Abundance Leaders Creating Energy, Joy, and Productivity in an Unsettled World

Transform your ability to lead others with an abundance leadership mindset

In Abundance Leaders: Creating Energy, Joy, and Productivity in an Unsettled World, renowned management consultant and lecturer Laura Freebairn-Smith delivers a rigorous and practical discussion of energetic, joyful, and productive leadership. In the book, you’ll learn what sets leaders with an “abundance mindset” apart from those with a “scarcity mindset,” and why the former creates work environments that generate superior performance when compared to those created by the latter.

The author comprehensively explains the Abundance Leadership Model and convincingly demonstrates how it leads to immediate and tangible improvements in productivity and employee wellbeing. You’ll also find:

• A list of 26 distinct behaviors that signal a manager or executive is working in an abundance leadership mindset
• Strategies for leading bravely, making big, impactful promises, and aligning your organization around its purpose
• Ways to shape the culture at your organization in ways that drive dramatic improvements to the bottom line and worker satisfaction

An essential resource for managers, executives, board members, and other business leaders, Abundance Leaders will also earn a place in the libraries of anyone with an interest in leadership or organizational culture.

LAURA FREEBAIRN-SMITH is a Partner and Co-founder of Organizational Performance Group (OPG), a management consulting firm. She holds an MBA from Yale and a PhD in Organizational Systems from Saybrook University. She has taught as faculty and guest lecturer at Yale, Georgetown, Central CT State University, and the University of New Haven.

Foreword ix

Preface xiii

Section I Abundance Leadership

1 My Journey to Abundance Leadership 3

2 How Abundance Leaders Think 19

Looking for Explanations 19

Optimism 25

Three Other Fields That Inform Abundance Leadership 30

3 Four Meta-Competencies 43

Visioning for the Greater Good 48

Visibility 56

Self-Awareness 58

Managing Well 60

Section II Organizational Health and Abundance Leadership

4 Improving Your Organization’s Health 65

5 Macrolevers 69

Charrettes 69

Four-Day Workweek 73

Workspace Design 75

Managing by Circadian Rhythm 77

6 Microlevers: Small Tools for Big Change 87

The Gong 88

The Annual Donation: Collective Competition for the Greater Good 89

Public Agenda: Speak Up and Get Heard 90

Community Wall: Life Outside of Work 90

Snow Globes and Collective Memory 91

Facilitation Rotation 92

Dream List: Imagining Our Ideal World 92

Section III the How-to Manual

7 Visioning 99

Visioning 100

Creativity 107

8 Visibility 113

9 Self-Awareness 117

Reflection and Affect 121

Interpersonal Adeptness 135

Morality 140

Ego Control 141

10 Managing Well 145

Team Building 146

Communication 153

Protection 157

Decision-Making 163

Epilogue 169

Appendix A: Additional Resources 171

Appendix B: Organizational Development Bibliography 173

References 181

Acknowledgments 187

About the Author 189

Index 191

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