A book about Glue - update one

I am delighted to share with you that my new book, ‘GLUE: Transforming Leadership in a Hybrid World’, will be published by Routledge (Taylor & Francis) in 2023.

Many of my colleagues will know of my long-term addiction to glue.  Not for sticking, or craft, or sniffing, but as the crucial ingredient you need to cultivate amongst talented people in your organisation. The past few years have seen a seismic shift for many in the nature and form of work, with remote, flexible and hybrid working the new normal. Despite this transformation, the prognosis for the modern firm is not good, with engagement still poor, low productivity and close personal ties on the wane.  The already tenuous bonds between organisations and their employees are becoming increasingly flimsy.

I began to wrestle with a crucial question: in a world of flexible, remote and hybrid working, how do you create and maintain deep engagement with, and amongst, employees who are often working apart from one another?

Most of us have relied upon two resources as a response: focusing on our own personal skills and behaviours, and by relying on a way of leading and managing learnt from the past. Both approaches are now either defunct, or much diminished in their effectiveness. The new ways we work and live our lives requires a very different leadership approach.

Leaders urgently need to refocus, not on themselves, but on harnessing relationships, making their organisations more humane, and finding new ways to engage and unleash talent. We need to transform leadership for the hybrid age, not just in a way that makes us feel less remote, but one that coheres disparate hearts, minds and souls.  To do that, the single, most impactful thing leaders must do - and it’s not easy - is to create and nurture an intangible yet essential factor called glue.

So, my new book sets out some ideas about glue: what it is, where to look for it, how to use it and, most importantly, how to cultivate glue amongst your most valuable people. It explores the approach of some unusual leaders, and of firms transformed through the ‘organisational advantage’ of smartly configuring and harnessing talent.

I have drawn upon stories from firms such as Alibaba, Apple, Barclays, Sky, Husqvarna Group, HSBC, Space X, Zopa, and Richer Sounds, to show how leaders can shape the effectiveness of teams, reimagine the workplace, and reinvigorate the business to retain the loyalty of customers through the talents, ideas, and energy of their best people.

I have written Glue for anyone who has a genuine interest in leading others with impact and wants to better unite, transform and elevate their business.  Whatever your role, function, sector, or seniority, I hope when you read it you will be energised about a new distinctive vision for leading in a hybrid world.

The book is in the hands of the lovely people at Routledge, and will be published later in 2023. I’m as excited as I am nervous, and will share an update here when I am more certain of the timings, and I know how you might pre-order a copy. I will also share a small preview when it is ready. JD