 |
Book Reviews March
2005 An acquaintance of mine named Jim Reekes (www.reekes.net) recently mentioned a book to me, and told me that it was a very powerful and useful tool for him. Jim is a very smart guy - a great strategist with a strong blend of technical, marketing and business insight. On Jim's recommendation I decided to read and review Now, Discover your Strengths. Now, Discover Your Strengths provides a refreshing way of looking at managing your career and other parts of your life. The premise of the book is that truly successful people focus on what they are really good at, and minimize spending time doing the things that they aren't good at. While this may sound obvious at first blush, it is actually contrary to the messages we often hear. Many times we are told that in order to succeed we need to look at where we need to improve, that we should strengthen areas where it turns out we have may have no desire, natural talent or aptitude for success. For example, if a child gets an A in math and a C in writing on their report card, what are they told to do? Work harder on writing, right? Maybe they have no chance of becoming a great or even above-average writer. Instead they are destined to become a world-class mathematician. No matter how hard they work on writing they may end up with minimal improvement and maximum frustration. Rather than focusing on areas of weakness, the book argues that you should focus on your absolute greatest areas of strength. For areas of weakness find workarounds - other people or resources that can help you get the critical work done without sacrificing the quality or your own enjoyment. The book also includes an online test. To take the test you go to Strengthsfinder.com and enter in a code that comes with it. You then go through a fairly rigorous set of questions and are provided with a report that shows your top 5 strengths. My report showed that I am a problem solver and that I am motivated by what is possible in the future. I found this to be right on target - much of my work as a consultant is with companies that are trying to create an exciting and meaningful through new products, and I'm brought in to help them solve the problems they are facing. The latter half of the book is about how to use the strengths approach to manage your team. Most of the good managers and leaders that I have known in my career end up doing this anyway, but I don't believe it is necessarily intentional. Spending some time thinking about this as a strategy can yield even better results. Overall I recommend this book. However, there are two things that I think sell the book short and make it much less worthwhile than it might have been. First, the code that is provided to do the Strengthsfinder online test is only valid once. This means you can't re-take the test, you can't loan the book to anyone else and you can't resell the book. I see this as a short-sighted tactic by the publishers and author to get corporate managers to buy multiple copies for their entire teams. The second thing that the book didn't deliver was concrete suggestions for using my own personal strength report. I was surprised when immediately after I got my results the book shifted to "now here is how you use this as a manager". I was expecting to get some insights as to how to use the report for myself. On further investigation the website indicated that if I wanted to learn how to use the results I should sign up for their $99 newsletter. Despite these two misrepresented product promises, I still recommend this book. It is an easy read and provides a refreshing way of looking at how to use the unique set of talents you have to pursue success. |
|
