8 out of 10 People DON’T Get to Play to Their Strengths

  • 1 min read

…just one piece of research uncovered by Marcus Buckingham after decades of research.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TZnqiSpmYk]

I spoke with Marcus Buckingham last night and it was the greatest half hour I’ve spent in a long time. Marcus is a bestselling author (selling millions of books) and a world famous public speaker (speaks to Toyota, Coca-Cola, etc). He shares his knowledge to hundreds of thousands of people a year and has been on the same stage with Colin Powell. Marcus has even been fortunate enough to have appeared on Oprah as well.

I’ve talked with over a hundred successful businesspeople in the past year, but Marcus stands out amongst them all. I would say his special qualities are that he can make you feel good about yourself, give you hope and inspire you with his words. I consider him a role model and am overjoyed that we share a common goal: to help young individuals discover their passion and take ownership of their career.

Today, I want to go over his new book “The Truth About You.” His interactive book comes with a DVD (a sample video is above) and pad to jot down notes. The book’s purpose is for you to learn more about yourself and to go put your strengths to work.”

The 3 truths

  • 1) As you grow, you become more and more of who you already are.
  • 2) You grow most in your areas of greatest strength.
  • 3) A great team player volunteers his strengths to the team most of the time and deliberately partners with people who have different strengths.

Advice from Marcus

  • 1) Performance is always the point, so don’t expect your organization ever to know you like you do.
  • 2) Your strengths aren’t what you’re good at, and your weaknesses aren’t what you’re bad at, so you’d better find out what your real strengths are.
  • 3) When it comes to your job, the “what” always trumps the “why” and the “who,” so always ask: “What will I be paid to do?”
  • 4) You’ll never find the perfect job, so every week, for the rest of your life, write your “Strong Week Plan.”
  • 5) You’ll never turn your weaknesses into strengths, so fess up to your weaknesses, then neutralize them.
Picture of Dan Schawbel

Dan Schawbel

Dan Schawbel is the Managing Partner of Millennial Branding, a Gen Y research and consulting firm. He is the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Promote Yourself: The New Rules For Career Success (St. Martin’s Press) and the #1 international bestselling book, Me 2.0: 4 Steps to Building Your Future (Kaplan Publishing), which combined have been translated into 15 languages.

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