Innovating Leadership: Co-Creating Our Future

Guest: Steve Armato, VP of Middle Mile & Tech at Amazon Whether leaders accept or ignore new tech makes the difference between it disrupting their organizations – and transforming them.   Amazon’s use of new technology is a clear and major component of its success. It’s a big part of what puts packages on your porch. And, as Steve Armato reveals, Amazon wants to share that tech with others. St...

Guests: Lynn Shollen & Sam Wilson, researchers at Christopher Newport University and Swinburne University of Technology Odds are good you aren’t happy with our leaders. Less than 1/3 of Americans believe their leaders are effective.   That’s according to the Leadership Attitudes Survey. Dr. Lynn Shollen joins us to share more of the results. Dr. Sam Wilson chimes in to reveal insights from the...

Guest: Nate Rempe, CEO of Omaha Steaks It’s an iconic success story with a menu of leadership lessons: Born from a family escaping oppression in 1917, Omaha Steaks transformed from a small butcher shop into a global brand synonymous with the finest steaks. They’ve stayed at the top because of their long history of leaders driven to innovate. CEO Nate Rempe joins host Maureen Metcalf to unpack the...

Guest: Dr. Mary Crossan, Distinguished University Professor at Western University You say you want to hire people with good character – but what does “character” mean? In this rediscovered episode, Dr. Mary Crossan of Ivey University defines exactly what leader character is, why it matters, and how to develop it. She’s found leader character is not just an add-on, but a foundational element that p...

Guest: Greg Moran, Executive-in-Residence, Former Sr. Executive at Ford, Chase, Nationwide, and more Should you, or shouldn’t you?   All ethics boil down to this simple question, but getting to the answer can be enormously difficult, especially when deciding for your business. But guest Greg Moran – a long-time C-suite resident – says you can ease those ethical questions by establishing basic prin...

Guest: Mike Hardy, Founding Director of CTPSR In this rediscovered episode, guest Mike Hardy delivers an insightful update on the founding principles and advancements at the Centre for Trust, Peace, & Social Relations at Coventry University. He delves into his own transformative journey towards embodying peace, serving as a beacon of inspiration. The episode highlights the Centre's remarkable...

Guest: Brian Richardson, Founder/CEO of Richardson Consulting Group How talented is your team?   Without a skills-based system, you may never know…and never tap into the full potential your organization has. But companies that look at skills know who has the talent to best get the job done – and who can develop and grow to obtain those skills.   That’s the message guest Brian Richardson, the found...

Guests: WE Empower Challenge winners Hadeel Anabtawi & Habiba Ali with Amanda Ellis While female entrepreneurs have made great strides in some countries, in the U.S. and other nations women still face significant barriers that just aren’t there for male-headed start-ups. Despite that, women leaders are making a difference by promoting positive change in their local communities – changes that c...

Guest: Dr. Tanvi Gautam, Senior Faculty at Singapore Management University How do you lead: with your head or heart? Left-brain or right? For the best leaders, the answer is “All of the above.”   From the art of conversation to discovering (and sharing) your organization’s story, guest Dr. Tanvi Gautam talks with host Maureen Metcalf about her head-and-heart-based approach to leadership developmen...

Guest: John Heiser, former CEO of LabVantage We hear a lot about family values and personal values…but what about business values? And what happens when your company’s and personal values conflict?   Values conflicts arise frequently in the workplace. Addressing them leads to a more engaged and satisfied workforce (who also drive superior performance). Guest John Heiser explains how, and shares de...

Guest: Dr. Reza Soltanzadeh (CEO & Founder of Borealis Foods) Solving a major crisis sometimes requires reframing it. For Reza Soltanzadeh, working with Doctors Without Borders exposed him to global hunger—but he saw one solution by reframing the problem as global malnutrition.   That set him on a path of high innovation, resulting in a ramen noodle that can, quite literally, nourish the world...

Guests: Marlene Janzen Le Ber and Lynne E. Devnew (Researchers at Brescia University College & University of Phoenix) We judge female leaders differently than men; we’ll decry a woman exec displaying the exact same behavior as a male. The challenges keeping women from the C-suite and board room are systemic and complex – but the process really starts at the very beginning: how women aspire to...

Guest: Brian Ahearn, Chief Influence Officer at Influence PEOPLE Employee engagement at work continues to nosedive. So how can you motivate your team?   Show them you care! That’s just one tool in the influence toolkit guest Brian Ahearn shares with Maureen Metcalf in this episode. Influencing people is a critical art in motivating people to engage in their work—and forge success for your entire t...

Guests: Allan Bird & Joyce Osland It’s hard enough leading a small local team; imagine running a team that stretches across continents!   That’s exactly what global leaders must do. But from what motivates people to varying labor laws, cultures vary wildly around the planet, so leadership styles must adapt with them. How can a global leader do it all?   Guests Allan Bird and Joyce Osland have...

Guest: Helle Bank Jorgensen Does your board of directors have the slightest clue what to do with AI?   As AI creeps into your organization, your board has a fiduciary duty to determine its parameters in the workplace AND in the boardroom…such as figuring out how much information is relevant, and whether it’s trustworthy, misinformation, or just way more than you need. There are ethical considerati...

Are leaders letting democracy die?   Less than half of the world’s nations are full-fledged democracies today. That’s down from just 20 years ago.   Part of the problem is a nation’s democratic death usually isn’t dramatic or sudden; it’s often a series of subtler, slower moves such as only appointing loyalists to cabinet posts and judgeships, or threatening the press if coverage isn’t towing the...

Guest: Tom Krouse Lots of leaders claim their products are made with love. Donatos Pizza means it: they practice Agape Capitalism.   As CEO Tom Krouse explains in this episode, Agape Capitalism puts a love of humanity at the center of their company processes and revenue generation. Its origins are rooted in founder Jim Grote’s observations as a teen working in a pizzeria with two owners: one a fru...

Guest: Ron Riggio Are great leaders born, or forged?   Ron Riggio followed up on the four-decade-long Fullerton Longitudinal Study to uncover the childhood characteristics that indicated later leadership qualities. Those results further informed his work on transformational leadership. He discusses his findings with host Maureen Metcalf…as well as the interplay between transformational leadership...

Guest: John Driscoll What’s the surest way people will follow you into battle? Show you care — about them and their families.   That’s a major lesson John Driscoll learned in the Army…and it’s served him well in the private sector, including his current role at Walgreens, where he’s focused on improving service to patients in the healthcare industry. John shares his leadership insights, and the ne...

Guest: Parminder Vir At the 4th Women and Leadership Conference, participants spent three days discussing and debating ways women’s leadership potential can be unleashed: developed, energized, and liberated in the workspace. Parminder Vir took part, and discusses the results…along with her own experiences as a female leader through four decades of work and across cultures and continents. Her tips...

Guest: Kim Campbell, former Prime Minister of Canada Climate change is already hitting businesses’ bottom lines – and those business costs are only beginning. As guest Kim Campbell – the former Prime Minister of Canada – points out, we hit this tipping point through poor corporate leadership in the past. The question now is: what can today’s leaders do about it?   Kim has some stats, and a lot of...

Guests: Margaret Heffernan & Ira Chaleff What we need from leaders today is vastly different than even a decade ago. That change began years ago; the pandemic merely accelerated it. The reason is simple: turbulence and uncertainty are now chronic conditions. Now, guest Margaret Heffernan says, leadership is about building organizations that thrive in turbulence. She shares six steps to make th...

Guest: Celina Caesar-Chavannes What’s your secret identity?   Our true selves are often buried so deeply that they’re a secret to us. It’s hard enough to lead authentically when you don’t know who you are – but how can you motivate your team if you don’t know who they really are, either?   The key is the praxis of humanization, a way of helping your coworkers bring their authentic selves to the of...

Guests: Joanne Ciulla & Keith Grint Why do so many leaders have trouble acting ethically?   For nearly three decades, Joanne Ciulla has focused her research on ethics in leadership. Even though the framework for ethics is over 2,400 years old, our definition of being ethical holds firm today. Why is it taking so many leaders so long to catch on? Her answers may surprise you.   Joanne earned th...

Guests: Rob Elkington & Les Sylven To serve and protect: servant leadership takes on a whole new meaning for a law enforcement leader. Society’s expectations for policing have changed radically – for example, up to 80% of what officers do overlaps with what social workers do! Add calls for reduced funding, labor shortages, brutality…and gone are the days of simple “cops and robbers” policing....