Remember the memo in the 1996 movie "Jerry Maguire?" In a sudden epiphany, sports agent Maguire wondered what business would look like if his company treated clients as people instead of just talent and a means to profit. His fictional company dismissed the idea -- and him.
Ten years later, many real American companies would get it. Check out the bookshelves of successful CEOs and managers. You might find titles like "Love is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends" by Tim Sanders, "The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America" by David Whyte, "The Purpose Driven Life" by Rick Warren or "Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies" by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras. When did words like "love," "soul," "vision" and "purpose" become part of the business-book landscape?
Business consultant and owner of Molloy Communications Tricia Molloy started noticing a change in perspective after Sept. 11, 2001. "People saw how fragile life really is," she said. "They began to examine their own lives and work and make decisions about what was really important.
"As a backlash to technology and our overloaded lives, I think people are seeking a simpler way to work and live. They want to live on purpose."
Clients and friends had always asked Molloy for advice on how to achieve their goals, so she decided to put it in writing. This year, she wrote "Divine Wisdom at Work: 10 Universal Principles for Enlightened Entrepreneurs."
"I consider this book a refresher course and a resource. All of the wisdom has been said before and is within each person. I wanted my readers to know that they are so powerful, and I felt a tremendous obligation to introduce others to the people who had made a tremendous difference in my life," Molloy said.
She named her press Aha! House because she knew readers would have moments of recognition and discovery when reading the book. Principle No. 4, for example, is about cleaning out clutter.
"Everyone knows how good it feels to clean out his office -- that your energy shifts, stalled projects get back on track and new business begins to flow," she said.
Now, people tell her that they've used the principle to clear out unsatisfying clients and old practices to make room for better clients and new ideas.
"That's so rewarding. I think we're seeing more inspirational business books because people want more meaning in their work; they want their lives to matter," Molloy said.
She's been leading a Divine Wisdom at Work Council in Atlanta and is writing a manual for other businesspeople to start their own groups.
'A lot of business is mental'
Eric Lindberg, president of MSI International, a global recruiting firm, liked Molloy's book so much that he gave copies to all of his managers and board members. He believes inspirational books are a good thing in the workplace.
"People get down in business. You can read something and get picked back up," Lindberg said. "A lot of business is mental."
Lindberg liked the principle of finding and trusting your inner guidance -- or, as he calls it, "going with your gut." "Today we're all inundated with numbers and information. Sooner or later, you have to trust your own instincts," he said.
He believes that the role of business leaders is to activate a vision and share it with employees so that they can see the plan. Twice a year, he hosts a three-day management program for associates who aspire to be leaders. At the end, the small group votes on one member to receive the Peter Drucker Award, an autographed copy of one of Drucker's books.
"I was lucky enough to meet [Drucker] years ago, and he signed 50 copies of 'Managing for the Future: The 1990s and Beyond,' " Lindberg said.
"The principles of good management don't change," said Lindberg, who has been holding the management program for 20 years and sees the difference it has made in his company culture.
Learning from examples
"It's all about inspiration," said Ike Reighard, chief people officer of HomeBanc Mortgage Corp., minister and popular keynote speaker. "I don't consider myself a motivational speaker. That implies the carrot-and-stick method of getting someone to do something. Inspiration means breathing life into something. My job is to breathe life into people's dreams.
"Business leaders ask me to come inspire their people, because they know that an inspired work force is an engaged work force."
Reighard thinks business leaders read books to get "a unique edge and perspective and help with running their business." If you ask him about his favorite books, be prepared to sit awhile. The man reads one per week.
"Books are great ways to learn from people you may never get to interact with. The people you meet and the books you read will change your life," said Reighard, who recently learned more about selfless leadership from Abraham Lincoln in "Team of Rivals" by Doris Kearns Goodwin.
He used "How Full is Your Bucket? Positive Strategies for Work and Life" by Tom Rath and Donald O. Clifton for HomeBanc's annual corporate meeting, because "business is all about building relationships." His department recently discussed how to apply the ideas from "Love is the Killer App" to its work. "It offers a view of business as being about knowledge, networking and compassion for people, and I thought that was a great inspirational business model," he said.
Reighard sees inspirational books effecting a change in American companies, especially ones that want to be known as great places to work.
"People are seeing that they can't compartmentalize their lives. It's not just about who they are as workers. There's no reason to leave their faith and inspiration for what they do in the parking lot," Reighard said.
Jim Huling certainly doesn't. The president and CEO of information technology services company MATRIX Resources Inc. leads LifeWorks workshops for his employees. It surprises some to hear that work shouldn't be the most important thing and that they should have a vision for developing other parts of their lives as well, he said.
"The mission of a leader should be to make a company human. Then people can work there and express themselves, and everyone will benefit from it," Huling said. "A great company doesn't become great by itself. A great company is a place where great people choose to work. I hope someday my employees will remember that I helped them to lead a better life."
What started Huling thinking along that path was a single book, Stephen Covey's "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People," which he read early in his career. "On a Thursday night, in a Marriott Courtyard room in Montgomery, Ala., that book literally changed my life," he said.
He went from traveling and working 80 to 100 hours a week for a big accounting firm to envisioning and working on the kind of businessman, husband, dad and friend he wanted to be. When others asked what gave him the inspiration and energy for his phenomenal life as CEO, husband, columnist, martial artist and whitewater rafting adventurer with his kids, he began speaking and writing about the subject.
"I think there's a spiritual and inspirational dimension to leadership that businesspeople today are acknowledging," Huling said. "There's an interconnection between the business and spiritual aspects of the individual, and wise leaders are finding ways to integrate the two."
Workers get introspective
He sees two factors driving this growing movement: the fact that the majority of workers are baby boomers, and people begin to think about life differently after 50; and the fact that younger workers believe they are entitled to a life in addition to a job.
Businesspeople are asking deeper questions and seeking answers.
"Books are a way of standing on the shoulders of others. That's when we reach highest," Huling said. "I love to give books away, and, when I speak to groups, my goal is to tell them what I've learned and hope they'll go far beyond me."
"People are hungry for inspiration, and they are motivated by someone else's experiences," said Tory Johnson, founder and CEO of Women for Hire, a national producer of career expos for women.
After Hurricane Katrina, Johnson traveled to the Houston Astrodome to help people find work. She held up a sign that read, "Are you looking for a job?" Doris Banks, a young single mother, jumped off her cot to ask for help. Johnson found her a job and an apartment and got her enrolled in college. A column about it in The New York Times brought Johnson hundreds of letters.
"Most people said how lucky she was, but I didn't see her as lucky. I saw her as smart, because she asked for what she needed," Johnson said. "So often, women don't ask because of lack of confidence, fear of rejection or embarrassment."
Johnson and co-author Robyn Freedman Spizman, a television and radio personality, wrote "Take This Book to Work: How to Ask For (and Get) Money, Fulfillment, and Advancement." It covers 70 scenarios, including asking for a raise and requesting help on a project, and shows women how learning to ask and negotiate for what they want can improve their careers and lives.
"It's both practical and inspirational, because along with the advice are the personal experiences of working women who have asked or not asked for things and regret it. These women were willing to share their life lessons, to unveil what they have done that was smart, tenacious and opened doors. One person inspiring another can cause a groundswell of change," Spizman said.
"We remember stories, because they put us in the moment. We can see ourselves in a similar situation, and we figure if one person took a risk and asked, then we could, too. Inspirational books give us courage."
And they help alter cultures. Johnson recently spoke at an Ernst & Young networking event for working mothers.
"I think we recognize now that we have to treat employees as people first, and that was definitely putting people first," she said.
"The more companies talk about being inspired to do something differently, the more other companies are willing to try it. People never stop needing or looking for inspiration."