He Leads With His Heart

Recently I was listening to a video where one of my favorite artists was being honored for his work. This was a songwriting award. During the introduction the speaker went on to talk about all the things this person does for his community and charities and things outside of his profession.

He said, and I'm going from memory so it isn't a direct quote, ".. in all things he does, he leads with his heart."

I thought that was pretty cool.

Especially in today's world where so much is about money or politics or being politically correct and so on.

Maybe if we all lead with our hearts instead of our heads the world would be a different place.

Perhaps people would be kinder, more generous, less suspicious of one another.

Maybe wars would cease.

People could live their lives doing what they felt was right and know they were not alone in that stance. I think that is what happens sometimes. People are afraid or reluctant to lead with their hearts because they think they are the only ones doing it. That everyone else is looking out for themselves and their best interest and not always making decisions for the good of the whole.

It morphs into a "if you can't beat them, join them" mentality.

I see it everyday in business. How do we keep a client that a rival firm is trying to steal? My answer is always through good quality work and excellent customer service but my partners tend to have different views. Not in a bad way but just in a different approach to the problem. People looking for shortcuts on tax returns or making business decisions to undercut the competition.

I heard a story on Fox New this morning about a company in New York that stopped outsourcing their manufacturing to Asia and ended up employing a large percentage of their town's population. They recognized that people in America wanted to support American products but they also saw that they could help out the hometown folks in a time where economics is key. I think this is a good example. Or at least a partial one. This company could probably make more profits with the less expensive Asian labor. Or move their production to a less expensive state than New York. Or any number of other things that would probably benefitted their bottom line. But I think it was an admirable decision to make business changes that benefitted the people, the town itself, the state, and our great nation.

Leading with the heart could take some time to get used to, but I think it would be worth it.

I know I am a Pollyanna. I admit it. Sometimes I'm proud of it. But if we don't dream of change for the better then we have very little to look forward to, don't we?