By Peter J. Kaye, CPA
Now, Discover Your Strengths, by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton (The Free Press, 2001) 260 pages, $30.
Did you ever notice our society tends to focus on finding fault in others rather than on identifying strengths? Think about it. We analyze deficiencies in an effort to understand positive outcomes. Doctors study disease to learn about health; psychologists study sadness to learn about happiness; and family therapists study divorce to learn about the characteristics of a good marriage. This same philosophy is adopted by many in business when seeking and grooming talent.
We seem to be fixated on mitigating weaknesses in our employees rather than discovering their strengths, and building an organization that best capitalizes on those strengths. In Now, Discover Your Strengths, Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton argue that identifying faults and failings within ourselves and our employees tells us very little about strengths.
The authors, who are researchers at the Gallup Organization, asked 198,000 employees in 7,939 business units in 36 companies a simple question: "At work, do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?" Employees who answered "strongly agree," were 50 percent more likely to be working in business units with lower employee turnover, 38 percent more likely to be working in more productive business units, and 44 percent more likely to be working in business units with higher customer satisfaction scores. This tells us that organizations that have employees who believe they are using their strengths are organizations that seem to be stronger.
From research performed by the Gallup Organization over the past 30 years, Buckingham and Clifton found that most organizations are built on two flawed assumptions about people: each person can learn to be competent in almost anything, and each person’s greatest room for growth is in his or her areas of greatest weakness. The following are some of the indicators of an organization built on those faulty assumptions.
-- An organization that spends more money on training employees after they are hired than on properly selecting them in the first place
-- An organization that focuses the performance of employees by mandating work style (behavioral competencies)
-- An organization that spends most of its training time and resources on trying to minimize weaknesses or in plugging gaps in employee skills and competencies
Buckingham and Clifton believe most businesses usually have enough internal strengths from which to build a great organization, but those strengths have not been properly identified and leveraged.
Research for this book included interviewing over 2 million people in various professions and asking them about their strengths, such as how do teachers build trusting relationships with their students, or how do doctors excel in medicine and still have a great bedside manner. After reviewing the responses, Buckingham and Clifton identified 34 patterns or themes - such as Achiever, Activator, or Developer - that can be used in assessing talent and strengths.
The book is best read sequentially to understand the basis of the research. In chapter one, the authors define strength as "consistent, near-perfect performance in an activity." The key to excelling in any activity is in maximizing strengths and not by trying to fix weaknesses. In chapter two, the authors define and discuss knowledge, skills, and talent, and how they relate to each other. A unique feature of the book is the StrengthsFinder tool, introduced in chapter three. The book includes an identification number that allows the reader access to an online profile tool, called the StrengthsFinder. This Web-based interview tool analyzes responses and provides the reader with a strengths profile that identifies five dominant themes of talent. Once readers have their own profiles, they can then read a detailed analysis of all 34 themes to understand both their own strengths and those of others.
The remainder of the book explains the characteristics of each of the 34 strengths and offers tips on how to take advantage of personal strengths by asking various questions, such as are there any obstacles to building my strengths, why should I focus on my signature themes, and why am I different from other people with whom I share some of the same themes?
Now, Discover Your Strengths is a useful tool for CPAs who are in positions of managing talent. It will also be of interest to anyone wanting to assess their personal strengths. This is an excellent book, as it requires us to reverse our thinking with respect to assessing talent and strengths in people - and ourselves - by focusing on identifying and capitalizing on strengths as our greatest chance for success, as opposed to mitigating our weaknesses and focusing on the negative.
Peter J. Kaye, CPA, is vice president of finance at ICG Commerce in King of Prussia, and is a member of the Pennsylvania CPA Journal Editorial Board. He can be reached at peter.j.kaye@verizon.net.
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