The Great Resignation and the Great Reconnection
Scott Seagren, who works as a Leadership Coach and is a trusted colleague of Daniel’s, has an open, insightful, and meaningful conversation about the great resignation and how it’s being driven in large part by the great reconnection, where people are wanting to connect more with themselves, others, and to something bigger and more meaningful than just a job and paycheck.
Here are some key moments from our conversation:
- Thoughts about people who change jobs or careers and what they are looking for? (2:15)
- The great pause before the great resignation (6:55)
- Reconnection with self and others? (8:30)
- The distinction between being alone and being lonely? (10:30)
- Are you moving away from something you don’t want or towards something you do want? (14:00)
- Connections bigger than ourselves and our spiritual journey (17:54)
- What is your experience in deeper connections with family? (27:32)
- Over isolation and pivoting on emotion during a Pandemic (31:30)
- The connection between lightness and Darkness in us (33:10)
- Stepping back, taking a deeper look, and recommitting (40:15)
- Risk of getting away from the job or working away from the boss, when perhaps what you’re really trying to run from is inside of yourself (42:15)
- Emotional trauma and blinders (45:00)
- The inner critic (52:05)
- Closing thoughts (56:05)
Aaron Brown: VP Talent Development at Mountain America Credit Union
Aaron Brown, VP Talent Development at Mountain America Credit Union. A systems-thinking data driven business minded leadership development professional that is passionate about people, learning and culture. He knows how to strategically align people, process, and workforce systems to shape high performance culture. He designs success drivers into the system vs. chasing engagement and attrition through symptomatic approaches. Aaron shaped his career and helped him a lot about his opportunity growth through overseas environment growing up and learned about diverse. He believes that investing in people is the best way to achieve business objectives.
Here are some key moments from our conversation:
- Tell us about how Mountain America Credit Union got to be recognized as a best place to work by Glassdoor? (4:55)
- How did you help each person in your organization to help embody the company values? (8:45)
- Behavioral change in a bigger picture. (13:20)
- What are some of the biggest challenges you face as a talent development leader? And how do you overcome those challenges? (21:20)
- What is next, where do you go from here? (26:15)
- How do you enroll the executive team and the whole leadership Council into the approach (35:30)
- How would you describe your true north as a leader? (40:15)
- How does your true north inform your leadership decisions? (48:30)
- What do you do to recharge and sustain yourself in what I’m sure is a very demanding role? (54:10)
- If you could take everything you know about leadership and distill it down to one key piece of advice for our listeners, what would that be? (57:30)
- And what about Talent Development leaders specifically, what advice do you have for them? (58:40)
- Any final thoughts you want to leave the audience with? (1:01:08)
Martin Rowinski: Corporate Matchmaker
Martin Rowinski, CEO at Boardsi, was born and raised in Warsaw Poland -a global technology pioneer, executive recruitment expert, and international speaker with 25 years of c-level experience. Rowinski created and spearheaded their proprietary software that allows companies to effortlessly search for the most qualified Boards of Directors and Boards of Advisors from a pool of thousands of top executives across the U.S. and internationally. As well he is the author of the book “The Corporate Matchmaker”, which talks about executives and members of the board advisory.
Here are some key moments from our conversation:
- How would you describe what Boardsi does? (4:49)
- What drew you to do this business? (6:55)
- What is your “secret sauce” that sets you apart from other firms like yours? (8:25)
- What are some of the biggest challenges you have faced in getting Boardsi off the ground and to where it is now? (13:55)
- How are you getting the funnels upfront to get those leads? (16:30)
- How would you describe your true north as a leader? (18:40)
- How does your true north inform your leadership decisions? (21:10)
- How do you attract the right people? (25:45)
- For your employees, how do you help them staying inspired (30:00)
- What do you do to recharge and sustain yourself in what I’m sure is a very demanding role? (32:20)
- If you could take everything you know about leadership and distill it down to one key piece of advice for our listeners, what would that be? (35:50)
- And what about entrepreneurs specifically, what advice do you have for them? (37:25)
- Any final thoughts you want to leave the audience with? (38:40)
Carolyn Herzog: Legal Coach/Resilient Extrovert
Carolyn Herzog, Chief Legal Officer and member of the Audit Committee of the Association of Corporate Counsel, is a globally-focused Legal Coach with a deep understanding of the distinct cultural differences that can impact business strategy. Carolyn is a cybersecurity C-Suite executive that has worked in a variety of industries including Fortune 500 and large UK multinational technology and international development. She believes that being resilient will get you through terrible times and unprecedented situations.
Here are some key moments from our conversation:
- How do you describe your true north as a leader (1:10)
- How do you differentiate between diversity, inclusion, and fairness (5:20)
- What changes does it makes to you over time (9:20)
- How your true north helps you in your leadership decision-making (18:12)
- Why do you think in your experience introvert leaders have been more effective (21:35)
- What are the biggest challenges you have faced as a General Counsel leader and how have you overcome those (24:30)
- How do you keep yourself recharged (34:15)
- What would you give as a piece of advice on leadership (36:28)
- As a General Counsel leader, what advice can you give for legal leadership (40:29)
- Final thought you want to leave (44:40)
Steve Grau: Leadership Practitioner
Steve Grau, CEO & Founder of Royal Ambulance, became well acquainted with the healthcare system when his grandfather had a stroke and suffered from severe mobile impairment. From that moment Steve was determined to improve the health care system. His goal was to improve the experience for hospital patients and their families, which steered him to solve the challenges associated with inter-facility patient transport. One of the missions of his company is to become a beacon for young professionals to join him and grow together along the way.
Here are some key moments from our conversation:
- What are the unique challenges you have faced and how do you address them (4:50)
- How do you innovate despite of all the challenges regarding the rates that are dictated by customers (8:03)
- How do they see you as a differentiated service in a customer standpoint (13:40)
- How do you describe your true north as a leader (15:32)
- What do you recognize more fully as far as your impact as a leader (18:55)
- What are the biggest challenges you have faced as a leader in Healthcare and how have you overcome those (22:25)
- How are you addressing attrition (26:10)
- What do you do to sustain yourself when you’re feeling burnout. (31:28)
- One key thing that you leave people with about leadership, what would that thing be (37:47)
- What advice you can give to healthcare leaders? (39:50)
- Final thought you want to leave (42:10)
Lisa Lang: General Counsel/Servant Leader
Lisa Lang started her education pursuing a career as a teacher and followed a non-traditional career path that eventually led to her current position as General Counsel for Kentucky State University. By focusing on her passions and making unconventional choices, she has been able to create a space for herself that intersects all her experience gained in military and civilian roles, while allowing her to live the life that she wants to lead.
Here are some key moments from our conversation:
- What drove you to work with a leadership coach and what have been some major learning points (2:50)
- How did the coaching process help you be more adaptive and resilient in your role (7:00)
- Describe your “True North” as a leader (13:08)
- As a legal leader what are some of the specific challenges of your profession and how do you overcome those challenges (21:28)
- What were some of the key things that helped you make the adaptation from military to civilian environments (27:00)
- As a GC in Higher Education, what are the similarities and/or differences from being a GC in private/public companies (28:51)
- What career advancement advice do you have for legal leaders who are early in their career (32:10)
- What are some of the non-traditional career choices you made along the way and how did it all fit in looking back (34:30)
- When you look back on all of your career pivots, how did they help you get to where you are in your career today (38:50)
- If you could distill everything you know about leadership into one key piece of advice, what would it be (42:10)
John O’Melia: Authentic Leader
I am excited and grateful to share John O’Melia’s insights and stories with you in this episode. Building a career from a consultant foundation, John developed a depth and breadth of experience spanning many different business units. He moved into the start-up world in 2017, worked his way up to CEO with Seal Software, and played a pivotal role in selling that company to DocuSign in 2020. John is currently the Chief Customer Officer with Contentsquare and graciously connected with me to dive into his career path experience.
Here are some key moments from our conversation:
- Being perceived as prepared for your CEO role (3:45)
- First 6 months in CEO role (6:00)
- Making the choice to transition CEO-CCO (7:40)
- Defining your True North as a leader (13:50)
- Key Mentors and how have they influenced you (22:20)
- Special Mention: Rick Devenuti (both John and I worked closely with this influential leader) (25:00)
- Key career moments (26:40)
- Most impactful career lesson (35:21)
- Merges and Acquisitions (43:00)
#careerpath #leader #growth #authenticity
Setting Intentions
Given the uncertainty that we exist in right now, it can be challenging to focus on long-term goals. In this liminal space that seems to never end, how can we maximize our ability to create powerful intentions as we approach another New Year? Today Colin T. McLetchie, PCC BCPP (President and Founder of Five Ways Forward) and I dive into this idea and develop concrete ideas you can use to create lasting and powerful impact.
Here are some of the key points from our discussion:
- NY Resolutions vs Setting Intentions/Themes (5:25)
- Creating A Spacious Structure (11:40)
- Inviting Others to Be Part of the Journey (12:30)
- Creation vs Shedding (22:30)
- Getting Clear About Desired Results (29:50)
- Inviting Self-Compassion (35:25)
- Evaluating Where We Are (45:00)
- Making the Choice vs Obligation (48:55)
- Intention Setting—Not Just For New Year (53:40)
Enjoy the conversation! We hope you and your circle have a happy holiday season!
Leadership As Conversation
Today Colin T. McLetchie, PCC BCPP (President and Founder of Five Ways Forward) returns as guest co-host to share his years of experience with me regarding the primary tool of leadership: Conversation. Here are some of the key points from our discussion:
- The difference between communication and conversation
- How to know when to move from email to scheduling a meeting (4:00)
- The Missing Conversations (7:30)
- Conversations that should be prohibited (10:25)
- Conversations that should be required (21:40)
- Why is leadership and conversation intertwined (23:00)
- Carrying context-the continuous nature of conversation (27:20)
- The role of emotion in conversation (31:10)
- Blocks from and tools for getting present for conversation (36:48)
- How to have courageous conversations (50:40)
Lead With Love
Returning guest co-host Colin T. McLetchie, PCC BCPP (President and Founder of Five Ways Forward) and I expand on a topic we touched on last week: Leadership With Love. We discuss the intersections between work life and personal life, and how leadership can be an expression of love. Here are a few key highlights from our discussion.
- The false dichotomy of living two lives: work and personal
- Job descriptions as indicators of inherent biases within your organization
- Defining who you want to be as a leader and why
- Defining what leadership is to your organization
- Parallels between our experience with primary caregivers and our leadership style
- Support employees by helping them into a position well-suited to their skills
- More possibilities emerge when we listen to heart wisdom
- Courageous conversations vs difficult conversations
- Unlearning patterns that aren’t serving us
- Impacting the bottom line by shifting company culture
- The importance of building time to reflect
- Accessibility of growth mindset
- Action steps to begin moving forward in the direction of leading with love
Poetry and Leadership
This week Colin T. McLetchie, PCC BCPP, President and Founder of Five Ways Forward, and I share a few of our favorite poems with each other. We discuss how they apply to leadership, development, and organizational culture. Here are a few key highlights from our discussion.
RUMI (timestamp 2:35)
- Elevated consciousness as a leader
- Expanding possibilities: “Either/or” vs “both/and” thinking
- Staying present amidst nervous system reactivity
- Staying connected to Self and Other
LAO TZU (timestamp 31:00)
- Separating our personal worth from our achievements
- Examining our goals through new lenses
- Stepping into your goal to achieve it
- Defining Mastery
- Embracing Complexity
ANAIS NIN (timestamp 53:40)
- The high cost of stagnancy
- Preparing new managers for fundamental changes
- “Leaders bring the weather”
WALT WHITMAN (timestamp 1:06:20)
- We all have opportunities to contribute
- Finding victory in the mundane
- Becoming increasingly mindful of our impact
Business Is Political
How can organizations be more mindful of their political impact outside of their organization? This week guest co-host Lisa Dempsey, CPCC, PCC, CEO and Founder of Leadership Labs International, and I discuss the connection between business and politics. Here are a few key highlights from our discussion.
- Dangers of claiming to be apolitical while having real-world impact
- Examples of variety of ways businesses are entangled with politics
- Financial incentives of making our values clear: Attract and retain more customers and employees in alignment with company values
- Importance of actions matching our values
- Transparency vs Secrecy—benefits and pitfalls
- Creating genuine connection by owning your story
- Closing the gap between intention and impact
- Taking stock of individual/company values to find alignment in our career
- Making impact within our organizational environment
Boundaries of Yes
How can we use the concept of setting boundaries to create more connection within our teams? This week guest co-host Lisa Dempsey, CPCC, PCC, CEO and Founder of Leadership Labs International, and I discuss the concept of using boundaries to drive connection and co-create more harmoniously. Here are a few key highlights from our discussion.
- Using boundaries to connect as opposed to disconnect
- The costs of a lack of boundaries within our teams
- Finding the sweet spots of energy-motivation and engagement
- Defining where our responsibilities begin and end
- Tips to effectively communicate boundaries
- Self-discovery: Getting crisp about who we are and are not as a leader
- Team-discovery: Connecting and listening to others
- Organization-discovery: Understanding the bigger picture and our shared goals
- Reframing the limiting belief that boundaries are unacceptable in the workplace
- Increasing employee retention with an environment of healthy boundaries
- Benefits achieved by setting healthy boundaries
- Examples of relationships improved through boundary conversations
- Compassion versus responsibility for feelings of others
Psychological Safety
Returning guest co-host Lisa Dempsey, CPCC, PCC, CEO and Founder of Leadership Labs International, and I discuss the what, why, and how of psychological safety. What is it? Why is it important? How can we put it into action? Here are a few key highlights from our discussion.
- Amy Edmondson coined the term “Psychological Safety” as the belief that “one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes”.
- Psychological safety is foundational for an effective leader
- The costs of the absence of psychological safety
- Benefits of making uncomfortable conversations welcome in our teams
- The three levels of connection: to ourselves, to others, to something bigger than ourselves
- Trust as a by-product of psychological safety
- The power of asking more than we tell
- Recognizing the gap between Intention and Impact
- Cultivating safety in open feedback
- Naming the elephant in the room
- The benefits achieved when psychological safety is present
Thank you for listening!
Transition With Intention
How can we be intentional as we transition into some new version of normal while moving into a post-pandemic world? In this week’s episode I connect with guest co-host Lisa Dempsey, CPCC, PCC, CEO and Founder of Leadership Labs International, and we discuss some ideas to focus our attention where it matters. Here are some of the key points:
· The temptation to re-adopt familiar practices that are no longer serving us.
· Tuning in to the value found and positive aspects we have gained from experiencing a more remote workplace.
· Opportunities to see each other as whole people (coworkers, employees to employers, parents to children)
· Tips to avoid the tendency to over-correct: temporary vs permanent adjustments
· Integration: how do we retain the positive from our temporary adjustments
· Convergence: create space and allow time for task-positive brainwork as well as default mode
· Pause and reflect on impact of pre-pandemic patterns
· Viewing new intention-setting as small-scale experiments
· Benefits of an annual reflection of intentions vs impact
· Incremental improvements add up to exponential effect
Cultivating Gender Balanced Leadership
Lisa Dempsey, CEO and Founder of Leadership Labs International, graciously guest co-hosts again this week. We talk about the lack of gender balanced leadership and its impacts, where the gaps are, and what we need to do to attain a better balance. Here are a few of the key highlights with resources for you to dive deeper as your interests and time allow.
- Gender gaps/pay gaps stats, and outcomes that stem from gender imbalances resources below
- The gender pay gap situation in the EU
- Gender pay gap in US held steady in 2020
- The systemic nature of gender imbalance in leadership
- Diversity dividend-how do companies benefit from having diverse workforces resources below
- 2018 Delivering through Diversity
- 2019 Diversity wins: How Inclusion Matters
- Market reach benefits achieved by a diverse workforce
- Separating personal experience from the impact of our actions
- Emotional conditioning of the gender binary and how that translates to the professional world
- The double bind women and men face in the workplace resource below
- The Double-Bind Dilemma for Women in Leadership
- Tangible ways we can change our personal behavior to spark larger change
- The value of self-acceptance and letting go of performing narratives
- Creating environments of inclusion and championing our teams for fully showing up
- Some of the improvements we have seen over the last decade
Thank you for listening!
Saying No to Say Yes
Lisa Dempsey, Founder/CEO of Leadership Labs International, and I have a conversation about the importance of saying no to the less important things so that we can fully commit to our highest priorities, and strategies to accomplish this within your organization. Here are some of the highlights:
- How overcommitment leads to mediocrity
- The cost of saying yes to everything
- How our executive function is affected by a constant state of overwhelm
- Ways to recognize symptoms of overwhelm, what to learn from it, and how to adjust
- Reprioritizing as a key to gain clarity
- The concept of psychological safety within an organization
- Letting go of the Leadership Bias to engage more authentically with your CEO
- Testing the waters for pushback conversations
- Explaining the why to increase engagement
- Measuring success of your business on a continuum as well as the fiscal year
Quantifying Quality of Life at Work
Today I connected with Nic Marks, statistician/founder of “Friday Pulse”/author, about measuring quality of life as it relates to our teams and company culture.
We touch on key points such as:
- Types of unhappiness
- What we measure tends to improve-What we measure matters
- Balancing the negativity/positivity balance
- Sitting with discomfort to help employees feel heard
- How to hit the sweet spot of surveys (creating surveys that work)
- Creating a team meeting “meal box” for your company
- Some of the challenges within neuroscience of categorizing emotions
- The importance of embracing all emotions as valuable data
- How our hunger to create meaning out of life relates to happiness
Avoiding and Overcoming Burnout
In this week’s episode, guest co-host Lisa Dempsey, CPCC, PCC and I discuss how leaders can help themselves and their organizations both avoid and overcome burnout.
Key points include:
· Everyone is susceptible to burnout, especially in today’s VUCA world
· What leaders and organizations can do to better support themselves and their staff
· How to replenish our energy once we’ve become burned out
· How to recognize and avoid or at least minimize burnout in our day to day work
Leadership as a Practice
In this week’s episode of Unshakeable Influence, my guest co-host Lisa Dempsey and I discuss Leadership as a never-ending practice. This means it’s a continuous growth curve and we never get it fully right, but the more we mindfully practice the better we get at it. In today’s VUCA world, seeing leadership as a practice rather than a destination is especially important to help us have more compassion for ourselves when we struggle as leaders, while also remaining dedicated to continuous improvement to our leadership capabilities.
Season 2: Episode 3
Leadership Lessons From Simone Biles
With guest co-host Lisa Dempsey, Daniel discusses the leadership, organizational, and personal lessons that can be drawn from Simone Biles’ leadership during the Olympics.
Season 2: Episode 2
Return to Office Strategies
In this Season Two premiere episode, Daniel discusses return to office strategies with guest co-host Lisa Dempsey.
Season 2: Episode 1
Episode 38: Letting Go Of Your Never-Ending Cycle of Reactivity
The landscape of work will be forever changed by Coronavirus. Working from home will be much more of the new normal. Virtual is becoming the new face to face. In the next six months, we have an opportunity to undo ten years worth of bad habits. How to practice letting go of your never-ending cycle of reactivity.
Episode 37: Slowing Down In Order To Go Faster
By slowing down, you can learn to go even faster. Daniel analyzes turn 11 at Sonoma Raceway from the perspective of leaders slowing down so they can really thrive. Your glory moments only become possible when you do the right things beforehand to be prepared. Whether you’re going full throttle right now, or slower than usual, you can benefit from slowing down and being more strategic. Working through our fears and into our best selves. Daniel shares some stories about his podcast and speaking career.
Episode 36: Navigating your Comfort Zone, Learning Zone, and Overwhelm Zone
What does the path to re-opening look like? What are some of the risks? What are the positives and opportunities? How can we learn to choose what is most important to us? What does the future of learning and development look like? And how to navigate your own comfort zone, learning zone, and overwhelm zone during COVID-19.
Episode 35: Coaches on Zoom Getting Coffee with Jen Roberts
Had a great conversation with Jen Roberts, CEO and founder of Difference consulting about life, leadership, and what the “next normal” might look like for HUMANS in business after this experience of COVID19.
Episode 34: Interview with Nic Marks, TED speaker and CEO/Founder of Friday Pulse
In this fun episode we discuss: Nic’s experience as a renowned TED speaker on the Happy Planet Index and the Friday Pulse a leading survey used to measure and drive a happier and more productive workplace. We also discuss some of the pitfalls of traditional employee engagement surveys, and how the Friday Pulse is different.
Episode 33: Coaches On Zoom Getting Coffee
Special preview of episode two of Coaches on Zoom Getting Coffee, featuring Corey Stanford, the CEO and founder of Scaling Leaders.
Episode 32: COVID19 – Coaches on Zoom Getting Coffee
Special episode featuring a candid conversation with Daniel’s friend and executive coaching colleague Marlena DeCarion. This episode is a preview of the soon to be launched Coaches on Zoom Getting Coffee podcast. The new podcast will soon be published both as a video and audio podcast. Stay tuned!
Episode 31: COVID19, Part Two
Highlights from today’s episode include: Human behavior in times of crisis. How your inner game of leadership and self-managing your inner state are now more important than ever. The importance of being of service and thinking globally. Adapting to working from home. What it feels like to be under social “lock down”. How self-care and doing our part to keep the economy going align. The impact on small businesses and what you can do to help us.
COVID19 leadership and business resources, vetted by Daniel:
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/risk/our-insights/covid-19-implications-for-businesshttps://www.gallup.com/workplace/292334/covid-strategies-policies-world-largest-companies.aspx
https://www.bloomberg.com/magazine/businessweek/20_13https://coronavirus.travax.com/library/coronaviruses/events/coronavirus-disease-2019
