Human Centered Leadership
Leadership is a verb, not a title.
Human centered leadership is inspiring and mobilizing people to tackle tough challenges and do things that matter. We wrote that definition, and we have spent more than thirty years putting it to work with leaders, teams and organizations.
Take the Leader AssessmentStart with the basics →
01
Start with people
Begin with the real people involved, understand what they need, and build from there.
02
Hold both
Empathy and accountability work together. Strong leaders set high standards and make it possible to meet them.
03
Own the conditions
Psychological safety is the leader’s job, not a perk the organization hands out.
Sound familiar?
Good people. Tough challenges. Leadership that hasn’t caught up.
If you’re responsible for people, you may recognize a few of these.
- Your best performers got promoted, and nobody taught them how to lead people.
- People are tired, and the usual playbook isn’t reaching them.
- You want high standards without burning your team out.
- People don’t speak up until the problem is already expensive.
- The org chart says who is in charge. It doesn’t say who people follow.
- Feelings show up at work whether anyone plans for them or not.
These aren’t signs of bad people. They’re signs that the way we lead hasn’t kept up with the way people work now.
Where it comes from
Human-centered design, applied to leadership.
Human centered leadership borrows its starting point from human-centered design. Applied to leadership, it means treating the people you lead as the center of the work rather than a resource for it. It asks leaders to listen first, to be clear about expectations, and to take responsibility for the conditions people work in.
What is Human-Centered Leadership?
Our definition and where it comes from.
Human Centered Leadership: The Value-Added Approach
What leading this way adds for people and for the organization.
Leadership is a Verb, Not a Title
Leadership is something you do, whatever your title.
Why now
Work moved from hands, to heads, to feelings.
Many leaders are still using habits built for the first two. These essays make the case for a different kind of leadership and what it asks of the people in charge.
The Leadership Crisis No One Is Talking About
The case for a new kind of leader.
We’ve Moved to a Feeling Economy. Has Your Leadership Caught Up?
Work now runs on how people feel. Most leadership habits haven’t caught up.
Staying Centered
Keeping people at the center when the ground keeps moving.
Strong teams
What high-performing teams run on.
Teams do their best work when people feel safe to speak up, are held to clear standards, and build on each other’s ideas. These pieces cover the everyday practices that make that happen.
Creative Alliances™
The interactive model: how bonds fuel tasks and tasks drive goals.
Psychological Safety Isn’t a Perk. It’s the Leader’s Job.
Why making it safe to speak up belongs to the leader.
The Creative Alliance: The Operating System Behind High-Performing Teams
The essay behind the model.
Empathy & Accountability: Mixing the Secret Sauce
Why strong leaders hold both at once.
The Power of Listening
Engaging people through empathy and compassion.
Conflict Is Not Always a Bad Thing
When disagreement helps a team think better.
The Power of Building on Ideas
How to create a winning team dynamic.
The Power of Stories
How leaders use stories to connect people to the work.
Human Centered Leadership Lessons from London
Leadership lessons from our time teaching in London.
Leader Assessment
Where do you stand as a leader today?
Human centered leadership is a set of practices: listening, building psychological safety, holding empathy and accountability together, and building on others’ ideas. Each can be practiced and improved. The assessment shows you where to start.
Frequently asked questions
Is human centered leadership the same as being nice?
No. It pairs empathy with accountability. Leaders set high standards and hold people to them, and they also take responsibility for creating conditions where people can meet those standards.
How is it different from servant leadership?
Both put people first. Human centered leadership adds the methods of human-centered design, such as research, framing and prototyping, so leaders can work on tough challenges with the people affected rather than for them.
Can human centered leadership be learned?
Yes. It is a set of practices, including listening, building psychological safety, holding empathy and accountability together, and building on others’ ideas. Each can be practiced and improved. The Leader Assessment is a good place to see where to start.
Who writes these articles?
Jules Morris, Ph.D., and Lane Morris, Ph.D., partners at BOMBDIGGITY, LLC and faculty at the University of Tennessee’s Haslam College of Business.
Work with us
Want to build leaders people choose to follow?
We work with leaders, teams and organizations to put human centered leadership into everyday practice. Tell us what you’re facing, and we’ll start there.