Why Lead Like A Human?

Flipping The Script on Leadership

Do you ever feel like you have to pretend to be someone else at work so that you can be successful? I’ve heard this refrain far too often from my clients and my colleagues. Usually, about managers, who are great parents, partners, and people at home, but take on completely different personas once they walk through the office door. It’s almost like these leaders flip a switch and become a completely different person. 

Who can say exactly why they do this? Perhaps they’re following old management styles from a bygone era, or guidance from a mentor with preconceived notions about how a leader should behave. Unfortunately, this imagined leadership persona is directly at odds with the humanity of these would-be leaders. And their pretending is causing their employees to disengage from their work and, in the worst cases, resign.  What these folks don’t realize is that their true power as a leader comes from being authentic, being vulnerable—in a word, being human. 

Many managers today have decided that the only way to lead effectively is to separate their humanity from their position at work. They couldn’t be more wrong. It was this disconnect in their thinking that led me to write my first book, Lead Like a Human, a practical guide to help leaders break old patterns of leadership and create new styles that are uniquely their own. Leading like a human is a simple step by step method that will radically change your approach to leadership and help you better understand how to incorporate your full self into your work.  

Are You Leading to Your Fullest?

People don’t often know what they could become. All too often, today’s employees find themselves in unfulfilling jobs where they waste away the hours between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. These dead-end jobs are draining the life out of our people. They do meaningless tasks to check a box without understanding how they’re moving the business forward or what impact their work is having. Their idleness, however, is not always their fault—it is due to a lack of true leadership in their organizations. Their managers are not mentors helping them achieve greatness but stumbling blocks impeding an employee’s journey at every turn.

This has led to a culture where managers spur their teams along with brute force, frustration, and dated leadership tactics. They dictate their demands from behind closed boardroom doors and expect the employees under them to execute on their orders immediately. I don’t mean to scare you, but these managers are everywhere, in every industry, and they are wreaking havoc on your organizations right now. They stifle the productivity and growth of individuals and limit the bottom line of your businesses. But how do we solve this problem? How can we transform these monster managers into something more beneficial for you and your employees?

In Lead Like a Human, I share my perspective on leadership as well as practical tips on building and leading engaged teams of empowered employees. From creating an enduring culture to using data to pinpoint your organization’s toughest problems, you’ll learn how to lead courageously and engage your people in a way that drives real business growth. When you lead like a human, you unlock the potential in yourself and in your people, allowing everyone to do impactful work that is challenging, captivating, and, ultimately, inspiring. 

In both my successes and failures, I’ve discovered how to lead people in ways that grow both the business and the employee. My hope is that by transparently sharing my journey with you, I can nudge you along on yours, helping you become more of the leader you were meant to be and in turn creating the teams of people who bring their best selves to work every day. And when you fill your teams with motivated people, great things will start happening for your company. 

Are you ready to take the first step towards leading in a way that aligns who you are with what you do? If so, check out Lead Like a Human here. This might sound like an uphill climb, but trust me: it’s simpler than it seems. It all starts with leading like a human.