Co-author Discovers the Importance of 'Happy Employees'

Companies like JetBlue, Southwest Airlines and P.F. Chang’s seem to have an almost legendary reputation as good places to work. 

Author Ann Rhoades, a former executive at both aforementioned airlines, put what she knows about establishing successful corporate cultures into Built On Values: Creating an Enviable Culture That Outperforms the Competition, a tome published by Jossey-Bass, a Wiley imprint. The book hit store shelves Jan. 18.

While the book features Rhoades’ theories and philosophies, it showcases the writing talents of Deer Park freelance writer and book author Nancy Shepherdson, who collaborated with Rhoades on the project.  Shepherdson is a member of the Lake Zurich Area Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Club of Lake Zurich.

Shepherdson said she was teamed up with Rhoades at her agent’s suggestion after Rhoades took a pass on two other writers.

“Ann and I got along so well,” said Shepherdson. “I really admire Ann. I also thought the content of the book was so important, it was easy for me to write it.”

Shepherdson, who interviewed CEOs at several top firms for the book, said one of Rhoades’ central theses is that the best companies are built around the values of their best employees.

Encourage those values to take root and flourish and you’re breeding a successful culture, she said.

“You’re just going to keep getting better and better and more profitable,” Shepherdson said.

The book gives Rhoades’ accounts of how that philosophy proved successful at several companies, including the Double Tree Hotels and Loma Linda Hospitals.

“It’s step-by-step how you do it,” said Shepherdson, adding that the book details how to identify core values and how to hire and manage the best team. “I talked with quite a few people who have been helped by Ann’s ideas.”

“It’s not a cookie cutter thing,” she said. “You have to sit down and figure out what your values are. It’s a big gestalt. It’s a whole. It’s not pieces; it’s a whole package.”

Shepherdson said Rhoades has seen value-based companies thrive as they attract people with similar values and priorities; often, she said, those who don’t fit into a corporate culture “self-select out” by voluntarily moving on to a company that better suits their ideals.

She offers up an example:

“There was one guy who complained about everyone being so upbeat and smiling,” she said. “He wanted to just sit in his office and do his work.”

When he let his boss know he planned to move on, his boss didn’t try to dissuade him, but she didn’t ignore his needs, either.

“She wrote him a recommendation for another job,” Shepherdson said.

Shepherdson said the book was written quickly. After taking six months to write a book proposal, a project that included the drafting of a 40-page outline and a couple of sample chapters, she and Rhoades got down to business writing  the book on March 19, 2010. The book was done July 1, 2010.

“My husband didn’t see me for weeks,” Shepherdson jokes.

The reason for the relative rush, she said, was so that the timing of the book’s debut would work well with Rhoades’ speaking engagement schedule.

“My co-author is represented by the Washington Speakers Bureau,” Shepherdson said.

Shepherdson, a writer since 1986, is a former banker who once worked in an Evanston trust department. She has a degree in economics from the University of Illinois and an MBA from Northwestern University.

“I have no journalism background whatsoever,” she said. “I always wanted to be a writer. No one encouraged me to do it. You get so much satisfaction out of pursuing something that really interests you. Your fate is kind of up to yourself.”

Shepherdson is also politically active. She is first vice chairwoman of the Lake County Democrats and is the eighth district Democratic state central committeewoman.

She has written five books, to date, as well as hundreds of articles for publications including the Los Angeles Times Magazine, Continental, Newsweek Japan , Sierra, American Heritage, Woman's Day and Boys' Life. 

Next, she said, she would like to write another book.

“I hope to do another book like this,” she said. “This book is going to change some people’s lives. It’s amazing that companies don’t realize how much of a difference happy employees make.”