Love in the Boardroom

How Courageous Leaders Build Strong Organisations

Discover Your ‘LQ’ – the ‘IQ’ of Love at Work

Why Be a Beacon of Light

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Light Circle - Beacon of Light Christine Miller

Timeless Truths and Leading Lights

I am exploring what it means to be a leader who, by their own light, the power of their inner and outer purpose and conviction, assists and guides with their presence.  Leaders with a purpose and core values who are an inspiring and supportive beacon of light. Leaders who encourage their people to be innovative, creative and confident in performing their role in the organisation.

Potent Energy and Strength

A leader whose energy is potent enough to serve as an anchor, and a reliable source of strength to their followers. And at the same time, someone whose presence is in service to their people, with humility and acceptance, not arrogance and assumptions of superiority.

Such leaders create the conditions in which their people grow and flourish, and their organisations prosper with greater ease.

Love at Work

In the course of my research on Love at Work, I have been privileged to meet and converse with leaders like this, people who inspire loyalty and respect, and offer those qualities in return to their people.

In Service to Their People

Their success is most often  based on being in service to their people. Whilst they take a firm stance as leader, they acknowledge that the opinions and concerns of those they lead are valid, and they listen deeply, and act accordingly. They are unafraid of admitting to mistakes, and eager to celebrate the contributions and successes of others, as well as acknowledging tough times when life presents its inevitable trials and difficulties.

Two Glowing Examples

Sir Cary Cooper

For a (pardon the pun) glowing example, let me mention Sir Cary Cooper, CBE, Professor of Organisational Psychology at Manchester University. At the time we had our conversation about Love in the Boardroom, Cary was a Distinguished Professor at Lancaster University, and also Pro Vice Chancellor. If you go to his Wikipedia page link,  you can see his extensive awards and accolades in a successful career dedicated to improving the workplace for many people.

One of the questions I asked was what Love, in a business context, means to Sir Cary Cooper. I had previously asked him what love meant to him in his life generally. This is his response:

In a business context … It would mean to me that even if I made a mistake or did something wrong, they would be there for me, and the same for me to them.  It’s really the same thing, in a business context, it’s total acceptance of me, even with my faults.  And that the people I really care about and who care about me would be there for me if something went wrong, if something really went wrong I know they would be there.

Carol Wilson

Another exemplar of this approach is from Carol Wilson, Founder and CEO of Culture at Work and Performance Coach Training, former MD at Virgin, where she was the first woman in the world to found a chart-topping record label, Dindisc. Carol has worked as a coach, trainer and consultant since 2000. Previously she spent 25 years as a corporate MD and board director, which has given her a unique understanding of the pressures faced by managers working in large organizations.

So for me it’s loving developing other people.  When I really feel that I’m expressing love for people in a business context, I’m enabling them to light up and grow. My passion is to go in and teach managers foundation coaching skills, never mind all the fancy advanced stuff. 

I love doing that because it’s life changing, and it gives them permission to start loving themselves and loving other people, and treating each other with kindness and respect.  And to see that happening in the room, it’s just wonderful. 

So that to me is how I express love in a business sense these days.  I also express love by sometimes giving things away for nothing.  Like we almost always have scholarship places on the open courses that we run.  Anybody who needs it, maybe someone has had a really hard time because their partner has left them and they’ve been left destitute or something, or to someone who’s been in prison. 

It’s lovely having the open course  we deliver, because when a deserving case comes along I put them on it, because it gives them life skills which will help them get through the trauma.

Hundreds of Leaders

These are just two examples of the numerous responses I have gathered from hundreds of leaders and people who lead by example, shining out their valuable and illuminating ways of being a loving and caring beacon of light.

Those who operate from fine inner values and service to others seem to experience life in a keener, more fulfilling way, and for our world to evolve and transform to a more loving and caring, kind and respectful place, we need many more to join the re-volution to Love, and develop their ‘LQ’ – the IQ of Love in Leadership. 

Come and find out more at our
Power of Love event 

Ubuntu – Community Love and Regard

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UBUNTU, how can one of us be happy if all the other ones are sad?


An anthropologist proposed a game to the kids in an African tribe.

He put a basket full of fruit near a tree and told the kids
that who ever got there first won the sweet fruits.

When he told them to run, they all took each others hands and ran together,
then sat together enjoying their treats.

When he asked them why they had run like that,
as one could have had all the fruits for himself, they said:

”UBUNTU, how can one of us be happy if all the other ones are sad?”
‘UBUNTU’ in the Xhosa culture means: “I am because we are”

Just Love

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“Let’s restore robust, respectful and decent debate”

Anna Soubry, UK MP for Broxtowe, Nottinghamshire. Leader of The Independent Group for Change via Twitter 20th October 2019.

‘Love’ and ‘Brexit’.
Not two words we normally see juxtaposed.

There’s not a lot of love between the sides on the ongoing Brexit divide in the UK. Scenes in Parliament, which often has a somewhat puerile and combative atmosphere, indicate lack of respect for the other, if they hold different views. Those in positions of leadership, who really should know better, seem to disregard all arguments which don’t support their own views and desires, and to ride roughshod over valid concerns and disadvantages. Listening seems to be a lost art.

It’s a divisive, disruptive and distressing scenario. After 3 and a half years, there are still few real clues or, what would be far better, clear facts, about the consequences of Brexit. One side seems to care little for the financial costs which will affect and disadvantage the majority of the people, reduce their ability to earn, learn, travel, be supported when necessary. They don’t think an economic  impact analysis is important, and only seem to want to power ahead for reasons of regaining some kind of ‘sovereignty’ which was never ceded in the first place. Yes, some EU rules might appear irksome, but most of us have benefited is some way from greater protection and improved rights, with freedoms which we now take for granted.

The other side, vilified as ‘remoaners’, bad losers and traitors, see the benefits of being part of the EU, valuing their European citizenship and the sense of unity and belonging. They recognize the peace which has held for so many years, the freedom of movement, the grants and funds from organizations such as Erasmus which may be at risk if a no-deal or hard deal Brexit occurs.

Everyone has their reasons, their right to hold their opinions and, yes, the Referendum in 2016 gave a (surprise) narrow margin of majority to the Leave camp. But since then, there has been so little real factual evidence of the benefits, and much of that which was claimed as beneficial has been proven to be false and partly fantasy. Emerging facts and predictions indicate a less than rosy picture for the majority of UK citizens, European residents of the UK , or UK residents of European states.

From a non-political perspective, it just seems a mess. A mess which is creating division and dissension, not just for politicians, but for the people. There is strong feeling on both sides, yet many have changed their views and are no longer in favour of Leave. Witness the gathering of large numbers in London for the People’s Vote contingency – Metropolitan police estimated around 1 million, German TV with some fancy technology for crowd measurement says 2.2 million – peaceful, allied to an aim and intention, a community in unity.

They do it for love of their country, their freedoms, their family, for themselves – because they do love in that way of greatness and determination and desire for justice – it’s Love on an altruistic plane, an Agape kind of Love – universal, collective and transcending circumstance. The people can express this in their multitudes.

Those politicians with a classical education would do well to look back and embrace the greater meanings of love beyond self-love – overweening ‘philautia’ – and display some humility, respect and decency.

Then maybe a robust debate, as Anna Soubry says, which allows genuine expressions in decent and respectful ways, so that resolutions are allowed to emerge can take place.

It needs tough Love and tolerance, not tantrums; vision and values not vitriol, and it is, with persistence and patience, possible.

Let this be the will of the people. 

What’s the Story?

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Christine

What is My Story?

You will discover here an unfolding of thoughts and events as we move towards bringing greater Love and Unity into the workplace and the world at large.

Love is the glue that bonds humanity and binds humanity into

            • unity through diversity,
            • compassion through understanding,
            • caring through patience, tolerance and respect.

What is love to me?

It is not so much an emotion to be felt but a state to be lived in – a state of being, graceful, calm and radiant – an outpouring – and an influx – a place of resourcefulness where I re-Source my deepest most powerful qualities of understanding, patience, forgiveness, compassion, empathy – where I endeavour to see the gift in all that happens, all that appears, and accept my responsibility for its creation. ‘Love at work’ in my life becomes love at work in others’ lives – and in nature, in all that manifests and is.