With Valentine’s Day approaching, love tends to get framed as something personal. Romantic. Private. Something that belongs outside the walls of work.

But what if love does belong in the workplace — just not in the way we usually think about it?

Not sentimentality. Not forced positivity. Not heart emojis or motivational posters.

In organizations, love shows up as respect. And when respect is present, happiness follows.

That’s why this week’s Leading With Respect conversation felt especially timely.

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Brooklyn Dicent Chief Happiness Officer, Chief Happiness Officer at The Happiness Consulting Company. Brooklyn’s work focuses on bringing the science of happiness into organizations across the country and beyond. What immediately stood out to me was how closely her perspective on happiness aligns with my work on respect.

Early in our conversation, a powerful connection emerged:

This week on Leading With Respect, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Christina Rowe, a deeply thoughtful talent development and organizational effectiveness leader who truly embodies what human-centric leadership looks like in practice.

From the moment Christina began sharing her story, one theme stood out: She sees herself first and foremost as a problem solver — someone who brings the right people, insights, and perspectives together to create solutions that genuinely serve the business and the humans inside it.

That orientation matters more than ever in today’s VUCA world: volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity.

A Conversation with J.D. Roux, Chief People & Culture Officer at IGT

When I invited J.D. Roux to join me on the Leading With Respect podcast, I knew the conversation would be thoughtful. What I didn’t expect was how grounded, practical, and quietly powerful his perspective would be.

J.D. is a fellow Microsoft alum and currently serves as Chief People & Culture Officer at IGT (International Game Technology). But when he introduced himself, he didn’t start with his title.

“I’m a father, a husband, a son… and I also happen to be a Chief People Officer.”

That framing alone tells you a lot about how he views leadership.

Not as a position. Not as an authority. But as the responsibility to serve human beings.

Respect Is The Baseline For Inclusion

It shows up most in what we invite (and what we ignore).

Some conversations stay with you. Not because they were dramatic. Not because they were controversial.

But because they were grounded… human… and quietly powerful. That’s exactly how I’d describe my recent podcast conversation with Megan Cadd, Director of Inclusion at Gartner, who supports Gartner’s eight global Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), communities designed to support underrepresented associates across regions, cultures, and identities.

Megan and I have known each other for a while, and I’ve always admired her clarity: she brings a steady, practical wisdom to conversations that too often get reduced into buzzwords or corporate slogans.

Read the full article on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/respect-baseline-inclusion-bobby-bakshi-xcygc/

Ferose V R is a dear friend, mentor, a leader I admire deeply, and one of the most grounded storytellers I know.

Ferose currently serves as a Senior Vice President at SAP, leading the SAP Academy for Engineering based in the Bay Area. But titles, as Ferose reminded me, don’t tell the full story.

In fact, he opened our conversation with what he calls his “love introduction:"

“We all introduce ourselves typically with where we work. But who are we if we remove the titles from us? My love introduction is… I love potatoes, books, and my immediate family.” He then spoke about his son, his wife of 25+ years, and Coco, their companion dog for his son who is on the autism spectrum.

And just like that, Ferose set the tone for what became one of the most human, wise, and uplifting conversations I’ve had on the podcast.

Read the full article on LinkedIn.

Why “therapy/companionship” is now Gen AI’s #1 use case — and what leaders must do next This morning on my beach walk, I had an “aha.”

I was thinking about rip currents.

Not as a beach safety topic— but as a metaphor for the world we’re living in right now.

Follow the companion LinkedIn newsletter to this podcast: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/rip-currents-age-ai-bobby-bakshi-g8h0c/?trackingId=uC45puQ9SAuB1cToi0E6fg%3D%3D

Azurée Montoute-Lewis (Global Chief People Officer, Burson) shares how respect manifests in measurable ways across regions, generations, and real-world cultural challenges.

I recently sat down with Azurée S. Montoute-Lewis, MBA, SPHR, Global Chief People Officer at Burson, a global communications agency with a truly international footprint.

She offered one of the most grounded definitions of workplace respect I’ve heard.

Not soft. Not abstract. Not “be nice.”

Actionable.

Greetings Friends,

This week’s Leading With Respect conversation is a truly special one for me.

I’m honored to feature, Howard Behar, former President of Starbucks, lifelong student of servant leadership, and someone I’ve had the privilege of knowing and learning from for many years. Howard is one of those rare leaders who doesn’t just talk about values—he lives them. And few people are as credible a voice on respect, trust, and leadership as he is.

When I asked Howard what he’s most passionate about today, his answer was immediate and unwavering: servant leadership. It's been his focus for decades.

Not as a leadership model. Not as a business framework. But as a life model.

Howard shared that after more than 60 years of studying and practicing servant leadership, he still believes its core truth is simple and profound: we are here to serve one another. When leaders truly embrace this mindset, it fundamentally changes how we relate, collaborate, and accomplish things together.