Marcus Buckingham spent 17 years at the Gallup Organization, where he conducted research into the world's best leaders, managers and workplaces. With his reputation for breakthrough insight about business management, it is not surprising that, in the current economic downturn, he sees great opportunity. He recalls one of his first assignments for Gallup in the USA which was to build selection tools for a sales team, more commonly called stockbrokers, at Merrill Lynch. It was 1987 and in the middle of an economic downturn. Part of the Gallup process was to interview several successful individuals and several average ones and see where the differences were. The average individuals all commented “It’s terrible right now. The world is awful. It’s black Monday.” The successful individuals on the other hand were upbeat about the opportunity they had to really show their worth.
His research showed that winners are more positive about everything and that this can be a powerful advantage when the going gets tough. Buckingham calls this economic climate a “leadership moment”. Here is an opportunity for great managers and leaders to say “We are going to re-define what success is this year. It used to be sales and profit but we are not going to have them this year. We are going to measure success according to innovation, to penetration, to client service.”
Beginning with the million-copy bestsellers First, Break All the Rules and Now, Discover Your Strengths, Marcus Buckingham jump-started the strengths movement. The Buckingham definition of a strength is something that makes you feel great while you do it. His new book answers the ultimate question: How can you actually apply your strengths for maximum success at work?
Not surprisingly, he debunks the traditional recruitment model, Recruiting to preset criteria and then pounding away at individual weaknesses he sees as backward. “As a general rule, people tend to do best what they enjoy the most. People should be hired “as is” and their managers should then help them develop their individual strengths. Think of it as a chess game. The manager should be saying “Who are the people on my team? I have got a knight over here; I keep trying to use a knight like a bishop. This person doesn’t like making cold calls. I know it says in our job description that everybody has to make 14 new sales calls a week but knights like to grow existing accounts, because that is their thing!”
Research data show that most people do not come close to making full use of their assets at work -- in fact, only 17 percent of the workforce believes they use all of their strengths on the job.
Most people don't work on their strengths because of the prevalence of certain workplace “myths”
1. Personality changes with age.
2. You will grow most in your areas of greatest weakness.
3. A good team member does whatever it takes to help the team.
Go Put Your Strengths to Work aims to change that through a six-step, six-week experience that will reveal the hidden dimensions of your strengths. Buckingham shows you how to seize control of your assets and rewrite your job description.
He offers a six-step plan for six weeks. Each step constitutes a week of reading, action, and discovery, and each week builds on the one before. This is not a book to read in one sitting; instead it has a weekly rhythm of read, act, and discovery. It also includes optional tools to enhance the process such as online questions for measuring strengths and downloaded films (two of which are free).
His plan is predicated on the belief that the best way to compete is to capitalise on each individual’s strengths. This means identifying strengths and weaknesses, volunteering respective strengths at work, lessening the impact of individual weaknesses on team effort, effectively communicating the value of individual strengths while limiting work utilising 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 maximising employees' strengths rather than the more common focus on weaknesses and failure.
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