I rated The Energy Bus by Jon Gordon 4 stars at Amazon.com.
This easy-to-digest book is a short fable that teaches the reader secrets of approaching life and work in a positive manner.
While the book doesn't contain any new startling revelations on the importance of being positive when dealing with life's challenges and opportunities, it does reinforce some key principles we often forget. In addition, it shares a few insights and observations from some interesting perspectives.
The most impactful insight from the book for me revolved around the concept of "Energy Vampires" in the work place. Energy Vampires, according to the author, are employees who suck the life out of the room or out of their co-workers. Typically they:
- Always point out what others have done wrong
- View their problems as always the most urgent
- Have a negative outlook on life
- Cause you to feel drained or exhausted after being in contact with them (the most sure sign)
- Minimize the worth of others
I can certainly attest to having been in contact with energy vampires in the past. After interacting with them, I felt just completely drained or exhausted. So I began to mentally tally up all the various energy vampires with whom I had dealt, but then it hit me. Is the fact that I can so readily develop a list of energy vampires make me an energy vampire who is pointing out what other people are doing wrong? Well, honestly? Probably yes and no. I could see where I too have behaved like an energy vampire in the past and reading this fable helped me evaluate my own behaviors more objectively.
The second key insight I gained from this book was learning to be more cognizant and careful of not being an energy vampire with my business partners. It occurred to me how easily Risk and Compliance professionals could find themselves being viewed as energy vampires by their customers or business partners. I recall the occasional comments from line management: "There's compliance. I wonder what we haven't done lately?" or, "Quiet down, here comes compliance" or worse, "Here comes bad news." It seemed like compliance in my shop was always the bearer of bad news. I bet line management often felt drained or exhausted after working with compliance. Especially when they walked away with ten unplanned to dos to get into compliance.
As a Information Security professional, it is vitally important to engage the business with an attitude of "How CAN we enable business strategies?"; "How DO we mitigate the highest risk?"; "Where CAN we simply accept risk?" or "How CAN we make this work?". Without a positive approach in our work, we too are at risk of being viewed as energy vampires.
I would encourage you to read The Energy Bus to learn concepts like this and others and to ask yourself as a Risk and Compliance professional, "Am I an energy vampire?"
