If you have ever taken an employee survey you have most
likely been asked this question: “At work do I have the opportunity to do what
I do best every day?” Well, if you are
anything like me you had to pause and think about it for a bit. And if you are
like me you have sometimes said “No”.
I think most if not all of us are searching for that on job
that’s a perfect fit. Heck, I have
written numerous job descriptions trying to pinpoint what I believe the perfect
job for me would be. Ironically,
thinking back on it I realize most of them have a common thread, and now I know
why.
I was introduced to “Now, Discover Your Strengths” at a
recent leadership summit hosted by my employer.
One of our guest speakers, while discussing bringing balance to our life
and lowering stress, mentioned finding the right career fit would bring
stability to the rest of our life. He
mentioned this book as the first step in discovering what that means for us and
those we lead. I am a reader, or rather
listener, and am always looking for the next good book. So I checked it out at our county library on
the way home from the summit.
Most who know me know that I love learning, and books are
the way I feed that love. Few books
though, have influenced my perspective as much as this did. It seemed to be an answer to a number of
questions I have been dealing with at work and it just hit home. I have recently had some difficulties filling
positions at work with the “right” people.
Ironically just before the summit I was working on personality profiling
and interviewing techniques to help me find the candidate who would “Fit” the
position best. At least I was
trying. So call it God sent, or just
dumb luck, “Now, Discover Your Strengths” was the answer.
The book begins by
establishing the fact that everyone’s brains are wired differently. Each of us has unique talents and abilities which
shape our interests and largely determine who we are. While we all have our weaknesses authors
Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton Ph. D. emphasize that the weaknesses
are not what define us, it is our strengths and we should develop our strengths
and the strengths of those around us, while only managing our weaknesses.
The book draws largely from Gallup research and even
provides a survey you can take to identify your top 5 strengths. The survey costs $10, unless you purchase a
copy of the book in which case you have an access code to take it for free. The survey is approximately 150 questions and
takes about 30 minutes to complete. You
can find the survey at www.strengthsfinder.com.
It turns out my strengths are Strategic, Ideation,
Significance, Futuristic, and Context. I
had my wife take it as well. We had a
great time reading through our strength profiles and laughing in agreement to
the section about how to lead individuals with our strengths.
While the first part of the book explores how to
individually develop your strengths and manage your weaknesses, the last part
of the book dives into leading the strengths based revolution at work to build
high performing teams and organizations.
It answered my question of why certain people fit better in a roll than
others and just seem to take off. It
helped me realize that not all high performing employees need to be promoted to
positions of leadership, but how to keep them engaged and reward them for the
genius. It has helped me to grasp the
concept of true leadership and how to ensure all employees can do what they do
best every day. Lastly, and most
importantly, it helped me realized what I have been doing wrong and why things
sometimes haven’t worked out the way they could have.
I would absolutely recommend this book to everyone. There is a treasure in this book for
everyone, if nothing else to help put a name to their strengths and learn a
little more about themselves.
Happy reading and go whip
like crud.
