LOVE is the guiding star.
LOVE is at the root of everything.
We are on a critical path for humanity. A lot of discord, insecurity, and fears exist in our world today. Some individuals are driving a climate of fear and anxiety for personal gain and advancing their agenda. It’s creating a world where individuals are disconnected, lack trust and empathy for their neighbors.
As leaders of your organizations, you must create an environment that is safe. Safe from all the outside environmental factors affecting your employees. Ensuring your employee's wellness should be just as imperative as achieving your targeted financial performance.
The messages your employees' experience outside of the work environment has a direct impact on how they perform in your workplace. While some of what they experience may have nothing to do with the job itself, employees' are humans, and as such, bring to work their full selves, their anxieties, and fears. While you may want them to focus on work strictly, these fears and anxieties impact their job performance and your work environment.
I’ve recently watched three leaders, at different periods, share a message on LOVE and Humanity. Each time I heard or read their speech, read their article or watched their documentary, I became more inspired and saw how their personal message was driving one core message, LOVE. Each one of their messages correlates to the challenges we face today. I believe that this simple message, LOVE, could be the solution that drives productive outcomes which may be the answer to some of the problems we face.
LOVE
I first read Brene Brown's blog post on "Dehumanizing Always Start With Language." Dehumanizing is the “the psychological process of demonizing the enemy, making them seem less than human and hence not worthy of humane treatment.” Our language, the way we speak of individuals, and policies that we instituted accelerate the dehumanizing process. Brown writes "When we engage in dehumanizing rhetoric or promote dehumanizing images, we diminish our own humanity in the process."
Then I watched the Royal wedding where Pastor Curry’s message spoke of LOVE. LOVE is what is missing in this world today. And if we could have LOVE for our neighbors the world would be a better place.
"There’s power in love.
Love can help and heal when nothing else can.
Love can lift up and liberate for living when nothing else will.
There’s power in love to show us the way to live. Set me as a seal on your heart, for love is as strong as death.
And the love that brings two people together is the same love that can bind them together, Whether on mountaintops of happiness
and through valleys of hardship.
Love is strong as death
It’s flashes are flashes of fire. Many waters cannot quench love
Love can see you through! There’s power in love"
You read and watch Pastor Curry's speech here.
I toiled over connecting Brene Brown’s dehumanizing blog post and Pastor Curry’s article. I questioned is this the right audience for this message? Were the messages aligned? Is it too political? While I felt they were strong messages that needed to share, I just couldn’t put the words together on paper.
And then I watched the CBS Sunday morning news on May 27th, and they did a special on my favorite childhood show, Mister Rogers Neighborhoods.
I remember when I was a child that Mister Rogers Neighborhood was one of my favorite shows. I grew up as the youngest of four siblings with one television in the home. I would have a fit with my siblings to get the television so that I could watch Mister Rogers Neighborhood. I never missed an episode of Mister Rogers Neighborhood.
The message on the CBS special on Mister Rogers Neighborhood was LOVE.
Same message, three different people (Brene Brown, Pastor Curry, and Mister Rogers), sharing that LOVE is what’s needed in our world today.
LOVE is timeless. Look at the message from Mister Rogers which is still relevant today.
LOVE drives humanity. When you have LOVE for others, you see them as humans. You find common ground and similarities to connect on. You have empathy for their struggles. You find the shared values.
LOVE is binding. Love joins us together. Pastor Curry states "[w]hen love is the way, we actually treat each other like we are actually family."
So I ask you to not just focus on numbers and performance objectives. Find a way to drive a deeply connected organization. An organization where employees are connected, employees care about each other, are trusting of you and their peers, have empathy for others of different socio-economic backgrounds, culture, and gender.
Our Everything DiSC® profiles can help with this. DiSC® personality assessment help individuals understand themselves and learn how to build an effective relationship with others. Learn more about our DiSC® profiles here.
LOVE. LOVE is the answer. LOVE is the guiding star.
