Empathy in leadership: How to create a safe space

My dear friends, What kind of leader do you want to be? Do you want to simply manage tasks and people, or are you ready to inspire change and empower others to reach their full potential? Transformational leaders are not just managers—they’re coaches who inspire growth and foster innovation. Here are 10 key behaviors and habits that set them apart: 1. Lead by Example: Demonstrate the behaviors, values, and work ethic you want to see in others. 2. Ask, Not Just Tell : Ask powerful questions to help others find their own solutions and empower them to develop their potential. 3. Communicate a Clear Vision: Inspire with a compelling, shared purpose that aligns everyone’s goals. 4. Empower Through Trust: Delegate tasks and responsibilities, giving team members the autonomy to grow. 5. Listen Actively: Use active listening to truly understand and respond to your team’s needs. 6. Foster Emotional Intelligence: Be self-aware, empathetic, and adaptable to the emotions and needs of others. 7. Encourage Innovation and Risk-Taking: Create a safe space for creativity, experimentation, and learning from failure. 8. Recognize and Celebrate Successes: Regularly acknowledge individual and team achievements to motivate further growth. 9. Promote Continuous Learning: Commit to lifelong learning for yourself and encourage the same in your team. 10. Coach for Growth: Focus on development and performance, helping team members unlock their potential through regular transformational coaching and mentoring. Transformational leadership is a journey of growth, both for the leader and the team. What actions can you take today to begin leading with a transformative mindset? Embrace these coaching habits and behaviors to inspire change, foster innovation, and build a high-performing team. Start today and lead with purpose! This post is dedicated to my transformational coach, mentor and parther Marshall Goldsmith Thank you for bringing out the best transformational leader in me and equipping me to transform others as well. #Leadership #Coaching #Empowerment #Innovation #Growth #EmotionalIntelligence #

Transformational leadership easily rolls off the tongue, yet what does it look like in practice. Here, #1 Strategic Innovation Coach Dr. Peter Chee shares what you can do to enable leadership for transformative impact. #leadershipdevelopment #transformationalleadership

What kind of leader do you want to be? Do you want to simply manage tasks and people, or are you ready to inspire change and empower others to reach their full potential? Transformational leaders are not just managers—they’re coaches who inspire growth and foster innovation. Here are 10 key behaviors and habits that set them apart: 1. Lead by Example: Demonstrate the behaviors, values, and work ethic you want to see in others. 2. Ask Rather Than Tell : Ask powerful questions to help others find their own solutions and empower them to develop their potential. 3. Communicate a Clear Vision: Inspire with a compelling, shared purpose that aligns everyone’s goals. 4. Empower Through Trust: Delegate tasks and responsibilities, giving team members the autonomy to grow. 5. Listen Actively: Use active listening to truly understand and respond to your team’s needs. 6. Foster Emotional Intelligence: Be self-aware, empathetic, and adaptable to the emotions and needs of others. 7. Encourage Innovation and Risk-Taking: Create a safe space for creativity, experimentation, and learning from failure. 8. Recognize and Celebrate Successes: Regularly acknowledge individual and team achievements to motivate further growth. 9. Promote Continuous Learning: Commit to lifelong learning for yourself and encourage the same in your team. 10. Coach for Growth: Focus on development and performance, helping team members unlock their potential through regular transformational coaching and mentoring. Transformational leadership is a journey of growth, both for the leader and the team. What actions can you take today to begin leading with a transformative mindset? Embrace these coaching habits and behaviors to inspire change, foster innovation, and build a high-performing team. Start today and lead with purpose! #Leadership #Coaching #Empowerment #Innovation #Growth #EmotionalIntelligence #ITDWORLDPH

The Enneagram of Teams: What Drives You (and Everyone Else) Ever noticed how two leaders can face the same challenge — and one sees it as exciting while the other feels completely drained? That’s motivation at work. Just like the Enneagram helps us understand how we see the world, Motivational Maps reveal why we do what we do. Together, they offer a powerful lens for leading and developing teams. For example: • The Searcher thrives on purpose — they need to know their work matters. • The Director wants influence and control — they’re motivated when they’re trusted to lead. • The Friend finds energy in connection — they perform best when they feel part of something. So, in essence: • The Enneagram explores who you are and how you show up. • Motivational Maps measures what energises you right now. You could say: “The Enneagram explains your emotional DNA; Motivational Maps shows how that DNA expresses itself at work.” When we understand these differences, we stop expecting everyone to think and act like us. We start managing motivation, not just performance. As leaders, our job isn’t to “fix” people — it’s to fuel them. That’s what creates high-performing, energised teams. So, which comes more naturally to you — bringing stability, chasing results, or seeking meaning? And how might that shape the culture you’re building? Unlock What Truly Drives People! If you could see what really motivates every person on your team — wouldn’t leadership feel a lot simpler? Becoming a Motivational Maps Practitioner gives you the tools to measure, understand, and increase motivation across individuals and teams. It’s practical psychology with immediate, real-world impact. As a Certified Practitioner, you’ll be able to: ✅ Diagnose what drives performance and engagement ✅ Coach and lead with confidence using tangible data ✅ Transform motivation into measurable business results If you’re a coach, HR professional, or leader who wants to build happier, higher-performing teams — this is your next step. 👉 Book a Discovery Call to explore accreditation with Motivated Performance, our specialist division for Maps training and advanced coaching tools. Let’s help people do their best work — and love doing it. 📩 https://lnkd.in/eVkidf3 #MotivationalMaps #LeadershipDevelopment #TeamDynamics #SelfAwareness #AspirinBusinessSolutions

The toughest leadership challenges aren’t problems to solve - they’re paradoxes to navigate. In a recent coaching conversation, a leader shared a dilemma. On one hand, they felt pressure to move quickly and drive important changes. On the other, their team had just been through a lot of disruption, and they worried that pushing harder would damage morale. I see these paradoxes often: ·       Move fast, but bring people along. ·       Be bold, but minimize risk. ·       Empower teams, but stay accountable. ·       Deliver results today, but invest in tomorrow. These aren’t “either/or” choices, they’re “both/and” tensions. And navigating them can be exhausting. That’s where a coach can help. Coaching provides space to pause, untangle the tension, and explore the both/and rather than defaulting to one side. A coach can: ·       Help you notice the paradox you’re caught in. ·       Challenge unhelpful assumptions and blind spots. ·       Offer tools to balance competing demands. ·       Support you in experimenting with new ways forward. In my client’s case, our coaching explored how to hold both truths: how to communicate with transparency, pace the work, and build small wins that allowed the team to feel progress without tipping into exhaustion. Paradoxes won’t disappear. But with awareness and support, you can move through them with more clarity, creativity, and confidence. What paradox are you navigating right now?

🚫 Myth: Coaching = absolute trust ✅ Reality: Absolute trust is unrealistic. In over a decade of working with leadership teams, I’ve seen this assumption come up again and again: “If only we trusted each other completely, collaboration would be easy.” But the truth is, absolute trust is rarely possible — especially in complex organizations where pressure, change, and competing interests exist. What matters more is trusting enough to bring mistrust to the table. To voice doubts early. To challenge respectfully. To surface what’s left unsaid before it turns into silence or conflict. 📊 Research backs this up: Patrick Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions of a Team shows that high-performing teams don’t avoid tension — they create psychological safety to work through it. 💡 In coaching, the goal isn’t to manufacture harmony. It’s to help teams disclose, discuss, and realign — because that’s where resilience is built. #TrustInTeams #LeadershipDevelopment #SystemicCoaching #RalucaCimpea

𝗜𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀, 𝗜’𝘃𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀 𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀—𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗱𝗼 𝘄𝗲 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗹𝘆 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁?   Studies show that coaching can reduce the time it takes for employees to reach full productivity by 25–30%, accelerating business impact. But it’s not just about performance—it’s about presence.   While many coaching principles may seem like common sense, my journey helped me understand that attentive and empathic listening is the true foundation of impactful leadership. It’s also the hardest part.   In my work around team effectiveness and leadership, I’ve realized how easily our attention gets fragmented. Everyone’s permanently forced to multitask. But real listening builds trust, insight, and is the foundation of true emotional intelligence.   Transformational leadership isn’t a skill—it’s a mindset. One that requires practice, presence, and purpose.   Last week I completed my Transformational Performance Coaching Certification in collaboration with Performance Consultants International and I’m committing to listen more attentively and empathically. To pause. To empower.   𝗠𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Listening is leadership. 𝗠𝘆 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂: Are you building trust by attentive and empathic listening ?

Early in my career, a mentor gave me feedback I’ll never forget. After a long project review, she looked at me and said: “Paul, you’ve got incredible insight — but sometimes it feels like I’m working with a critic instead of a coach.” That comment stopped me in my tracks. At the time, I thought my strength as a leader came from spotting what was wrong — and calling it out quickly. I could see the gaps, the flaws, the things that needed fixing. I believed being critical was how I helped people grow. But I eventually learned something important: when feedback comes without care, it doesn’t guide — it wounds. It creates defensiveness, silence, and fear. People stop listening and start protecting themselves. The turning point was learning to lead like a coach, not a critic — to share feedback that lifts instead of labels. That’s when “critical” becomes constructive. That’s when truth builds trust instead of breaking it. Coaches still tell the hard truths — but they do it with belief in the person, not judgment of them. And that belief changes everything. So here’s the question I keep asking myself (and maybe you can too): 👉 Am I coaching or criticizing? 👉 Am I building confidence or tearing it down? 👉 Am I helping people grow, or just proving that I’m right? It’s not always easy — but choosing to coach over criticize transforms teams, culture, and trust. Let’s be the leaders who coach. 🏆 Leaders, when did you learn this or how do you check yourself to ensure you are effectively coaching? Randy Carroll Andy Friyia CAIB Barbara Bellissimo, FCIP Marcelo Regen Ryan Michel Louis Gagnon Roberto Rei Danny Da Costa Sri Suneetha Nagumantri Colin Simpson Brett Boadway #Leadership #Growth #Feedback #Coaching #EmotionalIntelligence #SelfAwareness #LeadershipDevelopment

Working with a great group of people bring out the best in us. In one day, I had moments of introspection and interesting discussions on all of these important perspectives. I was surprised at how each of these resonated with me and the team I work with. Ego vs. Wisdom | Management vs. Leadership | Independent Work vs. Teamwork A Perspective for Business Professionals In today’s fast-paced business environment, the difference between thriving and merely surviving often comes down to mindset. In a vibrant environment like MNP Digital I’ve seen how subtle shifts in thinking can transform not just individuals—but greater parts of the organization. In a single day I faced an exploration of these three powerful contrasts that shape how we lead and collaborate. Ego vs. Wisdom Ego seeks validation. It wants to be right, recognized, and in control. Wisdom, however, seeks understanding. It listens, learns, and leads with humility. In business, ego-driven decisions often prioritize personal gain over team success. Wise leaders ask better questions, embrace feedback, and create space for others to shine. The shift from “I know” to “I’m learning” is where real growth begins. Management vs. Leadership Management is about control—ensuring tasks are completed and systems run smoothly. Leadership is about influence—aligning people around a vision and inspiring action. Managers maintain order. Leaders drive change. Coaching helps professionals evolve from task-focused managers to purpose-driven leaders who empower rather than instruct. Independent Work vs. Teamwork Independent work showcases individual capability. Teamwork amplifies collective intelligence. In today’s interconnected business landscape, collaboration isn’t optional—it’s essential. Great leaders foster psychological safety, shared accountability, and cross-functional synergy. The goal is to move from “my work” to “our impact.” Final Thought True leadership isn’t a title—it’s a mindset. By choosing wisdom over ego, influence over control, and collaboration over isolation, we build cultures of resilience, innovation, and trust. If you were in these conversations with me then I know you were as interested as I to see how these affect how we approach each other and the challenges we face together each day. If you're leading a team or coaching others, which of these contrasts resonates most with your current challenges? Let’s connect and share insights. #LeadershipDevelopment #BusinessMindset #ExecutiveCoaching #Teamwork #ManagementVsLeadership #EgoVsWisdom

Harness the Hidden Power of Emotional Intelligence for Leadership Success Imagine leading a ship through turbulent waters. Your technical skills are the sails, but emotional intelligence? That’s your compass. In the fast-paced world of leadership, emotional intelligence (EI) is often underestimated. Here's what nobody tells you: mastering this skill is just as crucial as any technical expertise. Consider the story of one successful leader. Sandra, a talented manager, once found her team in disarray. Deadlines were missed, and morale was at an all-time low. Her solution? EI. 1. Active Listening Understanding and validating the emotions of your team can be transformative. Much like an orchestra, when every instrument syncs, magic happens. Implementation: In meetings, focus on listening more and talking less. Summarize what others say to ensure mutual understanding. 2. Empathy over Sympathy Empathy connects at a deeper level, while sympathy is superficial. Think of it as diving into the pool with your team rather than just standing on the side. Real-world Application: When a team member struggles, imagine being in their shoes. Offer support by sharing your similar experiences. Real-world scenarios show the huge impact of EI. 3. Open Communication Encourage honest dialogue. When leaders communicate openly, it creates a safe space. It’s like opening windows in a stuffy room—fresh air brings clarity. How to Implement: Regularly check-in without an agenda. Let the conversation flow naturally and provide constructive feedback. 4. Adaptability A leader who adapts to change sets the stage for innovation. Consider adaptability like steering a ship by responding to winds rather than fighting them. Steps to Apply: Embrace flexibility. When challenges arise, ask your team for their input on new approaches rather than sticking to the old playbook. Emotional intelligence is more than a hidden skill; it’s a powerful tool that influences every facet of leadership. What aspect of emotional intelligence do you feel most challenged by, and how do you plan to address it? #EmotionalIntelligence #Leadership #Management #Teamwork #GrowthMindset