The Servant Leadership Podcast

In this episode of the Servant Leadership Podcast, Greg Aden sits down with executive coach and strategic consultant Avy Leghziel to talk about what leadership really looks like when work gets messy, unpredictable, and chaotic. Avy shares insights from his doctoral research on executive performance in chaotic environments and explains why leaders should not always try to eliminate uncertainty. Greg and Avy explore courageous conversations, workplace culture, leadership values, empathy, communication, emotional triggers, executive coaching, organizational development, and the importance of asking better questions. They also discuss why people avoid difficult conversations, how leaders can create stronger connections with their teams, and how curiosity, honesty, and servant leadership can lead to better decisions, stronger relationships, and improved performance. This conversation is especially valuable for executives, managers, business leaders, coaches, and anyone working to become a more effective leader. Follow Avy Leghziel: https://linkedin.com/in/avyleg/ https://avyleg.com/ Want to keep the conversation going? If something here landed with you, if you have a question about how Greg works with leaders and their teams, or if you just want to share your own experience, book a 15-minute conversation with Greg: https://adenleadership.com/15-minute-sl-podcast-connection/ Follow Greg Aden: https://adenleadership.com/ https://linkedin.com/in/greg-aden-leadership/ https://facebook.com/adenleadership/ #servantleadership #leadershippodcast #executiveleadership #leadershipdevelopment #executivecoaching #courageousconversations #workplaceculture #communication #management CHAPTERS 00:00 Meet Avy Leghziel 01:11 Executive Coaching and Studying Chaos 03:56 The Leadership Moment That Started Avy’s Research 04:59 Why We Should Stop Fighting Chaos 06:21 Management Versus Leadership 08:38 Was Avy’s Boss Actually Being a Leader? 09:34 Stop Aiming for Leadership Utopia 10:12 Vision Versus Criteria for Success 11:10 Understanding the Forces Affecting Your Organization 11:45 Workplace Politics, Competition, and Culture 14:55 How Values Shape Leadership 16:54 InteraWorks 17:45 Why We Avoid Courageous Conversations 18:34 Our Fear of Surprises 19:17 The Problem With Performative Politeness 20:40 Greg’s Approach to Courageous Conversations 22:02 What Happens When We Get Triggered 23:39 Using Difficult Moments to Create Connection 25:49 How to Have Deeper Conversations 27:41 Turning Workplace Problems Into Better Questions 30:07 Why Are We Here? 31:25 Collaboration Instead of Competition 33:06 Invite People to Shift, Not Change 34:48 Better Conversations Create Better Performance 36:52 Greg’s Final Takeaways Want to keep the conversation going? Book a 15 minute conversation with Greg: adenleadership.com/15-minute-sl-podcast-connection Watch full episodes and shorts on YouTube: Aden Leadership on YouTube Follow Greg: adenleadership.com | LinkedIn | Facebook

Why do skilled, credentialed leaders and experts still struggle to stand out? Personal branding for leaders starts with knowing what makes your work different and saying it with confidence. Greg Aden talks with Fabi Paoline, a brand messaging expert with more than 18 years of experience helping business owners, experts, and leaders communicate their value. In this conversation: - Why credentials alone are not enough, and why understanding your buyer's behavior matters - How to identify your "power buyers" and discover your "angle of mastery" - How to turn what you offer from a "nice to have" into a "need to have" and own your message in sales and leadership - Fabi's two lessons for young professionals: trust yourself, and know that setbacks are not final Connect with Fabi: https://linkedin.com/in/fabipaolini/ Want to keep the conversation going? If something here landed with you, if you have a question about how Greg works with leaders and their teams, or if you just want to share your own experience, book a 15-minute conversation with Greg: https://adenleadership.com/15-minute-sl-podcast-connection/ Follow Greg Aden: https://adenleadership.com/ https://linkedin.com/in/greg-aden-leadership/ https://facebook.com/adenleadership/ #servantleadership #leadershippodcast #brandmessaging #personalbrand #leadership #entrepreneurship #businessstrategy #sales #marketing CHAPTERS 00:00 Meet Fabi Paoline 01:27 How Fabi Learned the Power of Communication 04:10 Extracting the Genius From Your Expertise 06:21 Building a Brand Around Legacy 09:23 When You Are the Brand 11:16 Finding Your Power Buyers 12:08 Your Angle of Mastery 15:42 Turning a “Nice to Have” Into a “Need to Have” 17:28 Adaptability, Curiosity, and Servant Leadership 20:06 InteraWorks 20:56 The Mentors Behind Fabi’s Success 23:12 Why Sales Should Serve the Buyer 24:00 Empathy and Understanding Other People 26:03 Trust Yourself 28:59 Turn Roadblocks Into Innovation 30:47 Greg’s Approach to Servant Leadership 33:32 Impacting the Next Generation 36:01 How to Improve Your Brand Message 38:08 Greg’s Final Takeaways Want to keep the conversation going? Book a 15 minute conversation with Greg: adenleadership.com/15-minute-sl-podcast-connection Watch full episodes and shorts on YouTube: Aden Leadership on YouTube Follow Greg: adenleadership.com | LinkedIn | Facebook

What happens when being great at your job becomes the reason nobody lets you grow? If you are wondering how to manage high performers without trapping them in the role they already do well, this conversation offers a better path. Greg Aden talks with Sarah Howard, CEO and partner of Edenburg Hospitality, about her climb from hotel housekeeping to company leadership and the mentor who gave her permission to try unfamiliar work, make mistakes, and learn. In this conversation: - Why giving people permission to stretch and fail helps high performers become leaders - How turning down the wrong project can serve a client better than saying yes - What trusting employees to do the jobs you trained them for really looks like - Why collaboration can accomplish more than compromise, and what leadership has in common with parenting Connect with Sarah Howard: https://linkedin.com/in/showard08/ https://edenburghospitality.com/ Sponsored by Interaworks. Follow my socials! https://adenleadership.com/ https://linkedin.com/in/greg-aden-leadership/ https://facebook.com/adenleadership/ CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction 00:34 Meet Sarah Howard 01:26 From Housekeeper to Hospitality Leader 04:39 Lessons from Red Roof 08:54 The Mentor Who Made Room for Growth 10:57 Taking a Career Risk During the Pandemic 12:43 Joining Edenburg Hospitality 16:16 Building a Business Around Service 19:34 Interaworks Sponsor Break 20:26 Learning Courage from an Unlikely Mentor 22:53 Why Good Sales Starts with Curiosity 25:08 Working as Partners 29:38 Where Hospitality Meets Audacity 31:32 Trusting Your Team to Do Their Job 32:50 What Parenting Teaches Us About Leadership 36:01 Collaboration Instead of Compromise 38:51 Believe You Belong 40:16 Greg’s Closing Thoughts Want to keep the conversation going? Book a 15 minute conversation with Greg: adenleadership.com/15-minute-sl-podcast-connection Watch full episodes and shorts on YouTube: Aden Leadership on YouTube Follow Greg: adenleadership.com | LinkedIn | Facebook

What do you do when a successful career still leaves you feeling unfulfilled? Coach Russell Davis joins Greg Aden to talk about finding purpose at work, letting go of people-pleasing, and leading from a place of self-worth instead of a need to prove something. Russell shares how a strict upbringing shaped his need for approval and how his family's infertility journey led him to question the life he thought he should be living. In this conversation: - How limiting beliefs and the stories we tell ourselves shape the way we lead - Why judgment gets in the way of connection, and what changes when you stop feeling you have something to prove - What meaningful listening looks like: being present and seeking to understand what lies beneath someone's words - How leadership connects with parenting, purpose, and the daily question: Who are you being? Connect with Russell Davis: https://russell-davis.com/ https://linkedin.com/in/russellhdavis/ Follow my socials! https://adenleadership.com/ https://linkedin.com/in/greg-aden-leadership/ https://facebook.com/adenleadership/ #servantleadership #russelldavis #gregaden #authenticleadership #livewithpurpose #personalgrowth #inspiredliving #mindsetshift #meaningfulconnections #leadershippodcast Want to keep the conversation going? Book a 15 minute conversation with Greg: adenleadership.com/15-minute-sl-podcast-connection Watch full episodes and shorts on YouTube: Aden Leadership on YouTube Follow Greg: adenleadership.com | LinkedIn | Facebook

What does it cost your team and your family when you are in the room but not really there? Learning how to be present as a leader starts with noticing your own distractions, especially the phone, and the message they send to the people around you. Executive coach and author Stephanie Wachman shares the moment her two year old son ran to his dad instead of her, and how it led her to leave a big corporate job, go to coaching school, and help people own their time. In this conversation: - Why every distraction costs roughly 25 minutes, and what checking your phone tells the person sitting across from you - A simple method Stephanie uses with clients: tell people exactly when they get their phone back so being present does not create anxiety - Why she sees one life rather than work life balance, and how to find the distractions that are costing you - How leaders can protect culture and manage change as AI disrupts professional services Stephanie also talks about her volunteer work with the Association for Corporate Growth, NextStep, a new no cost mentor program for young professionals, coaching veterans reentering the corporate world, and teaching time and stress tools at the University of Colorado Law School. Connect with Stephanie Wachman, founder of Symetree Strategies: http://stephaniewachman.com/ https://linkedin.com/in/stephaniewachman/ Stephanie's books: OWN Your Time Sell Without Being Salesy Thank you to InteraWorks for sponsoring the Servant Leadership Podcast. Want to keep the conversation going? If something here landed with you, if you have a question about how I work with leaders and their teams, or if you just want to share your own experience, book a 15 minute conversation with me. https://adenleadership.com/15-minute-sl-podcast-connection Follow my socials! https://adenleadership.com/ https://linkedin.com/in/greg-aden-leadership/ https://facebook.com/adenleadership/ #ServantLeadership #LeadershipPodcast #Leadership #Productivity #WorkplaceCulture Want to keep the conversation going? Book a 15 minute conversation with Greg: adenleadership.com/15-minute-sl-podcast-connection Watch full episodes and shorts on YouTube: Aden Leadership on YouTube Follow Greg: adenleadership.com | LinkedIn | Facebook

What does servant leadership look like when it has to hold up at work and at home, even after the hardest loss imaginable? Heather Wood spent more than 20 years leading people in financial services, then built Stupendous Love after losing her daughter Ava and her husband in 2023. She and Greg Aden talk honestly about that loss, about men's mental health and how hard it still is for men to find an outlet, and about why love is a practice, not just a feeling. In this conversation: - Why putting people in a box hurts your team, and how staying curious about what gives someone energy and what drains it helps them do their best work - How to tell your team plainly that they can bring you their frustration before it turns into an explosion - Why consistency between how you lead at work and how you show up at home matters more than most leaders admit - The SHUVA idea, that everyone wants to be seen, heard, understood, valued and appreciated, and how to use it in a one on one meeting or at the dinner table Heather Wood, founder of Stupendous Love: https://linkedin.com/company/stupendous-love/ https://stupendouslove.com/ Want to keep the conversation going? If something here landed with you, if you have a question about how I work with leaders and their teams, or if you just want to share your own experience, book a 15 minute conversation with me. https://adenleadership.com/15-minute-sl-podcast-connection Follow my socials! https://adenleadership.com/ https://linkedin.com/in/greg-aden-leadership/ https://facebook.com/adenleadership/ #ServantLeadership #LeadershipPodcast #Leadership #Relationships #Purpose Want to keep the conversation going? Book a 15 minute conversation with Greg: adenleadership.com/15-minute-sl-podcast-connection Watch full episodes and shorts on YouTube: Aden Leadership on YouTube Follow Greg: adenleadership.com | LinkedIn | Facebook

Are you worried AI will replace your people, or unsure how to use it without losing the human side of leadership? This conversation on AI for leaders shows a different path: using AI to get the right information to the right person at the right time, so your team can do extraordinary things. Derek Crager shares how a last-minute call to build Amazon's training program from a single title slide shaped the human-first approach he now brings to businesses. In this conversation: - Why so much corporate AI spending fails when companies try to take humans out of the loop - How a voice interface keeps people thinking and involved, using AI as a soundboard rather than an answer giver - What servant leadership looks like in practice: giving people what they need, letting them own their goals, and creating other leaders - Why today's fear of AI mirrors the early years of the internet, and how change management helps people on-ramp Derek also speaks candidly about his late diagnosis of autism, ADHD and dyslexia, and about Kim Chavez, the manager whose support made his work possible. Derek Crager, founder of Practical AI and creator of Pocket Mentor, formerly Program Manager at Amazon: https://linkedin.com/in/amazonleadership Want to keep the conversation going? If something here landed with you, if you have a question about how I work with leaders and their teams, or if you just want to share your own experience, book a 15 minute conversation with me. https://adenleadership.com/15-minute-sl-podcast-connection Follow my socials! https://adenleadership.com/ https://linkedin.com/in/greg-aden-leadership/ https://facebook.com/adenleadership/ #ServantLeadership #LeadershipPodcast #Leadership #Innovation #ChangeManagement Want to keep the conversation going? Book a 15 minute conversation with Greg: adenleadership.com/15-minute-sl-podcast-connection Watch full episodes and shorts on YouTube: Aden Leadership on YouTube Follow Greg: adenleadership.com | LinkedIn | Facebook

What changes when a leader stops operating from ego and starts leading from the heart? Arnaud Saint-Paul, founder of the Heart Leadership Institute, explains why the heart is already whole and coherent while the mind carries the fragmentation that keeps us from hearing it. He also shows how that fragmentation plays out in teams and in business results. In this conversation: - How the Heart Leadership Index maps where a leader, team or organization stands across dimensions like inner peace, inner joy, non-attachment, selflessness, unity and purpose - What a year of weekly founder sessions, team work and 12 week sprints did for a 20 person company, including a 10 point score increase and much stronger client engagement - Greg's exercise of drawing your heart and circling everyone you influence, and why Greg knows when Greg is not telling Greg the truth - Why some people self select out once coherence becomes visible, and how Arnaud answers leaders who call this work soft Arnaud Saint-Paul, founder, Heart Leadership Institute https://linkedin.com/in/arnaudsaintpaul https://tapuat.com/ Want to keep the conversation going? If something here landed with you, if you have a question about how I work with leaders and their teams, or if you just want to share your own experience, book a 15 minute conversation with me. https://adenleadership.com/15-minute-sl-podcast-connection Follow my socials! https://adenleadership.com/ https://linkedin.com/in/greg-aden-leadership/ https://facebook.com/adenleadership/ #ServantLeadership #LeadershipPodcast #Leadership #Teamwork #ExecutiveCoaching Want to keep the conversation going? Book a 15 minute conversation with Greg: adenleadership.com/15-minute-sl-podcast-connection Watch full episodes and shorts on YouTube: Aden Leadership on YouTube Follow Greg: adenleadership.com | LinkedIn | Facebook

Smaranda (Sam) Serban talks with Greg Aden about leaving Romania in the early 2000s, climbing from a Las Vegas front desk to hotel manager at the Bellagio, and leading with curiosity. Sam explains why her first promotion confused her, since being paid more for good work was not a concept she grew up with, and why her parents called to ask why she could not hold on to a job. She walks through her move into timeshare, where she showed up in heels and a suit to a construction site, ate lunch from the taco truck, and eventually traded the heels for sneakers so she could learn the business from the bottom up. She credits two people by name, her first friend Rebecca and Amy, the leader who hired her twice. Greg shares the SHUVA framework from Patty Beach's book The Art of Alignment, seen, heard, understood, valued and appreciated. Sam reflects on wanting to be seen early in her career and learning to value her own voice later, giving people opportunities along with the tools to use them, and how the leaders who gave her a hard time taught her the most about what not to do. Connect with Smaranda (Sam) Serban: https://linkedin.com/in/samserban Want to keep the conversation going? Book a 15 minute conversation with Greg: adenleadership.com/15-minute-sl-podcast-connection Watch full episodes and shorts on YouTube: Aden Leadership on YouTube Follow Greg: adenleadership.com | LinkedIn | Facebook

Paula Fernandez de Pinedo, Organizational Psychologist and Chief of Staff at EY, joins Greg to talk about building relationships based on doing the right thing. Paula joins Greg from Madrid and shares the engagement at a previous firm that took six months of stress leave to recover from, why she felt weak for needing that time, and how rebuilding made her who she is today. She talks about the culture that drew her to EY, where people are kind by default, and the company value she carries with her: people who build relationships based on doing the right thing. Greg and Paula also dig into integrity as cleaning up your mistakes without demanding forgiveness in return, the evolved human and why emotional maturity gets labeled soft in large organizations, and what it costs a company when high producers are excused from living the values. Paula describes her sister Maria, a lawyer at Google and mother of five, as the person she looks up to most, and explains what a chief of staff actually does across a consulting business of 130,000 people. Connect with Paula Fernandez de Pinedo: https://es.linkedin.com/in/paula-fern%C3%A1ndez-de-pinedo-532a69a Want to keep the conversation going? Book a 15 minute conversation with Greg: adenleadership.com/15-minute-sl-podcast-connection Watch full episodes and shorts on YouTube: Aden Leadership on YouTube Follow Greg: adenleadership.com | LinkedIn | Facebook

Melissa Belongea and Greg Aden continue their conversation on emotional fitness, shame, and why so many men avoid the inner work of building healthier relationships. In part 2, Melissa and Greg talk about what actually blocks the conversation: shame, fear of looking in the mirror, and an unwillingness to be uncomfortable. Greg traces much of it to parenting and to intimacy, which a friend of his once defined as "into me you see," and he asks leaders a blunt question about what they want on their tombstone. He also shares the exercise he gives clients, drawing a heart with a circle around it to show everyone they impact every day. Melissa makes the case that the systems most of us work inside were built on one perspective, that men are suffering under them too, and that moving forward takes empathy in both directions. They close with practical starting points, including asking your spouse how you can be a better partner and then listening, plus Melissa's definition of intimacy as the ability to be an authentic individual inside a shared relationship. Connect with Melissa Belongea: https://linkedin.com/in/melissabelongea https://www.melissabelongea.com Want to keep the conversation going? Book a 15 minute conversation with Greg: adenleadership.com/15-minute-sl-podcast-connection Watch full episodes and shorts on YouTube: Aden Leadership on YouTube Follow Greg: adenleadership.com | LinkedIn | Facebook

Melissa Belongea joins Greg Aden to talk about regenerative relationships, emotional intelligence, and how parents and leaders can start hard conversations about technology. Melissa explains what makes a relationship regenerative, one with enough room for two people to keep growing instead of hardening into fixed roles, and why renegotiating the terms of a relationship is often a better option than walking away. She and Greg look at why emotional skill is rarely trained in our culture, so people struggle to say what is on their heart. The conversation turns to the tech industry's focus on velocity to market and what that leaves in the dust. Melissa shares two practical tips for child safety, building emotional intelligence and keeping devices out of bedrooms, and tells the story of a Sunday afternoon family meeting over pizza with her nieces and nephews where she asked them what they do when they get that uh oh feeling. Greg adds his coaching on preparing for a courageous conversation, letting the other person pick the place, and noticing when a trigger belongs to you. A family is an organization, and culture follows the leader. Connect with Melissa Belongea: https://linkedin.com/in/melissabelongea https://www.melissabelongea.com Want to keep the conversation going? Book a 15 minute conversation with Greg: adenleadership.com/15-minute-sl-podcast-connection Watch full episodes and shorts on YouTube: Aden Leadership on YouTube Follow Greg: adenleadership.com | LinkedIn | Facebook

Scott Hennessy joins Greg Aden from South Wales to talk about the mindset shift behind "me versus me," and why self accountability beats blaming circumstances. Scott explains how blaming the weather, the people around us, or the last thing that went wrong keeps leaders stuck, and how learning there is a space between what happens and how we respond cleared up most of the challenges he had been carrying. Greg and Scott reference Victor Frankl and the work of Steve Chandler, including agreements versus expectations and the systems we run consciously or subconsciously. The conversation moves into where leadership actually starts, why Greg believes it begins in the heart and grows through curiosity and empathy rather than advice, and why you cannot judge and demand and call it leadership. They also talk about triggers and what we carry in our backpack, being your word when you are running late, letting go of relationships that do not serve you, and why real relationships, not follower counts, build a referral business worth having. Guest: Scott Hennessy, based in South Wales, works with coaches, advisers and consultants to generate high quality conversations. Want to keep the conversation going? Book a 15 minute conversation with Greg: adenleadership.com/15-minute-sl-podcast-connection Watch full episodes and shorts on YouTube: Aden Leadership on YouTube Follow Greg: adenleadership.com | LinkedIn | Facebook

Crystal Fernando, founder of What Box Partners and author of Unapologetically Human, on the brain science behind stability, agility, and better leadership decisions. Crystal spent 15 years at InterContinental Hotels Group and teaches brain based strategies at Emory University. She tells Greg Aden that over 90 percent of our decisions happen below conscious awareness, which means most of us are adapting to a faster world without ever being in the driver's seat of that adaptation. She walks through the first half of her SIM framework, safety, intention, and mindset, and explains why she calls stability the base camp of any journey and why performance emerges from the right conditions rather than from chasing it. The conversation also covers the difference between a problem and a paradox, why stressed brains default to binary thinking and picking a side, how she presses leaders past a pile of values words to what those values look like in practice, and her belief that the next era of leadership means balancing stability and agility while holding more than one truth at a time. Her motto: slow down to show up strong. Connect with Crystal Fernando: https://crystalfernando.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/crys-fernando Want to keep the conversation going? Book a 15 minute conversation with Greg: adenleadership.com/15-minute-sl-podcast-connection Watch full episodes and shorts on YouTube: Aden Leadership on YouTube Follow Greg: adenleadership.com | LinkedIn | Facebook

Greg Aden talks with Jamie Shapiro, PhD, CEO and founder of Connected EC, about why a leader's well-being is not separate from their leadership. Jamie shares her path from corporate technology leadership to executive coaching, nutrition school, and a PhD studying energy. She walks through the nine dimensions of well-being in the PERMA plus 4 model, which includes positive emotion, engagement, relationships, environment, mindset, accomplishment, and financial security, and explains why most people shrink well-being down to physical health alone. She also names the gap she sees in the research: companies invest in well-being programs, yet the workforce is not getting healthier, because well-being is still treated as separate from leadership and culture. Greg and Jamie get specific about white space on the calendar as part of the job rather than a luxury, and why blocking it four or five weeks out beats waiting for a free week that never comes. They talk about parenting as a leadership laboratory, the question "who are you being right now?", and close on courage, believing in yourself at 28 or at 48, and the harder work of letting go of relationships that no longer serve you. Connect with Jamie Shapiro: https://linkedin.com/in/jamie-shapiro https://connectedec.com Want to keep the conversation going? Book a 15 minute conversation with Greg: adenleadership.com/15-minute-sl-podcast-connection Watch full episodes and shorts on YouTube: Aden Leadership on YouTube Follow Greg: adenleadership.com | LinkedIn | Facebook

Kathryn Henry, former Lululemon executive and author of A Dime to Say I Love You, talks with Greg Aden about grief, love and leading through loss. Kathryn shares how she and Lisa met on a golf course in Sedona, how a song lyric turned into the dimes the two of them left for each other, and why she kept finding dimes after Lisa passed. She describes joining Lululemon as chief information officer in 2010, running distribution, logistics and global technology, and giving up her approved Harvard executive MBA two weeks before it began when Lisa's cancer returned and spread. They were given months and got almost five more years together. Kathryn later joined the Lululemon board. The conversation goes deeper than career. Kathryn speaks about her suicide attempt as a teenager and why she put it in the book. Greg shares the loss of his son Sam and the Sam kindness fund. Together they talk about forgiveness, self love, women in leadership, authenticity, and why curiosity and empathy are the strongest traits a leader can bring. As Kathryn puts it, it is better to be more curious than afraid. Connect with Kathryn Henry: https://linkedin.com/in/henrykathryn Want to keep the conversation going? Book a 15 minute conversation with Greg: adenleadership.com/15-minute-sl-podcast-connection Watch full episodes and shorts on YouTube: Aden Leadership on YouTube Follow Greg: adenleadership.com | LinkedIn | Facebook

Laurie Oswald and Cathey Stamps of InteraWorks join Greg Aden to talk about the ultimate gift of leadership, work life integration, and leading across generations. Laurie and Cathey make the case that work life balance puts two things in competition, and that integration is the better goal, since people bring their whole selves to work whether leaders acknowledge it or not. They describe why command and control leadership is falling apart, what newer generations expect from work and from their leaders, and how the InteraWorks portfolio has grown, from Effective Edge and Best Year Yet to the rebranded Quantum leadership curriculum. Cathey also shares the work of the Best Year Yet foundation, including a six person team in Poland whose ripple effect reached roughly 1,700 people, and a national partnership serving veterans. The foundation has brought development tools to nonprofits in Poland, Kenya, India, Europe and across the US. The conversation closes on Aspire, a nine month leadership institute built with the Metro Nashville Police Department. Thanks to InteraWorks for being our show sponsor. Connect with Laurie Oswald and Cathey Stamps: https://linkedin.com/in/laurieoswald https://www.interaworks.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/cathey-stamps-6b50b87 https://www.interaworks.com/about-us/team/cathey-stamps Want to keep the conversation going? Book a 15 minute conversation with Greg: adenleadership.com/15-minute-sl-podcast-connection Watch full episodes and shorts on YouTube: Aden Leadership on YouTube Follow Greg: adenleadership.com | LinkedIn | Facebook

Jan Pochop, a presentation and communication consultant based in Prague, joins Greg Aden to talk about storytelling, context and how leaders make their thinking visible. Jan points out that a movie has about thirty minutes to build a character while a boardroom gives you closer to thirty seconds, and he shares a real example of helping a bank manager win budget for an ATM network by framing the risk leadership already cared about, including the fact that a robbed ATM is not covered by insurance. He and Greg dig into why context has to come before the problem, a common miss in startup pitches and technical topics, and why being authentic matters more than being funny. The conversation turns personal as Jan describes reworking his values and naming growth as a top one, covering business, emotional fitness coaching, spirituality and physical health. They close on triggers, what it means when something outside hits something unhealed inside, and how leaders can manage that state well enough to keep listening. Connect with Jan Pochop: https://linkedin.com/in/jan-matthew-pochop https://www.pochop.net Want to keep the conversation going? Book a 15 minute conversation with Greg: adenleadership.com/15-minute-sl-podcast-connection Watch full episodes and shorts on YouTube: Aden Leadership on YouTube Follow Greg: adenleadership.com | LinkedIn | Facebook

Karen Ansen, founder of Karen Ansen Consulting, now Ignite HR and Employment Law in the Greater Newcastle area of Australia, talks about leading with compassion in employment law. Karen joins Greg Aden of Aden Leadership to share the passion behind her practice: helping people and organizations navigate employment law in a way that treats employees as human beings first. She describes what drew her to this work and why compassion belongs in the middle of conversations that are often tense, legal and high stakes for everyone at the table. Together they look at what changes when a leader approaches difficult employment matters with care rather than defensiveness, and how that posture shapes trust inside an organization. It is a practical look at servant leadership applied to the part of business most leaders would rather avoid, and a reminder that how a company treats people in hard moments says more than any policy document. Sponsored by InteraWorks. Want to keep the conversation going? Book a 15 minute conversation with Greg: adenleadership.com/15-minute-sl-podcast-connection Watch full episodes and shorts on YouTube: Aden Leadership on YouTube Follow Greg: adenleadership.com | LinkedIn | Facebook

Ingrid Hu Dahl, learning and development expert and author of Sun Shining on Morning Snow, talks with Greg Aden about authentic leadership, false urgency and burnout. Ingrid explains why she pushes back on manufactured urgency, why a team with alarm bells constantly going off cannot do good work, and what it sounds like when a leader says I don't know, I made a mistake, or I need help. She names the difference between excellence and perfection, and describes teams where people rely on each other because they care rather than because they are held accountable. She also shares the two women who shaped her most: her mother, a tech pioneer she lost to cancer three years ago and the catalyst for her memoir, and her mentor Dr. Mary Trigg of the Institute for Women's Leadership at Rutgers, who offered opportunity nudges instead of advice. Greg adds the idea of gold space, doing important work before it becomes urgent, and the two land on curiosity and empathy as the leadership skills that matter most. Connect with Ingrid Hu Dahl: Connect with Ingrid Hu Dahl: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ingridhudahl https://www.sunshiningonmorningsnow.com Want to keep the conversation going? Book a 15 minute conversation with Greg: adenleadership.com/15-minute-sl-podcast-connection Watch full episodes and shorts on YouTube: Aden Leadership on YouTube Follow Greg: adenleadership.com | LinkedIn | Facebook