Now, Discover Your Strengths: How to Develop Your Talents and Those of the People You Manage [Paperback]

Marcus Buckingham and Donald O Clifton's Now, Discover Your Strengths proposes a unique approach to managing personnel: focus on enhancing people's strengths rather than eliminating their weaknesses. Effectively managing personnel--as well as one's own behaviour--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. 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 Maximiser) and explains how to build a "strengths-based organisation" by capitalising on the fact that such traits are already present among those within it.

Most original and potentially most revealing, however, is a Web-based interactive component that allows readers to complete a questionnaire developed by the Gallup Organisation and instantly discover their own top five inborn talents. This device provides a personalised window into the authors' management philosophy which, coupled with subsequent advice, places their suggestions into the kind of practical context that's missing from most similar tomes. "You can't lead a strengths revolution if you don't know how to find, name and develop your own," write Buckingham and Clifton. Their book encourages such introspection while providing knowledgeable guidance for applying its lessons. --Howard Rothman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi C. S. and D. J. Davidson Professor of Psychology, Peter Drucker School of Management, Claremont Graduate University, Author of "Flow""Now, Discover Your Strengths, " based on years of research by The Gallup Organization, is a refreshingly sensible and user-friendly way to assess your psychological assets and build on them a successful and satisfying life. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Based on a Gallup study of over two million people who have excelled in their careers, NOW, DISCOVER YOUR STRENGTHS uses a revolutionary programme to help readers discover their distinct talents and strengths. The product of a twenty-five year, multi-million pound effort to identify the most prevalent human talents, the StrengthsFinder programme introduces thirty-four talents or 'themes' and reveals how they can best be translated into personal and career success. Each copy of the book contains a unique password that gives the reader access to the StrengthsFinder Profile, a Web-based interview that analyses people's instinctive reactions and immediately presents them with their five most dominant strengths. Once readers know which of the thirty-four talent themes dominates their personality, they can make practical applications at three levels: as an individual, as a manager and within an organisation. Readers learn what kind of environments will allow them to flourish; how managers can better cultivate their employers' talents; and how almost all organisations inhibit the talents of their people and need to change.

Marcus Buckingham is the co-author of the best-selling books FIRST, BREAK ALL THE RULES and NOW, DISCOVER YOUR STRENGTHS. He is a renowned speaker and regular guest on American television. He lives in Los Angeles but was born in England and is a graduate of Cambridge University. Donald Clifton is the Chairman Emeritus of The Gallup Organization and the current chair of the Gallup International Research and Education Center. He is the chief designer of the StrengthsFinder Profile.