Change Your Mindset

"How we learn to collaborate is more important than who is on the team." Peter Margaritis In today's episode, Peter Margaritis continues to talk about safety, and today the main focus is psychological safety in the workspace. How a team works and is assembled speaks more volumes than the members' contributions. Peter talks about the meaning of psychological safety, the books he draws from, and how...

 “We learn when we make mistakes. Failure is good.” Peter Margaritis In today’s episode, Peter Margaritis talks about scripting your mind and body and letting go of negative energy and dismissal. This is not only from others but also from yourself. As an Improv Leader, it’s easy to be in class but afraid to improvise. Sometimes it’s easier to beat ourselves up and focus on the negative energy and...

“The level of active listening and focus needed to make an informed decision is a true measure of Mono tasking success.” Peter Margaritis In today’s episode, Peter Margaritis continues to break down what it means to master authentic leadership, the art of mono-tasking, and being present. The distractions in our daily lives facilitate us being present because we are usually present with half of our...

“Internal dialogue derails us from truly listening and understanding what the other person is trying to convey.” Peter Margaritis In today’s episode, Peter Margaritis breaks down what it means to master authentic leadership, the art of mono-tasking, and being present. The more we do things at once, the more poorly we do multiple things. A lack of presence means one is not listening with your ears...

"Great leaders shine the light and draw the attention to others." Peter Margaritis Improv Leadership sometimes means learning and being vulnerable as a tool that fuels the leaders' thoughts and actions. It leads to turning the spotlight on others. Peter has explored different methods in today's episode on how as a leader, one can motivate others and make them shine. The light shines every day, not...

“Cost structure is a process; it’s about applying managerial cost concepts to the restaurant industry.” Mark Kelnhofer My guest is Mark Kelnhofer, president and CEO of  Return on Ingredients LLC. Mark is an international speaker and author on recipe costing and menu Engineering. He has more than 25 years of experience in bottom line, boosting accounting. After graduating from Ohio Dominican Univer...

"Improv is not about being a solo performer. It's about relationships." Peter Margaritis Leaders who lead with an Improv Leadership Style have a foundation of respect, trust, and support for their organization and people. These leaders know how to prepare in advance and, at the same time, empower the people who are under them to shine. These leaders understand that it is not only about themselves...

"If I can attract people because they feel I'm serving their needs, confirming their dreams, and helping them get there, that actually makes more money for my shareholders." David Savage What does collaboration mean to you? David Savage believes that most people use the term without really fully understanding it and therefore aren’t able to access the full potential of true collaboration. Our gues...

“Ego leadership is outdated because it generates behaviors that are no longer tolerated in today's workplace.” Peter Margaritis Vulnerability, empathy, and the willingness to let go of our ego matter when it comes to developing the kind of leadership capacity our employees, peers, and other stakeholders deserve from us. Crucial to the development of dynamic, admirable leadership is learning to com...

"People who want to help people further their business and solve their problems." Stacey Rodgers In today's episode, we welcome Stacey Rodgers to the podcast. Stacey is the executive director of people and culture at Cohen & Company CPA firm based in Cleveland, Ohio. Stacey offers a unique perspective when it comes to helping the firm to develop and maintain outstanding client service teams. As a...

"The collective knowledge outside your office far exceeds the collective knowledge inside your office." Peter Margaritis We all have an ego. Some egos are underdeveloped, others are well developed, and yet others are overdeveloped. Overdeveloped egos can, in some cases, ultimately transform into full-blown narcissism. Conversely, when a person's ego becomes overdeveloped, they can begin to operate...

“Accounting is all about how hard one works at it, and it is a skill more than it is something that someone is born with.” Anne Gannon In today’s episode, I welcome Anne Gannon. Anne is a certified public accountant who specializes in providing a monthly accounting and tax service that works for the business owner, not just the accountant. What makes Anne unique is that she is anything but your st...

"Great leaders inspire and motivate through empathy, not ego, agenda, and emotion." Peter Margaritis It can be hard to teach leaders to flip the script when it comes to being more empathetic and even vulnerable if those leaders are wearing thick protective armor over their humanity in the workplace. Two-face, empathy-devoid leaders take pride in their distance. But unfortunately, their aloof and i...

"As a leader, you have to know your people and be aware when their behavior changes." Karl Ahlrichs In today's episode, we are joined by Karl Ahlrichs. Karl specializes in helping professionals make order from chaos. He's a national speaker, author, and consultant presenting on people issues in all industries and is often quoted in the local and national media. Karl's experience is ideally suited...

"Every single day in our role as leaders, we encounter situations where empathy would serve us and others well." Peter Margaritis There are dozens of remarkable leaders and scholars singing the praises of empathy in the workplace. For example, in his book, Geoff Colvin, the Fortune Magazine Senior Editor, argues that as workplaces evolve and leadership models change, the most important skill that...

‘It's not the people that quit and leave your organization that you have to worry about, it is the people that quit and stay.’ Dr. Hope Zoeller My guests today are Dr. Hope Zoeller and Dr. Joe DeSensei. Dr. Hope is the founder and president of Hope LLC. Hope stands for Helping Other People Excel, and it is a firm that specializes in facilitating leaders’ success at every level of an organization....

"Leaders of organizations tend to be controlling, but the ability to let things go and see where the journey takes us can be more powerful." Peter Margaritis This is an excerpt from the book, Off Script: Mastering the Art of Business Improvisation. Leadership is not about self-promotion, being the center of attention, talking as much as you can, speaking in the third person, always being right, ev...

"To get what you want as a sales professional, you have to connect with the person who has it, and that person is your client." Lon Graham My guest is Lon Graham, who's a speaker coaching advocate. Lon speaks to sales teams, coaches, and sales leaders and is an advocate for sales professionals. He is also an award-winning sales and leadership professional. His message of getting the sales you want...

"Any gathering of individuals, no matter how large or small, is an opportunity to meet someone." Peter Margaritis If the thought of networking makes you sweat, it's time to rethink what networking is. Anytime you are at an event or even in a meeting where you don't know someone, you have the opportunity to network. It's about introducing yourself and getting to know someone. This involves having t...

"We have to do a better job of providing kids with the foundation of financial literacy so we can set them up for success in the future." Rory Henry My guest was Rory Henry has 15 plus years of experience working in tax and, most recently, financial advisory professions. He's built a program AFO Wealth Management Forward, that works with accounting firms to implement holistic Wealth Management Ser...

"By injecting humor and levity into our work lives, we give ourselves an opportunity for human connection." Peter Margaritis According to some recent research, adding more laughter to the workplace helps improve the organization's culture. Humor allows people to cope with stress and build relationships and is associated with intelligence and creativity. Workplace humor is about a positive, light-h...

“The idea of burning the ladder is a shifting mindset, and building bridges is the action that creates opportunities to build relationships.’ Dr. Alan Patterson My guests today are Dr. Alan Patterson and Jenny Knuth. Alan has more than three decades of international business experience. In 2006, he formed Mentore, a consulting practice specializing in leadership and organizational development. Man...

“People's perceptions of you are their reality, so pay attention to what you want their reality to be.” Peter Margaritis The way we show up does make a big difference, whether in person or virtually. Perception is reality, and the perceptions we create with others, especially with decision-making executives, really matter. People want to interact with humans they can see, hear and experience in pe...

“The beauty of good leadership is having the ability of having a wonderful platform to impact someone that you may never know how so.“ Ruben Minor Our guest today is Ruben Minor, who is the president of RAM Consulting Group, an organization that focuses on speaking training and coaching individuals and groups regarding leadership, team dynamics, relationship building, diversity, equity and inclusi...

“Emotional Intelligence helps you connect with your feelings, turning that into action, and making informed decisions about what matters most to you.” Peter Margaritis To succeed in the highly competitive world of financial consulting, accounting professionals must possess the right mix of technical experience and soft skills, or think of them as power skills, or better yet, emotional intelligence...