The Unlocked Leader: Dare to Free Your Own Voice, Lead with Empathy, and Shine Your Light in the World
Hortense Le Gentil with Caroline Lambert
Wiley (September 2023)

“I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it.” Maya Angelou

With the assistance of Caroline Lambert, Hortense Le Gentil has written this book in order to share what she has learned about how to replace a “superhero leadership approach” (i.e. being or at least seeming to be infallible, unflappable, in control, and fearless) with values and behaviors identified by Robert Greenleaf in an essay published in 1970: “The servant-leader is servant first…It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions…The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature.” Reading The Unlocked Leader reminded me of that quote as well as Maya Angelou’s observation.

A servant-leader focuses primarily on the growth and well-being of people and the communities to which they belong. While traditional leadership generally involves the accumulation and exercise of power by one at the “top of the pyramid,” servant leadership is different. The servant-leader shares power, puts the needs of others first, and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible. This is humanity at its best.

General Motors’ CEO, Mary Barra, obviously agrees with Greenleaf: “At the end of the day, all businesses are about peopler first — because the only way we can build genuinely  successful businesses is to build lasting relationships inside and outside the company.” She goes on to observe, “We do that by holding ourselves accountable, by doing what we say we are going to do, and by inspiring others to strive for something bigger than ourselves.”

Le Gentil asserts that, in order to be most effective in today’s environment, “leaders must be [begin italics] human leaders [end italics]. Yet despite countless stories and hard evidence advocating for leadership based on empathy, many leaders still cling to the good old  superhero leadership approach…My purpose with this book is for you to know what took me years to realize: The key to unlocking that fuller, truer version of ourselves lies within us, and [the purpose of] this book is to help you find it, so you can lead with empathy and shine your light in the world.”

For example, here are four practices that a human leader uses to establish and then nourish better contact with others:

1. Learn to listen [and observe] more and talk less.
2. Cultivate your empathy.
3. Rehearse and role-play conversations.
4. Ldearn to set ands maintain boundaries.

All four are thoroughly explained in Pages 183-201.

When sharing her concluding thoughts, Le Gentil  makes a number of key points: “Human leadership doesn’t start and stop at the office: It happens everywhere and in each moment. It also happens at home, and those who’ve embarked on the journey can attest to the enormous difference it has made in their personal life…Empathy is contagious, and because leaders set the tone and have more leverage, they are in a privileged position to make a difference.”

Here are two suggestions to keep in mind while reading The Unlocked Leader: Highlight key passages, and, record your comments, questions, action steps (preferably with deadlines), page references, and lessons you have learned as well as your responses to the questions posed within the “Excursion” material.  Pay close attention to the sets of questions, “Self-Reflection,” at the end of chapters, specially in Chapter 11. These two simple tactics — highlighting and documenting — will facilitate, indeed expedite frequent reviews of key material later.