Being Fully Present

Are you interested in a book about customer service?

Would you rather read a book about leadership, communication and its impact on corporate culture?

Or, perhaps you’re intrigued by the entrepreneurial growth story of Zappos.com?

If you said “Yes!” to any of the above, then “Delivering Happiness” is the book for you.  Written in an easy to read informal style by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, the book feels like Hsieh is sitting across the room from the reader, sharing life and business lessons over a cup of coffee.

Wow.  That simple word is the key to Hsieh’s success, Zappos’ growth, and delivering happiness.  Wow your customers.  Wow your employees.  Wow your readers.

For me, the whole book was an interesting and enjoyable read, but what really wowed me started in Chapter Five, Platform for Growth: Brand, Culture, Pipeline.  Here is where Hsieh parts from the historical background narrative and moves into practical information about developing a culture of service, the details of the Zappos core values and what each means, and how each of us can find the path to ”delivering happiness” in our own lives.

To pique your interest, here are the 10 core values described in detail in the book.  Making these values a way of being helps every employee meet the Zappos mission, “to live and deliver WOW.”

• Deliver WOW through service.
• Embrace and drive change.
• Create fun and a little weirdness.
• Be adventurous, creative, and open-minded.
• Pursue growth and learning.
• Build open and honest relationships with communication.
• Build a positive team and family spirit.
• Do more with less. Be passionate and determined.
• Be humble.

This may be stating the obvious, but these values don’t just apply to the workplace.  They are behaviors and practices that aren’t turned on when someone walks into the office and turned off at the end of a shift.  Readers learn from the descriptions of these values how to apply them to all of life.  Delivering Happiness, indeed. 

If you would like to read more reviews, or to purchase the book, click HERE.  Delivering Happiness will be a great addition to any library.

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And now, the legalese…I agree to disclose that I received free advanced copies of the book, and I agree that my statements are my honest opinions of the book.

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This entry was posted on June 7, 2010 at 4:00 am and is filed under Books, Leadership, Possibility. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: Books, Community, Culture, Goals, Happiness, Leadership, Positivity, Possibilities