
Why leaders should learn to value the boundary spanners
Entrepreneurial talent who work with other teams often run into trouble with their managers. Here are ways to get the most out of your ‘boundary spanners’...
by Dan Pontefract Published March 11, 2025 in Brain Circuits • 2 min read
Ask yourself what you’re doing to advocate for individuals inside and outside of work. What steps can you take to support people in their work and personal life, and across the ups and downs they will experience?
This means creating conditions, interactions, and channels of communication so people feel they belong and have agency. This will transform the workplace into a space where well-being is prioritized and nourished.
Humane leadership entails asking for opinions and ideas, even if those ideas are not fully implemented. Give people the opportunity and the right to contribute – and, most importantly, to be heard.
Leading humanely means asking what is fair across measures such as tenure, gender, and competency. It also means constantly questioning and checking yourself for bias.
Ask yourself whether you have adequately declared what you stand for as a leader and whether you have shared a real purpose with your people.
Our workforces are prone to enormous pressures, which will likely only intensify over time. Leaders need to shift focus from metrics to emotion, and from output to input, to support their employees as they navigate the competing demands they face in their work and private lives.
Dan Pontefract is a renowed leadership strategist, award-winning author, and keynote speaker with over two decades of experience helping organizations and leaders improve overall performance. He has presented at four TED events and earned multiple industry awards, including Thinkers50 Radar, HR Weekly’s 100 Most Influential People in HR, PeopleHum’s Top 200 Thought Leaders to Follow, and Inc. Magazine’s Top 100 Leadership Speakers. Dan has written five best-selling books, including his most recent, Work-Life Bloom, the 2024 Thinkers50 Best New Management Book and the Gold Medal Winner of the Axiom Business Book Awards. He also writes for Forbes and Harvard Business Review.
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