Say “Love” in this day and age and what comes to the hearer’s mind is spelt “S-E-X“. Come on, now, surely we have better minds than that. Still, it does seem to be so, from all I have been observing. “Sex” is a subset of what we understand as “Love”. “Love” encompasses quite a few things as well, and it works both ways, for Bosses and for “Bossees.”

Honour.

You can honour some people without loving them, but you can’t love  people without giving them due honour. Bosses need to honour their people because inside each warm body on your rolls, there is a person. That is why I have come to detest the term “Human Capital” because it dehumanizes people. “Bossees” need to honour their Bosses because of who they are, their position, their seniority and because they trusted you enough to give you the job you now have. Bosses, believe it or not, actually want you to succeed at your jobs and to grow as people. Bosses actually love it when you take daring initiative. They are not upset because you fail. They will be upset if you fail to be diligent, and if you fail to be creative and decisive and try new things in the spirit improving things for all stakeholders, not just from the employee point of view. Yes, we need to honour each other much more than what is happening in the workplace right now!

Punctuality.

Being punctual, which is respecting other people’s time, is actually part of rendering honour to others. I put it here separately because this is a chronic disease in our business environment. If you want to be known as an honourable person, then be punctual yourself first! Be punctual starting things and be punctual ending things. Everyone has priorities, and being punctual demonstrates that you honour those priorities. Bosses, many of you need to get into the state of being punctual always.

Accountability.

When Bosses and “Bossees” love each other, each will call the other to accountability. Bosses, you need to start this. You need to be accountable to your employees, and you need to be accountable right now! If you do not open up and show them that you are as human as they are, warts and all, and that you are setting an example by growing constantly and getting better every single day, you can forget about your employees being accountable to you and even to each other. Don’t even talk about being accountable to your customers! A great and healthy sign is when you have people calling each other to account, and calling you to account, too! Toxicity goes away, and you will be surprised at how pleasant it has become at the workplace. Indeed, you will start looking forward to going to work!

These are three things you can start with. There are a lot more, but choose to start with just these three today!