What’s love got to do with being the best leader you can be? You can read about the love factor and one of my coaching clients at the end of this post. But let’s start with two leaders of highly successful companies and learn what they think love’s got to do with being a great leader and building a great company.
“A company is stronger if bound by love than by fear.”
Thirty seven years ago Herb Kelleher, co-founder and CEO, Southwest Airlines, shared that advice with Kip Tindel, co-founder and chairman, The Container Store. Kip loved this idea so much that he built his company’s culture on love and in love. Love helped him be the best leader he could be and it can help you be the best leader you can be.
Love Makes You the Best Leader You Can Be and Delivers Lovely Results
Tindel credits love for the company’s success.
Customers don’t like The Container Store. They love it. Employees don’t like working here. They love it. Communities don’t like being involved with us, they love being involved.
Too squishy? What if love creates a competitive advantage? According to Tindel, vendors love working with The Container Store. “We are our vendors’ favorite customer.” So they create products for us that only we can sell, at great prices, and they “work their tails off for us”.
Love Creates Better Employee Engagement
Lou Carbone, customer experience expert, says,
“Any employee anywhere has to do the first 25% of their productivity or they risk getting fired. But the next 75% Is voluntary.”
Tindell claims employees only do the additional 75% if they love the business, their boss, and the product.
What does the research say about love and employee engagement? One of the most controversial questions on Gallup’s employee engagement survey concerns itself with love.
Do you have a best friend at work?
Twenty years ago Intel business and HR leaders told me it was a ridiculous question. “No one should expect to have a best friend at work. It’s work,” they said.
Gallup has received great push back about the friend question but maintain it because powerful statistical analysis repeatedly indicates the best friend factor matters, a lot. It’s a key separator of high vs low-performing teams. If you have a best friend at work, you are 7 times more likely to be engaged at your job. The best friend factor consistently demonstrates a strong relationship to improvements in customer engagement, profits. and employee safety.
Let’s look at what happens when leaders love their employees.
One Leader’s Love Story
Mel is my coaching client. Stan is Mel’s manager.
During our introductory meeting, I asked Mel why he returned to the company after working elsewhere for several years. “I missed everyone, especially Stan.” Love.
When Stan and I had our initial getting-to-know-you meeting, he declared, “I love Mel like a son.” Then he asked, “Is that a bad thing? As his manager, are there things I should do at some point, but won’t, because I love him?”
In a subsequent 3-way meeting, Stan responded to my questions about Mel’s super-powers, strengths and learning edges. Stan said everything that needed to be said, with love and clarity. Love tenderized the feedback about Mel’s learning edges and made it more digestible.
Stan’s love, his caring for and about Mel, is helping Mel grow. Mel, in tun, is becoming a better leader. The company is benefiting. What’s love got to do with making you the best leader you can be? Everything!