Now, Discover Your Strengths

Rating:
Summary: parent and career development coach
Review: I love this book because it simplifys the mysteries of what a strength is and how important it is to honor and value who we are. Self-awareness is the foundation to a happy, successful life with self-esteem intact. Everyone will benefit from reading this book and participating in the strengths-finder assessment. This is what I am recommending to everyone regardless of what they think they know about themselves. I am buying it as gifts for everyone.

Rating:
Summary: Get a handle on your self
Review: I thought the enneagram would be the last time I tried to quantify personality. These guys have done, to my mind, a better job because they aren't trying to explain so much. The test makes a lot of sense to me, and the insights are helpful. I also appreciate that their approach is understated. These guys aren't telling you that with their system your life will finally fall into place. They are just offering customized insights into your particular personality and offering basic strategic advice on how to maximize your potential.

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Summary: Discover your strengths
Review: The authors focus on strengths. What are they? Where do they come from?
How does one recognize them? They distinguish between what can be learned
such as behaviors and skills and the raw materials that each person brings
with them, their passions interests and talents. These raw materials are
the foundation upon which our strengths are built. And working from our
strengths is how greatness is achieved. The authors remind us that the
difference between good and great is measured in relatively small but
significant levels of achievement.

The concept of understanding your innate talents and using them to create
consistent superior results in your life runs directly counter to the
notion that we must focus on our weaknesses and work to shore them up. As
a result very few of us have a clear grasp of what our strengths and
talents are and a disproportionately harsh view of our perceived faults.
The ability to take an honest look at ourselves without being judgmental

and critical is key to any real growth. Therefore I also recommend a book
called "Working on Yourself Doesn't Work" by Ariel and Shya Kane. The
authors are excellent guides into the realm of self-awareness.

Rating:
Summary: Test + Book = A+
Review: "Now, Disover Your Strengths", the follow up to "First Break All The Rules," is great for two reasons:

1) You get to take the StrengthsFinder test online and discover what your top five patterns of strength are in your life.

2) The book will help you go deeper with your strengths and find out how the best of the best use their strengths to get better.

Too many reviews on here focus on the fact that you can only take the test once, or the book does not go deep enough. Stop trying to find out what you are not, and start finding out what you are! Most people who want to take the test over and over again do so to validate what they think they are, and not how they were created. This test is meant to be taken once, in order to measure your instinctive responses to the questions, not your thought out answers. Unlike other psychometric tests, the StrengthsFinder tells you how you respond, your initial reactions, how you are.

I work with this tool on a daily basis and have seen over 500 results of this test and done many one on one interviews to follow up and help people go deeper in their strengths. 9 out of 10 people are amazed with the results and how accurate this test is. Most of the 10% who have questions can figure it out and be happy with some counseling and deeper discovery of their strengths.

The [money] is worth the price to take the test, and the book does an adequate job of going deeper with your strengths. The whole theory of focusing on what you are good at works, I have seen it and fully endorse this book and what it brings to the field of Leadership Development and Management.

Rating:
Summary: Don't buy reprint from India!
Review: This is a great book that I have used with clients, BUT reprints sold as NEW from India do not include the login code ... which is essential for taking the self test and using the book. I purchased three books for my students thru [x]; none included the code. ...

Rating:
Summary: 500 stars - Thank you M.B., D.O.C. and Gallup
Review: I listened to the audio CD's. Thank you Marcus Buckingham, Donald O. Clifton and the Gallup Organization for this collaborative gem! It presents strong material in an understandable format by a strong narrator. I would N-E-V-E-R use the term "mediocre" as one recent reviewer. The ideas presented here can help you make a real breakthrough to higher achievement and fulfillment in all your endeavors. The authors have taken a very complex topic and have refined it down to a predictable level to offer a very practical and useable approach for the layperson. Five Stars? I'd say more like 500 stars. If you are searching for a way to take stock of yourself and put it all together for a compelling and worthwhile future, then buy this item now. Don't put it off. ONE REGRET! I only regret that I have passed over this CD set on shelf of my local bookstore for two years before finally buying.

Rating:
Summary: quite useful yet not complete on the subject
Review: The strength of the book is that it puts you on the track of knowing yourself. It helps you understand the basic inclinations, the unique perspective that makes you who you are. These are general indications of how your mind functions and how these talents or instincts can be converted to strengths to create synergy in your life.

But these "significant themes", as the authors refer to them are not the complete answer. Firstly, I believe, going by the nuances of feelings and tendencies that humans possess, it is partially appropriate, if not incorrect, to categorize their strengths in such a fashion. To really understand one's strengths in fine detail and to use them, one must go through some finer observation over a period of time. Also, though there are discussions in the book about successful people being where they are due to their strengths, there ought to be some discussion about the process of honing individual talents too.

Rating:
Summary: Groundbreaking and Very Useful!
Review: Now, Discover Your Strengths goes beyond just strength finding. After reading the book and completing my own Profile, I found the profile to be so accurate it was almost frightening. The concepts in the book teach you how to focus on the positive and improve yourself. As I begin graduate work, this book gave me insight as to the specific direction I should go. This concept is also currently being put to test in two colleges in the U.S. The "Strengthsquest" text takes the next step in aiding incoming college students to discover their strengths, develop them as part of their 4 year college career and use them in selecting a field of study. All of this is a result of Now, Discover Your Strengths. My son attends one of those colleges, and we now know why he does the thing he does. We know his top five strengths and he knows mine and my wife's. Strengthsfinder goes beyond business and can be used in every endeavor we undertake; our marriage, home, church and other relationships. For those who have read the book and feel slighted, review your strengths and you will know why you felt slighted. Also, sign up for Gallup's e-mail service at the Strengthsfinder web-sight and you will get plenty of information to continue to use and develop your strengths. I also recommend reading Now, Soar with Your Strengths.

Rating:
Summary: Now, Pay Up for Your Strengths
Review: Beware! The Gallup Organization considers this book an *introduction* to Strengths Based Living. It is a small part of a larger program that their consulting group administers for large organizations. It appears that this book was developed as a primer to get managers interested in using the Gallup consulting program within their own organizations. If you ask for more in-depth information or a full report on your assessment results on an individual level (which they provide for corporate clients) you will be told it is not available.

The book itself reads like an introduction to StrengthsFinder. It offers interesting and insightful background information about managing strengths, but comes up short on follow through. After you take the assessment test there is very little information on how to truly capitalize on the results. Further, you may only take the assessment test once and then you are locked out. So if you want to share the book with your family or friends be ready to shell out another $27 so they can take the test too.

Bottom line, this book is a thinly veiled money-making sham designed to maximize profit and open the door to corporate consulting contracts. Spend your money on something else.

Rating:
Summary: Great OD advice for business leaders
Review: As an Organizational Development professional and a business leader, my first thoughts after finishing the book are that the majority of the information and guidance in this book is great food for thought for corporate executives. In the current economy where "business as usual" is anything but, senior executives continually turn to old-school methodologies of sustaining their business viability. While the focus on individuals areas for improvement are a standard approach to ensuring corporate success, it bears little evidence that there is a direct correlation that focusing energies on individuals' weaknesses results in positive improvement in corporate morale and performance. And that is what this book is all about - no-nonsense, backed by extensive research from a notable research corporation, stick-to-your-ribs data and evaluation. Does it provide singular actions that individuals can take to leverage their strengths to overshadow their areas of weakness? The process of doing so would require individualized performance plans related to the multitude of variations in the theme combinations. Readers should not expect this book to provide step-by-step actions to take in order to give the illusion of different themes. Take heed - this book does provide the baseline guidance of which every reader can not only identify aspects of their own organization, but also identify areas of strength on which to explore further on a self journey. While corporate America continues to struggle with improving performance by focusing on the weaknesses of its employees, the light is at the end of the tunnel, awaiting to be read. I applaud Marcus Buckingham, Dr. Clifton, and the Gallup Organization in having the courage and guts to "tell it like it is" and send out a wake-up call to business leaders everywhere. Kudos!