Leadership Huddle with Geoff Welch

If you're looking for a reason to quit, you'll find it. If you are looking for a reason to keep going, you'll find it. If you are looking for a reason to maintain the status quo, you'll find it. If you are looking for a reason to blow the whole thing up and start over, you'll find it. If you are looking for a reason to believe this is as good as it gets, you'll find it. If...

If you want things to be different than they are, change something today. The time it takes to span the gap between where you are to where you want to be is predicated on how quickly you change your behavior. Those who are willing to experiment with new habits today will enjoy progress today. Some habits will stick, others will be proven ineffectual, but these experiments will move ...

This isn’t a post about baseball, it’s about leaders who are emotional terrorists. Yankees star right fielder Aaron Judge is one of the least visibly emotional players in the league. Whereas one of his predecessors (and current Yankee broadcaster), Paul O’Neill, used to kick water coolers and yell at umpires when he was frustrated by a substandard performance — a quirk which endeared him to fans —...

When Marilyn Romano was building her career, she had no idea how many pivotal moments would shape a life defined by service, community, and helping others succeed. In this conversation, I sat down with Marilyn Romano, Regional Vice President at Alaska Airlines, to talk about the choices that changed her life and the lessons she's learned from decades of leadership in Alaska. Marilyn shared stories...

I knew it was all going to fall apart as soon as help arrived. I’ll spare you about 3 paragraphs of scene setting and unnecessary context and get right to the point. With the game on the line in the bottom of the 10th inning, the Yankees moved one of their outfielders to the infield to increase the likelihood of keeping a batted ball in the infield, their only chance to stave off defeat. It was th...

Nothing will make a high performer resent you faster than when you ignore the impacts of underperformers. Full stop. You can’t expect your most capable employees to respect you when you won’t address the employee who can’t (or won’t) meet the shared standard. The clearest definition of what you value as a leader is not in the mission statement on the wall or the pretty words you say in meetings.&n...

For the record: I didn’t set out to make the Mayor cry. In this episode, I share a rapid-fire conversation with Grier Hopkins, the Mayor of the Fairbanks North Star Borough to talk about what it actually means to him to lead people well. Grier shares how growing up in Fairbanks shaped his perspective, why understanding people’s backgrounds matters more than having the “right” answers, and how...

I’m thinking about giving up on leadership consulting and becoming a Meeting Czar. I mean, if I really want to help organizations thrive, this is the lever to pull. You’ve probably never heard of a Meeting Czar, likely because it’s a role I made up, but hear me out. The Meeting Czar exists to prevent people from having dumb meetings and ensure the meetings that do happen are actually effectiv...

When Dan Pontefract started thinking about the future of work, he realized we weren’t just getting older, we were getting it wrong. And that changes everything. In this conversation, I sit down with author and speaker Dan Pontefract to explore a powerful idea: the future of work isn’t young or old, it’s gray. And most organizations are wildly unprepared. Dan introduces the concept of “age debt,” t...

Earlier this year my beloved Yankees made their first trip of 2026 to Fenway Park to play the rival Boston Red Sox. And while the Yankees swept that 3-game series, the Boston fans provided an incredible example of The 5 Secrets of Impossibly Effective Teams as they irrationally and erroneously chanted “YANKEES SUCK!” throughout the weekend set. Clarity is Non-NegotiableAbsolutely no one in the sta...

It’s not often you find two leaders who care as much about how their teams feel as what their teams achieve, but that’s exactly what stood out in this conversation. In this episode, I sit down with Billy Jenkins and Brandon Hughes, Directors of Branch Operations at Credit Union 1, to explore what it really looks like to build strong, connected teams across multiple locations in Alaska. We talk abo...

In just 9 words, and without even realizing it, the woman behind the counter summed up why so many people aren’t as effective as they could be. I was seated across the lobby, reading Lord of the Flies, when the coordinator behind the desk started making calls to confirm appointments and collect some diagnostic information. I wasn’t eavesdropping. Quite the opposite. But there were only a few...

She walked away from a business she built, and found something bigger on the other side. In this conversation with Megan Militello, CEO of the Alaska Manufacturing Association and former founder of Elevated Oats, we talk about what it really looks like to build something meaningful, and when to let it go. Megan has a rare ability to see systems, connect people, and turn messy, real-world challenge...

When I was in elementary school I had a teacher who fundamentally changed the way I see the world. The teacher in question, Mr. H, would periodically bring interesting examples of science and technology to share with the class. I don’t specifically remember any of them, but they always felt like school had stopped and we were doing something fun instead. Like what you might see on Mr. Wizard.&nbsp...

It isn’t the workload that’s breaking people. It’s everything else. In this conversation, I sit down with Dr. Liane Davey to unpack a problem almost every leader feels but can’t quite name: the invisible weight that makes work harder than it should be. She calls it thoughtload and once you hear it, you’ll see it all around you. We dig into why “work isn’t working,” how leaders accidentally create...

I hate black and white movies. And it’s for the dumbest reason imaginable. The thing I hate isn’t the absence of high-fidelity color, it’s that every black and white movie seems like the same movie to me. If I sat down to watch a black and white movie and every scene was followed by a scene from a different black and white movie, I wouldn’t even notice. Now, I fully recognize that every era f...

Some of the hardest conversations you’ll ever have…stop being so hard the moment trust walks into the room. In this episode, I mix it up with Charlie Leonelli from MAC Federal Credit Union for something a little different. We skip the normal interview – because we’ve already done that – and just riff on an idea that shows up in almost every leadership challenge I see: difficult conversations. What...

Ignoring your haters is not the answer. Here’s why:In March of 2025 my daughter and I winged our way thousands of miles across the country to catch a few Yankee spring training games in Tampa, Florida. The vibe at these spring games was absolutely delicious. The crowds were so much smaller than regular season games in the big stadiums and it was just the most relaxing setting to spend a couple hou...

This episode is proof that you don’t need a detailed map to have a fulfilling career if you lean into curiosity, meaningful relationships, and a mission bigger than yourself. This week, I sit down with Tlisa Northcutt, President of the University of Alaska Foundation, to explore what it really looks like to grow into leadership over time. We talk about the power of asking great questions, why...

The first time I saw it I knew I loved it. And I knew I had a problem. Late last year I replaced my truck and decided that it was time to put a topper on the load bed. When I picked it up from the installer I was in love. It looked great and was going to solve a handful of problems I had with having a truck with an open bed. The ravens wouldn’t tear up trash during the winter and our camping gear...

When today’s guest realized most companies were automating chaos instead of clarity, they decided to fix it. In this conversation, I check in with Shelly Thomas, the founder of Building Beta, to unpack what’s actually happening with AI inside organizations right now. Not the hype. Not the buzzwords. The real work. Shelly brings a rare mix of engineering rigor and operator experience, and it shows....

I probably shouldn’t be telling you this…For the record: whatever you say to an employee you lead about another employee you lead after saying those seven words is a truly bad idea. In fact, if you ever hear those words coming out of your mouth about any topic at all, just stop talking. The problem for many leaders is that they NEED to verbally process a challenge they are experiencing with someon...

What do you call it when the work you do and the thing you love are so tangled together you can’t quite tell them apart? In this conversation, I sit down with Joe Sprague, former CEO of Hawaiian Airlines, to explore what it actually takes to lead at the highest levels, and why his love of aviation made his career a little bit less like work. Joe shares how his early days working the ticket counter...

A couple months back I spent about 3 days fully wiped out with the flu. I just had zero juice in the tank. And for reasons not fully clear, even to me, I spent a lot of time watching old episodes of Matlock. A couple things struck me as I took this nostalgic trip back to my youth:Ben Matlock was far more ornery than I remembered. Almost nothing about the court proceedings in Matlock is accurate. I...

What does it take to lead an organization where creativity, community, and logistics collide every week? In this conversation, I sat down with Daniel Ponickly, Executive Director of the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra, whose background spans professional dance, film, arts education, and nonprofit leadership, a unique mix that shapes how he thinks about leadership. We talked about how he moved to Alas...