The Heart-Led Leader, by Tommy Spaulding

Everything you need to know about this book is summarized in the title: The Heart-Led Leader: How Living and Leading from the Heart Will Change Your Organization and Your Life. Author Tommy Spaulding makes the case that operating from the heart and with love will improve your chances to succeed in both your work and personal life. Throughout the rest of the book he elaborates on this central theme by sharing dozens of anecdotes about people that he has known who have done just that.

Mr. Spaulding discusses 18 principles or qualities in the second part of the book; these correspond to the 18 inches that he writes is the distance from the head to the heart. These principles address love, humility, caring, passion, selflessness, authenticity, self-awareness, faithfulness, character, vulnerability, forgiveness, purpose, encouragement, empathy, generosity, honesty, trust, and transparency.

While there's nothing ground-breaking about this work or his presentation, The Heart-Led Leader is a useful discussion about what makes leaders successful, and what makes them worthy of emulation. Mr. Spaulding describes valuable leadership qualities and illustrates them with many anecdotes. This is clearly a heartfelt and honest look at what it takes to be successful in work and life. Those who aspire to be leaders will find this book a useful reminder of the values that make people great.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

Tommy Spaulding. The Heart-Led Leader: How Living and Leading from the Heart Will Change Your Organization and Your Life. New York: Crown Business, 2015. 238 pages. ISBN 9780553419030.