The Ballet of Empathy
Stories about the power of human connection, the heartbreak of human connection, and the power of forgiveness. In The Ballet of Empathy: A Leadership is Love Podcast, Dr. Mark Rittenberg, Distinguished Teaching Fellow at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, explores what it means to lead through communication, presence, and relationship. Known for his Active Communicating methodology and decades of work with leaders and organizations around the world, Mark brings listeners into the real moments where leadership is tested: conflict, apology, forgiveness, culture change, and the decisions we make to stay in dialogue when it would be easier to withdraw. Each episode is built around stories from Dr. Rittenberg’s corporate life, academia, and global leadership work, paired with inspiring lessons on how to “show up and choose to be present,” practice the power of dialogue, and lead with empathy, honesty, and humanity. You will also hear the other side of leadership: the heartbreak of human connection, ghosting, and silence. The Ballet of Empathy is an invitation to commit an act of love through leadership: communicate, repair, and keep the conversation alive— and continue the dance of human connection.
Episodes
What happens to trust when power is used without empathy, and what does it take to rebuild it?
David, a longtime friend of Mark’s who, carrying his story privately since his youth, brings a deeply reflective perspective shaped by faith, compassion, and a lifelong commitment to treating others with kindness and respect. Through his experience of bullying, disbelief, and an authority figure who refused to hear his truth, the con...
The deepest lessons in leadership may come from people who never asked to be called leaders. Through stories of mothers whose sacrifice changed the lives of their children, Dr. Mark explores what empathy looks like when it becomes action: standing by someone, creating possibility from scarcity, offering forgiveness, and choosing human connection over fear. From a Department of Energy leader transformed after publicly honoring his m...
What happens when love is treated as too soft, too personal, or too uncomfortable for leadership? This shared recording comes from Dr. Mark Rittenberg’s interview with Amy Lynn Durham on the Create Magic at Work podcast. Together, they explore what ghosting, cancellation, and disconnection reveal about the way people avoid conflict, vulnerability, and responsibility in the workplace. Through stories of dialogue, forgiveness, ...
What happens when the most important moment of your day isn't the one you planned for? In a culture driven by speed, efficiency, and endless demands on our attention, it's easy to move through life treating people, conversations, and experiences as transactions. But some of the most meaningful moments arrive when we're forced to slow down and truly see the person in front of us.
Through a series of unforgettable stories, Dr. Mark re...
"To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded." - Bessie Schmidt
Some fractures happen slowly and throughout time. A canceled lunch. A missed call. A leader staring at another wave of layoffs wondering whether staying emotionally present is still worth the cost. What emerges here is not a conversation about fixing the world, but about refusing to disappear from it. Through stories spann...
“The significance of your life will be determined by what you do for others.” - Dr. Mark Rittenberg
Something breaks long before the job is gone. For many facing mass layoffs or sudden job loss, the belief that identity and worth are held inside a title is shattered. When that role disappears, we are left with a deep question: how do we reclaim our humanity?
In this conversation, Dr. Mark Rittenberg reflects on the emotio...
"What are you waiting for? We’re all in the departure lounge." — Dr. Mark Rittenberg
How do we lead in a world that feels broken? In this pilot episode of The Ballet of Empathy, Dr. Mark Rittenberg invites us to step out of our "comfort zone" and into the "stretch zone" to reclaim what it means to be a human being in leadership.
What unfolds is a reflection on the beauty and rupture of human connection, where love becomes...
A quiet question sits beneath the noise of modern life. When did inspiration give way to exhaustion? When did courage soften into silence?
In this opening invitation, Dr. Mark Rittenberg reflects on the moment people stop singing, stop gathering, and stop standing up for one another. The Ballet of Empathy begins as a call back to human connection and a reminder that leadership lives in presence, dialogue, forgiveness, and the courag...
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