Guests: Cynthia Cherrey (CEO) & Mike Hardy (board chair), International Leadership Association Leadership theory is one thing; real-world leadership practice is another. But the International Leadership Association does both: taking cutting-edge leadership research from academics and incorporating them in the ILA's daily operations. Their goal is to identify and find solutions for the global challenges today’s leaders face. They chose Geneva, Switzerland, for their 2021 international confere...
Jul 16, 2024•53 min•Season 8Ep. 15
Guest: Steve Robinson, former Chief Marketing Officer, Chick-fil-A Chick-fil-A – and their cows – are now an iconic fast food brand. That type of brand recognition doesn’t happen by accident: it requires great leadership creating a culture of innovation. What can you learn from their success? Steve Robinson unfolds the layers of leadership principles with real stories from Chick-fil-A’s history to demonstrate each one. Like other major brands, they’ve had PR bumps along the way, but worked throu...
Jul 09, 2024•34 min•Season 10Ep. 26
Guest: Leah Lizarondo, Entrepreneur-in-Residence (Carnegie Mellon University) & Co-Founder of 412 Food Rescue When an organization truly understands a problem and an innovative solution is implemented, people get behind it and true change happens. That’s the story of 412 Food Rescue. Leah Lizarondo saw massive food insecurity, and food waste recovery was the solution. Moreover, she reimagined food recovery as an organization that solves multiple problems. Leah joins host Maureen Metcalf to d...
Jul 02, 2024•42 min•Season 8Ep. 13
Guest: Dave Levy, Vice President of Amazon Web Services (AWS) Worldwide Public Sector (WWPS) AI is all the buzz — but how do you lead your team through all the noise to find what works for you? Dave Levy clears the noise in this episode. By helping governments discern the best AI tools to serve their communities, he sees the qualities any leader needs to look for…and security is right at the top of the list. So is education, including growing the talent pool to meet demand! Here's what Dave and ...
Jun 25, 2024•34 min•Season 10Ep. 25
Guest: Helle Bank Jorgensen, CEO & Founder, Competent Boards Is your board ready to steer your business into the future? Probably not… Your board of directors must have several critical competencies to truly benefit your organization. Competent Boards CEO Helle Bank Jorgensen goes through those requirements with host Maureen Metcalf. They start with a primer on ESG – a concept some US politicians have maligned, but understanding it holds opportunities and future profits. Produced in associat...
Jun 18, 2024•32 min•Season 7Ep. 10
Guest: Sander van ‘t Noordende, CEO, Randstad The world is becoming talent-led. The talent pool is shrinking, which means leaders must radically shift their thinking on how to recruit — and retain — top performers. Fortunately, Sander van ‘t Noordende sees a number of solid solutions arising from his vantage as CEO of multinational HR firm Ranstad. He shares them with host Maureen Metcalf in this episode. Here's what Sander and Maureen cover: The Big Three issues nearly all corporations and gove...
Jun 11, 2024•31 min•Season 10Ep. 24
Guest: Mike Hardy, Founding Director, Centre for Trust, Peace, & Social Relations (Coventry University) Ukraine. Gaza. Myanmar. As wars continue raging across the globe, we strive to understand the roots of conflict. Mike Hardy finds one tap root is bad leadership. In this rediscovered episode, Mike shares the role of poor leadership — more encouragingly, he also identifies the elements in both leadership and culture which can lead to positive peace. NOTE: As an older episode, the audio qual...
Jun 04, 2024•29 min•Season 6Ep. 43
Guest: Greg Moran, C-level leadership executive & consultant The business landscape is littered with fallen firms of questionable ethics. Enron is just one example. But the stumbles of today’s organisations — from Boeing to Columbia University — may be rooted in the lack of a clear ethical framework from the top. That’s the thesis of guest Greg Moran, who lays out the evidence with host Maureen Metcalf in this episode. It’s not mere philosophical debate; as Enron showed, missing a formal eth...
May 28, 2024•36 min•Season 10Ep. 28
Guest: Carrie Spell-Hansson, CEO, The Folke Institute DEI has been around for nearly 80 years, which makes recent attacks against it seem a little odd. DEI germinated on July 26, 1948 with Harry Truman’s Executive Order 9981, which abolished racial discrimination in America’s military. Our guest, Carrie Spell-Hansson, talks with Maureen about the continuing relevance of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs, and their benefits to both our organizations and to all of us personally. Produced i...
May 26, 2024•38 min•Season 6Ep. 13
Guest: Tammy Alvarez, CEO of Career Winners Circle Isn’t it time you did a little something for yourself? We usually talk about leadership in terms of how it helps your team or organization. In this episode, guest Tammy Alvarez shines the spotlight on you instead. Specifically, she talks about taking control of your leadership career path. As leaders, we set the tone for our teams. If you don’t love your job, your team senses it. So Tammy shares her many tips for how to get your career back on t...
May 21, 2024•38 min•Season 10Ep. 24
Guests: Anie Rouleau & Danièle Henkel (CEOs of The Unscented Company & Daniele Henkel Enterprises respectively) This episode is a goldmine of tips, knowledge, and inspiration for entrepreneurs. CEOs Anie Rouleau and Danièle Henkel start by explaining what a B-Corporation is, and why it provided the perfect framework for their companies. But they quickly delve into their own drives to become entrepreneurs. Their answers go far beyond generating profits; there’s an entirely different wealt...
May 20, 2024•42 min•Season 6Ep. 12
Guest: Shaan Patel, CEO of Prep Expert Here’s an unexpected formula for success. Step 1: Get a lower score than expected on your SAT. Step 2: Parlay your disappointment into a multimillion dollar company. That’s how Shaan Patel’s leadership journey began. It included a victory on Shark Tank , mentoring from Mark Cuban, and earning an M.D. It’s not the typical path to industry-leading CEO, but the lessons Shaan learned along the path are important for leaders in any sector. He shares those lesson...
May 14, 2024•36 min•Season 10Ep. 21
Guest: Danièle Henkel, Knight of the Order of Merit & CEO of Daniele Henkel Enterprises What’s love got to do with leadership? Turns out: quite a lot! Danièle Henkel sees love in many ways: from passion for your work to genuine respect for the people around you. It’s another facet in building trust; in this case, though, the trust is in people rather than institutions. In a world where leaders often take the quick path – and its ethical shortcuts – to achieve success, Danièle’s take on trust...
May 13, 2024•39 min•Season 6Ep. 11
Guest: Stephanie Lemek, Founder: The Wounded Workforce Your staff are probably dealing with trauma: in the U.S. alone, 70% of adults faced at least one traumatic experience. Those experiences manifest in different ways in the workplace, from perfectionism to absenteeism. Our trauma reactions are as unique as our fingerprints. Being a trauma-informed leader can help your team – and, ultimately, your organization. Guest Stephanie Lemek draws on her deep experience in HR to share how to shape a tra...
May 07, 2024•36 min•Season 10Ep. 20
Guest: Nancy Adler, S. Bronfman Chair in Management at McGill University There’s not just an art to leadership; art improves leadership! That’s the core point of Dr. Nancy Adler’s discussion in this episode. A consultant and professor at McGill University, she’s found that art enables leaders to shift perspectives more readily, thus seeing solutions more effectively. That broadness of thought is more critical than ever: in the emerging business climate, what a leader knows is becoming far less r...
May 06, 2024•42 min•Season 6Ep. 9
Guest: Mike Morrow-Fox, Organizational Development Consultant Many leaders plateau: they hit a certain level, then stop growing or maturing as a leader. But even into late adulthood, we remain able to grow and develop. Indeed, some people thirst for that growth! Mike Morrow-Fox joins host Maureen Metcalf to discuss post-conventional leaders – people who have grown to a point where they can easily see the big picture, the ripple effects of decisions, understand complexity, and more. Best of all, ...
Apr 30, 2024•44 min•Season 10Ep. 19
Guest: Chris Henderson, President of Lumos Clean Energy Advisors Indigenous voices are often left out of conversations on clean energy and climate change. Yet, their generations of environmental stewardship make them pivotal players in our energy future. Chris Henderson, a Canadian eco-entrepreneur and community leader, discusses the role of Indigenous communities in Canada's shift towards clean energy. In the process, renewable energy is enhancing social equity and fostering economic opportunit...
Apr 29, 2024•38 min•Season 6Ep. 8
Guest: Paul F. Austin, CEO of Third Wave Why are C-suites adopting psychedelics? Some leaders say it gives them a competitive edge in innovation and thinking; others use psychedelics for stress relief and general mental health. Paul F. Austin reviews the science and the trends behind this movement. He joins host Maureen Metcalf to discuss both how and why senior executives are moving these substances from taboo to corporate practice…and he provides important guidelines and limits on their use. H...
Apr 23, 2024•41 min•Season 10Ep. 18
Guest: Mike Gerbis, CEO of Delphi Politics and megaweather get all the attention on climate change, but the impacts on business are profound. The liabilities for business may rise faster than the temperature! So why are so many business leaders so far behind in dealing with it? As Oz’s Lion would say, it boils down to courage. The climate issue means challenging the status quo, which upsets stockholders focused on short-term profit. Mike Gerbis, a CEO who HAS challenged the status quo, tells hos...
Apr 21, 2024•40 min•Season 6Ep. 7
Guest: Amiel Handelsman, Elite Executive Coach We all know communication is key for leadership. But HOW we communicate is tougher. And one simple misunderstanding can make the difference between success and disaster. Guest Amiel Handelsman has observed and codified eleven concepts that will move your communications from good to great. He shares them with host Maureen Metcalf in this episode. Here's what Amiel and Maureen cover: The ways changing your conversation style can change people’s minds ...
Apr 17, 2024•38 min•Season 10Ep. 17
Guest: Steve Armato, VP of Middle Mile & Tech at Amazon Whether leaders accept or ignore new tech makes the difference between it disrupting their organizations – and transforming them. Amazon’s use of new technology is a clear and major component of its success. It’s a big part of what puts packages on your porch. And, as Steve Armato reveals, Amazon wants to share that tech with others. Steve is their VP of Middle Mile and Tech. In this episode, he talks about the ways Amazon shares AI and...
Apr 09, 2024•29 min•Season 10Ep. 16
Guests: Lynn Shollen & Sam Wilson, researchers at Christopher Newport University and Swinburne University of Technology Odds are good you aren’t happy with our leaders. Less than 1/3 of Americans believe their leaders are effective. That’s according to the Leadership Attitudes Survey. Dr. Lynn Shollen joins us to share more of the results. Dr. Sam Wilson chimes in to reveal insights from the Australian Leadership Index. The two studies had remarkably similar findings. The bottom line: most o...
Apr 08, 2024•24 min•Season 6Ep. 6
Guest: Nate Rempe, CEO of Omaha Steaks It’s an iconic success story with a menu of leadership lessons: Born from a family escaping oppression in 1917, Omaha Steaks transformed from a small butcher shop into a global brand synonymous with the finest steaks. They’ve stayed at the top because of their long history of leaders driven to innovate. CEO Nate Rempe joins host Maureen Metcalf to unpack the leadership methods that foster such long-lasting success – methods you can adopt, too. Here's what N...
Apr 02, 2024•51 min•Season 10Ep. 15
Guest: Dr. Mary Crossan, Distinguished University Professor at Western University You say you want to hire people with good character – but what does “character” mean? In this rediscovered episode, Dr. Mary Crossan of Ivey University defines exactly what leader character is, why it matters, and how to develop it. She’s found leader character is not just an add-on, but a foundational element that propels organizations towards sustained excellence. And it’s a win-win: the cultivation of leader cha...
Apr 01, 2024•42 min•Season 6Ep. 5
Guest: Greg Moran, Executive-in-Residence, Former Sr. Executive at Ford, Chase, Nationwide, and more Should you, or shouldn’t you? All ethics boil down to this simple question, but getting to the answer can be enormously difficult, especially when deciding for your business. But guest Greg Moran – a long-time C-suite resident – says you can ease those ethical questions by establishing basic principles for your firm…even before you create your pitch deck for potential investors! Greg shares more ...
Mar 26, 2024•48 min•Season 10Ep. 14
Guest: Mike Hardy, Founding Director of CTPSR In this rediscovered episode, guest Mike Hardy delivers an insightful update on the founding principles and advancements at the Centre for Trust, Peace, & Social Relations at Coventry University. He delves into his own transformative journey towards embodying peace, serving as a beacon of inspiration. The episode highlights the Centre's remarkable evolution into a hub of outstanding research, playing a pivotal role in shaping contemporary perspec...
Mar 25, 2024•43 min•Season 6Ep. 4
Guest: Brian Richardson, Founder/CEO of Richardson Consulting Group How talented is your team? Without a skills-based system, you may never know…and never tap into the full potential your organization has. But companies that look at skills know who has the talent to best get the job done – and who can develop and grow to obtain those skills. That’s the message guest Brian Richardson, the founder and CEO of RSG, brings to host Maureen Metcalf in this episode. He shares tips and cases of businesse...
Mar 20, 2024•43 min•Season 10Ep. 13
Guests: WE Empower Challenge winners Hadeel Anabtawi & Habiba Ali with Amanda Ellis While female entrepreneurs have made great strides in some countries, in the U.S. and other nations women still face significant barriers that just aren’t there for male-headed start-ups. Despite that, women leaders are making a difference by promoting positive change in their local communities – changes that can have a global impact. The United Nations recognizes several entrepreneurial women every year with...
Mar 18, 2024•27 min•Season 5Ep. 40
Guest: Dr. Tanvi Gautam, Senior Faculty at Singapore Management University How do you lead: with your head or heart? Left-brain or right? For the best leaders, the answer is “All of the above.” From the art of conversation to discovering (and sharing) your organization’s story, guest Dr. Tanvi Gautam talks with host Maureen Metcalf about her head-and-heart-based approach to leadership development – and why adding creative “right brain” thinking to business’ usual analytical “left brain” logic le...
Mar 12, 2024•48 min•Season 10Ep. 12
Guest: John Heiser, former CEO of LabVantage We hear a lot about family values and personal values…but what about business values? And what happens when your company’s and personal values conflict? Values conflicts arise frequently in the workplace. Addressing them leads to a more engaged and satisfied workforce (who also drive superior performance). Guest John Heiser explains how, and shares details on the “Giving Voice to Values” (GVV) program, which provides a proven framework for organizatio...
Mar 10, 2024•37 min•Season 5Ep. 29
