Hi, I’m Hortense le Gentil

I'll Help You Break Free
from Your Mindtraps and Reach Your True Potential

"The Unlocked Leader" is a practical and impactful guide to identify and free yourself from the mind-traps that hold you back so that you can learn to lead with empathy and be the human leader your team needs you to be.

My mission is to empower leaders to embody authenticity, inspire meaningful change, and make a profound and lasting difference in the lives of people around them and the organizations they lead.

The Unlocked Leader will help you transcend limiting beliefs and achieve success          

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Mindtraps

How to identify the mental obstacles that stand between you and leadership authenticity, and sap your energy and impact.

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Mindshift

How to confront your fears and escape those traps by operating a mindshift.

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Mindbuild

Practical strategies to better connect with yourself and others - a mindbuild.

Hortense le Gentil at The New York Public Library

Praise for The Unlocked Leader

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Bill George
Author of True North; Emerging Leader Edition; executive fellow, Harvard Business School; former chair And CEO, Medtronic

“Hortense le Gentil’s breakthrough book will enable you to unlock your humanity to reach your full potential. With the brilliant combination of deep psychological insights and personal stories, she shows how to discover the traps holding you back, find your authentic voice, and become an empowering and empathetic leader. This book is a must-read for every aspiring leader!”

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Hubert Joly
Former Best Buy chairman and CEO, author of the Heart of Business, Senior lecturer at Harvard Business School

“In The Unlocked Leader, Hortense le Gentil invites us on a magical journey, one that can truly free us from what has been holding us back and help each of us become the amazing, inspiring, human leader that we can be. The Unlocked Leader is the essential companion to every leader who aspires to lead with purpose and humanity.”

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Corie Barry
CEO, Best Buy

“In The Unlocked Leader, Hortense pinpoints the critical and genuine role leaders play—and the skills they must develop—in unleashing a true people-focused purpose and clear direction within an organization. She offers genuine practices that we, as leaders, can all employ to be the very best and most resilient version of ourselves.”

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Dr. Marshall Goldsmith
New York Times bestselling author of The Earned Life, Triggers, and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

“Hortense has done it again! Teaching leaders to lead with heart, empathy, and authenticity, her latest book is the ultimate guide to becoming the leader your team and company need. Full of powerful stories, years of on-the-job wisdom, and profound research, The Unlocked Leader is guaranteed to help you start leading more effectively today.”

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Tony Marx
President and CEO, New York Public Library

“Hortense le Gentil both unique insights and inspiration for us to build more inclusive and emotionally informed collaborations and to lead based on genuine representations of our true selves.”

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Saugata Saha
President, S&P Global Commodity Insights

“The Unlocked Leader is the essential user guide for leaders looking to enhance their empathetic approach to leadership. With its three basic constructs—recognizing ‘mindtraps’, planning for ‘mindshifts,’ and executing ‘mindbuils’ — it’s a practical playbook, filled with rich examples, reflections, and thought-provoking ideas. Highly recommended.”

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Sarah Hirshland
CEO, US Olympic and Paralympic Committee

“The Unlocked Leader is a gift for all on the journey to becoming authentic, human leaders. It illustrates our common challenges through real stories and offers actionable tools to develop our own leadership. A practical how-to guide to one of leadership’s greatest challenges—knowing and being ourselves.”

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Sanyin Siang
Duke University Professor and Thinkers50 #1 Coach & Mentor

“Leaders must lead themselves first. In a world of exponential change, it’s easy to fall into mindtraps. Hortense le Gentil gives us a brilliant book that teaches us how to tap into our human leadership and unlock our true superpowers for inspiring, leading, and creating value.

Leaders, read this book today!”

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Ralph Lauren

“Hortense le Gentil writes the way she lives—authentically. The inspiration her new book provides about being a human leader speaks to me personally. For over fifty years I have tried to lead my company not as distant employees, but as a family seeking success through shared values. I have tried to lead through empathy, sharing values that respect each of us individuals. Hortense shared with us ways to unlock the humanity that makes not only leadership. But the way we live, authentic, real, and most of all—human.”

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Pau Gasol
President, Gasol Foundation; member, IOC Athletes' Commission; former professional basketball player; investor and activist in projects related to sports and well-being

“Hortense le Gentil draws on neuroscience, psychology, and real-life anecdotes to show the reader how to become the kind of leader most effective in today’s world: vulnerable, authentic, and empathetic. This book is useful for leaders at every level, from the top of an organization to those leading from within a team.”

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Michelle Gass
President, Levi Strauss & Co.

“In The Unlocked Leader, Hortense le Gentil takes us on a beautiful and soul-filled journey to find the authentic leader within —by challenging our mindsets, facing our fears, embracing vulnerability, and letting go of what no longer serves us. I will forever use her rope visualization technique in moments when I need it. Hortense’s book is deeply personal, insightful, and inspiring. Thank you for sharing this gift with all of us.”

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Garry Ridge
The Culture Coach; Chairman Emeritus, WD-40 Company

“An engaged workforce delivers results, or as Aristotle said, ‘pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.’ Hortense shares how, when your empathy eats your ego instead of your ego eating your empathy, you create cultures where people want to work, deliver great results, and go home happy. “

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Gail Miller
Owner, Larry H. Miller Company

“The Unlocked Leader is an insightful, thoughtful book for anyone aspiring to become a better leader in all areas of their life. It clearly explains how both the conscious and unconscious mind can be developed to improve relationships, cultivate leadership, and just plain expand one’s ability to interact with others on an elevated and comfortable level. I thoroughly enjoyed Hortense’s easy to understand and comprehensive guide”.

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Dr. Tasha Eurich
Organizational psychologist, New York Times bestselling author of Insight

“The Unlocked Leader will quickly become an essential guide for every leader who is keen to move past what is holding us back. It is a beautifully written, inspiring pathway to becoming the most beautiful, biggest version of ourselves.”

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Cindy R. Kent
COO, Everly Health

“The Unlocked Leader could not be better times, as our new reality and multiple global challenges are forcing us to reassess who we are and how we show up in the world. Thankfully, Hortense has created a brilliant road map to enables us to emerge on the other side of this journey as more effective leaders: more in tune with our emotions, more empathetic, and more . . . unlocked.”

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Chris Roberts
Executive vice president, EcoLab Inc.

“By using stories we can all relate to and introducing the simple but powerful mindtrap, mindshift, mindbuild framework, Hortense does a masterful job of guiding the reader through a process of reflection, resetting, and rejuvenation with a broader focus and purpose. An easy read and powerful tool for managers at all levels.”

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Chester Elton
Bestselling author of The Carrot Principle and Leading with Gratitude

“This book holds the key to unlocking the best leader in all of us. Told with a charming fable, there are practical takeaways in every chapter. This book will not just make you a better leader, it will make you a better person.”

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Ben Williams
CEO, Spencer Stuart

“The Unlocked Leader is a masterful blend of psychology and storytelling that provokes us to bring to the surface the old beliefs and norms that hold us back as leaders. This book offers a road map for moving beyond these “mindtraps” and unlocking the empathy and humility needed to be an effective leader in today’s context.”

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Arianna Huffington
Founder and CEO, Thrive Global

“Hortense le Gentil not only explains how our mindsets—often formed in childhood—can become mindtraps, she shows how to escape those traps to fulfill our true potential as leaders.”

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Rafa Oliveria
International zone president, The Kraft Heinz Company

“What kind of leader do you want to be? Through personal stories and a simple process of unlocking our mental traps, The Unlocked Leader is a must-read for anyone aspiring to inspire and empower their teams to give the best of themselves. Behavior, courage, empathy, emotions, human connection . . . this book has it all. It will help you look deeper into your soul, conquer your fears, and be the best version of yourself. Hortense has a unique way to help people connect their heart and soul to their mind. This book will make you a better leader. It will make you a better person.”

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