The vast majority of Americans aren't doing what they do best every day -- which means they're not using their strengths. And since working from strengths links to business outcomes, management is squandering opportunities for business performance. In this interview, Marcus Buckingham, Gallup strengths expert and coauthor of First Break All the Rules and Now, Discover Your Strengths, explains that you can teach skills and add knowledge. But, he says, capitalizing on strengths is better for business -- and people.
GMJ: How does "knowing what my strengths are" make my day better?
Marcus Buckingham: You need to do what you do best every day. When you think about it, this is a pretty good way to measure whether people are using their strengths. Only 20% of the people Gallup has surveyed can say that they strongly agree with the statement, "At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day." Eighty percent don't have a chance to be in a job where they get to express the best of themselves, and that's a real tragedy.
Now, we know that question actually links to business outcomes; we know that the most productive departments, no matter what business you look at, have more people who say they have a chance to use their strengths every day.
GMJ: Focusing on weaknesses seems so puritanical; I'm surprised that the responses are the same worldwide.
MB: It seems puritanical to focus on weaknesses? I think when push comes to shove, most people focus on their weaknesses, not necessarily because they're puritanical, but really because they're optimistic. They are naively well-intentioned. I think the basic assumption that we're challenging in this book is that anyone can learn to be anything they want to be. What we can help people who read this book to know, and anyone who takes StrengthsFinder to know, is that you can't be anything you want to be. We can help people to know that there's a difference between talents, skills and knowledge. Skills and knowledge can and should be acquired, but talents -- your recurring patterns of thought or feeling or behavior -- are enduring, are resistant to change, are unique.
I think we can help educate the world that the most depressing thing to say to somebody is, "You can be anything you want to be." That's actually a depressing thought, because if you can be anything you want to be, then you're not unique, you're not different from me, you don't have unique hopes and dreams and talents, you're just a blank sheet of canvas.
Look in the mirror and look not just for your weaknesses, look for your strengths, and as far as is possible, find a role -- or craft your role -- so that you're deliberately playing to those strengths most of the time. And, of course, there may be an occasion when you look in the mirror deeply and say, "You know what? My strengths don't fit this role." In that case, of course, it's your responsibility to take stock and think about the kinds of roles you might seek which do in fact allow you to be more of who you already are.
GMJ: All indications are that this book should at least change the business world. Has it occurred to you that it could change the rest of the world, too?
MB: One of the people we interviewed was a Benedictine prioress, and she said, "I live my life in such a way that when I die, and my Maker asks me if I lived the life I was given, I can honestly answer yes." If you think about it, that's a pretty intimidating question, particularly if most people think they're just making their life up as they go along. I think we can help millions upon millions of people to identify their strengths, then we can educate people to know that, regardless of your career, or your career trajectory, or how successful you are or aren't, if you're living a life that consistently asks you to play to your strongest themes, then you're living the life God gave you.
-- Interviewed by Jennifer Robison