Book Review: Now, Discover Your Strengths

If you are looking to learn a little more about yourself, I highly recommend the book Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton. The authors are researchers for the Gallup Organization (the folks that are famous for polling the general public), and their company has performed interviews of over two million employees across 63 countries. Using this research the authors have identified 34 strength profiles, and an online survey that will show you your top five strengths.

The basic premise of this book is:

• The authors define a strength as “consistent, near perfect performance in an activity”
• You don’t have to have strength in every part of your role to excel, meaning you do not need to be well-rounded
• Everyone has several strengths, which provide the potential for superior performance
• You cannot develop a “new” strength. You can learn skills that relate to a strength, but you will never be able to perform at the same level as someone with a strength.
• People should focus on improving and refining their strengths rather than working only to improve on weaknesses.
• The 34 strengths can be applied to a variety of vocations and interests, and do not indicate only one or a even a few career choices.

This is one of my favorite books of all time, and it has been very helpful to me when it comes to making career decisions. I found the results of my survey to be very accurate and representative of me and my nature, and it’s interesting to see how hobbies and personal themes tie into my strengths.

The only downside to this book is that you actually have to buy the book to take the online survey. There’s an access code that comes with each book, and the code can’t be reused once the survey is taken. The audio book version has a key code as well for the survey, but the abridged version of the audio book skips some information that I found valuable, including summaries and examples of all 34 strengths and how to manage people with those strengths.

If you read the book and like it please leave a comment and let me know!

My top 5 strengths:

1. Focus: I need a clear direction, and therefore I set goals all the time. Daily goals, weekly goals, annual goals. Etc. I always evaluate whether an action will move me towards a goal (although I don’t always make the choice that does so).
2. Learner: I love to learn. I loved school so much I went back after college for more!
3. Achiever: This theme explains my drive. I have a constant need for achievement, as if each day I start out at zero and need to achieve something tangible in order to feel productive and valuable.
4. Intellection: I like to think, and I like mental activity. I like using my brain and stretching my brain. For me this strength manifests itself when I creatively find ways to combining existing things to make new things (i.e. using leftover ingredients from dinner to make something new or solving a unique problem at work).
5. Discipline: I am disciplined, and I like things to be predictable. I enjoy the planning process, sometimes more than the “doing” part, and I like to focus on timelines and deadlines.

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