Love – The greatest leadership tool – PART 12

How to kill Love at work.

You’ve spent a lot of time, or will, showing people you care about them and their work and that you appreciate them being here. Then come the tests. Don’t blow it now. Here’s what NOT do to, even once –

Lose your temper. If you feel it coming – go home right away.

Yell at someone, in public or private.

Call people names.

Gossip about someone – they will find out.

Be in it for yourself, and abandon a team member.

Sacrifice a team member to save yourself (with a customer for example).

Take a “leader vs. team” attitude or position.

See yourself as better than anyone.

Mistreat someone for any reason.

Accountability

Team members being accountable to goals, tasks completed, and making their numbers sounds great and there is nothing wrong with it. But to an employee, when the leader says “You have to be accountable” or “Were going to start having accountability around here”, it doesn’t sound very friendly; it sounds like a threat to them. If we’re to be honest, too often it is.

How we express things matters; the words we chose, what our intention is, and how we use our voice. Carrot or stick; be careful. Accomplishing very short term goals at the expense of a positive mutually caring relationship is not a wise trade. Deposits to a relationship take time, patience and purposeful action. Involuntary withdrawals can be sudden and extreme. 

There were times when an employee really messed up; I mean big; I had a cause and an opportunity to really pound them verbally. I didn’t take it. They knew they messed up. They tortured themselves. I actually built them up instead.

These moments are big. They are tests and people are watching. You can’t undo what is already done. Sure, there’s crisis management that needs to be done with customers and property. But when you show grace and love in times when people expect you to freak out, it shows what is really inside you.

When something really bad happens, go calm.