Welcome

It is with such joy and enthusiasm that I share my first Love Note. I am equally proud to announce my passion and purpose for expanding the recognition, understanding, and impact of Love-Led Leadership. My goal? To inspire those in any leadership position to not only understand the responsibility of their role but the profound impact they can have on their team, their community, and potentially, the world.

My story

Over the last few years, I have been exploring, researching, and learning about different types of leadership. My interest in Love-Led Leadership was particularly piqued after watching a TED talk by Valarie Kaur, inspiring me to purchase her book “See No Stranger.” I picked up a copy of her book and it catapulted my research and interest into Love-Led Leadership. Why? Because when you realize that close to 80% of our population is employed, who leads them becomes pretty important.

What Happens When You Lead with Love?

When people are led with respect, compassion, and empathy, they tend to be more loyal, creative, productive, and engaged. Conversely, when people are led with indifference, fear and chaos, it can lead to reduced creativity and innovation, decreased employee morale, a negative culture, high turnover, and reduced profits.

In the current state of our country, when stress, fear, and anxiety are at all-time highs, something needs to change. What better place to shine a spotlight than on our employers, our leaders, our organizations, all of whom have a significant impact on so many individuals and their overall sense of well-being?

Examples of Love-led Leadership

Though love in leadership is not a new concept- exemplified by Southwest Airlines, Patagonia, Toms Shoes, Boingo, and others- it’s not widespread enough to make this subject old news. Quite the opposite; research and authors have highlighted and continue to highlight the impact of prioritizing love in leadership.

Studies Show Love in Leadership Works

A Longitudinal Study of the Culture of Companionate Love and Employee and Client Outcomes in a Long-term Care Setting (sagepub.com) by researchers Sigal G. Barsade and Olivia A. O’Neil (May 2014), titled “What’s Love Got to Do with It?” explored the concept of a “culture of compassionate love” in the workplace. This culture involves feelings of compassion and caring toward others at work. Their findings show greater employee satisfaction, greater teamwork, reduced absenteeism, and improved engagement.

In a world where companies struggle to retain good people, it’s clear that good people stay for good leadership. Leadership that is compassionate, genuine and respectful can determine whether organizations succeed or not.

The truth is successful companies that implement a love-led leadership approach or utilize principles of love-led leadership are more successful than their peers. A landmark study conducted at Harvard University tracked 207 publicly traded companies over 11 years. The findings revealed that companies prioritizing their employees significantly outperformed those that solely focused on profits. Simply put, people over profits wins.

Let’s Spread the Word

I look forward to sharing more about Love-led Leadership, it’s impact and how we can all lead better, with love. But it starts with us, and sometimes, that’s the hardest part.

If you’d like to learn more about Love-Led Leadership for yourself or your organization, don’t hesitate to reach out. I would love to share more with you.

Let’s spread the word, it’s time for Love-Led Leadership to lead the way!

Love,
Nicki