Preface

As I see my children and students grow and take their place in the working world, I am increasingly driven by a vision of people at work Glowing. By this I mean that they radiate positive energy—are able to excite and ignite others and through their inspiration and innovation are able to create superior value and success in the workplace.

This is crucial. Work increasingly is how we define ourselves—it’s what we spend the majority of our lives engaged in—whether we are men or women, Gen Y or baby boomers. It’s what we do when we get up in the morning and often what’s on our mind when our head hits the pillow at night. Don’t get me wrong—I am not arguing for a total absorption in the world of work—but I do believe that each one of us deserves to live a fulfilling work life, to Glow ourselves and to see others Glow. Supporting people in organizations to create fulfilling work and innovative performance has been my overriding mission for the past twenty years.

I have written this book for everyone who strives to be more energized and innovative at work—characteristics I believe to be increasingly important to “staying ahead of the curve.”

You could be just finishing your studies and wondering which path to take, midcareer and thinking about reenergizing, or like me a baby boomer considering how best to use my remaining decades of work.

There are two aspects of this book that I believe make it special and worth giving up your time to read and think about. First, it’s based on deep research into what energized and innovative people actually do, so the three principles I describe later are ones that will really help you in your working life. Second, it addresses you as a person in the context of your work. This is important, for I have repeatedly seen people wanting to change but being surrounded by colleagues and situations that work against their changing. In this book you will discover how you can learn to Glow—but also what it would take for you to influence your immediate colleagues and the wider business or community that you work in.

In developing the ideas in this book I have used my own training as a psychologist and experience of coaching people to be more energized, innovative, and successful. I have also engaged with companies across the world to distinguish between places where energy flourishes and those that are moribund or, worse still, caught in the Big Freeze. Examining nearly two dozen companies in Europe, the United States, and Asia, my colleagues and I have built up a significant data set using state-of-the-art survey methodologies and computer analyses. What we have found is that there are indeed factors that separate the highly energized from the mundane—factors such as the way the company is structured, the behavior of senior executives, the cultivation of trust, and the pathways of network development. I described these factors in Hot Spots: Why Some Companies Buzz with Energy and Innovation—and Others Don’t, published in 2007, illustrating what it would take for organizations to become places of energy and innovation.

As my colleagues and I began to follow up on the themes of Hot Spots, what became increasingly obvious was that high energy and innovation were not simply leveraged by the company. I began to see people who made a real difference through their behavior, competencies, and skills. So I began to ask, “What would it take for a person to really Glow with energy and innovation?”

What I discovered is that people who Glow had mastered three distinct areas of their life:

• They Glow because they have built deeply trusting and cooperative relationships with others.
• They Glow because they have extended their networks beyond the obvious to encompass the unusual.
• They Glow because they are on an inner quest that ignites their own energy and that of others.

To master these three distinct areas of their working life, people who Glow are adept at understanding what they have to do as individuals, what they have to do as members of a team, and how to find their place in a company that encourages them to Glow.

These are significant areas of life to master, and so my challenge in this book is to use the examples I have seen to blaze a path that will encourage you to master these three areas in a way that is as elegantly simple as possible. I hope you will see this simplicity in the examples, the profile, and the action points I present. My aim is to engage and inspire you without overburdening you. In the interests of simplicity, I made three decisions about this book. First, there are no references to other people’s research or theories except where I have used direct quotes. Instead, I have made reference to others’ work in the Recommended Reading section at the back of the book, where you may find more information on themes you would like to pursue. Second, I make little reference to my own research, which frames this book, for complete information on that is available at http://www.hotspotsmovement.com. Third, I have tried to focus your attention on the key issues through a simple diagnostic profile I have developed. This is designed to help you understand where you stand with regard to your own attitudes and competencies, your team, and your organization. The profile is included in this book, but you may also download a copy from http://www.hotspotsmovement.com where you will also find the Glow Checklist.

Writing this book has been a hugely enjoyable and inspiring task, not least because I have had to look at myself in a way that I have not before. Working with me on this task have been some truly Glowing people. In particular I would like to thank my editors at Berrett-Koehler and FT Prentice Hall. This is the second book I have produced with Steve Piersanti, Richard Stagg, and Liz Gooster, and again the experience has been terrific. I have also discovered that in writing a book for a particular audience, my reviewers have been particularly helpful and insightful. I would like thank Stuart Emery, Faith Gibson, John Hughes, Judith Leary Joyce, Jeffrey Kulick, Christopher Morris, Danielle Scott and Irene Sitbon.

I launched the Hot Spots Movement in September 2007 in order to gain more traction on the topic of individual and organizational energy and innovation. Working with the core team—Andreas Voigt, Marilyn Davison, Johanna Walker, and Talie Wood—has been a wonderful experience. Thanks in particular to Andreas Voigt for the passion he brings to this subject.

On a balmy evening in summer 2008, more than fifty people gathered in a secret garden in central London to support the aims of the movement and to lend their goodwill and grace to it. Our band of well-wishers has become an increasingly important community—as have the many thousands of people across the world who have lent their interest and encouragement.

I believe it is possible for each one of us to become more inspiring and innovative in our work—to truly Glow. This book is an invitation to the journey and a heartfelt plea for more humane and engaging work. We deserve it ourselves—and owe it as our legacy to those who come after us. We all benefit when jobs and lives Glow.