Strengths-Based Leadership [Hardcover]

Tom Rath (Author), Barry Conchie (Author)

Book Description

Publication 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 a leading business thinker and one of the bestselling authors of the last decade. His first book, How Full Is Your Bucket?, was a #1 New York Times bestseller. Rath's book, StrengthsFinder 2.0, is a long-running #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller. His most recent New York Times bestsellers are Strengths Based Leadership and Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements. In total, Rath's books have sold more than 3 million copies and have made more than 250 appearances on The Wall Street Journal bestseller list.

Rath currently leads Gallup's workplace consulting business. In this role, he guides the organization's practices and research on employee engagement, selection, strengths-based development, leadership, and wellbeing. Rath also serves on the board of VHL.org, an organization dedicated to cancer research and patient support. He earned degrees from the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania. Tom and his wife, Ashley, and their two children, live in Washington, D.C.

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: 216 pages
• Publisher: Gallup Press; 1 edition (January 6, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595620257
• ISBN-13: 978-1595620255
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (76 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #387 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #11 in Books > Business & Investing > Management & Leadership > Leadership
  • #41 in Books > Professional & Technical > Business Management

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

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

By 

Stephen N. Shields (Ellicott City, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Strengths-Based Leadership (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.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

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

By 

Bill Milnor (Denver, Colorado) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Strengths-Based Leadership (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.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Test is useful, but the book provides little direction, March 18, 2010

By 

Adam V. Floyd (Austin, TX United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Strengths-Based Leadership (Hardcover)

I found the on-line test interesting, and at least for me, seemingly accurate. However, the book consists of about 30 pages describing the theory behind the test and a few ideas on considering strengths while leading. The remainder of the book is just descriptions of each of the strengths. The book leaves me wondering how to best use my strengths as well as those of others I'm leading.

The on-line portion includes a worthless "Leadership Guide" report which is comprised of all too obvious advice including: "When making decisions, discuss options candidly and thoroughly;" "Be aware of your own biases;" "Take time to study the strategies employed by effective leaders you respect or admire." Not only are the statements obvious, they aren't really related to my particular strengths.

The "Leadership Report" is full of vague statements like: "It's very likely that you might have extra energy to work hard when you are acquiring information to broaden your knowledge base;" "Perhaps you want to deepen your understanding of certain topics;" "It's very likely that you now and then have moments when you are keenly aware of things around you." Are these written by the same person that writes horoscopes?

The test is worth taking. However, neither the book nor the website provide any really direction on how to best use your skills or lead by them. It is very likely that might enjoy taking the test now and then. But I doubt you'll get much out of the book.