Go Put Your Strengths to Work

About the Author

Marcus Buckingham spent 17 years at the Gallup Organization, where he conducted research into the world’s best leaders, managers, and workplaces. The Gallup research later became the basis for the best-selling books First, Break All the Rules and Now, Discover Your Strengths, both co-authored by Buckingham. He now has his own company, providing strengths-based consulting, training, and e-learning.

Main Idea

The main idea of Go Put Your Strengths to Work is to leverage your strengths in your professional life to achieve outstanding performance and personal fulfillment. Buckingham provides a six-step process to help individuals identify their strengths and incorporate them into their work routines. This strengths-based approach encourages people to focus on what they do best, leading to greater productivity, job satisfaction, and overall success.

Table of Contents

1. Lead This Movement
2. Bust the Myths
3. Get Clear
4. Free Your Strengths
5. Stop Your Weaknesses
6. Speak Up
7. Build Strong Habits
8. Take Your Stand

Lead This Movement

The strengths movement is pervasive, influencing various sectors including corporate, public service, education, and more. Despite its detractors, its universal appeal prompts the question, "Why?" The book aims to answer this by showing how to apply strengths for maximum success at work. According to research, only 17 percent of the workforce believes they use all their strengths on the job. Buckingham’s six-step experience aims to change that by revealing hidden dimensions of strengths, helping individuals take control of their assets and redefine their job roles.

“The strengths movement says that all we learn from mistakes are the characteristics of mistakes. If we want to learn about our successes, we must study success.” — Marcus Buckingham

High-performance teams play to their strengths more than 75 percent of the time. To reach this level, individuals don’t need to abandon their current jobs for dream roles. Instead, they need to reshape their existing jobs weekly around their strengths, gradually tilting the playing field to ensure the best of their job becomes most of their job.

Bust the Myths

Many of us believe in myths about strengths and weaknesses that are deeply ingrained in us by parents, teachers, and managers. Buckingham identifies three major myths:

1. Myth: As you grow, your personality changes. The truth is, as you grow, you become more of who you already are.
2. Myth: You will grow the most in your areas of greatest weakness. The truth is, you will grow the most in your areas of greatest strength.
3. Myth: A good team member does whatever it takes to help the team. The truth is, a good team member deliberately volunteers his or her strengths to the team most of the time.

“Your strengths magnify you.” — Marcus Buckingham

Busting these myths involves understanding how they serve us, what it costs to stop believing in them, and how it benefits us to believe the truth. This process helps individuals and teams capitalize on their strengths for better performance and satisfaction.

Get Clear

Getting clear on your strengths involves identifying specific activities that consistently make you feel strong. These strengths are a combination of talents, skills, and knowledge. Buckingham provides a method to capture these activities by paying attention to your feelings before, during, and after engaging in them.

The four telltale signs of a strength, remembered by the acronym SIGN, are: