On Connection

Hosted by Conversant

Business

Website RSS feed

Episodes

Latest episode

Aug 2026

Language

EN-US

About the show

Hosted by a Millennial, Gen-Xer, & a Baby Boomer, On Connection takes on topics relating to organizational life, leadership, & how our quality of connection influences our ability to perform & feel personally fulfilled at work. Human connection is still a largely underutilized asset in organizations, & yet we know it is a critical leverage point for achieving results. Improving our connections means honoring & valuing difference, so along with our generational differences we will be seeking out various perspectives on topics related to life at work so we can be smarter & stronger together.

Listen to episodes

60 recent

August 20, 20261 hr 0 min

What is Connected Leadership?

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 .

July 23, 20261 hr 10 min

The Future of Middle Management

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 .

June 18, 202658 min

Hire for the Business You're Building with Corey Harlock

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 LinkedI n 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 .

May 21, 202656 min

Leading Without Authority (Rerun)

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 .

April 16, 202654 min

The Strategic Case for Feminine Leadership, with Darcy Winslow

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

March 19, 202651 min

The Practice of Purposeful Leadership, with Michele Pilibosian

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 .

February 19, 20261 hr 3 min

Leading the Multigenerational Workplace

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

January 22, 202653 min

Challenges of Leadership in 2026

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 Uncertainty The Cost of Misalignment The Pressure for Speed Rising Stress In 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

December 18, 202559 min

The Art of Adjustment (Rerun)

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 practice When 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

November 20, 202548 min

Leadership Differentiators in the Age of AI, with Kell Delaney

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