Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fired Up or Burned Out, 7 Oct 2007
A lot of the business books I've been getting in the last few years are recognizing the importance of employee happiness. To me it seems like common sense that employers should know that if an employee likes his or her job, feels like part of a team, and finds the work stimulating that they will work harder and do better work. Nonetheless, the vast majority of people still work in jobs that they hate and that drain every ounce of passion that they once possessed. It would seem that most employers still need a wake up call.
Like many other business books of late, Fired Up or Burnt Out does discuss the importance of employee happiness. They state that 75% of people are disengaged from their jobs. That's pretty alarming if you think about it. Your doctor, your lawyer, your children's teacher, your children's bus driver, the cop out there protecting you, and the people who produce your food are all just trying to get through the day. Most could care less if they are producing quality products or service.
The authors of this book cite statistics but also give real world examples of situations where the employees were fired up about their jobs as well as those situations where employers made huge mistakes. I particularly liked the chapters at the end of the book which told the stories of various individuals. At the end of each of these accounts, the authors included a short application section which readers can connect to their own work situation.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
How to "take a hard line on the soft issues", 22 Jul 2007
Many of those who get "fired up" about a new job, a new assignment, a new promotion, etc. eventually become "burned out" by it. What we have in this volume, written by Michael L. Stallard with Carolyn Dewing-Hommes and Jason Pankau, is a remarkably thoughtful and sensitive examination of the causes and effects of this familiar workplace situation. Stallard observes that, "Although people generally enter their organizations fired up, over time most work environments reduce that inner fire from a flame to a flicker." Why? They lack "connection" with others, especially with their supervisors and immediate associates. As a result, they have unmet needs; more specifically, to be respected, recognized, included and accepted.
In this context, I presume to share a complaint I hear constantly: Being held accountable to achieve results without receiving any explanation of the ultimate objectives, much less an explanation of the given assignment's relevance to achieving those objectives. Worse yet, not being provided with sufficient resources. And even worse yet, having no "say" about how the given work will be done. Jean-Francois Manzoni and Jean-Louis Barsoux have much of value to say about all this in The Set-Up-to-Fail Syndrome: How Good Managers Cause Great People to Fail.
Stallard asserts that "the lack of connection will gradually burn [employees] out. Organizational environments where connection is low or absent diminish [employees'] physical and mental health. They create a low level of toxicity that drains [their] energy, poisons [their] attitudes, and impacts [their ability and willingness] to be productive." It is difficult (if not impossible) to calculate the total cost of such a situation, including its impact on customer relationships and retention of valued employees. The potential damage and (yes) cost of a group's disconnection must be at least the number of people in a given group compounded by a factor of 3-5, if not greater.
Over the years, various questionnaires and surveys have been conducted among many millions of people, asking respondents to rank what is most important to them in a relationship with an organization either as an employee or as a customer. With very few exceptions, "feeling appreciated" was ranked among the top three...with compensation or cost ranked anywhere from 9-14, depending on the given feedback mechanism. Stallard cites one Gallup Organization study that suggests that only 25% of employees are engaged in their jobs, 55% of are just going through the motions, and that 20% of them are undermining efforts to achieve their employers' objectives. He also cites a study of 50,000 employees at 59 global companies conducted by the Corporate Executive Board. One of its most significant revelations is that "emotional factors were four times more effective in increasing employee engagement rather than rational ones." I presume to suggest that it is no coincidence that many of the companies listed on Fortune magazine annual list of those "most admired" are also on its annual list of those most profitable and many of them are #1 in their respective industry.
In collaboration with Dewing-Hommes and Pankau, Stallard carefully organizes the material within four Parts: "What Fires Us Up?"; "The Three Keys to Connecting Your Team and Lighting Their Fires: Vision, Value, and Voice"; "The Fire Starts with You: become a Person of Character and Connection to Ignite the Team Around You"; and finally, "Learn from Twenty Great Leaders Over Twenty Days." Appendix A provides "Questions to Assess Organizational Culture and Connection."
Stallard and his collaborators focus almost all of their attention on "how" when addressing challenges such as these:
1. How can an individual, a group, and (eventually) an entire organization establish and then sustain emotional connections others?
2. How can a clear and compelling vision "ignite" commitment throughout the given enterprise?
3. How can shared values nourish human development?
4. How can giving "voice" to an individual, group, and organization expedite knowledge flow?
5. How to become "a person of character and connection to ignite the team around you"?
Of special interest to me is the material provided in Part IV. (That said, I must emphasize the obvious: The value of this material can be maximized only if the material that precedes it has been carefully absorbed and digested.) Stallard and his collaborators offer a self-improvement program that the reader completes with several "collaborators": Stallard, Dewing-Hommes, and Pankau as well as "20 great leaders from various fields who fired up people by increasing connection." These leaders do indeed comprise a diverse group. They include the Marquis de Lafayette, Ann Mulcahy, Ed Mitchell, Harriett Beecher Stowe, Howard Schultz, Frances Hesselbein, Fred Epstein, and Bill Belichick. (If at least a few of these names are unfamiliar to you, you will welcome the introductions to them in Part IV.) Over a period of 20 days (one leader per day), the reader is asked to consider what can be learned from each about firing up people by increasing connection (ie. mutually-beneficial relationships) with others. At the conclusion of each profile, there is a follow-through section that will facilitate effective application of the given lesson(s).
My congratulations to Michael Lee Stallard, Carolyn Dewing-Hommes and Jason Pankau for producing such a thoughtful, sensitive, and eloquent as well as practical book.
When concluding this brief commentary, however, I do feel obligated to make one final point of my own: At one time or another, to one extent or another, everyone gets "fired up" only to experience "flame out," if not suffer severe" burns" from the experience. That is true of Stallard, Dewing-Hommes, and Pankau and it is also true of every one of the 20 "great leaders" whom they discuss. What then? Long ago, Jack Dempsey said that champions "get up when they can't." In the business world as well as in competitive sports, that is as true of groups and even entire organizations as it is of individuals.
Those who share my high regard for this volume are urged to check out James O'Toole and Edward E. Lawler's The New American Workplace. Also, Paul Spiegelman's Why Is Everyone Smiling? The Secret Behind Passion, Productivity, and Profit, Warren G. Bennis and Patricia Ward Biederman's Organizing Genius: The Secrets of Creative Collaboration, Vince Thompson's Ignited: Managers! Light Up Your Company and Career for More Power More Purpose and More Success, and Patrick Lencioni's The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, Matthew E. May's The Elegant Solution: Toyota's Formula for Mastering Innovation, and When Sparks Fly: Harnessing the Power of Group Creativity co-authored by Dorothy Leonard-Barton and Walter C. Swap.
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by Tom Rath
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