ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A book like this is harder than it looks to pull together, and the journey of this particular book spanned multiple iterations over a dozen years.

I want to thank researchers who helped me on this project including Nick Swisher, Austin Becker, Peter Economy, Rebecca Taff, and Jeanie Casison, as well as the hundreds of people that submitted examples and stories for this book. My good friend and colleague of over thirty years, Mario Tamayo, served as project manager extraordinaire in helping to pull all elements of this book together in a timely, organized manner. Ashlyn Withers constructed the index of featured companies in the book with help from Zach Osborne.

A big thanks to my friend and colleague Marshall Goldsmith for writing the book's foreword, as well as his insights and hours of discussion with me on the topic of employee engagement; likewise, Bob Kelleher, founder of The Engagement Group (www.employeeengagement.com) and author of numerous books on the topic, including Louder than Words: 10 Practical Employee Engagement Steps that Drive Results, and I-Engage: Your Personal Engagement Roadmap; and special thanks to Kevin Sheridan (www.kevinsheridanllc.com), noted authority on employee engagement and author of Building a Magnetic Culture and The Virtual Manager for use of his research on employee engagement he conducted while CEO of HR Solutions, as well as several examples from his books and blog.

Plus all the dedicated folks at Career Press/Red Wheel/Weiser, including Michael Pye, the senior acquisitions editor who won the bidding war for this book due to his vision and enthusiasm to publish it.