On Being a Heart-Centered Leader

The pandemic has added to the already significant challenges of business transformation. In this situation, businesses are realizing that they need to do more than just align the business models or update their strategy. Businesses need a fine balance of Brain (Strategy), Soul (Human-Centered Approach) and Movement (forward motion through execution).

While most organizations are good at framing strategies, execution of these strategies depend largely on softer aspects like culture, alignment, communication, learning and overall mindset of leadership.

We need more heart in leadership.

This becomes even more critical when employees are dealing with anxieties at multiple levels: the unclear long term impacts of COVID19, workplace safety, job security, company’s future, distractions from working from home, family’s well-being etc.

Therefore, heart-centered leadership will be a key differentiator in enabling execution, not just in pandemic time, but even in post-COVID world.

Many studies also underline importance and impact of soft attributes of leadership like humility, honesty, open-mindedness and empathy on company’s performance. As the rate of change accelerates, company leadership must learn how to align people, lead with purpose, provide a sense of meaning and engage people with opportunities to learn and grow.

But what exactly is heart-centered leadership?

Heart-Centered Leadership means having the wisdom, courage and compassion to lead others with authenticity, transparency, humility and service. – Susan Steinbrecher

Heart signifies the spirit of service. Leadership that embraces this spirit of service to internal and external stakeholders is heart-centered leadership.

Is it easy? Hell, no. Is it worthwhile, definitely yes. Our leadership is a combination of inherent and acquired skills. A lot of heart centered leadership comes from your journey, your past experiences, your influences and your upbringing in the business life. It is the conditioning that needs to be updated.

Because at the end of it all, our leadership stems from our being. Many feel that leadership is about “doing”. I tell them to focus on their “being” and “doing” will take care of itself.

In this context, I am grateful to have connected with a fellow Heart Centered Leader Deb Crowe, and a few conversation later, our alignment in terms of how we see leadership as a function of heart was clear. When she shared her insights about qualities of a heart-centered leader, I decided to turn it into a sketchnote for my reference.

Further, Deb invited me to her awesome podcast titled “imperfect: The Heart Centered Leadership” where she interviews amazing heart-centered leaders across the domains and geography. It was a wonderful conversation where I enjoyed responding to some fun questions and sharing my journey of documenting my lessons.

You can listen to the conversation here.

Updated: Visual Leadership Pack of 55+ HD Sketchnotes

If you liked the sketchnotes above, you can find them in high-resolution along with 68+ other powerful (and timeless) ideas to elevate your game. Check out the Visual Leadership Pack of HD Sketchnotes here.