Written by Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton, this book opened my eyes to a new idea. Most organizations focus on improving the weaknesses of their employees. Its seems logical to want have your employees become more well-rounded and helping them improve in areas they may struggle in. However, organizations have almost become fixated on these "areas of opportunity", instead of further develop their strengths.
Why would an organization want to develop an employee's strength instead of trying to working on their weakness? The answer is laid out very simple in this book: A weakness is never going to be a strength. A perfect example of this would be professional basketball player Shaquille O'Neal. In his prime, he was nearly unstoppable -- except for his inability to shoot free throws. No matter how much he practiced, O'Neal has never averaged much higher than a 50% free throw percentage.
Included with this book is a key code that gives you access to the strengthfinder website. You are able to take a timed test that asks you various questions and finds your top 5 strengths out of 34 possible. My personal results came back as being strong in focus, inclusiveness, learner, restorative, and significance. A few of them were a bit surprising to me when I compared it to the list of possible strengths. When I sat down and thought about it though, I realized that they were apparent in my work and personal life.
This book also provides a guide to how to manage your strengths and build a strength-based organization. Its a book I would recommend to anyone who is in a leadership role or desires self-improvement. 5/5.
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