Now, Discover Your Strengths

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Summary: Now, Discover Your Strengths
Review: In order to get the maximum benefit out of this book, you have to read the first book, "First, Break All the Rules". As someone who has been in education, and then sales, training, management and marketing, I found both these books refreshing and right on the money. Corporations spend way too much of their training dollars focused on what people do wrong ("improvement opportunities") and not nearly enough expanding on people's strengths. One of the highlights of "Now, Discover Your Strengths" is an internet-based quiz you can take to discover your own strengths and talents. Mine was right on the money and helped me clearly identify my true talents. Once you know what they are you can strive to place yourself in workplace situations where these talents can shine. When individuals shine, so then do their organizations. Both these books are a must for any executive who wonders why their organization isn't as successful as they would like.

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Summary: Stingy with the tests - not professional.
Review: The authors want you to buy more books in order to take the test more than once yourself. This is very unprofessional and makes the book useless, don't waste your money.

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Summary: left hanging!
Review: A great start to understand your personality strengths but not enough information on what to do with this evaluation. You can purchase a subscription to a newsletter that discuses topics on this book, but again it is vague on disclosing what you get for your dollars. I guess I'll be left here hanging until a book comes out: "Now that you have discovered what you really already knew, here is how you can use it."

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Summary: Good overall point -- Lousy evaluation tool
Review: I love the overall point of the book: Individuals and companies would do better identifying and focusing on strengths rather than trying to fix weaknesses. There are neurological reasons why focusing on strengths is the more rewarding direction to take.

However, I found the evaluation tool offered by the authors to be weak (i.e. inaccurate). After completing the evaluation I read through all 34 "themes" and evaluated them for myself using the principles outlined in the book (e.g. you are energized when expressing the theme). Of the 5 themes uncovered for me by the evaluation, only 2 are accurate. The other 3 are far overshadowed by other themes in my life. So...like much else in life, to thine own self be true. Skip the evaluation and just read the book; either on your own, or with the help of family and friends you'll be able to figure out your own themes. Also, like some of the reviewers before me, I think the restrictions around the evaluation (only one per book, and no retakes) are suspect.

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Summary: GREAT INFORMATION AND ADVICE
Review: Having a lifetime of experience as a teacher and counsellor of business management and a background in psychology, I find this to be an excellent book, on the same level as the book, "First Break All the Rules". Believe me, Gallup has good reason from both a logical and psychological point of view why the quiz found here cannot be taken a second time. It is also a known fact that once individuals take a test for the first time, they often tailor their answers to fit the questions the second time around.

It is a major plus, particularly in business, to expand your knowledge by studying psychology. After all, business is all about dealing with people, i.e., customers, employees, suppliers, competitors. If you do not understand people from a psychological point of view, their patterns and behavioural characteristics, you are already at a disadvantage. You can bet "the big guys at the top" know all about their competition, their customers, their employees, and what makes them tick from a psychological viewpoint. They have already done their homework and that is one of the major reasons why they have made it to the top of the corporate ladder.

The only reason this book seems to be deserving of a four-star rating rather than a five, is simply because of the theory, "Concentrate on your talents, not you weaknesses." While it is correct to say one should concentrate on their talents, it is equally important to identify weaknesses. There is a timeless business philosophy that holds much truth - "Know what you don't know." Those tasks that you do not do well, should be delegated to someone who does excel in that area. If you are the only person in the business, and the jack-of-all-trades, then you better learn "what you do not know" very quickly or you will have an extremely short-lived business venture.

This book contains some strong, valid points which can be applied to both your business and personal life and, overall, is well worth reading.

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Summary: A free, second test is available if you ask for it.
Review: This book "locks up" any one else's opportunity to take the test as soon as the code provided is used once. Their web site provides a help number where you can obtain a free second code for a family member, which is an annoyingly un-advertised option which no one knows unless you call and forcefully complain. Bah. This is hardly professional. The test seems fairly right-on; although the results were no surprise, the authors' phrasings of strentghs and their characteristics are insightful, and useful within a process of self-understanding. The book would rate probably a bit more star if the authors were not so stingy as to how many tests were available per book.

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Summary: Good idea, but needs to refocus its approach
Review: "Now, Discover Your Strengths" provides valuable information not found in the first book ("First, Break all the Rules") on how to find your strengths, but does it in a curious way:

First, the Web-based quiz, keylocked to the code on the paper cover inside, raised more questions than it provided (IMHO). Why only allow buyers of the book to take the quiz? Why can they take it only once? Why must you only have 20 seconds per answer before it goes on to the next question. It is not difficult to double guess the answers even within 20s limit. I also found Gallup's answer to my query - "can I take the test again later" ("no" was their short answer...) - to be surprizing. This leads me to believe that the respondent answers do change over time - perhaps significantly, even though Gallup claims otherwise (the "ergodicity" question). Why else time-limit the answer to each question if the results aren't stable? I think that Gallup should "fess up" to this aspect a little more straightforwardly. The subject is fascinating enough to pull readers in - pretention of results is really not necessary. (Even if I'm wrong, letting people take the test again after an time interval should be an obvious way to squelch this kind of argument).

Second, much of the example materials (and most of chapter 2) really border on rubbish - the author seems to pretend to know famous personalities, and to ascribe why s/he is successful, etc. to certain ascribed strengths. In addition the author implies to take psychology and neurology as a second strength subject areas, but clearly doesn't have the background to do so. Most of the information given is as murky as a astrophysicist writing on sociology - at some point it becomes a stomach-churning affair to continue reading (e.g., brain development).

Chapters 4 & 6 (the 34 strength attributes explained, and how to manage individuals in each of the 34 strengths) seemed to have some utility, but there seemed to be a certain shallowness in the answers - something that I didn't expect to see from the depth of analysis done in the first book. Chapter 5 was clearly a "FAQ" chapter for test-takers. This chapter was uneven in its subject matter expertise, and resulting utility to the reader. Chapter 7 "Building a Strengths-based Organization" is again uneven - Gallup should stick to the facts and hard data, not preaching to their more gullable fraction.

In short, it shouldn't be surprizing that the Gallup organization was strong in areas where they do their business (polls and statistical inference, etc.) and extremely weak in those areas where they clearly don't operate (psychology, neurology and "self-help" advice, etc.). What was surprizing is that they allowed one of their own to write in these non-expertise areas. I would have thought that they would have hired someone who was expert in those areas to write those sections of the book.

Overall, the book provided good information - just be prepared to skim over certain chapters. This is somewhat disappointing noting the very good start in the first book. I do recommend Peter Drucker's "Management Challenges in the 21st Century" (the whole book) and especially Chapter 5 "Managing Oneself" for those that want to know how to manage your strengths.

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Summary: The most helpful management book I've read
Review: I found this book to be extremely helpful, both as a tool in understanding myself and in understanding my emplotyees. After taking the Strengthfinder test, I bought each of my 11 direct reports a copy of the book so that I could better understand their strengths and our strengths as a team.

The book was interesting and well written, far more practical than most management books and far more insightful than self-help books.

I strongly recommend this to anyone who wants to better understand themselves, their employees, their family or their friends!!

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Summary: The VERY FIRST BOOK is the best!
Review: In reading some of the reviews about this book people seem to go back to one reoccuring theme which embraces the initial concept of relying on your strengths for success. That premise is the cornerstone of the book, but it gets bogged down from there with semantics. You MUST go back to Donald Clifton's very first book..."Soar With Your Strengths", written about ten years ago. This is the book that gives the general parameters of their original concept and although broad in scope, is very effective in changing your outlook on life. As someone who makes a living out of speaking to people, I use this book as the premise of my presentations and you'd be amazed how overwhelmed people are when they hear the principals of that first book. Although this book has some good moments, it doesn't justify the work. Give people the premise and let them apply it to their own lives. In the end, the authors had it right the very first time.

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Summary: Good book, but doesn't fulfill potential.
Review: Since I didn't read their first book I thought the first half of the book was great. Their research on focusing on strengths v. improving weaknesses was really valuable. The test process and results leave much to be desired.

You get a list of 5 strengths and one page explaining each, but no guidance on what it might mean to know these things. For example, the book talks about how important it is to use your strengths to find the right role in your chosen field and then gives very little insight into mapping strengths to roles. Also, you don't get to see beyond your top 5 strengths which leaves you wondering about the others even though it says the next 2 or 3 might be important. The fact that you can't share with a family member or retake the test without buying another copy is really lame.

In general a good business / management book on why a strengths focus is important, but little in the way of understanding and applying your strengths. Guess they either took the word "discover" literally in that it means get a simple list of 5 strengths or there is another book on the way. Depending on whether you are looking for management theory or personal strengths insight it may or may not be a good buy.