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Now, Discover Your Strengths »

Book cover image of Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham

Authors: Marcus Buckingham, Donald O. Clifton
ISBN-13: 9780743201148, ISBN-10: 0743201140
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group
Date Published: January 2001
Edition: (Non-applicable)

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Author Biography: Marcus Buckingham

Marcus Buckingham, coauthor of the national bestseller First, Break All the Rules, and Donald O. Clifton, Chair of the Gallup International Research & Education Center, have created a revolutionary program to help readers identify their talents, build them into strengths, and enjoy consistent, near-perfect performance. At the heart of the book is the Internet-based StrengthsFinder Profile, the product of a 25-year, multimillion-dollar effort to identify the most prevalent human strengths. The program introduces 34 dominant "themes" with thousands of possible combinations, and reveals how they can best be translated into personal and career success. In developing this program, Gallup has conducted psychological profiles with more than two million individuals to help readers learn how to focus and perfect these themes.

Book Synopsis

Unfortunately, most of us have little sense of our talents and strengths, much less the ability to build our lives around them. Instead, guided by our parents, by our teachers, by our managers, and by psychology's fascination with pathology, we become experts in our weaknesses and spend our lives trying to repair these flaws, while our strengths lie dormant and neglected.

Marcus Buckingham, coauthor of the national bestseller First, Break All the Rules, and Donald O. Clifton, Chair of the Gallup International Research & Education Center, have created a revolutionary program to help readers identify their talents, build them into strengths, and enjoy consistent, near-perfect performance. At the heart of the book is the Internet-based StrengthsFinder® Profile, the product of a 25-year, multimillion-dollar effort to identify the most prevalent human strengths. The program introduces 34 dominant "themes" with thousands of possible combinations, and reveals how they can best be translated into personal and career success. In developing this program, Gallup has conducted psychological profiles with more than two million individuals to help readers learn how to focus and perfect these themes.

So how does it work? This book contains a unique identification number that allows you access to the StrengthsFinder Profile on the Internet. This Web-based interview analyzes your instinctive reactions and immediately presents you with your five most powerful signature themes. Once you know which of the 34 themes — such as Achiever, Activator, Empathy, Futuristic, or Strategic — you lead with, the book will show you how to leverage them for powerful results at three levels: for your own development, for your success as a manager, and for the success of your organization.

With accessible and profound insights on how to turn talents into strengths, and with the immediate on-line feedback of StrengthsFinder at its core, Now, Discover Your Strengths is one of the most groundbreaking and useful business books ever written.

Please note that the code for the Online Strengths Finder Test is found on the inside of the dust jacket or in the sealed sleeve bound into the book just before the end paper.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Strengths Revolution at Work
The Revolution5
Two Million Interviews11
I.The Anatomy of a Strength
Chapter 1.Strong Lives
The Investor, the Director, the Skin Doctor, and the Editor19
Tiger Woods, Bill Gates, and Cole Porter25
Three Revolutionary Tools28
Chapter 2.Strength Building
Is He Always This Good?39
Knowledge and Skills41
Talent48
II.Discover the Source of Your Strengths
Chapter 3.StrengthsFinder
The Traces of Talent67
The StrengthsFinder Profile76
Chapter 4.The Thirty-four Themes of StrengthsFinder
Achiever83
Activator84
Adaptability85
Analytical86
Arranger87
Belief88
Command89
Communication90
Competition91
Connectedness92
Context93
Deliberative94
Developer95
Discipline96
Empathy97
Fairness98
Focus99
Futuristic100
Harmony101
Ideation102
Inclusiveness103
Individualization104
Input105
Intellection106
Learner107
Maximizer108
Positivity109
Relator110
Responsibility111
Restorative112
Self-assurance113
Significance114
Strategic115
Woo116
III.Put Strengths to Work
Chapter 5.The Questions You're Asking
Are there any obstacles to building my strengths?121
Why should I focus on my signature themes?131
Is there any significance to the order of my signature themes?134
Not all of the phrases in the theme description apply to me. Why?136
Why am I different from other people with whom I share some of the same themes?137
Are any of the themes "opposites"?139
Can I develop new themes if I don't like the ones I have?141
Will I become too narrow if I focus on my signature themes?144
How can I manage around my weaknesses?148
Can my themes reveal whether I am in the right career?160
Chapter 6.Managing Strengths
"Fidel," Sam Mendes, and Phil Jackson171
One By One176
Chapter 7.Building a Strengths-based Organization
The Full Story213
The Practical Guide218
Appendix
A Technical Report on StrengthsFinder247

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