Leading from Love

Leading from Love
How compassion drives performance

Leading others starts with leading yourself.

I learned this through ultramarathons. Running requires me to cultivate self-love. I have to believe in myself. My attitude determines whether I finish. I've learned to talk to myself from a place of belief and compassion because fear and criticism don't work. They make me smaller, slower, less capable.

"Choose love" is what I tell myself when my energy needs to shift. The mantra works. Choosing love over fear helps me access deep energy, resilience, and power. I perform better when I operate from a mindset of security and possibility instead of scarcity.

Why this matters

Healthcare leadership requires the same discipline: the ability to keep moving forward when choices are hard, people are exhausted, and resources are thin.

I've worked with leaders facing hard tradeoffs and decisions that not everyone will like. The leaders who navigate these moments best are the ones who focus on their organization’s strengths and their community’s future, not the short-term difficulties they have to face.

Fear suppresses what you need most in these situations: courage, creativity, honesty, grit.

Love does the opposite. It motivates and creates conditions for success, making it easy to collaborate and make thoughtful decisions.

The practice

A CEO once thanked me for telling him the truth about what was actually happening on his team. People were scared, uncertain, feeling powerless. They didn't know where to go for help. Once he knew how people were feeling, he could lead more effectively. Not because the problems were solved, but because the problems were out in the open. He understood what his people needed, and he could lead them to solutions together.

That's what leading with love looks like in practice: creating honest understanding and optimal human conditions for success.

An invitation

As a healthcare leader, you're at capacity regularly. The problems are complex. The stakes are high. It's natural to shift toward fear-based leadership—to protect, defend, control.

Leading from love doesn't make the challenges disappear. But it changes what you're capable of. It builds emotional courage, and courage makes the work easier.

When you lead with love, you lead with more clarity, more confidence. Your team will feel the difference. Less fear. More trust. Better performance.

Your courage

Think about a time when you spoke and led with emotional courage. How did people respond? How did your beliefs or expectations shift in the days afterwards?

We have all led from love. The practice is doing it routinely and making it a habit to choose courage over comfort, possibility over fear.  

I'd love to hear your stories about when you've led with courage. What made it possible? What changed because you did it? Reach out if you want to share. These conversations matter. They make us all stronger, better leaders, and they help our communities.