Excellent post Mary,

Love should be an integral part of leadership. It can be thought of in other terms as well.
If I use the latest buzzword, I hate that word, Emotional Intelligence, which used to be known as soft skills which has always been known as human nature.

If leaders understood human nature then they would come to the realization that they are not running their companies at full potential. While their company may be highly profitable it is only mediocre at best from the employee stand point. There is a power in the love that you speak of that isn't even being tapped into.

I know the excuses that soft skills are an intangible and you cannot put metrics on intangibles. Yes and this is a poor excuse! Let me explain how I did it in 2 companies. While you cannot measure the intangible itself you can measure the effect of it.

Take a snap shot of all the metrics you measure currently. Implement the skills and give it a few weeks to work well. Then take another snap of the same metrics and compare.

You will see that you have achieved higher productivity, higher quality of work, fewer mistakes, better customer support, and higher moral along with other factors.

A place with a leaders love is the company people want to work at where people strive to get in. These are places where they are not worried about employee retention.

Lets start to feel the love in every company!