Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Gallup Press (2009), Edition: 1st, 266 pages
Description
Two leadership consultants identify three keys to being a more effective leader: knowing your strengths and investing in others' strengths, getting people with the right strengths on your team, and understanding and meeting the four basic needs of those who look to you for leadership.
User reviews
LibraryThing member Pferdina
I'm not convinced this is a book, exactly. Maybe all business books are like this and I don't know it because I never read that type of thing. This was assigned to me for a workshop, otherwise I never would have known about it. The first part of the book sort of explains why you want to work on
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your leadership strengths, and includes data from various Gallup polls and studies. There are case study interviews with four well-known leaders who demonstrate different strengths. The second part of the book is just a catalog of the "themes" identified by the Clifton StrengthsFinder assessment: what they are, how people with those themes like to work, and suggestions for how to manage people with those themes. The book also includes a one-time access code so you can take the assessment online and find out what your top 5 themes are (and you get a "report" on your strongest themes which is essentially the same as the text you had in the book, but hey, you didn't have to page through the book to find it). These all felt like horoscopes to me: vague enough that anyone can see themselves in them. I don't doubt there's some truth here, but my skepticism was on full alert. Show Less
LibraryThing member phoenixcomet
An excellent book on defining the different strengths that people bring to an organization. By taking the Strengthsfinder 2.0 survey, your strengths are highlighted and then discussed, thereby creating greater understanding on who you are, how you can lead, and techniques to use in managing
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yourself and others by understanding what they excel at and how they are likely to respond. Show Less
LibraryThing member greeniezona
I would like to preface this review by explaining that I am moving to a leadership position at work, and my manager asked me if I had ever had any formal leadership or management training (I hadn't), and offered to send me to a seminar. As I would rather do just about anything than go to a business
The trouble with checking this book out at the library instead of buying a new copy is that mostly this book is a marketing package for the Strengthsfinder 2.0 profile. Which costs $9.99 without an unused code from the back of the book. Which I came very close to paying for. But then after reading the strengths descriptions at the back of this book, I came up with a list of strengths that I can almost guarantee would by my Top 5. (Belief, Consistency, Input, Learner, Relator). There were a few others that I felt drawn to, but mostly in the "I wish I were better at this" sense. But the majority were clearly not me.
Okay, I've already taken the VIA Signature Strengths survey, so I'm familiar with and appreciate the concept. (Of course those 34 strengths do not seem to have a 1:1 correspondence with Gallup's 34 strengths. (Seriously?! Then how did they both come up with 34?))
I don't know, this book did give me some things to think about as possible areas for future growth as a leader. And I suppose that's what I was looking for. But from the description, I was expecting more tips on assessing the strengths of your team, and what areas are missing, than the insinuation that you should pay to have them all take this test.
A mixed bag, but ultimately unfulfilling.
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seminar (jargon-speak! icebreakers! introvert-torture!), I offered to read a bunch of leadership/management books on my own time and try to find a leadership mentor. This is the first attempt at part one.The trouble with checking this book out at the library instead of buying a new copy is that mostly this book is a marketing package for the Strengthsfinder 2.0 profile. Which costs $9.99 without an unused code from the back of the book. Which I came very close to paying for. But then after reading the strengths descriptions at the back of this book, I came up with a list of strengths that I can almost guarantee would by my Top 5. (Belief, Consistency, Input, Learner, Relator). There were a few others that I felt drawn to, but mostly in the "I wish I were better at this" sense. But the majority were clearly not me.
Okay, I've already taken the VIA Signature Strengths survey, so I'm familiar with and appreciate the concept. (Of course those 34 strengths do not seem to have a 1:1 correspondence with Gallup's 34 strengths. (Seriously?! Then how did they both come up with 34?))
I don't know, this book did give me some things to think about as possible areas for future growth as a leader. And I suppose that's what I was looking for. But from the description, I was expecting more tips on assessing the strengths of your team, and what areas are missing, than the insinuation that you should pay to have them all take this test.
A mixed bag, but ultimately unfulfilling.
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Language
Physical description
266 p.; 5.5 inches
ISBN
9781595620255