321: Braving the Workplace and the Role of Belonging

In this powerful episode, Dr. Beth Kaplan returns to discuss her groundbreaking book, Braving the Workplace: Belonging at the Breaking Point. She opens with her personal journey through workplace trauma. Beth reveals the critical distinction between inclusion and belonging—explaining that while others determine inclusion, belonging is an internal decision that requires staying true to yourself without compromising your values.

You’ll be moved by Beth’s compelling message about the dangers of self-sacrifice in toxic work environments and the crucial role managers play in fostering genuine belonging. She offers practical strategies for recognizing workplace trauma, setting healthy boundaries, and prioritizing self-care before company loyalty. Whether you’re struggling in a challenging workplace or leading a team and want to create a culture of authentic belonging, this episode offers specific strategies you can start using today.

Beth is a visionary thought leader, researcher, and keynote speaker who has redefined how we look at belonging and how to be our best selves. She works with companies to enhance employee engagement and retention while significantly lowering turnover costs. Beth is currently pioneering a groundbreaking belonging tool with the University of Pennsylvania, designed to measure belonging and predict the propensity to thrive.

You’ll discover:

Why belonging is an internal decision rather than something granted by others
The warning signs of workplace trauma
How managers can become the number one factor in creating environments where people truly belong through empathy and “stay interviews”
Practical strategies for setting boundaries and prioritizing your wellbeing without sacrificing your authentic self for a job
The dangerous impact of using “family” language in workplace settings

Watch the episode:

Connect with Dr. Beth Kaplan

Dr. Beth Kaplan’s Resources

Website

Dr. Beth Kaplan

Book page

Book

Braving the Workplace: Belonging at the Breaking Point

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320: How Unresolved Wounds Affect the Way You Lead

Conflict is inevitable, but how leaders handle it makes all the difference. In this episode, vicki abadesco! shares a real-world example of a well-known organization struggling with team conflict and how small miscommunications can escalate when left unresolved. She explains how our upbringing shapes our approach to conflict and why developing emotional intelligence is essential for effective leadership. Through her work with both executives and young children, vicki highlights the importance of clear communication, emotional awareness, and accountability in building strong teams and relationships.

vicki also introduces practical tools like the “emotional balloon” and the “cleanup process” to help individuals recognize their emotions, take responsibility for their actions, and repair relationships when mistakes happen. Whether you’re leading a team, raising a family, or simply striving to communicate better, this episode will provide insights and strategies to help you lead with empathy, transparency, and authenticity.

vicki is a nonprofit leader and mentor renowned for her unwavering commitment to growth and lifelong learning. Through her organization, Soul Shoppe, she and her team have touched the hearts and minds of over one million elementary school students with their conflict resolution and peacemaking curriculum. vicki has created a lasting impact, nurturing a generation of emotionally intelligent individuals who can build strong relationships and foster inclusive communities.

You’ll discover:

Why conflict resolution is a critical leadership skill
How early life experiences shape communication habits
The “emotional balloon” metaphor for managing emotions
A 5-step process for acknowledging mistakes and making amends
How teaching emotional intelligence to kids can inspire better leadership in adults

Watch the episode:

Connect with vicki

vicki’s Website

Soul Shoppe

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319: Cultivating a Culture That Lasts

Company culture isn’t just a buzzword—it’s the foundation of an organization’s success or failure. Brad Federman shares how businesses can create a culture that balances people and results. He explains where many organizations go wrong when developing their values and why culture must be designed to outlast leadership changes. Brad also reveals how companies can avoid common pitfalls, such as tolerating bad behavior and adopting trendy policies without considering business needs.

We dive into practical strategies for aligning culture with business goals, reinforcing positive behaviors, and holding leaders accountable. Brad describes the importance of continuous culture audits and experiential activities that make culture tangible. Whether you’re a business leader, HR professional, or culture champion, this episode provides actionable insights to create an environment where employees thrive and customers stay engaged.

Brad is the founder of PerformancePoint, a firm dedicated to helping organizations engage employees, strengthen customer relationships, and cultivate resilient, collaborative cultures through effective leadership. With over 25 years of corporate experience, he’s worked with global companies like Hilton Hotels and Resorts, Nordstrom, and Mayo Clinic. Brad is an international speaker and the author of Cultivating Culture: 101 Ways to Foster Engagement in 15 Minutes or Less.

You’ll discover:

The biggest mistakes companies make when defining their values
Why culture must be stable, not built around a single leader
How to hold employees and leaders accountable for culture
The role of feedback and culture workouts in shaping workplace norms
Strategies for overcoming resistance to cultural change

Watch the episode:

Connect with Brad

Brad’s Resources

Website

PerformancePoint

Brad Federman

Books

Cultivating Culture: 101 Ways to Foster Engagement in 15 Minutes or Less

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Emerging Leaders Need Skills

EMERGING LEADERS NEED SKILLS

By Dr. Denny Coates

Leadership is the ability to guide and empower a group toward achieving a key organizational goal. Being successful requires judgment, decision-making, and responsibility while inspiring teamwork, trust, and motivation. Emerging leaders need to learn these skills.

“Knowing what to do isn’t the same as being able to do it.”

Skills vs. Concepts

Recognizing the need for productive teams, many organizations have created programs to introduce emerging leaders to fundamental leadership concepts and principles. Even many business schools are now offering courses in leadership.

Traditionally, instructors share basic concepts and principles with emerging leaders and assume that learners will understand them, remember them, and apply them on the job.

The problem: knowing what to do isn’t the same as being able to do it. Concepts and principles, as important as they are, are not the same as skills.

Practice: The Key to Skill Mastery

Simulated classroom exercises can be great introductions to new skills, but they are inadequate for actually establishing the skills. Skill mastery requires repeated application in real-world situations, which can’t happen in the classroom. Over time, many repetitions of a behavior stimulate the brain cells involved in the skill to connect with each other. This impact on the brain causes a circuit of interconnected brain cells to form that enables the behavior to become an automatic response.

Because of this need for repetition, mastering leadership skills is like acquiring the skills needed for competitive sports. For example, it takes extraordinary skill for a player to hit a baseball rocketing towards him at 90 miles per hour. The batter has no time to analyze the pitch and think about the best way to make effective contact with the ball. The necessary skills have to be automatic, established during months of practice.

In exactly the same way, leaders often have little time to think about the best way to react. They need to have invested a lot of time using the skills at work to engage with people effectively.

Replacing Old Habits with New Skills is Challenging

The challenge for an emerging leader is that old habits for dealing with people compete with efforts to replace these behavior patterns with more effective ones. Pressured by the challenges of work, a manager might be tempted to go with what has come to feel familiar. The failure to apply what they have learned can be discouraging. They may conclude that the new skills are so different and uncomfortable that they aren’t a good fit for them, so they give up on the sustained effort to improve.

Coaching Encourages Emerging Leaders

Because the path towards mastery inevitably includes many such frustrations, coaching is a vital ingredient for replacing old habits. Coaching helps an emerging leader to be held accountable, to be asked about what was learned from failures, and to receive encouragement.

In short, instruction can impart knowledge, but skill-building requires a dedicated, long-term follow-up. Coaching is important to develop leaders at all levels, so an economical solution is for the leaders to coach each other. With this kind of peer support, emerging leaders are more likely to continue doing the work that leads to mastery.

The ideal leadership development program, then, not only offers excellent introductions to the best practices, but it also supports what needs to happen afterwards: a long-term program of on-the-job application to establish essential skills involved in interpersonal communication and character strength. As leaders practice the most effective ways of connecting with members of their team, they create effective action while nurturing leader-team relationships.

Learn more about Essential Leadership skills for emerging leaders in Connect with Your Team.

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149: Becoming a Highly Effective Leader

318: The Power of Speaking Up: Turning Fear into Strength

Have you ever found yourself not speaking up, whether it’s in a 1:1 situation or in a group? For a variety of reasons, women often hold back instead of using their voice. Jennifer Wilkov, founder and CEO of Speak Up Women, learned to speak up in a powerful way herself and now teaches other women to do the same. Whether you’re looking to build confidence, advocate for yourself, or become a more effective leader, you’ll take away actionable strategies to amplify your own voice.

Jennifer shares her personal journey, from a successful career as a certified financial planner to an unexpected wrongful conviction that tested her resilience. Rather than staying silent, she turned her experience into a movement—empowering women to embrace their self-worth and use their voice with confidence.

Speak Up Women is a community that’s cultivating women’s self-expression and empowerment. Jennifer speaks to women through her inspiring personal message, “You have the right to remain fabulous! – regardless of any situation, circumstance or condition.” She is passionate about elevating the self-esteem of women everywhere and encouraging their self-worth.