Quarterly Review: Love Works

Why do we spend our valuable time reading leadership books? We hope to become better, more effective leaders.

by: Joel Manby

In Love Works- Seven Timeless Principles for Effective Leaders, Joel Manby, CEO of Herschend Family Enterprises, illustrates the practical and deliberate measures that any leader must take to build and maintain a lasting impact on their organization and beyond.

Coming from a Harvard Business school background and spending over 20 years in the auto industry with GM and as CEO of SAAB North America, Asia and South America, Joel learned firsthand about positional leadership and how difficult it is for employees to be enthused about the company they work for if they don’t feel that the leadership cares about them. He reached a point of frustration and exhaustion and came to the realization that his wife and four daughters saw less and less of him. He decided that he needed to make a change. Joel was offered an opportunity to succeed Jack Herschend of Herschend Family Entertainment as CEO of their enterprise. Sensing that the opportunity was a calling and answer to prayers, he enthusiastically accepted.

At HFE, Joel was immersed in a culture that cared about its people from the top down. In March 2010, he was asked to be featured in an episode of the hit series Undercover Boss. The episode was viewed by over eighteen million viewers and resulted in an outpouring of praise and requests for advice from other leaders on how to implement a similar approach to their companies. The HFE website went from receiving fifty hits per day to over sixty thousand hits, forty-five minutes after the episode aired. The overwhelming response that Joel received, coupled with his experience after taking over HFE, led to Love Works.

In his book, Joel explains how love, the verb, should be at the forefront of any leader’s motivations. Taken from the Biblical concept of love found in 1 Corinthians 13, the seven principles include: Patience, Kindness, Trust, Unselfishness, Truthfulness, Forgiveness and Dedication.

Although these principles may seem too “touchy feely” to the hardcore business leader, Joel outlines real-world business scenarios and how to apply these principles to resolving leadership issues. In the foreword of the book, Jack Herschend sums it up perfectly, stating that the book, “…isn’t testament to a single man or a single company. It’s much bigger than that. It’s about seven principles of effective leadership that have been around for thousands of years but are often forgotten or dismissed. It’s engaging and practical. And it’s about the best way to lead, a way that will bring bottom-line results and deep contentment.”