Book Description
Beginning with the million-copy bestsellers First, Break All the Rules and Now, Discover Your Strengths, Marcus Buckingham jump-started the strengths movement that is now sweeping the work world, from business to government to education. Now that the movement is in full swing, Buckingham's new book answers the ultimate question: How can you actually apply your strengths for maximum success at work?
Research data show that most people do not come close to making full use of their assets at work -- in fact, only 17 percent of the workforce believe they use all of their strengths on the job. Go Put Your Strengths to Work aims to change that through a six-step, six-week experience that will reveal the hidden dimensions of your strengths. Buckingham shows you how to seize control of your assets and rewrite your job description under the nose of your boss. You will learn:
• Why your strengths aren't "what you are good at" and your weaknesses aren't "what you are bad at."
• How to use the four telltale signs to identify your strengths.
• The simple steps you can take each week to push your time at work toward those activities that strengthen you and away from those that don't.
• How to talk to your boss and your colleagues about your strengths without sounding like you're bragging and about your weaknesses without sounding like you're whining.
• The fifteen-minute weekly ritual that will keep you on your strengths path your entire career.
With structured exercises that will become part of your regular workweek and proven tactics from people who have successfully applied the book's lessons, Go Put Your Strengths to Work will arm you with a radically different approach to your work life. As part of the book's program you'll take an online Strengths Engagement Track, a focused and powerful gauge that has proven to be the best way to measure the level of engagement of your strengths or your team's strengths. You can also download the first two segments of the renowned companion film series Trombone Player Wanted.
Go Put Your Strengths to Work will open up exciting uncharted territory for you and your organization. Join the strengths movement and thrive.
Customer Reviews:
Worth the read.......2007-10-10
I read this over a brief vacation during the summer. Ive found it has enhanced my abilities dealing with people both at work and my personal life. I plan on reading it again when my busy work schedule permits it.
How to take charge of your work.......2007-10-03
Marcus Buckingham is passionate about helping you identify your unique strengths and unleash their power. As you read and work your way through the program in this book, you will become convinced that growing through your strengths is the ticket to your future happiness, effectiveness and success. He refutes the approach of improvement by fixing mistakes as a dead end that cannot help you discover how you can be exceptional. The book constantly refers you to its associated Web site for materials that will help you work through the exercises. Buckingham wants you to act rather than just read a theoretical tract. Nothing presented in this book will help you without action and implementation. However, if you take up the challenge, you will become empowered as you take charge of your work through your strengths. We recommend this book because it contains just a few simple ideas that could change your life.
Follow-up book, much overlap with earlier books.......2007-09-30
Marcus Buckingham discusses six steps to identifying and putting your strengths to work:
1. Convince yourself that exercising your strengths is more fun and productive that spending your time shoring up your weaknesses.
2. Identify specific activities that exercise your strengths. For example, mine include
a. Determine true value
b. Learn and apply new and useful skills, knowledge
c. Creative problem solving
3. Build your job towards your strengths.
4. Stop / reduce time spent shoring up your weaknesses
5. Build a strong team by enabling each member to exercise their strengths towards delivering business value
6. Make a habit of ensuring that each person's activities around you are aligned with their strengths (including yourself :-)
The book could have been much shorter - the concept was repeated multiple times. More specifics on step 3 would also have been more useful.
Excellent book and great team activity!.......2007-09-13
I manage a team of Sales Professionals and found this book to be a great tool to help them stay focused on the positive aspects of their job. I really like the message and appreciate the fact that it does not immediately say that if you are not happy right now, you need a new job. It points them back to their current position and helps them be more productive and utilize their strengths where they are at.
While he also wants to sell you other stuff, the book is a good way to build your own positive deviance.......2007-09-13
If you really look at what is holding you back, from really using your best qualities and talents, you will almost surely find that most of it are the images and thoughts you hold between your ears. You are so sure about what could go wrong, or about what you HAVE to do, or about what is just not possible, that you just don't even try to step out.
Well, to say it simply, stop it! This book provides you with a six step process to help you build on your strengths rather than chasing and fixing mistakes. It is based on the ideas you will find in the business philosophies of Appreciative Inquiry and Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS). The core idea in these movements is that you can't build on your strengths if all you see are your weaknesses. If you want to be a master of something, you have to study those who do it well, not focus on the mistakes of those who aren't very skilled. The term they often use is "positive deviance". That is, that area of performance that deviates ABOVE the norm. The goal is to learn how to create more positive deviance.
In the first step, Buckingham focuses you on giving up belief in three myths: 1) As you grow your personality changes. 2) You will grow in your areas of greatest weakness. 3) A good team member does whatever it takes to help the team. He says that the truths are: 1) As you grow you become more of who you already are. 2) You will grow in your areas of greatest strength. 3) A good team member deliberately volunteers his strengths to the team most of the time.
As he discusses each of these he asks you to examine what you are getting out of believing in these myths. What would it cost you to stop believing in it? Then think carefully about the benefits you would gain by believing the truth. If you sincerely do this, you will likely be shocked and then energized.
The purpose of this book is to help you take charge of your life and especially your work life. You will make it more rewarding, says the author, by centering your work on your strengths rather than just doing whatever comes to you as an assignment. It is a six step process. The first, as I noted above, is to bust the myths. Step 2 is to get clear about your strengths. Three is to free your strengths. Four helps you see and stop your weaknesses (not focus on fixing them). Five coaches you on how to speak up and get your boss supporting your strengths. Six is about keeping the process alive by building strong habits.
Now, Marcus Buckingham is a big-time, high-priced consultant. The book sends you to his website to use some free materials there (but also offers you others to purchase). Underneath this is the desire to sell your company consulting and seminar services with associated materials. It is interesting stuff, but the sheer "salesiness" of it detracts from it a bit for me.
Reviewed by Craig Matteson
Amazon.com's Best of 2001
Effectively managing personnel--as well as one's own behavior--is an extraordinarily complex task that, not surprisingly, has been the subject of countless books touting what each claims is the true path to success. That said, Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton's Now, Discover Your Strengths does indeed propose a unique approach: focusing on enhancing people's strengths rather than eliminating their weaknesses. Following up on the coauthors' popular previous book, First, Break All the Rules, it fully describes 34 positive personality themes the two have formulated (such as Achiever, Developer, Learner, and Maximizer) and explains how to build a "strengths-based organization" by capitalizing on the fact that such traits are already present among those within it.
Most original and potentially most revealing, however, is a Web-based interactive component that allows readers to complete a questionnaire developed by the Gallup Organization and instantly discover their own top-five inborn talents. This device provides a personalized window into the authors' management philosophy which, coupled with subsequent advice, places their suggestions into the kind of practical context that's missing from most similar tomes. "You can't lead a strengths revolution if you don't know how to find, name and develop your own," write Buckingham and Clifton. Their book encourages such introspection while providing knowledgeable guidance for applying its lessons. --Howard Rothman
Book Description
Unfortunately, most of us have little sense of our talents and strengths, much less the ability to build our lives around them. Instead, guided by our parents, by our teachers, by our managers, and by psychology's fascination with pathology, we become experts in our weaknesses and spend our lives trying to repair these flaws, while our strengths lie dormant and neglected.
Marcus Buckingham, coauthor of the national bestseller First, Break All the Rules, and Donald O. Clifton, Chair of the Gallup International Research & Education Center, have created a revolutionary program to help readers identify their talents, build them into strengths, and enjoy consistent, near-perfect performance. At the heart of the book is the Internet-based StrengthsFinder® Profile, the product of a 25-year, multimillion-dollar effort to identify the most prevalent human strengths. The program introduces 34 dominant "themes" with thousands of possible combinations, and reveals how they can best be translated into personal and career success. In developing this program, Gallup has conducted psychological profiles with more than two million individuals to help readers learn how to focus and perfect these themes.
So how does it work? This book contains a unique identification number that allows you access to the StrengthsFinder Profile on the Internet. This Web-based interview analyzes your instinctive reactions and immediately presents you with your five most powerful signature themes. Once you know which of the 34 themes -- such as Achiever, Activator, Empathy, Futuristic, or Strategic -- you lead with, the book will show you how to leverage them for powerful results at three levels: for your own development, for your success as a manager, and for the success of your organization.
With accessible and profound insights on how to turn talents into strengths, and with the immediate on-line feedback of StrengthsFinder at its core, Now, Discover Your Strengths is one of the most groundbreaking and useful business books ever written.
Customer Reviews:
Talents, strength and weakness.......2007-10-22
I read this after it was mentioned and lauded at a conference I was at, and am very glad I did. I have talked with several people about this since I've read it, and it's prompted me to sit down with one employee to review his strengths and career paths within our organization that would help him fully utilize what talents he has. While I agree that there does not seem to be a lot of specifics about exact steps to implement these ideas, frankly I've found that a lot of the time when there are exact steps they don't fit the management model we have anyway.
I have also been thinking about the implications of this book as a mother of a pre-teen daughter, and the concern I have with self-confidence issues as she enters the mysterious world of teendom. While there is a book (by another author, forward by Buckingham) coming out Feb 2008 that seems to talk directly about kids ands strengths that I will get and read, in the mean time I think that several of the lessons are very applicable to understanding and raising teens. Rather than spending time and energy - and creating frustration - by working on creating a talent that isn't there, instead as she gets older we'll work on focusing on the talents that are there and ways to work around, compensate for, etc. weaknesses. That does not mean she doesn't have to do certain homework (!), but it will mean that the way we approach studying, getting projects done, and activities at school will be focused on playing to her strengths; hopefully building these skills to support her strengths will only help her as she moves on in life.
Great to Use with Employees.......2007-10-15
I've used this book with my team to help them learn about themselves as well as each other. Its a great tool to help people understand how they are "wired".
Strengthsfinder is a powerful tool.......2007-10-01
I have not yet read any of the book, but bought it for the key to taking the online Strengthsfinder assessment for a graduate class in career and workforce development. (NOTE: MAKE SURE TO BUY A NEW COPY OF THE BOOK IF YOU WANT TO GET AN "UNUSED" KEY TO TAKING THE STRENGTHSFINDER ASSESSMENT ONLINE.)
The assessment alone was well worth the price of the book. Structuring one's professional development or career pathing around one's strengths (instead of around one's weaknesses) is an energizing way to invest in one's work self. If you only take the assessment and never read the book, you will have gotten your money's worth.
Regarding the book, my professor tells me it goes a good job at applying the Strengthsfinder to the work world and management.
book.......2007-09-21
great product. exactly as stated it would be. great book. very uplifting!
If you want to know your strengths.......2007-09-21
I read this book and took a class on it, there are coaches that are trained all over the world that will help you discover and use your strengths in every day life. Loved this book. They even have a book for every age, (young students, adults, and college age)
Book Description
This latest edition of Investments continues the legacy of excellence established in previous versions. Chapters on behavioral finance, arbitrage pricing theory, multifactor models of risk and return, and international diversification have been dramatically rewritten to meet changes in today’s transformed markets. In addition, unnecessary mathematical and technical detail continues to be left out wherever possible.
Customer Reviews:
No concepts.......2007-05-31
After reading most of the book, my conclusion was that I definitely needed to find better material in order to REALLY understand Investment theory. I found the book to be unnecessarily wordy, often repetitive, and yet very unclear about the basic conceptual ideas behind the theory.
Most of the problems stem from the fact that the mathematics used is very simple, and that no effort is made to focus on ideas. Instead of presenting the CAPM and APT models by formally setting the framework, stating the assumptions, introducing proper mathematical tools to tackle the development, and coming back to highlight key concepts, the book tries to circumvent any slightly difficult area by providing an endless string of confused explanations.
I guess this might be OK if you are seeking a very basic introduction to the topic but even then, I am not sure that a 700+ pages book of muddled diatribes is what you need.
fantastic textbook.......2007-01-06
really enjoyed this one. the writing is clear, simple and concise. the examples are derived from the text, build on the fundamentals, and strengthen overall concept comprehension. too often texts end up reading like the authors wanted to impress you with how intelligent they are, at the expense of actually effectively presenting the material. this is definitely not the case here, as the information is presented in a compelling and incredibly lucid way.
4th edition.......2006-06-24
This book is well organized, but you better have a solid calc and stats theory background. The newest edition has more chapters. Book is more wordy than concise.
Highly recommended textbook.......2006-01-23
Great book! It's comprehensive and easy to understand. Highly recommended textbook.
Resourceful: Do You Like Intellectual Pain?.......2005-11-22
This is the tome used in top MBA programs across the US.
It's comprehensive and filled with "extras" like website recs and sample CFA questons.
Everything you need to know is here.
2 thumbs up.
Book Description
Bodie, Kane, and Marcus’ Investments is the leading textbook for the graduate/MBA investments market. It is recognized as the best blend of practical and theoretical coverage, while maintaining an appropriate rigor and clear writing style. Its unifying theme is that security markets are nearly efficient, meaning that most securities are usually priced appropriately given their risk and return attributes. The text places greater emphasis on asset allocation, and offers a much broader and deeper treatment of futures, options, and other derivative security markets than most investment texts.
Customer Reviews:
Not yet received.......2007-06-27
I have yet to receive this book and I need it quite urgently.I was just wondering if there is anything wrong with the delivery/order?
undeliverable item.......2007-05-22
dear sir
i did not receive the book yet.
plz. inform me with the name of the shipping agency you have used to ship the book.
URGENT
Hani Hanbali
So Far, So Good.......2007-05-11
As an investment banking analyst and proprietary investor for Wall Street's two most prestigious firms, I would like to attest to the firm economic underpinnings of this book. It is refreshing to see a chapter devoted to criticisms of the efficient market hypothesis, though a further discussion of behavioral finance would be greatly welcomed. This book is concise and provides a good balance of theory and practical knowledge.
Amazon.com
Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman expose the fallacies of standard management thinking in First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently. In seven chapters, the two consultants for the Gallup Organization debunk some dearly held notions about management, such as "treat people as you like to be treated"; "people are capable of almost anything"; and "a manager's role is diminishing in today's economy." "Great managers are revolutionaries," the authors write. "This book will take you inside the minds of these managers to explain why they have toppled conventional wisdom and reveal the new truths they have forged in its place."
The authors have culled their observations from more than 80,000 interviews conducted by Gallup during the past 25 years. Quoting leaders such as basketball coach Phil Jackson, Buckingham and Coffman outline "four keys" to becoming an excellent manager: Finding the right fit for employees, focusing on strengths of employees, defining the right results, and selecting staff for talent--not just knowledge and skills. First, Break All the Rules offers specific techniques for helping people perform better on the job. For instance, the authors show ways to structure a trial period for a new worker and how to create a pay plan that rewards people for their expertise instead of how fast they climb the company ladder. "The point is to focus people toward performance," they write. "The manager is, and should be, totally responsible for this." Written in plain English and well organized, this book tells you exactly how to improve as a supervisor. --Dan Ring
Book Description
The greatest managers in the world seem to have little in common. They differ in sex, age, and race. They employ vastly different styles and focus on different goals. Yet despite their differences, great managers share one common trait: They do not hesitate to break virtually every rule held sacred by conventional wisdom. They do not believe that, with enough training, a person can achieve anything he sets his mind to. They do not try to help people overcome their weaknesses. They consistently disregard the golden rule. And, yes, they even play favorites. This amazing book explains why.
Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman of the Gallup Organization present the remarkable findings of their massive in-depth study of great managers across a wide variety of situations. Some were in leadership positions. Others were front-line supervisors. Some were in Fortune 500 companies; others were key players in small, entrepreneurial companies. Whatever their situations, the managers who ultimately became the focus of Gallup's research were invariably those who excelled at turning each employee's talent into performance.
In today's tight labor markets, companies compete to find and keep the best employees, using pay, benefits, promotions, and training. But these well-intentioned efforts often miss the mark. The front-line manager is the key to attracting and retaining talented employees. No matter how generous its pay or how renowned its training, the company that lacks great front-line managers will suffer. Buckingham and Coffman explain how the best managers select an employee for talent rather than for skills or experience; how they set expectations for him or her -- they define the right outcomes rather than the right steps; how they motivate people -- they build on each person's unique strengths rather than trying to fix his weaknesses; and, finally, how great managers develop people -- they find the right fit for each person, not the next rung on the ladder. And perhaps most important, this research -- which initially generated thousands of different survey questions on the subject of employee opinion -- finally produced the twelve simple questions that work to distinguish the strongest departments of a company from all the rest. This book is the first to present this essential measuring stick and to prove the link between employee opinions and productivity, profit, customer satisfaction, and the rate of turnover.
There are vital performance and career lessons here for managers at every level, and, best of all, the book shows you how to apply them to your own situation.
Customer Reviews:
And the next trend in management is..........2007-08-29
This information is very well researched and clearly presented. Since most of these results were taken from a Gallup poll I recently took at my former company, I can vouch that a significant percentage of the questions are absurd, including one mentioned in this book. Do you have a best friend at work? And how that has anything to do with happiness on the job...
This audiobook explains you how to customize relationships with those who report to you. It's very practical info: everyone is unique and has specific talents that are greater in one than the other. I also appreciated the explanation of how so many managers end up being so pathetic -- especially if they are moved up because they're not very good in their current positions (or my favorites, they kiss butte or know the right people).
No one, by improving themselves dramatically, is trying to become a hero as claimed here...but I am glad Marcus spells out very clearly how it is impossible for a manager to get people to change (change is up to the employee). Props to Marcus for being one of the only authors I've actually enjoyed listening to on an audiobook. All well packaged and marketed with an attention-grabbing title.
Relational Leadership a Proven Performance Winner.......2007-08-27
An evidence-based book demonstrating the performance benefits of relational leadership. In this captivating and engaging read, Gallup Organization researchers Buckingham and Coffman show how good leadership taps individual identity (At work, do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?), is relational (Does your supervisor seem to care about you as a person?), and demands accountability (Do you know what is expected of you at work?). These management elements and the several others described are not necessarily conventional wisdom, but clarified as they are in this book, they ring of good old common sense. After nearly 10 years on bookstore shelves, this book speaks more common sense than ever. This book is highly recommended for everyone -- if you have read it more than 5 years ago, read it again.
Great prep course for new managers!!.......2007-08-23
My son had just been made a manager of a large multi-location furniture and appliance and tv company. I purchased (First, Break all the rules) for him to give him some insight to being a manager. He devoured the CD's and called for more.
I choose the same author and purchased more of his work. Thanks for having this quality product available.
Whoever wrote the description of this book on cd did a great job. It was the reason I bought it.
Ideas that are applicable to managers--and a lot more!.......2007-07-18
Heard FIRST, BREAK ALL THE RULES by Marcus Buckingham
and Curt Coffman of the Gallup Organization . . . it was the report
on a massive in-depth study of great managers across a wide
variety of situations, ranging from Fortune 500 companies to
key players in small, entrepreuneurial firms.
It got me thinking about the difference that effective leadership
at the top can make and how, unfortunately, this doesn't
happen as much as it perhaps should.
Many of the ideas I've come across before . . . yet it wasn't until
I heard the spin placed on them by the authors that I came to the
realization that though they were seemingly basic, implementation
of them isn't always quite so simple.
Also, I realized that most of the ideas can easily be applied to great
parenting, great running of virtually any club or organization, etc.
For instance:
* Best managers don't treat everybody like they want to be
treated. Instead, they treat each employee as how he or she wants
to be treated.
And to find this out is easy:
* Just ask!
Among the other valuable tidbits I gained from listening were these:
* Effective managers spend their most time with their best people.
* Great managers know that any attempt to impose one best
way is doomed to fail.
* Never try to perfect people.
* Great managers focus on the future with their people.
* When told an employee was late, great manager almost
always ask why.
Buckingham also did the reading of FIRST, BREAK ALL THE
RULES . . . I was so impressed with this book that I'm now going
to read his other works, including his latest: GO PUT YOUR
STRENGTHS TO WORK.
Best Management Audiobook Available.......2007-07-17
What separates Buckingham and his co-author from the crowded bookshelves is their reliance upon statistics instead of anecdotes. There are too many management books out there that tell you what to do without backing their words up, so this book is well worth the investment. The audiobook, narrated by Buckingham, is especially rewarding, since it's one you'll want to listen to every month to remind yourself that there is a better way to manage and that you need to stay on that path.
Book Description
The market leading Essentials of Investments, 6e by Bodie, Kane and Marcus is an undergraduate textbook on investment analysis, presenting the practical applications of investment theory to convey insights of practical value. The authors have eliminated unnecessary mathematical detail and concentrate on the intuition and insights that will be useful to practitioners throughout their careers as new ideas and challenges emerge from the financial marketplace. Essentials maintains the theme of asset allocation (authors discuss asset pricing and trading then apply these theories to portfolio planning in real-world securities markets that are governed by risk/return relationships).
Customer Reviews:
Excellent book for begineers.......2007-05-10
For someone who is new to world of finance, this is best book I have come across which is easy to read and covers details of investment. I like the layout of chapters and most of basic chapters are followed by more advance concepts in next chapter.
If you'd like a serious headache, buy this book........2006-10-05
I made the mistake of choosing this book as this text for an undergraduate finance course because it is used by the New York Society of Financial Analysts in their portfolio management class. Don't make the same mistake!! Part One is very informative and gives the reader practical information and advice. The rest of the book is terrible. The equity section concentrates on Modern Portfolio Theory--the Efficient Fronter, co-variation, efficient markets, blah, blah, blah. While Value Investing is mentioned (barely), it is almost an afterthought and it's certainly frowned upon. I wonder how poor investors like Warren Buffet and Seth Klarman have made any money at all using the Value Investing approach. I found the section on bonds and fixed income portfolio management interesting but difficult to follow. I traded corporate and municipal bonds for 20 years. If I had not had such a background, I would have been totally confused. If you are a quantitative GENIUS, this book MAY help you. If you are not, you can choose another book and learn much more.
Poor.......2006-06-16
This is a poorly written finance text. It is not organized and unclear in some sections. I have a degree in Finance, and I would never recommend this book to anyone.
Knowing your subject and knowing how to teach it are different things.......2006-05-21
The authors no doubt know Investment analysis. Unfortunately they don't communicate that information too well. Frequently happens when Phd's forget they are writing to students, not other Phd's. Bought this book for a senior level finance course, required to complete my major in finance.
Even my Prof. started the course with, "the textbook is difficult to read but just follow my notes and you should do ok". Not too good of an endorsement for a textbook. Now, after completing the course, I am searching for another text on the subject to keep as a reference. Even after the lectures, this book's explinations of the same topics are difficult to follow.
Excellent Introduction.......2006-05-13
Bodie's "Essentials of Investments" sevres as helpful, comprehensive introduction to investments. This book is modeled on Bodie's larger graduate text "Investments" leaving out only the sections on Equilibrium in Capital Markets and skimping on some of the finer mathematical details within the other sections. You will prefer this book if you are just beginning in the field, and you will not be disappointed with what you learn. The book is an easy and engaging read if you are an "intelligent layman", and it is certainly feasable even if you have a limited general education background. Overall, great introduction to the investment field. Recommended.
Amazon.com
As a social science researcher and an esteemed business consultant, Marcus Buckingham (First, Break All the Rules and Now, Discover Your Strengths) has spent considerable time studying the big picture. This wide-angle approach led him to an unexpectedly narrow conclusion: There is a core concept to even the most complex topic. What he has discovered in The One Thing You Need to Know is that single "controlling insights" exist for a whole range of situations, and when properly applied, can encourage exponential improvement and lead to precise action and results. In applying this concept to managing, leading, and individual performance he has pinpointed the single element necessary for achieving success in each of these three key positions.
Buckingham acknowledges the subtleties of the topic and his goal is "not to make these subjects simpler, merely clearer." And what could be clearer than one thing? The challenge lies in filtering out the nonessential matters and distinguishing "between what is merely important and what is imperative" in order to produce the greatest and most far-reaching effects. In offering advice on how to do this he also details the three things you need to learn about a person to manage them effectively, explains why a lack of balance is a good thing, shows how to identify your own strengths and weaknesses, and discusses which personality traits all great leaders must possess.
Clearly written, informative, and enjoyable, the book aims to motivate readers to act--not just think--differently by providing concrete examples and specific lessons. And it need not be confined to the office--the concepts outlined in these pages can help people feel more fulfilled and productive in all aspects of life. --Shawn Carkonen
Essential Buckingham
First, Break All the Rules |
Now, Discover Your Strengths |
The One Thing You Need To Know, Audio CD |
First, Break All The Rules, Audio CD |
Now, Discover Your Strengths, Audio CD |
First, Break All the Rules, Audio Cassette |
If You Like Buckingham, You'll Love...
- Jack Welch
- Jim Collins
- Larry Bossidy
|
- Patrick Lencioni
- Stephen Covey
- Malcolm Gladwell
|
- Tom Rath
- Daniel Goleman
- Clayton Christensen
|
Book Description
Following the success of the landmark bestsellers First, Break All the Rules and Now, Discover Your Strengths, Marcus Buckingham offers a dramatically new way to understand the art of success.
With over 1.6 million copies of First, Break All the Rules (co-authored with Curt Coffman) and Now, Discover Your Strengths (co-authored with Donald O. Clifton) in print, Cambridge-educated Buckingham is considered one of the most respected business authorities on the subject of management and leadership in the world. With The One Thing You Need to Know, he gives readers an invaluable course in outstanding achievement -- a guide to capturing the essence of the three most fundamental areas of professional activity.
Great managing, leading, and career success -- Buckingham draws on a wealth of applicable examples to reveal that a controlling insight lies at the heart of the three. Lose sight of this "one thing" and even the best efforts will be diminished or compromised. Readers will be eager to discover the surprisingly different answers to each of these rich and complex subjects. Each could be explained endlessly to detail their many facets, but Buckingham's great gift is his ability to cut through the mass of often-conflicting agendas and zero in on what matters most, without ever oversimplifying. As he observes, success comes to those who remain mindful of the core insight, understand all of its ramifications, and orient their decisions around it. Buckingham backs his arguments with authoritative research from a wide variety of sources, including his own research data and in-depth interviews with individuals at every level of an organization, from CEO's to hotel maids and stockboys.
In every way a groundbreaking book, The One Thing You Need to Know offers crucial performance and career lessons for business people at all career stages.
Download Description
"The principal author of the extraordinary bestsellers First, Break All the Rules and Now, Discover Your Strengths offers a dramatically new way to understand the art of success. With over 1.6 million copies of his landmark books in print, Cambridge-educated Marcus Buckingham is considered one of the most respected authorities on the subject of management and leadership in the world. Now, with The One Thing You Need to Know, he gives readers an invaluable course in outstanding achievement -- a guide to capturing the essence of the three areas fundamental to professional activity. Great managing, great leading, and career success -- Buckingham draws on a wealth of examples to reveal the single controlling insight that lies at the heart of each. Lose sight of this ""one thing"" and even your best efforts will be diminished or compromised. The author explains the surprisingly different answers to each of these rich and complete subjects. The many facets of great managing, great leading, and career success could be detailed endlessly, but Buckingham's great gift is his ability to cut through the thicket of often-conflicting possibilities and zero in on what matters most, without ever oversimplifying. As he observes, success comes to those who remain mindful of the core insight, understand all of its ramifications, and orient their decisions around it. Buckingham backs his arguments with authoritative research from a wide variety of sources, including his own data and in-depth interviews with individuals at every level of an organization, from CEOs to hotel maids and stockboys. In every way a groundbreaking book, The One Thing You Need to Know offers essential performance and career lessons for businesspeople at all career stages. "
Customer Reviews:
Great Wisdom.......2007-09-16
I found Marcus Buckingham's wisdom about great management and leadership to be right on. Having worked in an environment that focused on people's weaknesses as an area for growth, this book was refreshing and pointed to the importance of developing talent and strengths. The examples are about well established people and very intriguing to study.
A promise kept.......2007-08-20
Every book holds a promise. This one holds 3 and keeps 4. Not a bad score.
The book shares with you the secrets of individual success, management, leadership, and successful relationships. Yes, you could wish Marcus threw in the secret of eternal youth - but, I guess, he is still working on it. Good luck, Marcus! Your audience awaits!
The One Review You Need to Read.......2007-07-27
How long should it take you to tell someone the ONE thing they need to know? A whole book? Mr. Buckingham is a promoter - a salesman. Nothing wrong with that but you are not going to achieve enlightenment by reading it. This is just a generation X Zig Zigler. Don't be pathetic and think that a self-help book is going to change your life. That only comes through reflection and personal growth. So, now for free I am going to tell you the one thing you need to know AND I am even going to give you two versions of it:
Version One: Jesus "Do into others what you would have others do into you."
Version Two: Hillel "What is hateful to you do not do to your fellow man."
There are other versions.
It is called the Ethic of Reciprocity. All else is commentary. Now go study.
In Support of the Revolution.......2007-06-02
We've broken the rules and discovered our strengths, now Marcus Buckingham gets to the point by revealing the controlling insights for great managing, great leading, and sustained individual success. In The One Thing You Need to Know, Buckingham provides compelling theories that support his ongoing "strengths revolution." Just as he did in previous books, Buckingham challenges us to "buck" the system of traditional management techniques by encouraging us to identify the strengths in our selves and employees, and cultivate those strengths.
Buckingham introduces the concept of imbalance, suggesting that we stop striving for perfection in ourselves and others. This is counter-productive asserts Buckingham. Instead, we as managers and leaders need to identify our flaws, and then find our "Madison." Buckingham uses the example of the Thomas Jefferson-James Madison team to illustrate his point. Jefferson, a conceptual strategist, loathed public speaking and debate. Conversely, Madison enjoyed debate and his practical, methodical style was effective in dealing with Congress. Each other's strengths complemented the other's weaknesses. Buckingham's theory appears to support a growing trend, as similar concepts have been written about recently in professional journals such as Harvard Business Review's "In Praise of the Incomplete Leader" (February 2007).
If Buckingham appears to get side-tracked at times it's worth the indulgence. Weaving stories and examples into sometimes mundane research and clinical findings helps to support his concepts, and applies his theories to real-life situations. He doesn't just use the Bill Gates and Steve Jobs-types in his examples. Sure, these guys are in there, but Buckingham includes historical figures and average "Joes" to prove the universality of his theories. He admittedly gets off track in the section "What is the One Thing you need to know about happy marriage?" Although far removed from the business world, this section is worth the detour for anyone who is married, contemplating marriage, or in a committed relationship.
Those of us who have ever felt bored, frustrated, or stifled in our careers are now armed with the knowledge and encouragement to make the right decisions and take actions that will best serve our employees, organization, and self. In fact, the biggest challenge may be having the patience to wait for the corporations we serve to join the "revolution."
Excellent.......2007-04-11
Excellent material. Very well structured and has all the new ideas and approaches for leadership and management. It defines both concepts with good examples and makes it easy to understand the difference between leadership and management. I enjoyed every page.
Book Description
The health care sphere we inhabit would unquestionably be more satisfying if everyone adopted the cooperative techniques taught in this book.
--New England Journal of Medicine
Renegotiating Health Care presents pragmatic and effective tools for understanding conflict, negotiating differences, and creating a workable balance among those who deliver, receive, administer, and oversee health care. The authors present practical methods and techniques giving all the players the knowledge and skills they need to put their work in perspective and create workable solutions.
Customer Reviews:
Must Reading for Health Care Executives.......2001-12-02
This book is essential reading for any leader in the world of health care. Health care execs are confronted with complex, highly charged negotiation challenges, internal and external, nearly every day. Many of these conflicts can damage lives and corporate finances. The book gives you very practical, results-oriented advice on how to resolve conflicts and move forward.
Dr. Marcus is the nation's leading expert in health care negotiations and conflict resolution, having helped numerous high-profile organizations overcome conflicts and reach mutually productive agreements. This book thoughtfully conveys this valuable expertise.
Excellent principles for conflict resolution.......2001-06-25
Marcus presents a broad spectrum of options for getting through tough times in the healthcare industry. The personable style and ongoing case history make this a very readable presentation.
Marcus teaches us that conflict is not only always present and unavoidable but can be used as a catalyst for good change. He describes differences in types of negotiation, mediation, and arbitration. He is a proponent of interest-based negotiation which is an attempt to improve the lot of the whole by improving the parts. He advocates active listening.
As witness to his sincerity, he dedicates a chapter each to four of the healthcare stakeholders: policymakers, healthcare management, physicians, and nurses. Each of these chapters speaks loudest to its own stakeholder, at once representing them and persuading them to enter into negotiation.
Postitional bargaining is also explored. Marcus does not advocate being a sacrificial lamb.
This book serves as an excellent introduction to the topic of conflict resolution and negotiation. However, in order to engage into the fray, one would also need to continue to study and practice the principles presented.
Although Marcus seems preachy at times and overhopeful at others, he is at least starting to draw the diverse and strong healthcare industry into one place to sit and talk. Hooray for that.
Book Description
Borg returns to the ground where he made his dramatic debut with Jesus: A New Vision in 1987. Here Borg updates his work introducing us to a Jesus we have never met before. In many ways Borg's Jesus is more revolutionary and possesses a more exciting moral vision than the church's traditional view. Here we meet Jesus as sage and prophet courageously and surprisingly confronting the social crises of his day. After a lifetime of work and study, Borg also discovers a Jesus that can continue to inspire, inform and guide those who have moved beyond archaic doctrines. Borg argues that there is a movement in the church today that is catching up with where scholarship has brought us in understanding Christian origins. Here readers will find an historically accurate Jesus, but one who is still worth following.
Customer Reviews:
A Better Way to Look at Things.......2007-10-21
The author of this book presents a better way of interpreting many old traditional ideas about Jesus. I was so glad to hear these ideas. You will be, too.
"REVOLUTIONARY ".......2007-10-20
eye-opening modern biblical scholarship...
the gospels are not 'inspired' the bible is not 'the word of god'
there is no 'virgin birth' no physical resurrection, jesus is not 'god' etc etc ...
you really must read this book to learn how & why Borg makes these kinds of claims;
the fundamentalists have it all wrong...and yes, he is a Christian
While the top tier biblical scholars labor in obscurity... .......2007-10-17
...The Crossans, Borgs, Funks and Macks of the world sell tons of books to spiritual seekers who desperately want to believe that "Christianity lite" is the true Christianity. The shoddy scholarship won't bother people who, just like fundamentalists, would rather believe something false than have to deal with a truth that might shake up their worldview. I consider myself a liberal politically, and I most definitely am not an inerrantist but the Jesus that Borg proposes is not the Jesus of history.
The best Jesus Book? James D.G. Dunn's Jesus Remembered. It's only for the brave, but once you've reached Dunn's summit you'll have seen the most critical, unbiased and scholarly view of Jesus ever put onto paper.
Challenging, thought-provoking, recommended - but is it right?.......2007-09-28
Let me hit what I consider to be the high points of this book first. It will challenge you to think deeply about your faith. When you're done reading it, you may feel as if you've scaled Everest and found enlightenment. Borg makes a terrific case that a Christian focus on salvation and heaven ignores the heart of Christ's ministry. And that the heart of that ministry was about The Father's will being done on earth. He challenges us (page 194) not to live the easy (broad) way, living by conventional wisdom even if that conventional wisdom comes from church. Just as Jesus challenged his followers to examine their conventional wisdom about faith in their times. He's got a really good message in chapter 9 (Resistance) that "The Bible is political." And that God's will for us is different from the "normalcy of civilization." And he challenges us to see that just as Jesus spoke in parables, there's often a metaphoric meaning that's even more valuable than a literal reading.
I'll admit I didn't know who Marcus Borg was at the time I started reading this. Part of the way in, I read his bio finally and saw the connection to the "historical Jesus" movement and The Jesus Seminar. That instantly turned me skeptical as I read, not having had a good impression of what little I knew of The Jesus Seminar. But as I read, I really opened to what he had to say. While I'm still skeptical of the "historical Jesus" movement, I no longer see this as a cover for tearing down Christianity I once foolishly thought it was. It's clear that Mr. Borg is a man of deep faith who loves Christ's teaching.
So with all of the positives, why only a 3 star review? I'm sorry, even having read this I just can't buy in to the approach of examining Christ's life or the Gospel as a matter or "history." Mr. Borg's "historical" approach to the New Testament begins in effect by counting only Mark as a definitive gospel because it was first. Anything in the other gospels that can't be corroborated elsewhere is essentially thrown out. While that might be a "historical" approach, it doesn't strike me as the right approach for a faith that is alive.
Practically, I'm also stumped by the "historical" insistence that if the "earliest" writing didn't mention fact A, later writings that mention it must be fabrications or metaphors. While he holds true to that methodology for any statement he wants to dismiss, he acknowledges at one point that yes Paul in his earliest writings left out descriptions of the crucifixion why? Because Paul could assume is contemporary readers knew those details. So, it seems just as likely to be that from a "historical" standpoint, the point of the earliest written documents probably wasn't to record the known details the writer could assume and that yes, as The Word spread further in time and throughout the region that details left out of early writings but known by all were captured from verbal traditions and written down.
He's also prone to making statements like "it is unlikely that these passages go back to Jesus" (p 180). It seems to me that the more correct statement in this case would be "it's impossible to say from a historical standpoint whether or not these passages go back to Jesus." There's no proof that they don't. Again, this is faith not history.
And in chapter 10, while he presents a case that there's a beautiful additional metaphor in Easter, in what it means for God to have raised Jesus, he makes statements about Easter being more metaphorical than a real raising of Jesus from the dead than I can buy. Yes, there's more meaning to what God did on Easter. But reducing Christ the Living Son of God's post-Easter existence to the followers of Jesus "continued to experience him after his death" and that "God had vindicated Jesus" (p 276) is to ignore that if you are going to believe in God, you are believing by definition in something all powerful, capable of this miracle.
He also makes what I feel to be an obvious error in his Jesus is not Superman line of reasoning around page 75. His argument if that if Jesus was fully human, then he did not have Superman powers. Therefore, he didn't feed thousands with a few fish and loaves. And if he had these powers, there would have been more stories of them. To me, this misses the obvious: Yes, Jesus was fully human but he was able to call on God to work through him. And again, God is God, he is all powerful. God working through Jesus can feed the multitudes, heal, and everything else. Why aren't there more stories of this? I'll turn the question around: if there were more stories, would the applicants of the Historical Jesus movement just dismiss them anyway? The stories there are are sufficient for faith.
My bottom line for this is that there's some brilliant theology in this book. Mr Borg does cleanly expose the heart of Christ's earthly teaching to his fellow Jewish peasants. He taught compassion, non-violent resistance, meaningful sharing of resources so that all would have enough, and much more. But it's a shame that this beautiful message has to come wrapped with so much skepticism about whether or not we can believe any of the Gospel as "fact."
Built on supposition.......2007-09-01
The opening is a masterful survey of text criticism and the discipline of seeking the historical Jesus. Then Borg describes a category - first century Jewish mystic - and contends that Jesus lives within that category. It is an educated guess.
Book Description
Fundamentals of Corporate Finance, by Richard A. Brealey, Stewart C. Myers and Alan J. Marcus, has been applauded for its modern approach and interesting examples. Professors praise the authors’ well-organized and thoughtful writing style and their clear exposition of what many students consider difficult material. The authors accomplish this without sacrificing an up-to-date, technically correct treatment of core topic areas. Since this author team is known for their outstanding research, teaching efforts, and market-leading finance textbooks, it’s no surprise that they have created an innovative, and market-driven revision that is more student friendly than ever. Every chapter has been reviewed and revised to reflect the current environment in corporate finance.
Books:
- Gone For Soldiers
- Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance (American Empire Project)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Mastering Public Speaking
- Carb Conscious Vegetarian: 150 Delicious Recipes for a Healthy Lifestyle
- The Knife Thrower: and Other Stories
- The Civil War: A Narrative, Vol. 3 Red River to Appomattox
- The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't
- BEING DEAD IS NO EXCUSE: THE OFFICIAL SOUTHERN LADIES GUIDE TO HOSTING THE PERFECT FUNERAL
- 100 Caterpillars: Portraits from the Tropical Forests of Costa Rica
- Reclaiming My Soul From The Lost and Found
- The Industrial Revolution in America: A Primary Source History of America's Transformation into an I
- Elements of Business Communication: How To Get Along Until You Hire Specialists
Motivation & Self-Improvement
| Business Life
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup's Now, Discover Your Strengths
Now, Discover Your Strengths
First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently
The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything
Know-How: The 8 Skills That Separate People Who Perform from Those Who Don't
