The Five Talents That Really Matter - by Barry Conchie & Sarah Dalton (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Anyone can be a leader. A leader's strengths can be their greatest weaknesses. Those statements touted in many business books. But, according to Barry Conchie and his business partner Sarah Dalton, they are complete BS. The Five Talents That Really Matter explains how high-performing leaders are talented in five essential ways. The Five Talents That Really Matter strips away the fluff in leadership and unveils and describes the traits and characteristics that actually determine high-performance leadership. These talents provide a template against which career-driven managers and leaders can assess and develop their own capabilities. The five evidence-based talent dimensions are: Direction: High-performing leaders describe a compelling, intrinsically good destination and help others understand that getting there will be worth the effort. Drive: This dimension hardly needs a description. We all know it when we see it: strong work ethic, tenacity, goal-orientation... being a self-starter. Influence: The ability to motivate, persuade, challenge, and change the minds of others. Relationships: People matter to outstanding leaders. They can build commitment and trust among the people they work with. Execution: Excellent leaders are obsessed with getting work done and how work gets done. Through questioning, assessment, scientific predictions, and testing, Conchie and Dalton have built a database that reveals the talents and behaviors of the most successful leaders. In this book they present for the first the first time a model that demystifies the aura and complexity surrounding high performing leaders"--

Book Synopsis

A former Gallup Global Leadership Research and Development leader and the New York Times bestselling coauthor of Strengths-Based Leadership demystifies the aura and complexity surrounding high performing leaders through original research and interviews with high-performing global leaders.

The leadership space is rife with myths, such as the belief that anyone can be a leader with enough effort or that a leader's strengths can be their greatest weaknesses. According to Barry Conchie and his business partner Sarah Dalton, these statements are complete BS. The Five Talents That Really Matter dispels the fluff in leadership literature, unveiling the traits and characteristics that truly determine high-performance leadership.

This book serves as a guide, stripping away misconceptions and providing a template against which career-driven managers and leaders can assess and develop their capabilities. The five evidence-based talent dimensions are:

• Setting Direction: High-performing leaders guide their organizations through complex situations and articulate the value that so many employees find motivational and engaging.
• Building Energy: Driven by a burning work ethic, Talented leaders set an exacting example. They measure progress, and recognize that the most Talented employees beneath them demand their greatest attention and support.
• Exerting Pressure: Talented leaders assert a clear point of view and persuasively drive change and improvement, never settling for average outcomes.
• Increasing Connectivity: Outstanding leaders prioritize people, establishing effective followership through purposeful and ethical behavior, and demonstrating care and concern for those they lead.
• Controlling Traffic: High performing leaders understand their organizations, driving superior performance by establishing protocols and guardrails while showing agility and flexibility when circumstances change.

Through meticulous research, assessment, and testing, Conchie and Dalton have built a database that predicts the talents and behaviors of the most successful leaders. In this book they present for the first the first time a scientific model that demystifies the aura and complexity surrounding high performing leaders.

Review Quotes

"The Five Talents is a practical unlock around the dominant strengths that define truly standout leadership and takes this framework to how you can recruit for the five key talents using the same rigor you would use to make other critical decisions. It's a highly efficient and well-researched work that will take your impact as a leader to a new level."
--John Clendening, Founder and CEO of Earned Wealth

"The Five Talents is one of the sharpest and most practical books on leadership I have read! If you lead others, you need to read this book. If you hire or develop leaders, read this book and use it as a daily guide. It is a roadmap for developing sustainable and high performing teams."--Tom Rath, New York Times Best-selling Author on Wellbeing and Organizational Leadership

"A game changer for CHRO's attempting to drive performance focused on the definition and assessment of the most critical leadership talents. Data-driven and with actionable insights, this book addresses topics as important as succession planning, DEI, and leadership selection with strong, research-based authority."--Ali Bebo, CHRO of Pearson

"Conchie significantly advances the science of leadership prediction and performance development."--Connie Rath, President of The Clifton Foundation

"I highly recommend this book, which will challenge and broaden your thinking of leadership. It is blunt, fact-based and provides piercing insights that I will incorporate into my own leadership journey."--Kevin Lobo, Chair and CEO of Stryker

"I loved reading this. It made me think deeply about people and strategy decisions I made in my career and how they could have been improved or, in some cases, how spot on they were. If you allow yourself to absorb the lessons in this book, there is no hiding from the truth and what is the right thing to do." --George Borst, Retired President and CEO of Toyota Financial Services

"This is a wise book that will change how serious people think about leadership. Conchie and Dalton bring refreshing clarity to a complex and convoluted field by elucidating the tortuous relationship between individual traits and organizational context. Their secret--meticulous science."--Don Ronchi PhD, Senior Advisor at White Wolf Capital

About the Author

Barry Conchie is Founder & President of Conchie Associates. Previously he headed the Gallup organization's Global Leadership Research and Development business and served until 2013 as a Senior Scientist. He is the NYT and WSJ best-selling co-author of Strengths-Based Leadership. His work for Gallup began in London where he developed their leadership consulting business across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, before moving to Washington, DC to assume global responsibilities in 2002. Barry's current research is in the science of decision making, heuristics and cognitive bias. He lives in Boulder, Colorado.

Sarah Dalton is a Partner at Conchie & Associates. She is certified in conducting executive level talent assessments and regularly advises leaders on the dominant ways in which they can achieve success while raising critical questions to help them become more effective. Originally from San Francisco, California, she is currently based in Denver, Colorado.