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What if love is one of the most practical forces in business? Marcus Buckingham joins Mickey Connolly and Emma Rose Connolly to explore why love belongs in serious conversations about leadership and performance. From recognizing the activities that truly strengthen people to understanding the five feelings behind experiences people love, they explore how leaders can create conditions where people feel known, supported, energized, and able to grow into more of who they are. You can learn more about Marcus' recent work at www.designlovein.com. About Marcus Marcus Buckingham is the author of two of the best-selling business books of all time, has three of Harvard Business Review’s most circulated, industry-changing cover articles, and has been the subject of in-depth profiles in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Forbes, Fortune, Fast Company, The Today Show, and The Oprah Winfrey Show. Known as the world’s most prominent researcher on strengths, love and leadership at work, Marcus’s data-based discoveries are unlocking the best in each of us and defining the future of how we work. He is the author of eleven business books, and his latest release —Design Love In is now the core of his mission. He is dedicating the next decade to helping individuals and organizations unleash the most powerful force in business: love About On Connection Hosted by a millennial, a gen-xer, and a baby boomer, ⁠⁠⁠⁠On Connection⁠⁠⁠⁠ brings a multigenerational lens to leadership and organizational life. Through varied perspectives and guest conversations, we explore the human side of work and deliver actionable insights for leaders across generations, industries, and disciplines. Conversant is a leadership development and organizational consulting firm with 30+ years of experience helping leaders, teams, and organizations unlock performance through the power of authentic human connection. Learn more about Conversant's work at ⁠⁠⁠⁠www.conversant.com⁠⁠⁠⁠. Connect with us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠ & ⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠. Find information about all of our upcoming open enrollment leadership development programs ⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠.

AI is influencing how we work, think, create, connect, and lead. It's also creating strong opinions, big predictions, and no shortage of uncertainty. In this episode, Emma Rose, Kell Delaney, and John Winter for yet another conversation about AI. Together they explore the wide range of reactions they're seeing from leaders and organizations, what it means to lead when nobody has a playbook, and why curiosity is more valuable than certainty in a moment of profound change. Along the way, they discuss trust, discernment, intuition, human connection, and what AI might be revealing about ourselves in the process. Note: This episode was recorded in mid-August 2026. As with any conversation about AI, the landscape has continued to evolve since, and this discussion is not intended as a response to subsequent developments, announcements, or news regarding AI's evolution and impact. About On Connection Hosted by a millennial, a gen-xer, and a baby boomer, ⁠⁠⁠On Connection⁠⁠⁠ brings a multigenerational lens to leadership and organizational life. Through varied perspectives and guest conversations, we explore the human side of work and deliver actionable insights for leaders across generations, industries, and disciplines. Conversant is a leadership development and organizational consulting firm with 30+ years of experience helping leaders, teams, and organizations unlock performance through the power of authentic human connection. Learn more about Conversant's work at ⁠⁠⁠www.conversant.com⁠⁠⁠. Connect with us on ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠ & ⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠. Find information about all of our upcoming open enrollment leadership development programs ⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠.

At Conversant, Connected Leadership is the philosophy beneath everything we do. Its premise: the intelligence an organization needs doesn't just sit at the top — it lives across the whole community of people doing the work. The leader's job is to connect that intelligence and orchestrate contributions toward shared purpose and priorities. It's a way of leading built for how work happens now. Whether you lead an enterprise, a team, or any collaborative effort, more and more of what you're responsible for depends on people and information you don't control, and connection is how you move that work with clarity, speed, and trust. In this episode, Emma Rose, Mickey, and Robin share what Connected Leadership is, why it matters more than ever in complex, fast-moving organizations, and why it's a discipline anyone can build, at any level, that will serve them for the rest of their careers. Resources The Connected Leader Review About On Connection Hosted by a millennial, a gen-xer, and a baby boomer, ⁠⁠On Connection⁠⁠ brings a multigenerational lens to leadership and organizational life. Through varied perspectives and guest conversations, we explore the human side of work and deliver actionable insights for leaders across generations, industries, and disciplines. Conversant is a leadership development and organizational consulting firm with 30+ years of experience helping leaders, teams, and organizations unlock performance through the power of authentic human connection. Learn more about Conversant's work at ⁠⁠www.conversant.com⁠⁠. Connect with us on ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ & ⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠. Find information about all of our upcoming open enrollment leadership development programs ⁠⁠here⁠⁠.

Some of the world's largest companies are flattening their org charts and cutting management layers by the thousands. The same forces that have declared middle management obsolete before — new technology, shareholder pressure, and a belief that hierarchy is friction — are back, but this time they're moving faster and cutting deeper. In this episode, Emma Rose is joined by Katie Mingo, who leads Conversant's Emerging Leader program along with client work across industries, to examine this moment through a historical lens. We unpack what's driving today's cuts, what history teaches about what gets lost when the middle disappears too fast, and what leaders at every level can do about it. You can find full sources in our show notes here. Learn more about our Emerging Leader program here. About On Connection Hosted by a millennial, a gen-xer, and a baby boomer, ⁠On Connection⁠ brings a multigenerational lens to leadership and organizational life. Through varied perspectives and guest conversations, we explore the human side of work and deliver actionable insights for leaders across generations, industries, and disciplines. Conversant is a leadership development and organizational consulting firm with 30+ years of experience helping leaders, teams, and organizations unlock performance through the power of authentic human connection. Learn more about Conversant's work at ⁠www.conversant.com⁠. Connect with us on ⁠LinkedIn⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠ & ⁠Facebook⁠. Find information about all of our upcoming open enrollment leadership development programs ⁠here⁠.

Most organizations are hiring on instinct, under pressure,and with approaches built for a version of their business that no longer exists. The result is a cycle of poor fits, missed potential, and costs that compound in ways that are hard to see until the damage is already done. Corey Harlock, founder of KeyHire Solutions, has spent more than a decade helping businesses break that cycle. In this conversation, Corey shares why hiring is a discipline rather than an instinct, what leading with transparency does for fit and retention, and how to start hiring for the business you're building, not just for the one you're running today. About Our Guest: Corey Harlock Corey Harlock's professional journey is a testament to his unwavering commitment to serving others. With a 15-year background in the hospitality industry, Corey honed his skills in delivering exceptional service before embarking on a transformative reinvention. Transitioning into recruiting, he discovered the profound impact he could have on connecting the right talent with the right opportunities. In 2014, Corey relocated to Houston, where he was introduced to Vistage, sparking a newfound passion for personal and professional growth. Fueled by this experience, he founded KeyHire to meet the unique needs of small business owners by providing them with invaluable "insider" organizational and talent expertise they need to take their business from where they are to where they want to be.  Learn more about Corey Harlock and KeyHire Solutions at https://www.keyhire.solutions/ Connect with Corey on LinkedIn Download your free version of the KeyHire Hiring Playbook Check out the KeyHire Small Business Podcast for practical insights and real-world strategies to help small business owners overcome operational challenges and scale with confidence. About On Connection Hosted by a millennial, a gen-xer, and a baby boomer, On Connection brings a multigenerational lens to leadership and organizational life. Through varied perspectives and guest conversations, we explore the human side of work and deliver actionable insights for leaders across generations, industries, and disciplines. Conversant is a leadership development and organizational consulting firm with 30+ years of experience helping leaders, teams, and organizations unlock performance through the power of authentic human connection. Learn more about Conversant's work at www.conversant.com. Connect with us on LinkedIn, Instagram & Facebook. Find information about our upcoming open enrollment leadership development programs here.

Most leaders reach a point in their career where theirresponsibility outpaces their authority, where they're accountable for outcomes they can't simply direct people to produce. Whether you're coordinating across functions, driving a strategic initiative, or leading people who don't report to you, management skills that served you earlier in your career may not be sufficient to drive the impact you’re responsible for. This episode is a repost of a conversation published in 2024 that touches on a challenge increasingly relevant to leaders today. Robin and Emma Rose are joined by Conversant consultant Roger Henderson to explore what effective leadership without direct authority looks like in practice, and why making purpose the boss, rather than the org chart, turns out to be the most effective strategy available to leaders at any level. Learn more about Conversant's Leadership Development offerings here, including our Purposeful Leader program. Find us at www.conversant.com and connect with us on LinkedIn.

Most organizations were built to reward a very particularstyle of leadership — one that moves fast, projects certainty, and mistakes decisiveness for clarity. And yet what high performing teams actually need looks a lot more like curiosity, psychological safety, and the ability to hold complexity. These are qualities women (and feminine-leaning leaders more broadly) often bring naturally. They're also the ones that organizational systems have historically left undervalued but are now critical to develop in order to keep up with the challenges of the world today. In this episode, guest Darcy Winslow joins Emma Rose and Robin to talk about what it looks like to lead from these qualities and why they’re a strategic asset: leading through influence without relying on authority, using emotion as data rather than a liability, engaging with ambiguity, and finding the value of your strengths (and those of others) inside systems that haven’t historically been designed to celebrate them. Guest Bio: Darcy Winslow spent 23 years at Nike leading large-scale systems change from the inside, holding senior roles including founding the company's Sustainable Business Strategies, Global Director for Research Design and Development, GM/VP of Nike's Global Women's Footwear, Apparel and Equipment division, and Senior Advisor to the Nike Foundation. She went on to co-found the Academy for Systems Change — focused on advancing awareness-based approaches to economic, social, and ecological wellbeing — and founded the Magnolia Moonshot 2030, a collaborative convening women leaders working at the intersection of climate, deep equity, and conscious leadership. She has also served as a Senior Lecturer at MIT's Sloan School of Management and is a board member for The Carbon Underground, The Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education, and Regenerative Earth. Learn more about Conversant at https://www.conversant.com/ Follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn

In this episode of On Connection, we’re joined by Michele Pilibosian, a leader intentionally investing in her development and practicing what it means to let purpose lead. As leadership becomes less about control and more about influence, purpose can become a powerful anchor. In our conversation, Michele reflects on the challenge of balancing her values of empathy and kindness with honesty, addressing tough conversations at “point easy”, and what it means to lead in spaces where you don’t have formal authority. We talk to Michele about her experience working to integrate learning into her day-to-day leadership, and why the most effective leaders remain open, reflective, and perpetually unfinished. About Our Guest Michele is a seasoned lawyer with deep private practice and in-house experience leading legal, operations, regulatory and compliance teams; and more importantly, a demonstrated history of leading highly engaged teams. After graduating from the University of Texas and the University of Houston Law Center, Michele worked in private practice as a litigation partner at a national law firm before becoming general counsel to several energy-industry businesses. For the last six years, Michele has run the business operations of Texas law firm Allen Boone Humphries Robinson LLP, with three offices, 45 lawyers, and more than 120 other professionals. When not working, Michele is herding literal and figurative cats, including actual cats, dogs, and teenaged daughters. Resources: Find our ⁠Leadership Insights for 2026 Report here⁠. Learn more about Conversant's Purposeful Leader program here.

We are all working in multigenerational environments, and for many the differences in preference and perspective generate more friction and misunderstanding than productivity. Most conversations about generations at work turn to using labels, assumptions, and overconfidence about what a given generation "is like." In this episode, we look at generational patterns as context, not conclusions, and investigate where they can help us connect and collaborate across generations and where they fall short. Collaboration gets easier when we stop leading with assumptions and start getting curious about the people we need to work with. We might have more in common that we realize. Show Notes: Generational Profiles document - referenced throughout the episode The 10 Laws of High-Performance Collaboration video series Read Conversant's ⁠Leadership Insights for 2026 Report About Conversant

In 2025, through hundreds of conversations with leaders of all levels across industries and geographies, we saw consistent patterns in the pressures and complexities organizations arefacing. At the close of the year, our consulting staff gathered to share these observations and identify the trends and conditions we believe will shape leadership and organizational performance in 2026. We compiled those themes in our Leadership Insights for 2026 Report, along with the essential leadership priorities we recommend drive focus as organizations look to navigate four primary conditions: Persistant UncertaintyThe Cost of MisalignmentThe Pressure for SpeedRising StressIn this episode, Robin, Mickey, and Emma Rose walk through these four conditions and the strategic implications they have for leaders in 2026. They offer actionable insights and recommendations to help leaders focus on what matters most in a rapidly evolving landscape. You can read our full Leadership Insights for 2026 Report here. Sources Cited: Russell Reynolds Associates – Global LeadershipMonitor PwC – 2025 Global CEO Survey Korn Ferry – Leadership Alignment Harvard Business Review – Why Transformation Efforts Fail DDI – Global Leadership Forecast 2025 Gallup – State of the Global Workplace IBM – CEO Research on Speed, Adaptability & Execution

This month, we’re bringing back one of our most listened-to and most referenced episodes of On Connection: The Art of Adjustment. Years after its original release, this conversation continues to resonate because the challenge it names hasn’t gone away. Adjustment, as we explore it here, is a discipline. It's a practice of pausing the action (especially in fast-moving, high-pressure environments) to review what’s happened, get present to what there is to learn, and renew commitments that can drive continuous improvement. When leaders and teams build a regular rhythm of adjustment, they strengthen not only performance, but trust, learning, resilience, and connection. If you’re leading people, priorities, or change, this episode offers a practical way to turn experience into progress Emma Rose is joined by Robin and Mickey to unpack: Why adjustment is common sense, but not common practiceWhen it's most powerful to pause and reflect (hint: not only when things go wrong)A simple 7-step Adjust Protocol you can use with your team The Cycle of Value ⁠ ⁠7-step Adjust Protocol⁠ ⁠Books⁠: The Communication Catalyst and The Vitality Imperative

In this episode of On Connection, we explore what truly sets leaders apart in the age of AI. While generative AI adoption is skyrocketing, technology alone doesn’t guarantee better outcomes. Leadership remains the critical differentiator, and the skills leaders need to be effective today go far beyond technical fluency. Joined by Kell Delaney, Global Partner at Conversant, we dive into the human-centric skills that will define success in an era of rapid disruption: adaptability, empathy, creativity, and resilience. Discover why mastering these capabilities matters more than ever and how leaders can elevate their impact as AI reshapes the future of work. Show Notes: Why Every Leader Must Master Human Skills to Get the Most Out of AI, Harvard Business Impact The State of Generative AI Adoption in 2025 Superagency in the workplace: Empowering people to unlock AI’s full potential, McKinsey Report

AI is now a standing item at most strategic tables—shapinghow leaders think about markets, talent, and the future of work. But while investment and experimentation are rising fast, most organizations are still in the early chapters of integration. Beneath the strategy, there’s a quieter conversation about fear, trust, and what remains uniquely human. In this episode, we sit down with Peter Mulford, Chief AI Officer at BTS, to debate whether AI can ever truly replace emotional intelligence. Together, we explore how we currently think about AI, the edges of what it can do, and what remains uniquely human (for now). Guest Bio: Peter Mulford is the Chief AI Officer and the Global head of the Artificial Intelligence and Innovation Practice (AI&I) for BTS Inc.  In this role he helps clients get real impact by working with teams and organizations to transform their business using innovation, future back thinking, Artificial Intelligence, and digital technology. He has over 30 years of experience working with clients around the world in different industries, including Sony Interactive Entertainment, Warner Media, Microsoft, AT&T, Saudi Telecom, Lenovo, Samsung, Telkom South Africa, Merck, Coca-Cola, Toyota, Macys, and others. A sought-out keynote speaker, he has facilitated keynotes at technology and innovation conferences, company offsites, and sales conferences, as well as a private 2-day event with the late Pope Francis and 20 media executives and artists at the Vatican City. Peter joined BTS in 1998 and has worked in its offices in San Francisco, Johannesburg, Tokyo, London and New York. From 2005-2010, he was the Managing Director of BTS’s East Coast region, leading the largest global office for BTS through a period of market turbulence and growth during which it more than tripled in size. Prior to BTS he worked for a start-up firm in Tokyo, Japan. He has extensive experience in Retail, Consumer Goods, Electronics and Telecom, among many other industries.  Peter holds an MBA in Finance from Columbia Business School, and a Master’s in international Affairs with a focus on Asia Pacific Studies from Columbia University. He speaks Japanese.

Too often, vision and values work ends up as lofty statements that don’t translate into daily practice. But when it’s done well, it can transform how teams collaborate, make decisions, and connect to a shared purpose. In this episode of On Connection, we’re joined by Trisha Moslin from The Nature Conservancy’s Gift Planning team, who helped lead an effort to co-create a vision and values that went beyond words on a page. Together, we explore what made their approach successful, how leadership shaped the process, and why the results have endured—strengthening both team culture and their ability to advance TNC’s mission for the long term. Guest Bio: Trisha MoslinTrisha Moslin is the Director of Strategy and Planning in the Gift Planning department at The Nature Conservancy. She ensures strategic alignment and continued focus on priorities, works to improve communication and cross-team integration, advises and supports the department lead and management team, and manages cross-functional projects. She led the collaborative creation of TNC Gift Planning’s Vision and Values and works to ensure they’re integrated into the department’s work. Before joining TNC in 2019, she spent 15 years in international development, including as a Peace Corps volunteer. She holds an MPH in Reproductive Health and Population Studies from Emory University Rollins School of Public Health and a BBA magna cum laude in Marketing with an International Business minor from Texas A&M University. She’s traveled to 26 countries and 30 U.S. states, plays a lot of tennis, and is always in the middle of several books.

In this episode, we’re joined by leaders from Vestas, a globally recognized wind energy solutions provider, to explore the profound impact empowering leaders to simply be present and connected with their teams can have on culture, performance, and safety in high-risk industries. After a rise in safety incidents, they launched the “Be Present” program—an initiative to strengthen relationships between site managers and technicians. The program has led to measurable improvements in safety, trust, and teamreliability, offering insights that leaders across industries can learn from as they look to improve performance and trust in their own organizations. Hear from AnneMarie Graves, Vice President of the Midwest Region, and Gary Lamont, a Vestas Site Manager based in Iowa, as they share how presence—showing up for people as much as priorities—has transformed their teams and operations. Guest Bios AnneMarie Graves AnneMarie Graves is the Vice President, Midwest Region for Vestas, where she leads an operations team of 500 wind turbine technicians operating 10 GW of wind farms in the American heartland. From 2018-2021, AnneMarie lived and worked in Europe, leading 300 Vestas engineers supporting global deployment and operation of 100 GW of Vestas, GE, Gamesa, Nordex and Siemens wind turbine and wind plant technology.  As an early proponent of utility scale wind energy in the early 2000s, AnneMarie brings more than 20 years of engineering and management experience in wind energy. Prior to joining Vestas, she led a team at DNV GL specialized in assessing the performance and reliability of over 10 GW of operating wind projects, including predicting wind project production, analyzing and diagnosing performance, and modeling turbine life. AnneMarie started her career in 2003 with GE Wind Energy assessing the suitability of new wind project locations in North America. AnneMarie has presented and chaired sessions at American Cleanpower’s conferences including AWEA WINDPOWER and Operations Maintenance & Safety Conference, Wind Energy Update’s O&M Summits and co-chaired conferences with Women of Renewable Industries and Sustainable Energy. AnneMarie holds degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Science and Technology Studies from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Gary Lamont Gary Lamont brings over 11 years of experience working with wind turbines at Vestas, where he has contributed to advancing renewable energy technologies and supporting the growth of clean energy initiatives. Beyond his passion for sustainable energy, Gary is a devoted family man and a music enthusiast, finding inspiration in both his work and personal life. This blend of professional dedication and personal passions shapes his unique perspective on life and work.