Narativ Leadership Story Talks

The music business is notoriously fickle, but some people, such as Kevin Griffin, manage to stay for a long time. What did he do that many of his peers didn’t? How did he manage to stay inspired and nimble? In this episode, Jerome and Julienne talk with ​​Kevin Griffin, an award-winning songwriter, producer, and performer whose songs have sold over 80 million copies and have been streamed over a b...

In this episode, we explore the line between comfort and discomfort. Tension and ease.  When do we need to stretch ourselves and put ourselves in a “dis-comfort zone” in order to grow?  Julienne shares a recent experience of noticing the tension that she was feeling. Rather than trying to hide it away, she decided to explore its cause, and figure out the message this tension was giving her. This l...

“All it takes is one person's recognition of the other person's suffering, humanity and value for the other person to go ‘you see me, you truly see me, you get me’, and then the magic happens. People want to be seen and heard.” In this episode, Jerome and Julienne talk with Juliana Tafur, an Emmy-nominated TV producer and the Listen Courageously movement and workshop series creator. Juli...

How do stereotypes affect leadership? How can we empower people, and men in particular, to question those stereotypes, take control of their identity and be a better version of themselves? In this episode, Jerome and Julienne talk about the growing movement trying to change the traditional idea of what it means to be a man. They talk about how stereotypes are passed along through generations and i...

“People want choice, optionality, and flexibility. They don’t want to be told what to do.”  In this episode, Julienne and Jerome sit down with Alex Seiler, a global people leader with over 15 years of experience transforming people functions and putting talent first at WeWork, Blue Shield of California, NBCUniversal, and Citi. He currently serves as Chief People Officer at GHJ and under his leader...

Better product development, greater innovation, and better performance- many companies and people see the benefits of greater diversity. But what if we flip the script around and apply a lens of innovation to diversity rather than view diversity as just another checkbox?  This is one of the ideas that Bertina Ceccarelli and Susanne Tedrick, the two guests in this episode, talk about in their new b...

For this podcast series, Jerome and Julienne have been talking to many people about leadership. In this episode, they look back at the conversations they’ve had, talk about the things many of these leaders had in common, and share what they have learned so far. They talk about being anchored in your values, the ability to delegate but also go deep on something when needed, and the importance of co...

Change is often challenging, both for individuals and organizations. Why do we so often push back? And how can leaders help people through change?  In this episode, Jerome and Jullienne talk to Curtis Bateman, an internationally recognized presenter, content developer, change consultant, business leader, coach and author of ‘Change: How to Turn Uncertainty into Opportunity.’  Curtis explains why p...

The world we live in is volatile and filled with uncertainty. How do you navigate that as a leader? How do you know where to go next, and how do you communicate those decisions to others? In this episode, Jerome and Julienne tell us more about the upcoming online leadership workshop. In this workshop, which will consist of three one-hour sessions over a period of three weeks, you will get to learn...

What happens when we’re late?  What do we do when we’re late, and what do we do when we’re the ones waiting?  In this episode, Jerome and Julienne find themselves in an unexpected situation, but they decide to stay positive and use it to their advantage. They talk about choosing to shift the energy when something unexpected happens, using what’s going on in the moment and the grace in being realit...

Julienne and Jerome speak with Amy Bach, founder and CEO of Measures for Justice, a criminal justice nonprofit that develops data tools and services that help communities, including the institutions that serve them, reshape the system. A journalism fellowship led to a book idea, the book led to an idea for an organization, and now that organization (60+ employees and growing) is reshaping the just...

What do Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Tim Cook, Barack Obama, Richard Branson, and Larry King have in common? They are great listeners and know when to stop talking. In this episode Julienne and Jerome talk to Dan Lyons, New York Times bestselling author, screenwriter and journalist, about the power of talking less and listening more. Dan recently published ‘STFU: The Power of Keeping Your Mouth Shut in an...

Sooner or later, we all go through it: grief and loss. How do we deal with grief and loss, in the workplace and beyond? How do we remember, or re-member, our loved ones and how do we help others when they are dealing with loss?   In this episode, Jerome and Julienne talk about grief and loss. They provide guidance for employers on how to help employees who are experiencing grief and loss and for t...

How are you spending your time? Are you intentional about it and do you take your wellness into account, or do you put in time just for the sake of it? And if you do want to be intentional about it, how can you use the connection between your body and mind to find out how to improve your productivity and well-being? In this episode, Jerome and Julienne discuss well-being in the workplace and how t...

Jules and Jerome talk to Sasha Robinson, Head of People at Trainual, a company that codifies processes related to the people function of an enterprise, helping them to scale and grow, particularly around training and onboarding. Sasha has grown teams everywhere she's been, always paying attention to engagement and the best ways to meet employees where they are.  This episode tracks Sasha&apos...

Garrett Richardson has had a sense of purpose ever since he did a summer internship at the Freedom School, mentoring young people in Newark to instill them a passion and enthusiasm for literacy. Today, Garrett has leveraged all of his professional experiences to scale up mentorship as part of his work with Bloomberg Philanthropies in the city of London in particular. In our interview with Garrett,...

In this episode, we discuss the current market conditions, and mixed messages headlines are giving us. Especially for people in tech, there's a lot of uncertainty and anxiety coming from layoff announcements and talk of a recession in general.  So what do we do in the face of that?  Jerome and Julienne discuss the effectiveness and value of storytelling to help differentiate yourself when you...

Julienne and Jerome discuss healthcare and how storytelling can improve dialogue between patients and doctors.  What they uncover in this episode is the importance of listening and how to improve it so that people who are often in a power deferential, or feel intimated by the medical field, can feel like they have a voice.  You'll hear about a recent client that Jerome worked with to support...

Julienne and Jerome speak to Niall Dunne, CEO of Polymateria, a company that is working on solving the enormous, worldwide problem of plastic pollutants.  You'll go on a fascinating journey as Niall tells us about how he started as a track and field athlete, met with Julienne's husband and fellow Irishman, Joe Ryan, who was a coach at Manhattan College in the Bronx, New York. Niall ended...

Julienne and Jerome were excited to discuss the science of people with Craig Forman, from Culture Amp, a company that is dedicated to improving employee engagement through tech and people. Craig's purpose is to "build a better world of work", through community building and technology in particular.  Craig discussed with us how he came to realize what needed to be fixed in the corpor...

Julienne and Jerome discuss the art of building relationships and trust through an experience that Julienne had before the holidays.  She describes how her assumptions were proven wrong when she reached out to people to support her for a project.  We look at the role of assumptions in our day to day lives and how they can get in the way of our ability to move forward.  This aligns with Narativ&apo...

Happy New Year! In this first episode of 2023, Julienne and Jerome discuss HR trends in 2023, based on an article that Julienne was invited to contribute to on bestofhr.com   The main take away is to focus on the most effective ways to keep people engaged, especially in the face of an uncertain year, with much "doom and gloom" talk. We posit that the R word that will guide 2023 does not...

Jerome and Julienne discuss lessons learned from the 5 most popular episodes of 2022, which are all linked below in the show notes. From Zev Shalev and his story of witnessing the release of Nelson Mandela in South Africa as a young student in his uniform to Julienne and Jerome's episode on intentions versus resolutions, you will get practical insights while hearing  leadership stories that y...

Julienne and Jerome discuss how storytelling has enhanced their guest's presentation and leadership skills. Anna Vafeiadou is responsible for the legal sector of the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) in Greece. As she had been increasingly asked to represent the work of the WWF through public speaking, she decided to enroll into a leadership development course at the MAVA foundation. She then worked...

Julienne and Jerome speak to Gianna Biscontini, a board certified behavior analyst, bestselling author, and founder of W3RKWELL, a company that is dedicated to creating assessments that businesses can use to improve employee well being. Working in the clinical world, Gianna's environment was no longer supporting her growth, and she started to teach neuroscience based meditation. From there, s...