What is human leadership?
The Human Leadership Program!
My heart is still overflowing from last week.
Our little Zoom room held the space for more than 200 people to take themselves on and do the important and brave work of becoming more human leaders. Nearly 50 of those people were student leaders who got to learn these concepts before entering their careers. I can’t imagine how different my life—and the lives of so many others—would have been if I’d learned these concepts early on. Needless to say, our team and I ended the program with full hearts and so much hope and inspiration for a better future.
As I prepared for the program, it dawned on me that we had never really defined what human leadership is. In all of our marketing for the event, we described the takeaways for the program, but we never actually defined what makes a human leader different from a leader. And yet, we still had more than 200 signups because I think human leadership is something we inherently understand. We know that the world needs a different type of leadership, and we understand that a human leader is a more elevated version of a leader. But what does that actually mean?
As I kicked off the program, I attempted to define it. But it was a lot harder than I anticipated. Have you ever believed in something so much, and yet, you have trouble articulating what it is that you feel and see? I know human leadership when I feel it. I know it when I see it. I’m not sure I have all the words to define it, though.
In the end, this is where I landed. I thought I’d share in case it helps you put words to something you might feel in your heart, too.
Human leadership is about love.
It’s about opening your heart. Listening to your heart. Leading with your heart.
And when you do that, it inspires others to open their hearts, listen to their hearts, lead with their hearts.
And that’s how we change the world.
Sometimes it feels silly to talk about love.
Love can be seen as a fluffy word.
A word rarely spoken in board rooms, conference rooms, and meetings.
But leading with love is not fluffy. It’s hard.
Really hard.
It’s about being willing to take an honest look at yourself.
Finding acceptance in your flaws.
Working to become a better version of yourself.
Loving yourself every day and especially on the hard days.
It’s about extending grace, love, and empathy to others.
It’s about understanding our differences.
It’s about making everyone feel like they matter—because they do.
You matter.
It’s about celebrating what makes us unique.
It’s about being authentic and fully who we are.
It’s about accountability.
And being willing to have tough conversations.
And speaking up when what you see isn’t good enough. Or right.
It’s about boundaries.
And caring for yourself so that you can care for others.
It’s about together. Not us vs. them or me vs. you.
Together.
It’s about looking at yourself before you blame others.
It’s about having the courage to follow your heart even if it's scary.
It’s about being who you ARE instead of who you think you SHOULD be.
It’s about walking away when something isn’t serving you anymore.
It’s about evolving. And changing. And finding peace in that.
Leading with love is not fluffy.
Leading with love is not easy.
Leading with love CAN change the world.
It’s really that simple.
And that’s what human leadership is about.
Big hugs,
Kristen
PS: We are so excited to announce our next set of dates for the Human Leadership Program! March 16 + 17th! We hope you’ll join us. Tickets are first-come, first-served and will be capped. A few attendees from our last program helped us create this video to share what the experience is like. You can get your ticket here.
PPS: I hope you’ll join us for REAL TALK tomorrow, Wednesday, at 11 a.m. ET! I’ll be sharing some updates and recent learnings. Join by registering here: https://bit.ly/3kWe2kT
