The Gratitude Sandwich - 2025 Leadership Lessons For 2026
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The Gratitude Sandwich - 2025 Leadership Lessons For 2026
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About this listen
Major Endorsements
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In this milestone year-end episode of the Disaster Tough Podcast, host John Scardena delivers a raw, strategic, and personal recap of 2025—highlighting leadership lessons learned in emergency management, business growth, disaster response, and life.
This final episode of Season 6 reflects on a year defined by complexity, transition, and decisive leadership. From FEMA uncertainty and disaster deployments to major shifts in business models and personal priorities, this episode is a candid breakdown of what worked, what failed, and what leaders must understand heading into 2026.Episode Highlights & Key Topics
🔹 Emergency Management & FEMA Reality Check
- Lessons from FEMA review councils and why strategy—not reaction—will determine the future of the emergency management profession
- Why emergency management risks “dying out” if it fails to prove long-term value
- The danger of self-fulfilling prophecies during institutional uncertainty
- Why project-based emergency management consulting fails organizations long-term
- How retainer-based models create sustained momentum instead of constant resets
- Supporting stadiums, counties, hospitals, and agencies without waiting for disasters to force action
- Crossing the 250-episode milestone
- National media recognition including USA Today, Politico, ABC, and Fox
- Strategic evolution of the podcast and plans for expanded video and social content in 2026
- Work ethic when exhausted: doing the right thing even when it’s hard
- Purpose over passion: why passion fades and purpose sustains leaders
- Why it’s okay not to do the “cool thing” if it doesn’t align with strategy
- How to manage distractions without losing focus on priorities
- Silence is an answer—and knowing when not to respond is powerful
- Listen and apply feedback before taking risks
- Why ego destroys leadership effectiveness
- Why “being shady” ruins credibility faster than failure
- Understanding your personality type—and the personality types around you
- Setting boundaries around travel and work
- Prioritizing family, faith, and health without sacrificing performance
- Reflections on fatherhood, loss, and legacy
- Why leadership is ultimately about character, not optics
- Work ethic beats talent when talent quits
- Purpose outlasts motivation
- Strategic restraint is leadership maturity
- Momentum matters more than optics
- Silence, when used correctly, is leadership
- Integrity compounds over time
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