Mindful Leadership Archives

Leadership in a COVID-19 World: Navigating “Fields of Paradox”

Posted on March 25, 2020July 24, 2025 by Tracy Lloyd

Turbulence Takes a Toll

The acceleration of COVID-19, the speed and intensity of change, the current economic terrain, and the pressure to innovate, adapt, stabilize, and address each new challenge (of which there are many) with focus, grace, empathy, and precision is no doubt taking a toll on all of today’s business leaders.

The current state of affairs reminded us of an interview with Gianpiero Petriglieri, Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior at INSEAD, who provides insights into the implications of turbulent times on leadership.

“Whatever sector or industry you look at, we face enormous uncertainty and anxiety. Leaders operate under an increasing amount of pressure and great visibility. They are called on to provide predictability, at the same to spark leaps of innovation; to be resolute and inclusive; to have a firm point of view, yet to also take into account a plurality of constituencies; to be self-confident and question themselves at the same time.”

“Fields of Paradox”

Professor Petriglieri refers to this tension between resolution and plurality as a “field of paradox”. And to prevail in this turbulent environment, leaders need to operate mindfully, effectively, and responsibly.

For many (if not most) leaders, this signals a significant change in their normal approach to leadership. It pulls leaders out of their isolation and forces them to rethink their leadership intents, attitudes and behaviors. It prompts leaders to translate their personal vision, purpose, and ambition to a new language and behavior that up-levels empathy and compassion, ensures relevance, and truly responds to the concerns of others.

Finding Solid Ground: It’s Universal

Remember that everyone–your customers, employees, partners, suppliers, investors, and even your own friends and family–are also caught up in their own “fields of paradox”. Feeling both fear and love, anxiety and calm, uncertainty and hope, loneliness and community, distance and closeness. This means the people that you need to reach are seeking out, choosing, and gravitating towards the ideas, people, products, and businesses that will help them navigate these daily paradoxes.

The leadership challenge becomes how to meet people where they are, wherever they are. This requires an unparalleled level of empathy and ability to understand the contradictory emotional states of your employees, customers, and business partners.

Toward a Meaningful Position

As a discipline, Emotive Branding, our proprietary methodology, seeks to move businesses to a new meaningful position from which their beliefs and offerings more closely align with what people are seeking–both emotionally and rationally. For any leader today looking to “rethink” and “translate” their personal vision, purpose, and ambition to better resonate in today’s status quo, please reach out with questions.

Read my full interview with Gianpiero Petriglieri here.

Please reach out if you want guidance on how to rearticulate your leadership vision during this time.

Emotive Brand is an Oakland based brand strategy and design agency.

Why Leaders That Matter Look Outward

Posted on November 5, 2015July 25, 2025 by Tracy Lloyd

One of the biggest challenges for any leader is to maintain a holistic perspective of the world.

Too often, the pressures of the market, of shareholders, and the organization, keep the leader looking inward.

This inward-looking behavior extends to the rest of the organization, because people “follow the leader”.

As a result, the organization continues to spiral down into egocentric, myopic and self-serving behavior.

Unfortunately, this self-serving attitude, and way of being, puts the organization in the class of “most” businesses, and therefore, dilutes whatever uniqueness or differentiating power it may have.

People on the outside of the organization, from customers to partners to suppliers to investors, see the organization as one that is more about itself, and less about them.

They see it as “just another” organization in the gray mist of sameness.

People within the organization find the work less and less meaningful, as it becomes obvious that, to survive, they need to go against their nature.

They start to look for new jobs.

Leaders who preempt this slide down the slippery slope of self-serving sameness, take their organizations to a better and more unique place.

They orientate their entire organization’s purpose, intent, attitudes and behavior around the needs, values, interests, and aspirations of people both inside and outside the organization.

They set a standard, develop a culture, and manage their organizations in ways that elevate the organization’s status as a purposeful and meaningful entity.

In their interactions with people, they don’t focus on “what” they do, or “how” they do it; rather they focus on the “why” of what they do.

And they don’t simply talk about “why” they do it; rather, through their attitudes and behavior, they actively demonstrate their unwavering commitment to their “why”.

Hence, everything they do helps the people vital to the organization’s success feel more capable, more enriched, more connected, and more gratified.

Not through hollow promises, but through concrete actions, heartfelt gestures and empathetic attitudes.

Of course, leaders that matter continue to look inside the company, always ensuring its financial and operational success; but their thoughts and actions are always driven by a broader perspective of what truly matters.

It isn’t always easy to do, but for any leader who wants to prevail in the marketplace, there is little choice; and huge opportunities.

For further reading on the subject of purpose-led brand strategy, we suggest reading: Why you should aspire to have a meaningful brand:

Emotive Brand is a brand strategy firm.

Meaningful Brands Are Led by Meaningful Leaders

Posted on March 20, 2015July 29, 2025 by Jerry Holtaway

The key to meaning is empathy: the ability to step outside one’s own life and see the world from another’s perspective. In both branding and leadership, the value of this ability cannot be underestimated. Both areas depend upon engaged followers. Engagement only comes when followers see leaders connect the dots between their personal needs and desires, the goals of the business, and the greater good.

Brands and leaders that are inward-focused and self-absorbed fail to connect with people who are increasingly attuned to the needs of humanity and the planet. This puts them in a precarious position. That’s because these people are increasingly applying these altruistic criteria to the products they buy, the brands they support, and the companies for which they choose to work.

The result for brands? More meaningful competitors steal your customers and profits. Your brand’s real and perceived value drop. Your brand’s ability to attract top talent diminishes.

The result for leaders? Those you hope to have as followers drift away. Your reputation for generating results suffers. You experience defections and cannot hire the people you need.

When people see that what’s lying behind your brand or leadership is an honest effort to use business in a positive way that will pay them emotional dividends and address their altruistic concerns, brands and leaders thrive. Of course, meaning is easier said than done, and must flow from a sincere and authentic base. It must be routed in the truth as nothing more readily violates the social contract than lies and deception.

You are born with empathy.

It’s there within you, waiting to be rediscovered.

Pull it to the surface, apply it to your business, brand and your leadership thinking, and discover the power of truthful and meaningful connections that positively change the way people think, feel and act.

Additional reading: Transforming business: the four faces of empathy

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco Branding Agency.

Meaningful Leaders Resolution #1 for 2015

Posted on December 17, 2014July 29, 2025 by Jerry Holtaway

Lead by proudly, confidently and passionately proclaiming a new destination for your customers, your employees and your business.

Going beyond profit, declare your intention to do well by doing good.

Give everyone the answer to their burning question, “Why?”. Why does your business exist? Why is that good? Why does that matter?

Continue reading “Meaningful Leaders Resolution #1 for 2015”

Brand Strategy: Why Are Purpose and Feelings so Important Now?

Posted on October 2, 2014July 29, 2025 by Jerry Holtaway

Brand Strategy: Why are purpose and feelings so important now?

An emotive brand is the persona-driven presence and experience of an organization that has proactively decided to orient itself around a meaningful and purposeful promise. Such brands do so with the intent of emotionally connecting to people on a deep level, by addressing core human needs. Most significant, an emotive brand strives to forge these attitude and behavior changing connections both inside and outside their organizations.

Continue reading “Brand Strategy: Why Are Purpose and Feelings so Important Now?”

How to Mindfully Lead Change

Posted on September 29, 2014July 23, 2025 by Tracy Lloyd

Empathy in leadership

In this thought-provoking video, KPCB* partner John Maeda reminds us of the importance of empathy in leadership. He suggests that leadership is a design problem, and notes that the best design comes from people who ask and listen before putting forward their ideas.

Mindful leaders are, by nature, empathetic. They know that failing to listen first creates irrelevant communications and misunderstood gestures from leaders. As John Maeda says, “The people are there in the room, but nobody’s hearing what you say.”

Continue reading “How to Mindfully Lead Change”

Mindful Leadership Leads to Meaningful Business

Posted on August 1, 2014July 23, 2025 by Jerry Holtaway

Mindful Leadership

“I believe leaders are most inspiring when their message is deeply personal and yet resonant with the concerns of others.” – Gianpiero Petriglieri, INSEAD

There’s a parallel between what makes a strong leader and what defines a meaningful business.

As my recent interview with

Mindful leaders combine a strong sense of self purpose with a capacity to make that purpose meaningful to others

Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior at INSEAD underscores, a key driver of effective 21st Century business leadership will be mindfulness.

Mindful leaders combine a strong sense of self purpose with a capacity to make that purpose meaningful to others

The discipline of emotive branding strives to create mindfulness at an organizational level. It looks deep inside a business for the seeds of meaning. From these, it articulates a strong purpose – one that deliberately goes beyond profit – that serves as the bridge to the concerns of others. It then outlines the steps the business needs to take to change the way it speaks and behaves as it reaches out to the people vital to its success (customers, prospects, employees, recruits, partners, suppliers, investors, and so on). Thus, the brand strategy is built.

As such, the “organization message” we help businesses create is “deeply personal” in nature (authentic, genuine, true to itself). It also is crafted to resonate with the concerns of others through personal relevance (“this makes sense”; “this matters to me”) and emotional connection (“this feels worthwhile”; “I feel gratified”).

Mindful leaders attract great followers.

Meaningful businesses turn that energy into industry leadership

Read full interview with Gianpiero Petriglieri here.

Emotive Brand is a brand consulting firm.

Connecting the Dots That Produce All Around Results

Posted on March 17, 2014July 29, 2025 by Jerry Holtaway

In a brilliant blog post, Tom Asacker posed a series of questions, the answers of which add up to two surprising results.

http://www.acleareye.com/sandbox_wisdom/2014/03/theres-your-brand-strategy.html]

“So ask yourself, what are we doing to motivate people, to feed their hungers and desires?

Are we helping them achieve? 
Are we feeding their hungers to be recognized, to be liked and loved? 
Are we connecting them with like-minded people and empowering them to empower others? 
Are we providing a beautiful, pleasurable, and engaging experience? 
Are we providing a sense of control, full knowledge and participation? 
Are we helping them feel good about themselves and their decisions in our presence? 
Do we believe passionately in these pursuits?

Continue reading “Connecting the Dots That Produce All Around Results”

Mindful Leaders Resolution #1 for 2015

Posted on December 30, 2013December 4, 2024 by Jerry Holtaway