Timeless Leadership

“If I were asked, now that I am drawing to the close of this work, in which I have spoken of so many important things done by the Americans, to what the singular prosperity and growing strength of that people ought mainly to be attributed, I should reply—to the superiority of their women.” — Alexis de Tocqueville, 1840

Imagine being a woman in 1822 in rural America — a mother of four, with your next child due in a month — and your husband suddenly and unexpectedly dying. What would you do?

For most women, there was no choice; but for Sarah Josepha Hale, this tragic life event is what set her in a direction that influenced much of 19th century America.

Melanie Kirkpatrick has written the definitive biography about her impact: Lady Editor: Sarah Josepha Hale and the Making of the Modern American Woman. In it, we learn of a woman driven by principle and passion, who disrupted norms but was civil about it.

It’s the story of influence, transformation, and some surprising elements.

 

Full show notes are available at:
https://www.timelesstimely.com/p/influential-woman

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When you're stuck in the grind or are just burned out by the endless cycles of... [gestures wildly], the easy solution is to just go with the flow.

But there are times when the world requires more of us. And the bottom line is, no one is going to make decisions about our best interest except us.

Adam Singer, a tech marketing leader, has changed jobs and even famously relocated from the Bay Area to Texas to achieve more balance and to make the system work for him.

In this conversation, he shares his secrets of success, his advice for anyone trying to find their way out or up, and the secret hack code for life.

 

Full show notes are available at: https://www.timelesstimely.com/p/bias-toward-action

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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.timelesstimely.com/subscribe

We’ve long heard about “work-life balance.” But has it been a reality for most people? In the last couple of years, burnout has become more widespread and employees are making lifestyle choices part of their job requirements.

Jen Fisher, who serves as Deloitte’s Chief Well Being Officer, has done the research that links companies’ financial performances to the health and well-being of their employees. And she’s written about it in her book Work Better Together: How to Cultivate Strong Relationships to Maximize Well-Being and Boost Bottom Lines.

Why is it that relationships form the core of what we need at businesses? And how can leaders look out for their own well-being while making it clear that it matters for their teams as well?

 

Full show notes are available at: https://www.timelesstimely.com/p/well-being

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In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare wrote of greatness: “be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ‘em. Thy Fates open their hands.”

And so it is with leadership. Sometimes, fate has a way of getting us to step up. That’s exactly what happened with Jim Rafferty.

A tragic crime robbed his son’s scout troop of their Scoutmaster, and Jim was selected to step up. He thought they must be mistaken, but he accepted the responsibility and found more in himself than he knew there was. His growth as a leader served not only the Troop 328, but became essential a few years later when his role was eliminated at a company where he spent two decades of his career.

Jim’s story of accidental leadership holds lessons for us all.

 

Full show notes are available at: https://www.timelesstimely.com/p/leader-by-accident

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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.timelesstimely.com/subscribe

Life isn’t always easy. Sometimes it isn’t fair. And leaders know that in those instances, what you’re made of will show your true character.

David Morales is an executive, entrepreneur, and author who has found his way from poverty to success, but his true success is more than monetary. He has found it in the values he has learned and carries on: those of perseverance, grit, and faith.

He talks about what drove him to write a leadership book in the style of a memoir, his new non-for-profit that is aimed to help give people control over their financial future, and the powerful and deeply rooted family stories that make him say “¡Empuja!”

 

Full show notes are available at: https://www.timelesstimely.com/p/grit-values

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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.timelesstimely.com/subscribe

Our first episode of Timeless Leadership in 2022 goes in the direction of philosophy and business.

Plato divulged many lessons to his students, and in doing so, enumerated a handful of leadership models that are still relevant today. These models define a number of modern leaders and are fluid enough that we can find ourselves espousing the principles of more than one of them at a time.

R. Edward Freeman, University Professor and Elis and Signe Olsson Professor of Business Administration at the Darden Graduate School of Business joins us to discuss the intersection of philosophy and business, particularly around Plato’s teachings.

 

Full show notes are available at https://www.timelesstimely.com/p/models-of-leadership

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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.timelesstimely.com/subscribe

This episode of Timeless Leadership takes a different turn.

Grief is a process that we’re likely all enduring right now, in one form or another. A good leader will understand that their employees are more than who they are at work—and will know the right questions to ask when they observe something.

Peg Conway observed something in herself years after her mother died with Peg was just seven years old. Something that made her realize that she never properly grieved. In The Art of Reassembly: A Memoir of Early Mother Loss and Aftergrief, Peg takes us on a deeply personal journey that is filled with lessons for anyone dealing with grief.

Join Scott as he has a deep and moving conversation with Peg about grief, and what leaders can learn from her.

 

Links

• “Grief Fatigue” (Timeless & Timely)
• Peg’s book: The Art of Reassembly: A Memoir of Early Mother Loss and Aftergrief
• Peg’s website
• Rebecca's Story

Find Timeless Leadership everywhere you listen to podcasts. And please tell others about us.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.timelesstimely.com/subscribe

We were without a guest this week on Timeless Leadership, so we grabbed an item from the #GratitudeFriday Twitter Spaces we hosted.

Each Friday, we swap stories with other participants about things for which we were grateful or that brought joy into our lives, in order to share that joy with others.

This week, it was (surprisingly) an obituary for Renay Mandel Corren.

 

Find Timeless Leadership everywhere you listen to podcasts. And please tell others about us.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.timelesstimely.com/subscribe

The latest episode of Timeless Leadership is History, Disrupted.

Knowing history is essential to charting a course for the future. But history misinformation and disinformation spreads so quickly on the web that we risk losing critical data about our past that can erode the present.

Jason Steinauer, author of History, Disrupted: How Social Media and the World Wide Web Have Changed the Past, and a history communicator, joins us to talk about historical literacy, media literacy, and what we can do to prepare ourselves for a more robust future.

 

Links

• “Cultural (Il)literacy” (Timeless & Timely)
• History, Disrupted: How Social Media and the World Wide Web Have Changed the Past
• The History Club (Substack)
  • Check out “The Case for Historical Literacy”
• Jason Steinahauer’s site
• Great Books by David Denby
• Eastern historians Toyin Falola, Yu Ying-shih, Romila Thapar
• Other resources:
  • #WomenToFollow list
  • National Women’s History Museum
  • Women Also Know History

Find Timeless Leadership everywhere you listen to podcasts. And please tell others about us.

 

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.timelesstimely.com/subscribe

This week on Timeless Leadership (available everywhere you get podcasts), the topic is Growth.

Every business, every sales executive, every leader is interested in growth. But we largely look at growth simply as a numbers game. What if you took a more holistic approach?

Our guest is Jon Ferrara, founder of Nimble CRM, who is dedicated to helping people grow — not just as professionals, but personally as well. While his company is a software company, their focus is primarily on the ‘R’ in CRM: relationships.

And Jon’s leadership philosophy is centered around that; he achieves his own dreams by helping others to achieve theirs. Tune in to hear more about how Jon views growth, his early days as a software entrepreneur, what inspired him to choose the path he did, and more.

Links

• “Growing Pains” (Timeless & Timely)
• Nimble CRM
• Jon Ferrara on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook

Find Timeless Leadership everywhere you listen to podcasts. And please tell others about us.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.timelesstimely.com/subscribe