The Enlightened Executive

Could striving to become a perfect leader keep you from becoming an effective leader?

Authenticity is a buzzword commonly cited in leadership circles, but the journey to actually becoming an authentic leader requires more introspection than discussion.

This week, on The Enlightened Executive podcast, our guest Melissa Bernstein discusses self-acceptance and authentic leadership.

Melissa Bernstein is an entrepreneur, creative, and working mother of six. Melissa has spent the last 30 years helping children discover themselves, their passions, and their purpose through open-ended play. In this episode, she shares how to become a more authentic and conscious leader who accepts and embraces the full spectrum of emotions.

Melissa also shares the power of listening to your internal voice, the importance of education in finding self-acceptance, and how to embrace the past while stepping bravely into the future.

Want to learn about self-acceptance and how to become a more authentic leader? Then don't miss this enlightening interview.

Everyone knows trust is key to business success. But actually building trust? That can feel intangible and impossible.

Creating common ground, fostering collaboration, and establishing alignment build trust and lead to high performance.

This week, on The Enlightened Executive podcast, Sue Dyer joins us to discuss the barriers to trust and how we can practically build trust in our teams. Sue is one of the world's leading experts on trust and the author of the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Amazon best-selling book, "The Trusted Leader: Use the Partnering Approach to Become the Trusted Leader People Want to Follow."

Sue also shares the key principles of partnering, the importance of prioritizing initiatives, and the connection between trust and fear.

Ready for an informative conversation on how to become a trustworthy leader? Then don't miss this enlightening interview.

Organizations crush their employees with emails, meetings, decks, reports and paperwork all day long while expecting vitality and meaningful contribution.

White space, or the time in between tasks where you can think, reflect, recuperate, and question, has been crowded out. It is this unscheduled time that allows talent to tap into their creativity, productivity, and ultimately their full potential.

Juliet Funt is a keynote speaker and an evangelist for freeing the potential of companies by unburdening their talent from busy work. For over 20 years Juliet has studied productivity and today she discusses how to reclaim creativity and conquer busyness with teams.

Juliet shares 3 essential strategies for maintaining human vitality in the workplace, despite the challenges facing today's economy. We also discuss the importance of making the workplace more humane to encourage creativity and vitality, and how data proves that lighter workloads do not sacrifice productivity.

Want to learn how to maintain human vitality in the workplace? Then don't miss this enlightening interview.

Talent retention is not just a strategy, it's a mindset. It's a mindset because it requires a shift in the way that organizations approach the management of their employees.

Mike Harbour is a former military veteran turned successful business owner, whose mission is to deliver excellence in leadership and personal development solutions. In this episode of the Enlightened Executive podcast, he shares his insights on how organizations can shift their approach to employee management.

Mike leverages his experiences as a medical service corps officer in the U.S. Army, along with almost 30 years of leadership experience in the healthcare industry, as a leader in hospital operations, leadership training and development, sales, talent management and executive search.

From harnessing employee potential to systematizing development, Mike outlines three essential strategies for keeping top performers engaged and committed to the company's mission. We also discuss the importance of systematizing development to create a culture of learning and development, improve efficiency, align employee development with business goals, and retain top talent.

Want to make sure your top talent isn't lured away? Then don't miss this enlightening interview.

We're connected worldwide. At the same time, we're more disconnected than ever. COVID-19 showed us it's possible to work and live in a borderless society.

But in a hybrid or remote work environment, how can we reconnect with our teams and colleagues in a meaningful way?

Joining me today on The Enlightened Executive podcast is Deb Crowe, a heart-centered leader who thrives on helping people become successful and fulfilled. Deb is an executive and business coach with 32+ years of global experience with top Fortune 500.

In this interview, Deb shares her definition of heart-centered leadership, plus, twenty qualities of heart-centered leaders, along with three words you should consider removing from your vocabulary so that you can have more authentic and deeper conversations.

Ready to become a heart-centered leader? Then don't miss this enlightening episode.

When you listen to a song, the way you connect to it, the emotions it evokes in you, and the way that you interpret the meaning of the song, is an experience that is uniquely yours. One person may listen to a song and find it empowering and motivating. Another person may listen to that same song, and feel like it triggers negative emotions in them or brings them down.

So, have you ever thought about the impact that the music you regularly listen to has on your emotions and on your life? Your current playlist may be in need of a major update.

Some songs might be keeping you stuck in a negative emotions loop, as they reinforce a negative belief that you would like to get rid of. Other songs have the ability to free you from those negative emotions and turbocharge your life in a positive way.

In this week's Leadership Insights edition of The Enlightened Executive podcast, host Susan Drumm discusses the power of music, and the importance of creating a playlist that can transform your life for the better.

The relationship between a CEO and a COO is akin to that of yin and yang. Each leader uses their unique abilities and interests to help the company grow, all while staying in their own lane.

The key is to find a truly compatible counterpart, build a foundation of trust and honesty, and have confidence in the other person's ability to get the job done without having to constantly check-in with each other.

Cameron Herold is someone who truly understands this dynamic from having accumulated 25+ years of corporate management experience, built two $100 million companies before the age of 42, and founded the COO Alliance. He has also written several business books, including his new book, The Second in Command.

In this episode of The Enlightened Executive podcast, Cameron shares the DOs and DON'Ts of hiring (and if necessary, firing) a COO, common misconceptions, challenges, and two things COOs can start doing tomorrow to become the leader they're meant to be.

Ready to unleash the power of the COO? Don't miss this enlightening interview.

Did you know that only about 10% of your happiness comes from outside conditions and circumstances? Which means that 90% of your happiness is within your control, generated internally.

Backed by 1000s of research studies spanning several decades, these percentages make up the happiness formula. This week, on The Enlightened Executive podcast, Robert Mack joins as a guest to discuss the drivers of happiness.

Robert Mack is a positive psychology expert, executive coach, and bestselling author of the book, Happiness from the Inside Out. He is also a TV host and producer for OWN and E!. Rob's work has been endorsed by the likes of Oprah and Vanessa Williams.

In this episode, Mack shares the happiness formula, what causes happiness, what happiness causes, and how to deal with unhappy people in our lives.

Robert also shares how it took a suicide attempt for him to experience true happiness, how to use micro-meditation to clear your mind, and how happiness relates to religion and spirituality.

Ready to make 2023 your happiest year yet? Tune in to this enlightening interview.

Most every business wants to be a beacon of diversity and inclusion. Yet, with the incoming workforce being more diverse than ever, why does this goal seem increasingly hard to achieve?

It appears that with embedded biases, and hesitancies toward being viewed as too direct when asking minorities to speak up, encouraging and amplifying diversity down through the ranks of an organization has become a struggle. So, how do you successfully pass on high-level company values to mid-level managers?

Nima George seems to have discovered the answer. She is the Director of Resources at Google, where she oversees strategic infrastructure planning for computer and network resources and efficiency management for Google ads, commerce, payments, and engineering. However, as one of the DEI leads for the Google Ads department, much of her attention focuses on nurturing her team's minds and amplifying their diverse voices.

In the latest episode of The Enlightened Executive podcast, Nima shares the importance of creating a workforce and culture that prioritizes inclusion, belonging, and a space for people to thrive. She also discusses the most common challenges that leaders face when building and motivating cognitively diverse teams.

Do you tend to stay within the walls of comfort, when it comes to expanding the diversity on your team? In what ways can you grow beyond it? Build an environment where your team feels that they have the support and space to thrive, and you'll blow the doors open on what you are all able to accomplish. Don't miss this enlightening interview.

There comes a time when every leader realizes that they have a "bellyful." A moment where you see, with absolute clarity, that your current course of action no longer works for you, and you're ready for drastic and intentional change.

So, when that moment comes, how will you turn things around and discover your path forward?

In the latest episode of The Enlightened Executive podcast, coach, motivational speaker, and author, Laban Ditchburn, shares with us how having the courage to ask for help, illuminated his path toward sobriety and the driving force that continues to make him one of the world's most positively influential speakers.

Is there an area of your life that you've had a bellyful? When was the last time you asked for help? Explore Laban's journey of radical change and find inspiration for your own transformation.