No. 600, December 1, 2008

The review

A Great Dvd

seen by Jonas Himmelstrand

Trombone Player Wanted

Marcus Buckingham is one of the worlds leading authorities on leadership and personal growth using the strengths perspective. Backed up by solid research from The Gallup Organisation Buckingham has shown that growth and effectiveness is greatly enhanced by focusing on our strengths rather than on our weaknesses.

For those who have not read one of Buckingham’s great books, there is now a dvd, Trombone Player Wanted. On the dvd Buckingham presents his basic ideas in a warm, personal and high-touch style. The dvd is divided in six short 10-15 minute presentations which can be viewed on different occasions, making them ideal as short inspiring presentations for a team.

As a backdrop to Buckingham’s presentation a story of a young boy is shown. The boy plays the trombone but his passion is to play the drums. He tries to convince his music teacher to let him play the drums, but the teacher shakes his head, he needs a trombone player in the school orchestra. Finally the boy puts up a poster saying. "Trombone Player Wanted". A girl sees the poster and happily asks for the position. Finally the boy gets to use his strengths, to play the drums.

Buckingham’s presentations give some very strong messages. After seeing the first two presentations Buckingham will have captured your mind as well as your heart. Even powerful messages such as "A strength is something that makes you feel strong" or "Time spent using a weakness is ineffective" or "Find out what you don’t want to do, and stop doing it" will make full logical sense after Buckingham has explained them.

Buckingham is an excellent presenter who makes his message go straight to your heart on this great dvd. Recommended!

Trombone Player Wanted, Dvd. The Marcus Buckingham Company 2007. 82 minutes.

© 2008 Strategies to Learn & Grow Newsletter • Printable version