What’s Love Gotta Do With Work?

Read Time: 4-5 mintues

Jeremie Kubicek, co-founder of GiANT Worldwide, once offered a definition of love that quietly reoriented how many of us think about leadership:

Love is fighting for the highest possible good in those you lead.

It’s a strong definition. Demanding. Active. Costly.

And in the foreword to my upcoming book Lead. Manage. WIN!, Jeremie models what that definition looks like when it’s applied honestly to your own story.

Here’s an excerpt from the foreword that stopped me cold the first time I read it:

“Early in my leadership journey, I was strong on vision and people, but I underplayed management. I loved calling people up, dreaming big, and casting vision. But I can now admit: there were seasons I avoided the hard management moves because I didn’t want to be seen as too controlling or too demanding. That wasn’t leadership. That was fear dressed up as virtue.

On the other side, I’ve watched plenty of high-capacity leaders default to management because it felt safer, faster, and more measurable. That wasn’t excellence. That was a lack of trust and an addiction to being needed.”

Those paragraphs name two traps many supervisors fall into, but rarely admit.

The Leadership-Only Trap

Jeremie didn’t say calling people up was wrong.

It’s not.

Calling people up is leadership at its best. It invites growth. It dignifies people. It believes in their potential.

The trap isn’t leadership.

The trap is leadership as your only tool.

When encouragement replaces clarity.
When inspiration substitutes for standards.
When vision is offered instead of direction.

That’s not love. That’s imbalance.

Jeremie writes:

“There were seasons I avoided the hard management moves because I didn’t want to be seen as too controlling or too demanding. That wasn’t leadership. That was fear dressed up as virtue.”

That line is crucial.

He wasn’t wrong to lead.
He was wrong to avoid managing.

And many supervisors today are making the same mistake, not because they lack heart, but because they were taught that management is somehow a lesser form of leadership.

It’s not.

Management is how love becomes concrete.

The Opposite Trap Is Just as Dangerous

Jeremie also names the other extreme: leaders who default to management because it feels safer. He says it perfectly:

“That wasn’t leadership. That was fear dressed up as virtue.”

Processes. Metrics. Controls. Checklists.

Management can become a shield, instead of a tool.

This is where people feel used instead of developed. Measured instead of trusted. Managed instead of believed in.

That’s not excellence.
That’s insecurity with authority.

This Is Where Situational Fluency Lives

This tension between calling people up and managing people well is exactly why I wrote about situational fluency.

Situational fluency is the ability to:

• Know when to lead (cast vision, invite ownership, inspire)

• Know when to manage (set standards, enforce expectations, protect the team)

• And have the courage to switch tools without guilt or ego

Supervisors struggle not because they lack heart or intelligence, but because no one ever taught them when to use which tool.

Jeremie didn’t lack love.
He lacked permission, for a season, to manage without shame.

Situational fluency gives that permission.

Love That Fights for the Highest Good

If love is truly fighting for the highest possible good in those you lead, then:

• Sometimes love challenges

• Sometimes love confronts

• Sometimes love sets boundaries

• Sometimes love removes ambiguity

And sometimes love looks less inspiring in the moment—but far more transformative over time.

That’s not soft leadership.
That’s courageous supervision.

If you’re responsible for another human being at work and want to develop the discernment to know when to lead and when to manage, I’d love to help.

→ Schedule a strategy conversation

This is the core work behind Lead. Manage. WIN! and the foundation of every engagement I do with supervisors and leadership teams.