Diversity and inclusion work in organizations sound like a compliance requirement. Get the numbers right, put a statement on the website, and call it progress.

Reality has caught up. Research from firms like McKinsey shows that organizations in the top quartile for diversity are significantly more likely to outperform peers on profitability. Inclusion is not only a moral issue. It is a performance issue that shapes innovation, retention, and long term growth.

But metrics alone do not answer the real question employees are asking:
Do I actually belong here, or am I just filling a slot?

On The Bliss Business Podcast, we sat down with Frederick Abramson, a multidisciplinary problem solver whose career spans science, technology, business, and law. Trained in mathematical biology and genetics, he pioneered early big data approaches in healthcare before moving into law and business advisory work. Today he teaches at Johns Hopkins, advises companies on contracts and intellectual property, and helps leaders align legal strategy with real business goals. His view of inclusivity is grounded in lived experience across academia, government, entrepreneurship, and leadership.

Inclusivity Begins With Belonging, Not Labels

Frederick starts with a simple but often overlooked truth.

Inclusivity is not just about who is in the room. It is about who feels like they belong there.

In his view, most organizations stop at visible diversity. They focus on race, gender, or nationality and assume that if the group looks different, then the culture is inclusive. That is only the starting point.

The real work is behavioral.

• How do people engage each other in daily conversations.
• Whose ideas are genuinely considered in decisions.
• How are honesty, integrity, and collaboration rewarded, not just tolerated.

Frederick often sees leaders treat inclusion like adding a different letter to a room full of Xs and expecting magic. True inclusion comes from how people behave with one another, how much space they give for different perspectives, and whether the culture fosters collaboration instead of quiet judgment and blame.

Listening That Proves People Have Been Heard

Every leader says they listen. Frederick draws a sharp line between hearing and listening.

He quotes the line from “The Sound of Silence” about people “hearing without listening” because it captures what happens in many organizations. Hearing is passive. Listening is active and visible.

Real listening has three parts:

• You pay full attention to what the other person says.
• You reflect it back so they know you understood.
• You invite clarification and next steps together.

Frederick models this in his teaching. In a university classroom, he will ask one student to describe a paper, then ask another student if they agree. The discussion becomes a shared learning dialogue instead of a lecture. Students later report that his course is the one class they still use in life many years later because they felt included in the learning process, not just spoken at.

He brings the same pattern into leadership conversations. When a leader restates what they heard, checks if they got it right, and then asks “Where do we go from here,” it signals something powerful. Inclusion is not just “you speak, I decide.” It is “we understand, then we move forward together.”

Vulnerability, Mistakes, And Psychological Safety

Frederick is clear that vulnerability is not a soft accessory to leadership. It is a core ingredient of inclusive culture.

Leaders in non inclusive environments often default to blame:
“How come you did not remind me.”

Inclusive leaders flip the script:
“I screwed up. I forgot to do it.”

Admitting mistakes does two things at once. It humanizes the leader and lowers the fear level in the room. People see that imperfection is allowed, and that the standard is honesty, not image maintenance. Over time, that honesty builds psychological safety, which is the foundation for true collaboration and learning.

Designing Simple Systems That Create Inclusion

Frederick does not leave inclusion at the level of good intentions. He argues that cultures are built by repeated behaviors, and behaviors are reinforced by systems.

One of his favorite tools is the acronym A R C A R:

• Acknowledge
• Restate
• Clarify
• Affirm
• Resolve

It is a simple relational pattern leaders can use in any conversation.

1. Acknowledge: “I appreciate you asking that question.”
2. Restate: “You are asking what leaders can do this month to be more inclusive.”
3. Clarify: “When you say leaders, do you mean only executives or anyone who steps up.”
4. Affirm: “That is a powerful distinction. Thank you for naming it.”
5. Resolve: “Here is one practical step we can take, and here is how to learn more.”

By using A R C A R, leaders build a repeatable structure for inclusion. People feel seen, understood, and invited into next steps. Over time, this pattern normalizes collaboration and reduces the fear of speaking up.

Neurodiversity, Genetics, And Seeing People Clearly

One of the most compelling parts of the conversation comes from Frederick’s work in genetics and “wellness DNA.”

He shares examples of traits that can influence behavior, such as a gene related to difficulty learning from mistakes or a gene associated with shyness. In one case, a parent brought genetic insight to a teacher and reframed their child’s behavior. The child was not “stupid.” They needed to be shown the right way the first time instead of being expected to learn by trial and error. The moment the teacher understood that, the teaching approach changed, and so did the child’s progress.

Another example involves an executive who discovered she was genetically shy. Once she understood that, she did not try to become a different person. She designed a simple workaround. At events, she stood at the doorway, greeted people by name, and made it easier for others to approach her.

These stories highlight a core principle of inclusivity:

People are not broken. They are different.

Inclusive leaders respect neurodiversity and build environments where different learning styles, temperaments, and strengths can contribute. That means adjusting how we evaluate performance, how we design roles, and how we build teams, instead of assuming everyone should fit one narrow mold.

The Power Of Belief: How Inclusivity Changes Lives

Frederick’s own academic path is a case study in the impact of inclusive belief.

As a teenager, he was pushed out of a college track in high school, told he would never go to college, and struggled academically early on. His undergraduate GPA was low, and by many traditional measures, he should not have been considered for top graduate programs.

Yet faculty members saw something in him that he did not fully see in himself. They watched him make brilliant comments one moment and baffling ones the next, and decided to bet on the brilliance. They wrote recommendations that opened doors to institutions like the University of Rochester and Stanford, and they stayed engaged with his development.

That is inclusivity at work.

It is not lowering the bar. It is looking beyond one metric and asking:

• What potential is hiding inside this person.
• How can we design support, feedback, and opportunity so that potential has a chance to emerge.

The same pattern appears in his sports stories. On a softball team he pitched for, everyone played in every game, even though some players were all stars. A teammate who refused to come off the field because he thought he was “too good” was told not to come back. The culture valued contribution, growth, and mutual respect over ego. That inclusive mindset helped the team win consistently, not because everyone was equal in skill, but because everyone was essential to the whole.

Purpose, Love, And Redefining Success

Underneath Frederick’s work on inclusivity is a deeper purpose. He loves solving problems that genuinely improve people’s lives, especially for those who have been overlooked or written off. His nonprofit work focuses on helping young single mothers discover strengths and traits that can anchor a new story about who they are and what is possible.

He also reframes success in a powerful way.

Success, for him, is “playing your best” regardless of the outcome. He recalls watching figure skater Scott Hamilton earn a gold medal while still being dissatisfied because he knew he had not skated at his highest level. Winning is a moment. Integrity and effort are the real scoreboard.

This view of success is deeply inclusive. It honors people for their growth, their courage, and their contribution, not just their latest metric. It also connects to love in business.

Love shows up as:

• Believing in people enough to tell them the truth.
• Investing time in listening and mentoring.
• Designing roles and systems that help people play at their best.

In teams, that kind of love creates loyalty and resilience. When things get hard, people stay in the game because they know they are seen, valued, and believed in.

Key Takeaways

• Inclusivity Starts With Belonging
  It is not enough to get different people into the room. They must feel that their presence and perspective matter.
• Listening Must Be Visible
  Inclusion is built when leaders restate what they heard, seek clarification, and invite shared next steps.
• Vulnerability Builds Trust
  Admitting mistakes and taking responsibility signals safety. Blame does the opposite.
• Systems Turn Inclusion Into Habit
  Simple tools like A R C A R help leaders practice inclusion in every conversation, not just when they remember.
• Neurodiversity Is A Strategic Advantage
  When leaders understand and respect different ways of thinking and learning, they unlock innovation and potential that would otherwise stay hidden.
• Purpose And Love Anchor Performance
  Focusing on playing your best and caring about people’s growth creates cultures that can innovate, endure, and outperform.

Final Thoughts

Inclusivity is often talked about as a program or a policy. Frederick Abramson reminds us that it is first a way of being. It is how leaders listen, how they respond, how they design systems, and how they choose to see the people in front of them.

When organizations treat belonging as a strategic priority, they do more than avoid risk. They build cultures where diverse minds can collaborate, where neurodiversity is welcomed, and where people can play at their best without fear of being dismissed for their differences.

Check out our full conversation with Frederick Abramson on The Bliss Business Podcast.

Originally Featured on The Bliss Business Podcast Blog

Many leaders are taught that results came from control, speed, and decisiveness. If you hit your numbers, the “how” did not get much airtime. That approach is breaking down.

Today, people want to know if their leaders actually care. Franchise owners want to know if their investment is respected. Employees want to know if someone will notice when they are not okay. In that environment, empathy is no longer a nice idea. It is the difference between a system that technically works and a culture that people actually want to stay in.

On The Bliss Business Podcast, we sat down with Kim Gubera, President and CEO of Pertek, a hydraulic hose repair franchise system that has grown unit count by more than ninety percent since she stepped into the CEO role in 2019. With more than twenty years in franchising, a background in accounting and finance, and deep experience leading in male dominated industries, Kim shared how empathy, clear standards, and follow through can reshape an entire network.

Empathy Is Letting People Know You Care

When Kim talks about empathy, she does not reach for buzzwords. She started by looking up the formal definition, then simplified it into something more actionable. Empathy, to her, is “letting others know that you care.”

That shows up in very specific moments.

• Delivering hard news to a franchisee who has invested years and savings into their business.
• Sitting with an employee who is struggling, and resisting the urge to jump straight into solutions.
• Taking the time to explain not just the “no,” but the “why” behind a decision.

Kim is naturally a problem solver. Her instinct is to move quickly from issue to answer. Empathy has required her to slow down, listen all the way through, and make sure people feel heard before she offers a path forward. That shift is not cosmetic. It changes how decisions land, how much trust they build, and how willing people are to stay engaged when the answer is not what they hoped for.

When Busyness Erodes Trust

One of the biggest threats to empathy is not malice. It is busyness.

As Pertek has grown rapidly, Kim has seen how easy it is for leaders to get swept into deadlines, expansion plans, and operational fires. In that rush, they stop noticing small changes in behavior, the franchisee who suddenly goes quiet, or the employee who used to be engaged and is now just going through the motions.

In franchising, distance magnifies the risk. A franchisor and franchisee might be separated by a thousand miles and months between in person visits. When there is no intentional check in, unspoken frustration hardens into resentment. Issues that could have been resolved through a candid conversation become legal threats.

Kim has seen how dangerous it is when leaders rely solely on contracts and compliance. If the franchise agreement is the first tool you reach for, she says, several other steps have already failed. Empathy, in practice, means refusing to let busyness become an excuse for ignoring early warning signs in relationships.

Listening Tours That Turn Into Culture Change

When Kim moved from CFO to CEO, she stepped into a male dominated industrial business and a system with cultural scars. Some franchisees had never had anyone from the executive team visit their location, despite being in the network for five or more years.

Rather than making assumptions, she went on the road.

She visited every franchisee, often in person, and asked a simple open question: “Tell me your Pertek story.” Then she listened. What she heard was the full spectrum: gratitude, anger, frustration, loyalty, and disappointment. There were tears, raised voices, and long histories of feeling unheard.

That listening tour was more than a gesture. It gave her:

• A clear picture of where trust had been broken.
• Insight into what franchisees valued most from the brand.
• Motivation to rebuild systems that had been too narrow and transactional.

Back at the home office, empathy demanded action. Kim and her team broadened the support they offered, upgraded tools, and began operating as true partners rather than distant rule enforcers. Over time, franchisees did not just hear that leadership cared. They saw it in new resources, better communication, and a shift in tone.

Systems That Keep Empathy From Being Optional

Kim is clear that empathy cannot depend on one leader’s personality. If it does, it disappears the moment that person leaves. To endure, empathy has to be built into systems.

At Pertek, that looks like:

• Clearly articulated values and leadership behaviors that are expected every day, not only during good times.
• Policies that make it unacceptable to hang up on a franchisee, ignore emails, or respond with disrespect, and the same standard applied to how franchisees treat the home office team.
• Regular site visits and check ins that create space for real conversation beyond performance reports.
• Support that does not get cut off when there is tension or even litigation, so long as both sides are genuinely working toward resolution.

Kim talks about “empathy plus delivery.” Listening without changing anything is not enough. Franchisees felt cared for in the room, but they also needed to see new tools, better training, and more robust support show up afterward. That is where trust was rebuilt.

The systems do one more critical thing. They protect empathy under pressure. When something goes wrong, the default is not “Who can we blame?” It is “How do we uphold our values and still solve this problem?” That framing keeps leaders from abandoning empathy the moment things get hard.

Scaling Empathy Across A Franchise Network

As Pertek has approached two hundred franchise locations, Kim has watched empathy move from a leadership trait to a network habit.

Franchisees support each other with labor, equipment, and advice. The company created a “Good Neighbor Award” to recognize owners who go out of their way to help peers through a crisis or a busy season. That peer to peer empathy matters as much as anything coming from headquarters.

Kim describes the system as “Team Pertek,” a shared identity that includes the franchisor, franchisees, and their employees. When empathy is embedded in that identity, it becomes normal for owners to ask, “How can I help my neighbor succeed?”

Scaling empathy also shows up in how the company handles conflict. There have been situations where lawyers were in the room. Instead of writing those relationships off, Kim and her team invested in one on one conversations, multiple visits, and concrete changes. Some of those franchisees are now among their strongest partners. Turning an adversarial relationship into a healthy one is, in her view, one of the clearest signs that empathy and standards are working together.

Leading With Empathy In Male Dominated Spaces

Kim’s journey includes another layer. When she became CEO, she was the first woman to lead a hydraulic company of this kind in the world, stepping into a network of mostly male franchise owners in a traditionally industrial space.

Asked about advice for women entering male dominated industries, she does not start with gender. She starts with identity and capability.

Her approach is to:

• See herself first as a business leader, not only as “the woman in the room.”
• Build credibility through competence, consistency, and results.
• Refuse to compromise on values, even if that means changing environments to find a better fit.

She is also clear that empathy does not mean being perceived as weak. Franchisees know she will enforce brand standards and say no when necessary. The difference is that those “no’s” are delivered with respect, context, and a track record of listening.

For Kim, empathy and strength are not opposites. Empathy is part of what gives her the confidence to lead in rooms where she once wondered whether she would be accepted.

Love, Purpose, And The Legacy Leaders Leave

Late in the conversation, the topic turns to love. It is a word that can feel awkward in business. Kim frames it through the Greek concept of philia, the kind of love that shows up as deep friendship and shared purpose.

Over decades in franchising, she has built relationships that outlast any individual role. Former franchisees still care for her company’s lawns. Former colleagues still call for advice. Current owners know that even after hard conversations, she will show up at their location, sit at their table, and work through the problem with them.

Underneath it all is purpose. Kim describes her personal purpose as helping the people within her influence become the best version of themselves, whether they are franchisees or employees. Growth and financial performance matter, but they are anchored in that deeper commitment. Her faith shapes how she evaluates decisions, especially on the hardest days.

That combination of love, purpose, and empathy leaves a different kind of legacy. It is not just a larger network or stronger numbers. It is a system where people can say, “I was challenged, I was held to a standard, and I was cared for.”

Key Takeaways

• Empathy Is A Daily Signal That You Care
  Empathy is not abstract. It is how you listen, explain decisions, and stay present when delivering hard news.
• Busyness Can Quiet The Voices You Most Need To Hear
  Rapid growth and full calendars make it easy to miss the early signs of disengagement and frustration, especially at a distance.
• Listening Must Lead To Action
  Listening tours, site visits, and open conversations only build trust when they are followed by concrete changes in systems and support.
• Systems Turn Empathy Into A Shared Standard
  Values, leadership behaviors, policies, and rituals are what keep empathy from depending on one leader’s personality.
• Conflict Is A Chance To Practice Empathy, Not Abandon It
  Working through tension, even with lawyers involved, can transform relationships when both sides stay committed to understanding and resolution.
• Purpose And Love Shape The Legacy Of Leadership
  When leaders anchor decisions in a clear purpose and genuine care for people, performance and culture reinforce each other over time.

Final Thoughts

Empathy in leadership is not about being softer. It is about being more honest, more attentive, and more committed to the humans who make a business possible.

Kim Gubera’s story at Pertek shows that you can enforce high standards, grow aggressively, and still lead with empathy, purpose, and love. In a world where contracts and metrics often dominate the conversation, that combination might be the real competitive advantage.

Check out our full conversation with Kim Gubera on The Bliss Business Podcast.

Originally Featured on The Bliss Business Podcast Blog

Most conversations about “balancing profit and social responsibility” stay at the level of slogans. Brands put cause campaigns in their marketing, donated a percentage of proceeds, and hoped it would be enough to signal that they cared.

In reality, customers and employees are paying close attention to whether a company’s daily behavior matches its values. Nowhere is that more visible than in the pet industry, where the stakes are both emotional and practical. Pets are not abstract “consumers.” They are family. People want to know that the brands they choose honor that relationship.

On The Bliss Business Podcast, we sat down with Joe Dent, CEO of Everything Pets, a division of Loyalty Brands, which includes Zoomin Grooming, Salty Dog, Cooper Scoopers, and Hike Doggy. Joe brings more than three decades of experience across pet retail and franchising, from running thousand-store operations to leading focused, service-driven brands. His story is a clear example of what it looks like to build a business that is unapologetically profitable and genuinely purpose driven at the same time.

Profit And Purpose Are Both Non-Negotiable

When Joe talks about balancing profit and social responsibility, he does not treat them as competing priorities. He sees them as two parts of the same promise.

On one side, there is a clear economic engine. Franchise partners need strong unit-level economics, support systems, and growth paths that allow them to build real wealth and independence. On the other side, there is a deep responsibility to animals, pet parents, and local communities.

Leaders often get stuck by overcorrecting in one direction:

• Chasing margin and cost cutting so aggressively that they lose emotional connection with customers
• Or pouring all their energy into community work without building a sustainable business underneath

Joe’s perspective is simple. The healthiest brands do both. They follow proven systems, watch their numbers, and still let passion for pets lead the way. Profit becomes the fuel that allows them to keep serving at a high level year after year.

Designing A Pet Ecosystem, Not Just Individual Brands

Everything Pets is built as what Joe calls a “pet ecosystem.” Each brand solves a real problem for pet parents in a way that adds convenience, care, and community.

• Mobile grooming that comes to the customer’s driveway and reduces stress for anxious or aging pets
• Brick-and-mortar salons that act as a local hub where people can stop in for a treat, a belly rub, or a conversation
• Services like poop-scooping, pet sitting, and dog hiking that keep homes safer and pets healthier while giving busy families peace of mind

The throughline is thoughtful design. These are not random services bolted together. They are pieces of a system that makes it easier to be a good pet parent when life is already full.

Social responsibility is built into the model, not layered on top. Clean yards reduce environmental risk for kids and pets. Regular grooming catches health issues early. Group hikes give dogs exercise and socialization they would not otherwise get. The result is a business that creates value for communities every day, not just during a campaign.

Stories That Redefine Success

One of Joe’s favorite parts of the work happens on ordinary mornings. A bright blue Hike Doggy bus pulls into a neighborhood, and dogs who recognize the color practically sprint to the door. Some sit watching out the window waiting for their turn. The joy is obvious before any revenue is counted.

Another story involves an older dog who can no longer go on hikes because of health challenges. The team still takes time at pickup to sit on the floor, offer affection, and make that dog feel included while they load up the younger sibling for the trail. No one sends a report about that. There is no line item in a dashboard for “fifteen minutes of love on a Tuesday morning.”

Yet those moments quietly redefine what “success” looks like. They build trust, loyalty, and emotional connection that no discount can replicate. They also remind franchise partners why they got into the pet world in the first place. Profit matters, but it is not the only scoreboard.

Systems That Turn Values Into Habits

Good intentions are not enough to sustain social responsibility at scale. Joe is clear that what separates consistent brands from inconsistent ones is systems.

At Everything Pets and across Loyalty Brands, those systems include:

• Clear top ten operating practices for each brand that are known to drive outcomes
• Routine follow-ups with customers after services like hikes, grooming, and lawn treatments to check on the experience
• Structures that allow franchise partners to grow into multi-unit and area roles when they are ready
• A franchisee and groomer-first mentality that treats frontline people as partners, not just labor

There is also a simple principle that runs through all of it: FTS, “follow the system.” In Joe’s experience, the franchisees who thrive long term are the ones who follow the model ninety-seven to ninety-eight percent of the time. There is room for local nuance, but not for casually rewriting what works.

By embedding care into the system itself, Everything Pets keeps social responsibility from becoming a side project that depends on the mood of an individual leader. It becomes the way the business runs.

Scaling Empathy And Purpose Across A Franchise Network

A common concern for leaders is whether empathy and purpose can scale across dozens or hundreds of locations. Joe’s experience suggests that they can, but not by accident.

The foundation is clarity. Everything Pets and Loyalty Brands anchor their work in simple mission statements, including “Have fun improving lives” and “Make pets as happy as they make us.” Those phrases are not copy on a wall. They are active filters for decisions.

From there, scaling purpose requires:

• Choosing franchise partners who are genuinely passionate about the work, not just the numbers
• Creating growth paths that reward long term commitment, not short term extraction
• Encouraging franchisees to build relationships with local rescues and community organizations
• Celebrating stories of impact at conferences, in internal communications, and in everyday conversations

The biggest challenge is not getting people to care. Most pet entrepreneurs already do. The challenge is aligning that care with disciplined operations so that empathy is visible in every customer interaction without sacrificing financial health.

When Love Becomes A Business Strategy

In the pet world, love is not a metaphor. It is the engine.

The explosive growth of the industry over the past few decades is directly tied to how people now see their pets — as family members who deserve safety, joy, and attention. Everything Pets leans into that reality instead of pretending it is purely transactional.

For Joe, love in business shows up in tangible ways:

• Staying close to franchisees and frontline teams and listening to their stories
• Designing services that reduce guilt for busy pet parents and improve quality of life for animals
• Holding high standards for how pets are treated, even when that makes operations more complex
• Helping partners build lives they are proud of, not just units they can sell

Love does not replace discipline. It informs it. It keeps leaders honest about who the work is truly for.

Key Takeaways

• Profit And Purpose Can Strengthen Each Other
  Sustainable growth comes from business models where financial success and community impact are built together, not traded off.
• Design For A Whole Ecosystem, Not One Transaction
  When brands work together to solve real problems for customers, social responsibility becomes part of the daily service, not a side initiative.
• Stories Are Strategic
  Everyday moments of care and delight are not just “nice to have.” They build trust and loyalty that compound over time.
• Systems Make Values Real
  Clear operating models, follow-up routines, and growth structures are what turn empathy and responsibility into consistent habits across locations.
• Love Is A Legitimate Leadership Lens
  In people-centric industries, love is not a soft idea. It is a competitive advantage that attracts the right partners, retains the right customers, and keeps the work meaningful.

Final Thoughts

Balancing profit and social responsibility is no longer a future aspiration. It is the standard customers and employees already expect. The question for leaders is whether they will treat that balance as a marketing angle or as the core design challenge of their business.

Joe Dent’s work with Everything Pets shows that you can build a franchise system that grows, scales, and remains deeply human at the same time. When you follow the system, honor your mission, and keep the well-being of people and animals at the center, profit stops competing with purpose and starts amplifying it.

Check out our full conversation with Joe Dent on The Bliss Business Podcast.

Originally Featured on The Bliss Business Podcast Blog

For a long time, leadership playbooks rewarded control, certainty, and sheer output. If a leader delivered numbers, few people asked how it felt to work for them. The cost of that old model is finally visible. Disengagement, quiet exits, and cultures that burn people out are not personality issues. They are design issues.

Research now shows that employees who report to highly empathetic senior leaders are dramatically more engaged and more innovative than those who do not. At the same time, companies that are perceived as unempathetic are putting enormous amounts of money at risk in avoidable turnover and lost potential.

On The Bliss Business Podcast, we sat down with Christopher M. Steer, Founder and CEO of Steer LLC, an organizational advisory firm that helps leaders, boards, and teams build better organizations through leadership development, strategic planning, and performance systems. Drawing on more than thirty years as an entrepreneur, attorney, and operator, Chris shared how empathy, humility, and accountability can become an operating system for modern leadership, not just a set of soft skills on the side.

Empathy As Performance, Not Personality

One of the clearest themes in our conversation was how far empathy has traveled in the leadership vocabulary. Chris pointed out that fifteen years ago, he barely used the word. Today, it sits at the center of every serious conversation about performance.

He defines empathy in practical terms. It is the ability to see, understand, and live in someone else’s perspective, especially the people whose work you are responsible for. If your role requires getting results through others, then empathy is not optional. It is the mechanism that allows you to:

• See what your people see, including the friction that you are blind to.
• Make better decisions because you are not limited to a single vantage point.
• Build the trust that keeps people engaged and willing to give their best energy.

Without empathy, you may still get compliance for a while, but you will never fully optimize the performance of an organization that depends on human beings.

When Empathy Gets Misunderstood

Empathy is often confused with being nice, agreeable, or endlessly accommodating. Chris sees this misunderstanding all the time. Leaders learn that empathy matters, then swing too far and treat it as permission to avoid hard calls.

That is not empathy. That is avoidance.

Real empathy does not ask leaders to dilute standards or accept every idea that is presented. It asks them to:

• Seek to understand the perspective behind the idea.
• Listen fully before evaluating.
• Weigh that perspective against mission, strategy, and values.

When leaders equate empathy with niceness, they lose clarity. When they view empathy as perspective taking in service of the mission, they gain better data and stronger relationships without compromising direction.

Where Empathy Matters Most In A Leader’s Day

Empathy is easiest to talk about in theory. It becomes real in specific moments. Chris highlighted two places where the presence or absence of empathy does the most damage.

One on ones.
A one on one meeting is a powerful, often underused opportunity to shape an employee’s trajectory. It can be a space for listening, coaching, and aligning around what matters. Or it can be a lost chance if the leader treats it as broadcast time, filling the agenda with their own updates and leaving no room for the other person’s voice.

Team settings.
In group settings, everyone is watching how the leader behaves. Do they create space for others to speak, ask curious questions, and respond with interest rather than defensiveness. Or do they dominate the conversation and shut down ideas with subtle cues in their tone and body language.

In both cases, empathy is expressed less through inspirational speeches and more through listening, questions, and the willingness to slow down long enough to hear what is really going on.

Systems That Keep Empathy From Depending On Heroes

Many companies rely on one naturally empathetic leader to hold the culture together. When that person leaves, the tone shifts overnight. Chris argues that this is a systems problem, not a personality problem.

You do not scale empathy by hoping more kind people show up. You scale it by building it into how the organization operates. That includes:

• Leadership and management development that treats empathy as a core skill, not a side topic.
• One on one structures that prioritize listening, feedback, and recognition.
• Performance reviews and three hundred sixty degree assessments that ask very specific questions about whether managers listen, value ideas, and create psychological safety.
• Clear feedback loops that bring insights from the front line back to decision makers.

Chris often uses an athletic metaphor. You build the muscle by getting reps. Empathetic leadership becomes part of the culture when there are rituals, practices, and expectations that require leaders at every level to practice it regularly, not just when they feel inspired.

Scaling Empathy Across Layers And Generations

As organizations grow, empathy can get lost in the complexity. Chris describes a “sandwich” dynamic.

• Executives need to embed empathy into the mission, values, and strategic priorities, then keep returning conversations to that plan.
• The middle layer must be equipped and supported to translate those intentions into daily management. This is often where things break.
• Teams on the ground need to see empathy rewarded, not penalized, in how people are recognized, promoted, and trusted with responsibility.

Generational differences do show up, but not in the way stereotypes suggest. Chris sees empathy as an intrinsic trait that can appear in any age group. What has changed is that younger generations are more accustomed to talking about culture, emotional intelligence, and psychological safety explicitly, which can accelerate adoption if leaders are willing to listen.

Accountability As An Expression Of Love

One of the most powerful reframes in the conversation was Chris’s belief that “accountability is love.”

If you do not care about someone, you will not invest the time and energy required to hold them accountable. You will avoid hard feedback, leave them in the dark about their impact, and allow performance issues to fester. That may feel easier in the moment, but it is not loving.

Accountability, practiced with empathy, looks very different from punishment. It means:

• Being honest about where someone is falling short and why it matters.
• Tying feedback back to their potential and the mission you share.
• Refusing to let short term comfort override long term growth.

When accountability is rooted in care, people experience it as investment rather than attack. It becomes a mechanism for belonging, not exclusion.

Listening As A Daily Discipline

If there is one habit Chris recommends leaders adopt immediately, it is this: aim to be the best listener in every room you enter.

Listening is how you learn your people’s stories.
Listening is how you catch early signals that something is off.
Listening is how you turn empathy from an idea into a felt reality.

That does not mean abandoning your perspective. It means expanding it. The more complex the world becomes, the more priceless that expanded perspective is for any leader who wants to build resilient, high performance teams.

Key Takeaways

• Empathy Is A Performance Lever
  Empathy is not about being nice. It is the practical ability to see from another’s perspective so you can lead more effectively.
• Misapplied Empathy Creates Confusion
  When leaders equate empathy with avoiding hard calls, they lose clarity and undercut performance. Empathy must remain anchored in mission and results.
• Systems Help Empathy Scale
  Rituals, feedback loops, and leadership development are what turn empathy from a personality trait into a cultural norm.
• Accountability And Love Belong Together
  Holding people accountable is one of the clearest expressions of care. Avoidance is what damages trust over time.
• Listening Is The Daily Practice
  The simplest path to more empathetic leadership is choosing, again and again, to listen more deeply than you speak.

Final Thoughts

Empathy in leadership is not a passing trend. It is the natural next step in how organizations evolve when they realize that people are not interchangeable parts in a machine. They are the source of every breakthrough, every customer experience, and every culture that endures.

Leaders who combine empathy, humility, and accountability are not softer. They are stronger. They build organizations where people can grow, challenge each other, and deliver results without losing their humanity in the process.

Check out our full conversation with Chris Steer on The Bliss Business Podcast.

Originally Featured on The Bliss Business Podcast Blog

For the past few years, AI has been treated like the next great race. The winners, we are told, will be the ones who move fastest, experiment the most, and automate anything that can be turned into code.

Yet beneath the rush, another reality is taking shape. Many enterprise AI deployments are failing to deliver measurable value. Error rates remain stubbornly high. Hallucinations, bias, and privacy issues are no longer theoretical. They are showing up in headlines, court cases, and broken customer relationships.

At the center of this story is a simple truth: AI will not succeed without trust.

On The Bliss Business Podcast, we sat down with Dominique Shelton Leipzig, Founder and CEO of Global Data Innovation and one of the world’s leading experts on AI governance, data ethics, and privacy law. Dominique has advised hundreds of companies on responsible innovation and now works directly with CEOs and boards on how to align AI with strategy, governance, and culture. Our conversation on “Building Trust With Responsible AI” explored what it really takes to turn AI from a risk into a competitive advantage.

Trust, Not Speed, Will Decide The Future Of AI

In survey after survey, CEOs overwhelmingly agree that AI will transform their businesses. At the same time, only a fraction of organizations have a clear framework for responsible implementation. That gap between ambition and accountability is where most of the trouble begins.

Dominique described a pattern she sees across industries. Pilot projects are launched like science experiments. New tools are plugged in without a clear use case, measurable outcome, or connection to the company’s purpose. Governance is treated as a brake pedal instead of part of the steering system.

The result is predictable. AI projects that looked exciting in a slide deck either stall out or create problems elsewhere in the organization. Trust erodes, not only with customers and regulators, but also with employees and investors who were promised transformation and instead see confusion.

In Dominique’s view, the real question is no longer “How can we move faster with AI?” It is “How can we build AI systems that people can rely on when it matters most?”

When Innovation Outruns Accountability

AI does not fail in the abstract. It fails in specific, human ways.

Dominique shared examples of systems that misidentified paying customers as criminals, denied vital benefits to vulnerable people, or classified children as violent risks because of how loudly they spoke in a particular region. None of these outcomes were intentional. They emerged when powerful tools were deployed without sufficient guardrails, testing, or human oversight.

These incidents are not only ethical failures. They are strategic failures. They damage brand equity, invite regulatory scrutiny, and erode internal confidence in AI as a whole.

The deeper issue is structural. In many organizations:

• IT sits in one silo, working with vendors and models.
• Legal and compliance sit in another, focused on risk after the fact.
• Security and operations each guard their own domains.
• CEOs and boards are often briefed in technical jargon that obscures where the real vulnerabilities lie.

AI amplifies whatever is already true about how a company operates. If silos, unclear accountability, and weak communication exist, AI will intensify those weaknesses. If values and standards are not already embedded in daily decisions, they will not magically appear inside a model.

The Hidden Cost Of Ignoring Governance

Dominique has spent much of her career helping companies recover after major data and AI incidents. The pattern is familiar:

• The original intent was positive.
• The technology worked as designed.
• The governance around it did not.

The financial impact can be staggering, from regulatory penalties and lawsuits to stock price drops and long term reputational damage. But there is another cost that is often overlooked.

Every highly visible failure sets back the broader adoption of AI inside the organization. Teams become wary. Boards become skeptical. Leaders pull back on innovation because they cannot trust the systems they have put in place.

The irony is that many of these outcomes could have been avoided with the same kind of quality control mindset that already exists in other parts of the business. Dominique’s argument is straightforward: responsible AI is not a philosophical debate. It is an extension of basic quality assurance and risk management into a new technical domain.

A Practical Framework For Trust

To make responsible AI tangible, Dominique and her team developed a simple framework that synthesizes best practices from regulations and case studies across more than one hundred countries. She calls it the TRUST framework.

Each letter represents a pillar that must be present if AI is going to deliver real value without undermining trust.

T: Triage The Right Use Cases
Before deploying AI, leaders must ask basic questions.

• Why are we doing this?
• Does this use case align with our mission and strategic priorities?
• Can we define a clear financial, operational, or strategic benefit?
• Are there legal or ethical obligations we need to respect from the start?

Too many AI initiatives begin without this triage. They feel exciting but lack a measurable purpose. Dominique’s advice is to treat new AI projects like any other critical investment. If they do not map directly to strategy, they should not proceed.

R: Right Data To Train And Inform
Most organizations cannot control the entire internet, but they can control their own data.

Dominique emphasizes that the accuracy and fairness of AI outputs depend heavily on the quality of the data used in the specific enterprise application. That means:

• Knowing where your training data comes from.
• Ensuring it is accurate, relevant, and up to date.
• Avoiding data that encodes bias or violates privacy commitments.

Using “raw” models without aligning them to trustworthy internal data is an open invitation to error.

U: Uninterrupted Testing, Monitoring, And Auditing
Perhaps the most overlooked pillar is continuous testing.

AI systems do not stand still. They drift as new data flows in and conditions change. Without sensors and alerts, that drift can go unnoticed until harm is done.

Dominique compares this to having sensors on every window of a house. The normal state is “closed.” When a window opens unexpectedly, you receive an alert and can act. AI needs the same kind of always-on monitoring, with human-defined standards of what “accurate” and “acceptable” look like.

Those standards should not come from a generic vendor template. They should be drawn from the expertise of the people who used to perform the task manually and know what good judgment looks like.

S: Supervising Humans Ready To Intervene
When an alert triggers, people must be ready and empowered to act.

Hallucinations and errors will always exist to some degree. The goal is not perfection. It is rapid detection and correction. That requires:

• Clear ownership for AI oversight.
• Defined escalation paths when issues are detected.
• Teams who understand both the technology and the business context.

Without supervising humans, monitoring becomes theater. It generates data but not decisions.

T: Technical Documentation And Traceability
Finally, none of this works without documentation.

To diagnose and correct issues, organizations need:

• Logs of how the model was trained and updated.
• Records of what data was used when.
• Results from ongoing tests and audits.

Without that trail, leaders are left guessing when something goes wrong. With it, they can understand when drift began, what caused it, and how to fix it.

Taken together, these five pillars are not an academic framework. They are a practical checklist for any CEO or board that wants AI to be a source of value rather than volatility.

Why Empathy Belongs In AI Decisions

Throughout our conversation, empathy surfaced as more than a talking point. It is a leadership requirement.

Responsible AI asks leaders to imagine what it feels like to be on the receiving end of an automated decision that is wrong, unfair, or opaque. A denied benefit. A misclassification as a risk. A recommendation that undermines care instead of supporting it.

When leaders put themselves in the position of customers, patients, citizens, or employees, the bar for “good enough” changes. AI stops being a toy or a trend and becomes part of the social contract between a company and the people who trust it.

Empathy also has an internal dimension. Many AI failures begin with people who were under pressure, understaffed, or unaware of the risks. Creating psychologically safe spaces to raise concerns, challenge assumptions, and slow down when needed is just as important as any technical safeguard.

Love, Courage, And The Role Of Leaders

One of the most striking parts of Dominique’s story is her motivation. After decades spent helping companies navigate the aftermath of major data breaches, she built her current firm out of something very simple: love.

Love for the customers whose lives are shaped by invisible systems.
Love for the employees who want their work to matter.
Love for the investors who are betting on technology to move society forward, not backward.

In her view, love in AI leadership looks like:

• Taking time to understand the tools instead of delegating them entirely.
• Asking better questions about risk, purpose, and impact.
• Bringing siloed teams together around a shared mission.
• Choosing long term trust over short term convenience.

It is easy to be afraid of AI or to romanticize it. Dominique offers a more grounded invitation. This is not an unsolvable problem. We already know how to build quality systems. We already know how to create governance. The work now is to bring that discipline to AI before small cracks become systemic failures.

Key Takeaways

• Trust Is A Strategic Asset, Not A Side Effect
  AI will not deliver value without trust from customers, employees, investors, and regulators. Governance is a growth enabler, not a brake.
• AI Amplifies Existing Culture And Systems
  Silos, poor communication, and vague values will show up in AI behavior. Fixing culture and collaboration is part of responsible AI.
• Governance Can Be Simple And Practical
  Frameworks like TRUST translate complex regulations and case studies into five clear pillars that leaders can act on today.
• Empathy Must Guide Data Driven Decisions
  Putting humans at the center changes how leaders define accuracy, fairness, and acceptable risk.
• Love And Courage Belong In AI Leadership
  Leading with love means caring enough to design systems that protect people, honor values, and create durable value over time.

Final Thoughts

The future of AI will not be decided only by algorithmic breakthroughs or processing power. It will be decided by whether organizations can pair innovation with responsibility, speed with discernment, and data with humanity.

Dominique Shelton Leipzig’s work is a reminder that responsible AI is not about slowing progress. It is about ensuring that progress serves people. When trust becomes the real metric, AI can move from a source of anxiety to a catalyst for better outcomes across business and society.

Check out our full conversation with Dominique Shelton Leipzig on The Bliss Business Podcast.

Originally Featured on The Bliss Business Podcast Blog