Marcus Buckingham
In a world where efficiency and competency rule the workplace, where do personal strengths fit in?
It's a complex question, one that intrigued Cambridge-educated Marcus Buckingham so greatly, he set out to answer it by challenging years of social theory and utilizing his nearly two decades of research experience as a Sr. Researcher at Gallup Organization to break through the preconceptions about achievements and get to the core of what drives success.
The result of his persistence, and arguably the definitive answer to the strengths question can be found in Buckingham's four best-selling books
First, Break All the Rules
(coauthored with Curt Coffman, Simon & Schuster, 1999);
Now, Discover Your Strengths
(coauthored with Donald O. Clifton, The Free Press, 2001);
The One Thing You Need to Know
(The Free Press, 2005) and
Go Put Your Strengths To Work
(The Free Press, 2007). The author gives important insights to maximizing strengths, understanding the crucial differences between leadership and management, and fulfilling the quest for long-lasting personal success. In his most recent book, Buckingham offers ways to apply your strengths for maximum success at work.
What would happen if men and women spent more than 75% of each day on the job using their strongest skills and engaged in their favorite tasks, basically doing exactly what they wanted to do?
According to Marcus Buckingham (who spent years interviewing thousands of employees at every career stage and who is widely considered one of the world's leading authorities on employee productivity and the practices of leading and managing), companies that focus on cultivating employees' strengths rather than simply improving their weaknesses stand to dramatically increase efficiency while allowing for maximum personal growth and success.
If such a theory sounds revolutionary, that's because it is. Marcus Buckingham calls it the “strengths revolution.”
As he addresses more than 250,000 people around the globe each year, Buckingham touts this strengths revolution as the key to finding the most effective route to personal success and the missing link to the efficiency, competency, and success for which many companies constantly strive.
To kick-start the strengths revolution, Buckingham and Gallup developed the StrengthsFinder exam (StrengthsFinder.com), which identifies signature themes that help employees quantify their personal strengths in the workplace and at home. Since the StrengthsFinder debuted in 2001, more than 1 million people have discovered their strengths with this useful and important tool.
In his role as author, independent consultant and speaker, Marcus Buckingham has been the subject of in-depth profiles in The New York Times, Fortune, Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, USA Today and the Wall Street Journal and is routinely lauded by such corporations as Toyota, Coca-Cola, Master Foods, Wells Fargo, Yahoo and Disney as an invaluable resource in informing, challenging, mentoring and inspiring people to find their strengths and obtain and sustain long-lasting personal success.
A wonderful resource for leaders, managers, and educators, Buckingham challenges conventional wisdom and shows the link between engaged employees and productivity, profit, customer satisfaction, and the rate of turnover. Buckingham graduated from Cambridge University in 1987 with a master's degree in Social and Political Science.
“As with all catalysts, the manager's function is to speed up the reaction between two substances, thus creating the desired end product. Specifically, the manager creates performance in each employee by speeding up the reaction between the employee's talent and the company's goals, and between the employee's talent and the customer's needs.”
“Simply put, this is one insight we heard echoed by tens of thousands of great managers: People don't change that much.Don't waste time trying to put in what was left out.Try to draw out what was left in.That is hard enough.”
“In fact, over the last twenty years, authors have offered up over nine thousand different systems, languages, principles, and paradigms to help explain the mysteries of management and leadership.”
“Managers are encouraged to focus on complex initiatives like reengineering or learning organizations, without spending time on the basics.”
“Define excellence vividly, quantitatively. Paint a picture for your most talented employees of what excellence looks like. Keep everyone pushing and pushing toward the right-hand edge of the bell curve.”
“Spend the most time with your best people. ... Talent is the multiplier. THe more energy and attention you invest in it, the greater the yield. The time you spend with your best is, quite simply, your most productive time. ... Persistence directed primarily toward your non-talents is self-destructive. ... You will reprimand yourself, berate yourself, and put yourself through all manner of contortions in an attempt to achieve the impossible.”
“Forcing your employees to follow required steps only prevents customer dissatisfaction. If your goal is truly to satisfy, to create advocates, then the step-by-step approach alone cannot get you there. Instead, you must select employees who have the talent to listen and to teach, and then you must focus them toward simple emotional outcomes like partnership and advice....Identify a person's strenths. Define outcomes that play to those strengths. Find a way to count, rate or rank those outcomes. And then let the person run.”
“So this is (a manager's) dilemma: The manager must retain control and focus people on performance. But she is bound by her belief that she cannot force everyone to perform the same way. ... The solution is as elegant as it is efficient: Define the right outcomes and let each person find his own route toward these outcomes.”
“...every time you make a rule you take away a choice and choice, with all of its illuminating repercussions, is the fuel for learning.”
“The Four Keys of Great Managers:1. "When selecting someone, they select for talent ... not simply experience, intelligence or determination."2. "When setting expectations, they define the right outcomes ... not the right steps."3. "When motivating someone, they focus on strengths ... not on weaknesses."4. "When developing someone, they help him find the right fit ... not simply the next rung on the ladder.”
“The difference between a pebble and a mountain lies in whom you ask to move it.”
“Talent is the multiplier. The more energy and attention you invest in it, the greater the yield. The time you spend with your best is, quite simply, your most productive time.”
“Remember the Golden Rule? "Treat people as you would like to be treated." The best managers break the Golden Rule every day. They would say don't treat people as you would like to be treated. This presupposes that everyone breathes the same psychological oxygen as you. For example, if you are competitive, everyone must be similarly competitive. If you like to be praised in public, everyone else must, too. Everyone must share your hatred of micromanagement.”
“Conhecimento e técnicas. 'Que aspectos seus você pode mudar?' Conhecimento. Um conhecimento factual desse tipo não garantirá a excelência, mas a excelência é impossível sem ele. 'O modo de uma pessoa se engajar na vida pode não se alterar muito. Mas o foco da pessoa sim...'Para onde quer que olhemos, podemos ver exemplos de gente que mudou seu foco mudando seus valores: a conversão religiosa de Saulo no caminho para Damasco...Se quer mudar sua vida para que outros possam se beneficiar de seus pontos fortes, mude seus valores. Não perca tempo tentando mudar seus talentos. A aceitação de algumas coisas que nunca podem ser transformadas - talentos. Não mudamos. Simplesmente aceitamos nossos talentos e reordenamos nossas vidas em torno deles. Nós nos tornamos mais conscientes. Técnicas. 1. Anote qualquer historia, fato ou exemplo que encontre eco dentro de você. 2. Pratique em voz alta. Ouça a si mesmo pronunciando as palavras. 3. Essas histórias vão se tornar suas 'contas', como de um colar; 4.Só o que você tem a fazer quando dá uma palestra é enfileirar as contas na ordem apropriada, e sua apresentação parecerá tão natural quanto uma conversa. 5. Use pequenos cartões de arquivos ou um fichário para continuar adicionando novas contas ao seu colar.As técnicas se revelam mais valiosas quando aparecem combinadas com o talento genuíno. O talento é qualquer padrão recorrente de pensamento, sensação ou comportamento que possa ser usado produtivamente.Qualquer padrão recorrente de pensamento, sensação ou comportamento é um talento se esse padrão puder ser usado produtivamente. Mesmo a 'fragilidade' como a dislexia é um talento se você conseguir encontrar um meio de usá-la produtivamente. David Boies foi advogado do governo dos Estados Unidos no processo antitruste...Sua dislexia o faz se esquivar de palavras compridas, complicadas.As diferenças mais marcantes entre as pessoas raramente se dão em função de raça, sexo ou idade; elas se dão em função da rede ou das conexões mentais de cada pessoa. Como profissional, responsável tanto por seu talento por seu desempenho quanto por dirigir sua própria carreira, é vital que adquira uma compreensão precisa de como suas conexões mentais são moldadas. Incapaz de racionalizar cada mínima decisão, você é compelido a reagir instintivamente. Seu cérebro faz o que a natureza sempre faz em situações como essa: encontra e segue o caminho de menor resistência, o de seus talentos. Técnicas determinam se você pode fazer alguma coisa, enquanto talentos revelam algo mais importante: com que qualidade e com que frequência você a faz. Como John Bruer descreve em The Myth of the First Three Years, a natureza desenvolveu três modos para você aprender quando adulto: continuar a reforçar suas conexões sinápticas existentes (como acontece quando você aperfeçoa um talento usando técnicas apropriadas e conhecimento), continuar perdendo um maior número de suas conexões irrelevantes (como também acontece quando você se concentra em seus talentos e permite que outras conexões se deteriorem) ou desenvolver algumas conexões sinápticas a mais. Finalmente, o risco do treinamento repetitivo sem o talento subjacente é que você fique saturado antes de obter qualquer melhora.Identofique seus talentos mais poderosos, apure-os com técnicas e conhecimento e você estará no caminho certo para ter uma vida realmente produtiva.Se as evidências mais claras sobre seus talentos são fornecidas pelas reações espontâneas, aqui vão mais três pistas para ter em mente: desejos, aprendizado rápido e satisfação. Seus desejos refletem a realidade física de que algumas de suas conexões mentais são mais fortes do que outras.Algumas tiravam satisfação de ver outra pessoa obter algum tipo de progresso infinitesimal que a maioria de nós nem perceberia. Algumas adoravam levar ordem ao caos.(...) havia as que amavam as ideias. Outras desconfiavam d”
“In the minds of great managers, consistent poor performance is not primarily a matter of weakness, stupidity, disobedience, or disrespect. It is a matter of miscasting.”