Summer Holiday, Recommended Books, and People First

???????On the way back from a week’s rediscovery of summer in southern Italy, I had a moment of reflection.?The time away was pure bliss, basking in the heat and sunshine. ?After liberal use of sunscreen and a healthy dose of nature’s Vitamin D , I devoured these five very interesting books:

1.??????“The Heart of Business: Leadership Principles for the Next Era of Capitalism” by Hubert Joly

2.??????“The Founder’s Mentality: How to Overcome the Predictable Crises of Growth” by Chris Zook & James Allen

3.??????“My Inner Sky: On Embracing Day, Night, and All the Times in Between” by Mari Andrew

4.??????“That’s Not How We Do It Here! A Story About How Organizations Rise and Fall – and Can Rise Again” by John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber (this is a fable!)

5.??????“Digital Body Language: How to Build Trust & Connection No Matter the Distance” by Erica Dhawan

Although I recommend all five of the books for different reasons, ?“The Heart of Business” resonated with me and reinforced my core leadership belief: to achieve extraordinary and sustainable growth, we must choose to put people first.

?????????????Hubert Joly, the French former Chairman and CEO of Best Buy (and several other companies as well) wanted to share his “personal playbook” for achieving extraordinary results centered on putting people and purpose at the heart of business.??Joly shares his strategies for the turn-around of Best Buy: pursue a noble purpose, put people at the center of the business, create an environment where every employee can grow and develop, and treat profit as an outcome, not the objective.??This approach is simple in theory but putting it into practice is very challenging.?It requires us to reconsider how we view our work, how we define the mission of our companies, how we motivate, and how we lead.

?????????????Joly is an avid learner who sought out challenging roles in industries where he had no prior experience. He realized that it was necessary to transform himself from seeking to be the smartest person in the room to becoming a passionate and empathetic leader. ?His willingness to pursue new experiences in unfamiliar industries and his strong embrace of being a people-focused leader are attributes that strongly resonate with me.??During Joly’s study with Catholic monks and other CEOs in France, he concluded that work is both a noble calling to serve others and an expression of love.?Citing the poet Khalil Gibran, who wrote, “Work is love made visible,’’ Joly posits that work must be guided by the pursuit of a purpose with people at its center. I could not agree more.

?????????????So much of what Joly writes is consistent with my thinking, particularly on why I work.?I strive to make a difference: to impact positively those around me. ?Acknowledging that successful businesses are often evaluated in terms of measurable performance and sustainable growth, a necessary corollary is that a successful organization must address the needs of all its stakeholders, particularly its employees.

? Joly emphasizes repeatedly that corporations are not soulless entities but human organizations with people at their center, working together in support of a common purpose.?He believes to achieve this goal, we must change our perspective: to view people as a source of initiative and energy rather than just a resource.?This in turn, unleashes what he calls “human magic.”?Casting aside old paradigms and leading with purpose and humanity by putting people first is the key to significant and sustainable growth.?There are so many great learnings in this book, it is worthy of repeated readings. I highly recommend not only the book but the core principle of putting people first. ?