Love in Action

On this episode of Love in Action, we have Howard Behar, the former president of Starbucks. During his tenure, Howard grew the coffee company from 28 stores to over 50,000 locations, and he’s the author of It’s Not About The Coffee and The Magic Cup. Today we’re talking about servant leadership, how to lead with love, and the power of putting people and values first.The Magic CupThe core message of the book is that, as a leader, you need to be focused on what your values are. Live up to those values no matter what your fears are, and get back on track if you ever lose your way. We all have a magic cup, and the cup represents your life. What you put into your cup is what you get out of it, so do we fill it with greed and ambition? Or are we going to fill it with the things we do to help others?Servant leadershipOur primary responsibility in life no matter what we do is to serve others. And sometimes leaders forget that. The goal of any leader should be to help his or her people achieve what they want in their lives, and in so doing, have the people help you achieve what you want in your organization. But you have to serve your people first. You have to give love before you get love. You have to give trust before you get trust. Some people think servant leadership is a “soft skill” and it’s just “being nice.” It’s anything but that. It's still about holding people accountable for their performance, but doing it in a way that builds people up instead of tearing them down. It’s loving, caring, direct conversations, holding each other accountable, and achieving results.As an example, Howard shares the story of Jim and the daily messages on his cups of coffee — and how something so small can mean so much.Love in businessWhen we talk about love, we’re not talking about the same kind of love you might have for your spouse or children. We’re talking about the love that we give to all human beings because they’re human beings.People lead with fear in the workplace, most likely because they’ve never been loved. That’s how they’ve been treated. They learned that yelling, screaming, and blaming are what get people motivated, and if they create fear in their team, people will produce results. That’s certainly something that can happen in the short term. But over the long term? Impossible.Changing our workplace culturesThe first step is to have a leader who wants to be a servant leader. It’s not an overnight process. You have to practice. You have to allow people to hold you accountable. You have to hold yourself accountable. Change yourself first before changing your organization.AdviceKnow who you are, know what your values are, live your life by those values, and understand that in order to have a productive, fulfilling life, you have to learn to serve yourself first, and then serve others. It’s not about being greedy. It’s about being okay with you. If you’re not okay with you, you can’t be okay with others.ResourcesHoward Behar | Website | hb@howardbehar.com | It’s Not About The Coffee | The Magic CupSend Marcel a text message!

Join us on this episode of Love in Action as we unpack the true meaning of customer service and servant leadership with Ken Blanchard: consultant, speaker, Chief Spiritual Officer and Co-Founder of The Ken Blanchard Companies, and author of the classics The One Minute Manager and The Simple Truth of Service. Creating raving fansKen shares his three secrets to creating raving fans from a customer service-facing role: (1) Decide what experience you want your customers to have. (2) Listen to your customers to discover what else might make them happy. (3) Deliver.He shares two stories: that of Johnny the grocery bagger who proves anybody can make a difference in their customers’ lives, and another illustrating the significant difference between ducks and eagles.Servant leadership There are two parts to servant leadership. The leadership part is about vision, direction, values, and goals, because leadership is about going somewhere else, and the responsibility of that goes with the hierarchy. The servant part is more philosophical. Turn the pyramid upside down: you work for your people, who work for their people, who eventually work for your customers. It’s not about you, it’s about them. When you serve first and lead second, people feel empowered and important, and they will go out of their way to take care of your customers. Or: “profit is the applause you get for creating a motivating environment for your people.” You want your people to win, and Ken tells the story of how he started doing this as a college professor by giving his students the final exam questionnaire on the first day of class.Love in actionWander around and see if you can catch people doing things right, and praise them and encourage them for it. Listen more than you speak. Ask more than you tell. And should anyone question whether this approach is too soft, Ken is writing a new book that asks, why isn’t common sense common practice? If you create an environment where you’re cheering your people on, they’re going to cheer your customers on, and it works. Hence the working title: “Duh.”Leading with love instead of fear The biggest addictions you see in organizations is the human ego, and there are two ways ego usually gets in the way: (1) false pride and thinking you’re smarter than everyone else, and (2) self-doubt, because when you’re doubtful and fearful, you’re focusing on yourself. CS Lewis said it well years ago: “True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.”People admire your skills, but they love your vulnerability. It’s okay not to have all the answers. And if you need their help — asking for it and giving them a chance to contribute is extremely empowering.Final thoughtsDon’t you act like you’re better than anyone else. But don’t you let anyone else act like they’re better than you. God didn’t make any junk. AndThe most fun in life is when you’re confused about the difference between work and play. ResourcesLinkedInWebsiteThe One Minute ManagerThe Simple Truths of Service: Inspired by Johnny the BaggerSend Marcel a text message!

Welcome to the Love in Action Podcast, and we’re launching today with someone I deeply admire: Erica Keswin, the author of “Bring Your Human to Work.” Join us as we talk about the book, and dive deep into real-life examples of designing workplaces that are good for people, great for business, and just might change the world. The Big Idea When people ask Erica what it means to bring your human to work, she boils it down to this one phrase: honoring relationships. So, the big idea behind the book is that we need to be intentional in honoring these relationships — with our colleagues, with our boss, with ourselves — otherwise, it’s not going to happen. When we invest time to make connections, the science shows that it’s good for us as people, it’s good for business, and it’s good for the world. Erica shares stories of what inspired her to write the book, which drove her to say: I want to look at this in a deeper way and provide a roadmap for leaders. We need strategies and protocols to create a more human workplace for ourselves and for our team. Be Real: Speak in a Human VoiceIf you’re going to start anywhere, Erica recommends starting with Chapter 1, which is the first chapter for a reason. Chapter 1 is divided into three sections: 1) Know your values. 2) Think about communication on a continuum from instant messaging on one end, to picking up the phone, to connecting with people face to face. 3) Empowering people to live the values.Living the values: Jet GrayDuring their employee orientation, JetBlue tells their new hires: Life is not always black and white. It’s often gray, especially when you’re 37,000 feet above ground. They put the idea of Jet Gray into their employee handbook, saying that they trust and are empowering their employees to live the values.Living the values: LyftOne of Lyft’s values is to "uplift others.” Erica shares the story of a Lyft driver who, on Valentine’s Day, pulled the car over to console a weeping passenger for fifteen minutes. A few weeks later, the CEO of Lyft received an email saying that that driver potentially saved her friend’s life because she was depressed and contemplating suicide, but connecting with her in that way kept her alive.Once a month, Lyft shares stories like these to all its employees at their all hands meetings, so they have the opportunity to become uplifted. Living the values: Away The luggage company Away is so focused on culture that they have a Slack channel called #teamlove. They tell people that whenever they see someone living out the values to please share the story in the channel. What that does is create a living repository of all these examples of what it means to live the values and be part of the culture, which is a gold mine for things like hiring and onboarding new people. It’s a very quick way to bring them up to speed on what it looks and feels like — and it costs nothing! Final thoughtsPause and match your message to the medium. Are you running 10 minutes late for lunch? Great, send a text. But do you have an employee who seems off? Or a client who isn’t returning your calls? A family member where you get the feeling that something is going on? Think about the best ways to move your communication goals forward. Don’t default to the tech end of the spectrum. ResourcesErica Keswin | Erica Keswin | Bring Your Human to Work (Amazon) | Back to Human (Amazon)Send Marcel a text message!

Through decades of research, interviews with hundreds of global leaders, and coaching and training his own clients, Marcel Schwantes found that the best organizations on the planet care about and value the whole person — their emotional, mental, physical, financial, and even spiritual well-being — to achieve outstanding business outcomes. In essence, the leaders of these "best places" to work unleash the human spirit to reach its full potential through "Love in Action.”Love in this sense is a verb, not a feeling. It’s packed with pro-social behaviors and positive intent on behalf of serving the needs of all stakeholders, especially employees on the frontlines. The evidence overwhelmingly asserts that a more humane and human-centered approach to leadership — serving the needs of others — will produce great results. This is Love in Action. Subscribe and never miss an episode with the world's top leadership experts and thought-leaders.Send Marcel a text message!