Erich Fromm - The Art of Loving

The Zinger on Strength-Based Leadership blog offers this cool post about Erich Fromm's classic book, The Art of Loving, which is celebrating it's 50th year.

David Zinger is going to do a series of posts about this book and the nature of love and strength-based leadership. Should be a great series of posts. Here is a quote from this first one:

I believe this is a very important key to the love in strength based leadership. We must understand ourselves, others, and the art of leadership. When we practice this love we notice and see (essential components in appreciation and recognition initiatives). And as our knowledge of leadership grows so to does our love expand. The last line could be written by Marcus Buckingham as it acknowledges a strong focus on individual differences.

David mentioned Marcus Buckingham, who is a big evangelist for strength-based leadership. I saw him speak in Dallas last month. He has a cool new DVD available for a reasonable $99 called Trombone Player Wanted.

Here's an interesting and TRUE story about this DVD. Buckingham spoke at the International ASTD conference. They had stacks of his books and this DVD for sale at the conference bookstore. They brought in a TV and played the DVD on a loop for a couple days. The guy running the bookstore, Mark, happened to be the manager of the ASTD press, for whom I have written two books. Mark told me that he hired a few local temp employees to help out at the bookstore. These temps performed basic stocking and inventory duties. One temp was a guy who had done a lot of temp and odd jobs. As he worked at the conference bookstore, the DVD played again and again. It is very inspiring heard once. Heard again and again, it seeps deep into the brain. After hearing the DVD for a couple days, this temp told Mark that he had a new lease on life. That he realized that he DID have strengths and could better his life by focusing on them.

Pretty cool, huh? Well there's more. Mark, a successful publisher, had a similar experience. He was once a writer but had put that aside for a "real job." Listening to the DVD again and again inspired Mark to commit to writing again. As he told me this, his face lit up.

Focusing on strengths is powerful juice for managers and leaders.

Comments

[David Zinger]

I can't wait to see Buckingham's DVD after reading your story about the people at the booth.

It can be powerful to hear a message again and again and that is part of the reason to write about Erich Fromm's 50 year old book. I need to be careful not to give a "best before date" to a classic.

Now it is time to Focus on discipline. I think the cover to FOCUS Like a Laser Beam would be a wonderful image for the planned post on concentration. Let me know if this is okay.

David

[Lisa Haneberg]

David - It's more than OK, that would be wonderful, thanks so much.