How to become a better leader: 6 Stages of Love to Becoming a G.O.A.T. Leader
How to become a better leader: 6 Stages of Love to Becoming a G.O.A.T = Greatest of All Time: All humans have one thing in common: we want to love and be loved. We accept this idea when it comes to family, pets, sports teams, and favorite bands. But the moment we get to the office, a switch goes off, and that acceptance goes out the window. We don’t show love in the workplace despite its prevalence in the rest of our lives.
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If you only associate love with your spouse or family, then it makes sense that it would feel awkward to show it to colleagues. With this in mind, let’s consider love like the ancient Greeks. They viewed it as too complicated to define with one phrase. To them, love took on six forms:
1. EROS (SELF PASSIONATE)
This type of love is irrational and uncompromising. In leadership, this is a “my way or the highway” kind of manager. The manager loves his ideas and authority above all else. It’s not a good look for any manager.
Expect this outcome: You’re not a leader yet and just a manager. You will most likely push people away from you, while your results will be short term.
2. PHILIA (FRIENDSHIP)
Philia equates to deep bonds born from shared experiences. It’s loyalty, sacrifice, and belonging. When the pressure is on at work, support your team, and be open with them about the demands you share. You’ll likely find that they want to help you in return.
Expect this outcome: You’re starting to win hearts and you’re on the right path to becoming a leader.
3. LUDUS (PLAYFUL)
This version of love is a connection built from playfulness, laughter, and banter with those around us. It establishes personal relationships through human interaction. In this new world, Ludus, is getting harder to find, and the leaders doing it are getting the most traction.
Expect this outcome: You’re starting to create a tribe that others want to follow you.
4. AGAPE (SELF-LESS)
Agape is selfless love, and it’s a must for any leader. It’s universal, empathetic, and kind. We must have each other’s backs as friends and colleagues alike.
Expect this outcome: You’re becoming highly effective as a leader, and your tribe is starting to say great things about you.
5. PRAGMA (TRUST)
Pragma is rooted in compromise and patience. As a leader, you need to practice empathy for your employees. They’re not cogs in the machine; they’re people. When you treat them as such, they will see and love you for it.
Expect this outcome: You’re on way to becoming a mentor. Your tribe is starting to come extremely loyal to you and others in your tribe.
6. PHILAUTIA (SELF-LOVE)
Philautia = self-love. Before you can hold anyone else accountable, you must love yourself first enough to practice balanced accountability. It’s the only way to find lasting success.
Expect this outcome: Congratulations, you’re a G.O.A.T. leading by example, and your tribe will never leave you. You’ll be maximizing your performance and called upon to share your secrets in love.
Love is an Verb…
You must actively communicate with your tribe about how much you love them, even if you think you’re showing it with your actions. No one is a mind reader. Just be sure to keep the moment genuine. It can be hard to praise or compliment people, so a common reaction is to fall back on comedy as a defense mechanism. It may be natural, but it’s sloppy. To avoid this, start by telling your employees what you love about them and their performances. This process involves showing your feelings but doesn’t require too much sentimentality. For example:
“I love how you helped that client.”
“I love that you turned in this assignment way ahead of schedule.”
“I love your commitment to our team.”
Empower your team to share the love throughout the organization. A great resource in this modern world is SPARCK. It’s an online personalized employee recognition and engagement program that creates a thriving workplace your tribe will love.
If the thought of love makes you squirm, you’re not alone. In fact, the “stronger” you are, the more likely you are to resist this. However, when you let your guard down, your tribe will be more than ready to support you. Showing your humanity makes it safe for them to engage, and they’ll be ready to commit to whatever the company needs. When your staff feels loved, it’ll amaze you just how far they’ll be willing to go. Who wouldn’t want that kind of loyalty?
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About the Author
Hernani Alves started as a part-time employee and eventually grew to become the President for a $3 Billion Company that was regularly voted as Best Workplace. Today, he as an author and international speaker that helps leaders build world-class teams focused on getting results.
Hernani has been featured in: Stanford University, HR.com, Young Upstart, Best Recruiter, Idea Mensch, CEOWorld Magazine, Conscious Company, Extreme Leadership, and more.
In his book, Balanced Accountability, Hernani reveals the framework needed to improve accountability in the workplace by winning hearts to maximize performance.
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To connect with Hernani, please visit his Twitter, LinkedIn or Schedule a Call with Hernani
How You Can Boost Employee Morale in Your Workplace? Boost Efficiency by Purging Your Workplace Baggage
How You Can Boost Employee Morale in Your Workplace? Boost Efficiency by Purging Your Workplace Baggage. Here’s an excercise: Sit down with your team and have them write out answers to each of the following questions. The only rule here is to take it one item at a time. Do not skip or jump ahead. Read full details below.
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Last week, I went through my closet to do a little spring-cleaning. I had just tossed some old clothes into a 30-gallon bag to donate when I decided to turn the task into a challenge. I told myself to go through my closet one more time. Would you believe that I ended up with another full 30-gallon bag of clothes?
It wasn’t easy to purge two bags of my belongings. I had to continually repeat the phrase, “if I haven’t worn it in a year, it’s time to donate it to someone who will.” At the end of the exercise, I realized that I disliked the clutter more than I liked the clothes.
A similar phenomenon happens in business when we hang onto waste within our organization. Actions that once made sense can become obsolete, but we keep doing them out of habit (or stubbornness). These practices are energy vampires that suck up your time.
When I work with business leaders, they love to learn about maximizing their performance by eliminating wasteful resources. After all, decluttering is less expensive and more accessible than bringing in new costly procedures.
I like to teach this introspection-based technique to help them eliminate at least 20% of their organization’s baggage from the get-go.
Exercise to Purge Your Workplace Baggage
Sit down with your team and have them write out answers to each of the following questions. The only rule here is to take it one item at a time. Do not skip or jump ahead.
- If you had a list entitled “To Stop Doing,” what would that include? Consider activities that no longer align with your regular work day or your company’s purpose.
- Where do you feel like you are going through the motions vs. seeing progress in your work?
- If you had a list entitled “To Start Doing,” what would that include? What do you need to do to see real traction in your daily work? What can you incorporate to make a more significant contribution to your company?
- If it were totally up to you, what changes would you adopt in your job duties to make the biggest impact towards reaching your company’s goals?
This exercise should take about 2-3 hours of collaboration with your team. After they set their goals, please encourage them to create a peer-to-peer accountability system to support their path to success. Perform 15-minute check-ins every week for three months to make sure that they have the tools that they need to adopt new and efficient behaviors.
Sundar Pichai – CEO Google, recently was asked: Who do you see as your biggest Competitor.
“I’ve always worried as a company at scale your biggest competition is from within, that you stop executing well, you focus on the wrong things, you get distracted. I think when you focus on competitors you start chasing and playing by the rules of what others are good at rather than what you makes you good.”
Many times we are looking at our competitors for answers, when we should be challenging our internal processes. This not only will this get rid of baggage in the company, it will win the hearts of your people as it shows that you care and want to make them more productive.
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About the Author:
About the Author
Hernani Alves started as a part-time employee and eventually grew to become the President for a $3 Billion Company that was regularly voted as Best Workplace. Today, he as an author and international speaker that helps leaders build world-class teams focused on getting results. Hernani has been featured in: Stanford University, HR.com, Best Recruiter, Idea Mensch, CEOWorld Magazine, Conscious Company, Extreme Leadership, and more.
In his book, Balanced Accountability, Hernani reveals the framework needed to improve accountability in the workplace by winning hearts to maximize performance.
Get Your Free Checklist to Creating Peer-to-Peer Accountability
See on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/boost-efficiency-purging-your-workplace-baggage-hernani-alves
