What’s the difference between I like to lead and I love to lead? This is a brilliant question that must be considered.
Straightforward, when you like to lead, you can just simply say that you like it – leaving it like that. On the other hand, when you love to lead, the main difference is that you put an effort to elevate more of your potential to ripple an impact in your organization, and you don’t hesitate to learn more. It’s like treating everyday challenges as a privilege built with pressure.
A common denominator of love to lead is the presence of passion and perseverance. When a leader is equipped with these characteristics, heightened growth will flourish in an organization. A study entitled “To Lead is to Love: An Exploration into the Role of Love in Leadership” results revealed in the study of the Hoosier Researcher “leaders who demonstrate the characteristics of love are perceived as having a higher degree of leadership than those who do not demonstrate the characteristics of love”(Ricciardi, 2014). This additionally shows that as a leader, you can be more with just the foundation of love in leading.
Undeniably, many people are afraid to lead, hesitant to take the challenge, having the fear to fail. This is common nowadays, a stigma that is continuously bringing our capacity into becoming a puppet, always staying as a follower, just being controlled, waiting for the command, and relying on someone’s leadership. Let us stop being like this!
Every individual can lead but is strung to fear of failure. These failures are already part of our lives. We cannot u-turn and find another path without it because life itself was built with this thing. Technically, we cannot prevent failures, but we can outfear failures by treating them as a dose of opportunities to improve ourselves. Always remember, failure is feedback not a destination. This mindset is what Tagum Cooperative taught its leaders, evidenced in their tagged line as “where people invest their trust,” including achievements and compliance with different certifications and regulatory bodies.
With the full initiative of Tagum Cooperative in continuously equipping its front-line Expanded Management Team (EMT), the 7th Leadership Summit 2025 was successfully conducted last February 22-23, 2025 in the five-star luxury resort of Discovery Samal. The one-day event is composed of a series of sessions with the invited speakers and a fun solidarity night (Talento Niyo, Ipakita Niyo!) among attendees. One of the key highlights of the event is the presence of the motivational and business speaker Jonathan Yabut with prestige as “The Apprentice Asia Winner”.
Alongside Mr. Yabut, distinguished speakers Ms. Emjay L. Ortuoste and Rev. Fr. Paul Jhon Banaybanay also shared their wisdom on leadership. They emphasized the importance of People, Purpose, and Passion—key elements that drive effective leadership. Their insights underscored how true leaders inspire, serve, and create meaningful impact within their communities and organizations.
In Mr. Yabut’s session, he ignited the hall with this motivational statement “Pressure is Privilege”. Pressure is a privilege because it pushes leaders to overcome challenges and seek resolution for the advances. These challenges hurdle when it comes to achieving Tagum Cooperative’s mission and vision, advancing compliance and procedures, etc. Pressure, as described by the speaker, is not seen as a roadblock but as an avenue for creativity and excellence. EMT were taught that every challenge is an opportunity to weather the storm together, innovate, collaborate, and develop pragmatic solutions that bring the cooperative closer together and reinforce its values.
We have already reached the end of this article, but back to the brilliant statement in the beginning. If we recall, “Like” from I Like to Lead has four letters, and so does “Love” from I Love to Lead. As leaders, we always have a choice, things you like or things you love. All are the same in number of letters, almost similar in definition, but draw a thin line, so we choose the better side of it. Millard Kein Almiñe.