Effectively managing personnel--as well as one's own behavior--is an extraordinarily complex task that, not surprisingly, has been the subject of countless books touting what each claims is the true path to success. That said, Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton's Now, Discover Your Strengths does indeed propose a unique approach: focusing on enhancing people's strengths rather than eliminating their weaknesses. Following up on the coauthors' popular previous book, First, Break All the Rules, it fully describes 34 positive personality themes the two have formulated (such as Achiever, Developer, Learner, and Maximizer) and explains how to build a "strengths-based organization" by capitalizing on the fact that such traits are already present among those within it.

What you already know

I anxiously awaited the arrival of "Now, Discover Your Strengths," much like waiting for the return of my beloved pet at the end of a day, with great expectations. Irrespective of a general happiness about my life, I harbor a subtle element of discontent. It is a feeling that my life may not be fulfilled, that my career will not provide the greatest satisfaction for me, that I might never find the right one. It is a lack of conviction about my life's mission or purpose. I had always shunned self-help books, because I thought I knew best how to lead my life. But after years of discontent, I figured I could use some help to resolve some uncertainties in my life. Hence, I eagerly waited, and I was disappointed.

Marcus Buckingham & Donald Clifton point out that the mission of organizations and educational institutions should be to enable people to discover their strengths and to perfect them. But in reality, people tend to identify their weaknesses rather than their strengths. People expend great energy to remove such weaknesses, so that they may become well rounded. The authors note that this is completely wrong. Instead, people should learn to focus on their strengths and maximize their potential by winnowing away the weaknesses. Authors call this finding ways "around" the weaknesses.

Of the three factors that go into building strength: talent, skill and knowledge, talent is paramount and is enduring. The authors define talent as "any recurring pattern of thought, feeling, or behavior that can be productively applied." The cornerstone of the authors' argument is that talent is chief over skill and knowledge because of its biological origin. We are good at what we do because of certain synaptic pathways that we developed as adolescents. And because our neural network does not change until advanced age, our talents are enduring. If we do not align our talents with what we do, then we will grow weary (counter-productive). If we find the right talent to develop in our lives, then we will blossom and be fruitful (productive). For instance, the authors cite Warren Buffet, who said, "I get up every day and have a chance to do what I love to do, every day. If you want to learn anything from me, this is the best advice I can give you."

This is plausible and sounds like an aphorism to abide by. But is it possible to find and hone one's strengths? I'm not certain; I found the authors' thesis a bit hard to swallow. For example, what should become of those who can never practice the trade that suits their strengths? For every example that the authors cite of people who discover and use their strengths to great effect, even in their old age, there surely exists many more who do not. Must that mean that the mass of mankind must lead unfulfilled lives? For all my skepticism, I would like to close with a great point that the authors make, that "talents, like intelligence, are value neutral." Hence, it is up to each one of us, whatever our talents may be, to put it to good use. But, then again, I knew that without reading the book, and so did you.

If You Can Afford It, a Good Tool for Building Your Staff

The authors of Now, Discover Your Strengths say "Most organizations are built on two flawed assumptions about people:

"1. Each person can learn to be competent in almost anything.
"2. Each person's greatest room for growth is in his or her areas of greatest weakness." (p. 7)

They say that the best managers follow two other assumptions that are somewhat contrary to these: That "each person's talents are enduring and unique" and that the greatest opportunity for growth for each person is in developing more fully his or her greatest strength. In doing so, these managers focus on the outcomes of their employees' efforts, rather than forcing them into a particular pattern.

The way to truly excel is to build on your strengths. They say that you cannot change a weakness, though you can learn to compensate for it. Furthermore, you can only excel "by maximizing your strengths, never by fixing your weaknesses." (p. 26)

A strength is something you are able to do consistently and enjoy doing. Your talents, knowledge and skills combine to create a strength, with "talents" being the most important element. "The key to building a bona fide strength is to identify your dominant talents and then refine them with knowledge and skills." (p. 30)

The key element of all this is the StrengthsFinder Profile, a 180-question survey. Over 30 years, the Gallup Organization interviewed two million successful professionals, asking open-ended questions about their strengths. From these interviews, the authors identified the 34 most prevalent strengths and developed the StrengthsFinder Profile, an online assessment instrument to help you identify your five strongest "themes of talent." A talent may not yet be a strength but it can be developed into a strength. The book includes a description of each of the 34 StrengthsFinder themes so you can get a brief overview of your five key strengths and read about other strengths.

To take the assessment, you must buy a copy of the book or audio-book. Each purchase entitles one person to take the StrengthsFinder Profile one time. If you want to know the strengths of your staff or your friends, they will each have to purchase the book and take the assessment.

One reviewer said that Now, Discover Your Strengths may be a better pop psychology book than a management book. This is probably true. The biggest thing that I took out of the book was an understanding that, to a large extent, I should accept my weaknesses and focus on my strengths and talents. I had each of my staff take the assessment so we could then consider how to best utilize and develop our talents to find greater success and avoid frustration and burn-out.

pretty good

The message that the author tries to convey is that people make the mistake of becoming so preoccupied with overcoming their weaknesses that they spend too little time focusing on their strengths. There is much more room for growth where we are strong instead of areas where we are weak so he argues. He goes on to explain that we should just learn to manage our weaknesses just enough and concentrate on our strengths.

This is a hard concept for me to wrap my head around. Growing up Mom and Dad always said things like "you can do anything you want if you just put your mind to it" or "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again" and that sort of thing. The idea that you just not waste your time on an area that youre having problems with seems so backwards. Frankly I like making major accomplishments in areas I'm weak, it makes me feel more comfortable about my job performance.

The book also has a test you can take online that will tell you your strengths. Frankly I didn't put much faith into this. I thought it would be sort of like a psychic reading where the results were either so vague that they could apply to anyone or offer a personality description so pleasant that most people would naturally want to say it applies to them, so I took the test with much suspicion.

The results were surprisingly accurate, one of the themes it associated with me was input. People strong in input love information and love to archive information. This is pretty darn accurate, I love to read anything non-fiction, I love information and especially statistics. The other themes seemed to fairly describe me well also. I was impressed

Overall this is a good book that tries to explain how to capitalize on your strenghts to make you more productive at work and home. It's not going to change my life but it certainly provided plenty of food for thought.