Following the enormous success of million-copy hardcover best-sellers, 'First Break All the Rules' and 'Now, Discover Your Strengths', Marcus Buckingham's new book at last answers the ultimate question: How can I actually apply my strengths for maximum success at work?
Companies routinely claim that 'Our People Are Our Greatest Asset', but research data shows that in practice most people do not actually use their assets much at work. This book aims to change that. When employees learn how to truly apply their greatest strengths at work, they turbo-charge their career potential and everybody wins. Companies find that their employees are more productive, their teams are more effective, their organisation is more innovative and, accordingly, their customers are more engaged.
This book will kick-start the booming Strengths revolution echoing throughout all originations. 'Go Put Your Strengths to Work' shows you how to take the crucial next step. It shows you how to seize control of your time at work and, in the face of a world that doesn't much care whether you are playing to your strengths, how to rewrite your job description under the nose of your boss. You will learn:
- Why your strengths aren't "what you are good at", and why your weaknesses aren't "why you are bad at".
- Why you, and not your boss, your HR department, or your performance appraisal, are the true authority on your strengths and weaknesses.
- How to identify in detail your strengths using the four tell-tale signs of a strength. The simple steps you can take each week to skew your time at work toward those activities that strengthen you.
- How to cut out those that don't.
- How to talk to your boss and your colleagues about your strengths without sounding like you're bragging (and about your weaknesses without sounding like you're whining.) The fifteen minute weekly ritual that will keep you on your strengths path your entire career.
The book takes you through a six-step, or six-week, experience, and by the end of the book you will have learned these elusive skills. Each chapter will correspond to one step, or one week, of practical learning and discovery, including not only accounts of people who have successfully applied the lessons of the chapter but also structured activities and web-enabled tools that allow you to put these lessons into practice immediately. There are not a bunch of artificial exercises, separate from the reality of your work, but rather become part of your regular weekly activities. They are designed to arm you with a slightly different filter through which to see your week at work. Guided by this new perspective, you will learn how to create a different balance at work, one that redirects your time and effort toward those activities that strengthen you and away from those that don't.
Ultimately, this book will show companies, managers and you, the individual, how to put strengths to work so that everybody profits.
