The Present Professional

In this thoughtful and practical conversation, John Marshall sits down with Alan Derek Utley, HR executive, speaker, and founder of Culturate Advisory, to explore how good, well-intentioned leaders can unintentionally contribute to unhealthy workplace cultures. Drawing from more than 25 years in HR and leadership development, Alan introduces the idea of accidental toxicity and explains how hidden pressures, perfectionism, fear, and organizational expectations can quietly shape the way people lead and work. At the center of the conversation is Alan's concept of Fanatical Grace, a leadership approach that creates space for people to be human while still holding clear standards for performance and growth. John and Alan unpack why accountability and acceptance do not have to exist at opposite ends of the spectrum, how labels like "negative" or "micromanager" can keep teams stuck, and why constructive curiosity can lead to better conversations than criticism alone. They also explore psychological safety, productive conflict, the behaviors leaders model under pressure, and the role HR plays in aligning policies, incentives, and leadership expectations with the culture an organization actually wants. This episode offers a grounded look at how small moments of grace can interrupt toxic patterns, strengthen trust, and help people perform at a higher level without sacrificing their humanity.

Resources:
Alan Derek Utley - https://alanderekutley.com/
The Grace Period Newsletter - https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/the-grace-period-7333176031089963008
CliftonStrengths - https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/

Connect with Alan Derek Utley:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanderekutley
Website - https://alanderekutley.com/
TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@alanderekutley

Takeaways

Most workplace toxicity is not created by people intentionally trying to harm others; it often develops when good people respond poorly to hidden pressure, fear, unrealistic expectations, and systems that reward the wrong behaviors.

Leaders do not have to choose between accountability and acceptance. Healthy leadership holds people responsible for results while still recognizing their humanity, circumstances, and capacity to learn.

A simple check-in can feel like micromanagement when trust is already strained, which makes understanding how leadership behavior is experienced just as important as understanding the leader's intention.

Labels like "negative," "difficult," or "not a team player" can shut down understanding. Replacing those labels with observable behaviors and genuine questions creates space to discover what is actually happening.

Constructive curiosity can be more useful than constructive criticism because asking what is behind a behavior often reveals problems, pressures, or information that judgment alone would miss.

Grace does not mean ignoring mistakes or lowering expectations. It means acknowledging that something went wrong, separating the mistake from the person's identity, and then working together to make the next outcome better.

Hidden pressures often come from the person we believe we are supposed to be at work, such as the leader who always has the answer, the employee who never misses work, or the executive who prioritizes business at any personal cost.

Leaders teach culture through the behaviors they model. Telling employees to disconnect on vacation means little if the leader continues answering emails throughout their own time away.

Psychological safety grows when people know they can question decisions, disagree respectfully, admit mistakes, and raise concerns without being immediately punished or labeled.

Creating a grace-fueled culture requires more than individual good intentions. Organizations must examine their policies, incentives, leadership behaviors, performance measures, and cultural norms to ensure the entire system supports the behaviors they say they value.

Visit The Present Professional webpage on humessence.com and learn more about how we support leadership development and culture enablement at growth-stage organizations.

Thank you for listening.

Coach John Marshall | Instagram | LinkedIn

In this deeply personal and practical conversation, John Marshall sits down with Coach Monique DeMonaco, founder of EQ Wize, internationally trained life, leadership, executive, and career coach, and emotional intelligence expert, to explore why self-awareness and soft skills have become essential for success in work and life. Monique shares her remarkable journey from growing up in an environment with little emotional intelligence, being told she would never attend college, and struggling with limiting beliefs, to earning an MBA and building a coaching practice that has helped people around the world. She explains why lasting behavior change begins with understanding what sits beneath the behavior, introduces her framework for the four core beliefs that contribute to human suffering, and shows how awareness can create greater compassion for ourselves and others. The conversation then turns to young professionals and the workplace, examining why technical qualifications alone are no longer enough, how parenting and societal shifts have influenced resilience and confidence, and what families and organizations can do to help the next generation become more prepared for adulthood and work. Filled with accessible tools, candid stories, and practical strategies, this episode offers a powerful reminder that the more aware we become, the more choice we have in who we become next.

Resources:
EQ Wize
Coach Monique Website
Failure to Launch Program

Connect with Coach Monique DeMonaco

Special Offer for The Present Professional Listeners:

Use promo code TPP when working with Coach Monique or EQ Wize.

Coaching - Coach Monique's coaching programs typically include eight sessions. The Present Professional listeners receive a ninth session at no additional cost.

EQ Wize - Receive 15% off an EQ Wize course using promo code TPP.

Takeaways

• Awareness is the starting point for meaningful change because it is difficult to change a behavior when you do not understand the thought, belief, expectation, or past experience driving it.
• What appears to be a problem behavior is often a coping mechanism or consequence of something deeper, which is why changing behavior alone may not create lasting results.
• Monique's four-part framework examines beliefs around not being enough, believing what you want is unavailable to you, fearing rejection, and needing connection as possible roots of recurring emotional and behavioral patterns.
• Separating behavior from identity creates room for growth because making a mistake or receiving difficult feedback does not mean there is something fundamentally wrong with who you are.
• Self-awareness can increase compassion for other people because understanding the beliefs underneath your own reactions makes it easier to become curious about what may be driving theirs.
• Resilience grows when people learn to see failure as an experience rather than evidence that they themselves are a failure.
• Parents can unintentionally reduce resilience when they repeatedly remove consequences, solve problems their children are capable of solving, or protect them from experiences that build independence and confidence.
• Standards are a vote of confidence because expecting a young adult to contribute, take responsibility, and solve appropriate problems communicates that you believe they are capable.
• Technical skills may help someone qualify for an opportunity, but emotional intelligence, communication, critical thinking, professionalism, and the ability to read a room can strongly influence what happens once they are in the interview or workplace.
• Organizations preparing the next generation of talent should clearly communicate how they invest in development, provide opportunities for growth, and give people the tools they need to become more capable professionals rather than treating development as punishment.

Visit The Present Professional webpage on humessence.com and learn more about how we support leadership development and culture enablement at growth-stage organizations.

Thank you for listening.

Coach John Marshall | Instagram | LinkedIn

In this forward-looking conversation, John Marshall sits down with Logan Yonavjak, co-founder and CEO of the Readiness Engine, to explore one of the hardest questions organizations face: how do you know who is actually ready for the next level of leadership? Drawing from her background in capital allocation, investing, and organizational decision-making, Logan explains why charisma, credentials, tenure, and past performance often provide an incomplete picture of future leadership capacity. She introduces the adult developmental psychology behind the Readiness Engine and explores how linguistic analysis and AI can surface patterns in strategic complexity, coachability, relational intelligence, resilience, purposeful agility, and the ability to create psychological safety. John and Logan also examine how identity, culture, trauma, and mindset can shape development, how organizations can make succession and promotion decisions with greater objectivity, and why AI should augment human judgment rather than replace it. From uncovering overlooked leadership potential to creating more accessible paths for development and coaching, this episode offers a fascinating look at how organizations can move beyond instinct and begin measuring what readiness for complexity actually looks like.

Resources:
Readiness Engine
Readiness Engine Methodology
Immunity to Change by Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey
Spiral Dynamics by Don Beck and Christopher Cowan

Connect with Logan Yonavjak: LinkedIn | Website

Takeaways

• Past performance, credentials, visibility, and charisma can tell you where someone has been, but they do not necessarily tell you whether that person is ready for the complexity of the next role.
• Adult development continues across decades, and leadership capacity can expand as people become able to hold more perspectives, manage greater complexity, and see situations with increasing objectivity.
• Strategic complexity is not simply knowing more information; it is the ability to coordinate multiple perspectives, competing priorities, and longer-term consequences without collapsing them into an overly simple answer.
• Coachability and identity flexibility may be foundational to leadership development because people who can separate feedback from their sense of self are better positioned to learn, adapt, and change.
• Culture, language, biology, personal experience, and trauma can all influence how fixed or flexible someone becomes in their identity, making development far more nuanced than labeling someone as having either a growth or fixed mindset.
• Relational intelligence matters because leaders do not operate alone, and paying attention to what people do not say can reveal important patterns about empathy, relationships, and how they interact with others.
• Team Climate IQ reflects a leader's ability to create the psychological safety necessary for people to speak honestly, share ideas, take interpersonal risks, and perform at their best.
• Resilience is not simply enduring more stress; it includes developing practices, relationships, and systems that help regulate the nervous system, recover from pressure, and reduce the likelihood of burnout.
• AI and linguistic analysis can provide organizations with an additional perspective on leadership capacity, but the goal should be to augment human decision-making and make biases easier to examine rather than hand employment decisions entirely to an algorithm.
• The most valuable leadership assessment is not one that permanently labels someone as ready or not ready; it creates a developmental baseline and helps identify what that person can work on to increase their capacity for the next level.

Visit The Present Professional webpage on humessence.com and learn more about how we support leadership development and culture enablement at growth-stage organizations.

Thank you for listening.

Coach John Marshall | Instagram | LinkedIn

In this thoughtful and practical conversation, John Marshall sits down with Mallory Herrin, CEO and Principal HR Consultant of HerrinHR, award-winning speaker, certified coach, and author of Intentional HR, to explore the part of workplace feedback most organizations overlook: learning how to receive it well. Mallory explains why even carefully delivered feedback can feel like a personal attack when our identity is closely tied to our work, and why curiosity, self-awareness, and radical responsibility are essential for moving beyond defensiveness. Together, John and Mallory examine the difference between fixed and growth mindsets, the role emotional intelligence plays on both sides of a difficult conversation, and how physical regulation can help us manage emotional reactions in the moment. They also unpack generational differences in feedback expectations, the distinction between being nice and being genuinely kind, and the organizational systems needed to make peer-to-peer and upward feedback part of everyday work. Honest, relatable, and filled with immediately useful strategies, this episode offers a new way to view feedback, not as a threat to our identity, but as information that can strengthen performance, relationships, and long-term growth.

Resources:
Intentional HR by Mallory Herrin
Thanks for the Feedback by Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen
Leadership and Self-Deception by The Arbinger Institute

Connect with Mallory Herrin: LinkedIn | Website

Takeaways

• Teaching managers how to deliver feedback is not enough; employees and leaders must also learn how to receive it, explore it, and turn it into action.
• Feedback feels personal because people often connect their work performance to their identity, value, and sense of worth.
• Even when feedback seems inaccurate, another person’s perception can reveal something important about the experience we are creating for others.
• Curiosity changes the purpose of a feedback conversation from proving who is right to discovering what can be learned.
• A growth mindset allows people to separate feedback about a behavior or work product from a judgment about who they are as a person.
• Proactively seeking feedback reduces the likelihood of painful surprises and gives people more control over their development.
• Emotional intelligence is required on both sides of the conversation; the giver must consider how the message will be received, while the receiver must manage their own reactions.
• Small physical actions, including taking a breath, changing posture, moving your feet, or taking a sip of water, can help regulate the nervous system before responding.
• Generational patterns can provide useful context, but personal relationships and individual communication preferences are more reliable than stereotypes.
• A strong feedback culture includes manager-to-employee, employee-to-manager, and peer-to-peer conversations that happen consistently rather than only during formal reviews.

Visit The Present Professional webpage on humessence.com and learn more about how we support leadership development and culture enablement at growth-stage organizations.

Thank you for listening.

Coach John Marshall | Instagram | LinkedIn

In this deeply personal and expansive conversation, John Marshall sits down with Dr. Sohee Jun, leadership coach, organizational psychologist, and bestselling author, to explore what authentic power actually looks like from the inside out. Drawing from more than 25 years of coaching highly accomplished women and her own journey as a bridge generation immigrant, Dr. Sohee unpacks why outward success so often masks internal noise, how the "shoulds" we inherit shape the way we lead, and what it genuinely means to bring your thinking, your words, and your actions into alignment. The conversation moves from Gandhi to polyvagal theory, from confirmation bias to body awareness, from transactional achievement to the freedom that comes from releasing attachment to outcomes. Rich, honest, and full of lived wisdom, this episode is an essential listen for any leader who suspects that the most important work they could do is not on their calendar yet.

Resources:
The Aligned Mindset by Dr. Sohee Jun
Mommy Tracked by Dr. Sohee Jun
Polyvagal Theory by Stephen Porges
Lightyear Leadership

Connect with Dr. Sohee Jun: LinkedIn | Website 

Takeaways

• Despite outward achievement, many highly accomplished leaders carry an internal narrative of not being enough, and that gap between outer success and inner alignment is exactly where the real work begins.
• Alignment, in Gandhi's words, is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony — and mindset is the place to start.
• The "shoulds" we inherit from culture, family, and profession are often the loudest obstacle standing between a leader and their authentic power.
• Feedback from trusted peers is one of the most accessible and underused tools for creating self-awareness, especially before a life-altering event forces that reflection.
• The mid-career stall is often not a skills gap but a relationship and self-awareness gap — emotional intelligence, not technical performance, is what separates those who advance.
• Authentic executive presence is not a performance style to be adopted; it is the natural expression of a leader who is grounded in who they actually are.
• Tying your sense of self-worth to an outcome is the exact thing that prevents you from showing up with the confidence that would produce that outcome.
• The body often signals incongruence before the mind catches up — learning to notice those physical cues is one of the most practical leadership skills available.
• Releasing attachment to outcomes is not about lowering your ambition; it is about removing the transactional layer that strips authenticity from every interaction.
• Get curious, give yourself compassion, and start where you are — the entry point to self-awareness looks different for every person, and all of them are valid.

Visit The Present Professional webpage on humessence.com and learn more about how we support leadership development and culture enablement at growth-stage organizations.

Thank you for listening.

Coach John Marshall | Instagram | LinkedIn

In this candid and energizing conversation, John Marshall sits down with Jessica Miller Merrell, founder of Workology, president and CEO of Exceptional HR, and author of Digitizing Talent, to pull back the curtain on what HR professionals are actually carrying — and why so much of it stays invisible. Jess draws on decades of frontline HR experience to unpack the burnout epidemic in people operations, the gap between what companies say they invest in their people and what employees actually experience, and why HR leaders struggle to communicate their strategic value in the language of business. From logging every task in 30-minute increments to mastering the art of internal influence, this episode is a practical, honest, and deeply human guide for HR professionals who are ready to stop doing everything and start driving real change. Whether you lead an HR team or work alongside one, this conversation will shift the way you see the role of people operations in building a thriving organization.

Resources:
Workology
Kaggle
Neuro-Linguistic Programming

Connect with Jessica Miller Merrell: LinkedIn

Takeaways

• HR professionals are often carrying invisible workloads that would be unacceptable in any other department — and the first step to changing that is making it visible.
• Connecting HR activities to revenue, retention, and time-to-productivity is the only language that consistently moves C-suite decision makers.
• Burnout in HR is often a signal that leadership does not respect or understand the function — and consecutive short tenures in a CHRO role are a clear organizational red flag.
• Moving from a human resources model to a people leadership model is more than a name change — it reflects a fundamental shift in how organizations value the human element of work.
• Business acumen and the ability to influence are the two most underdeveloped skills in the HR profession, and both can be learned.
• Logging tasks in 30-minute increments for even a few days can reveal hidden hours and build a compelling story for leadership investment.
• Knowledge gatekeeping is real at every level of leadership — and breaking that pattern by sharing best practices is both a leadership and a cultural act.
• Leaders who share what went wrong, not just what went right, create the psychological safety that makes teams want to follow them.
• Building discoverability before you need a job — through video, podcasts, or writing — helps candidates and leaders stand out in a world flooded with AI-generated sameness.
• One 20-minute conversation between an executive and their HR team, followed by action on just one thing, can begin to rebuild trust and reposition people operations as a true strategic partner.

Visit The Present Professional webpage on humessence.com and learn more about how we support leadership development and culture enablement at growth-stage organizations.

Thank you for listening.

Coach John Marshall | Instagram | LinkedIn

In this compelling conversation, John Marshall sits down with Dr. Angela Jackson, Harvard lecturer, researcher, and founder and CEO of Future Forward Institute, to explore what it actually takes to build a workplace where people and performance thrive together. Drawing from research across more than 1,700 companies, Dr. Jackson shares the nine pillars of her Win-Win Workplace framework — a data-driven, deeply human roadmap for leaders and organizations ready to close the gap between what they say about their people and what they actually do for them. From centering employee voice and reimagining benefits, to activating frontline managers and building the kind of trust that feeds an organization like oxygen, this conversation challenges the outdated zero-sum model of work and replaces it with something far more sustainable. Packed with real case studies, tangible data points, and practical first steps for culture carriers at every level, this episode is essential listening for anyone who believes that the best businesses are built on the best people practices.

Resources:
The Win-Win Workplace by Dr. Angela Jackson
Future Forward Institute
Win-Win Workplace Summit

Connect with Dr. Angela Jackson: LinkedIn | Website

Takeaways

• Performance and well-being are not in conflict — the data shows they reinforce each other when the right practices are in place.
• Centering employee voice is the foundational pillar because everything else built on top of it only works if people trust that they are actually being heard.
• Companies are spending billions on employee listening programs while nearly two thirds of workers still feel their company does not care about them — that gap is the opportunity.
• Trust is the most important nutrient feeding a high-performing organization, and it is built or eroded in micro moments every single day.
• Reimagining benefits means asking what people actually need today, not what looked good on a benefits brochure five years ago.
• Most frontline managers were never trained to manage people — they were simply promoted for being great individual contributors.
• Voluntary turnover data is one of the most powerful tools a culture carrier can bring to a C-suite conversation to make the cost of disengagement undeniable.
• The best organizations invest in learn-it-all cultures and measure people practices with the same rigor they apply to financial performance.
• Pillar nine — distributed leadership and an ownership mindset — is not a destination but a continuous loop that requires ongoing investment and attention.
• Being present with your people, tracking two to three data points per direct report, and asking how they are really doing costs nothing and changes everything.

Special Listener Offer
The first five (5) listeners who connect with Dr. Angela Jackson on LinkedIn and mention The Present Professional Podcast will receive a free copy of The Win-Win Workplace.

Visit The Present Professional webpage on humessence.com and learn more about how we support leadership development and culture enablement at growth-stage organizations.

Thank you for listening.

Coach John Marshall | Instagram | LinkedIn

In this episode of The Present Professional, John Marshall speaks with Erik Berglund, founder of The Language of Leadership and Loominary AI, about the future of leadership development through AI powered practice. Erik shares how his work evolved from coaching leaders on accountability and communication into building skill simulation systems that help people practice real workplace conversations in a psychologically safe environment.

Together, they explore why traditional training often fails to create lasting behavior change, how the eight critical leadership conversations can transform team performance, and why simulation, feedback, and repetition are essential for true skill development. They also discuss the role of psychological safety, the difference between accountability and conflict, and how AI can help organizations scale leadership training and talent development.

Takeaways

•  Leadership development improves when people can practice real conversations, not just hear ideas about them. 
•  Psychological safety is essential for effective simulation and skill building. 
•  The eight critical leadership conversations create a framework for stronger teams and clearer expectations. 
•  AI can help scale practical leadership training across organizations. 
•  Accountability is not the same as conflict, and recognizing the difference changes how leaders respond. 
•  Excuses often reveal a development opportunity, not just resistance. 
•  Professional skill intelligence can help organizations understand where to invest training time and budget.

Resources
Loominary.io
The Language of Leadership Framework

Connect with Erik Berglund: LinkedIn | Website

Visit The Present Professional webpage on humessence.com and learn more about how we support leadership development and culture enablement at growth-stage organizations.

Thank you for listening.

Coach John Marshall | Instagram | LinkedIn

In this rich and wide-ranging conversation, John Marshall sits down with Kevin Asbjornson, global leadership development professional, executive coach, keynote speaker, and performing artist, to explore what it truly means to lead with emotional intelligence in the 21st century. Kevin draws on a career spanning more than 70 countries and a lifelong parallel passion for music to make a compelling case that leadership is both an art and a science — and that most organizations have been over-investing in the science while leaving the art largely untouched. He shares his signature Eight Keys to Inspired Leadership model, the powerful practice of using original piano compositions to develop emotional awareness in leaders, and the critical distinction between a leader's tune and their tone. From practical steps for accessing emotional intelligence assessments, to how the best organizations build learn-it-all cultures and measure leadership impact along the way, this episode is a masterclass in what human-centric leadership actually looks like in practice.

Resources:
Inspire Imagine Innovate Website
Howard Gardner's Intelligence ReFramed
Hogan Assessments
Daniel Goleman's What Makes a Leader

Connect with Kevin Asbjornson: LinkedIn | Website

Takeaways

• Leadership is both an art and a science, and most organizations have over-invested in the science at the expense of the art.
• People hear your tune, but they feel your tone — and when those two are out of alignment, connection breaks down.
• Emotional intelligence is not something we are born with; it is learned through experience and developed intentionally over time.
• The five pillars of emotional intelligence are self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills — and intrapersonal intelligence must come before interpersonal impact.
• Leaders inspire people; people motivate themselves — and that distinction changes everything about how we approach leadership development.
• Closing the gap between identity and reputation is one of the most transformative things a leader can do for their team and their organization.
• Real-time feedback throughout a coaching engagement is more powerful than waiting for results at the end of the process.
• The three most common leadership refinements are shifting from tune to tone, distinguishing between urgent and important, and slowing down pace to better connect with the audience.
• The best organizations invest in learn-it-all cultures rather than know-it-all cultures, and they make emotional intelligence a measurable organizational priority.
• Leadership effectiveness at work is directly connected to how we show up at home — life, career, and well-being are not separate categories.

Visit The Present Professional webpage on humessence.com and learn more about how we support leadership development and culture enablement at growth-stage organizations.

Thank you for listening.

Coach John Marshall | Instagram | LinkedIn

In this vibrant and deeply personal conversation, John Marshall sits down with Natalie Spiro, founder and CEO of Drum Cafe North America and CEO of Blue Fire Leadership, to explore how rhythm, community, and intentional connection can transform the way teams and organizations operate. Natalie shares her remarkable journey from growing up in apartheid South Africa to building a thriving corporate team building enterprise out of her garage in San Diego, one drum circle at a time. Drawing on her background in organizational psychology, executive coaching, and Gallup CliftonStrengths, she unpacks the science behind rhythm as a unifying force and offers practical strategies for leaders who want to build deeper connection within their teams. From a resistant employee who became the first to take the stage, to delivering an unforgettable event for Google in Nairobi with borrowed drums tuned over an open fire, Natalie's stories remind us that when people feel seen, heard, and connected, performance follows naturally.

Connect with Natalie Spiro: Website

Takeaways

• Rhythm is a universal language that connects people at a level deeper than words.
• Community is not a nice to have for teams — it is the foundation of high performance.
• Leaders who show genuine curiosity about their team members unlock engagement that no incentive program can replicate.
• Manifesting your future requires both intentional vision and the courage to act when opportunity appears.
• Self-care is not a luxury — it is the energy source that allows leaders to show up fully for others.
• The most powerful team building moments come from going deeper than surface level stories.
• Resilience is built through relationships, not in isolation.
• When you are truly present with someone, they feel it — and that feeling builds trust.
• Pivoting in the face of loss is not giving up; it is the most strategic thing a leader can do.
• If you want to run fast, run alone — but if you want to run far, run together.

Visit The Present Professional webpage on humessence.com and learn more about how we support leadership development and culture enablement at growth-stage organizations.

Thank you for listening.

Coach John Marshall | Instagram | LinkedIn