The Hard Skills

Listeners will learn what factors might get in the way of their leadership and business success related to having a poor strategy around where to start and why. We'll connect how Michelle Warner thinks about business development strategy with how Dr. Brancu thinks about leadership strategy when it comes to decision-making and actions for success.  Do you ever feel like, “I don’t even know wher...

Listeners will learn a new way to think about traumatic experiences of leadership, as well as multiple approaches to identify and address these experiences.  What do leaders do when the act of being a leader is traumatic? Leaders navigate enormously challenging situations, including moral dilemmas that force the leader to choose between the organization’s welfare and that of individual staff; poor...

If you are a high-achieving, goal-oriented, socially conscious person who has found themselves spinning in some weird toxic waters at work, or simply wondering how to avoid getting sucked up into it, this might be the episode for you. In this episode Dr. Brancu answers four common questions about navigating these murky waters: when and how to (1) Say No, (2) Manage Up, (3) Adjust Work Relationship...

Listeners will walk away with unique and creative insights on what it means to change, how understanding our limitations can become a strength, and fascinating research on learning, curiosity, and rewiring habits. Lisa will also share some of her frameworks for navigating change, including tools and guideposts that strengthen our ability to face change, important resources for expanding our sense...

Have you ever wondered how to go from one career to a very different one? Or how to integrate all of the interests you have into a professional career? This is the area of professional identity development and formation and Dr. Williams will lead us through how to do this. Listeners will gather information on how to start building the career they want by assessing themselves, understanding their u...

Listeners will get a roadmap for how to face any career decision and make choices that support them and their stakeholders throughout the course of their lifetime. We’ll also cover practical tips for what to do when there are competing things that matter to you and your stakeholders, and how to resolve those conflicts in the best way possible. Have you faced a really difficult career decision and...

Can you be strategic in developing your resilience? Dr. Marie-Helene Pelletier, a business and clinical psychologist says yes and offers the audience a strategic framework of resilience, practical tips, and exercises for creating their own custom resilience plan, a new way to think about burnout, resilience, and your mental health as a leader. Dr. Marie-Helene Pelletier and Dr. Mira Brancu will di...

Are you walking the talk? Do people interpret your actions as you have intended? How do you know? Becoming the leader you aspire to be takes much more intentionality and practice than simply creating a strategic plan. In this episode, executive coach, Miki Feldman Simon will share her CORE 4 step process from her upcoming book to help listeners live and lead with intention, authenticity and integr...

In this episode, listeners will learn how one young social entrepreneur transformed an idea into an implementable action plan, scaled it up to reach a broader audience and have a wider impact, and is now developing her leadership identity and vision for the future.  In this episode, Aynsley Szczesniak and Dr. Mira Brancu will walk through the steps of taking an idea and turning it into reality. Th...

In this episode, we'll map out strategies to support employee transitions into parenthood. What do they need? Are there generational differences in trends and expectations? How does this impact team culture, retention, and productivity? Sarah Olin will provide insights into the impact of making this a priority, how to do it gracefully and align it with company goals, and creative methods for m...

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Liz Sweigart who will share with us about the importance of Adaptive Planning, practical frameworks for strategic decision-making, and how to embrace innovation and creativity in that process. Given the ongoing uncertainties we face, our ability to infuse flexibility, continuous adjustment, and creativity into thoughtful scenario planning, risk management, and ot...

There is a lot of hype about authenticity, making us feel like unabashed authenticity is the panacea: a path to success for all. That’s not the case, and we’ve all met the people that we wish would be a little bit *less* authentic. Listeners to this episode will be invited to consider: 1.        What authenticity actually is (and is not) 2.        That being authentic is a form of privilege (we do...

The audience will learn Tammy Gooler Loeb's "C.E.O. of Your Career" framework to grow a sustainable career through an employment marketplace that requires us to be more fluid, flexible and creative. (C = Be Curious; E = Be Engaged; O = Take Ownership).  We spend a lot of time at work, more than we do with our families, sleeping, or in other important areas of our lives. As we are livin...

Listeners will gain insight into a practical, easy to digest framework for understanding and celebrating your unique personality strengths and applying them to add strategic value to people and organizations.  In this episode we talk about how to leverage your unique personality, accurately gauge your own strengths and weaknesses, increase your self-knowledge, and learn to identify and address the...

How can your personal self-awareness help your career and performance success? How do I hone this? Our guest Nancy Parsons will share her insights on this question along with assessment and data-based ideas for mapping a strategy for effective development. Deep self-awareness is critical to mapping an effective strategy for development and performance improvement.  Research shows that leaders tend...

What is belonging? How can organizations harness the energy that comes from true belonging? Wendy Gates Corbett will share her 3-pillar framework of belonging along with tactical ideas to foster a culture of belonging. ​​ What is belonging? How can organizations harness the energy that comes from true belonging? Wendy Gates Corbett will share her 3-pillar framework of belonging along with tactical...

Who Drives Your Leadership Identity? How do expectations, relationships, and changes in identity related to how leaders are perceived and how they might develop their personal and personal brand? What if the brand we intend as leaders is damaged or needs to be intentionally transformed to meet the needs of customers? We talk with a lawyer who has a passion for intellectual property to get a unique...

Listeners will learn how leadership is changing globally, what leaders need to know more than ever, how leadership identity connects with these global changes, and how technology can be leveraged to get there. Dr. Jonathan Kirschner is the Founder and CEO of AIIR Consulting -  a global business psychology consulting firm dedicated to increasing the effectiveness of leaders around the world. He is...

What if you lead a business, department or team, but find it unnatural to see yourself as a leader? It's hard to fully step into your power when your personal identity as at odds with how others see you in your leadership roles. In this episode, we explore the power of mentorship in leadership identity and non-traditional leadership paths. We'll learn how well-matched mentoring relationshi...

Listeners will learn how leaders from marginalized groups - specifically, neurodivergent leaders - can change the old "rules" and lead authentically, without assimilating.  Ludmila N. Praslova, Ph. D., SHRM-SCP, is the author of “The Canary Code: A Guide to Neurodiversity, Dignity, and Intersectional Belonging at Work” (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, April 2024). A Professor of Graduate Indus...

Listeners will learn to define leadership in a way that incorporates your personal experience - The first step in your leadership signature. They will get a preview Dr. Pennington's six key areas to "signature leadership" with an example of a pathway to their areas of identification and development. Dr. Greg Pennington is an expert in leadership and team development and Managing Partne...

Listeners will celebrate closing out 2023 and starting out 2024 thinking about how to set goals related to their leadership development. As a way to celebrate wins from 2023 and ring in 2024, we will be inviting some founding members of our Towerscope Leadership Academy to share their personal insights about what they took away from last year that they plan to apply this coming year. We are in ope...

The most important skill women (especially) need to succeed and thrive at all stages of their careers. Whether you're starting out in your career, in the market for a promotion, or simply trying to show up as the best leader you can be, you're going to be asked what you bring to the table, why you matter, why YOU are the boss. Answer these questions well and you will unlock incredible pote...

Learn to build bridges within your communities, families, and workplaces in which polarization might otherwise result in division. This is a new way to think about the alignment of inner change and social change. You will be invited to recognize that empathetic and emotionally intelligent leaders have first built bridges in their inner worlds. We will explore example of leaders who show up in whol...

The audience will learn about long-term thinking, Career Reinvention, and the real reason you feel so busy! How can you finally take control of your busy life? Dorie Clark shares how long-term thinking and Career Reinvention helped her and many others have a career transformation and the challenges we must overcome to get there.  Dorie Clark helps individuals and companies get their best ideas hea...