An Introduction to Love is Leadership
Good leadership is a form of love.
It’s a bold statement, certainly, but it checks out under careful inspection.
Leading with love is a way of building trust in your coworkers, friends, or in your household. The act of leading with love inspires commitment and builds connections - these connections allow for better communication and serve to increase empathy.
But what happens when you switch the order of the phrase? Love is leadership. It might sound like a matter of semantics because love is still doing all of the actions mentioned above. When saying that love is leadership, however, I’m saying that whatever you do out of love inherently thrusts you in a leadership position, whether you want it or not. Even if you only view yourself as a follower, others will see the leader in you.
Before I get into all of my thoughts, I want to share a few things about me and how I plan on sharing my story. I have served in various leadership roles for over 20 years now. I’ve spent time as a karate teacher in after-school programs, a mentor in inner-city middle schools and elementary schools, a department manager at Wal-Mart, and as a noncommissioned officer in the U.S. Army.
Obviously, this is an oversimplification of who I am. While these are things that have shaped my identity, they aren’t my identity. As this blog evolves, and I share more about my life, you will come to know more about who I am, what I believe, and why I believe it. Some of my stories will be humorous, tragic, depressing, offensive, and many other things. You will undoubtedly have mixed emotions about me as a person.
One of my goals here is to be completely honest about my successes, shortcomings, and failures in my life. As many of you know, people have a tendency to exaggerate some of their stories. I am certainly not the exception, but I will make every effort to not do that in this blog. I don’t want hyperbole to get in the way of the message.
Further, the stories that I will share are from my perspective. Research has shown that some of our memories can be inaccurate. All stories are based on my memory, and not on the stories that have been retold to me after the fact. Some people will remember some of the incidents differently that I have because of their perspectives. Since memories are so personal, I will never claim that I’m right or that someone else is wrong because it’s probably somewhere in the middle. I can only tell you how I feel about something, or how I felt during these events.
Here’s a few other goals that I have while authoring pieces for this blog:
I want to encourage you to have meaningful relationships that will help you while you are in pursuit of your goals. When living life on the offense, you need reliable people in your corner.
I want others to know how my life events have shaped my way of thinking in love and leadership.
I want to be vulnerable to show you that it isn’t as scary as we make it out to be. When you are open with people, they will be open with you.
I want others to learn from the unproductive thinking and behaviors that I have made. These “stuck points” hold us back and keep us from progressing.
I want to provide you with some of the research that is out there concerning connection and why it is important for you as an individual and as a leader.
Finally - by following this blog, you will be joining me in my path to healing. These types of journeys are best undertaken with those you love - and I pray that you will benefit as much from this journey as I ~Rey