CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- INTRODUCTION -- Finding the Right Job -- Playing to Strengths Leads to Goodness of Fit -- Matching Strengths of High-Performing Individuals -- The Executive Skills -- Frontal Lobes and Executive Skills -- The Spread Between Strengths and Weaknesses: The Differentiator -- CHAPTER 1: DETERMINING YOUR OWN STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES . . . AND FINDING THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF OTHERS -- Skill 1: Response Inhibition -- Skill 2: Working Memory -- Skill 3: Emotional Control -- Skill 4: Sustained Attention -- Skill 5:Task Initiation -- Skill 6: Planning/Prioritization -- Skill 7: Organization -- Skill 8: Time Management -- Skill 9: Goal-Directed Persistence -- Skill 10: Flexibility -- Skill 11: Metacognition -- Skill 12: Stress Tolerance -- Finding Your Own Strengths and Weaknesses -- Workload and Executive Skills -- Voices from the Front Lines: Workload -- Exceeding Your Cognitive Bandwidth -- Knowing in Advance -- CHAPTER 2: FINDING SUCCESS AND AVOIDING FAILURE: WHY YOUR STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES ARE THE WAY THEY ARE: THE SCIENCE BEHIND EXECUTIVE SKILLS -- Executive Skills in Psychology -- Executive Skills and the Brain -- Executive Skills and Brain Development -- CHAPTER 3: WHAT IS A HIGH PERFORMER AND HOW DO YOU BECOME ONE? SELECTING THE RIGHT PATH TO INCREASE THE CHANCE OF SUCCESS -- Performance-Based: Consistency Is Key -- Quantitative: Expectations and Results -- Qualitative: Some Subjectivity -- Position in the Organization -- Company First -- Multidimensional -- How Many Are High Performers? -- Voices from the Front Lines: Number of High Performers -- What Sets High Performers Apart -- Voices from the Front Lines: What Sets Them Apart -- CHAPTER 4: NAVIGATING YOUR ROAD TO HIGH PERFORMANCE: FINDING YOUR SKILLS COMBINATION TO DETERMINE WHAT INDUSTRY YOU SHOULD BE IN.

Most Prevalent Executive Skills Strengths and Weaknesses -- Some Skills Go Hand in Hand -- Strengths vs. Commonly Found Weaknesses -- High-Performing Males vs. High-Performing Females -- Executive Skills of High Performers by Age -- Task Initiation: The Common Weakness -- The High-Performing Pair -- Executive Skills of High Performers by Industry -- Financial Services -- Healthcare -- Manufacturing -- Technology -- Education -- Nonprofits -- Finding the Match -- CHAPTER 5: WHAT'S THE RIGHT DEPARTMENT FOR YOU? THE STRENGTHS OF HIGH PERFORMERS BY DEPARTMENT -- Marketing/Advertising/Promotion: Always Getting Better -- Sales: Not Falling Through the Cracks -- Systems/IT: All About Road Maps -- General Management: Goal-Oriented -- Operations: Good on the Fly -- Customer Service: Strategically Important -- Administrative: Organized and Can Adapt -- Finance: Modify on the Fly -- Accounting: Methodical Approach -- Clinical: Organized and Starting Right Away -- Executive Skills in a Department: Clinical High Performers -- Right-Seating People the First Time -- CHAPTER 6: DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO BE IN THE CORNER SUITE? SKILLS BROKEN DOWN BY TITLE -- Are You in the Right Job? -- The Brains in the Corner Office -- The Brains Down the Hall -- The Self-Correcting Directors -- The Managers with a Plan -- The Organized Employees -- CHAPTER 7: HOW YOUR STRENGTHS MATCH THOSE OF OTHERS AT WORK: WAYS TO MATCH BEHAVIORS TO EXECUTIVE SKILLS IN YOUR BUSINESS -- Shared Strengths in One Organization -- Shared Strengths in Two Nonprofits -- Mapping Characteristics to Executive Skills -- Avoiding Potential Conflicts -- Focus on Executive Skills Strengths -- Voices from the Front Lines: Strengths and Weaknesses -- Healthcare: Clinical vs. Nonclinical -- High Performers in Sales-Buyer Interactions -- Observable Behaviors -- Strong Flexibility: Typical Behaviors.

Weak Flexibility: Typical Behaviors -- Strong Response Inhibition: Typical Behaviors -- Weak Response Inhibition: Typical Behaviors -- CHAPTER 8: AVOIDING THE WRONG PROMOTION: SORTING THE STRENGTHS OF EMPLOYEES VS. MANAGERS VS. EXECUTIVES -- Voices from the Front Lines: High and Low Performers -- The Failed Sales Promotion -- Voices from the Front Lines: Promoting Salespeople to Management -- Sales Employees vs. Sales Management -- Working in a Comfort Zone -- Voices from the Front Lines: Job Satisfaction -- IT Executives Can Shield the Heat -- Operations: Order and Organization -- Administrative: Organization Is Key -- Customer Service: Recalling Past Solutions -- Can Performance Be Predicted? -- CHAPTER 9: DETERMINE YOUR FIT-THE HIGH-PERFORMANCE EXECUTIVE SKILLS MAP: WHERE DO HIGH PERFORMERS WITH YOUR STRENGTHS WORK? -- Response Inhibition -- Working Memory -- Emotional Control -- Sustained Attention -- Task Initiation -- Planning/Prioritization -- Organization -- Time Management -- Goal-Directed Persistence -- Flexibility -- Metacognition -- Stress Tolerance -- The High-Performance Executive Skills Map -- Industries by Executive Skills Strengths -- Departments by Executive Skills Strengths -- Job Functions/Titles by Executive Skills Strengths -- CONCLUSION -- APPENDIX A: HOW THE TWO-YEAR STUDY WAS CONDUCTED: HIGH PERFORMERS AND THE EXECUTIVE SKILLS PROFILE -- Determining High Performance -- Using the Executive Skills Profile -- Selecting Subjects -- Selecting Industry Types and Departments -- Job Functions and Titles -- High Performers by Age and Gender -- High Performers by Company Size -- The Questionnaire -- Organizations in the Study -- The Study Continues -- APPENDIX B: THE HIGH-PERFORMANCE EXECUTIVE SKILLS TABLES -- Top Six Industries -- Executive Skills by Department: Top 10 Departments -- Job Function/Title.

Employees vs. Managers vs. Executives -- Males vs. Females -- Profit vs. Nonprofit -- Profit vs. Nonprofit (Excluding CEOs) -- Healthcare: Clinical vs. Nonclinical -- APPENDIX C: ABOUT NFI RESEARCH -- NOTES -- INDEX -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W.