Barry Conchie

I would like to preface this review by explaining that I am moving to a leadership position at work, and my manager asked me if I had ever had any formal leadership or management training (I hadn't), and offered to send me to a seminar. As I would rather do just about anything than go to a business seminar (jargon-speak! icebreakers! introvert-torture!), I offered to read a bunch of leadership/management books on my own time and try to find a leadership mentor. This is the first attempt at show more part one.

The trouble with checking this book out at the library instead of buying a new copy is that mostly this book is a marketing package for the Strengthsfinder 2.0 profile. Which costs $9.99 without an unused code from the back of the book. Which I came very close to paying for. But then after reading the strengths descriptions at the back of this book, I came up with a list of strengths that I can almost guarantee would by my Top 5. (Belief, Consistency, Input, Learner, Relator). There were a few others that I felt drawn to, but mostly in the "I wish I were better at this" sense. But the majority were clearly not me.

Okay, I've already taken the VIA Signature Strengths survey, so I'm familiar with and appreciate the concept. (Of course those 34 strengths do not seem to have a 1:1 correspondence with Gallup's 34 strengths. (Seriously?! Then how did they both come up with 34?))

I don't know, this book did give me some things to think about as possible areas for future growth as a leader. And I suppose that's what I was looking for. But from the description, I was expecting more tips on assessing the strengths of your team, and what areas are missing, than the insinuation that you should pay to have them all take this test.

A mixed bag, but ultimately unfulfilling. show less

I'm not convinced this is a book, exactly. Maybe all business books are like this and I don't know it because I never read that type of thing. This was assigned to me for a workshop, otherwise I never would have known about it. The first part of the book sort of explains why you want to work on your leadership strengths, and includes data from various Gallup polls and studies. There are case study interviews with four well-known leaders who demonstrate different strengths. The second part of show more the book is just a catalog of the "themes" identified by the Clifton StrengthsFinder assessment: what they are, how people with those themes like to work, and suggestions for how to manage people with those themes. The book also includes a one-time access code so you can take the assessment online and find out what your top 5 themes are (and you get a "report" on your strongest themes which is essentially the same as the text you had in the book, but hey, you didn't have to page through the book to find it). These all felt like horoscopes to me: vague enough that anyone can see themselves in them. I don't doubt there's some truth here, but my skepticism was on full alert. show less

I read this books as part of a reading group at work. It is a mediocre book with highly valuable information if you are willing to dig through the business speak and find it. As such, reading it in a group worked well. At our meetings, we were able to weed out the valuable information.

The theme of this book is that people do best when they focus on their strengths. This flies in the face of much popular wisdom which says that you should work to improve in your weakest areas. Instead, the show more authors of this book are of the opinion that focusing on your weaknesses will, at best, bring you up to mediocre. Focusing on those areas where you have natural talent and passion will bring success. They say that successful teams are balanced, but successful individuals invest in developing their unique talents.

Strengths Finder 2.0 has the word "strength" in the title, but it is actually about talent themes. A strength is what you get when you combine a talent theme with certain skills and knowledge. Strengths change over the years but talent themes tend to be fairly stable. The book has a brief introductory section followed by a catalog of talent themes. The catalog discusses how each talent theme can be applied to leading others.

To help you determine your talent themes, this book comes with a one time use code (i.e., never buy these books used) which gives you access to an online quiz which determines your strengths. Unlike some personality tests, this one is based off of years worth of research by Gallup. The result of the quiz is your type five talent themes. If you want to know how the other 29 talent themes rank, you have to pay Gallup a whole lot of money. Annoying.

Each talent theme is highly specific and actionable. This list of the short descriptions gives some idea of their specificity, but the descriptions in the book have more information that make it clear that some talent themes fit you well and others are terrible (even though you might want to have it). My top five talent themes are, in order, Input, Intellection, Learner, Harmony, and Responsibility.

Like any program, the real value is proportional to the amount of time you are willing to put into it. The answers the books give you are just a start. I found my talent themes to be valuable starting points in figuring out how I could really apply my strengths to my job.

If you aren't a leader or are interested in exploring the talent themes in more depth, I recommend [b:StrengthsFinder 2.0|56454|StrengthsFinder 2.0|Tom Rath|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328851668s/56454.jpg|55015] by the same group.

(Note, when I wrote this in summary in 2010, I felt it was 1 star. I have not gone back and reevaluated the book since I took on a formal leadership position at work.) show less

A practical guides for any leaders. The thing I like about this is that the points / knowledge are short / precise and the recommendation for actions are the most part of the book. Would recommend this for anyone who wants to be a great leader.
"Without an awareness of your strengths, it's almost impossible for you to lead effectively. We all lead in very different ways, based on our talents and our limitations. Serious problems occur when we think we need to be exactly like the leaders we show more admire. Doing so takes us out of our natural element and practically eliminates our chances of success."
"The litmus test of a great leader is whether they can quickly write down on a piece of paper all of the people they have developed." show less