Leadership Kung Fu – Details, episodes & analysis

Starting off 2026 strong, it's episode 65 of Leadership Kung Fu!

Join Sandi and Jen in this new year as they revisit the topic of strategy in the workplace and how to get it unstuck from your meeting slide deck and out in action in your workforce. Listen along as they discuss:

• Strategy to action
• How strategies from Q4 are looking in Q1
• Personal anecdotes
• The importance of your "No" list
• Facing the fears of "what if"
• Real risk vs. risks we THINK are real
• What strategy is and is not
• Operationalizing
• How alignment is an ongoing conversation
• What happens when everything is deemed important
• What each level of leadership needs to do with the strategy from the top
• The importance of choosing the right words
• Strategy upkeep and metrics
• How strategy can die and what happens if it does
• The effect of run-time on strategy
• The 5 take-aways of strategy

and more!

Thank you so much for listening! If you like what you hear, leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform, and make sure to check out the video over on the Leadership Kung Fu Youtube Channel!
Connect with Jen on LinkedIn and visit her website Own Up!®
Connect with Sandi on LinkedIn and visit her website Satori Consulting, Inc!

Have a comment, question, or topic for Sandi and Jen? Email us at podcast@own-up.com or leave us a comment on LinkedIn. If you like what you hear, leave us a review on your favorite listening platform!

Start making plans, episode 64 of Leadership Kung Fu is here!

Jen and Sandi are thinking about the future on today's episode and discussing workplace succession plans! What happens when your CEO has a medical event? Can someone easily take over if your manager has a family emergency? Who steps in when retirements are announced? Join Sandi and Jen as they cover how you and your team can think ahead as well as:

•  Succession success rate statistics
• Where you should start planning and who can do what in the planning process
• How strategy is involved
• The role bias plays
• Where training comes in and types
• The benefits of assessments in leadership
• PXT Select®
• What Future Fit means
• PrinciplesYou and EverythingDiSC®
• What defining potential entails
• What should be on your succession checklist
• Red Teaming: How Your Team Can Conquer the Competition by Challenging Everything by Bryce G. Hoffman

and more!

Thank you so much for listening! If you like what you hear, leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform, and make sure to check out the video over on the Leadership Kung Fu Youtube Channel!
Connect with Jen on LinkedIn and visit her website Own Up!®
Connect with Sandi on LinkedIn and visit her website Satori Consulting, Inc!

Have a comment, question, or topic for Sandi and Jen? Email us at podcast@own-up.com or leave us a comment on LinkedIn. If you like what you hear, leave us a review on your favorite listening platform!

Welcome to Episode 55 of Leadership Kung Fu! Jen and Sandi are back after a shiny new rebrand and  a first episode of 2025! To start out this year, listen along as they tackle topics such as:

•  what has changed within things you subscribe to and how the workplace is different than what it was 10/15+ years ago
• how "no" is not a bad word in the workplace
• vulnerability is a good, healthy thing
• not all leaders are charismatic
• Everything DiSC by Wiley
• results vs. relationships and the importance of workplace connections
• how relationships ≠ "liking" someone
• how our words set us up to show up
• time and energy management
• HBR: Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time

and more! Tune in as they bust more leadership myths to start your 2025 with clarity!

Thank you so much for listening! If you like what you hear, leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform, and make sure to check out the video cast under the "Videos" tab!
Connect with Jen on LinkedIn and visit her website Own Up!®
Connect with Sandi on LinkedIn and visit her website Satori Consulting, Inc!

Have a comment, question, or topic for Sandi and Jen? Leave us a comment on LinkedIn! 

Happy holidays from Organizational Transformational Kung Fu: The Podcast! Jen and Sandi are looking to the future this week and talk about goals and how to set them, keep them, and meet them! Follow along as they chat about:

• their year in review
• what reflection can do for you and writing vs. typing/digital record keeping
• hard vs. soft transformations
• the role of practice and support in discipline
• what we're really doing when we "let ourselves off the hook"
• the importance of the set up short term does for long term
• how we are influenced by the number of goals we set
• Atomic Habits by James Clear 
• considering a "shift" instead of a "stop"
• an exciting new change coming to OTKF in 2025!

We want to thank each and every one of you for your support all throughout 2024, and we cannot wait to see what we can do in 2025! See you next year!

Thank you so much for listening! If you like what you hear, leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform, and make sure to check out the video cast under the "Videos" tab!
Connect with Jen on LinkedIn and visit her website Own Up!®
Connect with Sandi on LinkedIn and visit her website Satori Consulting, Inc!

Have a comment, question, or topic for Sandi and Jen? Leave us a comment on LinkedIn! 

In this week's episode of OT Kung Fu, Jen and Sandi revisit the types of listening they talked about with author Sean Grace and ponder how the listening types affect us in the workplace. Join them as they cover:

• how virtual calls have affected listening
• the importance of body language
• what curiosity really does for you
• conversational blindspots
• levels of learning
• Neha Sangwan's book TalkRx: Five Steps to Honest Conversations That Create Connection, Health, and Happiness

and more!

Thank you so much for listening! If you like what you hear, leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform, and make sure to check out the video cast under the "Videos" tab!
Connect with Jen on LinkedIn and visit her website Own Up!®
Connect with Sandi on LinkedIn and visit her website Satori Consulting, Inc!

Have a comment, question, or topic for Sandi and Jen? Leave us a comment on LinkedIn! 

Welcome back to OT Kung Fu: The Podcast!

Sandi and Jen are joined this week by the incredible author Sean Grace!

From Sean's website: 

"Sean Grace is a communication consultant, author, coach, and speaker, with over 25 years of experience developing and training sales, marketing, and leadership talent across diverse industries. His unique brand of business consulting is forged from his long career in media, advertising, and the creative arts.

Sean studied music performance at the Juilliard School and SUNY Purchase, and finance at Wharton. As an award winning musician and multi-instrumentalist, he borrows techniques from jazz improvisation to help foster creative collaboration and cooperation within and across teams.

Sean's track record of success as a consultant and coach has earned him a reputation as a trusted advisor and trainer to some of the world's most innovative and successful organizations."

Listen along as Jen, Sandi, and Sean discuss topics from Sean's new book The Art of the Question: A Guide for Seekers, Dreamers, Problem Solvers and Leaders such as:

• the value of creative thinking in a post-pandemic workplace
• Sean's workflow in how he got started in the formulation of questions
• how vital curiosity and openness is to the process of questions
• the 3 phase model
• types of listening and the effect on conversations and situations
• the Socratic 8
• his work as a musician and his album "Wonderland"
• the origin of the name OT Kung Fu!

You can connect with Sean at peakluma.com and find his book over at Amazon!

Thank you so much for joining us, Sean!

Thank you so much for listening! If you like what you hear, leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform, and make sure to check out the video cast under the "Videos" tab!
Connect with Jen on LinkedIn and visit her website Own Up!®
Connect with Sandi on LinkedIn and visit her website Satori Consulting, Inc!

Have a comment, question, or topic for Sandi and Jen? Leave us a comment on LinkedIn! 

Welcome to Episode 51 of OT Kung Fu: The Podcast!

Joining Jen and Sandi this week is Curtis Bateman, co-author of Change: How to Turn Uncertainty Into Opportunity and vice president of direct international offices for FranklinCovey. From the FranklinCovey site: 

                "With over twenty-five years of experience in the training industry, Curtis is an internationally recognized presenter, content developer, change consultant, business leader, and coach. His passion for enabling organizations "at change" resulted in the co-creation of transformative, industry-leading solutions, including Change Element, Leaders@Change, Managing Millennials, Millennials@Work, and the Change Practitioner." 

We're thrilled to have Curtis join us to talk about what change means to a leader and the workplace as a whole! Listen along to the conversation as they cover: 

• the behaviors that show up when change comes
• what it means to be reactive vs. choosing a reaction
• what a change introduction does
• risks and rewards of change
• how leaders can maintain good effects of change
• compliance vs. engagement

and more!

You can read more about Curtis and check out more of his articles at his FranklinCovey page and follow him on his LinkedIn!

Thank you so much for listening! Make sure to check out the video cast under the "Videos" tab!
Connect with Jen on LinkedIn and visit her website Own Up!®
Connect with Sandi on LinkedIn and visit her website Satori Consulting, Inc!

Have a comment, question, or topic for Sandi and Jen? Leave us a comment on LinkedIn! 

It's OT Kung Fu's 50th episode!
We have another book review episode, this week featuring Hidden Potential by Adam Grant! Join Jen and Sandi while they cover topics like:

-Performance Reviews and how they have changed from potential to goal-oriented
-How imperfect leaders are more beneficial than "perfect" leaders
-How meeting folks where there are at instead of where you want them to be cultivates a better workplace culture
-High potential compared to related experience
-Why learning agility is more valuable as a leadership predictor
-Why self-reflection is such an important tool
-Learning curves and useful uncomfortability
-Imposter Syndrome and feedback
-Self-awareness and how it echoes into other aspects of life
-How a "scarcity"mindset affects you
-"Learning Organizations" and follow-through
-How tech and instant delivery plays in

You can check you more about Adam Grant book and take the assessment on his page at adamgrant.net!

Thank you so much for listening! Make sure to check out the video cast under the "Videos" tab!
Connect with Jen on LinkedIn and visit her website Own Up!®
Connect with Sandi on LinkedIn and visit her website Satori Consulting, Inc!

Have a comment, question, or topic for Sandi and Jen? Leave us a comment on LinkedIn!

You made it to the end of July, and we have a new episode of OT Kung Fu for you to celebrate and gear up before a new month begins tomorrow!

Jen and Sandi are joined on this episode by Dr. Todd Conklin, author of Pre-Accident Investigations: An Introduction to Organizational Safety  as well as host of his organizational safety podcast of the same name. From his website:
     "Todd Conklin spent 25 years at Los Alamos National Laboratory as a Senior Advisor for Organizational and Safety Culture.  Los Alamos National Laboratory is one of the world's foremost research and development laboratories; Dr. Conklin has been working on the Human Performance program for the last 15 years of his 25-year career.  It is in this fortunate position where he enjoys the best of both the academic world and the world of safety in practice. 

        Conklin holds a Ph.D. in organizational behavior from the University of New Mexico.  He speaks all over the world to executives, groups and work teams who are interested in better understanding the relationship between the workers in the field and the organization's systems, processes, and programs.  He has brought these systems to major corporations around the world.  Conklin practices these ideas not only in his own workplace, but also in the event investigations at other workplaces around the world.  Conklin's best selling book, Pre-Accident Investigations: An introduction to Organizational Safety is a best selling book on safety.  Conklin has several other books and a huge podcast following for his twice-weekly podcast of the same name.  Conklin defines safety at his workplace like this:  'Safety is the ability for workers to be able to do work in a varying and unpredictable world.'"

Listen along as they talk about the 5 HOP principles mentioned in Dr.Conklin's book and how leadership mindsets can flourish within those principles, what simply having confidence can do for you, "why?" versus "how?" and what kind of leader flocks to each question, and more! Thank you so much for joining us on this episode, Dr. Conklin!

You can find all of Dr. Conklin's books and his podcast on his page on HOP Hub here.
Dr. Conklin and Jen will be speaking at the next Conklin Conference in Santa Fe, NM from September 10th-September 12th 2024. You can sign up for the conference HERE.

Thank you so much for listening! Make sure to check out the video cast under the "Videos" tab!
Connect with Jen on LinkedIn and visit her website Own Up!®
Connect with Sandi on LinkedIn and visit her website Satori Consulting, Inc!

Have a comment, question, or topic for Sandi and Jen? Leave us a comment on LinkedIn! 

Happy Summer! Beat the heat with Sandi and Jen and listen along as they tackle the topic of influence (as a person, not for social media)! Today they cover:

• How reciprocity is different within the workplace
• How you show up as a leader to your peers vs. to your boss
• The traits of a successful workplace influencer
• Their love and use of the EverythingDiSC® by Wiley within training they have done
• Negotiation awareness and the balance required to not cross the line into manipulation
• Persuasion vs. Influence

and more! 

Thank you so much for listening! Make sure to check out the video cast under the "Videos" tab!
Connect with Jen on LinkedIn and visit her website Own Up!®
Connect with Sandi on LinkedIn and visit her website Satori Consulting, Inc!

Have a comment, question, or topic for Sandi and Jen? Leave us a comment on LinkedIn!