What do you do when the world stands still? Words of Wisdom for Heartfelt Leaders

Deb Boelkes

Question #2: What heartfelt "best-ever boss" words of wisdom do you have to share with leaders and aspiring leaders?  

Deb’s Answer:

• Let others know you love and care about them.


• Be forgiving.


• Be creative.


• Learn from the many lessons we are now being granted.

As the former Chairman and CEO of General Electric, Jack Welch, once said, “Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it to be.”

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What do you do when the world stands still? Insights from Deb Boelkes

This is the first installment in what we hope will be a series of blog posts from role model Heartfelt Leaders. The intent of this series is to enable you to lead with love and assuredness in this season of coronavirus uncertainty. We hope you will be inspired to “keep calm and carry on”, and to the best of your ability, help others do the same.

Within this series, we have asked Heartfelt Leaders (some of the same role models featured in our books, The WOW Factor Workplace and Heartfelt Leadership), to respond to the two questions Deb addresses below.  Read on.

Question #1: As of now, how has the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the various work, community, and travel-related restrictions being set in place impacted your life, personally and professionally?

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Insights from Heartfelt Leaders: What do you do when the world stands still?

Somehow, the world as we knew it, at least here in the US, seemed to fall off a cliff this past week.

It’s hard to imagine it was only two months ago that we began to hear news reports about a novel type of coronavirus, now called COVID-19, emanating from Wuhan, China. Just six weeks ago, about all that most of us knew was that it was something akin to SARS, MERS, or the Hong Kong flu … or worse, like pneumonia.

We were shocked to start seeing scenes streaming over the internet and cable tv of panoramic videos captured by drones flying above the city of Wuhan, vividly showing the eeriness of empty streets and bridges, completely void of cars and people.

The exception to the emptiness was footage capturing shots of individuals being dragged from their homes by all fours and thrown into vans, to be carted off to who knows where, by officials wearing biosecurity hazmat suits. Such videos, coupled with the increasing number of reports warning us this novel coronavirus had the potential to spread very far very fast, sparked a global anxiety.  

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Heartfelt Leadership: Why It’s the Manager’s Responsibility to Motivate Employees

It’s amazing how many managers claim, “It’s not my job to get people to want to work here. It’s not my responsibility to motivate them. They are either motivated or they’re not.”

Lean back in your chair; close your eyes; and think about a time when you were working in the zone — the WOW zone — loving the job you were doing so much that you would have done it for free if you had some other way to pay the bills.

That’s motivation.

The WOW Zone

Read the entire 4-minute article here.

The Book(s) You've Been Waiting For

At long last, the Heartfelt Leadership book Dr. Mark and I have been collaborating on for years now is finally coming to life. Best of all, since we made you wait soooo long, we’re actually delivering not just one, but two books in the coming months. Taaa-Daaa!

For those of you who may not be familiar with how these books came to be, here goes:

Shortly after Dr. Mark and I met for the first time, about eight years ago, we got to know each other over a business lunch. It was then that I shared a story with Dr. Mark about my recent participation on a technology industry executive panel discussion on the topic of passion and engagement. Toward the end of this event, we panelists took questions from the audience.

One man from the audience stood up and directed a comment to me, stating “you obviously lead from your heart.” He then continued, “and we all know there is no room for that in business.” I was totally stunned, especially since the discussion topic was “How to drive more passion and engagement in the workplace”.

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Memorial Day 2018 - Take Time to Remember

Q: If one picture's worth a thousand words, what are the following videos worth?

A: A nation's thanks

Rather than writing about Memorial Day, I thought I'd share some youtube videos that caused me to take time to remember and give thanks.

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What is Heartfelt Leadership?

The great football coach, Vince Lombardi (1913 - 1970) once said, "It is essential to understand that battles are primarily won in the hearts of men. Men respond to leadership in a most remarkable way and once you have won his heart, he will follow you anywhere." I think this applies to women, too.

So how do you do this?

- Look at situations objectively;

- Appreciate the backgrounds each of your team members bring to the table;

- Remain honest in all your dealings;

- Be humble (leave your ego at the door);

- Be patient;

- Be grateful for the contributions each team member makes;

- Treat everyone with trust and respect. 

If you do these things, your people, men and women alike, will feel it in their hearts. This is the essence of Heartfelt Leadership. 

Election 2016 - Crowdsourcing the Best vs. Least Lousy President

Would you agree that the President we need and want should be the best leader vs. the least lousy?  If so, do you agree that the best candidate is one who engenders the following from Americans:

CLARI-T™ Leadership

1. Trust = we trust him or her to do what they say they’ll do, to not unnecessarily hurt or unfairly take advantage of others
2. Confidence = we feel confidence in them because they have a track record of making good judgment calls and decisions, getting things done and that they can and will get things done when in office
3. Respect = we respect them for their integrity and standing for and standing up for a noble mission that serves America and for standing up against greedy, devious, selfish or self-serving people that attempt to detract, distract or derail the organization from fulfilling that mission
4. Admiration = we admire them for how they stand for, stand up for and stand up against anything or anyone that would detract from, distract from or derail that mission (they are unflappable, present, quietly formidable and demonstrate poise under pressure)
5. Likability = we like them for being enjoyable and enjoying of others, for having a sense of humor and not taking themselves too seriously
6. Inspiration = we are inspired by them because of having all of the prior attributes and because they both motivate and pump us up and inspire and lift us up

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