What if your desire to help is actually getting in someone else's way? You may think you're supporting, protecting, or guiding others, but sometimes your good intentions can unintentionally limit their growth, confidence, and sense of purpose. 

Drawing from a deeply personal experience with my father, I explore how helping can cross the line into rescuing, controlling, or satisfying our own need to be right. You'll discover why this lesson matters not only in your personal relationships but also in your role as a leader, where the urge to solve problems can prevent others from developing their own capabilities and strengths. 

I’m the co-founder and president of Grow Strong Leaders. We provide assessment and development systems that help leaders strengthen their character and communication skills so they can consistently live their values and sustain strong, high-trust cultures—especially under pressure. 

You'll discover:

• Why helping can sometimes feel controlling 
• How rescuing prevents growth and confidence 
• What your need to be right costs 
• Why leaders should ask more questions 
• The difference between support and interference

Connect with Meredith on Social Media

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/meredithmbell

Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/MeredithMBell

Twitter  https://x.com/meredithmbell 

Instagram  https://www.instagram.com/meredithmbell/

Website 

Grow Strong Leaders  https://growstrongleaders.com/ 

Books

Connect with Your Team: Mastering the Top 10 Communication Skills: https://amzn.to/3jL0pEI  

Grow Strong Character  https://tinyurl.com/3zwcanxa 

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How do you sustain an ethical culture across 113,000 employees in more than 80 countries with a team of just four ethics professionals? Kendall Mills shares how JLL has built one of the world's most enduring ethics programs, earning recognition from Ethisphere 19 times as one of the World's Most Ethical Companies. She explains how ethics becomes more than a policy or annual training requirement when leaders consistently reinforce trust, transparency, accountability, and speaking up. 

Kendall also shares a defining moment early in her career when she was pressured to alter an investigation report, and the decision she made that shaped her approach to leadership. Throughout our conversation, she reveals how organizations can operationalize integrity, create psychological safety, build trust at scale, and help employees make the right decisions even when nobody is watching. 

Kendall is a licensed attorney and Certified Information Privacy Professional. She started her career at a Fortune 100 insurance company where she led more than 250 internal investigations, including matters involving C-suite executives. Today, she serves as Executive Director of Ethics & Compliance for the Americas at JLL, a Fortune 200 commercial real estate firm, where she also has global oversight for the ethics program spanning the Americas, EMEA, and APAC.
 
 Kendall is known for translating complex regulatory issues into practical guidance, implementing compliance programs that work in the real world, and partnering with leadership to strengthen cultures of integrity and accountability. Her team develops the investigation trends and risk insights that go directly to JLL's Board, giving senior leadership clear visibility into where the risks are and what's being done about them. A Fellow of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, Kendall is passionate about elevating compliance as a strategic function and developing a high-performing, globally aligned team. 

You’ll discover: 

• How JLL scales ethics across 80+ countries
• Why integrity starts with small decisions 
• What builds trust in speaking-up cultures
• How leaders create psychological safety
• Why accountability strengthens organizational trust

Connect with Kendall on Social Media

LinkedIn 

 Resources

JLL Ethics Everywhere Annual Report 

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Do you need to know more than everyone else to be an effective leader? Chris Ware believes the answer is no. Throughout his career, he has repeatedly stepped into leadership roles where others had deeper expertise, yet he learned how to build trust, credibility, and engagement without relying on authority or having all the answers. 

As Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary at Itron, Chris shares lessons from his experiences as a federal prosecutor, business leader, and legal executive. You'll hear memorable stories about learning from failure, making ethical decisions under pressure, understanding the "why" behind people's actions, and creating cultures where communication, trust, and speaking up are part of everyday leadership. 

You’ll discover: 

• Why leaders need a viewpoint early
• How grace strengthens trust and credibility
• What failure taught Chris about listening
• Why ethical decisions rarely require speed
• How simple habits build strong cultures

Connect with Chris Ware on Social Media

LinkedIn

Website 

Chris’s employer Itron

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What makes employees feel safe enough to speak up when something feels wrong? Eva Lehman shares how ethical cultures are built through leadership behaviors, trust, consistency, and systems that reinforce integrity every day. As Vice President and Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer at Marvell Technology, Eva offers a behind-the-scenes look at how their culture shapes employee behavior far beyond policies and compliance training. 

You’ll hear how Marvell’s leadership team reinforces ethical decision-making across a global organization, why middle managers are critical to sustaining trust, and how employees are empowered to raise concerns without fear. Eva also shares personal reflections about the difficult moments leaders face when values are tested, and why courage, empathy, and support from leadership matter so much in those situations. 

You’ll discover: 

• Why employees hesitate to speak up
• How leaders reinforce ethical culture daily
• What builds trust across global organizations
• Why managers are the ones shaping workplace microcultures
• How Marvell approaches responsible AI governance 

Connect with Eva Lehman on Social Media

LinkedIn 

Website 

Eva’s employer, Marvell Technology  

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AI can accelerate answers. But what happens when it weakens the development of judgment, critical thinking, and human connection? Jennifer May explores the growing pressure facing middle managers, the risks organizations face when relationship-building and professional development fall away, and why ethical culture depends on much more than policies and compliance training. Drawing on nearly 30 years in ethics and compliance leadership, Jennifer shares why she believes compliance is fundamentally a relationship business and how organizations can move from being the “office of no” to becoming strategic partners in building a healthy culture. 

Jennifer also shares a powerful story from her university compliance work that shaped her “yes and” philosophy, revealing how trust, collaboration, and creative problem-solving can help organizations navigate difficult tensions without losing sight of innovation or integrity. This conversation is a timely exploration of leadership, accountability, AI, and the human skills organizations cannot afford to lose. 

Jennifer founded May Solutions Group to help companies make ethics practical, human, and actionable. She helps organizations build systems that people actually trust by replacing complexity with clarity and making ethical decision-making easier in day-to-day work. 

You’ll discover:

• Why AI may weaken judgment development 
• The growing squeeze on middle managers 
• Why compliance is a relationship business 
• How ethical cultures are strengthened over time 
• The “yes and” mindset that builds trust

Connect with on Social Media

LinkedIn 

Website 

May Consulting Group

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What happens when organizations become so focused on speed, efficiency, and AI that they slowly lose sight of people? In this thought-provoking conversation, Dr. Kelly Monahan shares insights from her years studying the future of work inside organizations like Deloitte, Accenture, Meta, and Upwork. Drawing from her upcoming book, Reclaim the Plot, Kelly explains how leaders and organizations gradually “drift” away from the human purpose of work, often without realizing it. 

We explore the pressures leaders face today, including complexity, investor expectations, technological disruption, burnout, and the temptation to prioritize performance over people. Kelly also shares a deeply personal story about recognizing her own leadership drift during the pandemic and the intentional steps she took to reconnect with her team. This conversation offers both a warning and a hopeful vision for leaders who want to strengthen human judgment, curiosity, wisdom, and principled leadership in an AI-driven world. 

You’ll discover:

• Why leadership drift happens slowly and invisibly inside organizations
• How pressure, complexity, and exhaustion can cause leaders to lose empathy and perspective
• The difference between using AI to augment people versus replace them
• Practical ways leaders can rebuild trust, psychological safety, and human connection
• Why curiosity and feedback are essential for avoiding leadership drift

Connect with Kelly Monahan on Social Media

LinkedIn

Instagram

Websites 

Dr. Kelly Monahan
Beyond the Desk

 Book

Reclaim the Plot – (release date September 2026)

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Vera Cherepanova, Executive Director of Boards of the Future, believes the strongest boards are not the ones with the best reports, but the ones willing to ask the hardest questions. In this conversation, she explains why ethics cannot be treated as a compliance exercise or a checklist after decisions are made. True governance requires courage, dissent, and a willingness to examine what leaders may prefer not to see. 

We explore her concept of FOFO—fear of finding out—and how it keeps boards from asking difficult questions that could expose risk, protect reputation, and strengthen trust. Vera also shares how silence, conformity, and the absence of real challenge can quietly erode culture from the top down. If values are meant to guide decisions, then boards must create the conditions where truth can be spoken and principled leadership can thrive. 

Vera is the Executive Director of Boards of the Future, a nonprofit advancing ethical leadership and integrity at the highest levels of corporate power. Vera serves as a chair, director, and ethics advisor to global professional bodies, corporations, and international nonprofits. She has authored the guide, How Boards Should Oversee Ethics: A Ten-Practice Guide for Modern Boards, challenging boards to move beyond compliance checklists. Her latest work focuses on how boards oversee ethics, cultivate dissent, and create the conditions for principled leadership when pressure is highest.  

You’ll discover: 

• Why compliance and ethics are not the same thing
• How fear of finding out creates costly leadership blind spots
• What makes people stay silent when they should speak up
• Simple ways leaders can create safer spaces for dissent
• How boardroom behavior shapes culture across the organization

Connect with Vera Cherepanova on Social Media

LinkedIn 

Websites 

Vera Cherepanova 

Boards of the Future 

Guide 

How Boards Should Oversee Ethics: A Ten-Practice Guide for Modern Boards 

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What happens when doing the right thing costs money, creates tension, or slows results? Tara Shewchuk, Senior Vice President and Global Chief Privacy, Integrity, and Compliance Officer at Medtronic, pulls back the curtain on what ethical leadership actually looks like inside a global company where decisions can impact millions of lives. You’ll hear how leaders navigate pressure, disagreement, and uncertainty while staying grounded in values that guide both business and patient care. 

Tara shares powerful real-world examples of principled leadership in action, including Medtronic’s decision to open source ventilator technology during the pandemic, the systems they use to strengthen speak-up culture across global teams, and the daily leadership behaviors that build trust over time. This conversation goes far beyond compliance and policies. It’s about how leaders create cultures where integrity becomes part of how people think, decide, and act every day. 

You’ll discover:

• Why ethical culture must be intentionally built every day 
• How leaders create safety for people to speak up 
• What Medtronic did when profit conflicted with patient care 
• How ethics circles strengthen decision-making across teams 
• Why authenticity and vulnerability make leaders stronger

Connect with Tara Shewchuk on Social Media

LinkedIn 

Website

Tara’s employer, Medtronic 

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What happens when your drive to succeed begins to disconnect you from yourself and the people who matter most? You’ll hear how Kevin Rice navigated extreme personal and professional pressure while building and scaling a company, and what it taught him about values, leadership, and the cost of staying disconnected.

 As Kevin reflects on leading through rapid growth, personal upheaval, and critical business decisions, you’ll see how clarity around values like integrity, resilience, and connection changed how he shows up as a leader and a father. This conversation will challenge you to examine where you may be operating on autopilot and how intentionality and presence can transform both your work and your relationships.

Kevin co-founded Hathway straight out of college and grew it from a garage-stage startup into a 200+ person company before its acquisition in 2021. Today, he leads Theorem One Capital and is focused on helping leaders scale companies without losing themselves in the process. Kevin is also the host of the CEOs and ABCs Podcast, a show for ambitious professionals navigating both career and family.

You’ll discover:

• How “robot mode” impacts your leadership and decision-making 
• Why disconnecting from emotions weakens your intuition 
• A defining moment that reshaped Kevin’s understanding of integrity 
• How values guide tough decisions with clients and team members 
• Practical ways to model values at home with your children

Connect with Kevin Rice on Social Media

LinkedIn 

Podcast

CEOs & ABCs Podcast 

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What if your company’s stated values actually guided every decision you make? Christopher Annand, Senior Director of Ethics, Compliance, and Security, shares how Cargill brings this standard to life, where seven guiding principles shape how leaders think, act, and lead every day. 

As you listen, you’ll discover how those principles are reinforced from day one, how employees at every level use them to evaluate decisions, and why trust becomes a competitive advantage in uncertain times. You’ll also gain practical insight into handling difficult conversations, making values-based decisions under pressure, and understanding why at Cargill, how you achieve results matters just as much as what you achieve. 

Christopher leads a global team of compliance professionals across multiple regions, helping ensure that the company’s guiding principles are not only understood but also lived. He joined Cargill to help build and scale its compliance organization, and over time has played a key role in embedding those principles into how leaders operate across cultures and business units. What makes this conversation especially compelling is that at Cargill, values don’t sit on the wall. They shape decisions, they guide behavior, and they influence who gets to lead—and who doesn’t. 

You’ll discover:

• How Cargill embeds values into daily decisions 
• Why trust is the foundation of leadership 
• A practical framework for making tough decisions 
• How to handle emotional employee conversations effectively 
• Why “how you achieve results” matters as much as outcomes

Connect with Christopher Social Media

LinkedIn 

Website 

Cargill 

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