As a coach and leadership trainer, I come across many leaders who yearn to connect with the people around them on a deeper level. They want to transcend the small talk, but really don’t know how to.

They often know that in organizations the leader-employee relationship is the most important driver of employee engagement; this relationship has been tied to employees’ satisfaction or dissatisfaction with their work or workplace and their subsequent decision of whether to stay in the workplace or go elsewhere.

They sometimes know that engaging in meaningful conversations is one of the most powerful tools to create relationships. 

They might know that the ability to hold a meaningful conversation is a leadership capacity that consists of two skills:

  1. Powerful questions
  2. Deep listening 

What I know is that what counts most in practicing these skills is the mindset, the inner stance from which we operate.

Our mindset defines the quality of our questions and listening. And this in turn co-shapes how a conversation unfolds. The way we pay attention co-shapes how reality unfolds.

The key to activating these leadership capacities is to cultivate an inner stance that does not come from fear, anger or a need to be right, but one that embraces the other person by letting them appear as they are. An inner stance from Love.

So then we are Leading from Love.

Are you already cultivating an inner stance that comes from love?