Inspirational Leadership for People Managers, Executives & HR Leaders

How to Develop Pragmatic Optimism as a Leader with Dr. Daniel Monehin

What type of leader are you when faced with a crisis? Are you an optimist, or pessimist, or do you personalize the crisis? How you show up in a time of crisis is a strong predictor of the quality of the leadership that you have.

In this episode of the Inspirational Leadership podcast, I speak with Dr. Daniel Monehin, a leadership keynote speaker and adjunct professor. He uniquely combines real-world global leadership experience and rigorous empirical research. Dr. Daniel has had a 30-year career where he has held various leadership roles in diverse businesses, from start-ups to global businesses across wide-ranging industries.

Listen in to learn why you can never sidestep crisis response as a leader, plus how to develop the skill of pragmatic optimism. You will also learn the importance of taking a pause and asking questions to understand a crisis in your organization instead of being dismissive.

Key Takeaways:

• The power of being compelling in your message as a leader to influence people.
• How to take a pause and make your emotional side conscious to be able to lead with it.
• Learn to ask questions and be informed before you dismiss a crisis as a leader.
• How to harness goodwill from your people during a crisis by learning to externalize your feelings about it in a believable way.

Standout Quotes:

• “In leadership development, if people don’t believe you, they’re not going to take your message.”- Dr. Daniel
• “You cannot delegate crisis response as a leader, actually, crisis is nothing other than a test of leadership.”- Dr. Daniel [28:14]

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

Building An Organizational Strategy for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion with Tara Robertson

How are you working towards connecting people in your organization as a leader? Do you have a working strategy in place on diversity, equity, and inclusion? For DEI to work in any organization, leaders must commit to a strategy aimed at connecting people and having them work together.

In this episode of the Inspirational Leadership podcast, I speak with Tara Robertson, a diversity, equity, and inclusion consultant and leadership coach. She analyzes qualitative and quantitative HR data to diagnose what companies’ biggest diversity and inclusion issues are and works with internal stakeholders to co-design interventions based on research best practices and experience about what actually moves the needle.

Listen in to learn the importance of having an organizational strategy on diversity, equity, and inclusion. You will also learn how to be mindful and fully present in the way you show up as a leader to yourself and others.

Key Takeaways:

• The uncomfortable conversations we need to have to establish a diversity, equity, and inclusion strategy.
• How to engage your body, heart, and spirit to help you notice when things are not working out.
• How to achieve mindfulness and be fully present for yourself and others around you.
• Learn and take action to disrupt discriminatory behavior in yourself and others.

Standout Quotes:

• “We need to collectively dream the future that we want.”- Tara [19:28]
• “We need to engage our hearts, spirits, and bodies; our bodies give us messages when things are not okay.”- Tara [23:22]

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

Finding and Hiring Exceptional Talent with Lou Adler

For this week’s Inspirational Leadership Podcast I spoke with Lou Adler who's The Sherlock Holmes of Recruitment and CEO and Founder of The Adler Group. He has over 1.4 Million followers on Linkedin and is one of the top bloggers on LinkedIn’s Influencer program writing about the latest trends in hiring, employment, and recruiting.

Lou is the author of the Amazon top-10 best-seller, Hire With Your Head and The Essential Guide for Hiring & Getting Hired. He has been featured on Fox News and his articles and posts can be found on Inc. Magazine, BusinessInsider, Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal.

Lou realized that the hiring process was broken so he invented what’s now famously known as the ‘Performance-based Hiring' model. With over 40 years in the recruiting industry, Lou's company ‘The Adler Group’ has trained over 40,000 hiring managers and placed over 1500 executives for many of the fastest-growing companies with clients including Disney, General Dynamics and Paycom.

In this episode we discuss how to focus on performance objectives when hiring, clarifying expectations, improving interview skills, assessing emotional intelligence and the most important interview question of all time.

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

The Value of a Progressive Workplace with Sudha Dwivedi

For this week’s Inspirational Leadership Podcast I spoke with Sudha Dwivedi, who’s the Chief Human Resources Officer at Teranet and is responsible for leading their global HR team.

She is a passionate champion of inclusion and diversity, ensuring Teranet is a progressive workplace where everyone has a seat at the table and that all voices are heard. Sudha specializes in creating large-scale employee engagement and development programs that bring Teranet’s culture of continuous learning to life throughout the employee’s tenure with the company. Sudha implements talent management strategies that drive the achievement of their business goals.

A native Montrealer, Sudha holds an MBA from Concordia University and a Bachelor’s degree from McGill. She is also a certified Leadership and Life Skills coach. Having lived with her husband and two sons in the Toronto area for more than 20 years, she will root for the Blue Jays and Raptors, yet remains a committed Habs fan.

In this episode we discuss how to support people bringing their whole selves to work, making values and culture the operating model, creating systemic change, advancing marginalized groups, taking a grassroots approach and embracing vulnerability.

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

How to Successfully Change Careers with Angela Champ

For this week's Inspirational Leadership Podcast I spoke with Angela Champ, who's the Head of HR at Alpine Building Maintenance and has worked in various senior level HR positions over the last 20 + years. She’s passionate about lifelong learning and inspiring others to achieve their best potential. She writes, blogs and speaks on a variety of leadership, professional development and personal growth topics.

Named as one of Canada’s top 20 HR leaders on the HRD Global 100 and on The Most Inclusive HR Influencer list, Angela is a popular and a frequent conference and keynote speaker. She is a member of the University of Calgary Human Resources Management Certificate Advisory Council, and has been a frequent guest lecturer at colleges and universities including Mount Royal University, University of the Fraser Valley, and St. Clair College.

Her newest book is called - The Squiggly Line Career: How Changing Professions Can Advance a Career in Unexpected Ways. Angela is an advocate of advancing women in the workforce, founding the ICBC Women's Network, which ran for 10 years, and is currently the President of Lean In Vancouver Network.

In this episode we discuss how to find a job that energizes you and is a fit for your strengths and talents, thinking beyond your job title, questions to help you get clarity on your dream job and how to demonstrate that you're coachable, learning agile and emotionally intelligent (and how companies can expand their talent pool).

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

How Connection Drives Results with Dr. Michelle K. Johnston

For this month’s Inspirational Leadership Podcast I spoke with Dr. Michelle K. Johnston, who's a management professor, executive coach, and leadership expert helping leaders achieve results through meaningful connection. She is an award-winning professor studying leadership and business communication, and her research has shown a clear link between a team’s effective communication and its positive financial performance. 

Michelle is a celebrated keynote speaker presenting at conferences and events nationwide. She received her Ph.D in Communication from Louisiana State University, and she was named to the prestigious 100 Coaches group, which consists of the top executive coaches around the world. 

Michelle serves as the Gaston Chair of Business at Loyola University New Orleans where she teaches in the graduate and undergraduate programs in the College of Business. She lives in her beloved city of New Orleans, Louisiana, with her daughter, Elizabeth. The Seismic Shift in Leadership is her first book. 

In this episode we discuss how to lead with compassion, let go of the mask of perfection, share your story, retain top performers and create meaningful connection.

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

Principles for Sustainable Success with Alan Stein Jr.

For this month's Inspirational Leadership Podcast I spoke with Alan Stein, Jr. who's an experienced keynote speaker and author. At his core, he’s a performance coach with a passion for helping others change behaviors. He spent 15+ years working with the highest performing basketball players on the planet (including NBA superstars Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, and Kobe Bryant). Through his customized programs, he transfers his unique expertise to maximize both individual and organizational performance.

Alan is a dynamic storyteller who delivers practical, actionable lessons that can be implemented immediately. He teaches proven principles on how to utilize the same approaches in business that elite athletes use to perform at a world-class level. His previous clients include American Express, Pepsi, Sabra, Starbucks, Charles Schwab, Penn State Football, and many more. The strategies from Alan’s books, are implemented by both corporate and sports teams around the world.

In this episode we discuss how to effectively work through stress, stagnation and burnout, honoring your core values, why companies MUST train, develop and coach their workforce and how your emotions are designed to inform you, not direct you.

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

 

How To Thrive as a Highly Sensitive Person with Clare Kumar

For this week's Inspirational Leadership Podcast I spoke with Clare Kumar, who's a Productivity catalyst and highly sensitive executive coach. Clare helps professionals achieve sustainable performance - improving productivity and well-being while avoiding exhaustion and burnout. She draws on a diverse corporate career that took her from Toronto to Tokyo and Montreal, with equal experience as an entrepreneur. She is a sought-after media contributor to news and lifestyle shows including the Huffington Post, Fast Company, the Globe and Mail, CBC, The Social, and the Marilyn Denis Show. Whether speaking to one person or thousands, Clare loves inspiring massive shifts by inviting you to pay attention to little things that make a big difference.

Clare has become one of Canada's most renowned organizing and productivity thought leaders offering insights, inspiration, strategies, and tools to support leaders, employees, and entrepreneurs have greater efficiency, effectiveness, and... enjoyment. Yes, Clare believes in having fun while getting things done! She welcomes all highly sensitive professionals as well as those who want to love and support them to find community in the Happy Space Pod.

In this episode we discuss what it looks like to be a highly sensitive person, why we need more rest areas in workplaces, how leaders can create more autonomy for their teams, why wellbeing and sustainability need to be cornerstones of productivity and the importance of white space in calendars.

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

Managing Up and Mastering Assertiveness with Kim Boudreau Smith

For this week's Inspirational Leadership Podcast I spoke with Kim Boudreau Smith who's passionate about helping women find (and use!) their bold voices. A born entrepreneur with 25-years as a leader in Corporate America, Kim rocks at showing female entrepreneurs and high-performing professional women how to develop their speaking confidence, level up their presence, and increase their profitability. Kim’s raw, slightly rebellious, and always riveting speaking style makes her a go-to speaker for women’s business and professional conferences, associations, employee resource groups, and podcasts. Prior to launching her career as a professional speaker and speaking coach, Kim was the head of a radio station and for 25+ years ran a thriving fitness business. Kim is also the co-author of several Amazon bestselling books.

In this episode we discuss how to boldly own your voice, understanding imposter syndrome, asserting from a place of confidence and compassion, how to have more impactful conversations and improving your negotiation skills.

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

Mental Health and Wellness with Allan Kehler

For this week’s Inspirational Leadership Podcast I spoke with Allan Kehler, who's a mental health advocate, international keynote speaker, and best-selling author of four books. His writing has been published in countless national magazines and he has been featured on several television and radio programs. He has also instructed various mental health related courses at the college level, and spent years working as an addiction counselor and clinical case manager.

Allan is one of Canada’s most sought-after speakers when it comes to the topic of mental health and wellness. He has stood on more than 500 stages and is recognized for his engaging style and captivating approach. Having persevered through his own mental health issues and substance use, Allan speaks from a place of experience. His moving stories tug on heartstrings, inspire a new perspective, and allow people to connect with themselves and others at a deeper level. He uses humor and compassion to create a safe space where people feel seen, heard and supported.

In this episode we discuss why vulnerability shows immense strength, how to surrender to the things you can't control, why expressing feelings leads to healing, the difference between existing and living and tapping into your resilience.

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