Go Put Your Strengths to Work: 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance (2007), Marcus Buckingham

At this point in the game Marcus Buckingham is 1 for 2. The first book I read by this award winning author was lackluster, I thought. The One Thing You Need to Know didn't do it for me, but Go Put Your Strengths to Work did. Buckingham weaves the right combination of testimony, research, examples and opinion in his book about performance. In particular, I liked how he described his own strengths in a way that conveyed the way he arrived at the realization of them. Even more impressive is that the book serves as an example to the point he makes in the book that we should identify and exploit our strengths instead of trying to improve on our weaknesses.

I'm not convinced that a majority of readers will be experience a defining moment upon reading Go Put Your Strengths to Work, but it will open your eyes to producing outstanding performance as the titles suggests. Buckingham does this primarily by describing the individuals that exemplify their strengths and his search for those individuals in short interesting stories. And if you are like me you will gain confidence in hearing the success stories of others.

Read this book. Achieve outstanding performance.