We’re going to start 2023 with Hope, specifically Valerie Hope. Valerie brings a truly global approach to leadership and building diverse, inclusive and equal work cultures. For Valerie it starts with curiosity and she shares how her early life as a self-proclaimed “military brat” and global traveller taught her the skills she shares with her clients. The conversation is wide ranging just like her perspectives and has a little something for everyone.

In the US, it’s the time of the year when we celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday and are grateful for the many blessings of the past year. Ken suggests a particular focus for this year’s reflections in this short, “Insight Bite” episode.

In the US, it’s the time of the year when we celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday and are grateful for the many blessings of the past year. Ken suggests a particular focus for this year’s reflections in this short, “Insight Bite” episode.

On the podcast, we tend to focus on our present-day goals for work, but what about our goals for post-work? What kind of life do we want to live after we leave the workplace? Today’s guest, Tara Nolan, builds on her background as a pilot and logistics officer for the US Air Force to help people see the whole picture of both their work, and post-work, lives and build a financial plan that makes sense. The key is “understanding the mission” and putting goals ahead of tools. While the topic is money, there’s also some great insights about problem-solving, connecting and finding clarity that have universal application.

Today’s guest, Tim Mousseau, has spent the last 10 years researching what makes people feel unsafe and how to create frameworks and boundaries that lead to safe work cultures. This is a deeper and more personal conversation than we’ve had in while and Tim shares some great insights that will change how you think about the workplace.

We often think about burnout from an overwhelmed, overworked, and stressed out perspective. Today’s guest, Cait Donovan, suggests we also look at another source - boundaries, and the resentments caused when those boundaries are violated. She walks us through her own journey of burnout and boundaries and shares helpful lessons for all of us to have more resilient, balanced and healthy lives. Our conversation also touches on some eastern philosophy and neuroscience and how they impact our experience and responses to burnout.

For many, the topic of finances can feel confining and burdensome, certainly not freeing and uplifting. Today’s guest, Mackey McNeil, helps us break through some of the limiting thoughts about finances that can hold us back and limit our ability to not only become more prosperous but get more enjoyment out of life. Mackey will share how to achieve success and abundance utilizing the 3 Freedoms of Prosperity: Money freedom, Time Freedom, and Freedom from Worry. She is the author of several award-winning books, including “The Intersection of Joy and Money” and “The Prosperity Handbook”.

Can we make stress a friend, or at least keep it from being a foe or an enemy?

Today’s guest, Deb Lewis would like to challenge our thinking about stress and encourage us to look at it from a different perspective. Deb is no stranger to stress. As one of the first female candidates to graduate from West Point and then as a leader in combat, Deb understands the impact of stress on performance. In this episode, she shares her experiences, perspective, and several tools so we can pivot and instead of being crushed by stress, we can actually use it to our advantage.

While “Me Too” and other movements had done tremendous good in amplifying the stories and voices of women who have not been treated fairly in the workplace, there may be a hidden cost. Researcher Kori Reed explores gender equality in the workplace and as she surveyed male leaders across the country she began to notice a trend.

Many men, while wanting an inclusive workplace culture where men and women can both thrive, were nonetheless so uncertain about crossing the line from an innocent comment to a harassment complaint that they would avoid any conversation on gender equity altogether. These would be champions, men in power who could make a difference in leveling the playing field, are instead silencing themselves and essentially taking themselves out of the game.

Kori and I discuss her findings, explore the state of the gender conversation in the human workplace, how to create safe spaces for dialogue and how we can collectively move toward the ultimate goal of “better together”.

Almost all of us see the wisdom in having a diversified financial portfolio, it’s smart investing not to have all your eggs in one basket. But what about the portfolio of our lives? Rarely do we think about the value in diversifying our lives and careers - not only to minimize risk, but also to create opportunities. The upside potential isn’t just monetary, there are mental wellness and life experience benefits as well. Today’s guest Carl Seidman applied his financial acumen to his career and began diversifying his life by retiring at age 32! There’s more to the story of course - Carl and I discuss that and the current state of career and life management. It’s another great conversation, listen in!

As we move closer towards a more human workplace, leadership will need to evolve along side it. The days of a distant and disconnected leader are fading away. Today, leaders need to be in touch with their people and understand what is impacting them in, and out, of the workplace. That means leaders will need to take their interpersonal communication and awareness of human dynamics to a much deeper level.

In our conversation with Patricia Bravo, we’ll talk about approaches and techniques to Empathic Leadership and discuss how small changes and investments as small as 10 minutes of time can transform the relationship between leader and team member and remove obstacles to performance.

Throughout history, organizations have had to adapt to survive. That is especially true in these challenging times. Often it is the ability of leaders to adapt, to change, to pivot – that enables these organizations to not only navigate distruption but to thrive in it.

Today’s guest, Marcia Daszko, works with leaders to challenge their thinking so they can realize results they’ve never before achieved.

In our conversation, we discuss the traits pivotal leaders need to create the environments for their people to contribute and be their most creative. These pivotal leaders focus on not just problem solving, but asking the questions that will take their organizations into the future so they can create new products, new solutions, new services and new markets.

We’ll also discuss the importance of knowing the “why” behind your organization’s reason for existence.

In Today’s conversation, we’ll be talking about creating inclusive cultures with Bernadette Smith, CEO of the Equality Institute.

We’ll follow her journey into activism, understand that Inclusion is for everyone and the importance of creating spaces where everyone can feel safe.

Bernadette shares how to overcome DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) overwhelm by learning to ask better questions, becoming better listeners and maintaining a solutions-focused approach.

Technology is an inextricable part of our modern life. While it can often be a help, it can sometimes be a hinderance.

Today’s guest, Terry Brock, brings a passion for technology, that he combines with a sense of history, and real-world business strategies.

Terry is more than a technology trends expert. He’s a speaker, virtual presenter, interviewer, published author, and coach who packs everything he touches with solid business strategies meant to build relationships and improve the bottom line.

In today’s episode, Terry and I discuss:

• The critical factor in adopting technology the right way

• The best approach to learn new tools and applications

• Using technology to more effectively communicate with broader and more diverse audiences, and to how better leverage your presentation skills

• As well as some new trends in technology that you’ll want to have on your radar

Simone Fenton Jarvis is Workplace Consultancy Director with Relogix. In today’s conversation we cover a lot of ground, including:

- Bringing your “full self” to work

- The changing nature and configuration of the workplace and how personalizing workspaces can help maximize effectiveness

- The changing relationship between employees and organizations – what are the new expectations? The new balance between work and life?

- People over profits

- Focusing on “culture fit” to “culture add”

Greater inclusion in the workplace won’t happen by itself. It will require strong, dedicated leaders with focus and persistence to shift organizational cultures and create more human workplaces. In this episode, we discuss the importance of how leaders show up in the workplace and the messages they consciously, and sometimes unconsciously, send to their people. We look at how organizational leadership impacts inclusion as well as how leadership is itself impacted in return by an inclusive workplace. We also explore how we can measure progress and the steps each one of us need to take to move towards more inclusive cultures within our organizations.

This episode I speak with Susan Fitzell, an expert in neuro-diversity about the challenges of incorporating and accommodating a neuro-diverse workforce into the modern workplace. The reality is that neuro-divergent workers have always existed but we’re only now gaining an awareness and appreciation of their impact – and the need to adapt the way that we lead and manage. Susan shares some tips and strategies to support neuro-divergent thinkers and help bring out their best work.

In a more Human workplace, it’s critical to be an effective communicator and be able to connect with your audience whether that’s one person or many. Today we get an international perspective from Christine Morley. Christine is an expert in presentation and negotiation skills and learning how to influence others. In our conversation, we talk about the keys to effective communication. How to connect with your audience, by speaking with the brain in mind. And how to shape a message so that it’s easily understood and digested. She also gives us some tips on building our personal brand and how to create an effective 7 Second Pitch so others can quickly know who we are, what we do, and who we help.

My guest Tom McManimon had a life that was on a particular trajectory. And then the series of events from 9/11 to losing his job, and a life threatening medical emergency, led him to reassess his life, his priorities and the direction of his career.

Tom talks frankly and straightforwardly about his experiences and sometimes in stark detail. That might bother some but I think it gives a visceral realness and impact to his story.

It's a very candid conversation about true work-life balance: about what's important in life, how to maintain perspective and one's belief in oneself. And the important need for the time and space to be able to make the decisions that are right for us. It demonstrates that for all our planning and all our intentions, sometimes life pushes us onto a new path.