“Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 1967 Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta, GA
Joel Manby is President and Chief Executive Officer of Herschend Family Entertainment Corporation (HFE). His company owns several theme parks across the United States. His book, Love Works, explains 7 principles of leadership that focus around the theme of love. If you really want to make a difference for the cause of Christ as a leader that serves others, this is a book that you don’t want to miss!
Here are several things that I highlighted while reading…
- Leading with love is counterintuitive in today’s business environment because it turns many so-called leadership principles upside-down.
- Profits are a product of doing the right thing — over and over again.
- By actively using the seven principles of leading with love — to be patient, kind, trustful, unselfish, truthful, forgiving, and dedicated — we are ensuring our business is resilient and profitable and our employees motivated and loyal. We do this because it makes good business sense and it’s the right thing to do.
- Leadership is about the bottom line and … and loving the people you work with. and making your community a better place. and feeling a sense of satisfaction at the end of every day. and leading employees who can’t imagine working anywhere else.
- It’s not okay to achieve profit growth and destroy our culture as a ‘great place to work for great people.’
- Once an organization loses its soul, the financial performance usually starts to decline and the best people leave.
- Treating someone with love regardless of how you feel about that person is a very powerful principle.
- Agape love is the foundation for the best and noblest relationships that humans are capable of. It is deliberate and unconditional love that is the result of choices and behaviors rather than feelings and emotions.
- “You don’t have to make headlines to make a difference.” Truett Cathy
- In the context of leading with love, embracing patience is not about ignoring poor performance.
- Leading with love is not an excuse to be “soft” on people. Yet at the same time, we must always admonish with patience and respect.
- It takes patience to praise with specifics, and praise without specifics can be worse than no praise at all.
- To be truly effective, praise must be legitimate and pointed. Will everyone have good reason to believe this praise is true? What exactly is the praise for? In other words, I can walk around town with a megaphone, praising my employees at the top of my lungs, but if what I say isn’t believable and specific, it won’t have the effect I want.
- Admonish in private whenever possible.
- Be stern but avoid malice.
- Be specific.
- Get people “back on the horse” with pointed praise.
- Move on without a grudge.
- Making someone’s day better is contagious and increases the energy, effectiveness, and productivity in any organization. Even when leaders feel concern for what lies ahead, we must give off positive impressions and encouragement if we want our teams to thrive.
- The enthusiasm of the guest experience can never rise any higher than the enthusiasm of your own employees.
- Kindness is about intentionally creating and maintaining the right environment in your organization so that frontline employees can deliver an enthusiastic guest experience.
- Kindness isn’t an add-on — it’s a critical component of any well-run organization. Kindness is the root of encouragement, encouragement leads to enthusiasm, and everyone benefits.
- I’ve come to believe that the definition of CEO needs to be expanded. It also stands for “chief encouragement officer,” for this is a vital responsibility for any executive.
- “We’re never so vulnerable than when we trust someone — but paradoxically, if we cannot trust, neither can we find love or joy.” Walter Anderson
- Listening well is critical because it demonstrates trust and builds a team’s sense of camaraderie and cohesion. Poor listening is more than forgivable rudeness: it’s a breach of trust and not a quality of leading with love.
- One of the best ways a leader can demonstrate trust and respect is to listen to and involve team members in the decisions that affect them.
- People want to be involved in decisions that affect them because they understand that participation is a sign of trust from leadership.
- Let others make the decisions for which they are responsible.
- Avoid overruling decisions that have been made.
- Being in power is like being a lady. If you have to remind people that you are, you aren’t. Margaret Thatcher
- Socratic leadership attracts and keeps stronger talent than autocratic leadership does.
- “Do for one what you wish you could do for everyone.” Andy Stanley
- Don’t Confuse Disagreement with Conflict
- Ensure that the employee understands how serious the issues are before firing is an option.
- Character is the root of a leader’s success — and only our very closest friends can hold us accountable to the character we strive for and require to be quality leaders over time.
- Leading with love begins with an honest assessment of yourself, and self is the one person you can never be absolutely honest with.
- “The longer you hold a grudge, the longer the grudge has a hold on you.” Jeff Henderson, Buckhead Church
- Leading with love, even if it means giving undeserved second chances, is the right way to build an organization for long-term health.
- It’s like the Malacy McCourt quote: “Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die.”
- If you lead anything or anyone, you are in a position of power, and if you lead with love, you will surprise others — just like Jesus surprised Peter.
- Martin Luther King Jr. understood this well. In his 1967 annual report delivered at the eleventh convention of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta, the civil rights icon said, “Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic.” Dr. King, arguably one of the greatest leaders of all time, understood that love and power must be harnessed together to get the most important things done.