An interesting book my boss bought me.
This whole strengths-based approach to self improvement is definitely worth investigating. Nevertheless, there is a bit of a problem with "focusing on your strengths and seeking help / avoiding your weaknesses". This book does not help you find your weaknesses, so how will you know what to seek help for? Maybe the author intends for the reader to have already identified their weaknesses, but I still need more help finding mine.
There is another problem: The book only gives your Top 5 strengths. This is largely insufficient. It ignores that fact that you may be in the top percentile for 100s of intelligences compared to your peers. As such, I would have liked to have known all that information. For example, assume that your Top 10 intelligences are all very close in number but your real passions are strengths 6-10. You will miss out by only having a subset of the information. The approach the book takes ignores that we are competing with other agents (people). After reading, I am left with more questions than answers.

Post script: Ignore all the online materials. They are not extra reading, only digital versions of the book. ( )

1.5 stars

Short version: Don't bother. Instead, go check out the MBTI, which is far more accurate and comprehensive. www.16personalities.com is my favorite website, and the test is free and takes less than 15 minutes to complete!

Longer version: I managed to find this book at a garage sale (with an intact code!) for only $1, so I snatched it up. (The regular price of nearly $30 is ridiculous, and even the online-only version is $15.)

I read the book before taking the test, and recognized a few "strengths" as my own. Then I took the test online, mostly to get the promised report explaining how my top-5 strengths work together.

For those who may not know, test-takers are given only 20 seconds to answer each question, to encourage them to go with their gut instincts and not over-think things. They say it takes about 35 minutes to complete the test. I finished it in 20 minutes, because I was feeling the pressure to answer quickly. (There was no timer, and I didn't want to leave answers blank, since I felt that would lead to a less-accurate result.)

However, my results were so grossly inaccurate that I just can't recommend this test. In addition, the report showing how each strength works together didn't really deliver what the book promised. It just explained each trait individually, repeating all the information in the book and other reports.

Also, while I enjoyed reading the brief profiles of real individuals with any given strength, the book stated that there was a wide range of people and professions represented. I was disappointed to see that many people had repeat opportunities. This especially doesn't make sense when you consider that their combination of strengths is influencing their opinions/experiences, and not just the one strength being described in that chapter.

I love the idea of strengths-based living, but this book just doesn't work. There were a couple of good tidbits here and there, but nothing I haven't seen elsewhere. The MBTI is just better, all-around. I'm so glad I only spent $1 on this. I do not recommend it to anyone. ( )

I read this books as part of a reading group at work. It is a mediocre book with highly valuable information if you are willing to dig through the business speak and find it. As such, reading it in a group worked well. At our meetings, we were able to weed out the valuable information.

The theme of this book is that people do best when they focus on their strengths. This flies in the face of much popular wisdom which says that you should work to improve in your weakest areas. Instead, the authors of this book are of the opinion that focusing on your weaknesses will, at best, bring you up to mediocre. Focusing on those areas where you have natural talent and passion will bring success. They say that successful teams are balanced, but successful individuals invest in developing their unique talents.

Strengths Finder 2.0 has the word "strength" in the title, but it is actually about talent themes. A strength is what you get when you combine a talent theme with certain skills and knowledge. Strengths change over the years but talent themes tend to be fairly stable. The book has a brief introductory section followed by a catalog of talent themes. The catalog describes the talent themes.

To help you determine your talent themes, this book comes with a one time use code (i.e., never buy these books used) which gives you access to an online quiz which determines your strengths. Unlike some personality tests, this one is based off of years worth of research by Gallup. The result of the quiz is your type five talent themes. If you want to know how the other 29 talent themes rank, you have to pay Gallup a whole lot of money. Annoying.

Each talent theme is highly specific and actionable. This list of the short descriptions gives some idea of their specificity, but the descriptions in the book have more information that make it clear that some talent themes fit you well and others are terrible (even though you might want to have it). My top five talent themes are, in order, Input, Intellection, Learner, Harmony, and Responsibility.

Like any program, the real value is proportional to the amount of time you are willing to put into it. The answers the books give you are just a start. I found my talent themes to be valuable starting points in figuring out how I could really apply my strengths to my job. ( )

Well, am I really finished with this book? Can't say so.

For 99 Riyals you get a small book (expensive?), but the real thing you'll get is an access code to an online strength finder tool which will, in 30 minutes, inform you of your top 5 strengths. This is followed by what the author says is a PERSONALIZED report catered to your own self. This report tells you about your 5 strengths in detail and then provides ten actionable items (for each one) to help you capitalize on that strength and improve it.

The idea is that focusing on improving your strengths is more beneficial than worrying about your weaknesses.

This book is more of a reference book which lists the 30 strengths (4 pages each) along with the action plan for each one. This is the reason why I haven't gone through it all (no need), but I've taken time to read the intros for each strength.

I have yet to read my personalized report, but I've gone through the 4 pages for each of my 5 strengths in the book and I feel like the assessment did a really good job in finding those strengths (well maybe except one).

4 stars so far. Maybe I'll read the report and give it a 5. Looks like it deserves it. ( )

My brother loves this system and I can definitely see the appeal. However I think Rath could make more arguments in favor of this system than he does. ( )