I have long held a belief in the power of a coaching approach to sales and customer relationship management. I think there is potential to expand coaching in business into customer relationships. In this episode I speak to Robert Gray, Certified Leadership Coach with Essential Impact, one my instructors during my coaching certification. He provides a perspective on what coaching is and how it benefits people in achieving what they want for themselves. Rob shares my view about the applicability of coaching to customer relationship management and in this episode we compare notes and see what he has to say about it.

In this episode I chat with Amy Ballon, a seasoned business coach and strategic advisor. Amy and I were seat mates in our first corporate job 22 years ago as newly minted MBAs. We were both grateful and eager but then the world changed, and that disruption set Amy on a very different path as an entrepreneur and co-author of the book Mom Inc.: how to raise your family and your business without losing your mind or your shirt. Today she works as an entrepreneur coach with the Business Development Bank of Canada and is the co-founder of Spark Consulting. She is dedicated to supporting entrepreneurs as they navigate their own journeys. Listen as we catch up for the first time in 20 years and trade lessons learned in our careers.

Alyssa Barry reminds us that it is possible to pursue a drive for helping others with a career in business. We met 9 years ago united by our passion for making the world a better place and improving quality of life for all. I had a feeling then we were deeply connected and this conversation confirms it.

Alyssa, principal and co-founder of irlabs, has created a firm to help organizations unlock hidden value. She has had an extensive career in strategy, investor relations, and communications. You would typically not associate these areas with the career of a self-declared activist but that is indeed where this activist inside found her calling.

Listen carefully to hear some lessons that we can all leverage to make an impact on people regardless of the profession we pursue.

People first leadership. It sounds cliché and obvious, but the truth is it is hard to put that into action, to know what to do about it.

In this conversation with Barb MacLean, VP Integration and Analytics at Celero Solutions (https://celero.ca/), we talk about people first leadership and building learning networks to pass on your knowledge and expertise and to gain insights and expertise from others. We also discuss the importance of unlearning to move forward. We also talk about FinTech, the importance of credit unions, women in technology and her small-town farming roots. She shares some surprising insights on what to think about when making investments in technology.

When you start a new role, you are filled with a mix of excitement and anxiety. As the thrill of getting the job offer settles in, the fear of the expectations that your new boss and colleagues have of you also set in. There is a lot to learn and if you come in too confident you worry you might alienate your peers but if you don’t add value quickly enough, you might worry your new co-workers will question the decision to hire you in the first place.

It can be a lot of pressure.

In this conversation with Nick Mosgrove, the VP of Sales and Marketing of Emerald Health Therapeutics (https://emeraldhealth.ca/) we talk about fine balance when starting a new role and he gives us some perspective and practical advice about how to fit in and make an impact quickly.

How can we create more generous workplaces in 2022? I don’t mean generous in terms of giving physical gifts and financial resources but rather gifts of the heart and mind to create more inclusive and rewarding cultures.

Shannon Cassidy, CEO and founder of Bridge Between (https://bridgebetween.com/), brings more than two decades of experience as she has honed her practice and expertise in behavioural change and leadership. She has worked with hundreds of CEOs and senior leaders to help them build generous practices into their everyday lives so they can step up as role models and leaders and transform the cultures of their teams. She is an executive coach, an author and host of R.O.G. (Return on Generosity) Podcast.

One of my most rewarding projects in the last few years was writing a series of articles about how my early life experiences influenced my leadership practice. A central figure in those explorations was my Dad, Abdul Bharmal. Due to COVID, It had been more than two years since I last saw my Dad. When I could finally get on a flight to pay a surprise visit, I was hungry for deep conversations and quality time. So I packed my audio equipment and we sat down for this conversation about his life as an entrepreneur that started in rural Tanzania prepared him for his journey through disruption to create a better life for his family. Of course I learned about him, but I also learned more about myself and how patterns repeat themselves through generations. To read more about these stories you can find my blogs here https://www.shakeelbharmal.com/#latest-articles