Love In The Context of Leadership

Agape.

It’s one of several Greek words translated in Scripture as love.

Agape is unconditional love. Sacrificial and selfless love. A love that is given without expecting anything in return.

It’s the radical love at the very core of the Gospel:

This is real love – not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. ?- 1 John 4:11

Agape love is demonstrated by God and, in turn, is meant to be demonstrated by His followers - including those of us leading in the marketplace.

Love in the context of leadership is agape love - and it's far more about how you behave towards others, not just how you feel.1

A Horizonal Expression of a Vertical Reality

“So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” - John 13:34

We will not be able to obey God’s command to love each other until we first know and receive the love God has for us.

Many of us are prone to fall into the performance trap, striving to earn love and approval through our achievements. However, when we fully grasp onto God’s love, we are freed from the chains of seeking to earn conditional love.

Because He first loved us, we have the ability and responsibility to share this life-giving love with others, not as an obligation but as a natural outflow of our relationship with our Father.?

As leaders, our influence can reflect God’s love in profound ways, shaping the trajectory of our companies and the lives of those we lead.

Leading with Agape Love

In the book Love Works: Seven Timeless Principles for Effective Leaders2, Joel Manby writes on agape love, or "love-the verb" as he describes it, offering seven time-proven principles of leadership rooted in the agape love of 1 Corinthians 13 fame:?

1. Patience: Leading with patience allows people to grow and develop. It involves showing self-control. Being slow to anger and quick to listen, understanding that mistakes are part of the learning process.?
2. Kindness: Kindness in leadership involves actively seeking ways to serve and help others.? It’s being empathetic and considerate; giving attention, appreciation, and encouragement to others.
3. Trustworthiness: Building trust is essential for any successful team. This principle focuses on being transparent, honest, competent, and reliable. Trusting your team and earning their trust creates a strong foundation for collaboration and innovation.
4. Selfless: Leading unselfishly means putting the team’s and the organization’s needs above personal gain. It’s about making decisions that benefit the greater good and meet the needs of others rather than serving individual interests.
5. Truthfulness: Truthfulness involves being honest and straightforward, even when it’s difficult. It means valuing accountability, admitting mistakes, being free from deception, and fostering a culture of openness and integrity.
6. Forgiveness: Forgiveness is crucial in maintaining healthy relationships. This principle encourages leaders to move past mistakes and grievances, allowing for growth and improvement without holding onto resentment.
7. Dedication: Dedication is about showing commitment to the team and the mission. It involves perseverance, hard work, sticking to your choices, and a willingness to go above and beyond to achieve goals.

Leading with Love Assessment

We are wise to evaluate our own leadership behaviors under the counsel of Scripture as we seek to grow in these seven core aspects of biblical love.

For each of the following principles, consider the words that most often describe you, your leadership style, and your behavior:

The goal of this self-assessment is to evaluate your life honestly and identify growth and improvement areas that align with the biblical principles of loving leadership.

Is there an area in particular in which you realize you are falling short?

How might God be prompting you to improve specifically in this character trait?

The Greatest of These

Three things will last forever – faith, hope, and love – and the greatest of these is love. - 1 Corinthians 13:13

Leading with love is essential in a broken world, yet it can be challenging. It requires humility, empathy, compassion, and a continual commitment to “walk the talk”.

Yet there can also be immense rewards. As Christian marketplace leaders, the opportunity is before us to lead with agape love, in order that those within our spheres of influence might feel valued, loved, and cared for.

As we do, our workplaces can become places of flourishing where individuals can grow and thrive.

With more than 4,000 members globally, C12 is the world’s largest peer advisory community for Christian business leaders. For nearly three decades, our focus has been to create a framework that compels and equips Christian business leaders to achieve excellence through the power of peers. C12 isn’t simply a business bible study or a Christian business networking group. It’s an architected environment for leadership transformation.

Learn more at www.joinc12.com.

1 James C. Hunter, The Servant: A Simple Story About the True Essence of Leadership (Crown Publishing, 1998)

2 Joel Manby, Love Works: Seven Timeless Principles for Effective Leaders (Zondervan, 2020)