A Leader Who Loves: Where Others See Numbers, I See People.

The English language is funny sometimes.

Many other languages have different words to describe feelings.

English?  We often just have one.

Take the word “LOVE”.  

You might think, “What do you mean? We all know what love means.”

…Right? Well, do you?

I love my wife. 

I love my kids.

I love Mexican food and sweet tea.  

I love my job.

I love extra leg room on the plane.

I love that movie.

I love my sports team.

You get the point.  

The word love means different things in each of these scenarios.

And in the world of business and leadership, I have begun to see the word love a lot lately.  

Simon Sinek says:

“Customers will never love a company until the employees love it first.”

I agree with this.  But, how do you get employees to love your company?

Ping pong tables and pizza in the break room?

Not exactly.

There are a lot of books you can probably read about how this happens, but one thing is for sure, if you don’t love who you work for, you aren’t going to love your company or your job.

And to that end, Craig Groeschel states:

“You will never be a leader people love to follow if you aren’t a leader who loves people.”

But let’s be honest...

You probably aren’t going to start every meeting or one-on-one conversation with your team with, “I love you.”

So how can you love your people well to create an atmosphere for them to love their job to then in turn show love to your customers to create an environment where the customer leaves your company’s interaction with them saying, “I love that company!”?

It starts with humanizing your team.

Years ago, T-Mobile used to say:

“Where others see numbers, we see people.”

I worked for T-Mobile at the time.  And this one line described the mission of our company so well, it stuck with me and I quoted it often to those who were on my team.

This is who we needed to be.

I knew as an employee of T-Mobile, I needed to see our customers as people and treat them as such.

And, for those serving in customer facing positions to see our customers as people, I knew that as a leader in the organization, I needed to see the individuals on my team as people and treat them as such.

They weren’t just a number.

Each person who walked into our stores or called our Care Team, we needed to see a person.

A person with a loved one who they needed to communicate with.

Maybe that person was serving our country in the military overseas.

Maybe that person had a parent suffering from cancer.

Maybe that person had a newborn grandchild who they needed to see for the first time.

Maybe that person was in the middle of a hurricane and needed to tell people they were safe.

Maybe that person was suffering from anxiety and mental illness and needed to reach out to someone for help.

I don’t know.

There are a million different things that make a customer a person vs. a number on a spreadsheet.

And you know what?

The same applies to the people on your team and your colleagues that you work with.

As a leader, you need to be one who sees those you lead as a person, not just a headcount.

A person...

With real lives they go home to.

With families they take care of.

With fears and anxieties that creep into their family life from work.

With mental health issues that need to be addressed.

With ambitions and goals they want to achieve.

With accomplishments they need to be celebrated for.

With hard work they put in that needs to be recognized.

What does love require of you as a leader?

To treat your team as humans. Not numbers.

Want your people to love your company and your customers?

Love your people.