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Robyn Bolton on the Inspire Greatness Podcast

In this episode of the Inspire Greatness Podcast, I had the opportunity to chat with Robyn Bolton, author and founder of MileZero.

Robyn previously worked at Innosight, the consulting firm founded by Harvard professor Clayton Christensen, BCG, and Procter & Gamble, where she helped develop and launch the Swiffer. She is the founder and Chief Navigator at MileZero, a consultancy that helps leaders use innovation to confidently and repeatedly grow business revenue.

Robyn is the author of the forthcoming book Unlocking Innovation: A Leader’s Guide for Turning Bold Ideas Into Tangible Results. Her articles and perspectives have been featured in Fast Company, Harvard Business Review Online, The New York Times, and NPR’s Marketplace. 

During our conversation, Robyn discussed three proven methods for inspiring greatness in team members:

  1. Doing the opposite of your instincts
  2. Being honest about what you are and aren’t willing to do
  3. Walking the talk

Tune in to be inspired by Robyn’s wisdom and passion!

Learn more about MileZero


Connect with Robyn on LinkedIn


Debra Corey on The Inspire Greatness Podcast

In this episode of the Inspire Greatness Podcast, I had the pleasure of chatting with Debra Corey, an accomplished author and respected HR leader.

Debra has been recognized as one of the top 101 global employee engagement influencers. Throughout her career, she has worked for prominent companies such as Gap Inc., Quintiles, Merlin Entertainments, and Reward Gateway. During her tenure, she developed and implemented HR strategies in an unconventional manner, constantly pushing boundaries and challenging the status quo to drive genuine employee engagement.

Following her extensive corporate experience, Debra took on the role of Chief Pay It Forward Officer at DebCo HR. In this capacity, she motivates and collaborates with others to unleash their inner rebel and catalyze cultural and business change through employee engagement and management development.

Additionally, Debra is the author of Bad Bosses Ruin Lives: The Building Blocks for Being a Great Boss, a practical guide designed for aspiring great bosses. The book outlines common bad-boss tendencies and offers actionable solutions through the Great Boss Building Block™ model.

During our conversation, Debra discussed three proven methods for inspiring greatness in team members:

  1. Awareness – Becoming aware of the blind spots and traps we fall into that unintentionally cause us to take on bad boss traits.
  1. Acceptance – Looking in the mirror and accepting our own individual bad boss traits so that we can take ownership of them.
  1. Action – Taking the right actions and leveraging the right knowledge, skills, and tools to become great and overcome our bad boss traits. 

Tune in to be inspired by Debra’s wisdom and passion!

Learn more about DebCo HR

Purchase Bad Bosses Ruin Lives: The Building Blocks for Being a Great Boss

Explore the The Boss Trait Assessment Tool

Subscribe to the Great Boss Newsletter

Connect with Debra on LinkedIn


Val Ries on The Inspire Greatness Podcast

In this episode of the Inspire Greatness Podcast, I had the opportunity to chat with Val Ries, author and founder of Executive Muse. 

Val is a former nurse and director of sales and training, with over 12 years as an executive coach working with leaders from companies like Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft. She also has 10 years of experience teaching and creating curricula on various leadership topics.

Val is the founder of Executive Muse, an executive coaching and management training company. Through Executive Muse, she coaches and trains high-impact leaders at startups, Fortune 500 companies, and small businesses. Her goal is to help them build powerful micro-cultures, increase productivity, decrease attrition, and improve employee engagement.

Val is also the author of the best-selling book Chief Inspiration Officer: How to Lead the Team Everyone Wants to Be On.

During our conversation, Val discussed their three proven methods for inspiring greatness in team members:

  1. Inspiring yourself first
  2. Knowing what your team CRAVEs
  • Connection/collaboration
  • Reliability
  • Appreciation
  • Value – making impact
  • Effective communication
  1. Gaining clarity on your real ideal

Tune in to be inspired by Val’s wisdom and passion!

Learn more about Executive Muse

Purchase Chief Inspiration Officer: How to Lead the Team Everyone Wants to Be On
Connect with Val on LinkedIn


Claudius Hildebrand on The Inspire Greatness Podcast

In this episode of the Inspire Greatness Podcast, I had the chance to have a conversation with Claudius Hildebrand. He is a consultant at Spencer Stuart, focusing on CEO performance and leadership advisory services. 

Having analyzed the performance of over 10,000 CEOs and conducted interviews with 100 CEOs and directors, Claudius has been able to identify key success factors. He provides guidance to CEOs, CHROs, and boards on how to improve performance and unleash potential.

Claudius is recognized as an award-winning author and contributes regularly to the Harvard Business Review. His work is often referenced in leading publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Forbes, and the Financial Times. 

He is also the author of The Life Cycle of a CEO: The Myths and Truths of How Leaders Succeed, which he co-authored with Robert J. Stark. The book explores the anticipated challenges and successes that CEOs encounter throughout their leadership journey.

The book combines unprecedented research and 100 in-depth interviews to reveal how successful CEOs navigate these cycles by developing fresh skills and strategies. It provides insights into personal growth, navigating crises, and unlocking higher individual and corporate performance.

During our conversation, Claudius discussed three proven methods for inspiring greatness in team members:

  1. Planting flags and building roads
  2. Giving up control to be in control
  3. Playing to win or avoiding to lose

Tune in to be inspired by Claudius’s wisdom and passion!

Learn more about Spencer Stuart

Preorder The Life Cycle of a CEO: The Myths and Truths of How Leaders Succeed

Connect with Claudius on LinkedIn

Subscribe to his LinkedIn Newsletter


Jen Thornton on The Inspire Greatness Podcast

In this episode of the Inspire Greatness Podcast, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jen Thornton, the founder and CEO of 304 Coaching. This renowned business consulting company is dedicated to helping organizations amplify their positive impact through progressive leadership.

Jen is particularly passionate about the adult development model and its profound influence on leadership. She specializes in guiding leaders through the critical transition from a reactive stage to a creative stage. Interestingly, only 30% of adults successfully progress beyond the reactive stage, making this transition essential for leaders who aspire to inspire their teams.

Jen emphasizes the importance of self-authorship in driving personal and team performance, as well as organizational success. During our conversation, she shared her three proven methods for inspiring greatness in team members: 

  1. Understanding how social change propels leadership evolution
  2. Developing the ability to self-author
  3. Transitioning from a reactive to a creative leadership mindset.

Learn more about 304 Coaching

Connect with Jen on LinkedIn


Genevieve Piturro on The Inspire Greatness Podcast

In this episode of the Inspire Greatness Podcast, I had the incredible opportunity to chat with Genevieve Piturro, the inspiring founder of Pajama Program.

Pajama Program is a nonprofit dedicated to helping children facing adversities by providing them with the essentials for a comforting bedtime and a better quality of life.

Genevieve is also the author of Purpose, Passion, and Pajamas: How to Transform Your Life, Embrace the Human Connection, and Lead with Meaning. In her book, she shares her remarkable journey of discovering and following her true calling.

During our enlightening conversation, Genevieve revealed her three powerful strategies for inspiring greatness in team members:

1. Listening to your heart voice

2. Being a cheerleader for your team members

3. Understanding that true change comes from the power of one another, not just one individual

Tune in to be inspired by Genevieve’s wisdom and passion!

Learn more about Pajama Program

Purchase Purpose, Passion, and Pajamas: How to Transform Your Life, Embrace the Human Connection, and Lead with Meaning

Connect with Genevieve on LinkedIn


Sunil Rajasekar on The Inspire Greatness Podcast

In this episode, I had an insightful conversation with Sunil Rajasekar, the CEO of Billtrust.

Billtrust is a cutting-edge financial services organization that provides cloud-based software and comprehensive payment processing solutions. Their goal is to enable finance teams to drive growth and to provide guidance and inspiration to businesses.

Sunil brings over 20 years of experience in the business software industry. Before leading Billtrust, he was the President of Mindbody, a prominent experience technology platform serving the fitness, wellness, and beauty sectors. Prior to that, Sunil held key roles as a General Manager at eBay and the CTO of Lithium Technologies. Additionally, he actively invests in and advises startups.

During our conversation, Sunil delved into his personal journey, sharing how he grappled with leadership challenges as a VP and how he realized the importance of adopting a leadership mindset as he transitioned to senior leadership.

This realization ultimately led him to develop the 8 tenets of leadership, which define his aspirations as a leader and provide support to other leaders within his organization.

Learn more about Billtrust

Connect with Sunil on LinkedIn

Kendra Davenport on The Inspire Greatness Podcast

In this episode I talked with Kendra Davenport, CEO of Easterseals.

Easterseals is a disability services organization which envisions all people having choices and opportunities to reach their potential.

Since 2022 Kendra has served as President and CEO of Easterseals and has also held other leadership positions at organizations such as Operation Smile, the Children of Fallen Patriots Foundation, and Africare.

In this episode, she’s going to share how her tendency to be a control freak was causing all sorts of problems for her while she was serving as chief of staff at Africare, and how she was able to solve those problems and go on to be very successful as a leader, now serving as the CEO of Easterseals.

Learn more about Easterseals

Connect with Kendra on LinkedIn

Inspiring Leaders Put Others First – Idea # 37 for Better Serving Team Members





When Aaron Feuerstein took control of fleece and textile manufacturer Malden Mills in 1957, he represented the third generation of Feuersteins running this Lawrence, Massachusetts-based company with a reputation for being a great place to work.

Aaron kept the tradition and good name alive by helping other local businesses and offering English classes for local immigrant workers. He also took exceptional care of the employees of his company by ensuring that they had safe, comfortable working conditions and paying them better than most of his competitors. Apparently, even the unions applauded his efforts and referred to him being “a man of his word” and “extremely compassionate.”

But his compassion would be put to an incredible test in December of 1995. At approximately 8:00 on the night of December 11, a boiler exploded at the mill. It was so powerful that it broke gas pipes in the building. The fire, fueled by the gas and the chemicals used in textile manufacturing, spread very quickly. Employees ran out of the buildings. More than 30 of them were injured, several quite badly.

The fire became so powerful that even the efforts of the over 200 firefighters on the scene were essentially futile. The fire raged out of control the entire night, with flames reaching heights of nearly 50 feet. By the time it was out the following morning, Malden Mills had burned to the ground.

The company had a $300 million insurance policy in place for the building. Aaron Feuerstein could have simply ended company operations or closed the Lawrence location and moved to a much less expensive location, as many of the former Lawrence-based mills had done. Almost immediately, though, Aaron announced that he would rebuild the Lawrence location to ensure that the community would not lose one of its largest employers.

But he did more than that. He demonstrated a level of compassion that is almost unheard of in the world of business: He promised to pay employees their full salary while the building was being rebuilt, and he kept his promise. When construction was delayed a couple months later, he announced that the people in his company would still be paid until the project was finished. By the time Malden Mills was up and running again, Aaron had spent roughly $25 million to keep employees on the payroll.

Aaron Feuerstein’s compassion would bring him international attention for being a hero. His story was widely reported in the media and he was even acknowledged during one of President Clinton’s state of the union addresses. His compassion would also end up costing him control of his company as creditors forced him out and replaced him with a CEO that they felt would move more quickly in terms of getting the company back to being profitable again. Unfortunately, his creditors were only focused on the short-term results.

Despite the apparent short-term disadvantages, companies are much better off in the long run with a leader like Aaron in charge. I’m also confident that Aaron Feuerstein’s obituary will be a much better read than that of the CEO with whom his creditors replaced him. Instead of reading something like, “He was really good at hitting the quarterly numbers,” Aaron’s obituary will read something like, “Aaron Feuerstein was an international hero who inspired hundreds of millions of people with his love and his commitment to being a person of honor and integrity. He always did the right thing, regardless of the personal costs to do so.”

A Lovely Reminder of the Power of Presence and Empathy





About a month ago, my son, Cisco, completed his first trip around the sun outside of the womb.

In the picture above you can see him giving me a big, wet, sloppy kiss as part of the celebration.

Although his technique is not as refined as that of most adults, his timing is often uncanny.

For example, when he was around six months old, he had just started giving kisses to my wife and me.  But we had to work to get them.  We had to lay our heads in his lap, which allowed him to just lean forward and give us a kiss on the cheek.

About a month after he started giving kisses, my mother was passing through town on the way back from visiting her sister as she was dying.  This was the last living member of my mom’s immediate family.

Of course, my mom was quite sad as she travelled to our house, and was sad when she arrived.

She had previously only been around Cisco for a few days of his life, spread out between periods of a couple months, so she was essentially a stranger when she arrived at our house that day.

I mention this because Cisco had never given a kiss to anyone other than my wife and me at this point.  He had not even kissed the nanny who spent 25 hours per week with him for months.

About 15 minutes after my mom arrived, I had laid Cisco down on our bed to put a new shirt him.  My mom came in the room and leaned down toward him.  He immediately reached out with both of his arms to grab my mom’s face.

At first, she hesitated.  I said, “Mom, I think he wants to give you a kiss.”

She leaned a bit closer.  Cisco grabbed her face with authority and pulled her close.  He gave her a big, wet kiss and held her there for a good four or five seconds.

My mom was glowing.  In seconds, Cisco had transformed her sadness to joy.

It seemed quite clear that he felt her sadness and knew exactly what to do to help.

Cisco offers us a lovely reminder that when we slow down a bit and are fully present with the people around us, we become much more sensitive to what they might need to flourish.

This is the most important work of a leader – to help people flourish.

Cisco also reminds us that it doesn’t take a huge effort to help another person transform an unpleasant emotion.  Just presence, and a small gesture is often more than enough.

As we near Christmas, let’s follow Cisco’s lead.

Let’s slow down a bit, be present with our team members, family members, and friends, and let’s not hesitate to offer even the most simple gestures of kindness.