Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning - Softcover

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly

Softcover

ISBN 10: 014200409X ISBN 13: 9780142004098

Publisher: Penguin Books, 2004

Synopsis

Title: Good Business( Leadership Flow and the Making of Meaning) <>Binding: Paperback <>Author: MihalyCsikszentmihalyi <>Publisher: PenguinBooks

About this title

Review:

In psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's definition of leadership, the personal is political. In Good Business, the bestselling author of Flow interviewed several dozen exemplary CEOs whose wisdom provides the radical job description of the book's premise: "Leaders must make it possible for employees to work with joy to their heart's content, while responding to the needs of society". Csikszentmihalyi leverages his definition of "flow"--the capacity for full engagement in an activity--to create a blueprint for a workplace in which bringing out the best in workers comes before products and profit. When leaders select and reward employees who find satisfaction at work, they can create an upwardly moral organisation.

In this view, leadership is a privilege that requires leaving ego at the door and peering into the mirror to ask tough questions. For example, "How do I determine if something is right or wrong?" Or, "What is my business doing to benefit human well being?" He offers some inspiring stories from leaders who engage employees to go with the flow, including Body Shop CEO Anita Roddick, Patagonia crown prince Yvon Chouinard and media mogul Ted Turner. Some of Csikszentmihalyi's advice will sound familiar. Yet he creates a compellingly fresh vision of good business in both a material and spiritual sense. Ultimately, the success of this book lies in its powerful, non-flaky ability to define corporate soul in terms of a company becoming a stakeholder in an entity larger than itself. --Barbara Mackoff, Amazon.com

Review:

"Profound and timely . . . a unique contribution that will certainly shape our world view of how human institutions can achieve optimal results."

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 014200409X
• ISBN 13: 9780142004098
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256