Bringing unconditional love to the workplace is utopic right?
The words ‘authentic’, ‘raw and real’ and ‘transparent’ are becoming part of everyday business communications.
They are used in vision and value statements, and in social media posts by organisations large and small.
If I am to operate my business from a place of truth and transparency, I need to walk my talk, and that means writing a business article introducing the concept of unconditional love and how it can show up in the workplace.
In the past it was acceptable, almost expected, that the person you showed up as at work was a little different to the person you were at home and with your friends.
Your work ‘you’ and your out-of-work ‘you’ were adaptable to specific situations.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Professor Scott Holmes recently about his book, Small Business Exposed, The Tribes That Drive Economies.
The underlying principle of the book is that businesses are extensions of the people who create and operate them.
Sounds simple.
Yet we often think of a business as the entity itself and forget that even in the largest organisations, a person sits at the helm. It’s people that drive the operations and dictate behaviours.
We are emotional beings before we are intellectual ones.
So, what might it take to show up wherever we go as the person we truly are? And what might it take to show the same unconditional love we have (hopefully) for our families, to our colleagues at work?
Contemplating the issue during a sunrise walk, I concluded that the principles required aren’t new. The hard part is being brave enough to walk the talk. And not always needing to win.
- Take care of the body, the systems and processes you adopt, and your branding, the way you present to the world. Be clear on how you want to be seen and what you stand for.
- Ideation is the field of the mind. Think, discuss, read, learn and adopt what is logically sound in relation to your field of expertise.
- Open your heart to compassion. Lead with your heart in your relationships with colleagues, staff and clients. Consider that differing perspectives and usually fear, underlie most inconsistencies and errors of judgement. And when, according to the vision and values of the organisation, a behaviour is considered unacceptable, consider how you might respond from unconditional love. Unconditional love is judgement free. It isn’t necessarily consequence free.
- Exercise your intuition and know the best way forward. I have lost count of the number of entrepreneurs, who continued through adversity, because they “just knew it would work”.
With work and personal development increasingly intertwined, we need to show up every day, everywhere, as the beings we truly are.
