Courage to Advance with Kim Bohr

Most leaders are still treating disruption like weather, something to wait out before returning to the plan. Strategic Growth Advisor Jess Dewell has spent more than two decades proving there is no going back, and that the strategy that built your company is often the very thing now capping it. What most organizations do is reach for the old playbook harder, pile on more strategies, and chase every new tool out of fear of missing out. Host Kim Bohr opens by naming the real issue, that when every decision still routes through one person, it is a design problem, not a leadership one. Jess names the same pattern, and the leaders she works with usually arrive at the same honest realization, that they are in their own way. Jess is a Strategic Growth Advisor at Red Direction who helps mid-market CEOs, boards, and executive teams break through growth plateaus and build organizations that stay relevant through market shifts. She has grown businesses through the dot com crash, 2008, the pandemic, and record inflation, and hosts the BOLD Business Podcast. What You’ll Discover Why the strategy that built your company can become the thing capping its growth How to tell a passing disruption from the new normal you have to design for What AI can and cannot do for your planning, and the context only your team brings How naming the fear out loud turns anxiety into a decision your team can act on The 24 to 36 month exercise that shows where your own role is becoming obsolete Kim Bohr: “If every decision in your company still routes through one person, you don’t have a leadership problem. You have a design problem.” Jess Dewell: “Where are you becoming obsolete in your role today?” Courage to Advance explores how visionary leaders build the organizations they wish existed, through trust, transparency, and the willingness to challenge what no longer works. Hosted by Kim Bohr, CEO of SparkEffect. New episodes drop every second, third, and fourth Tuesday of each month. Subscribe at https://sparkeffect.com/sparkeffect-podcast-courage-to-advance/

Most of the rules that run your company were never actually designed. They accreted, one exception at a time, until everyone was carrying policies written for people who no longer work there. Jessica D. Winder is the HR executive who builds those rule books, and she thinks most of them should finally be retired. In this conversation with host Kim Bohr, Jessica names five outdated leadership rules she would kill tomorrow, and she has the standing to say it because she implemented most of them herself. Unlimited PTO she now calls a scam. Performance reviews that became theater. Exit interviews that arrive too late. Secret high performer lists nobody hears about. And the assumption that growth means becoming a manager. What makes it useful is that every rule she retires comes with a replacement she has actually run, from PTO minimums to stay interviews to a dual career track. Jessica is a practitioner, not a critic, and she hands leaders something to do on Monday. What You’ll Discover - Why most handbooks are written for the exception - Why unlimited PTO backfires without a minimum - Stay interviews instead of exit interviews - Why not everyone should manage, and the dual track fix - The rule leaders defend hardest, and why policies rarely change behavior - A human centered way to think about AI at work “I think it’s a scam. And mind you, I have implemented it.” Jessica D. Winder “What if the rules we treat as normal are the exact things holding our people back?” Kim Bohr Courage to Advance brings senior HR and business leaders into honest conversation about leading people through real complexity. Hosted by Kim Bohr, CEO of SparkEffect. New episodes drop every second, third, and fourth Tuesday of each month. Subscribe at https://sparkeffect.com/sparkeffect-podcast-courage-to-advance/.

Someone is talking to your best people right now, and you are not in the room. Recruiters are reaching top performers more than they ever have, and most leaders still believe their people stay for the pay, the title, or the name on the building. Scott Love knows how wrong that is, because he is the person those people call when they are ready to leave. As a recruiter who places corporate and finance partners at global law firms, Scott hears the exit reasons people never say to their own leadership. They do not trust their leaders. They fear a colleague will steal their clients. They do not believe pay is fair. And the ones who refuse to leave never cite money. They say they do not want to let their team down. Scott is the president of The Attorney Search Group and host of The Rainmaking Podcast. He joins host Kim Bohr to turn his view from the exit chair into a practical model any leader can use to keep the people who matter most. What You’ll Discover - Why top performers almost never leave over pay - The headhunter call test for your best people - How to give recognition so it actually lands - What emotional equity is, and how to create it without stock - The real reasons people quit that they hide from their own leaders - How to build a trust funnel before you need it “It’s never about how much they’re paid. It’s never about the status of the organization.” Scott Love "It's the real authenticity that fuels people to realize, like, oh, I really am seen and valued for my work." Kim Bohr Courage to Advance brings senior HR and business leaders into honest conversation about leading people through real complexity. Hosted by Kim Bohr, CEO of SparkEffect. New episodes drop every second, third, and fourth Tuesday of each month. Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform! 

The job market is brutal right now, and the advice most candidates carry into an interview is quietly working against them. Roles that once drew a hundred applications now draw a thousand, and a single conversation may be all you get. The old playbook, memorize the perfect answer and perform it, is the fastest way to lose the room. Laura Browne says the whole frame is backward. After years in senior HR leadership at global tech companies, she watched candidate after candidate deliver rehearsed answers that experienced interviewers have heard a hundred times. She also names the part almost no one admits, that the interviewer is often more scared than the candidate, worried they will look bad if they advance the wrong person. Her fix is to stop treating the interview as a fight and start treating it as a partnership, where both people want the same outcome. Laura is an author, trainer, speaker, and business coach, and the author of Interview Speak. In this conversation with host Kim Bohr, she turns years on both sides of the table into practical moves any candidate or hiring leader can use right away. What you'll discover Why the interviewer is often more nervous than the candidate The three things every interviewer screens for, and the one candidates miss How to answer “tell me about yourself” so the first five minutes work for you What to ask when the interviewer says “do you have any questions” The one phrase that invites a real salary negotiation How compensation splits into buckets beyond base pay What hiding a salary range signals, and why Laura says it has to stop Kim Bohr  “The person on the other side of the table is often more scared than the candidate. And how a leader handles that moment quietly tells everyone whether this is a place they can trust.” Laura Browne  “Companies need to stop hiding salary, because I think that is absolute nonsense.” About the podcast Courage to Advance explores how visionary leaders build the organizations they wish existed, through trust, transparency, and the willingness to challenge what no longer works. Hosted by Kim Bohr, CEO of SparkEffect. New episodes drop every second, third, and fourth Tuesday of each month. Subscribe at https://sparkeffect.com/sparkeffect-podcast-courage-to-advance/.

Most senior leaders can feel it but rarely say it out loud: the math has stopped working. More hours, more output, more visibility, and a quiet question about whether any of it is adding up to better leadership. Most organizations treat constant motion as proof of commitment, rewarding output while the capacity to actually lead erodes. Dawn Christian gives that erosion a name, Capacity Debt, the cost that builds when there is no space left for the thinking and presence leadership requires. Dawn is the founder and CEO of BeLeadership, a TEDx speaker, and the creator of the Ethos-Driven Leadership framework. After 25 years in senior executive roles, she left corporate life because she could see the pattern clearly enough to name it. In this conversation with host Kim Bohr, she reframes capacity for an age of AI and the work of leading yourself before you lead anyone else. What You'll Discover Why busyness is not a proxy for leadership What Capacity Debt is, and why running on empty puts major decisions at risk How to use AI to build capacity rather than just produce more Why assertiveness only works when it comes with the reasoning behind it How to move from managing teams to building collaborators What Ethos-Driven Leadership asks of a senior leader The 15-minute practice Dawn recommends every leader try this week Dawn Christian:  “The point is capacity.” Kim Bohr:  “Transformative leadership isn't about having all the answers, it's about having the courage to find them.” Courage to Advance is hosted by Kim Bohr, CEO of SparkEffect, and brings senior HR and business leaders into honest conversation about leading people through real complexity. New episodes drop every second, third, and fourth Tuesday of each month. Subscribe wherever you listen, and at https://sparkeffect.com/sparkeffect-podcast-courage-to-advance/

Most leaders are still waiting for work to settle down. The research says the wait is the problem. In year two of SparkEffect's study of organizational trust, 85% of people reported a significant disruption in the past two years, up from 71%. Disruption is not the storm that passes. It is the climate. The common response is to treat it as a stability problem and reach for another training. The data points somewhere else. Support is widespread but thin, no single form of help reached more than a third of people, and the weight of holding trust together during change lands on one person, the direct manager, who is being handed AI and told to figure it out at the same time. Host Kim Bohr, CEO of SparkEffect, is joined by Aaron Delgaty, PhD, a cultural anthropologist and the founder of Note & Niche, who led year two of Trust in Turbulence. Together they make the case that trust is not soft or mysterious. It is measurable, and it moves the business. What You'll Discover Why business as usual was never a promise of stability Why thin, one-size support is a bigger risk than most leaders realize Why a resource employees do not know about does not functionally exist Why AI landed twice as hard on managers What employees actually want from a manager during uncertainty How trust shows up in revenue, retention, and reputation From the episode Aaron Delgaty, PhD: “The managers are a lot like the transmission in a car. They're constantly being used. And if your transmission goes out in your car, it's probably totaled.” Kim Bohr: “You can measure trust, and it has a direct impact on these four Rs. Companies should be concerned about the decisions their customers are making based on trust.” About the Podcast Courage to Advance brings senior HR and business leaders into honest conversation about leading people through real complexity, hosted by Kim Bohr, CEO of SparkEffect. New episodes drop every second, third, and fourth Tuesday of each month. Subscribe at https://sparkeffect.com/sparkeffect-podcast-courage-to-advance/.

Most of us are taught to wait for proof before we move. Find the data, find the comparable, make sure someone has done it first. But the ideas that matter most rarely come with evidence attached. In the fall of 2021, one of the best women's soccer teams in the country was one win from a championship, and not a single bar in Seattle would show the game. The response Jen Barnes got when she called around was casual and complete: maybe after the men's football games, if there is anything left. The inequity was not hidden. It had just become so normal that most people had stopped seeing it. Jen spent more than 25 years leading other people's companies before she opened Rough & Tumble, the world's first bar built for gender equity in sports viewing, in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood in 2022. She did it with no market comparable, no proof of concept, and nearly everyone in her life telling her it would fail. Host Kim Bohr, CEO of SparkEffect, sits down with Jen for an honest conversation about moving on conviction when the data has not caught up, and what every leader owes their own judgment when the room says wait. What you'll discover: - How Jen built a case for an idea with no market data behind it - How to tell a gut instinct worth following from wishful thinking - Why saying no to the industry playbook became her growth strategy - What keeps a team together in an industry known for burning people out - How leading changes when you stop building every decision around consensus - The real costs putting neighborhood restaurants at risk Notable Quotes “There was no question in my mind that this was going to make it.”  - Jen Barnes “This is a conversation about what it takes to carry a room when the only evidence you have is your own belief.”  - Kim Bohr Hosted by Kim Bohr, CEO of SparkEffect, Courage to Advance brings senior HR and business leaders into honest conversation about leading people through real complexity. New episodes drop every second, third, and fourth Tuesday of each month. Subscribe at https://sparkeffect.com/sparkeffect-podcast-courage-to-advance/.

Most leaders are told to close the deal first and earn the relationship later. Witney Schneidman spent fifty years proving the reverse, and in this episode he shows host Kim Bohr how trust is really built. In a market that rewards speed, most of us rush the one thing that cannot be rushed. SparkEffect's research found that 71% of employees have lived through a major disruption in the past two years, and that how leaders handle those moments can lift trust by 12% or sink it by 28%. Schneidman's career is a long argument for the patient, relationship-first path. A Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, the founder of Schneidman & Associates International, and a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, he built his work on understanding who he was dealing with, learning what they actually wanted, and aligning his goals with theirs before asking for anything. What You'll Discover How he decides whether a person or organization is worth trusting, before he commits The relationship-first sequence he uses instead of rushing to a deal Why leading with what you do not know builds trust rather than undermining it How he aligns his goals with the other side's priorities to create a shared vision How he stayed effective for fifty years by reinventing his focus every few years Why a durable career runs on a vision larger than yourself From the conversation Witney Schneidman: “Who is this person and how have I come to know them? Because relationships matter.” Kim Bohr: “Pausing and figuring out how to genuinely build relationships seems to be something that we need to focus even more on now.” Courage to Advance is hosted by Kim Bohr, CEO of SparkEffect. New episodes drop every second, third, and fourth Tuesday of each month. Subscribe at https://sparkeffect.com/sparkeffect-podcast-courage-to-advance/.

Most organizations have already spent the money on AI training. Far fewer have anything that looks like real adoption. A DataCamp study found that 82% of organizations train employees on AI while 59% still report a skills gap. So what is actually going wrong? On this episode of Courage to Advance, host Kim Bohr and Elayne Fluker put the answer somewhere most rollouts overlook: trust. People will not commit to a tool that feels like a threat to their standing, and mandating adoption only sharpens the fear that they are training their own replacement. What closes the gap is whether people trust that their experience still counts. Elayne is a Certified AI Consultant, an ICF-trained executive coach, and the founder of the AI-Ready Leader Platform. She spent 25 years as a media executive at Essence, Martha Stewart Living, and Conde Nast, and is the author of Get Over "I Got It" (HarperCollins Leadership). Her framework, Human Nurture, is the deliberate work of developing people so they can rise to the AI moment instead of being broken by it. What you'll discover Why AI adoption comes down to trust, not tooling The four tenets of Human Nurture: safety over fear, development over extraction, honoring experience, and leaders who go first Why mandates deepen the exact fear that blocks adoption What it means to honor experience so people trust their expertise still matters The Five R's of the Empowered Ask: Ready, Reasons, Receipts, Request, Reciprocity How to test a big change before committing to it Kim Bohr: "What if the AI era won't be won by the leaders with the best tools, but by the ones who protect what those tools can't replace?" Elayne Fluker: "I think organizations are trying to mandate their way to AI capability." Courage to Advance is hosted by Kim Bohr, CEO of SparkEffect, and brings senior HR and business leaders into honest conversation about leading people through real complexity. New episodes drop every second, third, and fourth Tuesday of each month. Subscribe at https://sparkeffect.com/sparkeffect-podcast-courage-to-advance/.

Only 2% of leaders believe their performance management process adds any real value. That is a problem, because the number one driver of profit growth in any company is people growth. When the system built to grow people is broken, growth stalls. On this episode of Courage to Advance, host Kim Bohr talks with leadership team coach Mike Goldman about what actually holds teams back. It is rarely strategy or product. It is the wrong people, or good people no one is developing, papered over with annual reviews and core values that live on a website. Mike Goldman is a leadership team coach and USA Today bestselling author of The Strength of Talent. Over close to 20 years working with small and mid-market leadership teams, he built the Talent Density Framework and its companion metric, the Talent Density Indicator, to help leaders grow people the way they grow revenue. What You'll Discover Why annual reviews fail as a growth tool, and what replaces them How to tell whether your expectations are actually clear The test that separates a real core value from website copy Why protecting a high-producing culture violator costs more than the revenue they bring How to make a difficult exit a kindness From the Conversation Mike Goldman: “The number one driver of profit growth is people growth.” Kim Bohr: “There's a lot of scary stuff coming at us and we can put our head in the sand or we could embrace it and just step forward and take it on.” About the Podcast Courage to Advance explores how visionary leaders build the organizations they wish existed through trust, transparency, and the willingness to challenge what no longer works. Hosted by Kim Bohr, CEO of SparkEffect, it brings senior HR and business leaders into honest conversation about leading people through real complexity. Subscribe for new episodes every second, third, and fourth Tuesday of each month at https://sparkeffect.com/sparkeffect-podcast-courage-to-advance/