Lifting Employee Performance: A Conversation with Marcus Buckingham

Books by Marcus Buckingham

Marcus Buckingham has written several bestselling books on the topics of leadership, management and creating high-performing workplaces. His work, guided by large, multi-national studies, can help us develop highly effective school systems. Here’s what I see as the relevancy of three of his published works.

First, Break All the Rules (2016)

This is the book that introduced me to Buckingham and one I highly recommend. After interviewing 80,000 managers in 400 companies, he and co-author Curt Coffman identified six key questions that employees ask about their organization. Securing positive responses to these queries is proven to promote a highly effective workplace.

Now, Discover Your Strengths (2001)

Continuing with the theme of focusing on employee strengths rather than correcting weaknesses, this book, co-authored with Donald O. Clifton, describes a helpful tool called the Strengths-finder assessment. Administering the assessment can be a great way to understand employees’ strengths and help school leaders guide those they supervise.

Nine Lies About Work (2019)

This is Buckingham’s latest book and was the primary focus of my interview with him. Co-authored with Ashley Goodall, the book calls into question many of our long-held beliefs about employees and leading in the workplace. The book is provocative and revolutionary; it will challenge and inform school leaders’ thinking about how to lead their staffs.