Book Review- The Truth About You by Marcus Buckingham

Author/Speaker Marcus Buckingham is known as a leader in the movement of promoting one's strengths. This short book draws on that concept.

Buckingham suggests taking a week and making lists of "Strengths Statements" and "Weakness Statements". In effect, writing down the things that inspire you and give you energy as well as the things that draw energy away from you; the things you like to do and the things you don't like doing. (I did not complete this exercise, deciding in advance that making lists of statements would not be something I would like to do and therefore would probably draw energy from me- I say that jokingly but truthfully).

The main focus of the book is to help people play to their strengths and minimize the time spent dealing with weak areas. Buckingham suggests that we focus far too much on the areas of weakness, areas we'll likely never improve upon, to the detriment of our strengths, thereby taking our time and focus away from areas in which we excel. He is realistic in his approach however, challenging the reader near the end of the book under a section called "One Last Tactic" (p. 97), "Recognize that what weakens you is only a small part of your job, and then devote the rest of your time to getting better and better at those things where you have some unfair, natural advantage over everybody else- your strengths".