The Emotionally Strong Leader: An Inside-Out Journey to Transformational Leadership

Axiom Business Book Award 2023 Bronze Co-Medalist, Leadership Category

Bronze award recipient for the 2022 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year – Career (Adult Nonfiction)

The Emotionally Strong Leader offers those leading our workplaces, organizations, and institutions an opportunity to transform their leadership and their lives by learning to harness the power contained in recognizing and understanding their feelings.

For leaders, managing their emotions and leading with a strong mind and a kind heart while using a set of clear, simple, and tested skills and strategies will enable them to connect more authentically and communicate more effectively with their colleagues and teams. This kind of connection and communication creates an environment of trust and belonging that will spur engagement, spike curiosity, and engender fraternity in the workplace.

How does one get there? By leading with emotional intelligence.

Unfortunately, too many leaders choose another path; one that eschews their emotions and those of their employees as bothersome and unimportant to the task at hand. This limited and damaging viewpoint tends to make people feel as though they are simply task-managing machines and not the terrific and complex individuals full of energy, passion, and unlimited potential that they are.

What we need are leaders who understand themselves from the inside out, who know why they do what they do, and who use the information their feelings provide to help them make informed, rational decisions—especially when the stakes are high. We need leaders who express humility, engage in genuine and caring conversations with the people they lead, and who aren’t afraid to admit when they make a mistake.

We need executives who are both emotional and strong.

Author Carolyn Stern’s six-step self-coaching model—adapted from emotional intelligence courses she’s developed for major universities and corporations across North America—is backed by decades of field experience and top science on emotions and behavior. Stern’s model is the tool leaders need to uncover their barriers to growth and change, set personal goals, and tap into their motivation. It will give them the means and drive to manage the hurdles life throws at them, dramatically impacting their performance, results, and happiness.

Simply put, The Emotionally Strong Leader will turn the way readers think about leading on its head.