Love and Work - by Marcus Buckingham (Hardcover)

About the Book

"We're in the middle of an epidemic of stress and anxiety. A global pandemic has wreaked havoc on our lives. Average life expectancy in the United States is down. At work, less than 16 percent of us are fully engaged. In many high-stress jobs, such as distribution centers, emergency room nursing, and teaching, incidences of PTSD are higher than for soldiers returning from war zones. We're getting something terribly wrong. We've designed the love out of our workplaces, and our schools too, so that they fail utterly to provide for or capitalize on one of our most basic human needs: our need for love. As Marcus Buckingham shows in this eye-opening, uplifting book, love is an energy, and like all forms of energy, it must flow. It demands expression-and that expression is "work." Whether in our professional accomplishments, our relationships, or our response to all the many slings and arrows of life, we know that none of this work will be our best unless it is made with love. There's no learning without love, no innovation, no service, no sustainable growth. Love and work are inextricable. Buckingham first starkly highlights the contours of our loveless work lives and explains how we got here. Next, he relates how we all develop best in response to other human beings. What does a great work relationship look like when the other person is cued to your loves? What does a great team look like when each member is primed to be a mirror, an amplifier, of the loves of another? Finally, he shows how you can weave love back into the world of work as a force for good, how you can use your daily life routines to pinpoint your specific loves, and how you can make this a discipline for the rest of your life. Today, too often, love comes last at work, and we are living the painful consequences of this. Love + Work powerfully shows why love must come first-and how we can make this happen"--

Book Synopsis

A Wall Street Journal bestseller

World-renowned researcher and New York Times bestselling author Marcus Buckingham helps us discover where we're at our best--both at work and in life.

You've long been told to "Do what you love." Sounds simple, but the real challenge is how to do this in a world not set up to help you. Most of us actually don't know the real truth of what we love--what engages us and makes us thrive--and our workplaces, jobs, schools, even our parents, are focused instead on making us conform. Sadly, no person or system is dedicated to discovering the crucial intersection between what you love to do and how you contribute it to others.

In this eye-opening, uplifting book, Buckingham shows you how to break free from this conformity--how to decode your own loves, turn them into their most powerful expression, and do the same for those you lead and those you love.

How can you use love to reveal your unique gifts?

How can you pinpoint what makes you stand out from anyone else?

How can you choose roles in which you'll excel?

Love and Work unlocks answers to these questions and others, so you can:

• Choose the right role on the team.
• Describe yourself compellingly in job interviews.
• Mold your existing role so that it calls upon the very best of you.
• Position yourself as a leader in such a way that your followers quickly come to trust in you.
• Make lasting change for your team, your company, your family, or your students.

Love, the most powerful of human emotions, the source of all creativity, collaboration, insight, and excellence, has been systematically drained from our lives--our work, teams, and classrooms.

It's time we brought love back in.

Love and Work shows you how.

Review Quotes

"Love and Work... at its heart it is about finding the career, or series of careers, that fit you best by pursuing what you love doing. Who does not want to do that?" -- Financial Times

About the Author

For over twenty-five years, Marcus Buckingham has been the world's leading researcher on strengths and human performance, as well as an entrepreneur, founding the strengths-based leadership development firm The Marcus Buckingham Company. He began his career at Gallup and was the cocreator, with Donald O. Clifton, of StrengthsFinder. He is the New York Times bestselling author or coauthor of ten books, including First, Break All the Rules; Now, Discover Your Strengths; StandOut 2.0; and Nine Lies About Work. He is currently Head of People + Performance Research at the ADP Research Institute.

To learn more, visit loveandwork.org

You can connect with Marcus Buckingham at:
marcusbuckingham.com/about
twitter.com/mwbuckingham
linkedin.com/in/marcus-buckingham