Böcker av John Izzo

How Good Leaders Create Engagement and Competitive Advantage in an Age of Social Good We're in the midst of a purpose revolution. Customers, employees, and investors are making it clear that they want companies to do more than provide good products, good prospects, and good profits - they want companies to do some social good too. Ironically, as this extremely timely book demonstrates, purpose-driven companies do better on nearly every traditional metric: greater customer loyalty, higher retention, more innovation, and a healthier bottom line. But how do you become a purpose-driven company? Just crafting an inspiring new mission statement and starting a CSR program won't cut it, says John Izzo, who predicted the purpose revolution in his 1994 book Awakening Corporate Soul. Purpose must pervade every part of your organization. In this thoroughly researched hands-on guide, Izzo and Jeff Vanderwielen provide a tool kit for deeply embedding purpose into your leadership and organizational culture. Using scores of real-world examples and practical exercises, Izzo and Vanderwielen help leaders find a truly authentic purpose, one that is a natural fit for them and their organization. They describe concrete actions leaders can take to ensure that employees own it, customers and recruits connect with it, and every corporate action and activity reflects it. They show leaders how to avoid common pitfalls on the path to purpose and how to use purpose to guide all their decision making. In an increasingly crowded economic landscape, purpose gives you a powerful competitive advantage. But it does more than that. Finding and communicating an inspiring purpose will revitalize the entire organization, top to bottom. Purpose makes business more rewarding in every sense.

Happiness is our natural state, for each of us and for humanity as a whole, argues John Izzo. But that happiness is being stolen by insidious mental patterns that he depicts as thieves: the thief of control, the thief of conceit, the thief of coveting, the thief of consumption, and the thief of comfort. He discovered these thieves as he sought the true source of happiness during a year-long sabbatical, walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain and living in the Andes of Peru. This thoughtful and inspiring book describes the disguises these thieves wear, the tools they use to break into our hearts, and how to lock them out once and for all. Izzo shows how these same thieves of personal happiness are destroying society as well. This book will help us all discover, develop, and defend the happiness that is our true nature while creating a world we all want to live in.

All too often, the challenges we face seem overwhelming. Where do we start? What if we fail? But bestselling author John Izzo argues that almost every problem, from personal difficulties and business challenges to social issues, can be solved if all of us look to ourselves to create change rather than looking to others. And with the research to prove it, Izzo shows that by seeing ourselves as the locus of control rather than the victims of change, we are happier, less stressed, and more powerful. Izzo shows how taking responsibility changes our careers, our companies, our lives, and our communities. This book is filled with stories that illustrate the incredible power of stepping up: a homeless man who started a recycling revolution, a middle-aged Italian shopkeeper who fought back against the Mafia, two teenagers who ignited an antibullying movement, an executive who turned a dying division into a profit center, and a few employees who created a multibillion dollar product for Starbucks, and many more. This second edition includes a new chapter on the Stepping Up Continuum, a model that looks at six ways to know if you are stepping up or stepping back, as well as fresh stories and a self-assessment tool for helping leaders create a culture for stepping up in their organizations. We have the power within ourselves to move mountains-we just have to decide that we are the ones to do it.

In The Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die, Dr. John Izzo, presents valuable advice that was gleaned from over 200 interviews with people over the age of sixty (up to 106 years of age). Using a powerful narrative voice, Izzo helps us to understand the common themes from the lives of those interviewed, the commonality of what really matters in their lives, and especially how to put this wisdom into practice.Imagine for a moment that you are about to take a foreign vacation to an exotic destination. You have saved your entire life to travel there. It is a destination with almost unlimited choices of how to spend your time and you know you will not have enough time to explore every opportunity. You are fairly certain that you will never get to take a second trip to this destination; this will be your one opportunity.Now imagine that someone informs you that there are several people in your neighbourhood who have been to that country, explored every corner. Some of them enjoyed the journey and have few regrets, but others wish they could take the trip again knowing what they know now. Would you not invite them over for dinner, ask them to bring their photographs, listen to their stories, and hear their advice?This is precisely the journey explored in this book. Dr. John Izzo and his colleagues interviewed over 200 people over the age of sixty who were identified by others as having lived happy lives and as having found purpose and contentment. The interviewees ranged from aboriginal elders to town barbers, from Hollocaust survivors to former CEO's. In these interviews, each person was asked to reflect back on his or her life to identify the sources of happiness and meaning as well as lessons learned, regrets, major crossroads, and what did not contribute to meaning in their lives. Based on these interviews, and Dr. Izzo's twenty years experience helping people find more spirit and purpose, the book explores the secrets to finding contentment, happiness, and purpose. Using a powerful narrative voice, Dr. Izzo helps the reader understand the common themes from the lives of those interviewed, the commonality of what really matters in their lives, and especially how to put this wisdom into practice.