The solution to the Great Resignation may be found in the title of a classic leadership book: Lead From The Heart. But let’s face it, the idea of becoming a “heart-led” leader sounds inherently soft and weak.
To the most cynical managers amongst us, it’s interpreted as guidance to be kind and nice to workers – at the direct expense of setting aggressive goals and holding people accountable for achieving them. Lead From the Heart? No thank you.
But we should all be wary of making snap judgments about anything new.
My recent podcast guest, Mark C. Crowley just published the second edition of Lead From The Heart: Transformational Leadership for The 2srcst Century, and makes the unique case that bringing “heart” into management is no metaphor – and there’s nothing soft about it.
As Mark shares in our podcast discussion – and articulates in great detail in his book – there’s compelling new science which proves human hearts actually play a huge role in motivating performance. It’s breakthrough information that upends how we’ve traditionally been taught to manage. His research proves that the most successful and effective workplace managers now pay great attention to their employees’ emotional experience at work (specifically how they feel), far greater attention than any of us ever believed necessary.
In his book, Crowley outlines the emerging science that shows how the human heart and brain are connected through the vagus nerve with the heart sending more signals to the brain than the brain sends back. The net effect is that human beings are not as rational as we’ve always believed and up to 95% of the decisions we make every day are driven by feelings and emotions.
To emphasize one of Crowley’s prime conclusions: employee decisions to be engaged, loyal, committed and productivity are not made rationally – they’re decisions made by their hearts.
So what strategies can managers employ to ensure they’re appealing to their employees’ hearts? Crowley’s book is far more comprehensive, but here’s a quick list to get you started:
src. Hire people with heart
Crowley says that the most important lesson he ever learned about building high performance teams is this: Make it your intention that every person you select will put their hearts into their work.
Everyone has work that they’re good at or ignites their passions. But managers too frequently put people into roles that don’t match up to those talents or passions. As such, he says, “It’s irrational to expect anything but half-hearted effort.”
Lead from the Heart emphasizes that leaders need to resist the temptation of putting someone into a job where they don’t belong. It’s not about just making a hire. The goal is to hire someone who can wholeheartedly commit to the role.
2. Connect with the heart
Many traditional leadership practices suggest that connecting more personally with employees will only complicate the leader-worker relationship. But research shows it’s quite the opposite.
Leaders who make a personal connection with employees can inspire their highest achievement.
Crowley mentions that in the book, Nine Lies About Work, authors Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall make an assertion that employees need attention and connection in order to survive. Their research shows that leaders who check in weekly – and personally – with all team members, have far higher levels of engagement and performance, and lower turnover.
3. Empower the heart
There is a common misconception that maximizing human potential, spending time developing people, could compromise productivity.
Crowley challenges this assumption, suggesting that employee output only accelerates when people feel supported in their expansion and career progression. “Leaders excel when everyone on their team is in an ongoing process of broadening and deepening their capabilities in some meaningful way.”
He also offers several additional reasons in the book on why purposefully growing employees is so vital to not only your team, but also to the organization as a whole.
4. Inspire the heart
Crowley believes that few things have as powerful an effect on any of us as hearing our boss tell us they are proud of us.
“Managers too often disregard how critically important this is to people, how deeply it inspires, and why it’s so essential to building and sustaining high performance,” he says.
Unlike pay and other financial rewards, Crowley says being praised and recognized is an expression of care, and this–and not money-;is what ultimately affects the hearts in people and inspires them to do their best work. If we want to see these behaviors replicated, it’s imperative that managers are consistently swift in acknowledging their employee’s value and accomplishments.
Crowley’s four tenants directly challenge traditional leadership practices, demonstrating why people naturally and instinctively respond to managers who care about them personally, and support their deep human needs.
Lead from the Heart proves that appealing to people’s hearts is the most surefire way to bringing employee engagement, retention, and job satisfaction scores back from crisis levels.
If you’d like to learn more, here’s a link to Crowley’s book, and to his appearance on my podcast.