About a year ago, I wrote Leadership As Love. The centrality and importance of Love in life and leadership have been a focus of mine for many years. Trying to define Love is like trying to explain the word color. You can only fully depict color with all its colors. For example, Merriam-Webster defines color as a “phenomenon of light (such as red, brown, pink, or gray) or visual perception that enables one to differentiate otherwise identical objects.” Love as well cannot be defined and described without all its colors - its features, tones, pigmentations, and nuances. In Part 2, I continue the journey of providing more color to the beauty of Love and its centrality in the role of leading people.
As I read through the various streams of the wisdom literature of ancient days and the present, there seems to be a common thread in terms of activity and development many go through as they live and experience life - a movement with an arc and trajectory that ultimately heads toward harmony, holism, and transcendence. Various terms have been used to describe these stages or phases. One set and series I resonate with is simplicity (dualistic) to complexity (pragmatic), complexity to perplexity (relativistic/critical), and perplexity to harmony (integral). I am reminded of the words of Jesus in The Book of John, chapter 17, verses 20 to 23:
20 "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
There is no escaping this - the goal, the outcome of Love, is oneness and unity among people - a harmonious blend of the uniqueness of each individual and a uniting of each person that creates a whole better, stronger, and more beautiful than the sum of each person involved. It's like cells coming together to create a human, but at the same time, not diminishing or undermining the uniqueness and contribution of each cell.
How do we lead in a way that results in unitivity among our team - a crescendo of glorious oneness fueled by a harmonious coming together of both mutuality and autonomy? Here are some practical, interconnected steps you can take as a leader to catalyze and cultivate Love as the driving force on your team:
Cultivate Mutuality: Love does not control or coerce; it woos, invites, inspires, and persuades - Love does not demand, nor is it self-seeking. It seeks the highest good and flourishing of its team members so that they may soar in the air of their highest potential. It's not ultimately about efficiency or empowerment; it's about co-creating (co-laboring together - no one person births the outcome) where there is shared collaboration and input and shared and rotating leadership where mutual empowerment occurs. What are you doing as a leader to facilitate shared information and leadership - creating a space where every voice is heard and matters? What are you doing to remove barriers and bureaucracies that inhibit this? What are you doing to encourage and structure less hierarchy and more mutuality?
Champion Autonomy: Leaders can often create a culture of dependency among their team members where many operate via passive compliance and conformity; very little authority and responsibility are distributed and dispersed. Leadership needs to help people take ownership of their roles, allowing them to exercise their agency and freedom within the organization's overall values, vision, and mission (i.e., responsibility paired with accountability). Are you coaching and training people, providing them with the experience to grow and the value to show their unique contributions to the organization? Love is about helping people reach their highest good, the zenith of their potential.
Integrate Diversity: Studies confirm that when diversity among a team (such as viewpoints and perspectives from different cultures, races, and traditions) is integrated and leveraged well, team health and outcomes are usually stronger and better. What exists among team members is a strong sense and orientation to inclusiveness and non-competitiveness; any attitudes of superiority and supremacy are non-existent. Everyone is on equal footing and with equivalent access to information and ways to participate and contribute. What are you doing as a leader to encourage and foster diversity among your team, including sharing diverse thoughts and ideas? Love welcomes and invites diversity; no color is excluded from the palette of any leader.
Foster Adaptability: Love is situational; it seeks to incarnate and embody itself in a manner that considers the unique context and scenario before it. Love can pivot, innovate, and adapt to serve, support, and honor all involved to bring about the healthiest and wisest outcome in that situation or circumstance. Leaders are to function as hosts and guides for their teams - welcoming members into a space marked by curiosity and appreciative inquiry and facilitating a journey that births creative and iterative ideas and breakthroughs. What are you doing as a leader to courageously guide your team into new ways of doing things or creating new outcomes?
At Chemistry Staffing, we recognize that teams are to be color-FULL expressions of unique talent and ideas where people work WITH each other, not OVER each other.
If your team is stuck or in need of a tune-up, please contact us. We would love the opportunity to serve, support and strengthen your team around the core value of LOVE.