Journal of Sacred Work

This meditation was written by Cathy Self, Senior Vice-President for the Baptist Healing Trust

If all you need and want is compliance with rules and regulations, then using fear in your leadership will probably do the job. Stand in front of your people and simply demand adherence – "or else." Sound a bit dramatic? Sadly this is the reality for far too many organizations professing to be caring and compassionate. Rules and regulations are what drive decision-making, change management, and even visioning for some of our "best" hospitals and charities. It becomes a point of pride that the organization is deemed the "safest," the "most technologically advanced," or "among the top scorers" according to this or that accrediting agency. Walk through the halls of many of these organizations and you see grim faces, hear pat answers, and get responses to expressed needs that sound something like "I’m sorry but that is against our rules…"

   But if you want more than just compliance, choose Love. Love is the why of meaningful and effective leadership. "It might sound slightly bizarre," says Ken Blanchard, co-author of The One Minute Manager, "but one of the key beliefs for effective leadership is to be madly in love with all the people you are leading [italics added]."
   Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani has been known to suggest that if, as a leader, you don’t love people you need to "do something else!" The reasons that many agree to, aspire to, and strive to be in leadership are often a complex mix of motives that may be simultaneously selfless and selfish. Power, control, recognition, prestige, and even pride are tempting muses. Love, on the other hand, seeks to serve others for what is best for them, and out of that passion comes a willingness to serve. Service for others may be among the noblest means of leadership. There is a great and distinct difference, however, between a leader who is willing to serve and a servant who is willing to lead. Love stands at the core of that difference, both as the objective and the motivation.
   Early mornings are not my best and brightest moments. But one things that almost always enters my mind upon awakening is asking myself why I even want to get up. And almost always the answer comes – the world needs Love and it is within you to carry it out.
   What compels you to get up in the morning? Why do you do what you do? If the answers do not come easily, it mat be time to re-evaluate, especially if you provide leadership to others. If loving people doesn’t enter into the equation, like Giuliani has suggested, maybe it’s time to think about doing something else! While our actions and words are important, the motives of the heart behind the words and acts are even more important. We may think we can fake our way through by using "right" language; experience suggests that others will eventually see the true motive and in short time discontent will replace hope, and commitment will devolve into compliance.
   Matters of the heart take courage – courage to stand for justice rather than settling for fairness, courage to look within for change rather than looking to others to blame, courage to step out in Love rather than quietly succumbing to fear. Winston Churchill is quoted as saying "To be an excellent leader, first stirve to become an excellent person. Before you can inspire with emotion, you must be swamped with it yourself. Before you can move their tears, your own must flow. To convince them, you must yourself believe."
   On this day, day 87 of the year 2008, how are you experiencing your journey to live Love? Does Love inform the why of your leadership? Do you believe? Do you "madly love" those you serve? I hope so – the world needs your mad love.