Leading with Humanity

About the Author

Tom Wellner is a leader with a wealth of experience and insight into the business world. He has navigated various leadership roles, consistently focusing on the human element within organizations. Wellner's approach emphasizes the importance of balancing purpose and profit, and his leadership philosophy is deeply rooted in fostering cultures of respect, integrity, and innovation. His book, "Leading with Humanity: How Purpose Creates Value," encapsulates his personal experiences and professional insights, providing a roadmap for leaders aiming to navigate their organizations through challenging times while maintaining a human-first approach.

Main Idea

"Leading with Humanity" is a guide for leaders to create value by embedding purpose into their organizational ethos. Wellner argues that effective leadership in times of adversity hinges on a human-focused approach. The book delves into the principles of fostering innovation through curiosity, balancing profit with purpose, and building resilient cultures where people can thrive. It emphasizes that sustainable success is achieved not by sacrificing humanity for efficiency but by integrating compassion, respect, and continuous learning into the core of business practices.

Table of Contents

• Introduction: Be Good and Do Right
• Chapter 1: Stay Strong, Stay Focused: Leading through Adversity
• Part 1: An Insatiable Mind: Leveraging Courageous Curiosity to Foster Innovation
• Chapter 2: Say Hello: Discovering the Entrepreneurial Path
• Chapter 3: Love What You Are Doing: Finding Creativity in Curiosity
• Chapter 4: Buy the Barn: Thinking in New Ways
• Chapter 5: Communicate with Clarity: Giving Voice to Collective Values
• Part 2: The Innovative Agenda: Adapting through Invention
• Chapter 6: Empower and Invest: Cultivating the Desire to Innovate
• Chapter 7: Do What You Do Best: Identifying Abilities and Leveraging Partnerships
• Chapter 8: Act on Principles: Celebrating the Ageless Spirit through Applied Innovation, a Case Study
• Part 3: Humans Serving Humans: Realizing Excellence by Developing Cultures of Respect, Integrity, and Compassion
• Chapter 9: Craft a Culture: Creating the Workplace That Would Make Our Parents Proud
• Chapter 10: Strive for Excellence: Achieving Perfection Is Impossible but Worth Attempting
• Chapter 11: Establish Equilibrium: Exceeding Expectations while Maintaining the Mission
• Conclusion: Create Change by Making a Difference

Introduction: Be Good and Do Right

Building a resilient, agile, purpose-driven culture where people want to accomplish good things for others, even when no one is looking, starts with us, at whatever level we provide leadership. Accomplishing these demands doesn’t mean changing our natural curiosity. It means making sure that the culture we develop at work reflects the best parts of who we are and where we come from. When the companies we lead need to change to remain competitive, it doesn’t have to come at the expense of our humanity.

This book is about leadership and life, and it tries to offer ways to balance what can seem to be competing demands. It shows us how to:

• Foster individual, inquisitive minds and still interact with and learn from others.
• Learn to retain the best from the past and still remain relevant for the future.
• Apply inquisitive thinking and original problem-solving to face a crisis when it arrives and avoid the next crisis by planning for the future we can’t see yet.

By the end of this book, you will see that we can create work cultures where we respect the people we serve and still attain sustainable economic results.