What’s Love Got to Do With It?

From the C-Suite to the mail room to the loading dock, modern workplaces vibrate with an underlying current of fear. This fear stems from the traditional reward vs. punishment system most companies rely on, but unfortunately, it’s keeping both employees and employers from being and doing their best.

Executives’ Fears

Executives face more complex challenges than ever before…

  • Rapid changes in the economy, technology and society create uncertainty and instability.
  • Government regulations
  • Climate change
  • Negative viral campaigns or a single video posted on Facebook or Twitter
  • Terrorist attacks or workplace violence
  • Greater social responsibility expectations
  • New lower cost competitors
  • The ultimate threat: new business models that threaten company’s viability.

Employees’ Fears

Due to underlying fears, employees often feel they need to beat out instead of collaborating with co-workers and others.

    • Increased work volume
    • Conflicting job expectations
    • Changing work rules
    • Unreasonable quotas
    • Unclear goals
    • Reduced benefits
    • Skills become obsolete
    • Being demoted, laid off or fired
    • Following business sale, uncertainty of new owner’s expectations
    • Lack of loyalty to dedicated employees

Why Love?

The paradigm is full of fear. But how is that working for us?

Not very well. We can adapt to operating in fear, but it is difficult to thrive. Simply put, a fear-based work culture is bad for business. It keeps companies from being able to retain the best people. They go elsewhere instead of staying in a job that negatively affects their well-being.

Business needs more love. By love, I mean treating others with compassion, respect and support. It is leading by good example, like executives cutting their expenses when asking employees to reduce costs.

My research and experience has shown that shifting to love and compassion can create real, tangible positive results in the workplace. I’ve developed a series of practices that have helped clients across industries successfully bring more love into their work and build a habit of understanding and heartfulness. The transformations speak for themselves. (See Case Studies).

Have you “caught” any business or business person doing good? Please send a brief description of the business or business person and what they did!

Share Your Stories of Love and Compassion at Work

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