We invite you to read, enjoy, and learn from this book using your own strengths. Do you learn best by sitting down and reading an interesting book from cover to cover? Go for it! Do you work best in the seek-and-find method? That works here too! Read the Contents and go directly to a section that intrigues you. Do you want to know the how before you care about the why? If so, begin by reading the Implementation Ideas section at the end of each chapter. As you begin to travel through this book, do whatever maximizes your strengths! We won’t mind; as a matter of fact, we’ll love it—and you will enjoy yourself and learn more! Our book is not a mystery, therefore you won’t ruin the plot by starting in the middle!

Chapter 1♠: Pat Hand: Playing the Cards You’re Dealt, introduces the Strengths Revolution emerging in business, academica, and psychology, because engaging strengths increases personal and organizational success. In it, we define strengths and the innate talents and gifts that underpin skills and passions. Readers explore how strengths are broad and deep, and are so much more than the sum of their experiences, skills, and education. Chapter 1 sets the stage for discovering and applying strengths in your work, your team, your organization, and your life.

In Chapter 2♠: Dealer’s Choice: Naming the Game You’ll Play, you have the opportunity to name your strengths. You’ll create your own leadership brand—the unique differentiator that fuels your leadership success. Often, we do not see our strengths clearly because they are our natural element, the air we breathe. Our strengths are so much a part of us that we cannot imagine anyone not doing it the way we do! To find our strengths, we have to pull back, see the strengths that lie within, and become crystal clear about who we are and what we contribute. If you’ve ever been asked “What is your leadership style?” you’ll discover the answer in Chapter 2.

How can you gain clarity about your weaknesses and learn to manage them so they don’t steal precious time from playing to your strengths? In Chapter 3♠: Discards: Knowing When to Hold ’em or Fold ’em, you’ll identify your weaknesses and—don’t despair—create a plan to manage them.

In Chapter 4♠: Showdown: Playing for High Stakes, we explore what to do now that you know your strengths. How does knowing your strengths affect your career, your development, the design of your job, and your personal satisfaction? We consider how you can grow and use your strengths, and align your job to make the most of them.

In Chapter 5♠: Ante Up: Building the Kitty, you’ll look at how to invest in your staff ’s strengths to make everyone richer. As a leader and manager, you already know it is imperative to hire people who will expand your team’s effectiveness. You naturally look for skills to augment your staff while boosting its capacity. We explore how strengths improve the basic management processes that you use every day, such as hiring, managing performance, delegating and accountability, and rewarding and developing your people. Having a clear handle on strengths helps you acquire, retain, and inspire truly great talent to achieve your most important goals.

In Chapter 6♠: Ace in the Hole: Uncovering Hidden Strengths, we explore how to mine strengths from the people you lead. We consider how to hold conversations about strengths; how to help others discover their strengths; how to catch them using their strengths; and how to inspire them to build their strengths, creating greater success for the organization. We delve deeply into the most effective tool you have for working with your employees’ strengths—the process of coaching. Chapter 6 shows you how to use coaching to engage and motivate others by helping them uncover and use their hidden strengths.

Chapter 7♠: Dolly Parton: Completing the 9-to-5 Straight, highlights strengths in teams of all types—intact, project, temporary, long-term, ad hoc, virtual, or any other. We provide tools you can use to assist in establishing and sustaining a strong team foundation, including chartering, establishing ground rules, creating interlocking accountability, and developing team strengths.

Chapter 8♠: Go All In: Committing the Full House, speaks to senior leaders intrigued by the idea of creating a strengths-based culture. We look at the key people systems and processes found in every organization and show how to shift them to sustain and nurture a culture that redoubles strengths. We believe senior leaders have a huge responsibility and considerable untapped potential to build the most effective organization they can. We also believe strengths-based initiatives provide the key to this goal because using individual strength invariably leads to a stronger organization!

Chapter 9♠: Royal Flush: Winning the Most Important Game, challenges you to further apply your strengths in the most important arena: the game of life. We explore how you can use your strengths in the communities you touch professionally and personally through mentoring, serving your community, and leaving a legacy that surpasses your hopes and expectations.

So let’s get cut the deck and get started!