Work-Life Bloom


Book Description

A thought-provoking and empowering book that will inspire leaders to take a fresh look at a new coalescence between work and life. In Work-Life Bloom: How to Nurture a Team That Flourishes, award-winning author Dan Pontefract takes a fresh look at integrating our professional and personal lives. Just as a flower needs the right mix of sunlight, water, and nutrients to grow and thrive, team members need the right mix of work-life factors to create a fulfilling and harmonious existence. Through primary global research, interviews, and personal experience, Pontefract delves into the current state of work and life, offering practical solutions for leaders and organizations to create environments where teams can flourish. Pontefract argues that there really is no such thing as work-life balance: our rigid attempts to achieve it don't reflect current realities, and are in fact leading us to further burnout, stress, and unhappiness. Instead, he encourages a more holistic approach, promoting the idea of "blooming" in both work and life. Pontefract stresses that for people to succeed, they must reach fulfillment through the integration of work and the personal aspects of life. After all, people bring their work into their lives and their lives into their work; an improved integration is necessary. Pontefract introduces six key work factors — trust, belonging, feeling valued, purpose, strategy, and norms —and six life factors —relationships, skills, well-being, meaning, agency, and respect — essential for creating an integrated work-life ecosystem that genuinely blooms. The 12 factors contain practical solutions and strategies for leaders who want to nurture Work-Life Bloom environments for their team members, and achieve this mindset for themselves. With a unique approach and vivid writing, Work-Life Bloom is a must-read for anyone looking to improve their impact as a leader.




The Purpose Effect


Book Description

Pontefract combines years of experience and research on employee engagement to create a work about the three crucial areas of purpose: individual, workplace role, and organizational. When one area is lacking, this three-legged barstool starts to wobble, and the results range from disengagement to bankruptcy. A business leader that is committed to purpose will create purpose for his/her employees. An employee that feels his/her sense of purpose on the job will be an invaluable asset to productivity and success. An organization centered on purpose will benefit every stakeholder, from employees to society in general. This “sweet spot” of purpose creates a reciprocal relationship between all three areas, and sits at the center of Pontefract’s work.




How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like


Book Description

"Engaging, evocative…[Bloom] is a supple, clear writer, and his parade of counterintuitive claims about pleasure is beguiling." —NPR Why is an artistic masterpiece worth millions more than a convincing forgery? Pleasure works in mysterious ways, as Paul Bloom reveals in this investigation of what we desire and why. Drawing on a wealth of surprising studies, Bloom investigates pleasures noble and seamy, lofty and mundane, to reveal that our enjoyment of a given thing is determined not by what we can see and touch but by our beliefs about that thing’s history, origin, and deeper nature.




Flat Army


Book Description

Your people are your most valuable asset, and if you want them to excel (and your profits to soar), you'll need to abandon your traditional command-and-control management style and adopt a collaborative, open leadership approach—one that engages and empowers your people. While this isn't a particularly new idea, many leaders, while they may pay lip service to it, don't really understand what it means. And most of those who do get it lack the skills for putting it into practice. In Flat Army you'll find powerful leadership models and tools that help you challenge yourself and overcome your personal obstacles to change, while pushing the boundaries of organizational change to create a culture of collaboration. • Develops an integrated framework incorporating collaboration, open leadership, technologies, and connected learning • Shows you how to flatten the organizational pyramid and engage with your peoples in more collaborative and productive ways—without undermining your authority • Explains how to deploy a Connected Leader mindset, a Participative Leader Framework, and a Collaborative Leader Action Model • Arms you with powerful tools for becoming a more visible leader who demonstrates the qualities and capabilities needed to become an agent of positive change




Open to Think


Book Description

While it may not occur to us on a daily basis, there is a widespread cultural tendency toward quick decisions and quick action. This pattern has resulted in many of our society's greatest successes, but even more of its failures. Though the root cause is by no means malicious, we have begun to reward speed over quality, and the negative effects suffered in both our personal and professional lives are potentially catastrophic. Best-selling author and Chief Envisioner Dan Pontefract offers the solution to this predicament with what he coins "Open Thinking," a cyclical process in which creativity is encouraged, critiquing leads to better decisions, and thoughtful action delivers positive, sustainable results. He proposes a return to balance between the three components of productive thought: dreaming, deciding, and doing. Based on organizational and societal data, academic research, historical studies, and a wide range of interviews, Open to Think is an appeal for a world of better thinking. Pontefract introduces tangible, actionable strategies to improve the way we think as organizations and individuals.




Designing Your Work Life


Book Description

When Designing Your Life was published in 2016, Stanford’s Bill Burnett and Dave Evans taught readers how to use design thinking to build meaningful, fulfilling lives (“Life has questions. They have answers.” –The New York Times). The book struck a chord, becoming an instant #1 New York Times bestseller. Now, in DESIGNING YOUR WORK LIFE: How to Thrive and Change and Find Happiness at Work they apply that transformative thinking to the place we spend more time than anywhere else: work. DESIGNING YOUR WORK LIFE teaches readers how to create the job they want—without necessarily leaving the job they already have. “Increasingly, it’s up to workers to define their own happiness and success in this ever-moving landscape,” they write, and chapter by chapter, they demonstrate how to build positive change, wherever you are in your career. Whether you want to stay in your job and make it a more meaningful experience, or if you decide it’s time to move on, Evans and Burnett show you how to visualize and build a work-life that is productive, engaged, meaningful, and more fun.




Bloom


Book Description

From rising YouTube star Estée Lalonde comes a book that's about more than just living the perfect lifestyle; it's about giving readers the confidence to live the lifestyle that's perfect for you. What makes you happy? What makes you you? What defines your style? In Bloom, YouTube personality Estée Lalonde shares the moments, people and things that have made her who she is today. She reveals her life lessons, and offers her tips for surviving life and finding yourself. With the same charming and friendly voice and advice that has made her a global star, Estee guides readers in discovering their own bloom story and celebrating what makes them unique. Life * People * Work * Beauty * Fashion * Home * Travel * Food




The Bright Book of Life


Book Description

America's most original and controversial literary critic writes trenchantly about forty-eight masterworks spanning the Western tradition—from Don Quixote to Wuthering Heights to Invisible Man—in his first book devoted exclusively to narrative fiction. In this valedictory volume, Yale professor Harold Bloom—who for more than half a century was regarded as America's most daringly original and controversial literary critic—gives us his only book devoted entirely to the art of the novel. With his hallmark percipience, remarkable scholarship, and extraordinary devotion to sublimity, Bloom offers meditations on forty-eight essential works spanning the Western canon, from Don Quixote to Book of Numbers; from Wuthering Heights to Absalom, Absalom!; from Les Misérables to Blood Meridian; from Vanity Fair to Invisible Man. Here are trenchant appreciations of fiction by, among many others, Austen, Balzac, Dickens, Tolstoy, James, Conrad, Lawrence, Le Guin, and Sebald. Whether you have already read these books, plan to, or simply care about the importance and power of fiction, Harold Bloom is your unparalleled guide to understanding literature with new intimacy.




Dare to Bloom


Book Description

Either by choice or by circumstance, we all encounter times of starting over. Seasons of hardships, abundance, seeking, and struggle all have a purpose because growth demands change. Dare to Bloom urges us to be both vulnerable and resilient in new seasons of life as we boldly position ourselves for what God has for us next. Serial entrepreneur and author, Zim Flores (neè Ugochukwu), reveals the challenges she's faced and how even her failures have helped shape her sense of purpose. Her parents had big plans for her life. The daughter of Nigerian immigrants, Zim Flores was uprooted from her community as a young girl, marking the beginning of her quest for true identity. Though she experienced unprecedented worldly success as a teenager and young adult, Zim declares that even when we feel pressured by the world around us, our true identity is never at risk. In Dare to Bloom, Zim offers practical and hard-won truths about: How to reclaim your true identity How to surrender your desired outcomes to God How to move forward after broken friendships How to find comfort during your darkest hours How to navigate new beginnings with hope for whatever is next How to joyfully participate in your own story--even when you don't know what the future holds Dare to Bloom is a powerful gift for readers in times of transition or struggle who need a reminder that their true identity never changes. It empowers those who feel stuck in their current circumstances to follow God obediently into the unknown, finding joy in each new beginning. Inside you'll find: Breathtaking photography from Zim's travels Thoughtful questions for reflection at the end of each chapter Zimisms--wisdom-filled phrases from the author When everything changes around us, it can be easy to think that we're only as good as our last success. Though our identities are challenged day by day, Dare to Bloom encourages us to reclaim our identity in God, who is unchanging through it all.




Fueled By Failure


Book Description

Fueled by Failure: Dare to Fail. Dare to Succeed. Olympian and former NFL player now thriving as a CEO and Philanthropist, Jeremy Bloom pulls at the common thread that unites him with all of us: the defeats we encounter on our journeys to reach our goals. Sharing his hard-earned insights, advice, and practices including lessons from respected coaches, phenomenal athletes, and highly successful business leaders, Bloom coaches you in tackling defeats—big and small—and using them to drive, not derail, your success. Bloom covers: How to rebound and reprogram after defeat How to utilize the lessons from failures Which motivators evoke winning results Tactics for managing expectations for yourself and/or your team How to create a badass business culture Leaving a legacy