They first met at Thinkers50 in London — a moment that became a living example of inclusion in action — and that spirit carries through this wide-ranging, honest conversation about what inclusive leadership really requires when things get uncomfortable.

This is not a conversation about slogans, policies, or box-ticking. It’s about power, privilege, maturity, and the inner work leaders must do if inclusion is going to move from intention to impact.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• Why diversity is inevitable — but inclusion is not
• How well-meaning leaders unintentionally undermine inclusion through everyday behaviour
• The difference between being invited to the party and actually feeling able to dance
• Why inclusion is as much an inner journey as a societal one
• How privilege shifts with context — and why awareness matters more than guilt
• The paradox of inclusive leadership and the loneliness many leaders experience
• Why exclusion is easier to spot than inclusion — and how that awareness becomes a choice
• How curiosity, discomfort, and humility shape the contemporary leader

This episode is for leaders who genuinely want to build cultures where people feel seen, heard, and valued — not because it’s fashionable, but because it’s essential for performance, resilience, and humanity.

If inclusion feels complicated, uncomfortable, or even threatening at times — you’re not alone. This conversation helps name why.

📘 Learn more

• The Contemporary Leader (Wiley)
• Connect with Dr. Riza Kadilar on LinkedIn

In this People First! episode, I’m joined by Peggy Kendall, researcher, professor of communication studies, and co-author of Trust at a Distance: Six Strategies for Managing Remote Workplaces. Peggy has been studying the impact of technology on communication since the days of MySpace, and her insights couldn’t be more relevant for today’s leaders.

Together, we unpack what actually builds trust when teams are dispersed — and what quietly erodes it.

In this conversation, we explore:

• Why trust takes longer to build online — but can be stronger when done well
• The hidden cost of leaders saying “let me know if you have questions”
• How assumptions, silence, and multitasking quietly damage psychological safety
• The six strategies leaders must use to build trust at a distance: Amplify communication; Clarify direction; Build predictability; Redefine accountability; Create connection; Leverage in-person experiences.
• Why predictable check-ins matter more than long meetings
• How proximity bias hurts remote employees — often without leaders realizing it
• Why hybrid work can increase inclusion, confidence, and access when led intentionally

If you’re leading a remote or hybrid team — or working in one — this episode will challenge some assumptions and give you practical, research-backed ways to strengthen trust, connection, and performance.

📘 Learn more about Peggy Kendall & the book:

Trust at a Distance — available on Amazon

Website: PeggyKendall.com

Trust Edge Leadership Institute (David Horsager)

Laura spent nearly a decade earning silver and bronze medals before finally breaking through to gold. The difference wasn’t talent, discipline, or sheer force of will — it was support. And that insight now shapes everything she teaches leaders about emotional regulation, safety, team connection, and why going it alone is the fastest way to underperform.

This episode challenges the myth of the heroic, solo leader and instead focuses on how grounded, emotionally aware leaders create trust, stability, and results.

What we explore:

• Why leaders sabotage themselves by trying to do everything alone
• How fear shuts down creativity, collaboration, and innovation — often silently
• The real meaning of resilience (hint: it’s not about powering through)
• Somatic tools leaders can use to regulate emotion in real time
• The “pause point” that separates reaction from response
• Why calm leadership spreads calm — and panic spreads chaos
• How to build the support networks leaders actually need
• Why labels and old identities (the “brilliant jerk,” the “tough one,” the “world champion”) eventually stop serving us
• How to step into authentic power without posturing or perfection

If you’re navigating tough conversations, overloaded teams, persistent stress, or a culture where fear is doing more damage than anyone admits, this one offers a practical path forward.

📌 Connect with Laura:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurayarmstrong/

TalkWithLaura.com

In this episode of People First!, I’m joined by Lt. General (Ret.) Karen Gibson, a leader who has guided teams through war zones, national emergencies, hurricanes, cybersecurity crises, and the aftermath of January 6 - experiences most of us hope will never appear on our calendars.

Karen is living proof that no amount of technology or process ever replaces the fundamentals: clarity, steadiness, humanity, and the courage to act before you have the full picture.

We explore:
 • The moment she realized leadership is always a human endeavor
• Why timing and triage matter more than certainty
• What most leaders get wrong about communication in crisis
• The emotional toll teams experience after a major event
• The practical skills leaders can build before the next “front-page moment” hits

Her stories are gripping. Her lessons are generous. And her message is one every leader in today’s unpredictable world needs to hear.

They discuss why how you lead matters more than what you accomplish, the role of identity and integrity in effective leadership, and how to stay grounded in a world shaped by technology and AI.

In this episode, you'll learn:

1. Why “start with who” might matter more than “start with why”
2. The link between integrity, trust, and authentic leadership
3. Lessons from Preston’s 30-year corporate career
4. How faith, values, and self-awareness shape long-term success

Perfect for leaders, managers, and professionals seeking practical insights on character, connection, and culture in the modern workplace.

Learn More:

https://prestonpoore.com/

We dig into the uncomfortable truth:
We’re more digitally connected than at any time in human history…
…and yet more lonely, isolated, anxious, and burnt out than ever before.

Michelle calls it a “crisis of disconnection” — one backed by global research, neuroscience, and the devastating health data shared by U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy.

In this episode we explore:

• Why connection is a biological need — as essential as food and water
• How hybrid work, AI, and phone addiction are accelerating a global loneliness epidemic
• The seven seismic shifts leaders must make — starting with shifting from what to who
• Why productivity without connection creates emptiness (Michelle’s newest mic-drop quote)
• How the calendar has become the biggest predictor of well-being
• The difference between communication and true connection
• Why leaders must intentionally design moments — not just meetings
• The wake-up call Michelle experienced when her daughter came home and said, “Mom, I haven’t seen you.”

If you’re feeling stretched thin, disconnected, or suspicious that the “new normal” doesn’t feel normal at all… this episode will give you grounding and a path forward.

Learn more:
michellekjohnston.com
The Seismic Shift in You now available everywhere books are sold.

In this episode, he breaks down why wellbeing drives performance, why engagement surveys failed, and what leaders must do now.

⭐ What we cover:

• The emotional roots of human motivation — and why “thinking” has far less to do with performance than we assume
• Why engagement scores didn’t budge for a decade, despite billions spent on them
• The simple, actionable wellbeing questions that uncover what actually improves performance
• The #1 driver of wellbeing — belonging — and why people quit teams, not companies
• How fear shuts down trust, innovation, and contribution
• What leaders get wrong about caring (“love your people” is not soft — it’s science)
• How to ask for honest feedback when your employees want to tell you you’re great (even when you aren’t)
• Why every leader must answer the question: Do your people feel they matter here?

Mark’s message is blunt but hopeful: wellbeing is not a perk — it’s a performance strategy.
And you don’t need a company-wide initiative to start changing outcomes. You can start today.

📗 Learn more about Mark:
Website: markccrowley.com
LinkedIn: Mark C. Crowley
Books: The Power of Employee Wellbeing and Lead from the Heart

In this week’s People First! episode, I sit down with Andrea Wanerstrand, a leadership strategist and founder of A3 Culture Lab, who helps leaders shift from burnout to bold influence.

We talk about:
 💭 The three brains you bring to every conversation
⚡ Why awareness isn’t enough — and what to do with it
💬 How to show up with intention, even on the tough days

Andrea’s insights blend neuroscience, emotional intelligence, and practical leadership wisdom in a way that makes you stop and think about how you feel at work — and how others feel around you.

🎙️ Tune in to hear how to reset your mindset, regulate your energy, and lead with authenticity.

Learn more about Andrea:
Website: https://a3culturelab.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreawanerstrand/

In this conversation, Alaina opens up about the decade-long journey of writing her new book, the courage it took to tell deeply personal stories, and the practical framework she developed—the Ten Passion Archetypes—that helps us understand what truly drives us.

🔑 4 Key Takeaways You Won’t Want to Miss:

02:30 — Permission Starts with You
After ten years and a few false starts, Alaina realized she needed to stop writing the book others expected—and instead write the one she was meant to create. The result? A deeply personal and universal guide to living a flourishing life.

06:00 — Purpose Is Personal, Not Prescribed
Building on her earlier work The Purpose Linked Organization, Alaina turns inward—helping readers discover their unique passions and how they can navigate life’s pivotal moments with greater self-understanding and resilience.

14:00 — Discovering Your Passion Archetypes
From the Creator and Connector to the Healer, Transformer, and Builder, Alaina introduces ten archetypes that shape our motivations and strengths. Understanding your top three, she says, helps you find your flow—and your right environment for thriving.

19:00 — Nothing to Fix, Only to Embrace
Unlike many personality tools, Alaina’s model isn’t about deficits—it’s about self-acceptance. “Your passions are your passions,” she says. “They’re your natural colors. You don’t need to fix who you are—just understand and honor it.”

💡 This Episode Is for:

Leaders, professionals, and anyone ready to stop living by others’ scripts and start leading—and living—from their authentic purpose and passions.

🔗 Where to Learn More:

• Permission to Be You — Available now in print, ebook, and audiobook
• PermissionToBeYouBook.com — Free toolkit and self-reflection resources
• ThePurposeLink.com — Alaina’s corporate consulting and leadership development work
• Connect with Alaina Love on LinkedIn

Blending neuroscience, behavioral science, and coaching wisdom, Jeffrey and Margaret reveal how to lead consciously, connect deeply, and transform not only your team but yourself.

🔑 4 Key Takeaways You Won’t Want to Miss:

05:30 — Why Nine? The Map of Modern Leadership
After analyzing over 15,000 research papers, Jeffrey and Margaret identified nine interconnected capacities—from consciousness and authenticity to compassion and transformation—that together form a holistic framework for lifelong leadership growth.

10:45 — The Roots of Leadership: Self Before System
Leadership starts within. The first three capacities—Conscious, Authentic, and Agile Leadership—build the foundation for everything else by developing awareness, aligning values, and cultivating flexibility in thought, emotion, and action.

14:30 — From Self to Others: Relational, Positive & Compassionate Leadership
Great leaders create connection and safety. Jeffrey and Margaret explore how empathy evolves into compassion—an active care for others and the systems they inhabit—and why true influence begins with resonance, not control.

18:40 — The Power of Shared, Servant, and Transformational Leadership
The final three capacities challenge hierarchy and ego. Sharing leadership, serving others, and pursuing transformation require humility, courage, and an ever-evolving mindset. As Margaret says, “Transformation isn’t finding yourself—it’s expanding yourself.”

💡 This Episode Is for:
Leaders at every level—from emerging managers to seasoned executives—who want to integrate science-backed practices with self-awareness, compassion, and purpose to elevate their leadership impact.

🔗 Where to Learn More:

• The Science of Leadership: Nine Ways to Expand Your Impact — Available now
• InstituteofCoaching.org — Research, tools, and certification programs
• Connect with Dr. Jeffrey Hull and Margaret Moore on LinkedIn

With personal candor, Margaret shares how one difficult piece of feedback became the catalyst for her research, her Harvard course, and ultimately her book—reminding us that the best leaders are always managing themselves first.

🔑 4 Key Takeaways You Won’t Want to Miss:

03:00 — Trust Is Built in Nanoseconds
Trust isn’t earned in years—it’s built (and broken) in moments. Margaret explains why “do what you say, say what you do” remains the ultimate leadership rule.

07:00 — Self-Awareness Starts with Honesty
A painful but pivotal career moment taught Margaret that understanding herself was the first step to leading others. Awareness of how we impact people—and curiosity about how they experience us—is where leadership transformation begins.

13:00 — Aggressive Self-Rescue: Bouncing Back from Setbacks
Borrowing from white-water rafting safety lessons, Margaret shares her philosophy of “aggressive self-rescue” for career challenges: pause, process, then act intentionally.

16:00 — Emotions Aren’t Soft—They’re Strategic
Emotional intelligence, or “relationship skills,” isn’t optional. Margaret emphasizes that reading the room, owning your emotional state, and recognizing others’ cues are what distinguish leaders people actually want to follow.

💡 This Episode Is for:
Emerging and experienced leaders ready to deepen self-awareness, build trust faster, recover from career missteps, and lead with humanity in hybrid workplaces.

🔗 Where to Learn More:

• Manage Yourself to Lead Others — Available now
• MargaretAndrews.com — Resources and leadership insights
• Connect with Margaret C. Andrews on LinkedIn

From his early consulting days to his latest book, David explains why authentic values alignment—not just technical expertise—is the key to building resilient, high-performing teams.

🔑 4 Key Takeaways You Won’t Want to Miss:

03:00 — Relationships Drive Everything
David shares how a single relationship—built over 30 years ago—opened doors, sustained his career, and underscores why lasting success is built on trust, respect, and connection.

08:00 — Hire for Values, Not Just Skills
Knowledge and skills are teachable, but values-driven behavior determines whether someone will fit, flourish, and stay. Hiring without considering values is one of the fastest paths to disengagement and turnover.

12:00 — The Integrity Trap
Why “integrity” isn’t really a value—it’s the sum total of living your values. When organizations plaster it on walls but don’t live it, cynicism and distrust follow.

17:00 — How to Ask Better Interview Questions
David explains why ambiguous, behavioral questions (“Tell me about a time…”) reveal far more than canned Q&A—and how silence can be a powerful tool in uncovering authentic stories.

💡 This Episode Is for:

Leaders, recruiters, HR professionals, and job seekers who want to understand how values shape hiring, retention, and long-term success.

🔗 Where to Learn More:

• Selecting the Best — Available now on Amazon
• SAGltd.com
   — David’s consulting firm
• Connect with David Cohen (David S. Cohen) on LinkedIn

With humor, candor, and science-backed insights, Rosie reveals why embracing our messy humanity is the key to thriving in times of disruption.

🔑 4 Key Takeaways You Won’t Want to Miss:

04:00 — We’re Wired for Connection, Yet More Disconnected Than Ever

Despite being biologically hardwired for relationships, technology, faulty programming, and disruption have left us lonelier than ever. Rosie explains why feeling seen and heard is as essential as food and water.

10:30 — Faulty Programs That Hold Us Back

From the Overachiever to the Martyr, Perfectionist, People Pleaser, and more—Rosie unpacks the seven faulty programs that sabotage us and how to start upgrading them.

18:00 — Inner Game vs. Outer Game

Why training alone doesn’t stick unless we first update our “inner operating system.” Self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and narrative rewiring are the foundations for lasting leadership change.

24:00 — The 3x3x3 Challenge to Build Connection

A simple daily practice: take three minutes to reach out to three people for three months. This small act of showing up for others strengthens relationships and boosts wellbeing.

💡 This Episode Is for:

Leaders, change agents, and anyone tired of hustling and “doing it all” who wants to show up authentically, break free of head trash, and rehumanize work and life.

🔗 Where to Learn More:

• SalveoPartners.com — Rosie’s company site with resources and white papers
• DrRosieWard.com — blog, podcast, and book info
• Connect with Dr. Rosie Ward on LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube

With over 25 years of experience in leadership, Jonathan shares how inclusion is not a “program” but a daily practice—and why creating cultures of belonging is both a moral imperative and a business advantage.

🔑 4 Key Takeaways You Won’t Want to Miss:

02:00 — Relationships Are the Legacy That Lasts
Jonathan reflects on how mentors, colleagues, and friendships are the true markers of success—long after projects and titles are forgotten.

06:00 — Inclusion Before Diversity
Using the “home” metaphor, Jonathan explains why focusing on inclusion first ensures that diverse hires don’t walk out the back door—and how belonging fuels retention and performance.

13:00 — Dropping Pebbles to Create Ripples
Inclusive leadership doesn’t require grand gestures. Jonathan shares how small, daily actions—like stopping interruptions in meetings or pressing “pause” on microaggressions—create ripples that shift culture over time.

20:00 — From Gap Analysis to Real Change
Why throwing programs at the wall isn’t enough. Jonathan outlines how assessing culture, listening to marginalized voices, and cutting data by intersectionality lead to meaningful strategies for equity and belonging.

💡 This Episode Is for:

Leaders, HR professionals, and changemakers who want to move beyond well-intentioned diversity statements and instead create tangible, lasting cultures of belonging.

🔗 Where to Learn More:

• Daily Practices of Inclusive Leaders by Jonathan Stutz & Eddie Pate
• InclusivePebbles.com — resources, videos, and tools
• GlobalDiversityPartners.net — Jonathan’s consulting practice
• Connect with Jonathan Stutz on LinkedIn

From the concept of “ambition disruption” to embracing intentional “fallow periods,” Meredith shares practical tools for reframing setbacks as opportunities for growth.

🔑 4 Key Takeaways You Won’t Want to Miss:

03:00 — The Power of Lifting Others Up

Meredith reflects on the military-inspired mindset of training others to do your job—and how removing competition builds stronger teams, deeper trust, and mutual success.

07:30 — What Is Ambition Disruption?

Learn how career ceilings, missed promotions, personal loss, or major industry changes can trigger “life quakes”—and why recognizing them is the first step toward intentional growth.

10:00 — Embracing the Fallow Period

Meredith explains how to use transitional periods to rest, reassess, and explore new goals. This pause isn’t inactivity—it’s purposeful cultivation of what comes next.

16:30 — Evolving Forward vs. Bouncing Back

Through her Resilient Ambition Framework, Meredith outlines how to gain clarity, build emotional resilience, and realign ambitions—so you don’t just return to “business as usual” but adapt for a more fulfilling path.

💡 This Episode Is for:

Leaders, changemakers, and high performers navigating disruption who want to turn uncertainty into a launchpad for intentional, sustainable growth.

🔗 Where to Learn More:

• Thriving at Water’s Edge
• Connect with Meredith Waters on LinkedIn
• Follow Thriving at Water’s Edge on Facebook and LinkedIn

In this conversation, Jeanine introduces her new book Live Your Opus: Reclaim Your Energy, Redefine Success, and Create a Life That Truly Matters, written for high-achieving professionals who may look successful on the outside, but feel misaligned or depleted within.

🔑 4 Key Takeaways You Won’t Want to Miss:

03:45 — Burnout Is Not a Weakness
After hitting a personal wall following the sudden loss of her mother and relentless corporate demands, Jeanine reframes burnout as a moment of awakening—not failure—and explains how we can learn from it before hitting the edge.

08:40 — High Achievement ≠ High Performance
What separates Olympic athletes from overworked professionals? Energy management. Jeanine explains why working harder doesn’t always lead to better results—and how to build recovery, alignment, and endurance into your ambition.

13:00 — Your Energy Is Your Power
Jeanine introduces the Opus 8 Energy System and the three anchoring pillars: Stability, Alignment, and Endurance. These are not abstract ideas, but practical pathways to lead from a place of vitality and intention.

21:00 — You Are Your Greatest Work
Forget the titles and accolades. Jeanine urges us to reclaim authorship of our stories, own our voices, and treat our lives as the most meaningful masterpiece we’ll ever create—our opus.

💡 This Episode Is for:
Leaders, founders, executives, and ambitious professionals feeling the toll of success and wondering: “Is this it?” If you’re ready to shift from depletion to purpose, this conversation is your call to action.

🔗 Where to Learn More:

• Live Your Opus — Available Fall 2025
• Connect with Jeanine Matho on LinkedIn
• Stay tuned for pre-order links and updates through Jeanine’s professional channels

In a world where workplace disconnection is at an all-time high, Bobbi’s insights are a timely reminder that relationships are not just a “nice to have”—they’re a business imperative.

🔑 4 Key Takeaways You Won’t Want to Miss:

03:00 — The Power of One Person

Dr. Lee, Bobbi’s college professor, sparked a lifelong journey into health psychology and human connection. This reminder: small encouragements can have ripple effects that last decades.

07:45 — What GROOOPS Gets Right About Work

Bobbi explains how her company, GROOPS, equips psychologists to support leaders in real-time with scalable, low-cost coaching—anchored in human connection and real science.

10:00 — Cohesion = Connection + Performance

Why psychological safety and team cohesion matter more than ever. Bobbi shares stats and strategies proving that relational health isn’t just about morale—it’s directly tied to profit, retention, and innovation.

14:00 — Coaching > Commanding

Using the ORS framework from motivational interviewing, leaders can build trust and autonomy by asking better questions, affirming effort, and reflecting back understanding—without adding more to their plate.

💡 This Episode Is for:

Team leaders, HR professionals, educators, and forward-thinking executives who want to stop managing tasks and start cultivating thriving cultures.

🔗 Where to Learn More:

• joinGROOPS.com — Bobbi’s company offering psychology-driven coaching at scale
• DrBobbiWegner.com
• Harvard Graduate School of Education & Extension School Programs
• Connect with Bobbi on LinkedIn

From lessons learned in Microsoft’s high-stakes executive suites to real-world tools for becoming a better boss (without burning out), Sabina shares insight with warmth, clarity, and actionable wisdom.

🔑 4 Key Takeaways You Won’t Want to Miss:

02:58 — The Generosity Effect: Channel Your Inner Jane

Sabina honors her former colleague Jane, whose abundant generosity left a permanent mark on her leadership style—and reminds us all to show up with presence and practical kindness, even across silos.

05:30 — It’s Not Power That Corrupts—It’s Pressure

Sabina breaks down how even well-meaning leaders shift into bad boss behaviors when pressure spikes—and why being self-aware, especially about tone and body language, is crucial as you gain more influence.

11:00 — When Good Bosses Go Rogue

In a raw story of her own, Sabina recalls the jarring moment she learned her team feared her after returning from parental leave—and how unchecked pressure warped her leadership. Her turnaround offers a candid playbook for course-correcting with humility.

17:00 — Micro-Habits, Major Change

Forget the silver bullet. Sabina advocates starting small—like being the third to speak in a meeting or shutting your laptop five minutes earlier. These micro-habits can compound into powerful shifts in behavior, perception, and trust.

💡 This Episode Is for:

Leaders in transition, newly promoted managers, and high performers who want to grow their leadership without losing themselves—or their teams—in the process.

🔗 Where to Learn More:

• SabinaNawaz.com – Book resources, tools, and Sabina’s newsletter PressureProof
• You Are the Boss — Available wherever books are sold
• Connect with Sabina on LinkedIn

From her early mentors to her current work co-authoring two major leadership books (yes, two!), Suzie brings clarity, humility, and real-world wisdom to the conversation.

🔑 4 Key Takeaways You Won’t Want to Miss:

02:00 — Opening Doors and Paying It Forward
Suzie reflects on two people who shaped her leadership journey.

06:00 — Leadership Is Task-Based, Not One-Size-Fits-All
Situational Leadership teaches leaders to flex their style depending on the specific task at hand and the individual’s readiness. Suzie explains the model with clarity, emphasizing how behaviors—not job titles—drive performance success.

13:00 — Why Situational Leadership Still Matters (50 Years On)
Suzie shares how the model has stood the test of time because it’s simple, behavioral, and rooted in human connection. Its relevance today is even stronger as organizations grapple with change, disengagement, and the demand for more personalized leadership.

21:00 — Coaching vs. Managing: What Power Looks Like in Practice
Suzie explores how the same leadership model functions differently in executive coaching versus management—highlighting key nuances in trust, expertise, and legitimate power.

💡 This Episode Is for:
Leaders, coaches, HR professionals, and anyone looking to lead with greater self-awareness, relationship savvy, and adaptability in times of change.

🔗 Where to Learn More:

• Suzie Bishop on LinkedIn
• Situational.com
• Center for Leadership Studies updates on LinkedIn

With stories ranging from riding a horse in a suit of armor through Times Square to redefining what it means to coach a team, this episode is packed with insight, heart, and humor.

🔑 4 Key Takeaways You Won’t Want to Miss:

02:18 — Vulnerability in Action: Yes, Garry really rode a horse through Times Square. But more importantly, he explains how showing up authentically—even making a spectacle of yourself—can build connection and trust within your team.

06:37 — Dumb Assery as a Superpower: Why the phrase “I don’t know” is one of the most powerful leadership tools—and how embracing your inner “dumb ass” can unlock collective brilliance.

08:52 — From Mistakes to Learning Moments: WD-40’s culture pivoted when they replaced the word “failure” with “learning moments”—creating psychological safety and sparking innovation company-wide.

12:49 — From Boss to Coach: What happens when you ditch the word “manager” and start coaching your people to play their best game? Garry shares how that mindset changed everything at WD-40.

💡 This Episode Is for:

Leaders, HR professionals, and anyone looking to lead with more empathy, humility, and results.

🔗 Where to Learn More:

• Take the Dumb Assery Quiz and get your free leadership playbook at: www.thelearningmoment.net
• Join Garry’s “School of Dumb Assery” on LinkedIn
• And check out his best-selling book: Any Dumb Ass Can Do It

Here are some key takeaways you won’t want to miss:

07:45 – Navigating change with confidence by recognizing and addressing your emotions.
12:30 – The DARE framework: A practical tool for breaking free from the stress spiral.
18:10 – The impact of hiding, suppressing, and faking emotions at work, and how to handle toxic positivity.
23:50 – The connection between emotions and bodily sensations, and how awareness can help manage emotions effectively.

Connect with Dina Smith: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dina-denham-smith

And... don’t forget to check out our book! You, Me, We: Why We All Need a Friend at Work (and How to Show Up As One!) The hardcover is available now! This book is a heartfelt guide for leaders looking to build deep, meaningful relationships at work, which are the cornerstone of personal and professional success.

Get your copy here: https://amzn.to/3NrQulV

Here are some key takeaways you won’t want to miss:

• 03:00 From Pediatric Dreams to Culture Transformation: How Dr. Joey’s early fascination with medicine evolved into a passion for helping organizations create thriving workplaces.
• 07:00 What Is a Work-Positive Culture?: Dr. Joey breaks down the five essential practices that help companies grow people and profits.
• 10:00 The Power of Mindset: How our thoughts shape our workplace experiences and why leaders must actively guide their teams toward a positive outlook.
• 14:00 The Role of Relationships in Workplace Culture: Why choosing the right people to collaborate with has a direct impact on success.
• 18:00 Small Hinges Swing Big Doors: Dr. Joey explains how small, intentional actions can lead to massive shifts in culture, innovation, and productivity.
• 22:00 The Secret to Belonging at Work: How leaders can foster an environment where employees feel valued, connected, and empowered to do their best work.

This episode is filled with practical strategies and deep insights for leaders and teams looking to transform their workplace culture. Dr. Joey’s wisdom will challenge the way you think about work and inspire you to take action.

Where to Find Dr. Joey Faucette and Learn More:

Visit www.workpositive.today to explore Dr. Joey’s resources, courses, and books.
Connect with him on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/drjoeyfaucette/
Follow Work Positive on Instagram: @workpositive.today
Watch insights on YouTube: @workpositive7529

And... don’t forget to check out our book! You, Me, We: Why We All Need a Friend at Work (and How to Show Up As One!) The hardcover is available now! This book is a heartfelt guide for leaders looking to build deep, meaningful relationships at work, which are the cornerstone of personal and professional success.

Get your copy here: https://amzn.to/3NrQulV

Here are some key takeaways you won’t want to miss:

• 02:00 From Maple Syrup to People-First Leadership: How managing his family’s farm in Canada shaped Dave’s passion for hiring and team-building.
• 05:00 Creating a Relationship-First Culture: Dave shares how businesses can shift from transactional leadership to a people-first mindset.
• 08:00 Transparency in Leadership: Why showing vulnerability at work fosters trust and stronger teams.
• 12:00 Hiring for Culture Fit: Dave explains why character and values matter just as much—if not more—than skills in the hiring process.
• 15:00 Healthy Turnover: How leaders can embrace employee transitions, support their career growth, and maintain strong alumni relationships.
• 21:00 Work That Feeds Families: The mission behind Better Together Group and how Dave’s journey fuels his drive to help blue-collar workers find fulfilling jobs.

This episode is packed with wisdom for leaders, business owners, and HR professionals looking to build stronger teams and create a culture where people thrive.

Where to Find Dave MacDonald and Learn More:

Visit BetterTogetherGroup.com for insights on hiring and workforce development.

Listen to Dave’s podcast, X2Z, where he and his daughter, Hannah, discuss leadership, hiring, and workplace culture: XtoZ.org

And... don’t forget to check out our book!

You, Me, We: Why We All Need a Friend at Work (and How to Show Up As One!) The hardcover is available now! This book is a heartfelt guide for leaders looking to build deep, meaningful relationships at work, which are the cornerstone of personal and professional success.

Get your copy here:

https://amzn.to/3NrQulV

Here are some key takeaways you won’t want to miss:

• 02:00 The Power of Possibility: Mindy shares how she helps people shift from “I can’t” to “I can” and why that fuels her passion for leadership and HR.
• 07:00 The Unexpected Journey: How a hiring manager took a chance on Mindy, pulling her from the “do not hire” bin and setting her on a leadership path.
• 10:00 Culture Meets Revenue: Mindy explains why organizations must connect people strategy with business success and how HR leaders can drive that change.
• 14:00 Trust and Turnover: The hidden costs of a disengaged workforce and how fostering a culture of trust leads to better retention and customer success.
• 20:00 Making One-on-Ones Meaningful: Mindy shares how leaders can transform one-on-one meetings into a tool for engagement, accountability, and business impact.
• 23:00 Entrepreneurial Lessons: From corporate HR to running her own business, Mindy reveals what she’s learned about leadership, risk-taking, and growth.
• This episode is packed with insights for HR professionals, leaders, and entrepreneurs looking to build stronger workplace cultures while driving business success.

Where to Find Mindy Honcoop and Learn More:

Visit www.agileinhr.com and www.mindyhoncoop.com for resources on aligning culture with revenue.
Connect with Mindy on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mindyhoncoop/

Here are some key takeaways you won’t want to miss:

• 04:00 The Art of Storytelling: Insights from Stephen’s experience in journalism and broadcast production on how to craft and deliver compelling stories.
• 06:00 The Audiobook Process: What authors should know before stepping into the recording booth, including the importance of preparation and reading their work aloud.
• 10:00 The Power of Deep Listening: Stephen explains how he listens beyond the words—catching background noise, pacing, and breathing patterns to enhance an audiobook’s quality.
• 19:00 Practical Listening Tips: Stephen offers valuable insights for leaders on how to cultivate deep, intentional listening in their work and daily interactions.

This episode is a must-listen for authors, leaders, and anyone looking to refine their communication and storytelling skills. Stephen’s expertise and passion for helping others shine through in every aspect of his work.

Where to Find Stephen George and Learn More About Twin Flames Studios:

Visit www.TwinFlamesStudios.com to explore their audiobook production services. Connect with Stephen on LinkedIn or follow him on Instagram at @StephenGeorgeVO for insights into voice work and audiobook production.

Here are some key takeaways you won’t want to miss:

• 02:00 The Inspiration Behind the Book: Robert shares how his frustration with traditional two-week notice practices inspired him to rethink professional transitions and create the Career Engagement Program.
• 05:00 Why Endings Matter: Robert discusses the psychology of endings and how the final impression of a work relationship disproportionately impacts our overall memories of it.
• 10:00 Honest Conversations: Learn how transparent and open discussions between employees and employers can improve outcomes, from internal transitions to amicable departures.
• 18:00 The Four Principles of Open Transition: Robert outlines the essential components of an effective transition program, including psychological safety, mutual respect, and open communication.
• 24:00 The Alumni Advantage: Discover how organizations can create a culture where employees feel comfortable returning and contributing with fresh perspectives and new skills.

This episode is a must-listen for leaders, HR professionals, and anyone interested in transforming the way organizations approach employee departures. Robert’s insights provide a roadmap for creating win-win scenarios that leave lasting positive impressions.

Where to Find Robert Glazer and Learn More:

Visit www.robertglazer.com to explore Robert’s books, including Rethinking Two Weeks Notice, subscribe to his Friday Forward newsletter, and discover other valuable resources. You can also read the first three chapters of his latest book for free on his Substack.

Be sure to check out Robert’s Friday Forward newsletter for practical tips and reflections on work and life, and follow him on LinkedIn for regular updates on his work.

And... don’t forget to check out our book!

You, Me, We: Why We All Need a Friend at Work (and How to Show Up As One!). This book is a heartfelt guide for leaders looking to build deep, meaningful relationships at work, which are the cornerstone of personal and professional success.

Get your copy here: https://amzn.to/3NrQulV

Here are some key takeaways you won’t want to miss:

• 04:00 Finding Your Golden Core: Heather shares her powerful concept of unveiling your intrinsic brilliance and how self-leadership begins with embracing your worth.
• 08:00 Overcoming Self-Doubt: Learn how to challenge imposter syndrome and reclaim your inner confidence, with Heather’s own journey as a prime example.
• 10:00 Understanding Fear: Heather discusses the role fear plays in holding us back and how to use it as a tool for growth.
• 16:00 Prioritizing Self-Care: Heather explains how small, intentional acts, like staying hydrated and moving regularly, can significantly impact your well-being and leadership capacity.
• 21:00 Relationships and Influence: Heather reflects on the importance of building intentional relationships, creating safe spaces, and embracing feedback for personal and professional growth.

In this inspiring episode, Heather shows us how self-leadership is the foundation of all leadership. Her message? You are good enough simply because you exist. From actionable strategies to profound insights, this conversation will empower you to take charge of your journey.

Find Heather on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heatherryounger/ and on her website https://heatheryounger.com/

Here are some key takeaways you won’t want to miss:

• 02:00 From Dreams to Global Impact: Nathalie’s journey from aspiring to work in Japan to becoming an expert in leadership development and co-creation.
• 05:00 Coaching Roots: Ron reflects on how his early experiences as a skating coach laid the foundation for his passion for mentoring and team development.
• 10:00 Why CAL Matters: Learn how the CAL methodology fosters innovation, psychological safety, and teamwork, and why it’s more critical than ever in today’s complex business environment.
• 14:00 The Seven Steps of CAL: Ron and Nathalie break down the structured process behind CAL, highlighting how it balances deep problem exploration with actionable solutions.
• 21:00 Real-Life Applications: From overwhelmed leaders to community support during the pandemic, Nathalie and Ron share stories of how CAL has driven transformation and learning.

This episode dives deep into how CAL offers a practical, scalable approach for teams to foster collaboration, accelerate projects, and create cultures of continuous learning. Whether you’re a coach, team leader, or organizational change agent, Nathalie and Ron’s insights will leave you inspired to try something new.

Learn more about Nathalie Sabourin and Ron Cheshire.

Here are some key takeaways you won’t want to miss:

-03:00 From Elevator Operator Dreams to Career Champion: Julie shares her unconventional childhood aspirations and how they influenced her focus on career development.
-06:00 Beyond the Ladder: Julie explains why traditional career ladders are evolving and how opportunities within roles can offer transformative growth.
-12:00 Psychological Safety and Development: The critical role psychological safety plays in fostering meaningful development relationships in the workplace.
- 13:00 Developing at a Distance: Strategies for leaders to support the growth of remote and hybrid employees and avoid proximity bias.
-16:00 Human vs. AI: Julie underscores the enduring importance of human interaction in career conversations, even in an increasingly AI-driven world.

This episode offers a fresh perspective on career development, exploring how short, frequent, and intentional conversations can transform organizations. Julie’s insights challenge conventional approaches and inspire leaders to embrace development as an everyday practice.

Here are some key takeaways you won’t want to miss:

• 02:00 From Storyteller to Executive Coach: Jonathan shares his journey from childhood dreams of becoming a writer to a career in corporate leadership and coaching.
• 06:00 The Entrepreneurial Leap: Lessons learned from founding and growing a successful consulting firm, including navigating the highs and lows of business ownership.
• 10:00 The Power of Vulnerability: Why isolation at the top is common among leaders and how building trusted relationships can break through the barriers of loneliness.
• 16:00 Beyond the Surface: Jonathan explains how listening deeply and identifying the "story beneath the story" helps leaders uncover the real challenges they face.
• 21:00 Relationships at the Core: Jonathan highlights the vital role relationships play in scaling businesses, building trust, and sustaining personal and professional success.

This episode is an insightful exploration of leadership, resilience, and the profound impact of relationships on success. Jonathan’s wisdom offers actionable strategies for leaders to reconnect with their purpose and navigate the complexities of leading with authenticity.

Here are some key takeaways you won’t want to miss:

• 03:00 From Architecture to Coaching: Mary reflects on her early career, where designing meaningful spaces inspired her transition to helping people design lives they love.
• 07:00 A Journey of Reinvention: Mary shares her own career pivots and how leaders can embrace transitions with courage and clarity.
• 10:00 The Inspiration Behind the Book: Discover how Coming into Consciousness was born out of Mary’s personal reflections on purpose, passion, and presence.
• 15:00 Signals and Intuition: Mary encourages readers to notice the “signals” life sends and trust their intuition as a guide for fulfilling choices.
• 21:00 Relationships as a Mirror: Mary discusses the powerful role of relationships in self-growth and why cultivating a strong relationship with oneself is essential.

This episode offers powerful insights into intentional living, self-awareness, and the courage to lead with presence. Mary’s wisdom and approach to conscious living will inspire you to live with purpose and be unapologetically yourself.

And... don’t forget to check out our book!

You, Me, We: Why We All Need a Friend at Work (and How to Show Up As One!) The hardcover is available now! We've put our hearts into this exciting new book; we're sharing the insights of our research and experience as authors, best friends at work, and our leadership development programs around the world. You, Me, We is a book for leaders who want to improve― at leading, yes, but also at their lives. How so? By building deep, long-lasting relationships that set everybody up for success.

Get your copy here:

https://amzn.to/3NrQulV

Here are some key takeaways you won’t want to miss:

1. 02:00 Mary’s Journey: From aspiring movie star to Olympic figure skater, Mary shares the twists and turns of her career journey and the lessons she learned along the way.
2. 08:00 The Pivot Point: Mary talks about the inspiration behind her book and how she developed a methodology to help people find joy and fulfillment in their careers.
3. 17:00 The Power of Networking: Mary provides tips on how to build a meaningful network, no matter where you are in your career, and why relationships are key to career success.
4. 21:00 The Journey of Writing a Book: Mary opens up about the challenges and rewards of bringing What Lights You Up? to life and how she hopes to inspire readers to pursue their passions.

This conversation is a must-listen for anyone looking to reignite their passion for their work or make a career pivot. Mary’s insights on finding what truly lights you up will leave you inspired and ready to take the next big step.

And... don’t forget to check out our book!

You, Me, We: Why We All Need a Friend at Work (and How to Show Up As One!) The hardcover is available now! We've put our hearts into this exciting new book; we're sharing the insights of our research and experience as authors, best friends at work, and our leadership development programs around the world. You, Me, We is a book for leaders who want to improve― at leading, yes, but also at their lives. How so? By building deep, long-lasting relationships that set everybody up for success.

Get your copy here:
https://amzn.to/3NrQulV

Here are some key takeaways you won’t want to miss:

• 05:00 The Manager Learning Curve: Lee reflects on his early struggles as a manager and how understanding the importance of relationships and engagement transformed his leadership approach.
• 08:00 Why Relationships Matter: Lee explains how workplace relationships, especially with direct managers, are crucial to employee retention and productivity.
• 13:00 Loops: The Relationship-Enhancing Tool: Discover how Loops helps teams maintain meaningful connections through reminders and personalized data, enhancing trust and collaboration.
• 16:00 Transitioning from Big Tech to Entrepreneurship: Lee discusses the challenges of launching a new platform and the critical role relationships played in his journey.

Seeking to enhance workplace relationships and foster a more engaged, productive team environment? Listen to this episode now!

And... don’t forget to check out our book!

You, Me, We: Why We All Need a Friend at Work (and How to Show Up As One!) The hardcover is available to preorder now! We've put our hearts into this exciting new book; we're sharing the insights of our research and experience as authors, best friends at work, and our leadership development programs around the world. You, Me, We is a book for leaders who want to improve― at leading, yes, but also at their lives. How so? By building deep, long-lasting relationships that set everybody up for success.

Get your copy here:

https://amzn.to/3NrQulV

In this episode, Caroline discusses her journey from Singapore to a global career helping leaders embrace emotionally intelligent strategies and navigate the fast-paced world of technology, leadership, and sustainability.

Here are some key takeaways you won’t want to miss:

• 05:00 Early Career Reflections: Caroline shares stories from her childhood in Singapore and how a passion for travel shaped her ambitions.
• 08:00 Elephants Before Unicorns: The inspiration behind Caroline's book and why addressing the "elephants in the room" is critical before organizations can foster innovation and growth.
• 12:00 Onboarding Done Right: Caroline highlights the importance of structured 30-60-90 day plans for new hires and how organizations can set their teams up for long-term success.
• 23:00 Climate Change and Leadership: Caroline delves into how leaders must prepare for the impact of climate change on business and society, encouraging forward-thinking strategies to ensure long-term sustainability.

Dive in for a thought-provoking discussion on leadership, sustainability, and creating positive change in today’s world. Caroline’s insights will leave you rethinking how you lead and how we can all work together for a better future.

And...be sure to grab our book!

You, Me, We: Why We All Need a Friend at Work (and How to Show Up As One!) The hardcover is available to preorder now! We've put our hearts into this exciting new book; we're sharing the insights of our research and experience as authors, best friends at work, and our leadership development programs around the world. You, Me, We is a book for leaders who want to improve― at leading, yes, but also at their lives. How so? By building deep, long-lasting relationships that set everybody up for success.

Get your copy here:

https://amzn.to/3NrQulV

Get in touch with Caroline Stokes:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ocarolinestokes/

X: https://x.com/oCarolineStokes

Here are some key takeaways you won't want to miss:

• 03:00 Presentations vs. Reporting: Russel emphasizes the importance of viewing presentations as performances, where you are the star, not the slide deck.
• 06:00 The Pivot to Internal Relationships: The moment Russel realized the importance of focusing on employee relationships just as much as customer service.
• 10:00 Culture vs. Bad Bosses: Russel challenges the idea that people leave jobs because of bad bosses alone, diving into the broader impact of organizational culture.
• 14:00 The Three Pillars of Leadership: Russel outlines his leadership philosophy, highlighting self-awareness, situational awareness, and communication as the keys to great leadership.
• 28:00 Trust in the Workplace: A deep dive into how trust is often misunderstood in organizations and its critical role in building healthy relationships.

In this series, we explore the people side of successful business and careers. We all have a story to share, a leadership journey we are experiencing. We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

And...be sure to grab our book!

You, Me, We: Why We All Need a Friend at Work (and How to Show Up As One!) The hardcover is available to preorder now! We've put our hearts into this exciting new book; we're sharing the insights of our research and experience as authors, best friends at work, and our leadership development programs around the world. You, Me, We is a book for leaders who want to improve― at leading, yes, but also at their lives. How so? By building deep, long-lasting relationships that set everybody up for success.

Get your copy here:

https://amzn.to/3NrQulV

Russel Lolacher Social Media Info

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/russellolacher/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/relationshipsatwork/

In her new book, The Power of Saying No, Vanessa delves into the new science of saying no and introduces the ground-breaking concept of “empowered refusal”—a proven framework for saying no that puts you in charge of your life — and reveals some surprising secrets about the power of the word no.

Here are some key takeaways you won't want to miss:

• 04:16 The Pivot Point: Vanessa discusses the pivotal moment when she decided to pursue a career outside of medicine.
• 13:00 Power Dynamics: the challenges of saying no to peers vs. power.
• 20:30 Vanessa highlights the gender-specific biases that can influence how the "no" is perceived.

In this series, we explore the people side of successful business and careers. We all have a story to share, a leadership journey we are experiencing. We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

And...be sure to grab our book!

You, Me, We: Why We All Need a Friend at Work (and How to Show Up As One!) The hardcover is available to preorder now! We've put our hearts into this exciting new book; we're sharing the insights of our research and experience as authors, best friends at work, and our leadership development programs around the world. You, Me, We is a book for leaders who want to improve― at leading, yes, but also at their lives. How so? By building deep, long-lasting relationships that set everybody up for success.

Get your copy here:

https://amzn.to/3NrQulV

Additional information

Venessa Patrick’s LinkedIn profile is  https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessapatrick23/

• @vanpat23 (Instagram/Facebook)
• @vpatrick23 (twitter)

Joan's new book, The Leader’s Guide to Mastering Feedback, is the focus of our conversation. We delve into creating a feedback-friendly environment, navigating tough conversations with empathy, and delivering the right feedback at the right time.

Here are some key takeaways you won't want to miss:

• 07:53 The Power of Playful Feedback: Discover how genuine connection and care can transform feedback into a positive experience.
• 18:00 Feedback vs. Ghosting: Learn why open communication trumps avoidance.
• 20:00 Joan's Top Tip: Get practical advice to kickstart your feedback journey.

In this series, we explore the people side of successful business and careers. We all have a story to share, a leadership journey we are experiencing. We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

And...be sure to grab our book!

You, Me, We: Why We All Need a Friend at Work (and How to Show Up As One!) The hardcover is available to preorder now! We've put our hearts into this exciting new book; we're sharing the insights of our research and experience as authors, best friends at work, and our leadership development programs around the world. You, Me, We is a book for leaders who want to improve― at leading, yes, but also at their lives. How so? By building deep, long-lasting relationships that set everybody up for success.

Get your copy here:
https://amzn.to/3NrQulV

Connect with Joan Hobdin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joan-joni-hibdon/

Their concept of Commonality, Equality, and Cohesion expands on the core principles of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). It offers a practical framework for leaders tackling the challenges of creating a truly unified and inclusive work environment.

Here are some key takeaways you won't want to miss:

• 11:30 Unlocking the Secrets of Insperity's Culture: What makes Insperity's company culture unique and successful?
• 18:55 The Art of Course Correction: How to identify and address situations where your vision doesn't align with reality?
• 23:18 Evolving DEI Language: Discover how certain DEI terminology has lost its impact over time.
• 25:37 Investing in a culture of connection and belonging: What's in it for me?" This applies to individual employees, teams, and the entire organization.

In this series, we explore the people side of successful business and careers. We all have a story to share, a leadership journey we are experiencing. We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

And...be sure to grab our book!

You, Me, We: Why We All Need a Friend at Work (and How to Show Up As One!) The hardcover is available to preorder now! We've put our hearts into this exciting new book; we're sharing the insights of our research and experience as authors, best friends at work, and our leadership development programs around the world. You, Me, We is a book for leaders who want to improve― at leading, yes, but also at their lives. How so? By building deep, long-lasting relationships that set everybody up for success.

Get your copy here:

https://amzn.to/3NrQulV

Connect with Paul and Eli:

Paul Savardi LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-sarvadi/

Dr. Eli Jones LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eli-jones-4ba95125/

Episode Chapters:

1:50 - What did you want to be when you grew up, Jennifer?

06:55 - Asking questions, even when the answers aren't readily apparent.

14:20 - Conquering the fear of silence in conversations; shifting your locust-of-attention.

20:17 - "Be Human, Lead Human" approach, outlining how leaders can integrate a more human-centered.

27:17 - Beyond the toolbox: limitations of traditional leadership tools.

In this series, we explore the people side of successful business and careers. We all have a story to share, a leadership journey we are experiencing. We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

And...be sure to grab our book!

You, Me, We: Why We All Need a Friend at Work (and How to Show Up As One!) The hardcover is available to preorder now! We've put our hearts into this exciting new book; we're sharing the insights of our research and experience as authors, best friends at work, and our leadership development programs around the world. You, Me, We is a book for leaders who want to improve― at leading, yes, but also at their lives. How so? By building deep, long-lasting relationships that set everybody up for success.

Get your copy here:
https://amzn.to/3NrQulV

Scott describes mentally strong leaders as a calm presence amid chaos, exercising self-discipline and endurance to thrive under adversity. They excel across six essential leadership tests linked to exceptional achievement.

Episode Chapters:

1:50 - Scott's journey and passion for discovery.
3:13 - Mental strength is managing yourself internally to lead externally.
10:40 - Exploring various forms of confidence.
17:47 - Mental strength in leadership tests.
24:10 - Special gift for listeners.

Listener Gift: https://scottmautz.com/mentallystronggift/

Scott offers a free, 60-page Companion Workbook, including:

- A 50-question Mental Strength Self-Assessment
- Templates for key exercises from the book
- Note-taking space for each chapter
- Prompt questions to enhance your reading experience.

And...be sure to grab our book!

You, Me, We: Why We All Need a Friend at Work (and How to Show Up As One!) The hardcover is available to preorder now! We've put our hearts into this exciting new book; we're sharing the insights of our research and experience as authors, best friends at work, and our leadership development programs around the world. You, Me, We is a book for leaders who want to improve― at leading, yes, but also at their lives. How so? By building deep, long-lasting relationships that set everybody up for success.

Get your copy here:

https://amzn.to/3NrQulV

Drawing from his own journey, Jeffrey shares business and personal development strategies to help you, the self-employed and small business owner, take control even when things feel out of your grip.

Episode Highlights

07:23 - Overcoming Fear: Learn how to weigh the benefits against the fear of taking action.
16:00 - Breaking Through Your Barriers: Discover ways to stop self-sabotage and move forward.
26:34 - The Power of Clarity: Learn why clarity is an iterative process and how to achieve it.
30:30 - The Relationship Advantage: Explore how strong connections fuel success.

Bonus!  Get free brand messaging help from Jeffrey! Fill out the application on brandmessagereview.com, and Jeffrey will personally review your website (subject to application conditions).

And... Be sure to grab our book!

You, Me, We: Why We All Need a Friend at Work (and How to Show Up As One!) The hardcover is available to preorder now! We've put our hearts into this exciting new book; we're sharing the insights of our research and experience as authors, best friends at work, and our leadership development programs around the world. You, Me, We, is a book for leaders who want to improve― at leading, yes, but also at their lives. How so? By building deep, long-lasting relationships that set everybody up for success.

Get your copy here: https://amzn.to/3NrQulV

They delve deep into the world of the "passionpreneur," exploring how passion + purpose unleashes the entrepreneurial spirit of a true leader, why so many people struggle to find their spark, why passion and skill go hand-in-hand, and how you can discover what truly ignites your fire.

Episode Chapters:

04:30 - Why do so many people struggle to find their spark?

10:14 - The importance of aligning passion with skill for success.

15:20 - Identifying and overcoming hidden obstacles that block passion and purpose 

23:00 - A powerful approach to self-discovery: taking a step back, healing, and launching yourself forward.

27:30 - Dealing with the fear of negative consequences that hold us back.

Bonus Content for all Listeners...

Moustafa offers free copies of his books and other resources on his website to help you overcome challenges. Go to moustafa.com/slingshot and use the code PEOPLE to download your bonus pack! Enjoy reading...

And...be sure to grab our book!

You, Me, We: Why We All Need a Friend at Work (and How to Show Up As One!) The hardcover is available now! We've put our hearts into this exciting new book; we're sharing the insights of our research and experience as authors, best friends at work, and our leadership development programs around the world. You, Me, We, is a book for leaders who want to improve― at leading, yes, but also at their lives. How so? By building deep, long-lasting relationships that set everybody up for success.

Get your copy here: https://amzn.to/3NrQulV

Episode Chapters:

06:55 - In meetings so much, why is it that they suck?
12:20 - Rebooting 1:1s at work: how to tie 1:1s to values
18:17 - Core questions approach in 1:1s
23:24 - 1:1s are tools for genuine connections

And... be sure to grab our book!

You, Me, We: Why We All Need a Friend at Work (and How to Show Up As One!) The hardcover is available now! We've put our hearts into this exciting new book; we're sharing the insights of our research and experience as authors, best friends at work, and our leadership development programs around the world. You, Me, We is a book for leaders who want to improve― at leading, yes, but also at their lives. How so? By building deep, long-lasting relationships that set everybody up for success.

Get your copy here: https://amzn.to/3NrQulV

Episode Chapters:

5:28 - Why this book; why now?
10:20 - Understanding clear roles people play in leadership
16:59 - How the inner critic shows up for women
20:12 - Biases and limiting beliefs
23:50 - Getting humble to say I need help

Welcome to SkyeTeam's People First! In this series, we explore the people side of successful business and careers. We all have a story to share, a leadership journey that we are experiencing. We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

And...be sure to grab our book!

You, Me, We: Why We All Need a Friend at Work (and How to Show Up As One!) The hardcover is available now! We've put our hearts into this exciting new book; we're sharing the insights of our research and experience as authors, best friends at work, and our leadership development programs around the world. You, Me, We is a book for leaders who want to improve―at leading, yes, but also at their lives. How so? By building deep, long-lasting relationships that set everybody up for success.

Get your copy here: https://amzn.to/3NrQulV

Episode Chapters:

6:28 - Jacquelyn's Realization: Everything is About People
9:13 - Leadership is Collaboration
13:02 - Inspiration Behind Becoming Coachable
16:30 - Being Open to Change, Taking Actions
21:23 - The Correct Answer is Always Thank You!
29:45 - Conclusion and Wrap

Welcome to SkyeTeam's People First! In this series, we explore the people side of successful business and careers. We all have a story to share, a leadership journey that we are experiencing. We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

And...be sure to grab our book!

You, Me, We: Why We All Need a Friend at Work (and How to Show Up As One!) Hardcover is available now! We've put our hearts into this exciting new book, we're sharing the insights of our research and experience as authors, best friends at work, and our leadership development programs around the world. You, Me, We is a book for leaders who want to improve―at leading, yes, but also at their lives. How so? By building deep, long-lasting relationships that set everybody up for success.

Get your copy here: https://amzn.to/3NrQulV

Episode Chapters:
0:00 - Show Open
1:30 - Growing Up
2:36 - Career Arc
5:39 - Role of Relationships
8:50 - Decision Sprint Book Discussion
13:49 - Common Pitfalls
16:13 - Clarifying the Problem
17:36 - The Role of AI
24:26 - Conclusion and Wrap

Welcome to SkyeTeam's People First! In this series, we explore the people side of successful business and careers. We all have a story to share, a leadership journey that we are experiencing.

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

Show Info:
Website: https://www.decisionsprint.com/
Website: https://www.ritual.work/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/atif1/

And...be sure to grab our book!

You, Me, We: Why We All Need a Friend at Work (and How to Show Up As One!) is available now! We've put our hearts into this exciting new book, we're sharing the insights of our research and experience as authors, best friends at work, and our leadership development programs around the world. You, Me, We is a book for leaders who want to improve―at leading, yes, but also at their lives. How so? By building deep, long-lasting relationships that set everybody up for success.

Episode Chapters:
0:00 - Show Open
1:50 - Growing Up
3:35 - How Relationships Matter
5:09 - Advice for Connection
9:25 - Adults Don't Change A Whole Lot
12:39 - WTF is Woo?
18:00 - Leveraging CliftonStrengths to Help Others
26:30 - One Life
26:59 - Conclusion and Wrap

Welcome to SkyeTeam's People First! In this series, we explore the people side of successful business and careers. We all have a story to share, a leadership journey that we are experiencing.

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

And...be sure to grab our book!

You, Me, We: Why We All Need a Friend at Work (and How to Show Up As One!) The hardcover is available now! We've put our hearts into this exciting new book, we're sharing the insights of our research and experience as authors, best friends at work, and our leadership development programs around the world. You, Me, We is a book for leaders who want to improve―at leading, yes, but also at their lives. How so? By building deep, long-lasting relationships that set everybody up for success.

Get your copy here: https://amzn.to/3NrQulV

Kay's roots are in South Africa where she worked with companies to transform their business hand-in-hand with the transformation that was occurring politically and socially during the post-apartheid period. Kay was Executive Director and Partner in Accenture for 25 years, leading the Health and Life Sciences Industry Line in Europe and Africa and Latin America. Within Accenture, Kay was for many years responsible for the Diversity and Inclusion Practice in The Netherlands, and assumed multiple leadership development roles within Accenture, including being one of the Sponsoring Partners for the Global Leadership Development Program, Chairing the Diversity Forum, Participating in the Unconscious Bias Task Force and acting as mentor and coach and sponsor for rising talent. 

Kay's new book, Leading Diversity with Purpose and Inclusion, provides powerful insights into D&I. D&I is not about legal compliance or HR box-ticking, in fact every organization needs a diversity and inclusion strategy to achieve peak performance and sustainability. #MeToo, #BlackLivesMatter and the ballooning consequences of Covid-19 to minorities have made it even more necessary to plan a concrete D&I agenda. 

Whether you’re a leader, HR practitioner, sponsor of a D&I initiative, or an employee who wants to see your organization benefit from more inclusivity, Kay explains the strategic case for diversity and can share practical steps for locking in diversity gains and closing key performance gaps.

He helped to start the Undergraduate Practice Opportunities Program, dubbed MIT’s “career success accelerator,” where he teaches annually. At MIT, he received a B.S. in physics, a B.S. in electrical engineering & computer science, and a M.Eng. in electrical engineering & computer science, focusing on cryptography. At Harvard Business School, Mark helped create a platform used to teach finance at prominent business schools. He also works with many non-profits, currently serving on the board of Plant A Million Corals. 

He was one of the top-ranked ballroom dancers in the country and now lives in New York City, where he is known for his social gatherings, including his annual Halloween party, as well as his diverse cufflink collection.

https://www.thecareertoolkitbook.com
https://www.thecareertoolkitbook.com/resources

Through personal experience and academic study, he has developed a deep appreciation and awareness of the importance of the cross-cultural dimension and how it impacts strategy formulation and implementation.

Dr. Kumar has a Ph.D. degree in International Business from New York University, an MBA from Rutgers University, and a Masters degree in Economics from the University of Delhi. Dr. Kumar is author of International Negotiations in China and India published by Macmillan in 2011. He also coauthored Doing Business in India which was published by Macmillan in 2005. 

During his academic career he has published numerous research papers in academic journals. Dr. Kumar is also a certified Global Dexterity Trainer and is currently appearing on Leadership Podcasts as a guest where he highlights the importance of managing the cultural dimension for global companies. He also leads training programs for companies engaged in global business.

An executive and mindset coach specialized in strengths-centered leadership and change, my 5* rated book 'The IDEA Mindset' is a self-reflective coaching journey to help the reader figure out what they want from work, and how to get it, in six weeks. I also host 'The Unlock Moment' podcast, in which I interview people who have achieved great things or brought about significant change in their life, and we dig into a flash of remarkable clarity when they figured out the path ahead. Find out more at theunlockmoment.com. And I'm a co-host of The Coacharium, a pocket-sized podcast for leaders who coach. Find out more at coacharium.com.

When I was 5 years old, I visited Radio Flyer for the first time and fell in love with this company and what it means to people. My grandpa, a poor Italian immigrant created the first wagon in his Chicago garage in 1917. Today, Radio Flyer is an iconic brand that holds a special place in people's hearts because it instantly transports them to a happy time — to the best parts of childhood. I work with a wonderful group of "FUNomenal Flyers" whose mission is to bring smiles to kids of all ages and create warm memories that last a lifetime. Company sales have grown by over 10X as a result of our focus on building a creative, committed & caring team. Radio Flyer has received numerous awards as a top workplace including 11 times on Fortune Magazine's Best Places to Work list. The product line has expanded beyond the famous Little Red Wagon to include tricycles, scooters, ride-ons, Tesla kids' vehicles, and our newest line-up of Flyer electric bikes & scooters for adults.

1) Clinical Experience - nearly two decades of clinical experience as an MD/PhD 
2) Entrepreneur - I’ve founded and grown a clinical organization through the entire life cycle of inception to exit 
3) C-level Leadership - led teams to create and innovate clinical programs as a C-level leader 

She is the author of Work Smart: Use Your Brain and Behavior to Master the Future of Work 👉 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BRR6QPM1

Individuals, companies, and organizations hire Charlene when they need a fixer – whether that means a keynote speaker to motivate, inspire, and empower audiences; a communications and issues consultant for strategy and reputation recovery; a Diversity diagnosis, or a leadership and inclusion coach to help them get the most from their investment in their people and their company.

"𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘥𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘭𝘺 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘴 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦. 𝘉𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵—𝘺𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦. 𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘧𝘵𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦, 𝘢𝘴 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘥, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭. 𝘐𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘨𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘴𝘢𝘧𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘬 𝘶𝘱 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯."

Lori Michele Leavitt, “The Pivot Catalyst”, has coached, consulted, and trained hundreds of leaders around the world to achieve their objectives and generate extraordinary momentum. 

Welcome to SkyeTeam's People First! In this series, we explore the people side of successful business and careers. We all have a story to share, a leadership journey that we are experiencing.

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

In the summer of 1990, I was a rising high school sophomore playing football and baseball in Randolph, New Jersey. 1990 was economically challenging, and the recession was not kind to my family. My father lost his job (the only one he ever had since graduating college), and it was a tough time for the household.

At the time, I made a promise to myself: I would actively manage my career and each transition along the way. As a teenager, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Yet, here I am 30+ years later and the subject of career management, business development and outplacement coaching is something that genuinely fulfills my core professional interests.

Join Jason and me as we explore one of my favorite topics - the importance of our professional relationships - and more importantly how we can nurture and maintain our networks. Jason's new book Relationships to Infinity: The Art and Science of Keeping In Touch is a practical resource I recommend to all.

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Ann Latham discuss the secret to productivity - clarity!

Chapter Breakdown:
0:00 - Show Open
1:37 - Origin Story
2:22 - Potted History
5:18 - Uncommon Clarity
8:43 - Cost of Disclarity
15:53 - 3 Keys to Uncommon Clarity
18:32 - Outside In
25:19 - Wrap & Close
-----
Website: https://annlatham.com/

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag andEvan Sohn or Recruiter.com discuss attracting and retaining great talent!

Chapter Breakdown:
0:00 - Show Open
0:39 - Origin Story
1:57 - Flipping Baseball Cards
3:33 - Grazed Your Knee
6:26 - Recruiter.com
11:15 - Ghosting
18:04 - Pay Attention
23:08 - Leadership Journey
25:19 - Wrap & Close
-----
Website: https://www.recruiter.com/

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Andrea Petrone discuss the five dimensions of a world class leader!

Chapter Breakdown:
0:00 - Show Open
1:20 - Origin Story
5:35 - How Relationships Impacted Your Career
7:58 - Pivotal Time
11:39 - Curiosity is Key
14:31 - Change is Everywhere
19:01 - Regaining Trust
36:57 - Wrap & Close
-----
Website: https://www.andreapetrone.com/

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Dr. Linda Sharkey discuss leadership in the 21st century!

Chapter Breakdown:
0:00 - Show Open
1:09 - Origin Story
3:22 - Career Arc
7:00 - Winning with Transglobal Leadership
11:10 - How Relevant Are the 5 Characteristics Today?
18:41 - Future-Proof Workplace
24:47 - All About Transitions
32:00 - Wrap & Close
-----
Website: https://lindasharkey.com/

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and International Fresh Produce Association Chief Strategy Officer, Lauren M. Scott discuss the how strategic leaders connect!

Chapter Breakdown:
0:00 - Show Open
1:22 - Origin Story
3:30 - Career Arc
5:57 - Leadership Style & Philosophy
8:19 - Lessons Learned, The Hard Way
11:34 - I Knew I Was Right
15:24 - Psych Safety to Speak Truth
21:49 - Advice For Your Younger Self
23:15 - Wrap & Close
-----
Website: https://www.freshproduce.com/

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Lori Mihalich-Levin discuss parenthood and work!

Chapter Breakdown:
0:00 - Show Open
1:51 - Origin Story
3:56 - The Work We Do
5:27 - Inspiration for the Book
7:10 - Common Themes
9:30 - Two Kettles
12:49 - CPE
15:36 - Work Life Integration
18:47 - Employers Paying More Attention
24:49 - Wrap & Close
-----
Website: https://www.mindfulreturn.com/about-lori-mihalich-levin/

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Greg Williams, discuss the the how to be a master negotiator!

Chapter Breakdown:
0:00 - Show Open
1:17 - Origin Story
3:18 - Negotiating Middle School
5:05 - The Dark Side
6:45 - High Stakes Negotiation
10:43 - Win Win
14:36 - Zoom Negotiation
16:28 - Challenges and Problems
20:08 - Close To The Vest
26:08 - The Gem
29:35 - Wrap & Close
-----
Website: https://www.themasternegotiator.com/

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Mark Goulston discuss leading in times of crisis and trauma.

Chapter Breakdown:
0:00 - Show Open
1:36 - Origin Story
8:32 - Ripple Effects
10:54 - RTA
16:41 - Observable Behaviors
20:41 - The Elusive 10%
26:10 - One Thing
27:46 - Learn More & Wrap
-----
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markgoulston/
Website: https://markgoulston.com/
Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-wakeup-call-with-dr-mark-goulston/id1439752757
Audio Course: https://www.himalaya.com/courses/defeating-self-defeat-3129841?partner-from=15652260&utm_source=partner&utm_medium=mark_goulston

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Momofuku CEO Marguerite Mariscal discuss the the "secret sauce" for effective leadership!

Chapter Breakdown:
0:00 - Show Open
0:59 - Origin Story
3:30 - Role of Relationships
6:22 - Intern to CEO
8:19 - Lessons Learned, The Hard Way
16:56 - Executive Buy-In
22:45 - Industry Evolution
27:43 - Advice For Your Younger Self
29:35 - Wrap & Close
-----
Website: https://momofuku.com/

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Dr. Ruth Gotian discuss the concept of success, and ask the question, do YOU have the success factor?

Chapter Breakdown:
0:00 - Show Open
1:34 - Origin Story
4:37 - Finding Something That You Love
6:39 - Connecting The Dots
9:56 - Yes...And
14:28 - Friendtors
18:03 - Definition of Success?
21:22 - The Definition Changes
27:53 - Learn More & Wrap
-----
Website: https://www.ruthgotian.com/

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and WD-40 CEO Garry Ridge discuss the concept of creating a winning culture by putting people first!

Chapter Breakdown:
0:00 - Show Open
1:36 - Origin Story
2:42 - Pivot Point
4:23 - Role of Relationships at Work
7:36 - Courage & Vulnerability
10:40 - This is Al!
14:36 - Ken Blanchard
17:27 - Reinventing Belonging
20:12 - The Great Escape
22:43 - Work from where?
26:11 - Helping People Win at Work
27:40 - Learn More & Wrap
-----
Website: https://thelearningmoment.net/

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Larry Robertson discuss Rebel Leadership!

Chapter Breakdown:
0:00 - Show Open
0:55 - Origin Story
4:25 - What Fueled Your Success?
8:58 - Learn the Hard Way
10:35 - 3.1 Billion Results
13:00 - Forced Values?
15:12 - Sowing the Seeds
23:05 - Weaponizing Culture
26:59 - Get a Pulse check
29:13 - Learn More & Wrap
-----
Website: https://lrspeaks.com/

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Dr. Michelle Johnston discuss the seismic shift in leadership!

Chapter Breakdown:
0:00 - Show Open
1:39 - Origin Story
6:06 - Learn the Hard Way
11:23 - You, Me, We
12:01 - Compassionate Connections
16:36 - The Pizza Guy
18:58 - Pandemic Disconnection
20:57 - Three Levels 
29:13 - Learn More & Wrap
-----
Website: https://michellekjohnston.com/

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Dr. Bob Nelson discuss the concept of fun, and how it makes work (and life) so much better!

Chapter Breakdown:
0:00 - Show Open
1:20 - Origin Story
3:28 - Advice
5:24 - Trepidation?
7:51 - Americans Love British Accents
8:29 - Why Fun?
10:13 - SkyeFun (p134)
12:33 - What Does fun Mean to You?
17:17 - Deposits in the Bank
30:00 - Yo Yo Ma
33:10 - Learn More & Wrap
-----
Website: https://drbobnelson.com/

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Robbie Samuels discuss unlocking the opportunities in your existing network!

Chapter Breakdown:
0:00 - Show Open
2:21 - Scrabble
3:32 - Origin Story
5:34 - The Power of Relationships
8:31 - Seizing An Opportunity
11:25 - Small List, Big Results
13:20 - Build The Audience In Advance
21:44 - Repeat Exposure
33:30 - Learn More & Wrap
-----
Website: https://robbiesamuels.com/
Toolkit: https://robbiesamuels.com/morag

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag, Deborah Grayson Riegel and Sophie Riegel discuss the concept of help; how to give it, ask for it, and how to accept it!

Chapter Breakdown:
0:00 - Show Open
1:20 - Inspiration
2:50 - What Gets In Our Way?
4:53 - Our Default Method for Help Isn't Working
9:58 - What If They Don't Want Help?
14:08 - What Is Most Surprising To You?
21:56 - Learn More & Wrap
-----
Website: https://deborahgraysonriegel.com/
Website: https://sophieriegel.com/

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Dorie Clark discuss her new book, "The Long Game!"

Chapter Breakdown:
0:00 - Show Open
1:45 - Origin Story
3:32 - James Bond
7:13 - Cultivate
9:15 - How'd Ya Do It?
14:03 - The Long Game
23:06 - 3 Levels of Relationships
32:13 - Learn More & Wrap
-----
Website: https://dorieclark.com/

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Sam George discuss this new book, "I'll Get Back To You!"

Chapter Breakdown:
0:00 - Show Open
0:45 - Origin Story
1:47 - I'll Get Back To You
6:03 - Are The Problems Any Different?
10:54 - The Most Surprising Insight
20:03 - Learn More & Wrap
-----
Website: https://dyscommunication.com/

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Dr. Terry Jackson discuss his book, "Co-Creation Leadership!"

Chapter Layout:
0:00 - Open
1:00 - Benjamin Button
2:06 - Servant Leadership
4:31 - Co-Creation Leadership
8:05 - Break Free From The "Shoulds"
12:48 - Old Fashioned Thinking
16:16 - The Recipe 
22:23 - Wrap & Close

Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/terence-jackson-ph-d-57618410/
https://twitter.com/DrTerryJackson
Catch the first interview here: https://youtu.be/5Ne2FmjNNJY

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Todd Cherches discuss the power of visual thinking!

Chapter Breakdown:
0:00 - Show Open
1:55 - Origin Story
2:49 - Most Bad Bosses Ever
5:24 - Visual Leadership
13:44 - Hyper VUCA
17:24 - Curious George
23:21 - Learn More & Wrap
-----
Website: https://www.toddcherches.com/

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Susie Tomenchok discuss the concept of negotiation love!

Chapter Breakdown:
0:00 - Show Open
1:20 - Origin Story
2:26 - Pivot Point
6:34 - Mistakes & Challenges
9:02 - Trash Talk
15:29 - Most Surprising
20:26 - Learn More & Wrap
-----
Website: http://negotiationlove.com/

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Meg Nocero discuss transformation through grief.

Chapter Breakdown:
0:00 - Show Open
1:47 - Origin Story
3:42 - Bliss
6:12 - Butterfly Awakens
10:10 - It's Just Life
12:24 - Source of Hope
22:21 - Learn More & Wrap
-----
Website: https://megnocero.com/

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Amii Barnard-Bahn discuss the concept of promotability!

Chapter Breakdown:
0:00 - Show Open
1:08 - Origin Story
1:56 - Pivot Point
8:33 - Courage & Vulnerability
10:14 - Relationships
13:30 - PI Guidebook
26:33 - Learn More & Wrap
-----
Website: https://www.barnardbahn.com/
Promotability Index Assessment: Text "promoteme" to 44222
PI Guidebook: https://smile.amazon.com/PI-Guidebook-Promotability-Index%C2%AE-Career/dp/1737029308/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3UFO9XG9YKJCU&keywords=promotability+index&qid=1638206232&sprefix=promotability+index%2Caps%2C387&sr=8-2

Follow Amii
twitter: @amiibb
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/barnardbahn/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amiibarnardbahn/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7jmweozdy5UcTAXwP_sXBw

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Hope Timberlake discuss her new book, Speak Up, Dammit!

Chapter Breakdown:
0:00 - Show Open
1:38 - Origin Story
2:57 - Pivot Point
5:11 - Speak Up, Dammit
25:36 - Learn More & Wrap
-----
Website: https://www.hopetimberlake.com/
LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hopetimberlake/

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Kimberly S. Reed discuss her new book, "Optimists Always Win!"

Chapter Breakdown:
0:00 - Show Open
1:31 - Origin Story
4:28 - Optimists Always Win
8:37 - Looking For The Good
13:12 - The Worst Year Of Your Life
19:11 - Discouragement Eliminators
24:55 - Staying In The Game
31:26 - Learn More & Wrap
-----
Website: https://www.thereeddevelopmentgroup.com/
Book: http://optimistsalwayswin.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCazE_IiDtJ-raDP7QNFQiyw

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Scott Mautz discuss his new book, Leading From the Middle!

Chapter Breakdown:
0:00 - Show Open
1:22 - Origin Story
2:11 - Pivot Point
3:35 - What Is Good Leadership?
11:38 - Unique Challenges for Middle Managers
17:41 - The Beach Ball
20:47 - The 90/10 Rule
27:36 - Leveling The Playing Field
31:33 - Learn More & Wrap
-----
Website: https://scottmautz.com
Free Tools! https://scottmautz.com/freetools/

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Roberta Matuson discuss how to make difficult work conversations easy!

Chapter Breakdown:
0:00 - Show Open
1:27 - Origin Story
2:15 - Pivot Point
3:17 - Can We Talk?
4:39 - Interpersonal Feedback
6:44 - Courage
8:31 - Clarity
10:54 - Closing the Loop
12:35 - Rounding Out The Corners
15:24 - Other Books
17:38 - Learn More & Wrap
-----
Website: https://matusonconsulting.com/
Twitter: @matuson
LinkedIn (mention People First! when connecting): https://www.linkedin.com/in/roberta-matuson/

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Cody Sudmeier discuss pursuing happiness through shared experiences!

Chapter Breakdown:
0:00 - Show Open
0:58 - Origin Story
2:48 - Pivot Point
4:57 - Money Can Buy Happiness?
7:17 Spur Experiences
12:11 - Allies
15:04 - 2,5,&8
16:56 - Learn More & Wrap
-----
Website: https://spurexperiences.com/

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Howard Prager discuss his book, Make Someone's Day!

Chapter Breakdown:
0:00 - Show Open
2:26 - Origin Story
3:18 - Pivot Point
4:25 - Make Someone's Day
18:51 - Learn More & Wrap
-----
Website: https://howardhprager.com/

Welcome to SkyeTeam's People First! In this series, we explore the people side of successful business and careers. We all have a story to share, a leadership journey that we are experiencing.

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Jeff Kirschner discuss creating a litter free world!

Chapter Breakdown:
0:00 - Show Open
1:38 - Origin Story
4:03 - Off The Beaten track
5:03 - Legacy Of The Journey
6:23 - Litterati
12:57 - Breakdown In The System
14:08 - What Is Most Exciting?
16:04 - Societal Change
17:27 - Near Term Goals
25:39 - Wrap

-----
Websites:
Web: https://litterati.org/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffkirschner/

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Deepa Prahalad discuss Creating Predictable Magic Through Design!

Chapter Breakdown:
0:00 - Show Open
1:29 - Origin Story
3:11 - Innovation & Emotional Collection
12:55 - Societal Level Design
16:36 - Building Trust
18:36 - Emotional Connection
21:39 - The future
23:51 - Learn More & Wrap
-----
Websites:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepaprahalad/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/deepaprahalad

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Digby Leigh discuss relationships and practicing law a little differently!

Chapter Breakdown:
0:00 - Show Open
1:12 - Origin Story
2:14 - Pivot Point
4:41 - Shaking It Up
10:49 - Value Based Fees
16:50 - Side Hustle
17:58 - Professional Relationships & success
25:59 - Learn More & Wrap
-----
Websites:
https://leighco.ca/
altfeeco.com 

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and John Warrillow discuss his book, Built To Sell!

Chapter Breakdown:
0:00 - Show Open
1:12 - Origin Story
2:11 - Pivot Point
4:47 - Basics of Entrepreneurialism
8:18 - Inflection Points
13:22 - Pulling Levers
15:33 - 8 Drivers
17:13 - 2020 Cocktail Shaker
22:03 - M&A Frenzy?
24:37 - Successful Exit
28:41 - Learn More & Wrap
-----
Websites:
Free Gift! https://learn.builttosell.com/people/

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and David Nour discuss his book, "Curve Benders!"

Chapter Breakdown:
0:00 - Show Open
1:11 - Origin Story
4:47 - Inspiration for Curve Benders
8:24 - Be A Curve Bender
10:42 - Jim Thorpe
16:36 - K Shaped Recovery
18:04 - S Curve
30:35 - Wrap & Close

-----
Websites:
https://nourgroup.com/

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Michelle Wucker discuss the concept of risk!

Chapter Breakdown:
0:00 - Show Open
1:20 - Origin Story
1:53 - Pivot Point
4:06 - The Menagerie
8:30 - Unprecedented
9:43 - Risks We Are Ignoring
14:08 - 35K Choices A Day
14:59  - Everyday Risk
20:53 - Risk Fingerprint Change
23:58 - 20 lbs of Butter
30:48 - Wrap

-----
Websites:
https://www.wucker.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/wucker/

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Troy McLaughlin discuss cutting through the million distractions that we all face, everyday!

Chapter Breakdown:
0:00 - A Note From Troy McLaughlin
0:18 - Show Open
1:11 - Origin Story
2:05 - Leadership Journey
12:06 - Pandemic Habits
14:22 - Through The Camera Eye
20:07 - Different Hats
22:59 - Wrap

-----
Websites:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/troy-mclaughlin-0930b877/
Podcast: This Undivided Life
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/troy__mclaughlin

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Ramon Ray discuss being the celebrity CEO of your career!

Chapter Breakdown:
0:00 - A Note From Ramon Ray
0:17 - Show Open
1:37 - Origin Story
3:13 - Jack Bauer
4:46 - Define Small Business
7:35 - Personal Branding
9:44 - LinkedIn Advice
12:49 - Secret To Your Energy
16:54 - Bring back the Fun
21:16 - Let It Go...
22:36 - Wrap

-----
Websites:
smarthustle.com

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Ron Carucci talk about leading with the power of truth, justice, and purpose!

Chapter Layout:
0:00 - Open
0:55 - Origin Story
2:29 - Fifteen Year Study
4:00 - What Is Dishonesty?
6:52 - Honesty
8:18 - Just Do It!
11:50 - The 4 Domains
24:23 - Contact Info & Wrap 

Links:
https://tobehonest.net/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/roncarucci/

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Dr. Jeffrey Hull discuss leadership for a vibrant future!

-----
Websites:
https://www.jeffreyhull.com/
https://instituteofcoaching.org/

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Gerald Kane talk about his book, The Technology Fallacy!

Chapter Layout:
0:00 - Open
1:34 - Origin Story
4:40 - Fax Machines
8:25 - Knowing Doing Gap
11:02 - Successful Digital Transformation
13:35 - Golden Age of Corporate Leadership
19:04 - How Paranoid Do We Need To Be?
22:11 - Contact Info & Wrap

Links:
Website: https://www.geraldckane.com/

- [Intro] Welcome to Skye team's "People First" with Morag Barrett.

- Welcome to this week's episode of People First and my guest this week is Dr. Gerald Kane, who is a professor of information systems and faculty director of the Edmund H. Shea Jr Center for entrepreneurship at Boston College's, Carroll School of Management. Wow, I can only imagine the width of that business card.

- Yes absolutely.

- Jerry researches and teaches about how companies can understand and respond to digital disruption to undergraduate, graduate and executive education students worldwide. He's published more than a hundred papers, articles and reports on these topics. And today we're going to be talking about his book, "The Technology Fallacy: How People Are the Real Key to Digital Transformation". And you might also be getting a sneak peek of his upcoming book, "The Transformation Myth: Leading Your Organization through Uncertain Times". So Jerry welcome to "People First."

- And it's great to be here. Thank you for having me.

- All right. So as all of this, this is a podcast for leaders by leaders and it's exploring the journeys that we are all taking or have taken to get to where we are today. So I'm going to take you back. Flashback to elementary school. You're sitting there in class, your teacher has just asked you to draw a picture of what you want to be when you grow up? So when you were a wee lad, Jerry, what was your answer?

- Gosh, that's actually a hard question. Perhaps I will just answer it with what was I, when I grew up before I became a college professor. And for 10 years I was actually a United Methodist minister working at a large church in Atlanta. I really enjoyed my time there. It was a great experience but it was sort of like serving in the military. I did my tour of duty and I realized it was time to move on and went back to get my PhD. So I have two hats. One is the... I'm officially Reverend Dr. Kane, even though sort of my job is fully in academia now.

- Okay. Well, wow. I wonder so how has that informed the research and the work that you do now?

- In all sorts of different ways. So my early research was in social media. So the first day... My first day as a college professor was the day that Facebook launched this new feature called newsfeed. And all my students came into class mad because how dare they, this is an invasion of our privacy. We're going back to Myspace. And so my first day as a college professor I called an audible, and basically explained to them the business reasons why they wouldn't leave Facebook and lo and behold, 15 years later, that lesson proved right. As I got into social media there's a lot about working in a community-based organization where you don't have the traditional command and control structures of a traditional business that really aligns well with the sort of rough and tumble organic nature of the social media space. And I actually think informs very well many of the challenges that companies are facing as we move into a more digital world when you don't have all the bureaucracy and the level of control that you're used to because you need to empower people. You know, working with volunteers was a great way to learn those skills because if you can't fire people and you don't have a paycheck for them, you need to learn to motivate them and lead an organization in fundamentally different ways. And a lot of that experience actually informs sort of how I'm thinking about organizations transform in the 10 to 20, one year for the COVID and then five to 10 years beyond that.

- Essentially I'm looking forward to diving into your book and a reminder it's called "The Technology Fallacy: How People Are the Real Key to Digital Transformation." And two quick stories. Well, quickish, in terms of my own journey through that digital transformation. If I flashed back to my first career in banking, I remember the moment when a fax machine was delivered and installed in our branch. And we thought we had reached nirvana.

- The pinnacle of-

- The pinnacle-

- Of technological advancement.

- Now I realized this is not the main focus of your research but can you answer for me why is it that we still have fax numbers on business cards? I don't know the last time-

- I actually can answer that it's because we actually have this in the technology fallacy books that the real challenge is not that technology moves fast, it does. The challenge is there's differing rates of change between technologies, individuals, organizations and public policy. And there were some rules about fax machines, you could do things over fax that you still can't do over email. And so it's a lot of the regulatory stuff that hasn't caught up to the new environment.

- And we'll talk about that later. 'cause there's the ethical piece too-

- Ooh absolutely

- That is gradually eating sometimes different pace. All right, so fax machine arrived, six months later it's catching dust. The other digital transformation that I remember seeing again in the nineties was smart boards and I remember all the companies that invested in these phenomenal white board kind of computer things that would download everything that you write. And they sat there like the white elephant, nobody dared use them in case that you use the wrong pen which brings me back to the subtitle of your book that people are the real key to digital transformation. You can buy the bells and whistles, but if I'm too afraid to use it, or I use it in appropriately that investment is going to be wasted. What are your thoughts?

- Yeah, and so as we research companies, really what the technology fallacy, we actually came up with a title last. So we never actually describe what it means in the book. But since then, I've come up with the definition which is basically the technology fallacy is this mistaken belief that just because an organization's challenges or problems are caused by digital technology that the solutions involve digital technology as well. Many of the biggest challenges were not technological. They were organizational, they were talent-based, they were leadership style based strategy. And those were much more of the challenges to get them up to speed, to working in a digital world. And I actually think COVID has basically proven our hypothesis true because the tech that, it's really been remarkable at how quickly organizations have been able to flip switches and adapt to, you know remote work, to all sorts of different approaches. And the technology has been strong. You know, I was a little nervous as we were flipping schools and everything to Zoom and online, and by and large the technology has been rock solid. So the technology has always been there. It's the people side that we haven't been sort of able to change as quickly as the technology and nothing like an existential event for organizations like COVID to get peop...

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and David Burkus talk about leading remote teams!

Chapter Layout:
0:00 - Open
1:55 - Origin Story
5:42 - Smooth the Waves
7:30 - Pain Points
10:30 - Remote Community
14:03 - Scheduled Spontaneity
18:09 - Pretending Asynchronous Communication is Synchronous
19:13 - Virtual Job Market
22:13 - Effect of Lockdown on Networks
27:40 - Contact Info & Wrap 

Links:
Website: https://davidburkus.com/
TED Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/david_burkus_why_you_should_know_how_much_your_coworkers_get_paid?language=en
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidburkus/

Transcript: 
- [INTRO] Welcome to SkyetTeam's "People First" with Morag Barrett.

- I'm excited to welcome this week, a friend and colleague from the Marshall Goldsmith 100, David Burkus. He is one of the world's leading business thinkers, forward-thinking ideas and best-selling books are helping leaders and teams to do their best work ever. He's the author of four books about business and leadership that have won numerous awards and been translated into dozens of languages. His insights on leadership and teamwork have been published and shared through The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review amongst many others. He's an international speaker, both in this little three-by-five box but also in 3D too and his TED talk has been viewed more than 2 million times. This guy is worth listening to. David, welcome to "People First."

- Oh, thank you so much for having me, you know, you point out something interesting. I'm going to have to update that bio because in a zoom first world, international speakers not as impressive, I guess, is that you back when you had to get on an airplane to go speak somewhere it was a commitment now, I guess not so much. Right? So yeah. I'm going to have to update that.--

- Have camera will travel and I know we're going to get to talk about your latest book, which is so pertinent for all of us, your newest book, "Leading From Anywhere: The Essential Guide to " finish it for me.

- "Managing Remote Teams."

- There you go, and all of us are part of a matter of remote teams whether we're the team leader or the team participant. And what I love about your book is it's got practical tools and techniques for all of us, wherever we are in our career to make this work from home and work remotely work, but more on that in a moment. So, David, I do want to go back to your origin story. So, let's take you back. You're a wee lad, however tall you are at this point you're back at school and your teacher comes to you and says, "okay, David, what do you want to be when you grow up?"

- Yeah, so I'm pretty sure if we go back to like elementary school, that the answer would be that I wanted to be a professional wrestler. You know the big muscular dude who did the whole showmanship thing in the ring and went up, actually, it's funny, I have a replica of an old WWE belt right here on the screen. I don't know if you can see that, but that one--

- Okay, it's not crocodiles that you were going to wrestle then.

- No, no, no, but what's funny about that is as dumb as we all are in childhood with that sort of thing, there's a storytelling element that goes into that. By the time that I was in high school, the storytelling had pivoted from being a professional wrestler which is a little weird to wanting to be a writer. To wanting to be a novelist, et cetera. I went to university to study that, I studied English and Creative Writing as an undergrad and while I was studying that, I found Science Writing and Narrative Non-fiction and Long-form journalism and people who were using storytelling to tell true stories that helped people, right? And I thought, wow, that's fascinating. That's what I actually want to do, right? And so I went on to partly because I got married to a medical student, I went on and did a graduate program in Organizational Psychology, now with a dimension of ever being an academic, of ever doing research or anything like that, but just a pairing the two together, pairing the writing that I got as an undergrad and the Organizational Psychology as a grad to be able to tell those same stories but tell stories about the research that actually helps people live better lives, do better work, et cetera. And so in a way, I'm still doing the same thing. I kind of think it'd be cool maybe to have the long hair and the giant championship belt, like a pro, but at its core--

- And you get taught why not come across so well on camera.

- That's true, that's true.

- Yes, we'll have to say, so I'm curious 'cause I know you for your Non-fiction writing. So do you still dabble in fiction?

- No, no and in fact, one of our mutual friends, Whitney Johnson, and I were hanging out just before the world ended in in London and think it was 15 November and she actually challenged me. She's like, "you need to write a novel, like before you die you need to write a novel 'cause that's what you said you wanted to do." I don't dabble in it mostly because reality is so entertaining, why construct an alternative one? Like I go looking at every book that I write, I go looking for two types of stories. I mean, obviously, there's stories of companies or people that are living the principles from psychology that I'm trying to offer in the book. But I go looking for stories either stories about famous people or companies but stories you've never heard about those people. Or I go looking for stories that are so incredible, these people should be famous, right? And that's entertaining enough. Like I've just never felt the need to construct a fictional story because reality is so amazing. I can have plenty of fun capturing those real-life stories.

- So it's funny 'cause Organizational Psychology when you're studying humans, it's all about the stories and some of them are going to make you laugh. Some of them are going to make you cry and some of them are just that shock, horror, thriller ride. And I just saw a meme that was put up for those of us in the Human Resources profession and I'm going to paraphrase it for this video but along the line of, I can't fix stories but I can document them. And of course, some of the things that people do at work where you go, what on earth were you thinking? How could you think that was going to have a positive outcome for you or others? But I suppose that's what keeps you and I in business, is it helping to smooth the waves and the volatility that happens individually but also on teams?

- Yeah, oh no, that's exactly right. And I think stories are also a powerful way to convey concepts. You know, so I've written four books now and every principle and every takeaway is steeped in research from organizational psychology, social psychology, and every one of them nobody's ever said, you know, I remember that principle of whatever. They never say, you know I remember the story you told about Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta, finding each other and founding the UFC and how important our old friends and our old colleagues are. They always remembered the stories, right? So what I try and do is just pair that with what we know is true about human behavior but with stories of people doing it right, right? And I think as soon as you see that again, you can't correct other people...

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Darren Kanthal talk about the power of Positive intelligence!

Chapter Layout:
0:00 - Open
1:20 - Origin Story
2:49 - Emotional Arborist
5:46 - Increasing Your Vocabulary
8:13 - Transitions
11:44 - Be Present
13:02 - Positive Intelligence
15:02 - Grudges
18:19 - Take Your Own Medicine
21:51 - Contact Info & Wrap 

Links:
Website: https://www.candidcareercoaching.com/about-us
PQ Saboteur Assessment: https://www.positiveintelligence.com/assessments/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrenkanthal/

Transcript: 
- [INTRO] Welcome to SkyeTeam's People First with Morag Barrett

- I'm excited for this week's episode of People First because my guest is my friend and colleague Darren Kanthal who is an executive career coach combining a passion for developing leaders with deep expertise in the career process and more than 20 years of experience in human resources and talent. He knows people. He's a New Yorker at Heart which I think just means he walks quickly. Darren has a uniquely unapologetic yet compassionate style and an individualized results approach, orientated approach to helping leaders show up as the best versions of themselves at every stage of their career. What I do like though is that Darren describes himself as an emotional arborist. He likes "Smokey the Bear" and believes only you can prevent emotional forest fires. So Darren, welcome to People First.

- Thank you, thank you. That's a very well-written bio. I wonder who wrote that?

- Well, I hope it was you, but if not it was me when I'll take credit for it. Hey but I'm going to come back to the emotional arborist piece in just a moment. But I'm curious when you were a wee lad you're sitting at elementary school and the teacher said Hey Darren, hey, Darren, pay attention. What do you want to be when you grow up? What was your answer?

- So two answers. The obvious answer was a baseball player but I was not going to be a baseball player interestingly enough because I formulated a career in human resources. My grandmother was the personnel manager at my pediatrician's office, and I love my pediatrician. And so I wanted to be a doctor. That's what I wanted to be when I was growing up to be a pediatrician.

- Fair enough. So did you end up studying medicine at all? I mean, how do you make a pivot from wanting to be a pediatrician to now a career coach and a human resources professional?

- No, not at all. I really was not very good at Chemistry nor Biology and it became pretty evident in high school that being a doctor was not my path. And so going into college, right as a 18 year old kid my only idea was my dad was an entrepreneur. And so I was like, oh I'll go after business, I'll be a business major. And interestingly enough my college was so focused on four classes of economics which was yawn boring. But being in business was what I enjoyed. You know, I got a chance to work with my dad and took over his business when he passed away. And that was the runway to being an entrepreneur.

- Entrepreneur, so as I shared in the introduction you describe yourself now as an emotional arborist and along with Smokey Bear that only we, I, can prevent emotional forest fires. Tell me what does that mean?

- All right, so there's a story here of course, right? So for much of my formative years I exhibited really two emotions which was happiness and anger. Those closest to me knew that my range was much deeper and wider but in my immaturity and lack of emotional vocabulary I knew happiness and anger. That's what I had displayed. And it became a joke amongst my friends that I was this rock. Like, you can count on me to be happy or angry, and that was it. And fast forward to 2013, I get divorced happily. It's a good thing. I go to therapy because I'm 50% of this equation. And however much I want to blame my ex-wife I'm still a piece of this pie. And shortly after I started therapy, I cried for weeks. I cried at commercials, at billboards, at songs, driving, sitting, doing nothing. I cried. And I said to my therapist I think you broke me. And she said, no I didn't break you. You're exhibiting emotions you've held in for a long time. And really what came out was I am an emotional being. I have a wide range of emotions. I just didn't have the vocabulary. So that was the first step towards this emotional arborist. Throughout my early career the emotional forest fires that I would ignite were my emotional outbursts. What I've learned is a lot of my actions were to cover up insecurities. And so if I felt challenged in a way I didn't want to be challenged if my control was taken away, I puffed up and I got pointed, and loud and defensive, and accusatory, and all these different things. And those are emotional forest fires. Bridges were burned, I had to apologize, I've been let go or fired from jobs. And it's a difficult place to be.

- It is and it's I listened to that story and I'm thinking, oh my goodness we could be twins because as a British woman, certainly as I grew up displaying emotions was not encouraged. And whilst I don't necessarily have the external forest fires that I've created, I certainly know that they were internal. I tamp them down. And in fact I recently wrote a blog post on LinkedIn that I'll put a link to it, but it was called "if you don't like the show change the channel." Because I had that emotional epiphany the dam well broke only in fall of last year. And I recount that story in that LinkedIn post. So I encourage people to go and have a look because whether we emote them or not we all are emotional creatures. It's just whether we tamp them down or how we let them out appropriately. So for people listening, I mean what are the first steps in terms of increasing your vocabulary from, you know the happy to angry spectrum? What advice do you have for us for even naming, name that emotion?

- Honestly, a cheat sheet. And I'm happy sharing with you, my cheat sheet and it's a pie. And the middle of the pie is kind of the obvious emotion a lot of us feel happy, angry, sad, I said angry already, a couple of others. And then it goes out to the secondary and tertiary sides of that pie to show you, okay, you're angry, maybe you're disappointed, Maybe you're insecure. Maybe you're all these other things. And I didn't have that vocabulary. And so that's how I started. I looked at the primary and the center and I started moving out and realized like, oh my God I'm angry because of these other things.

- So I love that because there are, we're told more than 400 emotions, but we remember the strong ones the intense ones, and I liken it to angry. So is angry incandescent rage that's been my latest phrase or is it miffed? And understanding the degree of anger allows us to think about, and to what reason? Why is it? Is it because I feel disrespected? Is it because I feel that my voice isn't being heard? Is it disappointed because somebody didn't put their mug in the dishwasher? And then once I understand the why and what I'm feeling I can make a choice as to how to respond versus just coming out, fight or flight.

- Yes, and that's the second piece to it is the emotion is the alert signal. My innate way or my old way was to react as soon as I felt whatever. Like I was angry and then I'm enraged and I...

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Dr. Jen Goldman-Wetzler discuss how to free yourself from conflict!

00:00 Open
00:08 Intro
01:50 Origin Story
03:11 What Is Conflict?
05:08 Patterns
06:33 Breaking Patterns
09:49 Do Patterns Change With The Situation?
11:16 Happy Ending
15:30 Dealing with Emotions
24:58 Little House on the Prairie
27:22 Where to Find You & Wrap

Links:
https://jengoldmanwetzler.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jen-goldman-wetzler/

Transcript:
- [INTRO] Welcome to SkyeTeam's "People First" with Morag Barrett.

- Welcome to this week's "People First" and the theme for our conversation this week is conflict. One of my pet topics because it is a topic and an environment I try to avoid. But my guest this week, Dr. Jen Goldman-Wetzler is the CEO of Alignment Strategies Group. She is the premier New York based consulting firm that helps CEOs and their executive teams optimize organizational health and growth. But the key here is that she is the author of "Optimal Outcomes," which I can see on the shelf behind you Jen. "Optimal Outcomes; Free Yourself from Conflict at Work, at Home, and in Life." See, the secret to success. I can't wait to learn more. And this book was selected as Financial Times' book of the month. She's a keynote speaker for Fortune 500 companies, public institutions and leading startups including Google, Harvard Law School and the United Nations. Ooh, I'm looking forward to some stories about that Jen. And a former counter-terrorism fellow with the US department of Homeland Security. She has a PhD in social organizational psychology from Columbia University and has taught conflict freedom at Columbia for a decade. Jen, welcome to "People First."

- Thank you so much. It's great to be with you.

- Well, as I said as somebody who personally avoids conflict wherever I can, sweep it under the carpet, pretend it never happened, I am looking for some words of wisdom from you as we go through our conversation. But as ever I want to start with the origin story. So when you were a little girl, I don't know. Were you sitting there imagining that you were going to become a counter-terrorism fellow? What did you want to be when you grew up?

- I was not dreaming about being a counter-terrorism fellow. I was very interested in design, in interior design and architecture. I loved looking at houses and I grew up in a like a little red apartment building at the end of a long street in Riverdale, in the Bronx, in New York. And so, looking at houses and, you know, designing rooms was a fantasy to me. It was not something that was part of the day-to-day for me. And so that really, you know today what I do is I design organizations. I design lives, I help people design their own work lives, their own personal lives, their own organizational structures and so, you know, that's how I think that there is some connection there from what I love to do as a kid.

- Okay, that's also, I was trying to think, well the most I can think of as conflict for interior design was arguing over paint colors and trying to decide is this little swatch going to look fabulous when I do the whole wall? So thank you for that. Well, let's start with the basics, conflict. What is conflict? How do you define conflict?

- Yeah, well, people have so many different ways of defining what is conflict and what is conflict resolution? You know, the interesting question to me has been how do we, why am I talking about conflict freedom as opposed to resolving conflict? So, to answer your question one way to define conflict is simply say when people who are interacting with each other have different points of view or different interests that don't seem to be reconcilable. And over the last 40 years, we've had a lot of research and a lot of practice come out about how to resolve that kind of conflict. And a lot of that has come, has been about win-win negotiation. And the idea that even if we, our positions are different if we get underneath those positions and look at what are the interests that each person involved has, the reasons why we want what we want, it can be easier to come to a win-win solution. My work is all about what to do when that kind of process fails, when that win-win negotiation just doesn't work. We've seen again, over the past many decades, time and time again, whether you look at the international realm or the business realm, or the, you know inside the home community realm, very often these best practices using interest based win-win negotiation just doesn't work. And so my work is all about looking at seemingly intractable situations, where we feel stuck and how can we free ourselves from those situations from the thought patterns, from the behavioral patterns from the emotional patterns that get and keep us stuck on those conflict loops.

- So where do we learn these patterns that get us stuck in the first place?

- Well, very often we learn them from a very young age. We learned them from teachers, parents, coaches, religious clergy, you know, anyone in our lives who is helping to teach us something about the world we are likely to get the messages from them. And sometimes it really is just the most obvious, you know nuclear family that we learn how to deal with conflict from there. And I talk about these as conflict habits. These are the ways that we learn how to approach conflict. So you, at the start of the show said, I will admit, I like to avoid conflict as much as I possibly can. So that is one of the four conflict habits that I write about in the book and that I work with. We either avoid it. We blame ourselves, some of us. Many of us blame other people. And finally in somewhat more counter-intuitively what I have found is that now after 40 years of teaching people how to collaboratively work with conflict some of us actually relentlessly seek to collaborate with other people, even when it's not working for us. So we can actually get stuck in conflict by trying to collaborate with other people when those other people are unwilling to cooperate with us, we stay stuck.

- So again, realize, even though my internal, my natural desire is to avoid it there are times where I have to face up to it and own it. And I know in the book you talk about eight practices and that first one is knowing your habits and patterns. So for me, as soon as my heart rate goes up I can feel that adrenaline spike and it's either fight or flight, more often flight. I then have to make a choice to do different. So how do we break these patterns and know when to push and when actually flight or keeping quiet is the appropriate answer?

- Hmm mm. Great questions. So, the first thing to do as you noted, and that's why it's the first practice in the book is about simply pausing and noticing how you are stuck, because without noticing that you're stuck or how you're stuck, or why you're stuck it really is impossible to break free of anything because you don't know what you would need to break free from. So the first practice is to simply notice your conflict habit and notice whoever is involved in your situation with you, guess what might be their conflict habits. Sometimes this is not so hard to do, right? There are four choices and it's often very obvious that you know either I'm stuck in a blame-blame pattern where...

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Tian Shi talk about how not to underestimate or be underestimated!

Chapter Layout:
0:00 - Open
0:55 - Origin Story
2:53 - Pivot Point
6:44 - The Book
17:53 - What Are You Taking Away?
18:45 - Contact Info & Wrap 

Links: 
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/exceptionally-average-by-tian-shi#/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tian--shi/  

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Brad Montgomery talk about emotions drive engagement!

Chapter Layout:
0:00 - Open
1:48 - Origin Story
3:49 - Pivot Point
6:00 - Trips & Stumbles
8:11 - Receive Feedback
11:44 - Happiness Is...
16:38 - Applications
17:52 - Common Sense
20:36 - MBWA
23:04 - Contact Info & Wrap

Links:
Website: https://www.bradmontgomery.com/

Transcript:
- [INTRO] Welcome to Skye Team's People First with Morag Barrett.

- My guest this week on People First is my friend and colleague Brad Montgomery. Brad is a certified speaking professional. And if you don't know what that means stay tuned and you will learn. But ultimately Brad teaches people to use happiness to boost productivity, creativity, innovation and profits. He turns typical meetings into transformational events using the power of happiness. And he's a pretty funny guy. And if you are unsure, he has been able to make audiences, across 50 States and on four continents giggle his clients include Microsoft, Verizon, the FBI, yep, that one, the CIA, yep, that one too and the IRS, you mean the IRS has a sense of humor, Brad? I love it, I love it. Anyway, audiences of meeting planners describe Brad as authentic. He's a real human a funny guy on stage and off. And I am excited to share his leadership journey with all of us today. Brad, welcome to People First.

- And the crowd goes crazy.

- I don't know, I really should have a laugh track going or you should maybe you could have hit that button for us.

- That will do, it still goes boom.

- I'll say, it's nice to be... I've got my little graphic going, I'm sorry. I forgot that it comes up, Morag I'm so glad to be here.

- Well, I'm excited for the conversation and as we're there three People First episode, Brad, I'm always a little bit nosy and a little bit curious about everybody's origin story, 'cause of course we see you, the Brad of today, the successful keynote speaker Hall of Fame speaker no less.

- Oooh!

- And it's easy to lose sight of the wee lad you once were. So when you were a wee lad back in elementary school, the teacher said, "Brad, what do you want to be when you grow up?" What is your answer?

- I wanted to be a larger lad

- A larger lad.

- So in fact, I'm... In a second I'm going to walk behind the camera and grab a prop. 'Cause it's visual, baby! I wanted to be the... Not just the owner of an ice cream parlor. I wanted to be the owner of a chain of ice cream parlors. 'Cause I thought that was so cool.

- It would be. So can I ask what's your favorite ice cream color, not color, flavor?

- Well, I can tell you what, it's not, it's not vanilla and I'll tell you why it's not. I love my wife, my wife is a vanilla with chocolate sauce woman, that's what she wants and I like variety. So the key is variety, It's about... It's really has nothing to do with the vanilla it has to do with, Oh, for Christ's sake. Can we get something else?

- So when I was little at my granny used to buy Neapolitan in a block, it was... It was the vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, also with all the additives and you had to fold the box down and she would slice it and put it between little wafers, and I thought that was the height of luxury. But I have to say, I do like my sort of caramel waffle cone, mix with a bit of chocolate in there too. Well, there you go.

- My experience with Neapolitan, is it the strawberry is always left over. People are scooping out those vanilla and chocolate and the strawberries left.

- Well, I know, I didn't like the chocolate 'cause it was... It was always fake chocolate. So very important leadership journey in terms of ice cream flavors and how that has either emotionally scarred us or shaped us into the leaders that we are today. So tell me what was the pivot point that then took you from aspiring ice cream parlor leader, to professional speaker and Hall of Fame?

- My like so many of us Morag, my line is not straight. So I got out of... I did magic tricks in college, so my summer job was being a magician at a Renaissance fair, and oh, I have stories about that.

- Go on then. And then after college I thought, Oh I'll do... Honestly, I'll just master magic, I'm pretty good at it, I'll master it in a year, and then I'll go to law school, like my dad, and that'll be that. And then of course, when you're 21, you're an idiot and you don't realize you can't master anything in a year. So after being in it for a while, I realized one, Oh, this is hard and a year is not going to cover it. And two, I kind of got lucky because or I don't know lucky, maybe it's because I was awesome but my goals were just... My only goal that year was to have fun, master magic and not borrow money from my parents. And I got lucky and I got into some cool places and the money was coming in, and I was excited and I won a contest, which was cool, and I got booked at the Magic Castle which is a really prestigious magic club for magicians. And I came back and said, "screw law school, I'm not going." And I was kind of open to it thinking, well eventually I'll probably go to grad school but that time has not come so...

- Next year.

- I was an entertainer for years, and it was through that Morag, that I got exposed to professional speaking and professional speakers. And then it was a 15 year morph into becoming not just a guy who stands on stage to entertain but a guy who has an idea that he wants to communicate.

- So you make it sound so easy, but I have heard from you, around the stories around the Magic Castle, that it wasn't as smooth sailing as perhaps the jump, the time warp from then now might appear. So tell me about some of the trips and stumbles along the way.

- I didn't have any.

- It was perfect. Cool as a cucumber.

- I was born awesome, come on.

- This is where I go, liar, liar, pants on fire, Mr. Montgomery. I think it's like every... Every job is the same and that you start out as a young person thinking you're better than you are. And I think that's a nice that we all have that protective quality that we don't know at the time, how dumb we are and how bad we are. We only know that with hindsight. 'Cause like in my case, standing on stage, I never would have done it, if I would've known how bad I was. Thank heavens, I didn't know, 'cause I wouldn't, whatever. Yeah so, the trips and stumbles, when you're a guy on stage are obvious, I think, if you're entry level in a big corporation or whatever, sometimes they're not as blatant but when your audience walks out on you, as they have on me, if people just come up to you and say, that sucks which they've done to me and we're not talking like maybe that happens at your quarterly 360 review. We're talking if that happens daily or multiple times a day, which has happened to me, that feedback is instant and inescapable. So, quickly you learn, you can't be on stage and not have some dings. And it's just part of the process. It's just... You cannot be a good anything onstage until you're at least mediocre and in my case, really quite bad, but that's part of it, you know, at this point I'm proud of that. You can't... One of the reasons I'm good now is I've been on stage thousands of times and lots of them sucked.

- And li...

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Alaina Love ask the question, "What's Your Passion & Purpose?"

Chapter Layout:
0:00 - Open
1:23 - What Did You Want to Be When You Grew Up?
2:09 - What flavor of Doctor?
6:21 - Navigation
10:25 - Ramifications
12:17 - Passion & Purpose
15:25 - This Isn't Everything
17:40 - Archetypes
21:12 - Fix Me
22:40 - Living Your Passion
24:48 - Inclusion
29:38 - Leading You
31:05 - Final Thoughts & Wrap

Links:
Website: https://thepurposelink.com/
Book: https://www.amazon.com/Purpose-Linked-Organization-Passionate-Leaders/dp/0071624708/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3AN6ODHXCEBU6&dchild=1&keywords=the+purpose+linked+organization&qid=1611423155&sprefix=purpose+linked+org%2Cfashion%2C192&sr=8-1

Transcript:
- [INTRO] Welcome to Skye Team's People First with Morag Barrett.

- So welcome to the latest episode of People First, where we explore the leadership journey that has brought our guest from where she was to where she is and we'll take you to where she's going. And my guest this week is Alaina Love who is the CEO of Purpose Linked Consulting and the co-author of the Purpose Linked Organization: How Passionate Leaders Inspire Winning Teams and Great Results. Alaina describes herself as a recovering HR executive, an executive coach, a global speaker and a leadership expert. And she's passionate about everything, well everything to do with passion. And her passion archetypes, and we'll learn more about archetypes, are builder, transformer and healer which is most apt. And I'm also honored to call Alaina a friend and a fellow member of the Marshall Goldsmith 100 Coaches. So Alaina, welcome to People First.

- Thank you so much. It's such a pleasure to be with you today.

- This is going to be such an interesting conversation because your journey has been windy and windier than many. But as with every episode, I always start with the origin story. So when you flash back to when you were a young girl, you're in elementary school, the teacher comes up and says, Alaina, what do you want to be when you grow up? What was your answer?

- I wanted to be a doctor. That was my answer. I remember in grade school, reading this book about Elizabeth Blackwell, who was the first woman doctor. And just falling in love with her story. And since I've read, someone's written another book about her and her life and how her journey came to be. But I remember reading about it and thinking to myself, I want to be that, I can do that. And so that's where I began my journey and it's sort of stayed on a path of healing, but not in quite the way I expected when I was seven years old.

- Okay so medicine and being a doctor, that's a broad spectrum in and of itself. So what flavor of doctor did you want to be and what flavor of doctor do you end up being at the beginning of your career?

- You know, it's really interesting. I ended up studying medical technology originally, when in my undergraduate studies which is a field that basically has you doing all of the research studies on a patient when a patient comes into a hospital, the laboratory studies, clinical chemistry hematology, microbiology, that sort of thing. And that was great preparation. It led me to getting into Tufts University School of Medicine up in Boston. And I went to med school there. And while I was in school, my initial thoughts were I think I really like hematology cause I loved solving problems. I didn't know whether I wanted to do that, oncology, forensics but it was sort of all that investigative, you know interesting forms of medicine for me that were, I thought fascinating. And I thought, you know I'm not quite sure what this is going to turn out to be but I'm just going to going to go on this ride and explore all of these fields of medicine as I'm a student and start to figure it out. But I knew that I deeply loved the connection with patients. So it was going to have to be a field where I felt like I had daily close patient interaction and it wasn't just, it was definitely for me, it wasn't surgery. I wasn't going be a body and fender person, go in and fix something and I'm done. I needed a longer-term connection. But during my first year of medical school, my sister passed away. And that happened in the spring of my first year. And I came home from medical school that summer. And the day after I got home from medical school, my mother died. So I ended up with these two enormous losses in the span of four months. And my mother had a business a garment manufacturing business. She owned a factory. She was making men's coats and jackets and had started off as a sewing machine operator. That's what she did to put me through school, you know, as a kid, to put food on the table. And eventually she ended up partnering with the person who owned the business and then bought him out and owned it herself. So I woke up one day with the loss of my sister and mother, a mortgage to pay, 50 employees all of whom were looking at me, wondering if they were going to have a next paycheck coming and a decision to make about what I was going to do. So I took a leave of absence from medical school to run this business. About which I knew absolutely nothing. Absolutely nothing. I wasn't even allowed to have a summer job working for my mom at the factory. She used to tell me it was no place for a lady and I was not allowed to work there. Boy was she right, I learned. But the important part of that experience was that out of that tragedy, I learned that there was something other than science that I was good at. And that, and I learned that I was very interested in business. Because when you have a business like that every mistake you make, you see at the end of the week in your payroll and your income. And so you learn very quickly how to navigate what can be some pretty choppy waters in a business with very, very tight margins.

- Wow, so science, business, and the human element, I mean you talked about the clinical, the patient connection but now here you are literally in the deep end, you are now obviously early twenties but I would imagine your 15 workers span the generations. They're all looking to you for answers. How do you navigate that pressure, the grief, the desire to keep your mother's legacy going? No doubt if you're anything like me, the self-doubt imposter syndrome, how do you navigate all of that, Alaina?

- You know, I think that there was so many changes happening for me at the same time that I didn't have a lot of time to worry about imposter syndrome. I knew I didn't know what I was doing. So there was absolutely no concern that I was fooling anybody. I knew that I had a lot to learn. And the first thing I did was hire someone who knew the business to help me in the beginning of the process, to help me understand how to run the floor, how to run the business, et cetera. And I learned everything I could learn as quickly as possible from that individual so that I could run it myself. I, with respect to the grief, it took me a long time to process that. I mean, it was months and months and months after my mother died, where I really feel like I finally let myself feel that grief. And then it oozed out over some years after that, you know you're just so busy trying to figure out how to stay alive. You know, I was what I...

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and John Strelecky discuss discovering you Big 5 for Life!

Chapter Layout:
0:00 - Open
0:54 - What Did You Want to Be When You Grew Up?
2:47 - Inspiration
4:33 - Storyteller
6:18 - Big 5
10:08 - Museum Day
12:07 - Core Essence
15:10 - Practical Tips
18:27 - Patagonia
21:28 - One Thing
24:29 - Connect
25:12 - Wrap

Links:
Website: https://www.johnstrelecky.com/
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnstrelecky/
Morag's Article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/you-dont-like-show-change-channel-morag-barrett/

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Alain Hunkins discuss the three secrets to strong leadership!

Chapter Layout:
0:00 - Open
1:59 - What Did You Want to Be When You Grew Up?
6:00 - Toxic Leaders
10:00 - Pivot Points
13:46 - Fears
18:00 - Candor & Safety
20:20 - Transformations
23:50 - Tools & Advice
26:40 - Better Together
27:50 - 2D Leaders
31:20 - Learn More & Wrap

Links:
Website: https://www.alainhunkins.com/cracking-the-leadership-code
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alainhunkins/

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Sunny Bonnell ask the question, "What's Your Rare Breed Virtue?"

Chapter Layout:
0:00 - Open
1:07 - What Did You Want to Be When You Grew Up?
4:12 - Sabotaged, Edgy, & Absurd
9:20 - Fan the Flame
12:25 - 7 Traits
15:16 - Nature or Nurture?
19:50 - Audacity Personified
25:20 - Go All In on Who You Are!
29:00 - Final Thoughts & Wrap

Links:
Website: https://rarebreedbook.com/
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sunnybonnell/

Transcript:
- [INTRO] Welcome to Skye Team's, People First with Morag Barrett.

- Sunny Bonnell is one half of the dynamic duo of the marketing and advertising firm, Motto, but she is also co-author of a phenomenal book called Rare Breeds. We're not talking cows and animals here. We're talking you and I, we are all rare breeds. We perhaps just don't know it. But the subtitle is what caught my attention. Rare Breeds, It's a Guide to Success for the Defiant, Dangerous and Different. So I'm going to keep the alliteration going, Sunny. I'm looking forward to a delicious conversation with you about how we can all be defiant dangerous and different, and understanding the concept of rare breeds. But welcome to People First.

- Thank you for having me. What a wonderful introduction, thank you.

- I'll tell you. It was fun as I was starting to read the book. Before we dive into there, the inspiration and so on, as with all of my interviews, I want to start with your origin story. Because we're all on a leadership journey and it is rarely a straight path from A to B. So flashback, you're a wee girl. You're sitting in elementary school and the teacher goes, "Sunny, what do you want to be when you grow up?" What was your answer back then? What did you think you would be doing at this stage of your life?

- Veterinarian.

- Oh, correlation to rare breeds. We'll go back to it. So say more. Why did you want to be a vet?

- Well, I had a fondness for animals, all things big and small. And I used to study the encyclopedia and look up all of the animals and the breeds and I was really into it. And I had that answer from the time I was really, really young to the time I enrolled in college and that was the path I was going to be on. As a matter of fact, I dropped out of pre-vet. I was in pre-vet studying to and wanting to be a veterinarian and dropped out of college just about a year and a half in to start Motto with Ashley in my early 20s.

- But going from the science of animals to the art of creating brands and compelling non-vanilla, edgy, marketing collateral. Help me understand that pivot point.

- Well, I think that I, so I was moonlighting as a graphic designer on the side and hence my background here for those that can't see or those that are watching and can't see, I have a wall of guitars. So I was a musician from a very young age started playing guitar around the time I was eight years old, grew up around Bluegrass and gospel, cut my teeth on that, became a performing musician by the time I was 14 and had kind of gone down that trajectory as well. So I was doing music and interested in becoming a veterinarian, I think from a very young age. And then fast forward I'm into college, I'm still in a musicianship, I'm playing out, playing shows end up starting to design band posters and band covers for some of the albums and artwork, excuse me, some of the music we were doing and just fell in love with it and fell into it, really. I stumbled upon it. It was not something that I had a dream of becoming. I just started doing it as a hobby. And about a year after doing that, getting into pre-vet and just realizing that it was not for me and dropping out to start a branding agency. And looked around and said, "Well, maybe I've got a talent for this and I can do this." So, of course, I get Ashley out of college as well, and tell her she's coming with me and we're going to start this thing together. And that's exactly what we did. She was on track to be, I think, an English major into journalism. And I just believed that she could help me and we could do it together. So that's what we did.

- So tell me a little bit more about that 'cause at the beginning of the book you talk about how many times you were sabotaged, how many times you were fired for being edgy, the very reason you were hired in the first place, the number of times you were told that your ideas were absurd, or essentially just written off. So what helped you to stay in the game and continue to be the rebellious you that's upended the market?

- Yeah. I think that we, because we had never worked for another agency and we had never had any kind of roadmap prior to that, I believe that it gave us what we didn't realize, at the time but was a competitive edge. And we also did not like what we saw. So we looked around, again, keep in mind, this is 2005, we're in a very small Southern conservative town. There's only a few big players in our market, mostly advertising agencies, ran by the old guard. And here come these two women, these two young women, who audaciously believe that they can change the conversation from what brands sell to what they stand for and believe in. It's why we named our company Motto. And it's what we started out to want to do. We didn't know what that looked like. We just knew that what we saw around just looked a little bit homogenized a little bit vanilla, and we just thought audaciously we could do it ourselves, or maybe do it better. And immediately, we're met with doubt. You're too young. You're too broke. You're too inexperienced. You're too female to succeed in a world where at this point 60-ish admins are making the rules. And who do we think we are? We're outspoken. We have a lot of bravado. We may not know what we're doing but we look like we do or we believe that we do. That self-belief was very strong. But the truth behind it was that we had no money, nobody knew who we were, we were rubbing pennies together, we were in this small 14 by 14 room in a warehouse stowed away where nobody could find us. And the truth was that made the first year or two of running the business extremely difficult. And about, I'd say maybe 2007, we're starting to sort of believe that maybe everyone who is doubting us is right. We're looking at each other and we're going, "Do we really want to do this? "What were we thinking?" We were on track to do this. We had a clear path, being a veterinarian's kind of a sure thing. Why did we think this was a good idea? So we start self-doubting and believing that we're a little too rogue. And no one is taking kindly to that. Because we didn't realize at the time but I think we were seen as a threat. We didn't think of ourselves as that but I think we, in a room full of balloons, we're the sharp knives. And I think we just didn't realize that to them, they were like, "Who are these two young women "who are coming out and being extremely outspoken, "and now people are paying attention. "And even though they might be rubbing pennies together "they can take our business." So we have this pivotal moment where we have this difficult conversation where we're like, "We should just give up. "We're not making any money. "Nobody knows who we are. "Maybe everybody's right. "Maybe this is just, we're not cut out for this. "We're not cut out for e...

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Lacey Leone McLaughlin discuss, The Power of Coaching & Why We All Need One!

Chapter Layout:
0:00 - Open
1:03 - What Did You Want to Be When You Grew Up?
5:14 - Pivot Point
6:24 - Common Mistakes
7:52 - Coaching
11:00 - Authenticity
13:45 - Networking in 2020
15:20 - Student: Professional
19:10 - Remote Networking
20:18 - What Are You Celebrating?
22:30 - Reach Out
23:00 - What Are You Working On?
23:58 - Final Thoughts & Wrap
24:04 - Wrap

Links:
Website: https://llmcg.com/
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laceyleonemclaughlin/

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Ian Llewellyn-Nash discuss the Leadership and Emotional Wisdom!

Chapter Layout:
0:00 - Open
1:03 - Origin Story
4:30 - Pivot Point
10:05 - NLP & EQ
15:30 - EQ Neglect
28:20 - 2020 Rollercoaster
30:10 - Takeaway from 2020
33:42 - Wrap

Links:
https://www.tonuvacoaching.com/
https://www.instagram.com/tonuvaleadershipcoaching/

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Chris Lever discuss Navigating Change & Uncharted Waters!
Chapter Layout:
0:00 - Open
1:43 - Origin Story
3:17 - Ferry Captain
6:02 - Language & Framework
10:42 - Pulling Levers
11:58 - Logical v Human
15:56 - Baby Steps
21:20 - Do This - Get That
22:15 - Find You
24:50 - Wrap

Links:
https://teleiosconsulting.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-lever-8621415/

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Heather Younger discuss "Caring Leadership!"

Chapter Layout:
0:00 - Open
2:58 - What Did You Want to Be When You Grew Up?
4:08 - Pivot Point
8:54 - New Book
11:11 - Meet People Where They Are At
13:56 - Safety Leadership
15:17 - Am I Seen As A Caring Colleague?
18:14 - Feeling Heard
20:05 - Power in the Pause
22:08 - The 9 Behaviors
24:59 - Do It At Work, Do It At Home
29:04 - The Crucible & Wrap

Links:
Website: http://theartofcaringleadership.com/
Book: https://amazon.com/Art-Caring-Leadership-Leading-Organizations/dp/1523092149/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=caring+leadership&qid=1614564135&sr=8-3
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heatheryounger/

Transcript:
- [INTRO] Welcome to Skye Team's, "People First with Morag Barrett."

- You know, when you meet people where you just click? Where it seems that your thoughts and ideas are aligned? Well that's how I feel about Heather Younger. Heather's my guest this week on "People First", and she is a best-selling author, international speaker, consultant, adjunct organizational leadership professor and a facilitator who has rightly earned her reputation as the employee whisperer. And as a champion for positive change in the workplace, communities and in our world at large, Heather founded Employee Fanatics, a leading employee engagement and leadership development consulting and training firm to inspire others by teaching the kind of caring leadership that drives real business results. Heather hosts a weekly podcast "Leadership with Heart." I was just watching a phenomenal episode with Garry Ridge from WD-40 and Chester Elton, which also uncovers the drive for leaders from all over the world and all walks of life to be more emotionally intelligent leaders. Her book, "The Seven Intuitive Laws of Employee Loyalty" hit the Forbes' must-read list and is a go-to source for HR professionals and organizational leaders seeking insight into their organization's dynamics. And she has a new book coming out this year, this week, "The Art of Caring Leadership: How Leading with Heart Uplifts Teams and Organizations." Heather, welcome to "People First." I'm excited for our conversation.

- Thank you. Thank you. I'm very excited. This is awesome. Oh, and by the way, I actually have a podcast. You probably don't know this. So my "Leadership with Heart" podcast plays weekly. So it does play weekly, but it's an audio podcast on all platforms. And then my live show, I wish I could tell you it was more more frequent than it used to be. That live show is kind of an extension of the podcast where I try to bring on people I already spoke with or new people that still are exhibiting some of those caring tendencies so.

- Either way, both very well worth listening to. What I love about the new technology is that they're not a "one and done" because those YouTube videos, those audio podcasts they are there forever. And so whenever you find yourself with five minutes I encourage you to listen to Heather's podcast. It is inspiring, it's uplifting. But more importantly, I mean, I was making notes, Heather. I love the conversation with Gary and Chester and we'll come back to that in a moment. But as ever on "People First" this is about the leadership journeys that we are all on. And the reality that it's rarely a straight line from A to B. In my case, it's a little bit of a crocheted, knotted tangled web that I've woven and as I mix my metaphors. But I want you to flash back to when you were a little girl and the teacher goes, "Right, Heather, what do you want to be when you grow up?" What was your answer?

- Well, it's going to be funny. So just get ready. I wanted to be a model and a singer. A model and a singer. Okay.

- And I don't do either.

- Not even for fun in the shower?

- Yeah, in the shower, in the car, there's some singing going on. My kids, some of them are like, I really love your singing. And some of them are like, mom, can you stop? So yeah.

- It was funny.

- It wasn't my calling.

- I took an hour out of the day yesterday, we're going to talk about caring leadership but it was an opportunity for me to care for myself. And I joined Elliot Maisie's Empathy Concert. And we had three or four professional musicians and artists and performers from Broadway singing. And it was just wonderful to detach, but like you I sing in private, but definitely not in public. all right so, you're not a Broadway star, yet. So what was the pivot point that brought you into leadership and emotional intelligence, diversity and inclusion all of the human elements that you work with.

- I had been managing people for a long time. So then you know, leading teams for a long time and several years ago, I was in an organization that was going through a merger of companies. And through the merger, I kind of sat there. I'm always been kind of like this person with five heads anyway where I'm noticing what's happening around me and I'm seeing how people, the pain is is unfolding around me with employees and customers. And so I look around and I'm like, something's gone wrong. So I go to the head of HR and at that time I was running customer experience. So I was not on the HR side or the leadership development side of things, right. So I went to HR and said, "listen, we have got to do something." I mean, the trust has been eroded. I mean, people are really fearful, our engagement is slow. And she said, "you're right. You should go do something about that." And I'm like, huh, what me? I'm running customer experience. Like, why am I supposed to so it, but it made sense at that point because I was the person who was already kind of like a culture ambassador. Lifted people all the time whether they were my team or not. I always try to bring people together. So I did, I took it on and created an employee engagement council and brought all the different people from all those companies together. And in quick order, I mean, within six months the trust really did start to grow and it was because we forced the people together to learn each other, to you know to understand each other more, to uncover more about each other and the commonalities. And so that went really well but the merger didn't go so well. And so they had hired a lot of people. It was just not good. So they ended up doing a lot of downsizing, about 200 of us. I was in the first round of that 200 and it was an "owie" 'cause I was the breadwinner at that time, a family of six and it just hurt. But I realized like right in that minute this is the pivot really. I realized that no one was listening, no one was listening to employees, no one was paying attention. They were looking at revenue. They were looking at recurring revenue. They were all, the people they were bringing in. They weren't paying attention to what happened on the onboarding side and the people who were already there. And so I just said, someone's got to be that voice. Who is that voice from employees back to leaders about what they can do to really improve the experience? And that's where I came in and I realized at that point that was my calling. So what I've been doing ever since.

- So pivoted from the external customer perspective to the internal customer perspective. And what I love about this, I...

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Sarabeth Berk discuss why you are more than your job title!

Chapter Layout:
0:00 - Open
1:02 - Origin Story
2:38 - Book
5:17 - Intersections
7:22 - Swiss Army Knife
9:35 - ID v PID
12:45 - Make a Difference
16:15 - Implications for Marketing Yourself
19:00 - The Future is Hybrid
22:15 - Final Thoughts
23:05 - Wrap

Links:
Website: https://www.morethanmytitle.com/
TedX Talk: https://youtu.be/fZg6jaMIvIE
Book:https://www.amazon.com/dp/194402767X/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_txi8FbYN5ACBJ

We'll be interviewing authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work - and in life. As it turns out, the secret is cultivating winning relationships. Business is personal, and relationships matter!

So, sit back, and grab a coffee as Morag and Amy Cooper Hakim discuss her book, "Working with Difficult People!"

Chapter Layout:
0:00 - Open
1:09 - Origin Story
3:17 - Pivot Point
5:11 - Family Connection
8:32 - Difficult People
11:10 - Start the Conversation
14:45 - 360 View
16:15 - First Steps
19:27 - You Realize It's YOU!
24:40 - Final Thoughts & Wrap