Buckingham, Marcus

PERSONAL:

Married: wife's name Jane; children: two. Education: Cambridge University, M.A., 1987.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Los Angeles, CA.

CAREER:

Management consultant. The Gallup Organization, from researcher and consultant to senior vice president over a seventeen-year period. Member, Secretary of State's Advisory Committee on Leadership and Management.

WRITINGS:

(With Curt Coffman) First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1999.

(With Donald O. Clifton) Now, Discover Your Strengths, Free Press (New York, NY), 2001.

The One Thing You Need to Know: About Great Managing, Great Leading, and Sustained Individual Success, Free Press (New York, NY), 2005.

Go Put Your Strengths to Work: 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance, Free Press (New York, NY), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Management consultant Marcus Buckingham earned his master's degree in social and political science from Cambridge University in 1987, then went on to work for a number of firms, including spending seventeen years at the Gallup Organization. Here he started as a researcher and consultant, then worked his way up to senior vice president. A frequent speaker on news programs such as CNBC's Power Lunch and National Public Radio's Morning Edition, he also serves on the Secretary of State's Advisory Committee on Leadership and Management. Buckingham is well known for his popular books on management techniques and ways to improve one's performance in the workplace.

First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently, which he wrote with Curt Coffman, has proved to be a long-standing best seller. The book addresses the different qualities that go into making a great manager, analyzing both behavior and ideas for the tried-and-true choices that have proven effective for various successful managers across a variety of industries. Buckingham explains why common recommendations for appropriate workplace behavior can actually prove to be mistakes if a person wishes to be a successful manager, including ideas such as treating workers the same way a manager would wish to be treated, or the notion that a person can handle anything. The realities of management, the book explains, are actually far different. Francis Solomon, in a review for Policy & Practice, remarked: "This is the perfect book for new managers or supervisors looking to get a feel for what they should be doing as managers or supervisors." He concluded that "the best thing about this book is that it is written for regular people—managers of groups of four to ten people."

Now, Discover Your Strengths, written with Donald O. Clifton, serves as a follow-up to First, Break All the Rules. This book encourages readers to stop wasting time trying to eradicate faults or improve skills that are weak; instead, it recommends focusing one's time and resources on improving skills in which one is already strong, honing them until they become truly valuable assets. The idea is that it is far easier for someone to excel where they already have a strength than to coax improvement in an area where they show little or no aptitude. The book then goes on to offer suggestions on how to determine one's strengths, and even provides access to an online quiz that helps them figure out what those strengths are. A reviewer for the Detroit Free Press commented that what "the book doesn't offer is a simple correlation between talent and profession, and that may frustrate readers who will want the computer to spit out the perfect job for them, given their top five talents." The critic went on to note that "Buckingham and Clifton warn that such a connection is impossible." Go Put Your Strengths to Work: 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance, Buckingham's third work in this series, does offer readers the next step in the building of a better career.

In The One Thing You Need to Know: About Great Managing, Great Leading, and Sustained Individual Success, Buckingham provides a range of ideas to help managers raise their skills to the next level of leadership. He uses examples of various approaches to help illustrate his points. Although the behaviors covered are valid, some reviewers felt that Buckingham oversimplifies them in order to fit his advice into the strict limitations of the book's title. Fast Company reviewer Lucas Conley remarked: "One-size-fits-all and all-in-one solutions are alluring in their simplicity but rarely deliver on the promise. Buckingham is no exception." Miami Herald contributor Richard Pachter, though, observed that "Buckingham does demonstrate that the reasons for excellence are diverse and frequently counterintuitive," adding that "his writing is vivid and empathetic, and almost all the cases are well chosen."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Business Record, March 21, 2005, review of The One Thing You Need to Know: About Great Managing, Great Leading, and Sustained Individual Success, p. 21.

Computing Canada, October 20, 2006, "Play to Your Greatest Strengths."

Dallas Business Journal, December 1, 2000, review of First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently, p. 65; December 7, 2001, review of First, Break All the Rules, p. 41.

Detroit Free Press, January 26, 2001, review of Now, Discover Your Strengths.

Entrepreneur, April, 2005, "Flying Solo," p. 22.

Fast Company, April, 2005, Lucas Conley, review of The One Thing You Need to Know, p. 97.

Food Management, June, 2004, review of Now, Discover Your Strengths, p. 16.

HR Magazine, July, 2004, review of Now, Discover Your Strengths, p. 43; May, 2005, Leigh Rivenbark, review of The One Thing You Need to Know, p. 124.

Human Resource Planning, June, 2005, "The One Thing You Need to Know," p. 27.

Miami Herald, July 14, 2005, Richard Pachter, "Book on the Secret to Success a Mixed Bag."

Philadelphia Business Journal, December 8, 2000, review of First, Break All the Rules, p. 30.

Policy & Practice, September, 2005, Francis Solomon, review of First, Break All the Rules, p. 37.

Publishers Weekly, December 11, 2000, review of Now, Discover Your Strengths, p. 71.

Realtor Magazine, October, 2006, "Play to Your Strengths," p. 50.

Training, August, 2000, review of First, Break All the Rules, p. 84; August, 2005, Skip Corsini, review of The One Thing You Need to Know, p. 36.

Washington Business Journal, August 24, 2001, review of First, Break All the Rules, p. 28.

ONLINE

Big Organization Speaker Web site,http://www.bigspeak.com/ (January 14, 2008), profile of Marcus Buckingham.

Business Book Review Online,http://www.businessbookreview.com/ (January 14, 2008), Lydia Morris Brown, review of Go Put Your Strengths to Work: 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance.

Business Week Online,http://www.businessweek.com/ (March 26, 2007), Jena McGregor, "Ladies and Gents … Marcus Buckingham!"

Convention Connection,http://bureau.espeakers.com/ (January 14, 2008), profile of Marcus Buckingham.

Lavin Agency Web site,http://www.thelavinagency.com/ (January 14, 2008), profile of Marcus Buckingham.

Leadership Book Review Web site,http://www.threestarleadership.com/ (January 14, 2008), review of Go Put Your Strengths to Work.

Management Consulting News Web site,http://www.managementconsultingnews.com/ (January 14, 2008), "Meet the Masterminds: Marcus Buckingham's One Thing You Need to Know."

Marcus Buckingham Home Page,http://www.marcusbuckingham.com (January 14, 2008).

Nationwide Speakers Bureau Web site,http://www.nationwidespeakers.com/ (January 14, 2008), "Expert on Outstanding Leadership and Management Practices."

Premiere Speakers Bureau Web site,http://premierespeakers.com/ (January 14, 2008), profile of Marcus Buckingham.

Speak Inc. Web site,http://www.speakinc.com/ (January 14, 2008), profile of Marcus Buckingham.

Washington Speakers Bureau Web site,http://www.washingtonspeakers.com/ (January 14, 2008), tips from Marcus Buckingham.

Willow Creek Association Web site,http://www.willowcreek.com/ (January 14, 2008), profile of Marcus Buckingham.