Can Love Be a Fierce Business Force? | Marcus Buckingham - EP 779

Can Love Be a Fierce Business Force? | Marcus Buckingham - EP 779

June 11, 2026 · 54 min · Episode 779

About this episode

Marcus Buckingham discusses the role of love as a powerful force in business leadership and its impact on customer loyalty and employee engagement.

In this episode of Passion Struck, John R. Miles sits down with Marcus Buckingham, who is a global researcher, pioneer of the strengths movement, and bestselling author of First Break All the Rules, to explore one of the most provocative ideas in modern leadership: love as a fierce business force. Marcus reveals why extreme positive experiences, which people spontaneously describe using the word “love,” are the only true drivers of lasting customer loyalty, employee engagement, resilience, and performance. Drawing on extensive research, he introduces the five sequential feelings (control, harmony, significance, warmth, and growth) that leaders must intentionally design into every experience to help people flourish. In this episode, you'll learn: Why love is the most powerful predictor of productive human behavior in business The J-curve effect and why average experiences create zero behavioral change The five sequential feelings required to design love into customer and employee experiences How to become an “experience maker” who treats every interaction as a cohesive stage play Why the founder’s flame matters and what happens when organizations drift into loveless machines The…

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