Background Marcus Buckingham was born in the UK and lives in America. He attended Cambridge University and graduated with a Masters degree in Social and Political Science. While at Cambridge he began working with the educational psychologist Donald O. Clifton who was developing a system to identify talents and skills in order to match people to their work. In 1988 Clifton’s company SRI acquired the Gallup Organisation and over the next 17 years Buckingham developed his ideas around strengths and leadership while a senior Gallup researcher. Using research data gathered worldwide he concluded that people are more productive and happier when they play to their strengths and he argued that weakness and failure had been over-emphasised.
Career Marcus Buckingham’s early research formed the basis of his 1999 book First, Break All the Rules with Curt Coffman, a New York Times bestseller which has been described as an instant classic. In it they describe how truly great managers break the rules of conventional wisdom to bring out the best in their employees. He followed up with Now Discover Your Strengths with Donald O. Clifton in which the pair developed the StrengthsFinder personality test which has since been accessed by more than 5 million people.
Continuing to build on these ideas he launched the The Marcus Buckingham Company (TMBC) in 2006 with a suite of management training tools and programmes aimed at furthering the “strengths revolution.”
Marcus Buckingham is highly in demand as a speaker worldwide and recently became involved with a project sponsored by Oprah Winfrey for talented women who wanted to find greater fulfillment. The results were featured on her show and led to the book, Find Your Strongest Life: What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently, which has gone on to generate some lively debate.
Marcus Buckingham is a frequent guest on prominent US TV shows from Good Morning America to Larry King Live and has been the subject of numerous profiles. He has written many articles several of which tackle the issues of women’s success and happiness. He has recently written about the Generation Y workforce with his wife Jane Buckingham.
His company TMBC works with leading corporations and he has been a member of the Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on Leadership and Management.
He lives in Los Angeles.