Leading without the BS: Unfiltered. Unapologetic. Unstoppable Performance.

If you're still telling yourself you "have to have all the answers," it's time to challenge that and unlock your leadership performance by releasing that pressure. Wingspan Performance experts explore the powerful shift from relying on technical expertise to mastering better questions, behavioral leadership, and deliberately co-creating with your team. These key shifts can help...

Discover the origins of the Wingspan Performance System™ with founder Cathy Maday. Shay Prosser, founder of North 12 Partners, flips the script and gets Cathy in the hot seat to share how she built a practical behavioral system for healthy high performance, Advancing Questions®, Activating Language®, and leader behaviors that drive results for technical and seasoned leaders. This no fluff conversa...

Discover how Ryan Haas, President of Scalzo Hospitality and frontman of The UnderGroove, applies rockstar stage presence to lead high-performing hospitality teams. In this Wingspan Performance episode, Ryan shares powerful lessons on creativity, energy management, crisis leadership in Minneapolis, the "inside game," and building cultures through Advancing Questions® and healthy conflict....

Discover how former business owner and counseling psychology expert Bruce Stankavage joined Wingspan Performance as a Leadership Performance Advisor. In this candid conversation with Cathy Maday, Wingspan Performance Founder + CEO,  shares his powerful transition, the immediate impact of Wingspan’s behavioral performance system on leadership, communication, and family life, plus why mindset, accou...

Discover powerful leadership lessons from today's episode with Wingspan Performance Advisor, Mike Johnson, and Taylor Stewart of Sandia National Labs. In this conversation, Taylor shares how she brings calm under pressure, humor, curiosity, and authentic personality to massive-scale national security operations. Learn practical strategies for challenging the status quo, measuring observable b...

On this episode Cathy Maday, Founder of Wingspan Performance, talks with Chris Lock, Siemens Smart Infrastructure leader. Chris shares raw lessons on entrepreneurial grit, risk-taking, and people-first leadership inside a global titan. From breaking sweat in early jobs to building high-performance teams with Wingspan Performance, discover how to lead with ownership, handle consequences, and create...

What if accountability wasn’t about conflict or confrontation? In this episode of Leading Without the B.S. , Mike Johnson sits down with Wingspan Performance Advisor Bruce Stankavage to unpack one of the most misunderstood leadership skills: exercising accountability. Drawing from 26+ years as an entrepreneur, Bruce shares how avoiding accountability and unclear expectations quietly limit team per...

Join us on today's episode as Mike Johnson talks with Danny Curlin, Plant Manager at Koppers Performance Chemicals, about how he overcame fuzzy language like “I’ll try,” “I think,” and “I need” that was quietly sabotaging his leadership and team performance. In this raw conversation on Leading Without the BS , Danny shares his journey from fast-tracked supervisor to plant manager, the costly...

In this episode of Leading Without the BS , host Mike Johnson talks with Dianne Grote Adams, President & Owner of CFX Inc. and a health and safety expert with over 40 years of experience. They reveal how unspoken or unclear expectations lead to serious safety risks, wasted time and money, team misalignment, and frustration. Discover why leaders struggle to communicate behavioral and technical...

Most leadership training is bullsh*t — not because leaders don’t care, but because it fails to change behavior where it actually matters. In this episode of Wingspan's Leading Without the B.S. , Wingspan Performance® Leadership Performance Advisors Heather Hopkins and Mike Johnson unpack why traditional leadership training fails, and what actually works when leaders are under pressure, overlo...

Hosts: Ivan Konermann & Heather Hopkins Big Promise: Leaders will leave with practical shifts they can use now and year-round to make reviews easier, clearer, and less stressful. Core Theme: Bad reviews aren’t born in December—they’re built through avoidance or fuzziness all year. Strong reviews come from routine, honest, specific feedback tied to role expectations and observable behavior. 7 P...

In this episode of Leading Without the BS , Ivan sits down with Wingspan Performance Advisor Heather Hopkins to explore her journey from mechanical engineering and manufacturing leadership to becoming a coach who helps leaders see—and fill—the gaps they never realized they had. Heather shares how her pioneering early career shaped her entrepreneurial mindset, how she grew into people leadership wi...

In this episode of Leading Without the BS , Cathy and Ivan dig into what B ehavioral Performance actually looks like in real life — not as theory, but as in-the-moment mindset, behaviors, and communication. They explore how leaders and teams tend to slide into autopilot, especially at the end of the year or during fiscal crunch time, and how that leads to burnout, safety issues, mediocre meetings,...

Most leaders focus on fixing processes — and the real problems aren’t technical. They’re behavioral. In this episode, Cathy Maday, Founder, Owner & Advisor of Wingspan Performance® , and Ivan Konermann, VP & also an Advisor, pull back the curtain on the system that transforms high-stakes leaders worldwide. From construction sites to C-suites, they reveal how communication, mindset, and beh...

When performance slips, most leaders double down on effort — not behavior. In this conversation, Wingspan Advisor Mike Johnson and VP + Advisor, Ivan Konermann, reveal how great leaders drive results through Behavioral Performance — the discipline of building consistent, intentional behaviors that match technical skill. They dig into what healthy control really looks like, how to turn accountabili...

In this episode of Leading Without the BS , Ivan Konermann and Wingspan’s newest Advisor, Mike Johnson, go head-to-head in what we’re calling “Bald vs. Balder.” With a combined 40+ years of leadership experience (and zero hair between them), they unpack how accountability is so often misunderstood — and how leaders will move from fuzzy expectations to confident performance with the Wingspan Perfor...

High-Performance Leaders often jump in to “help” by doing the work themselves. Sounds noble, right? Except it hijacks your team, erodes trust, and turns you into the bottleneck. In this episode, Cathy and Ivan unpack the autopilot habit of “helping by doing,” why it feels so natural (spoiler: dopamine hits), and how to shift into shaping, equipping, and multiplying your team’s performance. You’ll...

Change is constant—and as a leader, you either navigate it or get buried by it. In Episode 5, Cathy and Ivan cut through the noise and show you exactly how to lead when everything around you is shifting . This isn’t about faking calm or pretending you’ve got it all figured out. It’s about leading with clarity, confidence, and consistency , even when the ground under you keeps moving. Here’s what y...

High-Performer habits will sneak up on leaders like you. What once got you promoted or helped you hit targets is now keeping you stuck . In this episode, Cathy and Ivan cut the B.S. and show you how to identify the behaviors that hold you back—and what to do instead. Here’s what we cover: The patterns high performers fall into : autopilot habits, overdoing work, always being the “go-to,” and endle...

Avoiding conflict and accountability? You’re holding your team back . In Episode 3 , Cathy and Ivan delve into why accountability is non-negotiable for effective leadership performance among entrepreneurs and business leaders who act as one, and how to implement it without hesitation or fear of fallout. We’ll show you how to stop renegotiating deadlines and start following through on expectations...

Entrepreneurs and business leaders —if you're tired of confusion holding your team back, Episode 2 is for you. In this episode, Cathy and Ivan break down clarity as the foundation of leadership confidence . This isn’t about guesswork or hoping things will work out . It's about being direct , intentional , and creating a clear path forward for both you and your team . In this episode, you...

In this episode of Leading Without the B.S. , Cathy Maday(CEO) and Ivan Konermann(VP of Ops) dive into how to approach hard conversations with clarity, confidence, and intention. From avoiding tough talks to not speaking the f$ck up when it matters most, many business leaders unknowingly create stress, confusion , and missed opportunities by dodging these game-changing discussions. Cathy and Ivan...