LEADING WITH LOVE: A CORPORATE FORMULA FOR SUCCESS
A version of this article appeared in the February 2015 issue of the Toastmaster magazine.
Linda Allen
Linda Allen, ACS, CL, is a member of the Enid Speakers of the Plains Toastmasters in Enid, Oklahoma. She is a writer, speaker and trainer specializing in cultural awareness, professional and personal development, and leadership.
“Leadership would be easy if it weren’t for people,” wrote Mac Anderson, founder of Successories and Simple Truths, two businesses that produce inspirational and motivational products and books.
He’s right.
You may think that leadership is about you, your skills and your experience, but leadership is really about others—all the people you deal with in business, in your community and even in your family. Without people, leadership is a one-size-fits-all skill.
Those who incorporate love into their leadership style are attracting attention. These successful business leaders are creating work cultures that value individuals as team members—not as assets or liabilities.
Corporations are shifting the focus from profit-driven bottom lines to collaborative environments that support, encourage and empower employees to grow and develop, both personally and professionally. The “love of power” is transforming into the “power of love.”
“如果没有人，领导是很容易的，”麦克·安德森(Mac Anderson)写道。他是Successories和Simple Truths的创始人，这两家公司生产鼓舞人心的产品和书籍。
他是对的。
你可能认为领导力是关于你自己、你的技能和你的经验，但领导力实际上是关于其他人的——所有你在生意中、在你的社区甚至在你的家庭中与之打交道的人。没有人，领导是一种放之四海而皆准的技能。
那些在领导风格中融入爱的人更能吸引注意。这些成功的商业领袖正在创造一种将个人视为团队成员而不是资产或负债的工作文化。
公司正在将重点从利润驱动的底线转移到支持、鼓励和授权员工成长和发展的协作环境，包括个人和专业。“权力的爱”正在转化为“爱的力量”。
A Caring Attitude
Joel Manby, CEO of Herschend Family Entertainment (HFE), takes love seriously. He leads the largest family-owned theme park organization in the United States—it’s the ninth largest in the world. For Manby, love is a verb, and it works inside and outside the workplace.
His 2010 appearance on the first season of CBS’ *Undercover Boss *allowed millions of viewers to see HFE’s leadership model in action. Manby went undercover to the frontlines of his company, working side-by-side with his employees giving “Ride the Duck” tours, participating in early morning park clean-ups and other duties performed at the park. Along the way, he encountered employees who were down on their luck. He became motivated to do more for them.
At the end of the episode, Manby gave back to alleviate the hardships of those employees he had met. The response to the show was overwhelming—it inspired Manby to write Love Works: The Seven Principles. In it, he explains the principles that guide his life and career. He believes leaders can be successful and care about employees by implementing patience, kindness, trust, unselfishness, truthfulness, forgiveness and dedication in their interactions with coworkers.
Manby says, “HFE trains our leaders to love each other, knowing that if they create enthusiasm with their employees, the employees will in turn create an enthusiastic guest experience.”
关心的态度
赫申德家庭娱乐公司(Herschend Family Entertainment)的首席执行官乔尔•曼比(Joel Manby)对待爱很认真。他领导着美国最大的家族主题公园组织，也是世界第九大主题公园。对曼比来说，爱是一个动词，在职场内外都适用。
2010年，他在哥伦比亚广播公司(CBS)的《卧底老板》(Undercover Boss)第一季中亮相，让数百万观众看到了HFE的领导力模型在实践中发挥的作用。曼比潜伏在公司的第一线，与员工并肩工作，进行“骑鸭子”参观，参与清晨的公园清理工作，以及在公园执行的其他任务。在这个过程中，他遇到了一些运气不好的员工。他开始有动力为他们做更多的事。
在这一集的结尾，曼比回馈了那些他遇到的员工，减轻了他们的痛苦。观众对这部剧的反应非常热烈——曼比因此创作了《爱的七个原则》。在书中，他解释了指导他生活和事业的原则。他认为，通过在与同事的互动中贯彻耐心、善良、信任、无私、诚实、宽恕和奉献精神，领导者可以获得成功并关心员工。
曼比说:“HFE训练我们的领导要彼此相爱，知道如果他们能激发员工的热情，员工也会反过来创造热情的客人体验。”
Follow Your Heart
John Mackey is co-founder and co-CEO of Whole Foods Markets, a natural and organic food market that supports environmental stewardship. *Fortune Magazine named Whole Foods *one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2014—a distinction the company has held for 17 consecutive years.
In an interview with American media host Oprah Winfrey, Mackey described the company’s mission: To sell healthy food, make a living and have fun. He advises following your heart when choosing a career. Mackey shared his story about how he dropped out of college, learned to cook and moved to a vegetarian co-op in Austin, Texas. It awakened his food consciousness and became his passion.
He and his then-girlfriend borrowed and raised a total of 35,000 to open SaferWay, a market and health food restaurant. After two years, SaferWay merged with Clarksville Natural Grocery and reopened as the first Whole Foods. Mackey now leads a corporation of 380 stores with 80,000 employees known as team members.
Mackey says leaders have a responsibility to develop their own consciousness. For him, love means being a good steward of all resources, including employees, investors, suppliers and customers.
Whole Foods extends its practice of leading with love to the earth through sustainable practices.
跟随你的心
约翰·麦基是全食超市的联合创始人和联合首席执行官，全食超市是一个支持环境管理的自然和有机食品市场。《财富》杂志将全食公司评为2014年最适合工作的100家公司之一，该公司已经连续17年保持这一殊荣。
在接受美国媒体主持人奥普拉·温弗瑞的采访时，麦基描述了公司的使命:销售健康食品，谋生，享受生活。他建议在选择职业时要遵从自己的内心。麦基分享了他的故事，他如何从大学辍学，学会做饭，并搬到一个素食合作社在奥斯汀，得克萨斯州。它唤醒了他的食物意识，成为了他的激情。
他和当时的女友借了3.5万美元，开了一家名为SaferWay的健康食品餐厅。两年后，SaferWay与Clarksville Natural Grocery合并，并作为第一家Whole Foods重新开业。麦基现在领导着一家拥有380家门店、8万名员工的公司。
麦基说，领导者有责任培养自己的意识。对他来说，爱就是做好所有资源的管理者，包括员工、投资者、供应商和客户。
Whole Foods通过可持续的实践扩展了它对地球的爱的领导实践。
Finding Solutions
Since 1948, Kimray has manufactured equipment for the oil and gas industry worldwide. Tom Hill, CEO and chairman of the board, takes a personal interest in the lives, aspirations, families and wellbeing of his employees.
“I’ve learned through the years that every person is living a story,” says Hill. “I may not know all that is going on in their lives, so I need to treat them with grace, patience and understanding instead of assuming everything is okay.”
During an economic downturn, Kimray chose not to lay off its employees. Instead, the company “loaned” its employees out to charitable and civic organizations while continuing to pay their salaries. When the downturn reversed, the company brought them back “home” to work, and did not have to retrain them—a win-win solution.
In another instance, when Kimray’s management realized how some poor decisions adversely affected the company, they developed a program, “Character First.” Designed for all employees, the program encourages a culture of good character—the inward motivation to do what is right. Kimray’s program has now been implemented in businesses, school districts and communities throughout the U.S. and in 28 countries.
Hill says, “One benefit of developing a culture of character and leading with love is that it makes Kimray an attractive place to work. We retain good people because they enjoy working here,” says Hill. “We also attract new employees who want to work in a safe, positive and healthy environment, which allows us to have a positive impact on our employees beyond their jobs—to their families and community.”
寻找解决方案
自1948年以来，Kimray一直为全球石油和天然气行业制造设备。公司首席执行官兼董事长汤姆•希尔(Tom Hill)对员工的生活、抱负、家庭和福祉十分关心。
“这些年来，我了解到每个人都活在一个故事里，”希尔说。“我可能不知道他们的生活中发生了什么，所以我需要以优雅、耐心和理解的态度对待他们，而不是假设一切都好。”
在经济低迷时期，Kimray选择不裁员。相反，该公司将员工“借出”给慈善机构和民间组织，同时继续支付他们的工资。当经济衰退逆转时，公司让他们“回家”工作，并且不必再培训他们——这是一个双赢的解决方案。
在另一个例子中，当Kimray的管理层意识到一些错误的决定对公司产生了负面影响时，他们开发了一个程序，“性格第一”。该项目为所有员工设计，鼓励良好品格的文化——做正确事情的内在动力。Kimray的项目现在已经在美国和28个国家的企业、学区和社区实施。
希尔说:“培养性格文化和以爱领导的一个好处是，它使Kimray成为一个有吸引力的工作场所。我们留住优秀人才是因为他们喜欢在这里工作。“我们还吸引那些希望在安全、积极和健康的环境中工作的新员工，这使我们能够在员工的工作之外对他们的家庭和社区产生积极的影响。”
Maintaining a Balance
From global to local, these new types of leaders can be found in large corporations as diverse as manufacturing and agriculture to small, family-owned businesses.
Paul Freeman is owner and CEO of Anchor D Bank, with branches in three rural communities in western Oklahoma. He admits it’s easy to get caught up in productivity, spreadsheets and profitability models, but, “While those are tools,” he says, “there must be a balance between bottom-line thinking and doing the right thing—not only for our customers but also for the employee *and *the employer.”
Freeman measures that in customer satisfaction with the company’s products and services. He asks questions like: *Are our customers going to have a better day because of their visit to the *bank? Are they smiling when they walk out?
He says that goes for employees also. Freeman’s bank model is having happy employees because it “transfers to the level of service they provide our customers.” Anchor D works with employees to develop each one’s career path within the bank.
Employees’ personal concerns are also addressed. When Anchor D recognized the stress its employees were under due to their financial inability to provide their children an adequate education, the bank implemented a tuition program to cover post-high school education expenses.
Anchor D leaders experienced an “aha” moment when they realized their goals should not be based on numbers, but instead should focus on the direction they take, and the culture they create, to determine the company’s outcomes.
Freeman says, “If we spend the money to create the best environment, training and culture we can … the rest will come. It’s all about doing the right thing.”
维护一个平衡
从全球到地方，从制造业到农业，再到小型家族企业，这些新型的领导者随处可见。
保罗·弗里曼是Anchor D银行的所有者兼首席执行官，该银行在俄克拉荷马州西部的三个农村社区设有分支机构。他承认，人们很容易陷入生产力、电子表格和盈利模式中，但是，“虽然这些都是工具，”他说，“但必须在底线思考和做正确的事情之间取得平衡——不仅是为了我们的客户，也是为了员工和雇主。”
Freeman通过客户对公司产品和服务的满意度来衡量这一点。他会问这样的问题:我们的客户会因为去了银行而有更好的一天吗?她们走出来的时候是在微笑吗?
他说，这也适用于员工。弗里曼的银行模式是让员工快乐，因为它“转移到他们为客户提供的服务水平”。Anchor D与员工一起开发每个人在银行内的职业道路。
员工的个人担忧也被提及。当Anchor D意识到其员工由于经济上无法为孩子提供足够的教育而承受的压力时，银行实施了一个学费计划来支付高中后的教育费用。
Anchor D领导者经历了一个“啊哈”时刻，他们意识到他们的目标不应该基于数字，而应该专注于他们采取的方向，他们创造的文化，以决定公司的结果。
Freeman说:“如果我们把钱花在创造最好的环境、培训和文化上，那么剩下的就会到来。”这都是为了做正确的事。”
The Greater Good
The stories behind successful leaders reveal core values that are communicated to employees, both in policies and procedures.
Leading with love does not require a large investment of dollars or resources, but it does require taking a personal interest in the words, ideas and lives of individuals, and appreciating how a company’s success depends on the efforts of all.
And you don’t have to be the CEO of a corporation—although you may be some day—to lead with love.
For example, Demetrius Office, a member of Enid Speakers of the Plains Toastmasters club, in Enid, Oklahoma, started a young men’s basketball group about five years ago to help the players make positive decisions and action plans to improve their lives. He established trust and open communication between the group’s members, but, just when they were beginning to feel confident in the environment, a new member joined and disrupted the group’s unity.
“I knew I needed to strengthen my interpersonal skills to help this individual,” Office says. “That’s when I found Toastmasters.”
Office credits Toastmasters with giving him skills to reestablish trust within the basketball group and lead the members to create goals and a vision for the future. “With the help of my Toastmasters family, I learned to communicate in a way that I could speak from my heart.”
Leading with love offers a formula for success that goes beyond a profitable bottom line and a checklist of achieved goals. Leading with love makes a greater, longer-lasting contribution to the world by impacting, improving and inspiring lives.
更大的利益
成功领导者背后的故事揭示了他们通过政策和程序向员工传达的核心价值观。
以爱为导向并不需要大量的金钱或资源投资，但它确实需要对个人的语言、想法和生活产生个人兴趣，并明白一个公司的成功是如何依赖于所有人的努力。
你不必成为公司的首席执行官——尽管有一天你可能会成为——用爱来领导。
例如，Demetrius Office是俄克拉何马州伊尼德平原演讲俱乐部伊尼德演讲者的成员，大约五年前创立了一个青年男子篮球团体，帮助球员们做出积极的决定和行动计划来改善他们的生活。他在小组成员之间建立了信任和开放的沟通，但就在他们开始对环境有信心的时候，一个新成员的加入破坏了小组的团结。
“我知道我需要加强我的人际交往能力来帮助这个人，”Office说。“就是那时我找到了Toastmasters。”
Office感谢Toastmasters给了他在篮球团队中重新建立信任的技能，并带领成员为未来创造目标和愿景。“在演讲会家人的帮助下，我学会了用一种我能发自内心的方式来交流。”
以爱为导向提供了一个成功的公式，它超越了盈利底线和已实现目标的清单。以爱为主导，通过影响、改善和激励生活，对世界做出更大、更持久的贡献。
