“Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.” ― Martin Luther King Jr
“There exists a form of power and intelligence that represents the highest point of human potential,” says Robert Greene in his book, Mastery. Arguably, it may be the ultimate source of greatest achievements, discoveries, influences in human history. It is the kind of power and intelligence that’s not necessarily taught and can be hardly found in our scholarly curriculums; and one that supports us in our life journeys towards leadership.
The problem with this form of power and intelligence is that because it’s rare to experience in time, it requires life-long work to grasp and calls on the courageous heart to remain connected, it is misunderstood, easily ignored and/or commonly seen as having no place in business.
“I don’t always make the best choices, but today I choose compassion over intolerance, sympathy over hatred and love over fear.” ― LJ Vanier
As leaders we have choices on how we want to lead. We can lead with love or fear. People will do what you tell them if you lead with fear and tell you want you want to hear. But there will be no loyalty and they will leave you when they can.
If you choose to lead with love then people will want to follow you, give you their best and make great things happen. They will be loyal to the end and everyone will benefit.
There is a saying that we all have a wolf on each of our shoulders. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.
The one that grows is the one you feed.
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Pir, Sesil. The Transformative Power of Love in Leadership. Forbes. Jan 21, 2019. https://www.forbes.com/sites/sesilpir/2019/01/21/the-transformative-power-of-love-in-leadership/#f94082c7ddc3