Love in Action

Humane Leadership - A Reading of the Introduction (Marcel’s New Book Release!)

• Marcel Schwantes

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Episode recap:

Marcel discussed his new book, Humane Leadership, which emphasizes the importance of expressing actionable love in the workplace and the need for leaders to care for their employees. He also emphasized the importance of continuous learning and growth in leadership, as well as the necessity of developing people skills to achieve business success. Marcel also mentioned that he is offering bonus content, including chapters 3 and 4, on his Substack platform. Go to Marcelschwantes.substack.com and access the Humane Leadership tab for the bonus content.

Bio:

Marcel Schwantes is a speaker, author, and acclaimed executive coach with a global following. Marcel delivers presentations, workshops, courses, and coaching programs about the human side of business and how cultures of care, connection, and belonging power companies to thrive and outperform the competition. 

Quotes:

  • "People want to feel cared for, but I call it for what it really is. People want to feel loved."
  • "Every employee is someone's daughter or son, spouse or partner, and each one depends on their leader for guidance, care, protection, and a sense of belonging within the community."
  • "Deep down, effective leadership is love practically demonstrated to achieve business success and leave a legacy." 

Key Takeaways:

  • Reflect: Are you viewing your team as people—with hopes and fears—or simply as tools to hit business goals?
  • Practice agape love: Show loyalty, commitment, and genuine care for your team’s growth, not just their performance.
  • Build meaningful connections: Move from transactional interactions to real relationships built on trust and respect.
  • Shift your leadership style: Embrace a people-centered mindset instead of a results-only approach.
  • Take one small action today: Listen deeply, offer support, or recognize someone’s contribution—beyond the job title.

Timestamps:

  • [00:03] What Humane Leadership Really Looks Like
  • [01:58] Why Love Isn’t “Soft” in the Workplace
  • [03:19] Seeing People, Not Just Headcount
  • [06:44] How Love Gets Misunderstood in Business
  • [09:07] Agape Leadership in Real Life

Conclusion:

Great workplaces aren’t built on pressure—they’re built on people.
When leaders act with kindness and put people first, they create environments where teams feel safe, motivated, and empowered. Leadership is not about control; it’s about helping others grow. When employees feel genuinely valued, the business thrives too.

Resources


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Marcel Schwantes  00:03 

So today I want to share more about my book humane leadership. Lead with radical love. Be a kick ass boss. If you haven't grabbed your copy yet, it's available on Amazon and wherever books are sold, and if your local bookstores don't carry a physical copy. Ask them to order it for you so they can fill the shelves and have you know, make it available for other people as well. So today you get a book reading. I am going to preview the parts of the excerpts of the introduction for you. So sit back, relax, grab a drink and enjoy me reading from humane leadership. And by the way, you can preview chapters three and four of humane leadership, as well as receive never before seen bonus content. These are the parts that did not make the book only because the publisher didn't put it in because it exceeded the page count or the word count, but I'm making it available on my sub stack platform. So if you want to get it, go to Marcel schwantes.substack.com and subscribe so you can receive it, and then you'll see a tab called humane leadership, and that's where it's going to be stored in. So subscribe to Marcel schwantes.substack.com hit the humane leadership tab. Okay, here we go parts of the introduction and enjoy the power of love in action. When we loosely throw the word love around in casual conversation, it's perfectly natural to express it regarding certain people, places and things I mean, think about it. It's acceptable to profess love for a favorite sports team, for whom we spend, you know, a few hours a week rooting for.  

 

I have no problems sharing with others that I love my Los Angeles Dodgers and I bleed Dodger blue. Professing love for the college or university we attended is acceptable. It's even perfectly acceptable to exclaim our love for a special pair of jeans we might wear only a few times a year. In the workplace, we may go home and proudly tell our loved ones I love my job or I love my coworkers. But leaders aren't always comfortable expressing love for a team of people they oversee, they may spend nearly half their waking hours with their employees doing good work to the satisfaction of customers, and yet they find it hard to infuse the word love into the business lexicon. To me, that type of thinking is bizarre for every leader, ashamed of or fearful of mixing love with work. I point to 10 others whose leadership behaviors unabashedly demonstrate love for their team, company, customers, culture and everything they contribute to the world, while I'm certainly an idealist. This book is far from depicting the workplace in some utopian Norman Rockwell portrait of the perfect corporate life. You must do your part by stretching your thinking to reimagine the possibility for a more loving, human, centered and humane workplace that results in profitable outcomes. For example, what if you saw your colleague, co worker or direct report as real people with real hopes, dreams and fears as crucial as your own? And what if one day you decided to connect to the heart of people at work as you would a good friend, as one human being caring for another, as you imagine being in this frame of mind.  

 

Let me ask you this, how would the dynamics change in the workplace as you encountered new challenges and solved complex business problems with the very folks you are kind to and care about? I believe the workplace and how we conduct business as usual would radically differ. This is especially true if you're in the leadership role, whether you're the shift lead Supervisor of five people on the manufacturing floor, the founder of a 50 person startup or a fortune 500 company CEO leaders have an enormous responsibility to care for people entrusted to their care. Bob Chapman, co author of Everybody matters and CEO of. Barry Wehmiller, a $3.6 billion company, reminded me in a conversation I had with them that every employee is somebody's daughter or son or someone's spouse or partner, and each person relies on the leader for guidance, to be cared for, protected, and feel like they belong to the community. Sound familiar? Think back to your upbringing. Babies and children require love, care and protection in a nurturing environment for them to thrive. That's where it all starts. Love begins as a human development process in the brain, as infants are exposed to positive bonding experiences in loving homes and as we mature, hopefully into healthy and productive adults ready to take on the world, we remain social animals, requiring the need to receive social and emotional stability through relationships and community. People also want to experience purpose, growth and success in their jobs, and feel their leaders are doing their best to care for them, and that's the bottom line.  

 

People want to feel cared for, but I call it for what it really is. People want to feel loved. Why should you care? Why write a business book about leading with love in such a loveless business world where people are objectified as a means to a profitable end, and takers far outnumber givers. Why should we? Should we even care? It's business, and this is how we conduct ourselves at work. Nothing personal. Get over it, right? I beg to differ. Perhaps we should ask this, why do people lead in ways so unsuitable to how humans are innately designed to want to experience positive emotions in chapter one, I sound the alarm in psyched research, explaining that toxic work environments still prevalent today are killing us, literally, still, in the minds of skeptics, and there are many, this four letter word Love has no place in the harsh and cold conditions of the business world. Furthermore, in their minds, the very idea is disturbing as it sets a precedent for unwanted behaviors, norms and rituals you don't want in the way of producing results or establishing a positive corporate image or brand. Yes, perceptions differ, and people will run into all kinds of conclusions. Therefore, it's necessary to build some parameters around the word love, to place the appropriate meaning of the word under the right context, in this case, a business context. What uh, love as a business strategy, as is the case, the word love is rarely mentioned in the context of work. It's off putting soft and plain and simple just too taboo for the business world. Sure, we may love our work and we may love our coworkers and customers. Still, we rarely think of love as an effective leadership or management strategy, because, as stated, the business world wrongly assumes love as an emotion rather than as an action.  

 

A quick refresher of the Greek language. Language is necessary before we move forward. I also expand on this in the next chapter. Some of us remember from high school or college lessons that the Greeks referred to several types of love, yet only one truly counts for effective leadership in the 21st century. Unlike heroes, the romantic or sexual love that inappropriately shows up in the workplace and makes HR people nervous, Philia, the quid pro quo love of I'll scratch your back, you'll scratch mine, and storge the familial love for parents, siblings or your children, agape, love is your winner. And what defines great leaders, it's the type of selflessness I got your back, love that demonstrates commitment, loyalty, respect. Care and high regard for others. It's love demonstrated as a verb, not an adjective. It's backed by action, not expressed through feelings, emotions, friendship, romance or charity. There's no such thing as the feeling or the emotion of agape, because it does not exist without action as a leader. Agape declares now, I value you as an employee and human being, and will do everything I can to set you up for success so we can all thrive together as a team and organization. This is how the best leaders show up with their employees today in a way that produces action and results, whether you accept what's coming or not. Deep down, effective leadership is practically demonstrated to achieve business success and leave a legacy, the best understanding that they must master their people skills. Indeed, it is a lifelong journey, a deeply rewarding one that requires an immense courage and continuous learning and growth ready to explore that concludes part of the introduction of my book. Thanks for hanging out with me today. I hope you enjoyed it. Don't forget to grab your copy of humane leadership. Lead with radical love. Be a kick ass boss. Available everywhere books are sold. We'll see you next time.