is the founder and chairman of the Extreme Leadership Institute. He's got clients like
Microsoft, Hyatt Hotels, Cisco, Ernst and Young, et cetera. Been in business for 30 years
and he's here to talk about - Love. - [Joel] In business? - In business, I know
we're not accustomed to using those words in
the same sentence, but-- - What's love got to do with it, if I may? - Well, simply put, love
is just damn good business.
- [Joel] Why? - Well, look, first of all, let's just understand where we are, okay? Over the last 10 years, if
you look at the research from the U.S. Government,
among other places, we've thrown, when I say we I
mean the business community, has thrown nearly a trillion dollars at leadership development. So you take that trillion dollars and compare it with the
very famous Gallup study that comes out every year
that measures engagement. - In other words, how
happy people are on a job.
- How happy people are on the job. - Right. - And how much they
put themselves into it. - Right.
- This year 73% of the
workforce is disengaged. Compare that with 10 years ago. - When it was? - 70%. Now that's essentially the same thing.
- So after a trillion dollars things have gotten slightly worse. - Yes. (Laughs) Or at least they haven't moved. - They haven't moved.
- So we need something
radical to move the needle and love is about as radical as it gets, particularly in the context of business. If we really operationalize love, that's where our competitive
advantage comes from. - That's a big word. What do you mean by operationalize? - So there's lots of companies out there that build marketing campaigns around how much they love their customers, right? And we can print the banners and we can wear the buttons
that say we love our customers.
- [Joel] Right. - It's not that. That's not a bad thing as
long as we can back it up. We need to create experiences,
products and services, combination of the two,
that our customers love.
- [Joel] Right. - Because we all know that that's where our competitive
advantage comes from. So in order to create the experience that our customers love, we have to create an environment that our folks, that our people,
that our team loves working in and we can't do that unless we love them, and the business, and the customers first. - I follow the logic, but it sounds to me like you are mandating a sentiment.
I can't force myself to
love somebody, right? - No, you can't, but first of
all love is not a sentiment. It's a practice, it's a discipline. So I can care for you,
I can be kind to you, I can cultivate an environment
that you love working in, even if maybe there's somebody else that I'd rather hang out with. (Joel laughs) Right? But if I can do that, - [Joel] Right, right.
- It's gonna show up,
I'll give you an example. - [Joel] Yeah. - There's a great little
company in Jacksonville, Florida called Trailer Bridge. They're in the shipping logistics company.
They emerged from bankruptcy in 2014 and the place was toxic. They burned through four
CEOs in three years, four heads of HR in three years. In fact, HR was known in the
company as the rumor mill. (Laughs) That's the function that people
thought that they served.
They were dying to get out of there if they could find another
job people were gone. Mitch Luciano, who was part
of the management team, was tapped by the board to be the new CEO. And this was a guy who,
I later came to find out after I heard the story,
was a huge fan of my books. The Radical Leap, the Radical
Edge, Greater Than Yourself.
- [Joel] Yeah, yeah, yeah. - They really influenced how he lead and the core theme and
everything that I'd written about and everything that I do is this idea that love is good business. - So he was putting
your stuff into practice and you hadn't even met the guy yet? - Hadn't even met him, no. - Wow.
- Yeah, which is one of
the great things about - Right. - And gratifying things
about being an author, right? Here's what he did. The first thing he said was, "I can't take the title of CEO. "I'll take the responsibility,
but I won't take the title, "because nobody trusts
the title (laughs) of CEO, "'cause we burn through 'em like tinder." So he said, "I'll be the president, "I'll earn the title of CEO." And then, now this is really important, he was coming from a
place of authenticity.
I love these people, I love this company, I love the future that
we can create together. That's where he was coming from. So the first thing he did was, he said we're a company of 110 people, everybody's wearing name tags,
we should know each other. - We should know each other's names.
- Right, by now. - Right, it's not like a
110,000 people, it's 110 people. - Right, yeah. - So he got rid of the name tags then he lowered the height of the cubicles so people could actually see each other and encourage them to
actually talk to each other.
And then he said we have to model this. As leaders that starts with me. And what love looks like to Mitch, is that if you come into his office, and you say, hey, Mitch, can I have five minutes of your time, even though he knows it's not gonna be five minutes (laughs). - It's gonna be half and hour, right.
- It's gonna be at least an hour. - Yeah, yeah. - He says, "Yes, come in,"
he turns off his computer, he spins around, looks at
you and says, Tell me." - What was the result of all this? - Just the last two years in a row they've been voted
number one and number two best place to work in
the city of Jacksonville. The most profitable results
in the history of the company.
And they, you know, they're
recruiting great talent left and right because their own people are now their best recruiters. - So ordinarily we think business and love are kind of opposite ends
of the dichotomy, right? - Yes, we do. - Here you are a business guy. - Yes.
- And you're not takin' love lightly? - I am not.
- Alright. - I do not take the word love lightly. - And neither should we. (Soft soothing music) - Love is just damn good business.
- Thanks for being with us. - My pleasure. (Soft soothing music).
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