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| Go Put Your Strengths to Work: 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance | 
 enlarge | Author: Marcus Buckingham
Publisher: Free Press
Category: Book
List Price: $30.00
Buy New: $6.71
You Save: $23.29 (78%)
New (56) Used (43) Collectible (6) from $5.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  54 reviews
Sales Rank: 789
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 270
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.3
ISBN: 0743261674
Dewey Decimal Number: 650.1
EAN: 9780743261678
ASIN: 0743261674
Publication Date: March 6, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New! Never Read! Has remainder mark.
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Product Description
Beginning with the million-copy bestsellers First, Break All the Rules and Now, Discover Your Strengths, Marcus Buckingham jump-started the strengths movement that is now sweeping the work world, from business to government to education. Now that the movement is in full swing, Buckingham's new book answers the ultimate question: How can you actually apply your strengths for maximum success at work?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 believe they use all of their strengths on the job. 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 under the nose of your boss. You will learn: • Why your strengths aren't "what you are good at" and your weaknesses aren't "what you are bad at."• How to use the four telltale signs to identify your strengths. • The simple steps you can take each week to push your time at work toward those activities that strengthen you and away from those that don't. • How to talk to your boss and your colleagues about your strengths without sounding like you're bragging and about your weaknesses without sounding like you're whining. • The fifteen-minute weekly ritual that will keep you on your strengths path your entire career. With structured exercises that will become part of your regular workweek and proven tactics from people who have successfully applied the book's lessons, Go Put Your Strengths to Work will arm you with a radically different approach to your work life. As part of the book's program you'll take an online Strengths Engagement Track, a focused and powerful gauge that has proven to be the best way to measure the level of engagement of your strengths or your team's strengths. You can also download the first two segments of the renowned companion film series Trombone Player Wanted. Go Put Your Strengths to Work will open up exciting uncharted territory for you and your organization. Join the strengths movement and thrive.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 49 more reviews...
How to Succeed March 11, 2007
132 out of 156 found this review helpful
Reading this book should be a priority for any professional who wants to be more successful on the job.
The first part of the book lays out the evidence for why "playing to your strengths" instead of improving your weak points is the way to succeed. I am familiar with the author's other work and that of Martin Seligman which says essentially the same thing. I thought I had removed any lingering notions about prioritizing improving weaknesses over improving strengths. I was wrong. Reading this book and thinking deeply about my beliefs and experiences showed me that the ideal of the "well-rounded" person is deeply ingrained in our collective psyche and a book like this is desparately needed to help both employees and managers understand what really drives success.
The only reason I gave this book four stars instead of five is because it could have been easily 70 pages shorter. There is an aburd amount of repitition; several stories could be cut out and put on the website instead. There is a story about someone named Heidi threaded throughout the book. I guess it is meant to make us understand the real-world application of the concepts. It didn't work for me. I found the exercises a much better way of making this book applicable. Exceptionally eye-opening are the questions the author asks you regarding the following three myths:
Myth 1: As you grow, your personality changes
Myth 2: You will grow the most in your areas of greatest weakness
Myth 3: A good team member does whatever it takes to help the team
The last myth is especially powerful. By showing you how these myths are false the book prepares your mind to accept and understand the evidence showing that playing to your strengths is crucial to success.
Buckingham presents a very clear and easy-to-understand method for discovering what your strengths actually are. It is not necessarily easy to do but this book does make it easy to understand. Once you have a better idea of your strengths you can start devoting more time to work that is suited to your strengths. Of course, how do you do that when your boss or work environment may not be initially supportive. Fortunately, the book covers this implementation in some detail and is very realistic about it.
If you are familiar with "Now, Discover Your Strengths" it is important to realize that the results from the personality test associated with that book are NOT your strengths, but rather personality traits that are only one component of your strengths. These traits change little if at all over your lifetime, whereas your strengths actually change because they are dependent on your skills and knowledge as well as your personality. Read the book to find out more about how these concepts interrelate and how devoting more time to your strengths AND less time to your weaknesses has been shown to improve your work performance.
The research Buckingham discusses can be applied to one's personal life as well; however, the book does not really touch on that. I am suspecting that this might be the subject of a future book. If so, I eagerly anticipate its release and will buy it as soon as it comes out.
To summarize, Buckingham offers solid evidence showing that shifting your time to tasks that are suited to your strengths is a key component of professional success. In addition, the book provides you with a very realistic way to identify your strengths. To top it off, there is even an extensive description of how to actually get your co-workers and management to support your efforts at focusing on your strengths. This is not pie-in-the-sky theorizing. There are actionable steps here ready to be used by anyone who is looking to achieve outstanding professional performance.
Also, each book has a code that allows you to access the website, so if you are considering buying make sure you buy it new.
Excellent addition to the series March 16, 2007
67 out of 67 found this review helpful
I must say that I have been a big fan of Marcus Buckingham's work starting with First, Break All the Rules. It has been refreshing to read his works due to their research-based nature. I love to read experiential writings, but I also need the "why" behind the "what". This is what the books from Buckingham have provided. This book, Go, Put Your Strengths to Work, continutes the journey of strengths development. You will learn how to develop and put your strengths to work as well as those in your team.
I think step 6, Build Strong Habits, is of the utmost importance. I read a lot of books and can easily forget the valuable lessons I learn if I don't turn them into life habits instead of momentary thoughts. Ultimately, Buckingham gives you five tasks to schedule in your calendar:
-Daily - Quickly look over your strengths and weakness statements
-Weekly - Complete a strong week plan
-Quarterly - Review your strengths-based accomplishments with your manager
-6 Months - Analyze the changes in your strengths
-Yearly - Retake the SET survey
These actions, when scheduled and performed, will help solidify the benefit you get from the strengths model of advancement.
I think there are some better books on improving your efficiency, effectiveness and abilities, but for those who read a few books a year or a decade, I would read the Buckingham series and of course this one is in that group. Placed in with the other books, I give this one five stars. All alone, I feel there will be a lot of gaps for those who haven't read Now, Discover Your Strengths.
Enjoy reading, Tom Carpenter - SYSEDCO
 Stop feeding hay to a dead horse June 7, 2007
36 out of 56 found this review helpful
Years ago, there was a series of television commercials that featured the "Kemper Cavalry." Each effectively communicated a message from Kemper Insurance that said, in effect, "We'll always be there when you need us most." Many people apparently believe that there is such an alternative to focus, preparation, hard work, personal accountability, patience, self-reliance, persistence, etc. For them, other alternatives include the Tooth Fairy, silver bullets, divine intervention, lotteries, and e-mails from widows, orphans, and attorneys who are emigres from Africa.
I first became aware of Marcus Buckingham when I read First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently (1999) in which he and co-author Curt Coffman draw upon 80,000 interviews conducted by Gallup during the past 25 years. They suggest "four keys" to becoming an excellent manager: Finding the right fit for employees by getting their strengths in proper alignment with the tasks for which they are responsible, focusing on those strengths, defining the right results and making the given expectations crystal clear to those involved, and finally, hiring for talent as well as for knowledge and skills rather than merely filling a vacant position according to a job description that may no longer be relevant. Good stuff.
In this volume, Buckingham quite correctly emphasizes (a) knowing what one's personal strengths are and then (b) leveraging them to achieve desirable results, whatever the nature and extent of those results may be. He is one of several past or current executives within The Gallup Organization who have written a number of articles and books, based on a wealth of research data. Several Web sites now offer access to much of this information, notably gallup.com, BuckinghamLive.com, and strengthsfinder.com.
As Buckingham explains, he wrote this book to show "you how to take action. It teaches you a simple six step discipline to make the most of your strengths and neutralize your weaknesses, and how you can stick to this discipline despite the pressures of a company, a boss, or even a spouse pulling you off your strengths path. There are six chapters in the book. Six steps. So, what you have in this book is a six week, six step discipline. Each step constitutes a week of reading, action, and discovery, and each week builds on the one before. Don't try to read the book in one sitting. Instead, keep up this weekly rhythm of read, act, discover, and, by the end of the book, you'll know how to take a stand for your strengths and leverage them as never before. Your performance will soar, and more significant still, you'll know how to sustain this level of performance throughout the many twists and turns of your career."
It is worth noting that each copy of this book includes its own ID code. As Buckingham explains, "This code not only allows you a free viewing of the first two films of Trombone Player Wanted, it also gives you the right to take the Strengths Engagement Tack at the beginning of the book, and again at the end. This short, web-based survey first measures how engaged your strengths are as compared to the rest of the working world, and then reveals how engaged your strengths are going to be in the near-term future. If you work as part of a team, your results can then be combined with your colleagues to create a Strengths Engagement Track team score." Each copy of Tom Rath's StrengthsFinder 2.0 also has a code, one that serves as an exclusive link to The Gallup Organization's "StrengthsFinder 2.0" self-diagnostic. These access codes are substantial value-added benefits to the material with which they are provided.
Especially in recent years, many busy executives have set aside time, energy, and (in some instances their own) funds to take all manner of standardized tests, some of which identify both strengths and weaknesses (i.e. areas in which improvement is needed). The Gallup Organization's resources enable them to obtain additional information about themselves while correlating that information with information generated by hundreds of thousands of others. "Now what?"
As indicated earlier, Buckingham strongly recommends focusing almost entirely on developing one's strengths and then leveraging them whenever and wherever possible. For supervisors, he strongly recommends that -- similarly -- they focus on their direct reports' strengths, constantly helping to develop them further rather than becoming preoccupied with weaknesses, and get those strengths in proper alignment with tasks that are most appropriate to the given strengths.
"How to do that effectively?" Read his book.
 Follow-up book, much overlap with earlier books September 30, 2007
35 out of 36 found this review helpful
Marcus Buckingham discusses six steps to identifying and putting your strengths to work:
1. Convince yourself that exercising your strengths is more fun and productive that spending your time shoring up your weaknesses.
2. Identify specific activities that exercise your strengths. For example, mine include
a. Determine true value
b. Learn and apply new and useful skills, knowledge
c. Creative problem solving
3. Build your job towards your strengths.
4. Stop / reduce time spent shoring up your weaknesses
5. Build a strong team by enabling each member to exercise their strengths towards delivering business value
6. Make a habit of ensuring that each person's activities around you are aligned with their strengths (including yourself :-)
The book could have been much shorter - the concept was repeated multiple times. More specifics on step 3 would also have been more useful.
The best of the lot so far July 8, 2007
22 out of 23 found this review helpful
Marcus Buckingham has written several books that deal with the same issues in essentially the same way. What's he's got to say is good and it's based on research. The books are all well written. But there's not a lot that's new in any one of them.
If you haven't read any of Buckingham's strengths books, read this one. The idea of identifying your strengths and building on them is a good one. You are likely to have a more successful and satisfying life if you follow it. And this book is the best one so far to help you do that.
If you have read any of Buckingham's books on strengths, there are two things that make this book the best of the pack even if most of the book will seem familiar. They may make it worth buying for you.
First, this book has examples of using strengths to put teams together. This is the big content addition and it's a good one. If you want to learn how to use people's strengths when they're part of a team you're responsible for, this is the book for you.
And, Buckingham finally did something in this book that I've wanted him to do. Previously I had trouble applying the idea of building on strength, because I found that I had things that I do well but didn't like to do. They seemed to meet the common definition of "strengths" and people told me I was good at them. But just the prospect of spending time doing them made me tired.
In this book, Buckingham tells us how to identify a strength to build on. You identify things that 1) you're good at and 2) give you energy when you do them. Other people can help you identify what you're good at. You are the judge of whether an activity gives you energy or not.
Bottom line: if you want to read a book about how to identify your strengths and the strengths of your team or if you haven't read any of Buckingham's books on the subject before, pick up a copy of this book. On the other hand, if you're read his earlier books and you don't need the specific content points I've mentioned, give it a pass.
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