Fearless Creative Leadership

"The Equalizer."   Shelley Zalis has made the business of equality the focus of this stage of her life and career. A successful entrepreneur in her own right, she founded the Girl’s Lounge to provide professional women a place to get together at major conferences and support and learn about each other. From that platform, she has now built the Female Quotient - an organization dedicated to driving equality in the workplace.  She is an evangelist, a disruptive force, a community builder and a change agent. She is also putting her money where her beliefs are. I talked to Shelley about the role her childhood played in her becoming a disruptor, about why she decided to make gender equality her business, about what needs to happen next and about the moment she wondered if it was all over. For More Information: www.TheFemaleQuotient.com www.FearlessCreativeLeadership.com

A five minute edited highlight of our full conversation.

'The Visionary CEO'.  Steve Shiffman has been CEO of Calvin Klein for almost exactly three years. In that time he has led what has been described by the New York Times as, ‘the biggest redefinition of American fashion in decades.’   Steve talks about why he was willing to disrupt one of the world's most successful and iconic brands, about the challenges of guiding an $8.5 billion global business towards a single creative vision and about why he is doubling down on creativity.   For more information: www.FearlessCreativeLeadership.com

A five minute edited highlight of our full length conversation

'The Experience Designer'.  Design has become one of those terms used with increasing regularity across the creative industries - sometimes insightfully, sometimes not.  The introduction of the word 'design' suggests a method, a process, a plan. And yet, as with all powerful and impactful expressions of creativity, the very act of designing requires an openness to trial and therefore to error.  Nick Scappaticci is one of the founders of Tellart - an experience design company. Their projects range from the playful to the provocative. From the magical to the mind-bending.  Nick and I talked recently about what defines experience design, the environment in which it flourishes, the art of attracting and unlocking a diverse eco-system of talent and the key to turning ideas into physical expressions that live in the real world. For more information: www.Tellart.com www.FearlessCreativeLeadership.com

A five minute edited highlight of our full conversation

'The Psychoanalyst'.   Unlocking creativity requires celebrating uncertainty and embracing risk. Most businesses aren't designed that way. Nor are most human beings.   Instead, we stop ourselves, unconsciously and consciously. We act against our own self interest, willingly and unwillingly. We are hesitant, we are anxious, and very often - far more often than we realize or are prepared to admit - we are afraid.   Leading a successful business requires we confront our own frailties at the very same time that we are grappling with the multi-faceted threats to modern businesses.   Kerry Sulkowicz is a leadership confidant, advising the CEOs and boards of some of the world’s largest and most powerful corporations.   He is also a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst.  Kerry joins me to talk about the very human challenges that leaders face, the mistakes that most leaders make when stepping into new roles and the deeper human impulses that exist in all of us.  For more information: www.FearlessCreativeLeadership.com

A five minute highlight of our full conversation

'The Modern Women'.  Gina Hadley and Jenny Galuzzo created The Second Shift to provide talented, accomplished, professional women with opportunities to re-enter the workforce on their terms. It is an idea of its time. An idea of this time. Like all great ideas it is simple and obvious. Like most revolutionary ideas, it still has some work to do to break down a stubborn status quo. In this case, the status quo of how businesses design their organizations and engage talent.  I recently sat down with Gina and Jenny to talk about why they started the Second Shift, about the challenges of turning an idea into a scalable company and about what they have learned about blowing up the status quo. Find more at: www.TheSecondShift.com  www.FearlessCreativeLeadership.com

A five minute highlight from our full conversation.