Human-Centred Leadership: How L&D Can Build the Leaders Workplaces Need Now
- Estelle Curry
- Oct 9
- 3 min read
Work is changing faster than ever ,and many leadership models haven’t caught up. Across industries, people are running on empty. Stress, burnout, and disconnection are rising, and even managers report record levels of daily stress and loneliness (Gallup, 2024). Despite huge investment in leadership development, engagement and retention remain stubbornly low.
It’s clear: leadership needs a reset. We need leaders who don’t just drive performance, they inspire trust, connection, and fulfilment.
🌱Where Capability Meets Care
Harvard Business Publishing recently introduced the idea of Leadership Fitness, developing balance, strength, flexibility, and endurance to help leaders adapt to constant change. But technical strength alone isn’t enough. Today’s leaders also need emotional strength: the ability to connect, listen, and create environments where people thrive.
That’s where Human-Centred Leadership (HCL) comes in. It’s leadership that starts with empathy and ends in impact, prioritising people’s fulfilment, not just their engagement. When employees feel valued, connected, and supported, they don’t just work harder; they work with purpose, creativity, and resilience.
Fulfilment builds commitment. Engagement gets effort. The difference is everything.
⚖️The Leadership Challenge We Face
Toxic behaviours, burnout, and disconnection are eroding organisational culture. According to Harvard Business Publishing, one in four employees reports experiencing toxic behaviour at work, and those who do are eight times more likely to burn out. Meanwhile, political and social divisions are seeping into workplaces, undermining collaboration and trust.
In this climate, leadership isn’t just about delivering results. It’s about how those results are achieved, through empathy, fairness, and genuine connection. The old command-and-control model can’t meet today’s human realities.
🧠 Why L&D Must Lead the Change
Leadership development is one of the largest investments most organisations make, but too often, programs focus on content over context. L&D can change that.
Here’s how Learning & Development can drive the shift to Human-Centred Leadership:
Start from within
Help leaders build self-awareness, empathy, and emotional intelligence before focusing on strategy or execution. Reflective practice, coaching, and feedback loops are key.
Make learning real and relational
Move beyond theory. Design experiential programs grounded in real challenges, storytelling, mentoring, and peer learning, so leaders grow through lived experience, not lectures.
Redefine success
Shift focus from engagement scores to fulfilment, measuring how connected, valued, and purposeful people feel. Fulfilment drives loyalty, innovation, and resilience.
Model adaptability and trust
Equip leaders to navigate paradoxes, balancing empathy with accountability, agility with stability. Scenario-based learning helps them practise this balance in action.
Build psychological safety into every conversation
When teams feel safe to speak up, share ideas, and learn from failure, performance soars. Make psychological safety a foundation, not a feature.
🧩 Making It Real
To embed Human-Centred Leadership across the organisation:
Pilot HCL principles within one leadership cohort, gather data, learn, expand.
Align leadership behaviours with organisational purpose and values.
Integrate peer and executive coaching into all leadership programs.
Measure fulfilment, trust, and inclusion alongside performance.
Prepare leaders to model adaptability, not just manage it.
Evidence shows the payoff is real. When Alberta Health Services combined innovation leadership with psychological safety training, they achieved a 120% ROI (Lazar et al., 2022). Human-centred leadership isn’t “soft”, it’s strategic, sustainable, and measurable.
🧭 The Future of Leadership Starts with L&D
Human-Centred Leadership isn’t a trend; it’s a transformation. In a world defined by uncertainty and human fatigue, empathy, adaptability, and authenticity are the real differentiators.
L&D has the unique power to shape this future, developing leaders who don’t just deliver results but create workplaces where people and performance flourish together.
Because when leaders prioritise fulfilment over engagement and care over control, organisations don’t just get stronger, they become better.
🧠This is the future of leadership. And it starts with how we learn.
👉 Whether you need help designing a strategy, setting metrics, or analysing results, I’d love to help. Let’s talk about how to make your L&D efforts count.