Product Description

“Destined to be one of the most talked about business books of the decade.”            Marc Silvester, Chief Technology Officer & Head of Service Innovation, Fujitsu

“Churchill once said that we are all worms but some of us are glow worms. This readable and invaluable book teaches us how we can all glow, which means to me success at work and success at life"
Warren Bennis, Distinguished Professor of Business, University of Southern California and author of On Becoming a Leader

"Glow is a lively, entertaining, and solidly researched blueprint for career success."
Gary Hamel, author of Leading the Revolution and Competing for the Future

"I encourage everyone to read it who wants a more meaningful life, or to help others to achieve it"
Hallstein Moerk, Executive Vice President, Human Resources, Nokia

HOW WILL YOU STAY AHEAD OF THE CURVE?

LEARN TO GLOW

Some people just Glow. They radiate enthusiasm, positive energy and inspiration in their own work and they excite and ignite other people. These are the people who get to work on the exciting projects, who are always in demand, who stay ahead of the curve and create real added value in today’s increasingly competitive world.

Wouldn’t you like to Glow too? Well, now you can! In this engagingly written and highly practical book, Lynda Gratton shows you the three core principles that will enable you to become indispensable in your job. And she gives you nine concrete actions – that you can start today – to help you develop the key skills, habits and choices you need to Glow. Once you’re glowing, things start happening.

In this beguilingly straightforward but insightful book, Lynda Gratton reveals the secrets of people who Glow at work and shows you how you can Glow too. She guides you through the three core principles, showing you how:

• you can develop a co-operative mindset

• you can reach across traditional boundaries and build valuable networks in new, constructive ways

• you can ignite inspiration, innovation and energy in yourself and others

Glow shows you how to be more innovative, more collaborative, better connected – in other words, more valuable in what you do and, as a result, more sought after – without working yourself into the ground.

To help you hone in on exactly where you should focus your efforts, throughout the book Glow coaches you through a simple diagnostic profile to help you understand your own capabilities and those of your team and your organisation. It also includes handy checklists and tools to measure your progress and to help you Glow.

GLOW – BECAUSE YOU DON’T WANT TO BE STUCK IN THE BIG FREEZE

About the author

Lynda serves as Professor of Management Practice at the London Business School and is the founder of the Hot Spot Movement. She has written six books and many academic articles. Her books have been translated into over 15 languages and are seen as seminal pieces in the field of corporate and individual development.

Over the last decade Lynda has been profiled in numerous magazines including Personnel Today, The Guardian and the Financial Times. In 2007 Human Resources Magazine ranked her as one of the top two most influential people of the profession and she has twice been named by The Times as one of the world’s top business thinkers.  Over the last five years Lynda has taken her message about energy and innovation to conferences around the world – including Australia, Austria, Estonia, Finland, Germany, India, Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, and the USA. 

Lynda lives in London and Spain with her two sons. To learn more about Glow and the profiles and tools that support it go to www.hotspotsmovement.com.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19673 in Books
• Published on: 2009-03-26
• Binding: Paperback
• 248 pages

Review

" ... perfectly suited for the times. ... Glow turns the spotlight on the ultimate unit of management, the individual." Simon Caulkin, The Observer

"A thoughtful and compelling must-read, in your local park, on a train, or anywhere else that you might just strike  up a conversation with an interesting stranger."

Angelo O'Conner, People Management, 16 July 2009

"If only the latest hapless recruits on The Apprentice had read Glow, s self-help book for achieving in the global workplace, they might have learned what it really takes to work for Srlan."

Evening Standard, 15 June 2009

"Gratton has built a body of expertise in team dynamics and the benefits of collaboration that is well worth reading for those who seek to get the best out of their employees."

Richard Donkin, Human Resources

From the Back Cover

“A readable and invaluable book … [on] success at work and success at life.”

Warren Bennis, Distinguished Professor of Business, University of Southern California, and author of On Becoming a Leader

"Lynda Gratton offers an inspiring and humane point of view … Her energy and enthusiasm glow."

Stefan Stern, management writer, Financial Times

HOW WILL YOU STAY AHEAD OF THE CURVE?

LEARN TO GLOW

Some people just Glow. They radiate enthusiasm, positive energy and inspiration in their own work, and they excite and ignite other people. These are the people who get to work on the exciting projects, who are always in demand, who stay ahead of the curve and create real added value in today’s increasingly competitive world.

Wouldn’t you like to Glow too? Well, now you can! In this engaging and highly practical book, Lynda Gratton shows you the three core principles that will enable you to become indispensable at work. And she gives you nine concrete actions you can start today to help you develop the key skills, habits and choices you need to Glow. Once you’re glowing, things start happening.

Customer Reviews

glow without shining
This book comes with high accolades from people who like 'business coaching' manuals. It offers solid evidence on the benefits of adopting an open and cooperative attitude in business organisations. it is an easy read and offers many practical tips on how to develop the right attitude to 'glow'. For this reader the whole thing was a bit too enthusiastic and i felt dragged through the pages through repetitive concepts and tips. This may be my personal taste in not liking to be told the same thing several times over as if i didn't get it in the first place. This book wins over professionals and business coachs but maybe not lesser mortals.

And with one bound she was free
Several years ago, I served as a mid-level VP at a large multinational company in New Jersey. Every month I read the Harvard Business Review religiously.

Why? Not because I thought it contained much of value - indeed, as a scientist by education, if not career, the pseudo-scientific method of many of HBR's papers is somewhat offensive to me, at least when it's not so blatant as to be amusing. No, I read it religiously because it kept me one step ahead of the curve. Whenever there was a reasonably plausible, well-presented finding published in that august journal, you could be reasonably sure that some soul on the Executive Floor, perhaps bored while taking the Executive jet to Washington, will have read the paper and decided that it was exactly the cure for whatever it was that seemed to ail us at the time (which in reality was urine poor management from the same Executive Floor). But having read the HBR I knew where the idea was coming from (rarely was the original source disclosed by its champion) and how it could be deflected harmlessly until the next HBR-sourced management fad took its place.

This book is even worse than the typical HBR article. At least in those articles the authors will usually present some empirical research which is then force fitted into some model of the authors' choosing, preferably one that will support a lucrative side line in consulting or some proprietary instrument that will generate revenues.

With "Glow" the tedious necessity for presenting and justifying the author's conclusions is neatly side-stepped:

"There are no references to other people's research or theories except when I have used direct quotes........I make little reference to my own research"

Nor does she try to justify her conclusions using any argumentation, whether based on anybody's research or just old fashioned logic.

Hence my comment that "with one bound she was free" - free to present breathlessly and with gusto her stunningly original thesis that talking to people, building networks and collaborating with people may be helpful. Well, yes, sometimes it is, but it's by no means a universal panacea.

Adherents and proponents of the discipline of Positive Psychology (among whom I number myself), of which this book could be considered the bastard stepchild, are currently considering an appropriate candidate for the 25th strength to be added to the current inventory of strengths. One proposal is for Critical Thinking, and this book unwittingly makes a strong case for this.

One source of mystery to me is why a book so devoid of merit as this one can garner so much positive comment - to the extent that it makes me wonder about the recommenders. I used to quite respect Stefan Stern. Now I don't.

Don't buy this book, unless like me with HBR, you need to understand the mind of the enemy.

Keys to the Palace
London Business School Professor Lynda Gratton has written a book that Deepak Chopra, Consciousness Guru, thinks is "marvellous!" This shows that Lynda is breaking new ground, sharing key insights from her research in a style and form that is relevant to improving your life, not just your work. The material is based on her groundbreaking and extensive research. The book is full of questions and diagnostics to help you focus on how to make improvements to your life and connect with your passion. Lynda places emphasis on three elements: the importance of "co-operation as a mindset", the excitement of entering new worlds through "boundary spanning" and the need to create a sense of "igniting purpose" to attract and inspire others.

Reading the book and completing the exercises helped me to rethink the way I connect my contacts - and this simple act has already helped me make changes - if I experience a sameold-sameold-groundhog conversation I take this as a signal to switch networks or invite someone else along next time. This is just one example of a book packed with insights.

The other point worth mentioning is the importance of creating an "igniting purpose" and how the habit of joining or creating causes with a purpose worth following again in itself makes life more interesting for ourselves and those around us.

Although Lynda is attempting a "Heineken" by taking her work to the places other business school professors just don't reach (for anyone old enough to remember the ads) I think her plan works really well. She has held true to her high standards of research and communication - for example when she talks about Homer, it is still the classical guy and not the Springfield hero.

I would recommend this to all people who are serious about making life stimulating, fun and worthwhile for themselves and those around them.