When you have conversations with others, are you trying to win? Trying to defend a position? Then, perhaps, you might be stuck. In this Great Conversation with social researcher and author Michael McQueen, we learn what is is to be Mind Stuck, and how we might discover a new way to see and be seen. This impacts you personally, professionally, and, in the end, influences the course of our organizations and our world.

We create tools. The tools help us off load burdensome tasks as well as act as highly leveraged fulcrums to expand our energy and minds. These tools have helped us create. They have helped us build. They have helped us cure disease. They have helped us mitigate threats, from both human and animal. And now we have artificial intelligence. However, many of the implementations are failing because we are deploying management and process thinking from the industrial age.. Ironically, in the era of the machine we have become one. Our great conversation with Brian Evergreen, author of Autonomous Transformation: Creating a more Human Future in the Era of Artificial Intelligence, is enlightening as we pause to consider our next steps on our path to value; as individuals, businesses, and the world.

We are all on the journey of becoming. And we hope and pray, that at the end of the journey we are whole. For all of us that means being loved for who we are. And to get there, we need to establish trust in ourselves and in others. Trust. Could it be the foundation of everything we touch? Are we not all builders? And if so, wouldn’t we want to build all the relationships we have in this life on top of a platform of trust? And wouldn’t it make sense if that same platform that builds those relationships would be the fuel that drives innovation and change within the organizations we live and work in every day? This is a great conversation that holds nothing back. This is not an easy fix; especially if you do not have a roadmap. This conversation is about that roadmap that will create the scaffolding that will help you build a beautiful business and a beautiful world.

Words are an attempt to articulate reality. The reality that was yesterday. The reality that is today. And the reality that is tomorrow. Words can be a weapon. They can bully, demonize, and destroy. Words can embrace, energize, and elevate. If these bookends are true, then what is the area in-between that seems to be moved by one or the other? I have a great conversation with Chris Westfall, author of Leadership Language where we attempt to uncover the nuances of language that describe our internal journey as well as our impact on others. We learn that words matter. And our conscious use of them can help raise others up and moving in a positive direction. In the end, the observation and measurement of leadership is about how you show up and constructively influence those around you. Chris urges us not to see leadership as conceptual. It is not an information exchange. It is not technique. It is about an understanding of oneself. And then authentically showing up for and with others. The book is fast paced, pithy, and real. This great conversation may change what conversations you will have with yourself and others. Enjoy.

Lives of quiet desperation. We have been pulling on the quote from Thoreau for awhile in our great conversations. Our great conversation on the Future of Work with this dynamic and inspirational leader may provide you the nudge to seize this moment to recognize your impact on others and help create an engaged culture of impact and purpose with your team.

Whenever you attempt to capture knowledge it is useful to understand that it is a snapshot in time. Very little of what we learn will survive as true given the unique nature of change. However, it is a platform for growth as long as you have access to the real time experiences of change that are occurring. We explore this idea in this great conversation with a security consultant attempting to create a bridge between the rear view mirror and the road ahead. The conversation applies to any market anywhere. Enjoy the conversation.

Imagine being tasked to develop a first class talent and organizational management platform for one of the most respected companies in the Fortune 100. A company with a vision, mission, values, and goals that is highly respected in the industry, with a CEO who looked to his leaders to articulate those things in a very specific way. And now you have been with this company for 20 years. You have worked for 4 different CEOs and 5 different Human Resources executives. Everything has changed and nothing has changed. You still have a rapidly growing need for the best people, in the right seats, doing the right things. It took a very special person to take on this challenge. One that had an academic background in Organizational Psychology, a consulting background in strategic change management, and a practical background as a global corporate executive. The man is Allan Church, Ph.D. who is currently the Founder and Managing Partner of Maestro Consulting. I sat down with him and had a great conversation about the nature of leadership, talent management, and organizational change. I was able to hear about the Great5, a program that was in response to his CEOs admonition that people remembered compelling slogans. It stood for the core dimensions used throughout all the work the company does when assessing and developing future leaders. The dimensions are imbedded in the Great5 competency framework articulating the top five competencies needed to go from being a good leader to a great leader. They are: Growth reflects a person's curiosity and ability to learn from novel situations by constantly pushing outside their comfort zone and helping others to learn and develop. Relationships involves building and maintaining trusting relationships across organizational boundaries by modeling integrity, transparency, and authenticity and being respectful and inclusive of others. Execution is the energy, enthusiasm, and inspiration an individual brings to motivate others to action and to accomplish ambitious goals, and it is simplifying complexity to drive quality results. Agility involves adapting a person's style and approach to an ever-changing business environment, managing pressure, and embracing and championing change to drive transformation. Thinking reflects how an employee brings in and uses external insights (business, customer or consumer, industry, global), thinks creatively, and takes a long-term and holistic perspective to make informed decisions. And this was just one of the many innovations Allan was able to cultivate and lead. We also had a great conversation around the measures that matter to the CEO and the executive team. One of the most compelling examples of this, is the incredible journeys of the leaders that went through the program resulting in 16 former executives becoming Fortune 500 CEOs.

What does it look like to create a path to value? What does that really mean? I have been having great conversations for over 20 years that have informed my physical leadership events and my podcasts. I have pursued people who have ideas that might change their market and perhaps change their world. I have taken the position of learner within these conversations. I don’t interview, I consume. It has been an incredible journey. The physical leadership events would average 150-350 attendees and, before the pandemic, were taking place across the United States. Then we pivoted to the podcast and have been recognized as being in one of the top 1% of podcasts today. But I have never had someone ask about my role as founder of The Sage Group and author of our value transformation methodology called “The Path to Value”. In this great conversation, I turn over the learning to Dr. Daniel Hallak, who connects human capital with strategy and execution to create organizational value. Daniel is one of my recent interviewees and based on his expertise, is highly interested in how The Sage Group extracts insights from our research to create a highly differentiated and strategic business plan that creates value for the owner and the stakeholders. I must admit, I was a little bit nervous. My clients know I like to stay behind the scenes helping them create the strategy as well as execute it with and through their people. Since we take a whole company approach, I shed light on the efforts to improve a company’s silos of excellence through subject matter experts without such a strategy. For those of you who focus primarily on those silos, this is not to dismiss you. It is simply that your subject matter expertise is best leveraged with an overall strategy in place. For those who specialize in selling companies. This is not to dismiss you. You have your place and your value. But for my clients, by the time they get to such an event, the value has already been expressed, and the identification of the future buyer has been understood. We stay focused on the value that is realized and how it can be sustained through our people, processes, and tools within the new acquirer’s organization. People are too important to allow them to become mere expressions on a spreadsheet. I urge you to hear me: This is my path. There are many paths to the mountaintop. This is the one I have chosen, and now am expressing through this great conversation. Your path to value and your expression of success is one of the most important journeys you will ever be on. I am honored I have been able to walk your path to value with so many of you.

I would quickly describe “burn out” as exhaustion. But that is too simple. How did you become exhausted? It seems that there is this incredible stage we go through while heading toward exhaustion and part of it is being actively disengaged from our purpose and settling for a frantic and numbing execution of droll work. Then what would be “Burn In”? It can mean a lot of things, but in this context I might leverage one: Burn-in can imply a lasting or permanent impression on someone or something. What could we “burn in” to prevent “burn out”? There are some people who hit their bottom in life and rise out of it with a new-found perspective and purpose. Such was Sally Clarke, author, speaker, researcher, and, what she calls “Human Leader”. Her two books, Protect Your Spark: How to Prevent Burnout and Live Authentically and Relight Your Spark: How to Heal and Evolve after Burnout, were inspired by her own journey. When you speak with her you realize it all bubbles up to teaching people how to flourish, thereby making “burnout” redundant. I walked away with a sense that work is a true blessing, and the art of work involves trust, purpose, and belonging. Enjoy this Great Conversation as we connect between Seattle and Amsterdam on this podcast.

I was visiting a prospective client the other day. We went out to lunch at one of their favorite restaurants. The waitress came up to the table and, as always, I asked what her name was. She replied and I shared mine. I thanked her and asked about her day and then we continued the ritual of ordering our drinks and our meal. I did the same for the person who kept replenishing my water. The prospective client later shared with my partner that the exchange felt “odd” to him and implied I might have been putting on some form of act for his benefit. Isn’t that interesting? I know what it feels like to be invisible. Do you? And do you strive to ensure you do your part to acknowledge those who cross your path if just for a moment? More importantly, those who interact with you, or serve you, or are in a professional relationship such as your co-workers and your employees? This Great Conversation is about another form of being invisible. It touches many different people usually because of their skin color, their attire, their sexual orientation, their lifestyle…It is insidious because it is deeply rooted in how we were socialized from birth through our cultural stewards like educators, media, and ideological leaders. The Invisible Generals, written by Doug Melville, is purportedly a story of rediscovering his family’s legacy. And that is true. It is an extraordinary story of his ancestors journey through a "Forest Gumpian" encounter with some of this nations most pivotal moments; from the Civil War, through WWI and WWII. We see his great, great, grandfather Louis, becoming the trusted servant of one of the Civil War’s most trustworthy generals who happens to be friends with Ulysses Grant and then find him holding Grant’s son on his lap as he heads to the White House. We see Louis’ son Ben Sr. (aka Ollie) being recommended to enter West Point, and being stalled by a later president buckling to the politics of the day. But, because of his performance and service with the Buffalo Soldiers, a term used by the native Indians who fought the segregated black soldiers in the American Indian Wars, the same president made him a commissioned officer. We then hear about Ben Jr.’s path to West Point, and the grueling isolation of his time there. Later he would establish himself honorably in WWII. You might have heard of his exploits with the Tuskegee Airmen. The Airmen's success in escorting bombers during World War II – having one of the lowest loss records of all the escort fighter groups, and being in constant demand for their services by the allied bomber units.- is a record unmatched by any other fighter group. Along the way we learn about a unique mindset that refused to be a victim of their circumstance. Refused to become an invisible statistic. We will “infuse the system to diffuse the system” was their motto. They saw themselves as free, independent people who wanted to live up to the American dream, rather then play down to the role of victim. Their actions became their testimony. This Great Conversation inspired me. And because Doug Melville chose to share his lessons learned for all of us at the end of the book, it can become a primer for your own pursuit of resilience in the face of insurmountable odds, and the inevitable recognition that life can be very unfair. But for Doug and his ancestors, they are mere stones guiding you on your path to value.

Love it or hate it, the term “Holy Grail” is often used in life and business to describe something that has always been unobtainable. The pursuit of the “unobtainable” takes patience and indomitable faith. The pursuit of a leadership development program that can crack the code of an organization’s people, lifting them to a new level of engagement with the organization’s vision, mission, and purpose, feels unobtainable, especially given the millions of dollars invested and the meager measurable return on investment it has produced. This Great Conversation with Dr. Daniel Hallak of WiLD Leaders, gave me hope in this “impossible” dream. Perhaps it will for you too.

Who am I? We answer this question through different stages of our lives. And much of our life is in the business world. It is natural, therefore, that a great deal of our quest becomes learning a craft. And this is where many of us remain the rest of our working lives. This is not a bad thing. The best in us dive deep into this pool of knowledge and are found to be valuable in life and business as a result. Some of us make a turn. We become leaders of the craftspeople. If we are good at this craft, we learn to go deep into each of our craftspeople leveraging them to create organizational outcomes that matter. We become, over time, maestros. If we have a long tenure as an organizational leader, we might find ourselves in a third turn. One that leverages all our gifts, our wisdom and our ability to opportunistically see the future, before the future throws us a curveball. These three turns become the subject of a Great Conversation with Dr. Mark L. Vincent. Mark has spent a large part of his career as an Executive Advisor and Process Consultant walking alongside accomplished executives in the third turn of their careers, Mark has founded Maestro-level leaders, Design Group International, and the Society for Process Consulting, authored numerous books, including the most recent, Listening Helping Learning, and contributes original content through a variety of channels. Most recently he was involved in the launch of Mygrow North America, an application for growing emotional intelligence in individuals and organizations. His white paper called: The Three Turns of an Executive Leader was what prompted me to call him to have a great conversation. He is working on turning the invaluable content in this paper into a book. Whatever turn you are currently in, you will find Mark’s ideas compelling and useful as you become a hero in your own journey.

“Who dares wins” is a motto made popular in the English-speaking world by the British Special Air Service. The motto has also been used by twelve elite special forces units around the world that in some way have historical ties to the British SAS. But the title of this blog and this Great Conversation is different. It is used as a tag line by our guest after every one of his posts on LinkedIn and in his new book. He would say, we win when we no longer fear to tell the truth. The author I speak with in this Great Conversation, Robin Horsfall, was a boy soldier at fifteen, a paratrooper at seventeen and an SAS soldier at twenty-one. He fought in five wars as a front-line soldier, was a Royal Marine Sniper and a top bodyguard. He was also one of the UK’s first Paramedics and ran clinics all over the world. He once built a medical center in the middle of the Guyana Jungle, but there is more. Robin has been in front of the events leading up to the Ukrainian conflict and writing about it. At one point he had close to 1,500,000 people following his every word. And he has ended every one of his blogs with the phrase: “Who dares shares”. In the age of polarized social and political voices attempting to cancel one another, Robin is truly daring to get the truth out about this conflict that impacts the future of western democracies and values. After a time, he was asked to compile his journey into a book. It is called Slava Ukraini! Who Dares Shares. I continue to read Robin’s posts on LinkedIn that now transcend the Ukranian conflict. He truly desires a world that is free, but as a warrior he understands the need for good to stand against bad. Slava Ukraini! (Glory to Ukraine!) Who Dares Shares. Another Great Conversation.

“It is said that what matters most is not your date of birth or your date of death but the hyphen that signifies the life that is between the two. We live in the - Between - a mysterious place to be, full of grace and surprise and unknowns.” So goes the introduction to Love Songs from the - Between -; a daily journal through the year that helps you see the road; what is behind, what is ahead, and what is in front of you as you step through life. It is a great way to start or end your day. I have taken nuggets from each day and applied them to my walk. Such as this one from today, October 10, 2023: “May you be ever-curious, a master of great questions, an explorer of great universes- not just a sightseer dashing from one marvel to the next but a deep sea diver exhuming treasures hidden uncovering gems long lost, not just a tourist skimming the readily accessible but a deep-space pioneer discovering stars hitherto unknown.” Join me as I sit by a virtual and imagined fire with a taste of something, something, by my side, and reconnect with an old friend, Benjamin Martin in a great conversation. We traveled through Europe together as young men and aspiring authors; and I had a front row seat listening to the kind of songs that you will find in his new book. Profile: Benjamin was a technology executive for over 35 years. He now serves as the Board Chairperson for the Celebrant Foundation and Institute and teaches courses in funeral celebrancy. He also is a Certified Life-Cycle Celebrant specializing in life celebrations, weddings, and milestone moments. He continues to add to his published works that include Prayers on the Road Home and Masters of Change.

“Serve Honorably. Drink Honorably™” Inspired by a previous Great Conversation with author Michael Trott (The Art of Protecting the Leader), we caught up with his latest venture: Four Branches Bourbon. Imagine the heart, mind, and fortitude in launching a new company, and a new bourbon. It would take a Hall of Fame effort and Hall of Fame help to do it. We have a great conversation with the men representing the four branches of the military, the four grains of their unique mash, and four hearts who continue to want to serve. “Serve Honorably. Drink Honorably™" Well done Rick Franco, U.S. Marines, Michael Trout, U.S. Airforce; Robert Casey, U.S. Army; and Harold Underdown, U.S. Navy.

You can learn a lot about life by studying how you and others make decisions. If you think about it, our life is a series of transactions of value. In a transaction, there is the possibility of a yes, a no, and the ever so dangerous maybe. Why dangerous? Because a “maybe” can indicate a problem with your criteria for value. It can speak to a lack of readiness. It can indict you for your lack of courage or confidence. Whether you are a “buyer” or a “seller” in your life’s transactions, pay attention to the process by which you engage your world. In this second great conversation with the CEO of a Sales Training Company called M3, we get more insights into the psychology of a true profession called “sales”. Listen then tie it into your  own life.

We are largely motivated by self-interest. If we are acting as a buyer, we want the best product at the lowest price. But we also know that lowest price may not be the answer to our needs. If we are acting as a seller, we may be motivated to “win”. But how do we define this term? Now let’s pull back and see if there is a connection between these two notions and the behaviors of the buyer and seller. There is a beautiful ending to this story… listen and see if you can find it!

In our Great Conversation Podcast, we begin with a statement: “Welcome to The Great Conversation where Ideas Matter. Ideas shape markets. Ideas can change the world.” I originally decided to open with this to reinforce my passion for pursuing people and ideas that ultimately impact our lives. But hidden in this opening is another premise: that a leader is needed to activate the idea. A leader is someone who determines that an idea does matter and intentionally helps to activate the idea in the world through their interaction with others. In this sense, the idea becomes a “manifesto”; a declaration of their intent so that others can rally around it, feed it, nurture it, and “manifest” it into the world. There is another hidden premise in this opening: that all humans have agency, i.e., that no matter how difficult and narrow our choices are, we are the final arbiter of our experience on this planet. We can choose our mindset. Some choose to follow an idea. They are the “crazy ones” because they think that it is possible to leave a mark on this world. I am fascinated by these people who issued their own versions of a manifesto upon this world such as: John F. Kennedy’s moonshot speech, declaring that we will reach the moon and return. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech declaring an identity intrinsic to every man has been denied to the black man. The Declaration of Independence that expressed this so eloquently: We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness Unalienable (translated today as inalienable) means that something is intrinsic, it cannot be separated, it cannot be taken or given away. And now another manifesto is needed. In an era where we have been taught to look at leadership as the secret of a few, we must change our thinking. The “unalienable” notion that every human can intentionally lead their lives and travel the journey to wholeness upends the notion that it is a degree in school, a royal birthright, or a corporate program. I pursued a great conversation with Dr. Rob McKenna, the founder, and CEO of Wild Leaders. Dr. McKenna is one of the top industrial-organizational psychologists in the country.  He is the founder and CEO of WiLD Leaders, and created the WiLD Toolkit, a leader development process and set of tools.  He served as the Chair of the Department of Industrial Organizational Psychology at Seattle Pacific University. He is the author of several books, including Dying to Lead: Sacrificial Leadership in a Self-Centered World.  His most recent book, Composed: The Heart and Science of Leading Under Pressure, focuses on strategies leaders can use to stay true to themselves and connected when it matters most. He is currently working on another manuscript which, at times, becomes a part of our conversation. Dr. McKenna has lit my fuse. What an audacious idea! That I might be able to intentionally lead a whole and meaningful life and help others along the way. What an audacious idea that organizations can invest in the development of their people and enjoy a more meaningful definition of success. In an era where most people live lives of quiet desperation, this is a conversation we need to have.

Mark Ledlow is the Founder and CEO of Ledlow Security Group, that provides Physical Security, Site Security, Supply Chain Security, Disaster Response Teams, Executive Protection for High Networth Families and Executives. General Counsel support, and Risk Management He also founded the Fearless Mindset Podcast, His goal is to find captivating stories of leadership, courage, market leadership, and insights across all markets, but particularly security. He tracked me down to have a “Great Conversation” excavating my learnings from my strategic consulting practice and one of the market sectors I spent much of my time in attempting to direct it to a higher ceiling of value. After 22 years, the security industry is still attempting to create alignment with the businesses they serve. Much of the struggle can be traced back to the orientation they received from their previous careers in intelligence, military, agency, and law enforcement. Mark and I attempt to explore this orientation as well as the impact of the digital transformation of business on the next generation of security practitioners. Mark invited me on his podcast, and I republish it here so that many who missed it can review it at their leisure. Another Great Conversation with a Great steward in Mark Ledlow.

Humans created constructs that represent time. Consider it the canvas in which they have painted their origin stories as well as their stories of the future. As this pendulum swings, we also are exploring the depths of our understanding of the who and why of our being. We believe “truth” is in the data. But then the data changes. We need someone to help us understand the reader (us), and the story they are living. Within this story lies the secret of navigating the risks and opportunities that represent the human experience. Enjoy this Great Conversation with the time-traveler Cyndi Coon. Be prepared. You may become a fellow time-traveler.