover Your Strengths) challenged managers to concentrate on, search for, hire for, and nurture strengths. "Now Discover Your Strengths" gives managers the tools (an on-line strengths assessment and several open-ended questions) and language (34 signature themes) to make that possible on the individual, departmental, or organizational level.
Why would any person or organization want to focus on strengths? Buckingham and Clifton claim 8 out of 10 employees are in positions that do not capitalize on their strengths; thus, they are not performing at maximum or even baseline levels of productivity. Certainly, this is an unacceptable level regardless of the size of your organization or the type of industry in which you work. If that isn't enough, the authors posit other reasons including: 1) increased employee retention, 2) increased job satisfaction, 3) decreased absenteeism, 4) decreased on-the-job accidents and worker compensation claims - just to mention a few.
However rather than focus on the fact that so many of us function outside of our strengths, take Buckingham and Clifton's advice. Discover your strengths and began the journey that could redefine the paradigms for your organization. Based on the staggering amounts of research data collected by Gallup and the completion of an on-line Strengthsfinder assessment, you can determine your "signature themes." It is then up to you (with some suggestions from the authors) to develop your themes(or the signature themes of the people you supervise) into strengths.
A quick and helpful read. Recommended for any manager/supervisor or anyone grappling with career decisions.
Book Review: GREAT INFORMATION AND ADVICE
Summary: 4 Stars
Having a lifetime of experience as a teacher and counsellor of business management and a background in psychology, I find this to be an excellent book, on the same level as the book, "First Break All the Rules". Believe me, Gallup has good reason from both a logical and psychological point of view why the quiz found here cannot be taken a second time. It is also a known fact that once individuals take a test for the first time, they often tailor their answers to fit the questions the second time around. It is a major plus, particularly in business, to expand your knowledge by studying psychology. After all, business is all about dealing with people, i.e., customers, employees, suppliers, competitors. If you do not understand people from a psychological point of view, their patterns and behavioural characteristics, you are already at a disadvantage. You can bet "the big guys at the top" know all about their competition, their customers, their employees, and what makes them tick from a psychological viewpoint. They have already done their homework and that is one of the major reasons why they have made it to the top of the corporate ladder.
The only reason this book seems to be deserving of a four-star rating rather than a five, is simply because of the theory, "Concentrate on your talents, not you weaknesses." While it is correct to say one should concentrate on their talents, it is equally important to identify weaknesses. There is a timeless business philosophy that holds much truth - "Know what you don't know." Those tasks that you do not do well, should be delegated to someone who does excel in that area. If you are the only person in the business, and the jack-of-all-trades, then you better learn "what you do not know" very quickly or you will have an extremely short-lived business venture.
This book contains some strong, valid points which can be applied to both your business and personal life and, overall, is well worth reading.