1142. A Day in the Life: What's It Really Like to Be a Human Development Leader?

“I was really always trying to do the best I could both for my clients and for the partners that I was reporting to. But one of the things I don’t think I really had until I took the Dale Carnegie course was empathy. It really helped me with human relations more than anything I had experienced in the past–understanding and feeling real empathy. When you’re in the practice of law, in many ways you are a solo performer, right? You’re going to court, you’re working on a legal brief, you’re doing research, you’re doing different things. Yes, there are other lawyers you work with, but it’s very independent and somewhat isolated.

“I went from that environment to a corporate environment, which was very team-based. So as a developer I was working and sitting around a table with people who were in charge of leasing and marketing and construction, and a whole range of other fields. There might be 10 people representing 10 different disciplines there at any one time.

“So now, all of a sudden, I had to really work with and engage people much differently. And that’s where the Dale Carnegie course was so important for me, because it really gave me the skills of listening intently, asking better questions, caring about other people and their feelings, maybe more than I did as an arrogant twenty-something lawyer who thought he knew it all. And I realized in taking the Dale Carnegie course that I didn’t know it all–far from it! And I really had a lot to learn from other people. The lessons I learned changed the course of my life.”

Joe Hart began his career as a practicing attorney. After taking a Dale Carnegie Course, he reassessed his career path and future, ultimately leaving the practice of law, going to work for a top real estate company, and then founding an innovative e-learning company called InfoAlly. After selling that business five years later, Joe became the president of Asset Health, a U.S.-based health and wellness company—all before becoming the President and CEO of Dale Carnegie in 2015. Founded in 1912, Dale Carnegie is a workplace training organization with operations in 75+ countries and delivers solutions in 29 languages.