Explore every episode of the podcast Let's Fix Leadership

Whether we’re talking about our customers or teams, loyalty is the currency of successful relationships. In the business world of yore, loyalty was one-sided, it was buy something or do something to get something. Today that quid-pro-quo style falls flat.

Just like Taylor Swift…brands who do well understand that having customers and employees is a privilege, and they aim for relational loyalty, not transactional relationships.

How do we put authentic loyalty at the heart of our businesses? What has changed about leadership as the world of work continues to evolve?

In this episode, I’m joined by loyalty and CRM expert and the founder of Incendio, Jenn McMillen. We talk about the shift in customer loyalty programs and what all businesses can learn from it. 

Guest Bio 

Jenn McMillen is the founder and Chief Accelerant of Incendio, where her specialty is increasing topline revenue by building and fixing customer programs. Her team helps companies solve and overcome their CRM, loyalty, and customer experience challenges. She is also a nationally known loyalty & CRM expert, recognized by the CRM community and her peers with major industry awards for programs such as GameStop’s PowerUp Rewards, which has more than 35-million members, many of whom pay an annual subscription fee for an enhanced experience. She has also created and/or run several well-known loyalty and subscription programs like myGNC Rewards, United Airlines’ Silver Wings Plus, Vail Resorts PEAKS, Payless ShoeSource Points, Neiman Marcus InCircle, and one of the first big national loyalty subscription programs in the 90’s, Blockbuster Rewards. For more information, go to https://www.incendioworks.com/ or connect with her on LinkedIn. 

You know that job that makes you miserable, that boss who makes your life hell and that co-worker who’s difficult to work with? They are specially wrapped gifts that can work in your favor.

Hear me out…

Do these situations suck? Do they test our patience? Yes and yes. But, what you might not see in that moment are the skills, competencies, and empowering opportunities these difficulties give you. I mean, I can personally attribute starting my own business to my own workplace adversity!

Difficult bosses and peers serve as live training grounds for enhancing our emotional intelligence. They teach us to manage our emotions, respond rather than react, and navigate complex interpersonal dynamics. They can even help us understand ourselves better. Working with challenging individuals tests our limits, but that makes us more resilient and more effective as leaders and people.

So how do we reframe the way we see our workplace adversities? What are all the great things we can get from all the crappy stuff we go through in our careers?

Not sure who said that, but the statement has inspired a lot of thought, reflection, and furious rabbit-hole research. So I thought to myself, why not share all my findings and musings with you?

Leading in today’s world requires approaches that transcend traditional management practices. It’s about fully understanding the intersection between ourselves, our teams, and our organizations. Self-awareness, emotional intelligence, curiosity, and system thinking…these are all things that lend to conscious leadership.

How do we bake this concept into our mindsets and actions? In this episode, I talk about conscious leadership and why it’s so important.

Many leaders have the epiphany that it’s not culture if you have to micromanage to achieve it. It becomes culture when people perform when no one’s looking.

That begs the question: how do you turn culture from something you have on paper into something weaved into everything your organization does?

In order for an organization to drive forward, we need a strong culture and values, but performance also needs to be part of that deal. That’s where the concept of performance and value-based company comes in.

How do we tie the values of the organization in with everyone’s roles? How can we go from perception to perspective, and why is that such a powerful shift?

In this episode, I’m joined by the Chief Revenue Officer at Big Star Transit, LBJ Biggers.

He shares how his team turned culture into something tangible and trackable.

Guest Bio

LBJ Biggers is the Chief Revenue Officer at Big Star Transit LLC. Big Star's non-emergency medical ride share service offers specialized passenger transport to the disabled and underserved using its robust in-house network of road-monitored vehicle operators. Go to https://bigstartransit.com/ for more information or connect with LBJ on LinkedIn. 

Here’s a mind-blowing fact for you…a lot of the technology we use and rely on today, didn’t exist a few years ago. Which means, tomorrow’s technology might still just be a big idea in someone’s brain.

….I’ll let that sink in.

Technology is moving faster than it ever has, and it’s going to continue to speed up.

What we know how to use today is going to be outdated in a blink. As leaders, we have to keep up, both in our competencies, and how we hire and how our teams continue to innovate.

If you don’t have digital curiosity, you’ll always be left behind by new tools and trends, and that might as well be light years behind. How do we embrace this new competency and let it permeate the roots of our organizations?

In this episode, I talk about why digital curiosity has to be part of the continuous growth of leaders and our teams.

If there’s one word I want to gently pluck out of the vocabulary of leaders, it would be…. “opportunities”.

Why, you ask? I mean it seems like a totally innocent and well-meaning word, right? Well… sometimes, when we tell people on our team what their opportunities are, we actually end up messing with their superpowers.

Instead, we can manage their strengths so they show up with their best foot forward. In this episode, I share a better way to think about opportunities as a leader.

Before you became a leader, you thought every executive had it all together. They are confident, always know what decision to make, and turning ideas into execution happens at the snap of a finger. You just walk around telling everyone how to execute the plan, how hard could that be?

Insert the laugh track here…

Leading is messy…we have to communicate effectively, approach problems from multiple perspectives, turn creative chaos into a cohesive plan and a whole lot more.

That is a feature of the job, not a bug, and it is….A LOT. 

How do you get comfortable with having moments of messiness in your leadership journey? In this episode, we talk about how to embrace the messiness of leading a team or an organization.

You can’t make a delicious omelette without breaking a couple of eggs. You can’t break through without shattering something. As we set intentions for this year, what if we could commit to breaking things? So many of us are on autopilot in different areas of our lives. Deciding to break things shakes us out of complacency, allows for massive growth and yes, it fixes leadership!

Old systems, mindset, behaviors and habits - we can dismantle them all and build back up better. How do we get comfortable with breaking things? How does this make us better leaders?

In this episode, I talk about my goal for this year - breaking, dismantling and experimenting.

Here’s a real head-scratcher for you. You leave a meeting thinking, “the team has got this''. Then you go to execute, and you find out that you weren’t, in fact, on the same page. You asked “any questions,” and no one responded, so surely there was clarity and alignment…so what gives? 

Well, I hate to break it to you, but that very question could be the thing blocking them from getting clarity. You could be triggering fear without even knowing it. 

How do we create room for curiosity and questions and play with the brain to create openness? In this episode, I share how one small conversational shift can foster conversation, clarity, collaboration, and honesty.

Do you ever feel like you can’t make one more decision even if your life depended on it? Does decision-making get more difficult as the day or week goes on?

What to wear, what to eat, whether to overtake or not. Who to hire, what tasks to work on, the strategic direction of the organization. The average adult makes an exhausting and astounding 35,000 decisions a day. It’s no wonder we get so tired of it. 

From minor day-to-day choices to high-stakes pivots, we’re making decisions literally every day. Just like a physical muscle, our brains get spent after extensive use. Our decision making muscle depletes with every decision, so how do we protect this precious resource? 

As leaders, how do we take unnecessary decisions off our plates? In this episode, we’re digging into the science behind decision fatigue, how to mitigate its impact, and how to protect your decision-making capital. 

Following a rigid hiring rule over filling a position with a great candidate. Or proving your co-worker is hard to work with over your own performance. How about, focusing on that pet project to the detriment of the company’s financial stability? 

False priorities show up all over the place at work, and we’ve all been guilty of them, because guess what? They often make things easier - but only in the moment. False priorities take us off course; costing time, money, innovation and growth. 

Simply put: when we fall prey to a false priority, our teams suffer. How do we identify a false priority and nip the imposter in the bud? 

In this episode, I talk about how to stay true to what’s important when a false priority trips us up. 

Leading the whole person is a non-negotiable requirement for every leader. To make everyone on our teams feel seen and supported, we have to get comfortable with uncomfortable conversations. This is especially true for disability, something a large percentage of the workforce lives with. 

Disability isn’t easy to talk about because we’re afraid we’ll say the wrong thing, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have the conversation. 

We don’t feel awkward asking people what their dietary restrictions are, so why do we feel uncomfortable asking how we can support a disabled coworker? How do we become better leaders for those with disabilities, seen or unseen? In this episode, I’m joined by leadership coach and my good friend, Jen Griffin. 

She shares her inspiring story - becoming an amputee and the mental game that helped her recover. We also share how leaders can foster environments where people are comfortable talking about disability. 

The more I guide and say it’s okay to ask, the better the conversations get. -Jen Griffin

Guest Bio 

Jen’s ability to lead from a creative perspective on life has served her clients well. Championing others by helping them unlock the secret shift they need to overcome and embrace life’s changes, is one of her true joys.

Jen’s professional career began as a real estate paralegal and worked for several top-tier corporations and law firms. Upon experiencing a life-altering medical event in 2007, Jen found herself shifting gears and she created and led her own non-profit, she began public speaking, writing, and eventually became a co-owner of a retail brick-and-mortar business. With all her combined professional experience, she is now a leadership coach to other businesses and individuals.

Through both her professional & personal life experiences, Jen has developed many tools for working in a fast-paced environment, serving many agendas, finding creative solutions, and overcoming the hardest part – fighting fear and just getting started!

Connect with Jen on LinkedIn.

Decisions, decisions…the hallmark of good leadership is swift and impactful decision-making. But let’s be real, amidst the whirlwind of emails, meetings, projects, and strategic pivots, the decisions we have to make can be so overwhelming, that we can decide not to decide at all. 

Here’s the problem though, not making a decision can be just as detrimental as making the wrong one. It causes projects to stall, innovation to wane and it erodes trust and competence. 

So whenever we’re holding off on making a choice - we have to be clear: is it a strategic pause to gather more info, or is it just avoidance? How do we use strategic non-decision to create better outcomes? 

In this episode, I talk about the silent yet profound impact of not making a decision and how to avoid creating a culture of uncertainty.  

When we’re starting out in our professional lives, we never know where this adventure known as a career is going to take us. What may seem like stray conversations, nuggets or threads can ultimately weave together and form something amazing in the future.

…Like working as an inventory manager, seeing how much of that inventory gets wasted and thinking, “wait a minute, I can build something and make a difference!”

That’s what happened to Jeannie Barsam. The founder of Gifting Brands can trace that pivotal decision to the many threads that came together. In this episode, she talks about the journey, how she’s making a difference and evolving as a leader. 

You’re always growing as a leader, you don’t just stop. -Jeannie Barsam

Guest Bio 

Jeannie Barsam is the founder and CEO of Gifting Brands. With three decades of experience in the dynamic world of Fashion & Retail, Jeannie had the privilege of traversing the globe, contributing to renowned brands, and providing mentorship to numerous individuals, both women and men alike. During her tenure as an executive at Zale’s, a part of Signet Jewelers and the world's largest diamond retailer, she encountered a unique challenge. Zale’s was seeking a nonprofit organization to accept excess inventory, yet, surprisingly, they struggled to find a suitable recipient.

This puzzling roadblock sparked a turning point in Jeannie’s journey.

Out of this challenge, the idea for Gifting Brands emerged, becoming a defining turning point in Jeannie’s life's work. Gifting Brands was conceived out of a profound commitment to the well-being of women, children, and the principles of giving back. To find out about the holiday auction from November 15th to 19th, head to www.giftingbrands.com.

If you’ve hung out with me for some time, you’ve heard me use the word self-authoring, but what does it actually mean, and why am I so passionate about it?

In a world where we’re constantly making complex decisions, and challenges come by the minute, we can’t let things just happen to us. We can’t be reactive - we have to stand firm in our vision and proactively decide how we’re going to show up.

This is self-authorship. It’s not getting swayed by what gets served up to us, but keeping ourselves, teams and organizations steady despite what’s going on.

Why are self-authoring leaders worth their weight in gold? How does this concept benefit everyone in the organization?

In this episode, we dive into self-authorship and why you can’t lead without it effectively.

If people were just their job titles, how boring a place the world would be! We are whole people - with hobbies, humor, and creativity.

Instead of reserving those pieces of ourselves for when we get home, showing them at work is highly valuable. Powerful things happen when we up our creativity - it sparks innovation and ideas that supercharge our workplaces.

How do we bring more of our wholeness to work? Why is vulnerability so important in leadership?

In this episode, comedian, creative and the COO of Pear Analytics, Tracie Mendoza shares how she brings her full personality to work, and how it impacts her team. 

If you’re not being creative outside of your workspace, how will you be creative within it? -Tracie Mendoza

Guest Bio

Tracie Mendoza is the COO of Pear Analytics. Before becoming a business owner, Tracie Mendoza did a little of this and little of that over the years – from comedy, retail management, education, consulting, and recruiting to name a few – Tracie landed in the Sales Field! This was no surprise to those around her, after all in kindergarten she had a line formed around the building, as she charged kids a quarter to color in her “Pink Panther Coloring Book!” She has always had an entrepreneurial spirit and a go getter mentality, and sets out to accomplish whatever she puts her mind to. Tracie graduated from Dallas Baptist University, where she earned a BAS in Communications and Theology and a MALA in both Fine Arts and History. When not leading a team, building a business, and working hand and hand with clients, you can find her shopping, traveling, playing with her pups, and of course making people laugh! AKA: Laughologist, Retail Therapist, Music Fanatic, Lover of the Arts, and Puppy Mama. For more information, head to http://pearanalytics.com/ or connect with her on LinkedIn.

To be one of 25 people to get $250 off, head to Pyrus Digital Media.

Have you ever wondered why the room goes dead silent when a leader asks the team to share their big ideas? It’s brain science. The fear that kicks in makes it impossible to get those creative, innovative, creative ideas flowing.

To make our teams more innovative, we have to reduce fear and create an environment where it feels safe to share ideas.

So, next time you want to trigger creativity and innovation, hold a crazy, big idea meeting!

How do we create a situation where the prefrontal cortex opens up and starts exploding with new ideas? How do we prime our teams for this meeting and facilitate it well? In this episode, I share how to create a meeting where people are excited to share all their best ideas. 

No one’s going to do our career push-ups for us. If we want to reach and even exceed our goals, we have to take full control and ownership of our professional development. That means self-authoring everything we do, and investing in the necessary skills that will take us to the next level. 

Taking charge of our careers comes with its challenges, but ultimately it’s a rewarding exercise that will accelerate growth. Feeling stuck on ways to develop and level up your own career? 

In this episode, I share a few ideas on how you can play to win.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled podcast for a history lesson - a history lesson on leadership, that is. Ever wondered why I called this show Let’s Fix Leadership? Or why every generation in the workplace feels like the next one “just doesn’t get it”? 

Well, that’s because leadership isn’t static, it’s always evolving. It doesn’t look the same from generation to generation. 

First, we had the “great man theory,” where it was believed that only men are born leaders (yes, I’m rolling my eyes too). Then with social change came a change in how we lead, from transactional leadership to servant leadership. This brings us to today, an age where leaders have to adapt like never before. 

What are the key eras of leadership? How do social changes impact how leaders show up? In this episode, we take a little tour through the different ages of leadership.

Who says you have to be a Fortune 500 company to have a board of directors? After all, you are the CEO of your own career, why wouldn’t you want a team of intelligent, dynamic, and talented people in your corner? 

Especially in today’s evolving world. It’s like having The Avengers assembling for the good of your professional life…

How do we build a board of directors, and how do we enrich and nurture those relationships? 

In this episode, I share the power of creating and curating your own board of trusted advisors, mentors, peers, and industry experts.  

Employee benefits used to be pretty standard, boilerplate stuff. A 401k here, health insurance there and maybe a generous time off allowance thrown into the mix. Today, we recognize that we’re humans (shocker, right?) and that work and life have become so intertwined. We need benefits programs that actually serve the whole person and enhance their entire lives. 

Enter lifestyle accounts, flexible work schedules, gym subscriptions, takeout vouchers, and now you’ve got a benefits program that’s more in line with today’s employee. How can employers create programs that meet employees where they are? Can we negotiate our benefits? 

In this episode, HR Consultant and CEO of Next Level Benefits, Lauren Winans shares what’s changed in benefits programs and how employers can use them to lead the whole person. 

Guest Bio

Lauren Winans is the CEO and Principal HR Consultant at Next Level Benefits. Next Level Benefits is a nationally-certified HR consulting firm staffed with former corporate HR professionals in all HR disciplines. Each member of our team has at least 20 years of corporate HR experience from Fortune 500 companies, global organizations, and well-known brands around the world. Lauren founded Next Level Benefits in 2019, offering HR teams access to former corporate HR professionals on-demand when they need them most. For more information, head to https://www.nlbenefits.com/, or follow the team on Instagram and LinkedIn.

Remember when we could leave our personal lives at home, and leave work at the office? Simpler times, am I right…

Then came technology, laptops, phones, and watches that give you meeting reminders and email notifications and it became impossible to separate professional you from the other parts of your life. Back then, work had no interest in our lives outside of our working hours - we had two lives and they never crossed each other. 

Now, everything is all mushed together and we can’t clearly define the two worlds. For leaders, the reality of balancing all this is a challenge. How do you lead multi-dimensional individuals with lives that run alongside their work? 

In this episode, I talk about how leaders can lead holistically, making it a priority to support the whole person.

When it comes to communicating at work, long gone are the days where leaders had to be perfectly polished, overly formal, and cold. People want authenticity from their leaders - they want to hear your unique voice and feel their unique voice is being heard too. 

As leaders, we might not be aware of how we’re coming across and how that’s impacting our teams. When we become aware of this, we can make the small shifts that allow us to communicate confidently. 

How do we communicate better as leaders? Can analytics help us with communication? 

In this episode, communications and marketing expert, entrepreneur, and professional problem-solver, Heather Lisle shares the secret to understanding and optimizing your communication style.

Guest Bio 

Heather Lisle is a communications and marketing expert, entrepreneur, and professional problem-solver who helps executives and business owners stand out from their competition by creating unique brand positioning based on their personality using the DiSC profile. With 20 plus years of executive level experience, Heather has mastered the ability to cut through the small talk and dig deep to identify her client’s “special sauce” or uniqueness that sets them apart from their competition to increase leads and sales.

For more information, head to https://www.heatherlisle.com/, find Heather on LinkedIn, Instagram and listen to her podcast Game Changing Conversations on your platform of choice. 

Influence is a powerful currency for motivation and success…it’s no wonder why influencer marketing has become a literal billion-dollar industry! Being influential doesn’t just work on social media. In a workplace, it’s the lifeblood of leaders who can propel the collective without demanding, manipulating, or dictating.

A combination of trust, inspiration, and communication - influence is the silent force that packs a mega punch, and the more influential a leader you are, the more success you’ll have.

What are some of the effects of influential leaders? How do we become influential? In this episode, I talk about cultivating your own influence and the difference it will make in your organization. 

Once upon a working world, the best person doing a job was consistently promoted to the boss of others doing that same job. Now…well, it’s a lot more complex. 

Conventional wisdom used to be that a leader must possess mastery in the fields they oversee. The world is evolving fast, and that norm is gradually giving way to something more flexible - where leaders must adapt. Ultimately, who knows if your current skills will be relevant to your organization in 6 months? 

You can easily find yourself at the helm of an operation that isn’t your forte, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t equipped to do the job and do it well.  

How do you learn to lead beyond your expertise? In this episode, I share the skill set leaders need to lead people doing a job you don’t do.  

“That wasn’t my fault”. Or how about, “I didn’t do it.” Or maybe “that mistake is totally on that coworker.” We play the blame a lot at work, and though we don’t like to admit it, we like it. 

We sit in blame because it feels pretty darn good for something to be someone else’s fault. What a relief it can be. Here’s the problem though, blame makes for bad work environments. It kills collaboration and smothers innovation. How do some teams get weighed down by blame? More importantly, how do we overcome it? 

In this episode, I talk about blame - one game we shouldn’t participate in at work.

Remember how I said that our brain loves to play tricks on us, and how fear is its device of choice? 

Well, that shows up all over our careers, and if we’re not careful, that big mean old liar could set us on a downward spiral of paranoia, making assumptions and acting out in ways we aren’t proud of. 

What if you could short-circuit all this drama and tell yourself something more constructive? In this episode, I share one simple question and one simple statement that will put fear in its place once and for all.

“How did I become so bad at a game I was doing so well at just a second ago?” That’s what it feels like when you start a new level in a video game….or when a new career opportunity challenges you. It’s daunting and discouraging at first, even downright terrifying, but that doesn’t mean we can’t master this new level. 

After all, fear is nothing more than a chemical reaction, and when we refuse to back down from a new challenge, we grow professionally and personally. 

How do we face a new level, and evolve from novice to master? In this episode, I share how to treat your career like a video game. 

Alcohol, nicotine, coffee, sugar, and….being right. Yes, being right is something you can be addicted to and unfortunately, a lot of leaders are. You could hold a blue crayon in front of them and they’d swear it’s yellow. You can never introduce a fresh thought or new idea. They are never open to learning from their teams. If it’s not their way, it’s wrong. 

You don’t want to be addicted to being right, historically it hasn’t worked out for organizations, and it can wreak havoc on your team. How do you kick the addiction to being right and become a leader who revels in learning? 

In this episode, we talk about the addiction to being right, how it poisons your team, and how to cut it out for good. 

Here’s a scenario that plays out far too often in our organizations. A resignation letter lands on your desk, and you’re surprised: a top performer is leaving. 

Wait, what? All this time you thought they were happy, doing great work, here for the long haul. They’re paid well, advancing in your organization, so what gives? 

Well, dear leader, you’re losing them because you’ve failed to invest in developing them, and now you’re paying the price. 

How do we stop this scenario from playing out on our teams? If you’re lucky enough to have top performers what can you do for them? 

In this episode, I share how we can start investing in our best.

“Communication is key.” It’s a statement we hear so often, it borders on cliche. Well, in the workplace, the power of communication can never be overstated. 

It can be overwhelming to think about all the different ways and different reasons we are required to communicate to be successful leaders. 

What if we looked at competencies we can leverage across all types of communication? 

That’s what we’re going to do in this episode, as we dig into the many layers of communication that work amazingly well together. 

Do you create an environment where it’s cool to learn or do you shut down learning and discovery?

Software, business trends, consumer habits, books, podcasts, legal requirements, and more. Keeping up with all the new things we need to learn is like an Olympic sport, but it’s a *must* if we want to run great teams. 

If we and our teams aren’t learning, we aren’t growing. If we’re not leaders who learn, it’s hard to get our team excited to learn new things. 

How do we make learning part of our team culture? Make learning cool? 

In this episode, I share how leaders can make learning cool, create a team that is focused on continuously learning, and have a little fun celebrating along the way.

Where humans are involved, conflict is sure to be present. On a team, conflict not addressed becomes a toxic, invisible coworker no one wants to be around but is forced to work with. 

As a leader, you might think conflict is a normal part of running a team, but this could be hampering innovation and growth. 

What effect does unchecked conflict have on team dynamics? How do we mitigate conflict or get rid of it entirely? 

What’s the cost of conflict? And what will it cost you, your team, and the business over time? 

In this episode, I talk about how to deal with conflict and start fostering collaboration and common ground. 

Remember when executive leadership was all the rage? It was the one-size-fits-all attribute that was necessary to advance in an organization. Well…I think it’s time we retire executive presence for something more fitting of today’s dynamic world. 

You see, in today’s rapidly evolving world, there are endless types of companies with endless types of culture. One type of leadership just won’t cut it. This is where dynamic composure comes in - two words that don’t seem to go together but totally do. 

In today’s episode, I talk about how we can build dynamic composure and why it makes us better leaders. 

“My people don’t do what I ask them to, they don’t listen and they don’t come up with innovative ideas.” Leaders say it all the time, and if I had a penny for everytime I heard this, I could buy my own private island!

But before you point a finger at your team, what if this is all because you’re addicted to being right. Yes, like sugar and shopping, being right can be the drug of choice for leaders, and because they are so accustomed to getting it, they alienate their teams.

How do you know you’re addicted to being right? Here’s an easy tell: notice how you feel when the good idea in the room isn’t yours…

How does an addiction to being right block innovation and ultimately the growth of our organization? What can we do to cure ourselves of this affliction?

In this episode, I’m joined by co-hosts of Bossy, Brilliant and Badass, Liz Green and Lisa Lindsey. We talk about how to eliminate fear from our organizations, why leaders need to look inward to solve problems and how to build trust in our teams. 

Guest Bio

Lisa Lindsey and Liz Green are entrepreneurs, coaches and co-hosts of Bossy, Brilliant and Badass. Bossy, Brilliant & Badass is a weekly conversation about business, careers and personal development, designed to inspire, educate and motivate you to show up powerfully, live fearlessly and to find and unleash your inner badass! Lisa and Liz share their paths to success, the obstacles they overcame, and the tools, tips, resources, and mindset strategies of successful women. 

“That’s not how I remember the conversation……” 

“I forgot that we made that decision…...” 

If you’ve ever said any of these statements to your team, you may have a case of executive amnesia. 

Many leaders struggle to remember every detail, decision, and piece of information they encounter, and who can blame them? You have to wrap your mind around so much data and make so many decisions, it leads to mental overload. 

Executive amnesia has a significant impact on an organization’s effectiveness, but the good news is, we can do something about it. 

In this episode, I share how to overcome executive amnesia and minimize your mental load so you can function more effectively. 

Let me paint an all too familiar picture for you. A new leader comes into your organization, you’re so excited to work with them and learn from them. Then you discover they don’t have the leadership skills you thought they would have.

We’ve all been there. 

Maybe they lack vision or they are terrible with accountability or they don’t take responsibility for their actions. Either way, a disappointing leader can knock the wind out of your sails, and if you’re not careful, your career too. 

Instead of letting a disappointing leader hold us back, what steps can we take to maintain control of our careers? In this episode, I talk about mitigating the effects of a disappointing leader.  

A few weeks ago, I shared 15 questions that drive innovation, and y’all loved them. (If you missed them, you can check them out here) I wanted to share more powerful questions that will change perspectives, challenge assumptions, instill trust, and get you out of trapped thinking. 

Whether you’re a leader or a team member, these questions will pull your organization forward. 

In this episode, I’ll give you questions to add to your innovation bank, so you can be the leader people describe as “the leader who ask the best questions!”.

When things go wrong in our organizations, the common immediate reaction is panic… and when we are in a state of panic, we stop thinking clearly, and then we react. 

Unfortunately, this sequence of events doesn’t make for a good outcome. Because, when we react, we aren’t in a place to make the best decisions. We’re more likely to act in fight or flight mode. If we respond, we are able to self-author the situation and create better solutions. 

In this episode, I share how we can get ourselves out of reaction-mode and into a responsive-mode. 

Three Things To Take Away From This Episode 

Signs of reactive leadership
If the priorities in an organization are constantly changing, you’re a reactive leader. If it feels like the team goes wherever the wind blows, you’re definitely not in response-mode. Reactive leadership creates chaos, which kills innovation and that’s the last thing we need. 

Not so fast…
When you find yourself in a difficult situation, it’s human to want response to it immediately. This makes the fear and discomfort go away. Making the problem go away quickly doesn’t lead to long-term solutions. Slow down, take a breath and allow cooler heads to prevail. Don’t make decisions for instant results, think about the long-term business impact. 

Taking control of the situation
The difference between reacting and responding is the difference between being driven by the situation and driving it. When you act from a place of methodical response, you have purpose and control, and you get to self-author the situation. 

Feedback, they say, is always good for us. It’s necessary, strengthens our weaknesses, and makes us better, right? Well…not always. 

Sometimes feedback, even if it’s well-meaning, can do more harm than good. It can inadvertently make us suppress our superpowers, and no one wants that! 

Whether you’re giving or getting it, be careful not to kill all the goodness with feedback. In this episode, I talk about how sometimes feedback can be a curse, and how to avoid this. 

Three Things To Take Away From This Episode 

Feedback can make you doubt what makes you amazing
Let’s say you’re highly creative and you love finding new ways to do things. The feedback you might get is, “You have too many ideas, you go after too many priorities.” The truth is, innovation and the ability to see what’s possible is extremely necessary on the team - why would you want to eliminate it?

Situationally managing your superpowers
Your best friend can also be your frenemy. A superhero’s powers can also be dangerous. Our superpowers can be that way sometimes. Now, that doesn’t mean you get rid of your best friend, we just have to rein them in. When you can turn your strengths up and down like a dial in different situations, they become even more powerful.

Don’t kill their greatness 
As leaders, we’re often guilty of giving feedback that compromises people’s greatness. The next time you provide constructive criticism, ask if it’s going to dull their superpower or if we’re asking them not to do what makes them great. Be careful not to rob your organization of that person’s gifts. 

As leaders, we can either have a team full of innovative thinkers or a team too scared to share their thoughts and ideas. This distinction is driven entirely by the kinds of questions we’re asking. 

We can stifle creativity or encourage it based solely on what we say. As a gift to you, I’ve compiled a list of 15 questions that will create tons of creativity and innovation, while fostering the kind of environment that will help your organizations thrive.

So grab a notebook, start using these questions, and see what they will do for your team!

Three Things To Take Away From This Episode 

Stop asking “why”
Anytime someone asks us “why”, we’re immediately reverted back to being in trouble as children, so we can’t expect a why-based question to get people into an innovative state. The grown-up workplace version of why is “help me understand.” As soon as we ask “why?”, consider all innovation dead and gone. 

Tap into the possibilities 
Nothing stifles our creativity and innovation like feeling limited, so why don’t we use language and ask questions that make our people feel like the possibilities are endless? Ask them what they’d do if resources were unlimited. It allows people to think big and take the guardrails off their minds, which produces great results.

Change your perspective
When we feel stuck on an idea or a project, nothing makes a big impact like a little change in perspective. Ask people if they were someone else, what they’d do differently. It’s a small tweak, but it gets the innovation going because they see the situation through a different lens. 

There are two ways to lead - from a place of purpose or from a fight-or-flight place where you’re just doing everything you can to not lose. 

Newsflash: one way sets your organization up for bigger and better outcomes, and the other one…well, let’s just say, it causes chaos, division, and many other issues that make for a toxic work environment. 

Now, you might be asking; How do I know if I’m leading not to lose?


In this episode, I’ll share how to pivot to a more purpose-driven way of leading. 

Three Things To Take Away From This Episode

Why you need to lead with purpose
When we lead toward purpose, we’re in control and we have a higher ability to influence our organization. From a place of purpose, we are more competent, innovative, creative, and open, and that benefits the team and all the work we do.  

Signs you’re leading not to lose
It’s pretty easy to spot an environment or a team that’s being led not to lose. Perfectionism, fear, throwing people under the bus, defensiveness - these are all signs that instead of being daring and innovative, we’re in survival mode. 

Listen to your inner game
The language we use in our leadership tells us a lot about our inner game. If we’re leading not to lose, there’s a root cause. Maybe it’s our own fears, how we’re led, or how we were taught to lead, but we have to dig down and find the root cause of why we’re leading not to lose, so we can start leading with purpose. 

This episode goes out to all my perfectionists out there (you know who you are). Everything you do needs to be A+++ work and nothing less, and you’re constantly stressed, burnt out, and overwhelmed because of it.

Here’s a controversial thought that will surely scare that high-performing brain of yours: what if you turned in B work or even C work (gulp)? Not all your work has to be absolutely perfect and a passing grade is still a pass.

How do we distinguish between A, B, and C work? How do we overcome our need for perfectionism at work?

In this episode, I talk about getting away from the idea that we always have to do A+ work, all the time.

Three Things To Take Away From This Episode 

The cost of perfectionism

The life of a Straight A adult isn’t worth all the hype. You’re stressed, overwhelmed, your to-list never gets shorter and it’s taking a toll on other areas of your life. I know in school they taught us to be Straight A students, but no one says you have to be a Straight A adult. 

Turn in C work (it will be okay)

If you aim for A+ work in every area of your job, you’re more likely to end up doing C work everywhere because no one can sustainably do all the things, all the time. If you give yourself the grace to turn in C work in some areas, something amazing happens - A+ work in the areas that matter becomes easy!

Don’t overstretch your resources

The tasks and projects in our workplaces don’t hold the same weight, so that means we can rank them according to how much energy we can give them. For example, client work is A+ work and you and your team can decide that internal communications are B work.

Are false priorities holding you back from what you truly want? Do you find that the thing you should be focused on gets overshadowed by something not as important? 

I can give you countless examples of areas where this shows up...choosing social approval over honesty from our teams. Allowing underperformers to negatively impact the organization instead of having the tough conversations.

Choosing to be overwhelmed instead of asking for help. Having false priorities does a lot of damage, so why on earth do we do it?

Well…the scientific answer is...we’re human. Sometimes ego, fear, and all sorts of other things get in the way of what matters. 

In today’s podcast, I’ll share how to overcome false priorities.

Three Things To Take Away From This Episode 

Why we set false priorities

We fall into the trap of false priorities because very often it allows us to avoid uncomfortable situations or conversations. It could also be because of fear, our egos, and everything else that comes with being a human. 

 Filter your decisions through what matters  

Human beings are prone to setting and even following through on false priorities, so we sometimes need a little reminder to stay back on track. To remedy this, we can create a list of our real priorities and have them close by, where you can view them every single day. 

 How to identify the false priorities on your team 

How do we move from leveraging false priorities that damage our big ideas to our true priorities? If we have individual false priorities, you can best believe that our teams and organizations have them too. To ferret out what those are, we have to start asking questions and really having the patience to get the answer.

Spending hours on busy work that doesn’t impact the business? Attending meetings we shouldn’t be in because our ego wants us there? Filling our to-do lists with meaningless tasks because we *have* to? These, my friends, are all the height of vanity work, and we’re all guilty of it, maybe by choice or by association. 

Not all work is created equal - some is vital to the success of the organization and other work…we really shouldn’t be giving the time of day. So how do we tell the difference, and most importantly, how do we get rid of it from our teams and organizations and in the words of Elsa, “let it go?”

In this episode, we’re talking about why vanity work needs to be banished. 

Three Things To Take Away From This Episode 

Why vanity work is a problem

Vanity work isn’t just a harmless annoyance, it’s a huge drain on company resources. It drives burnout, makes our organizations slower, and frankly, there are more important things we could be doing. In today’s busy world, no one has time to do work that doesn’t matter, so we must make getting rid of vanity work a priority. 

How leaders invite vanity work into the organization

One of the biggest causes of vanity work is leaders not trusting their teams enough to just let things go. Whether it’s due to poor training, the wrong hires, or our ego, this has to be remedied immediately. 

Before you accept that next meeting request…

Meaningless meetings are the height of vanity work, and it’s time we get really honest about why they are still on our schedules. Is it because of ego, because we don’t trust our teams, or because it’s something people in your organization just do?

When conflict arises at work, there are two ways people deal with it. Go directly to the person in question or tell other people about it first. Many times, we take the latter route, and it never goes well.

If you ever played telephone as a kid, you’ll know that the original message always gets twisted somewhere along the way. At work, the stakes are much higher though.

The result: gossip, miscommunication, damaged team dynamics, a toxic work environment, and the question you can’t shake: is everyone talking about everyone else behind their backs?

When information gets passed through a third-party, it creates something known as triangulation. There’s no bigger culture killer than that.

To combat triangulation, we have to foster workplaces where people feel comfortable for people to address conflict directly.

In this episode, I talk about how to remove triangulation from our work culture, and move toward a healthier way to communicate and deal with conflict.

Have you ever wondered how some people can take the most disparate dots floating all over the place and connect them into one cohesive, powerful idea? 

Like some sort of computer, they see intersections where others see separate concepts and have a knack for finding the missing links that transform everything. That project your team has hit a wall on? They can see the solution instantly. That plan you thought was iron-clad? They can (lovingly) poke holes in it in seconds. 

Ever wonder how in the world did they do it?

These people are synthesizers. They have the incredible superpower to collect information, see the unseeable intersections, and understand how each intersection impacts the others. They make a coherent whole out of all of the parts. 👊 

I think we can all agree we need more coherent wholes in the workplace! 

Want to become a world-class synthesizer? In this episode, we’ll explore why synthesizing is a competency that will boost your organization and how to develop it. 

Make Synthesizing Part of Your Culture

Build roadmaps in your mind 

Too often, our teams find themselves down a path on a project or product only to realize something isn’t connecting. So much time is wasted! When you have the ability to synthesize, you can hear pieces of information and how they fit together. Saving precious resources and building better outcomes. 

Become a super synthesizer 

If synthesizing information doesn’t come naturally to you, no problem; you can build up this muscle over time. How? Just start listening more - no, I mean really listening. In every conversation, think about the root cause, and start to find the separate strings that connect it all together. 

Listen to the synthesizer

Sometimes a synthesizer can feel like such a downer, poking holes into the fantastic ideas you’ve come up with, but your team needs them. We’ve got blind spots, and if someone can identify them early, why not listen to them?

Have you ever had a workplace nemesis? Just thinking about one of my old supervisors can send my nervous system into a bit of a tizzy. I can remember it like it was yesterday, sitting stalwart, staring at my laptop, shut down to any motivation for my job, day after day.

It was like the man had reached into my soul and fundamentally changed who I was as a person. I felt petty; I felt judgemental; I felt angry. I truly let this guy get the best of me. I was acting out of character, always in reaction. How I felt about him was changing how I felt about me. 

Over time, the tension and resentment had built up so much that I was acting in ways that weren’t true to myself. That was tough on me—and it was tough on my career. 

What I didn’t know then, and what I do know now, is that I had complete control over that situation the whole time. I was letting someone else change and impact my daily performance. The key words here are: I was letting them. (To quote one of the great southern poets of our generation, Taylor Swift, “It’s me. Hi. I’m the problem, it’s me.”)

If this story sounds all too familiar, don’t worry, it happens to the best of us. 

Nothing gets you to act out of your integrity like a workplace nemesis. Even one interaction can ruin your day and leave you internally rolling your eyes and complaining to other colleagues.

In this episode, let’s talk about something we’re probably all familiar with. This is “how to keep your cool and your integrity in your daily interactions” 101. I hope it helps.

Five Things To Take Away From This Episode 

Recognize how this dynamic has impacted your behavior. 

If you’ve been participating in “smack talk,” or are actively wishing this person their comeuppance, or your communication has become toxic, it’s time to get honest with yourself. 

You get to decide how you’re going to be and respond.

Does someone just rub you the wrong way? The way they work, lead, show up, and prioritize, it’s just…different. (That’s definitely not how you would do it.) That’s on them. You do you. 

Get real about their contributions. 

If your personality conflict is getting in the way of a harmonious workplace, put down the power struggle and focus on relationship building. Start paying attention to what they contribute, not how they do it. 

Clock your cortisol. 
When you are in conflict with someone your nervous system will react. Cortisol, stress hormones, flood the system and they stay with you all day. What’s more, our brain remembers and will start to pre-react accordingly. Change the predictive chemicals by changing your mindset. 

Never stop being the person you are. 
Give up your power for that chucklehead? No way, man. Control who you are, how you show up, and how you respond. Let go of your judgy obsession and focus on yourself. Otherwise, you’re denying the rest of us the gift of your authentic self.

We’re all used to the idea of vertical leadership, a leader and their team. Everyone in the group looks up to the boss, and the boss looks up to their boss, and so on, and so on. We understand the hierarchy. 

What many of us don’t expect, as we move up the ladder, is that the higher the climb, the more we must look laterally: other leaders at level, other teams below them. 

A manager who moves to an executive role must start to think horizontally and think vertically. 

It’s not enough to lead your team in a silo; you must now consider the integration of all parts of an organization. 

The higher you go in an organization, the more you have to lead horizontally and also in balance with vertical leadership. You have to think holistically; take into account the needs of the business as a whole, as well as the needs of your own group.

For most people who get promoted into executive roles, this transition can be challenging, especially when you may have to give up some resources — and some ego —to achieve real integration. 

What are the key benefits of horizontal leadership? Why, nothing less than making more informed decisions, learning new things, and contributing in new and different ways, of course. Did I mention that your own team will also reap the benefits of your knowledge building and relationship cultivating? Booyah! 🤠

In this episode, I talk about how vertical and horizontal leadership are two sides of the same coin, a lucky penny in your leadership pocket. 

Four Things To Take Away From This Episode 

Understand organizational priorities and why they matter.

Your success as a leader will hinge on your ability to identify ways to get your team to intersect with the rest of the company. Identify what your group actually needs and doesn’t need and put everything into context with company objectives. 

Learn a little bit about what everyone else does. 

No one likes operating in the dark. Come out of your comfort zone and start making connections between departments, roles, and people. Understand just enough to be dangerous about how the organization functions across all verticals. 

Let go around ego.

This is the time to tap into your sense of the greater good. Yes, you may lose precious talent, time, or budget to some other more urgent need, but if you can frame it from a global perspective no one will take it personally.

Get comfortable with curiosity, challenge, and conflict. 

The ability to have frank, honest conversations in a no-drama zone is a skill you can improve with practice. Look for opportunities to challenge your peers, ask questions, and coach peers into shifting perspectives. The more you communicate effectively and with emotional intelligence, the more acute your understanding of the board, the game, and all of the players.

Are you the kind of leader who demands innovation from your team, but kill new ideas through your language? 

Being an idea killer only stifles creativity and makes it really hard for people to have the kinds of conversations that move an organization forward. 

How do we become leaders that welcome innovation and give it a comfy and roomy seat at the table? 

In this episode, you’ll learn what stunts innovation, and how to change it with one sentence…. “I don’t see it, but change my mind”.

Three Things To Take Away From This Episode

Spark innovation through conversations

With one simple statement, create a conversation that inspires today and in the future.

I don’t see it, but change my mind

Instead of shooting down ideas and discouraging people, use this one simple statement to encourage thought and innovation.

Not a great idea? How do you say it without discouraging future ideas?

We don’t have to like every single idea people share with us, how do we say no in a constructive way?