StandOut (24 page)

A full technical report and summary is available at
www.standout.tmbc.com
.

Acknowledgments

I am blessed to share my life and work with strong personalities. Jane Buckingham, creative, insightful, and so very practical. Charlotte Jordan, who fights the “what is right?” vs ‘what is best?’ battle every day. Jaqai Mickelsen, who wanders through our training and development world wondering how he got here, determined to make it more fun, and more beautiful. This book, and the StandOut assessment at its heart, was begun as an attempt by me to understand them, and to pinpoint their greatest gifts. Thank you for your patience with me, and for sharing your gifts with the rest of us.

As you can imagine, a great deal has to happen for a book/ assessment such as StandOut to emerge credible, complete and engaging. First, you have to design the assessment. Huge thanks here to my partner in psychometric crime, Dr. Courtney McCashland, whose experience was invaluable in crafting the scenarios, and who then wrote the technical summary which captures the statistical properties of StandOut.

Then you have to conduct all the interviews with excellent leaders, managers, sales and service people, and derive from these interviews practical innovations and techniques. Tracy Hutton has been my calmly insightful partner in this ongoing research effort.

Then you have to design the assessment so that it appears at once substantial and friendly. Jaqai Mickelsen’s creative strengths are on full display here—if you feel at home in the StandOut world, thank him. Alfonso Gonzalez was his ace in the hole when it came to polishing the design elements to their shiny ruby best.

Then there’s work you never see, the work that makes the whole thing work: the building of the relational databases, the programming of the algorithms, the testing, testing, testing. In the beginning there was Shaun Wanford, and now David Wagner toils behind the façade, providing us the structure and the certainty we need.

Then you have to write the book. Bryan Norman, my editor, has the kind of mind I aspire to have: penetrating, strong, gentle.

Then, when you are almost done, you give everything to Darren Raymond and say “Here. Fix it. Make it right.” And instead he makes it better.

Thank you all.

Since we started TMBC in 2007 we have been blessed with some visionary partners who have expected more from us. Thank you for raising our sights: Gina Valenti and Phil Cordell of Hilton Worldwide; Telvin Jeffries, Nancy Blok-Anderson, and Amy Leschke-Kahle of Kohls; Lori Goler and Stuart Crabb of Facebook; Steve Stickel, Ben Putterman and John Lindner of Banana Republic; Camille Mirshokrai of Accenture.

We wouldn’t have been able to reach these sights if it weren’t for some extraordinary performers here at TMBC: Charlotte Jordan, who architects with such passion and precision all of the training we offer to world-class managers; Holly Dowling who infuses this training with her authority and her delighted spirit; Kristi Pavel, whose call everyone wants to take, and who we turn to for confidence; Maggie Hensle and Nancy Day-Glasberg, who bring our approach into people’s lives, one intimate conversation at a time; Stephanie Daniels, who wins over everyone she meets, and who makes me look a great deal more responsive that I really am; Tiffany Criner, who somehow gets everyone to like her, and who then effortlessly transfers that goodwill to us; Elvie Moore, who smiles as the numbers balance, and who’s still smiling when they don’t; and Jessica Lee, who really runs the place.

Brian Hampton, thank you.

Mary Graham, thank you for your leadership.

Sheila Walsh, thank you for your awe-inspiring talent; and your generosity.

Jennifer Rudolf Walsh, thank you for your diamond spine; and your adoring heart.

Janie, Jack and Lilia, thank you for the material.

And all the love.

About Marcus Buckingham

Marcus Buckingham’s groundbreaking ideas started a strengths revolution that has changed the business world. Beginning with
First, Break All the Rules
his books have sold more than 4 million copies. Through his training and development firm TMBC (
www.TMBC.com
) he teaches managers how to turn their associates’ strengths into performance. Before launching TMBC, Marcus spent nearly two decades at the Gallup Organization studying what drives exceptional performance in the world’s best managers. He has been profiled in the
Wall Street Journal
, the
New York Times
,
Fortune
, and
Fast Company
, and currently works with companies such as Facebook, Kohl’s, Hilton, Microsoft, Chick-fil-A, Banana Republic, and the Walt Disney Company. A past member of the Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on Leadership and Management, Marcus graduated from Cambridge University with a master’s degree in social and political science. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Jane, and their two children.

About Dr. Courtney McCashland

Dr. Courtney McCashland partnered with Marcus to design, develop, and validate the StandOut strengths assessment. As the president of the Global Assessment Division at Kenexa (
www.kenexa.com
) she leads Kenexa’s mission to help companies find and develop the best individuals for every job. Kenexa is the exclusive global reseller of the StandOut strengths assessment. Over the last decade, Courtney has developed many cutting-edge assessments, including the Strengths Engagement Track (SET) for Marcus’ best-selling book
Go Put Your Strengths to Work
, and the Survivor Profiler™ with Ben Sherwood for his bestseller
The Survivors Club: The Secrets and Science that Could Save Your Life
. Courtney was among a select cohort awarded scholarships from The Gallup Organization to attend the University of Southern California. She graduated first in her class with a doctorate in organizational leadership. She now lives in Lincoln, Nebraska, with her husband, Patrick, and their four children.