This is the second of 4 posts on Erich Fromm’s book The Art of Loving.

According to Fromm, the practice of love requires discipline, concentration, and patience. Discipline, on the surface, seems like a strange concept to use in conjunction with love. We often think of falling in love and that love is an uncontrolled emotion that overcomes us.

Fromm believed that the art of loving parallels other arts. When we practice discipline, concentration, and patience in leadership we are demonstrating a love that brings strength, energy, and a caring focus on the people we are leading.

Here is a quote from Fromm indicating that being in the mood in order to perform our leadership role will never result in mastery; I shall never be good at anything if I do not do it in a disciplined way; anything I do only if “I am in the mood” may be a nice or amusing hobby, but I shall never become a master in that art.

How do you practice the discipline of leadership?

What are the routines and rituals that help you get the job done?

How do you practice caring in leadership when you don’t feel like it?

How do you make time for the important but the non urgent functions of leadership?

In case you believe that discipline is a form of tortuous self-authoritarianism read the following statement from Fromm:

It is essential, however, that discipline should not be practiced like a rule imposed on oneself from the outside, but that it becomes an expression of one’s own will; that is felt as pleasant, and that one slowly accustoms oneself to a kind of behaviour which one would eventually miss, if one stopped practicing it.

Although leadership can be a challenge it can also be a love that we willing engage in with a sense of discipline that can be pleasant and rewarding.

Here are 3 sources to read more about discipline:

1. Jim Clemmer: Personal improvement planning and discipline.
2. Steve Palvina: Self-discipline.
3. Michael Maude, On discipline.

Next post: Concentration

Technorati Tags : strength based leadership, Erich Fromm, discipline, Zinger

This is the 50th anniversary of Erich Fromm’s The Art of Loving. I believe this short book offers some powerful guidance for the infusion of love in strength based leadership.

Erich Fromm was a psychologist and philosopher. Here is a line from the forward of his book on the art of loving.

I want to convince the reader that all attempts for love are bound to fail, unless he [sic] tries most actively to develop his total personality, so as to achieve a productive orientation; that satisfaction in individual love cannot be attained without the capacity to love one’s neighbor, without true humility, courage, faith and discipline.

Leaders need to develop their total personality to be productive and their leadership must be based on humility, courage, faith, and discipline. Here are 3 reflective questions for your development as a leader:

1. How well have you developed your total personality as a leader?
2. How do you leverage your total personality in leadership?
3. Are your actions based on humility, courage, faith, and discipline?

Here is a quotation from Paracelsus that begins Erich Fromm’s The Art of Loving:

He who knows nothing, loves nothing. He who can do nothing understands nothing. He who understand nothing is worthless. But he who understands also loves, notices, sees…The more knowledge is inherent in a thing, the greater the love.. Anyone who imagines that all fruits ripen at the same time as the strawberries knows nothing about grapes.

I believe this is a very important key to the love in strength based leadership. We must understand ourselves, others, and the art of leadership. When we practice this love we notice and see (essential components in appreciation and recognition initiatives). And as our knowledge of leadership grows so to does our love expand. The last line could be written by Marcus Buckingham as it acknowledges a strong focus on individual differences.

In addition, much of what Fromm wrote about is parallel to the perspective of Robert Greenleaf and servant leadership.

One of the strengths of the fifty year old book is a focus on the practice of love. Fromm was not content to simply talk about love, or experience love. Rather Fromm wanted us to focus on the practice of this art that shares much with all art. In the next three posts I will focus on his 3 central practices in the art of loving: discipline, concentration, and patience.

Technorati Tags : strength based leadership, Erich Fromm, love, Zinger

Marcus Buckingham qualifies as the strongest proponent of a strength focus at work. Here is a snippet of an email I received about his latest film: Trombone Player Wanted.

I’m hoping that you’ll be interested in my new short-film series called, for reasons that should become apparent when you watch it, Trombone Player Wanted…..the point of the film is not this boy’s story – his name is Ewan, as it happens. The point is to help you find your strengths and put them to work. All the data I’ve seen suggests that, for most of us, this proves exceptionally hard to do – in repeated polls only 17% of us say that we get to play to our strengths at work most of the time. Given that each of us is supposed to be our organization’s “greatest asset” this 17% number is alarmingly low.

Visit http://www.marcusbuckingham.com/Film/ to learn more about the film. Best of all for those who like bargains, the short film series is available for $99 (the same number as Wayne Gretzky who displayed an amazing array of strengths in hockey).

I plan to order the set and I will write a review about the series.

Technorati Tags : strength based leadership, trombone player wanted, Marcus Buckingham, Zinger