We Before Me

We Before Me is the first core principle of Heart of Leaders—because it's the most important. Take a look at nearly any instance of organizational or team dysfunction, and you'll discover selfishness. Whether in the form of competition for resources, recognition or promotions or the ego-driven need to take responsibility for team wins, selfishness is at the root of organizational dysfunction. Humans succeed the most when collaborating, so it makes sense to think of cooperation as a tool. So how do we compete against other companies or even other nations? By out-cooperating them.

We Before Me is the first core principle of Heart of Leaders—because it's the most important. Take a look at nearly any instance of organizational or team dysfunction, and you'll discover selfishness. Whether in the form of competition for resources, recognition or promotions or the ego-driven need to take responsibility for team wins, selfishness is at the root of organizational dysfunction. Humans succeed the most when collaborating, so it makes sense to think of cooperation as a tool. So how do we compete against other companies or even other nations? By out-cooperating them. A description of our diverse faculty almost sounds like the beginning of a joke: an astronaut, a mountain climber, a CEO, an actor and a Navy SEAL walk into a bar…but this book is no joke. Each of these faculty members has led a high-performance team to do the extraordinary in the face of the most difficult challenges Wall Street and corporate America have to offer. Yet they all have a remarkably similar point of view on leadership. We call it We Before Me Leadership, and the program we run for high potential leaders each year is called The Heart of Leaders. At the Center for Heart Led Leadership in Denver, Colorado, we believe that a focus on team members is the transformational strategy that will enable any organization to accomplish its mission faster and more profitably, while lowering stress levels and delivering extraordinary customer experiences. Citing studies from Harvard, Gallup, and Fortune's List of the 100 Best Companies to Work for, we'll prove that it's possible. This is the revolutionary philosophy that you've been waiting for—no more abstract advice. This book will tell you exactly what you need to do to make your company a We Before Me success.

Rick Barrera is a turnaround consultant, speaker and author, known throughout the Fortune 500 for his extraordinary speaking ability and his unique approach to Leadership. He is the Head of Faculty for The Center for Heart Led Leadership in Denver, Colorado, where he works with world class faculty members to drive the Heart Led Leadership Movement. Rick and his colleagues believe that love and results are not opposites, but are two sides of the same coin. How can you love your company, team, job, project and customers and deliver anything less than your best? "Leading from the Heart is not soft," says Barrera "In fact, it is driven by hard-nosed pragmatism. People do their best work when they are part of a high-performance team, supported by a leader who has their back. We all know deep in our hearts that this is the right way to lead but sometimes we get distracted by the day-to-day, and forget who we are. We all need to be reminded from time to time." Rick's most recent books include Leaders are Readers and Alignment. Rick has helped hundreds of companies to maximize their revenue growth and achieve their highest potential by engaging employees to create happy, loyal customers. His client list includes Abbott Labs, Ameriprise, AutoCrib, AutoZone, Bayer, Caterpillar, IBM, Husqvarna, Intel, Merrill Lynch and Verizon.