Marcus Buckingham

Marcus Buckingham (born 11 January 1966) is a British author, motivational speaker and business consultant. Basing most of his writing on extensive survey data from interviews with workers in countries around the world, he promotes the idea that people will get the best results by making the most of their strengths rather than by putting too much emphasis on weaknesses or perceived deficiencies.

Buckingham was born on 11 January 1966, and was brought up in the village of Radlett, north of London. His father was the Personnel Director at Allied Breweries. Buckingham suffered from a substantial stammer which he initially found very difficult to overcome, and said he was unable to speak until the age of 13. He conquered it when asked to formally address other boys at his prep school, and pretended he was speaking to just one person, rather than 300. It proved a success: "At my prep school, everyone knew I had a stammer. At my boarding school, nobody knew".

Buckingham was educated at Edge Grove School, a boys' preparatory independent school in the village of Aldenham in Hertfordshire in Southern England, and then Aldenham School, a boarding independent school for boys (near Aldenham), which he left in 1984, followed by Pembroke College at the University of Cambridge, from which he graduated with a degree in Social and Political Sciences, in 1987.

While studying at Cambridge, Buckingham was recruited by educational psychology professor Donald O. Clifton, the founder of Selection Research, Incorporated (SRI). Clifton had co-founded SRI to develop interviews that would allow businesses to identify talents in individuals, to match people to the right roles.

SRI acquired The Gallup Organization in 1988, and took on the Gallup name. As part of Gallup, Buckingham became a member of a team working on a survey that measured a broad range of factors that contribute to employee engagement. Based on those surveys and on interviews with thousands of managers, Buckingham published (with coauthor Curt Coffman) First, Break All the Rules (Simon and Schuster, 1999). According to its subtitle, the book describes "what the world's greatest managers do differently" The book became a New York times best-seller and has over a million copies in print. It was also chosen by Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten as one of "The 100 Best Business Books of All Time" in their book of the same name.

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