What to write in a blog today? I know – I’ll revisit a piece I wrote in Value Adding # 54 – the summer 2009 edition of the AnD Consulting newsletter.
In it I referred to a book – The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman. I didn’t find it a particularly good read – it was repetitive and too god-centric for my liking. However I did like it’s core message that there are five different ways that love can be expressed and that we each have our favourites. 
These are: words of affirmation, quality time, giving and receiving gifts, acts of service and physical touch. You could score yourself at the end and when my partner and I both scored highest on affirmation and physical touch I declared that this didn’t mean he needn’t give me gifts at Christmas and birthdays!
In the newsletter I translated these five ways to express love to how they might apply in the workplace. I believe that effective leaders praise, invest time, contribute to and even, with care, give their team members a pat on the back when it’s earned.
Which are your preferred ways of expressing and receiving love? And how about you as a leader? If you think you could do with some help to adapt your leadership style, see our Leadership Coaching process and/or contact me.
