Lead From The Heart

Book excerpt: Leadership and engagement expert Mark C. Crowley shows how trading in the old business playbook for heart-led leadership strategies will create purpose-driven, dedicated employees and higher levels of performance. Revised and updated to address the needs of those managing Gen Z and millennial employees in addition to the latest global research on employee engagement. In this thoroughly revised and updated edition of his now classic book, visionary Mark C. Crowley provides the roadmap workplace leaders the world over are seeking: How to most successfully and sustainably inspire and manage other human beings in the post-pandemic era. · Nearly 50 million workers quit their jobs in the U.S. alone in 2021—a record number likely to be exceeded in 2022. · While we might imagine that an opportunity to earn greater pay is the key driver of this “Great Resignation,” research shows two-thirds of the reasons people leave jobs boil down to issues related to their engagement and overall well-being. · More specifically, people quit when they feel they aren’t valued, respected, appreciated, coached—or cared about personally—by their manager and organization. · Thanks in large part to the COVID pandemic and a global reset of what matters most to people in their lives, human beings have profoundly evolved in what they need and want in exchange for their work. · Consequently, a radical change in employee expectations demands that organizations and managers rapidly pivot by embracing leadership practices that match the moment. · The remedy to the Great Resignation is to adopt more humane ways of managing people knowing they inherently lead to infinitely greater engagement not to mention optimal employee performance. · In this new and updated version of his seminal and visionary book, Mark C. Crowley draws upon emerging medical and other scientific discoveries which prove it's the heart, not the mind, that drives human motivation and achievement. · While we’ve long been led to believe that human beings are essentially rational beings, new research shows that feelings and emotions far more often motivate human behavior and what people care about most and commit themselves to in their lives. · In light of this breakthrough understanding, it’s become incumbent upon workplace managers to pay great attention to their employees' emotional experience at work—far greater attention than any of us ever believed necessary. · Ironically, most of us were told the heart has no place in workplace management. In fact, most of us were taught that the heart acts like Kryptonite in leadership: it inherently undermines a manager's effectiveness - and lowers performance. · What makes this book so remarkable is that it brilliantly contradicts all those traditional beliefs and proves why people naturally and instinctively respond to managers who care about them personally and support their deep human needs. · To be absolutely clear, there's nothing soft or weak about the Lead From The Heart philosophy. Instead, it represents the future of workplace management and a roadmap to driving uncommon engagement, productivity and profitability when organizations around the world are wanting it most. · Rich with inspiring stories and illuminating research, this book proves that when you lead people with a greater balance of mind and heart, people naturally follow. And they also excel.