Now, Discover Your Strengths

MARCUS BUCKINGHAM AND DONALD O. CLIFTON, PHD

Reviewed by Jack

We are taught at an early age to improve on our weaknesses in order to become a well-rounded person. During our school years, few of our parents and teachers celebrated our A’s, and instead asked, “What is this C in math all about?” In business, these expectations continue, but Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton, along with Gallup Inc., argue that this is an ineffective approach. They assert that we can grow more quickly and get the most satisfaction in our work life when we utilize our strengths, which the authors define as a “consistent near-perfect performance in an activity.” In preparing the book, Gallup asked a sampling of 1.7 million employees whether they were given an opportunity to do what they do best and found that globally only 20 percent said yes. Now, Discover Your Strengths aims to change this depressing reality for an entire generation of workers.

Just as the research in First, Break All the Rules showed that changes in a manager’s approach can encourage an employee’s best performance, Now, Discover Your Strengths resets the parameters for that employee’s improvement. The previously held assumptions were that any employee could learn to be competent in almost anything, finding their “greatest room for growth is in his or her areas of greatest weakness.” Instead, Now, Discover Your Strengths teaches managers and employees how to build on one’s strengths to maximize performance. There is simply no upside to trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

The obvious next question is, after years of worrying about our weaknesses, how do we determine our strengths? Gallup conducted over two million interviews to determine patterns of behavior and skills among successful people. Thirty-four patterns or themes prevalent in human talent consistently appeared. Now, Gallup has created an online assessment tool called StrengthsFinder to help individuals discover their strengths. When you buy the book StrengthsFinder 2.0, a code on the back cover allows you online access to the 180-question timed examination. After you finish the test, you are presented with a list of five signature themes within which you have the greatest potential for strength. The book offers a one-page analysis of each theme. There are 16.7 million possible combinations, so the results are tailor-made for you.

When I took the test, I found that my first strength is harmony, which is “looking for areas of agreement,” and I quickly realized that harmony may not be the best strength for a guy leading a group into the twenty-first century. While this strength has garnered me a fair amount of loyalty among my employees, sometimes strategic decisions must be made regardless of harmony. My coauthor’s main strength is in his ability to “peer over the horizon” and ask “wouldn’t it be great if . . .”—the StrengthsFinder label for this is “futuristic”—and we succeeded as a team because our strengths struck a good balance. I firmly believe that our company’s four years of double-digit growth in a flat industry was due to this effective partnering.

“We want to help you . . . to capitalize on your strengths, whatever they may be, and manage around your weaknesses, whatever they may be.”

One of my shortfalls in improving the performance of my employees was indeed in trying to fit square pegs into round holes. For example, trying to get a quiet, task-oriented person to be a better salesperson when really he is an excellent support person, is a waste of his talents and my energy. Buckingham and Clifton discovered that the best managers understood two things: each employee has unique and enduring talents, and each employee’s greatest room for growth is in the areas of his or her greatest strengths. They give examples of successful managers who deliver on these ideas. Phil Jackson, the famous NBA basketball coach (some would say guru), gave hand-selected personal development books to his players in order to further an inherent ability. Sam Mendes, a successful movie director, manages his movie sets through respecting the strengths of his actors, and, as a result, gets the best possible performances from them. The authors provide another treasure: a one-page bulleted list of ways to manage each of the thirty-four strength types. This online assessment is a valuable resource and well worth the price of admission.

Most of us pick up this book expecting to find answers to questions such as: “Can my themes reveal whether I am in the right career?” Certainly there are commonalities to be found among people in some careers. For example, journalists may share “adaptability” because their profession changes daily depending on the stories they are assigned that day. But generally, the authors believe that your signature themes have little to say about the field you are in and instead offer some direction for the role you play in any given field. In fact, Gallup discovered some surprising data in the number of people with similar themes who excel in very different fields. The distinction that StrengthsFinder is not a career guidance test but a performance enhancer is an important one.

Despite our tendency to focus on our shortcomings, there is great advantage in switching to a StrengthsFinder mentality. Warren Buffett is the poster child for knowing one’s own strengths and staying the course. He knew he was a patient, practical man whom people trusted. The authors tell us that Buffett refrained from investing in technology because he didn’t understand it, but “[h]e identified its strongest threads, wove in education and experience, and built them into the dominating strengths we see today.” We might not all achieve Buffett’s level of success, but if Now, Discover Your Strengths succeeds in making us more satisfied and confident on the job, then that will indeed be a success. JC

Now, Discover Your Strengths, Free Press, Hardcover 2001, ISBN 9780743201148

WHERE TO NEXT? Here for what Drucker says on strengths Here for the strengths an entrepreneur needs Here for how understanding strengths helped a baseball GM | EVEN MORE: StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath; Discover Your Sales Strengths by Benson Smith and Tony Rutigliano; What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith with Mark Reiter