Getting Energized

Source: Exec Digital USA

Date :16/07/2007 15:44:38

Author Jon Gorgon shares his advice on how busy executives can regain control of their busy lives, put more energy in their actions, and fun in their lives

By Kimberly Klasner

Perhaps you’re an over-stretched executive faced with a staff meeting at 2 p.m., a status report due at 3 p.m., a team of sales associates awaiting your next order, and a computer that has been down all day.

And at home, you do duty as a parent who has a kid’s soccer practice at 5 p.m., a family dinner at 6 p.m., two kids wanting your constant attention, and a spouse who feels ignored.

From life at the office, to life at home, stress and time management can certainly weigh a person down. In an everyday world that can easily begin to spin out of control, how can you grab hold of it again?

In his recently published book, The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work, and Team with Positive Energy, author Jon Gordon tries to solve this common dilemma. Through the power of positive energy, Gordon puts into motion 10 steps that are intended to help readers move in the right direction of regaining control of their life, while having a smile on their face.

ExecDigital recently spoke with Gordon about how men and women in the business world can adapt these simple 10 rules into their own lives and how to take hold of the wheel in their own energy bus.

Q: For those who haven’t read “The Energy Bus,” can you explain in a few words what it’s about?

GORDON: It’s about a guy named George who is miserable and negative: his team at work fizzles away, and his wife’s about to leave him. He wakes up Monday morning to a flat tire, and is forced to take the bus to work.

On the bus he meets a bus driver named Joy, who teaches him the rules of his life that not only help him cultivate positive energy in himself as a leader, to overcome his own challenges, his own self doubt, and his own negativity; but also how to get his team on the bus and moving in the right direction with purpose and vision and enthusiasm. In a nutshell, it’s about how to fuel our own tanks as leaders, and how to fuel the tanks of others; to be more positive strategic leaders, to develop positive people and positive teams within our organizations.

Q: Where did you come up with the title “The Energy Bus”?

GORDON: I met a bus driver named George a number of years ago in Denver, and he had some inspiring words for me — wisdom that I never forgot. Then, when I would give my talks, I’d say “Life is like an energy bus,” and I just started coming up with all these different analogies for the energy bus: moving in the right direction and enthusiasm attracts more passengers, and energizes them for the ride.

It was just such a great way for people to understand the message I was sharing. From there, I was walking one day and the idea hit me to write this book as a story to share these rules that I had been sharing.

Q: Who is your intended target audience with this book?

GORDON: I wanted to reach all walks of life: business leaders, school leaders, community leaders, NFL coaches, and front line workers. I’m getting all walks of life, from the CEO to the receptionist, because each person in the organization who reads it starts speaking with the same language, dialogue, and energy — with the knowledge that, “Hey we’re an organization but how positive energy matters and overcoming negativity is very important.”

I have college students emailing me; some business leaders are reading it to their kids — which was not intended. I just also got an email from a teacher who’s reading it to her students. I think it goes back to saying, yes it’s simple — what I’m writing — but truth is simple. And when you express the truth, all people understand it. My goal is for people to take action on the truth.

Q: What do you hope that readers will take away from “The Energy Bus”?

GORDON: I hope they’ll be inspired by it. I hope it’ll make them want to change the way they think. I hope it will help them fill their lives and tanks with more positive energy. I hope it will improve and enhance their leadership and their performance and their success.

Q: What are the “10 rules” all about?

GORDON: The rules sort of give structure to some of the principles, but they’re really about living and working at a higher level. Not getting caught up in the drudge of today and not letting sludge accumulate in your energy pipeline; not letting the negativity get you down.

I also think they summarize everything that should be done in a business. I think they really are the principles that we should be essentially living by in a work environment.

From a younger person’s perspective, if companies do not follow these principles, they are going to have a hard time because the younger people are looking for these principles. The twenty-something’s right now do not want to work for you if you don’t care about them, if you don’t trust them and if they can’t trust you.

They don’t want to work for you if there’s no spirit and enthusiasm in the organization. They want something that matters; they want to be part of something that’s meaningful; and companies need to recognize that and understand that, or else they’re going to be behind the times and their profits will fall.

Q: From the 10 rules in your book, which three are the most important to our readership?

GORDON: I think “Desire, Vision, and Move Your Bus in the Right Direction,” and really having a vision to where you want to go and focusing on that vision is important.

Where most companies and leaders lack, is in the area of execution. Einstein said, “Vision without execution is hallucination.”

Without that vision, you don’t know where you’re going, so the organization has to have a bigger vision for where they’re going and they’ve got to have that focus to execute on it.

I think “No energy vampires allowed” is very important. Leaders need to understand the cost of negativity in their company. They need to deal with negativity in an organization and if they don’t, they’re going to continue to have problems.

I think “You’re the Driver of Your Bus” is the most important rule. You choose the kind of ride it’s going to be: taking control of your life, making changes that impact your life, and living intentionally instead of responding to life. This is about how to create it.

Q: What is your advice to being able to put these into motion?

GORDON: I believe writing a vision down is truly important: writing it down and creating a plan of execution. I think it’s very important to have leaders on the bus. Bringing someone like me in to speak to your leaders — to get everyone on the same page and understanding the importance of this — is truly important. That way you’re getting your whole team together speaking the same language.

Q: If a business executive were to pick up this book, what would you hope they would get from it?

GORDON: I hope it would really fulfill them. Not just fulfill them career-wise, but personal-wise. So many of us may be successful in our work, but what about our family lives and our home lives? You can’t separate the two. I think success is defined by having it all: work and home life. And so I hope they would enjoy the ride.