In contrast to there being relatively few K-words, I found many words beginning with the letter L to include among attributes of exemplary leaders. For example, shouldn’t leaders be logical and loyal? Shouldn’t they be good learners, leveragers, and listeners? Shouldn’t leaders love the people they lead? Shouldn’t they love what they do, leading?
In Why It Matters: Reflections on Practical Leadership I claim leadership’s secret sauce is listening, learning, and loving.[i] If I must choose one word, which should it be? Should I play the game of scissors, paper, rock in selecting the winner? No! Because my winning D-word was deciding, I must decide. So, I choose love as the winning L-word. To my surprise and disappointment, there wasn’t a winning entry for the L-word. Maybe people were too worried about starting the New Year to play the Leadership Alphabet Game.
In Leading with Integrity: Character-Based Leadership, Alan Kolp and Peter Rea focus on what they call “seven marks of character, the seven classical virtues—courage, faith, justice, prudence, temperance, love, and hope.”[ii] In the chapter addressing love, because of challenges some have in using the word in business settings, they “suggest three alternative ways to talk about how the virtue of love is lived out in the corporate world: care, compassion, and mercy.”[iii]
In Why It Matters, I noted, “Teddy Roosevelt is credited with saying, ‘Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.’ Caring for the people you lead and affirming their importance and value to you, the team, and the organization are keys to being an exemplary leader.”[iv]
In their discussion of compassion, Kolp and Rea note, “The fifth-century philosopher Augustine put it boldly: ‘If you do not love anything you will be dolts, dead, despicable creatures. Love by all means, but take care what it is you love.’[v]
“Augustine’s wisdom is twofold. First, he encourages us to love—indeed, to develop the virtue of love. …
“Augustine’s second piece of advice is imperative: be careful what you love. What is the object of our love? For what do we ultimately live?”[vi]
Who should exemplary leaders love? First, they should love themselves. Second, they should love those whom they lead, as well as their own leaders. (If you are among those who are uncomfortable using the word love, substitute care for, i.e., leaders should care for (love) those whom they lead, as well as their own leaders.) Third, leaders should care for (love) their investors, customers, and suppliers. Fourth, they should care for (love) their competitors. Yes, their competitors.
Mike Duke, former CEO and President of Walmart, told students in my leadership class that Walmart needs Target to be successful. It motivates Walmart’s associates to be more effective. Competition fuels productivity and alleviates complacency.
Baseball hall of fame pitcher, Satchel Paige, understood the need to focus on improving. He said, “Don’t look back; something might be gaining on you.”
Kolp and Rea close their chapter on love with the following: “While we are not likely to approach a colleague or business employee and tell him or her, ‘I love you,’ if we do not exhibit the qualities of love, the business will be poorer. No one wants to follow a leader ‘who couldn’t care less.’ Equally, no one wants to be a careless leader. To develop the virtue of love necessitates paying attention to people. Love means bringing a compassionate heart to any decision. Compassion does not mean you avoid the tough decisions nor does it resolve tough decisions in nice ways.
“Love often couples with other virtues. It helps leaders proceed with good faith. It makes courage bolder. It gives heart to justice. Often, it sows the seeds of hope.”[vii]
Because I chose love to be the winning L-word doesn’t mean that listening and learning aren’t essential attributes of exemplary leaders. They are critically important. Too many leaders “have send buttons and don’t have receive buttons.” They speak too much and listen too little. As Aaron Burr advises Alexander Hamilton in the Broadway musical, Hamilton, leaders should “speak less, smile more.” As for learning, some leaders think they know all that they need to know; they’ll soon discover how wrong they are.
Listen, learn, love, and lead!
Next: Leadership ABCs—M
Rules for the game to receive a signed copy of Why It Matters: 1) limited to U.S.A. mailing addresses; 2) limited to a single selection for the word; 3) cannot submit entry sooner than one week before the blog is posted on LinkedIn; 4) be the first correct entry I receive; and 5) send entries to me at johnaustinwhitejr@gmail.com. The earliest you can submit your M-word entry is 12:00 am, EDT, January 14, 2026; the latest time is 12:00 am, EDT, January 21, 2026.
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[i] John A. White, Why It Matters: Reflections on Practical Leadership, Greenleaf Book Group Press, Austin, TX, 2022, p. 51.
[ii] Alan Kolp and Peter Rea, Leading with Integrity: Character-Based Leadership, Cengage Learning, Mason, OH, 2009, p. 20.
[iii] Ibid, p. 214.
[iv] John A. White, p. 250.
[v] Alan Jones, Passion for Pilgrimage: Notes for the Journey Home, Harper & Row, San Francisco, CA, 1989, p. 49.
[vi] Kolp and Rea, pp. 217-218.
[vii] Ibid, p. 225.
