SUMMARY

“Love” and “work” are not words that are usually thought of in the same context. For today’s guest, however, “love” has a measurable and positive impact on the metrics of work. Marcus Buckingham is known for starting the “Strengths Revolution.” He is also a global researcher and New York Times bestselling author, and he recently joined the GLN’s David Ashcraft for a conversation about the role that love plays—or should play—in our work. Whether you are a leader who wants to know how to bring the absolute best out of those you lead, or you are curious how to discover the things you truly love (and why they matter at work), we invite you to listen to this episode.

IN THIS EPISODE

2:50 Staying centered amid success

8:45 What people get wrong about strengths

13:20 The relationship between strengths and love

19:45 Work as a chore vs work as a place to do what you love

25:00 How love factors into the top performers

30:15 The role of a supervisor in helping others find their strengths

39:00 How leaders can accept other’s loathes

48:30 “Love” as a business concept

LISTEN

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

STANDOUTS AND TAKEAWAYS

• If you have a mission that you believe in, you don’t stop; you just keep on advancing the mission.

• The way to stay grounded is to stay connected to your purpose. You don’t get too off track when you remember that you are in service.

• The issue is not necessarily whether or not someone will grow. The issue is where will they grow the most? You invest in strengths because—even on a biochemical level—that’s where people experience the most growth.

• You learn something different when you look at “extreme positives,” and the word that people use to describe that level of feeling is “love.”

• A strength is not something that you’re good at, and a weakness is not something that you are bad at. A strength is something that strengthens you, which leads to appetite, which leads to practice, which often leads to increased performance.

• The DNA of a strength is love. A strength is a person or an activity that an individual loves.

• Love is a decoder to help understand the mystery of yourself.

• Your brain “on love” is you at your smartest.

• It’s not about finding a job you love, it’s about finding the love in what you are already doing.

• Love isn’t a luxury; it’s a force, and it needs to be expressed. It needs to come out.

• Having 20% of your work consist of what you love has tremendous positive outcomes: resilience, resistance to burnout, engagement.

• Even the most successful leaders will have some work that they just have “get through,” but those instances are balanced out by getting to do the things they love.

• Find out what you hate doing, and stop doing it. You won’t contribute your gifts if you spend too much of your days being hurt.

• As a leader, you can’t determine someone else’s strengths for them. All you have to do is bring the power of your attention to that person.

• In a world of complexity and frequent change, the only solution you have as a leader is frequent conversations (15 minutes, every week, with every person you lead).

• The conversation about loves and loathes is not about logic. It’s about appetites.

• Everybody’s life is singing to them in a way that only they can understand (and you don’t have to).

• An additional side of love involves how a business/organization makes experiences for others that they (the customers) come to love.

• Love is a predictor of human behavior. If customers/guests “love” what you are providing, you will see positive results.

LINKS MENTIONED

• Book: Love and Work: How to Find What You Love, Love What You Do, and Do It for the Rest of Your Life (Amazon.com)

• Website: Buckingham Institute: Decoding Excellence Through Research and Love

• Website: Design Love In

• Website: Team365

• Website: Global Leadership Summit 2025

• Website: Global Leadership Network

SPONSOR

• This episode sponsored by Thrivent.