Over the weekend I read an article about a business on Wall Street that encourages it’s employees to rate each other. Their scores are then reviewed by the founder. Can you imagine working in that environment? At worst this is micro-management on an industrial scale. At best it is a culture of fear.

I wonder is this the best way to encourage high engagement and performance from your teams? Are you going to bring your best in this kind of environment? After all fear is only effective near the leader creating it. Their influence is diminished once they have left the room. How do you create an environment where engagement is high and the desire to bring your best is common? There is another way of doing things, one where the culture equips you, is sustainable and encourages creativity and innovation. Simply put research evidence points towards creating a loving environment.
To quote Zig Ziglar: “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.”
When you want what is to the highest good of those you lead then you are more likely to create a culture around you in which people can thrive. A loving environment is not synonymous with soft or nice. You are still holding each other accountable for agreed actions. It is about creating an environment where people working in the business wake up and want to engage with. Doing what you love to do even if it is only 20%* of the day will increase your resilience, engagement and enjoyment.
According to research at the ADP Institute when people love their work even if it’s 20% you can predict their behaviour. In short love is the most powerful force in business. What is your strategy for doing things lovingly?
Tips To Create a Loving Environment
- Everyone Knows their Part – When you watch a pit team changing the tyres on a F1 car you know every second counts. The team all know their part and collaborate for high performance. Do your team know their part? Can they see how their contribution has an impact overall?
- Leverage Skills & Gifts – there are great tools available to help you see a person’s strengths and help them leverage work that plays to their strengths.
- Check in regularly – the research is in. Frequent conversations between you and your direct reports needs to be at least once a week. When your team is remote consider communicating more often it doesn’t need to be long but those you lead need to know that they are part of the team.
- Behaviour – A loving environment means behaviour in the team aligns with your values. When values are lived out then everyone benefits. A loving environment means dealing with behaviour that demeans people or undermines trust in the team.
- Psychological Safety – it is a fact then when members of a team know that their teammates will welcome their contribution, not speak over them, humiliate them then everyone’s creativity and innovation shoots way up. A loving environment is underpinned by psychological safety. Team members are then free to be themselves and not waste time and energy protecting themselves and second guessing the intentions of their colleagues.
- Common Language – Communicating effectively in your team is not accidental. Having a common language so you can communicate effectively is essential. You might assume communication has happened but until the person you are communicating understands the message as you intended communication hasn’t happened.
To build loving culture takes time but pays great rewards in terms of performance. To find out how you can do this effectively book a discovery call here.
- Research carried out by the Mayo Clinic.