September 12, 2023

Episode 58: Human-Centric Work & Leadership with Leanne Holdsworth

Leanne Holdsworth joins The Future of Teamwork and host Dane Groeneveld for a spirited discussion on creating more human workplaces. Leanne is the co-author of “Human Work: Five Leadership Mindsets for Humanising Workplaces”, with Naryan Wong, and the author of ‘A New Generation of Business Leaders’. Outside of writing, she spends her time helping organizations and their individuals reach their full potential. During this conversation, Dane and Leanne discuss aligning personal purpose with an organization’s purpose, the social outcomes of modern leadership strategies focusing on people’s well-being and individuality, and how businesses can explore the journey toward empowering communities and teams. Discover how leaders can embrace autonomy, foster purpose and belonging, and humanize the workplace for a more meaningful and successful future.

Guest Bio

Leanne stands for a future where it is normal for work environments to be places where human beings thrive, enabling organisations to succeed whilst at the same time, building social capital through how those humans are able to show up with their families and communities.

She is the co-author of Human Work: Five Leadership Mindsets for Humanising workplaces and author of the book A New Generation of Business Leaders and has spent 15 years advising organisations predominantly in the private sector (across most sectors including banking, primary sector, FMCG, tech, pharmaceuticals) as well as the public and not for profit sectors in sustainability strategy and leadership.

Her work as an Associate of Cultivating Leadership focuses on leading immersive, transformational experiences (leadership programmes, strategic facilitation, consulting, executive coaching). She has a passion for integrating the cognitive with the non-cognitive and will often infuse her work with embodied practices.

Leanne holds a Bachelor of Commerce and has a post graduate qualification in public policy.

Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa, (Auckland New Zealand) is where Leanne calls home, and when she is not working, she is spending time hanging out with her family, or being in nature.

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Recap & Takeaways

Key Takeaways

[00:12 – 02:52] Introduction to Leanne Holdsworth, co-author of Human Work
[03:29 – 05:44] Who you are when you walk into the home at the end of the day, growth around personal purpose
[05:46 – 10:09] What social outcomes look like if a company is leading well and individuals are investing in their communities
[10:18 – 12:17] Activating and engaging communities to help, regardless of for- or not-for-profit, the impact of AI
[12:18 – 14:43] AI, automation, and existential crises for communities
[14:52 – 21:50] Leanne’s book and her interviews with 11 leaders
[15:34 – 17:17] Varied approaches to leadership and creating human workplaces
[22:25 – 25:53] Belonging, and Human Systems
[25:54 – 27:55] Autonomy, mastery, and purpose — finding imagination for our sense of meaning
[27:57 – 31:06] Thankless but important work, humanizing work, emphasizing learning and growth
[31:07 – 35:50] The next wave of understanding social outcomes for driving human work, gathering and interpreting data on creating more human workplaces
[32:44 – 35:41] Leanne’s sense of purpose after having her first child and deciding to volunteer and help victims of domestic violence
[35:51 – 38:04] Psychological safety and constantly iterating, embracing learning and growth
[38:05 – 42:43] The struggle of data capture for teams vs. individuals, bringing the idea of human work to a team level
[39:17 – 42:17] What can we do to enable teams to try things without centralizing people? Safe spaces and pilot projects, trying new things
[42:45 – 44:09] Nudging the business community towards talking about the relationship between human beings, the organization, and the way things are done to help the human community
[44:09 – 45:42] Eliminating the complaint conversations, shifting towards collective purpose and empowerment
[45:43 – 46:43] Closing, visit Leanne at humanworknetwork.com