Grow Strong Leaders Podcast

What if your desire to help is actually getting in someone else's way? You may think you're supporting, protecting, or guiding others, but sometimes your good intentions can unintentionally limit their growth, confidence, and sense of purpose.  Drawing from a deeply personal experience with my father, I explore how helping can cross the line into rescuing, controlling, or satisfying our...

How do you sustain an ethical culture across 113,000 employees in more than 80 countries with a team of just four ethics professionals? Kendall Mills shares how JLL has built one of the world's most enduring ethics programs, earning recognition from Ethisphere 19 times as one of the World's Most Ethical Companies. She explains how ethics becomes more than a policy or annual training requ...

Do you need to know more than everyone else to be an effective leader? Chris Ware believes the answer is no. Throughout his career, he has repeatedly stepped into leadership roles where others had deeper expertise, yet he learned how to build trust, credibility, and engagement without relying on authority or having all the answers.  As Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretar...

What makes employees feel safe enough to speak up when something feels wrong? Eva Lehman shares how ethical cultures are built through leadership behaviors, trust, consistency, and systems that reinforce integrity every day. As Vice President and Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer at Marvell Technology, Eva offers a behind-the-scenes look at how their culture shapes employee behavior far beyond p...

AI can accelerate answers. But what happens when it weakens the development of judgment, critical thinking, and human connection? Jennifer May explores the growing pressure facing middle managers, the risks organizations face when relationship-building and professional development fall away, and why ethical culture depends on much more than policies and compliance training. Drawing on nearly 30 ye...

What happens when organizations become so focused on speed, efficiency, and AI that they slowly lose sight of people? In this thought-provoking conversation, Dr. Kelly Monahan shares insights from her years studying the future of work inside organizations like Deloitte, Accenture, Meta, and Upwork. Drawing from her upcoming book, Reclaim the Plot , Kelly explains how leaders and organizations grad...

Vera Cherepanova, Executive Director of Boards of the Future, believes the strongest boards are not the ones with the best reports, but the ones willing to ask the hardest questions. In this conversation, she explains why ethics cannot be treated as a compliance exercise or a checklist after decisions are made. True governance requires courage, dissent, and a willingness to examine what leaders ma...

What happens when doing the right thing costs money, creates tension, or slows results? Tara Shewchuk, Senior Vice President and Global Chief Privacy, Integrity, and Compliance Officer at Medtronic, pulls back the curtain on what ethical leadership actually looks like inside a global company where decisions can impact millions of lives. You’ll hear how leaders navigate pressure, disagreement, and...

What happens when your drive to succeed begins to disconnect you from yourself and the people who matter most? You’ll hear how Kevin Rice navigated extreme personal and professional pressure while building and scaling a company, and what it taught him about values, leadership, and the cost of staying disconnected.  As Kevin reflects on leading through rapid growth, personal upheaval, and critical...

What if your company’s stated values actually guided every decision you make? Christopher Annand, Senior Director of Ethics, Compliance, and Security, shares how Cargill brings this standard to life, where seven guiding principles shape how leaders think, act, and lead every day.  As you listen, you’ll discover how those principles are reinforced from day one, how employees at every level use them...

Pressure doesn’t reveal your values. It exposes whether you’ve defined them at all. In this conversation with John Castelly, you’re challenged to think about who you are as a leader before the moment arrives when everything is on the line.  You’ll hear how John built and scaled ethics and compliance at ServiceNow and now navigates high-stakes decisions as General Counsel at Promise. Through real s...

What happens when you set a bigger goal and it forces you to rethink who you are? In this solo episode, I share how one decision exposed gaps in my leadership approach and led to a series of identity-level shifts. Through working with AI as a strategic thinking partner, I uncovered patterns that were limiting my impact and began operating with greater clarity, precision, and intention.  You’ll hea...

What happens when a high-performing leader hits a wall they never saw coming? Kimberly Arnold knows firsthand. After she spent decades leading large-scale transformations at PwC, Salesforce, and Blue Shield of California, a perfect storm of personal and professional pressures sent her on a 15-week stress-induced medical leave. That experience opened her eyes to what most leadership development ove...

Pressure reveals who you really are as a leader. Brian Aquart , Vice President of Workforce and Community Education at Northwell Health, shares how a defining moment during the first wave of COVID reshaped his understanding of purpose, responsibility, and ethical leadership. Deploying staff into high-risk areas forced him to wrestle with the weight of decisions that could either expose people to h...

Growth doesn’t stall because leaders lack ideas. It stalls because execution gets messy. Andrea Jones, former Intel process engineer and MIT Sloan MBA, turned a painful early career experience into a mission: help organizations execute growth projects with clarity and confidence. That moment of public criticism—driven by unclear expectations—sparked what she now calls Executagility and shaped her...

Great leadership is revealed in the moments when pressure makes it easiest to abandon your values. Steph Brady shares how falling into management at 21—without training or support—forced her to lead in high-stress situations where her instincts didn’t always align with her values. Those early mistakes became the foundation for a powerful leadership principle: meet people where they are, especially...

Most nonprofits fail for one simple reason: they don’t run like businesses. Dr. Sharon Elefant learned this firsthand and built her company, The Nonprofit Plug, to help founders close that gap. After beginning her career in hospital administration and later being laid off while finishing her doctorate, she turned her gift for connecting people to resources into a thriving consulting firm with 14 t...

What if being yourself at work wasn’t a risk—but your greatest strength? In this deeply moving conversation, you’ll meet Claude Silver, Chief Heart Officer at VaynerX and author of Be Yourself at Work . Her presence alone reminds you what leadership can feel like when it’s rooted in humanity, courage, and care.  As you listen, you’re invited to slow down and reflect on who you are beneath the role...

What does it really take to lead well when the world—and the workplace—feels deeply divided? You’re invited into a thoughtful, grounded conversation with Michael C. Bush , CEO of Great Place to Work , as we explore how trust, character, and everyday leadership behaviors shape cultures where people can thrive, no matter their differences.  You’ll hear why great leadership isn’t about perks or sloga...

What does it really mean to trust someone—and how intentional are you about the choices you make every day? You’ll rethink trust from the inside out as Charles Feltman challenges the idea that trust is vague or emotional and reframes it as a conscious decision to make something you value vulnerable to another person’s actions.  You’ll learn how trust works in both directions and why being trustwor...

What if leadership isn’t about confidence or visibility—but about building systems that expand access for others? In this episode, you’ll meet Jiayuan Tian, a social entrepreneur and graduate student at Columbia University SIPA, whose journey through global education reshaped how he understands inequality, opportunity, and leadership. After studying at Minerva University and living across cities a...

What if the future of leadership isn’t about choosing between people or technology, but learning how to lead both with intention? In this episode, you’ll hear from Gena Hoxha, PhD, Chief People & AI Officer at Ignitium, who is helping organizations embrace AI in a way that strengthens—not replaces—the human side of work.  You’ll discover how Gena’s own leadership journey shaped her belief that...

What does it really mean to thrive, especially when success still doesn’t feel satisfying? Kamin Samuel, PhD, brings a grounded, deeply human perspective to thriving—one rooted in self-leadership, self-trust, and releasing the quiet belief that you’re “not enough.” You’ll hear why so many capable leaders, particularly women, undervalue their experience and resilience, and how that habit quietly dr...

What does it really take to lead with courage in environments that were not built for you? Gretchen Gagel, PhD, a trailblazer with four decades of experience in the construction industry, shares what she has learned about unconscious bias, the importance of male allies, and what it takes to create truly safe and inclusive workplaces.  We also explore Gretchen’s concept of grounded self-leadership,...

What if the feedback you’re most hesitant to receive is actually a gift? In this solo episode, I share what 360-degree feedback really is—and what it is not—drawing on more than 30 years of experience helping leaders use feedback as a tool for growth rather than judgment. I explain how 360 feedback works, why it must always be developmental, and how it helps people see both their strengths and the...