Podcasts about leaders

A debate over government regulation in the AI industry is intensifying after models built by OpenAI and Anthropic were able to access the open internet during testing and hack into various public organizations and accounts. There are growing calls to slow the pace of development so that safety and security measures can catch up. But how does the Trump administration feel about that? And are top AI executives even on the same page?  For more: Anthropic said its AI models hacked into other companies' systems during testing  ---  Guests: Jennifer Ji, Center for Security and Emerging Technology & Hadas Gold, CNN AI Correspondent  Host: David Rind  Producer: Paola Ortiz  Showrunner: Felicia Patinkin  Senior Director of Podcasts: Zach Goldbaum  Photo: Nathan Howard/Reuters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode, the KMC Team welcomes listeners back to the KMC Collective Podcast for Season 3, discussing their commitment to the kids' ministry community and previewing upcoming topics. They delve into the importance of building confidence in leadership, sharing personal experiences with imposter syndrome and the challenges of people-pleasing. The conversation reflects on highlights from Season 2 and emphasizes the need for community engagement and open dialogue among leaders. In this episode, the hosts discuss their experiences with worship music, the importance of community connections, and the impact of international outreach. They share their excitement for the upcoming season, highlighting new topics and engagement strategies to foster growth in the kids ministry community. The conversation emphasizes the value of learning together and encourages listeners to subscribe and participate in the podcast's journey. Want to sign up for the Better Together Newsletter?  SIGN UP HERE! Want to learn more about the Kids Ministry Collective! CLICK HERE!  

A common misunderstanding in personal development and spiritual growth is that you can simply think or meditate your way out of a deep physiological trigger. We have all been told to practice positive thinking or to reframe our thoughts when stress hits. But if you are trying to maintain leadership composure using mindset tricks alone while your body is caught in a survival loop, this won't work.When a high-pressure moment activates past events, deep emotions, or core wounds, your autonomic nervous system defaults to protective survival modes. You might find yourself hiding, blocking others out, falling into repetitive sentence loops, or over-compensating. In these moments, logic fails because the brain cannot process cognitive reframes when the body feels fundamentally unsafe.To bridge this gap, I guide and equip self-led individuals and conscious leaders with an integrated methodology: Somatic-Mindset Micro-Habits.The Architecture of the Double LoopA somatic-mindset micro-habit is a body-to-mind practice designed to simultaneously down-regulate physical nervous system activation and disrupt reactive narrative loops. Unlike one-dimensional methods that only address the mind or only address the physical body, this approach closes the loop. It pairs physical body anchoring with conscious cognitive reframing to restore immediate internal composure and anchor long-term self-sovereignty.However, implementing these practices effectively is not a matter of pure discipline. It depends entirely on a vital criterion: your current nervous system regulation capacity and window of tolerance. Because our bodies experience different levels of intensity, these micro-habits must be scaled across two distinct levels.Level 1: Core Somatic-Mindset Micro-HabitsThis level requires an active, functional baseline of nervous system regulation skills. To practice at this level, you must possess the capacity to track your internal physiological sensations, stay fully present with a high internal charge without dissociating, and actively self-lead your body back to safety.In application, this looks like a complete 5-to-10 minute intentional protocol, such as the SMART Ventral Pivot. During this practice, you actively uncharge internal friction, close the emotional-mental loops, and consciously integrate back into a state of structural wholeness. From this uncharged state, you can step back into your environment with clear emotional and mental wisdom, naturally co-regulating and elevating everyone else in the room.Level 2: Sub-Somatic-Mindset Micro-HabitsBut what happens when you are right in the heat of a high-pressure environment, a trigger hits hard, and your capacity is stretched dangerously thin? What if you are in a meeting, you cannot physically walk away, and you do not have 10 minutes to reset?This is where Sub-Somatic-Mindset Micro-Habits come in. This level is designed specifically for low-capacity moments, compromised windows of tolerance, or for individuals who are still building their foundational regulation training.A sub-somatic-mindset micro-habit is a rapid, covert, 5-to-60 second physical and mental shift used in the exact moment of activation. You might drop your shoulders, change your posture to ground your sit bones, and slow your exhale, while immediately running a mental frame to interrupt the reactive loop. It scales down the physical demand to match your immediate environmental constraints, allowing you to pause a survival mask in real-time without anyone else in the room noticing.Building Your Baseline SovereigntyTrue emotional and mental mastery isn't about being perfectly regulated or meditating through chaos every second of the day. It is about knowing how to measure your capacity and match your tools to your current physiological state.To start mastering your expansion with composure, download The SMART MICRO-HABIT Composure & Core-Growth Guide: https://payhip.com/b/r3sNWCreated by: Maria Florio

For many nonprofit leaders, unionization can feel deeply personal. Explore the questions, challenges, and realities of nonprofit unionization, and how leaders, staff, and boards can navigate the process while preserving trust, culture, and their org's values.

On this episode of Inside the Firm, the largest housing affordability bill in decades becomes law, and finally why leaders must keep small problems in perspective. Join us as we go back Inside the Firm!

Jason Kramer is the Founder and CEO of Cultivize, where he helps businesses transform their CRM systems into engines for sales growth. Working with organizations across multiple countries, Jason specializes in implementing structured, repeatable sales processes that improve lead conversion, strengthen customer relationships, and maximize revenue.A trusted CRM strategist, speaker, and podcast guest, Jason is passionate about helping sales and marketing teams align around smarter systems, better data, and consistent execution that drives measurable results.SHOW SUMMARYWhat if your CRM became one of your greatest sales assets instead of another administrative task?In this episode of Selling from the Heart, Larry Levine and Darrell Amy welcome Jason Kramer to discuss why CRM success has very little to do with software—and everything to do with mindset, process, accountability, and consistency.Jason explains that many salespeople view CRM as a reporting tool for management when it should be a performance tool that helps them prioritize opportunities, remember important customer details, and consistently follow through on commitments. He shares why even the most advanced technology cannot compensate for an undefined sales process or inconsistent leadership.The conversation also explores the growing role of AI, automation, lead scoring, buying signals, and meeting transcripts. Jason offers practical strategies for reducing administrative work, improving follow-up, and helping sales professionals spend more time doing what matters most—building authentic relationships with their customers.KEY TAKEAWAYSShift your CRM mindset from reporting to revenue generation.Technology cannot fix a broken or undefined sales process.Consistent follow-up builds trust and protects customer relationships.Leaders must model CRM adoption and create accountability across the team.Lead scoring and customer insights help prioritize the right opportunities.AI and automation should reduce administrative work—not replace relationships.Ongoing coaching and reinforcement are essential for long-term CRM success.Strong CRM habits improve consistency, productivity, and sales performance.The best CRM is the one your team actually uses every day.HIGHLIGHT QUOTESSelling from the heart is being authentic, honest, and genuine.The tool alone isn't going to solve the problem.I've never met a salesperson that doesn't want to follow up.Software doesn't solve problems. People solve problems.Once you look away, things can go back to bad habits very quickly.ADDITIONAL RESOURCESExplore the secrets of heart-centered leadership and thriving workplace cultures with Culture from the Heart Podcast! Nominate a visionary CEO at www.culturefromtheheart.com!Listen to Larry Levine's Bestselling Book: Selling in a Post-Trust World! Now available on Audible! Transform your sales approach with insights that matter.  Subscribe to The Selling from the Heart Podcast Youtube Channel! Stay updated with the latest episodes and leadership tips: Selling from the Heart YouTubeGet Your Daily Dose of Inspiration:Click Here for Your Daily Dose

"Our gross profit margin is truly the battle we have to win in order to win all of the downstream wars." - Tracy Bech  Financial statements become useful when leaders can translate the numbers into decisions. Tracy Bech, founder and author of 60 Minute CFO, explains how business owners, managers, salespeople, and field professionals can develop financial fluency without becoming accountants.  Turn Financial Data into a Meaningful Scorecard  Tracy teaches finance through stories and relationships rather than isolated numbers. Revenue alone does not reveal whether a company is financially healthy. Leaders need ratios that show how efficiently the company earns money, whether it can meet its obligations, and how prepared it is to withstand adversity.  Her three foundational measures are gross profit margin, liquidity, and safety. Gross profit margin shows what remains after the cost of producing a product or delivering a service. If that margin is too low, the company may not have enough money to cover operating expenses and generate a net profit.  Liquidity compares current assets with current liabilities, revealing the company's ability to pay its bills. Safety compares debt with equity and helps leaders understand the company's financial resilience and capacity to obtain financing when needed.  Move From Historical Reports to Forward Planning  Tax preparation and year-end reports explain what already happened. However, financial fluency allows leaders to use that history to forecast what should happen next.  Tracy outlines three stages: learn the key ratios, understand the difference between cash and profit, and use historical results to develop forecasts. Instead of simply accepting the final score, leaders can establish financial targets and create specific marching orders for pricing, sales, expenses, hiring, and growth.  Give Teams Metrics They Can Influence  Financial planning should not remain confined to the executive team. Salespeople and technicians can provide valuable information about customer responses, operational friction, pricing, quality, rework, referrals, and service delivery.  However, Tracy cautions leaders against sharing financial information that employees cannot control. Teams benefit most from clear measures connected to their work, such as proposals won, project margins, pricing discipline, accurate service, reduced callbacks, customer reviews, and referrals.  Financial visibility also strengthens succession planning. Owners preparing to exit can improve their position by optimizing financial ratios, protecting the balance sheet, exploring future growth opportunities, and developing the next generation of leadership.  Understanding the story behind the numbers helps water treatment professionals evaluate risk, communicate priorities, and make decisions that support long-term stability.  Listen to the full conversation above. Explore related episodes below. Stay engaged, keep learning, and continue scaling up your knowledge!    Timestamps  02:20 — Trace Blackmore shares what listeners can expect during Legionella Awareness Month, including a weekly series addressing Legionella and other waterborne pathogens.  03:20 — Upcoming Events for Water Treatment Professionals: Trace highlights the 2026 AWT Technical Training, taking place November 11–14 in Frisco, Texas.  05:40 — Words of Water with James  08:40 — Interview with Tracy Bech, founder and author of 60 Minute CFO and business finance educator and strategist, about making business finance less intimidating and developing financial fluency.  11:30 — Tracy explains why business finance often feels overwhelming and how simple calculations and relatable stories make financial concepts easier to understand.  13:20 — Financial performance becomes a team scorecard that helps technicians and employees understand how their work contributes to the company's health.  16:40 — Finance terminology can create communication gaps, leaving otherwise successful owners uncertain about retained earnings, working capital, and cash flow.  21:50 — Tracy explains why profit is essential for serving customers, supporting employees, and keeping a business financially sustainable.  23:30 — Gross profit margin emerges as a critical measure because it determines whether enough money remains to cover operating expenses and generate profit.  25:50 — Liquidity and safety help leaders evaluate whether the company can pay its bills, manage debt, and withstand financial adversity.  33:10 — Tracy presents three steps toward financial fluency: learn the essential ratios, understand cash versus profit, and use historical performance to forecast the future.  35:20 — Leaders can improve execution by establishing a clear destination while allowing their teams to identify obstacles, opportunities, and necessary adjustments.  38:10 — Open-book management works best when employees receive financial metrics they understand and can directly influence.  40:00 — Field professionals affect financial results through accurate work, fewer callbacks, controlled expenses, positive reviews, and customer referrals.  41:10 — Business owners can begin improving their financial fluency by reviewing the previous month's income statement and balance sheet and confirming that the information is accurate.  44:00 — Understanding the numbers helps leaders balance growth and stability while making informed decisions about profit, debt, equipment, and owner distributions.  47:10 — Tracy explains how owners preparing for retirement can strengthen financial performance, protect the balance sheet, and develop future leaders.  50:30 — Tracy encourages business leaders to give finance another chance, discover the story behind their numbers, and recognize financial fluency as a learnable skill.    Quotes "Your business cannot exist without profits and you owe it to your customers and you owe it to your employees to have profits."  "But when you get your strategies and you understand why things went the way they went, now you actually create your forecast and your marching orders."  "The best time to plant the tree was 20 years ago, and the next best time to plant the tree is today."  "I think that honestly, this is easier than you think."    Connect with Tracy Bech  Email: tracy@60minutecfo.com   Website: 60 Minute CFO  LinkedIn: Tracy Bech | LinkedIn    Guest Resources Mentioned   60 Minute CFO  The Great Game of Business, Expanded and Updated: The Only Sensible Way to Run a Company by Jack Stack (Author), Bo Burlingham (Author)  Grow Up Fast: Lessons from an AI Startup by Zach Rattner (Author), Rita Sus (Illustrator)  Power vs. Force: The Hidden Determinants of Human Behavior by Ph.D. Hawkins, david R., M.D. (Author)    Scaling UP! H2O Resources Mentioned  AWT (Association of Water Technologies)  AWT 2026 Annual Convention & Exposition  Scaling UP! H2O Academy video courses  Submit a Show Idea  The Rising Tide Mastermind    Words of Water with James McDonald  Today's definition means "water loving" and refers to substances that are attracted to water. Can you guess the word or phrase?   2026 Events for Water Professionals  Check out our Scaling UP! H2O Events Calendar where we've listed every event Water Treaters should be aware of by clicking HERE.    This episode made possible through our valued partners at: 

Daniel Shapiro, PhD, returns to the Faculty Factory Podcast this week for a conversation on what really separates thriving academic leaders from those who quietly wash out of their roles. Today's interview is based on a talk Dr. Shapiro recently gave for Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM), titled "Chutes and Ladders." After conducting hundreds of 360 evaluations for chairs, institute directors, and deans, and watching what happened to those leaders afterward, Dr. Shapiro started noticing patterns that rarely come up in typical leadership conversations. He breaks these behaviors into three tiers: Foundational behaviors Mid-level skills Advanced skills Dr. Shapiro currently serves as Senior Partner in Performance Transformation and leads the Chartis Center for Burnout Solutions, where he and his team assist leaders of multi-hospital systems with efforts to reduce burnout and the turnover of high-value people. He previously served as the Vice Dean for Faculty and Administrative Affairs at the Penn State College of Medicine (Hershey). Dr. Shapiro first joined us in February 2019. At the time it was the first ever interview released on this podcast and our second episode overall. It focused on factors that influence the productivity, success, happiness, and overall well-being of faculty. He returned in 2022 for an in-depth chat about data's role in advancing the careers of faculty. You can learn more about both those episodes: Episode 169 – A Faculty Factory Reunion with Daniel Shapiro, MS, PhD Episode 2 – A Faculty Factory Interview with Daniel Shapiro, MS, PhD You can get in contact with Dr. Shapiro via email: dshapiro@chartis.com and he is available to follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drdanshaps/.

So-called “frontier” artificial intelligence is going rogue. Think of it as FrankenAI.  Anthropic and OpenAI have both reported in recent days that their AI agents have autonomously attacked other organizations, apparently without authorization from humans or prior notice.  The trouble is this is assuredly but a small foretaste of what is being unleashed.  Leaders in the industry like Elon Musk have been warning for some time that the pell-mell pursuit of ever more powerful AI technology risks creating instruments for the destruction of civilization.  The notion that we must do so lest we “lose the race” with Communist China, sets up a no-win nightmare: Either we create doomsday AI or they do, with the help of American big tech.  We better hit “pause” on both our own headlong rush to create FrankenAI and stop enabling the CCP's.   This is Frank Gaffney.

discover the key characteristics of high performing teams and what makes high performing teams succeed. Chris Hallberg, a U.S. Army veteran and leadership development expert, explains how military leadeship, team management, and the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) drive stronger business execution. Learn practical approaches to organizational culture, hiring strategies, talent curation, personnel management, and employee retention. This episode covers performance metrics, accountability standards, middle management alignment, command and control principles, veteran hiring, leadership training, management systems, business growth, workplace efficiency, corporate leadership, professional development, organizational design, business coaching, management styles, employee engagement, leadership principles, staffing solutions, and operational excellence. In this episode: Attributes of high performing teams and how to build high performing teams How military leadership translates into civilian business success Leading by example and the impact of frontline engagement on employee engagement Aligning middle management for better communication and business execution Culture curation and hiring for core wiring Tools for measuring performance and building elite teams Technology and visualization tools that improve team performance Navigating workforce commitment challenges Rigorous recruitment, staffing solutions, and firing fast to protect team excellence Leveraging veteran skills and military discipline in civilian organizations How high performing teams build trust and a practical high performing teams model Leadership and Execution Effective leadership requires moving beyond theory to consistent operational execution. Most businesses fail in the gap between strategy and daily implementation. Leaders must stay present, model the work ethic they expect, and demonstrate willingness to handle humble tasks. This sets a tone of mutual respect that becomes one of the core characteristics of high performing teams. Bridging the Management Gap A common problem is the disconnect between senior leadership and middle management. When executives announce changes without first aligning their managers, they weaken frontline authority and damage trust. Organizations perform best when they operate as one connected unit. Fully informing and empowering middle managers before initiatives launch prevents an “us vs. them” culture and supports the accountability standards that high performing teams need. Curating Elite Teams Talent acquisition works best as a deliberate curation process rather than a standard HR function. Most adults are already formed in character, so trying to fix uncommitted employees rarely succeeds. Focus instead on identifying people whose values and natural wiring match the team. This hiring approach prioritizes mission commitment over raw talent and strengthens long-term employee retention and organizational culture. Measurable Accountability Objective performance metrics and transparent scorecards remove guesswork. When results are visible, many team members self-correct without constant intervention. This method, drawn from military precision and systems like EOS, helps leaders quickly spot people in the wrong roles. It forms a practical high performing teams model that improves workplace efficiency and operational excellence while supporting sustained business growth.   Connect Chris Hallberg: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-hallberg-01516315/?skipRedirect=true Website: https://bizsgt.com/   Connect With Tim Website: timstatingtheobvious.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/timstatingtheobvious YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHfDcITKUdniO8R3RP0lvdw Instagram: @TimStating TikTok: @timstatingtheobvious LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-staton-04b41a271/ SKOOL Community: https://www.skool.com/timstatingtheobvious-9537/about?ref=de9c7e65d8ba4eeabc1a8eea413c125b Substack: https://realtimstatingtheobvious.substack.com

The recent viral video of a teenaged lifeguard rescuing a boy at Seabright State Beach in Santa Cruz is just one of several ocean rescues this season. And, an amicus brief filed in San Jose this week includes 11 Central Coast communities.

As I have been working on my book “The UN-WOW,” I've been talking to a lot of people in experience design and experience management about whether or not my idea for the book makes sense. Two things have emerged from these conversations. First, people generally are very supportive of the principles behind The UN-WOW. It seems that people see a lot of opportunity in exploring more mundane aspects of everyday life for design opportunities. It has been great to hear that vote of confidence as I work on the project, and people being excited to hear more about it as it is coming together. The second thing to emerge is that on a certain level, none of this experience design work should be that hard because our goals are pretty simple. At its foundation, we ideally are trying to make life better for our design audiences. Whether it is user, customer, patient, employee, student, client, or any other experience design space, we want to improve the experiences that people have (regardless of whether these experiences are mundane or metamorphic).  How we create these experiences, and the scale that it is done, becomes the work of the designers. What should be easy becomes more challenging when other organizational priorities take over. Organizations can become fixated on outcomes that run counter to the goals of experience designers. Caring about customers, employees, users, and others can be seen as a luxury when the only focus is profitability. Thus, many experience designers feel frustrated when trying to do their work, running into barriers that either minimize the scope of their work, or completely block it from happening. Leaders may want to talk about being human-centered, but don't necessarily see the need to treat people like human beings. To talk about the challenges and opportunities, I welcome Tamar Cohen to the Experience by Design studios. Like many people in experience design, Tamar had a very non-linear path to her work. Starting out as an Art History major, she worked in galleries and auction houses. She found herself at Citibank for 16 years, applying the skills she acquired from art history to her work in customer experience. She also shares her work leading other companies like Zoetis as the Head of Global Customer Experience Strategy and at Travelers as VP of Employee Experience. We talk about the importance of connecting employee experience and customer experience, making your employees your first customers. We also talk about the importance of ethnographic research to understand the full employee and customer journeys.   We also discuss her new project with Michael Lowenstein as well as work with James Killian (both former guests on ExD). She describes what she calls the Halo Effect, which includes conducting qualitative research based on the Four E's Framework: educate, empower, engage, and energize. Her company HaloEffect works by diagnosing the human system first, working with organizations and leadership to put people first. Again, a simple idea that companies struggle executing, which Tamar tries to help them accomplish. It was a great conversation about the importance of employee experience (especially in relation to customer experience), how to lead with a people-first strategy, and how even a degree in Art History can lay the foundation for better experience designs.  Tamar Cohen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamarcohen HaloEffect: https://www.myhaloeffect.com/

What prevents a successful AI experiment from becoming a dependable production system that delivers measurable business value? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I speak with Ed Macosky, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Boomi, about AI pilot purgatory, integration, governance, model selection, token costs, and the technical skills businesses may need as adoption grows. Ed leads Boomi's product and engineering teams while also using AI tools inside his own organization. That gives him a view from both sides: creating technology for enterprise customers and applying it within active product development workflows. He believes many AI pilots begin with the wrong question. Teams become interested in the latest model or feature before defining the business problem they want to solve. The experiment may work during a demonstration, then fail when it encounters real data, access controls, security policies, and production systems. Placing company information inside a data lake and adding a language model does not automatically create a business application. The system must access current data reliably, respect employee permissions, connect with existing applications, and operate within governance rules that security teams can approve. Ed recommends beginning with a defined business opportunity and establishing the access required to support it. Existing APIs can already provide authentication, permissions, and governance. MCP can offer another route into enterprise systems, but those connections still require security, monitoring, and management. Team alignment also matters. An AI center may be racing to test models while an integration center concentrates on a different set of priorities. When those groups fail to coordinate, the pilot lacks the connectivity and automation required to become part of a production workflow. The discussion then turns toward fragmentation. Every technology wave produces new vendors, frameworks, and specialist tools. Early experimentation benefits from variety, but mature companies can eventually find themselves maintaining a complicated collection of products held together with custom code and, occasionally, the digital equivalent of duct tape. Ed does not recommend placing every function with one provider. He does argue for enough consolidation and abstraction to prevent experimentation from creating years of technology debt. Governance and observability should also work horizontally across different environments, including platforms such as SAP, Salesforce, and several AI model providers. That becomes increasingly important as businesses introduce autonomous agents. Leaders need to know which agents exist, what systems they can access, what actions they can take, and how each decision is recorded. AI gateways and agent control towers can provide a wider view across otherwise separate technology environments. Ed also introduces the idea of the frontier engineer. A prompt engineer concentrates on communicating effectively with a model. A frontier engineer understands how the model works, including its logic, mathematics, algorithms, and suitability for different workloads. He does not believe every company needs a large team of these specialists. However, he argues that enterprises need at least one person capable of assessing vendor claims and deciding whether a frontier model, specialist model, or open weight model fits a particular workload. Cost creates another reason to examine model selection. Sending every employee request or agent task to the most capable frontier model can become expensive. Some repeatable workloads may run on open weight models inside the company's cloud or hardware environment, giving finance teams greater cost certainty. Boomi is developing Boomi Prompt to route requests according to their complexity and requirements. A simple factual request might go directly to an API. A forecasting task may use a smaller model. A difficult analytical request could be sent to a frontier model. Ed uses the weather as a helpful example. Retrieving next Tuesday's forecast does not require a language model when a public weather API can return the answer directly. Asking a model to perform every form of automation wastes tokens, computing power, energy, and money. The episode closes with practical advice for CIOs. Avoid starting with a broad objective such as agentifying the entire business. Choose a department, identify a small number of tasks, define the expected return, and work backward. Once the team proves value and understands the operating requirements, it can repeat the process elsewhere. Could intelligent routing, stronger integration, and clearer business outcomes finally move enterprise AI beyond pilot purgatory? Listen to the episode and share your thoughts with me.

What must happen before a business can trust AI agents to detect and resolve operational problems without waiting for human intervention? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I speak with Josh Clay, Regional Vice President of Solution Engineering for Dynatrace in the UK, about autonomous operations, AI observability, fragmented telemetry, business outcomes, and the growing pressure to control token and data costs. Josh has spent much of his 11 years at Dynatrace discussing the road toward autonomous operations. The earliest version involved reducing the time organizations spent inside IT war rooms. He remembers calls with 30 or 40 people attempting to establish which team was responsible for an incident. He jokingly calls this the "mean time to innocence." Modern observability reduced many of those investigations from several hours to between 30 and 60 minutes. Agentic AI creates the possibility of going further by identifying a problem, understanding its cause, and resolving it before the customer experience is affected. That ambition also introduces risk. Josh cites Dynatrace research showing that 52% of respondents view security, privacy, and compliance concerns as barriers to AI adoption. He believes many organizations still lack full observability across their existing technology environments, making autonomous agents harder to supervise. Josh shares a warning from Alex Hibbert of Storia Group: AI can amplify existing technology problems. If telemetry is fragmented, data quality is poor, or teams cannot see how services depend on one another, adding autonomous agents may increase the speed and scale of the resulting failure. Trust therefore depends on visibility. Josh describes observability as a control plane for agentic AI because it can show what an agent is doing, why it made a decision, and what happened afterward. Defined guardrails and real time information can give leaders confidence without asking them to surrender control blindly. The adoption figures show how early this work remains. Josh says 50% of businesses have AI operating in limited production use cases, often performing one isolated task. Only 23% describe their deployments as connected across the wider organization. We discuss how observability has progressed beyond technical monitoring. An airport can measure whether technology changes improve e-gate availability and passenger processing times. A bank can examine whether application performance affects mortgage completion rates. These connections allow leaders to measure AI through business results rather than relying entirely on response times and infrastructure metrics. Reliable agents also need suitable data. Dynatrace says AI agents operating with deterministic data can work 12 times more accurately and three times faster while using two and a half times fewer tokens. These remain company findings, but they demonstrate why context and causality can affect cost as well as reliability. Fragmented telemetry creates another barrier. Logs may sit in one platform, front end monitoring in another, and metrics or traces somewhere else. Attempting to reconstruct every relationship for an AI agent can become expensive and difficult. Josh recommends bringing observability data into a connected environment where relationships between services, cloud resources, traces, metrics, and logs are already understood. He also warns against collecting information simply because it exists. Data hoarding increases ingestion costs and can introduce personal information into systems without a clear business need. The conversation then moves toward AI FinOps. Leaders want to know what agents cost, how many tokens they consume, and whether those costs produce a measurable return. Josh describes a Dynatrace proof of concept that identified potential annual savings just below £250,000 within one small environment. That example reinforces a recurring concern. Organizations are racing to place AI into production, then moving to the next project without reviewing whether the previous environment is appropriately sized or financially efficient. Josh hopes companies will develop a more pragmatic view of AI as another enterprise tool. That means establishing agreed methods for deployment, monitoring, cost management, incident response, and measuring business results. Could observability provide the confidence businesses need to move from isolated AI experiments toward autonomous operations? Listen to the episode and share your thoughts with me.

Reflections from host Sarah Olivieri ... "Run It Like A Business" There is a quiet belief inside a lot of nonprofits that running things like a business would somehow cheapen the mission. That budgets, product thinking, and direct asks belong to the for-profit world, and that the nonprofit world runs on something purer. Heart. Passion. Care. The care is real. The problem is that heart gets asked to do a job it was never built to do. When there is no clear product, no business-grade financial forecasting, and no habit of quantifying value in dollars, people compensate with effort. They work harder. They care louder. And the organization still stalls. Running a nonprofit like a business is not the thing that threatens your mission. Avoiding it is. A version of this tension shows up almost every time I talk with a founder who built something meaningful and then hit a ceiling they cannot explain. I had a conversation recently with Barb Clapp, who built a workforce development organization from nothing into one that has trained thousands of people, and it sharpened how I think about this. The idea was not new to me. What she did was name exactly why the business lens holds up, and why the absence of it quietly breaks things. Mission Is What You Do. Method Is How You Do It. One of the most expensive confusions in the nonprofit world is treating the mission and the method as the same thing. Your mission is fixed. It is the reason you exist. Your method is everything else. How you deliver, how you fund it, how you structure the team, how you ask. The method is allowed to change. In fact it has to, or the mission gets stuck inside an approach that stopped working. I am a sailor, so forgive me, my sailing references tend to pop up. An America's Cup boat can sail several times faster than the wind pushing it. The wind does not change. The boat design does. Your mission is the wind. Your method is the boat. When leaders feel stalled, they almost always reach to protect the mission by clinging harder to the method. That gets it backwards. You honor the mission by being willing to rebuild the boat. The business lens is a method decision. It changes nothing about who you serve. It changes how much of them you can actually reach. You Have a Product, Whether You Name It or Not Here is where most organizations lose the thread before they even start. Barb said something in our conversation that I have not stopped thinking about: "People do not understand what their product is. They don't have a clear picture of what it is they're doing, why it makes a difference, and how they're going to tell a story."   What I appreciate about this framing is that it explains the mechanism. Every organization has a product and a buyer, even when it refuses to use those words. Your product is the specific change you create. Your buyer is the funder or donor who pays for that change to happen. When you cannot say clearly what your product is, everything downstream gets harder. Your messaging blurs. Your fundraising softens. Your team cannot rally around a result they cannot name. More detail does not equal more clarity here. Organizations often try to fix a fuzzy product by adding more program descriptions, more impact language, more mission poetry. That adds volume, not clarity. The fix is narrower. What is the one thing you produce, why does it matter, and who benefits enough to pay for it. Answer that and the rest of the machine has something to organize around. If you have never separated your product from your good intentions, that is worth doing before you touch anything else. I wrote more about the marketing side of this in what marketing really is and where it fits into your nonprofit. Business Values Do Not Replace Heart. They Protect It. The fear is that a business lens will crowd out the reason people came to the work. It does the opposite when it is done well. Barb put it plainly. She brought real business-based values into her nonprofit in addition to the heart-based ones. Budgets that get made and then actually followed. A strategic plan. Clear annual goals that everyone in the organization understands. Real job descriptions. None of that dilutes the caring. It gives the caring somewhere to land. At the end of the day, an organization without a real strategy cannot protect its mission for very long. A strategy is what tells you which opportunities to say yes to and which to let pass, which programs to double down on and which to sunset, where the next dollar should go and where it should not. Without one, every decision gets made in the moment, and moments add up to drift. Mission and money are not in conflict. They are mutually dependent. The money is what lets the mission keep showing up next year, and the year after that. Leaders who run everything from a heart place alone often feel like they are being noble. What they are actually doing is putting the mission at risk, because a mission with no financial floor under it is one bad quarter away from disappearing. This is one of the six things nonprofits can learn from the for-profit world, and it is the one that changes the most when a leader finally lets it in. Growth With Heart Alone Has a Ceiling You can grow a nonprofit on heart alone. You just cannot scale it that way. Growth is doing more. Scale is doing more per dollar, per person, per hour. Scale is what happens when you apply efficiency and leverage to the work, so that each resource produces a larger result than it did before. Heart gets you off the ground. It does not get you altitude. At some point, the leader who is running on care alone hits a wall, and because they care so much, the wall is deeply frustrating. Barb's organization scaled because she thought in terms of leverage from the start. She repurposed existing structures instead of rebuilding from scratch. She built revenue that funds the mission instead of chasing every dollar cold. She hired people who could own outcomes. Every one of those is a leverage decision, and leverage is a business concept that nonprofits need more than almost anyone, because the work matters more than almost anything. If you are feeling stalled right now, working harder is rarely the way out. Working differently is. That difference usually lives in structure, and structure is fixable. I made the fuller case for that in structure holds vision, the leadership system CEOs need. What Changes When You Let the Business Lens In When a leader finally stops treating business thinking as the enemy of the mission, the whole organization gets lighter. The product gets clear, so the story tells itself. The budget holds, so the panic drains out of every funding cycle. The asks get sized correctly, so the money starts matching the need. The team fits the phase you are actually in, so the turnover stops. None of this makes the work smaller. It makes the work hold. The heart is still the whole point. It finally has a structure strong enough to carry it. This isn't about caring less. It's about building something that can carry how much you care. Nonprofits can name their product. They can keep a budget. They can make the ask.   Not by trading away the mission, but by giving it a business strong enough to keep it alive. About the Guest Barb Clapp is not just a leader—she is a force of transformational change. A successful entrepreneur and nationally recognized business leader, Barb has always been committed to giving a voice to the voiceless. What makes her truly inspirational is how she draws on her own experience of overcoming adversity to empower others by providing the resources, support, and solutions they need to overcome their own challenges and achieve lasting success. As CEO of the nonprofit Dwyer Workforce Development (DWD), Barb is disrupting the traditional approach to solving the healthcare workforce crisis and creating a new paradigm for healthcare workforce training.  DWD Bio: Dwyer Workforce Development (DWD) is an innovative, national nonprofit with a mission to provide comprehensive support to individuals who lack opportunity and aspire to build careers in healthcare, alleviate a critical healthcare workforce shortage and improve the lives of seniors and the community at large. DWD provides CNA and GNA training and job placement support to underserved individuals and need-based wraparound services — including financial support for housing, childcare, and transportation — to eliminate barriers to success. As Scholars achieve key milestones, they become eligible for continued training and educational opportunities, creating pathways to become Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs), Registered Nurses (RNs), and advance into additional roles in healthcare. Connect with Barb: https://dwyerworkforcedev.org https://www.facebook.com/dwyerworkforcedevelopment https://www.instagram.com/dwyerworkforcedev/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/dwyer-workforce-development/ Be sure to subscribe to Inspired Nonprofit Leadership so that you don't miss a single episode, and while you're at it, won't you take a moment to write a short review and rate our show? It would be greatly appreciated! Let us know the topics or questions you would like to hear about in a future episode. You can do that and follow us on LinkedIn.

Kelly goes online with Dr. Dana Suskind, bestselling author and the founding director of the Pediatric Cochlear Implant Program and professor of Surgery and Pediatrics at the University of Chicago to discuss her remarkable new book, “Human Raised: Nurturing Connection, Curiosity, and Lifelong Learning in the Age of AI.” “To be clear, I’m not against technology.” “What […]

Leadership is built through conversations, trust, and the willingness to learn from failure. In this episode, author Gregory Archbold discusses the lessons behind his book, Fail, Fight, Finish. From the power of listening first to creating buy-in during change, he shares practical leadership strategies that every manager, mentor, and learning professional can put into practice. Show Notes:Author Gregory Archbold discusses trust, mentorship, communication, and leading through change. His key points include:Leadership begins with listening. Great leaders ask questions, create space for others to contribute, and speak last to build trust and develop future leaders.Mentorship is earned, not assigned. Strong mentoring relationships grow over time through curiosity, consistency, and a genuine commitment to learning.Create shared ownership during change. Leaders gain buy-in by involving people in developing solutions rather than presenting fully formed decisions.Challenge processes that no longer serve a purpose. Don't continue doing something simply because "we've always done it that way." Regularly evaluate whether processes still create value.Never become "content lazy." Leadership growth requires continuous learning through reading, mentoring, reflection, and seeking feedback—especially after receiving a promotion. Learn more about Gregory Archbold's book, Fail, Fight, Finish: Leadership Lessons You Don't Learn in the Classroom.Powered by Learning earned Awards of Distinction in the Podcast/Audio and Business Podcast categories from The Communicator Awards and a Gold and Silver Davey Award. The podcast is also named to Feedspot's Top 40 L&D podcasts and Training Industry's Ultimate L&D Podcast Guide. Learn more about d'Vinci at www.dvinci.com. Follow us on LinkedInLike us on Facebook

Data convinces. Stories move people. So why do we still lead with the spreadsheet? In this best-bits episode of Building Better Cultures, Scott McInnes goes back to two conversations about the power of narrative at work: Richard Newman (EP108) on the neuroscience of emotional engagement, and Alison Esse (EP012) on purpose-led storytelling at scale. Richard Newman explains what actually happens in the brain when you open with a chart instead of a story. Spreadsheets speak to the logical mind, but the emotional brain decides first and it decides whether anything gets through at all. He walks through the leadership retreat where nobody could remember a single decision three months later, why "cognitive fatigue" is a better diagnosis than screen fatigue, and the line that sums up the whole problem: we treat people like human doings rather than human beings. Alison Esse picks up the organisational side: the corporate narrative, the red thread that has to run from the frontline to the CEO, and why leaders are so often the worst people at telling their own stories. The common thread? Engage people emotionally first, logically second. Do it the other way round and nothing sticks. Key Takeaways The emotional brain gets there first. Every input passes through it before the logical mind sees it, so if you open with data you have already lost the room. Data convinces, stories move. Being right is not the same as being understood, and it is definitely not the same as being acted on. If nobody can repeat it, it did not land. People remember stories and quote lines from them. Nobody quotes a slide. It is cognitive fatigue, not screen fatigue. People will happily binge four hours of Netflix after a long week, so the screen is not the problem, being engaged logically all day with no emotional connection is. Storytelling is misunderstood, not soft. It is not anecdotes about your weekend, and it does not need the hero's journey. It is sharing information in the way the brain wants to receive it. Every organisation needs a red thread. A narrative that connects the frontline to the CEO gives people something to believe in and repeat. Leaders are often worst at telling their own story. The people with the most to share are usually the most reluctant, which is why story champions matter. Timestamps 00:00 – Introduction: why we still lead with the spreadsheet 00:30 – Richard Newman: how stories help leaders influence, and the retreat nobody remembered 04:00 – Inception, and why a story goes deeper than a slide 05:00 – Cognitive fatigue vs screen fatigue 05:38 – "Human doings, not human beings": engage emotionally first, logically second 05:47 – Alison Esse: corporate narrative, purpose and the red thread from frontline to CEO 10:16 – Wrap-up: what story is your organisation telling right now? Hear the full conversations EP108 – Richard Newman: https://inspiringchange.libsyn.com/108-the-science-of-storytelling-how-it-works-richard-newman EP012 – Alison Esse: https://inspiringchange.libsyn.com/ep12-alison-esse-co-founder-the-storytellers Resources & Links Download our new Research: Bridging the Connection Gap Connect with us LinkedIn | YouTube | Instagram Connect with Scott McInnes: LinkedIn Tags storytelling, business storytelling, communication, leadership communication, neuroscience, emotional engagement, cognitive fatigue, corporate narrative, purpose, internal communications, employee engagement, workplace culture, influence, presentation skills, Richard Newman, Alison Esse, Scott McInnes, Building Better Cultures, Inspiring Change, best bits, podcast compilation

Send us Fan MailCatalyst Brands is redefining what it means to build a modern retail portfolio. Formed in early 2025 through the merger of JCPenney, Aéropostale, Brooks Brothers, Lucky Brand, and Nautica, the company has spent the past 18 months bringing together five iconic brands with distinct customer bases and rich histories. Now, the focus is shifting from integration to growth, with loyalty, customer insights, and personalization playing a central role in that strategy.  For Marika Bigler, Vice President of Customer Growth Strategy at Catalyst Brands, the opportunity extends far beyond operational efficiencies. While the merger created opportunities to streamline processes across the organization, the bigger goal is finding new ways to connect customers with more of the company's brands, create more engaging shopping experiences, and deliver greater value across the portfolio. Loyalty is one of the first major steps in bringing that vision to life.Stay connected with Loyalty360! Follow us on LinkedIn and X for the latest loyalty insights, industry news, and upcoming events.https://www.linkedin.com/company/loyalty-360https://x.com/Loyalty360https://www.youtube.com/@Loyalty360_

Darius Mirshahzadeh sits down with Raj Sisodia, Co-Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Conscious Capitalism Inc. and New York Times bestselling author, to explore the origins of the conscious capitalism movement, the flawed assumptions embedded in modern business education, and Raj's powerful new book “Healing Leaders: 7 Steps to Recovery of Self”. Raj shares his extraordinary personal journey, from a small village in India without electricity to Columbia University and ultimately to co-founding a global movement alongside Whole Foods CEO John Mackey. The conversation spans the philosophy of human nature, the systemic forces working against conscious business, and the deeply personal inner work every leader must do to become truly effective and whole. In this episode, Darius and Raj will discuss: (00:00) Introduction and Guest Introduction (01:16) Raj Sisodia's Background and Journey (04:17) The Negative Consequences of Traditional Business Practices (05:42) The Pillars of Conscious Capitalism (06:54) The Origin of Conscious Capitalism and Its Founders (08:33) Challenges in Bringing Consciousness to Finance (10:35) Understanding Human Nature and Its Role in Business (13:47) The Wisdom Traditions and Conscious Capitalism (15:42) Egalitarian Roots and Capitalism's Evolution (17:01) Leadership and Systemic Change (18:23) Changing Education and Systemic Beliefs (22:23) The Current Moment and Future of Conscious Business (26:01) Power, Virtue, and Leadership at Scale (31:05) Scaling Conscious Business and Systemic Challenges (34:38) Personal Transformation and Leadership Healing (42:13) The Journey of Self-Healing and Inner Work (48:07) The Seven Steps to Self-Healing and Leadership Recovery (53:45) Where to Learn More and Final Thoughts Raj Sisodia is the FEMSA Distinguished University Professor of Conscious Enterprise at Tecnológico de Monterrey and Co-Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Conscious Capitalism Inc. He holds a PhD in Business from Columbia University and is the author of sixteen books, including the New York Times bestseller Conscious Capitalism and Firms of Endearment. A globally recognized thought leader in conscious business and leadership, Raj has advised leading organizations such as IBM, Walmart, Whole Foods Market, Siemens, and AT&T. Connect with Raj: Website: https://rajsisodia.com/  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajendrasisodia/  Connect with Darius: Website: https://therealdarius.com/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dariusmirshahzadeh/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imthedarius/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Thegreatnessmachine  Book: The Core Value Equation https://www.amazon.com/Core-Value-Equation-Framework-Limitless/dp/1544506708 Write a review for The Greatness Machine using this link: https://ratethispodcast.com/spreadinggreatness.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Candace Ashby returns to The Weekly Scrap for a conversation every firefighter needs to hear. With over three decades in the fire service, a Doctorate of Management in Organizational Leadership, and years of experience climbing through the ranks, Candace—currently serving as a Battalion Chief—has become a respected voice on leadership, accountability, and protecting the culture that makes this profession unlike any other.We'll dive into what truly makes firefighting the greatest job on Earth, why that culture is worth fighting for, and how company officers and firefighters at every rank have the ability to shape the future of the fire service through their daily actions, conversations, and commitment to one another.If you've ever wondered how we preserve what makes this profession special while continuing to grow as leaders, this conversation will challenge your perspective and leave you thinking long after it's over.And because the live audience and their questions help make this show the absolute best.. we'll start with a plan, but where the conversation ends up is anyone's guess. Join us live, bring your questions, and be part of the discussion.Episode 365 is made possible by our incredible sponsors: Snap-tite Hose, IdentiFire Safety, and the Fire Safety Research Institute. For more on FSRI, visit the special page created just for Weekly Scrap listeners: fsri.org/weeklyscrap

It's a common trajectory: Dental schools create great dentists, but they don't create good business owners. Kiera shares three critical (but attainable!) tips for creating a profitable, scalable, and enjoyable practice, so doctors can continue doing the work they love. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today I'm excited to chat with practice owners, office managers, and to kind of just talk about like what every practice owner should know. But I think a lot of us learn that too late. Myself included, I feel like business owners, I feel like we are great at our craft, but at business we learn it a little too late. And so I think that like I looked at all of our students at Midwestern and they learned how to be great dentists, but they didn't.   learn how to become great business owners. And we hear this all the time. I'm not saying anything new. I just think that a lot of practices hit ceilings because it's not their clinical skills. It's the business outgrows their knowledge. It's like, hey, take me to the moon. You're like, I've never been to the moon. And so I think just being able to help practice owners today realize in office managers, like leadership systems and financial decisions really are like the core. That's why we call it the yes success model. So you, that's the leadership,   systems and earnings. Like that's really what makes up a successful practice. But I feel like that feels so easy. But I want to just walk through like what are three things that every business owner needs to know to have a profitable, scalable and enjoyable practice. You guys the Dental A Team like we work with hundreds of practices across the nation from startup practices to multi-million dollar offices. And what I realize is the challenges are all the same. Like it's fundamentally stays the same. It just gets bigger or smaller based on the size of practice that you're in. And so   I think so many people know how to work really hard. I think so many people outproduce their problems. I think so many people they just it I hear all the time when people are calling to work with us, like Kiera, I just don't know what I don't know. And so today I just want to go through like, let's just talk about three things that I feel like every single business owner needs to know and some tactical ways that you can implement this. So hopefully it takes you from being stuck to unstuck. If you've heard this in the past, maybe you're hearing it at a different time. I know for me these are three fundamentals that I go back to no matter what phase of the business I'm in.   No matter what size of practice I'm in, none of that. So number one is going to be your leadership is like completely the like growth of your business. And your business will never outgrow your leadership. And so your business is a reflection of you as the leader. I remember reading Jocko Willink's book about that extreme ownership. And it was like everything about your business is a reflection of you. And when so when I'm frustrated of the systems or the scalability or the lack of accountability, that's me. And so when we have that.   I hate this, but I love this. Is where can we get consistency? Where can we stop the firefighting? Where can we like make sure that we've got stronger accountability? And where can we make sure that the doctor's not carrying everything? Because I think so many doctors are like, I'll just do it. I got this. Like, I I'm a hard worker. I know how to GSD. I know how to get through this. But I'm like, okay, we've got to figure out how like being a leader is not just a title. How do we create more clarity and how do we create more consistency? And how do we develop leaders and owners within our organization?   And so for this, like when I look at our leadership and how for you not to get stuck in that, like being a great leader is being able to make hard decisions. Being a great leader is how do I create clarity and consistency for my team? Being a great leader is how do I make sure that my team understands the numbers and we use those numbers to guide our decisions. we were going through a whole list the other day of of topics of leadership. And I was like, gosh, I like leadership is   It's a journey. It's an evolution. It's not something that you just do overnight. and I think about Kiera as a leader when I first started and she was erratic. I was like, I was turbulent. I had so many pieces. but leadership is maturity. it's how do I get people to buy into a vision? How do I rally them and how do I get them to buy into a vision? How am I to be a CEO versus a manager and really understanding the difference of those two hats? How do I have time management where I   Truly focus on the most important things, not just because I'm capable of doing it, but because I'm the only one that can do it. How do I delegate and work through my team? How do I like learn people and work to their strengths and work to their superpowers? Working through my team, not just working with my team, using my team. How do I have the art of influence? How do I grow my team members into incredible people? How do I see that potential when I'm hiring? How do I hire better? How do I figure   like leading, managing, and holding people accountable. How do I have consistency? How am I an example, but not the one who has to do everything? how do I value my team? Do I see them as an asset or a liability? How do I help my team feel valued without being the one who does it all? Like there's a there's a there's a great quote over here today that says I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure, which is try to please everybody. And that's by Herbert Swoop. And I thought about that as I was prepping for the podcast today of   That's I think in leadership where I'm not trying to please everybody. I'm going to make decisions that upset people, but I'm always going to make decisions that are in the best interest of the business. how do I own my mindset and make sure that I'm showing up with that clear, sharp mind? How do I have like mental health and grit and make sure I'm having that? What about creating culture, getting a team of ownership, having like my office manager, doctor, duo and having that relationship? What about performance management of my team?   So when I look at this and I think about this, like leadership, like you developing and growing as a leader. And I think that when I go back to this of like a lot of owners just think like I owned it, I got the title of a leader. But leadership is this evolution and this journey. It's becoming, it's evolving. It's all those pieces I listed off, and yet it's not a, it's not a checklist. Like, how do I learn to listen and not react? How do I learn to have my team come up with solutions rather than me?   So I rattled off a lot and all those can hit people at different phases of business. And I believe that I can check one of those off and then I can move. And then my team will double in size or our business will double in size. And I might have to go back to the beginning and the basics again of like, all right, I gotta figure out again how to work through my team. we went from having where me and our team was doing it to where now we're bringing on the C suites and the leader I need to become to manage a C suite versus the leader I needed to be.   Run when Tiff and I were just running the business together. The way I act and interact with my EA and personal assistant today versus when I first had one. It's an evolution. It's a leadership. It's an evolution of who you are. And so it's how do how do we become better at leadership? And I would say listen to podcasts, read books. some I I go back to fundamentals. I read the go giver constantly, I read traction a lot. It's so but boring. Like, sorry, Gino, it's very boring.   read the book, How to Be a Great Boss, Crucial Conversations, Discipline Without Punishment. Those are just some great books, but also look at great leaders and what do they do. For me, I'm a big mimic and mirror. So I talk to people, I talk to dentists that have really great cultures. This is why I love our mastermind group. I bring the best of the best of the best together. And I know because we work with all of them and I know our dentists personally, I have a lot of my great core leaders that I know are just dynamite leaders.   I have them share what do they do? How do they have it? How do they have performance reviews? How do they give cr like critical feedback? Some of the dentists early on in my career. I had them practice these conversations with me, like literally would have to send me voice memos. Practice your leadership skills. Use a consultant. Let's talk through how we're gonna have this conversation, how are we gonna talk to our team about this? But really I think like if I break it down to the nuts and bolts, it's how do I get a team to buy into a vision? How do I make sure that we hold accountability and ownership?   And how do I make sure that I maintain consistency and clarity? I think if I boiled it down and that's a rift on my own side, like not prepped, those would be the pieces I'd boil down. And so how do you become a stronger leader in those areas? And again, there's just indecision is worse than a wrong decision. And so just making those decisions, being more confident in yourself. someone once said like 2.0 is sitting here, and I think about Kiera 2.0, like she wasn't born, she was created.   Leaders are not born, they're created. You've got to like flex and strengthen that leadership skill because your practice can never outgrow your leadership. And if you want to get to the next level of growth, whether that's financially, whether that's profitability, you have to flex and become a different leader. If you've got pure chaos in your office, that's you. If you've got people who aren't falling through, that's you. And that doesn't mean you have to go fix it. I mean, that's you tolerating that. And that's the standards of your practice. Your business will always fall, not to what you say, but what you tolerate.   And so being that leader that raises the standards, I this year I was annoyed. I was like, okay, we're going for outcomes over activity. I realized I was tracking activity, but that's not moving our company forward. We need to be tracking outcomes. Our team is flourishing. But me as a leader, I need to be looking down the line and seeing, and I need to be developing myself as well. I go to the gym, I put myself into a complete fitness competition where I wanted to get to my best physical, like PRs, physical fitness. I went through   A cut. I've never done a cut before. I push myself physically, mentally, often because to me that's a a different pressure test that's gonna sh like allow me to show up better as a leader as well. So it doesn't even have to just be within your practice. Discipline at the gym, discipline in working out, discipline in how you show up, discipline in how you eat, those things are going to make you a far superior leader. I will tell you.   Going through a cut where I had the least amount of calories, I was the strongest, most sharpest leader I've ever been. And I was exhausted. But I knew I needed to show up and I needed to be stronger and I needed to think better ways. So those are going to be some zones hopefully that will help you on leadership. The other one that I found that a lot of people miss is we talk about so often, but systems truly do create freedom, not restrictions. And I think people think that they need to have really strong and lots of systems. And even our team was doing this, but realistically.   There's just a few core systems that need to be in place. There's not a lot of systems that actually need to be there, but they do need to be consistent. They do need to be scalable, and they do need to be followed through on. And so when we look at it, our team was going through and there's there's business fundamentals like core value, vision, mission, org chart, meeting cadences, figuring out our BAM, figuring out our projections, looking at our overhead. Like those are business fundamentals. And then there's systems. And we actually broke it down and we're like, gosh, if we just put into place like 10 core.   Most things are going to get better. Most things are going to get fixed. Most things are going to get resolved. But they're not sexy. They're not fun. They're not things that I'm like, my gosh, like, let me get on a podcast and tell everybody, like, let's just fix these seven items. But that's all it really is. But I think that what happens is we want to continue to scale. We want to continue to build. For me, I want to reinvent, reinvent, reinvent, reinvent. But that's actually not something that's going to grow us. And so it's like,   Just having KPIs that we track and monitor and we use those to make our decisions, having a solid morning huddle with an agenda, following set meeting cadences, having proper handoffs, having a proper scheduling protocol, having case acceptance protocols, having a collections protocol, working on new patients and referrals, having a period protocol, recare reactivation. Like those are really core items that if you have those systems where you follow them and we scale them and everybody's doing it the same way, 95% of your problems get fixed.   Of course, there's other ones. There's hiring, there's onboarding, there's leadership, there's all these other ones. But I think so many people don't want to just be at the basics. We want to reinvent the will. We want to do these things, like have job descriptions at the end of days. Like just do it. It's boring. It's not fun. People are like, wow, wow. We have to have a a morning huddle prep sheet. Why do pilots have checklists? Like the checklist manifesto. They create freedom, they create predictability, and they create systemization. That's all you need to do.   And I found that when offices follow it, when we have it in place. And for me, I also don't want systems to be something that people have to remember. How can I have it as a true system like Chick-fil-A where their burgers come out with three pickles every single time? How do I make sure that our schedule has the same system every single time? How do I make sure that our our handoffs have the same thing every single time? And I don't have to hope that 15 team members remember it. We're gonna put this in to where we have it consistent every single time, no matter who's doing it, no matter what new team member comes in.   That is scalability with systemization. And so have it documented, have it simple, have it repeatable. That's gonna get duplicated. So I think for offices, systemization really that that's the core. That's the systems. It's not sexy, but it is very, very effective. And then the third things that I think a lot of people don't realize, including myself, is you have to know your numbers better than anyone else. That's better than your CPA, better than your financial advisor. You have to know, and that's not just production, that's profit. Like I remember someone said,   production feeds the ego, profit feeds the family. And I think about this all the time. Like, you have to know your production. And I'm talking net, not gross, your collections, your overhead. Then within your overhead, like what is our payroll? What is our supplies? What's our marketing? What are our labs? What's our profitability? And then what's our billing and our AR? You know those numbers. You're solid. You can make so much stronger decisions. You don't, you have financial surprises, you make poor decisions, you're on reactive rather than proactive.   You grow, but you don't have profit. Like, I can't tell you how many offices I've that are singing the five, six, seven, eight million and they have no money. And I'm like, golly, you're making so much money, but you don't know how to keep the money. You gotta make the money and you gotta keep the money. All right. Like that's what we gotta do. So you have to make sure that our profit is there and we can't be willy-nilly. To me, you guys know I talk about the MMs. I do money and meditation in the morning. So triple for you morning, meditation, money. Look at it every single day. Look at your P and L.   If you don't know your overhead and your profit right now without looking, you gotta know it better. You have to. And that's a doctor and an OM. You must know this number. This number creates all the drive. Profit is the only number I actually care about. Like I can sit here, we can track all the KPIs, so many things, but if your profits down, everything else in your life is hard. Your profits up, most things in your life are really easy. Money solves a lot of problems. And so let's have profit. Let's have like I'm stressed out, I'm moving my hair around. Like   I don't enjoy this. This stresses me out because you've got to know your numbers better than anyone else. You don't sit here and lie, if your CPA is not delivering to you by the second of the month, like the second week of the month, get a better CPA. Like they work for you. You have to know your numbers. You have to be confident in them. And if things fill off, challenge it, question it until it gets right. Don't just sit here haphazardly. That is not a strong business owner. This one fires me up more than anything because I used to not know my numbers. My husband was like, Kiera, I don't get it. Why are you broke? And like,   I don't know. Well, I learned this great thing about AR. I had like a hundred grand sitting in AR that I didn't know about. We weren't collecting properly. You better believe I fixed that real fast to where I'm never gonna be in that situation again. And you layer by layer by layer, you get more and more and more financially savvy, but you have to know your numbers better than anyone else. You know your production numbers or so, I hope. If you don't know that number, but do you know your collections? Do you know your collection percentage? Do you know your overhead? Do you know your payroll percentage? Do you know your supply sip? If you don't,   You must learn that. So I'll get off my rant. But this was funny. They said production is a vanity, profitability is a reality. And I think that that's a good anchor line of yes, it is. Profitability is your reality. So your numbers are gonna tell the truth whether you choose to look at them or not. The truth is always there. Some of us don't want to like get on the scale and say weigh. I had a great trainer tell me, she's like, Kiera, that number means nothing other than giving us data and information. It's not my   Self-worth, it's nothing. Just like your profitability is just a number on a scale. It just gives us data. If we spend more money on payroll, this is the number that we get. We make better decisions if we know. But I will tell you, your success, your happiness, your stress is all tied to you knowing these numbers or not. And a lot of people are like, no, no, no, I don't want to. Yeah, right. You're sitting in stress constantly that you don't even realize. So know your numbers. Schedule a monthly financial review. Commit to knowing the story behind your numbers.   Like, do money meditation with me every morning. Just have your bank account on there. Just look at it every morning. Look at your PL every day. I don't care. Do not sit in excuses on your money. You're a business owner, you've got to know this. So I hope that wasn't too much of a rant. But I hope it gave you some good tips on how to have leadership. some good money books. I love Profit First by Mike McAllicks. I also love Money Master the Game by Tony Robbins. That was a long book, but it taught me a lot.   there's some great financial podcasts out there. there's also some really crummy ones. I The Psychology of Money was another great one that I read that was on financial. systems, the checklist manifesto is a great one. Come up for air is a great book. There's several great books based on where you're struggling. But if you notice, this is our yes success model. You as a leader, earnings and profitability, system structure and scale. That's what it is. And every single one of those will give you the yes success model.   You've got to take care of them. You've got to do leadership. You've got to do profitability. You gotta do systems. The yes success model follows constantly. So what part are you the weakest in? What part are you the strongest in? And where do you need to grow? This is the zone like you're not a great practice is not built by accident. It's intentional, it's focused, it's consistent. I had another great trainer. She said, Kiera, it's not about perfection, it's about consistency. That's I don't care if last month you didn't look at your numbers.   I do care if you consistently are not looking at the numbers. You aren't, I'm not expecting perfection, but we do have to have consistency. So how can you have more consistency? And if you're feeling overwhelmed, it doesn't mean you're failing. It just means that you've outgrown the current systems, you've outgrown where you're at, you've outgrown the knowledge. It's kind of like the Wi-Fi symbol. You're just popping up to the next level. And your next level of growth comes from working harder. Like it can, but it usually comes from knowing your business better, leading better, making better decisions with finances. So this is what we're obsessed with.   I love to help you. I love our team to help you. I love you to be a part of our community. We talk about this every single month. We talk about this in person. Come be a part of it. Like for me, I'm not going to get a six-pack without a trainer overseeing me. You might not be able to grow your business without a trainer overseeing you, an advisor helping you, somebody getting you out of the rut, somebody helping you get to that next Wi-Fi symbol. So let's help you out. Reach out. Hello at the Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. You guys, this is your life, your practice. And I feel like these things are not known. I feel like they're kind of known.   But knowing and executing are the difference between winning and losing. Are you just gonna know the facts or are you gonna actually execute on it? The challenge is there, the choice is there, and I hope that you choose to be somebody who executes. Reach out, let's get you out of the hole. Come on, let's do Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. And as always, thanks for listening, and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.  

The gap between hope and despair has grown from 4% in 2010 to 27% today. That's the "hope gap" — and it's the reason Jon and Becky spent 10 episodes sitting with eight change leaders who are filling it, one story at a time.

Zaretta Hammond has spent her career pushing school leaders past feel-good equity language and into the instructional core, where the real gaps live. Her latest book, Rebuilding Students' Learning Power: Teaching for Instructional Equity and Cognitive Justice, names a pattern she calls cognition redlining — the quiet, well-intentioned way schools underdevelop the thinking capacity of historically marginalized students. She's the author behind Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain, a text already sitting on most instructional coaches' shelves. Districts have poured billions into equity work for three decades, and the outcomes for Black, brown, Indigenous, and linguistically diverse students haven't moved. Zaretta Hammond says that's not a funding problem or an effort problem — it's a cognition problem, and most principals have never been trained to see it.

322. The Courage to Leave: Adrienne Dorison on Creative Endings and New Beginnings In this episode of Creative Chats, we dive into the art of reinvention and leadership with Adrienne Dorison, Founder & CEO of Level 11 Leaders and co-creator of the transformative Clockwork framework. Adrienne Dorison opens up about navigating creative pivots, letting go of past successes, and building owner-independent businesses. Her powerful story and hard-won wisdom are a must-listen for anyone seeking to grow, reimagine their work, and pursue creative freedom. 3 Key Takeaways:

Criticism is part of leadership life…no one gets out of it. How do you best handle it? It’s what we’re talking about this week.

I was on a bus trip with members of the National Tractor Parts Dealer Association (NTPDA) sitting next to a long-time friend Glen Leaders.  We got to talking about his 45 years plus in the tractor and combine salvage business, the changes he has seen, the power of selling parts online and more.  So, of course I asked him to do a few minutes with me so he could share his story with you.  Meet Glen Leaders from Leaders Tractor and Combine Salvage based in Dunlap, Iowa. Thanks for listening! The award winning Insight on Business the News Hour with Michael Libbie is the only weekday business news podcast in the Midwest. The national, regional and some local business news along with long-form business interviews can be heard Monday - Friday. You can subscribe on  PlayerFM, Podbean, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or TuneIn Radio. And you can catch The Business News Hour Week in Review each Sunday Noon Central on News/Talk 1540 KXEL. The Business News Hour is a production of Insight Advertising, Marketing & Communications. You can follow us on Twitter @IoB_NewsHour...and on Threads @Insight_On_Business.

In Episode #112 of The Executive Commute, Jayson Krause is joined by experienced entrepreneur, former CEO, and TEC Canada Chair Mark Terrill for a candid conversation about transparency in leadership. They explore why transparency is essential for building trust, particularly during difficult periods, and why employees create their own explanations when leaders fail to communicate clearly. Mark also explains why effective transparency does not mean sharing everything. Leaders must balance openness with confidentiality, timing, focus, and empathy. When handled poorly, transparency can become oversharing, venting, or an overload of information that creates more fear than alignment. This episode will challenge you to consider what your team needs to hear, what you may be withholding, and how more intentional communication could strengthen your leadership. Episode timestamps: 00:00 Can a leader become more transparent? 01:13 The cost of holding back 06:43 Why transparency builds trust 09:45 Transparency versus full disclosure 11:47 Mark's leadership journey 22:14 What transparency really means 26:22 Why openness is mistaken for weakness 31:04 What breaks when transparency is missing 31:54 Leading transparently through tough times 34:04 The illusion of transparency 36:55 Becoming a more transparent leader 37:48 Mark's greatest moment of self-doubt 42:10 Spotting a lack of transparency 44:42 Advanced transparency 49:03 The dark side of transparency 52:00 Transparency versus venting 54:04 The transparency paradox 56:01 When total transparency becomes harmful 58:21 Getting transparency right 61:37 Can transparency reduce honesty? 64:09 Damaging transparency advice 65:37 Can transparent leaders fail? 66:43 The importance of pivoting quickly 68:38 Final takeaway Follow Jayson Krause YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3Voc2qOmcqGKfqy6CDiZOw LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayson-krause/

Showing our brother's love by highlighting their commitment to young people on and off the field using their own life experiences to make an impact. In a special partnership with the NFL and the MEAC Football Conference- Ryan Clark, Channing Crowder and Fred Taylor sit with star head coaches DeSean Jackson, Michael Vick, Chennis Berry, Trei Oliver, Ted White, Damon Wilson and more to preview the upcoming 2026 college football season. Everything from Xs and Os, to expectations on how these coach's are mentoring and preparing young athletes for next level. This was filmed and recorded by ESPN for distribution on multiple platforms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Hidden Lightness with Jimmy Hinton – Southern Baptist abuse survivors demand apologies after prominent leaders dismiss the denomination's abuse crisis as a hoax. As new criminal charges emerge, survivors and advocates defend transparency, accountability, and child protection while challenging church leaders who minimize documented failures and undermine those courageously speaking out...

After a recent episode on packing, Jen and Pete spend this week mulling over the idea of its opposite: unpacking. Specifically, in this episode Jen and Pete talk about: What are some tactics we might use to make it easier to manage change? How might we assess what everyone on our team needs before making a plan? What surprises might we find when we take a different path than planned? More from us in your inbox. Subscribe to Box O' Goodies. A weekly email with the books, podcasts, quotes, and other noodles Jen and Pete are mulling over.Listen to all episodes and read full transcripts at thelongandtheshortpodcast.com.Reach us: hello@thelongandtheshortpodcast.comPete's work: humanperiscope.com · Jen's work: jenwaldman.com

Is your organization's biggest growth challenge really strategy - or is it a hidden trust problem that's quietly slowing everything down? As organizations grow, complexity increases. Decisions slow down, communication breaks down, and leaders often find themselves becoming the bottleneck without realizing why. In this episode, Nicole Jansen sits down with Debbie Simmons – community activist, business leader, wife, mother of nine adopted children, devoted follower of Jesus Christ, and author of The Architecture of Trust - to explore why trust isn't just a leadership value; it's the operating system that allows organizations to scale. Debbie introduces her Architecture of Trust Framework, revealing how leadership alignment, decision clarity, and execution reliability create organizations that thrive under pressure instead of breaking apart. Drawing from decades of leadership experience, personal tragedy, and deep faith, she shares practical strategies to eliminate the "hidden trust tax" that costs organizations time, energy, and impact. Whether you lead a business, nonprofit, team, or even a family, this conversation offers timeless principles for building stronger foundations that last. What We Discuss in This Episode Why trust - not strategy - is often the real limiting factor to organizational growth The hidden signs that trust is breaking down inside your organization Why leaders unknowingly become the bottleneck as organizations scale The three pillars of the Architecture of Trust framework How leadership alignment creates organizational momentum Why decision clarity eliminates confusion and costly rework The importance of execution reliability for sustainable growth Understanding the "hidden trust tax" that's draining your organization How to create a "trust dividend" that accelerates growth and impact Why most organizations have a structure problem—not a people problem How awareness becomes the first step toward transformation Lessons from building a multimillion-dollar nonprofit Debbie's personal story of loss, adoption, and discovering purpose through pain Why asking "Why?" often keeps leaders stuck - and a better question to ask instead Applying trust principles to leadership, business, family, and faith Highlights / YouTube Chapter Titles 00:00 – Why Leaders Get Stuck as Organizations Grow 02:30 – The First Signs of Broken Trust 09:58 – The Three Pillars of the Architecture of Trust 13:03 – People Problems or Structure Problems? 16:22 – Where Leaders Should Start Fixing Trust 20:14 – The Hidden Trust Tax Costing Your Organization 24:48 – Personal Tragedy That Changed Everything 29:15 – Stop Asking "Why?" Start Asking This Instead 32:39 – Applying the Architecture of Trust to Yourself 41:28 – Resources and Final Leadership Takeaways Memorable Quotes "What got you here may actually limit you from reaching your next level of success." "Most of the time it's not a people problem - it's a structure problem." "The hidden trust tax shows up in rework, delays, unnecessary meetings, and slow decisions." "When the pressure goes up, trust is revealed." "If you disappeared for 30 days, would your organization operate the same way?" Episode Show Notes and Resources: https://leadersoftransformation.com/podcast/leadership/556-the-hidden-trust-tax-why-great-organizations-break-as-they-scale-with-debbie-simmons/  Check out our complete library of episodes and other leadership resources here: https://leadersoftransformation.com ________

On this episode of Behind the Numbers, host Dave Bookbinder sits down with Terry Fossum - #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author, global TEDx speaker, LA Magazine's Person of the Year, and winner of Fox's Kicking & Screaming. Together, they go behind the data to unpack the hidden drivers of enterprise value, executive execution, and authority-building. Terry shares his "throw away the box" playbook for business reinvention and breaks down the behavioral economics behind his Oxcart Technique - a framework grounded in prospect theory designed to engineer success and eliminate execution breakdowns. Key Topics Covered: The Disruption Data: Why 52% of the Fortune 500 from the year 2000 no longer exist, and why a company's past success is often its biggest threat. Closing the Quota Gap: Why 73% of sales reps miss their targets and how to design "failure scenarios" that actually motivate action. The Economics of Authority: How leaders can leverage stages and books as strategic business assets to turn invisible expertise into high-value clients. Reverse-Engineering Systems: Lessons in persistence from Terry's brother, who decoded NASA's selection process to become an ISS Space Station Commander after being rejected six times. High-Stakes Leadership: What surviving the Fijian jungle on reality TV teaches us about guiding teams through fear, uncertainty, and corporate transformation. Resources & Links Mentioned: Build your authority platform: TheStageAdvantage.com Keynotes, books & coaching: TerryLFossum.com Find Terry's bestselling book, The Oxcart Technique, on Amazon Listen to the Comeback Chronicles podcast About Our Guest: Terry L. Fossum is a #1 Wall Street Journal, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble bestselling author (and USA Today bestseller) of The Oxcart Technique. His TEDx talk was ranked the #2 New TEDx Talk in the World. He has delivered more than 1,500 keynote engagements and helped raise millions of dollars from the platform. He delivers two signature keynotes. Never Miss a Goal Again, built on his Oxcart Technique® and grounded in Nobel Prize–winning behavioral economics, is the keynote sales-driven organizations bring in when traditional training stops producing — insurance agencies, real estate brokerages, financial advisors, dealership groups, and direct-sales companies. Throw Away the Box helps leadership teams and organizations reinvent themselves in the age of AI, built on original interviews with the leaders behind NASA, Tesla, The North Face, E!, and FANUC. In 2017, Terry won Fox's prime-time network reality competition Kicking & Screaming, representing the Boy Scouts of America. He is a former Captain in the United States Air Force, a graduate of Texas A&M University, and the President & Endowment Chair of the BSA's Inland Northwest Council. About the Host: Dave Bookbinder is known as a trusted provider for independent business valuations, corporate asset appraisals, and exit planning advisory and he is the person that business owners and their advisors reach out to when they need to know what their most important assets are worth. Known as a collaborative adviser, Dave has served thousands of client companies of all sizes and industries.    Dave is the author of two #1 best-selling books about the impact of human capital (PEOPLE!) on the valuation of a business enterprise called The NEW ROI: Return On Individuals & The NEW ROI: Going Behind The Numbers.  He's on a mission to change the conversation about how the accounting world recognizes the value of people's contributions to a business enterprise, and to quantify what every CEO on the planet claims: “Our people are this company's most valuable asset.” Dave's book, A Valuation Toolbox for Business Owners and Their Advisors: Things Every Business Owner Should Know, was recognized as a top new release in Business and Valuation and is designed to provide practical insights and tools to help understand what really drives business value, how to prepare for an exit, and just make better decisions. He's also the host of the highly rated Behind The Numbers With Dave Bookbinder business podcast which is enjoyed in more than 100 countries.

Kelly welcomes University of Chicago professor Nick Epley back to the podcast to discuss his fantastic new book, “A Little More Social: How Small Choices Create Unexpected Happiness, Health and Connection.”  “Yes, acting extroverted tends to make people feel more positive.”  “We fail to recognize the superpower of reciprocity.”  “Laughing communicates liking.” 

Beth Goff-McMillan is CEO of SKG and Founder of FOLIO where she is passionate about helping organizations create environments that inspire people, elevate performance, and reflect purpose. Mike Petrusky asks Beth why she believes that workplace design should start with asking "why" and how FM leaders should focus on understanding the purpose behind bringing employees together and what the organization aims to achieve from the space. The physical office is not the strategy itself but a direct reflection of a company's strategy and desired outcomes for people and culture, so successful workplace innovation relies on the intersection of business vision and employee engagement. Beth says that "earning the commute" emphasizes the need to create inspiring, engaging workspaces that make employees want to come to the office and technology can help streamline the process, accelerate decision-making, and ensure thoughtful, repeatable approaches to workplace design. Leaders and facility management professionals must work strategically with HR and executive teams to support their people, so Mike and Beth offer the inspiration you will need to be a Workplace Innovator in your organization! Connect with Beth on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beth-goff-mcmillan/ Learn more about SKG, Inc.: https://skgtexas.com/ Explore FOLIO Project Software: https://skgtexas.com/about/folio/ Watch the podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSkmmkVFvM4H3pwnlU2AuqynuRDpvnh4J Discover free resources and explore past interviews at: https://eptura.com/discover-more/podcasts/workplace-innovator/ Learn more about Eptura™: https://eptura.com/ Connect with Mike on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikepetrusky/  

Antônio Sampaio and Marion Messmer discuss Argentine president Javier Milei’s direct intervention in Brazil’s elections, endorsing Flávio Bolsonaro and calling President Lula a “convict” and “delinquent”. Has it become the norm for politicians to intervene across borders?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

AI is not the problem. The real danger begins when an unformed person uses a powerful tool to sound wiser, more experienced, and more capable than they truly are.In this episode of Here's the Caveat!, we confront the growing confusion between artificial intelligence and actual leadership. You will discover why AI can sharpen wisdom but cannot create it, why polished language cannot replace earned experience, and why the person holding the tool still carries the responsibility. AI can multiply excellence. It can also give foolishness better grammar.Here's the Caveat: Tools do not lead. Leaders lead. The leader holding the tool better be formed.

Treasury is evolving fast - and the leaders who succeed today are the ones who can bridge strategy, technology, risk, and business partnership.In this returning guest episode, Karen Van den Driessche, former Vice President, Group Treasurer and Head of Tax at LIPTON Teas and Infusions, shares how treasury professionals can move beyond operational responsibilities to become trusted advisors across the organisation.Karen Van den Driessche returns to the podcast to discuss the next chapter of her career journey since first appearing on the show several years ago. As the former Vice President and Group Treasurer, Head of Tax at LIPTON Teas and Infusions, Karen reflects on the lessons learned through restructurings, refinancing challenges, technology transformation, leadership evolution, and combining treasury with tax responsibilities.Throughout the conversation, Karen shares practical insights on leadership, mentoring, treasury transformation, automation, business partnering, and why treasury remains one of the most exciting functions in finance.What We Cover in This Episode:Karen's career journey since her first appearance on the podcastWhy treasury leadership is shifting towards business partnershipLessons learned from restructurings, refinancing, and covenant negotiationsBuilding treasury functions during periods of organisational changeWhy strong treasury teams should make leaders “redundant”The growing importance of technology, automation, and visibility in treasuryCombining treasury and tax under one leadership structureThe importance of translating technical finance topics into business languageHow mentorship and coaching shaped Karen's careerWhy treasury professionals need both technical expertise and communication skillsThe changing expectations of younger generations entering treasuryHow ATEB and the treasury community continue to evolveWhy treasury remains a rewarding long-term career pathYou can connect with Karen Van den Driessche on LinkedIn.---

(SPOILER) Your Daily Roundup covers the Bracketology leaders, the Time Capsule different than I thought, Devens Diamond POV causing a stir online, & (SPOILER) my reaction to the events of last nights house “tea party.” Music written by Jimmer Podrasky (B'Jingo Songs/Machia Music/Bug Music BMI)Ads:Shopify – The plot twist that you were the business all along. Free trial at: https://shopify.com/realitysteveSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Donate (no account necessary) | Subscribe (account required) Join Bryan Dean Wright, former CIA Operations Officer, as he dives into today's top stories shaping America and the world. In this Monday Headline Brief of The Wright Report, Bryan breaks down President Trump's surprise pullback from an all-out war with Iran, ordering a ceasefire just days after promising a two week bombing campaign. Bryan lays out the four reasons behind Trump's decision, from dwindling US missile interceptor stockpiles to a new push for peace led by China, plus fresh violence in the Strait of Hormuz and a renewed Saudi-Houthi conflict that threaten to unravel the truce. He also covers a deadly Islamist terror attack in Germany and a wave of asylum controversies rocking the UK and Spain. Plus, Bryan covers Trump's fight with the Smithsonian over what he calls anti-American bias, a WNBA player facing death threats for defending women's sports, and a Minnesota mother's controversial conviction that raises hard questions about which battles, foreign or domestic, deserve America's attention. "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." - John 8:32   Keywords: Wright Report, Bryan Dean Wright, Iran ceasefire, Strait of Hormuz, Houthis, Saudi Arabia, China, Germany terror attack, UK asylum, Spain, Pedro Sanchez, Smithsonian, Sophie Cunningham, Shiloh Hendrix, Minnesota

This week we're exploring why self-trust is the foundation of confidence, discipline, and lasting success. Every promise you keep (or break) to yourself shapes your identity and your future. If you've been waiting for motivation to change your life, this episode will challenge you to stop negotiating with your standards and start building confidence through consistent action. Extraordinary lives aren't built by big moments, they're built one kept promise at a time.Purchase my new book, Level Up Your Leadership--Links & resources:To follow more info about the podcast@levelup.debbienealCheck out my personal instagram account@debbie_neal

"When there's a gap between our intention and our impact, we diminish others and our communication."The best leaders don't succeed because they have all the answers—they succeed because they bring out the best thinking in others. Liz Wiseman, executive advisor, CEO of the Wiseman Group, and author of the million-copy bestseller Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter, has spent years studying why some leaders amplify the intelligence around them while others unintentionally hold people back. In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, Wiseman joins Matt Abrahams to explore the habits of multiplier leaders, the subtle ways well-intentioned managers accidentally diminish their teams, and how curiosity, trust, and thoughtful communication create environments where people can do their best work. Together, they share practical strategies for leading with greater impact by aligning your intentions with the experience you create for others.Key Takeaways:Great leaders multiply, not diminish. Create trust, ask more than you tell, and challenge people to do their best thinking instead of stepping in with the answers.Good intentions aren't enough. The most effective communicators pay attention to the impact of their actions, ensuring their support empowers others rather than unintentionally holding them back.Activity:Ask the multiplier question. At the end of your next one-on-one or team meeting, ask: "What do you need from me to do your best work?" Listen without jumping in to solve the problem. Focus on understanding what will help others think, contribute, and perform at their highest level.To listen to the extended Deep Thinks version of this episode, please visit FasterSmarter.io/premium.Episode Reference Links:Liz WisemanLiz's Book: Multipliers147. Disrupt Yourself: How to Innovate Who You Are and Become Who You Can Be212. Break It to Make It: Disrupt Your Way to the Perfect Job FitConnect:Premium Signup >>>> Think Fast Talk Smart PremiumEmail Questions & Feedback >>> hello@fastersmarter.ioEpisode Transcripts >>> Think Fast Talk Smart WebsiteNewsletter Signup + English Language Learning >>> FasterSmarter.ioThink Fast Talk Smart >>> LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTubeMatt Abrahams >>> LinkedIn Chapters:(00:00) - Introduction (00:55) - Multipliers vs. Diminishers (02:26) - The Habits That Hold Teams Back (03:54) - Safety, Stretch, & Trust (05:12) - Curiosity Over Control (06:56) - The Most Important Leadership Question (09:14) - Becoming an Impact Player (12:20) - When Good Intentions Backfire (15:54) - Accidental Diminishing (19:47) - The Final Three Questions (25:07) - Conclusion

What happens when an AI experiment becomes a production service that your employees, customers, and daily operations depend upon? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I speak with Brian Klingbeil, Chief Strategy Officer at Ensono, about AI infrastructure resilience, operational dependency, FinOps, legacy modernization, and the growing pressure to prove that enterprise AI investments are producing meaningful returns. Brian has been speaking with major enterprises through Ensono's Executive Advisory Council. Three years ago, many participants were experimenting with proofs of concept. Today, they are being asked to present AI projects that are already in production, approaching production, or demonstrating a clear return through productivity, lower risk, service quality, or financial results. That progression creates a new problem. When an AI model begins supporting product delivery, customer service, logistics, software development, or internal operations, it becomes part of the company's operating infrastructure. Leaders must then ask familiar IT questions about availability, monitoring, security, incident response, disaster recovery, ownership, and cost. Brian believes FinOps often provides the first warning. Token consumption can be difficult for CFOs and business leaders to interpret, particularly when hundreds of agents are operating across different models. Ensono's internal platform has produced around 1,000 agents, prompting questions about which are effective, which are expensive, and who should carry the cost. We discuss why chargeback and showback could change employee behavior. When AI spending is absorbed by a central corporate budget, teams may have little reason to question whether an expensive model is suitable for a routine task. When the cost reaches their departmental budget, the decision can look very different. Architecture also matters. Brian recommends systems that are loosely coupled and tightly integrated. Companies should be able to replace a model, provider, FinOps tool, or service as the market changes, while still connecting each component closely enough to deliver useful business outcomes. That creates a genuine tradeoff. Providers such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic can offer specialist capabilities that businesses may want to use. Avoiding every provider specific feature can limit what the technology delivers, while becoming too dependent on one provider can make future change expensive and disruptive. The conversation then turns toward legacy technology. Brian argues that many systems described as outdated still process airline reservations, banking transactions, insurance claims, government services, and other high volume workloads. Turning them off without suitable replacements would create far bigger problems than the word "legacy" suggests. AI can change the modernization decision. Ensono worked with Markerstudy Group to analyze six million lines of RPG code running on an IBM i platform. The resulting plan identified applications that should move elsewhere while preserving workloads that still benefited from the platform's reliability and transaction processing capabilities. Brian treats migration as one possible part of modernization. AI tools can document old code, support modern development environments, and allow younger developers to work with established platforms without immediately beginning a lengthy and expensive replacement program. We also discuss Ensono's use of AI operations. Brian says the company reduced mean time to repair by 50% while processing approximately 50,000 tickets each month. The example shows how AI value can be measured through service quality and operational performance rather than relying entirely on direct revenue. The result is a balanced conversation about moving quickly while building enough control to keep AI dependable. Organizations need space for experimentation, but production services also require ownership, budgets, recovery planning, and people who know what to do when something fails. If one AI model or provider disappeared tomorrow, how much of your business would stop working? Listen to the episode and share your thoughts with me.

Danil Chernyshev: Forged in the Fire—Why the Scrum Master Role Tests Even Experienced Leaders Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.   "From my story, you can probably say that I was forged in the fire." - Danil Chernyshev   Danil had already climbed the ladder. He started with Scrum in 2010 as a developer, grew into a development manager, and reached executive level, running a department of 70 developers in his home country. Then he immigrated to Canada and had to start his career fresh. Certified by Scrum.org as both Scrum Master and Product Owner, the first role he landed was Scrum Master—and that's where the trouble began. He knew SDLC inside out, he knew how developers think, he knew Scrum from the trenches. What he didn't know was how to be a servant leader: how to balance serving and leading, how to measure his own success, how to even notice the small wins. After years at the top, he was suddenly the person who knew the least. In this episode, Danil shares why he stayed in the role instead of walking away—he loves building processes that help teams evolve, and he couldn't resist a real challenge. His advice to anyone at that same crossroads: be patient, reflect, build a feedback loop, and never stop learning. A certification proves you understand the base theory. Everything that matters comes after.   In this episode, we refer to the Tuckman model of team development, and how the storming phase tests every team—and every newcomer.   Self-reflection Question: When was the last time you were the person on the team who "knew the least"—and what did that teach you about your own growth?   [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]

Get your free download of the AOS ACADEMY SUCCESS GUIDE with 10 actions you can take today to increase your level of life success! AOS Academy Guide Signup Six Weaknesses to Watch For Before You Hire Your Next Leader The old cliché is true: people don't leave their jobs — they leave poor managers. And most of them never say why. They just quit, while leadership writes off the turnover as "difficult people."   Get your free download of the AOS ACADEMY SUCCESS GUIDE with 10 actions you can take today to increase your level of life success! AOS Academy Guide Signup This week on Anatomy of Success, Steve Wohlenhaus tackles one of the hardest skills in business: recognizing exceptional leadership talent — and spotting the weaknesses that disqualify it. The best leaders aren't hiding behind prestigious degrees or saying all the right things. They have character, integrity, humility, and tenacity, and their impact is intoxicating. But too often, the people making hiring decisions lack the emotional perspicacity to see it — mistaking charisma and confidence for competence. Steve lays out six weaknesses that should stop you cold before you put someone in charge of your people.

The Budget Layout Trap with Sarah Olivieri Money gets tight. The bank balance looks thin, or the bottom line slips into the red, and the first move almost everyone reaches for is the same one: cut expenses. It feels responsible. It feels like control. And when your budget lumps every expense into one big pile, it is also the fastest way to cut the very spending that was bringing money in. In this solo episode, Sarah breaks down why the standard budget layout quietly sets nonprofits up to make the wrong cut, and how she structures a budget so the right money stays protected. In This Episode, You'll Learn The three kinds of expenses every budget hides: revenue-generating, impact-generating, and the necessary "flushing it down the toilet" ones Why a development director is a money-making machine, not a cost, and what happens the moment you cut one The mass-firing of development directors early in the pandemic, and the losses that followed How Sarah sections a budget: direct program income and expenses, operations, then revenue-generating expenses The mindset shift from "we need to spend less" to "we need more money, so how do we get it" Who This Episode Is For • Executive directors staring at a red bottom line and reaching for the scissors • Leaders whose budgets pile every expense into one undifferentiated column • CEOs who treat fundraising salaries as overhead instead of investment • Anyone who has ever cut a cost to save money and watched revenue fall instead Practical takeaways • Pull your revenue-generating expenses out of the pile and label them clearly so they are the last thing anyone reaches to cut • Reorganize your budget into three sections: program, operations, and revenue-generating • Before cutting a revenue-generating expense, check whether it is actually generating revenue, then decide whether to shift the spending, not slash it • When money is short, ask how to put more into the money-making machine before you ask what to remove About Your Host, Sarah Olivieri Bold, strategic, and refreshingly human… Sarah Olivieri is the go-to expert for conversations on aligned leadership, outcome delegation, and sustainable growth. She brings wit, warmth, and real-world wisdom to mission-driven founders, visionary CEOs, and change-makers who want more clarity, more joy, and more results. Most leaders hit a wall when success depends on them holding it all together. Sarah helps them change that by redefining leadership around outcomes instead of activity, empowering teams to own results that scale and freeing leaders to focus on the vision that drives them. A former director of three nonprofits and founder of five businesses, she has a rare ability to spot opportunity where others see chaos, shift stuck patterns, and build organizations that support both legacy and life. Sarah leads with the same mindset that made her an award-winning sailor: iterate on what works, stay focused in the storm, and never forget the joy of the journey. Links Website: saraholivieri.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarah-olivieri Be sure to subscribe to Inspired Nonprofit Leadership so that you don't miss a single episode, and while you're at it, won't you take a moment to write a short review and rate our show? It would be greatly appreciated! Let us know the topics or questions you would like to hear about in a future episode. You can do that and follow us on LinkedIn.

Episode Overview In this episode, Michael D. Levitt speaks with Melissa Robinson-Winemiller about the role of empathy in modern leadership and why it is no longer optional. Drawing from Melissa's research and Michael's real-world leadership experience, this conversation reframes empathy from a soft skill into a measurable leadership strategy that directly impacts retention, performance, and organizational outcomes. The Empathy Gap in Leadership A consistent issue across organizations: Leaders feel pressure from above and disconnect below Middle managers report feeling unheard and unsupported Communication breakdowns create disengagement Melissa's research highlights this gap as a root cause of: Leadership burnout Workplace dissatisfaction Breakdown in team cohesion The pandemic accelerated this shift, forcing employees to reassess what they will tolerate in leadership and culture. Empathy Is a Strategic Tool, Not a Soft Skill Empathy is often misunderstood. It is not about emotional reaction. It is about perspective-taking and informed decision-making. Melissa defines this as a structured leadership capability, not a personality trait. Research shows the impact clearly: Productivity increases by 87% Innovation increases by 86% Profitability increases by 84% Empathy, when applied intentionally, becomes a competitive advantage. Case Study: Listening as a High-ROI Leadership Move Michael shares a practical example of transforming a toxic workplace. Approach: Conducted one-on-one conversations with team members Asked for their perspective Asked what they would change if they were leading Outcome: Turnover reduced from 90% to 6% annually No financial incentives were introduced. The shift came from: Being heard Being included Being respected Listening is not passive. It is a leadership system. Why Listening Works Listening creates: Trust Psychological safety Better decision-making It also reduces: Misalignment Rework Internal friction The investment is time. The return is stability and performance. The Real Cost of Attrition Turnover is not just an HR issue. It is a financial and operational risk. Key reality: Replacing an employee costs 90% to 200% of their annual salary Additional hidden costs: Loss of institutional knowledge Disruption to team performance Increased workload for remaining staff Retention is not a cultural initiative. It is a business decision. The Failure of Command-and-Control Leadership Traditional leadership models are breaking down. Old approach: Authority-driven Compliance-based Top-down decision making Modern workforce response: Disengagement Exit Loss of trust As Melissa highlights, today's workforce no longer tolerates environments where their voice is ignored. Leadership Evolution: From Control to Connection Effective leaders today: Seek input before making decisions Create space for dialogue Build systems that incorporate team feedback This is not about consensus. It is about informed leadership. Key Takeaways Empathy drives measurable business outcomes Listening is one of the highest ROI leadership actions Turnover is more expensive than most leaders realize Command-and-control leadership is no longer viable Perspective-taking improves decision quality and team performance Action Steps Schedule one-on-one conversations Ask: “What would you change if you were in my role?” Audit your leadership communication Are you informing or engaging? Identify friction points Where are employees not being heard? Track turnover costs Quantify the financial impact Implement feedback loops Make listening part of your operating system Closing If your team does not feel heard, your leadership system is broken. Empathy is not optional. It is a strategic requirement for performance and retention. https://eqviaempathy.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-melissa-a-robinson-winemiller-author-speaker-trainer   Book your Leadership Operating System review: https://BreakfastLeadership.com/LeadershipOS  

You know what's really perfect for English https://adeptenglish.com/language-courses/ listening? Real conversations about how political ideas change language. For example, the UK has a new term 'Manchesterism' that's not just a word but a new way of thinking about power. Sounds like a simple concept, but is it really that straightforward? Let's look closer.

Growing membership doesn't happen by accident. Christa explains how PenSPRA built relationships with superintendents, tracked new communications roles, and reached out when districts posted jobs.For one-person school PR shops, connection is everything. You'll hear how PenSPRA creates a built-in network through mentoring, monthly conversations, and professional development designed specifically for school communication leaders.Christa's advice for other SPRA chapters is refreshingly practical. From grassroots outreach to a stronger LinkedIn presence, she shares simple strategies that help elevate the role of school communications statewide.Christa shares how PenSPRA's unique executive director model works - and why contracting with the Chester County Intermediate Unit gives the chapter access to an entire communications team, not just one person.SPECIAL GUESTChrista FazioPenSPRA Executive Director Division Director of Communications, Marketing, and EngagementChester County Intermediate Unit, PennsylvaniaEmail: Christaf@cciu.org Instagram: https://instagram.com/christafazio LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christa-fazio-9694503/ Websites: https://penspra.com/ https://cciu.org USEFUL INFORMATIONHelpful blog: Back to School – Checklist for Getting Staff Involved in Social MediaOrder your copy of my book Social Media for Schools: Proven Storytelling Strategies & Ideas to Celebrate Your Students & Staff - While Keeping Your Sanity now!Interested in our membership program? Learn more here: https://socialschool4edu.com/MORE RESOURCESFree Video Training: Learn the simple secrets behind social media for K12 schools!Sign up for our free e-newsletter - click herewww.SocialSchool4EDU.com

Raymond "Ray" Sheen is an engineer, author, and founder of PPI Consulting, helping organizations rescue failing digital transformation initiatives through structured diagnostics, systems thinking, and practical leadership execution. Top 3 Value Bombs 1. Digital transformation fails not because of technology, but because organizations underestimate the difficulty of cultural and system-wide change. 2. Successful transformation requires alignment across people, processes, and technology; neglecting any one leads to breakdown. 3. True success in digital transformation is continuous evolution; if you're not consistently changing, you're falling behind. Check out the website to explore articles by Raymond Sheen - Institute For Digital Transformation Sponsors HighLevel - The ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies. Learn more at HighLevelFire.com. Nexus Install - Have a high-ticket offer? Nexus Install builds you a custom LinkedIn prospect booking system designed to generate more quality sales calls. Email JLD at John@EOFire.com to learn more.