I like the condition of the book delivered to me, it was no hype just real good quality. Thanks for displaying integrity without grity,lol.

Marcus Buckingham is brilliant! His research-profound! As a professional workplace trainer, I use this book and insist that my clients purchase copies for their management teams before I conduct their trainings. Yesterday's "Human Resources" is today's "Talent Management" and employment engagement! Another must-have is the previous book "Now, Discover Your Strengths" by Marcus Buckingham.

Nutshell review - This book is a "6 step guide" on how to apply your strengths in work and life. But actually it's a just spin-off to milk the concept written in "Now, Discover Your Strengths" by the same author. Bottom line message = build and work on your strengths, not your weaknesses.

I felt so ripped off--I got the impression from Buckingham's careful but indirect wording to the reader that you would be able to take the lauded Strengthsfinder test after buying his book and getting the secret code---NOT SO. He very manipulatively avoids telling you that you will now need to buy yet ANOTHER book by ANOTHER author to get that guy's secret code for you to finally get the Strengthsfinder. Buckingham gives you access to some lame thing called the Strengths engagement track. And it gets worse, folks, after you buy the OTHER book to take Strengthsfinder test, you find out that if your spouse wants to take the test? Well, screw him, he has to go buy ANOTHER copy of the same book to get another secret code. These guys sure know how to milk you for all they can get. There are plenty of complaints from readers on the website about this crap--ok, charge a nominal fee for the spouse test--but go buy another copy of the same book for the same household??! I am even mad at Oprah for her endorsement of Buckingham without researching this grab for money more thoroughly and then all of them FULLY and OPENLY and FRANKLY let people know what the now hidden costs are so we know before we invest in the first book and get suckered into buying more and more and more. . . There is some good stuff in the book but I am so disgusted by the unethical set up to reap excessive profits that I am done with it. I'll go somewhere else.

I was disappointed in this book. I have read a couple other of Marcus Buckingham's books and have also heard him speak. He is great. However, this book was boring, long and repetitive. And, because I "heard" the book vs. reading it, and it has a series of exercises to be completed as you read it (which one cannot do while driving), it made it even worse. Do not recommend the book and definitely recommend less the CD.

A continuation of the 'strengths finder' series, 'Go Put Your Strengths to Work' is a good addition to the bookshelf, albeit the lessons could have been presented more concisely.

The core message is that the process of building on your strengths is independent of your weaknesses - the book's surrounding six lessons explore the details of putting this theoretically simple practice to work. We often obsess over our weaknesses, constantly trying to improve and cover them up. Instead, change your mindset, focus on your strengths, build your environment around them, and you will excel at a much faster pace. The author walks you through the process of helping to identify your strengths, build on them, and offers suggestions for changing the external environment to assist you in this endeavor.

I was disappointed to discover that the Kindle version doesn't come with the code to take the oft-referred to strengths evaluation. I'll probably get a print copy, because the book has come highly recommended to me. I've abandoned it for now until I get another (print) copy.

I was first introduced to Marcus and this book during a development class where I work. At the very least the book should help you re-focus your efforts for a more successful and enjoyable life.

Highly recommended!

Go Put Your Strengths to Work: 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding PerformanceThis is a very thought provoking book. It is a very different way of looking at identifying job satisfaction. I can see where if the whole organization were to buy in it would be very beneficial to the organization. It points out that just because you are good at doing something it does not mean that you like doing it. My boss is trying to put this in place in our organization and I am excited about seeing it work.

I'm not a business person per-se. But I do read a lot of fiction and non-fiction books. Recently I've been toying with the idea of starting my own company, and a friend recommended to me this book and I'm glad they did, if I end up starting my business I will definitely use the steps from this book

While there are many reviews of this latest book from Marcus Cunningham, I am contributing my perspective as a Psychologist and Business Coach.

I have found this book to be the most practical and functional of the set of books that Marcus Cunningham has written. His other book in this series on strengths, "Now, Discover Your Strengths", serves as the theoretical foundation of the understanding of personal strenths.

The focus of this book is on putting those strengths to work. The framework Buckingham uses is a 6 step program.
This program includes:
1) Believing in the importance of developing your strengths
2) Clarifying and identifying your strengths
3) Finding the right settings to develop and apply your strengths
4) Identifying and limiting your weaknesses
5) Learning how to promote your strenths within a business team setting
6) Buidling strong habits to overcome challenges to focusing on your strengths

I read this book with the intention of finding the functional application of strength buiding. I found his chapters on Clarifying your strengths and Finding the right settings to implement them, very helpful in that regard. He uses personal examples, as well as case studies.

He suggested exercises to follow in order to clarify and then implement your strengths. I made successful use of those with a number of my clients who were very motivated by the results.

Buckingham makes a clear effort to give practical applications and tools to use in every chapter. He references his website www.simplystrenths.com for the available tools as well as offering the colorful resource guide at the end of the book.

If you are a business or life coach and looking for exercises and applications of strengths with your clients, this Buckingham book with be a big help.

First, let me say that I love Buckingham's work and believe in his Strength Movement wholeheartedly. As a former school teacher, his initiative with public schools is phenomenal.
For me, the most useful inference in "Go put your..." is that everyday one should make sure that they are moving in the direction of their strengths (even if it is just one small step) and away from their weaknesses. There is a quote that I like- I believe it relates to playing towards your strengths...
"If you will spend an extra hour each day of study in your chosen field, you will be a national expert in that field in five years or less." Earl Nightingale, 212 the extra degree

This third in Buckingham's series of books amplifies his previous writing by forcing the reader through practical steps that take the basic premise of "follow your strengths, ignore your weaknesses" to another level. The focus of this book is on applying your strengths for maximum effectiveness. None of us are using anywhere close to our full potential. And so the author takes us through a six-week experience that helps to reveal previously undiscovered aspects of your unique strengths. The book includes exercises and examples of people who have put their strengths into play and refined them. In addition, the book ties to a website that displays a film series illustrating the principles described. By reading and applying this volume, the reader can be on the forefront of the "strengths" revolution.

This book along with the other "Strengths" books by Marcus Buckingham have changed my life. After reading this book, I figured out why I wasn't ecstatic about my job. Armed with what I learned from this book, I had the courage to make a stretch and wound up applying for a new job that played to my strengths and I got the job. This book will help you figure out what makes you happy at work and what sucks the life out of you. Then armed with the information you learn to apply in this book, you can go put your strengths to work.

On my flight back from Montréal yesterday I read a Marcus Buckingham book called "Go Put Your Strengths to Work - 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outsanding Performance". I love the general thesis :

1 - Our greatest value comes from using our greatest strengths

2 - Work on strengths to become truly excellent.

Because it is a book about work, it speak to tailoring ones job around ones strengths. It offered some good examples of how to do this.

One interesting comment is that the study of strengths is disconnected from the study of weaknesses. If you study how someone fails, you do not learn how they could have succeeded (and I notice many people tend to look at the world that way - "they failed because they did not do X"). Only by studying success can you learn about success.

It cited polls that say most people are more interested in their weaknesses than strengths. Interesting...

It addresses who is best suited to judge strengths and argued that we each are best to pick our own. I am not as sure on this point. I think sometimes we have difficulty seeing the real us and choose a persona. It did make a valid point though that strengths should be those activities that give (not take) power and energy. And it would be true that only we could know that.

One thing I did not like, is it is tied closely to using a web page to do tests, watch a video etc. Partly this just seems like a money grab because you need a unique password (and as a heavy library user - not sure how that would work) and partly because for me reading a book is different that using a computer so this kills the book experience (not that there is anything wrong with computers). And of course I was on a plane so could not even try to connect if I wanted to.

I came into this book series backwards. Started with this, the latest, and presently reading "Now, Discover Your Strengths". Probably not the best way for most people, but intrigued me enough to want to read them all. Without knowing anything else about the author's theories, I think that "Go Put Your Strengths to Work" explained the positive/strengths vs negative/weaknesses approach well. I see a connection between my Gallup strengths and my Meyers-Briggs personality strengths. I'm not a manager, supervisor or leader type, so I'm using the information only on a personal level. Reading and understanding strengths has helped me stop wasting energy trying to be a "better person". Intuitively I knew that focusing on my weaknesses is futile. But it's always nice to have research to back us up and feel that we're not alone in our thinking.

I read this over a brief vacation during the summer. Ive found it has enhanced my abilities dealing with people both at work and my personal life. I plan on reading it again when my busy work schedule permits it.

Marcus Buckingham is passionate about helping you identify your unique strengths and unleash their power. As you read and work your way through the program in this book, you will become convinced that growing through your strengths is the ticket to your future happiness, effectiveness and success. He refutes the approach of improvement by fixing mistakes as a dead end that cannot help you discover how you can be exceptional. The book constantly refers you to its associated Web site for materials that will help you work through the exercises. Buckingham wants you to act rather than just read a theoretical tract. Nothing presented in this book will help you without action and implementation. However, if you take up the challenge, you will become empowered as you take charge of your work through your strengths. We recommend this book because it contains just a few simple ideas that could change your life.

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.

If you really look at what is holding you back, from really using your best qualities and talents, you will almost surely find that most of it are the images and thoughts you hold between your ears. You are so sure about what could go wrong, or about what you HAVE to do, or about what is just not possible, that you just don't even try to step out.

Well, to say it simply, stop it! This book provides you with a six step process to help you build on your strengths rather than chasing and fixing mistakes. It is based on the ideas you will find in the business philosophies of Appreciative Inquiry and Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS). The core idea in these movements is that you can't build on your strengths if all you see are your weaknesses. If you want to be a master of something, you have to study those who do it well, not focus on the mistakes of those who aren't very skilled. The term they often use is "positive deviance". That is, that area of performance that deviates ABOVE the norm. The goal is to learn how to create more positive deviance.

In the first step, Buckingham focuses you on giving up belief in three myths: 1) As you grow your personality changes. 2) You will grow in your areas of greatest weakness. 3) A good team member does whatever it takes to help the team. He says that the truths are: 1) As you grow you become more of who you already are. 2) You will grow in your areas of greatest strength. 3) A good team member deliberately volunteers his strengths to the team most of the time.

As he discusses each of these he asks you to examine what you are getting out of believing in these myths. What would it cost you to stop believing in it? Then think carefully about the benefits you would gain by believing the truth. If you sincerely do this, you will likely be shocked and then energized.

The purpose of this book is to help you take charge of your life and especially your work life. You will make it more rewarding, says the author, by centering your work on your strengths rather than just doing whatever comes to you as an assignment. It is a six step process. The first, as I noted above, is to bust the myths. Step 2 is to get clear about your strengths. Three is to free your strengths. Four helps you see and stop your weaknesses (not focus on fixing them). Five coaches you on how to speak up and get your boss supporting your strengths. Six is about keeping the process alive by building strong habits.

Now, Marcus Buckingham is a big-time, high-priced consultant. The book sends you to his website to use some free materials there (but also offers you others to purchase). Underneath this is the desire to sell your company consulting and seminar services with associated materials. It is interesting stuff, but the sheer "salesiness" of it detracts from it a bit for me.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson

I manage a team of Sales Professionals and found this book to be a great tool to help them stay focused on the positive aspects of their job. I really like the message and appreciate the fact that it does not immediately say that if you are not happy right now, you need a new job. It points them back to their current position and helps them be more productive and utilize their strengths where they are at.

I admire books that deliver as advertised! This is a `how-to' book for gaining clarity on a critical component - something Buckingham calls strengths - for individual performance success. As he did in previous books, Buckingham defines Strengths as being our blend of Talent, Skills, & Knowledge; then he goes farther with this book, noting that strengths are not just personality or talent profiles, even if done using the Clifton StrengthFinder profiling tool. What seems to be emerging in step-2 of this 6-step process for finding and using our strengths is the tapping of passion - what work actually gives you energy. If so, Buckingham may now be speaking more about understanding identity, than what gets heard as a traditional strengths and weaknesses assessment. Whatever the case, this, easy to read, understand, and do, book contains practical tools for learning about ourselves and using this understanding to improve personal performance.

Although a book devoted primarily to `how-to' steps, during Step-1, Bust the Myths, Buckingham does a summary of personality development that I particularly liked. He also included a nice bit about how strengths are used to build high performing teams - it is not necessary to lose your identity in order to become a team player! This book is recommended for any individual who is interested in living a happier and more productive life by appreciating who they are and the gifts they have to offer the world. Dennis DeWilde, author of The Performance Connection

I think this book was espescially useful in terms of laying out very concrete ways/steps that one can take to move forward in performance.
It also reminded me of another author, Bob Prosen whose book "Kiss Theory Good Bye" inspires folks to do more. I think both books should be definitely on the shelves of managers and leaders worldwide.

Most self-help and motivational books including classics like Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich advise that in order to grow personally and professionally one must find one's weaknesses, (believed to be always some kind of mental propensity) and delete them. This book tilts that argument for a simpler concept which emphasizes the strengths that someone already has.

The concept has six related steps. The first step is to find out the myths and self-inhibitions that constrain growth and to commit to breaking them. As second and third steps, you identify the strengths you have (Step 2) and put them to work for you (Step 3). In real life, however, strength is a relative and net concept, i.e., to sustain net strength is to maximize gross strength, as well as minimize weakness (Step 4).

Since success is both cumulative and collaborative, Step 5 relates to how to build teams that strengthen you, while Step 6 asks you to become habitual about all six steps. The book expends a good deal of effort explaining how the six steps work and how one can implement them successfully. Each chapter provides a space for self-testing as well as a "Resource Guide" at the end of the book.

A good book - 4.3 stars!

Amavilah, Author
Modeling Determinants of Income in Embedded Economies
ISBN: 1600210465

Another new bestseller which I highly recommend - The Exclusive Layguide: When Dating and Having Sex with Incredibly Hot Women is No Longer Mirage Even If You Don't Look Like a Model or Don't Make a Fortune

From this book and the DVD, i got a very useful Definition of Strength and thanks God, i can easily connect the Cliffton's Talents and Marcus Strength and create a Strength Cluster as a Potential Function which consist of sets of Cliffton's Talents.
Thanks to Marcus for the Book and DVD.

Marcus Buckingham's book on "Discovering" your strengths written 6 years earlier provided the language and backdrop for the "strengths revolution" in business. This follow-up book shows you how to put those strengths into action. The 6 sections of the book are meant to be read in weekly segments with specific actions to be taken each week.

This is a very practical guide to taking action, which is key to any change.

I have bought the cd as well as the book and have found them both to be the most useful of all of his books. Very clear! Marcus Buckingham is obviously the leader in the strengths movement.

This is an excellent work on how to identify and apply your strengths.
The author asks that we do the following:
- bust myths
- be clear
- free your strengths
- overcome weaknesses and proclivities toward the same
- speak up
- build strong habits

Eudaimonia asks that you give the best where you have the best to
give. A good team member volunteers strengths to the team often.

Now Discover Your Strengths is the prequel to this title. It isn't necessary to have read this book to obtain insights from this text but I believe having read it enhances what I've learned in this book. I enjoy Buckingham's practical tips and techniquesin this edition of learning about myself and the art of managing others by using my strengths. By focusing on each person's strengths, greater productivity is an end result.

From reading Now Discover Your Strengths, you are provided with a website that allows one to take an assesment of your strengths. Once you know your strengths, you have an understanding of what areas to build up and focus on in your professional and personal life. Buckingham provides another website to help the reader discover how well they are using their strenghts in their work life presently. You have the opportunity to take this assessment three times: once at the onset of reading the book, once as you work through the 6 recommended statges of improvement and a third time either at the end of the book or later as you continue implementing the 6 strategies discovered in the book.

The reader is advised to take 6 weeks to read and work through the 6 steps toward using your strengths everyday at work. Each week you work on one step through specific tasks for each of the 6 steps. As you work through each task you find out what is getting in your way of using your strengths. Then you learn how to clarify your strengths and bring them to the surface for use everyday. Then you are directed to create 3 strength statements that will help you keep your strengths in mind as you work each day.

The next step addresses your weaknesses. You accept this part of yourself and learn techniques to cut out your weaknesses in your daily work. Steps 5 and 6 help you learn to speak up and share your success and your strengths while you continue building strong habits.

I enjoyed this book immensely. No only do you learn about yourself but you become more aware of other people's strengths. Throughout the book, you meet others who have worked through the 6 steps over the six week period of learning and growing. Each step requires a complete week to finish each set of tasks for the step. I would recommend the book to my team mates at work. I think this would be an excellent book for employees and leaders to work through together to create a strong unified work group but an individual can gain equally.

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.

I must be honest and state that I did not use all of the tools that come in the back of this book on how to discover my strengths and weaknesses. Like many people, I generally knew what my strengths are and know what I enjoy doing. This book was useful, however, in helping me focus on what my specific strengths are and in what situation I might be able to employ them more efficiently. Be aware that this book focuses exclusively on putting your strengths to better use in the workplace and leaves out personal, family, or any other useful context, although the skills and techniques are arguably interchangeable. Overall I thought that the advice in this book was solid, but found the chapter on how to approach your boss/supervisor/manager in performance reviews a little bit unrealistic. Blended throughout the book's chapters are the stories of a few ambitious employees who used the techniques Buckingham describes, and although I felt that he over relied on them to make his point, the book is still a valuable book in the self-help, business genre.

good service

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 émigrés 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.

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 émigrés 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 and BuckinghamLive.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.

I feel like I wasted my time with this book. It was too vague and not helpful. The previous book was excellent this one was just an attempt to make more money.

I am beginning to realise that if you ve read one self help book then you ve red them all. This book has nothing that has not been said before.

The writing style, for me atleast, was a little boring and couldnt keep my attention for long.

What is the one magic factor about profitability that has not been written about? the cheapest way to maximise people is to engage them through their strengths. But Buckingham's book is about people, about me and you knowing about strengths, having knowledge about how beneficial it is to the individual and his/her company, yet not going to the next step to utilise these strengths. The author points out that only 17% of people in a massive survey acknowledge using their strengths occasionally.
This book is inviting you to take personal responsibility for your knowing about your strenghts and go the next step: DO your strengths. Increase the frequency of how you apply your strengths by following a very systematic aproach from knowng to doing. The exercises are engaging and easy to do as they are about our everyday experiences. The exercises tap into inquisitivesness about oneself and the the excitement of the next step to guide you through a journey which last for an exciting number of weeks, and then for the rest of your life.
This book is not just about work, it is about how we live our lifes. The investment in time to do these exercises will be one of the best returns on investment you will get.
You are not alone on this journey. "behind" the book, on the website of [...] you will find much material and an incredibly helpful staff to forward your journey and further enhance he value of this book.

I first learned of Marcus Buckingham through his book "The One Thing You Need to Know about Great Managing, Great Leading and Sustained Individual Success". I LOVED that book, loved Marcus' writing, felt like I knew him and wanted to know him. This book - and I have read MANY "self-help" books truly made a difference. So when I saw "Go Put Your Strengths to Work" I got it immediately. I have not been disappointed. Marcus is practical, "spot on", and clearly dedicated to helping the determined individual transform their lives for the better. It is not a casual read - it is a workbook. If you don't do the exercises chances are you'll gain little benefit from it. I was really sold when I didn't want to mark up my brand new book only to discover that Marcus put all the worksheets and exercises on a website so you can just download the templates. I think this book would be much more powerful coupled with a workshop over two weekends bracketing a work week, but if you are diligent about the exercises you will benefit. Dont be fooled by the simplistic and jolly-good natured Englishman's chatty style. Marcus knows his business. Go for it!

This much needed follow on book to "Now, Discover Your Strengths", and "The One Thing You Need to Know" defines the specific disciplines to incorporate strengths-based working, managing, and development into your daily life. It already is helping me focus on strengths in my daily work, and stop weaknesses.

I have all of Buckingham's books, and I have been sending copies of this new book to many of my friends in the restaurant industry and training/hr fields. I spend a huge amount of my time and energy researching and reading (literally dozens of books each year, and it is rare that anything really blows me away. However, Marcus Buckingham never fails to intrigue me. In addition, I work with a bunch of people who are often skeptical of the fads and "flavors of the day" in business books, but all of them have been extremely positive and excited about reading this book. Buy it for yourself and buy it for your company. Join the Strengths Revolution!

Great book. It helps if you read Now, Discover Your Strengths first.

A great book to follow his Now Discover Your Strengths. Not a lot of substance to it, per se, but that's OK because the message is really about taking action. First taking the action toward self-awareness then finding ways to optimize performance (and enjoyment)through this self-awareness. Very useful tools to assist the reader in this endeavor. Taking action on this kind of stuff is tough and Marcus has made it as easy as it can be: but be warned - even after reading this book it will still be more difficult than you wish!

I had the good fortune of identifying my strengths over twenty years ago. "Go" maps a path forward for others to better contribute to making a better world by focusing on strengths. It will be life changing.

I am now in my forty-fifth year in my profession and am still enjoying the ride. One of life's greatest blessings is working with others who know and apply talent-based thinking and practices. Work is so much fun!

The approach and organization of this book is intriguing since the reader is actively engaged early in the content. Having read many of the referenced publications as well as others that have management relative content with emphasis on unique success, I felt this book was complementary and extremely useful for anyone who is seriously interested in expansion and opportunistic adventure - whether in the workplace or private life.
I really liked the way there was not only the book but online supplemental discussion and exercises clarifying the intent, develop awareness of unidentified potential and focus my thinking.
I recommend this to anyone seriously seeking positive change and a challenge that is really priceless - it's your life.

If you already have reorganized your life based on reading First, Break All the Rules and Now, Discover Your Strengths, you don't need this book for yourself. But if you haven't helped your colleagues make the same adjustments, you'll find this book helpful. If you've made the needed shifts in both areas, you can skip Go Put Your Strengths to Work.

Based on Marcus Buckingham's latest survey, it seems like just as few people feel they should focus on improving their strengths as before he started to write about this subject. Writing books obviously only goes so far. This book attempts to help you change your habits.

Before going too far, let me remind (or share with you) that the Buckingham definition of a strength is something that makes you feel great while you do it. Because you have this positive reaction, you'll do this activity more often, get better at it, and stay energized by your work. For me, a strength is writing about how to create 2,000 percent solutions and helping the world make progress at 20 times the usual rate.

Contrast this with something you do very well, but hate doing! For me, that's doing tax returns. I'm great at it, but I feel drained by the experience.

Most people don't work on their strengths because they believe certain myths (I would call them misconception stalls):

1. Your personality changes with age.
2. You will grow most in your areas of greatest weakness.
3. A good team member does whatever it takes to help the team.

Mr. Buckingham argues persuasively that the opposite is true in each case.

With your purchase of the book, you get access to a Web site where you can put in a code from your dust jacket to take a test called a Strengths Engagement Track (SET) that you can use to see where you are in employing your strengths and then to see how much you progress as you go through the book's process.

I cannot report on how well this process works because in my initial assessment my score was almost 100% to begin with. I'm able to read and apply what I learn and have obviously already absorbed and used the material from the earlier books.

The rest of the work-improvement process involves watching some videos and finishing a six step process which I have paraphrased below:

1. Learn the truth about those misconception stalls.
2. Identify your top three strengths.
3. Change your work to spend more time applying your strengths.
4. Reduce how much time you spend on activities that drain your energy and enthusiasm.
5. Be proactive in working with your boss and team members to refocus your work.
6. Turn the new directions into habits.

There are the usual forms, formats, reminders, and lists to help you reinforce the new, the sort of thing you get at a human resources training program. If you like those things, this book is quite detailed in that regard. Between downloading from the Web site and using materials bound into the book, you'll have everything you probably need.

To me the best part of the book came in the examples. One example goes through all the chapters and involves Heidi who is a marketing brand director for Hampton hotels. What she likes to do is to work with motivated people to improve excellence. What she does now is nag unmotivated people to do things they don't want to do. She's burning out. The story is very good for explaining how the 6 steps work. In the fifth step, there are examples built around Christine, who works for Martin, as director of program development for a training company that serves Fortune 500 companies. Martin can't follow what's going on without his people using an obscure form that Christine doesn't understand and hates.

If the book had contained about five times as many examples, it would have been a lot easier. As it is, I think most people should plan from the beginning to pursue this with a buddy. Step five includes lots of helpful solutions for what your buddy can do to help you.

Start enjoying your work a lot more!

While some books are just intended for gaining theoretical knowledge, this book by Marcus Buckingham provides an interactive experience, complete with an online assessment, tear-out memo cards, and forms to print out and use to track your strengths, weaknesses, and Strong Week Plans. There is also a section devoted to helping managers build teams based on strengths, and a section on the web site addresses teams as well.

I chose to read this book because I wanted to stop letting my weaknesses control my time and energy, and by taking me step by step through the process of discovering my strengths, defining my weaknesses, coming up with ways to use my strengths to stop or make up for my weaknesses, and teaching me a way to incorporate this new learning into a weekly routine...Marcus Buckingham has succeeded in taking something that at first seemed conceptual and bringing it into the practical realm of my day-to-day experience.

My one criticism, leading to the 4 rather than 5-star recommendation, is that the case study followed throughout the book is focused only on one woman's experience. While I like the depth it goes into as she is taken through all of the steps of the book, and I recognize the point was to generalize her experience to other people's situations...I think it would have been helpful to perhaps follow 3 different people throughout, who had different kinds of jobs, levels of authority within their organizations, personality and learning styles etc. to be able to better apply this material.

This book is similar to going to a poor movie sequel. There is nothing new and it bores you with percentages. The title and cover are the best aspects of the book - once you open it and begin reading, it quickly goes downhill. Save your money - I wish I had.

I HATE "6 steps" to anything! This formulaic approach that publishers love almost always leaves me searching for a "there" there. THIS IS DIFFERENT! Yes, there are the perfunctory steps . . . but more deeply, there is a powerful, organic model here. While, as a psychologist, I quibble with his first "myth" about personal change . . . the ultimate message and extremely simple, but elegant framework for leveraging your energy best by investing in your strengths (both personally and for your team) are excellent. This work is accessible for all levels, in fact I am using it for an important part of a Career/Life Planning curriculum that I am developing for a competitive secondary school. As if the book, itself, wasn't enough, Marcus & Co. have produced an absolutely superb DVD set "Trombone Player Wanted" which I have shown to hardened executives and to high school juniors . . . evoking huge "ahas" with both audiences. This is a body of work worth owning; this is an orientation and tool kit that transform.

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