One of the most important questions you can ever ask yourself is this, “What are my strengths?” Knowing the answer is the key to job satisfaction.

It will determine how fast you advance in your career and, more importantly, how happy you are in your job—and perhaps your life.

Do you know your weaknesses as well as your strengths? Early in my career, I thought I had to be good at everything. It didn’t help that I had a boss who seemed to be great at everything. This challenged me to work on my own “areas of opportunity.”

According to bestselling author Marcus Buckingham, in his book Now, Discover Your Strengths, most organizations are built on two flawed assumptions about people:

I have been a Marcus Buckingham devotee for years. As you may recall, he is the one who started the “strengths revolution” with the New York Times bestseller, Now Discover Your Strengths. This month we will publish Find Your Strongest Life: What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently. In a moment, I will tell you how to get a copy FREE if you are a blogger.

I have worked hard to incorporate Marcus’ principles into my own personal development and leadership philosophy. In fact, we have built it into our performance reviews at my company, Thomas Nelson.

Once a quarter, we pull all our Nashville-based employes together (about 400) for an all-company team meeting. Our goal is three-fold: to report on the previous quarter’s results, recognize outstanding performance, and preview our “coming attractions.”

We held this quarter’s meeting yesterday at The Donelson Fellowship, a church near our corporate headquarters. Rob Morgan, the pastor, and his gracious staff, have served as our hosts now for more than five years. Their facility is perfect for our size, with state-of-the-art audio-visual equipment.

Rather than reviewing one book this week, I thought I would share my favorite business books. I get asked this question regularly, most recently when I was lecturing at Vanderbilt University’s Owen Business School earlier this week.

I have blogged on this topic previously. However, it has been almost two years. Since that time, my list has changed. Only four of the previous ones are on the new list. However, all twenty (the previous list and this one) are excellent.

A few weeks ago, we had Marcus Buckingham in to speak at our All Employee Meeting. He did a fantastic job. Because we are committed to building a strengths-based organization, we also gave a copy of his new book, The Truth About You, to each of our employees. I only wish someone had given me this message 30 years ago.

The Truth About You is a simple but amazing book. Well, it’s not exactly a book—it’s an experience. The package contains a DVD with a 24-minute film, an enhanced CD-ROM, an interactive book, and a ReMemo Pad.

From a career standpoint, this is probably the most important question you could ever ask. The answer will determine how fast you advance in your career and, more importantly, how happy you are in your job. Many of us have had to figure it out the hard way—by trial and error. But fortunately, there is a better way.

In 2001, Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton wrote their blockbuster bestseller, Now, Discover Your Strengths. As part of the book, readers were given a special code to access an online strengths assessment. We’ve used the philosophy—and the assessment—extensively here at Thomas Nelson.