Lead From the Heart

In an era marked by remote work, digital convenience, and a documented 24% decline in everyday social interactions, many leaders are noticing a subtle but significant erosion of human connection — both in their personal lives and across their organizations.

Our guest is Dr. Gillian Sandstrom, associate professor of psychology at the University of Sussex and author of the new book Once Upon a Stranger: The Science of How Small Talk Can Add Up To a Big Life.

Sandstrom has spent 16 years researching the often-overlooked power of brief conversations with strangers — what she calls “micro-social interactions.” Her work reveals that these small moments are far from trivial. Talking to strangers can meaningfully improve mood, reduce anxiety, strengthen our sense of belonging, spark curiosity, and even lead to surprising insights or unexpected opportunities. Yet most people dramatically underestimate these benefits and overestimate the discomfort involved.

For leaders, the implications extend well beyond personal well-being. In workplaces where belonging remains a fundamental human need — sitting near the top of Maslow’s hierarchy after basic security — fostering even these tiny moments of genuine connection can elevate employee morale, combat isolation, and help create cultures where people feel truly seen and valued.

The conversation explores practical ways leaders can apply these insights: from how they start meetings and interact with team members to the everyday environments they shape that make natural human exchange more likely.

The discussion also examines the real psychological barriers that hold people back — including fear of rejection, which research shows is far rarer than we predict — and offers practical steps for building comfort over time. A memorable statistics class experiment involving simple greetings provides direct, actionable lessons for anyone in a leadership role.

Sandstrom’s research, recently featured in The New York Times, challenges the modern habit of moving through our days in relative silence. It invites a gentler, more connected way of showing up — both as individuals and as leaders. As the episode makes clear, meaningful improvements in well-being and organizational health often arise not from grand gestures, but from the cumulative power of many small interactions.

Tune in to discover why reintroducing these everyday moments of connection may be one of the simplest yet most powerful levers available to leaders today — and how small talk (yes, small talk!) can add up to a bigger, richer life and a more humane workplace.  It is a really cool and uncommonly insightful conversation!

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Leaders who care about employee well-being are facing a hidden challenge that most aren’t talking about enough: widespread disconnection.

Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Brigham Young University and Director of the Social Connection & Health Lab, has spent more than two decades showing how human connection — or the lack of it — directly shapes our physical and mental health. Her groundbreaking research helped shape the U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on loneliness and isolation, and she is currently leading the landmark Social Connection in America survey, a 25-year national study tracking the true state of social connection across the country.

The early data paints a concerning picture. 41% of American adults report feeling lonely at least some of the time. Nearly three-quarters get together with close relationships only twice a month or less. Many have surprisingly small social networks, and participation in groups or community life has dropped sharply. These patterns matter deeply for organizations because disconnection doesn’t stay at home — it follows people into work.

In our conversation, Julianne explains how weak social connections contribute to higher burnout, increased mental health struggles, lower energy and focus, and greater challenges with retention and performance. She makes a clear case that strong relationships and a genuine sense of belonging are not nice-to-have perks. They are foundational to human health and resilience — and therefore to healthy, high-performing teams.

We explore why disconnection has become so common in modern life, how it quietly affects people at work, and — most importantly — what leaders can actually do about it. Rather than treating connection as an occasional team-building exercise, we discuss how to make building close, supportive relationships and real belonging a consistent part of daily leadership practice.

This conversation offers fresh insight and practical ideas for any leader who wants to create a workplace where people feel truly seen, supported, and connected. Because when individuals feel strong social ties at work, both their well-being and their contribution improve in meaningful ways.If you’re committed to the well-being of your team — and recognize that your own well-being is also tied to the quality of your relationships — this discussion with Julianne will give you new and uncommon perspective, and tools you can put into practice right away.

 

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A photographic portrait of Julie Claeys

When a global professional services firm decides that employee well-being deserves C-suite ownership — complete with metrics, guardrails, and consequences — it signals a major leap from perks to strategy.

To that end, Frank Giampietro serves as the Americas Chief Well-Being Officer at Ernst Young (EY), leading well-being strategy across dozens of countries and tens of thousands of employees. His role reflects a deliberate decision by EY to treat well-being as a business imperative — not an HR initiative, not a benefits package, and most certainly not a feel-good campaign.

Post-COVID, EY identified a series of operational realities that couldn’t be ignored. Client demand accelerated while teams operated in hybrid and remote environments. In many areas, workloads intensified, teams grew leaner, and leaders lost the informal visibility that once helped them detect burnout or disengagement early. At the same time, employee expectations fundamentally shifted. Flexibility, mental health support, and humane leadership became baseline expectations — not differentiators.

The risks were clear: attrition, presenteeism, disengagement, and burnout threatened client delivery, institutional knowledge, and long-term growth.

Frank explains how EY responded by building systems to identify overload sooner, redefining leadership expectations, and introducing measurable insight through tools like its Vitality Index — combining employee feedback with operational data to give leaders real-time visibility into how their teams are doing.

He also addresses the question many organizations struggle with: what does managerial accountability actually look like. What authority does a Chief Well-Being Officer have? How are leaders expected to show up differently? And what happens when even high-performing leaders fall short or even harm their teams’ well-being?

For leaders who want to move beyond aspiration and embed well-being into the way work truly gets done, this episode offers a concrete, candid and compelling blueprint.

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Jen Fisher is a pioneering leader in workplace well-being and human-centered leadership. She became the first Chief Well–being Officer at Deloitte US, creating a role that, as far as we know, no other major company in the world had ever established. In that role, she helped reshape how one of the largest professional services firms approaches employee wellbeing, connection, and sustainable performance, demonstrating that supporting people isn’t optional — it’s essential to leadership and organizational success.

Her new book, Hope IS The Strategy, builds on these experiences, reframing hope not as a soft or sentimental concept, but as a practical, strategic tool leaders can use to guide teams, foster resilience, and drive meaningful change in the workplace.

In this conversation, Jen shares her personal journey from relentless overwork and burnout — long hours, constant emails, and defining her worth by productivity — to a life and career guided by wellbeing and intentional leadership. We explore why so many high achievers fall into the trap of tying value to output, and how leaders can cultivate cultures that truly support people, elevate resilience, and inspire connection.

We also dive into hope as a leadership strategy: why it matters, how it can be developed in teams, and what it looks like in practice when leaders prioritize wellbeing.

Jen offers practical guidance for creating humane workplaces, making employee well-being a shared responsibility, and leading with empathy, clarity, and heart. For anyone seeking to transform their approach to leadership, culture, and performance, this episode provides both candid stories and actionable insights.

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How can leaders use emotional intelligence to create workplaces where employees flourish? We explore the science and practice of emotional wisdom, examining how leaders can harness the interplay between emotion and reason to foster well-being, connection, and high performance in their teams.

Josh Freedman, named one of the top 50 management and leadership experts by Inc. Magazine, is a global authority on emotions and emotional intelligence. He has spent decades helping leaders develop the skills to better understand themselves and connect with their teams.

In our wonderful conversation, Josh reveals the “secret power” most leaders overlook: emotional intelligence — more specifically, the ability to understand and harness emotions in oneself and others to drive connection, well-being, and performance.

Josh’s new book, Emotion Rules: The Science and Practice of Emotional Wisdom, provides a practical roadmap for leaders who want to apply emotional intelligence to improve both individual and organizational performance. Drawing on decades of research and practice, the book challenges the myth that great leaders are cool, detached, and relentlessly rational. Instead, Josh shows that emotion and reason are deeply intertwined — and that understanding this interplay is essential for effective leadership.

Our conversation explores the idea that humans aren’t strictly rational beings, as highlighted by New York Times columnist David Brooks, who recently described our minds as “swirls” — dynamic, interconnected systems where emotion and reason are inseparable. Josh explains why this framing is critical for leaders who want to support employee well-being. We also examine how historical and cultural myths have shaped the way business views emotion, and what leaders can do to shift these outdated perspectives.

Practical skills for leaders are a key focus. Josh shares how to connect with one’s own feelings, reflect on emotional data, and act with presence. He introduces the TFA Triangle, showing how Thoughts, Feelings, and Actions interact, and how understanding this helps leaders respond more effectively to employees, especially during times of stress or change.

Josh explains emotional contagion and how leaders shape the overall culture and atmosphere of their teams. He also addresses one of today’s most pressing organizational challenges: burnout, explaining why it is driven more by unmet emotional needs than logistics — and what leaders can do to prevent it and support their teams.

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