Now Discover Your Strengths

Now Discover Your Strengths by MarcusBuckingham? (co author of FirstBreakAllTheRules?)

ISBN 0-7432-0766-1 for the UK, ISBN 0743201140 for the US..

Discusses how you should play to people's natural strengths rather than trying to "fix" their "weaknesses".

Depends. As a manager, I need people to be good at the things the organisation needs people to be good at. Ideally, that's also the things they're naturally good at, and we all win. Precisely the problem the book addresses. You need to find people who fit your holes rather than trying to shape people *after* you have got them. And you may have alter the organisation to *fit* the person.

Commits the blasphemy of suggesting that coders should stay coders and progress through seniority levels rather than being promoted to incompetence in management. Depends if they have natural strengths in management, surely? Indeed, but how do you know? Have you tested them recently?

Well, I'm not a captive any more these days, but I surely wouldn't want to "move up the ladder" into management if I was. Engineering -- geekdom -- is where I belong. If I can't get my hands dirty doing development work then I ain't interested. Money comes from being a CapedConsultant. Heh.