Do Good To Lead Well with Craig Dowden

How can business leaders ensure that the culture they build within their organization is not only strong and cohesive, but reflects the values they originally set out to encapsulate? Join us, as Alim Somani answers this question and many more. What You’ll Learn: 1. The importance of asking the best questions rather than having the right answers. 2. Propagating value sets throughout your organization that align with not only your company’s mission, but all stakeholders involved. 3. The three most important attributes of a leader: curiosity, empathy and resilience, and how they can evolve your business. Who is Alim Somani? Alim is a business leader with a focus on digital transformation. Alim is the founder of Infusion, which later sold to Avanade. Alim’s a recipient of Canada's top 40 under 40 award. In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, Alim was recruited by Hatch Digital, a company that helps organizations digitally transform their businesses. Follow Alim: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alimsomani/?originalSubdomain=ca More of Do Good to Lead Well: Website: https://craigdowden.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigdowden/

Where is the future of leadership heading? What You’ll Learn: 1. How can entrepreneurial thinking help develop better leadership qualities?  2. How does one operationalize the concepts of diversity, equity and inclusion in leadership? 3. What timeless lessons can we learn from Peter Drucker's work on leadership Who is Bruce Rosenstein? When Bruce Rosenstein, Managing Editor of the prestigious Leader to Leader magazine within the Frances Hesselbein Leadership Forum, works with thought leaders, CEOs, and professors to publish articles on leadership, he encounters the unique challenge of distilling complex concepts into a globally understandable format while staying true to their original intent. Bruce is the author of Create Your Future the Peter Drucker Way (McGraw-Hill and Brilliance Audio, 2013) and Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker's Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life (Berrett-Koehler, 2009). Mentions: Living in More Than One World: https://brucerosenstein.com/living_in_more_than_one_world/ Create Your Future the Peter Drucker Way: https://brucerosenstein.com/create_your_future/ Follow Bruce: Website: https://brucerosenstein.com/editor/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bruce-rosenstein/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/brucerosenstein?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor More of Do Good to Lead Well: Website: https://craigdowden.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigdowden/

Jon Rennie is a business leader, author and speaker. He is co-founder, president and CEO of Peak Demand Inc., a global manufacturer of products for electric utilities. He served as a naval officer on nuclear submarines during the Cold War and has been leading industrial business for more than 20 years. Jon is passionate about leadership and employee engagement. His articles and blog posts have been read and shared all over the world. He believes that leadership can make a significant difference in the performance of any organization. In this episode, Craig and Jon discuss the importance of tailoring leadership, addressing disengagement at work and why failure is important.

Marilyn Gist is the bestselling author of The Extraordinary Power of Leader Humility. Alan Mulally, the legendary former CEO of Ford Motor Company and Boeing Commercial Airplanes, wrote the Foreword and contributed a guest chapter. Marilyn's career highlights include Professor Emeritus at Seattle University; full professor and academic administrator at University of Washington and Seattle University; Google Scholar lists her as the most cited scholar at Seattle University and she received more than 15,000 citations by other authors; led the design and development of SU’s Executive MBA Program, which was ranked as high as #11 in the US; she interviewed exceptional CEOs from Costco, Starbucks, Foot Locker, the Mayo Clinic and Alaska Airlines for her latest book; writing a terrific newsletter, "The Gist of It". In this episode, Marilyn speaks about humility in leadership, treating others with respect and fostering innovation.

Todd Cherches is the CEO and cofounder of BigBlueGumball, an innovative New York City-based leadership development and executive coaching firm. A member of Marshall Goldsmith’s MG 100 Coaches, Todd was nominated in 2021 by Thinkers50 as one of eight global finalists for their Distinguished Achievement Award in Leadership. Todd is a three-time award-winning Adjunct Professor of leadership at NYU, as well as a Lecturer on leadership at Columbia University. Lastly, Todd is a TEDx speaker and the author of the groundbreaking book, VisuaLeadership: Leveraging the Power of Visual Thinking in Leadership and in Life, which was published in 2020 by Post Hill Press/Simon & Schuster. In this episode, Todd speaks on diversity in leadership, how to give feedback, and getting out of your comfort zone.

How can you champion diversity and inclusion while still honoring individual uniqueness? Join us for an enlightening conversation with Dr. Stephanie K. Johnson, the director of the Doer Institute for New Leaders at Rice University and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of "Inclusify." Dr. Johnson shares her journey back to Rice and her dedicated efforts to cultivate future leaders through innovative coaching and training programs. Get ready to uncover the driving force behind her influential research on unconscious biases and her mission to foster truly inclusive leadership practices. We'll dissect the delicate balance of fostering belonging without forcing conformity. Drawing on concepts like optimal distinctiveness theory, Dr. Johnson sheds light on how businesses can create environments where employees feel both included and free to express their unique contributions. In our final segment, we get tactical about creating fair and welcoming workplaces. From acknowledging headwinds and tailwinds in professional development to navigating biases in recruitment, Dr. Johnson offers actionable advice on setting clear, unbiased hiring criteria and challenging the "white knight" phenomenon in leadership. With empathy at the core, she provides practical strategies to champion diversity and inclusion effectively. Don't miss out on this episode packed with resources and expert guidance to enhance your organization's commitment to true inclusivity. What You’ll Learn: • The delicate balance between fostering a sense of belonging and maintaining individual uniqueness within inclusive environments. • Practical exercises and tools to recognize and manage unconscious biases. • The concept of headwinds and tailwinds in personal and professional development. • Strategies for fair recruitment and hiring practices and addressing biases to build truly inclusive organizational settings. • The nuances of the "white knight" phenomenon in leadership and how good intentions must align with effective behaviors to support inclusivity. Podcast Timestamps: (00:00) – An Introduction to Inclusify (09:43) - Fostering Belonging and Uniqueness (19:12) - Creating Inclusive Environments (31:23) - Navigating Bias in Recruitment and Selection (37:26) - Establishing Clear and Fair Hiring Criteria (44:20) – Good Intentions Can Lead to Negative Outcomes (59:01) - Embracing Empathy and Understanding More of Stefanie: Stefanie is passionate about finding strategies to maximize employee innovation, engagement, and well-being by (1) overcoming unconscious bias and (2) building more diverse and inclusive workplaces. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drstefjohnson/ Key Topics Discussed: Positive Leadership, Inclusion, Diversity, Coaching, Unconscious Bias, Inclusify, Corporate Culture, Belonging, Uniqueness, Optimal Distinctiveness Theory, Empathy, Diversity in Hiring Practices, Promoting Fairness, Inclusive Leadership, CEO Success More of Do Good to Lead Well: Website: https://craigdowden.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigdowden/

This week, Craig sits down with Jim Detert to explore the topic of courage. Jim is a professor at the Darden Graduate School of Business and the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. Jim's research focuses on workplace courage, improvement-oriented voice (why people speak up or stay silent at work) and ethical decision-making and behavior. He believes systemic change is impossible without individual change from top to bottom in organizations. That’s why he focuses on helping people honestly examine themselves, what drives them and holds them back and what skills they must develop and personal commitments they must make if things are going to be different. When research-based theories are applied through innovative experiential learning, people build confidence in their ability to say and do the right things despite risk. Choosing Courage represents nearly two decades of learning how to help people on this journey. Tune in to find out how to be mindful with the language you use, be an effective leader and choose courage.

Anne Whelan is principal shareholder and CEO of Seafair Capital, a growth-focused company with investments in community, behavioral health services, technology, e-learning and corporate services. Anne also serves as a corporate director of CSA Group and Nova Leap Health. She was appointed to the Bank of Canada’s Board of Directors in June 2018. Anne has been nationally and regionally recognized for her business and community contributions. She was named one of Canada’s 100 Most Powerful women in 2016 and 2021. In 2019, she was awarded the Red Cross Humanitarian of the Year Award. In 2017. She was named Startup Canada’s Entrepreneur of the Year for an outstanding contribution to Canadian entrepreneurship. Anne was also named Atlantic Business Magazine’s CEO of the Year in 2014 and was inducted into Atlantic Business Magazine’s Top 50 CEO Hall of Fame in 2015. In this episode, Craig and Anne have a fascinating conversation about breaking biases, finding your authentic self and establishing core values.

Ed Hess is Professor Emeritus of Business Administration, Batten Fellow and Batten Executive-in-Residence Emeritus at the Darden Graduate School of Business, University of Virginia, and the author of Hyper-Learning: How to Adapt to the Speed of Change. He spent twenty years in the business world as a Senior Executive and has spent the last 18 years in academia. Ed is the author of 13 books, over 140 articles and 60 Darden Case studies. His work has appeared in over 400 global media outlets including Fortune magazine, Forbes, Huffington Post, Washington Post, Dow Jones Radio, MSNBC Radio and Business Insider. His recent books and research have focused on “Human Excellence in the Digital Age: A New Way of Being; A New Way of Working; Humanizing the Workplace; and Hyper-Learning”. In this episode, Ed talks more about redefining the ego, setting daily intentions and collaboration.

This week, Craig sits down with President and CEO of LifeLabs Medical Laboratory, Charles Brown, to discuss the importance of good leadership during challenging times. Since joining LifeLabs in 2018, Charles has worked to evolve the company into a commercially driven organization that brings customer-centered value to market. By showcasing the possibility of delivering value-based outcomes, Charles empowers his employees to make a difference and facilitate innovative change. During COVID, Charles’ leadership empowered the team to quickly pivot and adapt to respond to the pandemic by providing essential COVID-19 testing, while maintaining full operation of lab testing and diagnostic work. Charles was named one of the Top 100 Innovation CEOs by World Biz Magazine in 2022 and Top 25 Biotechnology CEOs by the Healthcare Technology Report in 2021 and 2022. Tune in to join this fascinating conversation about leadership, business and innovation. What You'll Learn: 1. The importance of learning 2. Staying positive for your team 3. Using social media responsibly 4. Channeling empathy 5. Leaving things better than you found them