Love is a way of Being which, when present in any situation enables those present to experience care, concern and genuine warmth towards each other. More importantly, an absence of Love may be experienced as feeling lonely or a disconnection. Individuals may notice a distinct lack of warmth or caring and organisations will experience a lack of love in lower productivity, poor quality, a lack of innovation and higher staff turnover.
Love is not about being sickly sweet and nice, sometime Love is tough. When I am using a word like LOVE, I find acronyms can help make context and meaning clear, here’s my crack at LoVE
Loads of Verifiable Energy
Why would you not want Loads of Verifiable Energy in your business? Boosting productivity , quality, innovation and staff loyalty! Love can be an icky subject, sometime people find it difficult to talk about LOVE AND it is important so that’s what I’m about to do. In order to make it easier to discuss, I will spell the word for this Love “LoVE”, so now we are off the subject of LOVE, notice if that makes you feel more comfortable.
Loads of Verifiable Energy AKA LoVE
The power of Love is well documented. We have all heard stories of small women lifting cars off their children or individuals surmounting incredible odds to save the object of their Love. What if you could harness just a 10th of that will power in your business. What might be possible then? The simple truth is you can, and I’m about to tell you how for free.
Let’s start by examining what Being Love is and is not. I’ll start with what it is not. Being Love is not about being boundary-less, sweet and lovey-dovey to everyone. That’s Being needy and needy is… Well to be frank, creepy and very ineffectual. In my book Being LoVE is investing the time and energy necessary to Be Aware of ones Self and Others to the degree you can ALWAYS create the very best outcomes for all. That’s a tall order and it is an ideal, it might also might mean hugging or sacking someone.
LoVE is never to be found in a glib conversation. To manifest LoVE as a way of Being requires creating real trust and in-depth communication. Further, I am not describing a bilateral dialogue; rather, I am describing multilateral understanding built on deep trust. I can find no better word to describe this meaningful phenomenon than LoVE.
LoVE Verses FEAR
To get perspective when discussing a subject like LoVE, let’s look at what might be the opposite.
I think the opposite of Love is Fear.
It is often postulated Humans only have two operating systems Love or Fear. If this is true, it is evident to all Love triumphs over Fear. Love is selfless and is part of a bigger outcome. In contrast, Fear closes people down, leading to smaller, less meaningful lives. While watching the Star Wars movies of late, I was struck by a line from Episode One, The Phantom Menace.
“[The] opposite to Love is Fear… Fear leads to anger and anger to hate.”
Yoda
An opinion from a psychologist (yes they were asked to analyse Yoda’s wisdom) points out Fear causes people to withdraw whereas anger makes them attack. I think she’s missing the point and Yoda is on the money. Yoda also talks about aggression, and it is aggression that forms the bridge between Fear and anger. We see this in non-assertive behaviour where an individual feels unheard or lacks the confidence or skills to say what they really think. After a while, the resentment of constant withdrawal builds up and then…Anger. Given, fear has a significant impact on confidence, and a lack of confidence will restrain communication clearly Fear can lead to anger… AND Yoda is correct. May the Force Be with You!
Wouldn’t You Want “The Force” on Your Side?
OK Being LoVE in your organisation won’t qualify you for a light sabre or to fly the Millennium Falcon in Hyperdrive. HOWEVER, you would have to admit having the intellectual freedom and creativity of a Jedi wouldn’t be half bad! What about if you could have all of the team as at least Padawans? (Apprentice Jedi’s for the uninitiated…me about 2 weeks ago). LoVE is the key. LoVE removes Fear, builds trust and unlocks communication.
Trust and communication put performance into hyperdrive. The more Energy invested in Awareness of Self and Others, the greater the LoVE effect. An individual’s Energy is not enough to send an organisation into hyperdrive, AND it is a start, especially if that individual is a leader in the organisation.
A Lantern in the Dark
When an individual is Being LoVE in the workplace, they will stand out like a lantern in the dark. Unless, of course, they are surrounded by individuals who themselves are Being LoVE, then we have the nucleus of a Star. The individual will be perceived as caring, concerned and genuine. Team members will want to work with them, and they will be quick to trust them. When that trust is honoured, the team members will start to replicate the behaviour. Then they start Being LoVE and show LoVE (Lots of Verifiable Energy). Verification of the effect LoVE has on an organisation shows up in the form of productivity, quality, innovation and loyalty. Cold hard, measurable statistics.
Where are the budding Super Nova’s?
Glad you asked, they’re everywhere. There is no limit everyone and every organisation can become a Super Nova if they are prepared to do the work.
Dang, there’s the “W” word again. And the reality is many won’t be prepared to do the WORK! That will be because their leaders will not be able to overcome their Fear. Be that Fear of loss of power or a fear of consequences from the more powerful. This applies equally to individuals and organisations. Individuals will hide behind an amorphous fear of something they can’t clearly define that stops them for pursuing this or doing that. Same, same. AND YOU have a choice you can choose LoVE and Live Big or Choose FEAR and live small.
Live big, take a chance to join the Andreia team by having the Courage to Inspire Influence and Impact your world through Being LoVE. If you would like to know more about how you can introduce LoVE in o you business why not Book a Chat with John.