Why Great Leaders Engage Hearts as Well as Minds

I recently had the great pleasure of being the keynote speaker at the Manchester City Council Leadership Summit.

It was a proud moment for me as a Mancunian to be surrounded by so many passionate people who were determined to make our city an even better place to live and work.

The closing comments from the Chief Executive, Joanne Roney OBE, captured the mood perfectly:

“This city goes from strength to strength. It’s unstoppable.”

During my keynote, I shared three big ideas from my book How Leaders Make It Happen. One of them was that great leaders understand how to engage people at an emotional level.

It is an idea I believe strongly in.

You can present people with a perfectly logical strategy. You can explain the facts, share the figures and produce a beautifully designed presentation. Everyone in the room might understand what you are saying.

But understanding something is not the same as believing in it.

And believing in something is not the same as feeling strongly enough to act.

Logic informs us. Emotion moves us.

For many years, emotion and reason were often presented as two opposing forces: the rational mind trying to keep the emotional mind under control.

The reality is more connected than that.

Our thoughts and emotions constantly influence one another. Emotion helps us decide what matters, what deserves our attention and what we should do next. It shapes our judgement and plays a powerful role in motivation, behaviour and decision-making.

This explains why we can have all the facts, reason and logic necessary to make a decision—and still not make it because it does not feel right.

We see this in ordinary situations all the time.

You might go food shopping with every intention of sticking to a healthy eating plan. You know what you should buy. You understand the nutritional information. You have made a rational decision about what is best for you.

But go shopping when you are hungry and suddenly the chocolate cake starts making a very persuasive argument.

The knowledge has not disappeared. Something else has simply become more powerful in the moment.

As the maxim goes:

Reason leads to conclusions. Emotion leads to action.

Emotion is central to decision-making

The neuroscientist Antonio Damasio studied people who had sustained damage to areas of the brain involved in generating and processing emotion.

Many retained their intelligence, language and ability to reason. They could explain the advantages and disadvantages of different options in great detail.

Yet they often struggled to make even relatively simple decisions.

The research helped challenge the idea that good decisions are produced by reason alone. Emotion is not merely something that gets in the way of clear thinking. It helps us assign value to our options and decide what matters.

This has enormous implications for leadership.

People rarely commit to an organisation, strategy or leader simply because the argument makes logical sense.

They want to feel that the work matters.

They want to understand where the organisation is going.

They want to know how their contribution fits into the bigger picture.

A leader can explain the plan without ever creating genuine commitment to it.

That is the difference between communicating information and winning hearts and minds.

Emotional engagement is not about hype

When I talk about engaging people emotionally, I do not mean leaders must constantly jump up and down, give motivational speeches or create an artificially high-energy environment.

That may have an effect for a short period, but it rarely creates lasting commitment. Emotional engagement is often much quieter and more meaningful.

It means helping people connect with the purpose behind their work.

It means explaining why a change matters rather than simply announcing what is changing.

It means taking time to understand what motivates different people instead of assuming everyone is driven by the same things.

Help people understand why it matters

One of the easiest mistakes for leaders to make is to communicate from their own level of understanding. They have spent weeks or months discussing a strategy. They know why it matters. They have considered the risks, argued over the options and arrived at a decision.

They then present the final plan to everyone else and expect immediate enthusiasm.

But the people hearing it for the first time have not been on that journey. They may understand the words without feeling any real connection to them.

Leaders therefore need to do more than explain what is happening. They need to help people understand:

• Why are we doing this?

• Why does it matter now?

• What will it make possible?

• What role does each person play?

• How will it improve things for our customers, colleagues or communities?

When people can see themselves in the story, the strategy becomes more than a set of corporate objectives. It becomes something they can contribute to.

Make it personal

Different people are motivated by different things.

Some are driven by achievement. Some value security. Others want autonomy, recognition, belonging, development or the opportunity to make a difference.

This is why leadership cannot be reduced to broadcasting one message and expecting it to land in the same way for everyone.

Great leaders take time to know their people.

They listen.

They ask questions.

They understand individual strengths, ambitions and concerns.

Show people that you believe

People also pay attention to how leaders behave. They notice whether the leader genuinely believes in the message or is simply repeating words from a presentation.

They notice whether standards are upheld when pressure rises.

They notice whether decisions remain consistent with the values written on the wall.

They notice whether the leader appears calm, courageous and committed when things become difficult.

Emotion is communicated through behaviour as much as words.

A leader who wants people to care must demonstrate that they care.

A leader who asks for commitment must show commitment.

A leader who wants people to believe must first give them something worth believing in.

Winning hearts and minds

Leadership requires clear thinking, sound judgement and the ability to make rational decisions. But leadership is also deeply human.

People are not machines waiting to receive the correct information. They bring emotions, ambitions, fears, values and past experiences into work every day.

The best leaders understand this. They help people understand what needs to happen, why it matters and how they can contribute.

That does not mean emotion replaces reason. It means the two must work together. Because people may understand your strategy through facts and logic but they are far more likely to commit to it when they also feel connected to the purpose behind it.

That is how great leaders win hearts as well as minds.