Stephanie Kramer, chief human resources officer of L'Oréal North America, discusses leading with empathy and rigor as work practices change fast. She explains how her background in chemistry and marketing shapes a data-informed HR lens that keeps people first and results clear.

Stephanie and host Maril talk about building leaders, empowering managers and designing processes that reduce friction and scale care. Stephanie also discusses "Carry Strong," her research-driven guide to pregnancy and work, and why engagement, enablement and wellbeing mesh together in healthy cultures.

Key Takeaways:

00:00 Introduction.
02:25 Leadership careers often start with curiosity and a willingness to grow.
04:47 Understanding people is essential in any discipline, from marketing to human resources.
09:56 Empowering managers strengthens trust and creates space for employees to thrive.
12:56 Transparency and accountability drive progress as technology reshapes how we work.
16:44 Clear and consistent processes create stability and enable meaningful human connection.
24:01 Sustainable leadership depends on setting priorities and maintaining personal balance.
29:35 Taking time for self-care ensures leaders can guide others with clarity and energy.
31:10 Being deliberate with time and decisions builds focus and long-term effectiveness.

Resources Mentioned:

Stephanie Kramer
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniemaekramer/

L'Oréal North America | LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/company/lor%C3%A9al/

L'Oréal | Website
http://www.loreal.com

"Carry Strong" by Stephanie Kramer
https://www.amazon.com/Carry-Strong-Empowered-Navigating-Pregnancy/dp/014313728X

Fast Company
https://www.fastcompany.com/

ABOUT LET GO & LEAD

Let Go & Lead is a leadership community created by Maril MacDonald, founder and CEO of Gagen MacDonald. Maril brings together provocateurs, pioneers, thought leaders and those leading the conversation around culture, transformation and change. Over the course of the past 14 years, Let Go & Lead has existed in many forms, from video interviews to resource guides to its current iteration as a podcast. At its core, it remains a place where people can access a diversity of perspectives on interdisciplinary approaches to leadership. Maril is also working on a book incorporating these insights gathered over the past several years from global leaders and change makers.

Maril has interviewed over 140 leaders — from business to academia and nonprofits to the arts — through the years. In each conversation, from personal anecdotes to ground-breaking scientific analysis, she has probed the lessons learned in leadership. From these conversations, the Let Go & Lead framework has emerged. It is both a personal and organizational resource that aims to serve the individual leader or leadership at scale.

ABOUT GAGEN MACDONALD

At Gagen MacDonald, we are dedicated to helping organizations navigate the human struggle of change. We are a people-focused consulting firm and our passion is improving the employee experience — for everyone. For more than 25 years, we have been working with companies to create clarity from chaos by uniting employees across all levels around a single vision so they can achieve results and realize their future.

We have been a pioneer in bringing humanity to strategy execution, leading in areas such as organizational communication, culture, leadership and employee engagement. Our Vision is to lift all humanity by transforming the companies that transform the world.

Full episodes also available on:

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/let-go-lead-with-maril-macdonald/id1454869525

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Gaf7JXOckZMtkpsMtnjAj?si=WZjZkvfLTX2T4eaeB1PO2A

—

Gagen MacDonald is a woman-owned, human-focused transformation consulting firm and trusted partner to the C-suite. We specialize in internal communications, employee engagement, culture change and leadership development. Learn more at http://www.gagenmacdonald.com.

#LeadershipDevelopment #OrganizationalChange #CorporateCulture #EmployeeEngagement

Adrian Popa, associate professor of Gonzaga University, joins host Maril to discuss resilience, community and the deeper dimensions of leadership. Drawing from his experiences as an immigrant, clinician, researcher and educator, Adrian explores how leaders can navigate uncertainty with existential courage and servant leadership while fostering transformation at both personal and organizational levels.

Key Takeaways:

00:00 Introduction.
02:54 Personal transformation as a driver of organizational change.
10:54 Balancing personal agency with creating space for the autonomy of others.
14:12 The role of psychological courage in fostering self-sufficiency.
20:12 Measuring leadership success by the growth of others.
23:47 Building collaboration through trust, shared accountability and recognition.
30:09 Viewing adaptability as an essential aspect of hardiness.
34:58 Recognizing and nurturing the potential in others.
39:09 Using self-reflective questions to guide leadership choices.

Resources Mentioned:

Adrian Popa
https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrian-b-popa/

Gonzaga University | LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/school/gonzaga-university/

Gonzaga University | Website
https://www.gonzaga.edu

"Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4069.Man_s_Search_for_Meaning

"What is Servant Leadership?" by Robert K. Greenleaf
https://greenleaf.org/what-is-servant-leadership/

Amy Edmondson's research on psychological safety
https://amycedmondson.com/

"Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell
https://www.amazon.com/Outliers-Story-Success-Malcolm-Gladwell/dp/0316017930

ABOUT LET GO & LEAD

Let Go & Lead is a leadership community created by Maril MacDonald, founder and CEO of Gagen MacDonald. Maril brings together provocateurs, pioneers, thought leaders and those leading the conversation around culture, transformation and change. Over the course of the past 14 years, Let Go & Lead has existed in many forms, from video interviews to resource guides to its current iteration as a podcast. At its core, it remains a place where people can access a diversity of perspectives on interdisciplinary approaches to leadership. Maril is also working on a book incorporating these insights gathered over the past several years from global leaders and change makers.

Maril has interviewed over 140 leaders — from business to academia and nonprofits to the arts — through the years. In each conversation, from personal anecdotes to ground-breaking scientific analysis, she has probed the lessons learned in leadership. From these conversations, the Let Go & Lead framework has emerged. It is both a personal and organizational resource that aims to serve the individual leader or leadership at scale.

ABOUT GAGEN MACDONALD

At Gagen MacDonald, we are dedicated to helping organizations navigate the human struggle of change. We are a people-focused consulting firm and our passion is improving the employee experience — for everyone. For more than 25 years, we have been working with companies to create clarity from chaos by uniting employees across all levels around a single vision so they can achieve results and realize their future.

We have been a pioneer in bringing humanity to strategy execution, leading in areas such as organizational communication, culture, leadership and employee engagement. Our Vision is to lift all humanity by transforming the companies that transform the world.

Full episodes also available on:

Apple Podcasts: 
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/let-go-lead-with-maril-macdonald/id1454869525 

Spotify: 
https://open.spotify.com/show/5Gaf7JXOckZMtkpsMtnjAj?si=WZjZkvfLTX2T4eaeB1PO2A 

—

Gagen MacDonald is a woman-owned, human-focused transformation consulting firm and trusted partner to the C-suite. We specialize in internal communications, employee engagement, culture change and leadership developme nt. Learn more at http://www.gagenmacdonald.com.

#LeadershipDevelopment #OrganizationalChange #CorporateCulture #EmployeeEngagement

We speak with Jody Ono, faculty director of leadership programs at Hitotsubashi ICS, Hitachi University Business School. Jody has lived and worked in the US, Sweden and Japan, teaching MBA students and business leaders from around the world.

Maril and Jody explore how leadership is shaped by culture, how authenticity is interpreted differently across contexts and what it means to connect with others on a deeper level. We learn how Jody helps students and executives find their own leadership identity, build trust across cultures and lead with presence and purpose.

Key Takeaways:

02:54 Leadership looks different across cultures and context shapes everything.
10:36 Our early career environments shape who we become as leaders.
22:30 Purpose, not personality, drives real authenticity.
24:37 Leadership is an invitation, not a command.
31:02 Admitting we don't know invites others to lead with us.
34:36 Power with others is replacing power over them.
42:31 We each have to shape our own leadership identity.
46:12 Leadership shows up in how we connect, not just how we perform.

Resources Mentioned:

Jody Ono
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jodyono2025/

Hitotsubashi ICS, Hitachi University Business School | LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/school/hitotsubashi-ics/

Hitotsubashi ICS (Hitotsubashi University Business School) | Website
https://www.ics.hub.hit-u.ac.jp/

Texas A&M University – Center for Leadership Excellence
https://www.tamuct.edu/mydegree/index.html?utm_source=Steel&utm_medium=Google_Ads&utm_campaign=mydegree&utm_id=brandV2&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22010237997&gbraid=0AAAAA-c7tLJjOCwPVdaAIMq52NlReb8fU&gclid=Cj0KCQjwjo7DBhCrARIsACWauSlnjimlfeJPw6SE3qbuIMojbnZeLu_wJJnpgTwjLd0_6RmPmSfKiAEaAtezEALw_wcB

The Bush School of Government and Public Service
https://bush.tamu.edu/

G3 – Good Governance Group Japan
https://g3.co/

ABOUT LET GO & LEAD

Let Go & Lead is a leadership community created by Maril MacDonald, founder and CEO of Gagen MacDonald. Maril brings together provocateurs, pioneers, thought leaders and those leading the conversation around culture, transformation and change. Over the course of the past 14 years, Let Go & Lead has existed in many forms, from video interviews to resource guides to its current iteration as a podcast. At its core, it remains a place where people can access a diversity of perspectives on interdisciplinary approaches to leadership. Maril is also working on a book incorporating these insights gathered over the past several years from global leaders and change makers.

Maril has interviewed over 140 leaders — from business to academia and nonprofits to the arts — through the years. In each conversation, from personal anecdotes to ground-breaking scientific analysis, she has probed the lessons learned in leadership. From these conversations, the Let Go & Lead framework has emerged. It is both a personal and organizational resource that aims to serve the individual leader or leadership at scale.

ABOUT GAGEN MACDONALD

At Gagen MacDonald, we are dedicated to helping organizations navigate the human struggle of change. We are a people-focused consulting firm and our passion is improving the employee experience — for everyone. For more than 25 years, we have been working with companies to create clarity from chaos by uniting employees across all levels around a single vision so they can achieve results and realize their future.

We have been a pioneer in bringing humanity to strategy execution, leading in areas such as organizational communication, culture, leadership and employee engagement. Our Vision is to lift all humanity by transforming the companies that transform the world.

Full episodes also available on:

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/let-go-lead-with-maril-macdonald/id1454869525 

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Gaf7JXOckZMtkpsMtnjAj?si=WZjZkvfLTX2T4eaeB1PO2A 

—

Gagen MacDonald is a woman-owned, human-focused transformation consulting firm and trusted partner to the C-suite. We specialize in internal communications, employee engagement, culture change and leadership development. Learn more at http://www.gagenmacdonald.com. 

#LeadershipDevelopment #OrganizationalChange #CorporateCulture #EmployeeEngagement

Geoff Woods, author of "The AI-Driven Leader," joins Maril to discuss what it means to be a leader in the AI space. He explains how AI can be used to grow businesses, sharpen strategy and rethink how we lead.

Geoff shares how working with AI as a thought partner helps us solve bigger problems, ask better questions and create more value. He also walks through how mindset, clarity and collaboration drive results that matter.

Key Takeaways:

(00:00) Introduction.
(01:37) Growth depends on aligning strategy, execution, people and technology
(03:40) AI is a skill worth mastering, not delegating
(08:31) Structure and clarity elevate AI use from tactical to strategic
(13:30) Leadership is about communicating clearly and connecting ideas
(17:06) AI can personalize insight and feedback for better decisions
(26:52) Focus drives results more than volume
(30:23) AI frees people to do more meaningful work
(31:51) Letting go of old identities opens space for reinvention

Resources Mentioned:

Geoff Woods
https://www.linkedin.com/in/geoff-woods-8534774/

"The AI-Driven Leader"
https://www.linkedin.com/company/ai-thought-leadership/

AI Leadership | Website
https://www.aileadership.com/

"The AI-Driven Leader" by Geoff Woods
https://www.aileadership.com/book

The AI Leadership Collective
https://www.aileadership.com/collective

ABOUT LET GO & LEAD

Let Go & Lead is a leadership community created by Maril MacDonald, founder and CEO of Gagen MacDonald. Maril brings together provocateurs, pioneers, thought leaders and those leading the conversation around culture, transformation and change. Over the course of the past 14 years, Let Go & Lead has existed in many forms, from video interviews to resource guides to its current iteration as a podcast. At its core, it remains a place where people can access a diversity of perspectives on interdisciplinary approaches to leadership. Maril is also working on a book incorporating these insights gathered over the past several years from global leaders and change makers.

Maril has interviewed over 140 leaders — from business to academia and nonprofits to the arts — through the years. In each conversation, from personal anecdotes to ground-breaking scientific analysis, she has probed the lessons learned in leadership. From these conversations, the Let Go & Lead framework has emerged. It is both a personal and organizational resource that aims to serve the individual leader or leadership at scale.

ABOUT GAGEN MACDONALD

At Gagen MacDonald, we are dedicated to helping organizations navigate the human struggle of change. We are a people-focused consulting firm and our passion is improving the employee experience — for everyone. For more than 25 years, we have been working with companies to create clarity from chaos by uniting employees across all levels around a single vision so they can achieve results and realize their future.

We have been a pioneer in bringing humanity to strategy execution, leading in areas such as organizational communication, culture, leadership and employee engagement. Our Vision is to lift all humanity by transforming the companies that transform the world.

Full episodes also available on:

Apple Podcasts: 
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/let-go-lead-with-maril-macdonald/id1454869525

Spotify: 
https://open.spotify.com/show/5Gaf7JXOckZMtkpsMtnjAj?si=WZjZkvfLTX2T4eaeB1PO2A

—

Gagen MacDonald is a woman-owned, human-focused transformation consulting firm and trusted partner to the C-suite. We specialize in internal communications, employee engagement, culture change and leadership development. Learn more at http://www.gagenmacdonald.com.

#LeadershipDevelopment #OrganizationalChange #CorporateCulture #EmployeeEngagement

Margery Kraus, founder and executive chairman of APCO, reflects on 40 years of leadership. She shares how APCO grew from a small team into a global advisory firm rooted in trust, values and innovation.

Margery discusses building a culture that thrives across borders, letting go of control to develop future leaders and applying lessons from motherhood to business. She also looks ahead to what's next, including bold thinking around education, youth opportunity and social change.

Key Takeaways:

(00:28) Leadership journeys often begin with unexpected opportunities.

(03:04) An outside perspective can lead to more creative solutions.

(09:09) Culture is easier to scale when values are shared.

(11:30) Letting go of control is part of growing a company.

(21:33) Personal life lessons can influence leadership philosophies.

(23:02) Public praise and private feedback build trust and respect.

(26:31) Being underestimated can become a strategic advantage.

(33:45) Knowing when to step back is key to long-term success.

(36:19) Major change creates space for bold new ideas.

Resources Mentioned:

Margery Kraus
https://www.linkedin.com/in/margerykraus/

APCO | LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/company/apco-worldwide/

APCO | Website
https://apcoworldwide.com/

"Roots and Wings" by Margery Kraus
https://www.amazon.com/Roots-Wings-Lessons-Motherhood-Company/dp/168463024X

ABOUT LET GO & LEAD

Let Go & Lead is a leadership platform created by Maril MacDonald, founder and CEO of Gagen MacDonald. Maril brings together provocateurs, pioneers, thought leaders and those leading the conversation around culture, transformation and change. Over the course of the past 14 years, Let Go & Lead has existed in many forms, from video interviews to resource guides to its current iteration as a podcast. At its core, it remains a place where people can access a diversity of perspectives on interdisciplinary approaches to leadership.

Maril has interviewed over 140 leaders — from business to academia and nonprofits to the arts — through the years. In each conversation, from personal anecdotes to ground-breaking scientific analysis, she has probed the lessons learned in leadership. From these conversations, the Let Go & Lead framework has emerged. It is both a personal and organizational resource that aims to serve the individual leader or leadership at scale.

ABOUT GAGEN MACDONALD

At Gagen MacDonald, we are dedicated to helping organizations navigate the human struggle of change. We are a people-focused consulting firm and our passion is improving the employee experience—for everyone. For more than 25 years, we have been working with companies to create clarity from chaos by uniting employees across all levels around a single vision so they can achieve results and realize their future.

We have been a pioneer in bringing humanity to strategy execution, leading in areas such as organizational communication, culture, leadership and employee engagement. Our Vision is to lift all humanity by transforming the companies that transform the world.

Full episodes also available on:

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/let-go-lead-with-maril-macdonald/id1454869525

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Gaf7JXOckZMtkpsMtnjAj?si=WZjZkvfLTX2T4eaeB1PO2A 

—

Gagen MacDonald is a woman-owned, human-focused transformation consulting firm and trusted partner to the C-suite. We specialize in internal communications, employee engagement, culture change and leadership development. Learn more at http://www.gagenmacdonald.com.

#LeadershipDevelopment #OrganizationalChange #CorporateCulture #EmployeeEngagement

To survive over the long term, businesses must constantly innovate and transform. All too often, however, forces inside companies stifle this change.

Greg Larkin has built a career as an internal disruptor. In his view, anyone who seeks to innovate from within, to transform a legacy company, naturally comes into contact with obstructionists — with people who, for different reasons, act as barriers to change. Larkin has identified five key obstructionist archetypes, and he has a playbook of strategies for overcoming each one of them. He talks with Maril about his career journey; about his leadership community for disruptive executives, Pinstripes & Punks, and what it means to be a business punk; and ultimately, about why pushing against the norm, attempting to drive change and being a "punk" is an act of love, not an act of war, for a business.  

ABOUT LET GO & LEAD

Let Go & Lead is a leadership community created by Maril MacDonald, founder and CEO of Gagen MacDonald. Maril brings together provocateurs, pioneers, thought leaders and those leading the conversation around culture, transformation and change.

Over the course of the past 14 years, Let Go & Lead has existed in many forms, from video interviews to resource guides to its current iteration as a podcast. At its core, it remains a place where people can access a diversity of perspectives on interdisciplinary approaches to leadership. Maril is also working on a book incorporating these insights gathered over the past several years from global leaders and change makers.  

Maril has interviewed over 140 leaders — from business to academia and nonprofits to the arts — through the years. In each conversation, from personal anecdotes to ground-breaking scientific analysis, she has probed the lessons learned in leadership. From these conversations, the Let Go & Lead framework has emerged. It is both a personal and organizational resource that aims to serve the individual leader or leadership at scale. 

ABOUT GAGEN MACDONALD

At Gagen MacDonald, we are dedicated to helping organizations navigate the human struggle of change. We are a people-focused consulting firm and our passion is improving the employee experience — for everyone. For more than 25 years, we have been working with companies to create clarity from chaos by uniting employees across all levels around a single vision so they can achieve results and realize their future.

We have been a pioneer in bringing humanity to strategy execution, leading in areas such as organizational communication, culture, leadership, and employee engagement. Our Vision is to lift all humanity by transforming the companies that transform the world.

Full episodes also available on:  

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/let-go-lead-with-maril-macdonald/id1454869525  

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Gaf7JXOckZMtkpsMtnjAj?si=WZjZkvfLTX2T4eaeB1PO2A  

—  

Gagen MacDonald is a woman-owned, human-focused transformation consulting firm and trusted partner to the C-suite. We specialize in internal communications, employee engagement, culture change and leadership development. Learn more at http://www.gagenmacdonald.com. 

From the U.S. Air Force to higher education, General Jay Silveria's leadership career has been as wide-ranging as they come. After leading pilots into combat and going viral for the anti-racist speech he made while Superintendent of the United States Air Force Academy, Silveria now serves as the Executive Director of Texas A&M University's Bush School of Government & Public Service. The thread beneath all his experiences is that he's a true servant leader — one who invests time in getting to know his people as a mission imperative.

He and Maril discuss why innovation starts with leaders, and a "bottom-up" approach to fostering innovation rarely gets the job done; why it's so critical to de-brief and review not just after things go wrong, but after they succeed as well; and why a leader's responsibility is to looking ahead, imagining contingencies and planning for what could go wrong.

ABOUT LET GO & LEAD

Let Go & Lead is a leadership community created by Maril MacDonald, founder and CEO of Gagen MacDonald. Maril brings together provocateurs, pioneers, thought leaders and those leading the conversation around culture, transformation and change. Over the course of the past 14 years, Let Go & Lead has existed in many forms, from video interviews to resource guides to its current iteration as a podcast. At its core, it remains a place where people can access a diversity of perspectives on interdisciplinary approaches to leadership. Maril is also working on a book incorporating these insights gathered over the past several years from global leaders and change makers.

Maril has interviewed over 140 leaders — from business to academia and nonprofits to the arts — through the years. In each conversation, from personal anecdotes to ground-breaking scientific analysis, she has probed the lessons learned in leadership. From these conversations, the Let Go & Lead framework has emerged. It is both a personal and organizational resource that aims to serve the individual leader or leadership at scale.

ABOUT GAGEN MACDONALD

At Gagen MacDonald, we are dedicated to helping organizations navigate the human struggle of change. We are a people-focused consulting firm and our passion is improving the employee experience — for everyone. For more than 25 years, we have been working with companies to create clarity from chaos by uniting employees across all levels around a single vision so they can achieve results and realize their future.

We have been a pioneer in bringing humanity to strategy execution, leading in areas such as organizational communication, culture, leadership, and employee engagement. Our Vision is to lift all humanity by transforming the companies that transform the world.   

Full episodes also available on:    

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/let-go-lead-with-maril-macdonald/id1454869525    

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Gaf7JXOckZMtkpsMtnjAj?si=WZjZkvfLTX2T4eaeB1PO2A   

—   

Gagen MacDonald is a woman-owned, human-focused transformation consulting firm and trusted partner to the C-suite. We specialize in internal communications, employee engagement, culture change and leadership development. Learn more at http://www.gagenmacdonald.com.

In a world where so many M&A activities fail to deliver their promised results, Umayma Abubakar has firsthand knowledge of how to buck the trend, and truly create something new and better through all the change.

Starting in 2017, Abubakar helped lead one of the largest mergers in history, when Mubadala Development Company combined with International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) to form what is today known as Mubadala Investment Company. Maril talks with Abubakar, now Mubadala's deputy chief communications officer, about the principles and practices that drove them through the merger, and what executives around the world can learn from their success. Over a wide-ranging conversation, they cover the importance of leading with respect and inclusivity; of tapping into the experts you already have in the room; of choosing your language carefully; of providing employees with a clear vision and path forward; and of deeply appreciating the many details and dimensions of the cultures you're combining to truly get the best of both worlds.  

ABOUT LET GO & LEAD

Let Go & Lead is a leadership community created by Maril MacDonald, founder and CEO of Gagen MacDonald. Maril brings together provocateurs, pioneers, thought leaders and those leading the conversation around culture, transformation and change. 

Over the course of the past 14 years, Let Go & Lead has existed in many forms, from video interviews to resource guides to its current iteration as a podcast. At its core, it remains a place where people can access a diversity of perspectives on interdisciplinary approaches to leadership. Maril is also working on a book incorporating these insights gathered over the past several years from global leaders and change makers.  

Maril has interviewed over 140 leaders — from business to academia and nonprofits to the arts — through the years. In each conversation, from personal anecdotes to ground-breaking scientific analysis, she has probed the lessons learned in leadership. From these conversations, the Let Go & Lead framework has emerged. It is both a personal and organizational resource that aims to serve the individual leader or leadership at scale. 

ABOUT GAGEN MACDONALD 

At Gagen MacDonald, we are dedicated to helping organizations navigate the human struggle of change. We are a people-focused consulting firm and our passion is improving the employee experience — for everyone. For more than  25 years, we have been working with companies to create clarity from chaos by uniting employees across all levels around a single vision so they can achieve results and realize their future.

We have been a pioneer in bringing humanity to strategy execution, leading in areas such as organizational communication, culture, leadership, and employee engagement. Our Vision is to lift all humanity by transforming the companies that transform the world.

Full episodes also available on:  

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/let-go-lead-with-maril-macdonald/id1454869525  

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Gaf7JXOckZMtkpsMtnjAj?si=WZjZkvfLTX2T4eaeB1PO2A 

—  

Gagen MacDonald is a woman-owned, human-focused transformation consulting firm and trusted partner to the C-suite. We specialize in internal communications, employee engagement, culture change and leadership development. Learn more at http://www.gagenmacdonald.com

Resilience is something Bonnie St. John knows in her core. The Harvard grad and Rhodes Scholar became a Paralympic medalist by getting up after she'd fallen down in a very literal way, and since then, she has helped leaders and businesses understand the power in that truth. Over a wide-ranging conversation, she and Maril discuss how there is no one right way to be a leader; why purpose is so important to resilience; and why positivity is such a potent reinforcement mechanism — for locking in learning, for persevering within challenges and ultimately, for accomplishing our goals.

ABOUT LET GO & LEAD

Let Go & Lead is a leadership community created by Maril MacDonald, founder and CEO of Gagen MacDonald. Maril brings together provocateurs, pioneers, thought leaders and those leading the conversation around culture, transformation and change. Over the course of the past 14 years, Let Go & Lead has existed in many forms, from video interviews to resource guides to its current iteration as a podcast. At its core, it remains a place where people can access a diversity of perspectives on interdisciplinary approaches to leadership. Maril is also working on a book incorporating these insights gathered over the past several years from global leaders and change makers.

Maril has interviewed over 140 leaders — from business to academia and nonprofits to the arts — through the years. In each conversation, from personal anecdotes to ground-breaking scientific analysis, she has probed the lessons learned in leadership. From these conversations, the Let Go & Lead framework has emerged. It is both a personal and organizational resource that aims to serve the individual leader or leadership at scale.

ABOUT GAGEN MACDONALD

At Gagen MacDonald, we are dedicated to helping organizations navigate the human struggle of change. We are a people-focused consulting firm and our passion is improving the employee experience — for everyone. For more than 25 years, we have been working with companies to create clarity from chaos by uniting employees across all levels around a single vision so they can achieve results and realize their future.

We have been a pioneer in bringing humanity to strategy execution, leading in areas such as organizational communication, culture, leadership, and employee engagement. Our Vision is to lift all humanity by transforming the companies that transform the world.  

Full episodes also available on:    

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/let-go-lead-with-maril-macdonald/id1454869525

 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Gaf7JXOckZMtkpsMtnjAj?si=WZjZkvfLTX2T4eaeB1PO2A   

—   

Gagen MacDonald is a woman-owned, human-focused transformation consulting firm and trusted partner to the C-suite. We specialize in internal communications, employee engagement, culture change and leadership development. Learn more at http://www.gagenmacdonald.com.

Work has been in a chaotic flux since COVID-19 began, but as Julia Hobsbawm reminds us, it wasn't going that well before the pandemic, either.

The author, Bloomberg columnist and futurist of work has been researching connectivity, social health and humans' relationship with technology since before the age of hybrid work. She talks with Maril about the ways work is changing — from new office models to technology developments to the norms of new generations — and what the best leaders can do to build productive, fulfilled, connected cultures through it all.

---

ABOUT LET GO & LEAD

Let Go & Lead is a leadership community created by Maril MacDonald, founder and CEO of Gagen MacDonald. Maril brings together provocateurs, pioneers, thought leaders and those leading the conversation around culture, transformation and change. Over the course of the past 14 years, Let Go & Lead has existed in many forms, from video interviews to resource guides to its current iteration as a podcast. At its core, it remains a place where people can access a diversity of perspectives on interdisciplinary approaches to leadership. Maril is also working on a book incorporating these insights gathered over the past several years from global leaders and change makers.

Maril has interviewed over 140 leaders — from business to academia and nonprofits to the arts — through the years. In each conversation, from personal anecdotes to ground-breaking scientific analysis, she has probed the lessons learned in leadership. From these conversations, the Let Go & Lead framework has emerged. It is both a personal and organizational resource that aims to serve the individual leader or leadership at scale.

ABOUT GAGEN MACDONALD

At Gagen MacDonald, we are dedicated to helping organizations navigate the human struggle of change. We are a people-focused consulting firm and our passion is improving the employee experience — for everyone. For more than 25 years, we have been working with companies to create clarity from chaos by uniting employees across all levels around a single vision so they can achieve results and realize their future.

We have been a pioneer in bringing humanity to strategy execution, leading in areas such as organizational communication, culture, leadership, and employee engagement. Our Vision is to lift all humanity by transforming the companies that transform the world.  

Full episodes also available on:    

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LetGoAndLead

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/let-go-lead-with-maril-macdonald/id1454869525   

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Gaf7JXOckZMtkpsMtnjAj

—   

Gagen MacDonald is a woman-owned, human-focused transformation consulting firm and trusted partner to the C-suite. We specialize in internal communications, employee engagement, culture change and leadership development. Learn more at http://www.gagenmacdonald.com.