During the "Month of Love" we are enticed with all sorts of messages to do with sending hearts and flowers or - for the lucky few - a Valentine's Vacay. For many in the office, the day signifies an awkwardness. Some colleagues revel in the atmosphere and hope of receiving a treat of some kind. For others, the day cannot pass by quickly enough!
In the workplace, the so-called month of love can be especially awkward. On the one hand it can infuse a positive energy - red being a colour associated with power and high energy. On the other hand, there is a fine line between the casual inference of 'love' and downright harassment.
Given the minefield of the above scenario, how does one go about fostering an overall atmosphere of genuine care among colleagues, while simultaneously being results oriented?
In this blog, I will venture a hypothesis to bring the two ideas together. The idea of love and care combined with the idea of achieving results.
Love is practical
Have you ever heard the saying that love is not a feeling but an action. If this is true then what kind of action can be equated with love, especially in a place of work.
I recently had a moment of inspiration, which I shared on my Facebook page.
With your permission, I'm going to draw on some wisdom of the ages:
Also known as The Good Book.
In the book of John 13:34 Jesus says to His disciples to: "love one another as I have loved you". If you search for any signs of exactly how He 'loved', you will actually discover nothing romantic or remotely hinting towards hearts and roses - at all! In fact, when you look for exactly how Jesus did this loving business, you will come to the conclusion that it was in the service of others. Yes, He served.
Serve one another
Now that the L-word is out of the way, let us take a meaningful look at what it means to serve. After all; serving is based on action. I'm sure you've personally experienced how even a small act of service can make lasting impact. As I observe the variety of disruptions happening all around the world - particularly all the conflict - I also notice a distinct effort by many people to find ways to assist where possible and to fight on behalf of the helpless and affected. To me that speaks of service.
Serving one another doesn't have to be difficult. If you take a moment to think about it, we're actually all in the service business. If someone looks like they're carrying a few heavy items, would you offer to help? Are you the go-to person for advice to a colleague? Do you find yourself assisting a new recruit to find their way around the office? From this perspective, it may actually seem that serving each other comes naturally to humans.
So, if the Valentines wave seems a little awkward, it could simply mean that we're ascribing romantic sentiments to something that is a lot less fuzzy and lot more practical. Dare I say, natural to us.
It feels like support
Last year, during an international panel discussion, where I was one of the panelists for an Austrian Business School I'm affiliated with, we [the panelists] were asked for some final thoughts to the audience. The conversation was about leading teams through periods of disruption. Some brilliant business advice was shared by my colleagues from Asia, Europe and the USA. In my personal contribution to the final audience take-away, I found myself simply stating the we must practice how to say: "How can I support you?" or the less personal: "What support do you need?"
When people are being served, they experience it as support. In simple terms; when this sense of support is a natural part of business culture [how we do things around here] it leads to a healthy environment. It is, therefore, safe to conclude that; a healthy work environment leads to healthy business results.
As a coaching business, we at GoPeak thrive on the idea of supporting our clients on their journey to achieving healthy business results. Think of us as your business Sherpa.
Why not make the best of the month of love and take us up on this offer of support .
CODE: V-Tines
We look forward to showing you some love and provide you with essential coaching support in the year to come.
💌