Leaderful

How can leaders and teams make better decisions without getting stuck in analysis paralysis, power dynamics, or confirmation bias?

In this episode of Leaderful, Jeff Couillard speaks with decision scientist and facilitator Laura Keating-Elske about the art and science of making clear, strategic decisions. Through interactive games and real-world examples, Laura reveals how cognitive biases shape our choices and introduces practical frameworks for making decisions more transparent, inclusive, and actionable.

Laura walks us through the PrOACT framework: framing the problem, clarifying objectives, generating alternatives, assessing consequences, and navigating trade-offs. They also explore how to identify the right decision maker, involve stakeholders without creating “death by committee,” use rapid prototyping to move decisions forward, and separate decision quality from the outcomes influenced by chance. Better decisions don't guarantee better outcomes, but they improve the odds.

The conversation closes with two powerful mindset shifts: value-focused thinking, which helps us generate more creative options by starting with what we want to achieve, and decision opportunities, which encourage us to proactively identify choices before they become urgent problems. Decision-making isn't just about solving problems; it's about intentionally shaping the future.

Learn more about Laura’s work at People and Planet Consulting and connect with her on LinkedIn.

Learn more about The Co. → a leadership development community for impact-conscious and power-curious leaders.

In this solo episode of The Leaderful Podcast, Jeff Couillard challenges the conventional approach to leadership development and explores what it takes to build leadership capability from within.

He makes the case for moving beyond one-off workshops and off-the-shelf programs toward an approach rooted in an organization’s own purpose, values, and lived experience.

Jeff explores the risks of outsourcing leadership philosophy, the gap between stated values and everyday behaviours, and the power of co-creation, shared language, and internal capacity building.

The central question: When external leadership development ends, what capability remains inside the organization?

Learn more about The Co. → a leadership development community for impact-conscious and power-curious leaders.

In this special live-audience episode of The Leaderful Podcast, Nic Etheridge-Calder sits down with Dr. Amanda Aguilera, lineage holder for The Right Use of Power and author of Shaping Power for Good, for a wide-ranging conversation about how power shapes our relationships, organizations, communities, and systems.

Joined by participants from Calgary’s social sector, they explore the six dimensions of power (personal, role, status, collective, systemic, and universal) and what it means to use power with others rather than over them.

The conversation examines how socialization and organizational systems shape our beliefs about authority, belonging, agency, and influence, and how leaders can create greater space for participation, disagreement, feedback, and shared power.

The group also challenges conventional approaches to leadership development, exploring why self-awareness is not a checklist or personality assessment, but an ongoing practice of self-reflexivity, empathy, accountability, and change. They consider how organizations can move beyond individual leaders “sharing power” by embedding participation and community voice into structures, relationships, and decision-making.

The conversation takes an unexpected turn toward grief, exploring the relationship between grief, control, power, and complexity. Together, they consider how tending grief, individually and collectively, can help us let go of the illusion of control and approach power with greater humility, responsibility, and care.

In this episode, we explore:

The six dimensions of power and how they interact

Why personal power shapes how we use every other form of power

How systems influence our beliefs, behaviours, and sense of belonging

The difference between power over and power with

How leaders can create space for agency, disagreement, feedback, and accountability

Why meaningful self-awareness requires ongoing practice

How organizations can structurally embed client and community voice

The relationship between power, grief, control, and complexity

How collective grieving and community can transform the way we lead

If you’re navigating questions of leadership, power, accountability, or organizational change, this conversation offers a compelling invitation: power isn’t simply something we possess or give away. It’s something we participate in, shape, and practice together.

Learn more about The Co. → a leadership development community for impact-conscious and power-curious leaders.

In this episode of The Leaderful Podcast, we sit down with Chris Downey, Vice President of Consulting Services at Achieve Center for Leadership and co-author of You Can Manage, to explore what it really means to lead with intention, curiosity, and accountability.

Drawing on more than 25 years of leadership experience, Chris offers a grounded perspective on the gap between how leaders intend to show up and how others actually experience them. He shares how his own leadership journey shifted when he began asking a simple but transformative question:

How do I want to be as a leader?

This conversation moves beyond generic leadership advice and one-size-fits-all practices. Instead, Jeff and Chris examine how leaders can develop their own leadership philosophy, recognize the influence of systems and workplace cultures, and use self-awareness to make more intentional choices in difficult moments.

Together, they unpack the role of curiosity, the importance of acknowledging harm, and why apology and repair can strengthen relationships rather than undermine authority. They also explore how leaders can create environments where people feel safe to make mistakes, speak honestly, and contribute without constantly second-guessing themselves.

In this episode, we explore:

If you’re a leader navigating workplace dysfunction, strained relationships, fear of mistakes, or the gap between your intentions and your impact, this episode offers practical tools and a powerful reframe: effective leadership begins by getting clear on who you want to be, then paying attention to how others experience you.

Learn more about The Co. → a leadership development opportunity for impact-conscious and power-curious leaders.

In this episode of The Leaderful Podcast, we sit down with Nic Etheridge-Calder to explore what it really takes to make effective decisions as a team - and why so many organizations get stuck trying.

Drawing on his experience working with leaders and teams, Nic offers a nuanced perspective on team-based decision-making: not as a choice between individual authority and group consensus, but as a practice that can be intentionally designed around purpose, accountability, inclusion, and context.

This conversation moves beyond the assumption that every decision needs either one leader or the entire team. Instead, Jeff and Nic examine the complexity of deciding who decides, how power shapes participation, and why collaboration can sometimes become a substitute for accountability.

Together, they unpack how unclear decision-making processes create resistance, backchannel conversations, perfectionism, and organizational stuckness - and how teams can create more adaptive, equitable, and effective ways to move forward.

In this episode, we explore:

If you’re a leader navigating slow decisions, unclear ownership, power dynamics, or team-wide stuckness, this episode offers practical frameworks and a powerful reframe: you may not have a decision-making problem - you may have a decision-design problem.

Learn more about The Co. → a leadership development opportunity for impact-conscious and power-curious leaders.

Time-sensitive learning opportunity if you're in the Calgary area - check out these Right Use of Power workshops for professionals, HR teams and leaders.

And for more learning opportunities with The Ally Co. and our trusted partners (both virtual and in-person), you can head over to this website.

Vinciane is a DEI consultant and leader who spent nearly a decade in the tech industry before pivoting to help organizations build genuinely equitable cultures. In this episode, she joins us in exploring the real challenges leaders face when trying to move beyond performative DEI initiatives toward meaningful, lasting change.

Together, we dig into:

👉 Why so many DEI efforts feel performative, checkbox-oriented, or disconnected from real organizational change

👉 How the "DEI industrial complex" created a cottage industry of training solutions that avoid the hard systems-level work

👉 The hidden ways well-intentioned policies (unlimited vacation, open communication norms) can unintentionally harm marginalized employees

👉 How structural issues like DEI being buried in HR departments limit the scope and authority of equity work

👉 The critical role power dynamics play in psychological safety, voice, and whether people feel safe raising concerns

👉 What successful equity work actually requires: time, resources, and leadership buy-in from the top

👉 How middle managers and individual leaders can drive meaningful change within their sphere of influence

👉 Why mentorship and sponsorship aren't the same thing—and how to do both well

👉 The importance of leaders examining their own role in creating cultures where people don't feel safe to voice dissent

👉 Practical strategies for slowing down and creating space for reflection in hustle-driven workplaces

This conversation is an honest look at the gap between DEI intentions and impact, especially in organizations where leadership genuinely wants to do better, but systemic barriers, time constraints, and lack of clarity about what real change looks like get in the way.

Interested in joining a community of impact-conscious leaders, levelling up their power awareness, communication and leadership skills? Check out The Co. here.

We recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Daniel Doerksen for a practical and thought-provoking conversation about management, leadership, and the critical role managers play in creating healthy workplaces.

Daniel is the co-author of You Can Manage: A Practical Guide to Becoming the Manager Everyone Wants and a leadership consultant with a deep passion for helping organizations become places where people can thrive. In this episode, we explore why work so often falls short of its potential - and what managers can do to close the gap.

Together, we dig into;

👉 Why so many people feel disengaged at work (and why that matters for individuals, teams, and organizations)

👉 The surprising influence managers have on employee wellbeing, engagement, and performance

👉 Why most managers are promoted without training, and the challenges that creates

👉 The five essential practices of effective management: Start with You, Invest in People, Build the Team, Advance the Work, and Strengthen the Organization

👉 How managers can move beyond individual leadership and unlock the power of teams

👉 Why clarity, alignment, and accountability are foundational to healthy team culture

👉 Practical approaches to improving decision-making and reducing organizational bottlenecks

👉 How silos form, and what leaders can do to build stronger cross-functional relationships

👉 The difference between managing performance and enabling performance

👉 Why self-care isn't optional for leaders, and how your wellbeing directly impacts the people around you

This conversation is an honest exploration of what it takes to be an effective manager in today's workplaces. Daniel brings together research, real-world experience, and practical tools that managers can immediately apply to build stronger teams, healthier organizations, and more meaningful work experiences.

If you're a manager, aspiring leader, or someone responsible for helping teams perform at their best, this episode offers actionable insights, fresh perspectives, and a compelling reminder that great management is a skill that can be learned.

Learn more about The Co. → a leadership development community for impact-conscious and power-curious leaders.

We recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Monica Pauls for a deeply practical conversation about designing and facilitating high-impact meetings.

Monica is the Chair of the Department of Child Studies and Social Work and an Associate Professor at Mount Royal University. In this episode, she joins us (along with Nic Etheridge Calder) in real-time to workshop an upcoming full-day team meeting, exploring the very real challenges leaders face when trying to create meetings that are engaging, productive, and genuinely meaningful.

Together, we dig into;

This conversation is an honest behind-the-scenes look at the complexity of leading collaborative spaces - especially in environments where relationships are strong, but underlying tensions or disengagement may still exist beneath the surface.

If you lead teams, facilitate meetings, or are trying to create spaces where people feel genuinely included, heard, and invested, this episode offers practical tools, thoughtful reflection, and a powerful reminder that great meetings rarely happen by accident.

If you're listening from Calgary, Alberta (before June 18th, 2026) - join us for an afternoon workshop exploring Power, Equity, Bias and AI.

In this episode of The Leaderful Podcast, we sit down with Christian Ortiz, an Afro-Indigenous decolonial social scientist, technologist, and founder of Justice AI GPT, the first decolonial AI framework designed to confront systemic bias at its roots. Drawing on decades of experience in digital transformation, systems thinking, and decolonial research, Christian explores how bias operates not just at an individual level, but as part of the invisible operating systems that shape our workplaces, relationships, leadership, and society.

This conversation dives into the intersections of power, language, bias, leadership, and AI - and what becomes possible when leaders begin questioning the systems they’ve inherited rather than simply adapting to them.

Together, Jeff and Christian unpack how implicit conditioning shapes the way we lead, communicate, and make decisions, and why meaningful organizational change requires more than surface-level diversity initiatives or individual bias training.

In this episode, we explore:

If you’re a leader navigating complexity, culture, equity, or organizational change - and you’re curious about how power and bias shape the systems around you - this episode offers a thoughtful, challenging, and deeply human conversation about what it means to lead with greater awareness and responsibility.

Learn more about The Co. → a leadership development opportunity for impact-conscious and power-curious leaders.