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I’m on the plane This the guy sitting next to you who asks 100 questions before we land. – Chuck, could you please leave these people alone? my wife all the time says it’s useless.
You see, I just can not help myself. I care about people and I am interested in them. This is the philosophy I use to grow my business.
I am a scientist by training and was the CEO of a publicly traded technology company with over 26,000 employees. However, I must share something: I truly consider that for any leader, the true success factor is not necessarily technical knowledge or management skills. It’s love and care. Ultimately, this is what enables their employees to manage with challenges and take risks. It also stops amazing talent from walking out the door.
What am I talking about when I talk about love
I love every one of my people. I know it’s a strong word to make use of in business. There are, in fact, many kinds of love, so let me explain what I mean in this context.
I’m talking about the sort of selflessness I saw growing up in humble circumstances in Providence, Rhode Island. My family and friends had limited resources but limitless generosity. They didn’t think twice about sharing what they’d and finding ways to serve others.
Being loved this way has shaped who I am today. We all the time hear about the self-made person, but that is a myth. No matter how successful they are, everyone needs others to lift them up.
The love I share with my employees also has its source in my faith. Regardless of your background, love is at the heart of all faiths. It is a deep appreciation and empathy for the challenges people face, in addition to a desire to attach with them. Think of it as a strong chemical bond that holds atoms together. By taking this step, I develop into a part of another person’s life, and they develop into a part of mine.
This is often neglected by business leaders, but the resulting affinity is a competitive advantage. Here’s what I’ve learned about easy methods to lead with love, each on a personal and global level.
To show your people love, get personal
On an individual level, showing love is not something cosmic. I just show those that I care.
How? Asking questions. I’m listening. I’m sorry. By putting myself in one other person’s shoes, I begin to grasp what they mean. I wish to get to the bottom of how they feel, think and dream and discover what keeps them up at night.
People know when their boss cares and respond accordingly. First, lower than 10% of middle and senior leaders are great listeners and communicators worker survey found. However, nine out of 10 highly engaged employees feel heard in comparison with only a third of low-engagement employees.
It doesn’t matter who that person is or what they do. I travel a lot for work, so I often refer to the Uber drivers who pick me up at the airport. This is not polite chat – I really need to listen to about their lives and what makes them tick.
The same applies to the leaders of the company we connect with. After completing 20 successful acquisitions, I cannot think of a higher integration strategy than connecting with the individuals who join us.
For me, showing love also means difficult my team members because I care about their development. It could appear counterintuitive, but in my opinion, truly loving someone signifies that you are there to each lift them to latest heights and catch them when they fall. People often do not believe they’ll achieve anything. But if you encourage them to dream larger and support them along the way, they are going to find latest courage, competence and confidence.
Harnessing the power of affection on a large scale
For business leaders, the real test is projecting that love onto lots of or 1000’s of employees.
I would really like to share some tricks or suggestions on the power of mass communication. Look, it wasn’t until earlier this 12 months that I even had a social media account. In many cases, I don’t even speak the same language as the people I manage.
Both of this stuff made it difficult for me to speak with, for example, our employees working in China, where everyone uses WeChat.
But if you’re keen on your people, there is no substitute for meeting them where they are. That’s why I revamped 150 trips to China. To reassure the team there during Covid, I visited our offices across the country and gave similar speeches wherever I went. Showing up in person and communicating a consistent message helped build a foundation of trust.
I do the same with our other employees scattered around the world. I have visited many of our locations over the years. After each visit, I hate leaving because I feel like I’m leaving my family.
Having a clear value system is one other strategy to communicate love on a large scale. Some people think of company values as a trite buzzword, but I disagree. In fact, I supported the development of our “I CARE” values: honesty, collaboration, responsibility, respect and enthusiasm. There’s little doubt about what we stand for – and so far as I know, few people at the company have trouble remembering that acronym.
Leading with love also means accepting the idea that you just are a servant of your people. To show my team that I’m here to serve, I go out and interact with them as a substitute of hiding behind a desk in a corner office.
For any business, taking this approach has its advantages. Servant leadership increases worker engagement by building trust, research shows. On the other hand most engaged employees they perform 20% higher and are almost 90% less more likely to quit.
How love puts people at the center of business
When you are guided by the love I talked about, something beautiful happens.
To explain this, I will invoke one of the two principal forces in the universe. (I am a scientist after all.) Centripetal force keeps the object moving in a circle, searching for the center. Think of the Earth’s gravitational pull that keeps the Moon in orbit. Love acts as a centripetal force in every organization. It allows everyone to feel focused – united and protected by the team around them.
This is a great source of courage. When people balance work and family life, they find it easier to manage with on a regular basis challenges. A workplace filled with love is also a protected environment for experimenting and taking risks. Knowing that, inside reason, they do not have to fret about making mistakes, people can fail quickly and share what they learn.
Ultimately, for firms, the bond I call love is a trade secret that can’t be copied by any competitors. It creates a culture that draws people, making the company a magnet for talent.
In today’s job market, this is a big plus. Almost nine out of ten industry executives say the principal obstacles are recruiting and retaining talent.
For leaders, showing love is the most powerful way I know to build a strong, caring business. By going where their people are, each mentally and physically, they’ll make real connections. Which jogs my memory – I have to catch a plane.