About the Book

Are you highly motivated by the work you are doing? Are you are performing at your best? Are your employees highly motivated and performing at their best?

For some people, Steve's book will be about helping organizations improve performance by tapping into the heart and soul of their employees. For others it is a book about finding a place in this world where they can feel productive and alive, where what they do has meaning, satisfaction, and a sense of purpose and fulfillment. Others might take what is learned and apply it to family and loved ones.

Through Steve's book, you will learn concepts and techniques about SIMA(R) (the System for Motivated Abilities(R)) that will enable you to better tap into your motivated strengths and those of your employees to improve effectiveness, productivity, and work satisfaction; how to prevent those strengths from becoming weaknesses that can damage performance and productivity; and how to create a work environment that helps your organization and teams maximize their potential.

Steve Darter has a distinguished career as a consultant, author, educator, and speaker. For more than forty-five years he has counseled people, ranging from CEOs of Fortune 500 corporations to troubled teenagers, on work, career, and life issues. He has written and presented extensively about the importance of understanding, using, and effectively managing motivated strengths to live a more meaningful, purposeful, and successful life.

About the Author: Steven M Darter has been writing and speaking about motivated strengths and SIMA (The System for Motivated Abilities) and the impact it has on individual, team, and organizational productivity, effectiveness, and work satisfaction since the 1970s. He is the author of several articles: "Bringing Career Development to Religious Communities," "Know Yourself Before You Go Job-Hunting," "Save That Job: Transforming the Poor Performer," "How To Keep Careers On Track," "People Perform Better When . . ." "Succession Planning Has Changed," and the book Managing Yourself, Managing Others which has three editions. In 1975 Steve began a forty plus year career that involved evaluating and advising people-ranging from CEOs of Fortune 50 corporations to troubled teenagers, on work, career, and life issues. During that time period Steve interviewed close to 5,000 people. In each interview he used SIMA to understand the person's unique motivational design (Motivated Abilities Pattern) and best paths for success; and in some cases, what had gotten in their way. This vantage point gave Steve an unusually close-up view of how peoples' lives unfolded, including their successes and failures, and the impact of decisions they made, actions they took, beliefs they adopted, course corrections they made, regrets, feelings of disappointment and failure, and satisfaction. Along the way, from all those interviews, conversations, and observations, Steve learned about how to improve effectiveness, productivity, and work satisfaction. He is a recognized expert in helping people to understand the implications of SIMA and MAPs; and is known for his dynamic and engaging presentations, workshops, seminars, and team building sessions. Steve joined People Management Inc. (now SIMA International Inc.) in 1976, serving as president of People Management Northeast (1990-2005) and simultaneously as Chairman of People Management International, LLC (1996-1999.) In 2005 he formed People Management SMDLLC. Steve has taught a career counseling course to graduate counseling students at Saint Joseph College (SJC) and an advanced practicum on "Managing to Strengths" to MBA students at the University of Hartford. He also was the Director of Career Planning at SJC and prior helped to open and manage an insurance practice and a retail business. Steve's honors include being profiled as one of North America's top executive recruiters in the book, "The New Career Makers."