INT 134: Leading with your Heart vs. your Head

Whether you’re building trust with your team or leading in times of crisis, your logical mind and your intuitive heart should work together. In today’s episode of the Int-HER-rupt podcast, our host Linda Yates meets with Teresa Vozza to talk about how to incorporate heart-centered centered elements, such as deep listening and empathy, into your leadership style.

Vozza’s Background

• She was a leader in HR and corporate spaces and always had a deep interest in neuroscience.
• During the pandemic, she was inspired to examine what she wanted to do. She took coaching from being her side hustle to a full-time passion!
• Her expertise is in uniting heart-centered leadership and head-centered leadership, finding the connection between logic/reason and intuition/empathy.

What is Heart-Centered Leadership?

• Focus is placed outside of the self. Heart-centered leaders examine the needs of others, the project, stakeholders, etc.
• Integrity is prioritized. Leaders always tell the truth, and in situations when they can not divulge certain information, they try to explain why.
• Heart-centered leaders seek to understand and ask questions rather than rush to judgment.

3 Tips for Exploring Heart-Centered Leadership

• You can’t change what you don’t know, so take the time to develop self-awareness and ask trusted colleagues for honest, direct feedback.
• Repetition breeds mastery. Practice behaviors that can help you embody the heart-centered behaviors you learn. Try it in a low-stakes environment.
• Notice your own feelings, and ask colleagues, mentors, and team members what changes they notice in you.

“Throughout my own leadership career, I wish I had known the difference between leading from my head vs. leading from my heart as a manager, as a director, at all levels of the organization. I would have been a much happier woman and a much better leader if I understood how to merge both head and...