Leadership guru, Steve Farber, certainly knows the answer to the infamous question: “What’s love got to do with it?” belted out by rhythm and blues singer Tina Turner in her famous song. If the subject matter is business and leadership, the answer to the question according to Farber is a resounding “EVERYTHING!”
Farber, who headlined the Greater Green Bay Chamber’s 133th Annual dinner on October 15, knows a thing or two about leadership since he has excelled in leadership topics over twenty five years. His work in founding the Extreme Leadership Institute has led to three best-selling books and he has refined his subject matter into what he calls the LEAP framework of leadership.
Laying out his LEAP principles to the Chamber crowd, Farber said the extreme leader cultivates love (for the business), which generates energy (to execute superior customer service) which inspires audacity (to disregard constraints that keep results and service mediocre) and requires proof (to customers and employees) to be effective. Each of the principles: love, energy, audacity, and proof build on each other and work together to make a business stand out amongst its competition. But without love, none of this is possible. Farber uses the principles to help business owners and managers improve their organizations.
Farber feels so strongly about love that his research shows it is intrinsic to many famous business leaders approach to business and life. For instance, love is at the center of Warren Buffet’s decision to invest in a company. If a company leader does not love its principal business Buffet won’t invest in it. The same thing was true for Steve Jobs. At a time in his life when Jobs was soul searching, he gave a famous commencement speech to the graduating class at Stanford and said: “You’ve got to find what you love… The only way to do great work is to love what you do!”
Not only do you need to love what you do, but Farber says it is critical to do it in the service of other people who love what you do. Farber closed his talk by asking the audience several questions to take back to their businesses. First, ask yourself “why do I love this business,” then, ask: “What is it I really do? What is the higher meaning and purpose in our work? How are we going to change the world of our customers, employees, market, and industry? Do I really want to do this?”
Lastly, instead of just asking questions, hold yourself and your businesses accountable by the acronym DWYSYWD or in other words “Do What You Say You Would Do!” Take the LEAP Challenge and put these questions to work in your business and in your lives today.
Smet is proud to be affiliated with the Greater Green Bay Chamber and programs that challenge us to make our businesses and communities’ better places. We build to improve the physical spaces and the lives of our customers. We love to see the results of the hard work and passion that go into each building. And we’re moved by the efforts and dreams of our clients, the vendors involved from architects to concrete companies, the expertise and cohesiveness of our teams. We love what we do and we are honored when you love the results. And like Steve Farber, we believe that love has EVERYTHING to do with it!
Greg Polacheck, Director of Market Research
[email protected]
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