When love comes to town,
I’m gonna jump that train
When love comes to town,
I’m gonna catch that flame
Maybe I was wrong to ever let you down,
But I did what I did before love came to town
Nothing like a little BB King and U2 to start things off.
I have written a little on this idea of love in business in the past. You may recall a blog centered on Kip Tindell from Container Store and a keynote speach I heard from Chris Lowney reflecting on the Jesuit philosophy on leadership. Since then I have not been able to shake this idea of business love.
I will be the first to admit that I have never been the poster child for touchy feely leadership. For the most part the places I have worked over the past 20 years had management teams that were cut from the same cloth – the cloth of management with a good dose of fear perhaps sprinkled in with a jagged version of tough love. Now don’t get me wrong, I have worked under some highly intelligent, highy motivated, and sucessful leadership teams. But I doubt many would use the word “love” to describe those leaders.
Those radical Jesuits had a different idea about this leadership thing. Their version of leadership was to see the potential in each employee, to make a commitment to unleash that potential and to cultivate the resulting loyalty and support to unite and drive a team to success. That is their idea of love-based leadership. To see the potential in a person and to help that person reach that potential. It is a concept that is based on the thought that all employees are self-motivated to achieve success and that the leader’s role is to help by putting each person in situations to succeed and to give them the tools they need to succeed.
For me, I doubt the majority of the management teams I have worked under in my career would ever be considered as the face of “love-based” management. There may have been moments of love and compassion but for the most part the management styles have been motivation by fear and tension. That said, those teams and the resulting business results were generally succesful, but it makes you wonder if the results could have been even greater with a more loved based leadership approach. There is no way to go back and replay the past, so all we can do is ponder that thought and perhaps learn from it.
It is said that your style of management is shaped by those who have managed you, and I think that is true to an extent. While I don’t think I am as hard core as some of my former bosses, I do think my style has been influenced by them. Fortunately, I also think that you are influenced by others around you and what you read and hear. I am grateful to have been able to watch strong leaders succeed using techniques more in line with the Jesuit style of leaderhship and to be exposed to books, articles and speakers that get there is more than one way to lead. Whether it is listening to the likes of Kip Tindell, watching how my own father lead a school district or reading books on the subject; I have come to realize that one can lead and manage without using fear as the main motivator.
I am not fully on the “love train” just yet, but I have jumped into the boxcar and am slowly pulling my body all the way in. Hopefully some day I will make my way to the engine and drive that train.
So once again, here’s to love in business and hoping it comes to a company near your soon.
Robert Not Bob 