If you are a champion of human-centered leadership and want to see your managers and people flourish, there are two ways to do it: 

1.  Join my growing Substack community for $8.00/month. https://marcelschwantes.substack.com/subscribe  

2. Book a call with me to explore partnership opportunities. https://calendly.com/marcelschwantes/discovery-call?month=2026-02 

Episode recap:

Marcel explores relational presence—the ability to make people feel seen, heard, and valued through focused attention. He explains that strong leaders listen before acting, ask clarifying questions, and stay emotionally available rather than rushing to fix problems. As AI and digital communication grow, these human relational skills will become even more important for building connection, trust, and healthy workplaces. Do you have relational intelligence? Find out by listening to this short solo episode with a globally respected leadership authority.  

Bio:

Marcel Schwantes is a leadership coach, speaker, author, and advocate for more humane workplaces. Marcel’s work includes: 

• Leadership coaching
• Leadership development courses
• Keynote speaking, workshops, and offsite retreats
• Executive roundtables and culture strategy sessions 

Marcel is the author of Humane Leadership: Lead with Radical Love, Be a Kick-Ass Boss. Whether coaching a CEO or training a leadership team, Marcel’s #1 goal is the same: To help leaders and the people they lead flourish as human beings.

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Show Notes

Quotes:

• You can have an open door policy and still be emotionally unavailable.
• Sometimes our desire to fix things actually prevents connection.
• The more technologically advanced our workplaces are becoming, the more valuable real human interactions may become.

Takeaways:

1. Availability isn’t presence. You can have an open door, a weekly one-on-one, and still be emotionally checked out. What people register is the quality of attention you bring, not how close your desk is.
2. Attention before action. Leaders default to fix-it mode, but jumping to advice skips the step that builds trust: ask one more question, then listen without drafting your reply while they’re still talking.
3. Relational intelligence is the differentiator. The deeper AI gets embedded in the workplace, the more valuable genuinely human moments become  and it starts with giving one person your full attention in one conversation this week.

Timestamps:

00:00 The Communication Paradox at Work
01:01 What Relational Presence Actually Means
02:36 Why Available Doesn’t Equal Present
03:27 The Sally One-on-One
04:50 Principle One: Attention Before Action
06:00 Principle Two: Emotional Availability
07:44 What Business Schools Get Wrong
08:20 Relational Intelligence in the Age of AI
09:00 The One-Conversation Challenge
09:37 Human Flourishing and Full Attention
11:04 Substack and Closing

Conclusion:

The tools keep multiplying, but the feeling of being unseen at work isn’t a technology problem it’s a presence problem. Marcel’s argument lands on something uncomfortable for most leaders: you can be available all day, three feet from someone, and still leave the room relationally. Fixing that doesn’t require a new framework or another training budget, just the discipline to hold your attention before your advice and enough emotional steadiness that people aren’t afraid to tell you the truth. As AI absorbs more of the analytical work, the ability to make another person feel known becomes less of a soft skill and more of a competitive one. Start with a single conversation this week, put the screens down, and see what someone tells you when they can finally sense you’re actually there.

The Book

Links/Resources: 

Substack: https://marcelschwantes.substack.com/  

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/marcelschwantes/    

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@MarcelSchwantes1  

Instagram: https://instagram.com/marcel.schwantes/ 

Now Accepting Podcast Sponsors

We would be delighted to accept your sponsorship for future episodes as we challenge current management thinking and practices and build skills around human leadership and human-centered work cultures. If interested, contact Marcel.