Season 9 Episode 18: Human Centered Leadership with Ryan Estis

Season 9 Episode 18: Human Centered Leadership with Ryan Estis

In a rapidly changing world marked by uncertainty and evolving employee expectations, the nature of effective leadership is shifting. How can leaders cultivate environments where teams not only perform but thrive? Jason V Barger welcomes globally recognized sales and leadership expert Ryan Estis to The Thermostat Podcast for a vital conversation about the power and necessity of human-centered leadership in today’s corporate culture.

Ryan Estis, known for his work with world-class brands like Microsoft and John Deere, shares insights honed from years in the trenches, guiding organizations toward optimizing their most valuable asset: their people. This episode explores practical strategies for building trust, fostering connection, and unlocking potential within teams.

Episode Summary

This conversation examines the critical challenges facing organizations today, including unprecedented levels of change, economic uncertainty, low employee engagement, and rising mental health concerns within the workforce. Jason and Ryan explore why traditional, top-down leadership models are no longer sufficient. They present human-centered leadership—an approach prioritizing empathy, trust, belonging, and purpose—as the essential pathway forward. The discussion highlights how this leadership style directly impacts employee retention, attracts top talent, boosts innovation, and ultimately drives superior business performance and a healthier corporate culture. They look into the practical applications of this approach, including the significance of consistent, meaningful conversations and the leader’s role as a coach who balances high expectations with genuine care for their team members’ well-being and growth. The Microsoft transformation under Satya Nadella serves as a powerful case study.

Notable Quotes from the Episode:

• Ryan Estis on the current climate: “Companies today are navigating probably an unprecedented amount of change and uncertainty… the lowest employee engagement in over a decade… one out of three employees today are consistently… struggling with mental health challenges.”

• Ryan Estis on defining Human-Centered Leadership: “[It’s] an approach to leadership that prioritizes people… fostering environment of trust, empathy, belonging and purpose-driven decision making.”

• Ryan Estis on the ROI of this approach: “Human centered teams… outperform their traditional teams by about 30%. They outperform the S&P. They’re more innovative… they’re better places to work and it’s an environment where individuals can thrive…”

• Jason V Barger on employee desires: “…employees seem to be saying, well, I want to be a part of a more meaningful culture… I want to be a part of something where I feel like I am a contributor. I feel like I’m cared for.”

• Ryan Estis reframing the narrative: “People talk about the great resignation. I actually called the great leadership crisis… Have we led differently and better? Everybody wouldn’t have quit.”

• Ryan Estis on essential leader actions: “The biggest performance accelerator on a team is one meaningful conversation a week between supervisor and employee… The great leaders, they’re coaches…”

• Ryan Estis on balancing expectations and empathy: “It’s empathy and emotional intelligence and psychological safety and trust and a high degree of accountability… You hold those things at the same time.”

• Jason V Barger on accountability: “…accountability is we’re actually more accountable to each other than we’re less accountable to each other.”

• Ryan Estis on the manager’s core function: “That is the job… the management work is about the people.”

• Ryan Estis quoting Satya Nadella’s vision: “…we need to go from a know it all organization to a learning all organization.”

• Ryan Estis on Microsoft’s framework: “[Satya Nadella’s] great human centered framework… model, coach care.”

• Ryan Estis on leadership legacy: “How do I want to be remembered by the people I worked with?… if I really spend some time reflecting on the answer… it moves me into a place that, I think is more human centered.”

• Jason V Barger on the essence of great cultures: “…they understand that the cultivation of not just what we do, but how we do it is everything…”

This episode serves as a powerful reminder that effective leadership in teams goes beyond strategy and execution; it’s fundamentally about connection, development, and recognizing the whole person. By adopting a human-centered approach, leaders can build resilient, innovative, and thriving corporate cultures prepared for whatever comes next.

To hear the full conversation and gain deeper insights from Ryan Estis, listen to Season 9, Episode 18 of The Thermostat Podcast. Remember to step back, breathe in good oxygen, and consider the temperature you are setting in your own leadership journey.

Links and References

Learn more about Ryan Estis at https://ryanestis.com/

For more insights and practical tips, be sure to check out Jason V Barger’s book Breathing Oxygen. This book dives deeper into the concepts discussed in this episode and provides additional strategies for fostering a positive mindset and effective leadership.

Visit ThermostatCulturesLive.com referenced in this episode

By incorporating these practices into your summer routine, you can breathe new life into your personal and professional endeavors. Remember, as Jason says, “The best leaders, teams, and cultures on the planet stimulate progress by recalibrating their thermostat together.”

Our next episode will feature Human Centered Leadership with Ryan Estis. Stay Tuned!