Love Languages

The 5 Love Languages book series has sold more than twenty million copies. It has helped countless spouses, parents, and kids.

It’s a book for anyone who interacts with people.

It’s for us.

The five love languages are: acts of service, words of affirmation, quality time, physical touch, and gifts.

It’s not that important to know the languages.

What’s important is to know what language your important people hear.

According to author Gary Chapman, we all appreciate a different language more than others. Some of us like to hear we did a good job. Others of us like meaningful gifts. Others like to feel appreciated when someone helps us finish a job.

“Love” doesn’t capture our customers and co-workers' relationships but the idea of speaking their language does. Put another way: What’s important to them?

What’s funny is what happened when we started practicing this. When we became more attuned to customer complaints, we also started to listen better at home. When we listened closely to suppliers, we also heard more details from our teenage daughters. Like a muscle, the more we did the more we could do.

The 5 Love Languages is not a traditional business book but it gets to our fundamental human needs. That’s something any business can use.

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