Library & Book Reviews

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by LaDonna Spragg on May 19, 2009 at 9:12am

Updated library listing as of 5/19/09

Attachments:

• HDI check out listing.xls, 33 KB

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kevin Rehmer on May 19, 2009 at 9:47am

There is a “movement” about in the business world. For many years now, business has recognized the value of team work versus silo-ed individuals. Why teams? Because teams allow each member to bring his or her strengths to the whole. No one can be great at everything. When business counts on individuals to be great on their own, those individuals have to be great at everything. Working on a team allows the individual to bring his or her very best to the group and benefit from others bringing their very best. We all understand this; but have our management styles, career counseling styles and our true expectations changed to support this?
The “Strengths Movement” encourages managers, career counselors and team members to change the old concept that everyone should be trained to be good at everything. Instead, we need to identify, recognize, support and champion the idea that most of our efforts should go into helping folks build their strengths and to stop trying to get someone to be good at something he or she will never be good at. Yes, there is a basic level of basic skills that most employees must be able to master, but we need to put our best efforts and resources towards helping people hone their strengths rather than waste time trying to get good at something else. Management then needs to put teams together to balance the strengths, making the whole more than the sum of its parts.
Two books by Marcus Buckingham are very helpful in understanding how to go about this. The first book, Now, Discover Your Strengths, written with Donald O. Clifton, is a working book. It explains the concepts and values of looking at talent management in a new way. Each book includes an ID code to be used when logging into a web site. There are a series of questions to be answered and after completing the profile, the top five signature themes are returned to the participant. There are thirty-four themes. The book includes information on each. This information is helpful for the person who completed his or her profile, supervisors and counselors.
The second book is Go, Put Your Strengths to Work. 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 indentify 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 with sounding like you’re whining.
• The fifteen minute weekly ritual that will keep you on your strength path your entire career.
Both of these books are in our library, however, to be able to access the web sites and complete the profile, each person needs a book to obtain the ID code. Many managers are going through these books with their teams, learning about their team member’s strengths and how to blend those strengths with one another to create high-functioning, value-added teams.

▶ Reply to This