I recently met a new friend named Dana. He’s a Boston duck boat tour guide (a “conDUCKtor”) whose job is to educate people and have a great time while cruising the Charles River.
At the Boston Duck Tours end-of-year celebration, they hand out awards, including the usual ones for safety and for best presenters.
I think what Dana won this year was even better – “Most Loving” tour guide (and a thousand bucks)! He beamed as he described it. Happier than a duck in a puddle.
The thing is: this wasn’t random. It fit him. Dana is a man who leads with warmth, welcomes everyone, and creates that unmistakable energy that uplifts and connects. Amare energy, love at work. His company sees it and celebrates it.
Why Recognizing Love Works
The leadership lesson is that when an organization rewards love, love multiplies. Everyone’s performance improves. Psychologist Jonathan Haidt calls it moral elevation.
Research shows it increases prosocial behavior, generosity, and cooperation. When workplaces shine a light on loving behaviors, everyone feels the rise. I call it the Amare Way. This isn’t soft. It’s science.
Examples of Rewarding Love
ZAPPOS uses peer-to-peer recognition, Spotlight Awards, and its “Hero Award” to celebrate employees who deliver WOW-level kindness and service.
SALESFORCE brings its Ohana culture to life through peer-recognition platforms, public kudos walls, and volunteer time–off that rewards collaboration and community contributions.
CISCO fuels its #LoveWhereYouWork culture with peer-to-peer appreciation tools, global “Connected Recognition” shout-outs, and community awards that honor care, teamwork, and belonging.
These aren’t fringe moves. These choices shape performance, retention, innovation, and trust. Leaders reward love because love works to improve business.
Don’t Reward What You Don’t Want
Most organizations don’t reward love. They reward obsession. Endless yeses. Profit at any cost.
What happens? If you reward cutting corners, corners get cut. Reward top performers who mistreat colleagues, and culture decays. Reward chasing profits above all? Humanity gets quietly traded away, one decision at a time.
Your company’s reward system tells the truth about your culture. Everyone reads the cues.
GET YOUR FREE “HOW TO SAY NO” LEADERSHIP GUIDE HERE. Set healthy limits, let go of outdated beliefs, and watch your leadership power grow. SHARE IT TOO.
Mirror – Reflection Questions
- What behaviors do you reward (intentionally or accidentally) through your praise, incentives, or silence?
- When have you recently witnessed a loving act at work—and how did it affect you?
- How might your culture shift if love-powered behaviors were publicly celebrated?
Door Into Action: 7 Amare Action Steps to Reward Love
1. Spot the daily uplifts. Notice and name behaviors that uplift and connect—small acts count. Recognition amplifies them.
2. Design one love-centered reward. Introduce a simple monthly or quarterly award celebrating kindness, collaboration, or courage. Encourage your team to nominate each other.
3. Rewrite one metric. Replace a fear-based performance measure with one tied to values, community, or positive impact. Instead of a monthly revenue goal, reward 5-star reviews on Google.
4. Show love in the moment. When someone models Amare behavior, acknowledge it right then—privately or publicly.
5. Champion your connectors. Identify people who naturally elevate others (like Dana!) and support them with meaningful reinforcement.
6. Audit your incentives. Look at what your formal and informal systems actually reward. Adjust what’s out of alignment with who you want to be.
7. Tell the love stories. Share real examples of positive acts in meetings, internal newsletters, and company dinners. Stories spread what spreadsheets don’t.
Amare Team Talk
At your next team meeting, invite people to share one recent example of someone uplifting or supporting another. Listen for the sparks of elevation. Pick one behavior the team wants to reward more visibly and experiment with a simple recognition ritual this month.
Your Inspirational Challenge
Let this be a week where you simply notice the moments when love shows up at work — the patience in a tense meeting, the teammate who steadies someone having a hard day, the quiet generosity that keeps a project moving. These small lifts are easy to overlook, yet they’re often what hold a culture together.
When you tune into these moments, you start to see the deeper story of who you are together — not just what you produce, but how you shape each other.
Imagine what would shift if your workplace put even a fraction of its attention on rewarding love — the connecting, uplifting kind that makes people braver and more generous.
Cultures transform when someone goes first. Maybe that someone is you. Maybe this is the season to name what truly matters and to celebrate it wherever you find it.
Let this be a week where you elevate the behaviors that elevate everyone — the love-powered signals that say, “This is who we are at our best.”
Big Amare!
–Moshe
Today’s Amare Wave Wednesday Quote
“What is honored in a country is cultivated there.”
—Plato, in The Republic
“What is honored in a company is cultivated there.”
—Moshe, in The Amare Wave
Click here and read more Amare Wave Wednesday newsletters on related topics:
Change Your Words, Change Your Culture, Change the World
Make Everything Feed Your Mission & Vision: Aligning Your Organization for Impact
5 Pillars of Empathic Leadership That Can Transform Your Organization
The Ripple Effect: How Shining Your Light Sparks Brighter Leadership in Others
