Creating Inclusive Workplaces: A Conversation with Sejal Thakkar

Sejal Thakkar is on a mission to educate and empower people to create a world where everyone is treated with dignity and respect. In this episode of “Training Unleashed,” host Evan Hackel engaged in a compelling conversation with Sejal, delving into the critical aspects of equity, diversity, and employee civility in the workplace.

The Hard Way v. The Easy Way?

The discussion kicks off with the question of whether companies prefer the hard way or the easy way when it comes to training and coaching leaders. Thakkar emphasizes the importance of being proactive in providing leaders with the necessary tools to prevent issues, rather than taking shortcuts that might lead to negative consequences later.

Bystander Training: Empowering the Silent Observers

Thakkar passionately advocated for bystander intervention training, shedding light on the pivotal role of bystanders in creating safe environments. By encouraging respectful and professional intervention, organizations can alleviate the burden placed on marginalized individuals and contribute to the establishment of psychological safety.

The HAT Technique

Thakkar introduces the HAT technique—an acronym for Hold Off, Ask Why, and Take Action—as a framework for mitigating unconscious biases. This technique encourages individuals to question immediate reactions, explore the reasons behind biases, and take actions that promote inclusivity.

Golden Rule? No, The Platinum Rule!

The episode concludes with a valuable tip from Sajel: adopting the platinum rule—treating others how they want to be treated. By understanding and respecting individual differences, organizations can enhance creativity, innovation, and overall workplace dynamics.

About Our Guest

Sejal is a former employment law attorney, a 2X TEDx speaker, and the Founder and Chief Civility Officer at TrainXtra, where she helps leaders create positive, safe, and respectful workplaces through customized training and coaching. She is responsible for cultivating a people-first culture at Nobody Studios.

She invites all organizations to explore TrainXtra‘s workshops and resources. Whether in-person or virtual, TrainXtra offers a diverse range of workshops covering topics such as unconscious bias, microaggressions, and fostering diversity and inclusion.

2023-11-17T17:26:25-05:00November 17, 2023|

Inspiring an organization with Tony Martignetti

In this Training Unleashed podcast, host Evan Hackel interviewed Tony Martignetti, Chief Inspiration Officer at Inspired Purpose Coaching, trusted advisor and leadership coach. They discussed the critical role that inspiration plays in helping companies succeed.

Why We Need to Be Not Just Motivated, But Inspired

Inspiration is the tool that keeps leaders motivated. It is the fuel that helps us center on what Tony calls “Our soul’s purpose.”

How do we identify that fuel? Tony says it is as simple as identifying what “lights us up” in our lives and our companies.

How to Inspire Everyone in Our Organizations

Tony says one key is to identify what is inspiring the people we lead.

The clues to where that organization lies can often be found in the stories that people tell about achievements that make them proud. Those stories have a plotline that contains what Tony calls “flashpoints” – those moments that taught them lessons that they then brought back into the real world and used to create change.

The challenge, he states is to find meaning in those flashpoints and to use that meaning to inspire and move forward.

Why Everyone in an Organization Should be Inspired

It is important for the leader to be inspired. But that is not enough. Real change and growth will only occur when everyone in the organization becomes inspired. Getting that to happen is the leader’s greatest challenge.

“It starts by really connecting with people and understanding what’s driving them,” Tony explained to Evan. Getting that to happen begins when you consider what brought those people to your company.

“Everyone has their own things that they’re driven by,” Tony states. “But you have to start by painting them a picture and giving them a scene that shows why you are all there.”

A Special Offer

Tony encourages you to contact him at Inspired Purpose Coaching and to schedule a complimentary 30-minute session with him. There is no obligation. “From there, we can see if we are a good fit,” he explains.

About Our Guest

Tony Martignetti is a trusted advisor, coach, experience creator, author, podcast host, and speaker. He brings together over 25 years of business and management experience, formal training, and extreme curiosity to elevate leaders and equip them with the tools to navigate through change and unlock their true potential.

He loves guiding people to find clarity in their lives so they are energized, fully present, and unstoppable. When leaders unlock their potential and lead from a place of inspired purpose, they impact and inspire everyone around them. He has dedicated himself to helping people live inspired lives.

Learn more at Inspired Purpose Coaching.

2022-10-14T10:48:55-04:00October 14, 2022|

Building an empowered workforce with Lee Caraher

Lee Caraher is the founder and CEO of Double Forte, a national public relations and digital media agency, best-selling author of The Boomerang Principle: Inspire Lifetime Loyalty from Your Employees, and recent guest on the Training Unleashed podcast where Lee shared her proven strategies for building an empowered workforce with host Evan Hackel. Lee is an expert on managing the media, leading people, building an empowered workforce, and a communication ninja.

We know you will profit from every big idea Lee and Evan discussed.

One of the big ideas: there is a disconnect when training executives and their teams separately

The training that many companies give their senior managers doesn’t work. Why? Lee explains the flaw in training senior managers and their teams as two-fold.

One issue, according to Lee, is that many companies send their leaders to off-site training programs, where experts give the leaders big ideas. But when those executives return to their companies and start to explain all those new ideas, their teams respond with, “What are you talking about? What is this new language you are using?”

That is the first disconnect.

Another disconnect occurs when top executives never take the training that is being delivered to their employees. They think they’re too busy. Or perhaps that the training is beneath them. And when nothing changes, the executives think the people in their organizations are resisting.

One solution Lee proposes is for executives and their teams to attend training together. In that way, everyone can determine how they can move forward together. And cooperation becomes the focus.

A Special Offer

This is the best offer EVER!

Lee explains, “One of our goals at Double Forte is to help women and people of color become more noted as experts in their fields . . . not to make them experts, but to take people who are already experts in their field and have them get noted for it.”

Double Forte is on a mission to train 5000 accomplished women managers to be spokespeople for themselves and their companies… they are halfway to reaching their goal.

The offer: Lee explains, “We can’t go in and do an eight-hour session with everybody who wants to do this. But we can do a two-hour training session or two and a half hours, with you and your team for free if you are a nonprofit. If you are a business, it’s not free. But we will show you exactly what to do to get quoted by the media, because when that happens your star rises, your income rises, your gravitas rises, and you have many more options in your career.”

To take advantage of the offer: connect with Lee at [email protected] for more information about the offer and to make sure you and your team are a right fit for their mission.

About Our Guest

Lee Caraher is a CEO, best-selling author, and sought-after speaker. Founder and CEO of Double Forte a national PR & Communications firm in San Francisco, New York, and Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Lee is an acclaimed communication strategist known for her practical solutions to big problems. Her company works with companies big and small that are making a difference in their categories.

Lee’s the author of Millennials & Management based on her experience with failing and then succeeding at retaining Millennials. Her second book, The Boomerang Principle helps companies create high producing, positive work cultures that employees want to return to – a critical factor in sustainable businesses.

Lee has a reputation for building cohesive, high producing teams who have fun together at the same time. She is a straight talker who doesn’t hold too many punches, although she does her best to be pleasant about it. Her big laugh and sense of humor have gotten her out of a lot of trouble.

Lee is active in the community and currently serves on two nonprofit boards. A graduate of Carleton College, Lee is currently running her company from home whilst we all wait to see how the pandemic shakes out (and is happy that she finally has something relevant to share from her Medieval History degree).

2022-09-29T10:39:29-04:00September 29, 2022|

Identifying leadership opportunities with Kimberly Gerber

In this Training Unleashed Podcast, our host Evan Hackel interviewed Kimberly Gerber, CEO of Excelerate and executive coach. We know you will benefit from Kimberly’s no-holds-barred insights into what many leaders do both right and wrong as they strive to build successful organizations. Here are some of the leadership opportunities that came to the surface in the interview.

Leadership Opportunity: Hire and Promote the Right People

Often, leaders hire the wrong people for the wrong jobs. But Kimberly points out that just as often, companies hire the right people and place them in the wrong jobs.

Why do company leaders make this mistake? One reason is that executives who are interviewing tend to over-prioritize the personal connection they feel with candidates.

Kimberly also observes that hiring executives are prone to evaluate internal candidates by looking at the jobs they have performed in the company and overlook the fact that internal candidates could have a “whole other background” of skills that they could bring to the new role.

Leadership Opportunity: Retain the Right People

Kimberly told Evan that in the wake of Covid-19, many companies are simply not doing enough proactively to retain their talent. Companies need to get their most important employees on employee incentive and reward programs, so they will not want to leave.

Leadership Opportunity: Connect Personally with Employees

According to Kimberly, another reason people leave is that the leaders fail to invest in them on a personal level. “People want to know that a leader has your back . . . is investing in you from a mentoring perspective . . . is taking the time to craft a career plan for you and providing opportunities for you to grow your skillset. Those are the leaders that people will hang around for.”

Leadership Opportunity: Build Trust

Loyalty results when people trust that a leader will give them the opportunities to keep growing and simply to feel good about collaborating with him or her. Kimberly stated, “When people feel that way, they think, `I’ll stay with this company, even though I might be leaving money on the table.’” Evan agreed and noted that while people like money, it is usually not the most important motivator to follow a leader and give their utmost to an employer.

Leadership Opportunity: Invest in Great Training

Kimberly observed that leaders should take the lead in having their organizations provide inspiring training to their people. Doing so does more than teach people skills, it demonstrates that a company is making a committed, long-term investment in every member of the team.

A Special Offer

Kimberly Gerber invites all members of the Training Unleashed community to take the Promotability Assessment that you will find on the Excelerate website.

About Our Guest

Kimberly Gerber is the founder of Excelerate, an innovative executive development firm specializing in helping leaders prepare for and succeed in C-level roles. For 30+ years, she has helped transform the impact of 1500+ leaders across 100 companies.

The creator of several innovative leadership development programs, Kimberly helps senior leaders create strategic vision, build strong cultures, elevate leadership presence, and finesse communication to strengthen their impact on teams and organizations.

Kimberly and her team at Excelerate have provided more than 38,000 hours of coaching, training and strategy work, helping her executive clients master the five elements of successful executive-level leadership—boosting a 94% client promotion rate and a 100% client re-hire rate. Her focus of candor and kindness is designed to help her clients become the best version of themselves.

2022-09-22T15:29:41-04:00September 22, 2022|

Being a Chief Everything Officer with Richard Shaull

 

Richard Shaull is co-founder and CEO of a company called Unleashed CEO. Richard has helped hundreds of businesses implement the right systems and teams, enabling them to rapidly scale.

In a recent Training Unleashed Podcast, Richard and host Evan Hackel discussed Richard’s exciting idea that what companies need today is what he calls Chief Everything Officers –leaders who practice the ability to wear many hats at once and unleash the power of their associates.

What It Means to Be a Chief Everything Officer

Richard told Evan that this new kind of executive – a Chief Everything Officer – is someone who sits in an executive seat in a company but finds themself wearing many more hats than they anticipated. They’re spinning more plates than they feel like they can keep going at any one time and putting out fires all the time – forced to live in what Richard calls “a reactive state.”

“None of us wants to own that identity,” Richard told Evan. “But if we’re honest with ourselves in a moment of self-reflection, we’d say, `Yeah, I’m playing Chief Everything Officer. In any moment I could be Human Resources Officer or whatever the need may be.’”

Listen to the entire podcast to hear Richard’s tips that people can use to help build a mindset that a Chief Everything Officer needs.

A Power Tip from Richard

When asked for one tip for the audience, Richard answered, “Establish a daily practice of silence and stillness where you reflect on who you want to be and what you see. I can’t tell you how impactful that practice has been in my life as a leader. I get away from my phone and my email and use that time to set an intention.”

A Special Offer

Richard invites you to visit Unleashed.ceo, to use all the resources there, and to schedule a complimentary call about your leadership with a member of his team.

About Our Guests

Richard Shaull is Co-Founder and CEO of Unleashed.ceo. After playing Chief Everything Officer in several of his own businesses nearly killed him, Richard made it his mission to ensure other business owners didn’t go through the same struggles alone. Much of what he’s accomplished is attributed to his ideology of “standing on the shoulders of giants.”

Richard has helped hundreds of businesses implement the right systems and teams, enabling them to rapidly scale. Outside of helping companies reach unbelievable growth, Richard is also a proud husband and father of two girls, and a man of deep spiritual conviction. He is also a connoisseur of craft coffee and cooking.

2022-09-09T18:28:00-04:00September 9, 2022|

Unlocking the power of purpose with Mark Mears


Mark Mears is the founder and Chief Growth Officer at Leaf Growth Ventures LLC, a consulting firm that helps companies focus on strategic planning and execution. Mark is also author of the new book The Purposeful Growth Revolution: 4 Ways to Grow from Leader to Legacy Builder.

In a recent Training Unleashed Podcast with host Evan Hackel, Mark talked about using the power of purpose to revitalize your company and unlock new levels of success.

Mark believes that successful businesses are purpose-driven. But his insights go deeper than that. “Companies should understand that employees or team members do not want to just be an employee ID number. They want to feel like they’re part of the process, that they’re making a difference, that they’re connected to something that’s bigger than just pulling a shift, clocking in and out and getting paid every other week. They don’t want that anymore. They have put up with it for years – we all have.”

He continues, “And so, the great repurposing has given us a pause for employers to look and say, `Let’s look at this pragmatically. We’ve all heard that our people are the most important and valuable resource on our balance sheet or, `Our people make the difference.’ But how can we make those words more than just an empty set of platitudes? We’ve got to put the meat on the bones. We’ve got to say, okay, how are our people the most important? How can we listen more deeply than we’ve listened before to really understand what and who is most important in their lives?… We’ve got to get this right. And that’s why I call it the Purposeful Growth Revolution, because not only is it circular, but there is this uprising in the people, and we must recognize that they’re mad as hell. They’re not going to take it anymore.”

Make sure you listen to the entire episode to hear more about unlocking the power of purpose in your organization.

A Special Offer

Visit https://www.markamears.com/free-book-chapters and sign up to receive free chapters from Mark’s book The Purposeful Growth Revolution: 4 Ways to Grow from Leader to Legacy Builder.

About Our Guests

Mark Mears is Chief Growth Officer at Leaf Growth Ventures LLC, a consulting firm that helps companies focus on strategic planning and execution. Mark is also author of the new book The Purposeful Growth Revolution: 4 Ways to Grow from Leader to Legacy Builder.

During his 30+ year career serving in a variety of executive marketing and leadership positions – spanning both agencies and brands – he has gained a unique and well-rounded perspective working for or with GROWTH brands such as PepsiCo/Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, Frito-Lay, JCPenney, NBC/Universal and The Cheesecake Factory among many others. His personal experiences, along with Best Practice observations of others he admires, led him to develop L.E.A.F. – a proven model to help maximize the full GROWTH potential of Individuals, Teams and Brands — founded upon 4 ‘revolutionary’ and purposeful processes: L.eadership, E.ngagement, A.ccountability & F.ulfillment. L.E.A.F. Growth Ventures can help achieve your stated GROWTH goals – whether you desire to grow an emerging brand, or reignite growth in a mature brand.

2022-08-23T11:22:49-04:00August 23, 2022|

Building your company’s wellness with Tarin Calmeyer

Because the health of your company is built on the wellness of every person who works with you, employee wellness programs are one of the smartest investments you can make.

But what kind of employee wellness programs work best? Which offer your company the biggest ROI? And how do you engage your employees to take part in them?

In a recent Training Unleashed podcast, our host Evan Hackel asked Tarin Calmeyer those questions and more. Tarin is CEO of Remote Team Wellness, a company that develops and delivers wellness programs for variety of successful companies.

According to Tarin, the benefits of implementing a wellness program in your company are endless. “Obviously, healthier employees are more productive. They work harder. They are happier to do the work that they’re engaged in and more motivated.”

Tarin provides some great, simple and effective steps you can follow to start building wellness into your company’s daily behaviors. “It’s a matter of inspiring people to [build wellness into their day,] while they are working, in the best way they can.” Tarin continued, “because having another thing to add to your plate and learn to do is just stressful at this moment in time.”

If you are committed to building a top-performing company, we know you will want to spend time watching this motivating – and very different – episode of Training Unleashed.

A Special Offer

Tarin would like you, a member of our Training Unleased community, to engage in a short meditation she created for starting every day with focus and energy. You can find it at InsightTimer.com.

“It is a short meditation that can be used to create space, focus, and clarity in your mornings – or anywhere throughout the day,” Tarin Says. “But I really love using this practice in the morning because it is a breathing practice. It’s a great way to check in with yourself and your body just as you’re starting your day.”

About Our Guests

Tarin Calmeyer is CEO of Remote Team Wellness, a corporate wellness company that focuses on developing and delivering remote wellness programs for companies. By blending technology with leading teachers, Remote Team Wellness promotes organizational wellness by fostering team building. The results include reduced workplace stress and healthier workplace environments.

Prior to founding Remote Team Wellness, Tarin was a leading international coach specializing in yoga, meditation, and overall wellness. She has collaborated with forward-thinking companies that value and prioritize the wellness of their workplace. And she has taught thousands of people around the world to implement simple, mindful techniques that result in monumental lifestyle changes. Find out more about how virtual wellness can benefit your team at www.remoteteamwellness.com

2022-08-16T13:28:26-04:00August 16, 2022|

Mastering the art of change leadership with Nancy Murphy

Evan Hackel recently sat down with organizational change consultant Nancy Murphy to discuss a topic that is on everyone’s mind these days: How can effective leaders bring about change in their organizations during these remarkably challenging times?

Nancy, Founder and CEO of CSR Communications, is a trainer, speaker, advisor, and mentor with a passion for teaching leaders of established organizations how to make change stick.

According to Nancy, the key to making change stick is by shifting our approach from managing people to leading people.

“Let’s stop talking about managing change because that implies that change is something that is predictable, controllable, linear, and logical . . . that you’re in certain stages for predictable periods of time and that if you have the right checklists, everything is going to be easy. As I said earlier, organizations are made up of people and people are messy, emotional humans. And especially when it comes to change, there are emotional triggers that make it hard. So, we can’t manage people. We can manage things, but we can’t manage people. We need to lead people.

“And so, the first mistake organizations make is to approach change as a purely scientific process, as though it’s a predictable, linear, manageable thing. Implementation of change might have some of those checklists, but we really need the change leadership first.”

If you are leading your organization through a process of change, you will want to listen to the entire episode of Training Unleashed with Nancy Murphy.

A Special Offer

Nancy invites you to access the free publications and resources you will find on the CSR Communications resource page. In our view, they are terrific!

About Our Guests

Nancy Murphy is Chief Executive Officer of CSR Communications. She is an entrepreneur, former intrapreneur, trainer, speaker, advisor, and mentor helping mission-driven organizations and socially conscious businesses achieve their next big initiative to rapidly expand their impact.

“I founded CSR Communications to help organizations move beyond grand gestures and bold statements, to organizational change that sticks,” Nancy says. “I’ve spent my career saying what others are afraid to – and learning to say it in ways that others will listen. From challenging stereotypes of girls in my Catholic school more than 30 years ago, to my first job after college convincing nonprofits to engage youth volunteers, or my role as board chair of a global nonprofit transforming the way we do international development, I’ve experienced the challenges of leading big change within established organizations. I’ve learned lots of lessons, developed techniques that work — and I’m willing to share them with others. I’ve worked with global nonprofits, foundations, Fortune 100 companies, local governments, and federal agencies.”

2022-08-04T12:46:09-04:00August 4, 2022|

Developing your personal superpowers with John Reid and Corena Chase

In this episode of Training Unleashed, Evan speaks with John Reid and Corena Chase, two of the team of consultant/trainers who wrote the new book The Five Lost Superpowers: Why We Lose Them and How to Get Them, recently published by LionCrest Publishing.

John and Corena believe that when we were children, we all possessed extraordinary superpowers. Then while we were growing up, we were told and taught to dampen them. But John and Corena believe we still have these powers. They are always there below the surface, waiting to help us achieve our fullest human potential.

The five lost powers are . . .

  • Curiosity
  • Resilience
  • Authenticity
  • Compassion
  • Playfulness

Listen to the entire episode as Evan, John and Corena explore the five life-changing superpowers, and how we can reignite them to unlock our best selves and change our lives for the better.

A Special Offer

John and Corena would like to send a copy of their new book The Five Lost Superpowers: Why We Lose Them and How to Get Them to the first 20 listeners who email John at [email protected] to ask for a copy.

About Our Guests

John Reid is Founder, President and lead designer of JMReid Group, a global behavior change organization specializing in leadership, development, sales effectiveness and skill enhancement. John is unique in the training development space, having spent much of his career within industry.

After John survived three bouts of cancer, he decided to pursue his passion for learning and development. John pursued this passion with a belief that people could get better and wanted to get better, but it was often the manner of which traditional training is designed and delivered that made this desire for growth difficult.

As the lead designer for JMReid Group, John shifts the design emphasis from models and intellectual property to a learning experience that is relevant to the learner’s real world, taps into participants’ wisdom and is engaging and sustainable.

Corena Chase designs and delivers customized courses at JMReid Group to facilitate organizational change and learning, and to help senior and developing leaders maximize their ability to influence and inspire colleagues and clients.

As a facilitator Corena focuses on creating awareness, challenge and support through experiential learning among peers. As an executive coach, she tailors tools to individual strengths and needs. Corena works in an array of industries including financial services, professional services and entertainment. Her clients include some of Fortune Magazine’s 100 most admired companies, who are committed to creating innovative opportunities to help their employees thrive.

In her previous career as an actor, Corena’s job was to use the study of human behavior, communication and emotional intelligence to walk in other people’s shoes and make sure their views were convincingly conveyed to audiences. As a facilitator and coach her job is to make sure your views are convincingly conveyed to the audience of stakeholders, clients and colleagues that you need to influence and motivate on a daily basis.

2022-07-18T09:47:37-04:00July 18, 2022|

Critical selling skills with Bill Farquharson

In this episode of Training Unleashed, our host Evan Hackel sat down with one of the most respected sales consultants today – Bill Farquharson. Yet as you will learn in this post today, Bill is about much more than selling. He has a far-ranging philosophy that can bring success in every part of your life.

Known for his energetic and entertaining presentations about improving sales and selling, Bill is a 40-year print sales veteran. He believes that every interaction through your day can be viewed – and improved – if you think of it as a sales situation. If you are stopped by a traffic officer, that can be viewed from a sales context. The same goes for times when you are negotiating with your children, buying a cup of coffee at Starbucks, and even when you are walking your dog. In the interview, Bill goes on to explain how he viewed recovering from the pandemic as a sales problem.

Bill was highly influenced by the classic book How to Win Friends and Influence People, written by Dale Carnegie. You probably won’t be surprised to learn that Bill views it as a sales book!

Be sure to listen to the end of the episode to hear Bill’s time management tips.

The Sales Vault with Bill Farquharson

The Sales Vault with Bill Farquharson contains a variety of resources that he has created for better selling. It includes videos, expert written advisories, and more.

About Our Guest

Bill Farquharson is a sales coach, author of many books, and a presenter who has more than 40 years of experience in the graphic arts. Bill is a respected industry expert and a speaker known for his energetic and entertaining presentations.

To learn more about Bill and The Sales Vault, be sure to visit Billfarquharson.com.

2022-07-12T12:22:49-04:00July 12, 2022|
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