How to Lead When Everything You're Doing Right Is Going Wrong

Imagine doing EVERYTHING right and watching things get progressively worse.You're following the plan. Your team is performing beautifully. You're checking all the boxes. And somehow, the situation is going straight to hell.Now imagine the consequences aren't missed deadlines or an irritated boss. They're actual lives.That's where retired Army Colonel Chris Kolenda (https://chriskolenda.com; )  found himself in Afghanistan. His 800-person unit was winning firefights, executing their training flawlessly, and losing soldiers. Something had to change, and the Army's conventional playbook wasn't offering particularly encouraging answers.What happened next is one of the most extraordinary leadership stories I've heard in over 400 podcast episodes.But Chris didn't arrive at that moment as some magical, perfectly evolved leadership unicorn. Earlier in his career, he'd stayed awake for 96 hours because he believed his team couldn't function without him. He tells us how that worked out.Spoiler Alert: Not good.That spectacular face plant helped launch his understanding of team-powered momentum, the ability to build teams that make smart decisions without needing the boss to supervise every sneeze.If you've been trying to lead by carrying everything yourself, Chris has a question worth considering.What if the thing holding your team back is the person working hardest to save it?Want more from Chris?https://chriskolenda.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/chriskolenda/https://www.youtube.com/@chriskolendaIn 20 years of war in Afghanistan, only one unit ever convinced the enemy to lay down their weapons and become allies. Our next speaker led it.Today, he works with leaders who want that same kind of team-powered momentum, so they can stop fighting today's fires and focus on tomorrow's prosperity.He is a retired Army Colonel who served for two and a half decades, including leading an 800-paratrooper task force through a 450-day deployment to Afghanistan. He later served as the Secretary of Defense's adviser and personal representative in talks with the Taliban.Anne Bonney turns resistance to change into momentum, helping leaders and teams navigate uncertainty, build resilience, and take action even when change feels uncomfortable.As a change management keynote speaker and emcee, Anne brings energy, humor, and practical strategies to the human side of organizational change, with a focus on emotional intelligence, courageous communication, and effective change leadership.

Imagine getting your life together. You leave a gang, stop getting arrested, teach yourself guitar, build a career and buy your first house at 20.Congratulations! You've officially turned your life around.WATCH THIS EPISODE ON YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jItU7LZor0Except there's one tiny problem. You changed everything except the stuff happening inside your head.Cesar Cardona (www.cesarcardona.com) knows that little plot twist intimately.Growing up surrounded by violence and abandonment, Cesar found belonging in a gang, eventually landing himself a felony arrest at 15. He escaped that world, became a musician, moved across the country and built a boxing career in Los Angeles.But the anger, fear and destructive habits followed him. Apparently, emotional baggage doesn't care how many miles you drive.Then, at 28, Cesar intervened when a woman was being harassed and those 5 men turned their attach on him.  His injuries were devastating. He had to learn to walk and talk again.And somewhere in the aftermath, this atheist walked into a Buddhist temple.What happened there changed the way he understood anger, suffering and the stories we tell ourselves about who we are.Today, Cesar is a mindfulness educator and professional speaker who teaches people how to find peace without requiring a personality transplant, a mountaintop retreat or the ability to sit cross-legged for three hours.We get into the surprising reason he left gang life, the Jimi Hendrix mural that played a bizarre recurring role in his transformation, and the moment a Buddhist teacher responded to someone widely disliked with something Cesar had never encountered before.We also tackle why your thoughts aren't necessarily telling you the truth, how to stop treating change like a personal attack, and how meditation can begin while you're folding laundry.Yes. Laundry.Because maybe finding inner peace doesn't require escaping your life.Maybe it starts with noticing what's happening while you're living it.Want more from Cesar?www.cesarcardona.com IG: _cesarcardona Podcast: Beauty in the Break The meditation study cited in the episode.  https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1361002/Time to stop waiting for people to “get on board” with change and get moving moving through the discomfort and into action.  Anne Bonney helps with that!  ​  Anne Bonney is a change keynote speaker and an energizing emcee specializing in the human side of organizational change, including resistance, resilience, engagement, emotional intelligence, courageous communication, and leadership.

Adulthood is apparently one long oral exam where somebody forgot to give us the study guide.What’s your five-year plan? Where is this relationship going? What’s the strategy? What’s next? And heaven forbid your answer is the three words we’ve somehow decided competent adults should never say:“I don’t know.”But after three wildly different conversations this month, I’m starting to think “I don’t know” needs a rebrand.Elena Carpino explored what happens when an old identity no longer fits, but the new one hasn’t introduced itself yet. Rick Lozano showed how creativity actually works when you don’t know where the idea, song or experiment is going. And Scott Bloom? He wrote an entire book that depended on Scott Bakula saying yes before Scott Bakula even knew anything about it.Different people. Different circumstances. Same fascinating pattern.They moved before they saw the whole path.In this month-end wrap-up, we’re looking at why our desperate hunt for certainty can keep us from doing SOMETHING, what happens when we stop demanding that Future Us provide a detailed itinerary, and why action may create the clarity we’ve been waiting around to receive.We’ll get into identity limbo, Rick’s idea of creating “in the absence of clarity,” Scott’s spectacularly unresolved Bakula gamble, my own basement-era “Who the hell am I now?” moment, and one deceptively simple strategy for making those enormous life questions small enough to actually do something about.Maybe “I don’t know” isn’t a stop sign.Maybe it’s just the part of the map that hasn’t been drawn yet.And unfortunately, sitting on the porch yelling at the blank space doesn’t seem to draw it.

You know that brilliant idea you had?  The one that survived exactly 11 seconds before your brain wandered in wearing a tiny judge’s robe and announced:“That’s stupid.”“That’ll never work.”“Someone’s probably already done it better.”Aaaaaand…scene.    WATCH THIS EPISODE ON YOUTUBE:  https://youtu.be/FNvfaUnaFfgHere’s the problem: we may not be running out of good ideas. We may just be murdering them before they get a chance to become good.And creativity? It’s not some magical fairy dust sprinkled exclusively on artists, musicians and people who make pottery in converted barns.You’ve got it too.Enter Rick Lozano; (https://ricklozano.com/) speaker, author, musician, songwriter and creator of Creative Reconnection.  Rick has spent years writing songs, developing leaders and bringing his guitar to work, and he’s learned something pretty useful along the way:You don’t always need to know where you’re going to start creating something worth following.So in this episode, we’re tackling your “I need to know this will work before I’m willing to try it” problem, so you can loosen your death grip on getting it RIGHT, play with a few terrible ideas, and start noticing possibilities that have been sitting under your nose the whole damn time.Along the way, we mess around with:Why creativity is a discipline, not a talent What stress and urgency do to your ability to see possibilitiesWhy adding MORE stuff can feel productive while accomplishing precisely squatHow leaders accidentally murder ideas with one tiny wordWhy deliberately trying not to succeed might produce something surprisingly usefulAnd why, occasionally, the only reasonable course of action is to GO FULL IDIOTAnd yes. There is a story involving Rick’s father’s funeral, missing paperwork, a frantic family search…and the discovery that sometimes the answer you’re desperately looking for is literally underneath your butt.You’ll understand when you listen.So the next time you don’t know exactly what you’re doing, please don’t stop.Make the crappy thing. Ask the weird question. Follow the interesting thread. Commit to the bit.Because as Rick puts it:  You don’t need to know. You need to GO.Want more from Rick?  ricklozano.comYoutube - https://www.youtube.com/@ricklozanoamplifyLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-lozano/Insta - https://www.instagram.com/ricklozanoamplify/Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/artist/0pOzjZsJ8S5o3aNh2WFZU0?si=6iqRc0VvTkqZEAc2HeS2RAThe SUPER clever status song we talked about- https://youtu.be/Twft-lLYgEcRick Lozano helps organizations spark Creative Reconnection™- bringing people back to the ideas, energy, and strengths that make great work possible. He’s a keynote speaker, author, and musician; he blends leadership insight, humor, and live music to create experiences that wake up creativity and momentum. Rick doesn’t just motivate audiences—he helps them reconnect, reimagine, and create what’s next.Anne Bonney is a change speaker and emcee who specializes in the human side of change.  She helps organizations stop waiting for people to “get on board” with change and gets them moving through the discomfort and into action.​  

Have you ever looked at your morning routine and thought:Maybe if I wake up at 4:37 a.m., meditate, levitate, journal, cold plunge, manifest abundance, drink mushroom and kale sludge and accomplish 11 things before sunrise…THEN I’ll finally have my shit together?Yeah.What if you could just…not?              WATCH THIS EPISODE ON YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/NEiprfC1axAEnter Scott Bloom  (scottbloomconnects.com) comedian, professional emcee, keynote speaker, author and apparently the man willing to poke the entire productivity-industrial complex with a very large and very funny stick.His new book, The Atomic Morning Miracle, is the self-help book for people who hate self-help books. It started as a parody of our obsession with optimizing, hacking and morning-routining ourselves into happiness.And then something weird happened.It started making actual sense.So in this episode, we’re tackling your “If I just optimize myself a LITTLE MORE, surely I’ll become a fully functioning human” problem…so you can maybe stop chasing the next magical habit and notice some of the ridiculously good stuff happening RIGHT NOW.Along the way, things get delightfully unhinged:How a fake productivity book accidentally became real self-helpThe fact that Scott wrote an entire book that DEPENDED ON Scott Bakula saying yes before he even knew if he wouldHow comedy can sneak useful ideas past our defensesThe “red carpet moments” we miss when we’re too busy controlling the planWhy synchronicity gets easier to spot when you get out of your headThere are also quantum timelines, Oprah as a backup plan, a Blue Jay mating call, aliens and interdimensional beings.  We contain multitudes.But underneath all the glorious nonsense is one surprisingly simple idea:Maybe you don’t need to DO more to finally arrive at the good part. Maybe the miracle is realizing you’re already here.Want more from Scott?  scottbloomconnects.comVeteran comedian, television personality and highly-respected professional emcee and keynote speaker, Scott has built a reputation as the go-to choice for business humor having hosted hundreds of events over two decades for companies such as FedEx, Ford, IBM, MetLife, PepsiCo, Pfizer and Verizon.  He’s been featured on Comedy Central, has hosted his own weekly VH1 series as well as national simulcasts for the Grammy Awards from the Palace Theatre.  He currently resides in Los Angeles.Anne Bonney helps organizations stop waiting for people to “get on board” with change and gets them into action despite the discomfort and uncertainty of it all.  She is a change speaker and a hilariously fun emcee specializing in the human side of organizational change; leadership, resilience and that elusive guiding light, emotional intelligence.

Ever have life pull the rug out from under you—and your first thought is, “Okay. RUDE.”               WATCH THIS EPISODE ON YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/bLW8oNovemoYou lose your job. Get the promotion. Get divorced. Leave something behind. Start something new. Or life simply grabs the Etch A Sketch and shakes the crap out of the picture you had of yourself.And somewhere between “Well, THIS isn’t what I expected…” and “What the hell do I do now?” an even weirder question sneaks in:Wait…who am I now?Because sometimes the hardest part of change isn’t figuring out the new plan...It’s realizing that the old version of YOU doesn't fit anymore.Enter Elaina Carpino, leadership alchemist and founder of Change is Heartwork. (https://changeisheartwork.com/)  Her own career has taken her all over the place, arming her with the tools to help others with their own reinvention.Together, we tackle that delightful “I’m not who I was, but I have NO FREAKING IDEA who I’m becoming” problem so you can stop demanding that Future You immediately show up with a name tag and a five-year plan.Because that weird space between what WAS and what’s NEXT might not be a problem to solve.It might be where the transformation is actually happening.Along the way, we poke at:Why major change totally messes with your identityWhat happens when your job title gets a little too tangled up with who you areThe strangely productive awfulness of the messy middleWhy self-trust gets especially important when you have no freaking clue what happens nextWhat you may need to let go of before there's room for something newSo if life has recently shaken your Etch A Sketch and you’re staring at the blank screen thinking, “Well…shit.”Good.  Because the blank isn't the problem.  The blank is THE POSSIBILITY!  Want more from Elaina?  Go to https://changeisheartwork.com/Elaina Carpino is a Leadership Alchemist and the founder of Change is HeartWork, an executive coaching practice for leaders in transition. Over 25 years she learned that transitions are identity events, not logistics. Her HEART Work Model guides leaders through the passage: back to themselves, forged for what's next.Anne Bonney helps organizations stop waiting for people to “get on board” with change and gets them moving through the discomfort and into action.​   Your host is a change keynote speaker and emcee specializing in the human side of personal and organizational change.

Who the hell made the scoreboard and why are we letting it decide whether we’re winning?After a month of conversations with extraordinary women in sports, one theme kept jumping out at me: we’re really good at letting one narrow outcome determine whether we consider ourselves successful.Olympian Elli Overton (https://www.ellioverton.com/) finished fifth IN THE WORLD and still felt like a failure.Sports broadcasting trailblazer Kate Delaney (https://katedelaneyspeaker.com/) heard hundreds of “no’s” from an industry that wasn’t exactly rolling out the welcome mat for women.Champion cyclist Traci Brown (https://www.bodylanguagetrainer.com/) never achieved her dream of making the Olympic team—yet raced for Team USA, won national titles and built an extraordinary career.So what happens when we stop letting the medal, promotion, paycheck, title, acceptance or somebody else’s opinion be the only measure of whether we’ve succeeded?In this month-end episode, we’re questioning the damn scoreboard.Because goals matter. Winning matters. Go chase the BIG thing.Just don’t let one outcome erase everything you accomplished along the way.Courtney Clark's episode on quitting: https://ignitingyourcourage.com/blog/2026/06/22/quitters-might-actually-win-with-courtney-clark/Scott Scovill's episode on never quitting: https://ignitingyourcourage.com/blog/2026/06/19/how-a-college-dropout-ended-up-touring-with-the-rolling-stones-with-scott-scovill/My wrap up episode of these 2 seemingly contradictory episodes: https://ignitingyourcourage.com/blog/2026/06/29/the-surprising-truth-about-quitting/Anne Bonney helps people “get on board” with change and gets them moving through the discomfort and into action.​  Anne Bonney is a change keynote speaker and emcee specializing in the human side of life and work's change, including resistance to change, resilience, emotional intelligence, courageous communication, and change leadership.

Think you’re good at spotting a liar? Your own brain might be working against you.WATCH THIS EPISODE ON YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/jm6tURgN0wsTraci Brown (https://www.bodylanguagetrainer.com/)  is a three-time U.S. collegiate national cycling champion, former Team USA cyclist, and body language and deception detection expert who has trained alongside law enforcement, and her path to becoming a human lie detector started in one of the most notorious eras of professional cycling.In this episode, Traci takes us inside the world of elite cycling, including racing alongside the generation of athletes that included Lance Armstrong, the complicated reality of doping, and what high-level competition taught her about preparation, persistence, and never freakin quitting.Then we get into the REALLY fun stuff: How do you spot deception? What does body language reveal? And why are we so damn good at rationalizing away evidence that conflicts with what we already believe?Because spotting a liar isn’t just about watching them.Sometimes you need to watch yourself.  Anne Bonney helps organizations stop waiting for people to “get on board” with change.  She gets them moving through the discomfort and into action and self-accountability.​  Anne Bonney is a change keynote speaker and emcee specializing in the human side of organizational change, including resistance to change, redefining success, emotional intelligence, courageous communication, and change leadership.

What happens when you’re one of the best in the world…and still feel like a failure?Three-time Australian Olympic swimmer Elli Overton (https://www.ellioverton.com) knows exactly what that feels like.WATCH THIS EPISODE ON YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/IL56sy9fKS0At 22, Elli walked into her second Olympics confident, accomplished, and ready to win a medal. She’d built her life around that goal; training, eating, sleeping, sacrificing and visualizing that one race. Then she finished fifth.FIFTH. IN. THE. WORLD.And her brain translated that extraordinary accomplishment into: I’m a failure.In this episode, Elli gets incredibly honest about the dangerous line between pursuing excellence and tying your entire identity and worth to the outcome. We talk about the crushing disappointment of missing the podiumthe question she still hates being askedthe perspective she wishes she’d had as a young elite athlete.Now pursuing a career in mental health, Elli is using those hard-earned lessons to help athletes, parents, coaches, educators and high-performing organizations rethink success and failure.Because there’s a HUGE difference between “I failed at something” and “I am a failure.”How do we chase extraordinary goals, push ourselves to our potential…and still be okay when we don’t get the medal?THAT’S the conversation. Elli Overton is a three-time Australian Olympic swimmer, a mother, a TEDx speaker, and a children’s book author. She is also pursuing licensure as a marriage and family therapist. Through her speaking and consulting, Elli helps individuals, teams, and organizations thrive in life and sport by fostering sustainable excellence through self-awareness, resilience, and healthy perspectives on success and failure.Anne Bonney helps organizations stop waiting for people to “get on board” with change and gets them moving through the discomfort and into action.​  Anne Bonney is a change keynote speaker and emcee specializing in the human side of organizational change, including resistance to change, seeking excellence and resilience, emotional intelligence, and change leadership.

What do you do when the world tells you “NO” 500 times?If you’re Kate Delaney (https://katedelaneyspeaker.com/) apparently you keep going until they finally get the hell out of your way.WATCH THIS EPISODE ON YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/U9j2caW-OeEKate is an Emmy Award-winning broadcaster, author, speaker, and one of the first women to host a solo nationally syndicated sports talk show. But before the awards, big-name interviews and 700+ locker rooms (yes, there are stories), there were years of rejection, including being flat-out told that women didn’t belong in sports broadcasting.So how do you keep rejection from turning into discouragement, bitterness, or the sneaking suspicion that maybe everyone else is right?THAT’S where this conversation gets juicy.Kate and I talk about what it actually takes to keep betting on yourself when all signs point to Quitsville and how she built the confidence, resilience and tiny-but-mighty army of “raving fans” that helped her break through.We also get into:The spectacularly inappropriate on-air slip that helped Kate WIN an award.Why she stopped telling certain people about her dreams and who she listened to instead.The confidence lesson she learned from watching men claim what they were good at…sometimes before they were actually good at it.Come for the sports. Stay for the glorious reminder that someone else’s “you can’t” does not have to be yours.Anne Bonney helps organizations stop waiting for people to “get on board” with change and gets them moving through the discomfort and into action.​  She is a change keynote speaker and emcee specializing in the human side of organizational change, including resistance to change, confident change leadership, emotional intelligence, and courageous communication.