During a long conversation with a good friend, I found out how unhappy he had been at work recently. In fact, so much so that he had decided to quit, erase every memory, and even burn bridges with his employer. Why? There’s a unanimous belief among the workers in his organisation that none of them ever felt genuine love and care from their boss. A lack of love and respect translated into fierce debates, opened up a culture of public defamation, and fostered a vicious blame game of ruthless finger pointing, leading to organisational performance tanking.
This episode is not a one-off occurrence. Incidents of mounting tension between bosses and subordinates, loss of transparency between co-founders, communication failure between customers and organisations are downright banal. Consequently, relationships become frail and businesses shut down. Whatever the case, rest assured that more often than not, both the source of discontentment and the upshot are the same – a tale of lost love.
Broadly speaking, there are two emotions that drive performance in an organisation: Fear and love. One group works out of fear of punishable repercussions (promotion halt, bonus cut, poor recommendation, etc), the other pour their heart out and not even dread the extra sweat because of their love and loyalty to the work and to the team. While some may argue that eventually what matters is the accomplishment of tasks, but when you consider long-term implications, trust me you don’t want to resort to fear to lead an organisation. From my personal experience, I can tell you that love ticks and fear trickles.
Love is a gift, which inspires and yet challenges us every day. As an entrepreneur I can totally relate to this. The companies we dream of and build from scratch, the people we team up with to share those visions, the community we serve to scale our missions, are all a part of us and are intensely personal. They are akin to our families. Our lives. Our souls.
If you are a professional, chances are you spend most of your waking hours working with your colleagues and other professional stakeholders. If you don’t harbor love, empathy, respect, and compassion for these people, you are not living a great life. Could you do a greater disservice to yourself?
From the pages in history dating back 1400 years, we learn that the love of one man – Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) – for a clan that put him through unimaginable trials, is what eventually helped him transform the entire lifestyles of millions of people who still walk the earth today.
Look at IBM, Disney, Boeing. No wonder these are some of the greatest companies in the world. When their founders were asked what made them successful, among other characteristics, each of them attributed an undying love for their cause and the people they work with in the same breath.
Herbert Kelleher, former CEO of Southwest Airlines, a popular domestic US airline, took his love for his staff one step further – once when an irate customer aired her grievances against Southwest’s customer service to Herbert, his one-liner email response couldn’t have been more sarcastic. It read, “Dear Mrs. Crabapple, We will miss you. Love, Herb.”
Another great love story can be found in the proliferation of Starbucks. At a time when Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, was visiting Italy early in his career, he was taken aback by the palpable human connection existing between the baristas in the coffee shops and the customers. To him, it looked more like a scene out of a family living room than a typical restaurant where customers and employees alike transcended all formal boundaries, indulged in sharing stories and emotions in a manner that clearly befit love’ s omnipresence in the air. Had Howard not stumbled upon that open culture of love and had come to appreciate it, Starbucks probably wouldn’t be what we know it to be today.
“But what about Apple?” one might ask. In stark contrast, Apple, under Steve Jobs, stood out as a total anomaly. As testified by many of his subordinates, Jobs didn’t spread love, rarely showed leniency in leadership, and cared less for what customers thought. Yet, he made Apple one of the most sought-after brands in the world. I’d say it’s a rare exception where work of the brain exceeds warmth of the heart.
In business, you need a combination of both the mind and the heart to succeed. While it’s true that the brain drives the rationale behind seeding the big ideas in the ground, make no mistake that it’s the heart that infuses love and care in the form of water to warrant that the seed grows to produce fruits.
As business professionals, it’s important we nurture this gifted emotion from within and care to practice outside ourselves. Embrace people with love from your core, treat them with respect, and give ample share of appreciation for whatever role they play in your organisation. Not only will your brand wear a beautiful external facade, but also glow your interior in ways that will invite talented workforce and loyal customers much like how bees flock to honey. Believe me, it will work. Let there be love.
