{"id":976,"date":"2025-07-02T04:31:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T04:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tojoeapen.com\/blog\/?p=976"},"modified":"2025-07-03T04:56:42","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T04:56:42","slug":"tough-vs-strong-human-centric-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tojoeapen.com\/blog\/tough-vs-strong-human-centric-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Tough Vs. Strong\/Human-Centric Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A recent MIT Sloan Management Review article, titled ‘Five Leadership Lessons for \u2018Tough\u2019 CEOs’, seems to be making a differentiation between tough and strong\/human-centric leaders. It holds valuable reminders in the current environment, where backward steps seem to be taken frequently.

Selected notes from the article:

* Pre-pandemic, research had built compelling cases for human-centric leadership. This data was reinforced during the crisis as many businesses survived despite dire circumstances. Today, we\u2019re seeing central corporate command try to reassert control to reinstitute old norms.
* Tough-talking leaders often fail to appreciate that reliability – the foundation of trust – is what builds results.
* Tough CEOs don\u2019t recognize the value of human-centered leaders who tap into their emotional intelligence as much as their intellectual intelligence to deepen relationships in all the ways that improve workers\u2019 performance.

Five Lessons for Tough Talkers From Strong Leaders
1. Tough leaders mistakenly think empathizing means giving in, but it doesn\u2019t. Human-centered leaders empathize to better communicate and collaborate. Empathizing means connecting with what others are thinking and feeling. It\u2019s the skill that cultivates safe spaces for creativity, builds strong team alliances, and gets to clarity on issues.
2. Human-centric leaders aren\u2019t soft about employees\u2019 performance. They don\u2019t ask for less. Instead, they set clear goals and priorities. They monitor progress at the team and individual levels. And they align work with employees\u2019 identified strengths and skills.\u00a0Human-centered leaders check in regularly with team members to coach them and course-correct as circumstances evolve. They cultivate the fundamentals for exceptional performance, including a sense of belonging, by emphasizing outcomes.
3. Tough-talking leaders often fail to appreciate that reliability – the foundation of trust – is what builds results. A\u00a0study conducted by i4cp\u00a0found that organizations where people trusted their leaders were 11 times more likely to be high performers.
4. Strong leaders recognize that one size does not fit all.\u00a0Each team\u2019s purpose and realities are adjusted for and can be modified when business conditions and the needs of both the company and team members change.
5. Even in our fast-changing world, tough-talking leaders won\u2019t admit to ever being wrong – despite unprecedented uncertainties. Evidence from Berkeley Haas professor Jennifer Chatman shows that such leaders cause long-lasting damage to organizations through\u00a0reduced collaboration and integrity.

Challenging the tough-leader persona is essential for managing talent through volatility and ambiguity. Leaders need to nurture a sense of belonging to support strong performance.

Source: Five Leadership Lessons for \u2018Tough\u2019 CEOs; Brian Elliott and Sophie Wade; June 16, 2025; MIT Sloan Management Review<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A recent MIT Sloan Management Review article, titled ‘Five Leadership Lessons for \u2018Tough\u2019 CEOs’, seems to be making a differentiation between tough and strong\/human-centric leaders. It holds valuable reminders in the current environment, where backward steps seem to be taken frequently. Selected notes from the article: * Pre-pandemic, research had built compelling cases for human-centric […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2,5],"tags":[19],"class_list":["post-976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coaching","category-leadership","category-organization","tag-leadership","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tojoeapen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tojoeapen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tojoeapen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tojoeapen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tojoeapen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=976"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/tojoeapen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":983,"href":"https:\/\/tojoeapen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976\/revisions\/983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tojoeapen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tojoeapen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tojoeapen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}