Leadership expert and best­selling author Marcus Bucking­ham spoke to faculty and staff in the Academic Resource Center on Thursday, Jan. 5 about positive psychology and how to analyze and improve their innate talents to promote personal and profes­sional success.

Buckingham commenced his pre­sentation by asking his audience several questions about excellence and failure.

“In a world that will never know you like you know yourself, how do you leverage your strengths?” he asked.

Prior to Buckingham’s lecture, all employees completed an online as­sessment called StandOut designed by Buckingham to classify habits and strengths into two of nine major personality categories.

Community Service Coordina­tor Nadia Hopper said that Buck­ingham’s presentation was not only refreshing but also insight­ful.

“I think especially working in a school environment, it is important to highlight students’ strengths,” Hopper said. “I loved the presentation and thought that my test result, which stat­ed that ‘I feel successful when I help others feel successful,’ was true.”