4 Elements of Heart-Centered Leadership (and why they matter, especially now)
As someone who calls himself a heart-centered leader, clients sometimes ask me what exactly it means to be one. Just mentioning it can bring a suspicious smirk. The truth is that bringing “heart space” into business isn’t all that ethereal a concept. Although some are quick to dismiss the principle, drawing an arbitrary line between two seemingly disparate worlds; one’s personal life, the playing field of the heart and one’s business life, a so-called battlefield of the mind, it actually bears a strong resemblance to servant leadership but with a greater depth of connection between leaders and those they serve.
1. Like servant leadership, heart-centered leadership begins with a guiding principle of service. As we used to say at my company (borrowed and paraphrased from Jan Carlzon) “you’re either serving the customer, or serving someone who is”. This seems quite simple on the surface but in the day-to-day conflicts that arise between stakeholders in any enterprise, really fostering this mindset takes active attention and intention. Heart-centered leaders push on this because they know that careful and thoughtful problem-solving inspires greater empathy and understanding in the workplace.
2. Heart-centered leaders generate trust through a culture of authenticity, curiosity, transparency, and charitable assumption. They make working, learning, making mistakes (and growing from them) safe. This doesn’t mean that goals, KPIs and accountability aren’t part of doing business, it just means that there’s room for teaching moments, discussion and even respectful dissension in the name of making things better and easier.
3. Heart-centered leaders look at the current and future needs of the business through the lens of people development — how do we proactively stay ahead of everyone’s learning curve in order to serve the needs of the business while at the same time building long term relationships? Technical skill and EQ soft skill requirements evolve as people grow in their careers. Leveling up our leaders increases loyalty, enhances cultural continuity, brand and bench depth and an overall sense of security and mission.
4. Heart-centered leaders tend to blur the line between professional and personal growth by creating opportunities for people to fully express themselves, evolve as humans, bring their unique contributions to the workplace and thereby create a culture of inclusivity, diversity, acceptance and…. in the end, yes, I’m going to say it… love.
If I didn’t have my own personal experience of leading a heart-centered organization of 1,400 people, I wouldn’t be writing this. Others like my friend, and fellow Canadian Deb Crowe (who literally wrote the book on heart-centered leadership), can speak to it way more concisely than I can. But opinions like mine and Deb’s are backed up by data. Consider the Q12 Index, Gallup’s in-depth behavioral research involving more than 2.7 million employees in 50 industries. Over 30 years, they identified 12 core elements (the Q12) that largely determine business outcomes. I built most of them into this article. If you’re thinking that your company either isn’t living up to its cultural potential or has drifted away from the depth of connection you all had at one time, have a look at the Q12 questions and answer them honestly. Then let’s talk about how to bring the love about or bring it back.
