Today’s guest is an award-winning writer and digital media innovator. A first-generation digital native, she has spent more than 25 years launching, building, and advising Internet and social media ventures, starting with a bulletin board system she published online at age 14.

As a nationally recognized expert on online culture and social technology, she wrote “The Digital Mystique” which shows us how digital media is shaping our lives in real time. Whether it’s how we raise our children, communicate in love and partnerships, support causes, or establish friendships and trust, she pinpoints the best ways to seize digital opportunities to make our lives richer and fuller.

As a serial entrepreneur, she has founded IT, Internet and digital media companies including Leading in Digital, a media strategy consultancy that she ran for twelve years. Currently, she is developing original content for film and digital video.

Please join me in welcoming Sarah Granger.

In this episode we discuss:

• her thoughts on leadership: “Leadership is being able to stand out on your own and make a statement, but to also be able to bring people along the journey with you.”
• how her parents played a large role in her becoming a digital native.
• the role writing plays in her life and how it is one of the most rewarding parts of her journey.
• how writing and being a digital media innovator tie together.
• how learning to identify the right speed to make change has been one of her biggest challenges and learning opportunities.
• her experience with diversity through her life and how she cultivates her networks using spreadsheets.

Listen, subscribe and read show notes at www.OnTheSchmooze.com - episode 113

Today’s guest is passionate about helping others realize their full potential at work. As the founder and CEO of Lead at Any Level, she helps busy professionals develop skills in leadership, diversity, inclusion and career management.

She is the author of “Network Beyond Bias: Making Diversity a Competitive Advantage for Your Career,” is a Prosci Certified Change Practitioner, and a Professional Member of the National Speakers Association.

She began her career as a software developer, later moving into business analysis, systems design, consulting, and management. She has worked at small software companies, multinational corporations, and many stops in between.  She is a versatile manager; having led cross-functional and global teams in both the technology and insurance industries.

Please join me in welcoming Amy C. Waninger.

In this episode we discuss:

• her thoughts on leadership: “the most important aspect of leadership is courage. It is the courage to do what is right, even in the face of not being popular, and it is the courage to stand up for others and make things right.”
• how she grew from being a self-proclaimed bossy child into the dynamic and appreciative leader she is today.
• how she views successful leadership as being able to project where the future is going and meeting people there instead of waiting for the future to happen.
• her thoughts on connection being the new currency, over knowledge.
• her C-H-A-M-P and I-G-G-N-O-R-E framework for connecting with others.
• how she supports people who are vastly different from her on Twitter.

Listen, subscribe and read show notes at www.OnTheSchmooze.com - episode 112

Today’s guest learned through a family health crisis how crucial human connection is and became an expert on how effective leaders can boost human connection in cultures to improve the health and performance of individuals and organizations.

For more than a decade, he and his colleagues have worked with a wide variety of business, government, healthcare and education organizations to boost connections in their culture. They share best practice attitudes, language and behavior to create what he calls “Connection Cultures” that have propelled the success of teams and organizations including the rock band U2, Costco, the U.S. Navy, NASA, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. His message resonated so strongly that Texas Christian University founded the TCU Center for Connection Culture based on his work.

He is the author of two books, “Connection Culture” and “Fired Up or Burned Out.”

Please join me in welcoming Michael Lee Stallard.

In this episode we discuss:

• his thoughts on leadership: “Leadership comes out of a leader who cares about both people and results. It is deeply rooted in a person’s care for others, and those leaders are the ones people follow.”
• the role sports played in his life and how he learned about leadership from the action of different coaches he admired.
• how his wife’s cancer battles changed his life and further developed his views on connection.
• his knowledge about loneliness and its harmful effects on health, as well as his methods for overcoming loneliness to truly connect with others.
• his view on cell phones and the importance of putting them away during meetings to help increase connectivity.
• the culture framework he created and follows to encourage people to be leaders who help others feel connected instead of controlled.

Listen, subscribe and read show notes at www.OnTheSchmooze.com - episode 111