Work-Life
BLOOM

The award-winning book from author & leadership strategist Dan Pontefract

WLF-3D-Final_png

Now Available: Hardcover, electronic or audiobook

WORK-LIFE BLOOM

Gold Medal Winner
Axiom Business Book Awards

A thought-provoking and empowering book that will inspire leaders to take a fresh look at a new coalescence between work and life.

And now, the Gold Medal Winner of the 2024 Axiom Business Book Award in the Leadership Category.

In Work-Life Bloom: How to Nurture a Team That Flourishes, award-winning author Dan Pontefract takes a fresh look at integrating our professional and personal lives. Just as a flower needs the right mix of sunlight, water, and nutrients to grow and thrive, team members need the right mix of work-life factors to create a fulfilling and harmonious existence. Through primary global research, interviews, and personal experience, Pontefract delves into the current state of work and life, offering practical solutions for leaders and organizations to create environments where teams can flourish.

Pontefract argues that there really is no such thing as work-life balance: our rigid attempts to achieve it don’t reflect current realities and are, in fact leading us to further burnout, stress, and unhappiness. Instead, he encourages a more holistic approach, promoting the idea of “blooming” in both work and life. Pontefract stresses that for people to succeed, they must reach fulfillment through the integration of work and the personal aspects of life. After all, people bring their work into their lives and their lives into their work; an improved integration is necessary.

Pontefract introduces six key work factors — trust, belonging, feeling valued, purpose, strategy, and norms –and six life factors –relationships, skills, well-being, meaning, agency, and respect — essential for creating an integrated work-life ecosystem that genuinely blooms. The 12 factors contain practical solutions and strategies for leaders who want to nurture Work-Life Bloom environments for their team members and achieve this mindset for themselves.

With a unique approach and vivid writing, Work-Life Bloom is a must-read for anyone looking to improve their impact as a leader.

PS. You can take the Work-Life Personal Assessment (FREE!) to discover if you are blooming, budding, stunted, or in renewal at the intersection of work and life. Visit this link to access the free assessment.

If you’re already reading the book, don’t forget to visit the Work-Life Bloom Extras site, where a garden box full of free downloads is available.

Praise for
work-life bloom

In this timely and compelling book, Dan Pontefract uproots outdated ideas about work and tosses them in the compost heap. Then, with a graceful mix of advice and analysis, he shows leaders at every level how to plant new seeds of possibility for themselves and their teams.
Daniel H. Pink
#1 New York Times bestselling author of THE POWER OF REGRET, WHEN, and DRIVE
Dan Pontefract's Work-Life Bloom turns the conventional wisdom about work and life on its head. If you truly want your teams to thrive, read this refreshing, indispensable guide now.
DORIE CLARK
Best-selling author of "The Long Game" and "Entrepreneurial You"
Work-Life Bloom challenges the status quo. It's an essential read for anyone committed to building an amazing workplace and great employee experience.
Alex_Osterwalder
Dr. Alex Osterwalder
CEO Strategyzer & IMD Visiting Professor
With Work-Life Bloom, Dan Pontefract offers us the seeds to grow not just better workplaces but better lives. A must-read for leaders navigating the modern world.
Erica Dhawan
WSJ bestselling author of "Digital Body Language"
Dan Pontefract's Work-Life Bloom recognizes how our “Working Together” Leadership, Management System, and its Connected Culture of Love by Design contributes to our one integrated life and life’s work of service, which is our love made visible. Great job Dan!
Alan Mulally
Former CEO Boeing Commercial Airplanes and the Ford Motor Company
The best leaders not only enable people to do great work, they help people live a great life. This book will give you the tools to both grow your talent and help everyone on your team be at their best at work and beyond. If you want to grow as a leader, read Work-Life Bloom.
Liz Wiseman
New York Times bestselling author of "Multipliers" and "Impact Players"
Work-life balance? We've been laboring to achieve it for the last two decades. Clearly, we need a new approach and a new metaphor. So we should all be grateful to Dan Pontefract for providing it with Work-Life Bloom. Dan offers not just sound principles but actions we can take to bloom together– testing our soil, remembering to water. Helpful, inspiring, and fresh.
Sally Helgesen
Author of "Rising Together," "How Women Rise," and "The Female Advantage"
When people bloom at work and in life, they flourish and your organization does as well. This book offers both soil and seeds - frameworks and tactics - that you can use to help unlock the greatness of your people and teams.
Michael Bungay Stanier
Author of "The Coaching Habit" and "How to Work with (Almost) Anyone"
A must read book by Dan Pontefract who challenges the concept of work-life balance by introducing Work-Life Bloom.  Highly recommended.
Martin Lindstrom
The New York Times best-selling author of "Buyology" and "Small Data"
Work-Life Bloom is a game-changing book that challenges conventional notions of work-life balance. Dan skillfully exposes the flaws in our current approach and offers a refreshing perspective on how leaders can create environments where people truly thrive. With personal stories, profound research, and practical insights, Dan shows us how to foster fulfillment, rest, creativity, joy, and purpose within the workplace. This book is a must-read for leaders who are committed to building teams that not only survive but truly thrive — unlocking the full potential of their people and driving extraordinary results.
Dr. Marshall Goldsmith
Thinkers50 #1 Executive Coach and New York Times bestselling author of "The Earned Life," "Triggers," and "What Got You Here Won’t Get You There"
In Work-Life Bloom, Dan Pontefract showcases an insightful and nuanced perspective on work and life. This book is a compass for leaders who aspire to nurture a fulfilling and flourishing professional setting with their teams.
dr. Ranjay Gulati
Harvard Business School Professor and author of "Deep Purpose"

Meet Dan Pontefract

Dan Pontefract is a renowned leadership strategist, author, and keynote speaker with over two decades of experience in senior executive roles at companies such as SAP, TELUS, and Business Objects. In these roles, he focused on corporate culture change, leadership development, employee experience, and overall performance improvement. Since then, he has worked with organizations worldwide, including Salesforce, Amgen, the State of Tennessee, Nestlé, Canada Post, Autodesk, BMO, the Government of Canada, Manulife, Nutrien, and the City of Toronto, among others. Dan has firsthand experience in turning leaders and corporate cultures into a competitive advantage, and he believes that the future of work is now.

In addition to Work-Life Bloom, Dan has written four other award-winning and best-selling books: Lead. Care. Win., Open To Think, The Purpose Effect, and Flat Army. Dan also writes for Forbes, Harvard Business Review, and other outlets.

Dan is a renowned keynote speaker who has presented at four TED events and delivers approximately 50 keynotes annually. He is an adjunct professor at the University of Victoria’s Gustavson School of Business and has received over 25 industry, individual, and book awards. He’s delighted to be selected for the Thinkers50 Radar, a member of Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches, HR Weekly’s 100 Most Influential People in HR, PeopleHum’s Top 200 Thought Leaders, and Inc. Magazine’s Top 100 Leadership Speakers. 

Dan also hosts the popular Leadership NOW Program, where he interviews thinkers, authors, CEOs, and leaders. Through these interviews, he seeks to understand what makes leadership and people bloom.

 

Where to Buy

Amazon.ca
Amazon.com
Indigo
Kindle
Barnes & Noble
Audible
iTunes
Apple Audio
Porchlight
Kobo Audio
Amazon.co.uk
Google Play

3-Minute Book Explainer

Work-Life Bloom:
Personal Assessment

Award-winning author Dan Pontefract is offering you the chance to discover your current Work-Life persona.

Find out if you’re blooming, budding, stunted or in need of renewal through the Work-Life Bloom Personal Assessment

It’s free!

Take the Work-Life Assessment - FREE

Press & Podcasts

We’re tracking as best we can all the places where Dan Pontefract and Work-Life Bloom are being covered in the press and on podcasts. View the list below.

Press:
    • HR Magazine: Best Books of 2024 (link)
    • Global Focus Magazine: Work-Life Bloom (link)
    • Thrive: It’s Time to Bloom in Work and Life (link)
    • Training Mag: Why Skills Might Squash the Job Description (link)
    • BC Business Magazine: How to Achieve a More Complete Work-Life Balance (link)
    • The Globe & Mail: In Work-Life Bloom, Dan Pontefract Argues Work-Life Balance is a Myth (link)
    • Forbes: Now Focus On Human Needs Because Employee Engagement Has Failed (link)
    • PeopleTalk Magazine: It’s About Bloom, Not Balance (link)
    • HR Reporter: Employers lacking when it comes to wellbeing support (link)
    • Cision Newswire:  New Research and Book Challenges Traditional Views on Work-Life Balance and Employee Engagement (link)
    • Forbes: How to Build a Culture That Enables Everyone to Flourish (link)
    • RRU: Work-life balance is a myth. Work-life “bloom” is where it’s at (link)
    • HRD: How Work & Life Can Bloom in a Four-Day Work Week (link)
    • MidWest Book Review of Work-Life Bloom (link)
    • VictoriaNow – Work-life balance is a myth (link)
    • ASBN – The Small Business Show with Jim Fitzpatrick (link)
    • ATD: Horizontal Ignition – How Skills Can Replace Jobs (link)
    • The Globe & Mail: There’s No Point (link)
    • HRDTV: How Work and Life Can Bloom with a 4-day Workweek (link)
    • ThoughtLEADERS LLC: The Loneliness Epidemic (link)
    • HRD: The Role of Trust in a Reduced Working Week (link)
 
Podcasts:
    • Lancefield on the Line with David Lancefield (link)
    • Seismic Shift with Dr. Michelle Johnston (link)
    • The Good Leadership Podcast with Charles Good (link)
    • foHRsight with Naomi Titleman (link)
    • I Wish They Knew with Joe Hirsch (link)
    • Heart-Centered Leadership with Deborah Crow (link)
    • TILTCO with Tineke A. Keesmaat (link)
    • TGIM Podcast with Brenda Pearson (link)
    • Leadership with Zoe Routh (link)
    • The Virtual Campfire with Tony Martignetti (link)
    • The Sales Leadership Show with Phil Gerbyshak (link)
    • The 1% Podcast with Shay Dalton (link)
    • Daily Flash Show (link)
    • Happy Space Podcast (link)
    • The Soft Skills Salon Podcast (link)
    • Institute of Internal Communication Podcast (link)
    • Remarkable Leadership Podcast with Kevin Eikenberry (link)
    • Evolve: A New Era of Leadership w/ Carolyn Swora (link)
    • Hybrid/Remote Centre of Excellence (link)
    • Knowing Self / Knowing Others with Nia Thomas (link)
    • People Strategy Leaders w/ Srikant Chellappa (link)
    • The Selling Show w/ David Newman (link)
    • HR Chat w/ Bill Banham (link)
    • Social Responsibility at Work w/ Angela Howard (link)
    • Coaching Ourselves with Phil LeNir (link)

 

🌸 Are you in the press, a podcaster, or someone looking for collateral about Work-Life Bloom?

Visit this Dropbox site made especially for you. It contains:

  • Press/Media guide
  • Sell sheet
  • Promo sheet
  • Book cover graphics
  • Author photos
  • Author bio

In Bloom - The Poem

Blooming Playlists

In a different life, Dan Pontefract wanted to be a DJ. Or a VJ. Or at least someone who would be asked to spin music at house parties. (That actually happened.)

In the lead-up to the launch of Work-Life Bloom, Dan started putting together playlists that correspond to various moods of the book. If you have an Apple Music subscription, you can add the playlists to your library.

Acoustic Gems From All Walks Of Life -(Vol 1 and Vol 2)

Classic ’80s 12″ Remixes Throwback (Vol 1 & Vol 2)

Classic Alternative Indie Vibe Throwback (Vol 1)

The Beatles (Playlist)

Hip-Hop Dan Style (Playlist)

The Actual Work-Life Bloom Playlist (Access and then read the song list)