Dominate Your Day

AI is changing the way organizations work, and leaders are being asked to figure out what it means for their teams, their businesses, and their future often before anyone actually knows the answer.

In this episode, I share lessons from a recent leadership panel I moderated with Linda Rutherford, Dr. Marc Nivet, and Emily Crawford about what it really looks like to lead through uncertainty and change. The key isn't becoming the expert or waiting until you feel ready. It's learning how to take the next honest step, develop the expertise around you, stay connected to your team's capacity, and build the playbook as you go.

Top 3 Takeaways 1. You don't need the whole playbook. When you're leading through something new, waiting for certainty can keep you stuck. Leadership often means taking the next step and building the path as you go.

2. You don't have to be the expert develop one on your team. Your job isn't to master every new technology. Know your strengths, identify the people on your team who are curious and capable, and give them room to develop the expertise.

3. Pay attention to capacity, not just output. Ask your team, "What's getting in the way of you doing your best work?" That simple question can uncover obstacles and capacity issues before they become bigger problems.

Episode Minutes:

Minute 1: Looking For A Non-existent Playbook

Minute 3: You don't Have To Be The Expert

Minute 4: Leading Through A Period When The Bar Keeps Changing

Links + Resources from This Episode:

Watch the Accelerating Leadership Wellbeing Panel on Youtube or listen on Spotify or Apple

Take the free 3-minute Authentic Imprint™ Assessment

Get a copy of Dana's book, The Internal Revolution: Lead Authentically and Build Your Personal Brand from Within

Learn more about The Strengths Journal

Change is happening faster than ever from AI and digital transformation to increasingly distracted and stretched teams. But effective leadership through change isn't always about doing more. Sometimes, it requires changing how you see your role.

This special episode was recorded at the live Accelerating Leadership Wellbeing Panel, which took place on August 25, 2026, hosted by Bank of Texas. I was joined by three remarkable leaders who have navigated change at scale:

Linda Rutherford — Former Chief Administration Officer and current Executive Advisor at Southwest Airlines, with 33 years of experience leading through change.

Dr. Marc Nivet — Executive Vice President at UT Southwestern Medical Center, bringing three decades of leadership experience in academic medicine.

Emily Crawford — A leader in change management and AI transformation at Credera, helping major organizations navigate what's next.

Together, we explored what it really takes to lead through change when your people and you are already stretched thin.

Top 3 Takeaways

1. Capacity matters as much as capability. Leaders can't effectively lead change when they're running on empty.

2. Leadership starts from within. How you see your role shapes how you lead through uncertainty.

3. Doing more isn't always the answer. Sometimes the most powerful leadership move is to shift how you show up.

Episode Minutes:

Minute 17: Leading through uncertainty as a vessel, not a hero

Minute 37: Why AI must be tied to objectives, not treated as a checkbox

Minute 48: Communication during change and why silence is risky

Minute 60: Grace, good-enough leadership, and asking what blocks best work

Links + Resources from This Episode:

Take the free 3-minute Authentic Imprint™ Assessment

Get a copy of Dana's book, The Internal Revolution: Lead Authentically and Build Your Personal Brand from Within

Learn more about The Strengths Journal

In this episode, I'm joined by Shaunna Black, a transformation and turnaround leader who has spent decades helping organizations navigate change and move from chaos to clarity. We talk about why successful transformation starts with people not action plans and why leaders must enter challenging situations as students first, listening, learning, and building trust before trying to fix anything.

Shaunna shares her approach to servant leadership, creating cultures rooted in trust and psychological safety, and leading from the inside out during times of uncertainty. We also explore the current challenges leaders are facing with disengagement, layoffs, AI, and organizational change and why heart-centered leadership may be more important now than ever.

At the heart of our conversation is a powerful reminder: relationship is the container in which all work is done.

Top 3 Takeaways:

1. Lead from the inside out. Before you can effectively lead others through chaos, you have to develop self-awareness, practice self-care, and create calm within yourself.

2. Enter transformation as a student, not a hero. Listen to people, understand the history, and build trust before coming in with solutions. People need to know that you care before they care what you know.

3. Make relationships the priority. Your job as a leader isn't simply to get things done. It's to serve the people who get the work done—and create an environment where they feel safe, valued, connected, and empowered to succeed

Episode Minutes:

Minute 5: Leadership Roots: Culture Of Service, Sports and Family

Minute 13: How Purpose, Trust, Accountability, and servant leadership shape a healthy culture

Minute 38: How overwhelmed leaders need to tune out the noise and start with self-awareness and self-care.

Minute 45: Leading With Heart

Links + Resources from This Episode:

Learn more about Shaunna's work at www.shaunnablack.com

Get Shaunna's book, Leading with Heart

Connect with Shaunna Black on LinkedIn

Take the free 3-minute Authentic Imprint™ Assessment

Get a copy of Dana's book, The Internal Revolution: Lead Authentically and Build Your Personal Brand from Within

Learn more about The Strengths Journal

What happens when being a helpful, highly involved leader actually keeps your team from growing?

In this episode, I share the story of a leader who solved problems, answered questions, and did the work herself because she cared deeply about getting things right.

You'll discover how shifting from solving to coaching, and from delegating tasks to handing off real decisions, can build trust, strengthen your team's judgment, and create greater ownership and accountability.

Top 3 Takeaways:

1. Being helpful can create dependency. When leaders constantly step in to solve problems, they can unintentionally prevent their teams from developing confidence and judgment.

2. Coach instead of solve. Pause before jumping in, ask "What would you do here?" and give your team space to work through the answer.

3. Delegate decisions, not just tasks. True empowerment means letting go of the wheel not simply handing off the work while keeping control of the important decisions.

Episode Minutes: Minute 2: Executing vs Leading

Minute 4: The Difference Between Bossing and Coaching

Minute 7: Leading Differently

Links + Resources from This Episode:

Take the free 3-minute Authentic Imprint™ Assessment

Get a copy of Dana's book, The Internal Revolution: Lead Authentically and Build Your Personal Brand from Within

Learn more about The Strengths Journal

What happens when uncertainty hits and a good leader suddenly falls back into old habits? In this episode, I explore why even capable, self-aware leaders can revert to command-and-control when pressure rises and how to recognize when you're leading authentically versus performing the version of leadership you think others expect.

You'll learn a simple question to interrupt reactive patterns, identify when you're tempted to take ownership back from your team, and recognize when organizational structures not just personal habits are getting in the way of effective leadership.

Top 3 Takeaways:

1. Pressure can trigger old leadership patterns. Even leaders who have done the work can revert to familiar behaviors when uncertainty feels threatening.

2. Authentic leadership requires a moment of choice. Ask yourself: Am I leading from who I actually am, or performing who I think I'm supposed to be?

3. Not every leadership challenge is personal. Structural barriers can limit your team's ownership, so leaders need to distinguish between what they can change themselves and what needs to be addressed within the system.

Episode Minutes:

Minute 1: The Moment Change Gets Real

Minute 3: Authentic Imprint vs Default Performance

Minute 6: Give Trust to Get Trust

Links + Resources from This Episode:

Take the free 3-minute Authentic Imprint™ Assessment

Get a copy of Dana's book, The Internal Revolution: Lead Authentically and Build Your Personal Brand from Within

Learn more about The Strengths Journal

This summer on Dominate Your Day, we are returning to the episode vault to bring back experts to discuss each of Gallup's five essential areas of wellbeing: Purpose, Social, Financial, Physical, and Community.

Today we explore Community Wellbeing what Gallup defines as liking where you live, feeling safe, and having pride in and belonging to something larger than yourself.

Sharon Eubank global humanitarian leader and author of Doing Small Things with Great Love explains why you are most powerful where you live and why the right small act at the right time changes everything.

Jessica Bartnick co-founder and CEO of Foundation for CHOICE, a Dallas nonprofit that has helped thousands of low-income students get into and through college shares what happens when one person wakes up and decides to do something.

Wendy Steele founder of Impact100 and author of Invitation to Impact talks about how gathering women around one shared goal turned $1,000 into $123 million across 65 chapters worldwide.

Episode Minutes:

Minute 2: You Are Most Powerful Where You Live

Minute 8: Waking Up To Change The World

Minute 15: Not I But We

Minute 20: The Internal Revolution

Links + Resources from This Episode:

Get a copy of Sharon Eubank's book Doing Small Things with Great Love Find service opportunities near you at www.justserve.org

Learn more about Foundation for Choice at www.foundationforchoice.org

Learn more about Impact 100 at www.impact100global.org

Take the free 3-minute Authentic Imprint™ Assessment

Get a copy of Dana's book, The Internal Revolution: Lead Authentically and Build Your Personal Brand from Within

Learn more about The Strengths Journal

A team that consistently delivers results isn't always a healthy team. In this episode, we explore why high-performing teams can still become stuck in passive waiting hesitant to share ideas, embrace change, or take risks.

Learn the three leadership shifts that help teams move from fear to trust: building psychological safety, fostering collaboration over competition, and modeling calm under pressure.

Sometimes the biggest culture changes begin with one simple conversation.

Top 3 Takeaways:

1. Psychological safety fuels innovation. People are far more likely to share ideas and embrace change when they know honesty won't be punished.

2. Collaboration creates stronger teams. Publicly celebrating shared wins and focusing on collective success builds trust, engagement, and retention.

3. Culture changes one conversation at a time. Leaders don't need a major initiative to create change—they need the courage to go first and ask honest questions.

Episode Minutes:

Minute 2: Collaboration versus competition

Minute 4: "Teams borrow their leader's nervous system far more than they borrow their leader's strategy."

Minute 5: The small conversation that starts change

Links + Resources from This Episode:

Take the free 3-minute Authentic Imprint™ Assessment

Get a copy of Dana's book, The Internal Revolution: Lead Authentically and Build Your Personal Brand from Within

Learn more about The Strengths Journal

This summer on Dominate Your Day, we are returning to the episode vault to bring back experts to discuss each of Gallup's five essential areas of wellbeing: Purpose, Social, Financial, Physical, and Community.

Today we explore Social Wellbeing what Gallup identifies as having strong relationships and love in your life. According to Gallup, people who are thriving in social wellbeing have several hours of meaningful social interaction every single day. Yet we are living through a loneliness epidemic unlike anything we have seen before.

This episode is for every leader who feels it. Dr. Camille Preston business psychologist, executive coach, and author of Living Real discusses the danger of shallowing and why the world is craving real connection.

Shari Leid connection coach, friendship expert, author of Table for 51 and Flip the Box, and founder of the Flip the Box Method shares what happened when she shared a meal with a stranger in all 50 states and what it taught her about why we struggle to connect.

Andy Lopata professional relationship strategist and author of six books explains the blended mindset that makes relationships work and the Curiosity Cycle that builds trust.

Episode Minutes:

Minute 4: Life as A Sine Wave

Minute 8: What Stops Us From Connecting

Minute 16: The Curiosity Cycle

Links + Resources from This Episode:

Learn more about Dr. Camille Preston's work at www.aimleadership.com

Get a copy of Dr. Camille Preston's book, Living Real: Redifining Success, Pretense, and Happiness

Get Dr. Camille Preston's Living Real Gathering Kit at www.livingreal.aimleadership.com

Learn more about Shari Leid's work at www.animperfectlyperfectlife.com

Get a copy of Shari Leid's books Table for 51 and Flip the Box

Find Andy Lopata's books, podcast, and assessments here

Take the free 3-minute Authentic Imprint™ Assessment

Get a copy of Dana's book, The Internal Revolution: Lead Authentically and Build Your Personal Brand from Within

Learn more about The Strengths Journal

Waiting is never just "waiting."

In this episode, I explore the difference between passive waiting where growth quietly stalls while you wait for circumstances to change and active waiting, where you continue learning, building, and leading even when the timeline is out of your control.

Through the powerful example of Admiral James Stockdale, you'll discover that resilience isn't about controlling the outcome it's about choosing how you show up in the middle of uncertainty. You'll also walk away with four practical questions to help you stay intentional, hopeful, and moving forward while you wait.

Top 3 Takeaways:

1. Waiting is a leadership choice. You may not control the timeline, but you can control how you respond to it.

2. Active waiting creates momentum. Continue learning, building, and investing in others, even when the outcome hasn't arrived.

3. Awareness comes first. Simply recognizing whether you're in passive or active waiting is the first step toward leading with greater resilience and purpose.

Episode Minutes:

Minute 1: Admiral Stockdale's story and what it teaches about endurance

Minute 3: Understanding passive versus active waiting

Minute 5: Recognizing authority vs. posture in leadership

Links + Resources from This Episode:

Take the free 3-minute Authentic Imprint™ Assessment

Get a copy of Dana's book, The Internal Revolution: Lead Authentically and Build Your Personal Brand from Within

Learn more about The Strengths Journal

In this episode of Dominate Your Day, I sit down with executive leader Juli Primeaux for a conversation about what leadership really looks like in today's fast-changing, distracted workplace. Juli shares what it means to lead through organizational change and uncertainty while staying grounded in who you are.

We talk about the connection between CliftonStrengths, self-awareness, and authentic leadership, and why understanding your strengths can become a true "cheat code" for navigating tough decisions and leading people well. From practical strategies for managing stress to insightful lessons on leading across generations, this episode is full of wisdom every leader needs right now. And trust me, you'll want to hear Julie's unforgettable advice about "not loading bombs on planes."

Top 3 Takeaways:

1. Your strengths are powerful but only when you understand how they show up under stress. Self-awareness helps leaders recognize both their superpowers and their blind spots.

2. Authenticity builds trust. Teams don't need perfect leaders; they need real leaders who communicate clearly, stay grounded, and model vulnerability.

3. Well-being isn't optional for leaders. Taking pauses, creating small wins, and intentionally refilling your bucket are essential for sustainable leadership.

Episode Minutes:

Minute 12: Developing a personal mission and connecting core values to leadership purpose

Minute 17: The importance of self-care, taking pauses, and refill strategies

Minute 31: Emotional recognition and self-regulation techniques for stress management

Minute 39: Advice for leaders facing chaos and disconnection with their teams

Links + Resources from This Episode:

Connect with Juli Primeaux on LinkedIn

Take the free 3-minute Authentic Imprint™ Assessment

Get a copy of Dana's book, The Internal Revolution: Lead Authentically and Build Your Personal Brand from Within

Learn more about The Strengths Journal