Why Make Eagles Swim?

Stop wasting time “fixing” your so-called weaknesses. And start leveraging the powerful ways you’re already innately great!

Bill Munn says the key to maximizing performance is already planted within us—and within everyone around us—in the inherent strengths we often ignore while we focus on overcoming so-called weaknesses. This bias toward improving on negatives gets in the way of our ability to fully excel in our work life and at home. We devalue our innate strengths in part because we take our gifts for granted, and in part because we’ve been conditioned to focus on getting good at things we struggle with, at the expense of excelling in the ways we're intrinsically great. An eagle doesn’t need to put energy toward improving his swimming skills because he is a natural master of soaring. Munn explains, with heart and authority, how we can live like the eagle, finding true success as we focus on our gifts—and help those we manage do the same.

Munn provides a selection of specific traits (Creator, Decisive, Developer, among others) and tools to help readers identify unique strengths in themselves and others. He follows with techniques that help us nurture our strongest gifts—our power-alley attributes—and better grow and manage teams according to the group’s overall attribute profile. With his advice, we kick unproductive habits to the curb and experience the power of our personal best. Munn presents tactics for recognizing and appreciating power-alley traits in others as well as insights into the power and pitfalls of each attribute, the best and worst attribute pairings, which attributes fit with specific job functions, and more.

Munn’s book speaks to those seeking to improve their teams and their leadership skills, as well as to any person who wants to leverage his or her own natural gifts while better understanding, engaging, and nurturing others.

​Bill Munn is a management-coaching veteran of twenty-six years and former top-level executive of a Dow 30 and Fortune 500 company.