Love’s a word we seldom use in business. But if you peel back the
wrapping from your power of emulation – your highest voltage tool for
building followership – what you’ll find at the core is love. Love, for
you, is what makes your organization want desperately to support your
initiatives. Fear fosters only their compliance. Love releases selfless
zeal. And exhilarating team spirit.
 
So how do you get them to
love you? First, you must love yourself. Enough to be open, humble,
approachable, wrong at times and still confident. Then, you have to love
what you want to achieve.
 
And, what’s the difference between
admirable love for yourself and conceit? Between love for what you’re
trying to make happen and selfishness?
 
It’s motivation. But it’s
an angle of motivation we mostly suppress. Because it so directly
challenges everything we’ve always heard about the purpose of our Job At
The Top. And about why our businesses exist.
 
Hang me from the
yardarm, if you will. But I think we all know, hidden deep inside
ourselves, that profit’s not a fundamental motivator. Making rich guys
richer, even if it includes ourselves, isn’t what inspires an
organization’s love. But love for us and our businesses is what’s
required to fuel extraordinary accomplishment.
 
The root to
organizational love is making a contribution that’s needed. That others
aren’t fulfilling, or that we can do better. Whether it’s altruism,
pride or a combination of both, doing something better is the soul of
motivation to excel. And doing it for a cause that benefits someone
else, along with ourselves, is the magnum force multiplier to the
sensation.
 
Imagine what it would feel like if everyone in your
organization came to work filled with the spirit of improving someone
else’s life and concurrently their own! That’s love at work.
 
You
can make this happen. The nature of your business doesn’t matter. It’s
all about how you see your business from your Job At The Top. How you
speak about it. What you reward. How you justify your actions. And what
you care about most. And a perspective that what you’re doing makes life
safer, more affordable or more enjoyable for others.
 
Try
thinking about your business this way. Start talking about it. Bet
you’ll see signs of springtime. New energy around something starting
with “L.”