What’s Possible w. Ilene Schaffer

Being great at your job does not always mean the right people understand the value you bring. In this episode of What’s Possible, Ilene Schaffer sits down with career coach and former HR leader Sonal Bahl to explore why talented, high-performing professionals can still find themselves overlooked for promotions, opportunities, and compensation.

After nearly 20 years in corporate HR roles around the world, Sonal now helps professionals communicate their value, become more visible, and navigate career moves with greater confidence and clarity.

You'll learn:
- Why putting your head down and working harder is not always the answer
- How sponsorship differs from mentorship
- Why career decisions are often made in rooms where you are not present

Sonal shares practical ways to connect your work to measurable business results, talk about your accomplishments without feeling like you are bragging, and build a reputation that makes you easy to remember and refer.

They also explore the emotional side of career transitions and job searches: rejection, burnout, self-belief, and how to move away from “pick me” energy toward evaluating whether an opportunity is truly the right fit for you.

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Learn more about Silicon Valley Change Website | LinkedIn | YouTube
Connect with Ilene Schaffer Website | Instagram | LinkedIn 

This show is produced and edited by the team at Palm Tree Pod Co.

In this In the Moment mini episode, Ilene Schaffer welcomes back her brother, artist Bradford Brenner, for a conversation about flow, creativity, and what happens when judgment gets in the way.

Brad shares how music, painting, technology, and even stepping away from the work can help him stay open during the creative process. You'll learn how we get into flow, what pulls us out of it, and why trying too hard to force flow can actually make it harder to access.

For leaders, creators, and problem-solvers, this episode is a reminder that flow is about creating the conditions that allow your mind to loosen, your judgment to quiet down, and your best thinking to emerge.

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Learn more about Silicon Valley Change Website | LinkedIn | YouTube
Connect with Ilene Schaffer Website | Instagram | LinkedIn 

This show is produced and edited by the team at Palm Tree Pod Co.

What does a leader need to know in order to truly feel at their best? In this episode of What’s Possible, Ilene Schaffer welcomes executive coach and new SVChange coach Harry Hofer back to the show for a deeper conversation about four questions he believes every leader should be able to answer:

Who can I trust?
Where do I stand?
What’s keeping me from being okay?
How does my work matter?

Drawing from years of coaching executives and his own experience as a senior leader, Harry explains why these questions surface again and again. This is especially for leaders navigating increased responsibility, uncertainty, organizational change, and the loneliness that can come with senior roles.

Ilene and Harry explore how trust creates room for vulnerability and courage, why leaders need clarity about how they are perceived and what “great” looks like, how acceptance can free up energy that is stuck in the past, and why reconnecting with the impact of your work can be a powerful source of motivation and well-being.

This conversation offers a simple but meaningful reflection for any leader who wants to feel more grounded, energized, and able to bring their best to the people and work that matter.

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Learn more about Silicon Valley Change Website | LinkedIn | YouTube
Connect with Ilene Schaffer Website | Instagram | LinkedIn 

This show is produced and edited by the team at Palm Tree Pod Co.

How do you find your own style? For an artist, it might show up in a brushstroke, a color palette, or the way someone recognizes your work from across the street. For a leader, it shows up in how you communicate, make decisions, build trust, and stay aligned with your values.

In this What’s Possible in the Moment mini episode, Ilene Schaffer sits down with her brother, artist Bradford Brenner, to explore what the creative process can teach us about finding our authentic leadership style.

You’ll hear about:

• Why your unique style may emerge when you stop trying so hard to define it
• How comparison can pull you away from your own voice
• What leaders can learn from artists, musicians, and creative experimentation
• Why “failure” is often just information that helps your style evolve
• How role models can inspire you without becoming people you imitate
• Why authenticity means staying true to your values while still allowing yourself to grow

If you are a leader, coach, creative, or anyone trying to understand what makes your voice uniquely yours, this conversation is a reminder that style is not about perfection, it's about becoming more fully yourself.

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Learn more about Silicon Valley Change Website | LinkedIn | YouTube
Connect with Ilene Schaffer Website | Instagram | LinkedIn 

This show is produced and edited by the team at Palm Tree Pod Co.

AI may be changing how work gets done, but many of the leadership challenges it exposes are not new. In this episode of What’s Possible, Ilene Schaffer sits down with RLD Group CEO Lisa Duerre to unpack applied research based on interviews with 25 executives across functions including product, engineering, HR, IT, legal, marketing, and sales.

The research revealed three root drivers of organizational fragmentation: silos, a lack of explorer mindset, and underdesigned conversations and collaboration. Lisa explains why AI is amplifying each of them. Which is increasing the need for shared clarity, stronger cross-functional coordination, and leaders who are willing to stay curious as the landscape continues to change.

Ilene and Lisa also explore the pressure leaders feel to move faster, why “there’s no time to slow down” can become a costly mindset, and how nervous system regulation, intentional conversations, and even one generative question can help leaders move out of protect mode and back toward innovation.

Along the way, Lisa introduces RLD Group’s I|WE|US leadership lens and offers a practical way for leaders to examine how they, their teams, and their larger organizations are working with AI.

This conversation is for leaders who want to move faster without sacrificing thoughtful decision-making, collaboration, well-being, or the human systems required for sustainable performance.

Learn more:

Lisa Duerre https://www.lisaduerre.com/
RLD Group https://rldgroupllc.com
AI Leadership Alignment https://rldgroupllc.com/ai-leadership-alignment
CONVERSATIONS WORTH HAVING® https://rldgroupllc.com/ai-conversations-guide

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Learn more about Silicon Valley Change Website | LinkedIn | YouTube
Connect with Ilene Schaffer Website | Instagram | LinkedIn 

This show is produced and edited by the team at Palm Tree Pod Co.

In this In the Moment episode of What's Possible, Ilene Schaffer talks with author and presentation expert Nancy Ancowitz about how to show up with more confidence, presence, and authenticity on Zoom and other video platforms.

Drawing from her book Zoom to Success: Present Like a Pro, Nancy shares practical tips for making virtual communication feel more natural. Nancy encourages listeners to reframe fear as excitement and remember that presenting is not about being judged, it is about offering something of value.

Whether you are leading a meeting, giving a presentation, interviewing for a job, or simply trying to feel more comfortable on camera, this short conversation offers practical ways to trust yourself, make every word count, and bring more of yourself into the room.

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Learn more about Silicon Valley Change Website | LinkedIn | YouTube
Connect with Ilene Schaffer Website | Instagram | LinkedIn 

This show is produced and edited by the team at Palm Tree Pod Co.

In this episode of What’s Possible, Ilene Schaffer sits down with executive coach, facilitator, speaker, author, and founder of Lead Well Work Well, Shannon Polly, for a warm and practical conversation about human connection.

Shannon, one of the first graduates of the University of Pennsylvania’s Master of Applied Positive Psychology program, brings her background in coaching, facilitation, performance, and positive psychology to explore what connection really looks like. From small moments with strangers to deeper relationships with colleagues, friends, and family.

Ilene and Shannon discuss why connection is essential for well-being, leadership, resilience, and belonging. They explore micro-moments of connection, loneliness, vulnerability, asking for help, active constructive responding, open-ended questions, and the ways perfectionism can quietly block deeper relationships.

This conversation is especially relevant for leaders, coaches, teams, and anyone who wants to feel more connected in a world where many of us are moving quickly, working behind screens, and trying to do too much alone.

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Learn more about Silicon Valley Change Website | LinkedIn | YouTube
Connect with Ilene Schaffer Website | Instagram | LinkedIn 

This show is produced and edited by the team at Palm Tree Pod Co.

In this episode of What’s Possible, Ilene Schaffer sits down with HR executive Jen Feri for an honest and deeply reflective conversation about work, grief, alignment, and what it means to honor yourself.

Jen shares the story of being in a role that looked like a dream job on paper, while privately realizing that the culture and environment were no longer a fit. When her father entered hospice, the stillness of those final days became a catalyst for clarity. Jen began asking what it would really mean to honor him by honoring herself.

Together, Ilene and Jen explore why so many high-achieving professionals stay too long in roles that leave them exhausted, misaligned, or disconnected from their values. They talk about non-negotiables, belonging, overwork, recovery, and how creating space to pause can help us hear what our mind, body, and spirit may already be trying to tell us.

This episode is especially relevant for leaders, HR professionals, and anyone wondering whether the work they are doing still fits the life they want to live.

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Learn more about Silicon Valley Change Website | LinkedIn | YouTube
Connect with Ilene Schaffer Website | Instagram | LinkedIn 

This show is produced and edited by the team at Palm Tree Pod Co.

In this In the Moment episode, Ilene Schaffer continues the short series on navigating change by introducing her own STAR Model: a practical framework for staying grounded through uncertainty, transition, and change.

From protecting sleep, movement, hydration, and nourishment, to noticing and fact-checking our thoughts, to accepting what we cannot control and leaning on supportive relationships, this model offers a simple but powerful way to move through change with more resilience and intention.

This short episode is a reminder that navigating change is not only about strategy. It is also about how we care for ourselves, manage our mindset, stay flexible, and stay connected to the people who help us keep going.

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Learn more about Silicon Valley Change Website | LinkedIn | YouTube
Connect with Ilene Schaffer Website | Instagram | LinkedIn 

This show is produced and edited by the team at Palm Tree Pod Co.

In this episode of What’s Possible, Ilene Schaffer sits down with Jonathan Stutz, co-author with Eddie Pate of Daily Practices of Inclusive Leaders, for a timely and practical conversation about what inclusive leadership really looks like inside organizations.

Jonathan shares how his early experiences with discrimination, his commitment to repairing the world, and his corporate diversity work at companies like Microsoft and Amazon shaped his path into inclusion and leadership. Ilene and Jonathan explore why diversity, equity, and inclusion cannot be treated as a one-time program or check-the-box training. Instead, inclusion has to be woven into the culture and practiced through everyday leadership behaviors.

They discuss practical ways leaders can create belonging across the employee experience, from recruiting and hiring, to one-on-one meetings, employee resource groups, executive listening sessions, allyship, and using data to uncover inequities. Jonathan also shares one simple but powerful practice anyone can use right away: hitting the pause button when something happens that interrupts trust, dignity, or inclusion in the room.

This episode is especially relevant for leaders, coaches, HR professionals, and anyone who wants to build teams where people feel valued, supported, connected, and able to do their best work.

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Learn more about Silicon Valley Change Website | LinkedIn | YouTube
Connect with Ilene Schaffer Website | Instagram | LinkedIn 

This show is produced and edited by the team at Palm Tree Pod Co.