1 Uncommon Strategy to Build a Profitable Team or Culture

If you're committed to your leadership development, then don't miss a special live event I'm delivering on April 16th. More details are at the bottom of the post.

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Over the past two decades, we have seen a drastic shift to making the workplace look and feel more human. Hierarchy and bureaucracy are now fossils of the Industrial Age, as employees are becoming increasingly more agile, intrapreneurial-minded, and desire to play a bigger role in making decisions.

So, it's not surprising that more freedom, inclusion, and transparency are being hailed as the "new normal." The old guard—the command-and-control management style that treats people like functions or numbers—is officially dead and buried. 

What is alive and well is a more human-centered way of doing business, and research supports it. If you choose to keep reading, be open-minded to what's coming. It may save your company.

A Culture of Love?

The late Sigal Barsade, an award-winning researcher and management professor from Wharton, and her colleague Olivia O'Neill, a management professor at George Mason University, conducted a longitudinal study a decade ago premised on the idea that what they called "companionate love” is not only more appealing but also vital to employee morale, teamwork, customer satisfaction, and your bottom line.

Companionate love happens when colleagues who spend each day together genuinely care about what's happening in each other's work and personal lives. They're mindful of how they make each other feel, offer support during tough times, and aren't shy about showing they care. Now imagine this is a business strategy!

Emotional Culture vs. Cognitive Culture

This was no ordinary study. It was one of the few to focus on "emotional culture" rather than "cognitive culture." To make a distinction, the cognitive culture of an organization refers to the "shared intellectual values, norms,  artifacts, and assumptions that guide group behavior," according to Barsade.  However, a cognitive culture is the wrong target when senior leaders try to fix organizational or cultural issues that disrupt business processes.

When companies run into trouble, the root causes may lie in their emotional culture. Barsade defined that as "the shared affective values, norms, artifacts, and assumptions that govern what employees feel, what emotions they express, and which they know they are better off suppressing."

This is where leaders should aim because a better understanding of people's shared emotions at work can have important outcomes for organizations. However, many leaders shy away from discussing emotions, which comes at a high cost to their companies.

O'Neill and Barsade found that emotional cultures fueled by companionate love influence business outcomes like absenteeism and financial performance, as well as employee satisfaction, burnout, and teamwork.

"When business leaders ignore emotional culture, they overlook a fundamental part of being human and thereby stunt the potential of their companies," said Barsade.

A Good Starting Point

Transforming a top-down, low-performing work culture into a bottom-up, high-performing culture of love and care will take monumental strides. And let's face it: For some companies, it may be impossible to make that shift because they don't see the value of it.

Unless they have the right leadership in place to champion this cause.

It will take visionary human leaders with a growth mindset and action bias to set the stage and model the behaviors for this change—to solve hard problems with leadership solutions.

If you're open to the idea, here are two ways to start building a culture of love for your business or organization. 

1. Get to know your people.

Spend time with valued employees, and not for your own personal gain. You do it to learn who they really are, what makes them tick, and what their goals, passions, and aspirations are. 

The focus should be on deepening relatedness -- by sharing information about yourself and the organization (transparency), showing that you care about them (empathy), and discussing your intentions openly (authenticity).

Deepening a professional relationship means learning about someone's strengths and gifts and how to apply them for competitive advantage.

2. Listen to many voices.

Leaders in "cultures of love" celebrate differences and gain strength from a diversity of styles, experiences, thoughts, and expressions.

From a business standpoint, they do it to fostere a healthy and productive work community where there is a steady flow of ideas and fresh perspectives that lead to results.

In this kind of corporate "tribe," leaders and team members hold themselves accountable for protecting the culture's values, ensuring all voices are heard, and allowing people to freely express their opinions. 

Your turn: Will this kind of "culture of love" work for your company or team? Why or why not? Leave a comment, and let's learn from each other.

Special Event: From Boss to Leader Half-Day Program

On April 16th, I will personally deliver the inaugural From Boss to Leader Program. This affordable virtual workshop will teach leaders and managers skills to inspire their teams, increase their engagement on the job, and produce great work results. Click here or the graphic for full details.