Executive Minds Podcast | Professional Development and Career Tips for Entrepreneurs, Executives, and Non-Profit Leaders

If you do a great job fulfilling your role, you'll likely get opportunities to lead projects and people. However, transitioning from subject matter expert and independent contributor to leader is like an athlete transitioning from playing on the field to coaching the team. It requires different skills and abilities. Consequently, a promotion into a leadership position often negatively affects the contributions of an organization's top performers, but it doesn't have to be that way. We can begin preparing ourselves and our team members for opportunities to lead. In episode 211, Heather Zempel of National Community Church in Washington D.C. shares how she develops herself and others as leaders at one of the most successful churches in the United States. She also gives us a framework to do the same. Welcome to episode 211.

The reward for doing a great job at work is typically more projects to manage, more people to lead, bigger decisions to make, and bigger goals to accomplish. However, you never get more time to do it all. As you grow, One of the keys to your professional success will be how well you manage your time as the demands for your time increase. In episode 210, David Farmer, SVP of Restaurant Experience at Chick-fil-A and one-fourth of the MNTR team, shares how he masters his schedule to maximize his time. In the process, David gives us a masterclass in time management and productivity. Welcome to episode 210 of Executive Minds.

Ambitious, high-achievers, like us, often struggle to acknowledge what we are doing well. We develop a critical eye, which quickly identifies when we and others around us are not hitting the mark. We believe it helps us raise our game, deliver excellence, achieve results, gain recognition, and maximize our growth. However, brain science disagrees. In this episode, we revisit Jeff Henderson's conversation with organizational and clinical psychologist Dr. Tim Irwin to learn how affirmation, not criticism, is the way to improve performance at work and bring the best out of others.

As go-getters, we often have a future-focused, what’s-next orientation that can rob us of enjoying today. However, we still need to think, plan, and work ahead intentionally. It’s required to be an effective leader for ourselves and others. Planning today helps us reduce the potential stress and overwhelm of tomorrow. So, how do we both stay present and get ahead? In this episode, we catch up with Chick-fil-A executive and founding mentor at Executive Minds, David Farmer, for a behind-the-scenes into his annual review for 2021. We also discover how he works to balance leading for the future while still living in the present.

Everything gets hard at some point. There are just different types of hard. Physically, it's hard to work out, and it's hard to navigate a failing body. Relationally, there's the difficulty of uncomfortable conversations or the challenge of fractured relationships. Professionally, we can lead ourselves and our teams through the obstacles of just growing the bottom line or also solving problems that matter. Our opportunity is to choose our version of hard, so the effort put into our work and career is for something that matters. In this episode, Ashley Jones of Love Not Lost shares how she discovered a problem worth solving. However, this conversation also reveals principles we can use to do the same.

Go-getters, no matter how motivated, often struggle to achieve goals when it’s hard to measure their progress. Physically, we know when we’re losing weight. Financially, we know when we’ve earned more money. Professionally, we typically know when goals are achieved and projects are completed at work. However, things are never quite as clear in our marriage, parenting, spiritual life, and even our leadership at work. In this episode, we catch up with Chick-fil-A executive and founding mentor at Executive Minds, Shane Benson, for a behind-the-scenes into his annual review for 2021. We also discover how he’s learned to make progress in areas of life that are a bit harder to measure.

All of our ideas will not work. Some ideas will underperform and not meet expectations, and some ideas will simply bomb. Back in 2016, after significant research and development, David Farmer’s team at Chick-fil-A replaced the restaurant’s classic barbecue sauce with a new one. Despite having success during testing, it was publicly criticized by thousands of loyal customers, and the original sauce quickly returned. In episode 205, Jeff Henderson leads a conversation with David and Shane Benson recapping the experience — what happened, how they responded, and what they learned. Along the way, they will arm you with a toolbox of strategies and principles on how to handle situations where ideas, projects, and products simply don’t go as planned. Welcome to episode 205.

It’s challenging to work your way up the ranks of an organization. Unlike the military, most companies provide no clear path for earning more opportunities and preparing yourself for the next level of leadership. In this episode, Courtney DeRonde, the managing partner of the accounting and business intelligence firm TDT, shares her journey and how she went from an entry-level employee at the company out of college to now leading and owning the organization without ever being given a roadmap. Through her story, we extract a strategy to help you grow where you are and what is assigned to you so you can get where you want to go. Welcome to episode 204.

Go-getters feel compelled to grow. We know it's the path to earning more money, improving the quality of our lives or our family's lives, getting a promotion, landing our dream jobs, launching our business, and making a more significant impact in the world. We know our potential is our responsibility, but how do we cultivate it? In episode 203, you'll learn how to intentionally and strategically take your growth into your own hands. To help you, we revisit a conversation between Kevin B. Jennings and David Farmer when they shared how to develop and execute an effective professional development plan. Welcome to episode 203.

What got you where you are often isn’t what will get you where you ultimately want to go. How things have been done is no indication that they should continue being done that way. Business as usual and status quo will, at best, typically get us the results we’re currently getting. To achieve our biggest goals, attract the right opportunities, and maximize our impact, we will likely have to think and act differently. In episode 202, Brett Hagler, CEO of New Story, shares his journey of building a tech-driven nonprofit tackling global homelessness while opening up about his approach to thinking differently to help us stand out, attract top talent, and achieve big goals. You’ll also discover the power of perusing what's possible and, sometimes, what even seems impossible. Welcome to episode 202 of Executive Minds.