A. Leadership isn't about the leader. It's about who you serve and how you can help them. Focus on helping others grow into their best selves. When you are the leader, it's not only about YOU. The message should always be that it is about US. It takes a WE, an US, a community, the whole organization, the whole team to make a difference. If a leader simply gives out directives, even if they are good ones, people will not follow if they don't feel connected, if they don't feel seen or heard. They most certainly will have a hard time being loyal. Often leaders are smart people, but they are so busy being "leaders" they neglect the collective "WE" and "US" that it takes to make an impact. That is where the power and the excitement reside. That is where you get your employees to be passionate and your customers to be loyal. To be the leader means you understand that you cannot make this happen alone.

A. People have assumptions and judgments about how they are supposed to be. Many feel that they are supposed to come from a place of power while everything else is a weakness. But of course that doesn't engage people. For example, when a leader acknowledges that he or she does not know the answer, it can stimulate a real exchange, build respect, create the connections and relationships that are so much deeper. If you must always have the answer and set the direction, how can somebody else have a true dialogue and add a smart contribution? How can anyone be inspired or empowered? People resonate with what they see in another person, but seeing only a leader's power does not inspire. That just creates the image of someone in an ivory tower. We resonate with what we want to become, and it's the leader's responsibility to be open and human so that others can see their own possibilities in the leader's example.

A. At sixteen, I was orphaned and homeless. This was a unique situation, because my parents were still alive. I wanted to be an artist and being an artist went against my religion and my upbringing. I was given a choice to stay and get married, and live happily ever, or to pursue the life of an artist. At that time, my heart's desire was so profound that without any hesitation I chose the life of an artist. The consequence, however, was losing my home, family and the community I lived in. No one would ever again open their hearts or doors to me. As I left my father said "kaddish," the Jewish prayer said when someone dies. He topped it off with the dramatic statement: "From this day forward you are dead. If you stay alive, you will roam this earth as a person who doesn't exist." Those words still echo in my heart today as much as they did 32 years ago. I could have drowned then in helplessness and despair, but instead I found myself on a street corner, asking myself what to do. What came to me at that moment was the most profound, life-changing experience: I realized I had to surrender to the moment and to my feelings of being lost. I knew then that I would come to find myself. I was to be my own only answer. It had to come from me. I could help myself. I could lead from within me. The answers were in my convictions, my values. If I understood what I stood for, my principles, I would know how to proceed with my choices, decisions and actions. I had no clue where the next meal would come from, but I felt that if I stayed true to my passions and principles, I'd know what to do. To this day I awake every morning and check in with myself, with my principles, and ask myself how will I make a difference. I ask how I will walk the extra mile today and who can help.

A. Something especially valuable I learned from Carl Jung, one of the most important "mentors" in my life, is that we need to sit in our darkness in order to find our light. I love and give deeply because I've suffered tremendous darkness. I accept my darkness as I welcome my light. I embrace all aspects of what life has to offer. Life is about learning about self. It's about connecting to your gifts and talents and it's about living them to their fullest potential and then sharing those gifts with others. To do that you need to find your own heart space, to find out who you really are. It's not about being perfect. It's about understanding your own story and destiny. Only by letting go of who we think we need to be and letting in who we are meant to be, do we become the leaders of greatness.

A. It means acknowledging our true self and understanding our inner stories. If I see and acknowledge that I am jealous, that I envy someone, I can begin to question. "Why am I jealous? How did it start?" In turn, this honest self -reflection begins to give us the space to genuinely let yourself in, into your heart, into understanding of your inner stories. And by doing so, by letting in you can then begin to let go; let go of the behavior, let go of the reactions and let go of the actions that we carry over from our childhood that do not serve us as adults. It is only through taking the time to let ourselves into ourselves that we begin to understand ourselves and the lives we can enjoy.

A. About a year ago many of my clients were struggling with New Year's resolutions. They were weary about making them and they needed my support. I explained to them that life and living are not about making resolutions once a year -- they are more about an every day resolution. Truly living is where you make resolutions every moment, every hour, every day. I explained if they knew their principles and understood how to lead from within, the rest would take care of itself. And I committed myself to supporting them every week for the rest of the year. I told them I would help them find themselves, understand the essence of leading from within, learn to hear their heart speak and trust their inner voice. I would teach the principles of heart-based leaders. I started a tweetchat on twitter the first week of January by myself, asking and answering my own questions. The first week we had about 50 people, the next week we had around 100 and then it went up to 300. The numbers have continued to climb ever since. These days our reach is more than a quarter of a million people around the world, week after week. I believe people come because the premise of the chat is so simple: To outline heart-based leadership; to let them know they are not alone in this world, that they belong to a community that sees them, loves them and understands them. The community has turned into a family, one that truly cares for each other. It is a community of love and support.

A. It's so evident that people are looking outside of themselves for answers. I urge each one of us that is struggling, looking for answers, to go inward, to listen to the heart, to hear the heart that speaks to us, that guides us, that heart that urges us to lead from within, to be who we are and not what we think others want us to be. We must spend the time to get to know our values and principles and allow our behaviors and action to speak for themselves. What is imperative when it comes to heart-based leadership is to understand this is not touchy-feely leadership. This is about inner strength, clear values and convictions. It's about the hard inner work that comes from the fact that each of us is responsible and accountable to lead by example. It is to realize everything that's in you and everything around you is a gift. You have a responsibility to use, develop, and share those gifts. It takes courage.

When we know in our heart and mind that every moment we have a choice -- just like I had at the age of 16 -- a moment when both something is and something is becoming, we know how precious each moment is. It's about this moment, right now, not tomorrow. It is in this moment that our lives are truly being shaped, that our lives are having impact. If we understand that, then we stop and think and we do not allow the moment to simply pass by. In my life, by leading from within, I have been able to seize that moment in the most profound way and as a result I've taken flight.