Today’s Valentine post is a mash-up:  part love letter, part rant!

While doing research, I discovered a 2009 study done by the HEC School of Management, Paris and the CEMS (Community of European Management Schools). Both institutions were selected by the editors at the Harvard Business Review to study Managing Talent in Troubled Times with a group of 200 CEOs. 

A survey on topics discussed at the CEO forum was opened for general feedback. That’s the source for that disturbing statistic:

*3 out of 5 people trust a stranger more than they trust their own boss*

Across my corporate career, I’ve spent time in organizations where trust was low and where trust and love were high.

On the low trust/no love side

I worked for a firm that was acquired by a larger organization. The new company’s CEO and his senior staff flew out on their corporate jet to meet us, the senior leadership team.  The meeting was perfectly lovely — all the right words were spoken, bread was broken, and commitments to integrity and collaboration were made.

I needed to be at the corporate headquarters of the acquiring company the next day, so the CEO invited me to fly back with them and avoid the hassle of a commercial flight. More loveliness, or so I thought.

The loveliness evaporated at about 20,000 feet as the CEO and his team verbally disemboweled nearly everyone they had met. They didn’t seem to care that those people were my trusted colleagues nor that their mid-air comments were quite at odds with the genial words spoken over dinner. As it turned out, the culture of the new firm was to “smile-pretty-and-then-back-stab.”

I didn’t stay there long.

When people go to work, they shouldn’t have to leave their hearts at home.  ~Betty Bender

On the high trust/high love side

I feel fortunate to have experienced the six years I worked for Lyle.  Lyle was the senior vice president for a region with nearly 3000 employees. Under his leadership, employee morale was off the charts high, so was productivity.

And, drum roll please:  the profit margin was 60%, plus or minus a point or two, every single year.

Lyle’s standards and expectations were high. He offered praise. He regularly treated at lunch (especially on the days when the little diner around the corner served liver and onions).  He knew when to push and when to pull.  He defined the results he expected you to produce and challenged you to do even better.

Lyle didn’t hesitate to kick butt.  He kicked butt because he cared about the organization AND about us.  We all knew he had our best interests at heart.  He candidly told us–right to our face–how to be better people and leaders face. And, most critically, he left our self-esteem intact. Lyle wanted his employees to do, and be, their best. We would have followed him off the cliff.

The big firm with the corporate jet had no trust, no love and 10% profit margins.

Lyle built trust, wasn’t afraid to love and delivered 60% profit margins.

That kinda says it all, doesn’t it?

Image source before quote:  Gratisography