Mark C. Crowley was Senior Vice President at Washington Mutual, one of the country’s largest financial institutions where he led investment product sales nationwide. After leading his division to all-time record performance in 2008, he was named Leader of the Year.

A natural leader fresh out of college, Mark C. Crowley gave little conscious thought to his leadership practices. With little formal training on how to effectively motivate human performance in the workplace, he operated from instinct. And those instincts always seemed to work effectively elevating whichever team he was leading.

During the first decade of his career, Mr. Crowley built a track record of leading myriad teams to exceptional performance. In his mid-twenties, he successfully launched and managed one of the banking industry’s first direct response centers. Immediately after, he led sales management at one of the nation’s largest thrifts.

Regardless of his assignment, it became evident that his intuition-based leadership practices consistently inspired employees to uncommon engagement, commitment and achievement.

Upon closer examination, Mr. Crowley came to realize that certain childhood experiences had influenced him to be more sensitive to the needs of employees and, specifically, what would help them thrive and excel. And workers scaled mountains for him simply because they could feel he was someone who genuinely cared about them, and made consistent and varied efforts to express that to them directly.

Tied to his own 25 years of leadership experience, and supported by remarkable new research and scientific discoveries, Mr. Crowley has proved that leadership which acknowledges the humanity – the hearts – of workers is a truly transformational and abundant model.

Translating what he learned to do instinctively, he shows us the practices of leading from the heart – and how to become an exceptional leader in the 21st century.

Mark C. Crowley is a graduate of the University of California, San Diego, in addition to the Pacific Coast Banking School at the University of Washington. He holds five investment securities licenses (Finra Registrations) and also is a licensed California Real Estate Broker.

Born and raised in Garden City, New York, he now lives in La Jolla, California with his wife and son. He’s a devoted fan of Van Morrison, great books and the San Diego Padres.