Tom Rath, Global Practice Leader at Gallup, is a leading business thinker whose best-selling books include How Full Is Your Bucket?, StrengthsFinder 2.0, and most recently,
Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements. he recently sat down with Speaker magazine
to share his thoughts on how professional speakers can learn from decades’ worth of
data cultivated by one of the world’s leading research organizations.
Speaker: First things first, how does
the concept of “leverage” fit into the
research you’ve done over the years?
Tom Rath: “Leverage” is a good term
for a lot of what we do at Gallup. One
of our biggest findings over the past
decade and longer is that people really
have an ability to be more of who they
already are. And in turn, they struggle
when they try to be something they’re
not. Anyone who’s a thought leader,
speaker or expert can expand on their
core and natural talents.
What are some of the ways you
strategically leverage your research
in books and speeches?
TR: I’m conscious about learning as
much as I can about the group beforehand — specifically, about expectations
and what I can expect as far as long-term followup. My strength is clearly
not in being a rah-rah motivational
speaker who’s going to get everyone
physically energized, but I’m always
clear with the event organizers that
the goal is for people to be challenged
to do their jobs differently because of
what they hear. If the time I spend with
the group helps them become better
managers and leaders, and challenges
their thinking, that’s how I’d define
success in that context.
Whenever I get a request to
speak, I specifically ask the organiz-
ers what they expect from a behavior
or leadership standpoint three, six
or 12 months later. If that’s not on
the radar of the people hosting the
event, I turn down more opportuni-
ties than I accept. It would be so easy
to walk into an event, give a talk, and
feel good as I walk out the door. But
if you look at the influence you’re
having more broadly, whether it’s to
help them be more engaged at work
or lead better lives, you get a lot more
effective plan in place if you ask that
question upfront. When an organizer
can point to specific things they’re
rolling out, and I can see how my team
or I can be part of making ongoing
measurable improvement in outcomes,
then I'm 10 times more interested than
a one-hour event that doesn’t have
much impact a month later.
With such a wealth of research at
your disposal, how do you iden-
tify audience hot buttons and choose
what you present?
TR: I’m a little more introverted to
start out with, just in terms of my own
personality. One way I work around
that is to ask a lot of questions and
be disciplined about listening to the
thought-out responses. That includes
people in my organization, as well as
our clients. Every night, Gallup asks
thousands of people their thoughts
and opinions about their workplaces,
wellbeing and government, and we do
it in 150 countries. What guides our
research is finding out the common
