Now, Discover Your Strengths

Career Changers "must have" reference

2008-05-02
Tight times, job changes, they are frightening.
Knowing your strengths is a major 'coping' tool.
It really helps writing job-getting resumes.
This is a 'must have' book.
Mine is on loan about 70% time.

Great Book!

2008-04-26
This a great book that will help you identify your signature themes. THe book is an easy read and will definitely keep your attention. Worth the purchase alone, just to have access to the StrengthsFinder poll.

Personal Development

2008-04-07
This book suggests working on your strength rather than your weaknesses. With help from the on-line resource, you are able to identify your top 5 strengths.

NOW, discover this book

2008-03-26
Ever wanted to be a professional athlete when you grew up? And with each year passing, your skills stayed behind regardless of how much work you put in. When you arrive at the end of your teen years, you decide to go to college and pursue a career.
This may actually be a true story to most of us, as we lack skills, talent or health to reach the goals we dream of as a child. Live with it.

Now get real and reflect on your own life. Ok, you couldn't hit a ball but can you make an absolute smashing sales pitch? Or is your life so organized you have spare time? With this book you will learn to make the best of the talents you have, and not slightly improve the talents you lack.

Being a business owner this book was of great help managing personnel and putting together teams that complement on each other's strength. This makes some people valuable as a team member where they lack qualities as an individual. In sports this term is also complemented with the word 'chemistry' which is actually a direct result of a balanced and complementing team.

For anyone interested in self-improvement or having to work with teams, this book shares a wealth of knowledge and puts you behind the wheel of improvement within your life.

I disagree with the basic premise

2008-03-21
My issue with the book is nothing to do with codes or upselling to other products. It's the basic premise that I have a problem with and its lack of reality in the real world.

To a large extent I'm always slightly wary of books by people who have merely studied others and haven't really been out there at the coal face of human achievement but the hype for Mr Buckingham is huge so I thought I'd give it a go. It reads very much to me like a wonderful and highly marketable theory that could only really work in a large company. Most small enterprises would be ludicrously stifled if all their staff went around "only working to their strengths". Sometimes to really make a difference and to really get things done you have to bully your way through your weaknesses too. I doubt there is an entrepreneur on the planet who wouldn't agree with that.

Perhaps I'm viewing it from too entrepreneurial a perspective but I also take great solace in the fact that Tiger Woods regards one of his key skills as being his ability to work on his weaknesses. At the time of writing Tiger looks like being the world's first sports billionaire and has just won seven tournaments in a row. That's somebody whose advice I would take.