435 Love as a Change Strategy: Why Most Change Efforts Fail and What Builds Real Commitment with Mohammad F. Anwar
In this episode of Partnering Leadership, Mahan Tavakoli sits down with Mohammad Anwar, founder and CEO of Softway and co-author of the book Love as a Change Strategy. Together, they take on one of the most misunderstood ideas in leadership: whether love has any place in driving performance, innovation, and large-scale change.
Mohammad’s perspective is not theoretical. He shares a deeply personal leadership story, tracing how a fear-driven, control-oriented approach nearly destroyed his company, and how a fundamental shift in how he treated people helped turn it around. The conversation challenges the assumption that tough leadership and human leadership sit in opposition to each other.
The discussion then moves into why so many organizational change efforts fail, despite heavy investments in process, technology, and change management frameworks. Mohammad argues that most leaders don’t actually have a change management problem. They have a change strategy problem, one that overlooks how humans respond to uncertainty, fear, and loss of control.
Mahan presses on a question many CEOs wrestle with privately: if fear-based leadership can produce results, why not use it? The answer isn’t moralistic. It’s practical. They explore sustainability, commitment, and the hidden costs leaders don’t see until it’s too late.
The episode also tackles AI and transformation through a people-first lens. Rather than framing AI as a threat or a productivity shortcut, Mohammad reframes it as a test of leadership maturity and an opportunity to restore humanity to work, if leaders are willing to change themselves first.
Actionable Takeaways
- You’ll learn why fear can drive short-term performance but quietly undermines long-term results.
- Hear how most change initiatives fail before they even start because leaders focus on process instead of people.
- You’ll learn why humans don’t change through checklists, frameworks, or mandates, even when the strategy looks sound.
- Hear how trust, not urgency or pressure, determines the speed and success of transformation.
- You’ll learn what “love” actually means in a leadership context, and why it has nothing to do with being soft.
- Hear how leaders unintentionally create resistance by making decisions first and asking people to follow later.
- You’ll learn why AI adoption is less about technology readiness and more about human psychology and leadership example.
- Hear how effectiveness, not efficiency, becomes the real constraint when leading people through change.
- You’ll learn why the hardest leadership work often starts with changing yourself before asking others to change.
Connect with Mohammad Anwar
Connect with Mahan Tavakoli: