In today’s podcast, I’d love to tell you about leading an organization with your heart and creating room for more humanity in organization. Why this sudden necessity for this change? How to achieve this change?

Sudden necessity for change

When talking to these leaders, I was amazed to notice that I was not at all the only one having these dreams about adding more humanity, more long term visions and more meaning into an organization. The problem was that they could not always speak their mind openly, especially when I was going to share these interviews publicly. They would not talk about this way of leading in front of their peers or shareholders, because these people would often have a more traditional way of leading the business. The will to lead with your heart is already present in a lot of leaders, but does not yet show in their behaviour or the way they talk about it.

Recently though, times started changing really fast. There were more challenges, more technologies were being developed and more meetings were held. Especially with the corona pandemic hitting, organizations had to adapt swiftly and fast. I noticed that people organizations were already working incredibly hard and could not be pressured more due to a rising number of burn-outs. We had to get results in a different way! That’s when organizations started focussing on happiness programs, co-creation and empowerment. This allowed people to feel better and create more agility and adaptability in the organization. I immediately saw that those leaders already had these great qualities, human qualities inside of them, but out of this necessity to really get the results they wanted, they stepped out of their comfort zone and had the courage to not only talk openly about happiness, trust, meaning, humanity and empowerment, but also act upon it. And then those leaders started to inspire other leaders who also felt that something was not working anymore, and wanted something else.

How to achieve this change

This all probably sounds pretty good, but you guys must be thinking

“But how the heck am I supposed to help my organization transition towards a more human way of leading a business?”

I’ll answer this question right now .

A recent study by Damon Centola, Joshua Becker, Devon Brackbill, and Andrea Baronchelli showed that in order to change the culture of your organization, you don’t need 51% of the people to change their behavior. Rather, a mere 25% is enough to inspire the rest to follow! So if you want to transition towards this new model, you should focus on the people that have the same view and are open to change, rather than focus on the people who resist it.

When talking to these senior leaders, I noticed that we are not far at all from this 25%. I am convinced we already are beyond 25%. The problem is that not everyone is ready to show what they think of the new way of leading an organization and act upon it. So if YOU want to achieve this goal, ask yourself these questions and really think of a good answer:

What do you really want inside of you?

Do you want to continue delivering at this pace?

Do you want to continue focussing on tasks, on projects, on money, on Excel tables?

Or do you want to embrace this new model, have more balance, more meaning, and more impact?

If you want this last thing, don’t be afraid to show that, to talk about it, change your behaviors, and get out of your comfort zone! Don’t be afraid to show that you want to be part of that 25% change, because it will inspire others to follow you and join our movement. So is there really room and place for more human leadership? There definitely is and this shift is already happening, and it’s only accelerating!