Strengths Based Leadership

Tom Rath (born 1975) is an American author and researcher whose work has centered on the strengths-based psychology, employee engagement, and well-being research conducted at Gallup, the American analytics and management consulting firm where Rath spent thirteen years as a senior leader. Born with a rare hereditary cancer that cost him sight in one eye in childhood and shaped his adult interest in well-being and resilience, Rath earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania. He is best known as the author or co-author of five #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers built around Gallup's research instruments. "StrengthsFinder 2.0" (2007), packaged with an access code for the Clifton StrengthsFinder online assessment (later renamed CliftonStrengths), has sold more than ten million copies and has consistently ranked among the best-selling business books of the twenty-first century. The assessment identifies an individual's top five strength themes from a taxonomy of thirty-four — themes such as Achiever, Strategic, Learner, Relator, and Activator — developed by Gallup founder Donald O. Clifton. "How Full Is Your Bucket?" (2004), co-authored with his grandfather Donald Clifton, applied positive-psychology research to interpersonal interactions in the workplace. "Strengths Based Leadership" (2008), co-authored with Barry Conchie, extended the framework to executive roles and identified four domains of leadership strength. "Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements" (2010), co-authored with Jim Harter, drew on Gallup's global well-being research to identify career, social, financial, physical, and community well-being as the universal pillars of a thriving life. "Eat Move Sleep" (2013) translated public-health research into specific daily-habit recommendations and was a personal project written in part to share what Rath had learned managing his own chronic illness. Rath has subsequently founded Mission Collaborative and continues to write and lecture on strengths, well-being, and meaningful work. He lives outside Washington, D.C.