Have you ever felt like you were at war in your business? No surprise there because modern business is based on a military model. However, things are rapidly changing requiring leaders to look at different approaches to leading and managing. Now the question is, what will replace the old model. You have probably heard the idea that everything is based on either fear or love. If today’s business model is based on fear, then the answer to what will replace it is becoming apparent.

Work Is War

In the 1500’s Niccolo Machiavelli wrote The Prince. He was asked a question about being loved versus being feared, and, in answering, Machiavelli wrote, “The answer is of course, that it would be best to be both loved and feared. But since the two rarely come together, anyone compelled to choose will find greater security in being feared than in being loved.” He related this to military models, providing examples of Hannibal and others, stating it would be better to be feared,

As time progressed and new models of business arose that supplanted the master/apprentice paradigm, business looked for ways to increase productivity with a largely uneducated work force. Frederick Winslow Taylor, author of The Principles of Scientific Management, proposed what was a thinly disguised military model. From then on, fear was injected into the workplace in continually greater ways. Though productivity did increase, another result was a power struggle between management and unions representing workers. World War II and the Korean War only served to reinforce Taylor’s model in the United States.

Brawn to Brain

In the early 1950’s things began to shift with the work of Abraham Maslow and Theory Z based on Dr. W. Edwards Deming’s famous “14 Points.” As work became less about muscle and more about intellect, management styles needed to change. This reached even into the Pentagon where you will probably find more people with Masters and Ph.D.s than in the majority of American companies.

Today, we have an ever-increasing number of “knowledge workers.” We also have a new generation entering into the workforce –The Millennials. These workers have loyalty to their manager and team, but not to the company. Managing them through fear usually results in them voting with their feet, and finding a different type of company to work for. Now, with baby boomers increasingly leaving the work force there is a rapidly growing shortage of qualified workers. So how do you get workers in the first place and then how do you get them to work, that is, produce, for you?

What’s Love Got to Do with It?

Have you ever met someone who tells you they just love their job or the work they do? Have you ever met someone who complains loudly and constantly about how screwed up their job is and especially the people he or she works for? Which one do you think is more productive?

When it comes to people who love their jobs, some love if for what it can do for them or bring to them. For example, some people love business because of the money they make. Others love business because of the recognition they gain. Still others because of the security it provides for their family and themselves. Some love just because they love. Then there are those who love their work because it allows them to contribute, to make a difference. Once you know what causes a worker to enjoy their work, you can motivate them by assisting them to see how their work provides that experience.

However, there’s a lot more to love than that. Love, or more precisely the action of Loving, is unique in that it is a choice, an attitude, and an outcome, all at the same time. So, regardless of a work situation or its circumstances, a person can choose loving. The trick is to create a work environment where this form of loving is at least allowed and at best, encouraged. Here’s a step in that direction.

Popeye Had It Figured Out

The famous cartoon sailor, Popeye, had a great statement: I yam what I yam and that’s all what I yam.” If more people followed that, there would be less fear—and more room for love— in the workplace. However, most people, not having been trained otherwise, choose to serve their ego, which perpetuates the fear-based Machiavellian model.

When a person adds an adjective to the words, “I am,” they are declaring an ego position, which inherently has fear attached to it. It looks something like this: “I am a manager.” If I have an ego position in being a manager, which I have declared by saying I’m a manager, then I will either consciously or unconsciously choose to protect that position. Inherent in the protection is fear, specifically fear of loss (losing identity as a “manager”). Is it different if you choose to declare, “I am loving?” No. The same thing happens: You need to convince others about how loving you are, even if you’re not feeling particularly loving today.

The challenge for most people is declaring, “I am,” and not adding anything else to the declaration. It’s too amorphous, it has nothing other’s can relate to, except of course if they too declare, “I am,” with the understanding of what that means.

Here’s the most interesting part. By stating “I am,” with nothing attached you have declared your freedom. You can choose to be unconditionally loving, if you want that. You could also choose to be unconditionally hateful. It’s your choice.

In today’s world of knowledge workers who will job hop in a New York minute, which choice do you think would attract more qualified workers to help you reach the goals you would like to accomplish as a business owner, leader, or manager? This is not a trick question. Support your workers and associates in knowing they are whole people doing a job, not being the job. In that awareness, fear falls away, job enjoyment and satisfaction increase and the whole company moves into the new paradigm of enhanced excellence, productivity… and loving.

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