Tom Rath Quotes

You cannot be anything you want to be - but you can be a whole lot more of who you already are.

— Tom Rath

“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

“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

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

— Tom Rath

“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.”

— Tom Rath

“The single biggest threat to our own wellbeing tends to be ourselves”

— Tom Rath

“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

“If you focus on people's weaknesses, they lose confidence.”

— Tom Rath

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

— Tom Rath

“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.”

— Tom Rath

“Every human being has talents that are just waiting to be uncovered.”

— Tom Rath

“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

“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.”

— Tom Rath

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

— Tom Rath

“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

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

— Tom Rath

“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.”

— Tom Rath

“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.”

— Tom Rath

“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.”

— Tom Rath

“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.”

— Tom Rath

“Our relationships with people are formed by small moments - and relationships are crucial in business.”

— Tom Rath

“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.”

— Tom Rath

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

— Tom Rath

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.

— Tom Rath

“If a school makes an effort to provide kids the right foods and help them to be more active, this benefits the student and the family's health. If you embark on a program to improve your health with a church or community group, you are more likely to stick with it over time.”

— Tom Rath

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

— Tom Rath

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

— Tom Rath

“'StrengthsFinder 2.0' is an effort to get the core message and language out to a much broader audience. We had no idea how well received the first strengths book would be by general readers - it was oriented more toward managers - or that the energy and excitement would continue to grow.”

— Tom Rath

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

— Tom Rath

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

— Tom Rath

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.

— Tom Rath

“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

“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.”

— Tom Rath

“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.”

— Tom Rath

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

— Tom Rath

“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

“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.”

— Tom Rath

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

— Tom Rath

When you ask people what affects their wellbeing most, they think of health and wealth.

— Tom Rath

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

— Tom Rath

“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

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.

— Tom Rath

“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.”

— Tom Rath

Having fewer unhealthy days and, in turn, more days when you have the energy to get things done is probably the global constant through which businesses and individuals can think about the quantifiable upside of increasing wellbeing.

— Tom Rath

People who have at least three or four very close friendships are healthier, have higher wellbeing, and are more engaged in their jobs. But the absence of any close friendships can lead to boredom, loneliness, and depression.

— Tom Rath

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

— Tom Rath

“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.”

— Tom Rath

Positive words are the glue that holds relationships together.

— Tom Rath

“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.”

— Tom Rath

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

— Tom Rath