Leading With Compassion
Cultivating Connection From The Inside Out
This collection is a testament to the collective power of compassion in leadership and the profound belief that true connection begins from within.
Each chapter offers a unique perspective on how embracing self-awareness and compassion has transformed these leaders’ engagement with the world and the people around them.
Foreward by: Derek Lewis, former President, PepsiCo.
Author of Survive and Advance, a memoir about his journey from a challenging childhood in Washington, D.C. during the 1970s, where he protected himself and his younger brothers from the impacts of single parenthood, mental health, and addiction issues, to achieving unparalleled corporate success and becoming a national catalyst for gender and racial equity.
“Together, along with a growing community of change agents, we are committed to fostering authentic connections and creating workplaces that prioritize consciousness and compassion. This journey has taught us that compassion is not just an emotion, but a catalyst for personal and collective transformation. It has the power to reshape our environments, uplift communities, and inspire genuine change. It proves that true leadership and meaningful impact begin from the inside out.”
- Aimee Serene, Co-founder @ Changing Work
“We all have everyday moments where we have choices to make. We notice them all the time when we’re up against it, when we’re faced with frustration behind the wheel, when our children or parents or partners remind us of our flaws, when we listen to our work colleagues take a tone with us. In those moments, we have to decide whether we lean into old fears, or whether we can summon our better selves, our compassionate selves.
Each of us has the ability to make someone else’s life better.
And if you know that you have the ability to make someone else’s life better, then you need to go do that.”
Meet The Authors
Isabella Cheng is a project and product manager turned talent and organizational development coach across various industries. She believes that small gestures of support can shift a person’s career and life trajectory for the better. With a mission to reduce the gap between rich and poor, Isabella extends her reach beyond borders and welcomes opportunities to collaborate with diverse organizations while striving to empower as many people as possible.
Kerri Jacobs has worked for some great compassionate leaders and some who miss the mark. Her obsession with empathy in leadership inspired her to create the Leading with Empathy program for leaders at Google and beyond. A Scot based in the US, she used to read books, watch films, and see a lot of Broadway shows, but these days mainly doom scrolls on social media, doodles, and comfort eats.
Nicholas Whitaker is the co-founder of Changing Work, a coach for high performers, a conscious leadership advocate, a husband and a cat dad. With decades of experience in tech, media academia, and entrepreneurship—along with deep training as a coach and mindfulness facilitator—Nicholas empowers clients to reconnect with themselves and the world around them in order to lead with authenticity, self-awareness, and compassion.
Benjamin Olsen is a technology executive and a pioneer in trustworthy innovation for planet-scale platforms and experiences. He also guides individuals and organizations through the inner transformation that is needed when creating systems that truly help us flourish. He co-authored the first responsible artificial intelligence standard at Microsoft, led responsible innovation education at Meta, and has contributed to industry-wide collaboration through IEEE and the World Economic Forum.
Sarah Ariaudo, an executive health and wellness expert, partners with organizations—including those in pharma, healthcare, and technology—to transform team engagement and performance through well-being and strengths-based leadership. With over 15 years of leadership experience and certifications in positive psychology, coaching, and mindfulness, Sarah takes a tailored approach to aligning individual and team strengths and by integrating tools like Human Design and Strengths assessments.
As a certified leadership and executive coach, facilitator, and speaker, Rachel Radway helps women who are wired differently get out of their own way and create the conditions they need to thrive. Lessons learned through multiple careers in tech and non-profit—and living in nine countries—shaped the experience, wisdom, and compassion she offers her clients. Rachel’s book, Perceptive, is due out in summer 2025.
Chirona Rose Silverstein, they them, is a life transition coach and ritual designer who supports LGBTQIA+ community and allies. They worked for eleven years at Intel, first as an engineer then managing global inclusion programs. Chirona is committed to lifelong learning, working towards collective liberation through education, spiritual practices, and wealth redistribution. They love spending time community-building, singing, and communing with nature with their dog Oz and loved ones
Shelly Dhamija is a friend, mentor, and a life coach. As an Organizational Development professional and engineering-focused leader, she brings a unique mix of people- and engineering-mindsets to empowering and enabling teams to deliver optimum solutions and to become better versions of themselves. She leads with compassion, embraces life with positivity and grace, and gives back to her community and those around her with a resilient spirit and a warm heart.
Chris L. Johnson is founder of Q4Consulting, dedicated to cultivating strong leaders, healthy workplaces, and thriving communities. As a psychologist, executive coach, and mindfulness educator, she integrates evidence-based neuroscience with body-based wisdom to create powerful and transformative learning environments. Her first book, The Leadership Pause, focuses on business health and wellbeing for conscious leaders. She lives in Chicago with her husband where they are active in the Chicago chapter of Conscious Capitalism.
Quentin Finney is a human, father, best-selling author, international certified mindfulness teacher, member of the Forbes Coaches Council, and long-time meditation practitioner. After holding operational and executive leadership roles with organizations including Google, Red Hat, EMC, and six startups, he has spent the last decade consulting and coaching, helping others as they discover the inner wisdom they don't always recognize they have—and he firmly believes we're just not meant to do any of this alone.
Orlando White believes that mindfulness and radical authenticity are essential pathways to our collective wholeness. He is the founder of Overflow, a program dedicated to helping individuals reclaim their true selves, those from before they learned to hide behind a mask. His mission focuses on the holistic well-being of those of us who are often left at the margins. An award-winning community engagement strategist and certified mindfulness teacher, Orlando is also a proud graduate of Howard University.
Jochen Raysz supports leaders and coaches in developing inner sustainability and living fully aligned with their deepest essence, values, and purpose as they drive meaningful change in their organizations and the world. His coaching integrates meditation practices that seamlessly blend into daily life and workplaces, alongside tools from psychology, neuroscience, and his experience as a co-founder and executive in impact-driven organizations in Europe and the US.
Erem Latif is a visionary healthcare executive with twenty years’ success in behavioral health and neuroscience marketing. Having spent most of her career developing engagement protocols for patients, Latif shares an innovative engagement methodology to foster compassionate leadership, employee wellness, and corporate success. Latif has a BS in Biology (Emory University), MS in Biomedical Science (Georgetown University), and an MBA in healthcare management (Florida Institute of Technology).
Karin Frosio, Founder of Revive Joy, is an inspirational leader, nationally recognized for 30+ years of maximizing engagement and elevating quality of life by promoting a culture of compassion within and beyond the workplace. She holds an MHA degree, Inner MBA, and an Emotional Intelligence Certification. Her team training and individual mentoring programs integrate well-being science into personal and corporate strategies, facilitating new ways to handle industry challenges and daily stressors with sustained vitality.
Meenu Datta a certified executive and leadership coach, is the founder of MD Coaching and Consulting. With over twenty years of tech experience leading transformation initiatives for Fortune 500 companies, she now focuses on empowering leaders by nurturing their inner world to unlock their immense potential. Her dedication lies in creating sustainable change through a coaching culture. Residing in North Carolina, she enjoys the tranquility of nature with her family.
Vincent Smith is the founder of Quantum Leap Coaching, a professional coaching and mentoring organization focused on working with individuals through a uniquely compassionate, intuition-based approach to cultivate and accelerate self-awareness, overcome vulnerabilities, build resilience, and develop authenticity. He combines ten years’ experience as a certified coach with twenty-five years as a business leader at Fortune 500 companies, where he successfully brings people together to solve novel personal and organizational challenges.
Ashanti Branch, founder of The Ever Forward Club, has over twenty years of experience as an educator dedicated to youth mental wellness and educational reform. He is a recipient of the Surgeon General’s Medallion, a Fulbright Fellow, and a four-time TEDx speaker, and was featured in the documentary film The Mask You Live In. Through the #MillionMaskMovement, Ashanti has engaged with over 80,000 people worldwide, fostering growth through vulnerability and shared connections.
Wainwright Yu is a technology executive and as a leadership coach who supports neurodivergent individuals as they discover and harness their (often hidden) strengths. He studied philosophy and accounting, an unusual combination that turned out to be a perfect fit for his neurodivergent brain, and has an MBA from Stanford. He is married to Jaine, his loving wife of over fifteen years. They have four multi-exceptional children.
Aaron Fromm is the founder of AZF Business Strategy and Consulting, helping organizations leverage the power of intelligent automation and artificial intelligence. He has over twenty-five years of experience as a software engineer and technical consulting leader, helping organizations leverage complex technologies to transform the way they do business. Aaron believes that when used correctly technology can give us back the one asset we will never get more of: Time.
As an executive coach and a team coach, Jaspal Bajwa partners to ignite excellence. His Success by Design consulting practice, Sunya Circle, is informed by three decades in operational roles in global corporations. Co-creating significant and sustainable value through organizational vitality is his continuing passion as he coaches business leaders and their teams to thrive with an enduring sense of joy.
Scott Gauvin is a management consultant and Lean specialist with thirty years of experience helping organizations transform the way they perceive and pursue performance. As CEO of Macresco and co-founder of the Respect for People Roadmap, he’s partnered with organizations worldwide and across industries to innovate their business and operating models and put people at the center of their corporate and operations strategies.
Sabrina Riley is a transformational leadership consultant, writer, and speaker passionate about authenticity and personal growth. With over fifteen years of expertise, she empowers individuals to embrace self-compassion and self-awareness as essential tools for navigating life’s challenges. As a transgender woman, Sabrina brings unique insight into the journey of becoming one’s truest self and through her consulting and storytelling she inspires others to create sustainable, aligned success grounded in authenticity.
Each of us is a leader—we lead ourselves before we can effectively lead others. This is a principle that Blair Morris works with as a coach, consultant, meditation teacher, and facilitator. Blair founded Liminalities after a long career in healthcare and works with clients ready to be fully present and conscious in life and work. She lives with her family, dogs, and horses on a farm in the Mid-Atlantic.
Lorna Hagen is a Human Capital leader, Executive Coach, and co-founder of WIN Consulting, drawing from her twenty-plus years of experience as a Chief People Officer at companies including iHeart Media, Guild Education, and OnDeck Capital. Her passion lies in teaching leaders to balance driving results while cultivating compassionate leadership. With her three kids soon heading to college, Lorna is excited to embrace her empty ‘nexting’ chapter through ballroom dancing and world exploration - all while continuing to champion equitable opportunities for all.