The Art of Caring Leadership: How Leading with Heart Uplifts Teams and Organizations

by Heather R. Younger

Overview

If your people know you care about them, they will move mountains. Employee engagement and loyalty expert Heather Younger outlines nine ways to manifest the radical power of caring support in the workplace.

Heather Younger argues that if you are looking for increased productivity, customer satisfaction, or employee engagement, you need to care for your employees first. People will go the extra mile for leaders who show they are genuinely concerned not just with what employees can do but with who they are and can become. But while most leaders think of themselves as caring leaders, not all demonstrate that care in consistent ways. Your employees will judge you by your actions, not your intentions.

Based on Younger's interviews with over eighty leaders for her podcast Leadership with Heart—including Howard Behar, former president of the Starbucks Coffee Company; Judith Scimone, senior vice president and chief talent officer at MetLife; Garry Ridge, CEO and chairman of the board of the WD-40 Company; and Shawnté Cox Holland, head of culture and engagement at Vanguard—this book outlines nine ways that leaders can make all employees feel included and cared for. She even provides access to a self-assessment so you can measure your progress as a caring leader. But this is not a cookie-cutter approach: just as Monet and Picasso expressed themselves very differently, each leader should express caring in his or her own unique, personal style.

Younger takes an often nebulous, subjective concept and makes it concrete and actionable. Leaders have the power to change the lives of those they lead. They shouldn't just want to care, they should see caring as imperative for the success of their employees and their organization.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781523092147
Publisher:	Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Publication date:	04/13/2021
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	706,516
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Heather Younger is the founder and CEO of Employee Fanatix, an organization dedicated to inspiring and training leaders to put their employees first. She is a frequent keynote speaker, host of the weekly podcast Leadership with Heart, an active member of the Society for Human Resources Management, and certified in Emotional and Social Intelligence and as a DiSC trainer and coach. She has a law degree from the University of Colorado Boulder and is the author of The 7 Intuitive Laws of Employee Loyalty.

Table of Contents

Foreword xi

Preface xv

Introduction So, You Think You're a Caring Leader? 1

1 Cultivate Self-Leadership Skills 13

2 Make Them Feel Important 33

3 Look for the Greatness in Those We Lead 49

4 Involve Them 61

5 Lead the Whole Person 73

6 Create a Listening Culture 89

7 Provide Them Safe Spaces 99

8 Empower Them to Make Decisions 117

9 Build Their Resilience 127

10 The ROI of Caring Leadership 139

Conclusion Are You Ready to Become a Caring Leader? 147

The Caring Leadership Self-Assessment 155

Guest Appendix 157

Notes 179

Acknowledgments 181

Index 185

About the Author 191

About Employee Fanatix 193

Editorial Reviews

People need to know they matter. When others feel trusted and cared for, they become inspired.  Heather’s terrific book teaches leaders why caring should be at the heart of all they do, and how they can turn genuine caring into an art that can be carefully practiced and refined.    An engaging and inspiring read!”—Stephen M. R. Covey, New York Times and #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Speed of Trust

“The Art of Caring Leadership offers powerful insight for developing authentic, thoughtful, and purposeful leaders and change-makers. Through compelling storytelling, Younger implements direct examples from a wealth of interviews with leaders across a multitude of sectors. This book is an excellent resource for leaders and leadership educators who believe in putting care at the heart of leadership.” —Dr. Trisha Teig, Assistant Professor of Leadership Studies, University of Denver

“Caring leadership is the most important ingredient in employee engagement and retention. Want increased profits? Care for your employees first. Want better customer retention? Care for your employees first. Often, it is hard to decipher what it means to care at work. This book presents fundamental principles that shows each and every leader the roadmap to caring leadership.” —Kevin Kruse, CEO of LEADx, and New YorkTimes bestselling author of Great Leaders Have No Rules and Employee Engagement 2.0

“Heather has brilliantly threaded together insights from her own life, interviews with over 100 leaders, and research from over 20,000 engagement survey responses into nine key areas that encapsulate the art of becoming a caring leader. A compelling and inspiring read for any leader wanting to create greater alignment with how they lead others, how they show up with their team, and their capacity to be a caring leader.”  —Michele Nevarez, CEO, Goleman EI

“The Art of Caring Leadership, unlike many texts used in higher education, provides students with exposure to important ideas about leadership, but it also speaks to the heart and inspires the next generation of organizational leaders to think reflectively about what it really means to lead.”  —Molly Smith, Academic Director, Organizational Leadership and Strategic Human Resources Programs, Assistant Professor, University College, University of Denver

“The Art of Caring Leadership is an easy, yet reflective read. The value is in the behaviors that Heather lays out as a sort of “yellow brick road” for leaders to follow!” —Dr. Paul Marciano, bestselling author of Carrots and Sticks Don't Work

“It is rare to find an author who calls herself "the voice of the employees", but as we walk through the pages of this book it becomes clear that what Heather teaches us is that in order to help companies flourish, we need to take care of the elements that allow them to them exist: employees. Through real reports (some personal) Heather shows us the way to the Art of Caring Leadership.  —Ana de Magalhaes, editor, Harvard Business Review Brasil

From the Publisher