YOU Can Create Positive Change at Work!

Do you wake up in the morning excited to come to work? Are you recognized for your contribution where you work? Do you work in an environment that provides professional development opportunities on a regular basis? Are you valued as an employee? As a person? Do you feel part of the company as a whole? Do you leave work with a sense of accomplishment? It would be wonderful if we all could answer yes to these questions. But, sadly, that is not always the case.

Despite the flood of books on business leadership and creating a positive and dynamic corporate culture—directed for the most part at decision makers in the C-suite—too many employers still fall short of the mark. These advice books often have little impact on the work lives of those on the front lines. Yet frontline staff make up the largest demographic in today’s workforce.

Although frontline staff have been referred to as those essential workers who have helped so many in our country and around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic, for the purposes of this book, we define frontline staff as all the people who make an organization run efficiently and effectively (from the custodian to the supervisor), whether they deal with the public or not. The Upskill Initiative counts “24 million Americans as frontline workers”[i] And according to Harvard Business Review,[ii] frontline staff compose “as much as 80% of the workforce.”

In YOU Can Create Positive Change at Work! we offer suggestions filled with real-world examples, helpful ideas, life stories (because what happens in life may definitely affect our work lives as well), and concrete ways that can change your workplace and your life. How? We provide you with four building blocks—or, as we call them, FUSES—to create and sustain a positive business workplace. Each of the four FUSES builds unique strengths that can be used independently. However, collectively they create a powder keg of acceleration to an engaged, energized, thriving, and successful workforce. They lead to an explosion of positive benefits that fall on those who light all the FUSES.

Note—you may already work in a positive environment; our hope, then, is that you will find nuggets of information in this book to take yourself, your team, your department, and your organization to the next level of engagement and empowerment.