Leading with emotion

“Leadership is always about an emotional connection. It’s a very important piece of the puzzle. We always want to be thinking about 2 questions:  How are people experiencing me, and how are people experiencing themselves when they’re with me?”
– Dr. Linda Hill

A group of 22 executives representing 16 industries recently joined us for a roundtable with Harvard Business School Professor Dr. Linda Hill, on Being the Agile Boss: The 3 Imperatives for leading through the pandemic.

We wanted to find out how they’re doing, provide a place for them to connect with peers and share experiences, and also help them view their pandemic-related challenges through the lens of Dr. Hill’s highly regarded global research on leadership, agility, and innovation.

What we learned: Throughout the discussion, it became clear that making an emotional connection with employees, customers, and peers is foundational for establishing or reinforcing the trust everyone needs to move forward, especially in times of disruption and uncertainty.

Other themes included the importance of building a culture of psychological safety, listening from the ground up, fostering nascent leadership, communicating often, being authentic, demonstrating empathy, modeling and setting an example, and taking care to match your intent with your impact.

Organizations are making shifts from a focus on work/life balance to overall wellness because work and life aren’t so easily separated these days. Other shifts: staying remote, having shorter meetings (45 is the new 60), distributing decision-making, and empowering everyone to be value creators and game changers.

Grab your complimentary copy of our leadership roundtable report here.

One great thing
Optimism: It’s your choice