Jill Lublin, Author, Profit of Kindness: How to Influence Others, Establish Trust, and Build Lasting Business Relationships

Business procedures and management decisions are based on facts and not emotions. As a consequence, business communication strategies are also based on quantifiable factors. This reality makes even the self-proclaimed value-based organizations hard to articulate empathy.

Paul J. Zak, PhD, Professor, Claremont Graduate University

Fear or love?  At the most basic level, these are a leader's choices when seeking to motivate followers. Most managers, perhaps due to some hangover from the eighteenth century, lead by fear because, well, it works. Fear may not be explicit, though some managers still scream and yell, but it is often implicit in the "do this or you're out" approach.

Today, we hear a lot about seemingly squishy leadership approaches like "empathy," "humanity" and even "love."  Many business leaders I know would be happy to be Mr. or Ms. Nice at work but they have a feeling that this leadership style is not going to get the job done.  Or, at least that has been the prevailing wisdom.