Customer Reviews

Soar with Your Strengths: A Simple Yet Revolutionary Philosophy of Business and Management

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book has revolutionized my coaching practice and career counseling. The authors' theory of concentrating on your strengths and what you were meant to do makes perfect sense, now that they've said it. It's one of those books where you'll read it and say, "I knew that!" An obvious no-brainer for the young adult starting a career, I've found it exceptionally helpful for people in mid-life transition. Yes, it would've been good to have read it earlier, but at mid-life you've discovered through experience what does and doesn't work for you. This motivates change, and the changes you'll make after having read this, can be drastic. I find many mid-life clients unsatisfied with their work, yet unsure what to do about it, because they've come to know only their weaknesses. They yearn to do what they love, but aren't sure how to shape that. This book and the StrengthFinder (tm) profile jump-start the quest. I call this "humanistic," because once you know your strengths and are living them (and this applies to personal life as well as professional life), you soar. It's "deeply soul-satisfying," "a relief," and "the best thing I ever did," to quote some of my clients.

Donald O. Clifton is more recently the co-author of "Now Discover your Strengths." Soar with your strengths is obviously an earlier version of that book without the web-based testing or defined "themes". "Soar" has the stories and suggestions behind the data found in "Now Discover". Nothing new here, but the stories may help those who struggle with the concepts in "Now Discover". I particularly liked the rabbit story at the beginning (which I empathized with) and the suggestions at the end of the book about imagining your goals and dreams.

Again, nothing new here, but some really nice illustrations of material found in other books.

It takes too many years between this book and "Now, Discover Your Strengths" that I failed to see the connection initially. This book is good as an introduction to a more fruitful organizational culture. In a workplace, if we are not working hard at creating a fruitful culture, the organization will deteriorate (entropy) into a dysfunctional one.

"Now, Discover . ." is a much more polished book than this. Better get that one. But you also need to read "First, Break All the Rules" to understand where "Now, Discover . ." is coming from. Having said that, if you read "First" and "Now", you can skip "Soar" - really.

Dr. Clifton's "Soar With Your Strengths" has helped me to identify why my carreer has not taken off to this point. I can see now that I have a tendency to focus on my weaknesses, while at the same time making the mistake of overlooking my strengths and ultimate potential.

This book challenges the absurdity of this common mistake and enlightens the reader to a strengths approach as it relates to carreer planning, interpersal relations, etc.

I would encourage anyone unhappy in their current carreer, anyone who wants success to come easy to them, or anyone who has a hand in managing the lifes, or carreers of others to read this book.

Lastly I would like to commend the author on his writting style. This book is truly a joy to read, and to the point.

Thank you Dr. Clifton for sharing this book with the world.

Soar with your Strengths is an inspiring book for business professionals, managers, and individuals seeking to achieve their absolute best.

To open, the authors tell a fun parable "Let the Rabbits Run" which conveys the message of how important it is to focus on your strengths instead of trying to shore up your non-strengths (weaknesses). It tells a story of a rabbit that is going to school to become well-rounded, sound familiar? Moving along, the rabbit excels in hopping and running classes. However, the rabbit didn't do so well in swimming class. Flying class was even worse; he couldn't even get off the ground. He felt like a failure. Naturally, his parents reinforced the school's intent to create well-rounded students. And, the school counselor "helped" the rabbit by canceling his running and hopping classes and putting him in extra swimming and flying classes. Don't worry, there is a happy ending, courtesy of the Wise Old Owl.

Authors Clifton and Nelson offer an interesting book on how we, in business and in life, fail to focus on our strengths and manage our weaknesses. Consider how often the top salesperson is promoted into management, irrespective of actual leadership ability.

The authors advocate "The Power Of One Simple Question" which is "What would happen if we studied what was right with people versus what's wrong with people?"

Applying the principles to my own life, I soon discovered that I too fell deeply into the trap of focusing on my non-strengths (weaknesses) instead of my strengths. In fact, there are some things I'm just better off not doing or at least delegating to others.

In summary, many insights are offered throughout this book. Business owners and managers will do well to read this book and apply the principles, first to their own lives, then to encourage associates to discover and focus on their own strengths. Focusing on strengths is one of the few remaining hidden secrets of unleashing productivity.

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Michael Davis - Editor, Byvation

Donald Clifton and Paula Nelson tap an important principle: Focus on strength and manage weakness. They offer a step by step process to identify personal and corporate strengths and discuss how doing more of what you do well launches you into super achievement mode. This is a quick and excellent read for anyone interested in personal or business success.

Another book that takes a more analytical approach to the principles outlined in this book is "The 80/20 Principle" by Richard Koch. Reading both books together will convince you beyond any doubt that there is power and purpose to the success foundations found in these pages.

Clifton captures a successful management formula in this book. A simplistic , common sense approach to success that we all overlook everyday. Thank you for organizing that intuitive , non-tangible gut feeling into a "style" of management. Why build a foundation on the cracked brick versus granite? Those who figure it out; See you in the "Winner's Circle"...

This book is both an easy read and a powerful one. The idea of focusing on maximizing ones' strengths instead of working on ones' weaknesses has been incredibly freeing to me. A friend called it life-changing for him, and I'd have to agree. I'm very excited with the prospects of spending the second half of my work life celebrating and maximizing the use of my strengths and the gifts God has given me!

This has been interesting and provides me a new point of view about takeing decision in terms of strengths and weaknesses.
It is easy to read. I am not very good in english leguage and tor ead it was not a difficult task.

I just bought this for a friend, not as a management book, but as a parenting book. A new mother wants to know how to approach the child in terms of helping her become her own person and find fulfillment, so I recalled this book and gave it to her. It stuck with me after many years, and its simple premise (captured in the title) shaped the way my wife and I parented our kids.

Some times we are tempted as managers or as parents to "fix" people in ways that would make them more like ourselves or our ideals that we fail to live up to. In either case, that is misguided and wrong. I went to grad school with a Japanese fellow whose company sent him to the U.S. to "round him out" and build up his weaknesses. Wrong again.

I think this book gives us permission to do what ultimately makes the most sense: help others to find their joy. Certainly, there are weaker sides that must be bolstered enough to avoid failure in life, but only that much and no more. The best thing a person can do for another is to help him or her to find a way to thrive doing what they do best.

Artists have their muses. The rest of us need each other to give us permission to find out who we really are and to figure out how to become that person.