The Connected Leader

Today I talked to Karen Joy Hardwick about her book The Connected Leader: 7 Strategies to Empower Your True Self and Inspire Others (Post Hill Press, 2021).

We are not leaders having a leadership crisis. We are leaders having a human being crisis. Connection is the antidote to this crisis—yet, many of us do not know how to connect to ourselves in a rigorously honest, self-compassionate way that enhances self-discovery and leads to creating healthy relationships with others. Without this self-connection, we cannot connect—in a meaningful way—to a higher purpose or engage with others in ways that help them step into their gifts. With the help of Karen Hardwick’s connection architecture, we can create the kind of relationships that are transforming and inspiring. By learning how to show up with her seven attributes of connection, we can empower workplaces and relationships through the grace and grit, resilience and empathy, honesty and authenticity that occurs when our connection-wiring is activated in healthy ways. Hardwick’s willingness to share her own stories of struggle and triumph—along with anecdotes from the boardroom to the family room—draws us into the pages of this book and helps us to awaken and courageously lead. She uniquely synthesizes the emotional, spiritual, and relational, giving us permission to look at the ways we do damage to ourselves and others while inviting us to live and lead from a place of true well-being, tapped into our purpose, and lifting up others.

Karen Joy Hardwick, M.Div, MSW is a global leadership consultant, coach, and clinically-spiritually trained psychotherapist with Masters Degrees from both Princeton Theological Seminary and Rutgers. She works with Fortune 1,000 leaders, teams, and entrepreneurs around the world on how to become Connected Leaders™.

She hosts the Saving You a Seat podcast and speaks to many audiences on how the power of connection transforms the leadership landscape and elevates our wellbeing, engagement, and empowerment. She lives in Atlanta with her son and is surrounded by her connection-warriors.

Elizabeth Cronin, Psy.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist and mindfulness meditation teacher with offices in Brookline and Norwood, MA. You can follow her on Instagram or visit her website.