Radical Respect a book by Kim Scott – Details, episodes & analysis

Kim and Wesley have a conversations with author and sought after speaker, Henna Pryor about her recent book, Good Awkward.  They talk about the lost art of conversation, a skill that atrophied for many of us during Covid.  There is a lively discussion of what one can do to rebuild these important workplace conversational muscles.  

About Henna:
Henna Pryor, PCC is a dynamic Workplace Performance Expert who speaks and writes about performance mindset, interpersonal dynamics, high-impact communication, and embracing bumps in a world that keeps optimizing for smoothness. She's a regular Expert Columnist for Inc. Magazine, 10x award-winning author of Good Awkward, and an in-demand global keynote speaker. Her playful personality and insightful talks blend 2 decades of working with corporate leaders and teams, with a fresh, science-based approach to taking more strategic risks and boosting social and mental fitness for success at work.

pryoritygroup.com/about/

Wesley and Kim speak to Diane Kalen Sukra about her experiences working with local leaders and the challenges she has experienced.  She talks in detail about the rise of bullying and harrassing behavior in local government.  Once a community finds itself in "Bullyville", the community's ability to communicate and collaborate is dramatically inhibited. In more extreme forms, this affects how vital public services are delivered.   

It is easy to feel there is no way out. But Diane talks about pathways to follow to return to an environment where vital public discourse can happen in the public arena.  She discusses how culture isn't something just happens.  It is something communities need to cultivate.  She talks about how to build respect between civic leaders and citizens and how to foster a culture of self-governance in our communities.

About Diane Kalen Sukra: 

Diane is a best-selling author, speaker, and culture transformation expert, sharing insights from over two decades of civic leadership, including her award-winning tenure as city manager. She is the founder of Kalen Academy, an online training institute for civic leaders. 

Diane’s published works include Save Your City and Civic Resilience, as well as regular columns in Municipal World and Public Sector Digest. She is a political philosophy graduate of University of Toronto’s Trinity College and earned a master’s degree in political science from York University.

https://www.dianekalensukra.com/

There's no doubt: Pointing out bias is awkward. That's why it's helpful to make bias disruption a norm. In this episode, Kim and Wesley discuss how to disrupt bias with Dr. Philip Hickman, who shares a story revealing how parental biases can impact the school environment and student wellbeing.
Bio: Dr. Phil, is a renowned educational expert, EdTech visionary, psychologist, author, and entrepreneur. With a strong academic background, including five postgraduate degrees and doctorate, he has held various leadership positions in both rural and large school districts in the USA.

As a distinguished public speaker, Dr. Phil Hickman has presented at national conferences and workshops for organizations such as the U.S Department of Education and Columbia University. He is a prolific author with three books that showcase his groundbreaking methodologies in leadership, personalized learning, and emotional intelligence.

Dr. Phil is a versatile entrepreneur, having created Plabook, an AI powered reading technology solutions firm. He has also co-founded multiple nonprofit organizations and played a key role in successful edutech ventures.

His most recent accomplishment is founding Plabook, a multimillion dollar company that uses AI, gamification, and speech recognition to help children learn to read. Dr. Phil continues to develop cutting-edge technology to enhance personalized learning and immersive reading engagement for students in the 21st century.

Want to help your team change unproductive, biased patterns of thought? One of the best things you can do is sit down with them and explain why you think doing so is essential to a collaborative, respectful working environment. In this week's episode, Kim and Wesley speak with Matt Abrahams, who shares his experiences facing bias as the only dad among mothers on the playground.

Matt Abrahams is a leading expert in communication with decades of experience as an educator, author, podcast host, and coach. As a Lecturer in Organizational Behavior at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, he teaches popular classes in strategic communication and effective virtual presenting. He received Stanford GSB’s Alumni Teaching Award in recognition of his teaching students around the world. Outside of the classroom, Matt is a sought-after keynote speaker and communication consultant. He has helped countless presenters improve and hone their communication, including some who have delivered IPO road shows as well as Nobel Prize, TED, and World Economic Forum presentations. His online talks garner millions of views and he hosts the popular, award-winning podcast Think Fast, Talk Smart The Podcast. His new book Think Faster, Talk Smarter: How to Speak Successfully When You're Put on the Spot provides tangible, actionable skills to help even the most anxious of speakers succeed when speaking spontaneously, such as navigating Q&A sessions, shining in job interviews, providing effective feedback, making small talk, fixing faux pas, persuading others. His previous book Speaking Up without Freaking Out: 50 Techniques for Confident and Compelling Presenting has helped thousands of people manage speaking anxiety and present more confidently and authentically.

https://mattabrahams.com

How can you teach your team to disrupt bias? The key is for leaders to not teach their teams about bias as an abstraction, but to teach them how to disrupt the specific biases relevant to their employees. In this episode, Kim and Wesley discuss different ways of preventing bias with Kasia Musur, who shares her journey to realizing that toxicity is not an inevitable element of the business world.

Kasia Musur is a University of Edinburgh graduate with Master degrees in Social Anthropology as well as Global Crime, Justice and Security. With 18 years of international work experience across a variety of contexts, including leadership development, tech, international development, human rights education and human trafficking prevention; currently based in Berlin, she is the founder of Vent, a startup researching experiences of toxic leadership and developing tools supporting those caught in unhealthy and unfair work environments. Kasia is also the CEO of lightup Germany, a German NGO focusing on human trafficking prevention.

Creating a just workplace requires institutional courage and a leadership commitment to take action on behalf of those who trust or depend on the institution— even when it’s unpleasant, difficult or costly. In this episode, Kim and Wesley discuss how to build a just workplace with Delia Grenville, who shares a story about how institutional betrayal fueled mobbing, a form of group bullying, in her workplace.

Delia Grenville is a senior executive leader, process-driven change agent, large-scale technology change and business innovation strategist. With more than 25 years of experience in high tech roles, she is recognized by peers for her relentless push for quality, and is often referred to by senior leaders as the ‘alignment goddess’ for her ability to translate complex strategies into actionable business plans. Outside of the corporate world, Delia is a TEDx speaker, proud published author of the book Rants + Ramblings on Life and Wellness, and host of the To Live List podcast.

https://www.deliagrenville.com/

Preventing bias, prejudice and bullying may feel like the inevitable, given the prevalence of these attitudes. That’s why it’s important that when these problems do occur despite your best efforts, you respond in a way that makes it less likely they will happen again. In this episode, Kim and Wesley discuss managing these workplace challenges with Ellen Bennett, who reflects on one of her early experiences in the textile industry. She hired a consultant to help her learn about the industry, and soon discovered that he was a bully.

Ellen Marie Bennett is an author, mother and founder of Hedley & Bennett, an LA based culinary brand outfitting some of the best chefs across the country. Ellen attended culinary school in Mexico City, and upon returning to LA after graduation, she put her training to work cooking in two Michelin Star restaurants Providence as well as Baco Mercat. This led to the vision for Hedley & Bennett; become the nike of the culinary world by designing functional and beautifully made aprons and kitchen gear alongside pro chefs but made for everyone. Now the company outfits every show from Top Chef to Food network cooking shows and has collaborated with brands like Vans, Madewell, Crocs, Grateful Dead, Sesame Street to name a few.

Ellen also released her first business book Dream First, Details Later, which outlines her personal playbook of putting your inner worrier on silent and leaping into action. She lives in LA, CA with her husband Casey, son Nico, their pet pig Oliver, and their chicken Olive Oil.

A leader doesn’t have to choose between collective results and each person’s individuality. In fact, you can’t get one without the other. The strength of the team is the individual, and the strength of the individual is the team. As a leader, it’s your responsibility to do what you can to prevent bias, prejudice and bullying from destroying respect on your team. In this episode, Kim and Wesley discuss how to handle these workplace challenges. Kim shares an experience receiving biased feedback from a direct report and offers retrospective insight into how she could have best responded to it.

Every workplace challenge requires utilizing a different tool. “I” statements invite the person to consider your perspective, challenging bias. “It” statements draw a boundary that a person should not cross in the face of prejudice while “you” statements push bullies away. In this episode, Kim and Wesley chat with Minda Harts, who shares her experiences as a Black woman working under a bullying boss.

Minda Harts is the bestselling and award-winning author of The Memo: What Women of Color Need to Know to Secure a Seat at the Table as well as Right Within: How to Heal from Racial Trauma in the Workplace, and her first YA book, You Are More Than Magic. She is a highly sought-after speaker and thought-leader, frequently presenting on the topics of advancing women of color, leadership, diversity, and management at companies like Nike, Google, JP Morgan, Aspen Ideas Festival, Dreamforce, The Atlantic Festival, Forbes Inclusion in The Workplace, and DraftKings to name a few. Minda is an assistant professor of public service at NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and the founder of The Memo LLC, a career development company. In 2020, Minda was named by LinkedIn as the #1 Top Voice for Equity in the Workplace. In 2022, She was named by Business Insider as one the the top 100 People Transforming Business. Additionally, Minda was chosen by Marie Claire Magazine in 2022 to participate in Power Trip, where the year’s Top Women Movers and Shakers participate in an all-expense paid trip to network with each other. She has a weekly career podcast for women of color, titled Secure the Seat.

How do you diversify the workplace? Former Opentable CEO Christa Quarles found that it’s about more than meeting quotas: Workplace leaders instead have to focus on fixing the process. In this episode, Kim and Wesley speak with Christa about her strategies for increasing gender diversity at Opentable. She also shares tips for overcoming imposter syndrome.

Christa Quarles serves as Alludo's CEO and sits on the company's Board of Directors. Joining the company in 2020, Christa is a seasoned executive with over two decades of experience leading companies and spearheading financial and operational initiatives. As CEO of OpenTable, she led a period of transformational change, successfully navigating the company’s transition to cloud-based, small business solutions, and drove meaningful bottom- and top-line growth across its global operations. Christa also recently served as an Operating Partner at Advent International. Prior to joining OpenTable, she served as Chief Business Officer of Nextdoor, a marketplace connecting local communities to small businesses. Earlier in her career, she served as Senior Vice President, Interactive Games at The Walt Disney Company, where she led Disney Interactive to profitability. Christa also served as Chief Financial Officer of Playdom, which was later acquired by Disney. Prior to that, she held the role of Partner in Equity Research covering the internet sector at Thomas Weisel Partners LLC (now Stifel Financial).

Christa also currently serves on the Boards of Directors of Affirm and Kimberly-Clark. She received a BS in Economics and German from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.