3. Reimagining Leadership Development as Essential Nourishment for Organizational Health
How a Vision-Driven Approach to Leadership Development Can Transform Organizational Well-Being
What would happen if we viewed leadership development not just as a strategy for success, but as essential nourishment for the health of an organization?
At Galanthus International, we practice identifying when, where, and how human-centered leadership behaviors show up—and when they don't.
For example, during an executive offsite I led earlier this year, the leadership team was confident and adamant that they were mindful and intentional about demonstrating empathy toward each other. There was no lack of individuals who thought they - knew and understood -what empathy meant.
In their interactions, they felt they:
Understood and empathized with the fact that each of them carried an extremely heavy workload and was always “too busy.”
Understood and accepted that if a decision didn’t benefit the other, there were “no hard feelings.”
Understood and accepted that a communication with a logical, bullet-pointed reason for a decision was “sufficient” and that the other person should “assume good intent.”
Everything came to a halt when they had to rate their empathy based on these questions:
Do you care about each other’s needs and priorities?
Do you consider each other’s feelings?
Do you prioritize each other over your individual agendas?
They went on to take a silent vote on these 3 questions using stickers.
Red: Rarely
Yellow: Sometimes
Green: Always/Most of the time
There were a lot of reds.
In our debrief, an insightful yet concerning dynamic emerged: team members were primarily interacting based on how the other person could support their specific functional area.
Each leader was focused on meeting the needs of their respective departments, rather than the collective needs of the executive team.
As a result, this functional focus led to an unintended consequence—team members felt that their value was tied solely to their ability to meet immediate demands.
If they couldn’t fulfill a request, they internalized it as personal failure. This approach not only stifled collaboration but also placed an unnecessary weight on individuals, undermining both their confidence and the overall effectiveness of the team.
It’s clear we need to foster a culture where leaders support each other not just functionally, but as a cohesive team committed to collective success.
Sadly, all the best practices of leadership we’ve developed in our careers show us how to be efficient—save time, save money, go faster.
But they don’t nourish us.
They are ‘function’-centered, ‘task’-centered, ‘results’-centered.
They are not ‘human’-centered.
The behaviors we teach do not ‘nourish’ us.
They do not inspire, do not motivate, do not give space for emotions, do not create psychological safety, do not allow us to show up as ourselves, do not lend flexibility for neurodiverse needs, do not foster stronger relationships.
Bottom line: They do not feed our human-centered needs.
The irony in all this is that when we recognize and feed the human-centered needs—
Trust goes up. Commitment goes up. Efficiency goes up.Results go up.
The workplace by design is not set up to care, and that’s okay.
Humans—by design—are.
✨Human-centered leadership development is the essential nutrition that fuels a company’s health—financially, culturally, and operationally.✨
We don’t separate leadership development from well-being because the two are intrinsically linked.
The well-being of leaders is a direct result of adopting more human-centered behaviors, and when leaders lead with humanity, they create environments that drive success at every level.
Our services and approach are designed to build strong, connected leadership teams that center the people driving the organization and amplify behaviors that nurture well-being.
We help leaders create the kind of relationships that foster trust, accountability, and collective growth, ensuring that leadership is not just transactional, but transformational.
This is our Vision.
Ready to make 2025 one of your best years ever? We’ve got two major opportunities for you to determine the direction you want your leadership, career, and health to go.
For Organizations: check out our Visionary Leadership Masterclass: Transforming Teams, Reimagining Tomorrow - our 2 day - 8 hour interactive masterclass. This interactive 2 day masterclass is designed for professionals who manage teams or lead projects.
For Individuals: check out our Lead with Vision: Balancing Career Success and Health in 2025. Our - interactive 3-hour masterclass designed for professionals who want to create a vision for their career by aligning their career goals and personal well-being needs to support a life of prosperity, autonomy, and meaningful impact.