Love at Work

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Many books have been written on personal development. Many books have been written on business development. This is a book about both. 6 6 There is no doubt that you will feel the benefit from the wisdom of these pages — as will everyone else around you.” Vanessa Ascough Centre for Leadership Studies — University of Exeter

Find yourself in its pages then page yourself at the office and see who answers! No matter where you stand on the corporate ladder, this book will be a valuable resource.”

Bill Russell Director, Future Options & Nigel Cutts has shared his innovative advice in this important book which must be destined to become a standard school of management text.” George Metcalfe President, Business Referral Exchange 6 6 Nigel's message is a great one — when we bring love into the world of leadership, we all benefit.”

At last, we can say the word “love” — at work. We can acknowledge way has been true all along: love is what works at work. Love has been uy outside the office door for centuries. We have heard its knock, but we have said, “not here”, Some enlightened leaders have recently mover to, “not yet”. But finally, Nigel Cutts has said, “now”. In this beautfu book he has opened the door,

He has done this because love is what produces results. People perfom best when they are loved: when they are respected, when they can soar because of who they are — their experience, their talents, their capactty, their intelligence — is cherished. We all know this. Now we can stop believing the nonsense. We can stop putting off putting love on the top of the list of required expertise in leaders.

Love produces great thinking. That is why it produces great performance. Love, in fact, is the question: “What do you think?” And it is the generative listening that follows. Love is being with, not thinking for. Nigel knows this. And he lives it.

Don't get confused. This love is not romance or seduction or sentiment. This love answers no call from Hallmark, nor from Hollywood, or from hubris. It is the experience of starting over in this fresh never-beforelived second. It is the wanting to discover who we really are, It is the decision to be that authentic self every minute. It is the exhilaration of being still so that things can move. lt is respect so deep and embodied that all good springs from it.

It is the love we find when we actually see each other, the love that stands with us as we listen, as we debate for our mutual good, as we face what is real, as we mourn, as we research, as we think for ourselves, as we find new answers together we did not think possible. This love is hard work and hard at work inside every good decision and every step human kind has made that has made a positive difference. My first experience of seeing that love at work is what makes the difference was in 1985. “It's very refreshing,” the official said, “to find the word … er…er…'love' in a grant application.” Christopher Spence needed to raise £2 million to complete what would become the world's flagship centre for people affected by HIV and AIDS. He got the money. And London got a full expression of the efficacy of love at work. The culture of listening and respect and thinking and inclusion spanned the organisation, from residents with the virus to nurses and managers and board members and cooks. Love worked, More of value was accomplished there than anyone could have dreamed possible. For thousands of people across the world, not just London, it changed the face of patient care. Love does that sort of thing.

Nigel knows this too. He knows from creating his own organisations, whose cultures under his leadership were exactly love, that it is the key thing in unleashing talent and building success. He shares with us his understanding of the teachings of many people over many eras. He brings together an important and impressive panoply of wisdom as well as his own. But what makes the book work well, besides that he writes so well, is that he is what he is writing. We can feel that as we read. We can trust him. And so we read on. And our lives and leadership and places of work can change. They can become places of love, the kind that works. Love. This book says, ‘let's say it’. And maybe even, ‘let's shout it’. And ‘let's whisper it’. Let's let it into our hearts and into the most laserprecise reasoning we can muster. Because if we do, perhaps work will really work. At last!

Nancy Kline

President and Founder. Time To Think Inc.