Did the word “love” in this question make you raise an eyebrow, cough nervously, or think about moving on to the next article? These questions are going to get increasingly personal as the pages turn, and you’re going to have to make a decision about whether or not you’re going to stay with them. Being a leader requires that you go to a deeper level instead of staying on the surface. Oh, you can manage by skimming the top of issues, emotions, and people, but you can’t lead from there.

Leadership requires thinking about and acting on things that occur beneath the surface. It requires that you care enough to confront. People who have heard me talk about teams have heard me say, “Hate is not the opposite of love. Apathy is.” Leaders can’t be apathetic. So we need to talk about love, enthusiasm, fun, and meaning. Can you handle that?

What do you love about your job? I hope it doesn’t take too long for you to answer. It’s easy for leaders to get so caught up in all the important things they’re supposed to do that they forget the things that brought them to their profession in the first place. I remember when my Aunt Elsie, who became a nurse during World War II, realized that she wasn’t happy being a nurse because nurses no longer spent much time with patients. Her first impulse was to quit nursing since the part of the job she loved the most no longer occupied most of her time, but she came to understand that, by changing the kind of nursing she was doing, she could do more of what she loved. She left the hospital setting and became a visiting nurse. She devoted the rest of her nursing career to direct patient care.

So let me ask the question again. What is the part of your job that you love? The part you would do if they paid you or not? What are the ways you can work more of those activities into your schedule?

Just one other thought. What about loving the things you have to do? There is a great greeting card that says, “In order to love what you do, don’t do what you love, love what you do.” Pretend I’ve just sent you that card. Hold it in your hands, stare at it for a while, and ponder the message. Just some more food for thought.