Leaders bear great responsibility, reap great rewards, and make great contributions. The highest among them, in my view, is connection. A leader who creates, cultivates and inspires connection is contributing to healthy relationships that make humans work and live better. And yet we don’t often look to leaders for true connection - or maybe not until recently. When disconnection became an acute global experience with sweeping impact on every strata. It’s clear certain systems need to change to thrive. Disconnection does not support thriving. Connection goes beyond communicating to inform or garner compliance. Connection comes from true perspective taking, understanding, and conscious co-creation with others once different perspectives have been validated and integrated. All these softer concepts of connection, appreciation, humbleness, holding space - all these are what set humans apart as capable of leading the building that must now take place in ourselves, our organizations, and our world.