Manby, Joel. Love Works: Seven Timeless Principles for Effective Leaders. 2012. Updated and expanded ed., Zondervan, 2020. ISBN 978-0-310-35974-6. 249 pages, $29.99.
Cover image: Love Works by Joel Manby. Image reproduced for purposes of review and commentary.
When we hear the phrase corporate culture, we rarely think of the deep feeling of love. Instead, we recall competition, the nine-to-five routine, bottom lines, policies and procedures, and even the ease with which employees are laid off. Companies and organizations, including institutions of higher learning, emphasize integrity, leading by example, empowerment, and other leadership qualities, but love is rarely mentioned as an important principle for leading a team. The word love comes across as a fuzzy, sentimental emotion that seems incompatible with the impersonal nature of corporate life. After all, most corporations exist to maximize profits, and there seems to be little room for affection and care.
In Love Works, a bestseller on leadership originally published in 2012, Joel Manby challenges corporate leaders to embrace the Christian virtue of love, specifically agape love, or selfless and unconditional love. Based on his experience as the CEO of large companies such as SeaWorld and Saab, the author advocates the idea that love is more powerful than other leadership traits commonly mentioned in leadership studies. It is an intriguing proposition that deserves the attention of anyone in a leadership position. Without theological heavy-handedness, the author offers practical advice for leaders grounded in Scripture.
The book is divided into four parts: Love in Leadership, Love Defined, Love Tested, and Love Everlasting. The second part focuses primarily on the seven virtues discussed in Chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians, often called the “love chapter” of the Bible: patience, kindness, trust, unselfishness, truthfulness, forgiveness, and dedication. Those familiar with the chapter will recognize the author’s basic points without reading these chapters line by line, but they are worth reading closely because the author explains how biblical principles can guide organizational management in today’s work environment. How can one practice agape love when an employee’s performance is poor? How can one encourage employees while nudging them toward better performance? How can one develop dependable employees without micromanaging them? What can one do to transcend one’s own needs and serve as a source of support for the team? How should one handle the truth about the organization in interactions with team members? Is it possible to “forgive” a team member in a corporate environment, and if forgiveness is warranted, how should it be carried out? How does one practice agape love amid a difficult work environment? These and other practical questions are addressed throughout the book. While advocating agape love, the author does not lose sight of an organization’s fundamental purpose: its bottom line.
Even firing an employee, one of the most difficult tasks for managers, can be handled with care, compassion, and dignity. Drawing on both good and bad examples from his own managerial experience, the author notes that dismissing an employee does not have to be a rancorous process if it is thoughtfully planned. On one occasion, he mishandled the process by accidentally allowing an employee who was about to be fired to learn of his dismissal before hearing the news from him. The employee was both enraged and embarrassed. Years later, when the author saw him from afar at a grocery store, he headed in the opposite direction to avoid meeting him. In another case, however, he dismissed an employee with compassion and even wrote a strong recommendation letter for him. The employee found a position he liked very much, and their subsequent reunion was much more amicable. The author even suggests that organizations should minimize the practice of escorting dismissed employees out of the office, a common practice in corporations and, increasingly, at universities.
The precepts the author provides would work particularly well in an organization that professes an explicitly Christian faith as the guiding principle of its operations. Many elite universities in the United States began as Christian institutions, but faith now remains primarily a historical part of their identities. In contrast, there are still large numbers of institutions of higher learning across the country that seek to meet the needs of Christian constituents. Financially, these institutions operate in a precarious environment because of competition from public institutions and a shrinking pool of high school graduates. Nevertheless, through sound financial management and an unapologetic adherence to their Christian foundations, they have survived. A few are even thriving. In one remarkable case, a university’s enrollment has exceeded 100,000, an extraordinary achievement at a time when many institutions of higher learning face significant challenges, with only a small number of elite institutions being exceptions.
One may question the relevance of an operational principle based on the Bible. Of course, agape love is a concept rooted in Christianity, but it can appeal to people regardless of their religious backgrounds because it encompasses universal virtues such as compassion, empathy, care, selfless love, encouragement, support, and respect. As the sacred text of the world’s largest religion, the Bible contains teachings on human conduct that offer insights into managing human resources, one of the main assets of any organization. Similarly, Buddhist concepts such as loving-kindness, compassion, sympathy, gentleness, goodwill, and clear perception can offer valuable insights into management. These religious and ethical traditions suggest that principles of human dignity, compassion, and mutual respect can contribute to effective organizational leadership regardless of an individual’s particular religious beliefs.
The author’s main point about love as a powerful leadership trait is well taken. One lingering question, however, is whether love can merely be a tool for running an organization efficiently. Work life is different from personal life, and, as most people know, there should not be too much blending of the two in a work environment. While we do not have to be completely secretive about our personal lives at work, it is also prudent to place voluntary limits on how much personal information we share. After all, many colleague relationships end when one leaves the workplace. For example, how many of us would attend the funeral of a former colleague’s family member whom we no longer see at work? We would normally attend if the person were still employed, but wouldn’t it be tempting to skip it because that person is no longer a colleague? These questions suggest that, while love can enrich leadership, genuine care cannot be reduced to a management technique.
Love can also take the form of a deep friendship. In my own case, I have had weekly lunch meetings with a colleague for 25 years, even after he retired eight years ago. We have formed a lifelong friendship despite our different backgrounds, an Ozarks-rooted Caucasian and a Korean immigrant. I also often meet some of my retired colleagues at funerals, which suggests that our relationships have continued beyond the workplace and that we care for one another in times of sorrow. These enduring relationships have shown me that genuine care for colleagues can grow into friendships that extend well beyond the workplace. Perhaps this is partly because I work at a Christian university, where employee relationships may be more personal than those at other types of institutions. Whatever the reason, these relationships illustrate the kind of enduring human connection that cannot be measured simply by productivity or organizational outcomes.
Overall, Love Works offers a valuable perspective on how genuine care and compassion can strengthen both leadership and the workplace. Practicing agape love is not merely a means of effective management; more important, it is the right thing to do in an era when the financial bottom line can seem to trump decent human relationships. Organizational leaders, not only those at the top but also mid-level managers, will benefit from reading this work. Having served as a middle manager in an academic unit of a university since 2005, I have learned that managing human resources is not for the faint of heart. With the right mindset, however, it can be a rewarding experience. Employees who do not always know how well their organization is doing can easily feel insecure about their performance and even about their employment. Offering them words of assurance, encouragement, and care while motivating them to improve their performance can make a significant difference in leading a team. Ultimately, Love Works reminds us that effective leadership is not simply about achieving organizational goals but also about how we treat the people who help us achieve them, and that principle is worth remembering whether we lead a corporation, a university, or any other organization.
About the Author
Professor of English and Creative Writing and Associate Dean of the School of Humanities and Theology, Missouri Baptist University
John J. Han, PhD, is the author, editor, co-editor, or translator of 38 books. His forthcoming book, Echoes from the Hills: Critical Essays on Ozarks Literature (co-edited with C. Clark Triplett), will be published by the University of Arkansas Press. He has also published more than 3,000 poems, primarily haiku, in a wide range of journals and anthologies. In addition to his long tenure at Missouri Baptist University, he has taught at Kansas State University, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Nebraska Wesleyan University, and Washington University in St. Louis. He has also served as a visiting scholar at Georgia College & State University and the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia.
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