Work-Life BLOOM | Book Review 

“Will you become a positive force and assist
in your team member’s life-journey?” (p. 141)

Think of Dan Pontefract’s book as a well-researched post-pandemic challenge to the overused term work-life balance. Dan replaces work-life balance with six work factors and six life factors (p. 7):

Pontefract’s approach emphasizes core motivational and instinctive needs, a welcome improvement from mostly observing and evaluating day-to-day preferred work styles. In a way we may think of work-life balance as a management objective and blooming as a leadership objective.

This review introduces Pontefract’s replacement of work-life balance with the concept of BLOOM and offers supporting comments on his selected six work and six life factor definitions (in italics), as a path forward toward an improved work environment.

Landscape

In its 2022 State of the Global Workforce Report, Gallup reported that 60 percent of people are emotionally detached at work, and another 19 percent are miserable. Employee engagement numbers haven’t materially changed since Gallup began its global research in 2000 (p. 25). Sometimes we have to ask whether or not we are measuring the correct things.

Pontefract reflects that no one will ever remain highly engaged over their entire career (p. 14), challenging the idea of work-life balance as though a single equation and point of time may represent an approved solution. The author Haruki Murakami reinforces Pontefract in his 2007 book, After Dark, that work, and life are not a binary combination (p. 17).

Recall, Stanley McChrystal encountered a similar challenge describe in Team of Teams, while attempting to scale high performing elite military units. Interestingly, McChrystal concluding the role of a leader is ultimately that of a gardener. Pontefract and McChrystal have reached similar conclusions; McChrystal in battle overseas, Pontefract reflecting on our Covid years. Pontefract observes that the way many workers make a living is fundamentally changing, either by choice or out of necessity (p. 9), and that to bloom is to mature into realizing one’s potential (p. 16).

The elegant Work-Life Bloom model (p. 39) follows:

It’s a more human model, meant to capture our varying stages we naturally move between, appropriate for our modern, dynamic environment.

Work Factors (p. 57)

Trust: The demonstration of authentic and consistent behavior such that people become an advocate for one another. Imagine creating and then living your Personal Leadership Philosophy (PLP) – which is built on credibility and trust, with ever deepening roots.

Belonging: The accumulation of positive experiences that enables people to feel understood, represented, and safe. It’s easy imagining this factor suffered most during Covid, exposing our need for human connection, to be part of a thriving garden.

Valued: The belief that one is paid fairly, consistently recognized for their efforts, and frequently appreciated for their impacts. In Lead From The Heart, one of author Mark Crowley’s four listed factors leading to 67% of employee engagement is extrinsic rewards. Dan extends Crowley’s definition, primarily renumeration, by adding recognition and appreciation.

Purpose: The organization’s intentions, beliefs, and actions are geared toward serving all stakeholders and advancing society for the greater good. We need to walk the talk. We’ve all had and have witnessed phony bosses and leaders.

Strategy: The intended direction and related priorities to ensure the short- and long-term focus of team members and the delivery of their objectives. Our Covid years have likely exacerbated Strategic Execution challenges. In the Harvard Business Review’s Where Strategy Stumbles, we learn that when asked about commitments across functions and business units ... only 9% of managers say they can rely on colleagues in other functions and units all the time, and just half say they can rely on them most of the time. In other words, as a team leader, tending to more than one garden may be necessary.

Norms: The operating principles and guidelines that form the culture, providing clear expectations for team members regarding how to interact with one another. We can go further, and document our normative behavioral statements, codifying our organization’s enduring and unchanging values, and finally, model our values with our actions.

Life Factors (pp. 144-145)

Relationships: The community of strong and weak ties – your full network of connections – that facilitate a willing exchange of assistance. Let’s not limit connections to work or home. Rather than seeking transactions, seek mutual purpose and mutual support, the essence of genuine networking.

Skills: The attributes you develop and the aptitudes you gain to perform confidently at work and in life. Be the leader coach. Contrast this with the manager reluctantly offering an annual performance review. The better we understand all the dimensions of those on our team, the more we can support individuals both professionally and personally.

Well-being: The emotional, social, physical, and financial health of your present state. Similar to Tony Schwarz et. al. in The Power of Full Engagement. The authors challenge us to draw upon all four sources of our personal energy: Physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual.

Meaning: The feeling and articulation of self-worth on a daily basis. Pontefract appropriately cites Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning. A key takeaway from the timeless work is that even under the most daunting circumstances, we have a choice, or agency.

Agency: The ability to make decisions and take action that results in positive outcomes. Probably this reviewer’s favorite. Recall in Dan Pink’s Drive, we discovery that autonomy, mastery, and purpose fuel motivation. Not surprisingly this coincides with Frankl.

Respect: The expression of appreciation and admiration for [who you] really are. Not many generations ago, we esteemed masters of production efficiency such a Frederick Winslow Taylor. Much of our work today is mental and creative, rather than rote and mechanical. Connecting as people comes first.

Summary

Pontefract provides an excellent visual summary of Work & Life-Factors Soil Tests questions on pages 240-241, useful for any leader-coach.

I have learned during my time as a leader that no one
should take anything for granted. (p. 249)

Note: Dan Pontefract generously provided an advance reader’s copy of his book for review