"Leadership by heart" Gi Group

Dear Members and Friends,

The China-Italy Chamber of Commerce is glad to share an article published by its Member Gi Group:

"Many people wrongly assume that heart acts like “kryptonite” in leadership: they believe it undermines a manager's effectiveness, lowering productivity and profitability. However, the traditional leadership style grounded on rational practices and directive guidelines is definitely failing and moreover, in those organizations, employee engagement scores have fallen to critic levels.

Nowadays, completely different leadership models are needed, especially those aiming to match employees’ needs and motivations up. This is, for instance, the purpose of what is called “leadership by heart”. Leading with heart is often confused with being soft. It’s not exactly like that. Leaders with heart can still be demanding, holding people accountable and having high expectations, but it does mean as well feeling compassion and empathy toward the people they lead.

Compassion and empathy will help you build a trustful and extraordinary leadership grounded on true values, mutual respect and bigger consensus. Leading by heart is hard but it is worth it. If you win the hearts, the minds will follow. Compassion builds up connections and empathy helps you understand the needs of those you serve and lead. It is a pure servant leadership, that put service toward people first. The more you provide people with your professional and emotional support, the more you will positively affect them, achieving your goals and being successful too. Heart-led leadership is a business philosophy that can positively impact the bottom line, making employees and the whole organization happier.

It's a concrete business model that produces extraordinary love-driven results. Especially in tough times, where people aim to be led by those who care about them and make them feel like they count. Becoming a Leader by heart means having the wisdom and courage to lead others with authenticity, transparency and humility. Anyone who is daily committed to practice a leadership style based on truly human touch can be a heart-centred leader. Your ability to learn how to properly listen to other people, to remove any judgement or personal obstacles are the first baby steps you need to take to be a leader by heart.

Focus on serving people, instead of getting service from them only. Be a trustful and empathetic leader, saying the truth, sharing your emotions, vision, knowledge and the whole picture. Provide clear explanations about the reasons why you are not able to share with your team members some information when you are in the situation of keeping that topic strictly confidential. Don't be judgemental and don't assume. Focus on listening to them and asking the right questions. Encourage others being open-minded and invite them to connect with their heart and not only with their head.

Inspire self-care and mutual care in your working place. Foster a protected working environment where people can do mistakes, learning from them. Listen to your heart and serve your team members as they deserve. You should be the first one to provide people with a good example. Be a leader by heart and gain your team’s trust, respect and commitment for a better working experience."

Gi Group

Gi Group is one of the world’s leading companies providing services for the development of the labour market. The Group is active in the fields of temporary and permanent staffing, search and selection, HR consulting and training, as well as in a variety of complementary activities.

Kind Regards

The CICC Team