Following the success of the landmark bestsellers First, Break All the Rules and Now, Discover Your Strengths, Marcus Buckingham offers a dramatically new way to understand the art of success.

With over 1.6 million copies of First, Break All the Rules (co-authored with Curt Coffman) and Now, Discover Your Strengths (co-authored with Donald O. Clifton) in print, Cambridge-educated Buckingham is considered one of the most respected business authorities on the subject of management and leadership in the world. With The One Thing You Need to Know, he gives readers an invaluable course in outstanding achievement -- a guide to capturing the essence of the three most fundamental areas of professional activity.

Great managing, leading, and career success -- Buckingham draws on a wealth of applicable examples to reveal that a controlling insight lies at the heart of the three. Lose sight of this "one thing" and even the best efforts will be diminished or compromised. Readers will be eager to discover the surprisingly different answers to each of these rich and complex subjects. Each could be explained endlessly to detail their many facets, but Buckingham's great gift is his ability to cut through the mass of often-conflicting agendas and zero in on what matters most, without ever oversimplifying. As he observes, success comes to those who remain mindful of the core insight, understand all of its ramifications, and orient their decisions around it. Buckingham backs his arguments with authoritative research from a wide variety of sources, including his own research data and in-depth interviews with individuals at every level of an organization, from CEO's to hotel maids and stockboys.

In every way a groundbreaking book, The One Thing You Need to Know offers crucial performance and career lessons for business people at all career stages.
As a social science researcher and an esteemed business consultant, Marcus Buckingham (First, Break All the Rules and Now, Discover Your Strengths) has spent considerable time studying the big picture. This wide-angle approach led him to an unexpectedly narrow conclusion: There is a core concept to even the most complex topic. What he has discovered in The One Thing You Need to Know is that single "controlling insights" exist for a whole range of situations, and when properly applied, can encourage exponential improvement and lead to precise action and results. In applying this concept to managing, leading, and individual performance he has pinpointed the single element necessary for achieving success in each of these three key positions.

Buckingham acknowledges the subtleties of the topic and his goal is "not to make these subjects simpler, merely clearer." And what could be clearer than one thing? The challenge lies in filtering out the nonessential matters and distinguishing "between what is merely important and what is imperative" in order to produce the greatest and most far-reaching effects. In offering advice on how to do this he also details the three things you need to learn about a person to manage them effectively, explains why a lack of balance is a good thing, shows how to identify your own strengths and weaknesses, and discusses which personality traits all great leaders must possess.

Clearly written, informative, and enjoyable, the book aims to motivate readers to act--not just think--differently by providing concrete examples and specific lessons. And it need not be confined to the office--the concepts outlined in these pages can help people feel more fulfilled and productive in all aspects of life. --Shawn Carkonen

Essential Buckingham

First, Break All the Rules	Now, Discover Your Strengths	The One Thing You Need To Know, Audio CD
First, Break All The Rules, Audio CD	Now, Discover Your Strengths, Audio CD	First, Break All the Rules, Audio Cassette

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Transformational Approach - AND they stick!
Comment: The 3 things that 'stuck':
1) As a Manager: Celebrate uniqueness
2) As a Leader: Call on needs we all share
3) Sustained Success: Cut out activities that don't feed you - pull from strength!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: It's not ONE thing...it's many
Comment: The title is misleading...it's not one thing, it's many...and the many things the author cites are rehashed wisdom and experience, though he does present them in a succinct way. This book is for management junkies, not serious people looking for practical strategies to improve their and their team's performance. This is one more example of the superficial competition to fill your bookshelves with passed on wisdom. Better to roll up your sleeves and just DO IT!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Wisdom
Comment: I found Marcus Buckingham's wisdom about great management and leadership to be right on. Having worked in an environment that focused on people's weaknesses as an area for growth, this book was refreshing and pointed to the importance of developing talent and strengths. The examples are about well established people and very intriguing to study.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A promise kept
Comment: Every book holds a promise. This one holds 3 and keeps 4. Not a bad score.
The book shares with you the secrets of individual success, management, leadership, and successful relationships. Yes, you could wish Marcus threw in the secret of eternal youth - but, I guess, he is still working on it. Good luck, Marcus! Your audience awaits!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: The One Review You Need to Read
Comment: How long should it take you to tell someone the ONE thing they need to know? A whole book? Mr. Buckingham is a promoter - a salesman. Nothing wrong with that but you are not going to achieve enlightenment by reading it. This is just a generation X Zig Zigler. Don't be pathetic and think that a self-help book is going to change your life. That only comes through reflection and personal growth. So, now for free I am going to tell you the one thing you need to know AND I am even going to give you two versions of it:

Version One: Jesus "Do into others what you would have others do into you."
Version Two: Hillel "What is hateful to you do not do to your fellow man."

There are other versions.

It is called the Ethic of Reciprocity. All else is commentary. Now go study.

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