Key Conversations for Leaders

Aaron McHugh is a writer, podcaster, adventurer, and author of the best-selling book, Fire Your Boss: Discover Work You Love Without Quitting Your Job. He is mastering the art of living a sustainable work-life balance that constantly interweaves rhythms of play and adventure. That includes road trips in their 1974 VW Bus, aka The Joy Bus, catapulting them into many father-daughter adventures together.

Aaron works as an Affiliate Advisor to Aberkyn, a division of McKinsey & Co as a facilitator of transformation and executive coach.

Aaron loves ideas. He loves to dream up new adventures. He is a Starbucks French press coffee snob and is at his best if he gets out for his daily run. He works for a global change leadership consulting company alongside Work Life Play.

He and his wife Leith live in Colorado Springs, CO. They are celebrating twenty-five years of marriage in December. Their marriage has survived the death of their twelve-year-old daughter Hadley in 2011. Their twenty-two-year-old son Holden lives in Costa Mesa and is thriving in recovery three years clean and sober. Their youngest daughter lives at home still.

In 2015 they rebooted their lives, sold their house and all of their belongings to reboot their life and start their life over again. It hasn’t been easy, but they would do it again. They love traveling, drinking box wine and spending time with their creative, hilarious and courageous kids.

In Work, he’s covered the spectrum from ringing in the Opening Day trading bell at the London Stock Exchange to humble beginnings of selling office supplies door-to-door.

In Play, he’s an adventurer. He’s an Ironman triathlete, mountaineer, and is learning to surf. He recently accomplished a Life List dream of mountain biking the entire Colorado Trail from Durango to Denver.

Inside This Episode

• Moving From Fear to Freedom
• Optimize Your Life By Adding Play
• Stop Keeping Score If You Really Want to Win
• Creating Flow through Play
• Getting Back Into Alignment
• The Power of Developing Craftsmanship
• When Is It OK to be a “B” Player?
• Where is the Responsibility for Performance & Engagement?
• Finding Your Spiritual Foundation
• Goals, Purpose, and Meaning
• How to Be a ‘Heretic’ By Questioning Constraints
• Flipping Hardship Upside-Down

Links:

Aaron’s website: https://www.aaronmchugh.com/

Aaron’s Email: [email protected]

Aaron’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aarondmchugh/

Aaron’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/aarondmchugh

Aaron’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/worklifeplay

Aaron’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronmchugh/

Scott B. Dust, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Management in the Farmer School of Business at Miami University (Oxford, OH). Dr. Dust is also the Chief Research Officer for Cloverleaf, a company whose technology helps organizations create better teams. His teaching, writing and consulting focus on evidence-based perspectives for leading oneself and others.  In addition to teaching, he leads evidence-based management workshop, has published over 20 peer-reviewed articles, and is a contributor for Psychology Today.

Inside This Episode

• The Rise and Fall of Transformational Leadership
• Adapting Your Leadership Style To The Times
• What Is Ethical Leadership?
• The Power of Being a Mindful Leader
• The Future of Leadership
• Employee Emotional Exhaustion & Signs of Burnout
• Role Modeling Culture (They’re Always Watching)
• Measuring The Effectiveness of Leadership Styles
• Cultivating Productive Conflict
• How to Avoid Group Think
• The Effectiveness of Multi-Leader Teams
• Flow and Peak Performance
• Being vs. Doing Paradox
• The Necessity for Emotional Intelligence

Links:

Website: https://www.scottdust.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-dust-6820534/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/scott_dust

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgVrB6DdggVILESe4ZjFtTA

Assessments: https://cloverleaf.me/

In this Key Conversations Masterclass, we explore the 4 Themes of Excellence.

Inside This Episode:

• How Your Focus Determines Your Results
• How We Perceive Reality
• How Our Internal Experience Creates Our External Results
• The Importance of Ownership
• How to Stay In the Solution
• The Control-Concern-Influence Model
• The Performance Equation

Website: www.keyconvo.com/free

Matt Confer is VP of Strategy and Business Development at Abilitie where they use team-based simulation training to enhance leadership development.  He earned his MBA from Boston University while beginning his career with Deloitte Consulting.  He has a popular TedX talk called 3 Steps to Better Decision Making and he also hosts a leadership podcast called, “Learn to Lead.”

Inside This Episode

1. Challenging the Constraints
2. Define the Problem, Reframe It
3. The Power of Discipline in Decision-Making
4. Find a Better Lens
5. Expanding Your Skillset in a Simulated Environment
6. A Key Secret of Walt Disney’s Approach to Decisions
7. The Downfall of Assuming Success
8. The Bias Towards Self-Affirmation
9. Watch and Listen Rather than Talk and Dictate

• 3 Steps to Effective Decision-Making
• How Missing the Details can Derail a Decision
• The Benefits and Need for Virtual Training
• The Cobra Effect
• Trust and Transparency in Effective Leadership

Links:

Website: https://www.abilitie.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewconfer/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MatthewConfer

Dr. Suzy Siegle is an attorney, business professor, and entrepreneurship coach, holding an MBA, a law degree, as well as a doctorate in leadership and management.  As a researcher, she has spent the last decade researching locus of control psychology and is the creator of the Locus Mindset.  Today we’re going to be exploring the locus of control, what is it, why do we need it, and how can we use it to improve our mindset, our resilience, and our success.

Inside This Episode

• The Power of Locus Mindset
• What is a Locus Mindset?
• How We Perceive What We Believe
• Understanding the Non-Conscious Mind
• How We Get Trapped In A Loop
• The Conflict Between the Compass and the Magnet
• Stop Outsourcing Your Emotions
• Why Willpower Doesn't Work
• It's Not the Event, It's the Decision
• Change Your Energy to Change Your Results
• The Core Responsibility of Leaders
• Change Your Focus & Your Filters
• Reclaiming Control

Links:

Website: www.locusmindset.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzysiegle/

Ben Morton is a sought after leadership mentor, coach and bestselling author.  After graduating from the Royal Military Academy, he served two tours in Iraq.  Ben went from the battlefield to the boardroom blending his military and corporate leadership training.  Disappointed by traditional leadership training, Ben started coaching and mentoring others to become the most authentic version of themselves as leaders.

Inside This Episode

• Leadership from the Battlefield to the Boardroom
• The True Stakes of Leadership
• The Connection Between Empathy and Engagement
• The Secret Ingredient of True Commitment
• Why The Soft Skills Are Really the Hard Skills
• The Need for Authentic Leadership
• Identifying Your Leadership Identity
• Learn From Others But Be Yourself
• To Be Effective, Stop Hiding Behind Excuses
• Victims, Villains, and Heroes
• The Danger of Know-It-All Leaders
• How Transparency Leads to Engaged Problem-Solving
• Basics Done Well + Ruthless Consistency = High Performance
• Communication Plus Planning in Execution

Links:

Website: www.ben-morton.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benmortonleadership/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BMLeadership

Books: Mission Leadership

Dr. Ryan Gottfredson. is a mental success coach and cutting-edge leadership consultant, author, trainer, and researcher. Ryan is currently a leadership and management professor at the Mihaylo College of Business and Economics at California State University-Fullerton (CSUF). He holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and Human Resources and is the author of “Success Mindsets: The Key to Unlocking Greater Success in Your Life, Work, & Leadership.”

Inside This Episode

• How Mindsets Filter Our Experience and Create the Foundation for Success
• Why 95% Of Our Behaviors Are Driven By Our Mindsets
• Brain Science as the Future of Leadership Research
• Why Mindsets Are the Gateway to Lasting Change in Behavior
• The Lasting Effects of Framing on Experience
• Why 95% of Us Have Room to Improve Our Mindsets
• Digging Beneath the Surface to Identify The Real Mindset Gaps
• How to Get Out of Your Own Way
• Creating Awareness and Vertical Integration
• Enhancing Your Window of Tolerance
• Developing Agility and Future-Readiness
• The Four Innate Desires of Leaders
• Shaping Culture by Shaping Mindsets

Website:  www.ryangottfredson.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryangottfredson/

Book: Success Mindsets

Faheem Moosa is the Founder of Springboarders management consulting.  He began his career in the manufacturing industry.  After completing his MBA in 2007, he began working as a strategy consultant in Toronto and served a wide range of companies including those in the Fortune 100.  In 2009 he struck out on his own and started a consulting practice helping small and mid-sized companies grow their businesses.  He has since shifted his focus to helping independent consultants and boutique firms build a sales pipeline and grow their business as a leader of leaders.

Inside This Episode

• The Need for Over-Communication
• Navigating Different Communication Preferences
• Staying Engaged and Motivated While Doing Remote Work
• Establishing Boundaries and Avoiding Burnout
• Overcoming the Challenges of Leading a Remote Team
• Creating Connections from a Distance
• Finding the Right Tools for Remote Teams
• Finding Your Work Ethic

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/faheemmoosa/

Dr. Ruth Gotian is known as a “mentor’s mentor” and she is a contributor for both Forbes and Psychology Today. She has spent decades researching the most successful people of our generation in order to understand what they do when the world isn't watching, that has ultimately put them in an elite class. She has uncovered their habits and practices and I am so excited that you are here today to share these secrets with us.

We’ll be covering

• The Top 4 Traits of High Performers
• Why Nurture Beats Nature
• Key Attributes of High Performers
• They Key to Creating Momentum
• The 4 Types Of People You Need In Your Corner
• Why You Need to Build a Team of Mentors
• Support Others By Being A Sponsor
• The Need for Power Skills to Enhance Team Work, Leadership, and Performance
• The Key Skills for Virtual Leadership
• How Mentorship Is Changing During the Pandemic
• The Connection Between Empathy, Loyalty, and Performance
• Managing Expectations and Under-promising, Over-delivering
• Developing the Mindset of an Astronaut
• The Secret To Developing a High Performing Team

Links:

Website: www.ruthgotian.com

LinkedIn  https://www.linkedin.com/in/rgotian/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RuthGotian

Dr. Steve Yacovelli Owner & Principal of TopDog Learning Group, LLC, a learning and development, leadership, change management, and diversity and inclusion consulting firm based in Orlando, FL, USA, with affiliates across the globe.  Steve and TopDog have worked with Fortune 500 companies including The Walt Disney Company and Bayer as well as non-profits such as The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The American Library Association.

With over twenty-five years’ experience in leadership, strategy, organizational learning, and communication, Steve applies academic theory to create real business results. 

Inside This Episode

• Why do organization struggle with inclusiveness?
• How to Measure Diversity and Inclusion in an Organization
• Creating Long-Term Diversity & Inclusion Initiatives
• The Connection Between Diversity, Inclusion and Engagement
• Identifying Our Unconscious Biases
• Creating Lasting Organizational Change
• How to Address Micro Aggressions
• The 6 Core Competencies of Leaders
• The Need to Level Up Our Leadership Skills
• Creating Buy-In For Culture Change
• What If The Organization Won’t Change? 

Links:

Website: www.TopDogLearning.biz 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveyacovelli/

Twitter: @gayleadership

Books: www.topdog.click/freeship

Implicit Bias Test: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html