They Found the Courage to Speak Up

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It took courage for them to speak up.

They respected their leader but didn’t know how she’d respond. She was compassionate—kind, supportive, and appreciative. By many standards, a Loving Leader. Yet, their workplace felt unloving.

Why? The organization’s policies weren’t built for everyone.

Policies around leave, holidays, and bereavement reflected outdated assumptions about employees’ lives. While some colleagues benefited, these two did not. Despite their leader’s care, they felt unseen, undervalued, and disconnected from the organization’s stated values.

Still, they took the risk and voiced their concerns. Their leader, true to her values, listened without defensiveness. She recognized the gap and took action. Legacy policies, unchanged for decades, needed revision. She championed the effort to ensure policies aligned with the organization’s human-centered values. It made a difference for them and for others.

Why does this matter?

Loving Leadership isn’t just about daily interactions. Love must be embedded in systems and structures too. That’s why our Loving Leadership framework includes this as a key pillar with actionable practices. 

And it's why the push to wipe away even-handed, respectful, human-centered policies to revert to policies that favor some and ignore others is so concerning. It is bad for the people who are unfairly treated, and its bad, bad, bad for business too. Enterprises can't flourish when a huge percentage of the workforce is ignored, disrespected, and harmed.

What can you do?

Senior leaders, you may have the authority to champion efforts to safeguard good policy and to integrate loving practices into antiquated policies. If you do, use that power. This is part of a leader's ongoing responsibility to infuse love in policies, as well as in processes, communication, management systems, structure, culture, and more. 

Managers and supervisors, your role may be to advocate for fairness and use your creativity and discretion to its full extent to accommodate team member needs, fostering equity. 

And if you are a leader with little influence in an ambivalent organization, you can still acknowledge employees’ concerns so they feel seen and heard. You can communicate your support and find creative ways to show care. It isn't a perfect solution, but it is something.

How are you working to embed love in your organization? What impacts are you seeing? What challenges are you facing right now?

Don't give up on love in hard times. It's the mark of true leadership.