Modeling Compassionate Leadership with Marcel Schwantes

Modeling Compassionate Leadership with Marcel Schwantes

From Love in Action by Marcel Schwantes

February 26, 2026 · 11 min · Episode 259

About this episode

Marcel Schwantes discusses the importance of compassion as a core leadership strength and its impact on organizational success.

Episode recap Don’t forget Marcel’s special offer to join his Substack community for $8.00/month. Subscribe here: https://marcelschwantes.substack.com/subscribe In this solo episode, Marcel argued that compassion is a core leadership strength, not a soft extra, and that alleviating others’ pain and suffering is a leader’s real work. Through examples like Jeff Weiner and Phil Lynch during 9/11, he showed how leaders who prioritize people, communicate openly, and make space for emotion build stronger, more connected organizations. When leaders show up in hard moments, teams heal faster and perform better. Bio Marcel Schwantes is a leadership coach, speaker, author, and advocate for more humane workplaces. He works with organizations that are tired of burnout, disengagement, and hollow cultures — and ready to build something better. Marcel’s work includes: Executive coaching Leadership development programs for managers Keynote speaking and workshops Executive roundtables and culture strategy sessions Marcel is the author of Humane Leadership: Lead with Radical Love, Be a Kick-Ass Boss. Whether coaching a CEO or training a leadership team, Marcel’s #1 goal is the same: To help…

People in this episode

Host: Marcel Schwantes

Topics covered

  • compassionate leadership
  • emotional intelligence
  • organizational culture
  • leadership development
  • human-centered workplaces

Keywords

  • compassion
  • leadership strength
  • Jeff Weiner
  • Phil Lynch
  • 9/11
  • open communication
  • emotional space
  • team performance
  • humane workplaces
  • burnout

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Substack community

Books & works: Modeling Compassionate Leadership, Humane Leadership: Lead with Radical Love

More episodes of Love in Action

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Love in Action podcast page.