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Igniting Game-Changing Growth – Gayle Lantz interviews Pam & Scott

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Pam Harper & Scott Harper are interviewed by Gayle Lantz about igniting game-changing growthUsually we’re the ones interviewing guests for our podcast, but here’s a change of pace. Our long-time friend & colleague Gayle Lantz of Workmatters Inc. invited us to be guests on her podcast, “CEO on the Go.”

Gayle is a leadership expert, author, speaker and trailblazer in her field. She helps CEOs and executives shape corporate culture and inspire change. For over 20 years, she has devoted her work to helping others do the work that matters–making a positive difference in the lives of those they lead and serve. Gayle is also the author of the award-winning book, Take the Bull by the Horns and creator of The Leadership Journal.

We shared our views about how we came to work together, developing the concept of “Growth Igniters Paradoxes,” and how visionary leaders can move even faster to make big things happen when the pressure is on. It was such a great conversation that we’re sharing it with all of you.

This week on Growth Igniters Radio:

  • How do three Growth Igniters® Paradoxes affect accelerating a bold vision from idea to reality?
  • Why is understanding multiple stakeholder perspectives so valuable, even as it is challenging?
  • Why should leaders embrace and actively seek out sources of resistance to change?
  • How new conversations can help employees, partners and other stakeholders engage with a game-changing strategic direction

The greater the ambiguity, the more important it is to embrace the Growth Igniters Paradoxes. This can help you to figure out how to lead when there are no clear sign posts for the way ahead.
-Pam Harper

Resources Mentioned:

Accelerate to YOUR Next Level of Success

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Join us on Facebook and LinkedIn. For more exclusive content, join the Growth Igniters® Community.

Growth Igniters Leadership – and All That Jazz

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Pam Harper and Scott Harper discuss Jazz and Business LeadershipWe love jazz, which is one reason why we chose it for our podcast theme music. And it’s not just us! Some of our audience members also share the same taste and fondness for jazz. But, we think jazz is more than just music. We believe jazz is a great metaphor for business leadership, especially when it comes to pushing boundaries for innovation and transformation.

In this episode, we share more about how the balance of structure and improvisation in jazz applies to effective business leadership. We share our experience at a jazz concert and explain how it made us think of how allowing for dissonance can be a critical part of creating value. We also explain the importance of flexible business leadership, encouraging improvisation, and going beyond conventional strategies when the market makes abrupt changes.

As the world is changing faster than ever before, the spirit of jazz can help us stay relevant.
– Pam Harper

This week on Growth Igniters Radio:

  • How Jazz can be a metaphor for business leadership
  • What’s exciting and unique about Jazz music?
  • What we learned about leadership during a Herbie Hancock jazz concert
  • What it means to go beyond the established “score”
  • How can you incorporate the spirit of jazz into your business?

Resources Mentioned:

Accelerate to YOUR Next Level of Success

If you enjoyed this episode of Growth Igniters® Radio, please spread the word. Subscribe and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts.

Join us on Facebook and LinkedIn. For more exclusive content, join the Growth Igniters® Community.

Buzzwords and Jargon Don’t Need to be the Enemy of Connection

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Pam Harper and Scott Harper discuss buzzwords and jargonEvery industry has its own buzzwords and jargon, and it’s extremely easy to alienate someone if we mindlessly drop them in everyday conversation – whether professional or casual. This makes it seem like using these unique words carries the risk of disrupting relationships or cutting them off even before they start. How do we ensure that the terms we use don’t create distance when we want to build connection?

In this Growth Igniters® Quick Take, we share why jargon and buzzwords don’t need to be the enemy. We discuss the main reasons why we believe they are here to stay.  We also share a few ways you can make buzzwords and jargon more inviting, inclusive, and welcoming in your conversations, instead of alienating others.

“Instead of vilifying buzzwords, maybe it’s time to think about how we can better use them.”
– Scott Harper

 

This week on Growth Igniters Radio:

  • Why  buzzwords and jargon don’t need to be the enemy of connection
  • Three reasons why jargon and buzzwords are part of every profession and industry, for good or ill
  • An example of how jargon has become part of everyday language
  • Three immediately useful ideas for making jargon more welcoming, inclusive, and useful

 

Resources Mentioned:

Accelerate to YOUR Next Level of Success

If you enjoyed this episode of Growth Igniters® Radio, please spread the word. Subscribe and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts.

Join us on Facebook and LinkedIn. For more exclusive content, join the Growth Igniters® Community.

Part 2-How an Unconventional Leader Fosters High-Level Virtual Relationships — with Coco Brown

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Coco Brown, CEO of Athena Alliance

We speak with Coco Brown, the founder & CEO of The Athena Alliance, about the unconventional leadership she uses to build virtual relationships at the highest levels in her company and extended alliance network.

Coco joins us to discuss Athena Alliance’s goals and how the fully-remote network enables female leaders to advance their careers. She explains what it’s like to climb the industry ranks as a woman and how she maintains a culture of constant feedback despite running a fully-remote company. She describes the importance of breaking rules that don’t make sense and how to determine whether you’re taking too much risk. She also discusses the value of transparency and showing vulnerability as a leader.

This is part two of our wide-ranging conversation. It was such a wonderful interchange that we just couldn’t cut it short! Part one is immediately available as Episode 214.

The Athena Alliance is a game-changing digital ecosystem helping to position the top 10% of executive women for advancement and board opportunities while also transforming the boardroom towards a modern composition model.  She leads change and transformation, accelerating multimillion-dollar growth through vision, strategy, technology, and people leadership. To date, the business has established a network of 5,000+ C-level women, VCs, and CEOs from 200+ companies, achieved 200% annualized YOY growth and helped 400+ women successfully land board placements. Members and corporate customers come from hundreds of top brands, including Amazon, Autodesk, Bank of America, Intel, Intuit, Microsoft, Quinstreet, and Stripe.

Since 2013, Coco has served on 10 for-profit and nonprofit boards as a member, advisor, and committee leader, providing input and guidance around M&A, divestiture, audit, CEO succession and compensation, corporate strategy, financial planning, change management, and more. Nationally recognized as an expert in shaping the modern boardroom and modern leadership, Coco Brown is the first person many companies and CEOs call when they need help or advice around strategic planning, board makeup, or the changing landscape of board operations. Her connections are vast, and her thought leadership in these areas is considered generationally transformative. As a result, she was asked to become an Insights Council member with the prestigious Nasdaq Center for Board Excellence in 2022.

In addition to guiding and supporting executive leaders and boards, she is a sought-after speaker and writer and is frequently interviewed by business and industry publications. She has been quoted and featured in Bloomberg, Entrepreneur, Forbes, Fortune, InformationWeek, NACD Directorship, Nasdaq.com, Silicon Valley Business Journal, The Cube, The Street, and WSJ.

 

“What’s healthy is for leaders to get all way in the organization and make sure there are checks and balances that perpetuate the culture you want to have.”
– Coco Brown

 

This week on Growth Igniters Radio:

  • Coco’s role in Athena Alliance
  • Being a woman in a male-dominated industry
  • What motivated Coco to start Athena during the pandemic
  • What is Athena Alliance and the services it offers
  • What surprised Coco as Athena Alliance grew
  • Creating team intimacy in the digital world
  • The importance of transparency in building virtual relationships at the highest level
  • How to determine if you’re taking too much risk
  • Breaking rules that don’t make sense
  • Why feedback is critical in a fully remote world

Coco Brown’s Three Immediately Useful Ideas:

    1. Check your personal resistance to virtual relationships
    2. Foster a system of constant feedback
    3. Lead to promote transparency & Vulnerability

Resources Mentioned:

Connect with Coco Brown:

Accelerate to YOUR Next Level of Success

Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of Growth Igniters Radio. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts.

Be sure to share your favorite episodes on social media to help us reach more visionary C-Suite leaders and corporate directors like you.

Join us on Facebook and LinkedIn. For more exclusive content and information, visit our website.

 

Part 1-How an Unconventional Leader Fosters High-Level Virtual Relationships — with Coco Brown

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:52 — 34.1MB) | Embed

Subscribe: RSS

Coco Brown, CEO of Athena Alliance

We speak with Coco Brown, the founder & CEO of The Athena Alliance, about the unconventional leadership she uses to build virtual relationships at the highest levels in her company and extended alliance network.

This is part one of our wide-ranging conversation. It was such a wonderful interchange that we just couldn’t cut it short! Part two is immediately available as Episode 215.

The Athena Alliance is a game-changing digital ecosystem helping to position the top 10% of executive women for advancement and board opportunities while also transforming the boardroom towards a modern composition model.  She leads change and transformation, accelerating multimillion-dollar growth through vision, strategy, technology, and people leadership. To date, the business has established a network of 5,000+ C-level women, VCs, and CEOs from 200+ companies, achieved 200% annualized YOY growth and helped 400+ women successfully land board placements. Members and corporate customers come from hundreds of top brands, including Amazon, Autodesk, Bank of America, Intel, Intuit, Microsoft, Quinstreet, and Stripe.

Since 2013, Coco has served on 10 for-profit and nonprofit boards as a member, advisor, and committee leader, providing input and guidance around M&A, divestiture, audit, CEO succession and compensation, corporate strategy, financial planning, change management, and more. Nationally recognized as an expert in shaping the modern boardroom and modern leadership, Coco Brown is the first person many companies and CEOs call when they need help or advice around strategic planning, board makeup, or the changing landscape of board operations. Her connections are vast, and her thought leadership in these areas is considered generationally transformative. As a result, she was asked to become an Insights Council member with the prestigious Nasdaq Center for Board Excellence in 2022.

In addition to guiding and supporting executive leaders and boards, she is a sought-after speaker and writer and is frequently interviewed by business and industry publications. She has been quoted and featured in Bloomberg, Entrepreneur, Forbes, Fortune, InformationWeek, NACD Directorship, Nasdaq.com, Silicon Valley Business Journal, The Cube, The Street, and WSJ.

Coco joins us to discuss Athena Alliance’s goals and how the fully-remote network enables female leaders to advance their careers. She explains what it’s like to climb the industry ranks as a woman and how she maintains a culture of constant feedback despite running a fully-remote company. She describes the importance of breaking rules that don’t make sense and how to determine whether you’re taking too much risk. Coco also discusses the value of transparency and showing vulnerability as a leader.

 

“What’s healthy is for leaders to get all way in the organization and make sure there are checks and balances that perpetuate the culture you want to have.”
– Coco Brown

 

This week on Growth Igniters Radio:

  • Coco’s role in Athena Alliance
  • Being a woman in a male-dominated industry
  • What motivated Coco to start Athena during the pandemic
  • What is Athena Alliance and the services it offers
  • What surprised Coco as Athena Alliance grew
  • Creating team intimacy in the digital world
  • The importance of transparency in building virtual relationships at the highest level
  • How to determine if you’re taking too much risk
  • Breaking rules that don’t make sense
  • Why feedback is critical in a fully remote world

Coco Brown’s Three Immediately Useful Ideas:

  1. Check your personal resistance to virtual relationships
  2. Foster a system of constant feedback
  3. Lead to promote transparency & Vulnerability

Resources Mentioned:

Connect with Coco Brown:

Accelerate to YOUR Next Level of Success

Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of Growth Igniters Radio. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts.

Be sure to share your favorite episodes on social media to help us reach more visionary C-Suite leaders and corporate directors like you.

Join us on Facebook and LinkedIn. For more exclusive content and information, visit our website.

 

The Secret of Leading to Connect across Cultures – with Natsuyo Lipschutz

“The number one challenge standing between you and your culturally diverse counterpart is common sense”

Read Growth Igniters Radio Episode 2011 TranscriptListen to episode 2011. Scott and I speak with Natsuyo Lipschutz, a leading strategist for elevating global leadership and cross-cultural communications, about the leadership it takes to connect across cultures for more effective business outcomes.

Born in Japan, Natsuyo is managing principal of her strategy consulting firm, ASPIRE Intelligence. She’s also an executive consultant for Breakthrough Speaking, a global public speaking consultancy. In addition, she serves as the first Asian board director at the National Speakers Association New York City chapter, and is co-author of the Amazon bestselling book The Success Blueprint, and the audio course The Six Cs of Effective Storytelling. (read more about Natsuyo below).

You’ll gain insights on:
  • The types of “common sense” Natsuyo believes we need to “remove” when leading across cultures
  • Three steps Natsuyo recommends for bridging hidden differences to create deeper trust and connection across cultures
  • Immediately useful ideas for for leading to connect and build meaningful relationships across cultures

Read More

Why Leaders Need the Language of Mystery, Ambiguity, and Artistry – with Libby Wagner

“New language can help leaders create high trust cultures that fulfill their purpose and mission”

Read Growth Igniters Radio Episode 208 TranscriptListen to episode 208. Scott and I speak with Libby Wagner, a poet, speaker, and trusted advisor about how leaders can find new language to connect more powerfully with stakeholders. She works with leaders of organizations large and small, across the globe, to create high trust cultures fulfilling their purpose and mission. She is the author of Amazon Best-Seller, The Influencing Option: The Art of Building a Profit Culture in Business, as well as five collections of poems.

Libby has been quoted in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review. Her work has shaped many organizational cultures, including Keurig-Dr Pepper, Philips, Boeing, and many others. She is one of the only poets working in organizations, and she inspires others to access and express their leadership voices to have courageous conversations where they balance truth-telling and compassion. (read more about Libby below).

You’ll gain insights on:
  • Why applying new language during major transformation and growth can lead to valuable outcomes
  • The art of going beyond jargon and cliche to lead your organization through ambiguity
  • Immediately useful ideas for for applying new language to leadership for creating trust and connection

Read More

Navigating the Challenges of Visionary Leadership in the Post-Pandemic World

In a changing world, what is critical as you respond to stakeholder pushback on your vision?

Read Growth Igniters Radio Episode 174 TranscriptFind out by listening again to our Fan-Favorite Episode 174. If you are re-envisioning your company’s future direction to better respond to changing needs and emerging opportunities triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic and economic volatility, this episode will provide insights about what it takes to go from big ideas to big results.

You’ll gain insights on

  • The most critical principle to remember as your leadership team re-envisions the future
  • One of the top reasons for mysterious stakeholder pushback
  • Three immediately actionable ideas to increase stakeholder commitment to a new direction

Read More

The Next Big Wave for Business: Multi-Stakeholder Societal Benefit — with guest Andrew Hollo

More top leaders are prioritizing strategies that address society’s biggest needs

Read Growth Igniters Radio Episode 205 TranscriptListen to episode 207. Scott and I speak with Andrew Hollo, the director and principal consultant at Workwell Consulting. We discuss the growing trend for businesses of all sizes to collaborate with their diverse stakeholders on strategies that create a lasting positive impact for society and build financial value.

Andrew is one of Australia’s leading experts in realizing the potential of organizations and groups to develop big ideas and gain collective results. In over 20 years, Andrew has led almost 1000 projects for clients who deliver substantial public value: government and non-government, privately held and non-profit organizations.
(read Andrew Hollo’s bio below).

You’ll gain insights on:
  • Why multi-stakeholder societal benefit matters now more than ever
  • Top leadership implications for CEOs, C-Suites and Boards
  • Immediately useful ideas for leading an organization to create multi-stakeholder societal benefit

Read More

The Secret to Preserving Your Company’s Culture in the Hybrid/Remote Workplace

How can you maintain what makes your company special when your workforce is dispersed?

Read Growth Igniters Radio Episode 194 Transcript

Find out by listening again to episode 195. This Fan-favorite episode is especially relevant as more companies are changing the structure of their workplaces to include various forms of remote working. Scott and I discuss the keys to preserving what makes your company special as your organization grows and evolves.

You’ll gain insights on:
  • The challenge as well as opportunities of preserving your company’s culture when everyone isn’t in one place
  • Debunking myths about what it takes to maintain your company’s unique culture over time
  • Three immediately useful ideas for transforming while preserving the most important aspects of your company’s culture, even with a remote workforce

Read More