Quotations by Marcus Buckingham

Personality profiles such as the Clifton StrengthsFinder, or Myers-Briggs Type Indicator(MBTI), or the Kolbe Conative Index, or DiSC ask you to respond to various questions or pairs of descriptive statements. Then they collate your answers and present you with a summary of your strongest patterns of thought , feeling, or behavior. [2007] - Marcus Buckingham

You will learn and grow the least in your areas of weakness. [2007] - Marcus Buckingham

Your strengths are those activities that make you feel strong. In the language of SIGN, what does one of your strengths actually feel like to you? S for Success - When you do it, you feel effective; I for Instinct - Before you do it, you actively look forward to it; G for Growth - While you are doing it, you feel inquisitive and focused; N for Needs - After you've done it, you feel fulfilled and authentic. [2007] - Marcus Buckingham

If you want to become one of the two out of ten who plays to their strengths most of the time, don't move yourself into a role that is close to but not actually in your strengths zone, no matter how powerful your urge to do so. [2007] - Marcus Buckingham

Whenever you are considering a new role, the three questions most people ask themselves are: 1. What is the fundamental purpose of the role, and do I have an appetite for this purpose? 2. What are the kinds of the people I'll be working with? 3. What are the specific activities that will fill my week? The most important is the last one. [2007] - Marcus Buckingham

A strength is consistent near perfect performance in an activity. The ability is a strength only if you can fathom yourself doing it repeatedly, happily, and successfully. [2005] - Marcus Buckingham

Talents are your naturally recurring patterns of thoughts, feelings, or behavior. Knowledge consists of the facts and lessons learned. Skills are the steps of an activity. These three--talents, knowledge, and skills--combine to create your strengths. [2005] - Marcus Buckingham

As a salesperson, you can learn how to describe your products' features (knowledge), you can even learn how to ask the right open-ended questions to elicit each prospect's needs (a skill), but you'll never learn how to push that prospect to commit at exactly the right moment and in exactly the right way. These are talents. [2005] - Marcus Buckingham

The most basic skill of public speaking: 1. Always start by telling people what you are going to tell them. 2. Tell them. 3. Tell them what you have told them. [2005] - Marcus Buckingham

The "big five" factors of personality are neuroticism (which reflects emotional stability), extroversion (seeking the company of others), openness (interest in new experiences, ideas, and so forth), agreeableness (liability, harmoniousness), and conscientiousness (rule abidance, discipline, integrity). Human personality functioning can be summarized in terms of these five dimensions. [2005] - Marcus Buckingham

A general model of positive psychology captures personal motivation (Striving), interpersonal skills (Relating), self-presentation (Impacting), and learning style (Thinking). [2005] - Marcus Buckingham