The Human Edge Advantage

Mastering the Art of Being All In

A breakthrough book on the new frontier of leadership, Danels guides leaders in cracking the code to shed your masks, embrace vulnerability, create authentic connections, and spark genuine co-creation in your teams for powerful, creative results.

“Having known Lisa’s work for many years, I am delighted to see her address our time’s essential leadership challenges in a style grounded in science. She shares her expertise and real-life experience in talent and leadership development while tapping into the latest research and providing pragmatic solutions to grow leaders required for future success.”

— Jordi Martin-Consuegra, Deputy CEO Hudson and President at Dufry North America

 

“The Human Edge Advantage arrives at the right time when leaders need a roadmap to help them navigate a complex and fast-changing world. It gives practical tools and tips to engage teams and ensure everyone is all in. It is a must-read for anyone who realizes that building success requires strengthening self-responsibility and compassionately building team collaboration.

 – Peter De Meester, Global COO Health Nutrition & Care, DSM

Never has a book captured the full spectrum of an individual’s humanity, their head, their heart, and their gut, and translated it into practical exercises and strategies for cultivating a leadership approach that’s grounded in authenticity. This book sums up decades of data, research, and relevant real-world life stories to shine a light on the new frontier of leadership.

74 gigabytes (GB): This is the average amount of data our brains process each day, a number that is escalating. As the amount of information continues to increase, the business world becomes more complex, and workers at all levels end up feeling exhausted, leaders must find new ways to unify, inspire, and drive their organizations forward.

In The Human Edge Advantage, author Lisa Danels guides leaders on the art of being all in-how to create a wondrous space in which co-creation, collaboration, and creativity flourish, and workers create meaningful connections that lead to breakthroughs and results. This exhaustively researched book is divided into four parts:

Part I, “Integrating Head, Heart, and Gut” Ground-breaking tools and techniques to help you understand how to open your mind (your power to think), your heart (your power to feel), and your gut (your power of intuition).

Part II, “Cultivating Personal Power” Effective approaches to hone your awareness of all that you are, so that you can leverage your full self from moment to moment: in your experiences, interactions, decision-making, and understanding.

Part III, “Connecting with Others“: Proven methods on how to deepen and expand your relationships, so that your leadership becomes a powerful interaction with the team.

Part IV, “Co-Creating Possibilities” Creative guidance on how to use your connections to spark insight, innovation, transformation, and new possibilities.

Filled with useful exercises, revelatory case studies, and practical strategies, The Human Edge Advantage is an invaluable tool to help you create meaningful connections and bring everyone all in.

8 Takeaways Leaders Will Learn

In a technological, transactional, and often socially isolating world today, discovering how to be authentic isn’t just fluffy words. You’ll learn how to:

1. Lead your team to true co-creation, the new way to create competitive advantage and build a culture of belonging and embrace differences.
2. Walk with an open heart and be courageous… and discover why that’s critical for leaders.
3. Create authentic connections to yourself and others and learn the power of selfless collaboration.
4. Shed masks (engrained in our identity) that prevent us from experiencing emotions and behaviors.
5. Step into your personal power by owning strengths, weaknesses and overcoming fears and shame to open up to your genius.
6. Integrate your head (power to think) your heart (power to feel), and your gut (power of intuition) to provide greater capacity for navigating life’s challenges and achieving personal and professional goals.
7. Trust your gut and how to use this “sense of knowing” to guide decision-making.
8. Build a workplace culture that encourages vulnerability and is inspired by optimism and hope.

Cooperation was so yesterday. The future is co-creation.

Human Edge Advantage: Mastering the Art of Being All In is a comprehensive guide for visionary leaders seeking to be part of the new frontier of leadership. Based on data, research, and human insights and loaded with practical, useful exercises and real, relevant stories, Danels delivers an actionable “how to” for creating authentic connections, trust, and open teams that deliver actual creative results.

In a technological, transactional, and often socially isolating world today, discovering how to be authentic isn’t just fluffy words. You can’t make authentic connections and relationships with your teams until you connect to yourself and integrate your head and heart with your gut, your “second brain,” to use your sense of knowing to guide your decision-making.

Danels guides you on the path to creating authentic, trusted teamwork and inspired co-creation, resulting in a united and creative team. Step-by-step, you’ll learn how to help your teams leave behind fears and self-doubt and embrace vulnerability.

This takes courage: walking with the heart open without hiding ideas, emotions, and weaknesses. However, it may not be easy for you. Danels shows you how to know and own your strengths and weaknesses, drop fears, let go of shame and shed your mask, a set of learned and reactive behaviors we use to protect ourselves or fit societal expectations and prevent us from experiencing various emotions and behaviors. But by identifying and shedding these masks, you create a workplace culture that encourages vulnerability and fosters belonging, trust, and collaboration.

When this happens, we can all stand in our power.  Trust emerges victorious and creates open space for everyone to bring their genius and a piece of the puzzle to possibilities. This is when the magic of co-creation sparks original creativity that leaves leaders with powerful ideas and delighted teams.

When your team is all in, they are unstoppable.

What People Are Saying

“The Human Edge Advantage is a must-read for leaders navigating our complex and fast-changing world. It helps leaders to be self-aware and authentic and provides practical advice for building resilience and fostering a sense of belonging and collaboration.” 

— Gary Passman, CHRO, NeoGenomics Laboratories 

“The Human Edge Advantage is for leaders to tap into their true selves, build resilience, and foster a sense of belonging. Lisa Danels transforms leadership with all facets of authenticity, power, trust, connectedness, and co-creation. It is a must-read compendium with brilliant examples and stories for leaders of all kinds.” 

— Ekaterina Herzig, EVP North America Duty Free & Managing Director Canada 

“The Human Edge Advantage is a wonderful read that addresses head-on how leaders can balance humanity with organizational and technological change. A much-needed resource for modern executives and team members!”  

— Eric Sydell, CEO, Vero AI, and coauthor of Decoding Talent 

“A practical manual that every leader should read. Danels shows how to cultivate an authentic leadership style that brings out the best in themselves and their teams.” 

— Fabrice Chouraqui, CEO-Partner, Flagship Pioneering, and CEO, Cellarity 

“Achieve self-mastery with The Human Edge Advantage—a new guide for leaders everywhere to become more self-aware and authentic. With an extensive selection of. exercises and life stories, it’s a must-read in today’s complex organizational world.” 

— Marina Udier,  CEO, Nouscom 

“The Human Edge Advantage: Mastering the Art of Being All In is a comprehensive guidebook that provides invaluable insights and practical tools for anyone seeking to enhance their ability to connect, engage, lead, and create meaningful change in their personal and professional lives. Lisa Danels has masterfully woven together her perspectives and practice-based knowledge of psychology, leadership, and human connection. She offers a unique perspective on the art of connection and collaboration for enhanced creativity and innovation—much-needed things in the modern world. Danels sets the stage for harmonizing one’s cognitive, emotional, and intuitive faculties, unlocking the potential for greater self-awareness and resiliencies and guiding readers to discover their purpose, values, strengths, and weaknesses—thereby enhancing authentic presence and orientation. The book provides thoughtful exercises and practical tools to tap into one’s inner resources and overcome inner obstacles while skillfully mapping out the necessary transformative journey for modern, empowered leaders. I highly recommend this book to all practicing managers, leaders, HR professionals, and coaches.” 

— Professor Kurt April, PhD,  FRSA, Allan Gray Chair, University of Cape Town, South Africa 

“Lisa Danels reimagines the idea of being all in to use one’s strengths and vulnerabilities to become a more authentic leader instead of working oneself to the point of exhaustion. The Human Edge Advantage gives insight to lead in a new way!” 

— Claudio Feser, Senior Advisor, McKinsey & Company 

“Lisa Danels breaks down the journey to effective leadership into comprehensive steps that help unlock potential, create psychological safety, and tap into each person’s creativity and unique purpose.” 

— Steffen Saltofte, CEO, Zentiva 

“The Human Edge Advantage shows leaders how to tap their people’s power, ideas, and wisdom to deliver high-performance results and innovation. Lisa’s authentic and practical approach opens doors for teams to co-create.” 

— Dr. Jeanette Hron,  Chief People Officer, Gategroup 

“Achieve self-mastery with The Human Edge Advantage—a new guide for leaders everywhere to become more self-aware and authentic. With an extensive selection of. exercises and life stories, it’s a must-read in today’s complex organizational world. In retrospect, I initially attributed my success to luck, uncertain of the innate knowledge guiding me and my authenticity, which left me exposed. For years, I struggled to articulate the path that brought me to where I am today. This captivating book allows me to reevaluate my journey through a new lens.” 

— Haining Auperin, CHRO, Sulzer, Ltd. 

About Lisa Danels

A certified executive coach and a pioneer in the field of leadership and organizational development, Lisa Danels is the founder and executive director of Human Edge, a global dedicated to working with organizations to develop better leaders and better humans for a better world. As a senior executive, talent and leadership consultant and coach, Lisa focuses on developing mindful and purpose-driven leaders, unlocking their full leadership potential. She holds a master’s degree in Organization Development and Human Resource Management from New York University and a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary public policy and administration with a concentration in International Relations from the University of New York at Buffalo. Lisa resides in Basel, Switzerland.