The love-driven leader

Caroline Mendez Aug. 6, 2019

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“Love-driven leaders are excellent followers of the ultimate love-driven leader, Jesus.”  ~ Dr. Steve Greene, author of Love Leads 

Love in the workplace? Love in leadership? 

“What's love got to do with it?” Tina Turner famously asked.

Everything. As a Christ-follower, love is the basis for everythingwe do, because it is the basis for all He did.  

If we have just one person following us, then we are a leader, regardless of our age, our role or where that is—work, home, church, school. In order for us to be a God-honoring leader, the first requirement is to love as Christ loved us. That love, by the way, is an action. An “active” intentional action that holds deep affection (versus the type of love as the world defines it) and shows itself.

I had the privilege of interviewing Cheryl Bachelder, former CEO of Popeye's Louisiana Kitchen several years ago. This anecdote from her sums up the power of “love  in leadership” well:

“I had a boss who was an encourager-leader. The first thing he said to me was ‘I chose you for this role because I love what you bring to it. You’re innovative, you’re creative, you’re bold.’”

“Nobody had ever told me they loved that. And then every week he told me how excited he was about what I was doing. And boy, I was like, this is new. I never experienced this before. How uplifting! And, no surprise, I did some incredible work for him because we had a vibrant, encouraging relationship. 

The man that I worked for right after him was the opposite. The first words he said to me were, ‘I've heard you were good. I’m going to see if I can trip you up.’ And I said, ‘Really? That's the most inspiring thing anyone's ever said to me.’ I worked for him for a year. It was ugly. It was not fun; he was constantly drawing my weaknesses to my attention.”

Sound familiar? If you're a boss, are you the love-driven leader? Or the opposite?  How would your team members describeyourleadership?

If leadership is rooted in the love of Christ, it will have a solid foundation. The motivation behind our leadership will be well-placed, well-rooted and well-directed.

Romans 13:8 directs our love-based leadership, “Owe nothing to anyone-except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God's law.”

This week, lead well in love. 

Photo source: istock

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