Strengths Finders 2.0 by Tom Rath

“Strengths Finder 2.0” is a book designed to go with a website. If you buy the book, it comes with an online test that tells you your five top strengths. The online test gives you two statements and you have to quickly express which one describes you more on a continuum. And they are not always mutually exclusive statements. There are 177 questions and it takes about half an hour. There is a timeout on each question (and a way to request an accessible version.) It could have used a pause button.

The price of this book is interesting. If you buy it used or get it from the library, you can't take the test. You can buy the top 5 test for $20 online. The kindle edition is $20 but it isn't clear if that comes with the test. The paper book has a list price of $30, but is currently selling for $17.

My five top strengths were reported as: learner, harmony, input, discipline and analytical. I disagree with harmony. Under working with someone with a strength of harmony, it says not to invite the person to meetings where there might be controversy because he/she won't enjoy debate. I like debate!

The book covers all 34 strengths. It starts with a description of the strength and then gives examples/quotes about people with that strength. Then it covers ideas for making the most of the strength and ends with a few ideas for working with others who have that strength. This was pretty useful.

The website gives you a PDF file for “only” your top 5 strengths. It covers tips of things to do if a strength is a dominant one for you. Some are the same as the ones in The website gives you a few tips if a strength is a dominant or lesser theme.  Book and others are different. The book gives more tips. The website also categorizes strengths amongst Executing, Influencer, Relationship Building and Strategic Thinking. I got at least one of each; wonder if that is by design?

The website PDFs also give tips of what to do if something is a lesser strength. However, they don't provide links for all the strengths. Luckily, they didn't secure the URLs. Which means you can download the PDFs for all 34 strengths (or weaknesses) with the URL for only one. I'm not sharing the URL because they clearly aren't intending to distribute it to people who didn't buy the book. I did download all 34 because I wanted to read the “lesser strength” tips without getting a report on my ordering of all 34.

The main reason I'm not rating the book high is the tips themselves. Each strength only gets a few pages so there isn't much room to have actionable results. By contrast, the Emotional Intelligence book left me with a bunch of takeaways that I could actually use.

I give this book/website combo 5 out of 10 horseshoes.