“What’s Love Got to Do With It?”
“What’s Love Got to Do With It? What’s love, but a secondhand emotion?”
These are the words of singer Tina Turner’s biggest selling single.1 And since I typically write about leadership, you may be wondering right now, what’s love got to do with leadership?
The Greek language defines different types of love that we might demonstrate in interactions with others. It highlights agape love as “universal love, such as the love for strangers, nature, or God…encompass(ing) the modern concept of altruism, as defined as unselfish concern for the welfare of others.”2 (more…)
Several weeks ago, I completed my first half marathon. Making the decision to do it, disciplining myself to train for it, standing in the middle of the street in downtown Detroit at 6:30 a.m. on a chilly morning with anxious excitement waiting for the starting signal, and later working through the physical aches were all new experiences. But my biggest learning wasn’t physical, it was mental.
As a leader, do you know whether your team is connecting, whispering, or shouting? A recent Gallup survey1 identified three categories to describe employees’ engagement at work.
I recently facilitated an end of year meeting with one of my clients and allocated time for each person to share what they appreciated about every one of their colleagues. We were meeting virtually, and each person was invited to put their thoughts in a group chat, so that the recipient could go back to it later and reread it. As the facilitator, this was about them, not me, so I wasn’t even thinking about asking for their comments about me.
This is Part 2 of the Introduction (read Part 1 
Pat arrived at the office early. She hadn’t slept well the night before because she was wrestling with an important decision that needed to be made in her Executive Committee meeting that morning. They had been evaluating the development and launch of a new product for the past six months. Today they needed to make a final decision on whether they were going to move forward. The discussions had been thorough yet difficult with wide ranging opinions on what they should do. There was significant risk associated with the launch, but the potential reward could be a greatly improved market share. As CEO, she needed everyone to make a full commitment to the decision, and while the objective analysis appeared to lead the team to adopt it, a number of other issues had arisen, and there was a LOT of debate.