The Role of Empathy in Leadership with Sarah Feely
Empathy is often described as a personal leadership quality.But in today’s workplace, it is increasingly becoming a critical driver of culture, trust, engagement, and organizational performance.
In this episode of The Bliss Business Podcast, we will welcome Sarah Feely, Chief Learning Officer of Compassionate Leaders Circle.
Sarah Feely is passionate about helping individuals discover their authentic selves and find meaning at work. As Chief Learning Officer at Compassionate Leaders Circle, she helps organizations align business strategy with people strategy through customized learning, coaching, and leadership development initiatives.
Sarah brings experience across executive coaching, organizational change, leadership development, recruiting, and talent advisory, with leadership roles at Korn Ferry, Hillstone Restaurant Group, and across multiple industries and organizations.
In The Role of Empathy in Leadership, we explore:
• Why empathy is becoming essential for modern leadership• How organizations can better align business strategy with people strategy• The connection between authenticity, culture, and leadership effectiveness• Lessons from leadership development, coaching, and organizational transformation• How compassionate leadership strengthens engagement and long-term growth
Hosted by Stephen Sakach and Tullio Siragusa
🎧 Produced by Martha Huerta
Leadership is not only about performance and results. It is also about creating environments where people feel seen, valued, and connected to meaningful work.
Chief Learning Officer
Sarah’s passion is to help individuals at all career levels discover their authentic selves and find meaning at work. She has earned a Master's of Science in Learning and Organizational Change from Northwestern University and is a certified executive and organizational coach.
As the Chief Learning Officer at CLC, Sarah's role is to help organizations align their business strategy to their people strategy, leveraging research, best practices, and our collective wisdom to develop customized learning and change solutions for individuals and organizations. She creates and delivers learning initiatives for one-to-one coaching, leadership retreats, and broad learning-and-development cohorts.
Before joining CLC, Sarah spent ten years in recruiting and talent advisory roles at Korn Ferry and Hillstone Restaurant Group. She joined Korn Ferry as a Senior Associate in the Consumer Practice she executed senior-level executive searches across the hospitality and consumer products sectors. Then, as a global Client Manager, she supported several of the firm’s largest Life Sciences clients across assessment and succession strategy, culture and digital transformation, and leadership development initiatives. Sarah began her career in restaurant operations with Hillstone Restaurant Group. Living in Miami, Napa, New York, and Los Angeles, she held several GM and HR roles with the company. A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Sarah now lives in Dallas with her husband and three young children.