Unfortunately, most of us have little sense of our talents and strengths, much less the ability to build our lives around them. Instead, guided by our parents, by our teachers, by our managers, and by psychology's fascination with pathology, we become experts in our weaknesses and spend our lives trying to repair these flaws, while our strengths lie dormant and neglected.

Marcus Buckingham, coauthor of the national bestseller First, Break All the Rules, and Donald O. Clifton, Chair of the Gallup International Research & Education Center, have created a revolutionary program to help readers identify their talents, build them into strengths, and enjoy consistent, near-perfect performance. At the heart of the book is the Internet-based StrengthsFinder® Profile, the product of a 25-year, multimillion-dollar effort to identify the most prevalent human strengths. The program introduces 34 dominant "themes" with thousands of possible combinations, and reveals how they can best be translated into personal and career success. In developing this program, Gallup has conducted psychological profiles with more than two million individuals to help readers learn how to focus and perfect these themes.

So how does it work? This book contains a unique identification number that allows you access to the StrengthsFinder Profile on the Internet. This Web-based interview analyzes your instinctive reactions and immediately presents you with your five most powerful signature themes. Once you know which of the 34 themes -- such as Achiever, Activator, Empathy, Futuristic, or Strategic -- you lead with, the book will show you how to leverage them for powerful results at three levels: for your own development, for your success as a manager, and for the success of your organization.

With accessible and profound insights on how to turn talents into strengths, and with the immediate on-line feedback of StrengthsFinder at its core, Now, Discover Your Strengths is one of the most groundbreaking and useful business books ever written.

Read and learn as James O'Hanlon and Donald Clifton describe how elementary and secondary principals, identified as outstanding, carry out their work. According to the authors, these principals resemble highly effective managers in business in their adherence to the tenets of positive psychology. While the position of principal is highly demanding, the stimulation of the work involved, accounts for much of their success. Their competitiveness makes them want their schools to be the best, and to them, each day is an opportunity to achieve that goal. Their optimism and reflective nature enables them to turn potentially negative situations in positive directions. Celebrating is both a way to teach desired behaviors and to create a positive work environment. They put attention on vision building as a way to capture the energy of all in the school to work in positive directions. When asked what brings them their greatest satisfactions in their work they do not focus on high achieving students or groups, but rather they talk about students who have succeeded against terrible odds. This success brings them pleasure, knowing they have touched a student's life in an important way. Effective Principals will: provide direction for potential and practicing principals, help school patrons to identify what kinds of principals to seek for their schools.