Guess What? Love is STILL the Killer App!

Reading Tim Sander's brisk and entertaining Love is the Killer App I was transported back in time to Ms. Feather's 1990 senior-year English-lit class and her seemingly endless rants about the importance of expressing love, being compassionate, and all things Leo Buscaglia.

She was trying to teach us a tremendously valuable lesson, but to a group of hormone-powered, cocky over-achievers it seemed superfluous, if not completely irrelevant.

Of course, Ms. Feather, Leo Buscaglia and Tim Sanders got it right.

As awkward as it may still sound, and as incongruent as it may seem to everything we've been taught, the future success of your business may depend in large measure to your ability to inject more love into the enterprise.

But Sanders 2002 best-seller isn't concerned so much with the enterprise as much as with providing you with a simple, yet carefully conceived 3-step process for turning yourself into an uber-successful, fully-fledged lovecat.

As Sander's notes, "the most important new trend in business is the downfall of the barracudas, sharks, and piranhas, and the ascendancy of nice, smart people."

Truer words have seldom been spoken, then or now.

We live in an ultra-competitive world where everyone has a dizzying and almost paralyzing number of options. Whom I choose to partner with will have a lot to do with who does a better job of connecting with me on a real and human level. The hard sell and high-pressure tactics are over. Sharks in business are quickly becoming extinct and the era of Sander's lovecat is well upon us. It's no longer about selling something, it's about empowering people to be their best and to realize their full potential.

Being a good lovecat, Sanders points out, is not just an altruistic endeavour, it actually helps enhance your personal brand by allowing you to differentiate yourself. You'll add massive value and people will notice your generosity and your willingness to give so much without regard for rewards.

Here's the three step process in a nutshell:

Step One: Acquire Knowledge (lots of knowledge).
It's time to start reading like there's no tomorrow. Forget borrowing books from the library, you should buy them, read them, study them, highlight passages, write notes in the margins and then share your newly acquired knowledge with all your bizmates. The point is to constantly grow your level of knowledge and understanding, no to show how brainy you are, but to empower and enlighten those around you. Sharing your knowledge with your peers, business partners and customers can help facilitate their success (and yours).

This makes all the sense in the world. The business landscape is changing so fast and so furiously that no CEO, no matter how gifted and adroit, can grasp it all. Thus, the person that stays informed and can help synthesize all this data into a coherent map (see Seth Godin's, Linchpin) will be deeply valued and regarded as indispensable.

Step Two: Connect People.
Sander's second prescription is to master the art of connecting people. "A good lovecat", he says, "is always thinking of ways to bring people together." In order to do that, however, you must work hard to build a network of people to whom you add value, and the bigger the network, the better:

Remember Metcalf's Law: the value of a network grows in proportion to the square of the number of users, which means that once a network achieves a certain size, it becomes almost irresistibly attractive.

In a sign of the times (which highlights the importance of step one) it's interesting to note that it's much easier today than in 2002 to build and keep track of a powerful network of people. Sander's mentions using ACT to store his contacts and boasts that "between my Palm Pilot and my cell phone, I can connect anyone I meet with anyone else in my network almost instantaneously." Well, with the advent of smart phones and sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, not to mention web-based contact management software, it's never been easier to build and manage your network of fellow lovecats.

That's a good thing because Sanders reminds us that "Someday this will be true for all of us: Our network will equal our net worth."

Step 3: Don't be afraid to show compassion.
The last part of the book tackles the issue of biz love head on. Yes, biz love-- all that gooey, touchy-feely stuff that most people avoid like the plague. But in a world where a single careless remark can get you sued for harassment, does this love stuff have any place at work? Yes. Sanders acknowledges the danger and advises caution while imploring his readers not to hold back their enthusiastic displays of genuine emotion. In a passage that would make Leo Buscaglia proud, he writes:

...this display of genuine emotion, I realized, was having a beneficial effect on my bizlife...Business was becoming a new experience, one in which my heart was involved as much as my head...I became more emotionally open. I hugged people. I was a two-fisted handshaker. I made eye contact. I smiled. I opened my mouth and instead of just recommending a book or a biz contact, I expressed my feelings for the people I met in my day's journey. Here are some of the statements I dared to say:

'I am totally committed to your personal growth.'

'Thanks for being such an incredible person.'

'I only want you to be happy and that's what is going to drive this deal.'

'I love you man. You are a rock star.' 

There's no doubt that Tim Sander's book is a wonderful gift for anyone in business who wants to be more fulfilled in their work life. And because we spend so much of our time at work, this book is nothing short of a recipe for happiness. Seek knowledge obsessively. Connect people incessantly. Share your love enthusiastically.

A simple but profound message.

Thanks Mary Ellen!