Today, I’m sharing a story about one of my clients, Mark (name changed), and how he was able to honor his late father's advice while he was meeting some leadership challenges in terms of how he developed the leaders who reported to him. In Mark’s story, he was protecting a leader who he perceived to be weak, but in doing so, he was allowing harm to come to other employees. Sometimes we can do harm by not doing anything.

Leading with Head and Heart

That is what it means to be an integrated leader – one who embodies being connected to themselves and others, and who can also rigorously think through complex problems. Easier said than done!

What does this REALLY require?

Today I’m sharing Amy’s* story: A leader who was already very successful and had just been promoted and given a much broader role in the organization. She was a dynamic doer and adept at mentoring and educating her people. They looked to her for answers. Her challenge was being an even more strategic leader who needed to learn about...

The pandemic amplified the conversation around mental health and the need to honor the worker and foster more compassionate work cultures. The current wars and strife in the world require this now, more than ever. The world is in turmoil, and yet our lives and work must carry on – but how? What role can you, as a leader play? How, and why, do you nurture cultures of care?

I just got off a call with a client, let’s call them Pat, who is working on being more influential with senior leaders. Pat is a senior leader themselves. They are highly affiliative and great at putting people at ease. They tend toward introversion and will let others talk. It’s not that they don’t have a point of view – they usually do. It’s that they take great care in allowing others to be heard and feel included. They don’t feel the need to compete for attention or to be heard. When they have something that they feel needs to be said, then they say it – calmly and deliberately.

And, their affiliative style can be an overused strength. We all want to be liked.

Suze Shaner is interviewed by Diane Halfman on her podcast “Live Your SPALife” (SPA – Seek Power Always).