Heart centred leadership? With Valentine’s Day upon us, it seems appropriate to talk about one of my favourite leadership traits. I think it’s time for more of it – don’t you?
Heart centred leadership isn’t the latest buzzword or trend in leadership circles. It’s a recognised way to ‘be’ as a leader that creates engaged and profitable organisations. The principles have been studied extensively, and the evidence is clear: leaders who lead with heart achieve better results whilst creating healthier workplace cultures.
Here I want to share five key characteristics to focus on to start your journey to becoming a true heart centred leader. The characteristics outlined here aren’t about adopting a completely new leadership style overnight. They represent a shift in mindset and practice – small, consistent changes that accumulate into transformational leadership impact. Each characteristic builds on the others, creating a coherent approach to leadership that values both results and relationships.
1. Take Care of Your Own Heart, Head and Self-Esteem First
As a first start, it takes preparation. Just as an athlete would never run an Olympic sprint without putting in the work first, a heart centred leader should look after themselves in preparation for inspiring and leading their team from the heart.
Spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical health must take priority. Leaders and managers who prioritise self-care consistently have a positive impact on the staff they work with. A leader who is always first in and last out, looks shattered, and is always too busy to talk doesn’t inspire those around them.
This also has the knock-on effect of helping increase self-esteem, which is a fundamental building block to be a sustainable leader. When leaders take care of themselves, they model the behaviour they want to see in their team. They demonstrate that wellbeing matters and that sustainable performance comes from balance, not burnout.
Leading from the heart doesn’t mean neglecting yourself in service of others. It means ensuring you’re in the right state – physically, mentally, and emotionally – to give your best to your team. This isn’t selfish; it’s essential.
Simple practices make a real difference: regular exercise, adequate sleep, boundaries around working hours, and time for activities that recharge energy. These aren’t luxuries – they’re the foundation of sustainable leadership. When leaders prioritise these basics, they bring their best selves to work consistently, creating positive ripple effects throughout their teams.
2. Walk Your Talk
There are several well-known sayings in the coaching world that are appropriate to share here. One is “communication is the response you get” and another is “you cannot not communicate”.
The context relates to how leaders are perceived and how they communicate and send messages on multiple levels. Fundamentally, it’s about how they act in the workplace and the meaning that employees make from that.
Remember, everything leaders say and do has an impact. That’s why enlightened leadership teams invest in training and development, from personal coaching to style and strengths evaluation. Personal awareness of who we are and how we communicate gives leaders the opportunity to grow and change.
Research from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development1 confirms that employees judge leaders primarily on their actions rather than their words, with behavioural consistency identified as the strongest predictor of workplace trust. When there’s a gap between what leaders say and what they do, trust erodes quickly.
Heart centred leaders ensure their behaviour consistently reflects their values. They don’t just talk about respect – they demonstrate it daily. They don’t just advocate for work-life balance – they model it themselves.
3. You Don’t Have to Control Everything
Really, you don’t. Controlling leaders rarely, if ever, come from the heart. A well cared for, inspired, and engaged team will deliver more than anyone thought possible.
In the words of researcher Brené Brown, sometimes it is good to be vulnerable and release all that control. Vulnerability in leadership isn’t weakness – it’s strength. It takes courage to admit you don’t have all the answers or that you need your team’s help.
When leaders try to control everything, they create bottlenecks and stifle innovation. Team members become passive executors rather than active contributors. But when leaders trust their teams and empower them to make decisions, remarkable things happen.
This doesn’t mean abdicating responsibility or having no standards. It means trusting that with clear direction, appropriate support, and genuine empowerment, teams will rise to the challenge. Often, they’ll exceed expectations.
4. Go Inward
Have you ever been in a situation where you had a ‘knowing’ about the right action to take? It’s well documented that we base our decisions on emotion and then justify with logic.
Heart centred leaders stop, go inward, and think and reflect on the best course of action. They do what is right rather than what others want them to do. This practice of reflection and trusting instinct doesn’t mean ignoring data or advice. It means integrating external information with internal wisdom.
Ironically, this makes them incredibly powerful, which leads to a level of engagement and impact with those around them that many can only dream of. Yet it can be so easy to attain, provided leaders do the necessary internal and external work.
Regular reflection practices – whether through journaling, meditation, or simply quiet thinking time – help leaders stay connected to their values and intuition. This connection enables more authentic decision-making and helps leaders navigate complex situations with greater confidence.
5. Seek First to Understand
The classic instruction from Stephen Covey2 is even more relevant today. Great leaders always listen first. They resist the urge to jump in with solutions before fully understanding the situation.
Everyone has a story to tell, and at their core, they are desperate to be listened to. Listening allows leaders to establish the true facts in any situation and understand what is important to the individual in question. A leadership culture with listening at its core creates engaged employees.
Real listening means being present, asking questions, and genuinely seeking to understand before being understood. It means putting aside your own agenda temporarily to fully grasp someone else’s perspective.
When people feel truly heard, they feel valued. And when employees feel valued, they become more engaged, more committed, and more willing to go the extra mile. Engaged employees follow because they are inspired to, and as we all know, this creates a productive workplace that delivers better results.
The world is crying out for heart centred leaders. Will you answer the call?
Frequently Asked Questions About Heart Centred Leadership
Answering the Call
Heart centred leadership represents a fundamental shift from command-and-control models to authentic, human-centred approaches. The five characteristics outlined – self-care, walking your talk, releasing control, going inward, and seeking to understand – create the foundation for this transformative leadership style.
This approach doesn’t happen overnight. It requires commitment to personal development, willingness to be vulnerable, and courage to challenge conventional leadership wisdom. However, the results speak for themselves: more engaged teams, better performance, and workplace cultures where people thrive rather than merely survive.
The evidence is clear that organisations led by heart centred leaders achieve better financial results whilst creating healthier, more sustainable work environments. They attract and retain top talent because people want to work where they feel valued as whole humans, not just as resources.
The question isn’t whether heart centred leadership works – the research confirms it does. The question is whether you’re ready to do the work required to lead this way. Are you prepared to prioritise your own wellbeing, be vulnerable, listen deeply, and trust your team? If so, you’re ready to become the heart centred leader your organisation needs.