Arete Coach: The Art & Science of Executive Coaching

Welcome to Episode 1,118 of the Arete Coach Podcast, where your host, Severin Sorensen, is joined by esteemed guest Peter Michaels. Peter is an accomplished Executive Coach, former Vistage Chair, Commercial Banker, and Mergers and Acquisitions expert. He currently holds the position of President at Shadow River Corporation. In this timely episode, titled "Anticipate: Insights from an Executive Coach, Banker, & M&A Specialist," we dive into the pressing events of March 2023, including the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, and the unfolding banking crisis. As a seasoned commercial banker with 20 years of experience and a former top executive at one of the largest independent regional banks in the US, Peter shares his invaluable insights on the nature of money, its implications, and what it isn't. The conversation shifts towards what executive coaches, business owners, entrepreneurs, and CEOs should be doing to prepare for the financial crisis, including accumulating cash and convertible treasuries. We also explore the possible actions banks may take to protect their assets, such as clawing back credit lines, tightening credit availability, and the subsequent impact of money tightening on the economy. As we delve deeper into Peter's life, we journey through his impressive career spanning three industries: 20 years in commercial banking, a decade in M&A in Southern California, and over two decades of executive coaching as a Vistage Chair or independent coach. Throughout the interview, Peter shares a crucial lesson he learned from a mentor: "Anticipate." We discuss the significance of this word from various angles, reflecting on its profound implications. Please note that this podcast episode, its transcript, and any future insights articles derived from its content do not constitute financial advice. We are not your accountants or advisors. Consult with your own financial professionals before making any decisions. Our discussion is simply an exploration of the current economic landscape and its potential impact on business owners, entrepreneurs, CEOs, key executives, and the executive coaches who serve them. The Arete Coach Podcast seeks to explore the art and science of executive coaching. You can find out more about this podcast at aretecoach.io. This episode was produced on 14 March 2023. Copyright © 2023 by Arete Coach™ LLC. All rights reserved.

This is episode 1,117 of the Arete Coach Podcast with host Severin Sorensen, with a special episode that Explores Financial Contagion Risk and the Collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. As of 6:30 PM EDT, 12 March 2023, the Federal Goverment had intervened to guarantee depositor funds, allowing bank customers to access funds in time to make payroll on 3/15; the 'ides of march.' If those words cast a dark omen of the future, they ought to. In this episode, we explore what economic and financial contagion risks are and what are the causes, roots, and factors that seem to set wildfire to human behavior. We explore the happenings this past week with the death spiral and failure of Silicon Valley Bank, one of the oldest and largest banks serving the private equity and venture capital community. We revisit a play-by-play of the collapse of SVB from the point of view of the CEO and a customer depositor at the bank, and their different experiences. Importantly, we revisit prior financial crises to explore similarities and differences, and, review what the research suggests business leaders can do to prepare and protect themselves from foreseeable events. A list of 10 action items is provided for executive coaches, business owners, CEOs, and C-level executives to navigate at this time. Severin Sorensen is an economist, executive coach, and serial entrepreneur with a keen curiosity for business and economic trends. Severin is CEO of ePraxis LLC, a premier-level executive headhunting, talent selection, and executive coaching company. Severin is a highly sought Vistage Speaker with over 300+ presentations worldwide on hiring top talent, innovation, and economic trends. Severin was a Vistage Chair (2010-2018) of three Vistage Groups in Salt Lake City, UT, and during this period he was a repeat Mentor Chair and awarded the 2011 Vistage Rookie Chair of the Year Award. Prior to Chairing, Severin was a Vistage/TEC member in Washington DC (1999-2004) while he owned and operated a company he founded called Sparta Consulting Corporation (1994-2005), a management consulting, security systems integration, and remote video monitoring company; Severin sold this company in 2005 and it continues today as part of Interface Security Systems, the 7th largest security systems integrator in the US (2018). Severin was a former “Special Assistant to the President” at the White House where he had the high honor to work for President George H.W. Bush (POTUS 41) (1992-93). Severin earned a graduate degree (M.Phil.) in economics from King’s College, Cambridge, University, England, and two undergraduate degrees in economics and political science from the University of Utah. While an undergraduate, Severin was the Editor in Chief of the Utah Forum: A journal on international political economy. Severin is the author of Economic Misery and Crime Waves (2009), a book that chronicles the Great Depression (1929-42) and the situation leading up to the Great Recession (2007-2009). Today, Severin prepares a quarterly economic overview for business coaches and business owner/operators on the economy, identifying key behavioral economic trends that impact businesses and their opportunity frontiers. More on the topic of the economy and executive coaching insights are available at AreteCoach.io. The Arete Coach Podcast seeks to explore the art and science of executive coaching. You can find out more about this podcast at aretecoach.io. This episode was produced on March 12, 2023 Copyright © 2023 by Arete Coach™ LLC. All rights reserved.

Welcome to the 1,116th episode of the Arete Coach Podcast, hosted by Severin Sorensen and featuring special guest Professor Ron Greenwood. Ron is a distinguished figure with a broad and impressive career history, including serving as a Vistage Chair, Professor Emeritus at the University of Alabama - Huntsville, Financial Consultant, and president of L D R Systems, L L C. He has also held high-level executive positions at General Electric Corporation, NASA, and Nichols Research Corporation. During the interview, Ron shares his life journey spanning four careers in engineering, space, business, academia, and executive coaching, all driven by his passion for lifelong learning and commitment to making a positive impact. The episode is aptly titled "Four Careers, One Outcome: Contribution and Significance," and is a testament to Ron's wisdom, caring, and sharing that he brings to his Vistage Chair practice in Huntsville, AL. Ron holds bachelors, masters, and PhD degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech, where he also worked at the NASA Langley Research Center. His passion for learning, curiosity, and excellence has helped him seize opportunities throughout his life, including serving as President for one of General Electric's industrial space divisions, where he learned valuable lessons from Jack Welch about the importance of selecting the right people and cultivating a shared sense of purpose. In addition to exploring Ron's professional achievements, the interview delves into his personal values, including his ethical decision-making and strong faith in God, which he balances with his intellectual pursuits. As a host, I found the conversation to be both refreshing and inspiring, highlighting Ron's dedication to excellence, contribution, humility, and making a difference in the world. Join us in this enlightening conversation with Professor Ron Greenwood. The Arete Coach Podcast seeks to explore the art and science of executive coaching. You can find out more about this podcast at aretecoach.io. This episode was produced on 24 February 2023. Copyright © 2023 by Arete Coach™ LLC. All rights reserved.

This is episode 1,115 of the Arete Coach Podcast with host Severin Sorensen and guest Meena Kumari Adnani. She's an executive coach, self-empowerment, and business coach for women. Meena is also a qualified solicitor in the UK and a qualified attorney in New York. She has been dubbed the Top Negotiator by Global Asia Magazine, and she also serves clients as an international speaker and CEO of Strong and Shine. Meena lives in Jakarta, Indonesia. From an early age Menna has been a norm buster. Menna earned her law degree from the University of London and is licensed to practice law in the UK and New York. For many years, Menna climbed the corporate lawyer as a high-performing lawyer until one day... everything she had been working for and saving was lost. And this sudden loss and the loss of losing her father to Covid19 changed her life. After working through her her own journey in the stages of grief, she reframed, rebuilt, and restored her former station and decided to transform her life mission to help other people, especially women to be more empowered. Meena is a lifetime learner and shares her thoughts, reading, and wonderment on how to help women overcome their fears and be more empowered. Throughout or conversation Meena teach us '"that setbacks are an invitation for a comeback." The Arete Coach Podcast seeks to explore the art and science of executive coaching. You can find out more about this podcast at aretecoach.io. This episode was recorded on 24 January 2023. Copyright © 2023 by Arete Coach™ LLC. All rights reserved.

This is episode 1,114 of the Arete Coach Podcast with Severin Sorensen, which explores AI, Automation, and the Innovation Imperative. It has been 60 days since our first episode [1,1104] on AI and ChatGPT, which was published on 12/12/22. The world has changed. And the change is accelerating. In this episode, we explore AI, automation, and the innovation imperative. We look at the growth of AI, and review a book titled 'AI and Prediction.' We explore tight labor conditions and the logical imperative that under the absence of available workers, businesses should seek to reduce labor in every SKU, product, and service. AI and Automation are viewed as means to augment and leverage existing talent. In the podcast, we interview 3 individuals from different age cohorts to explore how they use ChatGPT in their personal and work lives. The episode has dozens of hacks, tips, and suggestions for leveraging the listener's ability to use conversational AI. Special guests on this podcast episode include: Cait Pickens, Hayden Browing, and Ozzie Gontang. This episode is a follow-up to Arete Coach Podcast Episode 1104, that explores OpenAI's ChatGPT Chat App along with "10 Technologies That Changed The World, and the Next 10 Technologies Likely To Change it Again. The Arete Coach Podcast seeks to explore the art and science of executive coaching. You can find out more about this podcast at aretecoach.io. This episode was recorded on February 20, 2023 via Zoom Video. Copyright © 2023 by Arete Coach™ LLC. All rights reserved.

This is episode 1,113 of the Arete Coach Podcast with host Severin Sorensen and guest Dominic Monkhouse. He is an executive coach, business coach, podcast host, and chief operating officer for Monkhouse and Company. Before entering the coaching industry, Dominic served as managing director at Rackspace. He also served as the Chief Customer Officer for Pier One. And in 2020, he released a book called "F Plan B." I'll let you figure out what F means.  Dominic has an MBA from the Sheffield Hallam University and has a variety of certifications, including the Six Types of the Working Genius Certification, the Culture Canvas certification with Fearless Culture, Clifton Strengths Coach with Gallup, the Certified 3HAG Coach with Metronomics, and Scaling Up Certified Business Coach. In 2017, he was featured in the Southern Daily Echo article, "Could This be Britain's best boss?" Dominic's coaching has helped business leaders in the UK, Ireland, the Americas, Australia, and the Philippines. During the interview, we explore how Dominic managed companies during turbulent times such as near bankruptcy and during recessions. We explore Dominic's favorite question about finding that brutal truth that ever company needs to address before it can change. And we discuss his several books, including his newest release, Mind Your F**king Business. This an much more is on this podcast episode. The Arete Coach Podcast seeks to explore the art and science of executive coaching. You can find out more about this podcast at aretecoach.io. This episode was produced on 23 January 2023. Copyright © 2023 by Arete Coach™ LLC. All rights reserved.

This is episode 1,112 of the Arete Coach Podcast with host Severin Sorensen with another episode that explores the art and science of executive coaching. In this episode, we explore the power of peers and professionally facilitated peer executive groups, and in particular, we deep dive into the Vistage model as it celebrates its 65th year anniversary. In addition to reviewing the historical research on the environment that cultivated TEC-Vistage, the founding of the company and its early history, this episode includes remarks and input from dozens of Vistage chairs and stakeholders passed and present. In this episode, we explore the important role of the ancient vizier, advisor, privy councils and their parallels to the modern Chair role played in professionally facilitated executive peer groups. In a Vistage Group, a Chair is an executive coach, who is at times a coach, mentor, and facilitator of the peer executive group. Vistage differentiates itself from other business focused self-help groups by providing professional facilitation by an executive coach called the Chair, who has had significant prior business experience and deep training in coaching skills and executive peer group facilitation. The Vistage Chair role is to facilitate the peer group discussions, asking questions to draw out the expertise of the group members experiences and ideas, and periodically provide expert advice and guidance to the members when asked, while fostering a culture of trust, confidentiality, and open communication among the members. The goal of the chair in this model is to help members gain new perspectives, solve problems, and make better decisions by sharing their experiences and learning from one another. This and much more is explored in this episode of the Arete Coach Podcast. The Arete Coach Podcast seeks to explore the art and science of executive coaching. You can find out more about this podcast at aretecoach.io. This session was recorded on January 28th, 2023 via Zoom video. This session also includes dozens of interview callouts from current and former Vistage chairs and stakeholders from Arete Coach podcast recorded since April of 2020. Copyright © 2023 by Arete Coach™ LLC. All rights reserved.

This is episode 1,110 of the Arete Coach Podcast with Severin Sorensen and his guest Bill Clark, who is an Executive Coach, Master Coach, and CEO of Clark Leadership Group. The theme of this episode is “learning from life’s curriculum.’ This interview was recorded on October 16, 2020 via Zoom Video In this podcast we explore what Bill Clark describes as ‘learning lessons from life’s curriculum.’ Bill is a disruptor, innovator, and executive coaching peer who I esteem highly. The podcast begins with Bill talking about his experience sailing around the world and what he learned in the silence. What's also unusual about Bill is that he is not the typical scholar or industrial psychologist you often see in executive coaching positions. Rather Bill struggled in school, worked his way up from an employee of a laundromat to later buying that company with the mentoring of his uncle. Bill's coaching journey was made possible by his entrepreneurship spirit, building, buying, and selling eight companies. He shares his ups and his downs in an authentic conversation that was most memorable and touching. As a coach, he has helped companies and their leaders grow their businesses from the low millions to over $400 million. Bill is a lifetime learner that has been through his own school of hard knocks and now he helps others learn, grow, and achieve their potential. This was a special interview and certainly one of my favorites. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did as Bill relays is pure wisdom about life, learning, and leaning into life’s curriculum to become your best self. More on the topics of life time learning, learning from experience, and executive coaching is available at AreteCoach.io. The Arete Coach Podcast seeks to explore the art and science of executive coaching. You can find out more about this podcast at aretecoach.io. This episode was produced on 30 January 2023. Copyright © 2023 by Arete Coach™ LLC. All rights reserved.

This is episode 1,111 of the Arete Coach Podcast with host Severin Sorensen and guest Deb Calvert. Deb Calvert is an executive coach, speaker, and author out of Kansas City. She is also the Founder and President of People First Productivity Solutions and Academy. Early in her career, Deb worked in the newspaper media industry in marketing and sales. Later she pivoted to sales leadership and coaching, and, most recently to executive leadership and team coaching. During the interview, she shared her simple yet powerful mantra: "Choose Joy." She explains, "everything is a choice, right? And we can choose our attitude, we can choose our mood, we can choose how we interpret whatever's in front of us. Like everybody, I've had some very big challenges and difficulties in life. And even within those if I can find it somewhere, if I can choose joy, I can weather those storms a lot better." Deb has received a variety of honors and awards: Most Influential Women in Sales Award by Sales Hacker 2018, Most Innovated Sales Blogger Finalist II Commerciale 2018, Best Sales Books of All Time appearing on CNN, Forbes, and Inc., and a variety of other awards focusing on sales and marketing. Deb is also an avid writer with several publications such as “Dealing with the Infobesity Epidemic”, “No More Miserable Meetings”, “The Ultimate Guide to Soft Skills for Managers”, “Promoted! Now What? A Primer for First-Time Sales Managers”, and a variety of others. In the interview, we explore Deb's background, careers, coaching lessons, and several of her favorite coaching questions stems such as 'tell me more,' and others from her book on questions called DISCOVER. This interview is insightful, humorous, engaging, and a delight to listen to, as Deb is such a wonderful coach and human being. She knows who she is, and what she wants to accomplish. More on the topic is available at AreteCoach.io. The Arete Coach Podcast seeks to explore the art and science of executive coaching. You can find out more about this podcast at aretecoach.io. This episode was produced on 9 January 2023. Copyright © 2023 by Arete Coach™ LLC. All rights reserved.

This is episode 1109 of the Arete Coach Podcast with host Severin Sorensen which explores the art and science of executive coaching. In this episode, we revisit the topic of powerful questioning. Have you ever wondered what makes a question powerful? The power of the question is not the question but the response it awakens. In this episode, we review seven defining characteristics of an essential question that can be used to seed great questions. We explore dozens of powerful questions that can be used in executive coaching settings. We also review powerful questions used as tools by outstanding executive coaches previously interviewed in the Arete Coach Podcast series. In this episode are powerful questions offered by great executive coaches drawn from prior episodes of the Arete Coach Podcast (AC): Richard Bosworth (ACe:1001); Ozzie Gontang (AC e:1002); Divya Jegasundaram (AC e:1003); Bill Clark (AC e:1004); Norma Rosenberg (AC e:1005); Glenn Waring (AC e:1006); Steve Ramerini (AC e:1007); Adam Harris (AC e:1008); Sally Rhoads, LCSW (AC e:1027); and Alan Weinstein (ACP e:1029). The Arete Coach Podcast seeks to explore the art and science of executive coaching. You can find out more about this podcast at aretecoach.io. This episode was produced on January 17, 2023. Copyright © 2023 by Arete Coach™ LLC. All rights reserved.