The Human Side of Leadership - Hardcover

Most leadership books are written from the top of the mountain. This one is not.

The Human Side of Leadership grew out of a personal challenge: taking years of LinkedIn articles about leadership and turning them into something more permanent. What emerged is a book written from somewhere on the path, by someone still climbing.

Chris MacKinnon has spent nearly 30 years working in IT across multiple sectors and more than 33 years coaching hockey at a high level. In both worlds, he kept running into the same truth: the technology rarely matters as much as how you deliver it, and the game plan rarely matters as much as the people running it.

This book does not offer a framework. It does not promise a system. It is a collection of honest reflections on the moments that actually shape leaders: when to listen instead of respond, when accountability means holding yourself to the same standard, when empathy is the thing that gets the job done. Each chapter stands on its own and can be read as a conversation, not a guide.

The themes that surface most often are the ones that kept coming up in his own work: trust, empathy, humility, accountability, and the weight that words carry when you are in a position of influence. The examples are drawn from IT, education, and coaching, but the lessons are not confined to those spaces. Leadership shows up wherever people influence one another.

If you manage people, lead teams, or are trying to become the kind of leader you would actually want to work for, this book is for you.