Book Work Is Love Made Visible

A Collection of Essays About the Power of Finding Your

Purpose from the World’s Greatest Thought Leaders
Frances Hesselbein, Marshall Goldsmith and Sarah McArthur
Wiley, 2018 
Also available in: Spanish
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 Qualities

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Recommendation
This book’s origin stems from a question that editor Frances Hesselbein asked her
colleague Sarah McArthur, “What is it you see when you look out the window that is
visible but not yet seen?” The book’s three editors – including well-known management
author, Marshall Goldsmith – suggest that it’s time to think about how you see the
world and how would you like it to be. They asked 30 distinguished thinkers to answer
this question and to discuss their vision of the world, and how it shapes their identity
and their work. Each contributing essayist offers a personal answer. Their answers –
and perhaps yours – seem to have a lot to do with recognizing your purpose in life. 

Take-Aways
 Leaders should focus on who they are, not just on what they do.
 True leaders serve others.
 Life offers myriad moments that will define your identity and purpose in the
years to come.
 Leaders should always open doors for others.
 Be optimistic about the future.

Summary
Leaders should focus on who they are, not just on what they do.

Distinguished leaders – including a former US Marine general, a former US Army

general, a former Doctors Without Borders professional and a former top-ranked
teenage tennis player – present their individual visions of the world, and explain how
those visions shape who they are, what they do and what contributions they make to a
better world. They agree that lofty titles and positions of authority don’t turn people into
leaders. People become great leaders based on their character, vision, values and
dedication to an elevated mission.

Business sage Peter Drucker (1909–2005) believed that leaders should be mentors and
should outline their values and principles in their own words.
“Work is love made visible. And if you can’t work with love, but only with distaste, it is
better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms
of the people who work with joy.” (poet Kahlil Gibran)
Leadership coach Marshall Goldsmith believes that today’s leadership has evolved based
on seven trends: 1) Business is more global than local; 2) diversity is replacing
uniformity; 3) leaders must stay abreast of technology; 4) leaders must be constant
learners; 5) leaders must engage in constructive dialogue with those they lead; 6) teams
and alliances are replacing hierarchy; and 7) once considered bosses, leaders now are
seen as facilitators.

“As leaders, we must know what to look for and how to see it, what to listen for and
how to hear it, [and] what to tell and how to tell it.” (Stephanie Pace Marshall, author
of ‘The Power to Transform’)
Human resources expert Dave Ulrich urges leaders to become anthropologists of
their organizations. He counsels that observing your firm from an outsider’s perspective
will give you new insights.

Rose Park Advisors co-founder Whitney Johnson uses E.M. Rogers’s S-curve model to
show how seven “touch points” can accelerate the business or personal disruption that
leads to innovation: 1) Take smart risks, 2) leverage your strengths, 3) celebrate
constraints, 4) avoid entitlement, 5) learn and grow, 6) see failure as a teacher, and 7) be
flexible and improvise as necessary.

“Do not judge me by my successes…Judge me by how many times I fell down and got
back up again.” (Nelson Mandela)
Patrick Lencioni, best-selling author and founder of The Table Group, advocates self-
reflection. Think deeply about yourself and your personal qualities. Are these qualities
what they should be? Are you a positive influence?

Executive coach Taavo Godtfredsen urges leaders to become self-aware and to focus on

their impact – not their intentions. Presumably, all leaders have good intentions. If
there’s a gap between your good intentions and your actions, close it.

“We want to be ourselves, to be heard, yet growth is the process of extending our
views, seeking to understand the views of others, and abandoning views that no longer
serve us.” (CEO Susan Scott, Fierce Inc.)
Susan Scott, the author of Fierce Conversations, argues that relationships depend on
conversation. If you stop talking with someone, your relationship will wither and die.
In business, relationships are your most valuable currency.

True leaders serve others.

Leadership is a noble calling based on serving others. Here, noted business experts offer
their suggestions about putting your leadership into action:
 Every good leader can improve – Coaching benefits everyone by
helping people become better leaders and providing valuable learning and understanding.
(Jim Yong Kim, president, World Bank Group)
 Leaders have grave responsibilities – People depend on their leaders,
who must be honest, act morally and protect their employees. (Margaret
Heffernan, author, The Naked Truth)
 Model your leadership after the first US president, George
Washington – Allan Mulally, former CEO of Ford Motor Company, embodies three
principles of George Washington’s leadership style: Put your people first, pay attention to
your subordinates’ advice and stay emotionally strong. (Eric Schurenberg, editor in chief
and president, Inc. magazine)
 Sir Richard Branson follows Nelson Mandela’s five leadership
principles – Branson defines these principles as: 1) Your mission, not your setbacks,
should define you. 2) If you fail, get up, dust off and begin again. 3) Get the help you need.
4) Concentrate on what you care about most. And, 5) even though you’re not perfect, you
can make a difference. (Mark C. Thompson, patron of 400-plus firm under the Virgin
brand)
 Learn from the aborigines – Australia’s Pitjantjatjara aboriginal tribe
believes in “dreamtime, or world-making.” Tribe members say that their ancestors “sang”
their way across the primordial world, fashioning the landscape, plants and creatures.
They teach that if you transform the story, you change the landscape and thus change your
choices and your mind so you can change the world. (Stephanie Pace Marshall,
author, The Power to Transform)
 Lead the US Marine Corps way – Many current leaders complain about the
disengagement of millennials and generation Z employees. The US Marines draw from the
same age cohort, but its recruits become highly engaged in response to the Marine
Corps’ high expectations. Expect more from your young workers. (USMC Major General,
Ret. Mel Spiese)
 Try to emulate the traits of good leaders – Principled leaders are humble,
confident, assertive and accessible. They are good listeners and careful decision
makers. (CEO Jack Zenger, Zenger Folkman leadership consultancy)

Life offers myriad moments that will define your identity and purpose in
the years to come.

Every human life offers singular instances of insight that mold character and inspire
new life journeys, as these experts explain:
 Everyone can use a little coaching – Tennis players and skiers relish
instruction, but executives aren’t always open to coaching. Accept a coach’s comments as
insightful feedback that can help you improve. (CEO Hubert Joly, Best Buy)
 Scope out the motifs – Themes are the understated but essential patterns that
reveal how organizations work. Leaders should decipher a firm’s independent and
dependent variables and differentiate between correlation and causality. (Rita McGrath,
author, The End of Competitive Advantage)
 You can’t develop in your comfort zone – If you think you can’t attain
certain goals, you’re limiting yourself. To grow, be brave and try new things. (Beverly
Kaye, founder, Career Systems International)
 Self-protection locks away your heart – Mental walls hurt you and make it
nearly impossible for you to understand the world. Blow up your walls to fully develop as a
person. (Catherine Carr, project coordinator, Doctors Without Borders)
 Myopic thinking hurts companies – Leaders must avoid short-term
thinking, take the long view and always think strategically. (Jeffrey S. Kuhn, educator,
founding member, Strategic Management Forum)
 Your daily habits make you a success – You might be a talented competitor,
but if you don’t work hard, a less-talented hard worker will always beat you. Every person
has multiple choices. You can change your life. To believe change is possible, open your
thinking and free yourself from the limitations of your preconceptions. (Prakash Raman,
founder, Raman Consulting)

Leaders should always open doors for others.

Through their words and actions, leaders are responsible for providing new
opportunities for their people:

 New knowledge generates additional new insights – In executive

coaching, everything starts with a thoughtful question that leads to a useful insight, new
actions and positive changes in behavior. (Michael Bungay Stanier, founder, Box of
Crayons; author, The Coaching Habit)
 Business can be a noble undertaking – Handled correctly, a business can
give people joy, help them put aside suffering, and provide them with tools to improve
themselves and their community. (Garry Ridge, CEO, WD-40 Company)
 Many people misunderstand leadership – They think leaders are
transactional and that becoming a leader is merely the by-product of hierarchy and
privilege. Sadly, they believe that leaders don’t aspire to anything greater than themselves.
True leaders give selfless, devoted service to their organizations and their employees. (US
 Army Brigadier General, Ret., Tom Kolditz, founding director, The Ann & John Doerr
Institute for New Leaders, Rice University)
 How did Peter Drucker view a leader’s primary responsibility? – A
leader must adequately maintain his or her energy and bring together the energy of his or
her people. (Pawel Motyl, author, Labyrinth: The Art of Decision-Making)
 You can’t hold onto your best employees without a strong corporate
culture – More than half of any organization’s employees want to find jobs elsewhere.
Companies that want to retain their employees must have a culture that sustains and
excites them. Senior executives should embrace and shape the corporate culture so
employees love where they work. (Alex Osterwalder, author, Business Model
Generation and Value Proposition Design)

Be optimistic about the future.

The world can become a better place through strong, visionary leadership, the right
ambitious actions, and the proper investment of time, effort and capital.

“The more power you have – the more weight your title carries – the more likely you
are to be blind to your shortcomings as a leader.”
Dignified work that engages and sustains workers can become the norm rather than the
exception. Communities can enrich the lives of their members. Some thoughts on this
and related topics include:

 Put your trust in the millennials and generation Z – These motivated
young people will help build a better future. (Frances Hesselbein, chair, University of
Pittsburgh’s Frances Hesselbein Leadership Forum, and former CEO, Girl Scouts of
America)
 Heed the message of What Do People Do All Day? – In this
wonderfully illustrated children’s book by Richard Scarry, the characters Farmer Alfalfa,
Abby Rabbit, Mayor Fox, Mommy Stitches and Doctor Lion demonstrate how everyone
contributes to the smooth functioning of Busytown. Its inspirational message shows that
people can have a great life if they work together. It teaches that “the essence of work is
love made visible.” (Sarah McArthur, author and editor)
 The world isn’t a blood thirsty spectacle in a Roman coliseum – While
the media seem to portray everything as an armed clash, it’s time for a less sensationalist
perspective. Try viewing the world’s problems as projects the participants can successfully
complete to everyone’s benefit. (David Allen, author, Getting Things Done)
 American men are in trouble, but this can change – Almost one-third of
men aged 20 years or older in the United States have no jobs. Most of these men spend
their time watching TV and playing video games. They need inspiration. All people dream
 when they are young; these men can learn to dream again. (Whitney Johnson,
author, Disrupt Yourself)
 You can learn to become optimistic – Start by being grateful for everything
you have. To develop gratitude, tell the people close to you three things for which you are
thankful. (CEO Asheesh Advani, Junior Achievement Worldwide)
 Don’t worry, be happy – Happy employees are more engaged, learn more
quickly and achieve more success than unhappy employees. Everyone has a basic human
right to be happy, but achieving happiness requires developing self-knowledge and living
your values. Work hard to enhance your relationships and pursue your dreams. (Annie
McKee, author, University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education senior fellow)

About the Authors

Frances Hesselbein is the former CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA and the chair of the
University of Pittsburgh’s Frances Hesselbein Leadership Forum. Marshall
Goldsmith, PhD, an authority on executive leadership, has written several
management books, including Triggers and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There.
Writer, editor and writing coach Sarah McArthur manages daily operations at
Marshall Goldsmith Inc.