Marcus Buckingham on using a ‘lovingly lens’

If you want to change what you’re doing for the people you serve or the people in your community, then put on your “lovingly lens,” says New York Times bestselling author and researcher Marcus Buckingham.

“A loving lens in a sense bifurcates the world into stuff that feels ‘right,’ which is loving, and then everything else we didn’t previously call unloving; we just called it odd, weird, [or it] felt strange,” he says. “Unless you can call it by its name though, you don’t know how to fix it.”

Once you put your lovingly lens on, you can start to see the world split in two. But what’s loving? Buckingham offers this as an example: frequent check-ins between one team leader and the people on their team.

What do those check-ins look like? He says they should check these three boxes: 

• Occur once per week.
• Last 15 minutes.
• Include three questions:
  • How did you feel about last week?
  • What are you working on this week
  • How can I help?

“You run the data, [and] frequent, light touch check-ins about near term future work is the single most powerful driver of performance and engagement,” he says. “Love and work, Love and work. Fifty-two times a year.”

In this clip, Buckingham explains why a loving lens can help you bring out the best in people. 

Related Resources

Full presentation from Marcus Buckingham (Vistage members only)

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