In this episode, Jeff Couillard and Pablo Romero dive into The Ally Co.’s Leadership Impact 360°s, powerful experiences designed to support both professional and personal development through a combination of useful feedback, meaningful review, and focused action. They discuss some of the reasons people struggle to request and receive meaningful feedback through typical performance review processes and present an opportunity to approach this important growth process differently.   Along the...

In their transition from working women to working mothers, Erin Smith and Saphina Benimadhu-Waters both had unique but challenging return-to-work experiences that didn’t support them in the way they needed. Now, as co-founders of The Debut Co., they provide professional coaching to help parents take charge of their career journey and help organizations champion equity. They describe a truly equitable workplace as one where a person of any gender can be a caregiver and earn equal pay for equal...

Tammy Arseneau is a consultant and coach who takes a science-based, systems-level approach to help leaders at all levels get to the root of common workplace challenges and build resiliency. In this episode, she joins Co.CEOs Jeff and Pablo to discuss:  Why change can be so hard for individuals, teams and organizations.  What leaders can do differently to operationalize their leadership and their power.  How neuroscience can help us build capacity for engaging in crucial conversations that...

In this episode of the Leaderful Podcast, Pablo and Jeff are joined by Lindsay Sheldrake to discuss how fractional COOs can help leaders get out of operational quicksand and into their strategic role(s), activate people around vision through focus and with trust, and operationalize power through more conscious ways of working.  Lindsay Sheldrake is a wife, a mother, a project manager, a purpose-driven leader—and a trusted advisor at The Ally Co.  Be sure to connect with Lindsay on...

In this episode of The Leaderful Podcast, we reflect on the last three years of The Ally Co.'s purpose and mission to create 'leaderful' teams. 🤔 What does being 'leaderful' mean and what have we been observing (and learning)? A few insights from our conversation about creating 'leaderfulness' on teams: 🧭 Foundational Alignment -- Leaderful teams are foundationally aligned on the impact (goals, outcomes, objectives) they are seeking to accomplish as a collective, and how their core values are...

In this episode of The Leaderful Podcast, Pablo and Jeff reflect on a part of our work that we've been doing more and more of with impact-conscious leaders and their teams - helping them with the operationalization of their core organizational values. 📽 Here are some takeaways! 🧭 Defining & Clarifying Values -- Many organizations and teams stop at nice-sounding lists with one-word values. This means they often miss out on the benefits of clearly articulated expectations for key behaviours...

In this episode of The Leaderful Podcast, Co.CEOs (Pablo Romero and Jeff Couillard) reflect on TACO's journey this past year. Part of their discussion focused on the latest positioning of our offerings in today's leadership and culture space, and what's become clearer in our work to create leaderful teams.  Some highlights from the conversation:  ⚡ Foundational Alignment & Leaderfulness -- Any meaningful change (e.g. developing adaptive capacity) requires power-based and systems-conscious...

Co.CEOs Jessica Xiomara García and Emily Drake of Learning for Action - an organization helping create and support equitable learning cultures in the social sector - join Jeff and Pablo to discuss the nuances of harmonizing equity-grounded and data-informed approaches into organizational practices.   Listen in as they explore:  Co.CEO origins stories => Giving us insight into how Emily and Jessica's personal backgrounds and experiences helped shape their leadership and operational...

Consultant, designer and strategist in the field of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), Denyelle Fraser, joins our Co.CEO Jeff Couillard to discuss the opportunities and challenges of leading sustainable and systems-conscious change and transformation projects with an EDI focus. Listen in as they explore: The importance of moving beyond EDI check-box initiatives The value of centering the voices and perspectives of the people being served Denyelle's experience helping teams design and...

Educator, innovator and advocate in the field of neurodiversity employment, Dave Thompson, joins our Co.CEO Jeff Couillard to discuss the opportunities and challenges of fostering psychologically safe workplaces for neurodiverse employees - and how that effort benefits everyone. Listen in as they explore: The importance of 'challenger safety'  How coaching is for everyone - not just neurodivergent employees How to make sense of common terminology Dave's experience helping teams foster more...

Connector, Culture Catalyst and Executive Coach, Rod Miller, joins our Co.CEO's Jeff Couillard and Pablo Romero to discuss the evolving world of work, leading with empathy, developing your people and navigating the rapidly changing landscape of work and life.   Listen in as they explore: The importance of creating psychologically safe spaces Practices and insights for staying grounded and present  The importance of feedback and humility as a leader How the pandemic accelerated the re-design...

Founder, Coach and Advisor, Joe Cardillo, joins our Co.CEO Jeff Couillard to discuss how middle managers can use power to create meaningful change.   Listen in as they explore: The importance of making power dynamics visible and transparent Advice for middle managers on navigating values and performance tensions Why power awareness is foundational to ethical leadership Why meaningful change requires building social capital About Joe Be sure to connect with Joe on LinkedIn, and let them know...

​Our Co.CEO's Pablo Romero and Jeff Couillard discuss the 'intention vs. impact' gap, and share practical steps leaders can take to close it.   Listen in as they explore: The core drivers and indicators of problems/opportunities that exist within the intention vs. impact gap Why 'real' underlying problems don't get identified without conscious and skilled discovery work How leaders can approach doing meaningful discovery work  The role of practitioners and consultants in holding the bigger...

​Our Co.CEO Jeff Couillard joins Mahir Nisar on The Workplace Justice podcast to discuss the very real impacts of power dynamics in the workplace.   Listen in as they explore: Five (5) types of power and how they each show up in our workplace systems Why overcoming addiction makes people powerful How power awareness helps to discover root problems for systems-change Why meaningful change requires ethical leadership (and some actions you can take) About Mahir Be sure to connect with Mahir on...

Tune in as our Co.CEOs Pablo Romero and Jeff Couillard share The Ally Co.'s model for leading meaningful workplace culture initiatives with their clients.   Listen in as we breakdown the Five Ds for meaningful work: Discovery: "What do we know about this from 'their' perspective(s)?" Definition: "Why should people care about the 'problem(s)' we are prioritizing?" Design: "How might we approach these meaningful opportunities?" Delivery: "What will we do to ensure our intended impact?" Debrief:...

Learning and development thought leader Grant Drmaj joins our own Co.CEO Jeff Couillard to discuss the current state of learning and leadership in today's organizations.   Here are some key topics they cover: Important considerations for virtual vs. in-person learning Common barriers to designing and delivering experiences that drive meaningful change, and The intersection of L&D, leadership, and workplace culture   About GrantGrant Drmaj is an experienced leader that focuses on creating...

In this episode, Jeff Couillard chats with Woodrie Burich on how to set and hold effective and healthy boundaries - at work and in life. They discuss self-care (beyond the band-aids) and setting boundaries before burning out. Enjoy!

In this shorter episode, Co-CEO and Director of Learning and Development, Jeff Couillard, tackles three of the primary problems that exist in most mainstream leadership development programs and approaches. He also offers a few key insights to consider when developing your organization's approach to developing 'leaderful' teams, highlighting the importance of team-based, real-world and action-oriented learning.

In this episode of The Leaderful Podcast, Jennifer Velez - Senior Strategist for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Forever 21 - joins Jeff Couillard for a rich discussion on psychological safety, unhealthy conflict, power dynamics, and leadership in the DEI space. Follow along or connect with Jennifer on LinkedIn. A bit more about Jennifer - she currently leads Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Forever 21 where she drives organizational growth and development through the organization's most...

In this episode, Jeff Couillard and Pablo Romero discuss a few of the key components of The Ally Co.'s Transformational Impact model, including the Right Use of Power framework.

In this episode of The Leaderful Podcast, Pablo Romero and Jeff Couillard discuss some of the problems, challenges (and opportunities!) with traditional and mainstream employee engagement surveys. If you are tasked with collecting meaningful data from your team to inform better strategic decisions, this is a must listen!

In this episode of The Leaderful Podcast, Co-CEO's Pablo Romero and Jeff Couillard discuss the two key factors in getting from artificial harmony or unhealthy conflict to healthy conflict, or productive tension.

Is being 'vulnerable' always a good thing? When might a leader's vulnerability actually burden or harm the people they're supposed to support and lead?In this conversation between the Co-CEO's of The Ally Co. (Pablo and Jeff), we explore the nuances of vulnerability and why it might not always be the path leaders want to take with their teams.

In this episode of The Leaderful Podcast, Jeff and Pablo discuss the importance of feedback and some of the common barriers that exist - especially when you try and give feedback "up the chain".