9 FEB 2024 · Kim and Wesley talk to workplace culture expert Denise Hamilton about her new book, Indivisible: How to Forge Our Differences into a Stronger Future. Denise reads passages from her book, prompting some real conversations. Are you trying to figure out how to gear up mentally for this election year? Denise's new book will help you! Denise Hamilton is the founder and CEO of WatchHerWork, a digital learning platform for professional women, and All Hands Group, a workplace culture consultancy. An in-demand speaker and facilitator, she has consulted for and presented to dozens of Fortune 500 companies, including GE, Apple, IBM, Shell, BP, and Meta, among others. Her thought leadership has been featured in Harvard Business Review, Morning Joe, FOX, Bloomberg, s+b, Newsweek and she is a regular contributor to MIT Sloan Management Review.

18 JAN 2024 · Failing to call people on their BS breeds problematic overconfidence that can harm collaboration and team confidence, especially among team members who are systematically disadvantaged. In this episode, Kim and Wesley discuss bloviating BS with Hollywood attorney Tyler Chou, who shared her experience working under a boss with no entertainment experience but strong connections in the industry. Even though she was more knowledgeable, his BS made her feel gaslit and afraid to speak up. Tyler Chou has been a Hollywood attorney for the last 15 years. Having worked in VP and SVP roles at companies like Disney, Skydance, BuzzFeed and Open Road Films. As well as large law firms. Tyler has been the lead attorney on 16 feature films including Saving Mr. Banks and Cinderella. She has some battle stories to share about how brutal it is to work as an Asian woman in a white, man dominated industry. Now, Tyler is the Founder & CEO of Tyler Chou Law for Creators and her life’s mission is to protect creators. She’s deeply passionate about helping young creators with millions of subs grow their businesses to 6-7 figures and functions as a fractional COO and GC. She is a thought leader who discusses the intersection of Hollywood and digital media and believes YouTube is the new Hollywood. A year ago Tyler started her own YouTube channel as a creative challenge and has been blown away by how quickly her channel has grown. Her channel focuses on creators, helping them build out their businesses. https://www.youtube.com/@TheCreatorsAttorney

10 JAN 2024 · Many of us have experienced the office "bloviating BSer," an overconfident coworker who takes up more than their fair share of airtime in a meeting, even though they are often not the most informed person in the room. In this episode, Kim and Wesley discuss this behavior with Minette Norman, who shares how a bloviating BSer drove her to leave the software industry and become an advocate for the inclusive leader. Minette Norman is an author, speaker, and leadership consultant who previously spent decades leading global technical teams in the software industry. Minette knows that when groups embrace diversity in all its forms, breakthroughs emerge, and innovation accelerates. Her most recent position before starting her own consultancy was as Vice President of Engineering Practice at Autodesk. Responsible for influencing more than 3,500 engineers around the globe, she focused on state-of-the-art engineering practices while nurturing a collaborative and inclusive culture. Named in 2017 as one of the “Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business” by the San Francisco Business Times and as “Business Role Model of the Year” in the 2018 Women in IT/Silicon Valley Awards, Minette is a recognized leader with a unique perspective. As the author of The Boldly Inclusive Leader and the co-author of The Psychological Safety Playbook: Lead More Powerfully by Being More Human, Minette is committed to helping leaders unleash the full potential of the people in their organizations. Minette holds degrees in Drama and French from Tufts University and studied at the Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris.

12 DEC 2023 · People don't care how much you know, unless they know how much you care. As a leader, you should give out that care, taking the time to pause and consider if your feedback delivery is coming across in the way you intend. In this episode, Kim and Wesley chat with Ron Carucci, who reflects on how giving feedback at the bank made him grapple with his understandings of racial and gender privilege. Ron is co-founder and managing partner at Navalent, working with CEOs and executives pursuing transformational change for their organizations, leaders, and industries. He has a thirty-year track record helping executives tackle challenges of strategy, organization and leadership. From start-ups to Fortune 10’s, non-profits to heads-of-state, turn-arounds to new markets and strategies, overhauling leadership and culture to re-designing for growth. He has helped organizations articulate strategies that lead to accelerated growth, and design organizations that can execute those strategies. He has worked in more than 25 countries on 4 continents. He is the author of 9 books, including the Amazon #1 Rising to Power and the recently released multi-award winning To Be Honest, Lead with the Power of Truth, Justice & Purpose. He is a popular contributor to the Harvard Business Review, where Navalent’s work on leadership was named one of 2016’s management ideas that mattered most. He is also a regular contributor to Forbes, and a three-time TEDx speaker; one of which, on the topic of power, has been viewed 1.3M times. His work’s been featured in Fortune, CEO Magazine, Inc., BusinessInsider, MSNBC, Business Week, Inc., Fast Company, Smart Business, and thought leaders.

4 DEC 2023 · We're constantly bombarded with the message that leadership and bullying go hand in hand. But in reality, bullying destroys the workplace environment, making it impossible for employees to do their best work. In this episode, Kim discusses workplace bullying with Janice Omadeke, who reflects on the emotional duress caused by a bullying boss early in her career. Janice Omadeke is a proven leader focused on data-driven decision-making focusing on strategy, innovation, and cultural change management. She created The Mentor Method, an enterprise software that transforms company culture through mentorship. Janice was named one of Entrepreneur Magazine's 100 Women of Influence in 2022 for her accomplishments. As The Mentor Method's founder and CEO, she became one of the first 100 Black women in the United States to raise over $1M in seed funding for a tech startup. Janice is the first Black woman in Austin, TX history to have a venture-backed exit. She is recognized as a thought leader and advocate for mentorship and entrepreneurship by Forbes, the Harvard Business Review, and Inc., among others. Janice is certified in Entrepreneurship from MIT and is PMP-certified with over ten years of corporate leadership experience in Fortune 500 companies.

8 NOV 2023 · A leader’s job is to foster an environment where people can collaborate productively. Prejudice, a belief that some sort of false stereotype is true, gets in the way of a respectful workplace culture. In this episode, Kim and Wesley discuss prejudice with Dr. Tina Opie, who shares her experiences with prejudice from her time as the youngest employee and only Black woman in the workplace. Dr. Tina Opie is an Associate Professor of Management, and an award-winning teacher and researcher, consultant and speaker. She is the founder of Opie Consulting Group LLC, where she advises large firms in the financial services, entertainment, media, beauty, educational, and healthcare industries. Her research has appeared in such outlets as O Magazine, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and Harvard Business Review and she has been published in multiple academic journals. She is also a regular commentator on Harvard Business Review’s Women at Work podcast and Greater Boston’s NPR affiliate television station WGBH.

1 NOV 2023 · From a young age, we're taught the golden rule: treat others as you would like to be treated. In this episode, Kim and Wesley advocate instead for a platinum rule approach, which encourages treating others as they would like to be treated, acknowledging that every person has different needs and preferences. Wesley draws upon his experiences as a neurodivergent person in the workplace to discuss structures that can maximize every employee's ability to do their best work.

18 OCT 2023 · There's no doubt: Pointing out bias is awkward. That's why it's helpful to make bias disruption a norm. In this episode, Kim and Wesley discuss how to disrupt bias with Dr. Philip Hickman, who shares a story revealing how parental biases can impact the school environment and student wellbeing. Bio: Dr. Phil, is a renowned educational expert, EdTech visionary, psychologist, author, and entrepreneur. With a strong academic background, including five postgraduate degrees and doctorate, he has held various leadership positions in both rural and large school districts in the USA. As a distinguished public speaker, Dr. Phil Hickman has presented at national conferences and workshops for organizations such as the U.S Department of Education and Columbia University. He is a prolific author with three books that showcase his groundbreaking methodologies in leadership, personalized learning, and emotional intelligence. Dr. Phil is a versatile entrepreneur, having created Plabook, an AI powered reading technology solutions firm. He has also co-founded multiple nonprofit organizations and played a key role in successful edutech ventures. His most recent accomplishment is founding Plabook, a multimillion dollar company that uses AI, gamification, and speech recognition to help children learn to read. Dr. Phil continues to develop cutting-edge technology to enhance personalized learning and immersive reading engagement for students in the 21st century.

27 SEP 2023 · Want to help your team change unproductive, biased patterns of thought? One of the best things you can do is sit down with them and explain why you think doing so is essential to a collaborative, respectful working environment. In this week's episode, Kim and Wesley speak with Matt Abrahams, who shares his experiences facing bias as the only dad among mothers on the playground. Matt Abrahams is a leading expert in communication with decades of experience as an educator, author, podcast host, and coach. As a Lecturer in Organizational Behavior at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, he teaches popular classes in strategic communication and effective virtual presenting. He received Stanford GSB’s Alumni Teaching Award in recognition of his teaching students around the world. Outside of the classroom, Matt is a sought-after keynote speaker and communication consultant. He has helped countless presenters improve and hone their communication, including some who have delivered IPO road shows as well as Nobel Prize, TED, and World Economic Forum presentations. His online talks garner millions of views and he hosts the popular, award-winning podcast Think Fast, Talk Smart The Podcast. His new book Think Faster, Talk Smarter: How to Speak Successfully When You're Put on the Spot provides tangible, actionable skills to help even the most anxious of speakers succeed when speaking spontaneously, such as navigating Q&A sessions, shining in job interviews, providing effective feedback, making small talk, fixing faux pas, persuading others. His previous book Speaking Up without Freaking Out: 50 Techniques for Confident and Compelling Presenting has helped thousands of people manage speaking anxiety and present more confidently and authentically. https://mattabrahams.com/

19 SEP 2023 · How can you teach your team to disrupt bias? The key is for leaders to not teach their teams about bias as an abstraction, but to teach them how to disrupt the specific biases relevant to their employees. In this episode, Kim and Wesley discuss different ways of preventing bias with Kasia Musur, who shares her journey to realizing that toxicity is not an inevitable element of the business world. Kasia Musur is a University of Edinburgh graduate with Master degrees in Social Anthropology as well as Global Crime, Justice and Security. With 18 years of international work experience across a variety of contexts, including leadership development, tech, international development, human rights education and human trafficking prevention; currently based in Berlin, she is the founder of Vent, a startup researching experiences of toxic leadership and developing tools supporting those caught in unhealthy and unfair work environments. Kasia is also the CEO of lightup Germany, a German NGO focusing on human trafficking prevention.