Innovating Leadership: Co-Creating Our Future

S7-Ep22: The Creative Mindset: Mastering Skills that Empower Innovation

Featured Guest: Jeff DeGraff
Everyone can be creative in their own way. Creativity skills can be learned and developed. The creative process is iterative: we typically fail many times before we succeed. We learn from those failures and approach the next experiment with new information and an improved understanding.  Yet it can be different in the workplace; particularly in large organizations, the innovative leader is often pushed down by stagnant thinking up the chain. Jeff DeGraff joins Maureen to share how you can tap your individual creativity…and how to deal with the realities of how true innovation is received in the workplace.

S7-Ep21: Management vs Leadership: How Coaching Skills Make a Difference

Featured Guest: Jonathan Reitz 
Coaching skills are not just for the life coach or the executive coach, they are every leader’s secret weapon.  Managers can become the leaders that are needed when they understand how to use coaching skills that put the development of their team as the top priority and multiply their impact.  Want to move from managing your team to leading your team? Coaching skills are the key.  Jonathan Reitz joins Maureen to share how managers can move toward leading by learning some simple coaching behaviors. 

S7-Ep19: The Good Fight: Using Productive Conflict

Featured Guest: Liane Davey
Business today is more competitive than ever; staying ahead requires you to make tough calls, face hard choices, and work through conflict. But productive conflict is so rare. Why? Because productive conflict requires a different mindset, new skills, and repeatable processes -- none of which come naturally.  Liane Davey joins Maureen to discuss building a productive conflict culture.

S7-Ep16: Mindfulness and Its Benefits in the Workplace

Featured Guests: Rich Fernandez and Peter Weng
Even before Covid-19, employees reported record rates of burnout and stress; Gallup studies show only 15% of employees are fully engaged at work. Organizations need well-being development for their employees. It is essential for today’s workplaces to provide well-being support, every bit as much as traditional professional development. Supporting the long-term mental health of your team can mean the difference between an engaged, collaborative and productive organization, or one riddled with toxicity and turnover. With 71% of U.S. office workers either curious about or already practicing meditation, now is the time to signal your long-term support for employees, and bring in the neuroscientifically proven benefits of contemplative practices, such as meditation.   Peter Weng and Rich Fernandez discuss mindfulness and employee well-being with Maureen.

S7-Ep15: Empowering Women for the Prosperity of Nations

Featured Guests: Amanda Ellis & Augusto Lopez-Claros
Gender inequality around the world has many facets: archaic laws that codify sexism, male control of joint income and household assets, exclusion from governance, trafficking and violence against women, denial of education and adequate health care, and gender segregation in the work force, to name a few. The Gender Equality and Governance Index (GEGI) taps into some of the world’s best datasets to analyze gender discrimination on a global scale, using five critical “pillars”: governance, education, work, entrepreneurship, and violence. The Index covers 158 countries and provides a compelling perspective on the status of gender inequality across the planet. It allows policymakers, the business community and civil society to pinpoint specific areas for improvement and to learn from best international practices. Amanda Ellis and Augusto Lopez-Claros join Maureen to discuss the index results for 2020 and how we as leaders can implement changes for the good of all.

S7-Ep14: Building Trust in Uncertainty: A Personal & Professional Journey

Featured Guest: Dr. Mary Jo Burchard
As a society, we're facing a growing lack of trust.  We're losing trust in each other, and in our institutions.  The impacts ripple through our personal lives and through the nation -- reflected in how difficult it is for both parties to come together in Congress for the greater good.  It's also led to an increase in mental illness and suicide. Dr. Mary Jo Burchard shares her personal experiences with this lack of trust to demonstrate how important building trust is in our lives:  at home, at school, and at work.

S7-Ep12: Innovative Leadership for the Health Care Industry

Featured Guest: Neil Grunberg
Universities and medical schools do a wonderful job preparing their students for medical procedures, but the often-missed crucial element for great health care is leadership training. 
Neil Grunberg joins host Maureen Metcalf to share his experiences, and how the leadership framework he developed with Maureen can build the leadership skills needed by medical staff to make our healthcare system stronger.  Neil has seen the gaps firsthand; he's a professor at the Uniformed Services University, training physicians, nurses, and psychologists for military and public health service.

S8-Ep51: Growing Up Biden: The President's Sister Shares the Family's Lessons on Leadership

Featured Guest: Valerie Biden Owens, First Female Presidential Campaign Manager
It’s said that leaders are made, not born. That’s certainly true of the Biden family. Although Joe Biden is in the spotlight as the 46th President of the United States, his three siblings are all leaders in their own right, too. And Joe’s sister Valerie Biden Owens says that forging of strong leadership began in childhood with deep family values.
Valerie joins host Maureen Metcalf to discuss her book, Growing Up Biden. She shares the challenges she faced breaking gender barriers, the importance (and elusiveness) of confidence, and growing women as leaders. She'll also dive into the ingrained lessons and expectations that have been the guiding principles of the Bidens’ close-knit, Irish American, Catholic family. These stories and insights speak deeply to the impact of family and generational leadership on political and personal ethos.
It's a revealing conversation unfolding the many ways our parents’ guidance shapes us as leaders of our own families, organizations…and nations.
For daily wisdom from Valerie and our other guests, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/innovativeleadershipinsitute/ . We’re also on Facebook, Mastodon, and Twitter.
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RESOURCES:  
You can purchase Growing Up Biden: https://amzn.to/3Vr5yDf 
Information about Valerie Biden Owens:  https://www.valeriebidenowens.com/  
Learn about the International Leadership Association at: https://ilaglobalnetwork.org/  
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OUR PODCAST TEAM:  
Host & Executive Producer: Maureen Metcalf
Editor & Producer: Dan Mushalko
Video Editor: Devon Mushalko
Our Website: InnovativeLeadership.com
Our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@InnovatingLeadership 
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ABOUT OUR GUEST:
Valerie Biden Owens is the first woman in U.S. history to have run a presidential campaign — that of her brother, Joseph R. Biden, Jr. She also led his seven straight U.S. Senate victories and has been his principal surrogate on the campaign trail.
Valerie is Chair of the Biden Institute at the University of Delaware and a partner at Owens Patrick Leadership Seminars. Valerie sits on the Advisory Board of the Beau Biden Foundation for the Protection of Children. For 20 years, when Valerie was not managing or advising President Biden’s campaigns, she served as Executive Vice President of Joe Slade White & Co., a media consulting firm. She has worked extensively with Women’s Campaign International, teaching women how to organize and develop communication and political skills. Valerie has also served on the National Board of the Women’s Leadership Forum of the Democratic National Committee and has served for 35 years on the board of The Ministry of Caring.
In 2015, Valerie delivered the keynote address for Harvard Law School’s International Women’s Day celebration and was one of 50 women presented with the law school’s international “Women Inspiring Change” award. In 2021, she was named to the Forbes 50 Over 50 Women Who Are Leading the Way in Impact list.
She is a graduate of the University of Delaware. She is married to Jack Owens, an attorney and businessman. They have three children.

S6-Ep2: Diamonds in the Rough: Sustainability & Corporate Citizenship with DeBeers VP Pat Dambe

Featured Guest: Pat Dambe
De Beers Vice President Pat Dambe takes a case study approach to the private and public sector partnership between De Beers and the government of Botswana on sustainability and corporate citizenship. She discusses her personal and corporate story and the courage required to contribute responsibly to the communities in which she works and resides. Pat’s story offers a model for a company and a country to create an interconnection that transcends the challenges both face to ensure a vibrant global company and a vibrant company “forever”.  She shows that diamonds aren't the only gems De Beers exports; they serve as an example of how a company can change how it operates even after a century of old-school practices.
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About Our Guest:  
Pat has over 20 years executive leadership experience working for a variety of Fortune 500 companies and luxury brands including Coca Cola South Africa, Draft FCB, Thebe Investments, Bentley etc. Educated in Botswana, USA and Canada, she holds a BA Honours from Queens University from Ontario, Canada. Pat is currently the Vice President of Corporate Affairs and Government Relations at De Beers Global Sightholder Sales (DBGSS) and is responsible for Government Relations, External Communications, Sustainability and Social Investment. Her primary role is to protect and promote the brand and reputation of the DBGSS and diamonds as a category and support the commercial interests of the business with external and internal stakeholders. The role also entails managing DBGSS’s relationships with Government and non-Government stakeholders.

S8-Ep49: Leading in Circles: The Inevitable Circular Economy

Featured Guest: Christoph Hinske
Can you survive in the new economy?
As the supply chain disruptions have shown, our current economic model is very linear. One kink in the chain can cascade through our whole system, nationally and globally. And our linear economy assumes unlimited resources to keep production going to start the chain. But unless we start mining asteroids soon, Earth has finite resources…and climate change is reducing even those (for example, where do we get wood as forests continue to die off?).  
One solution is the circular economy, but its proponents are seeing it as an ideal. Christoph Hinske of Saxion University joins us to point out the “impossibilities” of the circular economy system, and the problems those can create. It’s a necessary process to strengthen the circular economy’s possibility while we face the inevitable transition to something new in the ways we conduct business.  
Christoph is the co-editor of a new book, The Impossibilities of the Circular Economy: Separating Expectations from Reality, with experts from 12 different countries weighing in on why our current economic system will fail -- and what it will take for a circular economy to replace it.  
For daily wisdom from our guests, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/innovativeleadershipinsitute/ . We're on Mastodon, Facebook, and Twitter, too!  
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RESOURCES:  
Here are the links to Christoph's book, The Impossibilities of the Circular Economy: Separating Expectations from Reality:
Regular Narrative Edition = https://www.routledge.com/The-Impossibilities-of-the-Circular-Economy-Separating-aspirations-from/Lehmann-Hinske-Margerie-Nikolova/p/book/9781032154435  
Graphic Novel Style Edition = https://360dialogues.com/360portfolios/ce-impossibilities  
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Host & Executive Producer: Maureen Metcalf
Editor & Producer: Dan Mushalko
Our Website: www.InnovativeLeadership.com 
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About Our Guest:  
Mr. Christoph Hinske is an associate professor at the School of Finance and Accounting at SAXION University of Applied Sciences, covering Systems Leadership and Entrepreneurial Ecosystems. In his work, Christoph observed that our rapidly transforming economies force leaders to be systemic since they need to act in complex, ambiguous ecosystems. Consequently, his research focuses on empowering leaders to change their strategic and operational models from linear to circular to ecosystemic. He observed that 80 of organizations, intending to transform their models to be more systemic, continue doing the old stuff, using new fancy words. They still apply the same tools, mindsets, and frameworks developed to build linear success.

S8-Ep48: Art, Leadership...and the Art of Leadership

Featured Guests: Ren Washington and Laura Gibson
Though we rarely think of it, there are strong connections between art and leadership. Art sets the environment and tone of the workplace; in your business or home office, it sets the tone of any conversation -- and sends a strong message of who you are, as a person and as a leader. The type of art around your team also shapes the kind of creativity and problem-solving they'll generate. The Center for Creative Leadership has used and studied art as a critical component of leadership development for decades; Ren Washington and Laura Gibson of the Center join us to explore the many ways art and leadership interconnect.  
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Host & Executive Producer: Maureen Metcalf
Editor & Producer: Dan Mushalko
Website: InnovativeLeadership.com
Join us on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/innovativeleadershipinsitute/  
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About Our Guests:  
Ren Washington is a Leadership Solutions Partner at the Center for Creative Leadership. In his role, Ren is committed to helping clients address their most challenging and complex issues around organizational change and innovation, equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), executive presence and image, influence, and resilience.  
Laura Gibson is the Art Curator at the Center for Creative Leadership, having taken over the program in 2005. In her role, Laura secures artists for rotating exhibits and receptions open to the public, as well as managing CCL’s permanent art collection. She is passionate about the impact the art has on staff, participants, and the community.  
Center for Creative Leadership website: ccl.org 

S8-Ep47: The Bonobo Sisterhood: Ape Society’s Lessons for Leadership - with Diane Rosenfeld

Featured Guest: Diane Rosenfeld
People like to think humanity is at the top of cultural achievement, the pinnacle of evolution’s craftwork. But one glance at the daily headlines proves we have problems. Lots of problems. Across all nations, there’s one glaring problem that hits hard over half our population: sexism. From subtle misogyny to outright violent abuse, women continue to be left on the outside of patriarchies…of a man’s world.
That’s not the case with bonobos. They’re our close evolutionary relatives: apes with whom we share 98.7% of our DNA. And their society is very equal. They share parenting duties and food amongst the entire group. And the females defend each other when needed, banding together like sisters regardless of status, age, or friendship. It’s the Bonobo Sisterhood, and guest Diane Rosenfeld tells us there’s a lot our political and corporate leaders can learn from these primates who show just how primitive people can be in comparison!
For daily wisdom from our guests, be sure to follow us on Mastodon:  @InnoLeader .   
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Host & Executive Producer: Maureen Metcalf
Editor & Producer: Dan Mushalko
Web Site: InnovativeLeadership.com   
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For More Information on The Bonobo Sisterhood:   
www.BonoboSisterhood.com   
You can purchase The Bonobo Sisterhood at https://amzn.to/3VqHArV . 
Maureen Metcalf posts a newsletter every week on LinkedIn. You can follow her there at https://www.linkedin.com/in/maureenmetcalf/ .
She’s also written several award-winning books on leadership development. Your can peruse and purchase them here: https://amzn.to/3C4eSX0 .
  
About Our Guest:   
Diane L. Rosenfeld, J.D., LL.M., is Founding Director of the Gender Violence Program and Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School.
Her breakthrough legal work, research, and arguments have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Glamour, and more. Her op-eds have been featured in the Washington Post, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, cnn.com, and the Harvard Crimson.
She served as the first Senior Counsel to the Office on Violence Against Women at the U.S. Department of Justice and as an Executive Assistant Attorney General in Illinois. In 2007, she created and taught the first legal seminar on Title IX in the country, which continues to this day at Harvard Law School. She also advised the Obama Administration on the prevention of campus sexual assault and contributed to the Presidential Task Force on Protecting Students from Sexual Assault.