The Love You Take

Happy Monday!  Sorry I missed you last week, it’s nice to be back!  It’s been over a month now since the Beatles channel debuted on Sirius.  Needless to say, since then, I have listened to A LOT of Beatles.  This line is one of my favorites from the entire catalog.  The line was written by Paul McCartney, and brings closure to the Abbey Road album.  This was actually the last song ever recorded by the Beatles as a foursome.  Here is a great clip of Chris Farley interviewing Paul McCartney on SNL in which the line comes up as part of the closing joke: http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/the-chris-farley-show-mccartney/2868143?snl=1

I am pretty sure Paul wasn’t thinking about restaurant management when he wrote the line, but that doesn’t mean it can’t apply.  If you want love, you need to give love.  The beauty is, when put it in this context, you realize YOU are responsible for determining what you will receive.  In reality, the amount you receive can be almost limitless as long as you are willing to take the responsibility to give that much to others.  It’s no different in management than in life.  Don’t let the word love throw you.  In a business context, it’s not necessary to be loved to be effective.  You can substitute the word respect and the meaning works just the same.  In either context, the leader needs to accept the personal responsibility that their actions determine their outcomes.

Leadership is about inspiring people to follow you.  To me, this then becomes about giving.  Giving respect, giving feedback, giving context, giving advice, giving support.  The leader determines what kinds of results they will get from their people by how much they give – end of story.

I know there are some pretty successful people out there whose approach is to take as much as they can while giving as little as possible.  There are leaders out there who manage through fear and intimidation.  You have all heard the line: “it’s better to be feared than to be loved.”  This might work for some, but I just don’t see it working on a large scale.  When the answer is as simple as: the more you give, the more you get, why would anyone want to be an asshole?

Here is a TED talk by Wharton Professor Adam Grant where he explains the work he presented in his book Give and Take: https://www.ted.com/talks/adam_grant_are_you_a_giver_or_a_taker/up-next.  Adam did research attempted to define the impact of what he calls “givers and takers” in the workplace.  His research found that organizations with a culture of helping, sharing and giving, performed better in every metric.

This week, get out there and see how much respect, love & support you can give to your team.  I am pretty sure, you will get back what you give in equal measure.  Have a great week!