by Dr. Stacy Feiner
Gary Vaynerchuk walks the talk. On many stages, and in public view, he made a radical (not so radical) move away from command-and-control leadership to CARING leadership.
As his company, VaynerMedia, began to scale, Gary realized something deeply human: empathy doesn’t scale automatically. Empathy is nurtured and intrinsically creates a shared sense of belonging. Because people—no matter how talented—need to be seen, heard, and supported to thrive.
So he created a new executive role. Not a Chief Culture Officer. Not a Chief People Officer. A Chief Heart Officer—and Claude Silver stepped into it.
Gary has said the CHO expands the role of HR. It’s about putting emotional well-being and relational care at the very top of the organizational chart. It’s about scaling empathy as deliberately as you scale revenue. Claude’s role is to know the hearts of 1,500 people and create the conditions for them to feel safe, grow, and bring their full selves to work.
Gary and Claude don’t rely on Gallup reports to prove that purpose and productivity go hand-in-hand. They live it at the highest level—The Sixth Level, where humanity, connection, and justness promote performance.
This role embodies what we call the Sixth Level—where leadership departs from extractive norms and shifts toward a system that centers humanity, connection, and justness. It’s the ethic of care in action.
Claude listens deeply. She guides people through life transitions, conflict, and doubt. Not from a place of fixing, but of walking alongside. She’s not a therapist, she is a conduit for emotional well-being, belonging and care. She’s there to hold space, to remove fear, to create belonging. And Gary sees this as good business. He believes—and lives by the belief—that when people feel emotionally safe and supported, they perform better. They collaborate more, innovate more, and stay longer.
This is deliberately strategic. It’s structural. It’s scalable.
And yes, it’s soft too—a powerful word long misused to dismiss this human power.
This is where the future is, and where it is going.
In the words of Claude herself:
“This amazing book is full of heart and grounded in mindfulness. The Sixth Level is distinctive—it provides an honest critique of why we must move toward healthier relationships and more sustainable organizational culture. Along with new concepts and provocative questions, readers can consider for themselves how practicing the four core differentiators (mutuality, ingenuity, justness, and intrinsic motivation) will elevate their own leadership and the experience of their teams. The collection of narratives is compelling and shows us how to lead successfully at The Sixth Level.”
CLAUDE SILVER Chief Heart Officer, VaynerX, VaynerMedia
If you’re a guardian of culture in your organization—or you’re simply ready to lead in a way that honors people and performance equally—The Sixth Level Collaborative is here to guide your journey.
Join us in transforming leadership from the inside out. The ethic of care is relational sell-being in practice. And it’s reshaping the future of work.