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Season 10 Episode 16

Guest: Steve Armato, VP of Middle Mile & Tech at Amazon

Whether leaders accept or ignore new tech makes the difference between it disrupting their organizations – and transforming them.

Amazon’s use of new technology is a clear and major component of its success. It’s a big part of what puts packages on your porch. And, as Steve Armato reveals, Amazon wants to share that tech with others. Steve is their VP of Middle Mile and Tech. In this episode, he talks about the ways Amazon shares AI and other technologies – and how they develop that new technology in the first place.

Here’s what Steve and Maureen cover:

1. The techniques Steve uses with his team to foster new innovations from the bottom up;
2. How the resulting innovations help people beyond his team, from employees system-wide to customers; and
3. Steve’s own remarkable journey at Amazon, taking him from intern to Vice President.

Dive deeper into Amazon’s leadership lessons with these episodes:

• To Err Is to Innovate with Beryl Tomay
• Delivering the Future: Amazon’s Innovation Culture with David Carbon, John Love, Dr. Vin Gupta, & Tye Brady
• Leadership Is Relationships with Kvon Tucker

Season 10 Episode 15

Guest: Nate Rempe, CEO of Omaha Steaks

It’s an iconic success story with a menu of leadership lessons: Born from a family escaping oppression in 1917, Omaha Steaks transformed from a small butcher shop into a global brand synonymous with the finest steaks. They’ve stayed at the top because of their long history of leaders driven to innovate.

CEO Nate Rempe joins host Maureen Metcalf to unpack the leadership methods that foster such long-lasting success – methods you can adopt, too.

Here’s what Nate and Maureen cover:

1. How vertical integration and horizontal leadership combine to make an organization both strong and resilient, even in a crisis;
2. Why storytelling is the secret sauce in truly great leadership; and
3. The role playing guitar in a rock band has in maintaining leadership perspective!

Other episodes you’ll enjoy:

• Love at First Slice: Pizza & Passionate Leadership with Tom Krouse
• Noodling Solutions for Food Insecurity with Dr. Reza Soltanzadeh
• Achieving Employee-Centric Leadership: A Leader’s Food for Thought with Heather Krentler

Season 10 Episode 14

Guest: Greg Moran, Executive-in-Residence, Former Sr. Executive at Ford, Chase, Nationwide, and more

Should you, or shouldn’t you?

All ethics boil down to this simple question, but getting to the answer can be enormously difficult, especially when deciding for your business. But guest Greg Moran—a long-time C-suite resident—says you can ease those ethical questions by establishing basic principles for your firm…even before you create your pitch deck for potential investors!

Greg shares more tips and real-world examples, from Enron to Boeing, in this episode.

Here’s what Greg and Maureen cover:

1. How a lack of common ethics across a divided society makes forging business ethics difficult;
2. Why establishing principles is Job 1 when founding any organization; and
3. The ways ethics get slippery in large corporations when principles are forgotten.

Other episodes you’ll enjoy:

• Transformational Leadership & Ethics with Ron Riggio
• Ethics & Problem-Solving with Joanne Ciulla & Keith Grint
• Do No Harm: Ethics for Leaders with Terri O’Fallon

Season 10 Episode 13

Guest: Brian Richardson, Founder/CEO of Richardson Consulting Group

How talented is your team?

Without a skills-based system, you may never know…and never tap into the full potential your organization has. But companies that look at skills know who has the talent to best get the job done – and who can develop and grow to obtain those skills.

That’s the message guest Brian Richardson, the founder and CEO of RSG, brings to host Maureen Metcalf in this episode. He shares tips and cases of businesses that uncovered the game-changing potential of aligning skills with company goals.

Here’s what Brian and Maureen cover:

1. The concept of internal talent mobility;
2. How skills-based systems maximize employee potential; and
3. Ways to leverage AI for personalized work experiences, helping staff unlock new levels of engagement and job satisfaction.

Other episodes you’ll enjoy:

• To Err Is to Innovate with Beryl Tomay
• Leading with an Eye on AI with Neil Sahota
• The Rise of Humanness (The Role of People in an AI World) with Chris Nolan & Michael Schindler

Season 10 Episode 12

Guest: Dr. Tanvi Gautam, Senior Faculty at Singapore Management University

How do you lead: with your head or heart? Left-brain or right? For the best leaders, the answer is “All of the above.”

From the art of conversation to discovering (and sharing) your organization’s story, guest Dr. Tanvi Gautam talks with host Maureen Metcalf about her head-and-heart-based approach to leadership development – and why adding creative “right brain” thinking to business’ usual analytical “left brain” logic leads to better teams.

Here’s what Tanvi and Maureen cover:

1. The five conversations teams need to have;
2. Why your business’ survival depends on the concept of future-fluidity; and
3. How your story, and your organization’s, gives you and your team purpose.

Other episodes you’ll enjoy:

• Using Storytelling to Elevate Leadership with Chris Nolan
• You’re an Executive, But Are You a Leader? with Sonya Shelton
• Be Human, Lead Human with Jennifer Nash

Guest: Dr. Reza Soltanzadeh, CEO and Co-Founder, Borealis Foods

Season 10 Episode 11

Solving a major crisis sometimes requires reframing it. For Reza Soltanzadeh, working with Doctors Without Borders exposed him to global hunger—but he saw one solution by reframing the problem as global malnutrition.

That set him on a path of high innovation, resulting in a ramen noodle that can, quite literally, nourish the world.

Reza shares how his company, Borealis Foods, has learned to innovate so supremely well.

Here’s what Reza and host Maureen Metcalf cover:

1. Why the American manufacturing process is ideally suited to supplying products that answer global humanitarian needs;
2. The elements of Borealis’ company culture that make high innovation possible; and
3. The innovative strategies for creating affordable products that meet your customers’ needs.

Other episodes you’ll enjoy:

• Opportunity in Uncertainty with Dr. Ciela Hartanov
• Building Trust in Uncertainty with Dr. Mary Jo Burchard
• Lessons Learned from Dunkin’ Donuts with Robert Rosenberg

Season 10 Episode 10

Guest: Brian Ahearn, Chief Influence Officer at Influence PEOPLE

Employee engagement at work continues to nosedive. So how can you motivate your team?

Show them you care! That’s just one tool in the influence toolkit guest Brian Ahearn shares with Maureen Metcalf in this episode. Influencing people is a critical art in motivating people to engage in their work—and forge success for your entire team. It’s not about manipulation; that’s for poor leaders. It’s about very transparent persuasion. The theory is simple; the difficulty of putting it into practice is up to you!

Here’s what Brian and Maureen cover:

1. The difference between persuasion and pre-suasion;
2. Why keeping your focus on ethical influence is so important; and
3. The three elements of ethical influencing.

Other episodes you’ll enjoy:

– The Power of Praise: Making People’s Performance Positive with Ben Marcovitz

– Ignite Your Leadership Game with Dre Baldwin

– The Human Energy Crisis at Work with Joshua Freedman

Guest: Helle Bank Jorgensen, CEO of Competent Boards

Season 10 Episode 9

Does your board of directors have the slightest clue what to do with AI?

As AI creeps into your organization, your board has a fiduciary duty to determine its parameters in the workplace AND in the boardroom…such as figuring out how much information is relevant, and whether it’s trustworthy, misinformation, or just way more than you need. There are ethical considerations, too.

Fortunately, guest Helle Bank Jorgensen has tips to help. She’s the founder and CEO of Competent Boards, and routinely helps boardrooms improve.

Here’s what Helle and Maureen cover:

1. Why it’s critical for AI to earn your trust as a leader;
2. The very real financial dangers of acting on misinformation instead of objective (and trust-worthy) facts; and
3. The equally real opportunities that await you beyond those risks!

Other episodes you’ll enjoy:

• Stewarding the Future of the Planet: Views from the Boardroom with Helle Bank Jorgensen
• JEDI SPACE Principles for CEOs and Board Chairs with Valrie Grant & Christopher Washington
• Curing Corporate Short-Termism with Gregory Milano

Guest: Tom Krouse, CEO at Donatos Pizza

Season 10 Episode 8

Lots of leaders claim their products are made with love. Donatos Pizza means it: they practice Agape Capitalism.

As CEO Tom Krouse explains in this episode, Agape Capitalism puts a love of humanity at the center of their company processes and revenue generation. Its origins are rooted in founder Jim Grote’s observations as a teen working in a pizzeria with two owners: one a frugal bean counter, the other a passionate people-person. Sales soared higher the nights the people-person was in charge!

Tom talks about that, his own leadership style, and the parallels between playing music in a band and great leadership.

Here’s what Tom and Maureen cover:

1. How innovation has always been one of the major keys to Donatos’ profitability and success;
2. Why the core tenets of Agape Capitalism complement corporate goals so effectively; and
3. The positive effects the COVID pandemic had on the restaurant industry…and, most critically, on its leadership.

Other episodes you’ll enjoy:

– Applying Innovative Leadership Concepts with Tom Grote & Christoph Hinske

– ITP: Building the Resilience Every Leader Needs with Christina Grote & Pam Kramer

– Informed Leadership: The Power of Trauma with Rachael Kelly

Season 10 Episode 7

Guest: John Driscoll, President of U.S. Healthcare and EVP, Walgreens Boots Alliance

What’s the surest way people will follow you into battle? Show you care — about them and their families.

That’s a major lesson John Driscoll learned in the Army…and it’s served him well in the private sector, including his current role at Walgreens, where he’s focused on improving service to patients in the healthcare industry. John shares his leadership insights, and the need to focus on healthcare leadership, in this episode.

Here’s what John and Maureen cover:

1. Why genuinely caring for your team is a top leadership priority — especially in high-stress situations;
2. How American healthcare is one of, if not THE, most inconvenient services in the country; and
3. John’s proven techniques for moving your team through traumatic experiences.

Other episodes you’ll enjoy:

• Delivering the Future: Amazon’s Innovation Culture with Dr. Vin Gupta & John Love of Amazon Pharmacy (2^nd segment of the show, starting at about 16:30 in)
• Bringing Healing Home: Healthcare Leadership with Anne Klibanski
• High-Performance Medicine: Healthcare & Innovation with Brian Ferguson
• Innovative Leadership for the Healthcare Industry with Neil Grunberg
• Curing Complexity in Healthcare with Carsten Engel