So should I give up weightlifting and
basketball to concentrate on
chess and philosophy, two things for which I have little taste? Not
at all, Professor Stone would argue. One of the issues of the
strengths philosophy, in his view, is that it seems to recommend
that you opt for all-out excellence in any activity for which you
show a talent. Stone advises striving instead for a level at which
you are comfortable, but challenged and engaged in your areas of
strength.
Besides, turning a talent into a strength is not easy. Each one can
require years of study, work, and behavior modification to become a
strength. Maxing out all five of your signature themes could
require a lifetime.
Business executives, of course, don't have a lifetime. They have to
show results, next year if not next quarter. That's true even of an
appealing and not horribly costly philosophy like strengths, which
offers ways to get maximum performance out of employees for minimum
pay. But it has some costs: The book costs $26, though the online
survey that gives you your top five themes used to cost $150 per
person, Buckingham says. For full-scale training to indoctrinate
managers in how to work with employees based on strengths, Gallup
charges $4,000 for four days. For custom training programs like
those implemented at
Toyota University, the sky is basically the
limit.
The Payoff
The potential for strength-based strategy is also boundless, say
fans. Michele Australie has put about 250 managers at The St. Paul
Companies Inc. through strengths training in the past year. Like
Toyota's Morrison, Australie, manager of curriculum development for
the
Minnesota-based
insurance company, says that interest and
attendance have been amazingly strong. More importantly, however,
she predicts that she'll be seeing positive bottom-line results
within the next year.