Our research and knowledge base on the topic of human strengths have expanded dramatically over the past decade. It appears that the epidemic of active disengagement we see in workplaces every day could be a curable diseaseвЂ¦if we can help the people around us develop their strengths. Perhaps most surprising is the degree to which having a manager who focuses on your strengths decreases the odds of your being miserable on the job. The chances of your being actively disengaged are:ДЄs you can see from these results, having a manager who ignores you is even more detrimental than having a manager who primarily focuses on your weaknesses. What we found completely redefined my perspective about how easy it may be to decrease the active disengagement, or extreme negativity, that runs rampant in organizations. In 2005, we explored what happens when managers primarily focus on employeesвЂ™ strengths, primarily focus on employeesвЂ™ weaknesses, or ignore employees. In stark contrast, our studies indicate that people who do have the opportunity to focus on their strengths every day are six times as likely to be engaged in their jobs and more than three times as likely to report having an excellent quality of life in general.ДЇortunately, our research also suggests that having someone at work who regularly focuses on your strengths can make a dramatic difference. In a recent poll of more than 1,000 people, among those who вЂњstrongly disagreedвЂќ or вЂњdisagreedвЂќ with this вЂњwhat I do bestвЂќ statement, not one single person was emotionally engaged on the job. вЂњAt work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.вЂќДЄnd for those who do not get to focus on what they do best-their strengths-the costs are staggering. Over the past decade, Gallup has surveyed more than 10 million people worldwide on the topic of employee engagement (or how positive and productive people are at work), and only one-third вЂњstrongly agreeвЂќ with the statement: Yet when it comes to creating strength-based families, communities, and workplaces, we still have a lot of work to do. The assessment has since been translated into more than 20 languages and is used by businesses, schools, and community groups in more than 100 nations around the world. Over the past few years alone, millions of people have participated in StrengthsFinder and learned about their top five themes of talent-and Now, Discover Your Strengths has spent more than five years on the bestseller lists. It appears that the world was ready to have this conversation. The discussion quickly moved beyond the management audience of this book. Then in 2001, we included the initial version of this assessment with the bestselling management book Now, Discover Your Strengths. WhatвЂ™s more, we had discovered that people have several times more potential for growth when they invest energy in developing their strengths instead of correcting their deficiencies.Д«ased on GallupвЂ™s 40-year study of human strengths, we created a language of the 34 most common talents and developed the Clifton StrengthsFinder assessment to help people discover and describe these talents. SocietyвЂ™s relentless focus on peopleвЂ™s shortcomings had turned into a global obsession. We were tired of living in a world that revolved around fixing our weaknesses. Our goal was to start a global conversation about whatвЂ™s right with people. In 1998, I began working with a team of Gallup scientists led by the late Father of Strengths Psychology, Donald O.

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