Leading Change with Love – A People-First Approach with Mohammad Anwar & Frank Danna

Change is accelerating at an unprecedented rate, and traditional change management approaches are no longer sufficient. Leaders need a new way to navigate constant transformation, one that puts people at the center.

Gayle Lantz speaks with Mohammad Anwar and Frank Danna, co-authors of Love as a Change Strategy. (Other co-authors are Jeffrey Ma and Christopher Pitre.) Together they previously wrote Love as a Business Strategy, which chronicled their culture transformation journey.

Mohammad is CEO of Softway. Frank is a director at Softway and co-founder at Culture +. 

They were featured in a previous CEO on the Go episode with Gayle in 2023.

In this vulnerable and honest conversation, Mohammad and Frank share how their personal journeys with change, including Mohammad’s experiences with his special needs son and Frank’s 90-pound weight loss transformation, have changed their understanding of what it truly takes to lead change effectively.

They challenge the conventional wisdom that change management can be delegated or treated as a process. Instead, they argue that lasting change begins with leaders changing themselves first.

This episode covers:

• Why change is accelerating exponentially, and traditional change management frameworks are falling short
• The critical shift from “everyone needs to change” to “I need to change first”
• How accountability partnerships between leaders can drive transformation (and why leadership can be lonely)
• The importance of courage over fearlessness, embracing discomfort rather than eliminating it
• Starting with people first, then technology and processes, not the other way around
• The concept of “choosing your hard” recognizes that there is no easy path in change, only hard or harder
• Defining love in business as “honesty with kindness” and considering the emotional impact of change on people
• How AI transformation can bring humanity back to the workplace rather than replacing it
• The power of being a “victor instead of a victim” in times of change

Mohammad and Frank emphasize that efficiency doesn’t equate to effectiveness, and that leaders must be willing to embrace the messiness of working with people rather than hiding behind structure and process.

This episode invites you to apply love as a change strategy in your own way.