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Love as a Business Strategy: Resilience, Belonging & Success
WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER • USA TODAY BEST SELLER
To increase revenue, improve customer experience, and develop higher-performing teams, it’s time for leaders to stop looking for quick fixes to complex business problems and start building a culture of love. Yes, love.
"A brutally honest confession and road map that can help transform the culture of any system or individual willing to do the hard work of changing for the better." -- Esmaeil Porsa , MD, MBA, MPH, CCHP-A, President and CEO of Harris Health System
Anchored by Softway’s own transformational journey, Love as a Business Strategy offers a new, people-first framework for achieving any business outcome—written by folks that aren’t fans of run-of-the-mill business books. As a matter of fact, Love as a Business Strategy is so chock-full of real-world examples of mistakes, heartbreak, and redemption that it reads more like a juicy exposé than a business book. Love as a Business Strategy steers clear from piety and theoretical concepts and instead shares grounded stories of resilient people running a real business. A business, as you’ll come to find out, that was on the brink of disaster before ‘love’ took hold. Love As A Business Strategy doesn’t preach or mislead, rather it lays out the blueprints for better business outcomes—like better employee engagement, enhanced patient experiences, and increased efficiency—then walks you through it step-by-step. A better way of doing business is possible. The workplace revolution has arrived. Love as a Business Strategy will help you ditch the status quo, embrace humanity, and achieve lasting success.
To increase revenue, improve customer experience, and develop higher-performing teams, it’s time for leaders to stop looking for quick fixes to complex business problems and start building a culture of love. Yes, love.
"A brutally honest confession and road map that can help transform the culture of any system or individual willing to do the hard work of changing for the better." -- Esmaeil Porsa , MD, MBA, MPH, CCHP-A, President and CEO of Harris Health System
Anchored by Softway’s own transformational journey, Love as a Business Strategy offers a new, people-first framework for achieving any business outcome—written by folks that aren’t fans of run-of-the-mill business books. As a matter of fact, Love as a Business Strategy is so chock-full of real-world examples of mistakes, heartbreak, and redemption that it reads more like a juicy exposé than a business book. Love as a Business Strategy steers clear from piety and theoretical concepts and instead shares grounded stories of resilient people running a real business. A business, as you’ll come to find out, that was on the brink of disaster before ‘love’ took hold. Love As A Business Strategy doesn’t preach or mislead, rather it lays out the blueprints for better business outcomes—like better employee engagement, enhanced patient experiences, and increased efficiency—then walks you through it step-by-step. A better way of doing business is possible. The workplace revolution has arrived. Love as a Business Strategy will help you ditch the status quo, embrace humanity, and achieve lasting success.
336 pages, Paperback
Published April 13, 2021
147 people are currently reading
1820 people want to read
About the author
Mohammad F. Anwar
6 books8 followersMohammad Anwar
CEO of Softway
Mohammad is the youngest of five children and was born and raised in Saudi Arabia by Indian parents from Bengaluru. He graduated from the University of Houston (Go Coogs) with a BS in Computer Science and started Softway at twenty, where he still serves as the President and CEO.
Mohammad lives in Sugar Land, Texas, with his amazing wife Yulia, a Russian diver and five-time Olympic medalist, and his beautiful children, Sufia and Moshin. In his spare time, he enjoys fitness, watching college sports, and butchering American idioms.
CEO of Softway
Mohammad is the youngest of five children and was born and raised in Saudi Arabia by Indian parents from Bengaluru. He graduated from the University of Houston (Go Coogs) with a BS in Computer Science and started Softway at twenty, where he still serves as the President and CEO.
Mohammad lives in Sugar Land, Texas, with his amazing wife Yulia, a Russian diver and five-time Olympic medalist, and his beautiful children, Sufia and Moshin. In his spare time, he enjoys fitness, watching college sports, and butchering American idioms.
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April 28, 2021
Love As A Business Strategy by Mohammad F. Anwar, Frank E. Danna, Jeffrey F. Ma, Christopher J. Pitre story about the Softway Solutions co and also a story about Resilience, Belonging & Success.
Love as a business strategy means putting people at the center of work by creating a workplace that puts humanity first. The book is divided into 3 parts, in the first we learn about what it means to keep love as a business strategy. It also has 'THE 10 PRINCIPLES OF SERVANT LEADERSHIP'.
In the second part we learn about the Six Pillars of Love and discuss why they are essential in supporting a culture of love. Finally, in
Part 3, we see how these concepts apply to different areas of your business—such as leadership, teams and individuals,change management, etc.
To these theories, the book holds real life examples of their own company, Softway and how they went from their darkest day in 2015 to not only surviving but thriving in the industry. The book also has some pie-charts and graphics to explain the readers better.
I like how each chapter has a creative and funny heading to it. Brings some spice to the non-fiction books. The book also helps you realise and talk about your workplace environment, employee relations, culture, and alot more things. Definitely worth reading it.
Love as a business strategy means putting people at the center of work by creating a workplace that puts humanity first. The book is divided into 3 parts, in the first we learn about what it means to keep love as a business strategy. It also has 'THE 10 PRINCIPLES OF SERVANT LEADERSHIP'.
In the second part we learn about the Six Pillars of Love and discuss why they are essential in supporting a culture of love. Finally, in
Part 3, we see how these concepts apply to different areas of your business—such as leadership, teams and individuals,change management, etc.
To these theories, the book holds real life examples of their own company, Softway and how they went from their darkest day in 2015 to not only surviving but thriving in the industry. The book also has some pie-charts and graphics to explain the readers better.
I like how each chapter has a creative and funny heading to it. Brings some spice to the non-fiction books. The book also helps you realise and talk about your workplace environment, employee relations, culture, and alot more things. Definitely worth reading it.
April 28, 2021
Love As A Business Strategy by Mohammad F. Anwar, Frank E. Danna, Jeffrey F. Ma, Christopher J. Pitre story about the Softway Solutions co and also a story about Resilience, Belonging & Success.
Love as a business strategy means putting people at the center of work by creating a workplace that puts humanity first. The book is divided into 3 parts, in the first we learn about what it means to keep love as a business strategy. It also has 'THE 10 PRINCIPLES OF SERVANT LEADERSHIP'.
In the second part we learn about the Six Pillars of Love and discuss why they are essential in supporting a culture of love. Finally, in
Part 3, we see how these concepts apply to different areas of your business—such as leadership, teams and individuals,change management, etc.
To these theories, the book holds real life examples of their own company, Softway and how they went from their darkest day in 2015 to not only surviving but thriving in the industry. The book also has some pie-charts and graphics to explain the readers better.
I like how each chapter has a creative and funny heading to it. Brings some spice to the non-fiction books. The book also helps you realise and talk about your workplace environment, employee relations, culture, and alot more things. Definitely worth reading it.
Love as a business strategy means putting people at the center of work by creating a workplace that puts humanity first. The book is divided into 3 parts, in the first we learn about what it means to keep love as a business strategy. It also has 'THE 10 PRINCIPLES OF SERVANT LEADERSHIP'.
In the second part we learn about the Six Pillars of Love and discuss why they are essential in supporting a culture of love. Finally, in
Part 3, we see how these concepts apply to different areas of your business—such as leadership, teams and individuals,change management, etc.
To these theories, the book holds real life examples of their own company, Softway and how they went from their darkest day in 2015 to not only surviving but thriving in the industry. The book also has some pie-charts and graphics to explain the readers better.
I like how each chapter has a creative and funny heading to it. Brings some spice to the non-fiction books. The book also helps you realise and talk about your workplace environment, employee relations, culture, and alot more things. Definitely worth reading it.
April 28, 2021
Love As A Business Strategy by Mohammad F. Anwar, Frank E. Danna, Jeffrey F. Ma, Christopher J. Pitre story about the Softway Solutions co and also a story about Resilience, Belonging & Success.
Love as a business strategy means putting people at the center of work by creating a workplace that puts humanity first. The book is divided into 3 parts, in the first we learn about what it means to keep love as a business strategy. It also has 'THE 10 PRINCIPLES OF SERVANT LEADERSHIP'.
In the second part we learn about the Six Pillars of Love and discuss why they are essential in supporting a culture of love. Finally, in
Part 3, we see how these concepts apply to different areas of your business—such as leadership, teams and individuals,change management, etc.
To these theories, the book holds real life examples of their own company, Softway and how they went from their darkest day in 2015 to not only surviving but thriving in the industry. The book also has some pie-charts and graphics to explain the readers better.
I like how each chapter has a creative and funny heading to it. Brings some spice to the non-fiction books. The book also helps you realise and talk about your workplace environment, employee relations, culture, and alot more things. Definitely worth reading it.
Love as a business strategy means putting people at the center of work by creating a workplace that puts humanity first. The book is divided into 3 parts, in the first we learn about what it means to keep love as a business strategy. It also has 'THE 10 PRINCIPLES OF SERVANT LEADERSHIP'.
In the second part we learn about the Six Pillars of Love and discuss why they are essential in supporting a culture of love. Finally, in
Part 3, we see how these concepts apply to different areas of your business—such as leadership, teams and individuals,change management, etc.
To these theories, the book holds real life examples of their own company, Softway and how they went from their darkest day in 2015 to not only surviving but thriving in the industry. The book also has some pie-charts and graphics to explain the readers better.
I like how each chapter has a creative and funny heading to it. Brings some spice to the non-fiction books. The book also helps you realise and talk about your workplace environment, employee relations, culture, and alot more things. Definitely worth reading it.
May 5, 2021
Love As A Business Strategy is the journey of Softway - a company that saw it’s darkest day in 2015 but the change in culture changed everything for the company. What was this culture based on? Love, empathy and care. Every single person in the company came together to change the trajectory of the company and today, Softway is not only flying itself, but is also helping other companies to do the same.
As the title suggests, this book is all about how you can change your company culture from toxic values to values of love.
The language is extremely easy to read. It is more like a story than a guide. The best part of the book is the honesty it has been written with. Changing the entire culture is not easy, and the mistakes documented in this book prove it. Not just that, it also inspires us to keep following the strategy of love even if it is difficult.
My favourite part was the honesty and practicality of book. I cannot wait to use all these teachings and build my company that has a foundation of love. I highly recommend this book to you if you are into business content.
As the title suggests, this book is all about how you can change your company culture from toxic values to values of love.
The language is extremely easy to read. It is more like a story than a guide. The best part of the book is the honesty it has been written with. Changing the entire culture is not easy, and the mistakes documented in this book prove it. Not just that, it also inspires us to keep following the strategy of love even if it is difficult.
My favourite part was the honesty and practicality of book. I cannot wait to use all these teachings and build my company that has a foundation of love. I highly recommend this book to you if you are into business content.
December 21, 2024
Business practice that is long overdue
I appreciate so much about this book, the examples given, the way that Mohammed willingly used examples of his own business gaffs to illustrate certain points, the magnificent outcomes from instituing this new strategy in not one but two companies on different sides of the world. Really, what's not to admire about this strategy? Please DNF and put this book back onto a shelf. Dare to read, absorb, and institute these practices into your company, your department, your group. What have you got to lose? Why are you unwilling to try? If your self-confidence is so low, then YOU REALLY NEED IT,
I appreciate so much about this book, the examples given, the way that Mohammed willingly used examples of his own business gaffs to illustrate certain points, the magnificent outcomes from instituing this new strategy in not one but two companies on different sides of the world. Really, what's not to admire about this strategy? Please DNF and put this book back onto a shelf. Dare to read, absorb, and institute these practices into your company, your department, your group. What have you got to lose? Why are you unwilling to try? If your self-confidence is so low, then YOU REALLY NEED IT,
May 5, 2021
"Because people who feel included, empowered, and supported are more willing to take risks, are more innovative, and are better at identifying hidden opportunities. In turn, they are able to produce better business outcomes."
How many times have you heard people complain about their hectic jobs? How many times have they blamed their bosses for their miserable work life? Almost everyone I know who has worked a corporate job, has the same things to say. Why is that? It's because most companies believe in focusing more on work output rather than on an employee's happiness and satisfaction.
Love as a business strategy is a book that smashes the inhumane mechanism of toxic corporate culture by putting people at the centre of everything. The book was an idea born out of the darkest day in the history of the Softway company, when the owner Mr. Mohammad had to fire some of his employees. It weighed heavily on him and he went to watch a basketball game later on, which taught him an important lesson that changed the path of his company!
The book is divided in three parts. Part one talks about what it really love as a business strategy means, how it can affect a particular corporate culture and why human behaviours are at the centre of it all. Part two deals with the introduction of the six pillars of love and how they are essential in supporting a culture of love. Part three demonstrates the application of all these concepts to different areas of business.
I liked the unique thought process behind this book. It is written in an easy to understand way and is very well articulated. A must-read!
How many times have you heard people complain about their hectic jobs? How many times have they blamed their bosses for their miserable work life? Almost everyone I know who has worked a corporate job, has the same things to say. Why is that? It's because most companies believe in focusing more on work output rather than on an employee's happiness and satisfaction.
Love as a business strategy is a book that smashes the inhumane mechanism of toxic corporate culture by putting people at the centre of everything. The book was an idea born out of the darkest day in the history of the Softway company, when the owner Mr. Mohammad had to fire some of his employees. It weighed heavily on him and he went to watch a basketball game later on, which taught him an important lesson that changed the path of his company!
The book is divided in three parts. Part one talks about what it really love as a business strategy means, how it can affect a particular corporate culture and why human behaviours are at the centre of it all. Part two deals with the introduction of the six pillars of love and how they are essential in supporting a culture of love. Part three demonstrates the application of all these concepts to different areas of business.
I liked the unique thought process behind this book. It is written in an easy to understand way and is very well articulated. A must-read!
May 2, 2021
At the crux of any organization's success lies its people. People with emotions. Emotions like Love.
In today's high paced environment companies are radically transforming themselves to focus on the big wins and one aspect of their transformation is to establish a people focused culture.
Softway is one such organization and Love as a Business Strategy highlights the company's own transformational journey by offering the reader a peek into real stories of mistakes, heartbreak, and redemption.
The book is neatly divided into three parts explaining the why i.e. the foundation, what i.e. the pillars and how i.e. the roof. I especially liked reading the second part – Understanding the Culture of Love which builds upon these foundational concepts the Six Pillars of Love – Inclusion, Empathy, Vulnerability, Trust, Empowerment and Forgiveness. These chapters help the reader to understand how to apply them in real life.
The final part of the book uses legitimate data to back the answers to questions– “Can “love” be woven into processes, tools, and hiring practices—the very DNA that makes a business functional? Is love really a viable option that can bridge the gap between better cultures and more revenue?”
I am glad interesting exposé and glad to have picked up this book! "Strategy" sounds conceptual and technical; this book is everything but that. Neither fluffy nor preachy, Love as a practical and honest business strategy is a handbook to help you navigate the workplace as a manager, leader, or an executive.
In today's high paced environment companies are radically transforming themselves to focus on the big wins and one aspect of their transformation is to establish a people focused culture.
Softway is one such organization and Love as a Business Strategy highlights the company's own transformational journey by offering the reader a peek into real stories of mistakes, heartbreak, and redemption.
The book is neatly divided into three parts explaining the why i.e. the foundation, what i.e. the pillars and how i.e. the roof. I especially liked reading the second part – Understanding the Culture of Love which builds upon these foundational concepts the Six Pillars of Love – Inclusion, Empathy, Vulnerability, Trust, Empowerment and Forgiveness. These chapters help the reader to understand how to apply them in real life.
The final part of the book uses legitimate data to back the answers to questions– “Can “love” be woven into processes, tools, and hiring practices—the very DNA that makes a business functional? Is love really a viable option that can bridge the gap between better cultures and more revenue?”
I am glad interesting exposé and glad to have picked up this book! "Strategy" sounds conceptual and technical; this book is everything but that. Neither fluffy nor preachy, Love as a practical and honest business strategy is a handbook to help you navigate the workplace as a manager, leader, or an executive.
May 5, 2021
The COVID-19 struck era, has instigated an importance of lens change. To view perseverance as a result of empathy and work towards goal achievement rather than exploit workforce potential, has been the most needed positive step in business world; and it did occur eventually.
'Love as a business strategy' is a book greater than any other entrepreneurial guide. It shares raw facts and figures of the business world and how consumers really draw out the true potential of a company and make it relive its aura. Herein, the authors have devised a strategy to "love". Not just metaphorically, but also implement that pure emotion in every work they undertake. Thus, this helps the company to elevate people as their first priority in business objectives.
"Applying this lens changes everything."
With lo true accounts of a wellspring company, this book has twined the simplicity, yet the complexity of the emotion- love. It gives accounts of demystifying the expression and use it in the most serene way of philosophical strategy.
Combined with a case transformation of Softway as a company, there are mentioned accounts of the need to create centralized humanitarian attitude at the workplace and stand up for what is right, fighting bias and discrimination, and embracing change.
In such desperate times, respecting rights, empowering the force and focusing on human dignity, are the stagnant pillars to uphold an organization. Many such simple yet impactful tactics have been talked about in the book.
The authors have used the simplest conversational tone to convey their understatements. Through their examples and practical tips, weave a story of 'love in the workplace. A must suggested book for all executives who wish to bring a change and bind humanity together
'Love as a business strategy' is a book greater than any other entrepreneurial guide. It shares raw facts and figures of the business world and how consumers really draw out the true potential of a company and make it relive its aura. Herein, the authors have devised a strategy to "love". Not just metaphorically, but also implement that pure emotion in every work they undertake. Thus, this helps the company to elevate people as their first priority in business objectives.
"Applying this lens changes everything."
With lo true accounts of a wellspring company, this book has twined the simplicity, yet the complexity of the emotion- love. It gives accounts of demystifying the expression and use it in the most serene way of philosophical strategy.
Combined with a case transformation of Softway as a company, there are mentioned accounts of the need to create centralized humanitarian attitude at the workplace and stand up for what is right, fighting bias and discrimination, and embracing change.
In such desperate times, respecting rights, empowering the force and focusing on human dignity, are the stagnant pillars to uphold an organization. Many such simple yet impactful tactics have been talked about in the book.
The authors have used the simplest conversational tone to convey their understatements. Through their examples and practical tips, weave a story of 'love in the workplace. A must suggested book for all executives who wish to bring a change and bind humanity together
April 2, 2023
Great book! I enjoyed it! It may have drug out a little longer than needed but all in all- had exceptional tips for actionable items in your workplace environment.
October 27, 2024
Really good ideas that I definitely resonate with. Like all business strategy/self-help books this book becomes tedious and self-adulatory.
Read
January 8, 2024p13: This culture can be described in a lot of ways, but what it boils down to is one without fear. There is no fear of making a mistake because mistakes are treated as learnings. There is no fear of stepping on people's toes because we are all rooting for each other's growth. There is no fear of speaking up because we know our ideas and concerns are always valued. There is no fear of taking on something new because we know that we have support from anyone that we ask.
p14: There is no fear of weaknesses because my weaknesses are supported by others' strengths. There is no fear of leadership because the leaders share their mistakes with us with honesty and vulnerability. There is no fear of the unknown because we trust that decisions are being made with our best interests at heart. There is no fear of showing our true selves because we know that we will be welcomed with open arms. […] When fear is present, there is no room for growth and maturity—you are simply trying to make it through the day.
p14–15: It is our leaders who push us all to become the best versions of ourselves, and they do this by example-not by being per-fect, but by sharing with us when they mess up.
p15: I have not been a passive bystander in this culture of love.
p24: […] love as a business strategy means putting people at the center of work by creating a workplace that puts humanity first.
p25: When a group of motivated, talented people comes together to collaborate and create, they are capable of producing things far beyond the sum of their parts. Why? Because people who feel included, empowered, and supported are more willing to take risks, are more innovative, and are better at identifying hidden opportunities. In turn, they are able to produce better business outcomes.
p28: […] no one changes their behaviors because of data. They change when they understand the experience behind the data. Theoretical models of corporate structure and employee behaviors will never yield a living, breathing, adaptable culture of love. When you lead with numbers, you neglect the people behind them. But when you lead with people, you allow the numbers to take care of themselves.
p29: Talking about love is easy. But delivering a culture of love in the workplace is hard work.
p41: In no way should a culture of love be misconstrued as an invitation to invite an HR dumpster fire to your organization.
Instead, when we talk about love in the business sense, we're talking about a deep-rooted and intrinsic care for other humans. Love in the workplace means working as a team with good communication. It means putting other people before yourself. It means looking to the person on your right and on your left and asking what is best for them as a whole person. Genuine, human care creates a ripple effect throughout everything people touch in an organization. It means focusing on humanity, not just profits.
p42: Humans come together to work, to collaborate, and to achieve beyond any single person's vision or ability.
p43: While the journey from love to a culture of love is complex and nuanced, it begins with individual efforts and behaviors: Love means doing things out of care for others and with the intent of helping others, even if those things aren't easy. Love means not sweeping problems under the rug. Love means working toward inclusion rather than reinforcing hierarchy. Love means embracing the hard conversations rather than avoiding them. Love means building processes, tools, and policies that align people with profit. Love means support, accountability, and trust, which leads to innovation, efficiency, and measurable business outcomes.
p48: In fear-based organizations, many conversations around strategy and behavior become events. You have to plan for them, use the right words, and have the right imagery. […] You have to be so, so careful to say everything correctly and at the right time.
p49: Organizations that don't keep open communication channels, that don't encourage their employees to speak truth to power, are less effective and less efficient. Give your team members the space to feel safe enough to speak. Flush the issues out in the open so you can understand them, unite around them, take ownership of them, and then work together to solve them.
In a culture where you're encouraged to speak truth to power, success belongs to everyone, not just to leadership.
p52: Loves abusiness strategy is not built with words. It's built our of consistent daily action. It requires a focus on strong, inche-sive relationships that are rooted in truth and mutual respect.
It's a long process, and often it's a messy one.
p55: Culture eats strategy for breakfast
p57–58: Culture may be perpetuated by every team member in an organization, but it begins with leadership.
p58: Culture is about the emotional environment you create and the behaviors that build it - whether the environment is toxic or supportive. […] It's the way someone speaks to you in a meeting. It's the openness and ability of team members to give and receive feedback. It's the feeling among your coworkers propelling you to engage, to expect the best from yourself, and to support others in their work.
p58–59: A poor culture plays politics all day. It rushes to get work done and go home. There's no camaraderie, no mutual sup-port, no interest in anything other than performing your job at a bare-bones level. If your team members consistently dread going to work- if you dread going to work-then you have a bad culture.
A healthy, thriving culture, in contrast, is a human culture. […] They are empowered to make proactive decisions. They are entrusted to do the right thing. They are included and welcomed to disagree. They are free to bring their full selves to work, rather than a stripped-down version that leaves them complacent and unsatisfied.
p60: When you're working for a company with such a high turnover rate, eventually you run out of honest reasons to convince people to come in.
p60: Peter Drucker once famously said that culture eats strategy for breakfast. What Drucker meant by this is that a well-conceived plan is meaningless if your team isn't united around that plan. They will struggle to execute and struggle to make proactive choices in service of organizational goals.
p61: Bringing your full self to work means you are:
Encouraged to communicate, be open, and share your perspective and ideas
Secure in the belief that no matter who you are or what your background, your contributions are valued and your voice matters
Able to be forgiven for mistakes and misbehavior
Able to give feedback, and receive feedback freely
p62: […] in a healthy culture, when you wake up feeling dread about a particular aspect of your job that day, that feling doesn't represent the entire experience of your work life. You may have messy interactions with a teammate, but you don't spend most of your time frustrated because you have the tools, resources, and space to address those messy interactions and grow from them. Finally, you may not feel passionate about every aspect of your job, but overall you believe that your work is engaging, your skills are put to good use, and the work you do matters.
p63: Day by day, action by action, we build each other up or tear each other down, and make space for others to do the same.
p76: Groups are made of individuals. As such, cultures are the result of individual behaviors. Each day, the behaviors of every single team member serve to either strengthen relationships or destroy them. And as their relationships go, so goes the organizational culture. The healthier the relationships, the healthier the culture. The more toxic those relationships, the more toxic the culture. […] If a culture of love is the goal, our individual behaviors are the path forward. […] A group cannot change if those within it are unwilling to change themselves.
[…] Mindsets are the foundations of our behaviors, attitudes are the way the world sees our mindsets, and communication is how we engage based on the mindset and attitude we're portraying at the time.
p78: [THE FIXED MINDSET] Scarcity: The success of others is a direct threat to you. The more they have and achieve, the less is available to you.
[…] Inflexibility: Once you have made a judgment about a person or a situation, that's forever how you will see it.
[…] the fixed mindset is incompatible with a culture of love. By its nature, it can lead only to behaviors that aren't inclusive, empathetic, or loving.
p79: [THE GROWTH MINDSET] Learning is key: It's not what you don't know. It's what you don't know yet. […]
Failure is temporary: Failure is not an end state, but a beginning. […]
Success is contagious: When you see others succeed, you're inspired, encouraged, and ready to cheer them on because you know their success is yours. […]
Strengths take priority: You see others as intelligent and talented. Rather than defining others (or yourself) for their mistakes, you see your team members as resilient and capable of learning and supporting their teammates.
Vulnerability is strength: You are willing to be vulnerable in front of others because you assume others are there to help you rather than hinder you. By sharing your concerns, fears, and mistakes, you create a space for others to do the same—a crucial factor in creating high-performing teams.
p81: How do you respond to failure as a group?
[…] you can't change what you don't measure.
p81: there are three essential attitudes: Flyer, Fighter, and Influencer. the Flyer reacts to a fight-or-flight situation with flight. The Flyer may have the power or authority to be more proactive, but instead they choose to avoid the situation, complain, or adopt an attitude of victimhood.
p87: To communicate successfully, it's important that you're mindful of how you communicate both intrapersonally and interpersonally. In other words, it's important that you're (1) mindful of the stories you tell yourself, and (2) aligned in your mindset, attitudes, and communication so that you can communicate authentically with your team.
p89: All the misbehaviors are common in workplaces around the world. However, only one of them —financial repercussions-is actively taught in MBA programs. […] if a leader doesn't want to confront a person on their team, the solution is to put that person on an impossible assignment. That would force the "undesirable" person to either quit on their own or fail—in which case the leader would have grounds to fire them. Suffice it to say, such behavior has no place in a culture of love.
p91: The more familiar we are with another person, the better able we are to hurt them.
p93–94: Introspection means thoughtfully assessing where you are, what needs to change, and why. Such a process is naturally time-consuming —which is why it's not as widely practiced in the workplace as it should be. That said, introspection is essential to buiding a culture of lestyou really want to chase your behavior, you must understand why you behave thenay you do, and more importantly, what you can do differently.
Effective introspection requires a few key components:
Gather feedback: […] connect with others to learn from your experiences, work on uncovering your true motivations, and understand the root causes of your behaviors. From there, you can work on corrective actions that will yield meaningful
results.
Consistency: Introspection isn't easy to maintain. It requires a prolonged focus on your own motivations and actions. […]
Accountability: […] intent doesn't matter. People can't see intent. Actions will drive how other people perceive you. […] Focus on what happened, why it happened, and what you can do about it either now or next time a similar situation arises.
Patience: […] if there's one single thing holding people back from lasting behavior change, it's that they don't do the work.
p95: So do the work. Don't let yourself off the hook. Ask yourself the hard questions. Spend the time to consider your mindsets, your attitudes, and your communication. The only way to create a culture of love is the hard way.
p102: […] making sure that everyone in your organization (and everyone you invite to visit) has what they need to speak, contribute, and bring their full selves to work.
p102: A culture rooted in inclusion, however, enables everyone to contribute at a high level. A fully included team is a more productive team, and a more productive team produces far better business outcomes.
p103: its precisely because the actions of inclusion require effort that makes them so valuable: it is a way of telling our team members that their needs matter to us, and that we have taken them into account. […] The alternative—making someone feel uncomfortable, uncared for, or otherwise marginalized—is not an option. […] Executed consistently and effectively, inclusion leads to innovation and creativity, empathy, retention, the benefits of diversity, and resilience.
p117: Be the voice for those who need to be heard. Acknowledge your harm, and the harm of the organization, and ask yourself how you can be better. Take responsibility for the impact of your actions. Be willing to examine your own behaviors critically and honestly. […] If you see a policy that needs to change—or if you see a policy that doesn't yet exist but should-take action.
p123: You can spot apathetic managers from a mile away; they're the ones who always demand that you put your feelings aside and get your work done. It's not that they have no feelings, but rather that they believe pushing those feelings aside is an appropriate way to lead in a business.
p123–124: This is the inherent challenge of working with a sympathetic manager. Sure, they mean well, but they rarely offer support in a way that empowers team members and furthers their growth. […] instead of creating opportunities for growth, the sympathetic manager just redistributes the burden to others.
p125: Managers are people with formal authority and position. They oversee other team members, but they don't lead them. […] Leaders, on the other hand, serve their team members by supporting, mentoring, coaching, and otherwise setting their teams up for success. Leadership is learned —and ultimately earned-on the job. A leader earns the title, not through a formal promotion, but when their fellow team members choose to follow them.
p127: Apathetic management takes care of the business while disregarding the person. Sympathetic management takes care of the person while disregarding the business. Empathetic leadership takes care of the person in the context of the business.
p127: The most important requirement for empathy is emotional intelligence. This means being able to read the situation, assume good intent no matter how others are behaving, and connect your own experience to theirs in a way that leads to understanding.
One way to build emotional intelligence is to practice empathetic listening, in which you tune out everything else and focus directly on the other person. By listening to what the person is actually saying, rather than only hearing what you want to hear, you can respond to that person's needs produc-tively.
p130: Rather than helping them become more efficient, his systems and processes had set unrealistic expectations and inhibited their ability to perform. He wasn't empowering his teams; he was holding them back.
p132: To see the gains of empathy, leaders must do the work to relate to every team member, without any of the group being excluded, often translating one team member's experience to another. If you can do that, if you can be empathetic to the needs of your various team members and provide the tools, resources, and mentoring they need, the result is magic. You foster a space where people genuinely care for one another and feel empowered. You build dynamic, high-performing teams.
p133: […] just like with vulnerability and trust, building empathy into your culture of love is going to require a leap of faith —which means that, as a leader, you have to be willing to go first.
p139: A culture rooted in vulnerability allows people to be open and honest and share meaningful emotions. It means we're willing to own mistakes and to learn from those mistakes, rather than having to be seen as perfect.
p143: […] let go of ego, and drop the fear of failure. […] Your job isn't to be perfect all the time. Your job is to bring your ideas to the table and to create a successful organization. […] Vulnerability is not an excuse to express yourself in a way that hurts others or threatens their psychological safety.
p144: We work better when we know we have permission to be uncertain, to make mistakes, and to take ownership of those mistakes without ridicule or blame.
p159: THE SURE SIGNS OF TRUST
How do you know when your teams are practicing vulnerability-based trust? Here are a few sure signs that you have built a high-performing team where each person cares for each other:
Team members know that their deficiencies won't be used against them.
* Team members are quick to resolve disputes and conflicts with each other and don't stoop to gossip or slander.
* Team members begin to act without concern for protecting themselves.
* Team members have more than a surface-level knowledge of those they work with.
p166: CLEAR THE PATH
In a culture of love, empowering a team member isn't about putting someone in charge and then ignoring them. It's about setting them up for success. When choosing to empower one of your teammates with a new responsibility, ask yourself:
Have you given this person everything they need, including explaining the outcomes and goals you expect?
* Have you given them coaching?
* Are you spending the time to mentor and nurture someone in their role?
* Have you given them information, tools, and the access they need to be successful?
* Are you removing blocks and obstacles? Do you respect their decisions, even when those decisions inconvenience you?
When approaching empowerment from a growth mindset, you can remain engaged and available without intervening or micromanaging the pro-cess. Instead of handing your team members answers, you clear a path for them so they can arrive at the answers themselves. It can be difficult sometimes to avoid the impulse to intervene, but we've seen time and again that when you give them a chance, people will rise to the occasion.
p14: There is no fear of weaknesses because my weaknesses are supported by others' strengths. There is no fear of leadership because the leaders share their mistakes with us with honesty and vulnerability. There is no fear of the unknown because we trust that decisions are being made with our best interests at heart. There is no fear of showing our true selves because we know that we will be welcomed with open arms. […] When fear is present, there is no room for growth and maturity—you are simply trying to make it through the day.
p14–15: It is our leaders who push us all to become the best versions of ourselves, and they do this by example-not by being per-fect, but by sharing with us when they mess up.
p15: I have not been a passive bystander in this culture of love.
p24: […] love as a business strategy means putting people at the center of work by creating a workplace that puts humanity first.
p25: When a group of motivated, talented people comes together to collaborate and create, they are capable of producing things far beyond the sum of their parts. Why? Because people who feel included, empowered, and supported are more willing to take risks, are more innovative, and are better at identifying hidden opportunities. In turn, they are able to produce better business outcomes.
p28: […] no one changes their behaviors because of data. They change when they understand the experience behind the data. Theoretical models of corporate structure and employee behaviors will never yield a living, breathing, adaptable culture of love. When you lead with numbers, you neglect the people behind them. But when you lead with people, you allow the numbers to take care of themselves.
p29: Talking about love is easy. But delivering a culture of love in the workplace is hard work.
p41: In no way should a culture of love be misconstrued as an invitation to invite an HR dumpster fire to your organization.
Instead, when we talk about love in the business sense, we're talking about a deep-rooted and intrinsic care for other humans. Love in the workplace means working as a team with good communication. It means putting other people before yourself. It means looking to the person on your right and on your left and asking what is best for them as a whole person. Genuine, human care creates a ripple effect throughout everything people touch in an organization. It means focusing on humanity, not just profits.
p42: Humans come together to work, to collaborate, and to achieve beyond any single person's vision or ability.
p43: While the journey from love to a culture of love is complex and nuanced, it begins with individual efforts and behaviors: Love means doing things out of care for others and with the intent of helping others, even if those things aren't easy. Love means not sweeping problems under the rug. Love means working toward inclusion rather than reinforcing hierarchy. Love means embracing the hard conversations rather than avoiding them. Love means building processes, tools, and policies that align people with profit. Love means support, accountability, and trust, which leads to innovation, efficiency, and measurable business outcomes.
p48: In fear-based organizations, many conversations around strategy and behavior become events. You have to plan for them, use the right words, and have the right imagery. […] You have to be so, so careful to say everything correctly and at the right time.
p49: Organizations that don't keep open communication channels, that don't encourage their employees to speak truth to power, are less effective and less efficient. Give your team members the space to feel safe enough to speak. Flush the issues out in the open so you can understand them, unite around them, take ownership of them, and then work together to solve them.
In a culture where you're encouraged to speak truth to power, success belongs to everyone, not just to leadership.
p52: Loves abusiness strategy is not built with words. It's built our of consistent daily action. It requires a focus on strong, inche-sive relationships that are rooted in truth and mutual respect.
It's a long process, and often it's a messy one.
p55: Culture eats strategy for breakfast
p57–58: Culture may be perpetuated by every team member in an organization, but it begins with leadership.
p58: Culture is about the emotional environment you create and the behaviors that build it - whether the environment is toxic or supportive. […] It's the way someone speaks to you in a meeting. It's the openness and ability of team members to give and receive feedback. It's the feeling among your coworkers propelling you to engage, to expect the best from yourself, and to support others in their work.
p58–59: A poor culture plays politics all day. It rushes to get work done and go home. There's no camaraderie, no mutual sup-port, no interest in anything other than performing your job at a bare-bones level. If your team members consistently dread going to work- if you dread going to work-then you have a bad culture.
A healthy, thriving culture, in contrast, is a human culture. […] They are empowered to make proactive decisions. They are entrusted to do the right thing. They are included and welcomed to disagree. They are free to bring their full selves to work, rather than a stripped-down version that leaves them complacent and unsatisfied.
p60: When you're working for a company with such a high turnover rate, eventually you run out of honest reasons to convince people to come in.
p60: Peter Drucker once famously said that culture eats strategy for breakfast. What Drucker meant by this is that a well-conceived plan is meaningless if your team isn't united around that plan. They will struggle to execute and struggle to make proactive choices in service of organizational goals.
p61: Bringing your full self to work means you are:
Encouraged to communicate, be open, and share your perspective and ideas
Secure in the belief that no matter who you are or what your background, your contributions are valued and your voice matters
Able to be forgiven for mistakes and misbehavior
Able to give feedback, and receive feedback freely
p62: […] in a healthy culture, when you wake up feeling dread about a particular aspect of your job that day, that feling doesn't represent the entire experience of your work life. You may have messy interactions with a teammate, but you don't spend most of your time frustrated because you have the tools, resources, and space to address those messy interactions and grow from them. Finally, you may not feel passionate about every aspect of your job, but overall you believe that your work is engaging, your skills are put to good use, and the work you do matters.
p63: Day by day, action by action, we build each other up or tear each other down, and make space for others to do the same.
p76: Groups are made of individuals. As such, cultures are the result of individual behaviors. Each day, the behaviors of every single team member serve to either strengthen relationships or destroy them. And as their relationships go, so goes the organizational culture. The healthier the relationships, the healthier the culture. The more toxic those relationships, the more toxic the culture. […] If a culture of love is the goal, our individual behaviors are the path forward. […] A group cannot change if those within it are unwilling to change themselves.
[…] Mindsets are the foundations of our behaviors, attitudes are the way the world sees our mindsets, and communication is how we engage based on the mindset and attitude we're portraying at the time.
p78: [THE FIXED MINDSET] Scarcity: The success of others is a direct threat to you. The more they have and achieve, the less is available to you.
[…] Inflexibility: Once you have made a judgment about a person or a situation, that's forever how you will see it.
[…] the fixed mindset is incompatible with a culture of love. By its nature, it can lead only to behaviors that aren't inclusive, empathetic, or loving.
p79: [THE GROWTH MINDSET] Learning is key: It's not what you don't know. It's what you don't know yet. […]
Failure is temporary: Failure is not an end state, but a beginning. […]
Success is contagious: When you see others succeed, you're inspired, encouraged, and ready to cheer them on because you know their success is yours. […]
Strengths take priority: You see others as intelligent and talented. Rather than defining others (or yourself) for their mistakes, you see your team members as resilient and capable of learning and supporting their teammates.
Vulnerability is strength: You are willing to be vulnerable in front of others because you assume others are there to help you rather than hinder you. By sharing your concerns, fears, and mistakes, you create a space for others to do the same—a crucial factor in creating high-performing teams.
p81: How do you respond to failure as a group?
[…] you can't change what you don't measure.
p81: there are three essential attitudes: Flyer, Fighter, and Influencer. the Flyer reacts to a fight-or-flight situation with flight. The Flyer may have the power or authority to be more proactive, but instead they choose to avoid the situation, complain, or adopt an attitude of victimhood.
p87: To communicate successfully, it's important that you're mindful of how you communicate both intrapersonally and interpersonally. In other words, it's important that you're (1) mindful of the stories you tell yourself, and (2) aligned in your mindset, attitudes, and communication so that you can communicate authentically with your team.
p89: All the misbehaviors are common in workplaces around the world. However, only one of them —financial repercussions-is actively taught in MBA programs. […] if a leader doesn't want to confront a person on their team, the solution is to put that person on an impossible assignment. That would force the "undesirable" person to either quit on their own or fail—in which case the leader would have grounds to fire them. Suffice it to say, such behavior has no place in a culture of love.
p91: The more familiar we are with another person, the better able we are to hurt them.
p93–94: Introspection means thoughtfully assessing where you are, what needs to change, and why. Such a process is naturally time-consuming —which is why it's not as widely practiced in the workplace as it should be. That said, introspection is essential to buiding a culture of lestyou really want to chase your behavior, you must understand why you behave thenay you do, and more importantly, what you can do differently.
Effective introspection requires a few key components:
Gather feedback: […] connect with others to learn from your experiences, work on uncovering your true motivations, and understand the root causes of your behaviors. From there, you can work on corrective actions that will yield meaningful
results.
Consistency: Introspection isn't easy to maintain. It requires a prolonged focus on your own motivations and actions. […]
Accountability: […] intent doesn't matter. People can't see intent. Actions will drive how other people perceive you. […] Focus on what happened, why it happened, and what you can do about it either now or next time a similar situation arises.
Patience: […] if there's one single thing holding people back from lasting behavior change, it's that they don't do the work.
p95: So do the work. Don't let yourself off the hook. Ask yourself the hard questions. Spend the time to consider your mindsets, your attitudes, and your communication. The only way to create a culture of love is the hard way.
p102: […] making sure that everyone in your organization (and everyone you invite to visit) has what they need to speak, contribute, and bring their full selves to work.
p102: A culture rooted in inclusion, however, enables everyone to contribute at a high level. A fully included team is a more productive team, and a more productive team produces far better business outcomes.
p103: its precisely because the actions of inclusion require effort that makes them so valuable: it is a way of telling our team members that their needs matter to us, and that we have taken them into account. […] The alternative—making someone feel uncomfortable, uncared for, or otherwise marginalized—is not an option. […] Executed consistently and effectively, inclusion leads to innovation and creativity, empathy, retention, the benefits of diversity, and resilience.
p117: Be the voice for those who need to be heard. Acknowledge your harm, and the harm of the organization, and ask yourself how you can be better. Take responsibility for the impact of your actions. Be willing to examine your own behaviors critically and honestly. […] If you see a policy that needs to change—or if you see a policy that doesn't yet exist but should-take action.
p123: You can spot apathetic managers from a mile away; they're the ones who always demand that you put your feelings aside and get your work done. It's not that they have no feelings, but rather that they believe pushing those feelings aside is an appropriate way to lead in a business.
p123–124: This is the inherent challenge of working with a sympathetic manager. Sure, they mean well, but they rarely offer support in a way that empowers team members and furthers their growth. […] instead of creating opportunities for growth, the sympathetic manager just redistributes the burden to others.
p125: Managers are people with formal authority and position. They oversee other team members, but they don't lead them. […] Leaders, on the other hand, serve their team members by supporting, mentoring, coaching, and otherwise setting their teams up for success. Leadership is learned —and ultimately earned-on the job. A leader earns the title, not through a formal promotion, but when their fellow team members choose to follow them.
p127: Apathetic management takes care of the business while disregarding the person. Sympathetic management takes care of the person while disregarding the business. Empathetic leadership takes care of the person in the context of the business.
p127: The most important requirement for empathy is emotional intelligence. This means being able to read the situation, assume good intent no matter how others are behaving, and connect your own experience to theirs in a way that leads to understanding.
One way to build emotional intelligence is to practice empathetic listening, in which you tune out everything else and focus directly on the other person. By listening to what the person is actually saying, rather than only hearing what you want to hear, you can respond to that person's needs produc-tively.
p130: Rather than helping them become more efficient, his systems and processes had set unrealistic expectations and inhibited their ability to perform. He wasn't empowering his teams; he was holding them back.
p132: To see the gains of empathy, leaders must do the work to relate to every team member, without any of the group being excluded, often translating one team member's experience to another. If you can do that, if you can be empathetic to the needs of your various team members and provide the tools, resources, and mentoring they need, the result is magic. You foster a space where people genuinely care for one another and feel empowered. You build dynamic, high-performing teams.
p133: […] just like with vulnerability and trust, building empathy into your culture of love is going to require a leap of faith —which means that, as a leader, you have to be willing to go first.
p139: A culture rooted in vulnerability allows people to be open and honest and share meaningful emotions. It means we're willing to own mistakes and to learn from those mistakes, rather than having to be seen as perfect.
p143: […] let go of ego, and drop the fear of failure. […] Your job isn't to be perfect all the time. Your job is to bring your ideas to the table and to create a successful organization. […] Vulnerability is not an excuse to express yourself in a way that hurts others or threatens their psychological safety.
p144: We work better when we know we have permission to be uncertain, to make mistakes, and to take ownership of those mistakes without ridicule or blame.
p159: THE SURE SIGNS OF TRUST
How do you know when your teams are practicing vulnerability-based trust? Here are a few sure signs that you have built a high-performing team where each person cares for each other:
Team members know that their deficiencies won't be used against them.
* Team members are quick to resolve disputes and conflicts with each other and don't stoop to gossip or slander.
* Team members begin to act without concern for protecting themselves.
* Team members have more than a surface-level knowledge of those they work with.
p166: CLEAR THE PATH
In a culture of love, empowering a team member isn't about putting someone in charge and then ignoring them. It's about setting them up for success. When choosing to empower one of your teammates with a new responsibility, ask yourself:
Have you given this person everything they need, including explaining the outcomes and goals you expect?
* Have you given them coaching?
* Are you spending the time to mentor and nurture someone in their role?
* Have you given them information, tools, and the access they need to be successful?
* Are you removing blocks and obstacles? Do you respect their decisions, even when those decisions inconvenience you?
When approaching empowerment from a growth mindset, you can remain engaged and available without intervening or micromanaging the pro-cess. Instead of handing your team members answers, you clear a path for them so they can arrive at the answers themselves. It can be difficult sometimes to avoid the impulse to intervene, but we've seen time and again that when you give them a chance, people will rise to the occasion.
November 26, 2021
Like the book L.O.V.E. 2 Lead: A Journey of Self-Reflection, Significance, and Servant Leadership, this book proclaims that one must learn to master inclusion, empathy, vulnerability, trust, empowerment, and forgiveness at every level of their business, first. We must understand how to put the human back in human resources, and why together everyone can achieve more than they can alone. Every business will find that they benefit from the power of love both on a human level and when it comes to financial success. The book argues why love is good for business, why culture is better than strategy, and behavior is even more important than culture, the Six Pillars for creating a culture of love, and how putting people first creates systems that lead to better business outcomes. My highlights:
Love is a deep-rooted and intrinsic care for other humans, and love as a business strategy means putting people at the center of work by creating a workplace that puts humanity first. Unfortunately, many organizations put little thought into the environment they create for their employees. There is not one number on a balance sheet that isn’t connected to a human being. That means that if you want to produce better numbers over the long term, then you should support and empower the people behind those numbers. How we treat each other creates or destroys culture.
Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast - Culture is about the emotional environment you create and the behaviors that build it.
Behavior Eats Culture for Lunch - Groups are made of individuals. As such, cultures are the
result of individual behaviors. Each day, the behaviors of every single team member serve to either strengthen relationships or destroy them. As their relationships go, so goes the organizational culture. The healthier the relationships, the healthier the culture. If a culture of love is the goal, our individual behaviors are the path forward.
The Six Pillars of Love are inclusion, empathy, vulnerability, trust, empowerment, and forgiveness. Practicing empathy may be the most challenging Pillar of Love—and also the most critical. Empathy is being able to turn off your mic and turn up the volume on everyone else. Empathy is about not just listening to the needs of others, but also seeking to
understand their emotional experience. Vulnerability-based trust is built on what the Harvard Business Review refers to as the three elements of trust: relationships, expertise, and
consistency. Forgiveness is the ability to look past someone’s mistakes, shortcomings, or offensive actions, and continue to build a relationship. In business, and in any relationship, forgiveness is not a one-and-done event but rather an ongoing process. For the people that we love, our empathy and forgiveness require constant renewal.
To Lead is to Serve - A culture of love is enabled and embodied through servant leadership. This practice is not just ‘a nice thing to have.’ It is essential. Put others needs first, be humble, practice gratitude, do not ask others to do something you’re not willing to do yourself, always assume good intent, look for the good in others and find weaknesses in yourself, respond instead of react, know that power does not equal leadership, take care of others, and recognize that change starts with you. These are the ingredients of true servant leadership.
HR (Humanity Required) - How you recruit, how you hire, and how you manage and grow your talent matters. After all, in a culture of love, people are the whole point.
Read this book and practice its principles!
Love is a deep-rooted and intrinsic care for other humans, and love as a business strategy means putting people at the center of work by creating a workplace that puts humanity first. Unfortunately, many organizations put little thought into the environment they create for their employees. There is not one number on a balance sheet that isn’t connected to a human being. That means that if you want to produce better numbers over the long term, then you should support and empower the people behind those numbers. How we treat each other creates or destroys culture.
Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast - Culture is about the emotional environment you create and the behaviors that build it.
Behavior Eats Culture for Lunch - Groups are made of individuals. As such, cultures are the
result of individual behaviors. Each day, the behaviors of every single team member serve to either strengthen relationships or destroy them. As their relationships go, so goes the organizational culture. The healthier the relationships, the healthier the culture. If a culture of love is the goal, our individual behaviors are the path forward.
The Six Pillars of Love are inclusion, empathy, vulnerability, trust, empowerment, and forgiveness. Practicing empathy may be the most challenging Pillar of Love—and also the most critical. Empathy is being able to turn off your mic and turn up the volume on everyone else. Empathy is about not just listening to the needs of others, but also seeking to
understand their emotional experience. Vulnerability-based trust is built on what the Harvard Business Review refers to as the three elements of trust: relationships, expertise, and
consistency. Forgiveness is the ability to look past someone’s mistakes, shortcomings, or offensive actions, and continue to build a relationship. In business, and in any relationship, forgiveness is not a one-and-done event but rather an ongoing process. For the people that we love, our empathy and forgiveness require constant renewal.
To Lead is to Serve - A culture of love is enabled and embodied through servant leadership. This practice is not just ‘a nice thing to have.’ It is essential. Put others needs first, be humble, practice gratitude, do not ask others to do something you’re not willing to do yourself, always assume good intent, look for the good in others and find weaknesses in yourself, respond instead of react, know that power does not equal leadership, take care of others, and recognize that change starts with you. These are the ingredients of true servant leadership.
HR (Humanity Required) - How you recruit, how you hire, and how you manage and grow your talent matters. After all, in a culture of love, people are the whole point.
Read this book and practice its principles!
July 13, 2023
“in its simplest form, love as a business strategy means putting people at the center of work by creating a workplace that puts humanity first.” - Mohammad F. Anwar
Recently, I read a book from one of the tech darlings of Silicon Valley. The author touted their organization as one that exudes transparency and regularly recites quotes around culture. Yet, as failures are recounted, there are no apologies or acknowledgement of deeper problems. Rather, he touts their response to the failures (no matter how delayed) as proof they have a good culture. Now, I’m not saying his organization failed by responding late, but some of the failures mentioned are clearly indicators of an unhealthy culture. Readers may not know that the tech industry is replete with examples of poor leadership and unhealthy cultures. Often, we have been mesmerized by the financial successes and benefits bordering on outrageous.
“Here’s a challenge for you: can you describe your company culture without mentioning your perks and benefits?” - Mohammad F. Anwar
Love as a Business Strategy takes a decidedly different approach. The author is very transparent in sharing the failures of the company…as well as his own. As the company was losing money and facing a large layoff, Anwar realized that the organizational culture was toxic and responsible for much of the failures they were experiencing. Together with the leadership team and HR, the organization began rehabbing theri culture and slowly creating an atmosphere that truly values both employees and customers. These changes came with much pain and hard work. Readers will see and feel these challenges through the shared stories of success and failure. For example, Anwar openly shares his failures like the time he publicly chastised an employee for a failure that was actually the fault of Anwar. In this painful story, “Frank” shows Anwar that the fault was not his own. Many of us have experienced similar situations, but I suspect we have not experienced sincere apology and acknowledgement.
If you’re a leader, or aspire to be one, this book should be a part of your library. Now, more than ever, we need leaders that create cultures that truly value the people that make the organization.
“Genuine, human care creates a ripple effect throughout everything people touch in an organization. It means focusing on humanity, not just profits.” - Mohammad F. Anwar
Recently, I read a book from one of the tech darlings of Silicon Valley. The author touted their organization as one that exudes transparency and regularly recites quotes around culture. Yet, as failures are recounted, there are no apologies or acknowledgement of deeper problems. Rather, he touts their response to the failures (no matter how delayed) as proof they have a good culture. Now, I’m not saying his organization failed by responding late, but some of the failures mentioned are clearly indicators of an unhealthy culture. Readers may not know that the tech industry is replete with examples of poor leadership and unhealthy cultures. Often, we have been mesmerized by the financial successes and benefits bordering on outrageous.
“Here’s a challenge for you: can you describe your company culture without mentioning your perks and benefits?” - Mohammad F. Anwar
Love as a Business Strategy takes a decidedly different approach. The author is very transparent in sharing the failures of the company…as well as his own. As the company was losing money and facing a large layoff, Anwar realized that the organizational culture was toxic and responsible for much of the failures they were experiencing. Together with the leadership team and HR, the organization began rehabbing theri culture and slowly creating an atmosphere that truly values both employees and customers. These changes came with much pain and hard work. Readers will see and feel these challenges through the shared stories of success and failure. For example, Anwar openly shares his failures like the time he publicly chastised an employee for a failure that was actually the fault of Anwar. In this painful story, “Frank” shows Anwar that the fault was not his own. Many of us have experienced similar situations, but I suspect we have not experienced sincere apology and acknowledgement.
If you’re a leader, or aspire to be one, this book should be a part of your library. Now, more than ever, we need leaders that create cultures that truly value the people that make the organization.
“Genuine, human care creates a ripple effect throughout everything people touch in an organization. It means focusing on humanity, not just profits.” - Mohammad F. Anwar
May 23, 2021
What is love according to you?
Is it just the romantic and familial affection? Love is something that has no boundaries and no limits. It is everywhere, isn't it? What if we find love in an environment that requires our daily presence? Yes, I am talking about our workspace. I know, right? It would be amazing to have an absolutely healthy and joyous working environment that stimulates our overall growth but how to achieve that? This is the exact reason why this book is a must-read for all.
Divided into three parts, the book stands true to its title and goes great ways to delineate the importance of love in a business.
We talk about a lot of strategies used in businesses to improve its efficiency. But beyond these utterly practical and empirical policies, there are a lot of psychological and emotional factors that affect all of it. And what better answer to all these problems than LOVE ? After all, it isn't something that cannot enter a formal premise, and this book successfully and quite beautifully elucidate the power of love in a business.
The three major segments of the book give a very systematic and easy to decipher approach to how big a role LOVE has to play in a business.
Trust me, it is not one of those typical business books that just puts forth the facts on a cold tray. The empathy, compassion - basically the humaneness that apparently disappears in the cruelty of practicality, pervades the entire narrative. Little case studies or the inclusion of little stories elevate the implications, making a great and true impact on the readers' minds.
Whether you are an employee or employer, a team leader or a manager, this book is bound of inspire and motivate you to surpass your dark days with love and empathy. So, don't wait and grab this book to get your work life invigorated.
Is it just the romantic and familial affection? Love is something that has no boundaries and no limits. It is everywhere, isn't it? What if we find love in an environment that requires our daily presence? Yes, I am talking about our workspace. I know, right? It would be amazing to have an absolutely healthy and joyous working environment that stimulates our overall growth but how to achieve that? This is the exact reason why this book is a must-read for all.
Divided into three parts, the book stands true to its title and goes great ways to delineate the importance of love in a business.
We talk about a lot of strategies used in businesses to improve its efficiency. But beyond these utterly practical and empirical policies, there are a lot of psychological and emotional factors that affect all of it. And what better answer to all these problems than LOVE ? After all, it isn't something that cannot enter a formal premise, and this book successfully and quite beautifully elucidate the power of love in a business.
The three major segments of the book give a very systematic and easy to decipher approach to how big a role LOVE has to play in a business.
Trust me, it is not one of those typical business books that just puts forth the facts on a cold tray. The empathy, compassion - basically the humaneness that apparently disappears in the cruelty of practicality, pervades the entire narrative. Little case studies or the inclusion of little stories elevate the implications, making a great and true impact on the readers' minds.
Whether you are an employee or employer, a team leader or a manager, this book is bound of inspire and motivate you to surpass your dark days with love and empathy. So, don't wait and grab this book to get your work life invigorated.
April 29, 2021
Love as a Business Strategy
The very title made me curious when I heard about the book. When I read more about what it is about, I realized it was everything I want to be followed by business, so I immediately decided I had to give it a try.
Love as business strategy is not as easy to follow as it sounds, because it doesn't merely mean being kind and loving in a professional environment. It is much more.
Since this book is based on experience of implementing the strategy and seeing success at Softway, an IT based organization, they have complete knowledge of what they are talking about. It is all not just theory. It is what people have experimented, experienced and encouraged over the past few years. The clarity reflected in every page while explaining concepts is extremely helpful to understand what is being preached even if you are not someone who is higher in the hierarchy of the corporate setting. It is a book for everyone.
I am always a fan of books that explain concepts with a little bit of anecdote. It makes it easy for me to comprehend complex concepts. This one has done the anecdote bit the best with such suitable and relatable ones. There are six significant points that are discussed as the must follow to embrace this strategy. Instead of just telling what to do, they also mention how to do it. For instance, we all speak about inclusion, but how do we include everyone in the right way? This book speaks from the experience of authors on such matters and hence it comes out as the most practical need of the hour.
Just as the title suggests it is about love as strategy and also about hope in toxic work culture. I genuinely hope more people read it and understand that work can be optimistic, fun and morally uplifting.
The very title made me curious when I heard about the book. When I read more about what it is about, I realized it was everything I want to be followed by business, so I immediately decided I had to give it a try.
Love as business strategy is not as easy to follow as it sounds, because it doesn't merely mean being kind and loving in a professional environment. It is much more.
Since this book is based on experience of implementing the strategy and seeing success at Softway, an IT based organization, they have complete knowledge of what they are talking about. It is all not just theory. It is what people have experimented, experienced and encouraged over the past few years. The clarity reflected in every page while explaining concepts is extremely helpful to understand what is being preached even if you are not someone who is higher in the hierarchy of the corporate setting. It is a book for everyone.
I am always a fan of books that explain concepts with a little bit of anecdote. It makes it easy for me to comprehend complex concepts. This one has done the anecdote bit the best with such suitable and relatable ones. There are six significant points that are discussed as the must follow to embrace this strategy. Instead of just telling what to do, they also mention how to do it. For instance, we all speak about inclusion, but how do we include everyone in the right way? This book speaks from the experience of authors on such matters and hence it comes out as the most practical need of the hour.
Just as the title suggests it is about love as strategy and also about hope in toxic work culture. I genuinely hope more people read it and understand that work can be optimistic, fun and morally uplifting.
May 22, 2021
** 𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐊 𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖 **
“Everyone wants change but no one wants to change.”
𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 :
Love as a business strategy is a growth and transformation journey of an organization called Softway who has put people at the center of their work by creating a workplace that puts humanity first.
The book is divided broadly into three parts:
𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝟏: This part talks about building the foundation of love within an organization.
𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝟐: It describes the 6 Pillars of love.
𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝟑: This part puts a roof over these pillars and explains how the concept of love applies to different areas of your business such as leadership, teams, processes, technology, and more importantly individuals.
𝐊𝐞𝐲 𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤:
𝐒𝐢𝐱 𝐏𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞:
These are inclusion, trust, empowerment, vulnerability, empathy, and forgiveness. All of these pillars are interrelated and interdependent. Inclusion, for instance, depends on trust, empathy, and vulnerability to succeed. All of the individual behaviors are being driven by these pillars.
𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩:
🤗 Traditional leadership doesn’t work in a culture of love. Servant leadership is a philosophy and a set of practices in which leaders put the needs of the team before themselves. It helps in building better organizations and the lives of individuals.
These were the defining factors in the transformation of Sofway from a process/data-centric to a people-centric organization.
𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤?
🏢This book is very engaging and filled with real stories of an organization that has transformed itself from head to toe. So if you are into the business book genre and interested in knowing the importance of culture. I don’t think you’ll find a better book than this.
“Everyone wants change but no one wants to change.”
𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 :
Love as a business strategy is a growth and transformation journey of an organization called Softway who has put people at the center of their work by creating a workplace that puts humanity first.
The book is divided broadly into three parts:
𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝟏: This part talks about building the foundation of love within an organization.
𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝟐: It describes the 6 Pillars of love.
𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝟑: This part puts a roof over these pillars and explains how the concept of love applies to different areas of your business such as leadership, teams, processes, technology, and more importantly individuals.
𝐊𝐞𝐲 𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤:
𝐒𝐢𝐱 𝐏𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞:
These are inclusion, trust, empowerment, vulnerability, empathy, and forgiveness. All of these pillars are interrelated and interdependent. Inclusion, for instance, depends on trust, empathy, and vulnerability to succeed. All of the individual behaviors are being driven by these pillars.
𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩:
🤗 Traditional leadership doesn’t work in a culture of love. Servant leadership is a philosophy and a set of practices in which leaders put the needs of the team before themselves. It helps in building better organizations and the lives of individuals.
These were the defining factors in the transformation of Sofway from a process/data-centric to a people-centric organization.
𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤?
🏢This book is very engaging and filled with real stories of an organization that has transformed itself from head to toe. So if you are into the business book genre and interested in knowing the importance of culture. I don’t think you’ll find a better book than this.
November 21, 2025
This is terrible.
I'd like to think this dumpster fire was merely the brain-rotted product of a large language model, but unfortunately this seems to be a human creation (or more likely, some bureaucratic committee, so we're pushing the meaning of "human" either way). If you took all the corporate leadership books and somehow made them even more bland, disingenuous, and forgettable than they already are, you'd have this book. Honestly, it's impressive how little substance and originality made it into this 300+ page advertisement.
The little insight given is basic human morality (don't be a jerk to people!) and cherry-picked Jesus teachings (the oft-repeated corporate theft of "servant leadership" which drives me nuts). But shouldn't we Christians be happy that the corporate world is at least, to some minimal extent, endorsing Biblical teachings like humility and service? Unfortunately, when profit (or I should say, mammon) is the end goal, the stolen Biblical teachings just become a front for idolatry. "Love" is not love if it is contingent on profit maximization.
Why waste breath ranting about this book? After all, books like this by the dozens are published every year, and some are probably much worse. Am I just irritated about being forced to read this in an actual university class? Yes. But I also think books like these highlight the moral vacuity of our culture – especially within the corporate and educational world. Even speaking from a secular angle, the fact that, in 2025, a state university assigns this book as required reading is a sorry indictment of the modern industrialized university. Past business school undergraduates read "The Wealth of Nations." Now, if we read at all, we read "Love as a Business Strategy."
I'd like to think this dumpster fire was merely the brain-rotted product of a large language model, but unfortunately this seems to be a human creation (or more likely, some bureaucratic committee, so we're pushing the meaning of "human" either way). If you took all the corporate leadership books and somehow made them even more bland, disingenuous, and forgettable than they already are, you'd have this book. Honestly, it's impressive how little substance and originality made it into this 300+ page advertisement.
The little insight given is basic human morality (don't be a jerk to people!) and cherry-picked Jesus teachings (the oft-repeated corporate theft of "servant leadership" which drives me nuts). But shouldn't we Christians be happy that the corporate world is at least, to some minimal extent, endorsing Biblical teachings like humility and service? Unfortunately, when profit (or I should say, mammon) is the end goal, the stolen Biblical teachings just become a front for idolatry. "Love" is not love if it is contingent on profit maximization.
Why waste breath ranting about this book? After all, books like this by the dozens are published every year, and some are probably much worse. Am I just irritated about being forced to read this in an actual university class? Yes. But I also think books like these highlight the moral vacuity of our culture – especially within the corporate and educational world. Even speaking from a secular angle, the fact that, in 2025, a state university assigns this book as required reading is a sorry indictment of the modern industrialized university. Past business school undergraduates read "The Wealth of Nations." Now, if we read at all, we read "Love as a Business Strategy."
April 28, 2021
From yelling, emotional abuse, mind games to love as a business strategy.
The book talks about how love can help a business grow.
Mohammad, chief executive of the software company has faced a downturn when he realised love can help a business grow.
The book consists of different strategy in not so cheesy or preachy way. Every strategy the company is using has drawn its way from a past bad experience. Every strategy is preceded by examples of the company itself.
Writing Style-
Although the writing style is super professional and straight to the point, the ease of language and the choice of words and example makes it easy to read and comprehend to even beginners.
What I Liked The Most-
You will get to know the story of both sides; The leader's side and the employee's side.
A leader understands how his command, his behaviour his action is seemed by his employees. On the other hand, it has also included how the employee sees it. How employees behave.
The book has series of real-life, a first-hand example to help you understand the point better.
My opinion-
This book will force you to think about your behaviour towards the work and workplace.
By the end of the book, the feeling of superiority and the convection that Senior is always right will fade and you will get to know some great lessons.
It elaborates on self-awareness. How can you improve yourself and in what ways
If you are a non-fiction reader, you have to have this book.
Every aspiring leader and entrepreneurs must consider reading it once. It will broaden your thinking and analysing skill and help you in many aspects of your work life.
The book talks about how love can help a business grow.
Mohammad, chief executive of the software company has faced a downturn when he realised love can help a business grow.
The book consists of different strategy in not so cheesy or preachy way. Every strategy the company is using has drawn its way from a past bad experience. Every strategy is preceded by examples of the company itself.
Writing Style-
Although the writing style is super professional and straight to the point, the ease of language and the choice of words and example makes it easy to read and comprehend to even beginners.
What I Liked The Most-
You will get to know the story of both sides; The leader's side and the employee's side.
A leader understands how his command, his behaviour his action is seemed by his employees. On the other hand, it has also included how the employee sees it. How employees behave.
The book has series of real-life, a first-hand example to help you understand the point better.
My opinion-
This book will force you to think about your behaviour towards the work and workplace.
By the end of the book, the feeling of superiority and the convection that Senior is always right will fade and you will get to know some great lessons.
It elaborates on self-awareness. How can you improve yourself and in what ways
If you are a non-fiction reader, you have to have this book.
Every aspiring leader and entrepreneurs must consider reading it once. It will broaden your thinking and analysing skill and help you in many aspects of your work life.
April 28, 2021
A realisation struck me after reading this book, which is are we are actually working in a humanitarian environment? For most of the working places, I think the answer is a big NOO. This amazing book by the team of Softway gave me in-depth details of what an office/workplace should be like, where a human spends most of his/her time. They say, "We have learned how to rediscover our humanity, put people at the centre of work and build a better business."
The book is divided into 3 parts, written in lucid, easy to understand language, with a lot of databases to prove their points with the help of flowcharts, notes, testimonies, and much more. The amazing souls who wrote this book happen to be the heart and soul of the company too. The book begins with how the company plans to fire a few employees due to the losses, and then how their subtle planning and understanding, did wonder to the organisation's success and prosperity.
The main aim of this book is to present the importance of LOVE in a business, love for work, love for co-workers, love for each other as a team, and love for all the good and bad a business goes through. A book that is totally meant for leaders and aspiring leaders, aims to cultivate a culture of love at the workplace. Chapter: Culture eats strategy as breakfast is something I would love to read a zillion times. New concepts are also introduced and explained like 'crab umbrella'.. to know more you can grab a book for yourself. Believe me, it is worth reading.
The book is divided into 3 parts, written in lucid, easy to understand language, with a lot of databases to prove their points with the help of flowcharts, notes, testimonies, and much more. The amazing souls who wrote this book happen to be the heart and soul of the company too. The book begins with how the company plans to fire a few employees due to the losses, and then how their subtle planning and understanding, did wonder to the organisation's success and prosperity.
The main aim of this book is to present the importance of LOVE in a business, love for work, love for co-workers, love for each other as a team, and love for all the good and bad a business goes through. A book that is totally meant for leaders and aspiring leaders, aims to cultivate a culture of love at the workplace. Chapter: Culture eats strategy as breakfast is something I would love to read a zillion times. New concepts are also introduced and explained like 'crab umbrella'.. to know more you can grab a book for yourself. Believe me, it is worth reading.
April 28, 2021
"Love" and "Business" don't always go together. Business is perceived to be staunchly separate from emotional bandages, and is thought to be something very discrete, out of the way of Love. "Love as a Business Strategy" is a book that bridges the gap between the two. It shows us how Love can be incorporated to make business flourish and how it can be utilized in corporate fields.
Inspired by Softway's journey, this book makes us see new perspectives to how business can be handled by keeping people at the forefront, how it can be wonderfully maintained by embracing thoughtful emotions.
"Love as a Business Strategy" lays out the blueprints for better business outcomes, and doesn't become one of those boring, repetitive business guidance textbooks. Rather, this book is dynamic-- the experiences are first-hand and ideas revolutionary. What makes this particular book special is how oriented to people it is, how it is largely based upon real-life experiences of people in the company, who are far from ideal.
By reading this book, it can be felt how doing Business is incubated within a clear understanding of people's minds and their emotions. Vividly visual, very pointedly communicated and wanting to bring a change in how people view business, "Love as a Business Strategy" could be a winner of a book.
Inspired by Softway's journey, this book makes us see new perspectives to how business can be handled by keeping people at the forefront, how it can be wonderfully maintained by embracing thoughtful emotions.
"Love as a Business Strategy" lays out the blueprints for better business outcomes, and doesn't become one of those boring, repetitive business guidance textbooks. Rather, this book is dynamic-- the experiences are first-hand and ideas revolutionary. What makes this particular book special is how oriented to people it is, how it is largely based upon real-life experiences of people in the company, who are far from ideal.
By reading this book, it can be felt how doing Business is incubated within a clear understanding of people's minds and their emotions. Vividly visual, very pointedly communicated and wanting to bring a change in how people view business, "Love as a Business Strategy" could be a winner of a book.
May 20, 2021
Love as a Business Strategy offers a new, people-first framework for achieving any business outcome—written by folks that aren’t fans of run-of-the-mill business books.
Love as a Business Strategy steers clear from piety and theoretical concepts and instead shares grounded stories of resilient people running a real business. A business, as you’ll come to find out, that was on the brink of disaster before ‘love’ took hold. Love As A Business Strategy doesn’t preach or mislead, rather it lays out the blueprints for better business outcomes—like better employee engagement, enhanced patient experiences, and increased efficiency—then walks you through it step-by-step.
A better way of doing business is possible. The workplace revolution has arrived. Love as a Business Strategy will help you ditch the status quo, embrace humanity, and achieve lasting success
Love as a Business Strategy steers clear from piety and theoretical concepts and instead shares grounded stories of resilient people running a real business. A business, as you’ll come to find out, that was on the brink of disaster before ‘love’ took hold. Love As A Business Strategy doesn’t preach or mislead, rather it lays out the blueprints for better business outcomes—like better employee engagement, enhanced patient experiences, and increased efficiency—then walks you through it step-by-step.
A better way of doing business is possible. The workplace revolution has arrived. Love as a Business Strategy will help you ditch the status quo, embrace humanity, and achieve lasting success
November 8, 2022
Love is COmmunications...
When I first learned of this book, I knew that I had to read it. It did not disappoint. The authors weave an amazing story, communicating the power of Love and its ability to communicate on a level mostly ignored, if not forgotten. Does it work in business? Absolutely. It made me think of another favorite: “Love is The Killer App” by Tim Sanders. So good in fact, that I have both the paperback, and the Kindle version, and the clip I shared is a screen print of Alexa reading the Kindle version to me. A must-read… or listen! Looking to start a business or put the wheels back on one that took its eyes off the culture, this is “the one” for this moment in your adventure. Tell’em SKI sent you!
When I first learned of this book, I knew that I had to read it. It did not disappoint. The authors weave an amazing story, communicating the power of Love and its ability to communicate on a level mostly ignored, if not forgotten. Does it work in business? Absolutely. It made me think of another favorite: “Love is The Killer App” by Tim Sanders. So good in fact, that I have both the paperback, and the Kindle version, and the clip I shared is a screen print of Alexa reading the Kindle version to me. A must-read… or listen! Looking to start a business or put the wheels back on one that took its eyes off the culture, this is “the one” for this moment in your adventure. Tell’em SKI sent you!
September 24, 2023
Many business books are dry and spare on actual failures that lead to the reckoning which causes true change. The authors of this book made many mistakes which most of the world does make as we figure out how to navigate being good and responsible managers of people while also trying to run successful businesses. I think that is what made this book so relatable. I could see my own early and recent failures to act in love at work. I liked the practical approach and the real life stories and the confessions of shortcomings. It makes it more believable and you can see how you can apply the principles in your own sphere as a start to working on the greater organization. A friend lent me this book that they received and I’m so glad that they did.
October 12, 2021
I enjoyed reading this book. It is a call to humanity. Finally a call to make right when decisions drive the soul out of the business. This book is great for the millions of companies that have lost its purpose to serve during difficult times. Such as easy read! I really like that each chapter started with a story that we can relate to. A great message for the tech industry. The path to success starts with mutual love for the people in the business. Great stories. Mohammad's writing style is phenomenal.
January 13, 2025
I loved this book! As a middle manager for a large Fortune 500, though, I'm struggling with how to apply it for the simple reason that my company would likely tell you they are already doing all these things. There's a fine line between loving as Softway does, and the rampant toxic positivity that could ensue if this approach is only partially implemented. I would love to see a follow-up discussing this.
February 20, 2023
As a former client of these authors, I just want to say I genuinely love everyone who was involved in the making of this book and these concepts, and we really did accomplish amazing things together as a team. If that's not a true testament to the effectiveness of love as a business strategy, then I don't know what is.
October 17, 2024
Presentation is nauseatingly sickly-sweet. One gets the impression that it’s written by young, very naive, possibly arrogant but well-meaning folk. Can’t fault any of their logic, though. The book becomes more credible after the acknowledgments. All in all, probably an important book with important ideas.
March 14, 2025
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Love as a Business Strategy provides practical insights and strategies that are easy to understand and apply in real-world situations. It's a valuable resource for anyone looking to improve their skills and approach to business challenges.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Love as a Business Strategy provides practical insights and strategies that are easy to understand and apply in real-world situations. It's a valuable resource for anyone looking to improve their skills and approach to business challenges.
March 21, 2025
4 ⭐️’s for content, and I highly recommend this to any working professional, but especially those who manage or lead people. I had to lower my rating because I got annoyed by the constantly changing narrators - sometimes it was an individual, sometimes it was the collective group of authors. It seemed to happen randomly though and ruined the flow.
May 5, 2021
A much needed remind to put love at the centre of strategy. The books is based on Softway's experience so it's not just theory. It's easy to read, and applicable at all stages of one's leadership journey. Even to self-leadership.
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