MARCUS BUCKINGHAM
FIND YOUR STRONGEST LIFE
WHAT THE HAPPIEST AND MOST SUCCESSFUL WOMEN DO DIFFERENTLY
(October 2009)
by Marcus Buckingham
“(Marcus Buckingham) has devoted his life to helping other people decide what to devote their lives to.” - O, The Oprah Magazine
“Arguably the business world’s most in-demand management guru.” - Business Week
New York Times bestselling author Marcus Buckingham shares the secret to reclaiming our passion and power to re-invigorate our lives in his new book FIND YOUR STRONGEST LIFE: What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently
Modern women have it all. In the past four decades, women have secured better job prospects, greater acknowledgement for achievement, wider influence, more free time, and higher salaries. And yet, recently released findings from longitudinal studies of more than 45,000 men and women reveal that women have gradually become less happy than they were 40 years ago, and less happy than men. (Stevenson and Wolfers, NBER paper no.14969). While the research indicates that men get happier as they age, women, by contrast, grow sadder as they get older. Does this mean that women should return to a world of fewer choices and opportunities? On the contrary, what we have learned provides an opportunity to answer some key questions about the needs of women now. What is the future for women in America? At work, at home, and in life, how can they find deeper fulfillment and joy? And how do we empower our young daughters and today’s 25- and 30-year-olds to make certain they don’t face the same dilemma?
Bestselling author Marcus Buckingham, the world’s leading expert in personal strengths, addresses these questions and shows women how to create lives of passion, purpose, and performance in FIND YOUR STRONGEST LIFE: What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently (Thomas Nelson; October 2009; $29.99). Hailed as a visionary in the corporate world, Buckingham now shares his proven, research-based techniques to help every woman identify her strengths, reignite her zeal and power, and live an invigorating life.
Buckingham recently led a workshop sponsored by Oprah Winfrey for 30 talented—but unfulfilled and unhappy—women. Acting on his advice, they were able to make immediate significant and positive changes in their lives. More than 1.7 million people downloaded the three-hour workshop video, and more than 100,000 unique contributors came online to post messages when his workshop and its results were featured on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” The phenomenal response to the program demonstrated the critical need to address the role of personal strengths in women’s lives.
In FIND YOUR STRONGEST LIFE, Buckingham challenges conventional wisdom and reveals:
• Ten myths about women—Women with more free time feel less stressed; kids want more time with their working mothers; being good at multitasking helps women get everything done; and women earn less than men for doing the same work. All of these beliefs are part of our perceived wisdom about women. And all of them are wrong.
• The paradox of declining female happiness—Despite “getting it all,” since 1972, women’s overall level of happiness has dropped, both relative to where they were 50 years ago, and relative to men.
• Having children does not make women happier—With isolated exceptions, this drop in happiness affects women regardless of whether they have kids, how many kids they have, how much money they make, their health, their job, their marital status, their age, or race.
• Paid leave, telecommuting and flex-time have a zero or negative correlation to happiness—Workplace data show that programs designed to recruit and retain the most talented women—such as on-site daycare, flexible work options, and paid leave—don’t improve actual happiness.
Buckingham arms women to get back on track and make the necessary tough—and revitalizing—choices by showing that the happiest and most successful women:
• Don’t agonize on who they aren’t—they accept and act on who they are. They have discovered the role they were born to play and they play it.
• Don’t juggle—they catch-and-cradle. They don’t keep things at bay, but select a few things and draw them in close.
• Don’t strive for balance—they strive for fullness. They intentionally imbalance their lives towards those moments that make them feel strong.
• Always sweat the small stuff—They know and act on the specific details of what invigorates them (and they let go of what doesn’t strengthen them).
FIND YOUR STRONGEST LIFE introduces Marcus Buckingham’s Strong Life Test, a unique profile-builder that can be accessed free of charge at www.stronglifetest.com and measures individuals against nine distinct roles to reveal each woman’s Lead Role, the role she was born to play—the role that she and her closest friends and family will recognize as her core self. Buckingham guides readers to use their roles—Advisor, Caretaker, Creator, Equalizer, Influencer, Motivator, Pioneer, Teacher, Weaver—as a compass to direct them toward recreating and building upon the strongest moments of their lives. He provides a series of exercises, real-life examples, and in-depth responses to various scenarios to help women recharge and redirect relationships at work and at home. Buckingham also offers itemized Strong Life plans for finding the right career, switching careers, decision making, solving problems, creating resilience, resolving conflicts, and raising kids.
An indispensable tool for women of all ages, FIND YOUR STRONGEST LIFE will forever change the way women choose to live and work. And by enabling women to tap into their best selves, Marcus Buckingham will help them shatter the internal “glass ceiling” and reach the most elevated level of personal achievement and contribution—their strongest life.
About the Author
Marcus Buckingham is the bestselling author of five books, with more than 3.7 million copies in print, and the world’s leading expert in personal strengths. An internationally renowned consultant and the founder of TMBC, a management consulting company, he has been hailed as a visionary by corporations such as Toyota, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, and Disney. Buckingham has been featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Larry King Live, The Today Show, Good Morning America, and The View, and profiled in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Fortune, Fast Company, and Harvard Business Review. A graduate of Cambridge University who was a Senior Researcher at Gallup Organization for nearly two decades, Buckingham addresses more than 250,000 people in live audiences each year and leads management training initiatives in organizations worldwide. For further information, please visit www.marcusbuckingham.com.