S8 Ep6: 'Leading From The Heart' with Mark Crowley

In this latest episode of The Evolving Leader podcast, Jean Gomes is joined by Mark Crowley, author of Lead from the Heart, to explore how emotion, belonging, and authentic care are redefining leadership for the modern world. Mark shares his remarkable personal journey, from an upbringing shaped by trauma to a career built on leading through compassion. We hear how what began as an instinctive way to give others what he never received became a philosophy now backed by neuroscience and organisational research.

Jean and Mark unpack why traditional engagement models are failing, how the science of emotion is reshaping our understanding of performance, and why belonging and care are now the greatest predictors of organisational health.

This is a powerful conversation for leaders seeking to create cultures that elevate both human well-being and business results.

Further materials from Mark Crowley:
“Don’t Measure Employee Engagement—Support Employee Well-Being” (2025, Porchlight Book Company)

“5 Leadership Strategies To Help Teams Thrive Amid Uncertainty” (2025, Fast Company)

“Leaders don’t really care about employee engagement. Here’s why” (2024, Fast Company)

“How leaders can address the human energy crisis” (2023, Fast Company)

“Lead From The Heart: Transformational Leadership For The 21st Century” (2011, Balboa Press)



Other reading from Jean Gomes and Scott Allender:

Leading In A Non-Linear World (J Gomes, 2023)
The Enneagram of Emotional Intelligence (S Allender, 2023)


00:00 Introduction
01:00 What motivates you in your work and what will we talk about today?
07:02 Have you made peace with your past and how did you manage to do that?
12:42 Tell us about Lead From The Heart and what did you cover in that work?
20:44 Who has inspired you as a great leader that does this?
22:17 What was the big idea that led you to work on the new book?
27:00 What’s the first move that the leader/manager needs to make?
30:21 In your work you talk about the importance of self-awareness. What are your thoughts around building self-awareness?
34:58 You talk about replacing engagements surveys with a more regular pulse check of the organisation.
38:33 When people have more control over their lives, their wellbeing takes a leap forward. How can leaders and organisations try to make people feel that they have more autonomy?
41:26 Talk to us about normalising ambiguity to offset the tendency for organisations to default to over control.
45:37 You talk about the idea that a core need is to feel valued by people, yet that can be counter-intuitive to some leaders who don’t even care for themselves enough. Why should we shift that mindset?

Social:
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Twitter @Evolving_Leader
Bluesky @evolvingleader.bsky.social
YouTube @evolvingleader

The Evolving Leader is researched, written and presented by Jean Gomes and Scott Allender with production by Phil Kerby. It is an Outside production.


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#Leadership, #EmotionalIntelligence, #LeadFromTheHeart, #HumanCenteredLeadership, #OrganisationalCulture, #EmployeeWellbeing, #Belonging, #TheEvolvingLeader, #JeanGomes, #MarkCrowley, #ScottAllender, #FutureOfWork, #MindsetEconomy, #HeartBasedLeadership