Guest: Tammy Alvarez You shudder when Monday rolls around. You dread checking overnight work messages on your phone when you wake up. Yup: it’s easy to find yourself in a career you don’t love, and not know how to get out. Take heart! Tammy Alvarez has been there. She found her way out…and now coaches people to help them forge the path to careers they actually love. She shares some of her tips with host Maureen Metcalf in this episode. One key mindset: think of your career as a business, and you...
Jan 04, 2023•54 min
Peter Kozodoy was peeved at the number of lying, dishonest managers, CEOs, and other leaders he had to contend with. So he analyzed honesty…and found that honest leaders not only do better, but their teams function better, too. Peter discusses: How to use strategic brutal honesty to improve far more than morale: it improves sales, marketing, recruiting, and so much more; The simple 2-question technique that teaches us how to shake off self-limiting talk that prevents us from success; and How to ...
Jan 03, 2023•57 min•Season 8Ep. 23
Guest: Kenny McDonald It takes a village to raise a city. That twists traditional wisdom, but it’s true: no one leader can improve an urban landscape alone. It takes a group of leaders in public and private partnership. When they’re united by one vision, their city can grow into a powerhouse. Kenny McDonald oversees that for Columbus, Ohio – a city that’s launched into a bold future…most recently, as the site for Intel’s newest, largest chip plant. As president of the Columbus Partnership, McDon...
Jan 02, 2023•54 min
Guest: Jim Ritchie-Dunham There’s more to grit than determination – a whole lot more. Knowing that can help you harness this incredible power of passion and perseverance. Building on the work of Angela Duckworth and her seminal book , guest Jim Ritchie-Dunham shows how there are four levels of grit in an organization...an insight which dovetails neatly with his own work in ecosynomics. Leaders often unknowingly determine how it cascades through various parts of their business – but because they’...
Jan 01, 2023•56 min
Guest: Greg Moran "Good afternoon, staff. I'm listening." If only your boss truly listened, like Frasier Crane! The reality is most folks high up the chain have little clue about what the front line -- and the customers the front line interacts with -- are thinking. As the staff at one major company said, "They're not even listening to us." The solution is easy. Slack, Teams, and other chat channels have replaced the watercooler as your company's own internal social media. Listening to those con...
Dec 31, 2022•59 min
Turning the tables, Christopher Washington -- the provost and Executive Vice President at Franklin University – interviews our host, Maureen Metcalf, on the top five trends leaders will contend with in 2023. The key it to lead with a scientist's mindset, experimenting and creating opportunities to help your organization navigate the destabilizing effects of the trends, and to take advantage of the opportunities they create. In this episode, you’ll learn: 1. How will issues of sustainability and ...
Dec 27, 2022•54 min•Season 8Ep. 53
Guest: Terri O'Fallon Few leaders set out to harm others – but it can happen despite our best intentions. The key is to look outward from our decisions to all the ripple effects they generate. And the best way to look outward is to look inward! It’s hardly a secret that our emotions affect our cognition. Our guest, Terri O’Fallon, founder of Stages International, reveals in this episode that identifying and naming our emotions helps us become better leaders, and increases our sense of well-being...
Dec 21, 2022•56 min
Featured Guest: Chris Nolan One look at the headlines on any given day makes it clear: the world is UNclear. How can an organization navigate through the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity to survive – much less succeed? By understanding VUCA, a concept developed by the Pentagon in 1987 to give our military an edge in chaos. Filmmaker Chris Nolan joins Maureen Metcalf to share how this military technique directly applies to businesses and non-profits – information drawn from his ...
Dec 20, 2022•56 min
Featured Guest: Matt Qvortrup As a political scientist, Matt studies democracy – its evolution, and particularly how democracies decline. He shares his perspective on the rise of populism across the world, how that leads to un-democratic leaders, then answers the question, “Is American democracy a brittle twig or a supple bamboo?” He offers solutions, too; every strong democracy in history thrived on disparate points of view – and leaders who welcomed diverse opinions.
Dec 20, 2022•44 min
Featured Guest: Christopher Washington Christopher Washington joins Maureen to discuss the Leadership Trends for 2021 and Beyond.
Dec 20, 2022•46 min•Season 6Ep. 52
Featured Guest: Evan Sohn Having trouble filling positions? Brace yourself: the Great Resignation is morphing into the Job Hopper Economy. Evan Sohn, the CEO of Recruiter.com, is in a unique position to see beyond the simplistic explanations of TV pundits. He joins host Maureen Metcalf to share his big-picture view of the state of hiring today…and where it will be tomorrow. Lesson 1: “Money solves all problems” is a pre-pandemic thought that no longer applies. Employees are looking further; in a...
Dec 20, 2022•48 min
Featured Guest: George Limbert “Character is what you do.” That’s a fundamental leadership principle for George Limbert, president of Red Roof. This is our second visit with George since he began his leadership journey as a first-time corporate president last summer. Red Roof has prospered under his guidance, proving the value of his philosophies. Character sits at their core. A focus on character led to many innovations at Red Roof, including their Women’s Center for Excellence and Women in Lea...
Dec 19, 2022•50 min
Featured Guest: Terri O'Fallon, Ph.D. & Kim Barta MA Although our bodies stop growing, our minds continue to develop throughout adulthood. But seeing the world differently can be confusing as your old brain emerges into the new. That confusion can be doubly difficult for leaders navigating their own growth (or Vertical Development) with that of their teams. At each successive level, leaders expand their capacity – yet face new shadows: areas of confusion and challenge. By understanding those are...
Dec 19, 2022•57 min•Season 8Ep. 20
Featured Guest: Rachael Kelly Every business has its ups and downs. But when trauma hits, the worst thing to do is ignore it. The best: tend to your people! Rachael Kelly watched the effects of COVID quarantine rapidly cascade through the restaurant industry…including at her organization: Smokey Bones. As a restaurant chain, the quarantine hit Smokey Bones hard -- and almost instantly. That, in turn, created serious issues for servers and other restaurant staff. Rachael joins host Maureen Metcal...
Dec 19, 2022•55 min
Featured Guest: Raj Subrameyer Raj Subrameyer knows about toxic leadership first-hand: HE was a toxic leader. Fortunately, Raj learned before it was too late that the toxins affect the leaders just as much as their teams. Anxiety, depression, anger, sleeplessness, illness...they all mount up. In this episode, Raj talks about his former leadership style, and his subsequent journey to a better work life. In the process, he reveals lessons on personal branding. It's not unrelated -- the more comfor...
Dec 19, 2022•56 min•Season 8Ep. 26
Featured Guest: Ruchira Chaudhary Something was wrong with the company. Working for a large corporation in Singapore, Ruchira Chaudhary realized there were too many issues blocking a thriving work environment…and it all stemmed from poor leadership. Now an international executive coach and author of Coaching: The Secret Code to Uncommon Leadership, Ruchira joins us to reveal how coaching is more than a nice skill for leaders – it’s the secret sauce of truly extraordinary leadership. Coaching is ...
Dec 19, 2022•54 min•Season 8Ep. 24
Featured Guest: David DeRam David DeRam is a 30-year veteran of the software and start-up world. But it wasn’t until he co-founded Greenlight Gurus that he fully realized the power of mindset training in boosting performance, morale, innovation, and outlook for every member of his team. Giving his team every edge possible is quite literally a matter of life and death: Greenlight Gurus develops quality management software for medical device makers. David joins host Maureen Metcalf to provide insi...
Dec 19, 2022•55 min
Featured Guest: Rebecca Ryan All of us took history classes, but who’s taken future classes? Studying the future is a discipline that stretches back decades. Strategic foresight is the established and proven process of looking at future probabilities, yet many business and NPO leaders either don’t know about it, or don’t understand it. It’s used by Fortune 200 companies, the U.S. military, the World Bank, and others. As futurist Rebecca Ryan explains to host Maureen Metcalf, strategic foresight ...
Dec 19, 2022•54 min
Featured Guest: Chris Nolan One look at the headlines on any given day makes it clear: the world is UNclear. How can an organization navigate through the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity to survive – much less succeed? By understanding VUCA, a concept developed by the Pentagon in 1987 to give our military an edge in chaos. Filmmaker Chris Nolan joins Maureen Metcalf to share how this military technique directly applies to businesses and non-profits – information drawn from his ...
Dec 18, 2022•56 min
Featured Guest: Gregory Milano A leader’s lust for short-term profit often means pulling tomorrow’s results into today’s reports. Those intentions may be well-meaning, intending to please shareholders and the board. But they can result in bankrupting the future. After all, if you’re crediting next quarter’s returns into this quarter, how will you make next quarter look as appealing? It’s unsustainable. In his new book, Curing Corporate Short-Termism , Gregory Milano guides senior managers who wa...
Dec 18, 2022•55 min
Featured Guest: Ben Marcovitz Most often, when employees are labeled as underperforming, leaders write them off. When such an employee inevitably leaves (or is forced out), you’re potentially giving your competition top talent…because with the right approach, those employees can become motivated high-performers. Ben Marcovitz, CEO of the Rise Institute, believes expecting radical growth from struggling staff should be the norm. It’s far less costly than staff churn and training, and can reveal u...
Dec 18, 2022•56 min
Featured Guest: Jonathan Reitz Communication is key to effective leadership. You may have the best vision in the history of humankind – but if you can’t communicate it to others, you’ll never come close to achieving your goals. Good leaders know this; that’s why Googling leadership communication skills results in literally billions of results! Sorting through those hits could take a lifetime. Fortunately, Jonathan Reitz has spent his life in professional communications, and he’s distilled it dow...
Dec 18, 2022•56 min
Featured Guest: Rod Lacey simPRO’s approach to the Great Resignation is simple: empower employees. And learning how to direct that empowerment is simple, too: listen to staff. Employees will tell you what they need, and want! This employee empowerment prepares simPRo for the future of work. In this episode, simPRO’s Chief People Operations Officer, Rod Lacey, shares insights into how the employer/employee relationship has evolved; what that means for company culture and leadership strategy; how ...
Dec 18, 2022•56 min
Featured Guest: Dr. Maryanna Klatt It’s no secret that the well-being of your workforce directly affects the well-being of your entire organization. Prior to the pandemic, most corporate wellness programs focused on physical fitness. The stresses of COVID quarantining, though, showed that mental health is every bit as important. Integrative medicine ties both physical and mental health together, revealing many ways in which they influence each other. In this episode, Dr. Maryanna Klatt discusses...
Dec 18, 2022•56 min
Featured Guest: Gary Bolles Work isn’t what it used to be. Even before COVID and the Great Resignation, a seismic shift began shaking in the workplace: not just how we work, but why we work. Prior generations worked mainly for money; today’s younger generations work mainly for mission (and hope the pay will follow). How can a leader lead a workforce that’s so varied in why, where, and how they work? First, understand – and help forge – the new rules of work. Second, adapt your “sets”: mindset, s...
Dec 18, 2022•57 min
Featured Guest: Neil Sahota Many people fear the Artificial Intelligence revolution that’s underway. But like every other major societal revolution in human history, you can play it to your favor. The key? Innovative thinking. In reality, these upheavals create newer, better jobs for people – though, from the sabot to the Luddite, people who don’t think differently, innovatively, even disruptively miss the opportunities these advancements create. IBM Master Inventor Neil Sahota joins host Mauree...
Dec 18, 2022•56 min
Featured Guest: Nell Derick Debevoise If you don’t know your own purpose, can you really get behind your organization’s purpose? Nell Derick Debevoise found that a critical component of success is knowing how your personal purpose intersects with your organization’s purpose. That holds true for the individual members of your team, too: if you understand what their personal or professional purpose has in common with the company’s purpose, you’ll foster a happier and more productive team. With pur...
Dec 18, 2022•55 min
Featured Guests: Amiel Handelsman and Jewel Kinch-Thomas America’s racial reckoning is underway, yet continues to be hotly debated. One novel approach comes from leadership consultants Amiel Handelsman and Jewel Kinch-Thomas: frame it as a hero’s or heroine’s journey. The answer is surprising, simple – and makes a great deal of sense in fostering reckoning…then reconciliation. The same core principles also apply to leadership, particularly when combined to the fundamental leadership style requir...
Dec 16, 2022•50 min•Season 7Ep. 44
Featured Guests: Kevin Cassidy & Christopher Washington Formed in the aftermath of World War I, the International Labour Organization has evolved along with the workforce as part of the League of Nations and the United Nations. The ILO studies the environment for workers from a tripartite perspective: from labor itself, from business, and from government. All three are necessary to create optimal conditions for workers – but for women, minorities, and citizens of developing nations, conditions a...
Dec 16, 2022•53 min
Featured Guest: George Limbert Helping nurses and doctors during the pandemic. Assisting first responders as towns recover from natural disasters. Joining the fight against human trafficking. Red Roof’s evolution as a corporation is more than just another branding story. New president George Limbert firmly believes leaders must guide their organizations into always doing what is right: for customers, of course, but also for employees…and communities. As a new president, we plan on following Geor...
Dec 16, 2022•56 min
