Work Happy: What Great Bosses Know

Today I visited WFLA-TV in Tampa, where the syndicated program "Daytime" is produced.  Hosts Cyndi  Edwards and Lindsay MacDonald interviewed me about "WORK HAPPY: WHAT GREAT BOSSES KNOW."  Their questions were wisely framed from the employees' point of view: what do employees deserve from bosses and what things do they never forgive?  Daytime is recorded two days before its broadcast -- so my interview should appear on Friday, June 22.  The show airs at 10am in the Tampa Bay market, but 11 am in other parts of the country. Here's a link to where the show airs in cities across the USA Note from the green room: also there for the show taping today was a nice young man with an assortment of reptiles.  For the record, while I love animals, I did not ask to play with them.

"Library Journal" reviews "WORK HAPPY: WHAT GREAT BOSSES KNOW" in the magazine's current edition.  It goes without saying that librarians can be tough critics, since they see more books than anyone, and are often asked to suggest the best for their patrons.   So, what did the reviewer for "Library Journal" have to say?  I'm pleased to report that the verdict is good and Barnes and Noble is already featuring the review on its site.  Here's what the review says: "In the 1970s, Geisler (leadership & management, Poynter Instit.) was an energetic young reporter for a major market television station. After being promoted to news director, which required leading a staff of 50, she spent several decades honing her management skills in the news industry. Geisler draws her insights for this book from her curriculum at the Poynter Institute as well as the 360-degree feedback instrument she developed, a performance review that includes feedback from all levels of the organization, i.e., supervisors, staff, coworkers, and customers. Through reading the text, doing the exercises (which necessitate some serious soul-searching and self-critiquing), and putting her ideas into practice, readers can increase the level of happiness at the workplaces they manage. The examples she shares—both positive and negative employee critiques of bosses—are especially helpful in distinguishing between managerial behavior that will inspire rather than infuriate. VERDICT Though there are no earth-shattering revelations in these pages, Geisler offers sound advice for managers on how to be the kind of bosses employees like as well as respect. If her ideas were as easy to implement as they are to read, the workplace would indeed be much improved. -- Carol Elsen, Univ. of Wisconsin Libs., Whitewater"  

Colleagues who have written books warned me about it -- the "Amazon-check" habit that authors develop when a book is published.  Now I know why.  Every now and then there's the joyful discovery like today's.  This is the business management section of the Kindle store, where "WORK HAPPY: WHAT GREAT BOSSES KNOW" has found its way to #1 today.  It's a wonderful milestone, for however long it may last.  What's really important is that people may be investing in some critical training; new ideas to help them build positive and powerful workplace cultures. If you happen to be one of those who helped nudge the book up the list today, my sincere thanks to you.  Please feel free to share your feedback -- either here on this site, on the "WORK HAPPY: WHAT GREAT BOSSES KNOW" Facebook page. Some people have been sending me photos of themselves with their books, and I've been posting them to the Facebook page.  Join us!  

On the road to becoming a great boss, you'll probably meet your "Evil Twin."  That's the person others see but you don't -- not unless someone calls it to your attention. It can happen when you, with perfectly good intentions, do or say something that people take in an entirely different way than you intended.  It happens to managers all the time. I write about this phenomenon in "WORK HAPPY: WHAT GREAT BOSSES KNOW" because I think it is critical for managers to understand how easily their actions can be misinterpreted.  Once they understand this, there are things they can easily do to banish those Evil Twins.  In conjunction with the release of WORK HAPPY, I published a special column and podcast on Poynter. org that offers tips and shares some new research on the power of good intentions.  If you'd like to learn more, here's a link to that column.  And if you want to learn LOTS more, well, I'd suggest you consider investing in a certain book.

Here's what Amazon.com's business book section looked like this morning -- June 8, 2012! Both the hard copy and Kindle versions of "WORK HAPPY: WHAT GREAT BOSSES KNOW" are displayed as "Hot New Releases."  It's always encouraging to see that kind of showcasing, isn't it? It's been interesting hearing from people who have very particular preferences about how they consume books.  Some just love the convenience of an instant download, readable on a small, portable device.  Others don't feel they have a complete reading experience unless they can feel a book in their hands.  What's your preferred mode of book reading?

You're looking at the studios of WUWM, the public radio station in my home town of Milwaukee.  Host Mitch Teich invited me in for an interview about "WORK HAPPY: WHAT GREAT BOSSES KNOW" for the station's local news and public affairs show, "Lake Effect."    Public radio is a wonderful venue for authors.  Editors at my publishing house, Hachette, tell me that public radio listeners tend to be avid readers. "Lake Effect" airs on Wednesdays at 10am Central time, and as of this writing, the book interview is scheduled to air on Wednesday, June 13th. Thanks, Mitch, for being well-prepared and asking great questions about how bosses become great!

My husband Neil picked me up at the airport today, as I was coming home from teaching a leadership workshop in Mobile.  "Let's stop at Barnes and Noble on the way home," he suggested. Tomorrow is the officially release date for the book, but he thought it would be worthwhile to check the shelves today. When we arrived, he took his camera out of the trunk, so I suspected he knew something I didn't.  In fact, he had done a little advance scouting.  Sure enough, there in the "New Non-Fiction" area in business books, that bright, eye-catching cover, smiling right at us. It's been a wonderful journey, bringing this book to life.  Now, it can bring happiness to workplaces!   Feel free to contact me through the book's Facebook page if you'd like to share your thoughts or ask for advice.

What better way to spend the weekend before the official publication date of the book, than conducting a leadership workshop for some very bright young managers in the Raycom Media group.  Raycom believes in growing leaders from within the organization, and each year selects up-and-coming mid-level managers for specialized training. I've played a role in that program for several years running.  Being a manager is serious business, of course, but if you read my book, you'll see that I believe levity is a key value of leadership. As a surprise to the class, Raycom's news VP, Susana Schuler purchased early copies of the book from Amazon.com, and presented each one with a copy, which I then signed.  This photo was taken after they learned about the importance of feedback -- and my concept of "feedback glasses" (also in the book.) We took a few class pictures together, and needless to say, this one is my hands-down favorite.

Although the official release date is June 5,  Amazon is already selling and shipping copies of the book.  Several people who had pre-ordered told me this week they received emails from Amazon, letting them know the book would be shipped early to them.  Amazon also now has the "Look Inside the Book" feature activated, so you are able to get a good sense of the content.  I have always appreciated that feature -- and often purchased a book based on the strength of the Table of Contents! I'm especially delighted that the first Amazon.com review was posted by my colleague Roy Peter Clark.  He's the author of multiple books on writing and has had a profound impact on writers in all genres. He also encouraged me to turn my teaching and columns into a book, and has been very helpful along the way. Here's what he wrote: My colleague Jill Geisler has written her first book, and it's a humdinger: "Work Happy: What Great Bosses Know." At first, I was puzzled by the title. So few people express happiness in their work that it seemed to espouse a quixotic,almost impossible dream. But that's the point, isn't it? Whatever endeavor we choose -- or chooses us -- there is a direct connection between our productivity and our emotional satisfaction on the job. The subtitle suggests that it will be a great boss who creates the conditions for a productive and satisfying work life, with this caveat: Some of the unhappiest workers we know bear the title of boss, and their problems, we have all learned the hard way, flow downhill and become our problems. Leadership, Geisler teaches us, is not the work of bosses alone. Each of us carries some burden of leadership, which, when embraced and practiced, can turn into something powerful, even joyful. Jill Geisler brings long experience as a media leader to the writing of this book. Her strategies have been field tested and shared widely through her teaching at the Poynter Institute and through her iTunesU podcasts, which have been downloaded in the millions. Anyone who aspires to a leadership position of any kind at any organization should read this book and put its advice to work -- today.

This was the scene today as two boxes arrived at the Poynter Institute, to my attention.  This was the day I'd been waiting for -- to see the final, final product: the hard cover edition of my book.  I carried the boxes into the office of Julie Moos, who is the editor of our institute's web publication.  I refer to her as the "midwife" of the book, because she's been the editor of my "Great Bosses" columns, helped develop the iTunes U podcasts, and held my hand through every step of the book process.   When she saw me, her eyes lit up and she guessed what was up.  She handed me her scissors, grabbed her cell phone camera, and said she wanted to record as I saw the hard cover version of the book for the first time. Here's the unboxing -- as it happened: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6XMYDSkUPg Thanks, Julie!