Go Put Your Strengths to Work: 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance [Bargain Price] [Audio CD]

Marcus Buckingham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 6, 2007

From the coauthor of the million copy bestsellers First, Break All the Rules and Now, Discover Your Strengths

Marcus Buckingham jump-started the Strengths movement that is now sweeping the work world with his first two blockbusters. Now, he answers the ultimate question: How can you actually apply your strengths for maximum success at work? Research data show that most people do not come close to making full use of their assets at work. Go Put Your Strengths to Work will reveal the hidden dimensions of your strengths through a six-step, six-week experience that will tell you:

• Why your strengths aren't "what you are good at" and your weaknesses aren't "what you are bad at."

• How to use the four telltale signs to identify your strengths.

• The simple steps you can take each week to push your time at work toward those activities that strengthen you, and how to cut out those that don't.

• How to talk to your boss and your colleagues about your strengths without sounding like you're bragging, and your weaknesses without sounding like you're whining.

• The fifteen-minute weekly ritual that will keep you on your strengths path for your entire career.

As part of the program you'll take an online Strength Engagement Track, a powerful gauge to measure the level of engagement of your or your team's strengths. Go Put Your Strengths to Work will open up exciting uncharted territory for you and your organization. Join the strengths movement, and thrive.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Buckingham, an authority on workplace issues, provides a road map for managers to learn for themselves and then teach their employees how to approach their work by emphasizing their strengths rather than weaknesses. He offers a six-step plan for six weeks of reading and habit-forming action for discerning strengths, along with optional tools to enhance the process such as online questions for measuring strengths and downloaded films (two of which are free). The steps of his plan are belief that the best way to compete is capitalizing on your strengths, identifying your strengths and weaknesses, volunteering your strengths at work, lessening the impact of your weaknesses on your team, effectively communicating the value of your strengths while limiting work utilizing weaknesses, and building habits and pushing activities that play to strength. Although everyone will not agree with all the elements of Buckingham's approach, he offers valuable insight into maximizing employees' strengths rather than the more common focus on weaknesses and failure. Mary Whaley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Marcus Buckingham spent 17 years at the Gallup Organization, where he conducted research into the world's best leaders, managers, and workplaces. The Gallup research later became the basis for the bestselling books First, Break All the Rules and Now, Discover Your Strengths, both co-authored by Buckingham. He has been the subject of in-depth profiles in The New York Times, Fortune, Business Week, and Fast Company. He now has his own company, providing strengths-based consulting, training, and e-learning. He lives in Southern California with his wife, Jane, and their two children, Jackson and Lilia.

Marcus Buckingham spent 17 years at the Gallup Organization, where he conducted research into the world's best leaders, managers, and workplaces. The Gallup research later became the basis for the bestselling books First, Break All the Rules and Now, Discover Your Strengths, both co-authored by Buckingham. He has been the subject of in-depth profiles in The New York Times, Fortune, Business Week, and Fast Company. He now has his own company, providing strengths-based consulting, training, and e-learning. He lives in Southern California with his wife, Jane, and their two children, Jackson and Lilia.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio; Unabridged edition (March 6, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743566696
• ASIN: B002QGSWYM
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (76 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,311,085 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.