I have wrestled with the use of the word love in Strength Based Leadership.
I was told by an executive at a large corporation to not use the word love during a keynote address. As she said, “we don’t use the word love around here, it is not part of our corporate culture.”
In response to that, I changed the references in this blog from love to caring. After further reflection, I have decided to return to the primary usage of the word love. I have also decided to focus this blog more on leveraging Strength Based Leadership to enhance employee engagement. In my vocabulary love is a stronger more engaged word than caring.
Could you imagine someone proposing a marriage engagement by saying, “I care for you, will you marry me?” The proposal lacks a spirit of full engagement.
I am comfortable with both terms – love and caring. Are you?
Here are two thoughts about caring and love from my favorite pithy blog, Jack/Zen. I love the title of this blog as my oldest son is Jack and Jack’s number one signature strength is to love and be loved. I also appreciate Zen as it asks us to be engaged in whatever we do wherever we are.
Caring
Most people do not care about others. Caring is not about us, our needs, our success. It is about the other. And in authentic care, there is no confusion, only clarity.Love
Love is one of those human experiences that gets redefined along life’s path, whether we embrace or resist redefinition. Zen teacher Charlotte Joko Beck in “Nothing Special” offers one of the simplest and provocative definitions of love, as awareness.
What are your thoughts about love and caring in the context of work? Here are 4 questions to foster your thinking and feeling about love and caring:
Do you love your work?
Do you love the people you work with?
Do you bring what you love to what you do?
Are you care-full at work (full of care) or care-less (ready to resign)?
I would love to read your perspective and I encourage you to post a comment. As Kahlil Gibran wrote, work is love made visible.
Technorati Tags : leadership, love, strength based leadership, Zinger
Mark Twain said something like “the difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightening and a lightening bug. Go with love.”
Your vision for employee engagement and servant leadership (a vision I share) won’t be achieved with anything less.
Thanks for thinking out loud and letting people like me chime in!
Man, I LOVE this post! It’s all about Love, baby! We can’t get too far in our lives without love. “I love my car” or “I love ice cream” are heard all over the place. What’s wrong with really delving into this word and the hangups some have with it? I think this is GREAT!!
Jodee,
Thanks for the feedback. I loved it. We may need more but the Beatles were on to something with: “all we need is love.”