Transformative Leadership Conversations with Winnie da Silva

Season 3; Episode 3: Storytelling is Our Most Powerful Tool for Change with Holly Gordon

Holly Gordon is the Chief Impact Officer at Participant Media, overseeing the company’s social impact strategy and campaigns, furthering Participant’s mission to create storytelling that inspires positive social change. Prior to Participant, Holly co-founded Girl Rising, a global campaign for girls’ education. Holly was also an Executive Producer for Girl Rising, the film at the center of the movement. Forbes Magazine named the Girl Rising campaign the #1 Most Dynamic Social Initiative of 2012. Holly was selected by Fast Company as a member of the League of Extraordinary Women and named by Newsweek/Daily Beast as one of 125 Women of Impact. Earlier in her career, Holly was a producer at ABC News.

Key Takeaways from this Episode:

The Power of Storytelling 

·       Use the power of storytelling to make the world a better place by inspiring, empowering, and connecting community leaders on the front lines of change. 

·       Stories live inside you, they become purpose when they are expressed outside of you. Change happens when you share that story with someone and you make an agreement to do the thing, it is not an individual sport. Storytelling is our most powerful tool for change.

·       In everything we do, we’re telling ourselves a story about what is fixed versus what is changeable. They are powerful stories that are usually reinforced by society. Think about the story you're telling yourself, and then challenge yourself with a different way of thinking.

·       You can move people from their seats to the streets with amazing stories. 

Inspire, Empower, Connect

·       Emotions are really important in leadership. Activating emotions are hope and inspiration that make you feel activated towards something. They are a motivating force.

·       Empower: before we do anything, we ask ourselves, can I do it? You need to create the tools, opportunities, or pathways for people to move from inspired to action. 

·       Connection between people is core to making change in any organization or structure. The question that you're answering is, what is everyone else doing? People who believe the same things, catalyze them, give them an opportunity, and then connect them to each other. And then you've got a movement!

·       Persuasion vs. Telling: Persuasion is often confused with telling. Persuasion is what happens between sharing a vision and then waiting, listening for the response. It’s hearing people, their fears and hopes, and listening enough that you have persuaded them to join the fight.

Leadership

·       I wake up and I ask, how can I be of service? If you ask yourself that question, you never go wrong, because your incentives are oriented towards setting a vision and listening to what others need in support of it. 

·       Leadership is about understanding what people are afraid of and trying to make a consistently supportive environment. Does everyone on the team have what they need to bring their full gifts to our work?

·       The history of leadership has been very much about who's holding power, being right, and who has the answers. In the 21st century, leadership is all about choice. Our employees have many choices about where they can work. Leadership becomes a more humanistic-focused effort about communication and understanding. It’s a re-imagining of capitalism, from a shareholder perspective to a stakeholder perspective. 

·       Leadership leans into vision. It is about telling a story of possibility that other people can imagine and buy into (e.g., Martin Luther King, Jr.). A challenge to achieve something that's just out of reach, but possible.

·       Management is the process, systems, structures, and the operational nuts and bolts of getting multiple people to achieve that vision. It's the marriage of vision and management that goes from being a single actor to a leader of an organization. Leadership is about relationships and partnership. 

Books

·       Immunity to Change

·       The Athena Doctrine: How Women (and the Men Who Think Like Them) Will Rule the Future

People & Organizations

·       Participant Media

·       Girl Rising

·       Hello Sunshine: Reese Witherspoon

·       ARRAY: Ava DuVernay

·       MACRO: Charles King

·       National Domestic Workers Alliance: Ai-jen Poo

·       Civic Georgia

·       Lara Galinsky

To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at [email protected].  

Reach out and tell me what was helpful about today’s episode or any suggestions you have for my show.

Please leave a review and tell someone else about this show; look below for some instructions on how to leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

I look forward to sharing another transformative conversation with you next week!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

How to leave a rating or review in Apple Podcasts (on an iOS device)

1.      Open the Podcasts app. 

2.      Choose “Search” from the bottom row of icons and enter the name of the show (i.e., “Transformative Leadership Conversations”) into the search field

3.      Select the show under Shows (not under Episodes)

4.      Scroll down past the first few episodes until you see Ratings & Reviews

5.      Click “Write a Review” underneath the displayed reviews from other listeners. You’ll then have the option to rate us on a 5-star scale, and write a review if you choose (you can rate without writing, if you’d prefer)

Season 3; Episode 3: Storytelling is Our Most Powerful Tool for Change with Holly Gordon

Holly Gordon is the Chief Impact Officer at Participant Media, overseeing the company’s social impact strategy and campaigns, furthering Participant’s mission to create storytelling that inspires positive social change. Prior to Participant, Holly co-founded Girl Rising, a global campaign for girls’ education. Holly was also an Executive Producer for Girl Rising, the film at the center of the movement. Forbes Magazine named the Girl Rising campaign the #1 Most Dynamic Social Initiative of 2012. Holly was selected by Fast Company as a member of the League of Extraordinary Women and named by Newsweek/Daily Beast as one of 125 Women of Impact. Earlier in her career, Holly was a producer at ABC News.

Key Takeaways from this Episode:

The Power of Storytelling 

·       Use the power of storytelling to make the world a better place by inspiring, empowering, and connecting community leaders on the front lines of change. 

·       Stories live inside you, they become purpose when they are expressed outside of you. Change happens when you share that story with someone and you make an agreement to do the thing, it is not an individual sport. Storytelling is our most powerful tool for change.

·       In everything we do, we’re telling ourselves a story about what is fixed versus what is changeable. They are powerful stories that are usually reinforced by society. Think about the story you're telling yourself, and then challenge yourself with a different way of thinking.

·       You can move people from their seats to the streets with amazing stories. 

Inspire, Empower, Connect

·       Emotions are really important in leadership. Activating emotions are hope and inspiration that make you feel activated towards something. They are a motivating force.

·       Empower: before we do anything, we ask ourselves, can I do it? You need to create the tools, opportunities, or pathways for people to move from inspired to action. 

·       Connection between people is core to making change in any organization or structure. The question that you're answering is, what is everyone else doing? People who believe the same things, catalyze them, give them an opportunity, and then connect them to each other. And then you've got a movement!

·       Persuasion vs. Telling: Persuasion is often confused with telling. Persuasion is what happens between sharing a vision and then waiting, listening for the response. It’s hearing people, their fears and hopes, and listening enough that you have persuaded them to join the fight.

Leadership

·       I wake up and I ask, how can I be of service? If you ask yourself that question, you never go wrong, because your incentives are oriented towards setting a vision and listening to what others need in support of it. 

·       Leadership is about understanding what people are afraid of and trying to make a consistently supportive environment. Does everyone on the team have what they need to bring their full gifts to our work?

·       The history of leadership has been very much about who's holding power, being right, and who has the answers. In the 21st century, leadership is all about choice. Our employees have many choices about where they can work. Leadership becomes a more humanistic-focused effort about communication and understanding. It’s a re-imagining of capitalism, from a shareholder perspective to a stakeholder perspective. 

·       Leadership leans into vision. It is about telling a story of possibility that other people can imagine and buy into (e.g., Martin Luther King, Jr.). A challenge to achieve something that's just out of reach, but possible.

·       Management is the process, systems, structures, and the operational nuts and bolts of getting multiple people to achieve that vision. It's the marriage of vision and management that goes from being a single actor to a leader of an organization. Leadership is about relationships and partnership. 

Books

·       Immunity to Change

·       The Athena Doctrine: How Women (and the Men Who Think Like Them) Will Rule the Future

People & Organizations

·       Participant Media

·       Girl Rising

·       Hello Sunshine: Reese Witherspoon

·       ARRAY: Ava DuVernay

·       MACRO: Charles King

·       National Domestic Workers Alliance: Ai-jen Poo

·       Civic Georgia

·       Lara Galinsky

To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at [email protected].  

Reach out and tell me what was helpful about today’s episode or any suggestions you have for my show.

Please leave a review and tell someone else about this show; look below for some instructions on how to leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

I look forward to sharing another transformative conversation with you next week!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

How to leave a rating or review in Apple Podcasts (on an iOS device)

1.      Open the Podcasts app. 

2.      Choose “Search” from the bottom row of icons and enter the name of the show (i.e., “Transformative Leadership Conversations”) into the search field

3.      Select the show under Shows (not under Episodes)

4.      Scroll down past the first few episodes until you see Ratings & Reviews

5.      Click “Write a Review” underneath the displayed reviews from other listeners. You’ll then have the option to rate us on a 5-star scale, and write a review if you choose (you can rate without writing, if you’d prefer)

Season 3; Episode 2: Freedom, Responsibility and Community with Peter Gordon

Peter Gordon is the Chief Investment Officer and Head of Commercial Real Estate Debt for a large asset management firm. Peter is the type of leader who instinctively forms his leadership philosophy and approach and then realizes there are a few books out there that back up those instincts. Peter’s leadership analogies range from parenthood, tennis, golf, political ideologies…and through his metaphors we gain some fabulous insights.

Key Takeaways from this Episode:

Leadership, like parenthood, is a shift from being about you to something bigger than you

· Working with people, towards a shared goal, seeing the energy they bring… the reflected glory of other people's successes, all of those things, have become an important part of what gets me up in the morning.

· Leading people has helped me articulate what I think are my strengths, and to look at other people and see the strengths in them.

Finding the right balance between autonomy and agency is like a tennis racket grip

· If you grip a tennis racket too tightly, your swing changes, your flow changes, and your shot comes out differently. If you learn how to moderate your grip, then you get a better result out of the tennis racket.  

· There's enough pressure that you feel someone is there and cares, but it's not so tight that it's asphyxiating, or changing your behavior or changing the shape of things. 

Bring others into the conversation

· Meeting someone for the first time, observe them, see how they contribute and how they add to the whole.

· Bring people in, make them feel welcome, understand where they're going to contribute.

· Use all sorts of tricks, like humor, self-deprecation, teasing, anything to get people to feel recognized, and they're not just joining as ‘person number three’ in the group.

Psychological safety is essential

· If you're not threatened, physiologically or mentally, then you do your best work. Then you're more willing to push the boundaries, say something that comes top of mind, just share.

· If someone doesn't want to share, is feeling threatened, is feeling psychologically out of sorts, then clashes are more pronounced. Our natural reaction is to say, ‘That person's making me feel this way, and therefore I'm reacting to it that way’, and then you get into these spirals, and it takes a lot of work to unpack. 

· In work, you don't give time to those relationships in the same way that you do in your personal life. That's why it's incumbent on all of us to tread a little more cautiously into work relationships.

· Psychological safety applies to flexibility in your thinking and your approach to people.

A well-functioning team needs a mix of people with complementary skills

· I like existing in the land of the misfit toys, because it means that there's a lot of different toys there that bring something different to the mix. You don't want everyone to be producing in a certain way with a linear thought process.

· Admire the skills people have that you don't have. It's about creating complements of skills to create a better whole. Help the complementary skillsets work better together.

Leadership is a culmination of your life experiences 

· Leadership is not an on/off switch. It is something that comes from your life experiences; the culmination of things people have said to you along the way, the experiences you've had, the reactions you’ve received. You have to establish what kind of a leader you are which might change at different times in your life.

· Is there ever a day where you're not learning? Yes, the day you walk out, and you get run over by a bus. 

· The learning, while it's painful, very quickly turns into satisfaction and enjoyment. 

The freedoms of leadership require personal responsibility

· With freedom comes massive, personal responsibility. You have to show up. You have to do your bit. No one's telling you, do this, do that.

· Even the most junior person in a group has the ability to lead, to say this is what I can do and I'm leading you to give me more, because I can handle it. That's leadership, too, reverse leadership. It's really important, because now the group starts to come together in a different way, which bleeds into personal responsibility. 

Communities create an entrepreneurial spirit 

· Creating an entrepreneurial spirit in large organizations is like being a parent in the crowd watching your child play a sport in middle school. Your boss is cheering you. It's enthusiastic. It's not focusing on the stuff that you're doing badly; it’s focusing on the good stuff.

· Communities, by definition, are not about the self. It’s about how you respect and champion people, how you recognize the good work they're doing. Then, people don’t want to let the community down.

· Place a greater level of importance on, does it make them happy? If it makes them happy, then they will go back and get more. It is Pavlovian. You will go back and get more. Success will beget success.

· Enjoy and celebrate the small victories and don’t dwell on the things that go wrong, because stuff goes wrong all the time. It’s the ability to be happy about other people's little things, little things that go right. 

Links & Resources:

· The Body Keeps the Score

· Forget Flexibility. Your Employees Want Autonomy

To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at [email protected].  

Reach out and tell me what was helpful about today’s episode or any suggestions you have for my show.

Please leave a review and tell someone else about this show; look below for some instructions on how to leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

I look forward to sharing another transformative conversation with you next week!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

How to leave a rating or review in Apple Podcasts (on an iOS device)

1.      Open the Podcasts app. 

2.      Choose “Search” from the bottom row of icons and enter the name of the show (i.e., “Transformative Leadership Conversations”) into the search field

3.      Select the show under Shows (not under Episodes)

4.      Scroll down past the first few episodes until you see Ratings & Reviews

5.      Click “Write a Review” underneath the displayed reviews from other listeners. You’ll then have the option to rate us on a 5-star scale, and write a review if you choose (you can rate without writing, if you’d prefer)

Season 3; Episode 2: Freedom, Responsibility and Community with Peter Gordon

Peter Gordon is the Chief Investment Officer and Head of Commercial Real Estate Debt for a large asset management firm. Peter is the type of leader who instinctively forms his leadership philosophy and approach and then realizes there are a few books out there that back up those instincts. Peter’s leadership analogies range from parenthood, tennis, golf, political ideologies…and through his metaphors we gain some fabulous insights.

Key Takeaways from this Episode:

Leadership, like parenthood, is a shift from being about you to something bigger than you

· Working with people, towards a shared goal, seeing the energy they bring… the reflected glory of other people's successes, all of those things, have become an important part of what gets me up in the morning.

· Leading people has helped me articulate what I think are my strengths, and to look at other people and see the strengths in them.

Finding the right balance between autonomy and agency is like a tennis racket grip

· If you grip a tennis racket too tightly, your swing changes, your flow changes, and your shot comes out differently. If you learn how to moderate your grip, then you get a better result out of the tennis racket.  

· There's enough pressure that you feel someone is there and cares, but it's not so tight that it's asphyxiating, or changing your behavior or changing the shape of things. 

Bring others into the conversation

· Meeting someone for the first time, observe them, see how they contribute and how they add to the whole.

· Bring people in, make them feel welcome, understand where they're going to contribute.

· Use all sorts of tricks, like humor, self-deprecation, teasing, anything to get people to feel recognized, and they're not just joining as ‘person number three’ in the group.

Psychological safety is essential

· If you're not threatened, physiologically or mentally, then you do your best work. Then you're more willing to push the boundaries, say something that comes top of mind, just share.

· If someone doesn't want to share, is feeling threatened, is feeling psychologically out of sorts, then clashes are more pronounced. Our natural reaction is to say, ‘That person's making me feel this way, and therefore I'm reacting to it that way’, and then you get into these spirals, and it takes a lot of work to unpack. 

· In work, you don't give time to those relationships in the same way that you do in your personal life. That's why it's incumbent on all of us to tread a little more cautiously into work relationships.

· Psychological safety applies to flexibility in your thinking and your approach to people.

A well-functioning team needs a mix of people with complementary skills

· I like existing in the land of the misfit toys, because it means that there's a lot of different toys there that bring something different to the mix. You don't want everyone to be producing in a certain way with a linear thought process.

· Admire the skills people have that you don't have. It's about creating complements of skills to create a better whole. Help the complementary skillsets work better together.

Leadership is a culmination of your life experiences 

· Leadership is not an on/off switch. It is something that comes from your life experiences; the culmination of things people have said to you along the way, the experiences you've had, the reactions you’ve received. You have to establish what kind of a leader you are which might change at different times in your life.

· Is there ever a day where you're not learning? Yes, the day you walk out, and you get run over by a bus. 

· The learning, while it's painful, very quickly turns into satisfaction and enjoyment. 

The freedoms of leadership require personal responsibility

· With freedom comes massive, personal responsibility. You have to show up. You have to do your bit. No one's telling you, do this, do that.

· Even the most junior person in a group has the ability to lead, to say this is what I can do and I'm leading you to give me more, because I can handle it. That's leadership, too, reverse leadership. It's really important, because now the group starts to come together in a different way, which bleeds into personal responsibility. 

Communities create an entrepreneurial spirit 

· Creating an entrepreneurial spirit in large organizations is like being a parent in the crowd watching your child play a sport in middle school. Your boss is cheering you. It's enthusiastic. It's not focusing on the stuff that you're doing badly; it’s focusing on the good stuff.

· Communities, by definition, are not about the self. It’s about how you respect and champion people, how you recognize the good work they're doing. Then, people don’t want to let the community down.

· Place a greater level of importance on, does it make them happy? If it makes them happy, then they will go back and get more. It is Pavlovian. You will go back and get more. Success will beget success.

· Enjoy and celebrate the small victories and don’t dwell on the things that go wrong, because stuff goes wrong all the time. It’s the ability to be happy about other people's little things, little things that go right. 

Links & Resources:

· The Body Keeps the Score

· Forget Flexibility. Your Employees Want Autonomy

To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at [email protected].  

Reach out and tell me what was helpful about today’s episode or any suggestions you have for my show.

Please leave a review and tell someone else about this show; look below for some instructions on how to leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

I look forward to sharing another transformative conversation with you next week!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

How to leave a rating or review in Apple Podcasts (on an iOS device)

1.      Open the Podcasts app. 

2.      Choose “Search” from the bottom row of icons and enter the name of the show (i.e., “Transformative Leadership Conversations”) into the search field

3.      Select the show under Shows (not under Episodes)

4.      Scroll down past the first few episodes until you see Ratings & Reviews

5.      Click “Write a Review” underneath the displayed reviews from other listeners. You’ll then have the option to rate us on a 5-star scale, and write a review if you choose (you can rate without writing, if you’d prefer)

Sarah Snyder is the Founding Director of The Rose Castle Foundation whose mission is to equip leaders with the skills, tools, and habits needed to transform conflict. You know she’s for real when her other job is the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Special Advisor for Reconciliation.

Sarah Snyder is the Founding Director of The Rose Castle Foundation whose mission is to equip leaders with the skills, tools, and habits needed to transform conflict. You know she’s for real when her other job is the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Special Advisor for Reconciliation.

Hi, everyone. Welcome to the third season of transformative leadership conversations with me, your host, Winnie da Silva. “Storytelling is our most powerful tool for changing anything in the world today.” This compelling quote, from one of my upcoming guests Holly Gordon, sums up my aspirational goal for this podcast. Sharing stories to change you, your leadership, your team, your company. As an executive coach and leadership strategist for over 20 years, I've come to know and work with some pretty incredible people. This podcast is designed to share their inspiring stories and practical ideas you can use to develop yourself as a leader, as a person. The first release for Season 3 is coming on March 1st. I’d like to give you a taste of these ten episodes you’re going to love. Sarah Snyder is the Founding Director of The Rose Castle Foundation whose mission is to equip leaders with the skills, tools, and habits needed to transform conflict. My conversation with Sarah is like opening a set of Russian dolls; you encounter one story or insight just to discover another one – and another. You know she’s for real when her other job is the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Special Advisor for Reconciliation. Peter Gordon is the Chief Investment Officer and Head of Commercial Real Estate Debt for a large asset management firm. Peter is the type of leader who instinctively forms his leadership philosophy and approach and then realizes there are a few books out there that back up those instincts. Peter’s leadership analogies range from parenthood, tennis, golf, political ideologies…and through his metaphors we gain some fabulous insights. Holly Gordon is the Chief Impact Officer for Participant Media. While she doesn’t make the award-winning movies her company produces (An Inconvenient Truth, Spotlight, Green Book), Holly and her team build campaigns around these films to inspire action and change by partnering with grassroots organizations and activists on the front lines. Holly’s fascinating background paired with her breadth and depth of thinking on social change, storytelling, leadership - I can’t help but hope that Holly will write a book someday soon. Next up will be a conversation with both Peter AND Holly. Yes, Peter and Holly are married and in this special episode, Peter and Holly generously share some details of how their marriage has influenced their own unique leadership perspectives. Our personal relationships are so important in shaping who we are, how we think and how we approach our work. You’ll love this compelling example of a relationship that is playful yet serious about ideas around leadership and more which will cause you to reflect on your own relationships and their impact on you. Cassandra Rose is a Founding Partner and DEI Practice Co-Lead at Meritarc, a human capital software company and provider of advisory services. Cassandra helps organizations fully leverage their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion strategy and enables HR and People Leaders to connect the value of their talent with their mission. Cassandra is also a compelling speaker on the topics of benefits equity and centering the BIPOC employee journey for transformative employee engagement. Our conversation will challenge your thinking on all these topics – and more! Lindsey Saletta is the Chief Operating Officer at west-bourne, a food and lifestyle brand that began as the first zero-waste neighborhood restaurant in New York City and is now piloting conscious capitalism in the food industry. I love Lindsey’s clarity on her own strengths and how those same strengths can sometimes be barriers to growth. Lindsey is that ambitious and vibrant leader you wish you could call to help you navigate your own career. So, here’s your chance! Ajay Easo is the Managing Director at Accenture Interactive and Fjord. Ajay is a “leader of leaders” and has had multiple career iterations during his 21-year tenue at Accenture. Ajay is a big thinker and strategically keeps several balls in the air. But his real superpower is leading without others even realizing it. He prefers to elevate and collaborate with people rather than always having to lead from the front. Our conversation touches on his leadership and the future trends of leadership itself. Marianne Manseau is an Area Vice President at Pernod Ricard, a wine and spirits company whose ambition is to turn every social interaction into a genuine sharing experience. While Marianne’s friendly spirit is immediately apparent, underneath that smile is an extremely intentional, hardworking, and ambitious woman. Marianne shares her experience learning to be vulnerable, why intention matters and how her father and three brothers helped shaped the person she is today. Gary Hamilton is a Senior Vice President and Healthcare Practice Leader for WSP which provides management and consultancy services to the built and natural environment. With 25 years of experience in designing and building healthcare facilities globally, Gary is passionate not just about his work but how he shows up as a leader and being a role model for others. Gary’s flair for connecting with people and pushing himself past boundaries is inspirational. The Band of Sisters is a tribe of six women who all met when they worked at PepsiCo. I had the pleasure of interviewing three of the six sisters: Lori Marcus, Katie Lacey and Cie Nicholson. These seasoned and savvy women bring a fresh perspective on improving the lives of women in the workplace as they focus on equipping organizations to build more inclusive and productive cultures. Their book You Should Smile More: How to Dismantle Gender Bias in the Workplace will be coming out this fall. Our conversation offers a sampling on this topic with some super practical ways women and men can proactively support women at work.

Hi, everyone. Welcome to the third season of transformative leadership conversations with me, your host, Winnie da Silva. “Storytelling is our most powerful tool for changing anything in the world today.” This compelling quote, from one of my upcoming guests Holly Gordon, sums up my aspirational goal for this podcast. Sharing stories to change you, your leadership, your team, your company. As an executive coach and leadership strategist for over 20 years, I've come to know and work with some pretty incredible people. This podcast is designed to share their inspiring stories and practical ideas you can use to develop yourself as a leader, as a person. The first release for Season 3 is coming on March 1st. I’d like to give you a taste of these ten episodes you’re going to love. Sarah Snyder is the Founding Director of The Rose Castle Foundation whose mission is to equip leaders with the skills, tools, and habits needed to transform conflict. My conversation with Sarah is like opening a set of Russian dolls; you encounter one story or insight just to discover another one – and another. You know she’s for real when her other job is the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Special Advisor for Reconciliation. Peter Gordon is the Chief Investment Officer and Head of Commercial Real Estate Debt for a large asset management firm. Peter is the type of leader who instinctively forms his leadership philosophy and approach and then realizes there are a few books out there that back up those instincts. Peter’s leadership analogies range from parenthood, tennis, golf, political ideologies…and through his metaphors we gain some fabulous insights. Holly Gordon is the Chief Impact Officer for Participant Media. While she doesn’t make the award-winning movies her company produces (An Inconvenient Truth, Spotlight, Green Book), Holly and her team build campaigns around these films to inspire action and change by partnering with grassroots organizations and activists on the front lines. Holly’s fascinating background paired with her breadth and depth of thinking on social change, storytelling, leadership - I can’t help but hope that Holly will write a book someday soon. Next up will be a conversation with both Peter AND Holly. Yes, Peter and Holly are married and in this special episode, Peter and Holly generously share some details of how their marriage has influenced their own unique leadership perspectives. Our personal relationships are so important in shaping who we are, how we think and how we approach our work. You’ll love this compelling example of a relationship that is playful yet serious about ideas around leadership and more which will cause you to reflect on your own relationships and their impact on you. Cassandra Rose is a Founding Partner and DEI Practice Co-Lead at Meritarc, a human capital software company and provider of advisory services. Cassandra helps organizations fully leverage their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion strategy and enables HR and People Leaders to connect the value of their talent with their mission. Cassandra is also a compelling speaker on the topics of benefits equity and centering the BIPOC employee journey for transformative employee engagement. Our conversation will challenge your thinking on all these topics – and more! Lindsey Saletta is the Chief Operating Officer at west-bourne, a food and lifestyle brand that began as the first zero-waste neighborhood restaurant in New York City and is now piloting conscious capitalism in the food industry. I love Lindsey’s clarity on her own strengths and how those same strengths can sometimes be barriers to growth. Lindsey is that ambitious and vibrant leader you wish you could call to help you navigate your own career. So, here’s your chance! Ajay Easo is the Managing Director at Accenture Interactive and Fjord. Ajay is a “leader of leaders” and has had multiple career iterations during his 21-year tenue at Accenture. Ajay is a big thinker and strategically keeps several balls in the air. But his real superpower is leading without others even realizing it. He prefers to elevate and collaborate with people rather than always having to lead from the front. Our conversation touches on his leadership and the future trends of leadership itself. Marianne Manseau is an Area Vice President at Pernod Ricard, a wine and spirits company whose ambition is to turn every social interaction into a genuine sharing experience. While Marianne’s friendly spirit is immediately apparent, underneath that smile is an extremely intentional, hardworking, and ambitious woman. Marianne shares her experience learning to be vulnerable, why intention matters and how her father and three brothers helped shaped the person she is today. Gary Hamilton is a Senior Vice President and Healthcare Practice Leader for WSP which provides management and consultancy services to the built and natural environment. With 25 years of experience in designing and building healthcare facilities globally, Gary is passionate not just about his work but how he shows up as a leader and being a role model for others. Gary’s flair for connecting with people and pushing himself past boundaries is inspirational. The Band of Sisters is a tribe of six women who all met when they worked at PepsiCo. I had the pleasure of interviewing three of the six sisters: Lori Marcus, Katie Lacey and Cie Nicholson. These seasoned and savvy women bring a fresh perspective on improving the lives of women in the workplace as they focus on equipping organizations to build more inclusive and productive cultures. Their book You Should Smile More: How to Dismantle Gender Bias in the Workplace will be coming out this fall. Our conversation offers a sampling on this topic with some super practical ways women and men can proactively support women at work.

Season 2; Episode 10: Lessons on Leadership from the Great Depression with Edward Shrigley

For this last episode of Season Two, I have a surprise guest I am especially honored to introduce you to: my grandfather, Edward Shrigley. I wish I could interview my grandfather for this episode. But he died at 96 years old when I was just 17. So instead, I’m excited to tell you a few personal stories about my grandfather’s leadership during the Great Depression. My dad, Jim Shrigley and I did some research together where we pieced together some of these stories. 

Key Takeaways from this Episode

Edward Shrigley’s five leadership principles:

1. Integrity and trustworthiness are foundational

• • He convinced people to keep their money in the bank because he cultivated trust and demonstrated integrity – before, during and even after the Great Depression. The quality of his relationships was critical to his success.

2. Shared sacrifice for the common good can lead to prosperity for all

• • People bought into his vision that, if everyone sacrificed for the common good, each of their individual decisions would eventually lead to prosperity for all. And while asking others to sacrifice, he was also willing to sacrifice by voluntarily giving up his salary for ten years.

3. Focus on achieving short-term results without abandoning long-term goals

• • He made the connection between short and long-term results – keeping the bank solvent now, allowed the bank to pay its depositors in the long run.

4. Continuously and constantly communicate with your stakeholders

• • My grandfather relentlessly and tirelessly communicated with his stakeholders for over ten years of uncertainty and hardship.

5. Hold fast to the belief that hope, and persistence will contribute to success

• • His belief in the future of the bank enabled him to be persistent and to never give up hope. It was the fuel that drove him day to day, year to year.

To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at [email protected].  

Reach out and tell me what was helpful about today’s episode or any suggestions you have for my show.

Please leave a review and tell someone else about this show; look below for some instructions on how to leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

I look forward to sharing another transformative conversation with you next week!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

How to leave a rating or review in Apple Podcasts (on an iOS device)

1. Open the Podcasts app.

2. Choose “Search” from the bottom row of icons and enter the name of the show (i.e., “Transformative Leadership Conversations”) into the search field

3. Select the show under Shows (not under Episodes)

4. Scroll down past the first few episodes until you see Ratings & Reviews

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Season 2; Episode 10: Lessons on Leadership from the Great Depression with Edward Shrigley

For this last episode of Season Two, I have a surprise guest I am especially honored to introduce you to: my grandfather, Edward Shrigley. I wish I could interview my grandfather for this episode. But he died at 96 years old when I was just 17. So instead, I’m excited to tell you a few personal stories about my grandfather’s leadership during the Great Depression. My dad, Jim Shrigley and I did some research together where we pieced together some of these stories. 

Key Takeaways from this Episode

Edward Shrigley’s five leadership principles:

1. Integrity and trustworthiness are foundational

• • He convinced people to keep their money in the bank because he cultivated trust and demonstrated integrity – before, during and even after the Great Depression. The quality of his relationships was critical to his success.

2. Shared sacrifice for the common good can lead to prosperity for all

• • People bought into his vision that, if everyone sacrificed for the common good, each of their individual decisions would eventually lead to prosperity for all. And while asking others to sacrifice, he was also willing to sacrifice by voluntarily giving up his salary for ten years.

3. Focus on achieving short-term results without abandoning long-term goals

• • He made the connection between short and long-term results – keeping the bank solvent now, allowed the bank to pay its depositors in the long run.

4. Continuously and constantly communicate with your stakeholders

• • My grandfather relentlessly and tirelessly communicated with his stakeholders for over ten years of uncertainty and hardship.

5. Hold fast to the belief that hope, and persistence will contribute to success

• • His belief in the future of the bank enabled him to be persistent and to never give up hope. It was the fuel that drove him day to day, year to year.

To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at [email protected].  

Reach out and tell me what was helpful about today’s episode or any suggestions you have for my show.

Please leave a review and tell someone else about this show; look below for some instructions on how to leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

I look forward to sharing another transformative conversation with you next week!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

How to leave a rating or review in Apple Podcasts (on an iOS device)

1. Open the Podcasts app.

2. Choose “Search” from the bottom row of icons and enter the name of the show (i.e., “Transformative Leadership Conversations”) into the search field

3. Select the show under Shows (not under Episodes)

4. Scroll down past the first few episodes until you see Ratings & Reviews

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