The One Thing You Need To Know [Paperback]

Marcus Buckingham (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Simon + Schuster Uk; New Ed edition (2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416502963
• ISBN-13: 978-1416502968
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #405,497 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

In a world where efficiency and competency rule the workplace, where do personal strengths fit in?

It's a complex question, one that intrigued Cambridge-educated Marcus Buckingham so greatly, he set out to answer it by challenging years of social theory and utilizing his nearly two decades of research experience as a Sr. Researcher at The Gallup Organization to break through the preconceptions about achievement and get to the core of what drives success.

The result of his persistence, and arguably the definitive answer to the strengths question, can be found in Buckingham's trio of best-selling books, First, Break All the Rules (coauthored with Curt Coffman, Simon & Schuster, 1999); Now, Discover Your Strengths (coauthored with Donald O. Clifton, The Free Press, 2001); and The One Thing You Need to Know (The Free Press, 2005), in which the author gives important insights to maximizing strengths, understanding the crucial differences between leadership and management, and fulfilling the quest for long-lasting personal success.

What would happen if men and women spent more than 75% of each day on the job using their strongest skills and engaged in their favorite tasks, basically doing exactly what they wanted to do?

According to Marcus Buckingham (who spent years interviewing thousands of employees at every career stage and who is widely considered one of the world's leading authorities on employee productivity and the practices of leading and managing), companies that focus on cultivating employees' strengths rather than simply improving their weaknesses stand to dramatically increase efficiency while allowing for maximum personal growth and success.

If such a theory sounds revolutionary, that's because it is. Marcus Buckingham calls it the "strengths revolution."

As he addresses more than 250,000 audiences around the globe each year, Buckingham touts this strengths revolution as the key to finding the most effective route to personal success -- and the missing link to the efficiency, competency, and success for which many companies constantly strive.

To kick-start the strengths revolution, Buckingham and Gallup developed the StrengthsFinder exam, which identifies signature themes that help employees quantify their personal strengths in the workplace and at home. Since the StrengthsFinder debuted in 2001, more than 1 million people have discovered their strengths with this useful and important tool.

In his role as author, independent consultant and speaker, Marcus Buckingham has been the subject of in-depth profiles in The New York Times, Fortune, Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, USA Today and is routinely lauded by such corporations as Toyota, Coca-Cola, Master Foods, Wells Fargo, and Disney as an invaluable resource in informing, challenging, mentoring and inspiring people to find their strengths and obtain and sustain long-lasting personal success.

Marcus Buckingham holds a master's degree in social and political science from Cambridge University and is a member of the Secretary of State's Advisory Committee on Leadership and Management. He lives with his wife and two children in Los Angeles, CA.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

121 of 122 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Full of quality, though some of it is recycled material, March 10, 2005

By 

Stosh D. Walsh (near Chicago, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The One Thing You Need to Know: ... About Great Managing, Great Leading, and Sustained Individual Success (Hardcover)

Buckingham's book is very good overall; the practical anecdotes he provides of people actually DOING the "one thing" are compelling, and his style is entertaining, and yet no-nonsense.

In giving us "the one thing," Buckingham emphasizes the need for what he calls the "controlling insight" to provide a means not only for getting on to the field of play, but "how to win and keep winning the game."

Armed with this description, he unveils what, based on his considerable experience and research, he considers the controlling insight about great managing, great leading, and sustained individual success.

Here are the "one things" for each:
Managing: "Discover what is unique about each person and capitalize on it."
Leading: "Discover what is universal and capitalize on it."
Sustained individual success: "Discover what you don't like doing and stop doing it."

Along the way, Buckingham provides some excellent points of focus, including a very important differentiation between managing and leading that too many of his contemporaries have overlooked: "When you want to manage, begin with the person. When you want to lead, begin with the picture of where you are headed."

Predictably though, much of the argument for each of the three controlling insights is predicated upon strengths theory, which Buckingham and Clifton popularized with "Now, Discover Your Strengths." In the management chapter, the anecdotes more or less focus on individuals who are able to identify the strengths of their people, and put them to the best possible use. In the sustained individual success chapter, he takes strengths theory a step further, advocating not only discovering your strengths and cultivating them, but eliminating, or managing, those areas in which you are weak as a primary (where "Now" made it more secondary) pursuit.

It is primarily for these chapters that I say some of the material is recycled. However, when you have the research to back up the claims, as Gallup (for whom Buckingham no longer works) certainly does with the StrengthsFinder instrument, you can hardly deviate from it very far.

Another way in which the material is somewhat recycled, though, is in its similarity to Collins' "Good to Great." Buckingham praises the work of Collins in some points, but takes minor swipes at it in others. This is a strange irony in the book, as Buckingham's arguments are very similar to those of Collins, just phrased differently. For example: Collins' "level 5 leadership" entails what he calls "The Stockdale Paradox"--a willingness to look at the brutal reality of the situation, but remain hopeful and determined that one will overcome it. Now, from Buckingham: "When I say leaders are optimistic I mean simply that nothing--not their mood, not the reasoned arguments of others, not the bleak conditions of the present--nothing can undermine their faith that things will get better."

Buckingham's slightly different definition of words like optimism (which could easily be defined as hope) and humility cause him to see Collins in a slightly different light, in spite of the fact that their findings are almost exactly the same. I found myself slightly disappointed by this, but I would recommend this book nevertheless, as it is an excellent compendium of insights overall from a man that few would dispute has become a global leader in these areas.

One humorous note: I'm fairly certain Buckingham has signed a two book deal with Free Press, so I'm anxiously awaiting the second book, especially as he has already given us "The One Thing You Need to Know." :-)

45 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An obviously great approach I've never seen used before., April 7, 2005

By 

M. Strong (Milwaukee, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The One Thing You Need to Know: ... About Great Managing, Great Leading, and Sustained Individual Success (Hardcover)

Marcus Buckingham is quickly setting himself apart from the current pack of management and leadership gurus out there. He isn't yet in the same league as Peter Drucker or Tom Peters, but he's young and he's headed in their direction.

His latest effort, "The One Thing" joins two instant classics he's already written, "First, Break all the Rules" and "Now, Discover Your Strengths." This book starts with a premise that sounds obvious once you hear it, but that I've never seen used before. Buckingham approaches the complex topics of management, leadership and sustained individual success and asks, "If you wanted to excel in any of these areas, but could focus in on just one single idea, what would be the most important and effective things you could focus on?"

Buckingham then goes on to give you "The One Thing" in each of those areas. His points aren't arrived at frivolously. Buckingham spent years and years working with Gallup, studying and interviewing thousands upon thousands of managers, leaders, and individual contributors, some good and some bad; he knows what separates the wheat from the chaff.

The book is so filled with great insights and "Why didn't I think of that" moments that my copy is all dog-eared and marked up and some of the things I've learned are going into practice as I type this.

Very highly recommended.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Succinct, readable, and enlightening, May 19, 2006

By 

P. Lozar "plozar" (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The One Thing You Need to Know: ... About Great Managing, Great Leading, and Sustained Individual Success (Hardcover)

I thought that *First, Break All the Rules* was brilliant, and this book builds well on the line of thought that Buckingham and his collaborator started there. Plus it's succinct, well-written, and generally a pleasure to read -- which you can't say about a lot of business books!
Some points that particularly struck me were these.
1. The distinction between "management" and "leadership" skills, which are far too often confused: if someone shows leadership potential, their managers assume that the best place for them to exercise it is in a supervisory position. But a visionary leader isn't necessarily a "people person"; so they become frustrated, their direct reports aren't getting the management they need to best express their strengths, and far too much time and energy is wasted in trying to re-form the leader into someone he/she isn't instead of capitalizing on what he/she IS.
2. Why it's hard to learn skills/behaviors that don't build on your strengths (I think he gives just enough neurological information to be convincing and not overwhelming). Of course everyone has to learn *some* things that don't come naturally to them; but if someone with leadership qualities has mastered basic social and interpersonal skills, why try to make them into a mother hen when they could be making a greater contribution as a soaring eagle?
3. Many people have trouble with the One Thing he recommends for everyone: Work, they say, is not supposed to be Fun, and you can't blithely blow off the parts you don't like. However:
(a) Using your strengths to their fullest extent is not always "fun." Challenging, inspiring, and offering the greatest potential for success, yes; but often frustrating, and a whole lot of hard work too. But feeling that you've tapped into your strengths can give you the energy to blow past obstacles that, if you were also fighting your natural tendencies, would seem insurmountable.
(b) If you feel that your job forces you to constantly battle your weaknesses rather than building on your strengths, you're in the wrong job. This often happens when someone is promoted: e.g., the charismatic classroom teacher who becomes a principal, or the brilliant laboratory scientist who's made an administrator. The best thing you can do -- not only for yourself but for the people who have to work with you -- is push to be restored to the position where you can be most effective.
(c) Consider becoming a Free Agent. I was always excellent at my actual job (technical writing), while office politics and climbing the management ladder were highly uncongenial to me -- but, in most companies, that's the only way I could improve my pay/status. I became an independent contractor, work through an agency that handles billing/invoicing et al. (which I'm not good at either), and am paid well for doing what I do best -- and I highly recommend it.
One final comment: I've recently read a couple of graduation addresses, by Steve Jobs and Billy Joel respectively, that urged students to follow their hearts and do what they love, because that's the only route to satisfaction in work and in life. "Easy for them to say," you might grumble; but, although both gentlemen had a modicum of luck in their lives, they're both prime examples of choosing work that capitalizes on their strengths AND working very, very hard to succeed in it -- and succeed they certainly did. Think about it.