Lead From The Heart: Transformational Leadership for the 21st Century

In his thoroughly revised & updated edition of his now classic book , Mark C. Crowley provides the roadmap workplace leaders the world over are seeking: How to most successfully & sustainably inspire & manage other human beings in the post-pandemic era.

Over a decade ago, Mark C. Crowley was first to assert that traditional leadership practices weren’t just failing, they were doing profound harm to people. Signs were already clear that workers were neither engaged nor happy in their jobs – & that the era of working just for a paycheck had ended. 

In his truly groundbreaking book, “Lead From The Heart,” he also predicted that workers would one day quit organizations if they felt their deeply human needs for feeling valued, respected, appreciated & personally cared for weren’t being consistently met. And, after people had time to deeply reflect upon their careers and personal happiness during the two-year-long COVID pandemic, tens of millions of workers globally have quit. And, according to McKinsey Consulting, the number one reason people have given to explain why they resigned during the “Great Resignation” is “not having had a caring manager.”  

The truth is people have greatly evolved in what they need and want in exchange for work, & this massive change in expectations demands that managers embrace an entirely new way of leading.     

In his new and virtually re-written edition, which debuted as a “#1 New Release” on Amazon, Crowley brilliantly reinforces his groundbreaking thesis that human beings are most often influenced by feelings and emotions – & that it’s the heart, not the mind, that drives human motivation & achievement.  

Adding truly remarkable scientific research that has emerged since the first edition was published in 2011 – in addition to deeply moving and illustrative stories – he proves leading with an intentional balance of mind and heart has become essential.

Because we’ve passed on traditional leadership thinking from generation to generation, the idea of bringing heart into leadership has long been judged as being both preposterous and counterproductive to managerial success. In reductionist thinking, we’ve been conditioned to assume that managers who care about their people will also stop holding them accountable for performance and results.  What Crowley has proved is that caring leaders are the catalyst for high productivity – not less.

On the cutting edge twelve years ago, the second edition of “Lead From The Heart” provides irrefutable proof that Mark C. Crowley’s thesis hasn’t just held up, it provides the leadership solution organizations around the world are seeking in order to win back the hearts and minds of their workers. 

“Lead From The Heart” has been taught at 11 American Universities: Northern Arizona University, Embry-Riddle University, University of Texas, San Antonio, Mount Saint Mary’s College (NY), San Diego State University, Marymount University (VA), the University of Southern Maine, the graduate strategic Leadership seminar at the University of Iowa, Purdue University Global, the Masters in Public Administration program at California State University, Northridge, & the Organizational Psychology PhD program at the University of Massachusetts Global (formally Brandman University).

In late 2020, fourteen Ph.D. students at the University of Massachusetts Global’s Educational Leadership Ph.D. program began research on one of the four “Lead From The Heart” practices & its impact on leadership within elementary & secondary education. As of 2023, all of these students completed their thesis, earned their Doctorate degrees – & further confirmed the efficacy of the “Lead From The Heart” philosophy.    

On Amazon.com, “Lead From The Heart” received nearly 600 reader reviews earning an average score of over 4.8 out of 5.