Strengths Based Leadership: Great Leaders, Teams, and Why People Follow [Hardcover]

Tom Rath (Author), Barry Conchie (Author)

Book Description

Release date: January 6, 2009

For decades, Gallup scientists have researched the topic of leadership. They’ve surveyed a million work teams, conducted more than 50,000 in-depth interviews with leaders, and even interviewed 20,000 followers to ask what they admired in the most important leader in their life. The results of that research are unveiled in Strengths-Based Leadership. Using Gallup’s discoveries, authors Tom Rath and Barry Conchie identify three keys to being an effective leader and use firsthand accounts from highly successful leaders — including the founder of Teach for America and the president of The Ritz-Carlton — to show how each person’s unique talents can drive their success. A new version of Gallup’s popular StrengthsFinder assessment helps readers discover their own special gifts, and specific strategies show them how to lead with their top five talents. Loaded with novel research, inspiring stories, and actionable ideas, Strengths-Based Leadership offers a new roadmap for leading people toward a better future.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

A unique access code (enclosed in the back of this book) allows you to take a new leadership version of Gallup's StrengthsFinder program. The new version of this program provides you with specific strategies for leading with your top five strengths and enables you to plot the strengths of your team based on the four domains of leadership strength revealed in the book.

Key findings from Strengths Based Leadership:

* The most effective leaders are always investing in strengths. In the workplace, when an organization's leadership fails to focus on individuals' strengths, the odds of an employee being engaged are a dismal 1 in 11 (9%). But when an organization's leadership focuses on the strengths of its employees, the odds soar to almost 3 in 4 (73%). When leaders focus on and invest in their employees' strengths, the odds of each person being engaged goes up eightfold.

* The most effective leaders surround themselves with the right people and then maximize their team. While the best leaders are not well-rounded, the best teams are. Strong, cohesive teams have a representation of strengths in each of these four domains: executing, influencing, relationship building, and strategic thinking.

* The most effective leaders understand their followers' needs. People follow leaders for very specific reasons. When we asked thousands of followers, they were able to describe exactly what they need from a leader with remarkable clarity: trust, compassion, stability, and hope.

About the Author

Tom Rath

Tom Rath is one of the most influential authors of the last decade. He studies the role of human behavior in health, business, and economics. Tom writes and speaks on a range of topics, from wellbeing to organizational leadership.

Tom's next book, EAT MOVE SLEEP: WHY SMALL CHOICES MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE will be released in 2013. To learn more, read an exclusive preview of Eat Move Sleep, or request and Advance Copy, visit: tomrath.org

Tom has written several international bestsellers including the #1  New York Times bestseller How Full Is Your Bucket?, StrengthsFinder 2.0, Strengths-Based Leadership, and most recently Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements. In total, his books have sold more than 5 million copies and made over 250 appearances on the Wall Street Journal's bestseller list.

He serves as a Senior Scientist and Advisor to Gallup, where he previously spent 13 years leading the organization's work on employee engagement, strengths, and wellbeing. Tom also served as Vice Chairman of the VHL cancer research organization. He earned degrees from the University of Michigan and University of Pennsylvania, where he is now a guest lecturer. Tom and his wife, Ashley, and their two children live in Arlington, Virginia. 

Barry Conchie

A renowned Leadership Consultant, Gallup's Barry Conchie is sought after by CEOs around the world to assist in aligning business and talent strategies that drive performance. As an expert in executive assessment, team diagnostics, and succession planning, he brings objective measurement and insight to these important leadership areas.Conchie was a public sector leader in the UK before joining Gallup in London. In 2002, he brought his extensive global experience to Gallup's Washington, D.C. headquarters, where Conchie now leads Gallup's executive leadership consulting. He and his wife, Nicola, and children, Amy and Thomas, live in Maryland.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 266 pages
• Publisher: Gallup Press; 1st edition (January 6, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595620257
• ISBN-13: 978-1595620255
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1.3 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (151 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #225 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #15 in Books > Business & Investing > Management & Leadership > Leadership
  • #29 in Books > Professional & Technical > Business Management

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 64 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Strengths, Meet Leadership September 17, 2012

By Steven Henderson

Format:Hardcover

I'm glad Rath and Conchie wrote this book to build on the strengths movement and help us understand the connection between strengths and leadership. Before I go into specifics, you should know that the leadership strength themes are the same themes found in StrengthsFinder 2.0. This book also includes a passcode to take the same StrengthsFinder 2.0 test, but the results report is different. This new leadership version of the StrengthsFinder results report gives strategies for leading with your top five strengths, breaks your strengths down into three predominant strength categories, and it lets you plot the strengths of your team.

If you buy the book, here's what you can expect to find inside:

Part One: Investing in Your Strengths
-Don't Lead by Imitation. Different leaders have different strengths and talents. Learn about the one leader you know least about--yourself.
-Find Your Leadership Strengths. Leaders are often unaware when it comes to something of critical important to them--their personality.
-A Long-term Investment. People who are aware of their strengths and build self-confidence early on will reap increasing advantage that continues to grow over a lifetime.

Part Two: Maximizing Your Team
-Successful leaders surround themselves with the right people and build on each individual's strengths.
-What makes a great leadership team? Based on Gallup research, four unique leadership strength areas emerged: Executing, Influencing, Relationship Building, and Strategic Thinking. Every individual on a leadership team needs to be well rounded in these areas.
-The four strength themes for leadership are introduced. They are: Executing, Influencing, Relationship Building, and Strategic Thinking.
-What do strong teams have in common? A strong focus on results, ability to consistently keep the bigger picture in view, a healthy work-life balance, embracing diversity, and thrives on intense competition.

Part Three: Understanding Why People Follow
-If you want to lead, it is critical to know what the people around you need and expect from you.
-Why do people follow? Followers' four basic needs: trust, compassion, stability, and hope.

Conclusion: Leadership That Lasts Beyond a Lifetime
-Extraordinary leaders do not strive for personal success as success lies with those who follow.

Additional Resources
-Taking StrengthsFinder
-Leading With Your Strengths: A Guide to the 34 Themes
- The Research (Behind StrengthsFinder, Work Team Engagement, and Why People Follow)

All in all a strong book that I recommend if you liked SF 2.0. If you are a leadership fan like I am, another outstanding book you should consider is Leadership 2.0.

62 of 64 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An Individualized Approach to Leadership March 2, 2009

By Stephen N. Shields

Format:Hardcover

Rath and Conchie have provided us with a helpful tool for fine-tuning our own leadership capacity. Using statistical factor analysis of data in Gallup's database, the authors detail how balanced leadership teams have strengths within four Leadership Domains: Strategic Thinking, Relationship Building, Influencing, and Executing. The authors relate that while individuals are rarely balanced, teams always should be. Leadership Teams operating in these four domains work both to serve the four primary needs of their constituencies and to execute their primary organizational responsibilities.

Using a recent Gallup review of data from 10,000 followers, the authors also report that followers report surprising agreement on four of their primary needs: trust, compassion, stability, and hope.

Leaders who use the code that comes with the book to take the online Strengthsfinder assessment (www.strengthsfinder.com) to determine their Top 5 Strengths are provided with a customized Strengths-Based Leadership report that help them understand their Top 5 Strengths and a Strengths-Based Leadership Guide that provides detailed advice on how to use each of their Top 5 Strengths to meet the four primary needs.

Leaders who read this book will have a deepened appreciation of both their own leadership abilities and of the degree to which they lead best when they work in team. The four Leadership Domains and the four primary needs of followers provide leaders with a rich paradigm for considering new approaches in attacking organizational priorities.

Highly recommended.

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars `Strengths' is the new currency April 26, 2009

By Bill Milnor

Format:Hardcover

`Strengths' is the new currency. The Gallup group began isolating and understanding people from the talent perspective over a decade ago. Names like Marcus Buckingham, Donald O. Clifton and Tom Rath have brought to light a powerful medium for understanding what excites us and these insights make better work places and happier lives. For business it is about productivity and employee engagement; for employees it is about feeling good about your choice in where and what you do almost every day. Both are big! Strengths Based Leadership by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie takes strengths application to the next level: Leadership and for me, inherently part of this is great management. This work further develops the strengths of teams into four leadership domains. They are: Executing, Influencing, Relationship Building and Strategic Thinking. I found this distilling of a team's strengths into these domains a way to conceptually simplify very important areas of focus and understand where each member might excel in their performance. This seemed especially relevant to the achievement of an organization's strategic plan. Knowing which key individuals bring the most energy to the different aspects of moving an organization forward is not only critical to success, but even more so to keeping a competitive edge.
The second theme in this work is identifying the "Followers Four Basic Needs": Trust, Compassion, Stability and Hope. This is also a compelling framework for supporting a work environment that helps people act at their best.
This book will be very helpful if you are interested in strength based applications and not deficit or weakness improvement approaches. I suggest some foundation in strengths based work before utilizing this book, like Strengths Finder 2.0 and Now Discover Your Strengths, to get greater depth on its offering.