Transformative Leadership Conversations with Winnie da Silva: Recent Episodes
Winnie da Silva
Listen in on transformative conversations where leaders share their journeys as they overcome and thrive through adversity and change.
“The moments that stretch us most as leaders often become the moments that transform us most — if we are willing to engage them intentionally.” - Winne da Silva
Growth sounds inspiring until it asks you to let go of the habits, mindsets, and approaches that got you where you are today. So what happens when your greatest strengths start becoming your biggest limitations? And how do you continue evolving as a leader in a world that's changing faster than ever before?
In this final episode of Season 6, I'm reflecting on the biggest lessons from our Think Differently, Transform How You Lead series. I revisit the leadership myths we've challenged, the frameworks we've explored, and the reality that meaningful transformation is rarely quick, easy, or comfortable.
You'll hear me discuss:
- Why transformation often begins when the approaches that once made us successful stop working
- How complexity, uncertainty, and rapid change are reshaping what leadership requires from us
- Why avoiding conflict can quietly undermine trust, innovation, and team effectiveness
- The leadership qualities that become even more valuable as AI continues to evolve
- Why strategic thinking, judgment, communication, empathy, and influence remain deeply human advantages
- How growth happens through experimentation, reflection, practice, and challenge
- The role trusted partners, coaches, and advisors can play in accelerating transformation
Resources
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | YouTube | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
"Transformation of any kind is rarely one insight, one coaching session, one workshop, or one conversation.” - Winnie da Silva
Leadership challenges are rarely just about what’s happening on the surface. The issue that keeps resurfacing, the team dynamic that won’t improve, or the frustration you can’t seem to solve may actually be driven by something much deeper.
In this episode, I share three real client stories from my executive coaching, leadership development, and team effectiveness work to show how lasting transformation happens when we uncover the stories, assumptions, leadership habits, and trust dynamics shaping our behavior and results.
You'll hear me discuss:
- How the stories we tell ourselves influence the way we lead and the results we create
- Why one leader's hidden assumptions were keeping him stuck and preventing real progress
- How adaptive leadership helps us choose the right approach for the right person and situation
- What causes leaders to unintentionally overuse their preferred leadership style
- Why communicating your leadership intent can strengthen trust and improve team performance
- How trust grows when people move beyond assumptions and gain a deeper understanding of one another
- The common thread connecting leadership challenges across individuals, teams, and organizations
Resources
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | YouTube | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
“Trust doesn’t just magically happen or appear. It’s built through deliberate action and honest conversations.” - Winnie da Silva
Trust impacts everything at work - communication, collaboration, influence, decision-making, and team culture. But most leaders still treat it like something that naturally develops over time instead of something that needs real intention and strategy. In this episode, I’m unpacking how trust actually gets built, why it breaks down so easily, and the practical frameworks I use with leadership teams to strengthen the relationships that matter most.
You’ll hear me discuss:
- Why broken trust quietly drains energy, productivity, and team effectiveness
- The four core components of trust: knowing the person, competence, sincerity, and reliability
- Why people approach trust completely differently and how misunderstanding that creates friction
- Practical ways to intentionally strengthen trust through better conversations and clearer expectations
- Why senior leaders must learn to build trust horizontally across the organization, not just within their teams
- How understanding someone’s motivations, values, and “currency” improves influence and collaboration
- The stakeholder analysis tool I use to help leaders build stronger, more strategic work relationships
Resources Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | YouTube | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
“Adaptive leadership is about choosing the right leadership approach for the right people in the right situation.” - Winnie da Silva
Some leaders hold on too tightly. Others delegate too fast. In this episode, I break down the adaptive leadership framework I’ve used for years with everyone from first-time managers to CEOs, and explain why effective leadership is rarely about sticking to one style.
I walk through the continuum of directing, collaborating, and delegating, and share how I decide which approach fits the person, the situation, and the moment.
You’ll hear me discuss:
- Why adaptive leadership is about choosing the right leadership approach for the right person and situation
- How the leadership continuum shifts between directing, collaborating, and delegating
- The three things I evaluate before deciding how to lead someone
- How trust, risk tolerance, and leadership instincts shape leadership decisions
- Why clarity and direction can slowly turn into micromanagement
- How collaboration and delegation build ownership, growth, and stronger decision-making
- Why great leaders constantly reassess and adapt instead of relying on one leadership style
Resources
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | YouTube | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
“If we want better results, we have to examine the stories and assumptions driving our behavior.” - Winnie da Silva
Some leadership challenges don’t start with strategy or communication, but rather they start with the stories we’re telling ourselves. The assumptions running quietly in the background about who I am, who other people are, and how things work.
In this episode, I explore how those internal narratives shape our behavior, influence our leadership, and ultimately impact the results we get. I also break down how changing the story can lead to completely different outcomes.
You’ll hear me discuss:
- How the stories we tell ourselves shape our behavior and results
- The three types of stories that influence leadership decisions every day
- Why certain problems keep repeating until we challenge the assumptions underneath them
- How stories about other people affect trust, collaboration, and conflict
- The importance of catching ourselves in the moment and questioning our assumptions
- Why curiosity is far more productive than self-judgment when trying to grow as a leader
- How adopting a new story can create better behaviors and better outcomes
Resources
Winnie da Silva onLinkedIn |On the Web |Substack |YouTube | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
“When you can show up in service of someone else’s work ahead of your own, it stops feeling transactional.” - Carly Valancy
Networking has become one of the most dreaded words in professional life. It feels transactional, awkward, and exhausting. But in a world increasingly driven by AI and digital communication, real human connection may be more valuable than ever.
In this episode, I sit down with Carly Valancy, founder of Reach Out Party, to talk about her philosophy of “anti-networking” - a more human, generous, and courageous way to build relationships and create opportunity.
You’ll hear us discuss:
- Why traditional networking feels so uncomfortable and how to approach it differently
- Carly’s framework for writing “unignorable” messages that people actually respond to
- The hidden fears that stop most people from reaching out in the first place
- Why reaching out is one of the highest leverage things you can do for your career
- How planting seeds for your future self can create opportunities years later
- The unexpected internal confidence shift that happens when you consistently put yourself out there
- Why meaningful human connection is becoming a major differentiator in an AI-driven world
Resources
Carly Valancy onWebsite |Reach Out Party |Tether |Substack |LinkedIn |Momentum Growth Plan
Winnie da Silva onLinkedIn |On the Web |Substack |YouTube | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
“Leadership growth happens when we begin practicing new behaviors in the real world.” - Winnie da Silva
Some of the biggest leadership breakthroughs don’t come from massive reinventions. They come from one small shift repeated consistently over time.
In this episode, I’m digging into why so many leaders get stuck thinking about growth instead of actually practicing it and why tiny experiments might be one of the most powerful tools for real leadership development.
You’ll hear me discuss:
- Why leaders often get trapped thinking about growth instead of practicing new behaviors
- How tiny experiments reduce overwhelm and make meaningful change feel more achievable
- Why confidence is usually built through action and repetition, not before it
- The power of small, consistent leadership behaviors over dramatic transformation
- How reflection frameworks like “plus, minus, next” help create sustainable growth
- What I learned from running my own public leadership experiment around strategic thinking
- Why experimentation, adaptability, and continuous learning are becoming essential leadership skills today
Resources
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | YouTube | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
Tiny Experiments in Leadership Thinking episode - December 2025
“Leadership at scale isn’t about having all the answers—it’s about drawing out other people’s thinking.” - Winnie da Silva
Why do so many leaders feel like they have to carry all the answers, and what is it actually costing them?
In this episode, I unpack one of the most overlooked leadership tools: asking better questions. I share why constantly jumping in with solutions can quietly limit your team’s thinking, and how shifting toward thoughtful, open-ended questions can completely change the way you lead. It doesn’t mean stepping back or losing authority, but it does elevate the quality of conversations, decisions, and ownership across your team.
You’ll hear me discuss:
- Why having all the answers can actually hold your team back
- How asking questions creates ownership instead of dependency
- The connection between inquiry and reducing defensiveness
- How better questions uncover hidden risks, assumptions, and blind spots
- Why leaders who ask more questions tend to make stronger decisions
- How questions build trust and increase accountability across teams
- Simple, real-world questions you can use in conversations starting today
Resources
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | YouTube | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
Example Questions: Understanding someone’s thinking
- “That’s an interesting point. Tell me more about what you're thinking.”
- “When you say X, what does that mean to you?”
- “What would need to be true for this to work?”
- “What do you care most about in this situation?”
Collaboration and partnership
- “How might we best partner together on this?”
- “What role would you like me to play here?”
- “What decision do you need from me today?”
Feedback conversations
- “What feedback do you have for me?”
- “What’s hard to tell me?”
- “What are we not talking about that we probably should be?”
Vision and goals
- “If you and your team could only achieve one thing this year, what would it be?”
- “What challenge, if solved, would make the biggest difference?”
- “What are your top priorities and why?”
Problem-solving and decision-making
- “What might be the root issue underneath this?”
- “What are we implicitly saying no to by saying yes?”
- “What data would change your mind?”
“The issue isn’t the strength of the idea. It’s whether it connects to what the other person cares about.” - Winnie da Silva
Why do some ideas land instantly… while others just hang in the air, no matter how well you explain them?
In this episode, I break down a simple but powerful leadership concept that can completely change how you influence others, especially when you don’t have formal authority. I share how understanding what people truly care about (their “currency”) can shift conversations, build trust faster, and help your message actually stick.
You’ll hear me discuss:
- Why strong arguments alone don’t guarantee influence
- What “currency” really means and how it shows up in everyday leadership
- How to spot what someone values based on their behavior and priorities
- Simple ways to reframe your message so it connects and lands
- How this applies to stakeholders, feedback, trust-building, and big conversations
- Why influence is less about pushing your point and more about aligning with what matters to others
Resources Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | YouTube | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
“The goal isn’t ideas—it’s behavior change that drives business results.” - Winnie da Silva
Why do so many leadership programs fall flat even when the content is solid? I’ve seen this play out time and time again over the past two decades. It’s rarely about the quality of the program itself. It’s about what’s happening around it. In this episode, I break down the two factors that actually determine whether leadership development creates real, lasting change. I also share where things tend to go wrong.
You’ll hear me discuss:
- Why leadership development only works when both the leader and the organization are fully engaged
- The mindset shifts I consistently see in leaders who grow the fastest
- What it really looks like to apply leadership development in real time (not just learn it)
- How organizational culture and senior leadership behavior can make or break development efforts
- Why treating leadership development as a “check-the-box” exercise leads to poor results
- What needs to be in place for leadership growth to actually stick and drive business outcomes
Resources
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | YouTube | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
“In leadership, the visible problem is often just the symptom.” - Winnie da Silva
Is the problem you’re trying to solve actually the real problem or just the most obvious one?
In this episode, I unpack why so many leadership challenges don’t get resolved the way we expect, and how quickly jumping to solutions can keep us stuck in the same cycles. I share a real client story and walk through how to slow down just enough to uncover what’s really driving the issue, so you can create solutions that actually last.
You’ll hear me discuss:
- Why the visible problem is often just a symptom, not the root cause
- How pressure and urgency push us into solving the wrong thing
- The difference between surface issues and deeper organizational dynamics
- A real example of how misalignment at the top created slow decision-making
- The role of trust, expectations, and avoided conversations in team challenges
- Simple questions I use to dig deeper and challenge my own assumptions
- How pausing, gathering input, and testing solutions leads to better outcomes
Resources
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | YouTube | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
“Coaching isn’t remediation. It’s acceleration.” - Winnie da Silva
Is executive coaching really just a last resort for struggling leaders… or is that completely missing the point? In this episode, I unpack one of the biggest myths around coaching and share what I actually see in my work with high-performing leaders. I explain why leadership coaching is about growth, not fixing, and why the right support at the right time can completely shift your leadership impact.
You’ll hear me discuss:
- Why coaching is often misunderstood as a performance fix instead of a growth accelerator
- What really changes when a strong leader steps into a bigger, more complex role
- How blind spots show up even for high performers and how I help uncover them
- Why reflection is something most leaders don’t get enough of (and why it matters)
- How coaching creates space to think differently, test ideas, and navigate complexity
- The difference between coaching and other tools like feedback, training, or performance management
- A real example of how one leader expanded their impact by shifting how they influence and make decisions
Resources Winnie da Silva onLinkedIn |On the Web |Substack |YouTube | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
“Real leadership work isn’t about fixing people—it’s about addressing root issues.” - Winnie da Silva
Are you stepping into bigger leadership… but still thinking and operating the same way?
In this episode, I break down what it really takes to grow as a leader when the pressure, complexity, and expectations all level up. I share how I work with leaders and teams, the frameworks behind that work, and why lasting change comes from mindset shifts instead of quick fixes.
You’ll hear me discuss:
- Who I work with and the types of leadership transitions and challenges they face
- Why leadership is less about industry and more about mindset and people
- What executive coaching actually looks like and how it drives real results
- Why leadership development must lead to behavior change, not just learning
- The three core areas of my work: coaching, leadership development, and team effectiveness
- How to tell if a team is truly effective (and what to look for)
- Why sustainable results come from addressing root causes, not quick fixes
Resources
Celebrating 20 Years of Transformative Leadership Episode
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | YouTube | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
“Most leadership problems aren’t what they seem.” - Winnie da Silva
You might think the issue in front of you is the real problem… but what if it’s just the surface? This season, I’m shifting things a bit. Instead of longer guest conversations, I’m bringing you shorter, more focused episodes designed to help you think more clearly, challenge your assumptions, and take immediate action in your leadership. Because the truth is, most leadership challenges aren’t as straightforward as they seem, and if we don’t slow down and look deeper, we risk solving the wrong problem entirely.
In this episode, I’m setting the stage for what’s ahead and sharing why this shift matters, especially if you’re navigating complex, messy, real-world leadership situations.
You’ll hear me discuss:
- Why many leadership problems are often misdiagnosed at first glance
- What tends to sit beneath common challenges like performance issues or communication breakdowns
- How unexamined assumptions and internal narratives can quietly shape your leadership effectiveness
- Why solving only what’s visible can lead you to miss the bigger issue
- The idea that leadership isn’t about fixing people, but about addressing root causes
- How asking better questions can become your most powerful leadership tool
- What it looks like to adapt your leadership approach based on people and context
- The frameworks I use with clients to build trust, experiment, and lead more intentionally
- How this season is designed to give you practical, usable insights you can apply right away
Resources
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | YouTube | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
Today's episode includes a discussion of child sex trafficking and sexual exploitation. While our goal is awareness and prevention, some listeners may find this topic difficult. Please take care of yourself and feel free to pause or skip this episode if needed.
“Rescuing one girl matters - because that one life can change the future of an entire family.” - Leah Henck
How does trafficking continue to thrive in plain sight - even in places with laws designed to stop it?
In this special episode, I sit down with Leah Henck, President of Freedom Firm USA, to talk about the reality of child sex trafficking in India and the long, persistent work required to fight it. Freedom Firm partners with law enforcement, the courts, and social workers to rescue girls, support their healing, and pursue justice against those responsible.
Leah shares powerful stories from the field and explains why real change requires more than rescue. It also requires addressing the systems that allow exploitation to continue.
You’ll hear us discuss:
- How Freedom Firm began and why its mission focuses on rescue, restoration, and justice
- Why rescuing girls alone isn’t enough without changing the systems that allow trafficking to continue
- How traffickers often move girls across regions or countries to isolate and control them
- What it takes to work with police and the judicial system in places where trafficking has been normalized for decades
- The emotional and practical challenges girls face after being rescued
- Why every survivor’s path to healing looks different
- How convictions against traffickers can slowly change an entire region
- The role vulnerability plays in trafficking everywhere, including in the United States
- Why community awareness and support are critical in preventing exploitation
- How one rescued girl can break a cycle that may have existed in her family for generations
Resources
Leah Henck on Freedom Firm | Freedom Firm Facebook | Freedom Firm Instagram | Sign up for Monthly Impact Update Email | Email: leah@freedomfirm.org
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | YouTube | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
“Leadership growth doesn’t have to come from huge reinventions. Often, it comes from tiny experiments.”
Busyness has a sneaky way of convincing us that it equals importance - and for a long time, I let that idea drive how I measured my value as a leader. In this bonus episode, I’m sharing what happened when I decided to interrupt that pattern with one small, intentional experiment. No grand strategy. No perfectly mapped plan. Just 45 minutes a week to think - really think - and see what surfaced.
You’ll hear me discuss:
- How I realized I was buying into the belief that my leadership value is tied to productivity
- Why I committed to a short, weekly strategic thinking practice and what I hoped it might change
- How strange and uncomfortable it felt at first to sit with no agenda, no screen, and no clear outcome
- Why even 30 minutes of protected thinking time turned out to be more than enough
- How rest, reflection, and permission played a bigger role than I expected
- What I noticed about my thinking carrying over and deepening between sessions
- Why sticking to pen and paper helped me trust my own thinking instead of outsourcing it
- How one meaningful conversation with a trusted colleague reshaped my strategic clarity
- Why strategic thinking doesn’t have to be a solo activity to be effective
- What consistency, accountability, and keeping the bar low actually made possible
Resources
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | YouTube | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
“When leaders lose confidence, it’s usually traced back to these four patterns: the unknown, the comparison, the undermining relationship, and the identity transition.”
Confidence doesn’t usually disappear overnight. More often, it slips away quietly, shaped by patterns we don’t always notice while we’re inside them. After two decades of coaching leaders, building teams, and watching incredibly capable people question themselves, I started to see the same confidence breakdowns show up again and again. In this episode, I’m wrapping up The Confidence to Lead series by sharing the four patterns I see most often when leadership confidence starts to erode and what it actually takes to rebuild it from the inside out.
You’ll hear me discuss:
- How operating in the unknown erodes confidence when expectations are unclear, success isn’t defined, and feedback feels vague or inconsistent
- Why comparison quietly undermines leadership confidence, especially when we measure ourselves against someone else’s style, presence, or definition of success
- How undermining relationships and low psychological safety can wear down even the strongest leaders over time
- Why identity transitions - like promotions, role changes, or industry shifts - often trigger self-doubt, even when you’re fully qualified
- Real client stories that show how these patterns play out in everyday leadership moments
- The questions I use in coaching to help leaders identify which pattern might be impacting them most
- Practical ways to rebuild confidence in each situation, without waiting for permission, validation, or perfect conditions
Resources
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | YouTube | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
“Confidence is a skill. It is a skill just like every other skill that we have, that we can use, that we practice.” - Dr. Angela Stopper
Confidence can feel so uneven. Solid in one moment and shaky in the next. It’s one of those topics that shows up in almost every leadership conversation I have, yet most of us still aren’t quite sure how it actually works. Is it innate? Is it something you earn? Or does it grow through experience?
In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Angela Stopper, Chief Learning Officer at UC Berkeley, who has spent years looking at confidence from a completely different angle. Angela sees confidence as a skill - a set of competencies we can practice, strengthen, and shape so it feels authentic to who we are. Her model makes the entire idea of “being confident” feel far more doable and a lot less mysterious.
You'll hear us discuss:
- Why treating confidence as a skill makes it accessible to literally everyone
- The six competencies in Angela’s model and how they work together
- The many ways the “confidence gap” shows up and why it isn’t just a gender issue
- How outside reactions, expectations, and bias can shape our sense of confidence
- The pressure to not be “too much,” especially for women, and how Angela coaches people through that
- The role courage plays in leadership and why it’s often misunderstood
- The connection between confidence and making decisions, even when the outcome isn’t guaranteed
- How mistakes and small experiments build resilience and help confidence grow over time
Resources
Angela Stopper on LinkedIn
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | YouTube | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
“It’s not that you already know the answers or already are perfect at something, but that you believe that you can get there.” - Julienne Silverman
Confidence can look rock–solid from the outside… but inside, it’s usually a mix of courage, doubt, experience, improvisation, and a whole lot of personal growth. And sometimes the biggest boosts to our confidence come from the moments we’d never expect.
In this episode, I sit down with investment banking executive Julienne (Julie) Silverman for a truly grounded and honest conversation about what confidence actually feels like and how it evolves over the course of a career. Julie shares stories from her early days managing the legendary New York restaurant Pastis all the way through her senior roles on Wall Street today, and she opens up about the shifts, pivots, and lessons that shaped her leadership.
You’ll hear us discuss:
- How Julie defines confidence in a way that feels surprisingly freeing and why it has nothing to do with perfection.
- The unforgettable Courtney Love story that taught her how to handle pressure and trust her instincts long before she worked in finance.
- What the “arc of confidence” looks like and why confidence often dips when you step into bigger, more challenging roles.
- How she navigates ambiguity in entrepreneurial environments while keeping both daily decisions and long-term goals in view.
- The subtle, gendered expectations around confidence at work and the small habits that help women show up with more presence.
- Julie’s go-to advice for younger women: introduce yourself with your full name, take a literal seat at the table, and own your spot in the room.
- Why being fully out at work has strengthened her leadership, and how authenticity creates deeper relationships and real confidence
Resources
Julienne H. Silverman on LinkedIn | On the Web
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | YouTube | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
“We are not meant to force ourselves into monochromatic, one-tone grinds that look and feel the same every single day.” - Winnie da Silva
High-performing leaders love a good challenge, so here’s one: can you actually sit still without feeling guilty? Most of us can’t, and there’s a reason for that. Pushing through isn’t always strength, but sometimes the moment you slip into self-neglect without even noticing. In this episode, I wrap up our month-long series on “excellence without exhaustion” by taking a deeper look at how awareness, rhythm, and tiny experiments can shift the entire way we lead. I also share a personal conversation with my daughter that completely reframed how I think about rest… and honestly, it stopped me in my tracks.
You’ll hear me discuss:
- How my daughter’s off-hand comment revealed a deeply ingrained family belief that “doing” equals worth
- Why rest can’t just be about recovering so you can work harder again
- The difference between pushing through as a strength and pushing through as a liability
- The subtle early signals our bodies give us when stress is building and why catching them matters
- What natural biological rhythms look like and how they can guide smarter, more sustainable performance
- How forcing our bodies to match our calendars erodes creativity, wisdom, and compassion
- Why tiny experiments (not big overhauls) create real and lasting change
- The simple nighttime practice I use to stop rumination in its tracks
- How revitalization becomes an act of humility and even a spiritual reset
- Questions you can start using today to notice your patterns, shift your rhythm, and build rest back into your leadership
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | YouTube | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
Learn More About Sapiens
- Overview of Sapiens - A short video introduction to Sapiens and their mission to help people in intense jobs manage stress and sustain performance.
- Video: The Diagnostics Journey - See what it’s like to go through the full Sapiens Stress & Resilience Diagnostic and Human Performance Journey.
- Sneak Peek: Sapiens Workshop - Get a behind-the-scenes look at a real Sapiens workshop with a CFO team.
Mentioned Studies
- Impact of long exhales on down-regulating the nervous system and improving mood
- Impact of microbiome composition on social decision making
- The connection between stress and empathy
- Link between empathy and inflammation
Special Offer for Listeners
Jan-Philipp Martini, founder and CEO of Sapiens, is offering Transformative Leadership Conversations listeners a 20% discount on the Sapiens Stress & Resilience Diagnostic and Habit-Change Program, valid through the end of 2025.
It’s a four-month journey that begins with a comprehensive at-home diagnostic — including stress-hormone and cortisol analysis, ECG monitoring, and recovery analytics — followed by three months of expert-guided habit coaching and monthly progress tracking.
Whether stress has already started to take a toll — on your body, your work, or your relationships — or you’re simply curious about how your body responds under pressure, this program can help you understand what’s happening beneath the surface and make small, data-informed changes that build lasting performance and wellbeing.
If you’d like to learn more or see if this program is right for you, you can book a free 15-minute discovery call with a member of the Sapiens team using this link:
???? Book a Consultation
When you sign up, use the podcast code - TLC — and visit www.be-sapiens.com for full details.
"Chronic stress is anti-correlated with all the things you want to have as a leader. It's anti-correlated with empathy, it's anti-correlated with creativity, and it's anti-correlated with complex decision making.” - Jan-Philipp Martini
“If you can get more insight into what drives you, you can handle yourself — and your leadership — much better.” – Martin Redigolo
Stress has a funny way of showing up long before we notice it - our bodies feel it first, and our calendars catch up later.
In this episode, I bring Martin Redigolo and Sapiens founder Jan-Philipp Martini together so we can connect the dots between the science, the story, and the real human experience of leading under pressure. Martin actually went through the full Sapiens Stress & Resilience Diagnostic, and he shares what the process was like, what surprised him, and how the results shifted the way he understands himself as a leader.
And because Jan-Philipp is with us too, we dig into the “why” behind the data - how stress shows up in the body, what most leaders overlook, and how small, realistic habit shifts can make a huge difference in how you feel and how you perform.
This conversation pulls the whole series together in a way that’s super grounded, practical, and honestly… eye-opening.
You’ll hear me discuss:
- How Martin’s diagnostic unfolded and the parts of the process that were surprisingly simple (and surprisingly revealing)
- The moments when the data challenged what he thought he knew about his own stress
- How the ECG and cortisol analysis make invisible stress completely visible
- The three core questions the Sapiens report answers for every leader
- The subtle patterns in your day that can drive fatigue or restlessness without you realizing it
- Why it matters to work with your biology before trying to change your mindset
- How chronic stress quietly undermines things like empathy, creativity, and decision-making
- The shifts Martin is making now - at work and at home - because of what he learned
- a few habit changes that are simple, doable, and grounded in real science
- what sustainable leadership actually looks like when you’re aiming for excellence without exhaustion
Resources
Jan Philipp Martini onSapiens | LinkedIn
Martin Redigolo onWeb | LinkedIn
Book a 15-minute free demo consultation -Link
Research: How We Measure Stress Using Body Data and Self-Assessments: Read here
Winnie da Silva onLinkedIn |On the Web |Substack |YouTube | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
Learn More About Sapiens
- Overview of Sapiens
- A short video introduction to Sapiens and their mission to help people in intense jobs manage stress and sustain performance.
- Video: The Diagnostics Journey
- See what it’s like to go through the full Sapiens Stress & Resilience Diagnostic and Human Performance Journey.
- Sneak Peek: Sapiens Workshop
- Get a behind-the-scenes look at a real Sapiens workshop with a CFO team.
Mentioned Studies
- Impact of long exhales on down-regulating the nervous system and improving mood
- Impact of microbiome composition on social decision making
- The connection between stress and empathy
- Link between empathy and inflammation
Special Offer for Listeners
Jan-Philipp Martini, founder and CEO of Sapiens, is offering Transformative Leadership Conversations listeners a 20% discount on the Sapiens Stress & Resilience Diagnostic and Habit-Change Program, valid through the end of 2025.
“Sapiens is an idea, first of all, that we can perform at a high level and at the same time work in harmony with our biology.” - Jan Philipp Martini
Have you noticed some people seem to thrive under pressure while others slowly burn out? What if stress isn’t the enemy but the secret ingredient to lasting performance? In this episode, I sit down with Jan-Philipp Martini, founder and CEO of Sapiens, to explore what really happens when ambition collides with biology. Jan shares how his own health crisis became the turning point that led him to rethink everything he knew about high performance. Together, we unpack the science behind stress, why it’s not the villain we’ve made it out to be, and how tuning into your body’s signals can transform the way you lead and live.
You’ll hear us discuss:
- Jan’s journey from high-pressure management consulting to creating a company that helps leaders measure and manage stress through data
- What his diagnosis with type 1 diabetes taught him about the hidden cost of “pushing through”
- Why stress itself isn’t bad and how understanding your body’s natural rhythms can actually unlock better performance
- The difference between restlessness and fatigue, and what those states reveal about your biology
- How stress shows up in the body - long before burnout hits - and the early signs we tend to ignore
- The three stress archetypes (green, yellow, orange) and what they say about where you are on the stress spectrum
- How leaders can catch weak signals - like irritability, gut issues, or sleeplessness - before they turn into full-blown problems
- Simple ways to sync your daily habits with your body’s natural rhythm so you can sustain excellence without exhaustion
Resources
JanPhilipp Martini on Sapiens | LinkedIn
Book a 15-minute free demo consultation - Link
Research: How We Measure Stress Using Body Data and Self-Assessments: Read here
Learn More About Sapiens
• Overview of Sapiens: A short video introduction to Sapiens and their mission to help people in intense jobs manage stress and sustain performance.
• Video: The Diagnostics Journey: See what it’s like to go through the full Sapiens Stress & Resilience Diagnostic and Human Performance Journey.
• Sneak Peek: Sapiens Workshop: Get a behind-the-scenes look at a real Sapiens workshop with a CFO team.
Mentioned Studies
• Impact of long exhales on down-regulating the nervous system and improving mood
• Impact of microbiome composition on social decision making
• The connection between stress and empathy
• Link between empathy and inflammation
Special Offer for Listeners: Jan-Philipp Martini, founder and CEO of Sapiens, is offering Transformative Leadership Conversations listeners a 20% discount on the Sapiens Stress & Resilience Diagnostic and Habit-Change Program by using the code TLC at www.be-sapiens.com, valid through the end of 2025.
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | YouTube | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
“The stress I carried slowed me down — I couldn’t think clearly, and I didn’t recognize myself anymore.” - Martin Redigolo
What if the very thing that makes you successful is also what’s slowly breaking you down? In this episode, I sit down with design and business leader Martin Redigolo for a raw, honest conversation about stress - not just the kind that keeps you up at night, but the kind that shapes you as a leader. From the high-intensity worlds of Deloitte, BCG, and Manion to his personal turning points, Martin opens up about how ambition, responsibility, and caring deeply for others can collide. This one’s about learning to lead without losing yourself.
You’ll hear me discuss:
- How Martin’s early career excitement blurred the line between passion and pressure and why it took years to notice the difference
- What happens when your strengths as a caring, people-focused leader start to work against you
- The tension between wanting to do right by others and holding yourself to impossible standards
- How disconnecting from your core values (like fairness and care) can quietly turn stress into self-doubt
- The moment Martin realized he was “standing in his own way” and what it taught him about rebuilding trust in himself
- Why structure, trusted people, and simple routines can be lifelines when stress takes over
- The one piece of coaching advice that completely changed how he leads under pressure
Resources
Martin Redigolo on Web | LinkedIn
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | YouTube | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
Get 20% off Sapiens’ four-month Stress and Resilience Diagnostic and Habit Change Program—which includes biological stress testing and expert coaching - by using the code TLC at www.be-sapiens.com, with the offer valid through the end of 2025.
“People do change - sometimes by choice, sometimes by necessity, but always through connection.” - Winnie da Silva
Can people really change? Or are we just fine-tuning the version of ourselves that already exists? After 20 years of coaching and consulting leaders, I still find myself coming back to this question because it’s one that sits at the heart of every transformation story I’ve ever witnessed. In this final episode of my 20-year celebration series, I’m pulling back the curtain on what I’ve learned about how change really happens and why we rarely do it alone.
You’ll hear me discuss:
- The real question behind “Can people change?” and why it often starts with asking if I can change.
- What it actually means to change how you show up, not who you are.
- The story of “Marty,” a quiet executive who learned to project confidence without becoming someone he’s not.
- The four kinds of change - intentional transformation, deliberate reinvention, situational upheaval, and identity disruption - and how they show up in real life.
- Why relationships are the scaffolding of change - the people who stretch us, challenge us, and hold up the mirror we sometimes need.
- Two powerful stories of leaders who transformed - one by choice, one through challenge - and what their journeys reveal about reclaiming your own story.
- How true change starts as an internal shift but becomes real only through connection.
Resources
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | YouTube | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
“Leadership isn’t about how much you do. It’s about how we think, how we connect, and how courageously we act on what really matters.” - Winnie da Silva
Is the biggest lie you’ve been told about leadership the one you’ve been telling yourself? The one that says your worth as a leader is measured by how much you do - how productive, busy, and available you are. In this episode, I’m pulling back the curtain on one of the most common and costly leadership lies: that doing determines your value. I’ll share what it’s really costing us - our clarity, creativity, and connection - and how we can start leading from a place of deep thinking instead of constant doing.
You’ll hear me discuss:
- Why leaders (myself included) struggle to let go of the need to constantly prove their value through action
- How our obsession with busyness is quietly draining our best ideas and strategic thinking
- What deep thinking really looks like and how it can transform not only how we lead, but how we live
- How “white space” can become one of the most powerful leadership tools on your calendar
- The simple, practical steps I’m taking to carve out time to think (and how you can experiment with your own version)
- Why leadership isn’t something we prove. It’s something we practice
Resources
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | YouTube | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
“Every challenge you face builds your leadership muscle for the next one.” - Winnie da Silva
What makes someone take a leap with no safety net - and end up building a life and career more meaningful than they ever imagined? Twenty years ago, I turned down two job offers, quit my job, and had no real plan - just an 18-month-old baby, a husband between startups, and a mortgage. Looking back now, it was one of the best (and scariest) decisions I’ve ever made.
In this episode, I open up about that journey. How I went from social work to corporate consulting to entrepreneurship and what I’ve learned about leadership, growth, and trusting yourself when the path ahead is anything but clear.
You’ll hear me discuss:
- Why great leadership always starts on the inside and how real change begins with ourselves
- The pivotal moment that pushed me to walk away from “safe” and build something on my own terms
- What it really took to transition from social work to business consulting (and why theater skills helped!)
- How saying “no” to the wrong opportunities can open the door to the right ones
- The lessons I’ve learned from launching my own podcast - imperfectly, impatiently, and all on my own
- Why learning to take the long view has shaped everything from my client relationships to my definition of success
Resources
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | YouTube | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
‘’What’s inspiring is seeing MBA students shift from seeing leaders on a pedestal to realizing leadership is about collaboration and bringing people along.” - Gerard Beenen
Do the next generation of business leaders think about leadership in a totally different way? What if it wasn’t about authority, charisma, or titles - but about building trust, creating clarity, and inspiring people to move together toward something bigger? In this special bonus episode, I sit down with Gerard Beenen, professor of management and leadership consultant, to explore how MBA students are rethinking leadership in real time. Together, we connect their reflections to two powerful frameworks - transformational leadership and self-determination theory - and talk about what those ideas mean for anyone leading today.
This isn’t just theory from the classroom. You’ll hear directly from Gerard’s MBA students at Carnegie Mellon as they share how their definitions of effective leadership have shifted during their studies. Their voices are honest, insightful, and sometimes surprising - and they might challenge some of the assumptions you’ve been carrying about what leadership really is.
In this episode, you’ll hear:
- The surprising moment in history when leadership research almost disappeared and how it came back stronger than ever
- Why the old “great person” theory of leadership still lingers in how we think about leaders today
- The full range of leadership styles, from laissez-faire to transactional to transformational, and why transformational leadership continues to inspire change
- The four “I’s” of transformational leadership and how they show up in everyday leadership moments
- Real stories from MBA students as they move from task-orientation and authority toward collaboration, trust, and long-term purpose
- How transformational leadership connects directly to self-determination theory - one of the most influential ideas in motivation research
- The three core psychological needs we all share (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) and how they shape motivation at work
- Why it’s not just about motivating your direct reports - you can apply these theories in 360 degrees with your peers, your leaders, and across your whole organization
- Practical ways to create conditions where people feel empowered, inspired, and aligned without putting yourself on the hook to “motivate everyone” all the time
Resources
Gerard Beenen on Cal State Fullerton | LinkedIn | Academia.edu
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | YouTube | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
“If you’re not listening to your customers, to your students, to your users, then you run the risk of using generic best practices that work in situation X, but might totally face plant in situation Y." - Elliot Felix
Is the future of higher education about piling on more programs, services, and systems, or about focusing on what truly helps students succeed? And how often do colleges and universities leap to solutions before asking what students actually need?
In this episode of Transformative Leadership Conversations, I sit down with Elliot Felix, author of The Connected College, to explore what higher ed leaders - and really, leaders everywhere - can learn about breaking silos, designing better student experiences, and leading through complexity and change. Elliot brings stories from campuses across the country, along with
practical tools and a fresh way of thinking about leadership.
You’ll hear us discuss:
- Why “less with more” helps institutions focus resources on what makes the biggest difference for students
- How everyday habits of prioritization create clarity for leaders, faculty, and staff
- The double diamond framework and how defining the right problem first improves student outcomes
- What design thinking looks like when universities listen to students and design around their experience
- How prototyping new programs can reduce risk and build confidence before scaling up
- The danger of overwhelming faculty and staff with too much information, and how to strike a healthier balance
- The leadership myth Elliot once believed and how working with students and campuses changed his perspective
Resources
Elliot Felix on the Web | The Connected College Book | The Connected College Podcast | LinkedIn
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | YouTube | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
“For leaders today, the question isn’t just how to sustain our institutions, but how to create reasons for hope in the field.” - Gwendolyn Freed
What does it really take to step into the presidency of a college during one of the most complex and challenging times for higher education and the arts? And how do you lead with both strength and hope when the pressures - political, cultural, and financial - are constantly shifting?
In this episode of Transformative Leadership Conversations, I sit down with Dr. Gwendolyn Freed, the new president of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD). Gwen brings a remarkable mix of experiences across higher education, nonprofit leadership, journalism, and the art.
You’ll hear us discuss:
- The surprising shift that happens when people see “your presidency walk into the room” rather than just you
- How Gwen thinks about balancing MCAD’s long history with its future identity and growth
- What it really means to listen to and serve such a wide range of stakeholders
- The challenges and opportunities of leading an arts and design college in today’s political and cultural climate
- Why Gwen finds so much hope in students and their creativity
- Her take on AI - where it doesn’t belong and where it absolutely can spark new possibilities
- The leadership lessons she’s learned that translate far beyond higher education
Resources
Gwendolyn Freed on MCAD | LinkedIn
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | YouTube | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
“In higher education, success can’t always be measured in numbers. Leaders are shaping something far more enduring: global citizens who will contribute to the world.” - Winnie da Silva
What happens when the very institutions built to shape future leaders are suddenly shaken to the core? Higher education is facing pressures unlike anything we’ve seen before - political battles, the rise of generative AI, ongoing questions of safety, and cultural divides that threaten its very purpose. The truth is, these challenges don’t just affect universities; they mirror the pressures leaders everywhere are up against. So what can we learn from the people leading in higher ed right now?
You’ll hear me discuss:
- Why higher education has become such a critical and contested space in our country’s future
- How generative AI is raising new questions about the very purpose of learning
- The impact of campus safety concerns and the rise of school violence on students’ sense of belonging
- The erosion of healthy debate and why academic freedom matters more than ever
- The political attacks shaping what can and cannot be taught in classrooms
- Four big leadership lessons I’ve seen firsthand from working with presidents, professors, and their teams
- A preview of the three incredible guests joining me this month to share their own journeys and insights
Resources
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | YouTube I Email - winnie@winnifred.org
Studies referenced:
Americans' Confidence in Higher Education Down Sharply
How to Save the American University
Students Hate Them. Universities Need Them. The Only Real Solution to the A.I Cheating Crisis
The Typical College Student Is Not Who You Think
“People with ADHD aren’t asking for sympathy. They’re saying: here are my pain points and here’s what I need in order to be successful.” - Amy Shilliday
What if the very traits we often label as “challenges” are actually hidden superpowers? And what would it look like if leaders truly understood how to support neurodivergent employees - not just to cope, but to thrive?
In this episode of Transformative Leadership Conversations, I sit down with Amy Shilliday, a learning experience designer, neurodiversity advocate, and founder of Shilliday Vaughan Consulting. With over 25 years in corporate learning and development, Amy has seen firsthand how small shifts in the way we design learning and lead teams can completely change the game - not just for those with ADHD or other neurodivergent profiles, but for everyone.
You’ll hear us discuss:
- Why ADHD and other neurodivergent traits are less about deficits and more about different operating systems
- How “universal design for learning” can transform training and onboarding for every employee, not just some
- Practical ways leaders can coach team members with ADHD without micromanaging or labeling
- The power of disclosure - when, how, and why someone might choose to share their diagnosis at work or in an interview
- What leaders with ADHD themselves can do to embrace their strengths, manage their energy, and lead authentically
- Why self-care isn’t optional and how burnout shows up differently for neurodivergent professionals
Resources
Amy Shilliday on the Web | LinkedIn
The UDL Guidelines
Edge Foundation (Sir Richard Branson)
Feel Good Productivity (Ali Abdaal) - An excellent way for anyone, especially ND folks, to set realistic goals
When All Minds Thrive (Saskia Schepers) - Helps leaders realize the benefits of and support methods for ND employees
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | YouTube | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
"ADHD isn't a weakness or a superpower. It's just an operating system. And when you learn how to work inside your own operating system, you can actually become a power user." – Stephanie Scheller
What if the quirks of your brain weren’t obstacles to overcome but the foundation of how you build teams, businesses, and even your own self-confidence? What if the very things you thought were holding you back in leadership were actually the key to leading better?
That’s exactly the kind of reframing my guest, Stephanie Scheller, has done. Stephanie is an entrepreneur, violinist, author, and the founder of Grow Disrupt. She’s also a leader who discovered later in life that ADHD had shaped everything about how she worked, led, and built her company. Instead of fighting it, she’s learned to design her business and leadership style around the way her brain works - and she’s sharing what that looks like in real life.
You’ll hear us discuss:
- Why ADHD isn’t a weakness or a superpower, but an operating system you can learn to master
- How Stephanie spotted her own patterns and built “bumpers” into her life and work to keep moving forward
- The role of grace, anxiety, and depression in her journey - and the tools she uses when things start to spiral
- The idea of “frozen tater days” and how her team uses this language to normalize and support each other
- Practical ways leaders can support neurodiverse team members without lowering performance expectations
- What it looks like to build events, businesses, and leadership practices that work with your brain, not against it
- How shifting perspective from “fixing” to “designing for your brain” can change the way you lead and live
Resources
Stephanie Scheller on LinkedIn | Grow Disrupt
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack |YouTube | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
"When we understand how our minds work—and honor the minds of others—we lead better." - Winnie da Silva
What if everything you’ve been told about ADHD only told half the story? What if the very traits that make it hard for you to stay on task could also be the ones that make you an incredible leader? In this opening episode of my ADHD and leadership series, I’m diving into what ADHD really is, how it shows up in the workplace, and why understanding it matters for every leader - whether you have ADHD yourself, work with someone who does, or just want to create a team culture where different kinds of brains can thrive. I’ll also share a fictional but very real-to-life story of “Martina,” a leader whose career shifted the moment she stopped forcing herself to work against her brain and learned how to work with it.
You’ll hear me discuss:
- What ADHD actually is (and isn’t), including how it affects brain chemistry and structure
- Why ADHD looks different in adults - especially in women - and why it’s often underdiagnosed
- The challenges ADHD can bring at work, from time blindness to emotional swings
- Surprising strengths many people with ADHD have, including creativity, adaptability, and hyperfocus
- Practical strategies to make work more ADHD-friendly, like body doubling, time blocking, and simplifying decisions
- How environment, support, and self-awareness can turn ADHD traits into leadership assets
- The fictional story of Martina, a leader who transformed her performance by building systems around her brain instead of trying to change it
- Why honoring how your mind works - and the minds of others - can make you a more effective and inclusive leader
Resources
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
Articles Referenced
Understanding ADHD
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
6 strengths and benefits of ADHD
ADHD in Adults: An Overview
24 ADHD Statistics for 2024
The Executive’s Guide to ADHD: Tools for Enhanced Focus and Decision-Making in the Corporate World
Leading with ADHD: A Practical Blueprint for Sustainable Success
The Adult Hyperfocus and Motivation Scale: A Pilot Study
https://totallyadd.com/wp-content/uploads/White_Shah_ADHDCreativity_PAID.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com
Uninhibited imaginations: Creativity in adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
Hyperfocus: The Forgotten Frontier of Attention
Living "in the zone": hyperfocus in adult ADHD
What Are the Benefits of Having ADHD?
The unique contribution of emotional impulsiveness to impairment in major life activities in hyperactive children as adults
Understanding Hypersensitivity in ADHD
"Immigrant entrepreneurs are powerful at reframing. Reframing rejection. Reframing failure. Reframing their past." - Dr. Neri Karra Sillaman
What if the hardest chapter of your life - the one where you lost everything - turned out to be the thing that shaped you into the leader you were always meant to be? In this episode, I talk with Dr. Neri Karra Sillaman, whose journey from child refugee to Oxford professor and global entrepreneur is nothing short of incredible. Her work has appeared in BBC, Forbes, Financial Times, Harvard Business Review, CNBC and others. She's also the author of Pioneers: Eight Principles of Business Longevity from Immigrant Entrepreneurs, a book that captures both her lived experience and her research into what really helps immigrant-led businesses thrive - not just survive.
You'll hear us talk about:
- What it was like being forced to flee Bulgaria as a child, and how that shaped her identity and worldview
- How growing up under a regime that tried to erase her culture made her fiercely committed to authenticity and purpose
- Why immigrant entrepreneurs often build stronger, longer-lasting businesses - and why that’s not a coincidence
- What “frying in your own oil” means, and why it’s such a powerful mindset for building something from scratch
- How reframing rejection and failure is a common thread in the stories of successful immigrant founders
- The huge role community, trust, and relationships play in business longevity - and why these things are often overlooked
- Why chasing profit isn’t the priority for many immigrant entrepreneurs - and what they focus on instead
- The kind of leadership that puts people, not ego, at the center - and why that matters now more than ever
Resources
Neri Karra Sillaman onWebsite |LinkedIn |Neri's book: Pioneers: 8 Principles of Business Longevity from Immigrant Entrepreneurs
Winnie da Silva onLinkedIn |On the Web |Substack | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
"An unconventional entrepreneur has been hustling before the idea even came. It's their way of life." - Arjita Sethi
What if the thing that makes you feel like an outsider is actually the reason you're built to lead? In this episode, I talk to Arjita Sethi - an immigrant entrepreneur, educator, and founder of New Founders School. From growing up in Delhi and helping run a school with her mom at 16, to building a startup in Silicon Valley while navigating the U.S. immigration system, Arjita’s story is a powerful mix of hustle, heart, and hard-earned wisdom. We get into what it really takes to build something when you don’t come from privilege, and how being an immigrant gives you a different kind of edge - one that’s rooted in adaptability, resourcefulness, and the ability to keep going no matter what.
You'll hear us discuss:
- How growing up as an immigrant shaped the way Arjita leads, takes risks, and thinks like a founder
- Why some of the best entrepreneurs out there don’t look or sound like what the startup world expects
- The real superpowers immigrant founders already have - even if they don’t know it yet
- How she burned out chasing the “Silicon Valley dream” and what she had to unlearn
- What it’s like to build a business under constant visa pressure, and why that stress doesn’t get talked about enough
- How New Founders School is helping underestimated entrepreneurs turn their lived experience into leadership
Resources
Arjita Sethi on New Founder School | Arjitha's Advantage Program | LinkedIn
“There is a knowing in me that beneath that cultural layer, we’re the same. It sounds so obvious, but it has made me show up in different ways.” - Anna Gudmundson
What does it really take to lead with purpose when you’re building a life - and a business - in a country that’s not your own?
In this episode, I sit down with Anna Gudmundson, CEO of Sensate and a global tech entrepreneur whose story spans six countries and countless transformative lessons. We explore what it means to lead as an immigrant, how to build a business without losing yourself, and why cultivating nervous system resilience might be the most overlooked leadership strategy today. Anna’s clarity, humility, and global lens make this conversation both grounding and expansive.
You'll hear us discuss:
- How Anna's early childhood in rural Africa shaped her core belief that "beneath that cultural layer, we're the same"
- Her journey from Sweden to France, Spain, London, and eventually Los Angeles - and how each culture revealed something new about leadership and herself
- What it means to create a startup culture rooted in presence, intention, and human connection, not just productivity
- Why self-awareness and adaptability are non-negotiables for leading diverse, high-performing teams
- The emotional cost of immigration and how Anna deliberately builds belonging in new environments
- How Sensate helps people calm their nervous systems through infrasonic sound - and why Anna believes calming the body is foundational to leadership
- The challenge of building company culture while fundraising, and how she uses values to guide everyday decisions
- A refreshing take on feedback, safety, and why we don’t need to be liked to be effective leaders
Resources
Anna Gudmundson on Sensate | Sensate Instagram | LinkedIn
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
“Immigrant entrepreneurs navigate challenges, build thriving businesses, and show us what leadership can look like when resilience and reinvention go hand in hand.”
What if the real secret to America's success isn't who was born here, but who chose to come here? In this episode of Transformative Leadership Conversations, I discuss the powerful and often overlooked role immigrant entrepreneurs play in shaping not just our economy but our national identity. As we celebrate America’s 249th birthday, I reflect on our roots as a nation of risk-takers and builders, and why the immigrant experience may just hold the most valuable leadership lessons of all. You’ll hear stories from my own family, eye-opening statistics, and a rich preview of three extraordinary women leaders joining the podcast this month.
You'll hear me discuss:
- Why America’s business roots run deeper than the Mayflower and how commerce, not just freedom, shaped our beginnings
- How immigrant entrepreneurs today are driving business innovation and economic growth
- What history gets wrong (or leaves out) about our “founders” and how that continues to shape opportunity
- The four essential leadership traits every entrepreneur must master and why immigrants might be uniquely equipped to embody them
- Powerful personal stories from my husband’s family and their multigenerational legacy of business-building in the U.S.
- How resilience, adaptability, a growth mindset, and comfort with risk are more than buzzwords - they’re survival skills
- What you can expect from upcoming conversations with three phenomenal immigrant women leaders
Resources
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
“Leadership isn’t about being perfect or popular. It’s about making decisions, taking responsibility, and developing the skills that allow us to show up with courage and confidence.” - Lorraine Connell
Are we unknowingly holding kids back by tying leadership to titles, popularity, and perfection? Could our entire approach to teaching leadership be setting young people up to fail before they even begin?
In this episode, I sit down with Lorraine Connell, former chemistry teacher turned teen leadership coach and founder of Peers Not Fears. Lorraine shares how her own experience of feeling “average” in school shaped her deep commitment to redefining leadership for young people. Together, we explore what happens when we empower teens before they’re handed official titles and how we can help them develop confidence, decision-making, and real leadership skills - long before they enter the workforce.
You’ll hear us discuss:
- How our myths around leadership - like needing a title or being perfect - hold kids (and adults) back
- Why Lorraine believes the only true requirement for leadership is the ability to make a decision
- The damage caused when we make student leaders into role models who aren’t allowed to fail
- How mistakes (including Lorraine’s own) became the turning point for creating Peers Not Fears
- The power of peer mentoring and why it’s more impactful than top-down leadership
- Why confidence and leadership are inseparable - and how labeling kids can stall both
- What leadership development actually looks like between ages 12 and 16
- How games, group coaching, and creative challenges open teens up to growth
- What adults need to remember about owning mistakes and modeling leadership
- How to reframe leadership not as a ladder—but as something wide enough for everyone
Resources
Lorraine Connell onPeers not Fears |''Leadership for Our Kids!'' Facebook Group |Lorraine's books on Teenage Leadership ILinkedIn
Winnie da Silva onLinkedIn |On the Web |Substack | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
"All leaders should be leading with kindness and empathy and respect for other people, which in general, I think means by leading with example." - Aradhna da Silva
Could the clearest vision for future leadership come not from boardrooms, but from high school classrooms?
In this episode, I flip the mic and turn to the next generation. After speaking at my daughter’s high school career day, I invited students to share their raw, unfiltered thoughts on leadership - what it is, what it isn’t, and what they would change in the world if they were in charge. Their answers surprised me, inspired me, and reminded me just how powerful honest conversation can be.
You will hear:
- How today’s teens define great leadership through traits like empathy, kindness, and flexibility
- Why many young people believe being feared or cold isn’t necessary - or even effective - as a leader
- How the myth of “born leaders” is being firmly rejected by this generation
- What gives Gen Z hope, and why justice, equality, and inclusion top their list of priorities
- How students would lead change today - from political reform to creating unity in divided communities
- Reflections on how media, culture, and current events are shaping young people’s ideas of power and corruption
- A heartfelt wrap-up conversation with my daughter Aradhana da Silva on what her generation truly expects from leaders
Resources
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
“If we’re serious about developing the next generation of leaders, we have to be just as serious about questioning the models we’re handing down.”- Winnie da Silva
Is Gen Z quietly rewriting the rules of leadership - and are we even paying attention? Seventy-two percent (72%) of Gen Z would prefer a non-managerial path to career advancement. They see leadership roles as too high stress and low reward. In this episode of Transformative Leadership Conversations, I talk about how our next generation of leaders - specifically Gen Z - is reshaping what leadership looks like from the ground up. From their desire for trust and transparency to their rejection of traditional management roles, Gen Z is showing us a very different vision of what it means to lead and be led. Maybe it's time we listened a little more closely.
You'll hear me discuss:
- What shaped Gen Z’s leadership perspective, including a timeline of major global events that defined their coming of age
- How growing up in constant instability impacts what they want from leaders at work
- Key findings from three major studies on Gen Z and leadership, and what those results reveal about trust, vulnerability, and empowerment
- Why Gen Z is stepping away from middle management, and what “conscious unbossing” actually means
- How companies say they value people leadership but often fail to show it through actions, compensation, or training
- What the IKEA peg analogy reveals about the invisible, underestimated work of leading people
- Two practical shifts we can make to better support emerging leaders today and redefine what leadership growth looks like
Resources
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
"I think we overestimate the importance of knowing and underestimate the power of listening." - James Misner
What if the biggest thing holding back real change is the way we try to create it? In this conversation of Transformative Leadership Conversations, I speak with James Misner — a leader, storyteller, and deep thinker who challenges how we show up for others, especially those on the margins. His perspective is both disarming and inspiring. James pushes us to rethink our assumptions about helping, belonging, and transformation — and why presence might just be more powerful than any plan. This episode is a call to slow down, to stay curious, and to build something deeper than solutions: real human connection.
You’ll hear us discuss:
- Why belonging isn’t just a warm feeling but a foundational need that must come before trust, belief, or any lasting change.
- How systems that focus on outcomes instead of relationships can unintentionally harm the very people they are meant to support.
- The importance of being willing to walk with someone through their pain and uncertainty, rather than trying to rescue them with quick fixes.
- What can shift when we stop treating people as problems to solve and start seeing them as neighbors with stories, strengths, and dignity.
- James’s personal journey of letting go of the pressure to always have the right answer and choosing instead to offer presence and patience.
- How discomfort and tension can be invitations to stay and engage more deeply, rather than reasons to step back.
- The quiet but radical impact of showing up consistently, without an agenda, simply to let someone know they’re not alone.
Resources
James Misner on The Kipos Group | LinkedIn
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
‘’Even in a non-profit context, issues of sharing power and mutual respect and dignity are essential and not universal.” - Rebecca Vander Meulen
What does it take to lead with courage, clarity, and compassion when the systems around you collapse—almost overnight? In this episode of Transformative Leadership Conversations, I speak with Rebecca Vander Meulen, Executive Director of the J.C. Flowers Foundation. Rebecca has spent over two decades working in global health, faith-based development, and cross-sector collaboration—from launching HIV and malaria programmes in rural Mozambique to running initiatives for people returning home after incarceration in New York City. Her leadership blends humility, deep empathy, and strategic thinking in some of the world’s most complex and under-resourced environments.
You'll hear us discuss:
- Why waiting for full clarity before communicating is a luxury leaders can’t afford in crisis—and how honest, imperfect communication builds more trust than silence.
- How the sudden dismantling of USAID funding has devastated public health systems globally, and why leaders like Rebecca are having to reimagine their strategies on the ground with little information and no time.
- The importance of recognising how power—whether in a community, a boardroom, or a rural health clinic—operates subtly, and how sharing it must be an intentional, ongoing process.
- What it means to lead with purpose when your work is directly tied to life and death, and how personal connection—not metrics or strategies—often becomes the true driver of lasting impact.
- How Rebecca’s years in remote Mozambique taught her not only how to mobilise local expertise but also how to navigate and build trust in completely different systems, including the private equity world in Manhattan.
- Why the best social impact work isn’t born out of obligation or abstract logic, but out of deep personal passion—and how to find your own way into the work that truly matters to you.
Resources
Rebecca Vander Meulen on LinkedIn | J.C.Flowers Foundation
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
"The need for leaders who fund, champion, and drive social causes has only intensified — we need them now more than ever." - Winnie da Silva
What if the most powerful leadership lessons aren’t coming from boardrooms—but from leaders fighting for dignity, justice, and community impact? In this episode of Transformative Leadership Conversations, I explore stepping beyond the walls of traditional leadership and into the world where return isn’t measured in revenue, but in real human impact. As someone who started my career in social work, this theme is personal. And now, with global funding shifts and social issues intensifying, learning from those who lead with purpose at the core feels more urgent than ever.
You’ll hear me reflect on the values, challenges, and mindset of social impact leadership and how these insights can shape leadership at any level—whether you're scaling a non-profit, launching a start-up, or leading a legacy business.
You’ll hear me discuss:
- The urgency of now: Why 2025 may be the hardest—and most vital—year yet for leading social change.
- Purpose over profit: What business leaders can gain from those who lead with mission at the centre.
- Leadership mindset shifts: Seven powerful lessons from the non-profit world that apply across every sector.
- Fundraising reframed: How telling your story and aligning others with your mission can fuel—not distract from—your work.
- Small scale, big impact: How one relationship-based programme quietly sparked new movements across the U.S.
- Innovation under constraint: Why limited resources often unlock the most creative, adaptive solutions.
- Leading through uncertainty: The importance of communicating—even when you don’t have all the answers—and staying grounded in your values.
- Upcoming guests: A preview of insights from Rebecca Vander Meulen and James Misner, two leaders who embody resilience and purpose in action.
Resources
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
"You combine the gender wage gap with the work breaks, what you get is a retirement account that has less money in it at the point of retirement. And then we outlive men.” - Jean Chatzky
What if the way you feel about money is more powerful than what you actually know about it? Managing money is not about being perfect — but just about building the right habits, over and over again. In this episode of Transformative Leadership Conversations, I’m joined by Jean Chatzky — financial journalist, bestselling author, and CEO of HerMoney. Jean has spent her career helping people, especially women, take control of their money, their mindset, and their future. We dive deep into how your personal money story shapes your confidence, your career moves, and even your leadership style — and why good money management has way more to do with habits than with being "perfect" at finance.
You'll hear us discuss:
- Building Habits, Not Perfection: Why getting better with money isn’t about knowing everything — it’s about doing the small smart things over and over again.
- Why Women Need a Different Space: How Jean created HerMoney as a judgement-free zone where women can learn, talk, and build financial strength together.
- The Hidden Cost of the Wage Gap: How career breaks, lower salaries, and longer lifespans are stacking the odds against women — and what we can do about it.
- Money Stories: Why the way you watched your parents handle money matters more than what they ever taught you out loud.
- Making the Shift from Money to Value: How thinking about your value — not just your salary — can totally change how you negotiate and lead.
- Letting Go of Perfect: Why waiting until you’re 100% sure can hold you back — and why “good enough” is often exactly what you need to move forward.
- Behavioural Tricks That Work: How little psychology hacks like automation and visualisation can make saving, investing, and budgeting easier without even thinking about it.
- Keeping Your Receipts (Literally and Figuratively): Why you should start a “value file” today — and how it can make all the difference when you’re asking for a raise or a promotion.
- Knowing When to Get Help: Why even Jean has a financial advisor — and why getting help is a smart leadership move, not a sign you’re failing.
Resources:
Jean Chatzky on Her Money (Web) | Money Personality Type Test | LinkedIn
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
"You cannot negotiate against yourself. Ask questions, gather data, be prepared—but don’t assume the answer before you even start the conversation." - Gini Dietrich
What if the thing holding you back from making more money… is you? In this episode of Transformative Leadership Conversations, I’m chatting with Gini Dietrich, a seasoned PR pro and the founder of Spinsucks. Gini’s not just a business owner, she’s someone who’s learned the hard way about money, confidence, and leadership.
From a tough start to building an incredible business, Gini’s story is a testament to what happens when you get real about your value—and how so many of us (especially women) hold ourselves back from truly owning it. If you’ve ever second-guessed your pricing, been nervous to ask for a raise, or just don’t know how to explain your value to others—this episode is for you.
You’ll hear us discuss:
- It’s not just numbers, it’s mindset: A big part of negotiation skills is about your confidence—and often, fear. Gini talks about why it’s important to learn how to overcome this, to get paid what you are worth.
- It’s not just numbers and mindset, it’s also about the right formula: Pricing isn’t some mysterious or random guess—it’s about knowing your costs and the profit you want to make. Gini explains how the correct price is actually calculated by factoring in your expenses plus the profit you aim for, and why you need to treat your rates as an evolving process, not a static figure.
- Confidence is a muscle: Whether you’re running your own business or climbing the corporate ladder, confidence isn’t automatic. Gini shares how building financial confidence is something you have to work at, constantly.
- Stop negotiating against yourself: So many of us do this without realizing it! Gini talks about the hidden ways we sabotage ourselves before we even sit down for that important conversation with a boss or client—and how to stop that cycle.
- Keep it professional: When you’re asking for more—whether it's a raise or a new project—don’t bring in personal stuff like credit card debt. Gini’s advice? Stick to the value you bring to the table, not what you need to solve personal problems.
- Focus on the value, not the ‘deserve’ factor: We often approach negotiations by asking, “Why do I deserve this?” Gini flips the script and explains why it’s all about showing your boss, your clients, or even yourself, how much value you’re adding.
- Data, data, data: You need to be armed with the facts when it comes to negotiating. Gini shares why doing your research and having the numbers to back up your requests is so critical to making your case.
- This isn’t just for business owners: Even if you don’t run your own company, this conversation is packed with practical advice for anyone looking to take charge of their career and negotiate for what they’re worth.
Resources
Gini Dietrich on Spin Sucks | LinkedIn
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
What if the reason you're not earning what you're worth has nothing to do with your skills — and everything to do with the stories you believe about money? Are you showing up like someone who knows their value… or playing it small to keep the peace? Let’s be real — money is messy. It brings up all kinds of emotions, expectations, and unspoken rules. In this solo episode, I’m sharing something personal: my own journey around money, self-worth, and what it’s taken for me to finally feel comfortable asking for what I deserve.
This episode kicks off a new theme we’re exploring this month: Leadership & Money Mindset. If you’ve ever hesitated to ask for a raise, felt weird quoting your rates, or second-guessed your worth, this one’s for you. I’m talking through the mindset shifts I had to make (and am still making!) to move from discomfort and doubt to clarity and confidence — and how you can do the same.
You’ll hear me discuss:
- What happens when you don’t value yourself. I used to feel weird asking to be paid — like it somehow made me less sincere. But I’ve learned that when I don’t own my value, other people don’t either. That had to change.
- The early money messages that shaped me. I grew up in the Midwest, where the rule was: don’t make anyone uncomfortable — especially with money talk. That silence stuck with me for years. Maybe you can relate?
- A simple framework that helps uncover limiting beliefs. I share the Story → Behavior → Result model I use with clients to break down what's really driving your actions — and how to shift it.
- Three powerful client stories — Annie, Eleanor, and Zoe. These are women who faced real turning points in their careers — promotions, negotiations, job changes — and had to totally reframe how they saw their own value. Their courage might give you the nudge you need.
- The bigger forces that make this harder, especially for women. We’ll touch on why this issue isn’t just personal — it’s also systemic. From unpaid labor to leadership stereotypes, there’s a lot working under the surface.
- A surprisingly fun tool to explore your money mindset. I’ll introduce you to the Money Type Personality Assessment (yep, it’s free!) and share what I learned about myself as a “Visionary” with a close second of “Nurturer.”
- Five big takeaways to help you shift your mindset now. These are practical, real-world ideas you can apply — whether you're pricing a project, negotiating a role, or simply trying to stop shrinking yourself at work.
Resources
Money Type Personality Test
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
“No one works as hard as founders do. They’re operating on another level of intensity.” - Medha Agarwal
Is your pitch holding you back more than your business idea? Are you making it easy for investors to dream the dream with you? In this episode, I sit down with Medha Agarwal, General Partner at Defy, to talk about the unique challenges founders face—especially women—when pitching their startups, securing funding, and leading through growth. She shares why too many founders unknowingly undersell their vision and how simple shifts in storytelling can make all the difference.
Medha also opens up about her own career journey, from being a founder to working in venture capital, and what she’s learned about choosing the right team, adapting in fast-moving startups, and pushing past perceived limits. We also dive into her experience as a Harvard rower and the powerful leadership lessons she’s carried from the water to the boardroom.
Whether you're a founder, thinking about launching a startup, or simply curious about what separates the best pitches from the rest, this conversation is packed with actionable insights on confidence, resilience, and strategic growth.
You'll hear us discuss:
- Why women founders struggle with selling the big picture – Medha explains that many female founders naturally emphasize what still needs to be done rather than what they’ve already achieved. Investors need to see the vision and the opportunity, not just the challenges ahead.
- The subtle shift that makes a pitch stronger – Instead of pointing out gaps or weaknesses, founders should frame their journey as momentum. Investors want to be inspired—help them see how they can be part of something big and inevitable.
- The underestimated importance of flexibility in startups – Too often, people transitioning from corporate jobs to startups focus on titles and initial responsibilities. But in a fast-growing company, your job will change drastically every six months. The real key to success is choosing the right company and founder rather than clinging to a specific role.
- What makes a startup worth joining – Medha stresses that it's better to join a company where you believe in the founder’s vision and leadership style, even if the role isn’t perfect. A rising tide lifts all boats—if the company succeeds, so will your career.
- How rowing taught her to lead and collaborate – Rowing is the ultimate team sport, where trying to stand out individually slows the whole boat down. The same applies in startups—success comes from alignment, trust, and moving in sync with the team.
- The reason she prefers working behind the scenes – Medha admits she’s uncomfortable with the spotlight on herself and much prefers helping others shine. This mindset makes her a stronger investor and advisor—she’s fully focused on helping founders succeed, not chasing personal recognition.
Resources
Medha Agarwal on LinkedIn | Defy
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
"My role is catching the ideas and making them happen." – Stephanie Unwin
Is your leadership moving forward, or are you just keeping busy?
In the fast-paced world of executive leadership and entrepreneurship, it can feel impossible to carve out time to think strategically. But what if making space for reflection isn’t a luxury—it’s the key to unlocking long-term success? In this episode of Transformative Leadership Conversations, I sit down with Stephanie Unwin, a seasoned executive and business leader, to explore how prioritizing strategic thinking not only makes you a stronger leader, but also helps you steer your company toward sustainable growth.
Stephanie opens up about the importance of deliberately carving out time for reflection, recharge, and deep thinking—ensuring that leadership isn't just about constant action but also about intentional decision-making that shapes the future of the business.
You'll hear us discuss:
- Why carving out time to think is not a “nice to have”—it’s a leadership necessity. As an executive, it’s easy to get swept up in the whirlwind of daily demands—meetings, emails, and urgent decisions that take up most of your day. However, without setting aside dedicated time to reflect, refine strategy, and gather your thoughts, leaders risk losing sight of the bigger picture.
- The secret to balancing high-energy execution with moments of clarity. Leading a company often feels like an unending sprint. While constant action and execution are important, Stephanie explains how never taking a step back to pause and think can lead to burnout, decision fatigue, and reactive leadership.
- Why founders and executives must stay aligned on vision, values, and risk-taking. Whether you’re working for a founder or running a startup yourself, one of the most critical components of leadership is alignment. Stephanie dives deep into why executives must ensure that their vision, values, and approach to risk-taking are in sync with the founders or leadership team.
- How to navigate change without losing sight of the bigger picture. The business world is in a constant state of flux—markets shift, technologies evolve, and customer demands change. Leaders who resist change or get bogged down by every shift risk falling behind. Stephanie shares her approach to staying agile, adapting to changes, and continuously innovating without compromising the company's core mission and values. .
- The underestimated power of trusting your team and leveraging their insights. No leader has all the answers, and the most effective leaders are those who recognize the importance of collective intelligence. Stephanie highlights how fostering a culture where team members feel empowered to share ideas, challenge assumptions, and contribute to strategic discussions can greatly enhance decision-making.
Resources
Stephanie Unwin on LinkedIn
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
What makes some founders incredible leaders—and others impossible to work with? They are visionaries, but are they always great leaders? Founders bring passion, vision, and drive, but they can also be intense, stubborn, and relentless. Working with them isn’t just about executing their vision—it’s about knowing when to support, when to challenge, and how to scale alongside them. So how do you do that effectively?
In this episode of Transformative Leadership Conversations, I dive into what makes founders tick, the challenges they face, and how you can be a strategic partner in their success. Whether you work for, with, or invest in a founder, understanding their mindset is key to building a strong and successful relationship.
You’ll hear me discuss:
- The surprising data behind founders—Forget the stereotype of the young tech genius. The average founder is older than you might think, and startups with multiple founders tend to outperform solo-led businesses. I break down what the numbers actually tell us about who succeeds and why.
- The four founder archetypes—Inventors generate endless ideas but struggle with execution. Drivers push forward with sheer determination but risk burnout. Builders create structure and scalability but may resist change. Guides lead with vision and culture but can be too hands-off. I’ll explain how to work with each type effectively.
- How to challenge a founder without clashing—The best partners don’t just follow orders; they push founders to grow. I share strategies for helping founders see blind spots, make better decisions, and scale successfully—without stepping on toes.
- The pitfalls founders face (and how to help them avoid them)—From burnout to hiring mistakes to emotional attachment that clouds judgment, many founders struggle to transition from startup hustle to sustainable leadership. I’ll highlight key risks and how you can help navigate them.
- What makes working with founders so exciting (and tough)—Founders move fast, take risks, and embrace uncertainty. That energy is contagious, but it can also be exhausting. I’ll share what I love about working with founders—and the biggest challenges to watch for.
Resources
Winnie da Silva onLinkedIn |On the Web |Substack | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
“Leadership without courage isn't leadership at all, but courage without integrity is dangerous.’’ - Winnie da Silva
What if your fear was the key to unlocking your greatest leadership potential? In this episode of Transformative Leadership Conversations, I explore the often-overlooked power of fear in leadership. Fear is something all leaders face, but it's not the fear itself that defines us—it's how we respond to it. You’ll hear me discuss how we can transform fear from a roadblock into a powerful catalyst for courageous leadership. The question isn’t whether you’re afraid, it’s what you choose to do in the face of that fear.
As we navigate these turbulent times, it’s more important than ever to lead with courage, not just for yourself but for your team. Fear will always be a part of leadership, but what if you could choose courage instead of being paralyzed by fear?
You’ll hear me discuss:
- The Neuroscience of Fear: I break down how your brain responds to fear and why your body treats psychological threats just like physical ones. I’ll explain how your brain’s stress response can hijack your decision-making and what this means for leaders in high-pressure situations.
- The Role of Courage in Leadership: Courage isn’t about eliminating fear—it’s about navigating it. I'll explain why leadership without courage isn't really leadership at all, and why courage without integrity is dangerous. Courage is a skill, not a trait, and it’s essential for effective leadership, especially in times of uncertainty and fear.
- The Brain’s Built-in Mechanism for Courage: Neuroscience reveals that our brains are wired to react to fear, but the good news is we can override that natural response. I'll show you how activating your prefrontal cortex allows you to make better decisions, even when fear is present. Courage isn’t the absence of fear—it’s the ability to act in spite of it.
- Whistleblowing as an Act of Courage: Using the example of Stephen May, a whistleblower from Purdue Pharma, I’ll discuss how standing up against unethical practices takes immense courage, even when the cost is high. You’ll hear how speaking truth to power can lead to transformational change, even when the path isn’t easy or well-received.
- Practical Strategies to Cultivate Courage: Finally, I’ll offer practical steps to help you develop and strengthen your own courage. From identifying where fear is holding you back to taking small, intentional steps, I’ll guide you on how to confront fear head-on and train yourself to be a braver, more effective leader.
Resources
Winnie da Silva onLinkedIn |On the Web |Substack | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
"The old model of leadership, commanding, dominating, and never admitting failure, is outdated, and more importantly, it's ultimately ineffective." - Winnie da Silva
Is humility the secret weapon some leaders are overlooking? In today’s fast-paced world, we’re taught to believe that the most successful leaders are the loudest, the boldest, and the most aggressive. But what if humility, often seen as a weakness, is actually the missing ingredient to becoming a more effective and respected leader? In this episode of Transformative Leadership Conversations, the second one in the Neglected Leadership Characteristics series, I’m challenging the traditional view of leadership and showing how humility can drive better business results, strengthen relationships, and foster a culture of trust and innovation.
You’ll hear me discuss:
- Why humility isn’t weakness: I unpack how humble leaders aren’t passive or pushovers, but confident, decisive individuals who are willing to take a stand even when it’s unpopular. Humility doesn’t mean avoiding conflict—it means making thoughtful, informed decisions with integrity.
- The power of reframing humility: Today, humility is often seen as outdated or even embarrassing, especially in industries that reward aggressive self-promotion. I’ll explore how rebranding humility as a strength can help leaders build stronger teams and make better decisions in uncertain times.
- The critical difference between humility and arrogance: Arrogance can alienate teams and cloud judgment, while humility creates trust and respect. I’ll share how embracing humility can lead to higher engagement, stronger relationships, and more creative solutions in the workplace.
- How humility fuels innovation: I’ll dive into how humble leaders actively seek out diverse perspectives, encourage experimentation, and admit they don’t have all the answers. In a world that’s constantly changing, this mindset is key to staying ahead of the competition and creating lasting impact.
- Practical tips for embracing humility in your leadership style: It’s not enough to just talk about humility—I’ll share actionable strategies you can use to incorporate humility into your daily leadership practice, such as seeking feedback, admitting mistakes, elevating others’ contributions, and staying grounded despite success.
- Why humility might be the antidote to today’s leadership challenges: From disorientation to fear and uncertainty, we’re living in a time when traditional approaches to leadership are failing. I’ll explain how humility could be the solution to navigating these complex challenges while building a stronger, more resilient organization.
Resources
Winnie da Silva onLinkedIn |On the Web |Substack | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
"Encouraging disagreement strengthens decision-making, challenges blind spots, and creates an environment where people feel heard." - Winnie da Silva
What if avoiding disagreement is actually holding you back? Most of us instinctively avoid conflict. We’re taught that disagreeing can damage relationships, create tension, or make us look difficult. But what if I told you that the way we approach disagreement could be the key to making better decisions, building stronger teams, and gaining real influence? The truth is, the most successful people don’t run from disagreement—they master it. In this episode of Transformative Leadership Conversations, I explore how to turn conflict into a tool for growth rather than a source of frustration. I break down why disagreement is not the enemy, why avoiding it can be more damaging than facing it, and how the best leaders use it to their advantage.
You’ll hear me discuss:
- Why avoiding disagreement is riskier than facing it – The hidden dangers of keeping quiet and why people often regret not speaking up more than they regret engaging in a debate.
- How Abraham Lincoln turned political rivals into trusted allies – A look at his Team of Rivals approach and how bringing opposing voices together led to better decisions.
- The difference between arguing to win vs. arguing to learn – Why treating disagreement as a battle is the fastest way to lose credibility, and what to do instead.
- Why true influence isn’t about power—it’s about how you disagree – The people who hold the most influence aren’t necessarily the ones in charge, but the ones who challenge ideas the right way.
- The 3 common ways people handle disagreement—and the one that actually works – Do you avoid, attack, or adapt? Understanding these patterns will help you shift toward more productive conversations.
- How to make disagreements feel less personal and more productive – A simple mindset shift that reduces defensiveness and keeps the conversation focused on solutions.
- Practical techniques for disagreeing without damaging relationships – Real strategies to express your point of view while still keeping mutual respect intact.
- How to be persuasive without being confrontational – The key to making people listen to you without raising your voice or shutting them down.
Resources
Winnie da Silva onLinkedIn |On the Web |Substack I Email - winnie@winnifred.org
"Motivation starts with identity—when you believe in the story you’re telling yourself, the actions follow." - Nikhil Paul
Is it possible to lead with passion and effectiveness if you no longer feel connected to the business you're running? In this engaging conversation, I have with leadership coach Nikhil Paul, he dives deep into the heart of leadership, self-reflection, and sustainable business practices. Nikhil emphasizes the importance of personal connection to the work and the culture, asking leaders to reflect on their commitment to their businesses. He also sheds light on how companies, especially startups, often overlook the foundational cracks that could undermine their success in the long term. Drawing on his expertise, Nikhil offers a framework to help leaders assess their organizations' true sustainability and overall health.
Nikhil also shares his 5 Pillars of Motivation—a guide to scaling a business without losing its soul. These principles are designed to help organizations grow in a way that maintains their core values and sense of purpose.
Hear us discuss:
- Leadership self-reflection: The importance of checking if you still love your business and the work you're doing. Nikhil reveals how leaders can become disconnected from their own mission and the impact it has on company culture.
- Assessing business sustainability: What happens if you step away from your company? How defensible is your business? Nikhil challenges leaders to think about their company's stability and operational health in their absence.
- Growth versus foundational strength: Why simply scaling the business without addressing the root issues can eventually lead to problems down the line. Growth can often mask underlying weaknesses, and businesses may struggle when that growth slows down.
- The 'elephant in the room' approach: Nikhil discusses how acknowledging discomforts or dissonance early on can prevent larger issues from festering and undermining leadership.
- Ruthless prioritization: In today's fast-paced business world, Nikhil emphasizes the importance of focusing on what truly matters, ensuring that leaders don't get lost in tasks that aren't adding value to the business.
- Culture and leadership dynamics: The critical link between a leader's connection to the business and the health of the team or organization. Without alignment at the leadership level, the overall culture and direction are at risk.
5 Pillars of Motivation
- Connect with our cult customers, the small group who needs us and loves us the most. Focus on identifying and nurturing the loyal core group of customers who truly resonate with your mission and product.
- Focus on doing work our people love doing so that they can hone their craft. Creating an environment where employees are passionate about their work ensures continuous growth, skill development, and overall satisfaction.
- Give each person their little kingdom to run & help them with it. Empower your team by giving them ownership and responsibility for their areas while providing support for their success.
- Forge a real tribe for people to belong to. Building a community within your organization creates a sense of belonging, fostering loyalty, and helping individuals feel connected to a greater purpose.
- Find a way to help save the world in our own small way. Inspire your team by aligning the company’s mission with a higher cause, even if it’s a small step, to make a positive impact in the world.
Read more about Nikhil's Kind Cult Empire framework in his blog.
Resources
Books mentioned by Nikhil:
- Start with Why by Simon Sinek
- The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
- Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek
- Good to Great by Jim Collins
- The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
Nikhil Paul on LinkedIn | On the Web | Blog | Email: nikhil@werhuman.co
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
"When you align individual motivation with the broader mission, that’s when magic happens and teams thrive.” - James Thorman
What does it take to lead a team with purpose, ignite individual motivation, and build a thriving, high-performing culture? In this episode of Transformative Leadership Conversations, James Thorman, a seasoned leader with a wealth of experience from his time at A Place for Mom and other roles, joins me to dive deep into the core elements of effective leadership. He explains how understanding the unique motivations of individuals within a team is crucial for achieving collective success. Through thoughtful leadership strategies and a commitment to aligning personal and organizational goals, James explores how teams can be nurtured to reach their full potential. He shares valuable insights into building a team culture that fosters growth, collaboration, and high performance. From senior leadership lessons to practical tools for day-to-day team dynamics, James provides a comprehensive look at what it takes to lead a motivated team that is driven by both personal satisfaction and the company's mission.
Hear James and I discuss:
- Understanding Motivations: James reflects on an early lesson in his career, learning from his colleague Tatiana that people’s motivations differ and aren’t always aligned with our own. He emphasizes how crucial it is to understand those differences to unlock the full potential of your team.
- Aligning People with Purpose: As leaders, it’s vital to connect personal motivations with the greater mission of the organization. James elaborates on the importance of ensuring that individual goals align with company goals. When people are invested in the purpose and mission, their drive to succeed becomes much stronger.
- The Importance of Company Ethos: As you rise through the ranks, James explains the need to deeply understand your company’s ethos and what it will take to achieve its goals. If leaders don’t understand the mission, they risk setting their teams up for failure. He underscores how integral it is to create an environment that reflects and supports this ethos.
- Effective Leadership Strategies: James talks about some of the specific leadership practices he has found most effective in motivating teams. From setting the right tone at the top to helping employees identify what excites them, he discusses actionable insights on how to get the best out of your team.
- The Role of the Senior Leader: James shares his thoughts on the responsibilities of senior leaders in fostering team success. He talks about how understanding the broader company mission and helping employees connect to that mission is one of the keys to motivating a high-performing team.
- Building High-Performing Teams: One of the most rewarding aspects of leadership, according to James, is when everything clicks into place—when the team starts thriving, collaborating effectively, and engaging with each other. He talks about the iterative process of building a successful team, where learning and growth are constant, and how critical it is to have the right mix of motivation, mission alignment, and structure.
- Creating an Environment for Success: As much as individual motivation is important, James emphasizes that creating the right structure, cadence, and environment is just as critical. With the right team fit and the appropriate resources, teams are more likely to thrive in the long run.
- The Importance of Explicit Communication: James and Winnie discuss how senior leaders can create more effective teams by engaging in open, explicit conversations about motivation. They explore how asking team members what excites them or where they find their energy can lead to deeper, more productive discussions that help leaders tailor roles and expectations to each person’s strengths.
- The Long-Term Rewards of Team Alignment: James reflects on the ultimate payoff when everything aligns—motivated individuals, aligned company goals, and a culture that supports growth and high performance. When this happens, teams not only succeed but thrive in ways that benefit both individuals and the organization as a whole.
Resources
James Thorman on LinkedIn | A Place for Mum website
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack I Email - winnie@winnifred.org
"Leaders can't motivate people—and nor should they. But what you can do is foster an environment where intrinsic motivation can thrive." - Winnie da Silva
What if I told you that motivating your team isn’t your job? It sounds counterintuitive, right? As a leader, your instinct is to inspire your team to perform at their best—but real, lasting motivation comes from within. In this episode of Transformative Leadership Conversations, I challenge the traditional view of leadership by flipping the script: instead of motivating your team, focus on creating an environment where intrinsic motivation can thrive. Through meaningful one-on-one conversations, leaders can help team members clarify what drives them, align work with their passions, and ultimately improve engagement and performance. Motivation isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach—it’s personal, dynamic, and deeply impactful when done right.
Listen to me talk about:
- Motivation is Personal - What motivates you may not motivate your team. That’s okay—and understanding this is the first step to unlocking better performance and engagement.
- Leaders Can't Motivate People—And They Shouldn’t - Your role as a leader is not to "motivate" others. Instead, it's about creating the conditions where intrinsic motivation can flourish.
- Meaningful Conversations Drive Engagement - When was the last time you had a one-on-one conversation with a team member about what truly drives them? These conversations are key to building trust, uncovering motivators, and reigniting engagement.
- Intrinsic Motivation Matters More Than Perks - People are most engaged when their work aligns with intrinsic motivators like autonomy, purpose, and progress—not just external rewards like paychecks or promotions.
- Shared Responsibility: Team Members & Leaders - Motivation is a two-way street. Team members must reflect on what they want, communicate openly, and take initiative, while leaders must facilitate clarity, encourage ownership, and provide support.
- Practical Steps for Leaders:
I share a step-by-step guide for holding motivational one-on-one conversations:
- Clarify what’s important – Help team members articulate what matters most to them.
- Define the gaps – Identify where their current experience falls short of their desires.
- Problem-solve together – Collaborate to find actionable ways to align work with motivators.
- Powerful Reflective Questions for One-on-Ones - Here are six questions you can ask to help your team members uncover what drives them:
- At this point in your life and career, what are the two to three most important things you want from your job?
- On a scale of 1 to 10, how satisfied are you with your current job? What would it take to get closer to a 10?
- What parts of your job do you enjoy the most? The least?
- If you could change your job to make it more rewarding, what changes would you make?
- What’s one thing you’re not getting enough of from your work?
- What have you noticed about how your motivators have evolved over time?
ResourcesWinnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack I Email - winnie@winnifred.org
"Diversity of thought is very powerful. I aggressively seek out people that don’t think like me and are polar opposites of me. That’s the only way to pull yourself out of your own corner." - Mauhan Zonoozy
What if the biggest barrier to innovation isn’t a lack of ideas—but a fear of permission? In this episode of Transformative Leadership Conversations, I sat down with Mauhan Zonoozy, a strategic advisor and expert in innovation and venture building. Mauhan shared bold perspectives on why permission is a sneaky barrier to innovation—and how leaders can break free from it. We explored why people often wait for a "green light" before acting, how fear of failure holds companies back, and why the best ideas don’t come from rigid playbooks but from fresh thinking and risk-taking. Mauhan also gave us a behind-the-scenes look at how revolutionary leaders think differently, take big bets, and build the kind of confidence that fuels game-changing moves.
Hear Mauhan and I discuss:
- Stop Asking for Permission: Many people feel the need to ask for permission before taking action—but innovation thrives when people are empowered to move forward without it. This shift in mindset can be transformative for individuals and teams.
- The Illusion of Wanting Change: Companies often say they want innovation but get cold feet when change feels risky. Leaders need to recognize this pattern and push through it to create real impact.
- Fear is the Real Enemy: Playing it safe is the quickest way to stall innovation. Leaders and teams must be comfortable with the unknown and be willing to face failure head-on. Mauhan reminds us, "If you play scared, that's how you get hurt."
- Innovation Isn't a Playbook: While processes and frameworks have their place, real innovation happens when people are given space to think freely. A blank piece of paper and sticky notes may be all you need to spark groundbreaking ideas.
- Diversity of Thought is a Superpower: To break out of narrow thinking, you need to bring in diverse perspectives and people who challenge your assumptions. True creativity comes from constructive friction, not echo chambers.
- The Courage to Take Big Bets: Revolutionary executives don’t just play it safe—they take risks, often against conventional wisdom. Mauhan points to Amazon’s famous decision to invest in AWS as an example of bold, visionary thinking that changed the industry.
- The Hard Truth About Failure: It’s easy to talk about "embracing failure," but living it is much harder—especially when investors or reputations are on the line. True innovators push past the discomfort and stay committed to the process.
Resources
Mauhan Zonoozy on LinkedIn | On the Web | X (Twitter)
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | On the Web | Substack | Email
What if innovation isn’t just for a select few, but something every single person can access and contribute to? In this episode of Transformative Leadership Conversations, I had the chance to chat with Sandy Fershee, the Head of Design & User Experience at Audible. Sandy shared some truly inspiring thoughts about innovation—how it’s not something reserved for just a select few, but something that everyone can contribute to. We talked about the importance of curiosity, creating psychological safety within teams, and how failure is just a part of the process of growth and learning. Sandy also gave some great insights on how diverse perspectives and strong leadership can help unlock creativity and fuel innovation.
Listen in as Sandy and Winnie discuss:
- Innovation is for Everyone: Innovation doesn’t need to be limited to a special group of people. Everyone, regardless of their role, can offer valuable ideas and contribute to moving things forward.
- Creating Psychological Safety: It’s vital to create an environment where people feel safe to experiment, fail, and learn without the fear of judgment.
- Curiosity Drives Innovation: Asking questions and digging deeper—always asking "why"—is how you uncover new possibilities and inspire fresh ideas.
- Failure as a Learning Opportunity: Failure isn’t the end—it’s part of the journey. By reflecting on what went wrong, we can adjust, learn, and do better next time.
- The Power of Diverse Teams: Bringing together people from different backgrounds and disciplines leads to more creative solutions and richer ideas.
- Leadership for Innovation: As a leader, it’s crucial to encourage small experiments, fast iterations, and building confidence in ideas. These actions can help keep innovation alive and moving forward.
- Sandy’s Passion for Problem-Solving: Sandy’s drive to solve human problems through design and innovation is infectious. She’s all about creating meaningful experiences that make an impact.
Resources
Sandy Fershee on LinkedIn | Audible
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | on the Web | Substack | Email - winnie@winnifred.org
Referenced: Creative Confidence by Tom and David Kelley (IDEO founders)
What if the biggest barrier to innovation within your team or organization is you? In this episode, I’m diving into the heart of innovation—what it means for leaders and how we can create an environment that allows it to thrive. I explore the essential role that leaders play in driving meaningful innovation and reflect on how we can overcome the distractions and barriers that keep us from unlocking our full creative potential.
In this episode, you’ll hear about:
- The Innovation Leadership Styles Quiz: I introduce a fun and insightful quiz that will help you identify your innovation style, whether you’re a big-picture visionary, a process-driven optimizer, a risk-taking experimenter, a collaborative connector, or a creative playmaker.
- The Role of Leadership in Innovation: Innovation is about more than just having good ideas. It's about creating the time, space, and attention necessary for those ideas to come to life. As leaders, we must carve out that space and avoid distractions.
- The Importance of Reflection: Understanding your own leadership style is key to unlocking your innovative potential. After you take the quiz, I encourage you to reflect on your strengths and opportunities for growth. Every style has its benefits, but we can all expand our thinking and broaden our approach.
- Creating a Culture of Innovation: It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day tasks and pressures, but to truly innovate, we need to step back, make space, and give ourselves permission to think creatively. I challenge you to ask yourself: How much innovation are you missing simply because you’re too distracted or busy?
Innovation Leadership Style quiz1. When faced with a new challenge, your first instinct is to:
A. Imagine an entirely new idea or solution that could disrupt the status quo.
B. Look for small, measurable improvements to current products, processes, or ideas.
C. Try different approaches to see what works best.
D. Assemble a team with diverse perspectives to brainstorm ideas and solutions.
E. Infuse energy and excitement into your team to spark creative ideas.
2. What’s your preferred approach to brainstorming?
A. Share a bold idea and challenge the team to build on it.
B. Focus the discussion on solving a specific problem step-by-step.
C. Encourage wild ideas, knowing that even "bad" ones might inspire success.
D. Facilitate group discussions around new ideas where everyone feels heard.
E. Use games, humor, or creative exercises to spark unconventional thinking.
3. As a leader, how do you handle failure when implementing new ideas?
A. View it as a stepping stone to even bigger breakthroughs.
B. Analyze it to improve processes and avoid similar issues in the future.
C. Celebrate it as a natural part of experimenting and learning.
D. Use it as an opportunity to deepen collaboration and problem-solve together.
E. Turn it into a teachable moment with positivity and humor.
4. What motivates you as a leader?
A. Making a lasting impact through bold transformative ideas.
B. Seeing steady progress and measurable improvements.
C. Discovering what works through curiosity and experimentation.
D. Building strong relationships and fostering a culture of collaboration.
E. Creating an environment where people love working and innovating together.
5. How do you define success in innovation?
A. Transforming an industry or creating something groundbreaking.
B. Consistently improving efficiency and meeting goals.
C. Learning from experiments, even if they don't work out.
D. Seeing how collaboration leads to unexpected ideas.
E. Watching people have fun while coming up with creative ideas and solutions.
Results
Mostly A’s: The Visionary
- You’re a big-picture thinker who inspires transformative change. Your strength lies in imagining bold ideas that challenge the status quo.
Mostly B’s: The Optimizer
- You excel at refining systems and processes for efficiency. You focus on continuous improvement and measurable progress.
Mostly C’s: The Experimenter
- You embrace trial and error. Failure doesn’t discourage you—instead, you see it as an opportunity to learn and experiment with new approaches.
Mostly D’s: The Connector
- You bring people together to create synergy and innovation. You foster collaboration and value diverse perspectives in the problem-solving process.
Mostly E’s: The Playmaker
- You infuse energy and creativity into your team, making work fun and inspiring unconventional thinking. Your focus is on sparking joy and creativity to drive innovation.
Resources
Books Mentioned:
- How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell
- Deep Work by Cal Newport
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | on the Web | Substack | Email
What’s your story, and how does it shape your brand? In this episode of Transformative Leadership Conversations, I sit down with Maria Ho-Burge, Vice President of Communications at TuneCore, to dive deep into the art of building a personal and professional brand. Maria shares how authenticity, storytelling, and strategy come together to create a brand that not only stands out but also drives value in any industry.
From her work in the music industry to her insights into leadership and communications, Maria reveals practical steps to align your unique story with your industry’s needs while staying true to who you are. Whether you’re a seasoned leader or just beginning to think about your brand, Maria’s advice will inspire you to take action and craft a narrative that leaves a lasting impression.
Listen in as we discuss:
- Communications as a bridge: How branding, marketing, and partnerships intersect to create meaningful impact.
- The power of authenticity: Why being true to your story is the foundation of a strong personal brand.
- Incorporating personal details: How sharing your unique life experiences can make your brand stand out.
- Aligning with your industry: Strategies for tailoring your narrative to fit your company’s goals and the broader market.
- Spotting opportunities: Identifying areas where your skills and experience can fill gaps and add value.
- Evolving your brand: Why personal and professional growth is an ongoing process—and how to embrace it.
- Crafting a legacy: Building a brand that evolves with you while remaining authentic and impactful.
Resources
Maria Ho-Burge onLinkedIn |TuneCore
Winnie da Silva on the Web |LinkedIn |Substack | Email
What does it take to drive change in a male-dominated industry while staying true to your vision? In this episode of Transformative Leadership Conversations, I sit down with Andreea Gleeson, CEO of TuneCore, to hear her remarkable story. Andreea shares how she transitioned from retail to music, the challenges she’s faced as a woman in leadership, and her mission to empower artists at every level of their careers. From tackling gender inequality in the music industry to fostering innovation at TuneCore, Andreea’s journey is one of determination, grit, and vision. Her insights aren’t just inspiring—they’re actionable for anyone looking to lead with purpose and drive change.
Listen in as they discuss:
- Breaking barriers: Andreea’s work to bring gender parity and representation to the music industry.
- Supporting artists: How TuneCore helps musicians, from beginners to global stars, build their careers.
- Lessons in leadership: The mindset and skills Andreea honed to grow into her role as CEO.
- Empowering growth: The importance of doubling down on your strengths while addressing challenges.
- Overcoming obstacles: How Andreea navigated challenges in both her career and in the industry to create lasting change.
- The power of confidence: Why confidence is a critical factor for success, especially for women working in competitive spaces.
- The art of adaptation: Andreea’s advice on how to stay adaptable and innovative in a constantly changing industry.
Resources
Andreea Gleeson on LinkedIn | TuneCore
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | on the Web | Substack
How do people really see you, and does that match who you want to be? In this episode of Transformative Leadership Conversations, I take a close look at what it means to shape your leadership brand authentically. Through stories from real clients and practical advice, I’ll show you how to shape and evolve your brand to resonate and stand out in ways that genuinely reflect you.
Listen in as I discuss:
- Defining Your Leadership Brand: It’s about aligning how people see you today with who you want to become.
- Lessons from Real Clients: Hear about Mark, whose value was getting overlooked, and Gary, who needed a brand refresh to succeed in a new role.
- Building Brand Consistency: Actions speak louder than words, so let’s talk about why people trust what they see—and why you need to show up consistently.
- Projecting Your Brand Effectively: I'll walk you through exercises to help make your brand come alive, so you’re recognized for the qualities you want to be known for.
- Overcoming Common Missteps: Learn about frequent branding pitfalls, like being vague or trying to please everyone, and why specificity is key.
- Expanding Your Influence: We’ll discuss ways to build a brand that doesn’t just support you internally but amplifies your impact on a larger scale.
Resources:
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn | on the Web
How do I define success—and how does that shape the decisions I make? In this episode of Transformative Leadership Conversations, I have the pleasure of chatting with Cherie Hu, a music industry expert and the founder of Water & Music. Together, we dive into decision-making in both creative and business landscapes, exploring how our interpretations of success can shape our paths and the strategies we choose.
You’ll here them discuss:
- Redefining Success: Leaders should understand that success can be defined in various ways depending on context, extending beyond just revenue metrics to include broader impacts and outcomes.
- Balancing Risk and Stability: Having a stable foundation is crucial for organizations, as it allows leaders to take calculated creative risks without putting their well-being or financial health at risk.
- Value of Experimentation: Embracing iterative experiments provides valuable insights and data, helping leaders make informed decisions and refine their strategies more effectively.
- The Power of Storytelling: Leaders can effectively communicate difficult decisions and rally support by crafting compelling narratives that make complex truths more relatable and understandable.
- Influence of Culture and Values: The culture of a company and its commitment to social impact significantly shape decision-making processes and how relationships with stakeholders are developed and maintained
Resources:
Cherie Hu on theWeb IX (Twitter) ILinkedIn
Winnie da Silva onLinkedIn IWeb
What happens when the very decisions you make as a leader cause unintended ripple effects throughout your organization? In this episode of Transformative Leadership Conversations, I sit down with Prita Kumar to explore the complex balance of short-term goals, long-term planning, and the law of unintended consequences in leadership. Prita shares her experience in managing teams without overwhelming them, how she thinks about qualitative vs. quantitative data, and why creating consistency across departments is crucial for success.
You will hear them talk about:
- Prioritizing Team Focus: Leaders must be mindful of how much they ask from their teams to avoid overwhelming them with conflicting priorities.
- Balancing Short-Term vs. Long-Term Goals: In resource-rich environments, leaders can plan for the long term, but in leaner times, focusing on immediate goals becomes critical.
- Qualitative vs. Quantitative Metrics: Success metrics are key to decision-making, and even qualitative decisions should be supported by some form of data.
- Leadership Messaging: Leaders need to ensure that directives across departments don’t conflict, as this can cause operational inefficiencies.
- Learning from Experience: Prita advises young leaders to build diverse support systems to balance different perspectives before making key decisions.
Resources:
Prita Kumar onLinkedIn
Winnie da Silva onLinkedIn I Website
What if the decisions you make as a leader are only addressing half the problem? In this episode of Transformative Leadership Conversations, I explore the hidden complexities beneath the surface of leadership challenges and how understanding those deeper issues can lead to more effective decision-making. I talk about the importance of not just focusing on what’s immediately visible but also considering the less obvious factors that might be driving the situation. By adopting a more thoughtful, strategic approach, leaders can avoid impulsive reactions and create more sustainable solutions.
Key Points:
- The Iceberg Analogy: Most of a problem’s complexity is hidden below the surface, just like an iceberg. As a leader, you need to be curious and dig deeper to uncover the real issues before jumping to conclusions.
- Decision Fatigue: Decision-making can be exhausting, especially after a full day of thinking and problem-solving. I discuss how prioritizing decisions and building routines can help you stay sharp and avoid burnout.
- Cognitive Switching: While switching between tasks can sometimes inspire creativity, too much of it can drain your mental energy. I share tips on grouping similar tasks and minimizing digital distractions to stay more focused and productive.
- The Power of Routine: Establishing a consistent decision-making routine can streamline your thought process and free up mental energy for bigger issues.
- Anticipating Hidden Challenges: Leaders must look beyond the surface of any problem, anticipating and addressing the unseen obstacles that can affect the outcome.
- Effective Decision-Making: Clear and structured decision-making processes aren’t just for you—they help keep your team on the same page and reduce confusion. I talk about how to communicate decisions effectively and ensure alignment across your organization.
Resources
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn
Books mentioned:
- The Decision Book: Fifty Models for Strategic Thinking by Mikael Krogerus and Roman Tschäppeler
- Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
What if your relationship with work is fundamentally shaping your career decisions? In this episode, I speak with Dr. Nayla Bahri, an executive coach and co-host of The Inside Job Podcast. Nayla is dedicated to helping individuals and teams build thriving relationships with work, collaborating with leaders from startups to renowned organizations like Apple, Google, and the Federal Reserve Bank of NY. With her extensive experience as a former Dean of Students at Columbia Business School, she combines research with human-centered learning to empower clients in leading with impact, resilience, and clarity. We talk about the differences in how men and women approach career pivots and the deeper insights into creating a healthy relationship with work. We explore the importance of self-awareness and the internal work necessary for effective leadership.
- Gender Dynamics in Career Pivots: Insights from Nayla's research on how men and women perceive their career transitions differently.
- Fear and Safety in the Workplace: The impact of feeling unsafe in your job and how it influences decision-making.
- Curiosity-Driven Coaching Approach: Nayla discusses the importance of engaging in both inner and outer work to achieve career satisfaction.
- Humor in Leadership: The role of lightheartedness and humor in fostering a positive work environment.
- Leadership Reflection: How personal beliefs about work affect leadership styles and the environment created for teams.
Resources:
Dr. Nayla Bahri on the web | LinkedIn I Substack (Newsletter) I Instagram I Inside Job Podcast
Winnie da Silva on the web |LinkedIn
Ever wondered how you can turn your career dreams into reality? In this episode of Transformative Leadership Conversations, host Winnie da Silva sits down with career coach Maggie Mistal to explore how aligning your work with your passions can transform your life. Maggie Mistal, a certified life purpose and career coach and author of the Amazon #1 New Release Are You Ready to Love Your Job?, shares her own transition from the corporate world to coaching and reveals her method for career fulfillment through three stages: soul search, research, and job search. With extensive experience helping individuals transition into their ideal careers, Maggie has guided thousands through inspiring retreats and individual sessions, and her expertise is sought after by top corporations and featured in major publications like The New York Times and Forbes.com.
You’ll hear them talk about:
- Career Transition Insights: Maggie discusses her journey from corporate life to coaching and the importance of aligning work with passion and purpose.
- Three Key Stages: Maggie outlines her method for career fulfillment, focusing on:
- Soul Search: Identifying personal values and passions.
- Research: Investigating career options and networking.
- Job Search: Implementing strategies to secure desired roles.
- Practical Advice: Emphasis on the importance of research and networking in career transitions.
- Real-Life Success: Maggie shares a success story of a young client who transitioned to a fulfilling career in library science.
- Dynamic Career Management: The discussion highlights how ongoing soul searching, research, and networking can continually shape and improve your career.
- Upcoming Career Retreat: Maggie announces her cruise-based career retreat in April 2025, offering intensive career coaching and unique experiences.
Resources:Maggie Mistal on the Web | LinkedIn I Instagram I Facebook
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn
Are you contemplating a career change but feeling uncertain about taking the leap? In this episode, Winnie explores the evolving nature of work and the increasing prevalence of career pivots. Sharing her own journey from social work to corporate training and consulting, she demonstrates how embracing these transitions can lead to unexpected and fulfilling opportunities. Through compelling statistics and inspiring stories of figures like Vera Wang and Benjamin Franklin, Winnie underscores that career changes are not only normal but can also be transformative. Tune in to discover how to navigate your own career evolution with confidence and curiosity.
Key Points Discussed:
• Embracing Career Pivots: Winnie emphasizes that career pivots are a normal and valuable part of professional life, encouraging listeners to embrace them as opportunities for growth rather than obstacles.
• Personal Career Journey: Winnie shares her own experience of shifting from a career in social work to roles in corporate training and consulting, highlighting the importance of following one’s passion and experimenting with new roles.
• Statistics on Career Changes: The podcast presents statistics showing that the average person will hold numerous jobs and change careers several times over their lifetime, reflecting the dynamic nature of the modern work landscape.
• Inspiring Stories: Winnie recounts the career transformations of notable figures like Vera Wang and Benjamin Franklin, illustrating how significant career changes can lead to remarkable success.
• Advice for Career Transitions: Winnie offers practical tips for managing career pivots, including leveraging relationships, exploring new interests, experimenting with skills, and being open to change.
Resources:
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn
Can ensuring your team feels valued and supported be a tool to boost productivity? In this episode, Kim Lerner and host Winnie da Silva explore how hospitality principles, such as empathy and personalized recognition, can profoundly impact team culture and leadership effectiveness. Kim shares her unique experiences integrating these principles into her leadership approach, demonstrating how they can foster stronger team connections and drive organizational success.
You will hear them talk about:
- Empathy in Leadership: Understanding and addressing the emotional needs of team members to build trust and morale.
- Personalized Recognition: Tailoring recognition and appreciation to individual team members to enhance their engagement and satisfaction.
- Balancing Hospitality and Leadership: Navigating the balance between fostering a supportive environment and maintaining high performance standards.
Practical Strategies or Tips:
- Foster Empathy: Actively listen to your team’s concerns and needs, showing genuine care and understanding to build stronger relationships.
- Personalize Recognition: Use specific, personalized gestures of appreciation to make team members feel valued and motivated.
- Manage Stress with Hospitality: Apply hospitality principles to maintain composure and support others during high-pressure situations, enhancing overall team resilience.
Expert Insights or Upcoming Content Teasers:
- Kim Lerner’s Experiences: Kim shares her journey of integrating hospitality practices into leadership, highlighting how these approaches transformed her team dynamics and personal effectiveness.
- Future Discussions: Upcoming episodes will feature additional insights from leaders who have successfully applied hospitality principles, providing further strategies for enhancing team culture and leadership effectiveness.
Resources:
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn
Kim Lerner on LinkedIn
Can a leadership approach grounded in hospitality transform your organization's customer interactions and internal dynamics? In this episode, David Cocchiara and host Winnie da Silva discuss how principles of hospitality—like genuine accountability and composure under pressure—can significantly enhance leadership effectiveness and customer satisfaction. They explore why these seemingly simple strategies are challenging to implement and how they can make a profound difference in fostering positive relationships and achieving business success.
Key Concepts or Tools Introduced:
- Authentic Accountability: Taking responsibility for mistakes and addressing them with honesty and promptness.
- Stress Impact on Leadership: How high-stress environments can negatively affect leadership quality and team interactions.
- Embracing Hospitality: Applying hospitality principles to leadership to create supportive and effective work environments.
Practical Strategies or Tips:
- Own Your Mistakes: Acknowledge and correct errors to maintain trust and satisfaction, as demonstrated with the "blue shirt" example.
- Maintain Composure: Learn from leaders who manage stress effectively and try to keep calm under pressure to positively influence team dynamics.
- Focus on People: Prioritize understanding and addressing the needs and motivations of team members to foster a supportive work culture.
Expert Insights or Upcoming Content Teasers:
- David Cocchiara’s Experience: Insights from David’s experiences in high-pressure environments and how he learned to maintain composure and hospitality in leadership.
- Future Episodes: Upcoming discussions with industry experts like Kim Lerner, who will offer additional perspectives on integrating hospitality into leadership practices.
Resources:
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn
David Cocchiara on LinkedIn
When you hear the word “hospitality,” do you think of it as one of leadership tools? In this episode, Winnie da Silva explores the crucial role of hospitality in leadership. She shares personal experiences that highlight the power of hospitality and discusses how it can transform leadership practices. By drawing on examples from industry experts, she illustrates how integrating hospitality into leadership strategies can foster inclusivity and empowerment within organizations. Additionally, she emphasizes how this approach can enhance employee satisfaction, customer loyalty, and overall business success, setting organizations apart in a competitive landscape.
- Hospitality as a Leadership Tool: Hospitality in leadership creates an environment where everyone feels welcomed, valued, and supported, enhancing overall business success.
- Digital Age Challenges: In today's technology-driven world, hospitality is essential to maintaining human connections, which are often lost in digital interactions.
- Five Hospitable Leadership Behaviors:
- Create a Welcoming Environment: Foster inclusivity and respect.
- Collaborative and Empowering: Involve and empower team members.
- Uphold Integrity: Act with honesty and transparency.
- Demonstrate Humility: Be open to learning and collaboration.
- Cultivate Emotional Intelligence: Understand and navigate emotions effectively.
- Balance with Performance: Leaders must balance hospitality with the expectation of high performance, regular feedback, and accountability.
- Upcoming Expert Insights: The podcast will feature insights from industry leaders like David Cocchiara and Kim Lerner, who will discuss how adopting a hospitality-focused approach can drive business success and transform leadership practices.
Resources
Winnie da Silva onLinkedIn
What impact does embracing leaderless teams have on organizational dynamics and individual leadership roles? In this episode, Mark Raheja, the founder and CEO of Plural, delves into the concept of leaderless teams and the transformative effects they can have on organizations. Winnie and Mark explore the interconnectedness of systems, people, and relationships within an organization, emphasizing the importance of curiosity, humility, and intentionality in navigating the shift towards more empowered and adaptive operating models.
- Leaderless Teams Misconception: Leaderless teams do not mean less leadership but rather more distributed leadership and ownership within a team.
- Holacracy Framework: Holacracy is a specific framework for self-management developed by Brian Robertson in 2006 or 2007, used by many self-managed organizations worldwide.
- Organization Design: Organizations need to evolve their own ways of self-organization and self-management beyond frameworks like Holacracy to truly embody their unique culture and values.
- Playbook of the Organization: Organizations already have implicit ways of working, but making these explicit and aligning them with intentions and values is crucial for effective functioning.
- Cultivating Safety: Cultivating psychological safety and inclusiveness within a team is essential for enabling participation and harnessing the full potential of team members.
- Disagreement in Teams: Disagreement is a natural part of diverse teams and should be harnessed as a source of innovation and growth rather than avoided.
- Decision-Making Clarity: Making decision ownership explicit and editable within an organization fosters clarity and empowers individuals to contribute effectively.
- Humility in Leadership: Humility is a key trait for effective leadership, acknowledging uncertainty and creating space for learning and growth within the organization.
Resources
Mark Raheja | LinkedIn
Winnie da Silva | LinkedIn
Powerful insights often arise when leaders question the traditional norms of leadership. In this episode, we delve into the concept of leaderless teams and explore the shift from traditional to non-traditional leadership approaches. Join host Winnie da Silva as she engages in a transformative conversation with Dr. Debra France, an expert in organizational practices and leader behaviors that foster innovation. How can leaders balance power over and power with their teams? Winnie and Debra uncover the key insights in this intriguing discussion.
- Leaderless Teams: Exploring the concept of leaderless teams and how it fits into modern leadership and understanding how to empower team members to make decisions on their own.
- Traditional Leadership: Definition and characteristics of traditional leadership in organizations.
- Non-Traditional Leadership Approaches: Discussing alternatives to traditional leadership, including leaderless teams, in today’s complex corporate environment.
- Experience and Background: Dr. Debra France's background and experience in leadership development and organizational practices and how it aided her in helping leaders.
- Innovation and Strategic Thinking: Importance of fostering innovation, strategic thinking, and exploring futures in leadership to futher the goals of teams and organizations.
- Power Over vs. Power With: Contrasting the concepts of power over management (illusion of control) and power with management (create the environment for greatness) in leadership approaches.
- Theory X and Theory Y: Understanding the motivational theories of Theory X, which includes cajoling, and Theory Y, which is more intrinsically motivated, in the workplace.
- Trust and Collaboration: Building trust and fostering collaboration in teams to enhance productivity and job satisfaction.
Resources
Dr. Debra France on LinkedIn
In this podcast episode, Winnie da Silva discusses this month’s theme of leaderless teams. She explores the evolution of leadership from ancient times to the modern era, challenging traditional notions and embracing collaborative, human-centered approaches. Winnie shares how her guests encourage leaders to empower their teams so they can take a hands-off approach. In an era of rapid growth and exponential complexity, it may be time for a significant shift in how leaders lead.
- Leadership Ownership: Leaders desire their team to have a sense of ownership and bring their best work to the company every day.
- Productivity vs. Busyness: Being busy doesn't equate to being productive, and true productivity involves quiet thinking and strategic decision-making.
- Historical Roots of Leadership: Historically, leadership involved divine authority, with leaders often seen as having special powers or godlike figures.
- Shift in Leadership Vision: The world of business is ready for a shift in the vision of leadership, moving from control to collaboration and from hero to human.
- Leading People vs. Managing People: Leadership focuses on guiding and inspiring, while management ensures efficiency and task completion.
- Followership and Power Dynamics: Concepts like followership, power over versus power under, and theories X and Y are crucial in understanding leadership dynamics.
- Hands-Off, Eyes-On Approach: A hands-off, eyes-on approach empowers teams without relinquishing control, fostering autonomy and productivity.
- Organizational Design for Scale: Exploring how to organize for scale in a complex and uncertain world without breaking is a key challenge for leaders and organizations.
Resources
Winnie da Silva | LinkedIn
Today’s episode is a special one. You’ve heard all the talk about the Immunity to Change model, and you’re about to see it in action. Returning guest, Deb Helsing, coaches another returning guest, Anthony Cheong, using the model. You'll learn how to navigate challenging conversations with senior executives, explore hidden assumptions that may be hindering your effectiveness, and gain insights on clarifying and aligning your role in leadership interactions.
- Immunity to Change Model: The Immunity to Change model is used to guide coaching sessions and explore hidden assumptions and competing commitments that may hinder personal growth and change.
- Role Clarity in Leadership: Understanding and gaining clarity on one's role in relationships, especially in leadership positions, is crucial for effective communication and interaction with others.
- Curiosity vs. Fixing: Embracing curiosity and exploring possibilities in a safe environment can lead to more effective problem-solving and decision-making, rather than feeling stressed and pressured to fix issues.
- Authenticity in Leadership: Being authentic and true to oneself while adapting and improving behaviors can lead to more genuine and productive interactions with others.
- Testing Assumptions: Testing assumptions about oneself and others in various scenarios can help uncover hidden beliefs and behaviors that may be hindering personal and professional growth.
- Safety vs. Stress: Balancing the need for safety and protection with the desire to explore new possibilities and take risks is essential for personal development and growth.
- Leadership Evolution: Reflecting on the evolving nature of leadership in a fast-paced and complex world can lead to redefining leadership roles and practices to stay ahead of challenges and uncertainties.
- Organizational Innovation: Fostering innovation within organizations through human-centered, low-hierarchy environments and strategic thinking can lead to successful adaptation to change and future challenges.
Resources
Dr. Deborah Helsing | Minds at Work website
Book: Immunity to Change
Book: An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization
The Change Course – an asynchronous Immunity to Change course
Anthony Cheong on LinkedIn
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn
In this episode, Winnie da Silva is joined by Dr. Deborah Helsing, and they discuss how the concept of Immunity to Change helps individuals uncover their resistance to change and explore their fears and assumptions. By following the steps outlined in the Immunity to Change model, individuals can challenge their assumptions, collect data, and experiment with new behaviors to overcome their resistance and achieve personal growth.
- Immunity to Change Concept: The concept of Immunity to Change explores how individuals resist change due to underlying fears and assumptions, leading to a protective mechanism that hinders personal growth.
- Limbic System's Role: The limbic system plays a crucial role in triggering alarm bells and emotional reactions that protect individuals from perceived threats or dangers associated with change.
- Neuroplasticity and Growth: Understanding neuroplasticity highlights the brain's ability to adapt and grow, allowing individuals to challenge assumptions and explore new behaviors for personal development.
- Data Collection and Analysis: Collecting data and analyzing assumptions helps individuals challenge their beliefs and behaviors, leading to a deeper understanding of their resistance to change.
- Coaching and Support: Engaging in coaching sessions or seeking support from peers can provide accountability and guidance in navigating the Immunity to Change process effectively.
- Asynchronous Learning: Asynchronous courses and resources offer individuals the flexibility to explore the Immunity to Change model at their own pace, allowing for self-reflection and growth.
- Organizational Change: Applying the Immunity to Change model in organizational settings can help identify resistance to change within teams and facilitate a culture of growth and adaptability.
- Practical Application: Implementing the Immunity to Change model involves designing experiments, collecting data, and reflecting on outcomes to challenge assumptions and foster personal and professional development.
Resources
Dr. Deborah Helsing | Minds at Work website
Book: Immunity to Change
Book: An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization
The Change Course – an asynchronous Immunity to Change course
Winnie da Silva | LinkedIn
Are you prepared to commit to leading the long game of organizational change? In this episode of Transformative Leadership Conversations, Winnie da Silva is joined by Anthony Cheong, Executive Director and Global Head of HR Operations for Boston Consulting Group, to discuss what it takes to lead change. From emotional intelligence to stakeholder engagement, driving transformation takes curiosity, resilience, and a compelling narrative to rally around.
- Challenges of Driving Change: Leading change can be difficult and emotionally taxing, requiring a significant amount of energy and focus to navigate successfully.
- Emotional Intelligence Importance: Having a high level of emotional intelligence is crucial for understanding and managing your own emotions, as well as recognizing and empathizing with the emotions of others during times of change.
- Stakeholder Engagement Strategy: Building relationships, inspiring, and influencing others are key components of stakeholder engagement and management during change initiatives.
- Storytelling for Change: Using relatable stories to communicate the vision and strategy of change initiatives can help bring the transformation to life and make it more understandable and compelling for stakeholders.
- Curiosity and Understanding: Approaching individuals with negative emotions or resistance to change with curiosity and a desire to understand their perspective can help bridge gaps and foster collaboration.
- Resilience and Adaptability: Personal experiences, such as relocating to a new country, can teach valuable lessons in resilience, adaptability, and risk-taking, which are essential skills for leading change.
- Setting Realistic Expectations: Acknowledging the complexity and emotional weight of change projects, and setting realistic expectations for the time and effort required, is crucial for maintaining focus and momentum.
- Continuous Leadership and Persistence: As the leader driving change, it is essential to keep pushing forward, maintaining a strong leadership role, and driving the initiative to successful completion.
Resources
Anthony Cheong on LinkedIn
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn
What does it take for leaders to successfully navigate large-scale, complex change? In this episode, Winnie da Silva explores the concept of change through the lens of systems thinking, and shares the stages leaders go through during periods of great transition. She discusses the essential ingredients of leadership and provides insights from industry experts on embracing transformative change.
- Importance of Change: Change is a gift of grace that offers the possibility for growth and transformation into a better version of ourselves and our world.
- Systems Thinking: Systems thinking requires a shift in mindset from linear thinking to embracing complexity and interconnectedness when approaching change.
- Emotional Work of Change: Change is emotional work, and the rhythm of change is not linear, as adult humans do not change smoothly.
- Leadership Reflection: Leaders navigating change need to reflect on their own mindsets and behaviors that may hinder their ability to lead others through change.
- Empathy in Leadership: Leaders should demonstrate empathy by truly understanding the perspectives of those they are asking to change and stepping into their shoes.
- Letting Go of Perfection: In large-scale complex change, leaders need to let go of perfection and ego, as the envisioned change may not end up exactly as intended.
- Leading Change Initiatives: Leaders need three core ingredients for successful large-scale, complex change: self-reflection, empathy, and letting go of perfection and ego.
- Immunity to Change: The immunity to change approach protects individuals from perceiving change as a threat and plays a role in how neuroscience and stress impact our ambitions to change.
Resources
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn
In this episode, you'll learn key strategies for effective talent acquisition from organizational psychologist Tom Skiba, VP of Talent Strategy at Redesign Health. Discover how to set a high bar for hiring, challenge candidates with job-relevant tasks, and create a vision for roles that inspire trust and success in your team.
- Importance of Trust in Leadership: Trust in leadership is crucial for employees to feel secure and valued in the workplace. Leaders need to provide confirmation and recognition to instill trust in their team members.
- Challenges of Complexity in the Workplace: Managing complexity in the workplace requires a shift from stable roles to dynamic team structures that can adapt to changing priorities and demands.
- Transactional Nature of Work: The trend towards more transactional work relationships can impact trust and motivation in the workplace, leading to a focus on specific tasks and outcomes rather than broader purpose.
- Fractional Talent Trend: The rise of fractional roles presents opportunities for flexible work arrangements but can also impact organizational trust and collaboration.
- Purpose and Meaning in Work: Employees seek meaning and purpose in their work beyond just social justice initiatives, looking for tasks that provide impact and recognition.
- Vision for Roles and Teams: Having a clear vision for roles and teams helps set a high bar for performance, aligns expectations, and fosters trust and motivation among team members.
- Challenging Candidates in the Hiring Process: Challenging candidates with tasks related to the job during the hiring process can provide valuable insights into their capabilities and motivation, setting a high standard for performance.
- Fair and Challenging Candidate Experience: Providing a fair and challenging candidate experience, where all candidates are tested on relevant job tasks, can enhance the selection process and ensure a high-quality hire.
Resources
Tom Skiba on LinkedIn | Redesign Health
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn
Powerful insights often occur when you least expect them. But what does it take to become a successful leader, especially in high-growth companies? In this episode of Transformative Leadership Conversations, host Winnie Da Silva delves into this question with Larry Kutscher, Chairman of the Board at A Place for Mom. Through their conversation, Larry shares valuable insights and advice based on his extensive experience in leadership roles, shedding light on the importance of talent, culture, and effective leadership skills in driving organizational success.
- Leadership Skills vs. People Leadership: Distinguishing between leadership skills and people leadership is crucial for effective leadership development. While leadership skills are essential for overall business success, people leadership involves managing and leading individuals within a team. It is a nuanced understanding.
- Hiring the Right Talent: According to Larry, hiring the right talent is critical for business success, especially in high-growth companies. Focusing on leadership skills and cultural fit can lead to better outcomes and attract top talent.
- Culture and Leadership: The CEO plays a significant role in shaping the company culture. According to Larry, they are the culture. They significantly impact the culture, and aligning leadership skills with the desired culture is essential for organizational success.
- Best Candidate Hiring: Prioritizing leadership skills over specific expertise can lead to better hiring decisions. Larry discusses how hiring the best candidate with strong leadership skills can fill gaps and adapt to various organizational roles.
- Interviewing and Past Behavior: Evaluating past behavior during interviews can provide insights into future performance. Understanding how candidates have handled situations in the past can predict their potential success in similar roles moving forward.
- Learning from Mistakes: Recognizing and learning from mistakes is crucial for leadership development. Admitting when a hiring decision is not the right fit and making necessary changes can lead to better outcomes in the future.
- Challenges of Becoming a CEO: Larry shares how transitioning to a CEO role can be challenging and lonely. They are constantly under the microscope. CEOs must navigate the complexities of leadership, maintain trust and authenticity, and understand the impact of their actions on the organization.
- Taking Risks and Career Advancement: Taking personal risks, speaking up in meetings, and being clear about career goals are essential for career advancement. Communicating aspirations and actively seeking opportunities can lead to growth and development in leadership roles.
Resources
Larry Kutscher on LinkedIn
Winnie da Silva onLinkedIn
What happens when companies begin to take their talent for granted? In this episode of Transformative Leadership Conversations, Winnie da Silva delves into the critical topic of talent and its impact on organizational success. From the cautionary tale of Boeing's neglect of talent leading to catastrophic consequences, to the rise of transactional talent in today's fast-paced economy, she explores the importance of selecting and nurturing the right people. How can leaders strike a balance between transactional and integrative approaches to talent management in a world of increasing complexity and speed?
- Neglect of Talent: Neglecting talent can have severe consequences for organizations, as seen in the case of Boeing where a shift in priorities led to catastrophic failures.
- Role of Leaders in Talent Selection: Leaders play a crucial role in selecting talent and creating a culture that values talent, which can ultimately determine the success of the organization.
- Transactional Talent Economy: The rise of transactional economies has led to a focus on short-term profits over long-term investments in talent, resulting in a transactional approach to employment relationships.
- Trends in Transactional Talent: Key trends in transactional talent include fractional hiring, freelance and gig economy, remote work, and increased use of AI, shaping the nature of employment relationships.
- Human Sustainability: Deloitte's Global Human Capital Trends Report emphasizes the importance of human sustainability in organizations, highlighting the need for a balance between transactional and integrative approaches to talent management.
- Best Hiring Practices: Larry Kutscher knows the importance of finding the right match for a role rather than just the right person, emphasizing transparency about job expectations, culture, and company realities.
- Impact of Trends on Employers and Employees: Tom Skiba shares insights on the impacts of current trends on employers and employees, focusing on matching CEOs to companies and new approaches to talent selection.
Resources
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn
Powerful insights often arise when exploring the intersection of imposter syndrome and organizational dynamics. In this episode of Transformative Leadership Conversations, host Winnie Da Silva dives deep into imposter syndrome with Carolyn Herfurth, co-founder of the Imposter Syndrome Institute. They discuss the origins of imposter syndrome, its impact on individuals and organizations, and practical strategies to overcome it.
Carolyn Herfurth, with a background in corporate sales and entrepreneurship, brings over 20 years of experience in advising entrepreneurs for strategic growth. As the co-founder of the Imposter Syndrome Institute, Carolyn works tirelessly to help both people and organizations identify imposter syndrome and understand the sources of it. She provides practical tools for self-awareness, and guides others to overcome self-doubt in their professional and personal lives.
Episode Highlights:
Introduction to Imposter Syndrome: Imposter syndrome is a common belief shared by many individuals that they are not as talented or capable as others perceive them to be, despite evidence of their success.
Background of Imposter Syndrome Institute: The Imposter Syndrome Institute was co-founded by Carolyn Herfurth and Dr. Valerie Young to address the impact of imposter syndrome on individuals and organizations.
Types of Imposter Syndrome: There are five types of imposter syndrome identified by Dr. Valerie Young, including perfectionists, experts, natural geniuses, soloists, and superhumans.
Gender and Imposter Syndrome: Imposter syndrome affects both men and women, with men also experiencing acute feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt.
Corporate Impact of Imposter Syndrome: Imposter syndrome can impact productivity, innovation, turnover, and overall organizational success, making it crucial for leaders to address.
Tools for Addressing Imposter Syndrome: Normalizing imposter syndrome, understanding its sources, and reframing negative thoughts are practical tools individuals can use to combat imposter feelings.
Connection to Psychological Safety: Imposter syndrome can be a barrier to psychological safety in organizations, highlighting the need for individual and organizational interventions.
Educational Interventions: Providing education on imposter syndrome during onboarding and partnering with experts in psychological safety and competency models can help organizations address imposter syndrome effectively.
Resources
Carolyn Herfurth on LinkedIn | Website
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn
In this podcast episode, you'll gain insights into how imposter syndrome can impact your career journey, especially as a woman and an immigrant. Learn practical strategies, like journaling and understanding your sphere of control, to overcome imposter syndrome and step into your power authentically.
Episode Highlights:
- Early Career Imposter: In the early stages of a career, imposter syndrome can manifest as overconfidence followed by a realization of the need to learn and grow, leading to a sense of inadequacy.
- Validation and Impact: Validation from others, especially from respected individuals, can have a profound impact on overcoming imposter syndrome and recognizing one's true abilities.
- Authenticity and Identity: Balancing authenticity with confidence is crucial, especially for women in leadership roles, as societal expectations and cultural backgrounds can influence feelings of imposter syndrome.
- Immigrant Influence: Immigrant backgrounds, like coming from families who fled challenging circumstances, can contribute to feelings of imposter syndrome due to the lack of a blueprint for success in a new environment.
- Self-Reflection Exercise: Using a journaling template to differentiate between facts and the story one tells themselves can help individuals train their brains to understand the difference and challenge negative narratives.
- Sphere of Control vs. Influence: Understanding what aspects of a situation are within one's control, influence, or neither can help in letting go of things that cannot be changed, leading to a sense of empowerment and acceptance.
- Importance of Letting Go: Finding a way to let go of things that cannot be changed is crucial for stepping into one's power and overcoming imposter syndrome, as acceptance of limitations can lead to personal growth and success.
Resources
Dea Katel Fischer on LinkedIn
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn
Winniedasilva.com
In this podcast episode, Winnie shares exactly how imposter syndrome can prevent you from enjoying your accomplishments, promotions, and accolades. She’ll help you identify and overcome imposter syndrome so you can feel like you truly earned and deserve your success.
Episode Highlights:
- Imposter Syndrome Impact: Imposter syndrome can prevent you from enjoying your success and lead you to believe you are deceiving others. This mindset can hinder your ability to feel deserving of your accomplishments and promotions.
- Belief in Success: Overcoming imposter syndrome is crucial for believing in and feeling good about your success. It is essential to recognize and acknowledge your achievements as earned rather than attributing them to luck.
- Feeling of Belonging: Imposter syndrome can create a barrier to feeling like you belong in your position or have earned your accolades. It is important to address these feelings of inadequacy to fully embrace your accomplishments.
- Self-Perception: Imposter syndrome distorts your self-perception, leading you to doubt your abilities and qualifications. When you confront these negative thoughts, you can build confidence in your skills and achievements.
- Recognition of Accomplishments: Acknowledging and celebrating your accomplishments is essential for combating imposter syndrome. Take time to recognize your hard work and achievements so you can overcome feelings of fraudulence.
- Promotion of Self-Worth: Imposter syndrome undermines your sense of self-worth and can hinder personal growth and development. It is crucial to cultivate a positive self-image and recognize your value to combat these feelings of inadequacy.
- Embracing Success: Embracing success involves overcoming imposter syndrome and recognizing your worth and contributions. By accepting and celebrating your achievements, you can break free from the cycle of self-doubt and impostor feelings.
Resources
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn
Get the whole season and the companion guide at Winniedasilva.com
Powerful insights often occur when you least expect them. On Transformative Leadership Conversations, they're at the heart of every episode.
I’m your host, Winnie da Silva, and I’m driven by a passion to share the stories and strategies that shape effective leaders, teams, and organizations.
Since launching this podcast in December of 2020, we've delved deep into the individual stories of leaders, uncovering what makes their leadership stand out and the challenges they've overcome. In Season 4, Peter Axelson and I explored team effectiveness with the Team Development Masterclass, offering methodologies, tools, and exercises to enhance your ability to build effective teams.
This year, 2024, marks a fresh chapter. And I’m really excited about this new direction. Each month, we'll explore a different leadership theme from three angles: my reflections, a leader's journey, and an expert's viewpoint. What I love about this new approach is that you get a multifaceted and diverse experience from these three perspectives offering a prism of insights and strategies for each topic we explore together. And just like always – each episode will equip you with the inspiration, strategies, and tools to refine your own leadership and help you lead effective teams and thriving organizations.
Based on your feedback and my work with clients, I’ve picked themes relevant to you. They include topics like…
- The notorious Impostor Syndrome – what actually is it, how can you overcome it and even if you don’t have it, why should you as a leader care about it…
- Leading through change – I love this topic because it’s for everybody – we are all leading through some kind of change right now (and probably into the foreseeable future) – and I’m excited to go deep and practical here…
- Innovation – how important is it to be an innovative leader? What are the different ways in which innovation can manifest? And how do we get more of it?
- Building Your Leadership Brand – what does it mean to build a leadership brand, what elements might be included, and how do we do this so that it’s not just all about us and us selling ourselves?
- Hospitable Leadership – now, for those of you who know me well – I’m a bit of a foodie and our family absolutely loves making meals and hosting dinner parties at our home. And that’s got me thinking – could hospitality be a key ingredient for great leadership? We’re going to explore this topic and find out together!
...and there will be so much more. I’m so happy that you’ll be joining us and throughout this new year I want to invite you to join our community by sharing your thoughts, questions, and experiences. You can do that in so many ways! Subscribe and leave a comment on your podcast platform of choice, send me an email at winnie@winnifred.org, listen to the podcast and leave a comment on my website at www.winniedasilva.com, or find me on LinkedIn. Whether you’re engaging with us online, suggesting topics, or joining the conversation on social media, your voice is a vital part of this podcast.
You are always welcome to take a seat at the table where every conversation has the potential for transformative change.
Stay tuned for our first episode of 2024, where we'll dive into Imposter Syndrome, setting the stage for a year of transformative conversations.
“Leaders need to be sure that they're providing the right behavioral examples of what's needed to support the effectiveness of this team. And this is tricky because you're not always clear about what those things are.” - Peter Axelson
In this podcast episode, Winnie and Peter, wrap up their Team Development Masterclass by discussing nine universal best practices that apply across the Team Development Methodology, which was explored in the previous 10 episodes.
Episode Highlights:
Role Modeling
Leaders must serve as role models, setting examples for their teams. Asking for feedback regularly can help gauge whether they are providing the right examples.
Investing in Relationships
Sound interpersonal relationships are fundamental for collaboration and team effectiveness. They encourage making time to intentionally deepen work relationships.
Changing Mindsets and Behaviors
Increasing team effectiveness requires individuals to change their behavior. Behavioral change typically starts with a shift in mindset, which can be achieved by examining internal narratives.
Emphasizing the Process
Effective processes are differentiators in team performance. They emphasize the importance of paying attention to "how" work is done, as team expertise and intelligence are fixed at the start.
Grappling with Big Questions
It’s important to grapple with significant questions, such as defining team culture - “What do we want to be?” Addressing such questions can be time-consuming but fruitful in the long run.
Creating Room for Experimentation
Team development often involves establishing new processes to build effective teams. Teams should be open to experimentation, assessing results, and customizing processes that work best for them.
Making the Implicit Explicit
It’s critical to uncover and address assumptions that can lead to costly consequences. By making the implicit explicit, teams can avoid misunderstandings, missed deadlines, and damaged relationships.
Asking for Feedback
Winnie and Peter underscore the importance of asking for feedback, especially from fellow team members regarding collaboration. They emphasize that this is a vital habit to develop.
Pause and Reflect
Peter and Winnie advocate regularly slowing down and considering how the team is functioning. These continuous improvement practices are the "secret sauce" for increasing effectiveness over time.
Resources
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn
Get the whole season and the companion guide at Winniedasilva.com
“Interpersonal issues should be dealt with by the individuals, and team issues should be dealt with by the team collectively… I think most team leaders and team members would absolutely agree with that because, as you say, issues that pop up with individuals on the team, they're going to spill over into the team. And so what we're offering here is that early detection tool to prevent this very thing from happening.” - Winnie da Silva
In this podcast episode, Winnie and Peter discuss the importance of continuous improvement mechanisms within teams. They highlight that, despite most teams wanting to continuously improve, they often struggle with how to do it. Peter and Winnie provide practical ways to implement mechanisms for ongoing improvement.
Episode Highlights:
Analogy from Manufacturing
Peter shares an analogy from his experience working with manufacturing teams that use sensors in equipment in order to detect problems early. This mindset is about monitoring and early detection, ensuring corrective action can be taken before issues escalate.
The Need for Continuous Improvement
Peter emphasizes the importance of continuous improvement mechanisms in maintaining and increasing team effectiveness over time. Teams that invest in these mechanisms become more effective, while those that don't tend to become less effective.
The Challenge of Time
Peter acknowledges that time is a common barrier to investing in continuous improvement mechanisms. Many teams may feel they don't need it or that their current processes are "good enough." Winnie and Peter argue that these mechanisms are crucial for building a truly effective team.
Three Continuous Improvement Mechanisms
Winnie introduces three important continuous improvement mechanisms:
- Ongoing exchange of honest feedback between team members.
- Regular evaluation of team meetings.
- Team effectiveness checkpoints.
Feedback Exchange
Winnie and Peter stress the importance of an ongoing exchange of honest feedback between team members. Regular feedback is critical for maintaining good interpersonal relationships in the face of changing workplace dynamics.
They share two favorite questions for requesting feedback: "What am I doing that you appreciate most, and why?" and "What would you like me to do differently, and why?" The benefits of regular feedback include faster problem-solving, improved job performance, better processes, increased trust, conflict reduction, and more.
Feedback's Impact
Peter mentions that their work on feedback skills has a lasting and substantial impact, with people sharing stories of how feedback has helped them even years after their engagement.
Separating Personal and Team Issues
Winnie emphasizes the importance of addressing interpersonal issues individually and team issues collectively. Feedback exchanges help resolve interpersonal issues effectively.
- Meeting Evaluations
- Peter discusses the significance of regular evaluations of team meetings, particularly during periods of change. Effective meetings can contribute to team success.
- He mentions various methods for conducting meeting evaluations, such as using Trello or Slack.
- Using Evaluation Input
- Winnie and Peter explain that the input collected from meeting evaluations can help meeting facilitators propose process tweaks to the team.
- They emphasize the importance of conducting evaluations frequently during periods of significant change in meeting processes.
- Team Effectiveness Checkpoints
- The third continuous improvement mechanism involves conducting team effectiveness checkpoints, once or twice a year. This "pause and reflect" exercise is intended for an overall assessment of the team's functioning.
- Questions Used
- Winnie describes the metrics used in team effectiveness checkpoints. Team members rate the team on five dimensions: quality, efficiency, satisfaction, individual learning, and team learning.
- Members are then asked specifically about what is supporting and reducing team effectiveness. This is followed by suggested changes to maintain or increase effectiveness.
Resistance to Continuous Improvement
Winnie acknowledges the resistance to investing in continuous improvement mechanisms is often due to a lack of time. They encourage teams to experiment with these practices and evaluate the return on investment.
Leaders' Role in Continuous Improvement
Peter suggests that leaders should prioritize open and honest discussions that help teams pause and reflect on their functioning. Such discussions are the secret sauce for team effectiveness.
Resources
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn
Get the whole season and the companion guide at Winniedasilva.com
E11: Tell Me What You Really Think with Peter Axelson
“‘The conversation is the relationship.’ Is a quote I come back to often from the book Fierce Conversations from Susan Scott. What this means to me… is that the quality of our relationships depend on the quality of our conversations, which of course then directly impacts the quality of our work together as a team.” - Winnie da Silva
In this episode, Winnie and Peter explore the concept of high-quality conversations and their importance within teams. They discuss the significant impact of conversation quality on relationships and team effectiveness, emphasizing that it is critical to all other building blocks in Peter’s methodology.
Episode Highlights:
"The Conversation is the Relationship"* Winnie shares this quote from the book "Fierce Conversations" that underscores the idea that the quality of relationships depends on the quality of conversations. This, in turn, directly affects the quality of teamwork.
Survey on Conversation Dynamics* Unequal participation, lack of candor, and poor understanding of others’ reasoning are common dynamics in meetings and discussions, and they stress that these are problematic.
Business Case for High-Quality Conversations
- Peter encourages the audience to consider the costs associated with low-quality conversations.
- Winnie and Peter assert that it's not enough to bring people together for work; it's essential to ensure the conversations are of high quality, with broad participation, candor, and the sharing of views and reasoning.
How to Work with Teams on High-Quality Conversations
- Winnie explains that working on high-quality conversations is a relatively straightforward process.
- They emphasize creating a climate for conversations where people feel psychologically safe to speak up and engage with others in open discussions.
- The aspiration is to achieve broad participation, candor, and mutual understanding within team conversations.
Three Steps to Implement High-Quality Conversations
- Describe the attributes of high-quality conversations, why they matter, and how they look.
- Identify barriers to these attributes, which can reveal hidden team dynamics.
- Encourage practice and the use of language and behavioral best practices to increase conversation quality.
Best Practices for High-Quality Conversations
- Winnie introduces six best practices that fall under three primary topics: Participation, Candor, and Understanding of Reasoning. For each practice, there are both "self" and "other" components to encourage improvement in conversations.
- Participation
- The objective is NOT that everyone speaks for the same duration.
- The objective is to ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity to speak, and on important topics and decisions, everyone has been heard.
- Candor
- Winnie and Peter discuss the importance of managing self by speaking candidly and pushing one’s comfort zone on this.
- They explain that, when interacting with others, one can inquire about what others are thinking to encourage candid dialogue.
- Understanding of Reasoning
- Peter stresses the importance of sharing reasoning when stating opinions.
- In interactions with others, he encourages asking questions about the reasoning behind others' opinions.
Understanding of Reasoning
- Peter stresses the importance of sharing reasoning when stating opinions.
- In interactions with others, he encourages asking questions about the reasoning behind others' opinions.
Implementing Best Practices
- Winnie advises keeping these six best practices visible during meetings and on team agendas.
- The practices can serve as reminders for the team to work on their conversation quality.
Challenges in Implementing High-Quality Conversation
- Peter discusses the relative ease or difficulty of implementing changes in participation, candor, and understanding of reasoning within a team.
- He emphasizes that increasing candor is the most challenging, as it often requires a shift from historical norms of not expressing true thoughts.
Benefits of High-Quality Conversations
Winnie and Peter emphasize the significance of high-quality conversations in team effectiveness and describe the growing confidence and sense of accomplishment that teams experience when improving their conversations.
Always prioritize high quality conversations.
Resources
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn
Get the whole season and the companion guide at Winniedasilva.com
Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott
“The word ‘culture’ gets thrown around a lot and sometimes it seems like people see it as something that teams don't have until they define it. However, every team has a culture, whether they recognize it or not.” - Winnie da Silva
In this episode, Winnie and Peter explore the importance of developing an aspirational culture with supporting norms. They emphasize that teams already have a culture, but it may not be explicit or aligned with their goals. Developing a shared vision for the team's culture and defining specific norms can significantly improve team effectiveness.
Episode Highlights:
Challenges in Developing Team Culture
Peter discusses how teams are often composed of individuals with diverse backgrounds, values, and experiences. This leads to the formation of a patchwork culture consisting of implicit norms, diverse expectations, and behaviors that can hinder team effectiveness.
Defining Culture and Norms
- Winnie and Peter provide definitions for culture and norms.
- Culture is described as the result of implicit and explicit rules guiding behavior within a group. It is learned from the environment and reflects a shared mindset and common language.
- Norms are specific behavioral agreements or rules intended to help the team “live into” their aspirational culture.
Process of Defining Culture and Norms
- Peter and Winnie explain how they help teams define their culture and norms.
- New teams have a blank slate to define their culture, while existing teams will need to shift from their implicit culture to an explicit, agreed-upon culture.
- They introduce five key questions that serve as a framework for this work:
- Why bother?
- Describe the culture you'd like to see in this team a year from now.
- What challenges do you expect in living into this culture?
- What agreements should be made to address these challenges (team norms)?
- How will departures from team norms be handled?
Importance of the "Why Bother" Question
Winnie explains the significance of the "why bother" question. Teams need a clear motivation to invest time and effort in defining their culture and norms. The aspirational culture should be reflective of the five metrics for team effectiveness.
Defining the Aspirational Culture
- Winnie and Peter walk through the first two prompts used to define the aspirational culture:
- Describe the team's desired culture
- Provide details on what the team should be doing or not doing, what patterns should emerge, and what experiences team members should have.
- They emphasize that this description should reflect an inside perspective and should focus on the most important elements.
Anticipating Challenges
Teams are encouraged to think about potential challenges in "living into" their aspirational culture. This prepares them for the journey ahead, ensuring they are not surprised or discouraged when obstacles arise.
Defining Team Norms
- Peter explains the next step of defining team norms based on the aspirational culture and expected challenges. These norms are specific, behavioral agreements.
- Teams are advised to focus on a short list of norms, usually around 5-8, that address the most important anticipated challenges.
Dynamic Nature of Team Norms
Winnie and Peter emphasize that team norms are not static and should evolve over time. As teams overcome challenges, they can drop old norms and adopt new ones as new challenges emerge.
Anecdote on Team Culture and Norms
Peter shares an example of a team's aspirational culture statement and associated norms to illustrate how the process works. The example highlights a transformation from an unhappy team with friction to one with shared values and norms.
Dealing with Departures from Norms
Winnie and Peter discuss the importance of team members not adhering to agreed upon team norms through feedback and accountability. They explain that it is natural for teams to struggle to stick to their norms but feedback mechanisms help address this.
Benefits of Defining Team Culture and Norms
- Peter and Winnie underline the substantial benefits of this work, noting that it serves as a standard for measuring progress.
- Winnie discusses how team culture and norms differ from shared goals and joint work, as they are more personal and about the people on the team, which can benefit cohesion and team identity.
Resources
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn
Get the whole season and the companion guide at Winniedasilva.com
Geert Hofstede
“Clients have told me, ‘I wish my people would think more like a CEO’... And I think what my clients mean is that they want their people to see things more strategically, to take more ownership for not just their own responsibilities, but for that of the overall enterprise or the whole company.” - Winnie da Silva
In this episode, Winnie and Peter explore the concept of a "shared responsibility mindset" in teams. They discuss how this mindset contributes to team effectiveness. They emphasize that responsibility for a team's effectiveness should not solely rest on the leader but should be distributed among all team members. This shared responsibility mindset encourages individuals to think more strategically and take ownership of both their individual roles and the team's overall success.
Episode Highlights:
Introduction to Shared Responsibility Mindset
Winnie introduces the episode's focus on cultivating a shared responsibility mindset within teams. She highlights the common desire among leaders for their team members to think more strategically and take more ownership of the organization's success.
Defining Responsibility in Teams
Peter explains their approach to clients by starting with the question of who is responsible for the team's effectiveness. He encourages clients to think about the specific responsibilities of the team leader and of the team members.
Responsibilities for Team Effectiveness
- Winnie and Peter outline the responsibilities in two categories: mindset and behaviors related to self, and mindset and behaviors related to the team.
- Self-reflection and self-management, seeking feedback, and experimenting with new behaviors are essential for individual growth.
- At the team level, members can help by observing and assessing the team's processes, supporting the aspirational culture, adhering to agreed-upon norms, and actively participating in assessments of the team effectiveness.
The Importance of a Shared Responsibility Mindset
- Winnie discusses the common issue where team members tend to focus solely on their role and responsibilities, while responsibility for team processes rests with the team leader.
- She explains that effective teams require active participation from everyone, not just the leader, in managing processes.
Challenges for Team Members and Leaders
- Winnie points out the challenges team members face, such as thinking, "That's not my job," while leaders sometimes struggle with creating space to allow others to contribute to managing team processes.
- She emphasizes that shared responsibility is essential for team effectiveness and encourages leaders to make space for team members’ perspectives and assistance.
Practical Ways to Develop a Shared Responsibility Mindset
Peter explains how to help teams develop a shared responsibility mindset:
- Start by discussing the importance of shared responsibility.
- Explore existing team mindsets and assumptions.
- Introduce shared language, like "balcony" and "dance floor," to differentiate between content and process focus.
- Normalize making interventions on team processes.
- Establish the role for secondary facilitators* in meetings.
Establish formal "pause and reflect" discussions to assess team functioning.
Experimentation and Results
After experimenting with shared responsibility, teams often experience positive results, including improved output, efficiency, satisfaction, and learning. This helps them see the business case for developing this mindset.
Resources
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn
Get the whole season and the companion guide at Winniedasilva.com
Mining Group Gold by Thomas A. Kayser
“What we find is that teams that have a process mindset, and what we mean by that is they're explicitly and deliberately focusing on building and refining lean processes, these teams tend to be more effective.” - Peter Axelson
In this episode, Winnie and Peter discuss the importance of creating robust work processes for teams to enhance their effectiveness. They emphasize how this topic is interconnected with previous episodes, where they discussed business objectives and joint work. This episode focuses on how teams can efficiently work together to achieve their business objectives by developing lean and robust work processes.
Episode Highlights:
Definition of Team Processes
Peter begins by distinguishing between "content" (WHAT a team does) and "process" (HOW a team does its work). He highlights that teams with a "process mindset" that explicitly focus on refining their processes tend to be more effective. Process is a key differentiator in team effectiveness.
Types of Team Processes
- Work Processes: Focused on accomplishing the tasks of the team, including setting goals, planning meetings, making decisions, and measuring progress.
- Interpersonal Processes: Focused on building collaborative relationships, developing team norms, offering and receiving feedback, and addressing conflicts.
Business Case for Attention to Process
Winnie discusses the business case for paying attention to team processes. Teams with many talented individuals can underperform if they neglect the importance of HOW they work together. "Process loss" is the term for this phenomenon. Content expertise is often valued and rewarded more than process skills in organizations, which contributes to the lack of investment in team processes.
Approach to Building Robust Work Processes
Peter explains that the approach to improving work processes varies from team to team, depending on their specific needs. An initial assessment helps identify process strengths and weaknesses. They address several common areas where teams may have gaps in their processes - setting priorities, meetings, making decisions, and managing interfaces with stakeholders.
Setting Priorities
Winnie emphasizes the importance of teams developing a process for setting and regularly updating priorities. Teams must understand what's truly important and communicate this to avoid unnecessary stress and inefficiencies.
Effective Meetings
Peter highlights the widespread problem of ineffective meetings and discusses what "good" meeting processes look like. He emphasizes the need for detailed agendas, clear outcomes, realistic time allocation, skilled facilitation, and active involvement from all participants.
- Decision Making: Winnie explains the challenges of decision making in teams and how unclear decision processes can lead to frustration and wasted time. She suggests providing a common language for different decision-making options and making the chosen method clear in each situation.
- Managing Interfaces with Stakeholders: Winnie discusses the need for teams to proactively define processes for working with key stakeholders. She uses the example of a newly formed team she was working with at a pharmaceutical company. As a result of major restructuring at the enterprise level, this team was heavily reliant on other teams in the company for their own team to be successful. They needed to identify clear processes for transparent collaboration with various stakeholders.
The Importance of Lean Processes
Peter emphasizes the need to keep processes as lean as possible and avoid unnecessary administrative work. Striking a balance between "tight" and "loose" processes that suit the team's needs is vital.
Resources
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn
Get the whole season and the companion guide at Winniedasilva.com
“Every once in a while we discover a question that turns out to be particularly powerful in terms of the benefits that come from a team grappling with it. And so the question is this: ‘In order for this team to deliver on our business objectives this year, what is the high value, highly interdependent work that we must do together? ” - Peter Axelson
In this podcast episode, Winnie and Peter discuss the concept of "Joint Work" as a critical building block for developing effective teams. They emphasize the importance of identifying the shared work that a team must do together, which is distinct from individual or subgroup work.
Episode Highlights:
Pizza Story
Peter shares the origin story of this concept of Joint Work. When working with a group of managers to help them understand the importance of understanding their shared work as a team, he uses a pizza analogy. He distinguishes between the "crust work" (individual work) and the "points work" (work requiring collaboration across the whole team).
Three Categories of Work
Winnie and Peter introduce the three categories of work that effective teams must define: individual work, subgroup work, and joint work. These categories help teams understand the different levels of interdependence in their work and then build the appropriate collaboration mechanisms.
Joint Work Continuum
Joint work varies greatly in quantity across teams, forming a continuum. Some teams may have a small portion of joint work (like small points on a pizza), while others have a significant portion (like large points). In general, as the size of a team increases, and as the functional diversity of a team increases, the amount of joint work in the team decreases. Some teams will end up having a small amount of joint work and some teams will end up having a large amount of joint work. Having more joint work is not “better” than having less - what’s important is that the team has clearly defined that work which entails a high level of interdependence.
Powerful Question
Peter highlights a powerful question for teams: "In order for this team to deliver on our business objectives, what is the high-value, highly-interdependent work that we must do TOGETHER?" This question encourages teams to reevaluate and redefine their work. Peter notes that across the hundreds of teams with which he has worked, every team has, to some degree, changed how they define the work of their team.
Joint Work Discovery Process
Winnie and Peter describe how they help teams discover their joint work. This process includes a workshop setting where the team reviews their business objectives and defines their joint work. They use seven categories of joint work to help the team think broadly about what their joint work should be.
Work Process Alignment
Winnie and Peter stress the importance of aligning work processes with the team's joint work. They explain that team meetings and other processes should be reflective of the type and amount of joint work.
Benefits of Defining Joint Work
Peter highlights two key benefits. First, teams that invest in defining their joint work often realize they have been doing the wrong work together. Second, these teams become more focused, experience less tension, have more productive meetings, use time efficiently, and collaborate more effectively.
Winnie and Peter acknowledge that defining joint work is, at first, a challenging and messy process, but one that produces huge benefits for teams. They offer their assistance to teams interested in delving deeper into this concept.
Resources
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn
Get the whole season and the companion guide at Winniedasilva.com
Mining Group Gold by Thomas A. Kayser
“While many teams can figure this out on their own, some of them need help ensuring the objectives of the team are clear and aligned. What's important is that this is addressed very early on in the process.” - Winnie da Silva
In this podcast episode, Winnie and Peter discuss the importance of ensuring clarity and alignment on a team's shared objectives. They emphasize that these objectives are specific to the team and distinct from the business objectives of the company.
Episode Highlights:
Team Objectives Support Company Objectives
Team objectives should align with and support the broader company objectives, but are typically different in level and scope.
Early Focus on Clarity and Alignment
Early in the team development process, it's crucial to assess how clear and aligned the team is regarding their shared objectives - because so much depends on them. Team objectives influence many basic team processes - defining the shared work, planning meetings, making decisions, measuring success, allocating resources, setting priorities, and more. Understanding the current state of the team’s objectives is key to planning the team development process.
Working with Teams Without Defined Objectives
Teams exhibit a wide range of alignment on their shared objectives. Teams that have not yet defined their shared objectives can benefit from various approaches, including coaching the team leader, facilitated work sessions, involving senior leaders, or translating higher-level business objectives into team-specific goals.
Peter and Winnie stress that addressing clarity and alignment of team objectives is a critical early step in the team development process.
Resources
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn
Get the whole season and the companion guide at Winniedasilva.com
“We don't need to be best friends in order to have a sound working relationship. But you do need to know each other as people. … It doesn't take a great deal of effort to learn those kinds of things about people and the benefits can be pretty big.” - Peter Axelson
“You really need a basic amount of trust in and respect for each other. While you definitely want to see other positive attributes in a relationship, these two, trust and respect, they are the absolute must haves. So everything else, all the little things that make relationships run well, they all can be sorted out.” - Winnie da Silva
In this podcast episode, Winnie and Peter discuss the importance of sound interpersonal relationships within a team, which is a fundamental building block in Peter's Team Development Methodology.
Episode Highlights:
Definition of Sound Relationships
In the context of a team, sound relationships are characterized by a basic level of trust and respect. While not needing to be best friends, team members should know each other beyond their professional roles and engage with each other on a personal level.
Impact of Relationship Quality
Even one problematic relationship within a team can significantly hinder the team's effectiveness. Dysfunctional relationships lead to distractions and unproductive behaviors, affecting the entire team's performance.
Common Reasons for Neglecting Relationships
People often discount the importance of building strong relationships within teams due to a belief that relationships will naturally develop over time. There's a misconception that work relationships will reach a "good enough" state without explicit investment. This passive approach often fails.
End Goal
The ultimate goal of focusing on sound relationships isn't merely to create great relationships, but to foster effective collaboration. Interpersonal relationships are a crucial requirement for successful teamwork and collaboration.
Not All Relationships Can Be Repaired
In some cases, relationships can be too badly-damaged to be repaired. The two important factors in determining this are the degree to which trust and respect for each other have been eroded, and the degree to which the two people are willing to do the very hard work of putting the relationship back together.
How Relationships and Collaboration Are Intertwined
Effective collaboration relies on sound relationships. Damaged or underdeveloped relationships can undermine collaboration, while poor collaboration often contributes to strained relationships.
Enablers of Cross-Boundary Collaboration
To improve relationships and collaboration, a tool with six "enablers of cross-boundary collaboration" is introduced. These enablers include:
- Knowing the person beyond the basics
- Understanding the person's context or world
- Reviewing roles and points of interdependence
- Making explicit what you need and expect from others
- Making agreements for working together
- Establishing a process for ongoing, timely, and honest feedback
Using the Tool
Teams are encouraged to use this tool to identify and address areas where their relationships and collaboration can be improved. It can be particularly useful in teams for dealing with friction in relationships and/or ineffective collaboration.
Importance of Prioritizing Relationships
The podcast emphasizes that deliberately investing time and effort in building relationships and improving collaboration are fundamental parts of the job. Team leaders must prioritize this, setting the example for their team members.
Overall, the podcast highlights the critical role of sound interpersonal relationships within teams and provides practical tools and strategies to enhance these relationships and, in turn, improve collaboration.
Resources
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn
Get the whole season and the companion guide at Winniedasilva.com
E10: The Stories We Tell Ourselves with Peter Axelson
“Long term, if you don't also pay attention to the satisfaction and learning dimensions, then over the long term, … the ability of that team to remain effective over time is really going to get compromised.” - Peter Axelson
In this podcast episode, Winnie and Peter provide an overview of the Team Development Methodology, which will serve as the foundation for the subsequent episodes of this season. They discuss the key elements of this methodology and emphasize the importance of measuring team effectiveness. The episode also touches on the reasons behind Peter's passion for working with teams and his journey in developing this methodology.
Episode Highlights:
Measuring Team Effectiveness
Peter explains the five key metrics he uses for measuring team effectiveness: Quality, Efficiency, Satisfaction, Individual Learning, and Team Learning.
Importance of Metrics
Winnie and Peter highlight that teams often focus on quality and efficiency but neglect satisfaction and learning. They stress that neglecting satisfaction and learning can lead to deterioration in quality and efficiency over the long term.
Inviting Challenge
Winnie and Peter discuss the value of inviting clients to challenge the methodology and assumptions. They explain how this process can lead to healthy discussions and help teams see different perspectives.
Overview of Building Blocks
Winnie and Peter introduce the eight building blocks of the Team Development Methodology. They emphasize that while teams are diverse and will have different development needs, these eight building blocks represent the most common ones.
The Eight Building Blocks
Peter provides a brief overview of each building block:
- Building Block 1: Foundation of Sound Interpersonal Relationships
- Building Block 2: Clarity and Alignment on Team Objectives
- Building Block 3: The Joint Work
- Building Block 4: Process Discipline
- Building Block 5: Shared Responsibility Mindset
- Building Block 6: Aspirational Culture and Norms
- Building Block 7: High-Quality Conversations
- Building Block 8: Continuous Improvement Mechanisms
Resources
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn
Get the whole season and the companion guide at Winniedasilva.com
NTL Institute
E10: The Stories We Tell Ourselves with Peter AxelsonE11: Tell Me What You Really Think with Peter Axelson
In this episode of Transformative Leadership Conversations, Winnie da Silva and her special co-host, Peter Axelson, provide a sneak peek into Season 4, offering a glimpse of what's in store for this Team Development Masterclass.
They delve into the practical tools, examples, and insights for this season, all aimed at helping leaders and team members build effective teams. Subsequent episodes will take a deeper dive into each foundational building block, offering extensive discussions, real-life case studies, and hands-on exercises that listeners can immediately implement with their own teams.
Their ultimate goal is to empower leaders and team members with the skills they need to build and lead effective teams. So if you're looking to take your team to the next level, be sure to tune in!
Episode Highlights:
- Winnie and Peter share their history and why they enjoy working together. They explain that Peter's practical, no-fluff approach sets their content apart from the plethora of resources on teams and leadership available today. Peter's methodology is based on years of experience and is aimed at helping teams become skilled and independent rather than dependent on ongoing support.
- This season aims to provide practical tools, examples, and ways of thinking to help leaders develop and lead effective teams. It covers five metrics for gauging team effectiveness and eight building blocks within Peter's Team Development Framework. Each episode highlights a specific building block, providing insights, examples, and exercises to help teams develop and grow effectively.
- The season is designed for both sequential and selective listening, making it accessible and informative for all. The goal is to help leaders lead, build, and continue developing effective teams that achieve outstanding business results. Winnie encourages listeners to provide feedback and share their experiences.
Resources
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn
Get the whole season and the companion guide at Winniedasilva.com
Walking the Camino: Leadership and Life Lessons
In this bonus episode, Winnie reflects on her experiences this summer walking the Camino with her family and the leadership and life lessons she learned along the way.
Be prepared but don’t over prepare. Allow for serendipitous opportunities to emerge for a more present experience.
Sushil planned all of the logistics to get us to our
starting place. After that, we just started walking, following the signs as we
went. We didn’t know where we were going to stay or where we were going to eat.
We trusted the path thousands of people before us had traveled. We always found
a place to eat and sleep. Sometimes, meticulous detailed planning down to the
hour can often get in the way of spontaneous discovery.
Align on the final destination. Even if it’s not clear
how you’ll get there or how long it will take.
Our goal: get to Santiago. We budgeted 10 days. After the
first two days we realized this isn’t walking, it is hiking. Mountains. We’re
not a particularly outdoorsy or athletic family. All of our walking in NYC
didn’t fully prepare us for this. At first we’re like 10 days? We need more
time! But as our bodies and minds adjusted to the hiking we got it done in 9
days! Having clarity on the final goal pushed us forward.
The people you surround yourself with will drag you down
or bring you up. Choose wisely.
We thought we’d meet lots of people along the way. But
for the first half we were mostly on our own. So, we really depended on each
other to keep our spirits up. Later on my youngest daughter connected with a
woman walking with her adult son. They told each other stories; they raced each
other along the way – sometimes backwards! This woman was so kind and caring.
She gave my daughter the energy and confidence she needed that day to keep
walking.
Embrace negative feelings with compassion: encourage
honesty, listen, empathize, adjust when you can, remember the goal, keep
going.
Our bodies were sore at the start. Like I can’t walk, I'm
so sore. There were shin splints. Some of us got a cold. One night we stayed at
a hostel with no hot water, it smelled like a wet dog (because there was one)
and there were lots of flies. Not the best. One day we climbed an elevation of
5,000 feet. Each of us hit a wall at different times. The rest of us listened
and gave extra support to the person who needed it the most.
Understand each person’s motivation. The drive we have to
move forward can be different for everyone.
Each family member was motivated to walk “yet another
mile” in different ways. Popsicles. How fast can you walk a mile? One piece of
candy per mile. Listening to music. Or an audio book. Searching for kitty cats!
A beer at lunch.…
Unexpected people can bring wisdom and joy in unforeseen
ways.
As we began our trek on day two, we encountered an
artisan selling hand-made rosaries and other trinkets. The guy, a Colombian
transplant, looked just like Mr. Bloomsbury from the Curious George
movie–scrawny, long silvery hair held in a ponytail with a gigantic mustache to
match. As we said our goodbyes, his message to Sushil was: “Descanso!” Which
means: take it easy. Don’t rush the Camino.
Six hours later after a spectacular trek up to 4900 feet,
we entered a tiny 1500 year old village nestled in the Galician mountains.
Loitering about when we arrived was a man who looked exactly like our Mr.
Bloomsbury. Apparently, he had forgotten to give Sushil his rosary! So he got
on his motorcycle, rode into the mountains and miraculously found us!
Roles will always emerge, whether purposely or by
default. Be proactive in the role you want to play and the contributions you
want to make.
At the end of the Camino, we decided to give out
“participation awards.” We collectively decided what contribution we thought
each person made (in secret). Rummaging through a cheesy gift shop we found
gifts that symbolized their “award”. Hilarity ensued as we tried to explain how
their award somehow was represented in this weird little present. Sushil
received “The Camino Sherpa Award” for being the “spiritual guide” of our walk.
Our daughters received the following awards: The Mood-Lifter Award, The Purist
Award, The Most Resilient Award. I got the “General Award” which I thought was
pretty lame until they clarified it wasn’t “in-general” but for being the
commander/enforcer of sorts.
Mindset changes everything. Sam Sanchez from Apple
Fitness says: “You are meant to do hard things.” Besides, the most difficult
feats bring the most satisfying rewards.
Mindset was everything when walking the Camino. And if my
mindset wasn’t right, usually this impacted everyone else. Honestly, this quote
popped into my head all the time. Everyday we encountered some sort of
challenge. But if we believe we are meant to do hard things, that means we are
meant to be here, to figure it out, to push through. I thought about the
experience we were giving our kids. To push through, to be resilient, to do
this thing even if it was really hard at times. The finish was sweet. Looking
back now is even sweeter. You forget the hard things.
Bonus Episode: Mommy Are You Scared?
Welcome leaders, friends, and listeners! While working on Season 4, I have a bonus episode to share. My daughter was in an ice-skating accident in February and I immediately tapped into a leadership program I teach called Managing Stress & Building Resiliency.
There is teaching and knowing something and then there is living what you know.
In this episode, I share a bit about my experience with my daughter and how I applied perceptual practices from this program. I also offer thoughts and reflections on how you can apply these practices too.
Key Takeaways from this Bonus Episode:
The power of applying perceptual practices in the face of stress and adversity.
- Letting go of things beyond your control and focusing on what you can influence.
- Reappraising events to suspend judgment and consider alternative perspectives.
- Adopting contemplative practices to cultivate resilience and inner peace.
Reflection questions for personal application:
- Identifying areas of life where you're holding onto things you can't control.
- Exploring how stress may be distorting your perception of events and seeking alternative interpretations.
- Considering the integration of contemplative practices into your daily routine.
Insights for leaders:
- Understanding the importance of relinquishing control in leadership and focusing on influence.
- Conducting a control/no control/influence inventory to prioritize energy and resources effectively.
- Embracing reappraisal as a tool to avoid rushed judgments and foster open-mindedness.
Recognizing the role of leaders as culture makers:
- Acknowledging that a leader's resilience influences the resilience of their team or organization.
- Encouraging leaders to model emotional authenticity and vulnerability during challenging times.
- Emphasizing the significance of listening to and seeking input from team members.
To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at winnie@winnifred.org.
Reach out and tell me what was helpful about today’s episode or any suggestions you have for my show.
Please leave a review and tell someone else about this show!
Season 3; Episode 9: You Should Smile More with The Band of Sisters
The Band of Sisters is a tribe of six women: Dawn Hudson, Angelique Bellmer Krembs, Katie Lacey, Lori Tauber Marcus, Cie Nicholson and Mitzi Short - who all met when they worked at PepsiCo. Each of these women are impressively accomplished executives in their own right with a deep bench of experience working in competitive and traditionally male dominated industries.
They have a lot to teach us. And in fact so much so they recently published a book this fall called You Should Smile More: How to Dismantle Gender Bias in the Workplace.
What I love about their new book is how you get a variety of different perspectives and approaches on the same issues many, many women have faced over the course of their careers. Yet they don’t just rely on their own experience, they interviewed women and men to hear about their experiences and perspectives – and included these in the book as well.
In this final episode of Season 3, three of the six sisters: Lori, Dawn and Cie generously offer us a taster of their new book. They bring a fresh perspective on improving the lives of women in the workplace in the face of offenses at work that gradually have an outsized impact on women. You’ll hear some super practical ways women can respond to gender bias in the workplace and how women and men together can build intentionally inclusive and productive cultures at work.
Key Takeaways from this Episode:
Culture is Critical
· Despite leaders’ best intentions, gender bias continues in the workplace.
· Leaders need to create an environment where people can speak truth to power and speak openly about the things that get in the way of having a great culture. This can include women giving direct feedback to other leaders about how they experience gender bias in the workplace.
· No matter how hard you try, you lose touch when you have a more senior position – men and women. And if you don't put mechanisms in place where people feel comfortable coming to you, you've become part of the problem.
· During COVID, people realized they have more choices for how and where they work. However, microaggressions in work culture were just as common in virtual spaces (think Zoom) as they were in physical spaces (the office).
· Men and women come out of college and business school today used to dealing with each other pretty equally. Yet in corporate culture which has been passed down through decades this is not the case. Often, the leader will have a vision for a gender-neutral company that attracts and retains talent. But things that happened in the past get passed down inadvertently. Younger people today are almost less equipped to deal with it.
Include Men
· Women alone can’t solve gender bias; it’s critical for men to be part of the conversation and solution.
· Women are saying ‘this still happens all the time’ while men honestly say, ‘I didn't know that was a thing’.
· Men and women together need to create an inclusive culture that expects and reinforces inclusive behaviors from everyone in the company.
Make an Impact
· Fixing micro events are usually small things, so they're easy to change or adapt. But those small changes can have a big impact.
· Just being in the room, gives you the power to make a difference.
· This stuff shows up every day in every way. When you're in the room where it happens, it’s an opportunity to say something. You have to go from being a bystander to being an ally.
· Women tend to think they’re the only one that experiencing gender bias or at first they tend to chalk it up to being the most junior person in the room. Until another women opens up.
More in the Book
· We didn't want to write another book where we put the burden on women to solve all the issues. We also speak to bystanders in the room, men, or women, to help them become allies. If you don't bring men, and specifically white men, who are in charge, into the conversation you won’t create change.
· While women have similar experiences of dealing with bias in the workplace, each of us have very different ways to approach this bias. The book is organized to help women to navigate these situations: in one situation you might identify with Mitzi and in another one with Cie. That's the power in having six voices.
· Many of the situations we dealt with in our careers still exist today except they are more subtle and therefore harder to deal with.
To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at winnie@winnifred.org.
Reach out and tell me what was helpful about today’s episode or any suggestions you have for my show.
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I look forward to sharing another transformative conversation with you next week!
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Season 3; Episode 8: Intention Matters with Marianne Manseau
Marianne Manseau is the Area Vice President for Pernod Ricard a global wine and spirits group whose ambition is to turn every social interaction into a genuine sharing experience. While Marianne’s friendly spirit is immediately apparent, underneath that smile is an extremely intentional, hardworking, and ambitious woman. Marianne shares her experience learning to be vulnerable, why intention matters and how her father and three brothers helped shaped the person she is today.
Key Takeaways from this Episode:
Listen to your team
· Listen to your team’s pain points and show that you listened to them.
· Be intentional about bringing people in earlier to get their buy-in, make them to be a bigger part of the process than just their feedback.
· “Bring folks to the launch and not just the crash.”
Be vulnerable
· When you're uncomfortable, that's when you should think about how vulnerability might help. I have learned to get comfortable with the uncomfortable. That's where I feel I'm growing. And I feel like I'm giving my team the best of me, because I'm allowing myself to go through the process with them and not just lead them through it.
· Show more vulnerability. I can lead the team without having all the answers.
· Be authentic in the moment. If you’re, scared, don't be afraid to say it. Share what you think along with what might go wrong.
· There's a range of emotions we have as humans, but we still have to make tough decisions.
Valuable lessons
· Business lesson from my dad: Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance.
· Feedback is critically important. Ask for it and be willing to hear it and process it. Figure out where you need to action. You don't have to action on every single element. Let go of feedback that doesn't serve you as long as you really allow yourself to hear it. It.
· Intention matters. Be sure to express your intention so people know where you’re coming from. By giving people insight into your intentions, you can also show your flexibility and where you’re open to change.
Experiences in becoming a leader as a woman of color
· How we see ourselves is not always how others see us.
· Some people may only see me as a person of color or as a female and others may not see that at all. I'm a strong leader with the potential to do more. I also happen to be a strong woman of color.
· I had three older brothers. I quickly had to learn to hold my own. I never thought it was unique to be in a room full of males. They all championed me in very different ways, but they played a role in driving my confidence. They see toughness in me when I feel defeated, they see results that I've achieved when I might just be focusing on a missed opportunity. I sometimes see myself as a little sister. They see me as a leader.
· Early in my career, I was fortunate to have a really great manager: Greg Ellison. He set the tone for me in this industry. He didn't treat me differently than the other males on the team, but he was intentional about creating space for me, and he taught me how to create space for myself. He didn't allow me not to speak up in meetings. He celebrated me when I pushed back or challenged ideas. He always had my back. He was the first professional extension of how my brothers treated me.
· In my current role, there was a powerful moment when I interviewed an African American male candidate. He said to me, right up front in the interview, ‘There aren't many people that look like you and I in the company, especially in leadership, and you being in your role gives me hope that will start to change’. It reminded me how I look has an impact on others and how they see me as a leader.
To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at winnie@winnifred.org.
Reach out and tell me what was helpful about today’s episode or any suggestions you have for my show.
Please leave a review and tell someone else about this show; look below for some instructions on how to leave a review on Apple Podcasts.
I look forward to sharing another transformative conversation with you next week!
How to leave a rating or review in Apple Podcasts (on an iOS device)
1. Open the Podcasts app.
2. Choose “Search” from the bottom row of icons and enter the name of the show (i.e., “Transformative Leadership Conversations”) into the search field
3. Select the show under Shows (not under Episodes)
4. Scroll down past the first few episodes until you see Ratings & Reviews
5. Click “Write a Review” underneath the displayed reviews from other listeners. You’ll then have the option to rate us on a 5-star scale, and write a review if you choose (you can rate without writing, if you’d prefer)
Season 3; Episode 7: How a Bike Accident Build a Leader with Gary Hamilton
Gary Hamilton is the Senior Vice President for WSP a global management and consultancy services for the built and natural environment. With 25 years of experience in designing and building healthcare facilities globally, Gary is passionate not just about his work but how he shows up as a leader and being a role model for others. Gary’s flair for connecting with people and pushing himself past boundaries is truly inspirational.
Key Takeaways from this Episode:
Be a Thought Leader
· When I moved to the US after establishing myself in the UK, I had to do something different to stand out. Being a thought leader was brand new. Networking is a big part of that.
· The biggest challenge for me was determining what I wanted my path to be. I chose critical care environments because of a bike accident I had when I was 18. I became a thought leader on what the building/engineering needs are to prevent infections during surgeries by doing research on these things and writing about it.
My Bike Accident
· After my bike accident, I didn’t think I’d ever play soccer again – doctors said I wouldn’t. But eventually through surgery, physical therapy, and training, I was able to, I even represented my university at collegiate games.
· Even against the odds, I became victorious. It created my mindset that I could do anything. So powerful!
· It became the foundation for my passion in healthcare. And it gives me a point of connection with clients.
· It became my passion, what drives me. I created a non-profit called Dreams Reality Foundation. If I can give back and give access to underserved communities, I could change lives. Impact communities positively.
My Inspiration
· Rick Romy, an incredible mentor: In 2019, I became a Fellow of the American Society of Healthcare Engineers in Baltimore. Biggest moment of my career. Early 40’s. Not a lot of Fellows look like me. Rick sat with my family at the ceremony. He had supported me in everything. Taught me to always show up and show out.
· As a person of color, as an immigrant, I never used color as an impediment. I don’t see it as one, but I always feel like I have something to prove.
· My mom is such an inspiration. 4 kids. Dad left when I was 10. She was alone without a job but she was entrepreneurial. I would sell in the market, take days off school, because I had to help the family.
· I lead with a smile, empathy, and compassion. I came from nothing, a ghetto community, I even wrote a book, “Ghetto Youth’s Bible”. I have no choice but to be appreciative and upbeat because I know the other side. It drives me to do my best and be my best. I never take the success for granted.
· My experience in a career where I’m truly a minority also drives me. I was the first Black Partner for a company that was almost 150 years old. I didn’t realize what a feat that was, I didn’t know that no one had traveled that path, but I was completely fearless. I just wanted to do and be my best and continued to push through tough circumstances. It doesn’t matter your color, your background, if you’re doing your work, people will notice.
“I am not the only one”
· It doesn’t matter if you think what you’re going thru is truly unique, it’s not. There’s a lot of people who have been travelers in the same path and they have gone through similar challenges.
· Make sure you choose people that can help you, a circle of friends, supporters, and mentors that can assist you when you’re going through those circumstances.
· Be positive about it, that will help. Knowing that you are not the only one can actually drive a positive mindset.
· There’s always a light at the end of the tunnel even when it seems your darkest hour. That’s my mindset toward any circumstances, no matter how tough they might seem.
My past truly dictates my future
· Leadership is not maintaining the status quo, it is building something truly unique, realizing your vision, and how you want to write your story. As long as you are committed to your goals and vision, you will win.
· Be mindful of how you treat people, it shows who you are. There was a project that we didn’t do well on, and a team member was getting defensive with the client, but I promised the client we would do better, “I am a man of my word”. The client told me my reputation was known; I was known as a trusted client partner.
· People appreciate it that they see my heart, my passion, and that I am driven to do and be the best I can. Shines thru my job and how I lead. I have a team that I have a tremendous relationship with.
· I continue to lead and challenge the status quo, not to go against the grain, but to prove to myself and to others that it is possible. If you approach or do it differently, you may achieve even better results.
Networking enhancing leadership
· Networking is not just building your brand. Networking is building your reputation, building who you want to be. And continuing to live it.
· For a young African American that chooses engineering, chooses leadership, chooses to take their career to the highest level – don’t be daunted by the fact that you might be a minority in leadership, or a minority traversing your path, if you push hard and work hard, and are truly committed to your craft, there is a route to be successful. I don’t use my start or my color as an impediment, I think you can use it as something that drives you and pushes you to the high point of anything you do. Keep pushing. That is my story.
· My leadership style: I lead with a smile. I lead with compassion and empathy.
· I choose compassion over empathy when I’m leading because I want the people who work for me, to know that I’m going to stand side-by-side with them, figure stuff out with them rather than telling them I understand how they feel. I’m going to hold their hand, help them through whatever challenges, whatever decisions. And if they make the decision on their own, I’m going to support them. My employees appreciate this because I empower them to make decisions and empower them to be great. Compassion is everything.
Links & Resources:
· Ghetto Youth's Bible: Wise Words For Ghetto Youth On The Rise
· DTR Foundation
· Your Network is Your Net Worth in Engineering: Seize Every Opportunity
To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at winnie@winnifred.org.
Reach out and tell me what was helpful about today’s episode or any suggestions you have for my show.
Please leave a review and tell someone else about this show; look below for some instructions on how to leave a review on Apple Podcasts.
I look forward to sharing another transformative conversation with you next week!
How to leave a rating or review in Apple Podcasts (on an iOS device)
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Open the Podcasts app.
-
Choose “Search” from the bottom row of icons and enter the name of the show (i.e., “Transformative Leadership Conversations”) into the search field
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Select the show under Shows (not under Episodes)
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Scroll down past the first few episodes until you see Ratings & Reviews
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Click “Write a Review” underneath the displayed reviews from other listeners. You’ll then have the option to rate us on a 5-star scale, and write a review if you choose (you can rate without writing, if you’d prefer)
Season 3; Episode 6: You Have To Go First with Lindsey Saletta
Lindsey Saletta is the Chief Operating Officer at west~bourne, a food and lifestyle brand that began as the first zero-waste neighborhood restaurant in New York City and is now piloting conscious capitalism in the food industry. Lindsey is an experienced multichannel consumer goods business leader with a focus on organizations experiencing transformational change. She’s also a strategic systems thinker and customer-centric leader ruthlessly focused on profitable revenue growth and cost optimization. I love Lindsey’s clarity on her own strengths and how those same strengths can sometimes be barriers to growth. Lindsey is that ambitious and vibrant leader you wish you could call to help you navigate your own career. So, here’s your chance!
Key Takeaways from this Episode:
You have to go first. Be vulnerable.
· When a relationship isn’t working, you have to go first to make change happen. But it’s also a two-way relationship.
· Learn to ask and check in with people about how you’re doing. It’s powerful because it allows people to accept the change you’re working on and create more safety in the relationship.
The problem might be you.
· You have tremendous room for growth when you realize you've exhausted every one of your tools and you're still not through the problem and you realize that the problem might be you.
· When you go inside yourself and rearrange some of the things about yourself and then come back to whatever that external problem was many times you can realize, “Oh, I can solve this now!”.
Be open to the idea that your personality can change.
· I just saw myself as somebody who had a strong personality and that was never going to change. I realized that if I'm not going to change, this is as far as I go, and that was not an acceptable outcome. But I could learn to have these skills. The big breakthrough for me was that empathy was something that can be learned and practiced and improved upon.
· I'm an ENTJ (Myers-Briggs) and that is 100% who I am, but you can learn the skills that are out of preference. It dramatically improved my relationships at work because I was able to decenter myself, set my ego aside just a little bit, and I was able to open myself up to the possibility that I could be softer.
Listen first.
· Don't necessarily be the first to speak in that board meeting or in that conference room. If you wait, you listen, you understand the context. You have a little empathy for the other people in the room, and then you speak with a more informed perspective.
Don't judge the messenger, judge the information.
· It is important to get as much information as possible to make the best decision you can. It doesn't matter where or who that is coming from. What's important is that you get the information.
· I was creating a toxic relationship between me and an advisor because I was so focused on letting her know my perspective. She felt like she had to fight to get her opinion heard, and then I didn't like her opinion and I shut it down. But if I kept my mouth shut, she might say something that I didn't know, and I could benefit from it. She doesn't make the decisions. I make the decisions. What is her opinion other than something I can learn from?
It's okay if you're not the only shiny one.
· Hire people smarter than you. You don't need to be afraid of someone out-shining you. There is room for all of us. It makes everybody better if everyone shines just as brightly as they possibly can.
· I'm very much in the mindset of operating from a space of abundance rather than scarcity, when it comes to how many people we can have at the top.
A career is a long game, you can only go so far by yourself.
· There's a saying that if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. That saying is right for a reason, you really need to be able to learn to bring other people with you. If you end up working so hard to get all these things done that you found yourself alone at the end, that's a very quick way to burn out.
· If you're doing everything by yourself, you're often doing it with brute force and burning all of your political capital. If you run into an area where you need help and someone could make it easier for you, are they going to volunteer to help when you've steamrolled them over the last four meetings? No, absolutely not. That's when you start getting in your own way.
At the end of the day, it's all supposed to be fun.
· If it's going to be this hard, if we're going to work this hard on something, it also has to be fun.
Resources
· Camilla Marcus
· Global Brands Group
· Li&Fung
· Principles by Ray Dalio
To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at winnie@winnifred.org.
Reach out and tell me what was helpful about today’s episode or any suggestions you have for my show.
Please leave a review and tell someone else about this show; look below for some instructions on how to leave a review on Apple Podcasts.
I look forward to sharing another transformative conversation with you next week!
How to leave a rating or review in Apple Podcasts (on an iOS device)
-
Open the Podcasts app.
-
Choose “Search” from the bottom row of icons and enter the name of the show (i.e., “Transformative Leadership Conversations”) into the search field
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Select the show under Shows (not under Episodes)
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Scroll down past the first few episodes until you see Ratings & Reviews
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Click “Write a Review” underneath the displayed reviews from other listeners. You’ll then have the option to rate us on a 5-star scale, and write a review if you choose (you can rate without writing, if you’d prefer)
Season 3; Episode 5: I See You with Cassandra Rose
Cassandra Rose is a Founding Partner and DEI Practice Co-Lead at Meritarc, a human capital software company and provider of advisory services. Cassandra helps organizations fully leverage their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion strategy and enables HR and People Leaders to connect the value of their talent with their mission. She has also been recognized as a Top 100 DEI Leader in 2021 by Mogul. Cassandra is also a compelling speaker on the topics of benefits equity and centering the BIPOC employee journey for transformative employee engagement. Our conversation will challenge your thinking on all these topics – and more!
Key Takeaways from this Episode:
Overcoming Difficulties as a Leader
· Be truthful and honest, always. Say I don't know, but here's what I do know. Here's what I'm going to do to best advocate and serve you. People respect you when we’re transparent. They may not like that answer, but they know you're being authentic in what you're able to do and what you can't promise.
· Don't allow yourself to be so caught up in just trying to be perfect for your people that you disappoint them and yourself when you can't deliver.
· Having a child has helped me to stop being so obsessive about work.
· Being responsive to people is critical but I need to have boundaries even if the world is on fire. I have to prioritize my own mental health and my loved ones which has helped me to be a better leader.
Advocacy & Recognition
· When people advocate for you, you grow 10 sizes.
· When you see that someone is doing good work; advocate for them, sponsor them, mentor them, back them up. I promise you they're probably doing their best. And by questioning them and doubting them, that's when the imposter syndrome starts to set in.
· If you see someone doing great work, don't wait until they do the most fantastic thing ever in their career. Recognize people in those small moments too.
Leading as a Woman of Color
· When you’re “the only” it's very easy to want to shrink yourself, to want to not show who you are, because you feel like who you are, might get rejected, or that who you are is not good enough to be in that room. Because of that experience I focus on making sure others are seen.
· I’ve gotten really good at focusing on my expertise. No matter which role I had, I knew I had my mind, my intelligence.
· I knew that if I was in this room, I deserved to be in this room. I may not look like everyone around me, but there's a reason I'm in here and in that confidence, I thought, then why shouldn't I show who I am?
Career Advice
· Become an expert at every level. Take the time to get really get good at the thing you're currently doing. When you're a leader you're going to be great because you took the time to understand the mechanics of the way things work. You'll be better able to support people and grow future leaders because they can learn from the mistakes that you made.
· There are mundane aspects of every job but lean into the parts that are joyous about your role and take those parts with you into the next thing that you do.
· If you're always comparing yourself, turn off those social media notifications.
· Always be inspired. When one woman wins, I think all women win.
· It's a process to every day lean into what you're good at; every human being has a gift or a skill or something that they bring that only they know how to do. That's where your confidence can really blossom.
Connecting the Dots: Benefits, DEI
· Benefits equity is about is health equity. Having access to healthcare is a human right.
· Don’t wait for people to come to the table; proactively go to people and say, yes you deserve care; let's partner together.
· HR started out as “Personnel” which was essentially doing paperwork and making sure people got paid. Now HR has grown into creating cultures, creating little microcosms of humanity, and finding out what we can do to better attract and retain talent.
· Data allows you to see the reality of why benefits are not accessible or why DEI isn’t taking root in your organization. Lack of awareness at all levels throughout most organizations is what holds people back from accessing what an organization offers.
· Let’s stop for a second and truly understand what does it mean to be inclusive? It means that people can be seen for who they are.
Connecting with Cassandra
· Website
Resources
· Skim
To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at winnie@winnifred.org.
Reach out and tell me what was helpful about today’s episode or any suggestions you have for my show.
Please leave a review and tell someone else about this show; look below for some instructions on how to leave a review on Apple Podcasts.
I look forward to sharing another transformative conversation with you next week!
How to leave a rating or review in Apple Podcasts (on an iOS device)
-
Open the Podcasts app.
-
Choose “Search” from the bottom row of icons and enter the name of the show (i.e., “Transformative Leadership Conversations”) into the search field
-
Select the show under Shows (not under Episodes)
-
Scroll down past the first few episodes until you see Ratings & Reviews
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Click “Write a Review” underneath the displayed reviews from other listeners. You’ll then have the option to rate us on a 5-star scale, and write a review if you choose (you can rate without writing, if you’d prefer)
Season 3; Episode 4: The Shared Journey is Where the Richness Lies with Peter and Holly Gordon
Peter Gordon is the Chief Investment Officer and Head of Commercial Real Estate Debt for a large asset management firm. Holly Gordon is the Chief Impact Officer at Participant Media, overseeing the company’s social impact strategy and campaigns, furthering Participant’s mission to create storytelling that inspires positive social change.
Key Takeaways from this Episode:
Words, Behavior & Connection
· Label the conversation: Is this a vent session? Is it a decision-making session? Is it brainstorming?
· If it's vent session, ask the person venting: do you think that person meant to do what they did? If not, then rethink the complaint and change your approach. There's a lot that’s invisible in everyone's conversations.
· Words set the stage and actions define it and you're defined by your actions, not by your words. We can float words out there, but at the end of the day, it's how we consistently behave that defines us.
· Stop and say, ‘What am I afraid of?’ I'm having a reaction to this conversation, and here's why: I'm afraid that this might happen… What makes us most agitated has some kind of fear around it. Fight or flight mode is about survival. If you can identify it, you can start to let it go, because it usually can be worked out.
· Walking meetings, even on the phone, is different than sitting across the table from each other or being on Zoom. When you're moving, it has a different kind of physiological effect, and it creates feelings of connection.
Safety & Untangling the Toxic Workplace
· The overlap between work and home life, can build on one another in a great way, or in a destructive way. In a safe workplace, some people open up and other people almost go backwards.
· Is there a component of their home life, that they haven't had that kind of autonomy and freedom of thought, and they're not sure what to do with it?
· Don’t hide behind the phrase “toxic workplace.” Instead, you need to unpack the dynamics behind why you’re not happy in that workplace. Also reflect on your own contribution that you identify as areas for growth.
The Great Resignation
· Reflect on which dynamics at work are difficult? Is it just one or two individuals? Is it a lack of shared values?
· It's a lot of work to decide to stay or quit. That's why people just stay out of exhaustion or quit and haven't really figured out why they quit or what they should be doing differently.
· If you don't figure out why you are quitting, you can carry that baggage to the next place.
Situational Leadership
· There's more than one type of leadership, there's a spectrum. Not one type of leadership works in isolation. You have to adapt. On one end of the spectrum is leadership that offers vision, guidance, and direction; the other end of the spectrum offers compassion and being in the journey with you.
· Leaders need to recognize the spectrum and do what is necessary at the right time with the right person. Some perform at a much better level at one end of the spectrum than the other, but you need both.
· You need to earn my respect, so I will follow you, and I need to earn your respect every day so that you will follow me. People are trusting that leaders have their best interests at heart.
· Leadership is better and more productive when less hierarchical. It's less about structure and more about how you deliver conversations and respect one another.
Advice to co-CEOs & co-Founders
· Being a co-CEO or co-founder is a lot like a marriage. Reflect deeply on what you both imagined to be true and what you want to be true. What can begin as a slight difference becomes the Grand Canyon over time.
· Any kind of co-leadership role demands trust, respect, loyalty, feeling valued, appreciated, etc. When you only have your own perspective, mediation (bringing in a third person) can help work through challenges and remind both people that they have the same shared goal, the health of their company.
Work & Home Life
· The work that you do in your marriage, your personal relationships, and the way you apply that to your work, are connected.
· The old model of, “I shut the door and go home, and I'm a different person at home than I am at work” is dangerous. You should be the same person at both places. The person and the principles that guide you shouldn't change from one place to the other.
Finding your partner and equal
· Deep trust, strong communication, independence with interdependence is critical to relationships. So is loyalty, respect, attention, and interest in your relationships, will achieve, over time, a kind of understanding.
· Having different skillsets and looking at the world differently helped us recognize and appreciate that each person brings a different skill to the relationship.
· Painful cycles are normal to any relationship.
Resources
· Unfinished Business by Anne-Marie Slaughter
· Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler
· How to tame your Advice Monster TEDx with Michael Bungay Stanier
· Girl Rising
To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at winnie@winnifred.org.
Reach out and tell me what was helpful about today’s episode or any suggestions you have for my show.
Please leave a review and tell someone else about this show; look below for some instructions on how to leave a review on Apple Podcasts.
I look forward to sharing another transformative conversation with you next week!
How to leave a rating or review in Apple Podcasts (on an iOS device)
-
Open the Podcasts app.
-
Choose “Search” from the bottom row of icons and enter the name of the show (i.e., “Transformative Leadership Conversations”) into the search field
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Select the show under Shows (not under Episodes)
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Scroll down past the first few episodes until you see Ratings & Reviews
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Click “Write a Review” underneath the displayed reviews from other listeners. You’ll then have the option to rate us on a 5-star scale, and write a review if you choose (you can rate without writing, if you’d prefer)
Season 3; Episode 3: Storytelling is Our Most Powerful Tool for Change with Holly Gordon
Holly Gordon is the Chief Impact Officer at Participant Media, overseeing the company’s social impact strategy and campaigns, furthering Participant’s mission to create storytelling that inspires positive social change. Prior to Participant, Holly co-founded Girl Rising, a global campaign for girls’ education. Holly was also an Executive Producer for Girl Rising, the film at the center of the movement. Forbes Magazine named the Girl Rising campaign the #1 Most Dynamic Social Initiative of 2012. Holly was selected by Fast Company as a member of the League of Extraordinary Women and named by Newsweek/Daily Beast as one of 125 Women of Impact. Earlier in her career, Holly was a producer at ABC News.
Key Takeaways from this Episode:
The Power of Storytelling
· Use the power of storytelling to make the world a better place by inspiring, empowering, and connecting community leaders on the front lines of change.
· Stories live inside you, they become purpose when they are expressed outside of you. Change happens when you share that story with someone and you make an agreement to do the thing, it is not an individual sport. Storytelling is our most powerful tool for change.
· In everything we do, we’re telling ourselves a story about what is fixed versus what is changeable. They are powerful stories that are usually reinforced by society. Think about the story you're telling yourself, and then challenge yourself with a different way of thinking.
· You can move people from their seats to the streets with amazing stories.
Inspire, Empower, Connect
· Emotions are really important in leadership. Activating emotions are hope and inspiration that make you feel activated towards something. They are a motivating force.
· Empower: before we do anything, we ask ourselves, can I do it? You need to create the tools, opportunities, or pathways for people to move from inspired to action.
· Connection between people is core to making change in any organization or structure. The question that you're answering is, what is everyone else doing? People who believe the same things, catalyze them, give them an opportunity, and then connect them to each other. And then you've got a movement!
· Persuasion vs. Telling: Persuasion is often confused with telling. Persuasion is what happens between sharing a vision and then waiting, listening for the response. It’s hearing people, their fears and hopes, and listening enough that you have persuaded them to join the fight.
Leadership
· I wake up and I ask, how can I be of service? If you ask yourself that question, you never go wrong, because your incentives are oriented towards setting a vision and listening to what others need in support of it.
· Leadership is about understanding what people are afraid of and trying to make a consistently supportive environment. Does everyone on the team have what they need to bring their full gifts to our work?
· The history of leadership has been very much about who's holding power, being right, and who has the answers. In the 21st century, leadership is all about choice. Our employees have many choices about where they can work. Leadership becomes a more humanistic-focused effort about communication and understanding. It’s a re-imagining of capitalism, from a shareholder perspective to a stakeholder perspective.
· Leadership leans into vision. It is about telling a story of possibility that other people can imagine and buy into (e.g., Martin Luther King, Jr.). A challenge to achieve something that's just out of reach, but possible.
· Management is the process, systems, structures, and the operational nuts and bolts of getting multiple people to achieve that vision. It's the marriage of vision and management that goes from being a single actor to a leader of an organization. Leadership is about relationships and partnership.
Books
· Immunity to Change
· The Athena Doctrine: How Women (and the Men Who Think Like Them) Will Rule the Future
People & Organizations
· Participant Media
· Girl Rising
· Hello Sunshine: Reese Witherspoon
· ARRAY: Ava DuVernay
· MACRO: Charles King
· National Domestic Workers Alliance: Ai-jen Poo
· Civic Georgia
· Lara Galinsky
To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at winnie@winnifred.org.
Reach out and tell me what was helpful about today’s episode or any suggestions you have for my show.
Please leave a review and tell someone else about this show; look below for some instructions on how to leave a review on Apple Podcasts.
I look forward to sharing another transformative conversation with you next week!
How to leave a rating or review in Apple Podcasts (on an iOS device)
-
Open the Podcasts app.
-
Choose “Search” from the bottom row of icons and enter the name of the show (i.e., “Transformative Leadership Conversations”) into the search field
-
Select the show under Shows (not under Episodes)
-
Scroll down past the first few episodes until you see Ratings & Reviews
-
Click “Write a Review” underneath the displayed reviews from other listeners. You’ll then have the option to rate us on a 5-star scale, and write a review if you choose (you can rate without writing, if you’d prefer)
Season 3; Episode 2: Freedom, Responsibility and Community with Peter Gordon
Peter Gordon is the Chief Investment Officer and Head of Commercial Real Estate Debt for a large asset management firm. Peter is the type of leader who instinctively forms his leadership philosophy and approach and then realizes there are a few books out there that back up those instincts. Peter’s leadership analogies range from parenthood, tennis, golf, political ideologies…and through his metaphors we gain some fabulous insights.
Key Takeaways from this Episode:
Leadership, like parenthood, is a shift from being about you to something bigger than you
· Working with people, towards a shared goal, seeing the energy they bring… the reflected glory of other people's successes, all of those things, have become an important part of what gets me up in the morning.
· Leading people has helped me articulate what I think are my strengths, and to look at other people and see the strengths in them.
Finding the right balance between autonomy and agency is like a tennis racket grip
· If you grip a tennis racket too tightly, your swing changes, your flow changes, and your shot comes out differently. If you learn how to moderate your grip, then you get a better result out of the tennis racket.
· There's enough pressure that you feel someone is there and cares, but it's not so tight that it's asphyxiating, or changing your behavior or changing the shape of things.
Bring others into the conversation
· Meeting someone for the first time, observe them, see how they contribute and how they add to the whole.
· Bring people in, make them feel welcome, understand where they're going to contribute.
· Use all sorts of tricks, like humor, self-deprecation, teasing, anything to get people to feel recognized, and they're not just joining as ‘person number three’ in the group.
Psychological safety is essential
· If you're not threatened, physiologically or mentally, then you do your best work. Then you're more willing to push the boundaries, say something that comes top of mind, just share.
· If someone doesn't want to share, is feeling threatened, is feeling psychologically out of sorts, then clashes are more pronounced. Our natural reaction is to say, ‘That person's making me feel this way, and therefore I'm reacting to it that way’, and then you get into these spirals, and it takes a lot of work to unpack.
· In work, you don't give time to those relationships in the same way that you do in your personal life. That's why it's incumbent on all of us to tread a little more cautiously into work relationships.
· Psychological safety applies to flexibility in your thinking and your approach to people.
A well-functioning team needs a mix of people with complementary skills
· I like existing in the land of the misfit toys, because it means that there's a lot of different toys there that bring something different to the mix. You don't want everyone to be producing in a certain way with a linear thought process.
· Admire the skills people have that you don't have. It's about creating complements of skills to create a better whole. Help the complementary skillsets work better together.
Leadership is a culmination of your life experiences
· Leadership is not an on/off switch. It is something that comes from your life experiences; the culmination of things people have said to you along the way, the experiences you've had, the reactions you’ve received. You have to establish what kind of a leader you are which might change at different times in your life.
· Is there ever a day where you're not learning? Yes, the day you walk out, and you get run over by a bus.
· The learning, while it's painful, very quickly turns into satisfaction and enjoyment.
The freedoms of leadership require personal responsibility
· With freedom comes massive, personal responsibility. You have to show up. You have to do your bit. No one's telling you, do this, do that.
· Even the most junior person in a group has the ability to lead, to say this is what I can do and I'm leading you to give me more, because I can handle it. That's leadership, too, reverse leadership. It's really important, because now the group starts to come together in a different way, which bleeds into personal responsibility.
Communities create an entrepreneurial spirit
· Creating an entrepreneurial spirit in large organizations is like being a parent in the crowd watching your child play a sport in middle school. Your boss is cheering you. It's enthusiastic. It's not focusing on the stuff that you're doing badly; it’s focusing on the good stuff.
· Communities, by definition, are not about the self. It’s about how you respect and champion people, how you recognize the good work they're doing. Then, people don’t want to let the community down.
· Place a greater level of importance on, does it make them happy? If it makes them happy, then they will go back and get more. It is Pavlovian. You will go back and get more. Success will beget success.
· Enjoy and celebrate the small victories and don’t dwell on the things that go wrong, because stuff goes wrong all the time. It’s the ability to be happy about other people's little things, little things that go right.
Links & Resources:
· The Body Keeps the Score
· Forget Flexibility. Your Employees Want Autonomy
To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at winnie@winnifred.org.
Reach out and tell me what was helpful about today’s episode or any suggestions you have for my show.
Please leave a review and tell someone else about this show; look below for some instructions on how to leave a review on Apple Podcasts.
I look forward to sharing another transformative conversation with you next week!
How to leave a rating or review in Apple Podcasts (on an iOS device)
-
Open the Podcasts app.
-
Choose “Search” from the bottom row of icons and enter the name of the show (i.e., “Transformative Leadership Conversations”) into the search field
-
Select the show under Shows (not under Episodes)
-
Scroll down past the first few episodes until you see Ratings & Reviews
-
Click “Write a Review” underneath the displayed reviews from other listeners. You’ll then have the option to rate us on a 5-star scale, and write a review if you choose (you can rate without writing, if you’d prefer)
Sarah Snyder is the Founding Director of The Rose Castle Foundation whose mission is to equip leaders with the skills, tools, and habits needed to transform conflict. You know she’s for real when her other job is the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Special Advisor for Reconciliation.
Hi, everyone. Welcome to the third season of transformative leadership conversations with me, your host, Winnie da Silva.
“Storytelling is our most powerful tool for changing anything in the world today.”
This compelling quote, from one of my upcoming guests Holly Gordon, sums up my aspirational goal for this podcast. Sharing stories to change you, your leadership, your team, your company.
As an executive coach and leadership strategist for over 20 years, I've come to know and work with some pretty incredible people. This podcast is designed to share their inspiring stories and practical ideas you can use to develop yourself as a leader, as a person.
The first release for Season 3 is coming on March 1st. I’d like to give you a taste of these ten episodes you’re going to love.
Sarah Snyder is the Founding Director of The Rose Castle Foundation whose mission is to equip leaders with the skills, tools, and habits needed to transform conflict. My conversation with Sarah is like opening a set of Russian dolls; you encounter one story or insight just to discover another one – and another. You know she’s for real when her other job is the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Special Advisor for Reconciliation.
Peter Gordon is the Chief Investment Officer and Head of Commercial Real Estate Debt for a large asset management firm. Peter is the type of leader who instinctively forms his leadership philosophy and approach and then realizes there are a few books out there that back up those instincts. Peter’s leadership analogies range from parenthood, tennis, golf, political ideologies…and through his metaphors we gain some fabulous insights.
Holly Gordon is the Chief Impact Officer for Participant Media. While she doesn’t make the award-winning movies her company produces (An Inconvenient Truth, Spotlight, Green Book), Holly and her team build campaigns around these films to inspire action and change by partnering with grassroots organizations and activists on the front lines. Holly’s fascinating background paired with her breadth and depth of thinking on social change, storytelling, leadership - I can’t help but hope that Holly will write a book someday soon.
Next up will be a conversation with both Peter AND Holly. Yes, Peter and Holly are married and in this special episode, Peter and Holly generously share some details of how their marriage has influenced their own unique leadership perspectives. Our personal relationships are so important in shaping who we are, how we think and how we approach our work. You’ll love this compelling example of a relationship that is playful yet serious about ideas around leadership and more which will cause you to reflect on your own relationships and their impact on you.
Cassandra Rose is a Founding Partner and DEI Practice Co-Lead at Meritarc, a human capital software company and provider of advisory services. Cassandra helps organizations fully leverage their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion strategy and enables HR and People Leaders to connect the value of their talent with their mission. Cassandra is also a compelling speaker on the topics of benefits equity and centering the BIPOC employee journey for transformative employee engagement. Our conversation will challenge your thinking on all these topics – and more!
Lindsey Saletta is the Chief Operating Officer at west-bourne, a food and lifestyle brand that began as the first zero-waste neighborhood restaurant in New York City and is now piloting conscious capitalism in the food industry. I love Lindsey’s clarity on her own strengths and how those same strengths can sometimes be barriers to growth. Lindsey is that ambitious and vibrant leader you wish you could call to help you navigate your own career. So, here’s your chance!
Ajay Easo is the Managing Director at Accenture Interactive and Fjord. Ajay is a “leader of leaders” and has had multiple career iterations during his 21-year tenue at Accenture. Ajay is a big thinker and strategically keeps several balls in the air. But his real superpower is leading without others even realizing it. He prefers to elevate and collaborate with people rather than always having to lead from the front. Our conversation touches on his leadership and the future trends of leadership itself.
Marianne Manseau is an Area Vice President at Pernod Ricard, a wine and spirits company whose ambition is to turn every social interaction into a genuine sharing experience. While Marianne’s friendly spirit is immediately apparent, underneath that smile is an extremely intentional, hardworking, and ambitious woman. Marianne shares her experience learning to be vulnerable, why intention matters and how her father and three brothers helped shaped the person she is today.
Gary Hamilton is a Senior Vice President and Healthcare Practice Leader for WSP which provides management and consultancy services to the built and natural environment. With 25 years of experience in designing and building healthcare facilities globally, Gary is passionate not just about his work but how he shows up as a leader and being a role model for others. Gary’s flair for connecting with people and pushing himself past boundaries is inspirational.
The Band of Sisters is a tribe of six women who all met when they worked at PepsiCo. I had the pleasure of interviewing three of the six sisters: Lori Marcus, Katie Lacey and Cie Nicholson. These seasoned and savvy women bring a fresh perspective on improving the lives of women in the workplace as they focus on equipping organizations to build more inclusive and productive cultures. Their book You Should Smile More: How to Dismantle Gender Bias in the Workplace will be coming out this fall. Our conversation offers a sampling on this topic with some super practical ways women and men can proactively support women at work.
Season 2; Episode 10: Lessons on Leadership from the Great Depression with Edward Shrigley
For this last episode of Season Two, I have a surprise guest I am especially honored to introduce you to: my grandfather, Edward Shrigley. I wish I could interview my grandfather for this episode. But he died at 96 years old when I was just 17. So instead, I’m excited to tell you a few personal stories about my grandfather’s leadership during the Great Depression. My dad, Jim Shrigley and I did some research together where we pieced together some of these stories.
Key Takeaways from this Episode
Edward Shrigley’s five leadership principles:
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Integrity and trustworthiness are foundational
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- He convinced people to keep their money in the bank because he cultivated trust and demonstrated integrity – before, during and even after the Great Depression. The quality of his relationships was critical to his success.
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Shared sacrifice for the common good can lead to prosperity for all
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- People bought into his vision that, if everyone sacrificed for the common good, each of their individual decisions would eventually lead to prosperity for all. And while asking others to sacrifice, he was also willing to sacrifice by voluntarily giving up his salary for ten years.
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Focus on achieving short-term results without abandoning long-term goals
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- He made the connection between short and long-term results – keeping the bank solvent now, allowed the bank to pay its depositors in the long run.
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Continuously and constantly communicate with your stakeholders
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- My grandfather relentlessly and tirelessly communicated with his stakeholders for over ten years of uncertainty and hardship.
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Hold fast to the belief that hope, and persistence will contribute to success
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- His belief in the future of the bank enabled him to be persistent and to never give up hope. It was the fuel that drove him day to day, year to year.
To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at winnie@winnifred.org.
Reach out and tell me what was helpful about today’s episode or any suggestions you have for my show.
Please leave a review and tell someone else about this show; look below for some instructions on how to leave a review on Apple Podcasts.
I look forward to sharing another transformative conversation with you next week!
How to leave a rating or review in Apple Podcasts (on an iOS device)
1. Open the Podcasts app.
2. Choose “Search” from the bottom row of icons and enter the name of the show (i.e., “Transformative Leadership Conversations”) into the search field
3. Select the show under Shows (not under Episodes)
4. Scroll down past the first few episodes until you see Ratings & Reviews
5. Click “Write a Review” underneath the displayed reviews from other listeners. You’ll then have the option to rate us on a 5-star scale, and write a review if you choose (you can rate without writing, if you’d prefer)
Season 2; Episode 9: Get the Ball Down the Field with Gina L. Osborn
Gina L. Osborn is an Army Veteran, a retired Cyber FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge and is now a Keynote Speaker, Leadership Consultant and the host of the podcast Lead Like a Lady featuring remarkable women who have risen to the top in male dominated industries.
Key Takeaways from this Episode:
Leading as a Woman
· Sometimes men felt uncomfortable around me as the only woman, but you just ignore it and press on and do your job.
· There are a lot of reasons why people can treat you in a particular way, but if you think every time, it's because of me, I'm bad, I'm not good enough then you're never going to be successful, because you're always going to have a reason not to be.
· The amount of energy that goes into taking things personally can be exhausting. Instead, focus on getting the ball down the field, you don't have time for all the other nonsense.
· If someone says something that offends you, ask them, what did you mean by that? It's as simple as that. Either they’re going to explain it or they will say I'm sorry I didn't mean it that way. Then you can go about your business and get the ball down the field instead wasting your energy.
· Remember that everybody doesn't have to like you and you don't like everybody. It's called self-preservation.
· Like my mom used to tell me, it's none of your business what other people think about you. That takes a lot of pressure off, especially for women.
Leading Authentically
· Modified Albert Einstein: “She who attempts the absurd can achieve the impossible”; if you're not attempting the absurd, you are missing out because the impossible is pretty fantastic.
· Try things and don’t let obstacles stand in your way. If it's never been done before, then you can be the first one to do it.
· What percentage of your day is getting the ball down the field? What percentage of my day is criticizing yourself or wishing you had more confidence, or tolerating things that you shouldn't?
· Remember as a leader people are watching you; how you handle things, how you address people, how you nip things in the bud, how much effort and time you're putting into things.
· You’ll shine as an authentic leader when you are honing into your natural talent and skills sets.
· You learn by making mistakes, that's how they become a better leader.
· Don't take things so seriously; have more fun. You don't have to be perfect.
· Imperfections are what make you extraordinary. Take risks so you can grow from your mistakes.
Leading a Team
· My leadership challenge as an executive for the FBI was keeping my agents alive and making sure they go home to their families every night.
· You must know when to take risks and when you shouldn't.
· Develop a muscle memory to make critical decisions quickly. Don’t get stuck being afraid to fail or it's going to be the wrong decision.
· Micromanaging comes from leaders being afraid to make mistakes or fear of failure. But there's a lot of smart people out there that can come up with really good ideas if we let them do it.
· If you have a good team surrounding you, you are going to be successful no matter what.
· Develop the leaders that come behind you.
· Don’t be intimidated by people who are smarter than you. You don't have to be smarter than your team when you're the leader. You don't have to be the smartest person in the room.
· It’s important to make sure your people have ownership and investment in the mission of your company.
Resources
· Open Architecture: Guy Geier at TEDxTimesSquare
· Eero Saarinen, a Finnish-American architect and industrial designer
To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at winnie@winnifred.org.
Reach out and tell me what was helpful about today’s episode or any suggestions you have for my show.
Please leave a review and tell someone else about this show; look below for some instructions on how to leave a review on Apple Podcasts.
I look forward to sharing another transformative conversation with you next week!
How to leave a rating or review in Apple Podcasts (on an iOS device)
1. Open the Podcasts app.
2. Choose “Search” from the bottom row of icons and enter the name of the show (i.e., “Transformative Leadership Conversations”) into the search field
3. Select the show under Shows (not under Episodes)
4. Scroll down past the first few episodes until you see Ratings & Reviews
5. Click “Write a Review” underneath the displayed reviews from other listeners. You’ll then have the option to rate us on a 5-star scale, and write a review if you choose (you can rate without writing, if you’d prefer)
Season 2; Episode 8: Spices, Entrepreneurship and Social Impact with Ethan Frisch & Ori Zohar
Ethan Frisch and Ori Zohar are co-founders and co-owners of Burlap & Barrel. Burlap & Barrel sources unique, beautiful spices for professional chefs and home cooks. As a Public Benefit Corporation, they partner directly with smallholder farmers to source spices that have never been available in the US before and help improve the livelihoods of our partner farmers. As a Public Benefit Corporation Burlap & Barrel is building new international food supply chains that are equitable, transparent, and traceable.
Key Takeaways from this Episode:
Building a Sustainable Business
· We went from: what if we have to close the business, to we're about to run out of spices.
· We want to build a big business, a business that has impact, that has influence.
· Entrepreneurship is always a process of iterating and improving. Nothing is static.
· Now that we’ve grown, most of the things that happen in the business on a day-to-day basis are not my area of expertise.
· You can be an entrepreneur even if your area of expertise is in business operations; continue to find the right subject matter expert that you can partner with partner.
· We are lucky we get to live a life that we design. We get to decide what we do every morning. We get to make decisions for ourselves that most people in the world never get to make, and really don't have much hope of getting to make. The fact that we get to do this is already such a privilege, such a treat that, if the business had to close tomorrow, we are fine. We are healthy. We are in positions to make decisions about our lives, and the business doesn't define that. The business is an outcome of that, but not definitive
Avoiding the Silicon Valley Model
· Create a sustainable, long-term business that isn't optimizing for a crazy exit in five years; build a healthy, happy business.
· The crazy, venture-backed, gigantic companies and founder as hero creating a new world is too stressful. Use other inspiring, quirky, funny companies for inspiration that have grown organically, have a deep and interesting culture of their own.
· We disagreed with the advice we got from a startup accelerator program; and it turns out that what we did instead saved us from the pandemic.
· Not relying on venture money forced us to be lean, thoughtful and to create more clever solutions because we couldn’t just hire a senior person to come in to fix things.
Building a Healthy Partnership
· Starting this business was a new phase of a longstanding friendship. Having had one experience together of entrepreneurship meant that we understood how our skillsets and interests were going to complement each other.
· Shared values can help partners navigate challenging decisions.
· We’re constantly checking in to see how we need to adjust our roles as the business grows.
· When we disagree, it means we're working on something important. We have arrived at different conclusions with essentially the same information, and why? Tension is not, necessarily a negative thing, and in fact, it's been an overall a source of positive energy and it pushes us in the right directions.
Our Toolkit:
· Put in the time and energy and explicit focus to create a conflict resolution process including a toolkit and common language.
· We ask ourselves how strongly we feel about something – on a scale of 1-10. The person who feels more strongly about something gets to make the decision.
· We have a weekly meeting with no agenda. During that meeting we bring pebbles, not boulders. We want to talk about problems as early as possible. If it feels off or weird, we don't just sit and stew on it. These meetings create a safe space for us to bring whatever we're feeling. We can check in and disagree and talk through the things that are sitting the heaviest on our minds.
· We practice disagreements about the small things, so that when a big thing comes along, we’re ready.
Companies & Resources:
· Examples of social impact business:
o Rancho Gordo: sells incredible dried heirloom beans
o King Arthur Flour
· “Let My People Go Surfing” by the founder of Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard
· Pete Flint at NFX
Burlap & Barrel Articles
· New York Times
· Food & Wine
· Bloomberg
· Fast Company
· Wall Street Journal
To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at winnie@winnifred.org.
Reach out and tell me what was helpful about today’s episode or any suggestions you have for my show.
Please leave a review and tell someone else about this show; look below for some instructions on how to leave a review on Apple Podcasts.
I look forward to sharing another transformative conversation with you next week!
How to leave a rating or review in Apple Podcasts (on an iOS device)
1. Open the Podcasts app.
2. Choose “Search” from the bottom row of icons and enter the name of the show (i.e., “Transformative Leadership Conversations”) into the search field
3. Select the show under Shows (not under Episodes)
4. Scroll down past the first few episodes until you see Ratings & Reviews
5. Click “Write a Review” underneath the displayed reviews from other listeners. You’ll then have the option to rate us on a 5-star scale, and write a review if you choose (you can rate without writing, if you’d prefer)
Season 2; Episode 7: The Unexpected Impact of Design with Guy Geier
Guy Geier is the Managing Partner of FXCollaborative, and is responsible for the strategic direction of the firm and its operations. As an architect and senior leader for over 40 years, he is particularly passionate about how design impacts people and how they work; businesses and how they organize themselves to do great work; and at the same time how to minimize carbon imprint on the environment. His primary focus is having a strategic impact within a larger mission.
Key Takeaways from this Episode:
· Every decision needs to be made in its own context.
· Think of everything you do as having an impact. Everything you do think about how you're going to leave the world in a better place than you found it.
· Understand the interrelationship of everything you do and how it impacts each other.
· It doesn't matter what it looks like, what matters is that you're continually exploring.
· Create a culture of feedback by cultivating a real and vibrant dialogue with your team, with your clients.
· Using drawing as a problem-solving technique.
· Be flexible and open to new ideas, don’t restrict your thinking.
· You don’t have to be like everybody else; you can be different and still find your way in the world and do great work.
Resources
· Open Architecture: Guy Geier at TEDxTimesSquare
· Eero Saarinen, a Finnish-American architect and industrial designer
To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at winnie@winnifred.org.
Reach out and tell me what was helpful about today’s episode or any suggestions you have for my show.
Please leave a review and tell someone else about this show; look below for some instructions on how to leave a review on Apple Podcasts.
I look forward to sharing another transformative conversation with you next week!
How to leave a rating or review in Apple Podcasts (on an iOS device)
1. Open the Podcasts app.
2. Choose “Search” from the bottom row of icons and enter the name of the show (i.e., “Transformative Leadership Conversations”) into the search field
3. Select the show under Shows (not under Episodes)
4. Scroll down past the first few episodes until you see Ratings & Reviews
5. Click “Write a Review” underneath the displayed reviews from other listeners. You’ll then have the option to rate us on a 5-star scale, and write a review if you choose (you can rate without writing, if you’d prefer)
Season 2; Episode 6: Cash in Your Lottery Ticket with Jeff Harry
Jeff Harry is the Founder of Rediscover Your Play and his mission is to build psychologically safe workplaces through positive psychology and play. He was selected by Engagedly as one of the Top 100 HR Influencers of 2020 and one of the Top HR Influencers to Watch by BambooHR for his organizational development work around addressing toxicity in the workplace. His play work has been featured in the NY Times, The SF Chronicle, and CNN. His mission is to fully embrace our own playful nerdy genius — whatever that is — and by simply unleashing our inner child, we can find our purpose and, in turn, help to create a better world.
Key Takeaways from this Episode:
· We’re all sitting on a winning lottery ticket. To change the world all you need to do is do the thing that makes you come most alive. Then other people can join you.
· Play is any joyful act where you forget about time; where there is no result; there is no purpose; you don't have anxiety about the future; you don't have regrets about the past; you are fully in the moment; you are fully in flow. The opposite of play is perfection, and perfection is rooted in shame and ego.
· You can't play while you're in an anxiety ridden state. You can't play when you're angry, you can play when you're tired.
· Adults are so fixated on results expectations are such the thief of joy. Results are not what's going to bring us happiness. Create more fun, joy, play moments with my family, and have that as a priority.
· How many people do you hang out with that you consider playful? How many people can you be your real self with? And if not, how do we change that?
· Your future is where the fun is.
· Ask yourself, what did you love to do as a kid?
· You either go into a conversation to be right or you go into a conversation to understand.
· Play addresses and builds psychologically safe workspaces using positive psychology in play. The best organizations have psychological safety.
· FEAR: False Evidence Appearing Real.
· Learn how to deal with toxic people!
· Understand your inner critic!
· How do I get paid to do exactly what I would do even if no one was paying me?
· If things are going well OR things are going badly; ask yourself this: How can it get any better than this?
Resources
· Steven Berlin Johnson, an American popular science author and media theorist.
· Gay Hendricks is a psychologist, writer, and teacher in the field of personal growth, relationships, and body intelligence.
· Marcus Buckingham is an English author, motivational speaker and business consultant.
· Eric Bailey is the author of The Cure for Stupidity.
· Gwen Gordon is a transformation coach, consultant, creative producer.
· Stephen Warley is a business coach.
· Lauren Yee is the Founder & COO at this.us.now.
· Guy Starts Dance Party
To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at winnie@winnifred.org.
Reach out and tell me what was helpful about today’s episode or any suggestions you have for my show.
Please leave a review and tell someone else about this show; look below for some instructions on how to leave a review on Apple Podcasts.
I look forward to sharing another transformative conversation with you next week!
How to leave a rating or review in Apple Podcasts (on an iOS device)
1. Open the Podcasts app.
2. Choose “Search” from the bottom row of icons and enter the name of the show (i.e., “Transformative Leadership Conversations”) into the search field
3. Select the show under Shows (not under Episodes)
4. Scroll down past the first few episodes until you see Ratings & Reviews
5. Click “Write a Review” underneath the displayed reviews from other listeners. You’ll then have the option to rate us on a 5-star scale, and write a review if you choose (you can rate without writing, if you’d prefer)
Colin Hunter is the CEO of Potential Squared International which delivers high impact leadership assessment and development solutions. Their purpose is to create a measurable global playground that disrupts the way people are led and to uncover heroes, innovators, and future leaders. With over 70 consultants based in the UK, Europe, USA, India, Asia and South Africa, Potential Squared International is truly a global team.
Key Takeaways from this Episode:
Experimentation
· We need to create a fun playground to develop leaders.
· Creating a place to experiment. A playground can help you with your fear of failure. You want to help people learn how to make mistakes, learn fast and then grow.
· When things are going well, go and tell your client when things are going badly run and tell your client.
· Do experiments, have a hypothesis, and then evaluate.
Authenticity
· I felt like I was being listened to and I became myself for the first time.
· Authenticity is changeable; it's not what you always are, it’s who you are becoming too.
· Many leaders adopt other people's metrics. They don't take time to think about their own leading indicators and their own measures of success.
Creating Disciplines in Business & Leadership
· Don’t work in circles. Keep the operating rhythm of the business going. Put in place rigor, discipline, systems and habits.
· We don't rise to the level of objectives; we fall to the level of our systems.
· With a control freak if you remove the control all you’ve got is the freak.
· Making the case to create an advisory board (especially for Founder/CEO’s) and creating a client advisory board to co-create and collaborate on new products and ideas.
· A core part of leadership is having the systems and disciplines in place to be mentally and physically fit and healthy.
The Lord of the Rings can guide your leadership!
Resources
· Be More Wrong by Colin Hunter
· Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
· Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain
· Atomic Habits by James Clear
· The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier
· The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek
· TedTalk: Embracing Otherness, Embracing Myself by Thandiwe Newton
To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at winnie@winnifred.org.
Reach out and tell me what was helpful about today’s episode or any suggestions you have for my show.
Please leave a review and tell someone else about this show; look below for some instructions on how to leave a review on Apple Podcasts.
I look forward to sharing another transformative conversation with you next week!
How to leave a rating or review in Apple Podcasts (on an iOS device)
1. Open the Podcasts app.
2. Choose “Search” from the bottom row of icons and enter the name of the show (i.e., “Transformative Leadership Conversations”) into the search field
3. Select the show under Shows (not under Episodes)
4. Scroll down past the first few episodes until you see Ratings & Reviews
5. Click “Write a Review” underneath the displayed reviews from other listeners. You’ll then have the option to rate us on a 5-star scale, and write a review if you choose (you can rate without writing, if you’d prefer)
Season 2; Episode 4: Leaders Don’t Always Have the Answers with Christina Callas
Christina Callas is a dynamic digital-retail leader who drives rapid, profitable growth for iconic omnichannel retailers. She especially enjoys growing and maximizing the operating performance for challenging business environments. She is currently the EVP and Chief Digital Officer at Total Wine & More which is known as the country’s largest independent retailer of fine wine and spirits operating in over 200 super stores across 23 states – and scaling rapidly. She’s worked previously at Children’s Place, Hudson’s Bay Company and Aeropostale. She has her MBA from Columbia Business School.
Key Takeaways from this Episode:
You Don’t Have All the Answers
· Sometimes you need to acknowledge that you don’t have all the answers.
· You can give people a path forward without having all the answers.
Authenticity and Vulnerability
· People want to be authentic about who they are at work.
· If you are going to ask people to be vulnerable, you must be vulnerable even if it’s not your most comfortable state.
Leading During the Pandemic
· Learning to respect the ways the pandemic impacts people differently and yet also being fair and equitable across the organization.
· People have demonstrated tremendous strength as people have navigated their lives during the pandemic. This strength needs to be acknowledged.
· In this environment, leaders need to stop and slow down.
Leadership Lessons
· Ask the next question, listen, let people talk, see what they have to offer.
· “Be brief, be bright, be gone”; distill the complexity into that big idea, communicate it well and then go make it happen.
· Translate your ideas into a language that the audience can understand. You can’t just do good work you also have to sell that idea too.
· What's the story; tell the story if you want people to change their behaviors and do business differently. And then model that behavior.
Women in Business
· We need to ensure that women in businesses are being represented in the workplace, and that everybody has an equal opportunity at mobility within the organization.
· Unconscious bias is real and it's pervasive. Don’t think you’re top of mind for somebody because the work you've done has been great or they complimented you in a meeting. Tell people I'm interested; I want to move up.
· As you become more comfortable with yourself you will embrace your unique voice and unique point of view.
· When getting feedback that’s not helpful, ask questions, find out what they're really trying to tell you.
Career Guidance
· Raise your hand and say yes.
· Find out where you can be helpful, think about what motivates you, seek out pockets of opportunity and then figure out how to fill them.
· Let people know you're there and you’re interested and ready when the opportunity arises. It's all about timing.
· Consider interesting opportunities that pop up even if they might be flawed.
· Don't be afraid of lateral moves.
· When there's disruptive change in business, some people say, stay the course, we know what we're doing. Other businesses say, the landscape has changed, we've got to go figure out how to meet these new challenges. Think like the second business throughout your career.
To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at winnie@winnifred.org.
Reach out and tell me what was helpful about today’s episode or any suggestions you have for my show.
Please leave a review and tell someone else about this show; look below for some instructions on how to leave a review on Apple Podcasts.
I look forward to sharing another transformative conversation with you next week!
How to leave a rating or review in Apple Podcasts (on an iOS device)
1. Open the Podcasts app.
2. Choose “Search” from the bottom row of icons and enter the name of the show (i.e., “Transformative Leadership Conversations”) into the search field
3. Select the show under Shows (not under Episodes)
4. Scroll down past the first few episodes until you see Ratings & Reviews
5. Click “Write a Review” underneath the displayed reviews from other listeners. You’ll then have the option to rate us on a 5-star scale, and write a review if you choose (you can rate without writing, if you’d prefer)
Season 2; Episode 3: Our Stories Beyond the 9 to 5 with Kerel Cooper
Kerel Cooper is the Chief Marketing Officer at LiveIntent, one of Business Insider’s hottest AdTech companies two years in a row. Kerel is responsible for the overall business marketing strategy which includes advertising, branding, product marketing, and public relations. Kerel has emerged as one of LiveIntent’s leading voices in the industry. Kerel is also the co-founder and co-host of Minority Report podcast which highlights people of color, women & LGBTQ+ community within business, media, and technology. Kerel was also included in Crain's New York Business Notable Black Leaders and Executives 2021 list.
Key Takeaways from this Episode:
People’s Stories
· Everyone has their own story, and everyone's story is personal to them. People are much deeper than what we see from someone nine to five.
· People's perspectives on life and on their job is shaped by their background, their upbringing, the experiences that they've had along the way.
· I always learn something new when I’m interviewing someone I’ve known for a while on my podcast. Because I only knew that person from a 9 to 5 perspective. Peeling back the onion allows you to get to know people on a deeper level.
· With COVID and the change to working from home has blended the professional and the personal in ways none of us ever experienced before. We know more about each other and our entire situation because of the pandemic.
Delegation & Trust
· Your number one job as a leader is to focus on your team. Position your team to be as successful: clear barriers, listen, have a point of view so you can point them in the right direction. When I hire talented people, my job is to make sure they utilize their talents to the best of their ability to do an awesome job.
· Earlier in my career transitioning to letting go was very difficult. I thought if I'm going to do it the way I want it to be done, I might as well do it myself. But if I did that, I wasn’t going to grow my career and scale if I held on and tried to do everything.
· As I grow my career, that creates more room for people to grow their careers. If I'm not evolving and moving, then I'm creating a ceiling for the people that are below me. And then at some point they're going to leave.
· One quality a great leader has is trust. You must trust the people you've hired and let them make decisions.
Developing People
· I keep a “Family Tree” of the people I've hired or mentored or managed at some point in their career and keep track of their promotions, their next job, how their career is moving forward.
· We need to give people a deeper level of flexibility and empathy and listening. Listening to your team is critical; truly listening to what they're saying, listening to the challenges that they have, listening to the opinions that they have, and then figuring out the best way to help.
Career Guidance
· Don't have blinders on regarding your next job or where your career may go. It may not always be the way you planned it out and that's okay because the world is changing. Practice your craft and be open to different doors that might open.
· You have challenges and you have failures that you need to learn from; never get too high on a success and never get too low on a failure. One failure doesn't define your career or who you are or what you’ve done in your career.
Taking Care of Yourself
· Mental and physical health is super important as a leader. Figure out what works for you to make sure that you're taking care of yourself mentally and physically. Our health is the most important thing that we must protect.
· You can't really lead and take care of the people on your team if you're not okay.
Representation & Relationships
· Being a leader as a person of color is something I think about and carry with me every single day. Using my position of privilege to open doors for others is a responsibility I take very seriously. It motivates me to perform at a high level on a day-to-day basis.
· To create more representation and to help others I’m the chairperson of our diversity equity and inclusion executive committee at LiveIntent, I'm a board member at Marketing EDGE and I'm an advisor to a company called the VR Perspectives.
· Kids need to be exposed to people that don't look like them, don't talk like them or come from different cultures. The more kids can be exposed to others I think the better off we will be as a society. Also, travel is one of the greatest gifts a parent can give to a kid.
Links & Resources:
· Minority Report: Kerel is the co-founder and co-host of Minority Report podcast which highlights people of color, women & LGBTQ+ community within business, media, and technology.
· Marketing EDGE: During our 55-year history, Marketing EDGE has served more than 110,000 students. Through our programs, we impact students, academics, and the industry-at-large – executives and corporations by forging personal relationships to expand access to insights and opportunities that drive career advancement; and by evolving to meet changing market needs.
· VR Perspectives: Leverages virtual reality to train organizations on conscious inclusion.
To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at winnie@winnifred.org.
Reach out and tell me what was helpful about today’s episode or any suggestions you have for my show.
Please leave a review and tell someone else about this show; look below for some instructions on how to leave a review on Apple Podcasts.
I look forward to sharing another transformative conversation with you next week!
How to leave a rating or review in Apple Podcasts (on an iOS device)
1. Open the Podcasts app.
2. Choose “Search” from the bottom row of icons and enter the name of the show (i.e., “Transformative Leadership Conversations”) into the search field
3. Select the show under Shows (not under Episodes)
4. Scroll down past the first few episodes until you see Ratings & Reviews
5. Click “Write a Review” underneath the displayed reviews from other listeners. You’ll then have the option to rate us on a 5-star scale, and write a review if you choose (you can rate without writing, if you’d prefer)
Season 2; Episode 2: Feeding People Feeds Leadership with Andy Stern & John Rigos
Andy Stern and John Rigos are co-CEO’s of Aurify Brands based in New York City. Aurify Brands is a next generation hospitality group that creates, grows, and operates category-leading brands including Le Pain Quotidien in the US, The Little Beet, Melt Shop, Fields Good Chicken, and The Little Beet Table. The Aurify Brands portfolio comprises nearly 100 restaurants across these five brands in multiple markets, across 9 states.
Andy Stern and John Rigos have worked together for over 21 years as entrepreneurs and now as CO-CEO’s – and they have a tremendous amount to teach us about building businesses, creating a successful partnership, the core leadership fundamentals they lean on, how to lead in a crisis, and the challenge of making difficult people decisions.
Key Takeaways from this Episode:
CO-CEO’s (how to be in equal partnership successfully
- Critical foundations for a CO-CEO or partnership to work: trust, shared core values, communication, functional decision-making process, check your ego, appreciate other perspectives, shared accountability, ability to talk about and overcome conflict and disagreements.
- Without trust and knowing each other and having the same outlook; entering a CO-CEO partnership is like going into a blind marriage – it may work, and it may not.
- Sharing a moral compass cuts down on conversations you don’t need to have and allows you to focus on business challenges and issues instead.
- Holding each other accountable in a partnership is hard because no one reports to anyone in that relationship; it’s about us not wanting to let each other down.
- What derails relationships is making assumptions about what people are doing or thinking, you must remove assumptions, even a simple daily meeting can do that.
- Find a partner, it's hard and isolating to be on your own, even if means giving up equity in the long run it’s worth every penny.
Leadership Fundamentals
- Learn to be accountable to yourself.
- If nice guys finish last, it’s probably a sprint, but in a marathon, the nice guys always finish first.
- Tell people you don’t have all the answers, everyone needs to participate in new ideas.
- Just like being a parent, a key component of leadership is doing what you say when no one's looking.
- Leading leaders: support, challenge, and push people but in the end, they make their own decisions because they must own and execute these decisions.
People Decisions
- People decisions is critical, the wrong people in the wrong positions can be cancerous; the amount of energy you spend on a bad fit is draining and it's never getting better.
- Letting people go is a business decision; you can't be emotional about it and yet you must see the human side of it. But you must do what's right because it impacts so many people. Inaction is ten times more damaging than taking action because everybody knows what should be done. You lose credibility If you don't act quickly.
Building a Business (that happens to be in the restaurant industry)
- We’re building a portfolio restaurant business modeled after technology businesses.
- In this industry you can change the trajectories of people's lives and have a big impact.
- We’re creating leaders in a space that's not known for leadership.
Leading in Crisis
- Transparency about decision making is critical during a crisis.
- During a crisis, immediate focus on triaging, bring calm then chart a path forward.
- The most challenging thing during a crisis was losing connectivity and being isolated.
To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at winnie@winnifred.org.
Reach out and tell me what was helpful about today’s episode or any suggestions you have for my show.
Please leave a review and tell someone else about this show; look below for some instructions on how to leave a review on Apple Podcasts.
I look forward to sharing another transformative conversation with you next week!
How to leave a rating or review in Apple Podcasts (on an iOS device)
1. Open the Podcasts app.
2. Choose “Search” from the bottom row of icons and enter the name of the show (i.e., “Transformative Leadership Conversations”) into the search field
3. Select the show under Shows (not under Episodes)
4. Scroll down past the first few episodes until you see Ratings & Reviews
5. Click “Write a Review” underneath the displayed reviews from other listeners. You’ll then have the option to rate us on a 5-star scale, and write a review if you choose (you can rate without writing, if you’d prefer)
Season 2; Episode 1: You’re Invited To Be In “The Frame” with Jeehae Lee
Jeehae Lee serves as Partner and Deputy Chief Investment Officer of Bridge Debt Strategies. She has worked in real estate, securitization and financial services for the last 17 years.
Jeehae tells the story about being a first-generation American and how a little girl in kindergarten befriended her when she could only say five words in English: “Hi, My Name is Jeehae”. Fast forward a few years later, and she is determined to invite people like her into what she calls “The Frame”.
Key Takeaways from this Episode:
- We need to invite more people into “The Frame”. The frame is where the center of attention is, who gets credit, who gets to speak, who gets promoted. But older white males have traditionally dominated the frame for too long. It doesn’t mean that other people – people who have been marginalized – are not there. We need to broaden the frame, zoom out. We need to offer more invitations to pull people into the frame.
- When you are the person who’s “different” in the room and biases might exist but then the moment you start talking about your expertise you can see their faces change. That’s empowering.
- Embrace a “Teachable Spirit” in everything you do and with everyone you interact with.
- Always think about how you can learn from others no matter who they are or what title they have.
- Invest in relationships by spending time, asking questions; this leads to trust and better performance.
- Being a great leader is figuring out the value of people and how I’m adding value to their work.
- Be confident in what you know, don’t get worried about what you don’t know.
- Confidence is not what you know now, it's knowing you can be more than what you know today.
- The number one advice I give: ask more questions and don’t see it as a weakness. When you say you don't know something, that provides an opening to learn.
- People are so focused on: What if I fail? What if I can't do it? What if I look silly? Instead, focus on: What if I am supposed to cure cancer? What if I'm supposed to be the next, CEO of Microsoft?
To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at winnie@winnifred.org.
Reach out and tell me what was helpful about today’s episode or any suggestions you have for my show.
Please leave a review and tell someone else about this show; look below for some instructions on how to leave a review on Apple Podcasts.
I look forward to sharing another transformative conversation with you next week!
How to leave a rating or review in Apple Podcasts (on an iOS device)
1. Open the Podcasts app.
2. Choose “Search” from the bottom row of icons and enter the name of the show (i.e., “Transformative Leadership Conversations”) into the search field
3. Select the show under Shows (not under Episodes)
4. Scroll down past the first few episodes until you see Ratings & Reviews
5. Click “Write a Review” underneath the displayed reviews from other listeners. You’ll then have the option to rate us on a 5-star scale, and write a review if you choose (you can rate without writing, if you’d prefer)
Hi, Welcome to Season Two of Transformative Leadership Conversations, with me, your host, Winnie da Silva.
As an Executive Coach and Leadership Strategist for over twenty years, I believe leadership matters. I believe stories make a difference. And I believe we could all use some help and inspiration as leaders ourselves.
So, I’m thrilled to be back with you for another amazing line up of conversations with everyday leaders who are willing to share their stories of overcoming difficult challenges and the hard-earned wisdom and insight that can only come from experience.
Let’s get a peek into who we’ll get to hear from in Season 2 which kicks off on May 12th!
· Jeehae Lee: is the Deputy CIO at Bridge Investment Group who is determined make room for people who might be perhaps less visible – her story about coming to this country as a kindergartener made me cry
· Andy Stern and John Rigos: Seasoned Entrepreneurs who went from tech start-ups to putting their energy and passion into reinventing the hospitality fast casual restaurant industry
· Kerel Cooper: the CMO of Live Intent AND the host of the podcast Minority Report which highlights people of color, women & LGBTQ+ community within business, media, and tech talks about his own career trajectory and the barriers he overcame.
· Christina Callas: the CDO of Total Wine talks about how the pandemic impacted her team and her family.
· Colin Hunter: the CEO of Potential Squared, the author of the upcoming book Be More Wrong and the host of the upcoming podcast with the same name – which both highlight success in failure and how it really does make you a better leader. You can imagine what we talked about Being Wrong - including his own stories and why this topic is close to his heart.
· Jeff Harry: is on a mission to build psychologically safe workplaces through positive psychology and play – you won’t want to miss this one – he becomes my play therapist right in the middle of our conversation! And you guessed it – our conversation is really fun!
· Guy Geier: the MP of FXCollaborative, an architecture firm in NYC; he reflects on his journey as a leader through many catastrophic events over the past 20 years.
· Ethan Frisch and Ori Zohar: Social Entrepreneurs who started Burlap & Barrel, the first comprehensive single origin spice company in the United States. You know what that means? The spices they sell are sold directly from the people who grow them – and they are AMAZING. My daughter Aradhana and I have used these fresh spices in our own cooking.
· And lastly, but certainly not least, I talk with Gina L. Osborn: an Army Veteran and former FBI special agent and the host of the podcast Lead Like a Lady where she talks with other amazing women like her who have emerged as leaders in primarily male dominated fields. She’s a powerhouse of wisdom and boldness for women certainly – but really for everyone.
And somewhere in there, I’m also going to have a surprise “guest”; my grandfather. He died 35 years ago when I was in high school. But last year, I did some research with my Dad and I want to share with you his story too. And I’ll also offer some reflections sprinkled throughout the season.
I can’t wait to share these people and their stories with you.
Thank you for supporting me and this podcast!
As you listen to these conversations and felt its impact, could you tell someone about Transformative Leadership Conversations with Winnie da Silva? You can forward them this episode, post about it on social, or text someone who might be interested in listening. If you could share just once, I’d be grateful.
Also feel free to reach out to me at https://www.winniedasilva.com to learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness.
Lastly, if you have your own story of overcoming a leadership challenge you’d like to share, please email me at winnie@winnifred.org – maybe I’ll even have you on my show!
Episode 11: Tell Me What You Really Think with Peter Axelson
Peter Axelson leads Garnet Consulting and has worked as an external consultant in training, coaching and organizational development for more than 35 years. Clients tell him that they bring him back because of his high standards for client service, his focus on behavioral change and business results and his very practical approach to helping people learn and grow.
As I close out Season One, I wanted to take a look back and go a bit deeper on two important leadership themes that emerged from my previous guests: the stories we tell ourselves and asking for feedback.
In today’s episode we’re going to continue my conversation with Peter and talk about asking for feedback – the foundational tool for uncovering our blind spots, whether we are just starting out managing one person or especially as we advance in our career the feedback we receive usually declines just when we need it most.
Before we dive into my conversation with Peter, let’s look back on a few episodes where my guests highlighted the importance of asking for feedback during their own leadership journey…
Kevin Halleran the EVP and CFO at Donahue Schriber
“I never realized how defensive I was and from there on out - I can't say I do it every time but it's certainly something I focus on; I've got to be willing to hear it, and not react. I’ve got to take what they say and I’ve got to digest it. And if I do that, I've taken time to reflect I've realized, there’s really truth to this. There’s something I've got to think about versus just giving them that gut reaction. If I'm defensive all the time and I don't let people give me feedback, they don't want to give it to me. They're saying, Oh yeah, everything's fine. How does that help me grow if I'm not getting the feedback?”
Kelly Jankowski is a Managing Director at MSL
“When you're open to feedback, people give you really good feedback. And there's a lot of different ways to be open. There's something to learn everywhere and especially as you get more senior and more established. I wake up some days and I'm like, today, I'm going to figure out what I needed to learn that I haven't yet.”
Marcel Botha is the Founder and CEO of 10XBeta
“They don't speak to investors that they don't like with feedback that they will only want to speak with people who understand their visionary message. And I think, with the exception of a few, most people fail if they can't quantify or receive feedback in a meaningful way. I have failed many times, because I didn't listen to feedback in a timely manner, or I was too excited about something that I thought was meaningful, but others didn't.”
Elliot Felix is the CEO & Founder of brightspot (which has just been acquired by Buro Happold)
“When we have a question, we don't stew over it internally. We get on the phone with a client and we figure it out with them. That's what has given us more certainty in this crazy time is acting on that instinct. So, we've been talking to our clients more, not less and learning from them and trying stuff out and getting feedback - this is helpful, this isn’t helpful, let's do more of this, less of this.”
Key Takeaways from this Episode:
· Asking for feedback uncovers blind spots we have no matter where we are in our career
· Asking for and receiving feedback contributes to healthy, trusting, respectful, collaborative relationships
· The importance of exploring why asking for feedback will be beneficial to you
· Don’t forget to focus on strengths – don’t just focus on areas for development
· Create your own feedback culture by consistently asking for feedback
· Be clear about what you want to know, ask open ended or specific questions which will elicit good feedback
· Safety is critical: we explore why safety is so important and how to successfully create safety
· The beer sign: do people think you really want feedback?
· There is no such thing as a wrong perception, you don’t have to agree with people’s perception, but you do have to be curious about how they got that perception
· Different people have different perceptions of the same behavior
To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at winnie@winnifred.org.
Reach out and tell me what was helpful about today’s episode or any suggestions you have for my show.
Please leave a review and tell someone else about this show; look below for some instructions on how to leave a review on Apple Podcasts.
I look forward to sharing another transformative conversation with you next week!
How to leave a rating or review in Apple Podcasts (on an iOS device)
1. Open the Podcasts app.
2. Choose “Search” from the bottom row of icons and enter the name of the show (i.e., “Transformative Leadership Conversations”) into the search field
3. Select the show under Shows (not under Episodes)
4. Scroll down past the first few episodes until you see Ratings & Reviews
5. Click “Write a Review” underneath the displayed reviews from other listeners. You’ll then have the option to rate us on a 5-star scale, and write a review if you choose (you can rate without writing, if you’d prefer)
Episode 10: The Stories We Tell Ourselves with Peter Axelson
Peter Axelson leads Garnet Consulting and has worked as an external consultant in training, coaching and organizational development for more than 35 years. Clients tell him that they bring him back because of his high standards for client service, his focus on behavioral change and business results and his very practical approach to helping people learn and grow.
On this podcast, we’ve listened to a really interesting variety of leaders sharing their stories about a particular leadership challenge they’ve faced, how they’ve overcome that challenge and what drives them forward during times of change and adversity.
The next two episodes of Transformative Leadership Conversations with Winnie da Silva are going to be a bit different. This next conversation will be divided into two episodes and they will also be the final episodes for Season One.
I wanted to take this opportunity to take a look back, reflect and go a bit deeper on a few themes that have emerged from Season One. The first one is about stories and how the stories we have running in our heads can either propel us forward or get in the way of our success.
But before we get into unpacking the concept of stories and its impact on behavior and results, let’s look back on a few episodes where my guests pointed to the ways stories have impacted their leadership journey…
Dilip DaSilva the Founder and CEO of VDX.tv and Exponential sums up his experience of stories this way…
“I've realized that often the hurdles you personally have just things in your own mind.”
Nathan Knight the Director of People Development at Better explains how stories can mislead us…
“The other part was this myth I had created in my mind we tell ourselves stories to make sense of situations. And sometimes those stories are not productive.”
Sanjit Sethi the President of the Minneapolis College of Art & Design talks about reframing our stories…
“The goal is to take a disability or take what seems like a disability and reframe it as an asset.”
Mandy Pulliam the Chief Medical Officer at Renovia, Inc. gives a vivid example of rejecting someone else’s story about her…
“I wanted to apologize so many times during that surgery when he was making me feel bad, but I decided that I was only going to apologize if I had done something wrong.”
Key Takeaways from this Episode:
- Our stories directly influence our behavior which drives results
- Stories fit into two categories: stories about me, stories about other people and stories about how things are
- When there is a result we’re not happy with (our performance, a relationship that’s gone sideways, a conflict within the organization) we need to look back on what behaviors have contributed to that result and from there what are the stories or beliefs we have that are driving those behaviors
- Ask opened ended questions to uncover the stories influencing our behaviors
- It boils down to self-awareness – you need to catch yourself in your stories as they happen
- To achieve a different result, our behaviors need to change and therefore we must adopt new stories
- Tap into curiosity to uncover your stories
- Stories are usually deeply unconscious and sometimes reflect what we have always fundamentally believed
- Assumptions and prejudices about people who are different from us can unconsciously shape our stories
To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at winnie@winnifred.org.
Reach out and tell me what was helpful about today’s episode or any suggestions you have for my show.
Please leave a review and tell someone else about this show.
Episode 9: Creative Cultural Leadership with Sanjit Sethi
Sanjit Sethi has been an artist and cultural academic leader for the past twenty years and is currently the President of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. He has also served in leadership roles at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design at George Washington University, Memphis College of Art, the California College of the Arts and the Santa Fe Art Institute – among others. Additionally, he has taught at prestigious art schools such as the Srishti School of Art, Design, and Technology in India, MIT; and the Art Institute of Chicago. As an artist and curator, his work has spanned different media and geographies. Past works include the Kuni Wada Bakery Remembrance; Richmond Voting Stories; and the Gypsy Bridge project. Recent curatorial projects have included Spiked: The Unpublished Political Cartoons of Rob Rogers and 6.13.89 The Cancelling of the Mapplethorpe Exhibition.
Creative Cultural Leadership
- Creative Cultural Leadership is a philosophy that embraces artistry, innovation and empathy as fundamental to understanding and working with individuals and communities.
- The words creativity and innovation have taken on definitions which are too limiting.
- Creativity, experimentation and collaboration involves listening and decisiveness but also an embrace and an elevation of your own voice alongside the voice of others; it’s not a solitary activity.
- All problems have a cultural aspect to it.
- The creative and the poetic mindset go hand in hand when building communities.
Imperfection is OK
- Failure is an iterative process: Try, Fail, Learn – this is easier to see in art than it is in leadership.
- The world is asymmetrical in nature; very few things actually fit in neat tidy boxes.
- Our focus on symmetry allows us to avoid the real issues that exist in the world; oftentimes we're stymied thinking the system has to be perfect before being able to fix something.
Leading a Team During a Crisis
- It’s powerful to check in with your team about how they are doing – and yet be surgically efficient in how we use our time.
- Make space for visioning because you can't simply turn it on; inspire vision, create a visual palette cleanse to prepare the mind to vision.
- Push your team to not just solve current problems, but also to think about the future.
- Keep the team motivated: give credit, celebrate accomplishments, thank people in surprising ways, also there is no such thing as a dumb idea.
Leadership Is…
- Leadership is how someone is able to judge when to leap from one moving freight train to another moving freight train and how to keep your hat during that leap. You have to know when to leap and when to wait.
- Leadership is asking what you know to be true that you think no one else in your field believes in; because you've got an idea everyone else thinks is absolutely bonkers.
- Leadership is being ok with the unease everyone feels which can be isolating.
- Leadership is showing empathy by showing a little bit of yourself.
- Leadership is vulnerability and contemplation which are two leadership qualities that are overlooked.
Leading with Panic
- Check out Sanjit’s article called Leading with Panic. Why Leaders Need to Talk More Openly About Anxiety.
- How do you take a disability or how do you take what seems like a disability and reframe it as an asset for communication and for greater empathy?
Code Switching
- Working through leadership as a person of color
- Code switching can be exhausting and it’s ok to acknowledge that
- Navigating white privilege
- Microaggressions can still exist even when have similar political perspectives
Other References
- Jamie Bennett the Executive Director at ArtPlace America
- Ken Strickland who was the Dean at the Memphis College of Art
- Jean-Pierre Larocque a ceramicists and Associate Professor at Concordia University
- Ben Vinson, Provost and Executive Vice President at Case Western Reserve University
- Association for Independent Colleges of Art and Design
To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at winnie@winnifred.org.
Reach out and tell me what was helpful about today’s episode or any suggestions you have for my show.
Please leave a review and tell someone else about this show.
I look forward to sharing another transformative conversation with you next week!
Episode 8: Give Away the Glory with Nathan Knight
Nathan Knight believes that most people want to - and certainly can - find purpose and create value at work which is why he’s passionate about leading teams in the learning, talent and organizational development space. He is currently the Director of People Development at Better which is rapidly redefining the homeownership process through faster and more efficient technology. Previous companies he’s worked with include Casper, Sony Music, Equinox, WW and Home Depot.
Learning to Lead a Team
· Stress, fear or embarrassment can make it that much harder to address the real issue @5:45
· Be the coach off the field, enable the team to self-manage, spot potential, help when needed @9:47
· Make the tough calls with compassion and integrity, knowing you’re doing the right thing @11:31
· People will self-select in or out when presented with a clear vision @17:44
· High performers still require leadership in moments of transition and change @18:50
· People and teams require clear roles tied to intrinsic motivation @20:33
· Play back what you see, let people use that to make decisions to improve their performance @22:07
· Create self-sustaining performance to give you room to be strategic, set the direction and strategy, be sure the team is in lock step with where the company is going @22:14
· My job isn’t to come up with the answer, instead create a team approach with trust, listen to your gut, get other perspectives and then use that to propose the best answer at this time @29:01
· You have to view managing as a huge part your work, others can probably do the content part of your job, but no one else can do the leadership piece @30:00
· Give away the glory @31:54
Taking Your Own Medicine
· Perfection doesn’t exist, sometimes you need to stumble to get comfortable with leadership @6:50
· Feeling like I should know how to be a leader already @4:42
· You may not be able to change what happened, but you can apologize or address it @7:12
· Believe people when they tell you there's a problem with your leadership @12:35
· Getting a coach is not like sending people to a spa – it’s real work, you have to do the work @14:02
· Realizing there are many dimensions to the challenge and understanding each layer @ 15:00
· Once you remove some complexity, they become smaller problems you can solve @15:36
· Little shifts in mindset and behavior can make a big difference @15:47
Being an Empathic Leader
· Developing empathy and understanding for leaders because this work is challenging @5:32
· True leadership is having a high bar for performance while being compassionate @7:28
· Work is hard, show that you’re there for people @8:10
· Don’t jump to you’re doing a bad job, check to see what else might be going on @8:50
Personal Growth
· Changing myths and stories that get in your way @15:56
· Hold on to your integrity, don’t be fake, don’t change your core @24:24
· Nathan’s personal passion behind D&I @25:31, 26:48, 28:26
· When energy goes to trying hard not to be yourself, it takes away from your ability to be great @25:55
To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at winnie@winnifred.org.
Reach out and tell me what was helpful about today’s episode or any suggestions you have for my show.
Please leave a review and tell someone else about this show.
I look forward to sharing another transformative conversation with you next week!
Episode 7: Feedback Helps You Grow with Kevin Halleran
Kevin Halleran has over 15 years’ experience in the real estate industry and is currently the EVP and CFO at Donahue Schriber. He works closely with the CEO and the Executive Committee to direct the company’s strategic vision and daily operations. Donahue Schriber is a private real estate investment trust (REIT) with a portfolio of high-quality shopping centers in the Western United States. Previous positions he’s held include the CAO at Starwood Retail Partners and Senior Manager at KPMG.
Leadership Tips
· What the family bowling alley business taught me about being the boss @19:05
· You have three times to tell me your opinion about something – at that point I either change my mind or you have to accept my decision @17:24
· When we do something well it's the team that did it, when something goes wrong, it's my fault @21:50
· Start slow when building success to create buy-in and convince skeptics @8:17
· Show rather than tell @3:09
· What you love about your boss, do with your own team @18:21
· Not everyone wants to be a problem solver and that’s ok @7:32, 8:04
· People starting their careers: take on projects, even if you’re not interested, and crush it – show your boss that you can operate outside your comfort zone @22:13
Leading Teams
· Collaborating with cross functional teams without direct authority @4:12
· Help your team to take ownership in fixing their own challenges @5:22, 6:01, 7:00
· Keep an eye on your team and know where they are challenged and give them support @20:28
· We’re all one team, create a culture where different teams support each other @20:37
· Benefits to helping different teams: you get help, you learn different parts of the business @20:55
Benefits of Feedback & Honest Conversations
· Being honest and building trust is important in getting to know people @10:43, 10:55
· A difficult conversation can create a close working relationship @12:23
· Getting feedback means being open to it, asking for it and not being defensive @14:43
· Reflection is the key to absorbing feedback @15:02
· If your defensive and you don't let people give you feedback, they won’t want to give it to you – and how does that help you grow? @15:11
· If you want feedback, you’ve got to ask for it – even better set up time to get it @15:43
To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at winnie@winnifred.org.
Reach out and tell me what was helpful about today’s episode or any suggestions you have for my show.
Please leave a review and tell someone else about this show.
I look forward to sharing another transformative conversation with you next week!
Episode 6: Question Everything: Hurdles are Just Things in Your Mind with Dilip DaSilva
Dilip DaSilva is an entrepreneur who in 2001 launched Tribal Fusion, the first business under Exponential Interactive and who most recently launched VDX.tv. As a single founder, he wrote the software that underpins their advertising technology and then led the company through their global expansion as well as the constant evolution of their products to match the rapid changes in consumer technology and media consumption habits.
Starting, Building and Sustaining a Company for over 20 years
· Building, designing and the idea stuff is only 5% of what it really takes to build a company; there's a lot of grind to making sure a company can survive and thrive @3:59
· Launching a company during the dot.com bust @4:54
· Turning down VC and private equity money and the advantage of being a private company @9:32, 10:43
· Money is not the ultimate objective; never make decisions based on money, instead focus on doing the right thing @12:35
Becoming a Leader While Building a Company
· From software developer to leading people: “I had never managed anyone. In fact, I was afraid to talk to a group of more than five people; everything I learned about running a company, I had to learn on the job.” @7:35, 8:02
· Trust your instincts and intuition about how to treat people, how to build a company @8:45
· Create trust and empathy with employees @20:57, 21:55
· Be transparent with people, if you need to turn things around, you need everyone’s help @20:27, 21:04
Challenging Times Give a Competitive Advantage
· The hurdles you have are just things in your own mind @7:35, 8:25
· Challenging times are a good opportunity to question everything; people are open to change @14:05, 14:33, 18:19, 22:04, 23:00
· Identifying innovative solutions to enable the company to survive during the pandemic @15:23
· Give people the opportunity to try out different roles, think differently about promotion @23:25, 25:40
· Get involved in every role; not to do that job but to see what's going on, to inform strategy @24:18, 25:33
Keys to Success
· The most important thing a leader should be doing is thinking, not running around doing stuff, do the most important thing, get good at ignoring stuff @32:28
· To be successful: don't give up, have high endurance for pain, keep on fighting, be quick at making decisions with limited information, be fearless, take risks, be aware of weaknesses @28:09
· Meditation is like brushing your teeth for your mind: it makes you three times more productive, helps you maintain balance, it reduces poor responses @29:22
· Your most valuable asset is your attention; we're losing a lot of our potential wasting time on consuming stuff @31:14
· It's not about being a person of color but do you have the support structure to take risks @34:10
To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at winnie@winnifred.org.
Reach out and tell me what was helpful about today’s episode or any suggestions you have for my show.
Episode Title: Take a Break and Reflect
For the last episode of 2020, I’d like to contemplate the value of taking a break and reflecting.
Two weeks ago I came across this quote: “Just because you take breaks doesn’t mean you’re broken.” By Curtis Tyrone Jones.
I laughed out loud – but I was already feeling a bit broken – broken because I wasn’t taking breaks. Running my own business, launching a podcast and taking care of three daughters with my amazing husband is a pretty full plate.
No matter what your situation is, I bet you need a break too. Taking time to rest and reflect enables you to be “the best person you can be” – in your work, with your family, as a friend, as a neighbor.
Let’s go back to my guests from the first four episodes who also talked about the value of taking a break and reflecting…
Elliot takes time to capture leadership practices every year…
“I have an Evernote that I started seven years ago called leadership. And, and when something goes right, really right, or something goes really wrong, I try and think about it and say, okay, what just happened here? I have this running list of the five or 10 big things I've learned and those are the things that guide me”
Kelly took time to think about how to connect with her team during the lockdown…
“One of the big breakthrough moments for me, as I would say that the first, five to eight weeks of our national lockdown. I would spend three or four hours a week personally, thinking about what questions I was going to ask my team and how it was both a way to get better information and advice and to learn, to listen better.”
Marcel creates space for personal moments and to make sure he’s measuring the right things…
“Make sure that I can have in-between space to tackle things which are more interpersonal, Moments versus just quantified KPIs that I've got to meet. I'm always thinking I could be better at being productive but then I realized that. I'm already measuring the wrong things.”
And Mandy uses her power of introversion to create personal internal assessment tools…
“There's always some way in which you can push yourself further. Achieve more, do more, be more I think figuring out how to develop internal barometers. Yes, I did a good job. No, I didn't do a good job. yes. This situation went well. No, it didn't. those sorts of personal internal assessment tools are worth taking the time to develop.”
I love these examples of every day leaders developing different practices to take a break and reflect. And it looks different for all of us.
Taking a break allows us to think and visualize new ideas. Instead of being in transactional mode, resting reignites our ability to imagine future possibilities, of what could be – in all areas of our life.
There is lots of advice on how to recharge…exercise, read, meditate or pray, go outside, do something you enjoy, help someone, make something, or simply do nothing…
For me, I’m going on an 8-day silent retreat at a monastery in Massachusetts. I’ve never done anything like this before. I hope to find rest there. I anticipate time to reflect on many areas of my life. I look forward to letting my mind wander.
So what does taking a break and reflecting this season look like for you? What is ONE thing you could do to let your mind wander and refresh? What areas of your life could use some reflection?
While most of us are more than happy for 2020 to end, what will make 2021 better? Imagine the ways you can contribute to making 2021 a great year.
My hope is that you will carve out time – even if it’s inconvenient and challenging – to think, to rest, to just be. And to be inspired in making 2021 a great year, and a year of reflection throughout the year…
Episode 4: Only Apologize If You’ve Done Something Wrong with Samantha Pulliam
Samantha Pulliam has dedicated her entire career to woman’s health. After a 15-year career in academic medicine she is currently the Chief Medical Officer at Renovia Inc., a digital health start-up located in the Boston area. She is also a renowned doctor in the emerging field of female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery.
Entrepreneurial Leadership in Covid-19
o From medical doctor to Chief Medical Officer at a MedTech start-up @3:17
o Conducting clinical research with integrity while facing financial pressures during Covid @6:30, 8:51, 12:06
o Collaborating with clinicians and researchers to innovatively conduct research @13:16
Developing Personal Assessment Tools
o Develop personal internal assessment tools @20:22
o Determine what’s your contribution and what’s beyond your control @18:41
o Your ego or sense of self-worth can’t be on the line with every single interaction @27:07
o Seeing things as an experiment makes problem solving easier @26:42
o Learn to think independently while dealing with a difficult “boss” @14:47
o Being new at work and tuning into and navigating new situations @17:01
o Continuously refine your vision of what you want to do @21:04
Don’t Say I’m Sorry
o Unlearn the apology reflex – especially for women @19:02
o Only apologize if you’ve done something wrong @32:20
o If you are driven solely by an innate desire to please people you're really at risk @20:03
Leadership as an introvert, a woman and a lesbian
o The challenges of being an introvert and pursuing a career that requires some extroversion @21:43
o Just because you don't see the glass ceiling, doesn't mean it isn’t there @23:09
o Don’t assume your own skillset and giftedness will push you through the glass ceiling @29:13
o The glass ceiling is closely tied to networking; women should focus on developing their own networks and to push each other to grow and get promoted @27:54
o If you’re the only woman in the room, focus on the opportunity to provide a different perspective @24:04
o How being a lesbian has influenced Mandy’s leadership @29:49
To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at winnie@winnifred.org.
Reach out and tell me what was helpful about today’s episode or any suggestions you have for my show.
Please leave a review and tell someone else about this show.
I look forward to sharing another transformative conversation with you next week!
Marcel Botha is an entrepreneur, architect, and investor. He specializes in guiding product development teams from concept to viable product through experimentation with a focus on product acceleration and digital manufacturing. He has put these talents to work by starting and currently leading five different companies.
One of which is 10XBeta, a product development and engineering firm working in electronics, medical devices and specialized robotics. As the Founder and CEO of 10XBeta, he works to build expert multidisciplinary teams to solve unique, complex problems by leveraging a global network of manufacturing partners that has developed hundreds of products over the last 12 years.
One of these products – and companies he leads called Spiro Wave – co-created innovative low-cost emergency ventilators at breakneck speed right as Covid-19 was shutting down New York City.
Spiro Wave Ventilator Project
o Building an emergency ventilator during the peak of Covid-19: compressing 12 to 24 months of work into 30 days @15:04
o What it took to build Spiro and how that created clarity @10:32, 17:42
o Creating a meaningful product under duress and its impact on the team @11:14, 15:04
o When working a hundred hours a week, make sure it's meaningful @9:47, 11:51
Team Wisdom
o The job of a leader is not to make people happy, it’s to offer inspiring challenges @29:36
o As a leader it’s important to keep your team focused on the North Star @15:14
o The dynamics, experience and efficacy of a team is critical @7:35
Being a Leader
o Being empathetic while making tough decisions @22:42
o The importance of one-on-one conversations to being empathetic @26:25
o Understand your risk profile and how it might impact the people around you @34:00
o How being from South Africa influenced his leadership @37:04
o Marcel’s 6-year-old daughter is worth listening to @41:17
On Being an Entrepreneur
o Balance the euphoria of startup culture - where less than 2% of people are successful - with the discipline of building long-term valuable companies @35:08
o Receiving feedback in a meaningful way is critical to success @35:24
o Marcel’s perspective on leaders dealing with complexity @39:57
o Content and product development is a constant sequential and sometimes parallel, series of failures and experimentation @8:48
o Too much bureaucracy in decision making gets in the way of innovation @13:41
o Leave space for thinking about interpersonal moments, not just KPIs @26:52
o Project selection criteria: meaningful to the world, scalable, will have an impact @12:07
Articles
· New York Times: New York Needed Ventilators. So They Developed One in a Month.
· The New Yorker: The Engineers Taking on the Ventilator Shortage
· Fast Company: How 3 companies joined forces to build the Spiro Wave ventilator in a month
· Worth: 15 Entrepreneurs Who Have Thrived During COVID
To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at winnie@winnifred.org.
Reach out and tell me what was helpful about today’s episode or any suggestions you have for my show.
Please leave a review and tell someone else about this show.
I look forward to sharing another transformative conversation with you next week!
Episode 2: Never Waste a Crisis with Kelly Jankowski
Kelly Jankowski is a Managing Director at MSL, a global public relations and integrated communications firm. At MSL, she leads the national Corporate Reputation Practice working with organizations and their leaders to build reputations by helping them shape the conversations that matter to their industries and businesses. She also oversees MSL’s Crisis Response Team. Prior to her time at MSL, she held positions at Edelman and DuPont and has worked with incredible clients like PayPal, Deloitte, Regeneron, Gilead and Booking Holdings.
As a compelling storyteller with experience as a leader during times of crisis (both professionally and personally) – and guiding hundreds of her clients to do the same – along with Kelly’s thirst to absorb the world around her and the lessons they provide – you too will be drawn into Kelly’s stories and the wisdom you can find here in this transformative conversation.
o Never waste a crisis @10:14, 14:52, 15:22
o Leading in a Crisis: Lessons Learned @30:06
· Know when to make decisions with incomplete information
· Acknowledge what you know and don’t know
· Credibly make promises on things you can deliver on
· Balance communicating certainty, while acknowledging the unknowns
· Help organize information so people can make the right decisions
· Gather more information when possible
· Surround yourself with people who will ask questions
o Collaborating in Our WFH Covid-19 World @8:21
· Take time to think, to ask good questions and to listen better @11:16
· Empower people while balancing your listening and decision-making approach @12:02
· Smart people want specific goals with flexibility on how to get there @13:51
· Support the different needs people have right now @24:50
o Kelly’s Personal Insights
· Choose to be effective rather than being right @18:06, 33:02
· Don’t slip from competent and comfortable into complacency @7:52
· Leave something for a client to do, because then it will feel like it was their plan @16:50
· Accelerate your learning by absorbing other people’s stories and experiences @16:10
· When you’re open to feedback, people give you really good feedback @19:17
· Kelly’s perspective on being a woman and being a leader @27:53
· How Kelly’s experience with her fatally ill child made her more empathetic @19:53, 25:49, 27:39
To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at winnie@winnifred.org.
Reach out and tell me what was helpful about today’s episode or any suggestions you have for my show.
Please leave a review and tell someone else about this show.
I look forward to sharing another transformative conversation with you next week!
Episode 1: Reducing Uncertainty with Elliot Felix
Elliot Felix is the CEO & Founder of brightspot which is a higher education strategy firm on a mission to help colleges and universities create more engaging and equitable student experiences by redesigning student services, enabling active learning in the classroom and online, and rethinking where and how people work. Over the past ten years, Elliot has grown brightspot from one employee to 14 employees and has worked with more than 90 colleges and universities – an industry going through enormous changes right now.
My conversation with Elliot provides insights on growing a business and the ways leaders can reduce uncertainty – as challenging as it is during a time like this. These are some of the key topics we examined together…
o Change is a disruptor AND an accelerator @15:02, 30:23
o Building trust in times of anxiety and ambiguity @16:08, 26:16
o Leadership as scout and shield @23:18
o Being a reflective leader makes you a better leader @22:37
o Communication and transparency: finding the right balance @18:42
o Bring clients together to solve complex challenges efficiently and effectively @13:57
o Balancing family and work during the pandemic; while building castles with a 5-year old @10:35
References Elliot made during our conversation:
o Elliot referenced Paul Pangaro, a cybernetic theorist, who said leadership is reducing uncertainty
o When balancing transparency as a leader, Elliot cited an article from McKinsey called The Dark Side of Transparency
o Elliot talked about brightspot’s board and how a particular board member, Mark Raheja, is helpful in providing perspective and insight
o Here is a coveted list of leadership lessons curated by Elliot over the past several years
o Please check out brightspot to find out more about the work Elliot and his team are doing in higher education – and beyond
To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at winnie@winnifred.org.
Reach out and tell me what was helpful about today’s episode or any suggestions you have for my show.
I look forward to sharing another transformative conversation with you next week!
Welcome to Transformative Leadership Conversations. I’ve created this podcast for two reasons. First, I’ve always wanted to share the wisdom and insights from my clients and other amazing people, with everyone else. Second, during these unprecedented times, it’s crystal clear how much leadership matters right now; this is a defining moment for leaders, and for all of us.
This podcast brings these two things together: I’m inviting you to listen in on transformative conversations where leaders share their journeys as they work through, overcoming and thriving through adversity and change.
Every episode, you will hear inspiring stories, insider tips and practical ideas you can use to make a difference whoever you are, wherever you are…