When I read this book ten years ago when Maria first published it, I thought it was extremely relevant. We needed Love Based Leadership in every business, government agency, and school. But we need it more than ever now. Maria's research has identified ways we fail in leading people, and ways we can succeed. I highly recommend this books to anyone who is going to be a leader from he CEO of a large corporation to a teacher in the smallest classroom.

Love brings to mind several varied interpretations, definitions, and constructs for different people. Definitions range from a kindness and fondness of others to sexual connotations. Plato carried love from the physical aspect to an immaterial beauty such as justice, wisdom and knowledge. In the context of this book love is simply defined as knowledge, wisdom and acceptance of one’s authentic self and others.

So what does the author mean by Love- Based Leadership in this book ?

Being human beings, we are meaning-seeking animals. The author compares the two theories - one is Viktor Frankl’s Logotherapy and the second is Maslow’s Needs theory. From Logotherapy we can conclude that we want to do meaningful things in life and Maslow’s needs theory concludes that an employee seeks belongingness, respect, meaning and purpose in the work that he does at the workplace. The author says that the common theme of these two theories are meaning and love. It’s not possible to have one without the other. Love is the conduit to meaning, purpose and abundant living. Both theories are rooted in love : love for self and love for others.

Love based leadership is based on three fundamental pillars - Love of Self, Love of Source, and Love of others. These three pillars are the major building blocks for the construction of meaning, philosophy of life and love based leadership. The author lists seven factors for each of these pillars.

Let’s talk about these three pillars one by one.

Love of Self - In order to be an effective leader of others, we must first go inward and love, understand , and respect ourselves. We need to be effective leaders of ourselves, in our own lives, before we can successfully lead others. The author says that when you love yourself you do not ignore your intuition, you believe in Truth-Telling and Truth-Receiving, you have the Power of choice to love self, source, and others, You should have the ability to change your perception and be present fully in your interaction with others.

Love of Others - Love of others requires leaders, colleagues and employees to share knowledge and skills , mentoring to and nurturing with care those in the workplace. Here the author talks about Collaboration, meaning , shared ownership etc.

Love of Source - In this section the author talks about the spiritual part of leadership. It talks about Inspiration, creativity, happiness, faith, perseverance, peace and authenticity.
This book is full of wisdom and it seems that the author has poured her whole life experience into it. It changed my perception about leadership.

A decade ago, Dr. Maria Church crafted the first version of Love-based Leadership. In the 10th edition with updates made including the notion of COVID-19 and latest insights, the leadership model based on love instead of fear is as vibrant as ever. The author elaborates on alternative models like situational, charismatic, transformational, and servant leadership prior to coining her own. Five power bases basically are founded in fear that can suppress initiatives and renewal. Inspiration, a sincere connection with the source of life, in her opinion regardless of the name of the godhead, is necessary to connect hearts and minds, merge IQ, EQ, and spiritual intelligence. A holistic view using perception-shifting in decision making, brainstorming, and problem-solving is powerful beyond measure for leaders and teams. 

Living by the golden rule with respect for self, source, and others will create a safe and loving environment to work in. Fear is what contributes to prejudice and injustice. We fear that which is different. If we want to help facilitate needed change, we must lead with LOVE (Leading Others Valuing Everyone). The guidance can be used in personal lives as well to give you a sense of belonging, fulfillment, and purpose.

I really enjoyed this book about love based leadership. The author brings up a few topics that are often thought about in corporations and in management. I enjoyed the aspect of meditation as well because this is something I try to do regularly as a corporate manager.

Thanks to Independent Publishers Group and NetGalley for a copy to honestly review.

This book was received as an ARC from Independent Publishers Group - Dudley Court Press in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

I really needed this book right now. Being a supervisor in a library, I always question what does it take to be a good leader? Being new to a leadership position, I always find an opportunity to learn something new about leading a staff or team and deciding not only what type of leader but what type of person I want to be and having therapy and reading self-help books and now reading this book and the techniques Maria Church described in this book, I know I am on the right track. Every CEO, Manager, Supervisor should read this book and be reminded why they took the role in the first place.

We will consider adding this title to our Business/Self-Help collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

I received an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review

Very informative look at vulnerability and service in leadership; worth reading for both a novice and a seasoned leader looking to make changes or a new path