Mark C. Crowley spent more than 20 years in the cutthroat world of financial services, where he discovered something that went against nearly everything he’d been taught about leadership: the more he genuinely cared about his people, the better they performed. That unconventional approach helped him become an award-winning executive and eventually inspired his mission to fundamentally change how organizations lead. Now, as the author of Lead From the Heart and The Power of Employee Well-Being, Mark is making the case that caring for employees isn’t soft management; it’s one of the smartest business decisions a leader can make. In this conversation with Ryan, Mark explains why traditional leadership practices are so deeply ingrained, how employee well-being directly affects performance, and why fear can produce short-term results but ultimately undermines the people you’re trying to motivate. He also shares the remarkable story of nearly abandoning his first book after being warned its message would never sell, and the simple shift from being self-centered to “other-centered” that could change the way we lead.
