TMI US: Owl Book Review Grove

OWL BOOK REVIEW AVIARY

Now, Discover Your Strengths
Marcus Buckingham, Donald O. Clifton, Ph.D.
Free Press, January 2001

ISBN: 0744320140

Now, Discover Your Strengths follows up on Buckingham's coauthored previous work, First, Break All the Rules. In both books, emphasis is placed on the concept that it is a good idea to enhance people's strengths, rather than to focus on their weaknesses. Discover Your Strengths is primarily directed to the individual suggesting that it is a good idea to develop a career that focuses on strengths. The main point of First, Break All the Rules is that individuals primarily stay with organizations based on their relationships with their managers.

In this sense, the two books are related. Managers need to focus on their staff member's strengths to retain them, and individuals need to focus on their own strengths as well in order to be happily successful. Both books are based on the extensive research conducted by the Gallup Organization.

One innovative aspect of this second work is that buyers of the book are entitled to take a personal psychological assessment on the Web. One book purchase, one test taker. It's an interesting test and certainly can't harm you. Questions have been raised, however, about the stability of this test and about its overall capacity to truly measure individual strengths.

While the web-based test is interesting, the book attempts to straddle two lines. When the authors focus on the extensive Gallup business statistics, the material shines. When the book attempts to become a self-help psychology text, it falls into an entirely different category from Buckingham's first book.

This doesn't mean that the book shouldn't be considered. In fact, you are sure to learn something about yourself by reading the book and taking the test.

Janelle Barlow, President
TMI US

Previous "Owl Book Review Grove" pages:

    #1 Reichheld, The Loyalty Effect

    #2 Bennis, An Invented Life

    #3 Morrison, The Second Curve

    #4 Foster, How to Get Ideas

    #5 Bear, Send This Jerk the Bedbug Letter

    #6 Hemphill, Taming the Paper Tiger

    #7 Rifkin, Time Wars

   #8 Pearce, Leading Out Loud

    #9 Kao, Jamming

#10 Tannen, The Argument Culture

#11 Nancy, More Letters From a Nut

#12 Anders, Health Against Wealth

#13 Yates, The Critical Path

#14 Langdon, The New Language of Work

#15 Needleman, Time and the Soul

#16 Goleman, Working with Emotional Intelligence

#17 Conger, Winning 'Em Over

#18 Shapiro & Jankowski, The Power of Nice

#19 Fradette & Michaud, The Power of Corporate Kinetics

#20 Upshaw, Building Brand Identity

#21 Reis and Trout, Positioning

#22 Spencer, Winning Through Participation

#23 Underhill, Why We Buy

#24 Pine & Gilmore, The Experience Economy

#25 Christensen, The Innovator's Dilemma

#26 Hirschfeld, Business Dad

#27 Harkins, Powerful Conversations

#28 Seybold, Customers.Com

#29 Ackerman, Identity is Destiny

#30 Childre & Cryer, From Chaos to Coherence

#31 Ryback, Putting Emotional Intelligence to Work

#32 Gladwell, The Tipping Point

#33 Schrage, Serious Play

#34 Prochaska, Changing for Good

#35 Axelrod, Terms of Engagement

#36 Arbinger Institute, Leadership and Self-Deception

#37 Thomas, Intrinsic Motivation at Work

#38 Buckingham & Coffman, First, Break All the Rules

#39 Silverman, People Smart

#40 Locke, Searls & Weinberger, The Cluetrain Manifesto

#41 Sterne, Customer Service on the Internet

#42 Boar, Art of Strategic Planning

#43 Keller, Strategic Brand Management

#44 Seybold, et al, The Customer Revolution

#45 Kouzes and Posner, Encouraging the Heart

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