The Heart of Leadership

Pulse Heart Institute — The Heart of Leadership, January–February 2026

Next available public course, September 29–30, October 1, and October 22–23

Enrollment will open in early March. More details coming soon.

Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”…

–Howard Thurman

“Self-care is never a selfish act – it is simply good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer others. Anytime we can listen to true self and give the care it requires, we do it not only for ourselves, but for the many others whose lives we touch.”

–Parker Palmer, Let your Life Speak

“Tell me: what is it that you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

–Mary Oliver

You are invited to participate in a profound immersion – in a conversation, called The Heart of Leadership, an opening into a vast territory of completion, and creating new beginnings, as you emerge into a new and profound connection with your Essence, your Roots, you authentic Self.

The Heart of Leadership is a practical, profound, rich, transformative conversation that connects you with your heart and your spirit, in all domains — parenting, work, giving yourself self-care, opening up new avenues for your self – expression, your creativity, strengthening your ability to handle challenges gracefully, and resolve them quickly, awakening your joy and aliveness, even while living in a challenging and ever changing world.

Through the principle of awakening your awareness, you connect with your deepest self, your Wisdom Self. You strengthen your roots through Being and being profoundly and newly connected to your Self and to others in your life, and to your own, new life.

Most of us have a future that is given by the past; we throw the past out in front of us and walk right in it. What might it be like to have a future given by your own voice, your own creation? A future given by spacious vast and wider horizons that are grounded in even deeper meaning, fulfillment, accomplishment and joy?

This rich conversation develops you to live and begin to master what is at the heart of leadership, communication, trust, connectivity, empowerment, and accomplishment, through awakening awareness. It enables you to create your work and life as a pathway for meaning and fulfillment, to create a present and a future where you are released to their own passion, to your ability to release others’ brilliance and passion, and to being productive, accomplished, and fulfilled.

In his book, Leadership is an Art, Max Depree says:

“Work should be and can be productive and rewarding, meaningful
and maturing, enriching and fulfilling, healing and joyful.
Work is one of our greatest privileges. Work can even be poetic.”

We can hear in our work with our client companies, a call for expanding “edge,” empowerment, and mastery through forwarding the development, growth, and fulfillment of human beings, connecting their passion with their work. The work environment is a domain that can contribute to every aspect of a human being’s life but is often not constituted to do so. We have seen, over and over, this profound call for inspiration in people’s personal and professional lives, particularly now, when it is clearer than ever that we live in a such a changing and uncertain environment.

The Heart of Leadership addresses that calling. It aims at awakening and engaging the vast resource that is the human spirit. From that awakening, participants are able to create changes in their personal and professional lives that generate breakthroughs in ease, fulfillment, accomplishment, and the experience of making a meaningful difference in the lives of others.

Through this program, you will find that the heart of your leadership lies within. Along with others, you will be a collaborator in awakening a culture in your workplace and in the other dimensions of your life of trust, inspiration, partnership, connection with others, accomplishment, success, creativity, and fulfillment.

Some of the key elements included are:

access to honest, authentic communication based in powerful listening
a deep access to compassion, for yourself and others
an ability to shed those aspects of your past that are limiting or constraining in the present
a profound respect and honor and regard for your own and others’ gifts and unique contribution
a new opening in your capacity to take risks and embrace mistakes
a deep connection with your own integrity; and access to forgiveness
the ability to fulfill intentions and accomplishments with ease and velocity through collaborative conversational pathways
the conversational keys for creating breakthroughs from breakdowns
an increased ability to forward and empower others to fulfill their intentions
being able to practice and master the art of accomplishment through communication
achieve a breakthrough in living from joy

What are the results of the program?

The Heart of Leadership opens up territory for people to connect with living life from a place of profundity, meaning, and inspiration as well as accomplish what they intend.

It leaves people causing a relationship with their work that has meaning and substance. It leads people to be able to create relationships with others that have heart and that allows for gracious and effective collaboration, including in the face of breakdowns, so that people are both successful and fulfilled.

Through this program, people have reshaped their work, their lives, their personal relationships, and their organizational environments into environments that are fulfilling and nurturing to human beings, in which people can thrive. Through this program, people have reshaped their cultures from:

No trust to trust
Listening reactively to listening creatively, responsively
Little communication or no communication to communication that works
No partnership to partnership, even in relationships where trust has been broken
Having barriers and walls between people to healing those barriers ongoingly
Control to acceptance, surrender, empowerment, ease
“Silo” thinking to creating possibility, opportunity and actions collaboratively
Longing for/ being dissatisfied about what you don’t have to being content with what you do have (and creating it)
Wishing, wanting, hoping, expecting to being at peace with what is

Appreciation, communication, gratefulness, integrity, and listening from the heart become your new home.

These shifts have allowed individuals, partners, and organizations to produce surprising, concrete, and extraordinary results. New freedoms, openings for action, and new outcomes are the outcome.

While most people would agree that leadership and management based in hierarchy, paternalism, and control are no longer viable, there are few schools educating people to be able to make a new kind of leadership – both in our work and in our private lives and families – operational. We suggest that to move forward into the next era will take a new kind of leadership: a leadership that is based in fulfilling one’s own life, releasing one’s self to one’s own heart, joy, wisdom, and soaring spirit. From there, one can take on being someone who releases others to fulfill the possibility that they are. We are not well trained in releasing our own and/or others’ brilliance. This program provides that training.

Who can participate?

Anyone who is interested in and willing to committedly and seriously explore questions that allow for an explosion in creativity and freedom, taking action on enriching their personal and work life with meaning, expanding their ability to create alignment and trust with others, and fulfilling their intentions with velocity.

Because the program enables your ability to break down walls and to create communication across functional areas and resolve alignment issues, you may wish to participate with other people, either personally or professionally, with whom you are actively engaged. This program is a potent and reliable resource for developing a greater level of unity and connectivity with others, for the present and the future. However, participating in it with others with whom you live or work, though useful, is certainly not critical or required.

How is it organized?

The program is delivered in two sections: the first is three days in a row, followed by two days approximately three or four weeks later. The first three days provide a breakthrough in authentic communication, completion, integrity, forgiveness, creating a meaningful future, a deep regard for one’s self and others, healing with others, and the distinctions for creating trust and partnership on an ongoing basis.

The second two days cover the conversational pathways for fulfilling intentions collaboratively, in an integrated way with others, and the keys to reliably creating breakthroughs from breakdowns. Participants report dramatic breakthroughs in their personal and professional lives from the first three days; many of the comments in the “Previous Participant’s Comments” section stem from people having participated in a workshop based solely in the distinctions of the first three days.

Particulars

The tuition for the program is $3,195.00

Registration opens March 1st, 2026

The dates are September 29–30, October 1, and October 22–23.

If you are interested in being in The Heart of Leadership in the Future, please contact us

Further information

If you have any questions about the program or this program’s applicability to you and/or your business, please call Amba Gale at (206) 842-2692 or Marianne Bastin at (253) 370-0095

WHEN TRUST IS RESTORED, RESULTS FOLLOW

The Heart of Leadership creates measurable change—because it transforms how people relate, listen, and lead. When trust is restored, teams can tell the truth, take on difficult issues, and move forward together.

A few voices from leaders who have lived the work:

A MAJOR REFRESH – AS A LEADER AND AS A HUMAN BEING

“I knew I was approaching a major refresh as a human being – and as a leader in my profession. By staying open to a new journey, exactly the right one showed up in Heart of Leadership. The program sparked some very real personal breakthroughs, helping me show up more fully for the people I care about and, importantly, for myself. I found a new kind of clarity about what I uniquely bring to a room, and it helped me offer those strengths in my work and my relationships – confidently. It also nudged me to finally set down the emotional baggage I’d been dragging around in a few relationships, which freed me up to focus on areas I could truly make a difference. What amazed me most was how naturally it strengthened trust, communication, and connection just by inviting us to be human and brave at the same time. It’s a heart‑forward, quietly courageous kind of program that manages to be tender, grounding, and catalytic all at once – the fuel I needed during a period of major professional and personal transition. I’d recommend it to any leader ready to step into their growth with curiosity, reflection, a bit of humor, and self‑trust.”

— Hilary Whittington, President, Pulse Heart Institute

ENTERPRISE RESULTS + EXTRAORDINARY ROI

“The enabled revenue dwarfs the money saved.”

“I would say your work not only saved hundreds of millions, but even more importantly, it was a critical difference that enabled us to create a worldwide organization that delivered an almost unheard of average of 56% compounded growth rate per year for 20 years… Your contribution helped us create an organization that successfully put cooperation above destructive competition when everything was calling for the latter… The enabled revenue dwarfs the money saved… It was truly extraordinary.”

— Greg Merten, former VP of HP Supplies Operations

What shifted inside the organization:
– “Because we work on trust, we are able to take on new levels of achievement.”
– “We are able to deal with difficult strategic issues proactively vs. reactively.”
– “Our competition is now productive vs. destructive.”
– “Our rate of learning is accelerating with every generation.”

LASTING CULTURE CHANGE

“A lasting impact on our company.”

“We started working with Amba back in 1996, and her programs have made a lasting impact on our company and for those who have attended. She brings out the best in people by creating an atmosphere of openness, respect, and appreciation. I would recommend The Heart of Leadership to anyone seeking a more purposeful life both personally and professionally.”

— Larry Nakata, CEO, Town & Country Markets

“A powerful Vision to guide us strategically into the future.”

“Amba’s contribution…has had a profound effect on people’s personal and professional lives. Thanks to Amba, the firm now has a powerful Vision to guide us strategically into the future… Partnerships have resulted throughout the company built on trust, respect, appreciation and meaningful communication.”

— Gerry Jones, CEO, Parametrix Engineering

DEEP RELATIONSHIPS + TRANSFORMATIONAL
LEADERSHIP

“The greatest gift I’ve given to myself—and my team.”

“Working with Amba has been both a personal and professional transformational journey. It is without a doubt, the greatest gift I have given to myself and to my team… It created openings for deeper and more meaningful relationships in all areas of my life… the tools I have acquired and developed have been game changers, life changers… HOL provided the missing links to how we as a company speak, act and live our values every day.”

— Mary Harrigan, Founder & CEO (Food Service Industry)

HEALTHCARE LEADERSHIP UNDER PRESSURE

“We ended with revitalized, passionate leaders.”

“The first meeting started with a group of weary and burned-out leaders and after the 5th day we ended with revitalized, passionate leaders who left with renewed energy to serve… we will find new pathways to get children the quality accessible care that our families desperately need.”

— Christine Bozich, MD, Medical Director, Mary Bridge Children’s Urgent Care Network

“This is a course that changes you.”

“It has been said that a good course leaves the learner with more knowledge but a great course changes you. This is a course that changes you.”

— Andrea Donalty, MD FAAP, Medical Director, Primary Care Network, Mary Bridge
Children’s Hospital & Health Network

EDUCATION / PUBLIC SECTOR IMPACT

“Significantly altered the overall level of satisfaction among all our employees.”

“Employees who participated… were more satisfied in key areas such as trust, belonging, appreciation, their ability to influence what happens… My observations confirm that the programs significantly altered the overall level of satisfaction among all our employees as a result of their participation.”

— Bruce Harter, Superintendent of Schools, Corvallis School District (Oregon)

PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION

“Forever changed.”

“Thank you… for making it possible for me to attend The Heart of Leadership… I stand for knowing that I am forever changed… You have helped me understand the cost of my insecurities and fears… Armed with a handful of techniques, I remain in gratitude to you and your gift.”

— Pamela Jordon, President and Head of School, Idyllwild Arts Academy