Time to Reset

What if the biggest shift in your leadership doesn't start with a new strategy, but with you?

In this episode of Time to Reset, Penny Zenker sits down with award-winning entrepreneur, international speaker, and executive coach Pauline Nguyen to explore what it means to move from reacting to consciously choosing how you lead, work, and live.

Drawing from her extraordinary personal journey, Pauline shares how she learned to stop allowing her past to determine her future. Her experience became the foundation for a powerful approach to conscious leadership: change the story, shift your internal state, and make more intentional choices about what happens next.

Penny and Pauline explore:

• How to move from reactive leadership to conscious choice
• Why self-mastery is an essential leadership skill
• How the stories we carry influence our decisions, behavior, and leadership
• Why resilience isn't just about getting back up, but knowing what to put down
• How a reset moment can become the beginning of lasting change
• Why your internal state affects the way your team responds and performs
• What it means to lead by design rather than by default
• How leaders can build greater capacity without simply pushing harder

Pauline also shares lessons from 25 years of leading Red Lantern, where she built a culture that went beyond employee engagement and loyalty to what she calls team devotion. Her experience demonstrates how the way a leader shows up can shape trust, commitment, and the culture of an entire organization.

If you're a leader, executive, entrepreneur, or manager who feels caught in a cycle of reacting, pushing harder, or constantly trying to keep up, this conversation offers a different kind of reset.

You don't have to wait for circumstances to change before you do.

The leadership reset starts within.

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Are you addicted to distraction? Do you constantly check your phone, struggle to stay focused, or feel like your attention is no longer under your control?

In this solo episode of Time to Reset, Penny Zenker explores why we're becoming addicted to distraction, how our phones are shaping our habits, and what it takes to regain control of our attention.

Penny shares a personal story about reaching for her phone during a funeral, an experience that made her question just how deeply connected we've become to our devices. From phantom phone vibrations to the constant urge to check notifications, distraction has become more than an occasional interruption. It's a habit that can affect our productivity, creativity, relationships, and well-being.

But here's the reset: We have more control over our distractions than we think.

In this episode, discover why distraction can become a self-reinforcing habit, how to recognize when your phone is controlling your attention, and why taking ownership of your focus is the first step toward meaningful change.

Penny challenges you to stop simply reacting to distractions and start intentionally directing your energy toward the people, priorities, and goals that matter most.

Ready to find out what's stealing your focus?

Take Penny's free Distraction Profile Assessment to discover your distraction habits and identify practical skills to strengthen your focus in just 5–10 minutes a day.

https://pennyzperspective.com/distraction

It's time to stop letting distractions run your day. Take back your focus, take back your time, and reset what matters most.

About Penny Zenker: Penny Zenker is the host of Time to Reset, where she explores the Reset Mindset, helping leaders and professionals step back, gain perspective, and realign their focus to achieve more meaningful results.

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What happens to your leadership when the pressure rises?

When emotions run high, personalities collide, or uncertainty takes over, people look to the leader for cues about how to respond. And as resilience educator and leadership facilitator Sara Wegwitz explains, calm is contagious.

In this episode of Time to Reset, Penny Zenker and Sara explore how leaders can stay calm under pressure, regulate their emotional state, and create the steadiness their teams need to think clearly and respond effectively.

You'll discover why your emotional state can influence a room before you say a word, how to become the "thermostat instead of the thermometer," and simple techniques for staying grounded when tension starts to rise.

You'll learn:

• Why calm leadership matters in high-pressure and uncertain environments
• How a leader's emotional state affects team communication, trust, and decision-making
• What it means to "observe, don't absorb"
• How to create space between stimulus and response
• Simple techniques to regulate your nervous system in stressful moments
• Why calm is a skill you can practice, not a personality trait you're born with

You don't need the perfect words or all the answers to lead effectively through a difficult moment. Sometimes the most powerful reset is simply learning how to steady yourself first.

Because when you change the energy you bring into the room, you can change what happens next.

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What if burnout isn’t simply a workload problem?

We often blame burnout on too much work, constant change, AI, limited resources, or the pressure to do more with less. But in this solo episode of Time to Reset, Penny Zenker challenges that assumption and explores why some people can move through periods of intense demand while others become overwhelmed, exhausted, and disengaged.

Penny shares three warning signs that can show up before burnout begins affecting your performance: everything starts to feel urgent, simple tasks begin requiring more effort, and your focus becomes so narrow that you lose sight of the bigger picture.

The problem may not always be how much you’re doing. It may be how long you’re going without the reset and recovery your brain and body need.

You'll learn how chronic urgency can flatten priorities, why overwhelm makes even simple work feel harder, how stress can narrow your thinking, and why noticing these patterns sooner gives you more opportunity to adapt before exhaustion takes over.

Penny also shares practical ways to interrupt the cycle, including small reset moments that can help release accumulated stress, restore clarity, and allow you to approach problems with fresh eyes.

If you're experiencing burnout, cognitive overload, change fatigue, or constant overwhelm, this episode offers a different question to consider: Do you need less work, or do you need to reset and recover differently?

It’s time to notice sooner, reset sooner, and create the clarity you need to focus on what matters most.

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What if the definition of success you’ve been chasing isn’t actually yours?

For many high achievers, success becomes a never-ending pursuit of the next promotion, bigger goal, higher income, or greater recognition. But when achievement starts costing you your health, relationships, time, and joy, it may be time to question the rules you’ve been following.

In this episode of Time to Reset, Penny Zenker sits down with bestselling author, business anthropologist, and leadership and culture strategist Meghan French Dunbar, author of This Isn’t Working, to explore how to redefine success, prevent burnout, set healthier boundaries, and build a life and career aligned with your values.

Meghan challenges the traditional “bigger is better” definition of success and explains why high achievers can find themselves trapped on a hamster wheel of KPIs, promotions, revenue goals, and external validation. The problem isn’t ambition itself. It’s when your identity and self-worth become so connected to achievement that you stop asking whether the life you’re building is actually the life you want.

Penny and Meghan explore what it means to reset your definition of success by optimizing for quality of life instead of quantity of achievement.

In this conversation, you’ll discover:

• How to redefine success on your own terms
• Why high achievers are especially vulnerable to burnout and overwhelm
• How values alignment affects your work, wellbeing, and decision-making
• Why your career should not determine your entire sense of self-worth
• How to create an “ideal life statement” that guides your choices
• When saying no can protect what matters most
• How to set healthier boundaries at work and in your personal life
• Why it may be time to “unsubscribe” from obligations, relationships, and beliefs that drain your energy
• How to reconnect with joy without feeling guilty about it

Meghan shares the powerful practice of creating an ideal life statement: deciding what you want your life to look and feel like first, then making career and financial decisions that support it. Rather than waiting until retirement to finally live the life you want, what could you change now?

Penny also shares a personal example of accepting a career opportunity just before her son’s graduation, then realizing the decision conflicted with the person and parent she wanted to be. It became a real-life reminder that success isn’t only about what you achieve. It’s also about whether your choices reflect what you say matters most.

If you’re feeling burned out, overwhelmed, stuck in the achievement cycle, or questioning your relationship with work, this episode is an invitation to reset.

Ask yourself: What does success actually mean to me now?

Because sometimes the most important reset isn’t doing more to reach the next level. It’s deciding whether that’s where you want to go in the first place.

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We’re more connected than ever. We have followers, downloads, views, emails, messages, and endless ways to reach one another.

But are those connections actually meaningful?

In this solo episode of Take Back Time: Time to Reset, Penny Zenker reflects on a question she’s been asking herself about the podcast: Is it still creating the kind of connection and value she wants it to create?

It’s a question that goes far beyond podcasting.

Sometimes we get so focused on doing the work, producing the content, checking the boxes, and watching the numbers that we lose sight of the people on the other side. We forget to ask: Who am I doing this for? Is it creating value? And does it still feel meaningful?

Penny explores why connection matters, how easily we can lose sight of the bigger picture, and why sometimes the reset isn’t about stopping what we’re doing. It’s about stepping back and reconsidering how we’re doing it.

And this episode comes with an invitation: reach out.

If Time to Reset has sparked an aha, helped you see something differently, or given you a reset when you needed one, Penny wants to hear from you. What do you value? What do you want more of? What keeps you listening?

Because meaningful connection isn’t measured by a download. It happens when we actually engage with one another.

Maybe it’s time for all of us to ask: Where could I reach out, reconnect, and make the work I’m doing more meaningful?

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Your team can be productive, efficient, and incredibly busy—and still be focused on the wrong things.

In this episode of Time to Reset, Penny Zenker sits down with John J. Murphy, global authority on change mastery, operational excellence, and leadership, to explore why leadership alignment is essential for sustainable business performance.

John explains why many organizations mistake symptoms for root causes, how individual departments can become highly efficient while the overall business remains inefficient, and why leaders need to stop measuring activity and start examining the entire value stream. As John puts it, a leadership team is like an orchestra: everyone may know how to play their own instrument, but that doesn’t mean they know how to play together.

Penny and John unpack lean leadership principles, operational excellence, root cause analysis, customer value, organizational alignment, and the hidden “white space” where time and resources are often wasted. They also explore why standardization can actually create greater flexibility and how the same principle of controlling your inputs applies to today’s use of AI.

You’ll discover:

• Why executive alignment has to come before organizational change
• How to distinguish symptoms from the real root cause of a problem
• Why being busy doesn’t necessarily mean you’re creating value
• How departmental efficiency can actually hurt overall performance
• Why leaders need humility to recognize what isn’t working
• How lean thinking helps organizations eliminate waste and improve flow
• Why controlling inputs can produce better outputs in business and AI
• How to refocus your organization on what creates real value for the customer

John also shares a striking real-world example of executives discovering that a process taking 184 days contained surprisingly little actual value-added activity—revealing just how much opportunity can exist in the space between the work.

If your organization is working harder but not necessarily moving faster, this conversation will challenge you to rethink focus, efficiency, alignment, and what “productive” really means.

It may be time to stop asking, “How can we do this faster?” and start asking, “Should we be doing this at all?”

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Why is it so hard to simply accept a compliment?

Someone tells you that you did a great job, that you look great, or that they appreciate you, and suddenly you're explaining it away, minimizing it, or deflecting the attention.

In this short episode of Time to Reset, Penny Zenker explores why learning to receive can be just as important as learning to give.

A compliment is a gift. When we immediately deflect it, we may be missing an opportunity to receive appreciation, recognition, support, and connection. And as leaders, parents, colleagues, and partners, the way we receive also sets an example for the people around us.

Penny shares a simple story about accepting compliments that recently came full circle with her own mother, along with a powerful reminder: sometimes the best response really is just “thank you.”

In this episode, you'll discover:

• Why we instinctively deflect or minimize compliments
• How receiving appreciation can strengthen connection
• Why the way leaders receive matters
• How accepting support, recognition, and even difficult emotions can shift your mindset
• A simple reset to help you become a better receiver
• 
  

The next time someone offers you a compliment, recognition, gratitude, or support, notice what happens. Instead of explaining it away, practice receiving the gift.

Just say thank you.

It might be a much bigger reset than you think.

#TimeToReset #PennyZenker #ResetMindset #LeadershipMindset #SelfAwareness #PersonalGrowth #LeadershipDevelopment

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What separates exceptional leaders from everyone else?

It's not talent.

It's not intelligence.

And it's not working harder.

In this episode of Time to Reset, Penny Zenker sits down with Sébastien Page, Chief Investment Officer at T. Rowe Price and author of The Psychology of Leadership, to explore the mental habits that help leaders thrive under pressure.

Together they unpack why the most successful leaders focus on mastery over ego, why resilience is built through setbacks—not avoiding them—and how a psychology-first approach creates stronger teams, better decisions, and long-term success.

You'll also discover why leaders need more than measurable goals, how AI changes what leaders should prioritize, and why meaning—not metrics alone—is the key to engagement.

In this episode:

• The difference between mastery goals and performance goals
• Why resilience starts with your mindset—not your circumstances
• How positive psychology differs from toxic positivity
• The leadership psychology behind high-performing teams
• Why focusing on process leads to better results
• How AI is changing effective leadership
• The hidden danger of goal-induced blindness
• Why meaning drives motivation more than metrics

Whether you're leading a business, managing a team, or simply trying to become a better decision-maker, this conversation will help you build the mindset needed to succeed in today's rapidly changing world.

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to Time to Reset for more conversations on leadership, focus, productivity, communication, and navigating change with clarity.

Connect with Sébastien Page

📘 The Psychology of Leadership

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Scripts can help you prepare for a presentation, sales conversation, negotiation, or difficult conversation. But when you become too dependent on getting every word right, you can lose the one thing that matters most: connection.

In this solo episode of Time to Reset Penny Zenker explores how to prepare for important conversations without sounding rehearsed or losing your ability to listen and respond in the moment.

Penny breaks down why scripts should be used as a framework rather than something you have to follow word for word, how over-preparing can interfere with authentic communication, and why presence matters in leadership, sales, presentations, and difficult conversations.

She also shares how to use AI as a role-play partner to practice conversations, anticipate objections, switch perspectives, and test how your message might be received before a high-stakes interaction.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How to prepare for difficult conversations without sounding scripted
• Why relying too heavily on a script can hurt connection
• How to stay present and listen during high-stakes conversations
• How leaders can prepare for objections and unexpected responses
• How to use AI to role-play conversations and improve communication
• Why your objective matters more than finding the perfect words
• 
  

Preparation gives you confidence. Presence gives you connection. The reset is knowing when you've prepared enough to let go of the script and engage with the person in front of you.

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