Love Is The Secret of Good Leaders

Love Is The Secret of Good Leaders

By: Jasper Gementiza

I just wanted to share what I read on Linkedin.  My idol Eric Anderton comes from a great leader in the infrastructure industry.  And this is what he said.

What is the opposite of Love?

It’s not Hate.

It’s Pride.

Pride insists on its way, and when it doesn’t get its way, it becomes Resentful and Irritable.

Resentment leads to Depression, the inner temper tantrum.

Irritability lashes out at the Weaker, grasping for Pleasure at the expense of another’s Discomfort.

Love also has its will crossed but responds with Patience:

The Long Breath allows circumstances and people to exist without forcing an unnecessary change.

Love delights in the will of another because it knows that there is an opportunity for self-sacrifice and service.

Love seeks those opportunities because it knows that in them lies the freedom from Pride.

In that freedom, Love bears and endures all things and never fails.

What does this have to do with you?

Great leaders understand that Love is at the Center of their Leadership.

Without Love, relationships, which are the heart of every business, suffer.

Work becomes mechanical and impersonal.

Life becomes mundane and grey.

But doesn’t Love leave you vulnerable to being taken advantage of?

Yes.

But the Leader’s Love always considers what is best for the team she is or he leads.

Love is not overly soft or unnecessarily harsh.

Love is wise: it knows what to do and when.

Therefore if an individual impacts the team negatively, Love does not ignore it but speaks to the negativity, seeking acknowledgment and change.l

If the change doesn’t occur, Love will remove the individual, putting the greater good of the team above the individual's negativity.

Love must be learned ovr a lifetime and applied every day.

Therein lies the Joy.

We have a daily choice between Love and Pride.

Pride comes naturally to all of us.

Love is a work of the will, but it is also a Miracle.

As the Apostle Paul writes:

“I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me.

And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

How is your life of Loving and Giving going?

Source: Newsletter Linkedin - Eric Anderton

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