Leaders are faced with difficult choices every day, but when you factor in crisis circumstances like we are dealing with now, even the most basic decisions can feel hard. This week we are looking at ways to become more confident and effective in your decision-making during chaos and crisis. We’ll dig into these questions:

✔️What type of leaders are best suited to understanding and navigating through a crisis situation? 

✔️What are the necessary decision-making tools we can all learn to improve our own leadership skills? 

✔️What types of teams do best when facing adversity? 

✔️How can teams work effectively to make hard choices under difficult circumstances?

✔️How can we more easily discern our best options, given today’s constant onslaught of new information? 

Join us with our special guest Gautam Mukunda, author, research fellow and host of the podcast “Nasdaq’s World Reimagined.” We’ll explore his latest research on the key attributes that are elevating leaders and teams and helping them succeed in these challenging times.

Augmented and virtual reality technologies have applications that reach far beyond the gaming world. 

Yet most of us still don’t understand everything that can be accomplished using AR/VR. We’re seeing its application across multiple sectors, including forensic visualization, healthcare, leadership development, remote assistance, and many more.

This week we’ll discover:

✔️Some of the most interesting and innovative ways that leading edge organizations are using AR/VR technologies

✔️Where the technology is heading in the near and far future

✔️Potential pitfalls that we need to be discussing

✔️PLUS: How can these technologies help us be even more connected, more empathic, and more able to break down barriers that divide us? 

Join us with special guest Jeremy Dalton, Head of XR at PwC UK, as we explore how organizations are changing the ways we work through adoption of AR/VR technologies, and what this means for our future.

What is a “Strategic Surprise?”

Catastrophic world events can send even the most successful businesses into a death spiral. If you haven’t anticipated or prepared for the “unforeseeable”  (i.e. COVID 9/11, market crash, etc.), you could end up watching your life’s work go down in flames. We’ve seen with COVID over the past few months that this is happening on a massive, worldwide scale.

✔️So what can we learn from the ‘Cassandras’ of the world? These are people who notice patterns, who can anticipate outcomes and help us better prepare for and deal with chaos when it arises. 

✔️Can we learn how to anticipate surprises?

✔️And can we learn to see present patterns more clearly, to help us make better decisions right now?

Father Time is undefeated. We can’t escape our mortality. Yet with modern science and technology, we have more insights than ever before about how we can improve our health, wellbeing, and vitality in ways that bring quality years to our quantity of years.

In this episode, we’ll sit down with special guest Romy Jardine, CEO of BioTech Life Sciences, whose research is all about finding ways to slow down the aging process. He’ll share with us the latest research on managing stress, improving health and well-being, and achieving higher performance — regardless of biological age.

Since 1970, when Milton Friedman declared that the only responsibility of a business is to maximise short-term profits, regardless of social and environmental costs, there has been an accelerated trend toward a “death economy.” That is to say, we are witnessing disturbing symptoms — climate change, COVID-19, income inequality, and lack of diversity in the workplace, among others.

• So what does a life economy look like? 

Join us with our special guest John Perkins, the NYT best-selling author of Confessions of an Economic HItman, and Chief Economist advising the World Bank, United Nations, IMF, U.S. Treasury Department, Fortune 500 corporations, and countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Together, we will explore these questions and discover new possibilities for economic success.

Where does following the “blueprint for success” leave you?

Most of us have a clearly defined picture of what it means to be successful. But somewhere along the way, among our achievements and accolades, we all experience moments of questioning, wondering whether something is still missing from our lives. 

How often do you feel drained by your work and your relationships vs. feeling nourished and inspired?

The truth is that “success” means nothing if it isn’t aligned with your deeper purpose on this Earth. So what can you about it? Our special guest, Ayelet Baron, the author of F*ck the Bucket List, will show you how you can figure out if you’re on an unfulfilling success train to nowhere. She’ll give you practical steps to take to figure out your purpose and your path to get there. 

Formerly the Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer for Cisco Canada, Baron is one of Forbes Top 50 Global Female Futurists. We'll hear the incredible story of how a literal crash landing woke her up, helping her discover her life’s true purpose and giving her the courage to leave behind her jet-setting, corporate lifestyle. We’ll explore what her life lessons can mean for you directly and practically.

Join us as we sit down with physicist, author, and consciousness expert Tom Campbell who has worked as an applied physicist for over 40 years — including a decade with Army technical intelligence, two decades with National Missile Defense and several years as a consultant to NASA, as we discuss:

• Out-of-body experiences and what it has to teach us about our current physical reality

For purpose-driven leaders today who want to make a difference, working in the corporate world can be like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. The foundations of conventional operating structures that have defined corporate hierarchy for many years are beginning to crack open, and there is newfound space for leaders whose ideas and methods challenge conventional thinking.

But it takes a special kind of courage and mental resilience to survive under these conditions. It ain’t easy being the outlier, the maverick, the one who goes against the tide. However, this is EXACTLY what is needed right now. 

There are so many ways in which companies are being dragged, kicking and screaming, into a new way of being. Consumers have increasingly high expectations, and 2020 has proven that innovation and change can happen at lightspeed. So what are we gonna do about it?

In this episode, we’ll be hosting Lisa Wardlaw, the Chief Strategic Financial Officer of Farmers Insurance. She will share her unique perspective on what it’s like to be an outlier in the corporate world. 

We’ll discuss what it takes not only to survive, but to thrive and truly make a difference in the way corporations approach innovation, diversity & inclusion, CSR, and other initiatives.

More than ever, the business world is rethinking the purpose of a corporation. We're moving away from the singular focus on shareholder value, and toward a focus on what’s good for people, the planet, and business.

Companies know they can’t hang on to employees for 20 years any more. So instead of investing in old-fashioned “perks” that once lured people in, smart, forward-thinking businesses are investing directly in developing their people, and helping them make a difference in the world. 

On the whole, millennials and Gen Z don’t want to be a part of a company that isn’t aligned with their values, and their sense of meaning and purpose. These newest generations of workers want to make an impact, they care about the environment, and they are creative problem solvers. They aren’t interested in keeping the status quo.

In this episode:

✔️Redefining what it means for companies to be “successful”

✔️New ways for leaders to approach the topics that really matter to today’s workforce

✔️People development as a self-sustainable portion of your business

Join us with special guest Jonathan Raymond, author and CEO of Refound. We’ll dig into how an organization can make people development the core aspect of the business, improving everything — including profitability.

Like it or not, the world is a completely different place than it was 10 months ago.

Going forward, leaders must develop their ability to think differently. Embrace a maverick mindset, or wither on the vine. It is clear that traditional leadership methods are no longer enough.

This week, we explore two key aspects of a maverick leader’s uncanny abilities: intuition and influence.

The first, intuition, has long been touted by the world’s most effective leaders as a trusted guide. Scientific studies have shown that relying on intuition is most effective and helpful in VUCA times like we’re currently experiencing.

While intuition can help guide you, your ability to wield influence for good during these times is similarly critical. An effective leader understands how to share their message in a way that inspires others to act boldly.

In this episode, we’ll show you ways to practice and develop these two skills:

✔️Ways to distinguish intuitive nudges from doubt, fear, and other noise

✔️A guide to determining when it’s most appropriate to rely on intuition over rational mind

✔️The REAP method — four steps to getting great results from all your important conversations (from pitches to staff meetings)

✔️How to apply the REAP method in a variety of scenarios

PLUS: StraightTalk.Live was borne of the conviction that society and its leaders were not ready for COVID and its resulting challenges. We have made it our mission to interview the world’s most creative thinkers, bold leaders, and knowledgeable experts so that we can all learn together how to adopt a maverick mindset. We must change the way we do things so we won’t be caught out again. This is the future of leadership.