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LOVE: THE CATALYST FOR TRANSFORMATION IN LEADERSHIP 2

Love is in the air! So many people appear to be doing one thing or the other in a bid to express their love to someone they love. But how often do we take time to exude this level excitement in showing love to the people that work for and/with us in our organizations? Just think about it.

In the just previous essay, I cited the descriptive words of Paul about love in relation to leadership, which I shall begin today to explain briefly, and also point out how they are related to what you do in leadership.

According to Paul:

Love never gives up: Really? How about the concept of hire to fire? I find it interesting to observe that most leaders who hire and fire their workers for doing poor jobs have not thought about disowning their children for scoring an "F" in one of their subjects. Why is that so? Love never gives up. If the employee does a poor job, it is not his or her faults, rather it is the fault of the system that hired him or her. When leaders of organizations fail to take responsibility of their errors in hiring the wrong people, they resort to firing them without considering the emotional trauma it may cause these people. No parent will ever disown a child because the child failed, never! But when it comes to our jobs, we rather allude, "this is business." While that may be true, helping that employee become better would have been the better option. That is the path of love.

Love cares more for others than for self: Hmmm! I find this hard to believe when it comes to organizational leadership. I watch the way and manner my parents relate to me and also those of others, I realised that parents are more concerned about the welfare their children more than their own until their children are able to stand on their feet. That for me is what leadership is all about, but in the organizational leadership, the same parents would respond differently. Something must be missing in the equation, and of course, love is missing. If we treat our followers just the same way we show love to our family members, the difference will be clear.

Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have: Most times, as leaders we make demands from our followers beyond their capacity and expect them to deliver, and when they do not, we fire them. A parable is told in the Bible about the sower who sowed his seeds. According to the story, the seeds that fell on the fertile ground produced different amount of fruits. They all produced according to their capacities, in 30s, 60s and 100s. The same is obtainable in leadership, and each member of the leadership team will not produced the same kind of results. So, Paul is right that love does not want what it does not have. Expect your followers to produce according to their capacities, nothing more or less.

Paul descriptions of love, in relation to leadership, appear to be impossible. However, when you begin to pay attention to love, as the fulcrum of your leadership, transformation of your followers is inevitable.

...to be continued.

Elvis C. Umez
Leadership Consultant
IDB Consult

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