On this podcast episode, Heather speaks with Rich Gassen, Supervisor of the University of Wisconsin’s print shop. Heather talks to Rich about his leadership style, the roots of his leadership and Rich leaves Heather with some great tips and nuggets. Key takeaways: Sometimes we must be leaders without titles to become leaders with titles Empowering staff to do their best work allows the leader of the team to enrich a broader audience and grow themselves Always be present, available and engaged wi...
Oct 09, 2018•42 min•Ep. 32
Heather shares a message about leadership having tough conversations around the business. In this short and sweet episode, Heather addresses when and how to have tough conversations about things like performance or layoffs. Heather shares her own personal experiences that will enlighten listeners. Enjoy.
Oct 02, 2018•7 min•Ep. 31
On this episode, Heather R. Younger, speaks with Nick Smarrelli, CEO of Gadellnet, an IT consulting firm about the roots of his leadership, how he merges culture with data and other unique ways that he leads his organization. Key takeaways: Culture is meaningless if we do not operationalize who we plan to sustain it Culture is not just unicorns and rainbows. We need to scorecard operations Watching out for the metrics behind the business can be just as much fun than talking about culture In smal...
Sep 25, 2018•33 min•Ep. 30
On this podcast episode, Heather speaks directly to you. What is your personal identity? Who do others think you are? Where are the gaps? In this short episode, Heather delivers a short and potent message about our identities, how they frame out what we can offer the world and the importance of sticking to who we were born to be. This might just be the message you need to hear on the particular day!
Sep 18, 2018•6 min•Ep. 29
In this episode, podcast host, Heather R. Younger, speaks with Colorado Banking Commissioner, Patty Salazar about her leadership style, her heartfelt appreciation of her parents, her struggles as a strong Latina leader and the ways that she connects with her team. Key takeaways: Do the right thing Its okay to speak without a filter if you are being yourself. Ask for support for those around you. Don’t feel like you have to do it alone You can’t be everything to everyone Make your leadership styl...
Sep 11, 2018•31 min•Ep. 28
In this podcast episode, Heather R. Younger, podcast host, speaks with Chief Ray Aguirre of the California State University-Fullerton campus about his leadership journey, what drives him to lead and very practical, yet impactful ways, he connects with his team and builds trust. Key takeaways: Leaving a legacy doesn’t mean that we are forcing the fact that we are known for something once we are gone, but that the way we live our lives and display professionalism and compassion at work leaves its ...
Sep 04, 2018•30 min•Ep. 27
In this podcast episode, Heather R. Younger speaks with Denise Testori, President of Prestige Cleaners about her unique management style and a time when she was not the best leader she could be. Denise considers herself as a servant leader as a part of a family-owned organization. She acknowledges that the size of the company she leads allow her to learn more about and spend more time with the people who show up to work everyday. Some key takeaways from this podcast are: How to humanize the work...
Aug 28, 2018•29 min•Ep. 26
On this podcast, Heather R. Younger, J.D., podcast host, speaks with Keith Freier, COO at Pacific Northwest Laboratories about what drives him as a leader, his biggest area of improvement and key nuggets all leaders should know and utilize to increase their effectiveness. Keith shares a story from the movie, Remember the Titans, where Denzel Washington, the main actor in the movie, calls one of his players on the carpet for his attitude. The player then says, “With all due respect coach, attitud...
Aug 21, 2018•37 min•Ep. 25
In this podcast episode, podcast host, Heather R. Younger, J.D., speaks with Heather Heebner, former SVP of HR at Instawares Holding Company about leadership from the unique lens of a human resources executive. Heather shares her perspective on “happy employees”, and, instead, focuses on creating an environment that makes people proud to work there and do the work that they do. Heather opens up about an early learning experience with differing communication styles and how she had an awakening af...
Aug 14, 2018•39 min•Ep. 24
On today's HR podcast, Heather R. Younger, podcast host, speaks with Eric Jacobsen, SVP of Operations for Extraction Oil in Gas, a publicly traded oil and gas company our of Colorado. Heather speaks to Eric about why he chooses to lead, a time when he was not proud of himself as a leader and how he changed that at about the many ways he connects with his team. They also talked about maintaining the proper focus on what is important as a leader and some key ways to reach across the table and coll...
Aug 07, 2018•30 min•Ep. 23
In the podcast episode, Heather R. Younger, podcast host, speaks with Tammy Taylor, about her leadership journey, her style and a little about how she was not always the best leader she could be. Like many leaders, Tammy shares how, at one point, she let her ego get the best of her, but put that aside to become a better listener. Tammy outlines her communication strategy she uses while overseeing a 1300-person organization. She talks about the importance of celebrating successes and being an ast...
Jul 31, 2018•26 min•Ep. 22
On this episode, Podcast host, Heather Younger, speaks with Christinne Johnson. President of HR at First Bank. Christinne shares a lot about her leadership style, what drives her to be a leader, and when she was not the greatest leader. Parting messages? Leadership is a journey filled with detours. Try to have self-awareness and reaction to a situation happen closely together not way after the fact and show yourself grace just as you might show others grace to make mistakes and then get up and g...
Jul 24, 2018•29 min•Ep. 21
On this podcast episode, Heather speaks with Megan Wick, Executive Director of Gamma Phi Beta International Sorority. Megan illuminates for listeners that emotional intelligence can be learned and it is an evolving skills. Megan highlights for listeners the importance of self-management when it comes to our emotions. Megan shares stories of times when she was not the Leader with Heart she is today, and that it is a journey to better leadership. She didn’t just arrive, but is growing through hard...
Jul 17, 2018•38 min•Ep. 20
In this podcast episode of Leadership with Heart, Heather speaks with Dirk Frese, Director of Sales and Marketing for Julabo and co-founder of WISDOM. Dirk shares with listeners a powerful north star for why and how he leads others. Dirk says it all starts with love. We need to love our people, our customers, our products and services and all else will follow. Having said that, Dirk makes it quite clear that leaders cannot be soft and must have tough conversation that are not driven by anger, bu...
Jul 10, 2018•36 min•Ep. 19
In this podcast episode podcast host, Heather R. Younger, speaks with Aaron Skogen, General Manager of Aquatix. Aaron admits that his leadership style has evolved over time, but his leadership signature came from a surprising place. Aaron shares with listeners a leadership failure on his part some years back that continued to shape him and teach him value lessons. He credits clear and consistent communication with much of his success. The most compelling part of Aaron’s leadership style if his l...
Jul 03, 2018•32 min•Ep. 18
On this episode podcast host, Heather R. Younger, speaks with Jim Reuter, CEO of First Bank. Jim is deeply driven by the impact he has on others and the legacy he will leave behind Jim shares some great insights about why he rarely leans on his title when interacting with people. Not surprisingly, Jim describes his leadership style as heart-led, vulnerable, authentic and bottom-up collaborative. He focused on walking a different path every day in order to connect with the people he leads. Having...
Jun 26, 2018•45 min•Ep. 17
In this episode podcast host, Heather R. Younger, speaks with Tim Hinchey III, President & CEO of US Swimming about his role as a leader of this national organization. Tim recounts for Heather the roots of his leadership and that his father formed in all things leadership. He believes that work ethic, discipline and not cutting corners are key tenets of effective leadership. When asked how he connects with his team and the people who work for the organization, Tim chuckled about the fact tha...
Jun 19, 2018•31 min•Ep. 16
In this podcast episode podcast host, Heather R. Younger, speaks with Mark Nagel, Senior Manager of People at Southwest Airlines about his leadership style, how he connects with his team in a deeper way and the drivers for his current leadership. Mark openly shares a time when he was not the great leader he is today in a way that reveals why he is a leader with heart. He shares his 80/20 rule for getting the most out front line team members. Mark assumes greatness is all around and works hard to...
Jun 12, 2018•31 min•Ep. 15
On this episode, podcast host, Heather R Younger, dives into a powerful set of discussions with Kristi Turner, CMO of Compeat. They discuss the importance of diversity at the executive leadership table, the role that upbringing can play in defining a leadership style and gift of being a leader. One the key discussion circled around the idea of organizations setting standards of ethics and values while, at the same time, allowing for individuality to show through. Kristi evangelized the idea that...
Jun 05, 2018•38 min•Ep. 14
On the podcast call, Heather R Younger, podcast host, speaks with Trent Selbrede about his leadership journey. He reveals to listeners that he struggled to be the best leader he could be, because he was often unhappy and didn’t know why. He highlights that his discovery of self-awareness was the winning piece he was missing. He share a very touching way to connect with team members. Listen on.
May 29, 2018•24 min•Ep. 13
On this podcast episode, Heather speaks with Scott McCarthy about his journey as a leader in the Canadian Army. Scott reveals that his motivation for leading his people is really making the lives of his people better. He uses delegation and empowerment as his hallmarks. Scott shares some great stories. Some that are when he was not the most outstanding leader. Some when he found ways to connect with his team even under stressful circumstances. As he said, “Build a team before the crap hits the f...
May 22, 2018•29 min•Ep. 12
In this podcast episode, Heather R. Younger, podcast host, speaks with Nate Iglienski about an emotional event that changed the way that he leads both his family and his team members. He provides some great practical things he did to turn his team around after being told that they were not a team. Nate points out that often when something is not right with the team, the leader needs to look inward and work on them. He defines much of his leadership style as empathetic, flexible and transparent. ...
May 15, 2018•28 min•Ep. 11
In this podcast episode, podcast host, Heather R. Younger, speaks with Rob Pepper, Marketing and Business Strategy Leader at iStratus, LLC. Rob shares his fundamental leadership style. For Rob, his success strategy is surrounding himself with talented individuals and then letting them do what he hired them to do. His favorite saying, “Get comfortable being uncomfortable” is how he pushed his team to see more in themselves and to challenge themselves to expand their potential. Rob prides himself,...
May 08, 2018•35 min•Ep. 10
In this podcast episode, Heather speaks with Tom Dietzler, Director of Operations at St. Peter Lutheran Church. Tom highlights the importance of walking around daily to connect with his people and just talk to them. He reiterates the importance of consistent communication with his people. He says that if leaders don’t communicate, someone will fill that vacuum with rumors, or worse. His main focus is to empower people and to make them feel important and he tells a story of when he was not the be...
May 01, 2018•41 min•Ep. 9
In this podcast episode, Heather speaks with Rich Todd, Founder and CEO of Innovest. Rich tells a great story of the journey he took to the more humble, other’s focused leader he is today. The road was not a straight one. He is an innovative leader who uses 360 reviews to determine bonuses for his staff of 50. Social responsibility plays a huge role in his firm’s strategy to create a positive culture and feed it. Rich details the tactics behind his culture strategy that will leave listeners want...
Apr 24, 2018•36 min•Ep. 8
Sarah Bierenbaum is a leader who provides a space for her people to fail. She relays that she is an evolving leader and admits that she is a work in progress. She aspires to be more actively listen to her team members. She works hard to be in alignment with this more evolved leadership style. Sarah is the perfect example of a leader with heart, because she is emotionally self-aware of how her actions affect those around her and bring a potential conflict to the forefront to improve herself and h...
Apr 17, 2018•34 min•Ep. 7
When you want to accelerate your growth as a leader and scale to a larger role, Jennifer Butler tells us that we must set clear expectations with our team, be transparent about how we need help and lead with the heart. She cautions us not to let go of the deep connections we have with our team members and to lead with a sense of self. In short, be a leader with emotional intelligence. Jennifer recalls a couple powerful stories when she was not the best leader she could be and how she courageousl...
Apr 10, 2018•27 min•Ep. 6
Podcast host, Heather R. Younger, J.D., speaks with Andrew McDonald, principal at a Colorado school, about what it takes to connect with each person and listen actively. Description: In this episode, Heather speaks to Andrew about the unique challenges he faces as a school principal around leadership. He relays that he has multiple customers to include students and teachers. He demonstrates social intelligence in showing a deep compassion for his people and wields substantial influence, because ...
Apr 03, 2018•23 min•Ep. 5
In this episode, Heather speaks to Steve Paul about his leadership philosophy. He shares a story that greatly impacted his style of leading himself and others. They discuss past challenges and how he was able to land in a positive place with his team members. He admitted that his guiding force resides in his faith. Steve Paul, a longtime friend of mine, but I’ve known him as a leader. He’s also a previous client. The reason why I’ve invited him on here is because I’ve seen over the years, number...
Mar 31, 2018•26 min•Ep. 4
On this podcast I ask you to see yourself in the stories my guests tell about times when they were not the best versions of themselves, but how they used their heart to guide them to a place of deeper connection with their teams and heightened leadership prowess. Today I’m very excited to welcome such a leader in Brigitte Grimm, treasure of Adams County, Colorado. I have witnessed her leading with heart, her team, and have actually heard their feedback as a result. Stay tuned for this wonderful ...
Mar 30, 2018•24 min•Ep. 3
