The Case for Love in Leadership

What do a CEO, a lawyer, a designer, and an esthetician have in common? The same thing you and I do: the capacity to lead from fear—or from love.

Could you imagine love and profit cozying up to one another? Does that seem so unfathomable? Unethical? I often question if it could really be so.

My friend John Hibbs helped me start seeing a way.

John recently made the case in the Leader to Leader Magazine article he authored entitled, "The Monergy Flow: Aligning Profit, Purpose, and Relationships."

As I emailed John after finishing the article, I actually FEEL love when I process his point of view.

I also really appreciate how he points out that we as leaders play a part even when it feels like huge institutions will never let go of the wheel. In other words - in my words - “own your sh*t.”

It doesn’t hurt that I have receipts. I’ve coached leaders who’ve reaped the rewards of choosing love. Take Tim Bradley, who is exploring how to make Calm a KPI—an unorthodox metric in business, but one he knows mattered. Calm, after all, translates to healthier employees, better client relationships, and stronger community impact. You can’t prioritize calm without caring—and caring is love in action. Lots of leaders could choose to avoid a topic like calm out of fear it's unmeasurable or too vague. Not Tim though. The Pennant Video team and his bottom line are better for it.

I’ve also made decisions to lead from love. At the risk of tooting my own horn, I am rather proud of all the moments I have been mindful enough to slow down to coach or connect with a colleague rather than "manage" them; especially when the stakes were high. Micro-moments of leading from love, rather than fear.

Even when my decision resulted in something short of success a sort of, I don’t know, simple truth to the integrity of my intent was self-evident, and calming. Maybe you know that feeling too?

Three Questions To Get You Going

1. How might your definition of love shift or reshape if you consider it's application in business?

2. When was the last time you made a decision out of fear? What might love have chosen instead?

3. What could block your team from operationalizing a real, practical initiative of love?

It would be really inspiring to see a few examples of love operationalized for common good and profit in the comments below. If you have an example, please share!