Now, Discover Your Strengths

If the authors would write a second edition, there are some things that I would recommend them to address. My first remark is linked to the writing style: this book is written in an "imperative" form: it contains a lot of sentences with "you need to do this", "you should do that", ... This style tends to put of people, risking that they miss the message. Secondly, they have WRONG, OUTDATED notion of the brain: contrary to what people used to say 5 to 10 years ago, the good news of recent research is that brain cells that die of ARE replaced (even if you get older) and you remain capable of forming new connections between brain cells (maybe unless you get a disease, such as Parkinson, ...). Thirdly: the book does not really address what kind of job would be good for you.

Finally some feedback about the test: don't take it BEFORE you read chapter 3 in the book - at least then you will understand how they built it. Still, I have my doubts about the way it is built. Using the amount of interviews as a "proof of credibility" didn't impress me: Often for scientific purposes, it doesn't matter much if you did 5.000 or a million interviews - all that matters is that you can validate the test. Also, I know that most people probably have MORE than 5 strengths, which is just an ARBITRARY number Gallup chose. Given the importance they address to these 5 strengths, just imagine what opportunities you will miss by ignoring these 2 other strengths. I would rather prefer to get a FULL picture, getting all my strengths and weaknesses, and having this information ordered from strongest to weakest.

Patrick E.C. Merlevede - Co-author of "7 Steps to Emotional Intelligence"


Nothing new   August 7, 2002
 19 out of 24 found this review helpful

While the Gallup organization is well known for it's polling abilities, and their previous book, "First Break all the Rules" is a respected management tool, it appears the authors felt it was time to write another book, whether or not they had enough new material or not.

The basic premise is that we all have strengths and we should find those, capitalize on those and manage around our weaknesses. A reasonable message, and one that is pretty well covered in the first 15-20 pages. The rest of the book is filler to expand the book to 260 pages. After all, who would pay a list price of US$28 for a 20 page booklet?

There are other management books out there that are far superior. Pass on this one.


A word of caution   April 15, 2004
 18 out of 23 found this review helpful

I purchased a new copy of this publication from a major book retail outlet. After reading the first few chapters to understand the thesis, I followed the instructions to log on and take the assessment evaluation. The website would not let me log on, indicating that someone else had utilized the code that was provided with the publication. So a word of caution, Don't buy used if you think that you may want to utilize the book. Don't buy from a book store because someone else may have already accessed the code. The Gallup Organization will no return emails or phone calls. JUST DON'T BUY IT. It is not worth the hassle or expense.


Snake oil for the 21st century! Step right up!   October 10, 2005
 18 out of 24 found this review helpful

What a joke! What a huge waste of money and time! I could take the survey mutiple times (if it's possible...which it's not) and come up with completely different lists of my so-called "Top Five" strengths.

A 1 star rating is 1 star too many for this presumptuous, pretentious psychobabble.

There's one born every minute and Marcus Buckingham is waiting to take your money.



Most Important Book I Ever Read - But I Didn't.   December 20, 2005
 18 out of 21 found this review helpful

I found myself in an office depot looking for a better organizational system for my sales leads, all dozen of them, when I found this tape series on a shelf. After reading the synopsis on the back, I realized that I was in the wrong occupation. As a highly technical person, I was eking out a living in sales.

I oddly enough didn't buy this tape, because I didn't have the money and I got the message so strong on the back cover that I felt any further "getting it" would be impossible.

I drove home, quit my job and against my wife's wishes I started studying for a technology career. 6 months later I landed a job in the technology field. Within 3 years I'm now making 2-3 times my old income every month without feeling like I don't belong here.

If you need more encouragement than myself, by all means read the book.