The Truth About You
9:25 AM PDT, September 19, 2008
Hi there, I’m writing to tell you about a new toolkit we’ve created called The Truth About You. We’ve found that many people who have been exposed to Strengths through one of my books or our SimplyStrengths™ program are eager to share what they’ve learned with others. The Truth About You is a great new way to share the Strengths message.
Combining a short book, an all-new 20-minute film and bonus DVD content, The Truth About You is a condensed version of the material you may have seen in Trombone Player Wanted and our SimplyStrengths™ program. For young professionals, college students, or anyone who’s looking to contribute more in their job — and get more out of it — it’s a quick and lively introduction to Strengths concepts and the perfect way to help identify their own Strengths and put them to work.
You’re committed to being one of the 2 out of 10 people who can say they play to their Strengths every day. Help those you care about join that group by sharing The Truth About You. The Truth About You goes on sale September 30th and I'll be kicking off a 30-city campus tour in October. To learn more about the tour, click here. I look forward to seeing you out there. Warmest regards, Marcus Have you heard?
5:04 AM PST, February 27, 2007
Well, the new book’s done. It’s called Go Put Your Strengths to Work: 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance, and the title sums it up. Think of it as the next stage in the strengths movement. Now, Discover Your Strengths showed you how to put a label to your strengths. Go Put Your Strengths To Work shows you how to take action. It teaches you a simple six step discipline to make the most of your strengths and neutralize your weaknesses, and how you can stick to this discipline despite the pressures of a company, a boss, or even a spouse pulling you off your strengths path. There are six chapters in the book. Six steps. So, what you have in this book is a six week, six step discipline. Each step constitutes a week of reading, action, and discovery, and each week builds on the one before. Don’t try to read the book in one sitting. Instead, keep up this weekly rhythm of read, act, discover, and, by the end of the book, you’ll know how to take a stand for your strengths and leverage them as never before. Your performance will soar, and more significant still, you’ll know how to sustain this level of performance throughout the many twists and turns of your career. Each book comes with its own ID code. This code not only allows you a free viewing of the first two films of Trombone Player Wanted, it also gives you the right to take the Strengths Engagement Tack at the beginning of the book, and again at the end. This short, web-based survey first measures how engaged your strengths are as compared to the rest of the working world, and then reveals how engaged your strengths are going to be in the near-term future. If you work as part of a team, your results can then be combined with your colleagues to create a Strengths Engagement Track team score. I wrote Go Put Your Strengths To Work to kick-start the strengths movement. Next week I am going on the road to campaign for this movement. You can log onto www.BuckinghamLive.com to sign up for one of our campaign stops in March or April. Cities on the tour include: New York City
Boston Philadelphia Washington DC Detroit Chicago Minneapolis Seattle San Francisco Los Angeles Irvine, CA San Diego Atlanta Denver Dallas/Ft Worth Houston Phoenix Inland Empire/Riverside, CA Tampa Bay Boca Raton, FL Orlando Lincoln, NE If you believe that strengths hold the key, or if you feel that your strengths’ potential has yet to be fully realized, or if you want to build a strengths-based team, or if you just want to add your weight to this movement’s momentum, then please sign up. Push for change. Come lead this movement. I’ll see you on the road. Marcus P.S. To help bring the book alive we thought it would be fun to hold the tour in theaters and show the new short film. Please invite your friends and colleagues to join the conversation (visit www.BuckinghamLive.com for a complete schedule and venue list). Trombone Player Wanted
12:05 AM PDT, June 2, 2006
OK,so it's taken a while for me to get around to posting again. Sorry about that. Things have been a little crazy busy on my end. In this post, first I'll tell you what I've been up to, and then I'll answer some of the questions from your comments. In my last post I mentioned that I'd just finished shooting a short film series titled, for reasons that should become apparent when you watch it, Trombone Player Wanted. Looking back I realize I shouldn't have used the word "finished." Getting everthing just the way we wanted it proved to be quite a labyrinthine process--huge concert halls were rented, hundreds of children were screen-tested, and when, at the very last moment, we failed to secure the rights to a choice piece of music by the German band Lali Puna--have you heard of them? Neither had I--an original music score had to be written. It finally came together two weeks ago into a coherent six dvd set that tells the story of a ten year old boy who wants...well, he wants a trombone player. There, I've given it away. Of course, the point of the films is not this boy's story--his name is Ewan, at it happens. The point is to help you find your strengths and put them to work. As I mentioned in my last post, all the data I've seen suggests that, for most of us, this proves exceptionally hard to do--in repeated polls only 17% of us say that we get to play to our strengths at work most of the time. Given that each of us is supposed to be our organization's "greatest asset" this 17% number is alarmingly low. And in the six years since Now, Discover Your Strengths was published I've not seen this 17% number budge even a fraction.(In some work teams, always the most productive ones, the "needle" climbs all the way up to the high 70's and low 80's, but in general it's stuck below 20.) Faced with a serious lack of momentum, I figured that these days, with the advent of streaming video and the success of video ipods, the best way to kick-start this strengths revolution was through a short, visually arresting series of images. Hence the films. (Each is between 10-15 minutes long, and each builds on the one before) If you are interested in learning more about Trombone Player Wanted, please visit www.MarcusBuckingham.com/Film to view the short trailer and/or purchase the films. Love them or not, I promise you they are quite unlike anything you've seen before. Also, many of you mentioned that you work for smaller companies that can't afford high end consulting engagments but still want to be leader in this strengths movement. To help you we've been building a new strengths-based training curriculum entitled Simply Strengths. If you are interested in bringing this new training medium into your company’s intranet or learning management system feel free to email the my colleague Kevin Small at Kevin@MarcusBuckingham.com. Now to your questions: Yes it would be nice if you could buy separate ID codes so that one family didn't have to buy a book for each member. We noodled about this pre-publication, but decided that we didn't want people taking StrengthsFinder without first reading the book and learning exactly what it did and did not measure. Keeping one code per book was our way of trying to achieve this. Having said this, if you want a code for a family member, please e-mail the good folks at Gallup and they will be more than happy to provide you with one. You should know that the StrengthsFinder profile has lately been renamed the Clifton StrengthsFinder in memory of Dr. Donald O. Clifton. Don was the chief architect of the items contained within StrengthsFinder, he is considered the father of Positive Psychology, he was Gallup's leader for many years, and he was my mentor and inspiration for my entire tenure at Gallup. He was one of the few truly greats. Some of you mentioned that the book Now, Discover Your Strengths is poorly named. It should be called "Now, Discover Your Talents." Frankly, you are correct. The StrengthsFinder tool does not actually measure your strengths; instead it measures you against thirty four talent themes and then reveals your top five. These five themes explain how you engage with the world, and as such they are affirming for you and useful for those trying to deal with you. But these five themes are not your strengths. It is up to you to figure out how to take these themes and cultivate them into specific activities at which you excel, and for which you maintain a strong appetite to keep learning. As some of you point out, this is far from easy. Particularly when you're faced with a boss or a company who are, at best, ambivalent about your strengths--they love them when these strengths push you to do what the company wants you to do, but it's another story when your strengths pull you away from the company's agenda. "How can I take control of my time at work and rewrite my job description under my boss's nose?" is the question I've been asked most frequently since Now, Discover...was published. I've never felt my answers were entirely satisfactory, and this last year I've devoted a big chunk of my time to studying those who succeed in yanking their time at work toward their strengths and away from thier weaknesses. I'll be writing up my findings in my next book to be published in the spring of 2007. More on this later this year... I'm supposed to get the manuscript finished by the beginning of September, so pretty much every waking hour is filled with "how do you turn talents into stengths?" thoughts. Speaking of which, why am I rambling on? Chapter three beckons. Four more chapters after that, only three months to do them in, and the World Cup looming. Why , oh why does it always work out this way? Off I go. marcus p.s. I am speaking at the World Forum in Chicago next week, with the likes of General Powell, President Clinton, and Malcolm Gladwell. If you happen to be going, seek me out. I'll be on the look out for kindred spirits. marcus Marcus Message #1
1:00 AM PST, February 17, 2006
Hey all, thanks for posting and for venting your views and/or frustrations. A few responses, in no particular order: Yes, you're right, it would be great if we could get our kids and students to start thinking about their strengths early in life, and even better if we could provide them with teachers who were as fascinated by these strengths as mine were, if memory serves, about my flaws. Yes, this strengths revolution must reach beyond the workplace to all aspects of our lives (just ask my wife and kids). Yes, sadly, companies do continue to zero in on people's weaknesses, not out of any malicious intent on their part, I think, but out of a mistaken belief that a person's greatest room for growth lies in his weaknesses--it is an ROI miscalculation, not a desire to be punitive (a few exceptions may apply.) No, the book "Now, Discover..." was not an attempt to push Gallup's consulting practices, merely an effort to give people a common language to describe the best of themselves. I'm sorry if you didn't think it succeeded in this effort. And, yes, while on the subject of consulting, I know that I need to reach out to people who work for small to mid-sized companies, and help them identify and apply their strengths at work. To this end, I just finished shooting six short films which address the many different challenges of building your life around your strengths--everything from "Who is better at identifying your strengths? You or your boss?" to "How can you talk to people about your strengths without bragging and about your weaknesses without whining?". These films will be finished by mid March. If you're interested, I'll tell you more about them in my next post or shoot me an e-mail at marcusbuckingham.com and I'll keep you posted (no pun intended.) A final thought for you. One or two of you cautioned that none of us should expect work to play to our strengths because, after all, it's "work" and as such it is not designed for our enjoyment. You're right of course, but still, I think each of us has significant room to maneuver within our world at work, and, without necessarily doing something drastic like changing careers, each of us can take steps to steer our time each week more toward our strengths and away from our weaknesses. I'll grant you 25% of your day, 9am-11am everyday, to fill with activities that bore you or frustrate you or leave you cold--the grumpy guy down the hall who insists on sharing his grumpiness with you, the e-mails you don't want to deal with, the expenses that have to be completed. But even if I fess up to the inevitability of this kind of drudgery, even if I cede you this, you are still left with a big chunk of your day at work, 75% of your day at work, that could be filled, deliberately filled, with other, more positive stuff. The sad truth is that, currently, less than two out of ten of us manage to fill this time with activities that play to our strengths. CEO's the world over are fond of pointing to their workforce and saying "Our people are our greatest asset." And yet today, only two out of ten people think their assets are being well used at work. There are many possible reasons for this--they might be delusional about their own strengths, they might work for a rotten manager, they might have been Peter Principled. But you should know that what wakes me up at night, what gets me running fast in the morning, and, frankly, what prompts me to lose any semblance of my habitual reserve is the conviction that work doesn't have to be this grim. We can do better. We all want the chance to express the very best of ourselves and to be challenged to keep reaching for more. Our time at work affords us this chance--not the only chance, to be sure, but, given that we're there forty or fifty hours a week, it's one of the best. I just can't stand the idea that only two out of ten of us get this chance. And so I'm dedicating the next couple of decades--and beyond, if I'm so blessed--to teaching people how to seize this chance. Whether in the form of books or films or training programs or speeches, please, expect more from me on this. It's late. I"ll post some more when I'm up and running again tomorrow. Thanks again, all of you, for your interest. It is invigorating.
Cheers!
4:47 PM PST, January 31, 2006
Years of research have found that only 17% of people within the workplace play to their strengths most of the time. For everyone’s sake this number needs to be higher. Have you ever experienced being at work and doing something where you really felt as if you were in the groove? You know, those activities that left you feeling energized, powerful and strong? It felt great didn’t it? These are the activities that STRENGTHEN you. My goal is to get more people living most of their days out of a place of strength, rather than mundanely involving themselves in activities that continue to weaken them. Wouldn’t we all be more productive, happier people if this were a possibility? I’m determined to help make this happen and I’ve been busy over the last few months writing a new book and developing a new product that will encourage this process. Please keep your eyes open for what’s to come in the next few months. Thanks for your support of my work over the years. Here’s to living a strong life! -Marcus
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Bio
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 (StrengthsFinder.com), 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.
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