Welcome to The Subtle Shift, a weekly newsletter where I share small but powerful ideas to help you lead with clarity, inspire change, and create a lasting impact. This week, we’re discussing something that many people overlook in the workplace. We are talking about how leaders can show love to others.
What’s Love Got To Do With It?
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the role of relationships in the workplace and the deeper role that love plays in those relationships.
This has been a constant question in my life and work, and it was time to write about it.
As I coach and support leaders, I keep coming back to the same inconvenient truth:
We’ve minimized the value that love plays in leadership.
Leadership has been professionalized, overanalyzed, and sanitized.
Companies have downplayed the human aspects of leadership by wrapping it in systems, structures, metrics, and meetings.
We built dashboards, set goals, created accountability charts, and implemented performance management systems; however, morale continues to suffer, and employee engagement remains in decline.
Why?
We over-index on productivity at the expense of people, and as a result, we struggle to express love in the workplace.
As a coach, I’ve walked into far too many workplaces where the culture feels cold, the connections are superficial, and the human spirit has deteriorated. And here’s the hard part: everyone inside those workplaces feels it, but no one quite knows how to name it.
So let me try.
What’s missing is love.
Now, I know ‘love’ is a word we’re not used to seeing in corporate settings. But that could be the problem.
Because love isn’t just about romance or family or hallmark moments.
It’s about caring deeply about something, holding it dear, and finding pleasure in it.
It’s about seeing someone, not just for their output, but for their whole self.
When we prioritize productivity over people for too long, we start to lose something sacred, and our organizations begin to deteriorate. We lose warmth. We lose loyalty. We lose the creative energy that only emerges when people operate with a sense of love and passion.
This deterioration is not a crisis that grabs headlines, but it’s a quiet unraveling, and it’s everywhere.
It’s a subtle shift in the wrong direction!
And yet, this isn’t a post about fixing bold systemic issues overnight.
It’s about making a subtle shift in the way we think about love, especially in our leadership.
A New Lens on Love
I was inspired to write this letter after listening to a conversation between Mel Robbins and Jay Shetty on the Mel Robbins Podcast. I highly recommend that you give it a listen. It’s a long episode, but thankfully, Mel has split the video into chapters, allowing you to jump directly to a specific segment by clicking the link below.
It’s a 25-minute segment on how to let love in, even when it’s hard.
Jay doesn’t talk about leadership directly. But if you listen closely, you’ll hear wisdom that applies to every corner of your life.
Jay and Mel talk about how love is all around us, but we block it by rejecting the ways people express it. They encourage us to stop overlooking it and pay attention to the small, consistent ways others show up. And most importantly, they remind us that love isn’t earned or owed.
It isn’t something to keep score of or something to demand. It’s a simple, steady expression that isn’t difficult if we practice it every day.
The Subtle Shift
Love belongs at work. Not romantically or sentimentally, but in a human way.
It belongs in the way we listen.
The way we give feedback.
The way we support someone after a hard day.
The way we remind people that they matter, regardless of their performance.
If you’re wondering what it looks like to lead with love, start here:
- Say the kind thing you’ve been holding back.
- Ask a teammate how they’re doing, and wait for an honest answer.
- Assume good intentions.
- Offer someone the benefit of the doubt.
- Show someone they’re valued, not just useful.
These aren’t grand gestures.
They’re subtle shifts that can have a significant impact on your culture, happiness, and leadership effectiveness.
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What Do You Think?
What does it mean to lead with love where you work?
I’d love to hear about it. Hit reply and tell me how you’re inspiring more love, more humanity, and more connection in your leadership.
And remember: leadership isn’t just about what you do. It’s about how you show up and who you become along the way.
