Jon Gordon, The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life., Work, and Team With Positive Energy (affiliate link). Holboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2007. 174 pages.
This is an easy one-flight read on a fundamental leadership issue. Jon Gordon specializes in writing fictional leadership stories that drive home some fundamental leadership issues. This book is easy reading. While you shouldn’t necessarily take the storyline too seriously, it plants the leadership lessons firmly into real life situations.
This story is a fictional account of a business executive named George whose life is falling apart. He has lost joy in his work. The team he leads is toxic and ineffective. His wife is increasingly dissatisfied with their marriage. George wakes up to a flat tire, and he has an important meeting to attend. When he discovers his car must remain in the shop for two weeks until it can be repaired, George is forced to take the bus to work for ten days. The bus driver is named Joy, and her bus is the energy bus. Joy dispenses not only joy to her passengers but ten rules that produce positive energy in people’s life and work. While the storyline is hard to believe in places (such as having a brilliant leadership guru driving a bus for a living), the story unpacks some helpful leadership lessons.
Gordon begins by saying that “. . . there is an abundance of new research that shows that positive people, positive communication, positive interactions, and positive work and team cultures produce positive results” (xv). George represents a large swath of today’s workforce. “George felt as if the world conspired to inconvenience him” (9). “He couldn’t remember the last time he was happy” (5).
The ten rules Joy shares with George over the ten days before his career making/ending presentation are not rocket science. Nevertheless, it becomes clear to anyone who has worked for an organization that many workplaces don’t follow these rules.
Rule 1: “You’re the driver of your bus” (25). If you are a leader, you are in charge of your life and those you lead. It is crucial that you take responsibility for it and stop blaming others for its shortcomings. Interestingly, Gordon notes that more people in America die at 9:00 a.m. than at any other time (27). While I’m not sure this fact was footnoted, Gordon points out that some people would rather die than go to work! Workplaces have become toxic in many instances.
Gordon points out that “Our thoughts are powerful because they are loaded with energy” (35). He adds, “Sometimes we have to see what we don’t want to know what we do want” (39). He also suggests that “What we think about, we attract” (42). Hence, we need to have positive thoughts. He argues, “. . . if you want to change your situation you must first change your thoughts” (45).
Gordon suggests that we do not merely manage people as leaders; we manage energy. It is the leader’s job to ensure that positive energy pervades the workplace. He warns, “. . . when there is a void, negativity will fill it” (48).
Gordon likens getting people on a bus to leading a positive team. If the bus is headed in a positive direction and is powered with positive energy, then others will want to climb aboard. Gordon warns, “If you don’t clearly communicate your vision of the road ahead no one will want to travel with you” (58). He advises, “Don’t worry about the people who don’t want to get on your bus” (70). Rather, “Your job is to do your best to eliminate any negativity on your bus and this includes negative people no matter who they are” (73).
Gordon suggests that “Your goal is not to be better than anyone else but rather to be better than you were yesterday” (91). He suggests that leaders are constantly broadcasting their positive or negative energy to everyone around them (101). People are regularly tuning in to the leader’s signal. He warns that negative people create negative cultures (110). Gordon also cites the work by Daniel Goleman on emotional intelligence (109). While some of Goleman’s claims have been challenged in recent days, Gordon’s fundamental point is sound.
This book is not a heavy-duty leadership tome. It doesn’t necessarily unearth groundbreaking insights. The storyline can be a distraction for the teaching at times. Turning a discouraged and ineffective manager around in ten days seems like a bit of a stretch.
Nevertheless, as a leader, I recognize the power of energy. Poor leadership sucks the life out of people. Discouragement and loss of vision leave teams feeling powerless. Gordon notes in the book that the energy he is talking about is far more than pep-rally cheers. For leaders to make positive change and attract quality people to join their effort, they must exude positive energy. People will take less pay for the opportunity to work on a high-energy, positive team.
I have known pastors and business leaders who had extremely flat, unexciting personalities. While leadership is more than charisma, if the leader is not excited about where the organization is going, no one else will be either. However, when leaders have experienced difficult times or opposition and criticism, they can lose their positive energy without noticing its departure. Those situations are where simple books like this can be helpful. The first rule is that we are responsible for our own attitudes. Positive attitudes lead to positive energy. Many of the leaders I have helped over the years revealed they had lost their positive attitudes and it had not taken long for those around them to notice and respond accordingly.
Positive energy is something that must be stewarded and guarded. There are people Gordon calls “energy vampires” who suck the joy and energy out of a team. Leaders must diligently protect their team from such people. Perhaps one of the hardest lessons in the book is that some negative people need to be shown the exit to the bus if they refuse to change their ways.
This book may be helpful for those suffering from loss of enthusiasm and joy in their work. The lessons appear simplistic at times, but they tap into some deep leadership wisdom. Most leaders grow weary and distracted by negativity at times. This easy, quick read can help us get back on track.
Rating: 2
