In this episode, I sit with Sandy Black who’s Vice President of North America Commercial Operations at LivaNova, a global medical technology company. Sandy's responsible for several departments within the commercial side of the organization including commercial data and analytics, sales incentives, commercial excellence and training, customer service contracts and pricing, as well as case management and clinical nurse education. Sandy shares her journey how solving problems in R&D led her to leading commercial teams.KEY TAKEAWAYSSeek to understand, ask questions, and don’t make assumptionsYou can't make assumptions about teams just sitting in your office. You must get out there and connect with peopleUsing questions during heated conversations can help deescalate situationsIt's OK to allow teams to fail especially when the decisions aren't business critical.  It can be a great learning experience for allWhen leading large projects, it's critical to have advocates and buy-in at all levels to not only support your mission, but to help with pull-through at the ground level

In this episode, I sit with Edgar Butler Jr. Edgar is a seasoned leader with a background in the insurance industry. Edgar is also a leadership and employee development coach and author of Clarify, Construct, and Control Your Career. We discuss Edgar’s early days that shaped and molded his leadership style with great tips and a framework for leading your people.KEY TAKEAWAYSManage process. Lead peopleHelp your teams by putting them in the best position to create success for themselves while achieving company goalsYour team, individually, wants to know you care about themThe words you use with your team, and about your team, really do matter so choose wiselyWe’re pouring (ourselves) into individuals because we want to understand who they are as peopleWe’re pulling the ‘greater’ out of people especially when they may not be hitting the markWe’re pushing because we see the potential in them to go on and become successfulLEADERSHIP RESOURCESBook: Clarify, Construct, and Control Your Career: Practical Principles To Help You Develop And Advance Your Careerhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/edgar-butlerhttp://edgarbutlerjr.com/

In this episode, I sit with Dr. Calvin Lawrence. Dr. Calvin is a motivational speaker and a leadership consultant. He has over 40 years of experience teaching and leading in the educational system at the high school and collegiate level. He also has a doctorate in educational leadership and administration. We discuss the successes and mistakes learned and earned in mentor and mentee relationships. KEY TAKEAWAYS “Going across the room” – as a mentor, you shouldn’t wait for people to come to you seeking mentorship. Proactively meet others and you’ll see who could use mentoring or should be mentored based on potential Be intentional with your leadership and mentoring role. Same goes for being a mentee Having an ‘open door policy’ is not enough. The door can stay open, but what good is it if no one walks in? As a mentee, do not assume that leaders are too busy to mentor. If you’re in a mentorship, leadership has accepted the role of mentoring and they are ready to support you Mentorship is a two-way street. As a mentor, you may feel you are the only one ‘giving’ in the relationship, but remember, you are also learning from your mentee LEADERSHIP RESOURCES https://www.linkedin.com/in/calvinlawrence-edd calvinlawrencespeaks.net  

In this episode, I sit with co-authors Sean Georges and Dr. John Buford to talk about their recently published book titled, On mission: Your Journey to Authentic Leadership. The book serves as a resource for personal leadership development, crafted by Sean and John, two former marine officers with a combined 80 years of leadership experience in military, business, nonprofit, and education.  KEY TAKEAWAYS Authentic leadership is both authenticity in the human being who is influencing another person in the direction of a shared mission and authenticity in who they are and how they engage Leadership does not work the way an org chart looks. It is relationship driven, mission focused, and can work in any direction within a hierarchy If you want to gain commitment, influence others, and change ways of thinking, your people must know you care for them. We call that leading with love LEADERSHIP RESOURCES On Mission: Your Journey to Authentic Leadership

In this episode, I sit with several leaders during a Leaders Jam Session monthly call. Our discussion focused on employees who tender their resignation because they’ve received an offer for another job that pays more. How would you handle this situation? KEY TAKEAWAYS Very rarely does someone leave a job strictly based on money. Ask good questions to understand motivationsKeep in mind, while this is about them, it may also be about you, so take time to reflect when appropriateConsider how this event will impact the rest of your teamApproximately 50% of employees who accept a counteroffer leave their job within 12 monthsLEADERSHIP RESOURCES https://hbr.org/2016/09/why-people-quit-their-jobs

In this episode, I sit with Dr. Matt Sowcik, Assistant Professor of Leadership Education at the University of Florida, and author of a new book titled, “The H Factor: The intersection between humility and great leadership”. Dr. Matt and I talk about humility as key factor in leadership, some of its underpinnings, and how to overcome the widely felt notion that having humility in leadership is a sign of weakness.KEY TAKEAWAYSThree things can fly in the face of humility – our apprehension to be imperfect, to be incomplete, and that we are permanentThere is a sweet spot where we can be seen as not overconfident as leaders, but we’re not underconfident eitherHumility is that characteristic that brings us to the middle. It’s our counterbalancing traitThings that help us develop humility is our experiences and our ability to reflect, make changes, and growHumility helps you realize the importance of othersLEADERSHIP RESOURCESBook - The H Factor: The intersection between humility and great leadership”, Matthew Sowcik, Ph.D. https://www.amazon.com/H-Factor-intersection-between-humility-leadership-ebook/dp/B0B5FSSVCY/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2QBN401U36BGZ&keywords=the+H+factor&qid=1657370968&sprefix=the+h+factor%2Caps%2C82&sr=8-1 https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-sowcik-192b236/ 

In this episode, I sit with the Chief of Police for the Yardley Borough (Pennsylvania) police department, Joe Kelly. Prior to joining the Yardley police department, he spent 23 years with the New Jersey transit police retiring at the rank of a deputy. Chief Kelly and I talk about his leadership journey, his approach, and what leadership looks like within the police organization. I think you might be surprised to hear some of the similar approaches and challenges that we come up against in the private sector. His leadership journey also includes how he survived a shooting incident last year. KEY TAKEAWAYS Center all discussions, both positive and negative, around your organizations’ core values, as they will be your guiding light The job of a leader is to make people better. If your employee is operating at 65%, get them to 75%. Don’t push unrealistic expectations Care for your team as individuals, not just as co-workers Understand that the difference between supervision and leadership takes time and experience to develop  LEADERSHIP RESOURCES  linkedin.com/in/joseph-kelly-iii-39677249 

In this episode, I sit with leadership expert and organizational psychologist, Dr. Ciela Hartanov, who was part of the founding team of the Google School for Leaders as well as Head of Next Practice, Innovation and Strategy at Google, where she developed projects designed to shape the future of leadership and work.  Dr. Ciela currently runs humcollective, a boutique strategy and innovation firm that helps companies, executives, and teams make sense of the forces, shaping the future and helps them prepare strategically. Her book, Reclaiming Sensitivity, will be out in 2023.  KEY TAKEAWAYS Leadership is an act, and not a personality. It’s the act of wayfinding  Sensitive Leadership – the ability to sense and respond to emergent terrain in a more humane way; one that isn’t always driven by data  Sensitive leaders are those who lead from behind, step forward when required, but are not the center of attention Become great at asking effective questions. If you’re not questioning then you’re just stating, and then you only know what you know Become a sense giver – share something that the rest of your team isn’t always privy to and help them make sense of the information with the right context. This helps others also become sense givers LEADERSHIP RESOURCES https://www.linkedin.com/in/cielahartanov/ humcollective.co  

In this episode, I sit with experienced neuropsychologist Dr. Julia DiGangi, who shows you how to expand the power of your nervous system to hold more emotional voltage. As a brain scientist, Dr. Julia knows that your nervous system is your portal to power. She will show you how to take the pain in your life - your stress, your struggle, your suffering - and transform it into your power. Dr. Julia brings tremendous expertise and decades of applied experience serving leaders at the highest levels of power, including The White House, top leadership at global companies, and Special Forces. Having worked with leaders who’ve endured some of the highest-stakes, highest-stress situations on the planet, Dr. Julia will show you what it takes to unlock new dimensions of your emotional power as you face defining challenges in your own life.KEY TAKEAWAYSWe know, scientifically, that the brain wants to avoid the very thing that will set you free. To overcome our experience of emotional pain, our anxiety, or fear of stress, etc., we must do the counter intuitiveEmotional Intelligence first starts with understanding yourself and how you might react or behave in times of uncertaintyIf you want to be a strong, emotionally intelligent leader, figure out how to work with your triggers until you aren’t triggered anymoreIn times of leadership uncertainty, contextual cues have gone away, so all eyes are always now on the leaderThe days that make you grow are the same days that put you in your ‘pain’LEADERSHIP RESOURCEShttps://www.linkedin.com/in/juliadigangi/www.neurohealthpartners.com

In this episode, I am in the middle of a Leaders Jam Session – a monthly group jam session that I host where participants get to share and learn from one another on how to tackle daily leadership challenges. Here, we’re talking about best practices for how to plan and run a successful team meeting, whether it’s a one or multi-day meeting. Key Takeaways Today, there’s even greater value in bringing everyone together Set Goals and Objectives, for example, 1) build team bonds, 2) learn from each other, and 3) have fun Get feedback on your agenda from your team, including your boss Include just the right amount of content for the length of your meeting. Trying to cram too much into your meeting will make you run over on time, potentially wear people out, and have an opposite effect on what you’re trying to accomplish Guests – consider having them, but keep in mind, will the guest fit into the overall meeting objectives, or will this idea be disruptive Team building activities – you want to have them, but you also need to know when to push back on ideas that your experience says ‘maybe we shouldn’t do this’  LEADERSHIP RESOURCES  HBR article: Off-sites that work. https://hbr.org/2006/06/off-sites-that-work