Inspirational Leadership for People Managers, Executives & HR Leaders

Why I Stopped Drinking Alcohol

It’s been over two years now since I stopped drinking alcohol, and I’m loving it and don’t miss it at all! Are you, like me, curious about your relationship with alcohol, or are you recognizing how your unconscious choices are stopping you from showing up as the best version of yourself?

In this solo episode of the Inspirational Leadership podcast, I share what inspired me to quit alcohol, how I navigated the journey, and the lessons I’ve learned so far. I also explain the never-ending benefits of quitting alcohol and how you can approach this journey.

Listen in to learn why you need to ask yourself questions about the role of numbing habits in your life and how your life and purpose can change if you chose to quit.

Key Takeaways:

• How not experiencing hangovers can shift your life and how you relate to others.
• How quitting a numbing habit can enable you to build healthier habits and stay committed.
• How you get curious and notice things about yourself when you quit numbing habits.
• How changing your relationship with alcohol will enable you to feel a deeper connection with yourself and others and show up for your purpose.
• How your unconscious choices stop you from being who you want to be and where you want to be in this world.

Standout Quotes:

• “This is an invitation to be able to take a step back and ask yourself some questions and see if there are some new conscious choices you might want to make or an opportunity to perhaps shift your current relationship.”- Kristen [20:32]
• “It’s about recognizing where you might be making some unconscious choices that are not serving you and not getting you to where you want to be and who you want to be in the world.”- Kristen [22:42]

𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝟭𝟱-𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗣𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗵𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗲𝗱𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱𝘄𝗶𝗱𝗲, 𝗞𝗿𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗲𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀, 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆. 𝗧𝗼 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗺𝘆 𝗼𝗻𝗲-𝗼𝗻-𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗸𝗲𝘆𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗲𝘀, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗻𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝘁: www.kristenharcourt.com

 

How To Build Relationships with Compassionate Accountability - Marc Lesser

What steps are you taking to build your emotional intelligence and mindfulness as a leader? An inspirational and mindful leader is aware of their own feelings and their teams’ feelings and how they impact their effectiveness. To become this leader, you must intentionally build your relationships by being accountable and leading with compassion.

In this episode of the Inspirational Leadership podcast, I speak with Marc Lesser, a CEO, executive coach, and Zen teacher known for his engaging, experiential presentations that integrate mindfulness and emotional intelligence practices and training. Before his business and coaching career, Marc was a resident of the San Francisco Zen Center for ten years, and director of Tassajara, Zen Mountain Center, the first Zen monastery in the Western world. He helped develop the world-renowned Search Inside Yourself program within Google – a mindfulness-based emotional intelligence training for leaders which teaches the art of integrating mindfulness, emotional intelligence, and business savvy for creating great corporate cultures and a better world.

Listen in to learn how to become a better leader by building trust and connection with your team to make it easier to have difficult conversations. You will also learn the importance of bringing awareness and curiosity to your feelings and other people’s feelings to become better at solving conflict.

Key Takeaways:

• How to start appreciating your sacredness to become a better human and leader.
• How to understand other people’s perspectives and our shared humanity with the 3-minute listening exercise.
• How to build trust and connection with your team to make it easier to have difficult conversations.
• How to become more aware of your patterns with conflict to notice when you overreact or underreact.
• How to create psychological safety in the workplace by bringing your vulnerability.

Standout Quotes:

• “It takes some looking inward and some stopping in order to become aware of those beliefs we have beneath the surface.”- Marc [12:08]
• “Beginning an advanced lesson in working with conflict is separating the impact that someone’s words or actions have on us and being curious about their motivation or intention.”- Marc [25:51]

⇢ Get full show notes and more information here: https://bit.ly/PodcastMarcLesser

Workhuman: A Transformative HR Conference

Did you attend this year’s Workhuman conference? If yes, what was your experience, and what were your major takeaways? With many speakers and topics ranging from DEIB to pivoting to workplace relationships, Workhuman Live was inspiring, thought-provoking and empowering.

In this episode of the Inspirational Leadership podcast, I speak with Jackye Clayton and Katee Van Horn. They’re two diversity, equity, & inclusion peeps who love both what they have in common and what makes them different. During the day, they use their superpowers to block bias and end systemic racism within companies and create equitable places to work. They launched the Inclusive AF Podcast in 2020, which is a place where you get to hear real, authentic, and sometimes tough discussions on issues that are important to various communities.

Listen in to learn the power of being a professional troublemaker who advocates for others by asking tough questions and speaking up. You will also learn how giving the right energy and interactions can improve innovation in the workplace.

Key Takeaways:

• The importance of being constantly ready for change in the workforce and in your career.
• How to advocate by asking tough questions and speaking up to give others the space to do the same.
• The importance of relational intelligence and energy in creating an innovation-driven and better workplace.
• The need to develop human skills that allow you to gauge what people need and how to best help them.
• How to maintain individual authenticity in the workplace while still encouraging innovation.

Standout Quotes:

• “Change management isn’t something outside of your natural day job; change is just something that is always constant and happening.”- Katee Van Horn [04:10]
• “Being the professional troublemaker is about you being part of the change; it’s about you being the change you want to see in the world.”- Kristen [20:06]

⇢ Get full show notes and more information here: https://bit.ly/Workhumanpodcast

The Critical Role of Conscious Leadership

Who do you want to be as a leader, and how do you want to engage with your team? Conscious leadership is about recognizing your below-the-line thinking and habits and creating new habits that allow you to lead from above-the-line and teach your team members the same patterns.

In this solo episode of the Inspirational Leadership podcast, I discuss the critical role of conscious leadership in creating high-performing teams and organizations. Conscious leadership is about showing up in the world from a place of responding instead of from a place of reactivity.

Listen in to learn the difference between the below-the-line victim mentality and the above-the line creator mentality and how to develop the latter.

Key Takeaways:

• The seriousness of below-the-line versus the playfulness of above-the-line leadership.
• How leading above the line gives you the ability to notice patterns and create new habits.
• The learning and growth that occur when you engage in healthy communication with others.
• How to commit to creating new habits that lead to deeper relationships and creative problem-solving with conscious leadership.

Standout Quotes:

“Conscious leadership is the process by which a leader becomes radically responsible, self-aware, and focuses on building a culture of “we” rather than a culture of “me.”- Kristen [00:47]

“The more you can neutrally non-judgmentally notice what you’re feeling, the more you can give space for that.”- Kristen [12:23]

⇢ Let's connect! I love hearing from my community. Learn more about my programs and services at www.kristenharcourt.com

How To Advocate for Yourself and Your Team with Sabine Gedeon

What can you do to look differently at what leadership means? In today’s world, leadership is more than meeting the bottom line results or operations; it’s about keeping the pipeline of engaged talented individuals who will continue to expand and evolve the organization. Effective leadership is also the ability to support and accept support from your team without feeling the need to be part of every task.

In this episode of the Inspirational Leadership podcast, I speak with Sabine Gedeon, the Founder of Gedeon Enterprises, an advisory and professional development firm focused on supporting organizations and leaders in transforming how they lead and approach talent strategy & development. In 2021, Sabine launched SHELeads Network, a professional development and training community for women leaders, in response to the overwhelming changes in society, calling on more women to take the lead in their homes, communities, companies, and businesses.

Listen in to learn how to effectively advocate for yourself as a leader by embracing coaching and guidance from your team. You will also learn how to build a network of supporters and your brand to strategically grow your career.

Key Takeaways:

• How to shift your mindset and not let fear stop you from taking the risk to pivot your career.
• How to align with what’s important for you as a leader to allow effective support from your team.
• Develop the confidence to advocate for yourself and ask for help so you can lead effectively.
• The importance of having a success circle to advocate and guide your career growth.

Standout Quotes:

• “Start to think about how you’re spending your time, what you’re doing, and how you’re developing your team and find the thing that’s true for you to help you overcome the need to be part of it.”- Sabine [25:52]
• “You have to fill your cup with whatever it is you need to be and feel whole in order for you to be effective in pouring that out.”- Sabine [27:04]

⇢ Get full show notes and more information here: https://bit.ly/SabineGedeon

How To Cultivate More Self-Compassion

What does the voice in your head tell you throughout your day? Is it positive and empowering or negative and critical? That inner critic was created through years of conditioning and is self-sabotaging and disempowering.

In this solo episode of the Inspirational Leadership podcast, I discuss how to practice self-compassion to get rid of the negative voice in your head. I explain how to get curious and aware of that voice, ask yourself the right questions, and shift the way you speak to yourself.

Listen in to learn how practicing self-compassion allows you to prioritize self-care and achieve your goals and targets.

Key Takeaways:

• How to become aware of the negative voice within and shift the way you talk to yourself.
• How practicing self-compassion allows you to prioritize taking better care of yourself.
• How to use journaling to get curious and introspective about your negative patterns and create new patterns.
• How self-compassion gives you a sense of fulfillment and acceptance as you are.

Standout Quotes:

• “If you’re going to have more self-compassion, that also has to manifest in you taking care of yourself in terms of your mind, body, and soul.”- Kristen [06:20]
• “You start to be able to build your self-compassion when you create more space and stillness to reconnect with yourself.”- Kristen [07:21]

⇢ Let's connect! I love hearing from my community. Learn more about my programs and services at www.kristenharcourt.com

The Workhuman Conference Experience with Jackye Clayton & Katee Van Horn

Have you heard of or attended the Workhuman conference? Workhuman Live is the game-changer of conferences, where the world’s best minds gather to share transformative ideas and to inspire a community of thousands to create more human workplaces everywhere. It offers an exciting experience that tackles relevant DEIB topics, actionable ways to reinvent work and creates an empowering space for people to learn and be recognized.

In this episode of the Inspirational Leadership podcast, I speak with Jackye Clayton and Katee Van Horn. They’re two diversity, equity, & inclusion peeps who love both what they have in common and what makes them different. During the day, they use their superpowers to block bias and end systemic racism within companies and create equitable places to work. They launched the Inclusive AF Podcast in 2020, which is a place where you get to hear real, authentic, and sometimes tough discussions on issues that are important to various communities.

Listen in to learn the value you can get from attending the Workhuman conference, not just as an HR leader but also as a people leader. You will also learn the importance of creating spaces where others are recognized in an authentic and genuine way.

Key Takeaways:

• How the Workhuman conference is set up to humanize the individuals that attend.
• The importance of creating spaces where others are recognized in an authentic and genuine way.
• How the Workhuman conference allows you to create a network of peers to support you in your HR work.
• How to impact your people by being human and reinforcing them as the most important piece of the organization.

Standout Quotes:

• “It’s a life-changing conference to the experience not just in your knowledge but in your feeling for other people.”- Jackye Clayton [26:57]
• “It is those after the conversations conversations that are so helpful to know that you’re not alone and there are folks in HR dealing with those same issues.”- Katee Van Horn [21:14]

⇢ Get full show notes and more information here: https://bit.ly/Workhumanexperience

How to Explore Future Thinking in Your Organization with Nikolas Badminton

What are you doing as a leader to make your organization better in the future? To continuously improve and innovate your organization, you have to explore futures thinking which is about challenging or augmenting your vision.

In this episode of the Inspirational Leadership podcast, I speak with Nikolas Badminton, a world-renowned futurist speaker and foresight thought leader who mentors leaders to create more connected, curious, and creative teams that embrace futures design to drive more profit and explosive growth. He has spent 30+ years working with leadership at over 300 leading organizations at the frontline of foresight, strategy, and disruption – including NASA, United Nations, Google, Microsoft, Intel, WM, United Way, Bayer, Bank of Canada, Rolls Royce, Procter & Gamble, IDEO, UK Home Office and many more.

Listen in to learn why you have to shift your mindset from what is to what if by practicing curiosity, courage, and creativity in your organization. You will also learn the importance of letting go of your biases to build trust and empower people to invest in their mental well-being.

Key Takeaways:

• How to shift your mindset from what is to what if by practicing curiosity, courage, and creativity.
• The importance of thinking beyond your lifetime and how you can create a better world for generations to come.
• How to create a people-first organization by making sustainable and ethical decisions.
• How to let go of your biases to build trust and empower your people.

Standout Quotes:

• “We have to think way beyond our lifetime, and beyond the lifetime of our children, how we can create a better world today that’s going to still be here in hundreds of years.”- Nikolas [20:50]
• “Anxiety and pressure are not fuel for creativity and business.”- Nikolas [32:39]

⇢ Get full show notes and more information here: https://bit.ly/NikolasBadminton

How to Create More Life-Work Integration

What does life-work integration look like for you? When it comes to life-work integration, there is no one-size-fits-all. If you want to achieve your version of success and feel fulfillment and well-being, you must create space for introspection to get clear on your vision and make more aligned choices.

In this solo episode of the Inspirational Leadership podcast, I discuss what life-work integration means and where ambitious, high-performing leaders can get stuck. I also explain the importance of getting clear on your values, what matters most to you, and your boundaries to have an aligned life-work integration.

Listen in to learn how to redefine what success looks like for you to make it easier to develop behaviors, habits and actions that will lead to greater meaning, purpose and self-actualization.

Key Takeaways:

• How to create the space for introspection that allows you to make more aligned choices.
• How to recognize what is true for you and honor your “Yes” and “No”.
• How getting clear on your boundaries will help you to make better decisions around life-work integration.
• How to have daring conversations and ask for what you need as a way to have healthier boundaries.

⇢ Let's connect! I love hearing from my community. Learn more about my programs and services at www.kristenharcourt.com

A Fighter Pilot’s Lessons on Leading with Courage – Kim ”KC” Campbell

How do you take action and lead with courage in the middle of fear? When you’re scared of treading tough ground with your team, that’s when you should prepare and take action to set yourself up for success.

In this episode of the Inspirational Leadership podcast, I speak with Kim Campbell, a retired Air Force Colonel who served in the Air Force for over 24 years as a fighter pilot and senior military leader. She has flown 1,800 hours in the A-10 Warthog, including more than 100 combat missions protecting troops on the ground in both Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2003, Kim was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for Heroism after successfully recovering her battle-damaged airplane after an intense close air support mission in Baghdad. She has experience leading complex organizations and driving cultural change. Kim is passionate about leadership and feels strongly that leaders earn trust by leading with courage and connecting with their team.

Listen in to learn the importance of taking a step back in a critical situation and realize that you do have what it takes. You will also learn how to create a high-trust environment where people feel safe to share feedback and connect with you as a leader.

Key Takeaways:

• Get your “step up voice” louder by preparing for failure and practicing some visualization techniques.
• How to be vulnerable and ask for support when needed to be the best leader you can be.
• How to show your team the human side of you to connect and create trust between you.
• The importance of taking a step back in a critical situation and realizing that you do have what it takes.

Standout Quotes:

• “When we’re vulnerable, we create an environment of trust, and people are more willing to give feedback and point out a problem.”- Kim [20:35]
• “In moments when you’re feeling stressed or anxious, it’s best to take that step back, take a deep breath, and realize that you do have what it takes.”- Kim [30:48]
• “It is okay to be afraid, it is okay to be scared, but you have to put yourself in a position to now take action.”- Kim [40:37]

⇢ Get full show notes and more information here: https://bit.ly/KImCampbell