The Advice Trap

Michael Bungay Stanier is at the forefront of making coaching an everyday leadership behavior. He is the author of The Coaching Habit ... the best-selling coaching book of this century with over 700,000 copies sold and 1,000+ five-star reviews on Amazon. His new book, The Advice Trap, focus on what it takes to stay curious a little bit longer and tame your Advice Monster. “Michael Bungay Stanier has done for curiosity what Brené Brown did for vulnerability. The Advice Trap is superbly written, a very quick and enjoyable read, but most importantly it will develop you into a far more influential leader.” -Thomas A. Kolditz, PhD; Brigadier General, US Army (ret); Director, Doerr Institute at Rice University. In 2019, he was named the #1 thought leader in coaching, and was shortlisted for the coaching prize by Thinkers50, the “Oscars of management”. He was a Rhodes Scholar. Michael is also the founder of Box of Crayons.

Luke Owings is the Vice President of Product at Abilitie, a leadership development company that offers virtual mini-MBAs and business simulations that help senior executives from companies around the world build leadership skills and improve strategy execution. Since 2015, they have taught 25,000+ executives in over 50+ countries, and their clients include Fortune 500 companies such as PayPal, Marriott, Coca-Cola, GE, and Southwest Airlines. In 2020, Abilitie was recognized as one of the Inc. 5000 fastest-growing private companies and Inc. Best Work-Places In America. Luke is also an Advisory Board Member of Haymakers 4 Hope, a nonprofit that has raised 20M+ for cancer cure research. Before joining Abilitie, Luke was an Expert Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting firm that is a trusted advisor to two-thirds of the Fortune 1000 businesses and governments around the world. He holds a BA in Economics from Princeton University and an MBA from Harvard Business School and was also a Teaching Fellow for Harvard University’s undergrad economics class.

Deborah Naish brings over 40 years of leadership experience—25 of them as an executive coach—guiding leaders to embrace growth, navigate change, and inspire those around them to thrive. She partners with executives in Fortune 500 companies, fast-growing start-ups, and dynamic nonprofits—helping them elevate their influence, renew their energy, and lead with greater clarity and courage. Deborah is the founder of Naish Partners, and the author of Level Up Your Leadership: Becoming More Conscious, Courageous & Resilient which launched September 17th. Recognized with multiple Stevie® Awards for Mentor or Coach of the Year and for Company of the Year, she is known as a trusted thought partner and “CEO Whisperer,” dedicated to helping leaders unlock what’s next. She will talk about: Mastering the Essentials. Asking Core Questions. Adapting Foundational Practices. For information and free resources, please visit: https://www.deborahnaish.com/

Drew Norton, known as The Everyday Sales Leader, is a dynamic self-development coach, sales consultant, and co-host of The Everyday Leader Podcast. With a background spanning sales, hiring, recruiting, leadership, and training across diverse industries, he's a seasoned expert in cultivating individual and organizational success. His career journey encompasses a proven track record in sales, and he's passionate about translating his wealth of knowledge into actionable insights, empowering others to achieve their career aspirations in sales and leadership. Drew is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and served a mission in the Utah Ogden Mission. Originally from southeastern Arizona, Drew cherishes the values of small-town life. He and his wife have been married for nearly 13 years and are blessed with four children. A sports enthusiast, he cheers on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Utah Jazz, and Denver Broncos. His love for the outdoors extends to hunting and side-by-side riding. A private pilot, Drew also enjoys the freedom of flight.

Is it that they have a brilliant leader or that every team member is a top performer? The truth is that those help, but neither of them differentiates the best teams. Exceptional teams stand apart from others by building an emotionally intelligent ecosystem (not just the EI of leaders or employees). Unlike most, emotionally intelligent teams develop social norms and routines that motivate teamwork by building a genuine sense of belonging among team members. These norms prioritize team member feedback and development, and encourage constructive debate that produces effective decisions and novel ideas Vanessa Druskat is an associate professor at the Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics at the University of New Hampshire. As an internationally recognized leadership and team performance expert, Vanessa Druskat advises leaders and teams at over a dozen Fortune 500 and Fortune Global 500 companies. Her best-selling Harvard Business Review article (with S. Wolff) on emotionally intelligent teams has been chosen six times for inclusion in collections of HBR’s most valued articles. She is the recipient of multiple research and teaching awards. For more information, please visit https://www.vanessadruskat.com/ or [email protected]

Lynn Blades is the author of “THE QUIET BURN: The Ambitious Woman’s Guide To Recognizing And Preventing Burnout.” All genders will benefit from THE QUIET BURN.  The book contains advice on living a fulfilling life, self-respect, effectively communicating needs, and recognizing the peril of ignoring personal well-being. Lynn is the founder of Legacy Leadership, an executive leadership consultancy, and a dedicated DEI advocate.  She has strived to cultivate a 21st century leadership workforce that truly reflects the diversity of our society. Blades is a distinguished Marshall Goldsmith elite executive coach with two decades of experience guiding a diverse range of clients.  She has coached C-suite executives, directors, and their teams across various industries.  Her clients include Fortune 500 and Fortune 100 companies such as Nike, KPMG, EY, Barclays, and PayPal. Blades is a founding member of AllBright, an organization committed to the empowerment of women. Here, she helped create “Elevate,” a year-long executive leadership course designed to foster leadership skills among women. She also co-created and currently leads the Leading Diverse Teams program for organizational leaders in both the public and private sectors, with clients such as the UK Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, Aon, and Tate. Blades also serves on various boards focused on fostering the leadership skills of young, diverse talent, including the Creative Access advisory board, Working Title Films’ London Screen Academy, and Frontier Learning Trust in partnership with Imperial College. Blades exceptional communication skills and distinctive can-do attitude were honed during her celebrated career as an award-winning journalist. She worked with leading international networks such as CBS, CNN, CNBC, BBC, ITV, and Showtime, where she developed, wrote, presented, and produced both hard news and entertainment programs.

MCC coach Ben Dooley facilitates the bi-weekly “COACHING SKILLS FORUM” telecalls, as well as creator of multiple coach growing experiences--like the “Fast Pass to MasterFull Coaching”—exploring “the Science, Artistry and Performance of our coaching,” and “the Core of our Core Competencies”, all of which (and more) have been helping coaches discover their powerful coaching confidence, power and success, to help you BE the MasterFull coach you are truly here to BE, and that the world needs. And your journey continues to deepen right now.

Bill Canady is the Chairman of OTC Industrial Technologies and CEO of Arrowhead Engineered Products (AEP). As a leadership expert with more than 30 years of experience as a global business executive, he specializes in driving organizational growth, controlling costs, and increasing profitability.  During his time with OTC, revenue has grown by more than 43% and earnings over 80%. OTC now has $1 billion in sales and 1,900+ employees. At AEP, Canady leads more than 3600 employees and has $1.5 billion in sales.  Throughout his career, Canady has led several organizations through their most disruptive challenges and opportunities, often in complicated regulatory, investor, and media environments. Taking the tools and techniques that he developed growing multibillion dollar companies, he created the Profitable Growth Operating System (PGOS) and set out to help owners and operators around the world profitably grow their companies. Bill graduated summa cum laude from Elmhurst University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and received his MBA from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business. He is a veteran of the United States Navy. For more information, please visit https://billcanady.com/

Will Linssen is a globally recognized leadership coach and #1 Amazon international bestselling author. He has been named the World’s #1 Leadership Coach by Global Gurus and #1 Coach Trainer by Thinkers50, recognized as a LinkedIn Top Voice in Executive Coaching, and serves as an Advisor to Harvard Business Review—where he continues to shape the global conversation on leadership development, coaching, and performance growth. He is also a Master Certified Coach (ICF) and CEO of Global Coach Group. Global Experience Will has trained and certified over 4,000 executive coaches and coached leaders from hypergrowth startups to Fortune 500 companies, including global organizations like LinkedIn, Coca-Cola, Mercedes-Benz, Saudi Aramco, and Samsung—across the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Triple Win with 95% Success Rate The Triple Win Leadership Coaching approach—developed by Will—is one of the most results-driven frameworks in the industry, delivering a 95% success rate confirmed by coworkers, in improving leadership effectiveness, team engagement, and business performance. Backed by data from over 100,000 leaders, it provides a structured, measurable, and scalable method for creating lasting leadership change and performance impact in organizations worldwide.

Ron Carucci is co-founder and managing partner at Navalent, working with CEOs and executives pursuing transformational change for their organizations, leaders, and industries. He has a thirty-year track record helping executives tackle challenges of strategy, organization and leadership. He has worked with start-ups to Fortune 10’s companies. He has helped organizations articulate strategies that lead to accelerated growth, and design organizations that can execute those strategies. He has worked in more than 25 countries on 4 continents. He is the author of 9 books, including the recent Amazon #1 Rising to Power and the forthcoming To Be Honest, Lead with the Power of Truth, Justice & Purpose. He is also a regular contributor to Forbes, and a two-time TEDx speaker. His work’s been featured in Fortune, CEO Magazine, Inc., MSNBC, Business Week, Inc., and Fast Company.