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The Dream Manager is a kind of modern day business fable - pieced together from experiences and fact from the Dream Manager Program (by Floyd Consulting).
As a Life Coach, I read this book with great interest and although it didn't teach me anything that I wasn't already doing, there is great inspiration and understanding of how the coaching process can help employees within organisations to realise their personal goals. In a way I feel privileged to be already working in such environments and being a part of such wonderful transformations as are described in Kelly's book.
Many companies have a personal development program with a heavy work focus. Essentially, the Dream Manager looks after the employees life outside of work and puts them in touch with the reasons they come to work. This has many benefits that include improved staff retention, decreased staff absence and increased productivity.
When someone focuses on what they really want in their life, makes plans and progresses towards their goals, they become more motivated and driven at work because for 90% of their goals they need money. In addition to this, when people are achieving their personal goals, they become happier and this happiness spills over into their work life too.
This approach will certainly seem very new-age to a lot of people and a lot of companies and organisations; however there are an increasing number who understand that they need to look after their workforce in order to increase their output and reduce their costs. Some of these companies are already experiencing situations where they find that there is too much employee retention and not enough turnover of staff - the dream manager program helps there too. For most people their company is simply a stepping stone to a future opportunity or position and their dream manager helps them to move on too.
If we are entering a time of economic uncertainty, it will be programs like this that will help companies to beat the difficulties and ensure that they have a happy workforce. There is also the fact that word spreads and as Kelly points out in the book, soon enough, there are far more applicants for jobs than you can possibly need - maybe even without advertising.
Although the book is not an entirely true account, it is based heavily on the experiences that arise from the program. I was a little annoyed not to discover this sooner, but in hindsight, perhaps the book would not have been so impacting. Even so, I highly recommend this to anyone who in HR or who has an interest in the welfare of their staff and their company.
