Tom Rath Quotes

#1. Leaders need to be thinking constantly about what they're doing to create a basic sense of security and stability throughout an organization.

Tom Rath

#2. What works for one person's needs is almost always very different from the next.

Tom Rath

#3. Perhaps the ultimate test of a leader is not what you are able to do in the here and now - but instead what continues to grow long after you're gone

Tom Rath

#4. Friendships are among the most fundamental of human needs.

Tom Rath

#5. When we're able to put most of our energy into developing our natural talents, extraordinary room for growth exists. So, a revision to the "You-can-be-anything-you-want-to-be" maxim might be more accurate: You cannot be anything you want to be - but you can be a lot more of who you already are.

Tom Rath

#6. The reality is that a person who has always struggled with numbers is unlikely to be a great accountant or statistician.

Tom Rath

#7. I've seen people be effective, even among local teams, by offering something that improves wellbeing in a small way - people who get passionate about smart investment strategies and managing finances for retirement, for example.

Tom Rath

#8. If you focus on people's weaknesses, they lose confidence.

Tom Rath

#9. Doing for others may be the only way to create lasting well-being.

Tom Rath

#10. When top scientists and psychologists talk about what's important to our overall wellbeing and how satisfied we are with our lives, the only thing that they all agree on is that social relationships are probably the single best predictor of our overall happiness.

Tom Rath

#11. Although individuals need not be well-rounded, teams should be.

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#12. I have started forcing myself to substitute thinking "I'm busy" with "I need to do a better job managing my time.

Tom Rath

#13. Washington is not a city that takes great pride in being a healthy place, necessarily. Now, I have no data. That's just my own observation.

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#14. If you want to improve your life and the lives of those around you, you must take action.

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#15. Figure out what you really love doing and use your strengths on a daily basis.

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#16. I think trust is primarily built through relationships, and it's important because it's the foundational currency that a leader has with his team or his followers.

Tom Rath

#17. Every hour you spend on your rear end ... saps your energy and ruins your health.

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#18. People who say they have a best friend at work are seven times as likely to be engaged in what they're doing. And if they don't have a best friend at work, the odds of being engaged are just 1 in 12.

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#19. And it is likely that Rudy had teammates for whom the inverse was true - they were a 5 on talent and just a 2 on time invested, which is clearly a waste of talent.

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#20. The vast knowledge we have to prevent cancer, heart disease, and other chronic illnesses is staggering.

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#21. Every human being has talents that are just waiting to be uncovered.

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#22. At a very basic level, people need to know that there is constancy in their jobs and, more broadly, in where the organization is headed.

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#23. If you spend your life trying to be good at everything, you will never be great at anything.

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#24. When I was in kindergarten, I entered a competition and read 52 books in a week.

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#25. Across the board, having the opportunity to develop our strengths is more important to our success than our role, our title, or even our pay.

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#26. I've spoken with a few employers who have moved away from what has to be some of the least attractive language you could use about health risk to start talking about wellbeing.

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#27. The single biggest threat to our own wellbeing tends to be ourselves

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#28. When we can see an immediate payoff, we are more likely to change our behavior in the moment. This aligns our daily actions with our long-term interests.

Tom Rath

#29. It's tempting to work more than 60 hours a week and sacrifice sleep, not move, and eat bad foods as they are convenient. But this comes with a cost.

Tom Rath

#30. If we can find short-term incentives that are consistent with our long-term objectives, it is much easier to make the right decisions in the moment.

Tom Rath

#31. Make work a purpose, not just a place.

Tom Rath

#32. Trying to do a little bit of everything leads to doing nothing of substance. When you let the demands of a day pull you in 20 different directions, they do exactly that

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#33. When we build on our strengths and daily successes - instead of focusing on failures - we simply learn more.

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#34. At its fundamentally flawed core, the aim of almost any learning program is to help us become who we are not.

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#35. Even though people spend more of their waking hours at work than anywhere else, people underestimate how work influences their overall wellbeing and daily experience.

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#36. Team members care about one another, listen, share secrets, talk about the latest news, have heated arguments, are sometimes jealous of each other, and even cry together.

Tom Rath

#37. It's unrealistic to expect the person you go to for sage advice also to be the person you go out and have a good time with. And it's unlikely that he or she will be the same person who's pushing you and motivating you to do more every day, like a coach or manager does.

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#38. I always thought there were some people who were just destined to be disengaged in their jobs because that was their personality, and no matter how hard managers tried, there wasn't much they could do with some of those people.

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#39. Fortunately, going from the low end of this continuum to the recommended 10,000 steps can lead to significant health benefits in the short term as well as the long run.

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#40. An Australian study of more than 12,000 adults estimated that every single hour spent watching television after the age of 25 decreased the viewer's life expectancy by 22 minutes.

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#41. There is certainly some predisposition to wellbeing, based on the research I've looked at. There are people who have a lot more natural discipline. But for most of us, it takes a lot more in terms of social expectations, where, say, we tell people we're going to run a 5K.

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#42. While the things that motivate us differ greatly from one person to the next, the outcomes do not.

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#43. The right choices over time greatly improve your odds of a long and healthy life.

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#44. I'm a researcher, so I'm realistic that there's nothing I'm doing that's going to prevent me from getting cancer in the future. But I can slow it down.

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#45. I think the term 'friend' itself has lost almost all of its exclusivity. Even the term 'good friend' is overused. Adding the word 'vital' provides a clear definition of what we mean.

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#46. What we've learned is that if you can make the right decision in the supermarket aisle, it's a heck of a lot easier to make a good decision when you reach in your cupboard when you're craving a snack at eight o'clock at night.

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#47. No matter how healthy you are today, you can take specific actions to have more energy and live longer.

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#48. From the cradle to the cubicle, we devote more time to our shortcomings than to our strengths.

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#49. The most important thing executives can do is send a very clear message to their employees that they care about each person's overall wellbeing and that they want to be a part of helping it improve over time.

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#50. When I speak with people who love their jobs and have vital friendships at work, they always talk about how their workgroup is like a family.

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#51. Wanting a more positive environment isn't enough. You need to do something, and it doesn't require a great deal of effort or some huge change in the way you approach things at work.

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#52. Instead of celebrating what makes each child unique, most parents push their children to "fit in" so that they don't "stick out." This unwittingly stomps out individuality and encourages conformity, despite these parents' good intentions

Tom Rath

#53. Making better choices takes work. There is a daily give and take, but it is worth the effort.

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#54. One's single greatest strength may be uncovering the hidden talents of another person.

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#55. The pursuit of meaning, not happiness, is what makes life worthwhile.

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#56. The quickest way to be a little bit happier and more engaged in your job is to spend some time thinking about developing closer friendships.

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#57. When we look at what has the strongest statistical relationship to overall evaluation of your life, the first one is your career well-being, or the mission, purpose and meaning of what you're doing when you wake up each day.

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#58. I act as if my life depends on each decision. Because it does.

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#59. The things that change people's lives are usually an accumulation of small acts.

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#60. What great leaders have in common is that each truly knows his or her strengths - and can call on the right strength at the right time.

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#61. The most successful people start with dominant talent - and then add skills, knowledge, and practice to the mix. When they do this, the raw talent actually serves as a multiplier.

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#62. Ignoring negative things that need to be changed is destructive and does nothing to alleviate negativity. Instead, we should focus on the way we're treating other people in our brief interactions with them.

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#63. Regardless of your age, you can make better choices in the moment. Small decisions - about how you eat, move, and sleep each day - count more than you think. As I have learned from personal experience, these choices shape your life.

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#64. Clearly, there aren't enough positive moments or interactions happening in the workplace. As a result, our economy suffers, companies suffer, and individual relationships suffer.

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#65. For wellbeing to take hold, it's got to be something that individual team members are getting excited about in their own lives. It can't be something that a company is forcing top-down through hierarchical structures.

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#66. We don't have any measures in most cases of the health of our social relationships, of what we're giving to the community.

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#67. Every day, I read about new ideas and research that could help someone I care about live a longer and healthier life.

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#68. Even if people just change two or three things that they are able to sustain over time, it makes quite a difference eventually.

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#69. What's more, we had discovered that people have several times more potential for growth, when they invest energy in developing their strenghts instead of correcting their deficiencies.

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#70. It turned out that looking forward to a vacation or event provided even more happiness than the event itself.

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#71. Don't worry about breaks every 20 minutes ruining your focus on a task. Contrary to what I might have guessed, taking regular breaks from mental tasks actually improves your creativity and productivity. Skipping breaks, on the other hand, leads to stress and fatigue.

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#72. Buying experience such as going out to dinner or taking a vacation increases our own wellbeing and the wellbeing of others. Experiences last while material purchases fade.

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#73. I've seen so many people - loved ones and colleagues - who jump from one diet to the next, one exercise regimen to the next . I was trying to figure out what were some of the basic things that each of us can build into a lifestyle for good, instead of bouncing from one thing to the next.

Tom Rath

#74. There will be plenty of blame to go around but if you take credit for the sunshine, you also get blamed for the rain.

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#75. When we asked people if they would rather have a best friend at work or a 10% pay raise, having a friend clearly won.

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#76. The real energy occurs in each connection between two people, which can bring about exponential returns.

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#77. Positive defaults protect you from yourself - and that helps you to make decisions in the moment that are better for your long-term interests.

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#78. I first found out I had cancer on my eye and lost an eye to this disease when I was 16, and I've since had cancer in my kidneys and pancreas and a host of other areas.

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#79. The absence of high-quality friendships is bad for your health, spirits, productivity, and longevity.

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#80. The lesson here is clear: If you want people to understand that you value their contributions and that they are important, the recognition and praise you provide must have meaning that is specific to each individual.

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#81. Make it easier to do things that increase your wellbeing before you have to make a choice because a lot of our choices, though they seem small in the moment, have a big effect.

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#82. Half an hour of exercise in the morning makes for better interactions all day. Then a sound night of sleep gives me energy to tackle the next day. I am a more active parent, a better spouse, and more engaged in my work when I eat, move, and sleep well.

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#83. Far too many people spend a lifetime headed in the wrong direction. They go not only from the cradle to the cubicle, but then to the casket, without uncovering their greatest talents and potential.

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#84. You need a lot of effort and talent to produce greatness.

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#85. Spending on oneself does not boost wellbeing. However, spending money on others does
and it appears to be as important to people's happiness as the total amount of money they make.

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#86. It appears that the epidemic of active disengagement we see in workplaces every day could be a curable disease ... if we can help the people around us develop their strengths.

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#87. When you ask people about what they enjoy doing, time spent with the boss is even worse than time spent cleaning the house. So this suggests that there are a lot of leaders out there who are not doing an adequate job.

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#88. There's a conventional wisdom that says that strategic thinking is much more important than relationship building, which doesn't seem to be nearly as highly valued as it should be, based on what some of the leaders that I've spoken with have said to me.

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#89. Talent (a natural way of thinking, feeling, or behaving) x Investment (time spent practicing, developing your skills, and building your knowledge base) = Strength (the ability to consistently provide near-perfect performance)

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#90. Our relationships with people are formed by small moments - and relationships are crucial in business.

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#91. The key to human development is building on who you already are

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#92. You can intentionally choose to spend more time with the people you enjoy most and engage your strengths as much as possible.

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#93. People with high levels of wellbeing have been careful to work out early in the morning and not to have heavy meals throughout the day because you kind of fall off a cliff in terms of your energy by 2 or 3:00 if you have a lunch with a lot of heavy foods.

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#94. Exercise is not enough. Working out three times a week is not enough. Being active throughout the day is what keeps you healthy.

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#95. Followers need to see how things will get better and what that future might look like. Leaders need to build that foundation of stability, and hope sits on top of that.

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#96. Employees who report receiving recognition and praise within the last seven days show increased productivity, get higher scores from customers, and have better safety records. They're just more engaged at work.

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#97. When we get at least six hours of daily social time, it increases our wellbeing and minimizes stress and worry. The six hours includes time at work, at home, on the telephone, talking to friends, sending e-mail, and other communication.

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#98. When your boss and colleagues care enough to invest in your health, it is good for you and the business.

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#99. Positive words are the glue that holds relationships together.

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#100. I would absolutely recommend against excessive positivity and optimism. Any positive emotion that you're infusing into a workplace needs to be grounded in reality. If it's not realistic, sincere, meaningful, and individualized, it won't do much good.

Tom Rath