Love of a leader
Who are the most loving people in the world? I’m not looking for an answer like “your parents,” or “your wife/husband” or any other close relation. What are the working roles in life that demonstrate great love?
Would you nominate a teacher, a nurse, perhaps a minister or rabbi? Yes, all these career roles, and more, demonstrate loving connection in their work. Do you have space on your list to add another life role? Consider the leader as someone who exhibits love in action.
Talking about leadership can be a tricky situation, because people don’t all agree on what leadership is. I am thinking about leaders who serve their constituents, the folks who make life better for the people who follow them. Great leaders lift up the people in their world, encouraging them, asking others to become more effective and to trust their instincts. Not all leaders fit in this mold, and I suggest that some people who command authority are not yet leaders. However, there is hope for these people too – leaders grow into their roles, and not all leaders have emerged into a position of loving service. Love is a mature response that grows as one connects with more people, and the feeling of gratitude and interdependence grows.
Robert LeGendre wrote to me “To genuinely care is a powerful force. It is the breath of passion, the eyes of trust & the heart of love.” I think leaders are like this. They offer a powerful force to the world. The great leaders bring passion to their work, and we remember them for their heart demonstrated in action.
Do leaders show us the way of love? Leadership scholars Kouzes and Posner came to the unexpected conclusion that love is an essential part of mature leadership. “After numerous interviews and case analyses, it finally dawned on us how many leaders used the word freely when talking about their own motivations to lead” (in The Leadership Challenge, 2007). This view of leadership may break some perceptions of leadership as a work of command and control, measurement and accountability. Leadership is a work of love.
Does this challenge your view? I have talked to many people who see leadership as a reflection of others who have managed them. If you have had a bad boss, and many of us have, it is easy to let this image color the perception of the work of leadership. Yet, the example of the bad boss better represents a person who is not yet a leader. I think of leaders as the people who have already built a sophisticated and caring model of human relations. Sometimes a person grows through being a bad boss, to a decent manager, to a better manager, to an emerging leader.
The work of personal growth and social transformation may not yet be over. Love may be a distinguishing quality of the leader who has come to value the relationships of followers and the community that he serves so highly, that deep appreciation has mellowed into a state of loving regard.
How does the leader come to love his community and followers? I’m not sure this question has been studied by poets or scientists. My guess is that the mutual regard for a transformative vision will bring the leader and followers closer together. In the journey to produce a better world and context of work, the community generates a loving experience. The effective and mature leader shares in this experience fully.
* * * *
Call me if you would like to explore your inner leader.
* * * *
What amuses you? send me your thoughts to rSteve@mycareerimpact.com">DrSteve@mycareerimpact.com and I will include them in my positivity journal.
* * * *.
Is being a leader important to you? Take my research survey for career changers. http://bit.ly/7YhcMK
Would you nominate a teacher, a nurse, perhaps a minister or rabbi? Yes, all these career roles, and more, demonstrate loving connection in their work. Do you have space on your list to add another life role? Consider the leader as someone who exhibits love in action.
Talking about leadership can be a tricky situation, because people don’t all agree on what leadership is. I am thinking about leaders who serve their constituents, the folks who make life better for the people who follow them. Great leaders lift up the people in their world, encouraging them, asking others to become more effective and to trust their instincts. Not all leaders fit in this mold, and I suggest that some people who command authority are not yet leaders. However, there is hope for these people too – leaders grow into their roles, and not all leaders have emerged into a position of loving service. Love is a mature response that grows as one connects with more people, and the feeling of gratitude and interdependence grows.
Robert LeGendre wrote to me “To genuinely care is a powerful force. It is the breath of passion, the eyes of trust & the heart of love.” I think leaders are like this. They offer a powerful force to the world. The great leaders bring passion to their work, and we remember them for their heart demonstrated in action.
Do leaders show us the way of love? Leadership scholars Kouzes and Posner came to the unexpected conclusion that love is an essential part of mature leadership. “After numerous interviews and case analyses, it finally dawned on us how many leaders used the word freely when talking about their own motivations to lead” (in The Leadership Challenge, 2007). This view of leadership may break some perceptions of leadership as a work of command and control, measurement and accountability. Leadership is a work of love.
Does this challenge your view? I have talked to many people who see leadership as a reflection of others who have managed them. If you have had a bad boss, and many of us have, it is easy to let this image color the perception of the work of leadership. Yet, the example of the bad boss better represents a person who is not yet a leader. I think of leaders as the people who have already built a sophisticated and caring model of human relations. Sometimes a person grows through being a bad boss, to a decent manager, to a better manager, to an emerging leader.
The work of personal growth and social transformation may not yet be over. Love may be a distinguishing quality of the leader who has come to value the relationships of followers and the community that he serves so highly, that deep appreciation has mellowed into a state of loving regard.
How does the leader come to love his community and followers? I’m not sure this question has been studied by poets or scientists. My guess is that the mutual regard for a transformative vision will bring the leader and followers closer together. In the journey to produce a better world and context of work, the community generates a loving experience. The effective and mature leader shares in this experience fully.
* * * *
Call me if you would like to explore your inner leader.
* * * *
What amuses you? send me your thoughts to rSteve@mycareerimpact.com">DrSteve@mycareerimpact.com and I will include them in my positivity journal.
* * * *.
Is being a leader important to you? Take my research survey for career changers. http://bit.ly/7YhcMK
Posted by Steve Broe at 11/19/2010 5:17 PM 
Categories: Leadership, transformation, Joy, Love, vision
Categories: Leadership, transformation, Joy, Love, vision
I just watched a study about Hitler's mind set on the history channel - I think he is a classical example on leadership gone wrong .. !
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