Leadership Development News

Kevin Crawford is an advisor to executives and boards in a wide variety of leadership challenges and industries in the United States. For over 30 years, he has helped organizations prepare for crisis, disruption and disaster. He combines a diverse background as the Fire Chief and City Manager of Carlsbad California, CEO of United Way of San Diego and Executive Advisor for CEO’s. He has been an incident commander for some of the country’s most historic disasters with his passion for teaching empathic, principal-centered leadership skills to leaders. Kevin’s approach is practical and personal. He helps leaders make decisive, confident choices under pressure, always with an eye toward resilience and strategic clarity. Across private equity, healthcare, technology, manufacturing, real estate, media, insurance, utilities, construction, and public administration., Never losing sight that It’s about building trust and creating a space where openness drives progress. Whether it’s helping a leader prepare for a board transition or steer through a crisis, his goal is simple: turn adversity into opportunity and help leaders achieve real, sustainable success.

Steven Gaffney is a leading expert on increasing business profit through change management, honest communication, and high performing teams. An author, speaker, and trusted advisor, Steven works directly with top leaders from Fortune 500 companies like Amazon, Marriott, Allstate Insurance, and even the U.S. government and military. Steven has authored four ground-breaking books: Just Be Honest: Authentic Communication Strategies that Get Results and Last a Lifetime, Honesty Works! Real-World Solutions to Common Problems at Work and Home, Be A Change Champion, and co-author of Honesty Sells: How to Make More Money and Increase Business Profits. He is currently working on two books: Reboot: How to Create and Sustain High Performing Teams and The 9 Pillars of Sustainable Profitable Business Growth. His latest release, Unconditional Power, is available everywhere. Steven helps leaders across many industries. Some of his clients include: Amazon, Marriott, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, SAIC, Allstate Insurance, BP, World Bank, Congressional Budget Office, Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Department of the Navy, Citigroup, Texas Instruments, NASA, American Cancer Society, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers, Best Buy, and Johns Hopkins University.

Chris Shipley has documented, influenced, and predicted the impact of technology on business and society for more than 30 years. As a journalist, she covered the tech industry for leading publishing companies. As an analyst, she identified innovative startups and gave them a stage to launch their market-making products. As a catalyst, she has advised hundreds of early-stage companies on positioning, business modeling, and innovation practices. Chris began her career at Ziff-Davis, where she worked as a writer and editor for 12 years before joining International Data Group (IDG) to lead DEMO. Chris has co-founded three companies, including the startup media and consulting firm Guidewire Labs. She spent the 2013-14 academic year as a Fellow at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri in where she explored and developed best practices for journalist conducting real-time journalism. The following year, she joined MIT to launch Solve, an initiative to bring together the best thinking to address some of the world’s most intractable problems. Currently, she consults and collaborates with emerging companies and their leadership teams to build high-performance teams that innovate at startup speed. Her work has won numerous citations, including the prestigious SVForum Visionary Award in 2010. She sits on the governing and advisory boards of a number of high-impact early stage companies. Chris holds BA degrees in Literature and Communication Arts from Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania. Today, Chris focuses her work on the human and organizational challenges in the face of technology-and economically-driven disruption. https://www.cshipley.com/

Studies have found that 40-60% of high-performing employees fail or underperform when appointed as managers within their first two years on the job. Such situations are costly for both the managers who fear demotions or lose out on salary increases and promotions, as well as the organizations that lose talent and productivity. The cause of this high rate of failure is due to the vast majority of new managers never receiving the leadership training they desperately need to succeed in their role. Ramona Shaw runs The Leadership Accelerator, a 12-week program that coaches first-time managers to become confident and competent leaders who deliver results and who people love to work with. Through the program, she has helped hundreds of new managers at startups and leading companies — including Google, Twitch, Asana, Lionsgate, and Dropbox — successfully transition into leadership roles. Before becoming a leadership coach, Ramona worked at Partners Group, a global private markets firm with $127B in assets under management and over 1,500 professionals across 20 offices worldwide. At the firm, Ramona moved from a Junior Financial Analyst to Vice President in under six years.

Lida Citroën, author of THE NEW RULES OF INFLUENCE: How To Authentically Build Trust, Drive Change, And Make An Impact, is an award-winning branding and reputation management expert who designs and enhances the identities of executives, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders globally. As CEO and founder of LIDA360, LLC, Citroën is sought-after for her knowledge of personal brand development, reputation management, leadership communication, and online positioning. As a professional keynote speaker and presenter, Citroën’s popular TEDx talk and multiple courses on LinkedIn Learning showcase her empowering delivery style and message. She regularly presents business workshops on reputation management, personal branding, executive presence, leadership communication, and using social media to self-promote, helping employees and leaders build a personal brand that supports the business.

In today's show, Drs. Relly Nadler and Cathy Greenberg will share some of the cutting-edge tools they have been using with their coaching and training clients during these turbulent times. They have helped thousands of leaders to perform in the top 10% over the last 3 decades, utilizing emotional intelligence, positive psychology, neuroscience, and peak performance technologies.

Dr. Cornelia C. Walther is a humanitarian leader with 20+ years at the UN driving social change. Now a Wharton/University of Pennsylvania Fellow, she pioneers research on hybrid intelligence and prosocial AI through the global POZE alliance to build Agency amid AI for All. Her focus Is on harnessing AI to bring out the best in and for people and planet.

Have you ever thought your digital marketing and online presence might actually be hurting your business and your life? Maybe you are not “breaking through the noise”, you are just adding to it? Perhaps you are not “one funnel away”. Maybe that funnel is stopping the big fish you want. Our guest today has a refreshingly new view of how authentic conversations can lead to a better life and business. Tom Schwab asks you to consider that you are just One Conversation Away. That’s his observation based on the experience and that data from working with over 1,000 leading brands as the Chief Evangelist Officer at Interview Valet, the premier podcast interview marketing agency.. If you want a rich life and a profitable business, Tom believes you are just One Conversation Away.

Pankaj Singh—"Sing"—is a visionary leader who’s spent over 20 years revolutionizing businesses and building high-performance teams. As a former C-suite executive, he's driven double-digit growth, streamlined operations, and transformed organizations worldwide. But his real power comes from something unexpected: Mindfulness. Raised in an affluent family in India, Singh mastered classical music by age 13 but was restless. At 14, he was sent to train under a lama, where he first discovered the profound impact of mindfulness. Fast forward to 2020, His passion for mindful leadership was ignited during a high-pressure ransomware crisis early in his career. Faced with the overwhelming stress of guiding his team through uncharted territory, he turned to mindfulness to anchor himself. That pivotal experience revealed the transformative power of presence, empathy, and emotional intelligence in leadership—and it inspired his life’s mission to share these tools with others. Today, Singh is an advocate for redefining leadership in a fast-paced world. His signature frameworks, The Ascendancy Action™ System and Mindful Leadership Mastery Compass, equip leaders to transcend stress, foster resilience, and cultivate authenticity. Whether inspiring audiences through keynote speeches, mentoring teams, or crafting leadership roadmaps, Sing’s vision is clear: to empower leaders to transform challenges into opportunities and lead with clarity, compassion, and purpose.

Dr. Bob Rosen is a psychologist, New York Times best-selling author, researcher, and preeminent business advisor. He is the Founder and CEO of Healthy Companies, advising over 500 CEOs in sixty countries. His books include Detach, the New York Times Bestseller Grounded®, and the Washington Post best-seller Conscious, among others. He earned a PhD in clinical psychology at the University of Pittsburgh and has been a longtime faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at George Washington University’s School of Medicine.

Andy McDowell is an engineer by trade and a creative by nature. He is the founder of the entrepreneurial and small business coaching and consulting firm, Generate Your Value, and is the co-host of The Generate Your Value Podcast. Andy spent 22 years with the Boeing Company, where he always felt more like a life coach than a boss. In 2002, he began his entrepreneurship journey when he was asked to develop an Airspace Design Consulting business that would serve the global government market. Andy has a Bachelor’s Degree from Georgia Tech in Electrical Engineering and a Master’s Degree in Computer Information Systems from Georgia State. His aviation work took him around the world and enabled him to work on high-profile projects - such as preparing the Beijing and Sochi Airports for their respective Olympic Games. Andy can help you Generate Your Value in your personal and professional life in today’s conversation. www.generateyourvalue.com

Joe Marabito is a senior executive, strategist, and advisor with extensive experience in healthcare. He has held multiple senior executive roles at large established companies, including Accenture, Express Scripts, and Elevance Health, as well as at smaller rapidly growing privately held innovators, including NaviNet, Advantasure, ingenious Med, and HighRoads. As a health care strategy partner at Accenture, he advised senior leaders in many of the largest health care organizations in the United States. In CEO, COO, and general manager roles, he successfully scaled and accelerated the growth of multiple businesses. He currently works with a diverse range of clients to identify and assess emerging technologies and business opportunities, and to start up, manage, scale, turn around, and grow enterprises.

Katie McCleary is the co-author of BRIDGE THE GAP: Breakthrough Communication Tools to Transform Work Relationships from Challenging to Collaborative with Jennifer Edwards. They show how to use the social psychology of human connection and curiosity to drive meaningful communication and collaboration at work. Packed with practical and replicable techniques, the book reveals how to: • Master your biological reactions to connect, even amid pressure, anxiety, and stress • Lead with curiosity and engage more authentically • Embrace diverse opinions and cultural backgrounds • Communicate and collaborate more effectively • Converse with others and reap the rewards of better communication Katie is the host of “The Drive” podcast on NPR’s CapRadio. She is also is an entrepreneur and storyteller who trains leaders, creatives, and humanitarians to launch big ideas by leveraging their social and cultural capital. Katie is the founder of 916 Ink, a nonprofit that has transformed over 4,000 vulnerable youth into confident authors.

Dr. Chérie Carter-Scott is a behavioral scientist pioneer, “The Mother of Coaching” who started the coaching industry in 1974. Dr. Chérie is a #1 NY Times & Amazon Bestselling author of If Life is a Game, These are the Rules, 10 Rules for Being Human, published in 40 countries. Dr. Chérie has been a frequent guest on Oprah, appearances on CNN, Today, O’Reilly and Global CEO for 46 years, and received her Ph.D. in OD and MCC from the ICF. She is an executive producer & featured on-camera coach in LEAP (Coaching documentary), Writer, composer & lyricist of The Workshop, A Dress Rehearsal for Life! (Musical); Dr. Chérie is a change management expert with 19 book titles in many languages. She coaches C-Suite executives, licenses her IP content globally, is an Instrument-rated private pilot, PADI scuba diver, wife, mother, and grandmother!

JAMES TURK is an executive coach, keynote speaker, facilitator, and founder and CEO of The Turk Group, a boutique learning and development consulting firm. With more than twenty-five years of experience, James has expertly designed and delivered training and coaching programs and solutions in the areas of leadership development, sales, change management, and strategic planning for clients across a wide range of industries—including financial services, digital media, biotech, and more. Clients include Spotify, Squarespace, Bristol Myer Squibb, Goldman Sachs, Equinox, and many more. James’s unique approach is deeply influenced by his creative background as a trained actor, enabling him to establish strong, trusting relationships with his clients. He holds a BS in Liberal Arts from The New School. Early in his career, James gained valuable experience in Human Resources 178 About the Author at Goldman Sachs, Random House, and P&O Nedlloyd, serving in roles such as Technical Recruiter, Benefits Analyst/Manager, and Learning & Development Project Manager. His insights as a consultant are highly valued by clients seeking objective and forward-thinking advice.

Ken just got back from the APA SIOP conference presenting a workshop on the topic of effective feedback. Ken and his co-author Sandra will be providing two presentations at Association for Training and Development (ATD) in May (one on feedback and the other in the Career Center focusing on feedback as a career development tool) and have a new article in the March TD Magazine about the superpower of self-awareness. Their latest book, Performance Feedback Strategies, by ATD Press, was published April 2025 by ATD and available by all of the major booksellers such as Amazon, Barnes Noble and others. Kenneth M. Nowack, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist and Senior Research Officer of Envisia Learning, Inc., a global consultancy specializing in assessments and technology platforms. He has published academically in the areas of 360-degree feedback, assessment, health psychology, and behavioral medicine. Ken serves on Daniel Goleman’s Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations and served as Editor for the APA Consulting Psychology Journal. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (Division 13: Society of Consulting Psychology).

Catherine Allen is Co-founder and Chief Impact Officer of AO People Partners, a Leadership Development and Culture Transformation firm dedicated to inspiring and supporting the conscious practice of people development in the workplace. Catherine specializes in helping executive leaders and teams Own, Model and Drive business and people development integration in their organizations. Skilled in conflict resolution, communications, business strategy and change management, Catherine has a 30-year track record in organizational leadership and management consulting helping executive leaders and their teams design strategies and work through the messy human realities of organizational life. Catherine is a sought-after executive coach to executive leaders seeking to take their business to the next level of conscious growth and senior leaders transitioning to executive roles. As AO’s Chief Impact Officer, her focus is on guiding her team to build and deliver the full suite of service capabilities to help leaders lead effectively, develop their people and design and build integrated and holistic people development cultures that are sustainable, practical and cost efficient. She also guides AO’s thought leadership and commitment to helping clients achieve their desired results and impact. Catherine holds an M.S. in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from George Mason University and is a board-certified professional coach. Catherine is co-author with Ed Offterdinger of the book: Conscious, Capable and Ready to Contribute: How Employee Development Can Become the Highest Form of Social Contribution. Catherine is also a contributing author to the recently published book from the Association for Talent Development: Organizational Development Handbook. Her chapter is titled: A Holistic Approach to Developing a Leader’s Soft Skills Catherine writes and speaks regularly on leadership and people development integration and why people development in the workplace should become a recognized and incentivized form of social contribution. Catherine lives in Rockville, Maryland with her husband and two children. More Info: https://aopeoplepartners.com/

Robin Daniels is the Chief Business and Product Officer at LMS365. Robin has previously been a 3 x CMO with more than 20 years’ experience in marketing and growth leadership roles at Salesforce, Box, LinkedIn, Matterport, and WeWork. He's done 2.5 IPOs, several acquisitions, and led companies through hyper-growth to become category-leaders. Robin is also a mentor to several fast growing companies, including Uizard, Custimy, Cutover, Rhombus Systems, and Labster. His passion is creating winning teams that do outstanding and meaningful work.

An award-winning leadership expert in human behavior, Lisa Marie Platske has received accolades from the White House, the United States Small Business Administration, and The International Alliance for Women, recognized as one of the top 100 women making a difference in the world. She left her Federal law enforcement career to be the CEO of an international leadership development company, Upside Thinking, Inc. Lisa Marie delivers presentations worldwide sharing research on how vulnerability and forgiveness are critical to exceptional leadership as well as her proven 7-step leadership model centered on connection, positioning, and executive presence. An international best-selling author in 5 countries, Lisa Marie has written or co-authored 7 books. She has trained or coached over 100,000 leaders around the globe since 2005 to be the most optimal version of who they’re designed to be in order to make a bigger positive impact on the planet. www.upsidethinking.com.

Sebastian Little is a Leadership + Performance Coach who operates his own coaching and consulting practice. He partners with high-performing leaders and teams to optimize culture, close performance gaps, and unlock leadership potential and has worked with clients across collegiate and professional sports (NHL, MLB, NBA, etc), non-profit, and corporate spaces. His coaching approach consists of a mix of ontology, positive psychology, and mental performance. Sebastian worked as a consultant at the McChrystal Group, a management consulting and leadership development firm in Washington, D.C., founded by retired 4-star general Stan McChrystal. He is a graduate of Yale University and former varsity football athlete. During his Yale tenure, he partnered with the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence as both a student and an intern, creating a curriculum on emotionally intelligent leadership. He received his PCC credential through the International Coaching Federation and his ACCC professional coach certification through the Accomplishment Coaching training program. A coach’s job is to say the thing you don’t want to hear, see the thing you don’t want to see, and ultimately… help you become the person you want to become.