What does deep listening in leadership really require, especially during rapid change?

In this episode of the Lifting Leaders Podcast, we welcome Master Certified Coach Barbara Acevedo Visser, MCC, for a powerful conversation about deep listening, curiosity, self-awareness, and sensing emerging possibilities in uncertain times.

Barbara shares how intentional slowing down strengthens executive presence and transforms the way leaders respond to complexity. When leaders choose curiosity over judgment, they create psychological safety, expand perspective, and make wiser decisions. Curiosity becomes a leadership discipline — not just a mindset.

You’ll learn:

• How deep listening improves leadership effectiveness and team trust

• Why slowing down enhances strategic thinking and innovation

• How to sense what is emerging before it is fully visible

• Practical ways to respond thoughtfully instead of reacting impulsively

• Why self-awareness and clarity of values are essential during rapid change

This episode explores how leaders can stay grounded in who they are while adapting to shifting environments. When leaders are anchored in values and identity, they can navigate uncertainty without losing effectiveness or themselves.

If you are leading through complexity, change, or organizational transformation, this conversation offers practical leadership wisdom, reflective insight, and actionable strategies to help you listen more deeply and lead more intentionally.

Light the Spark. Ignite Genuine Hope. Lead the Change.

We’re taking a short break from our Light the Spark series to share something close to our hearts — love. 💛 In this special post-Valentine’s Day episode of the Lifting Leaders Podcast, we’re sending heartfelt gratitude to you, our listeners, and celebrating the people and places we cherish most — our friends and families, and the breathtaking beauty of the Pacific Northwest we’re blessed to call home.

We also reflect on a powerful “Gist of Things” article by Marilyn Gist, titled The Courage to Let Yourself Be Helped. As we share highlights from her insights, we explore how accepting help is not weakness - it’s love in action. What goes through your mind when someone offers to help you? Do you worry that they don’t see you are fully capable, on our own? Just what if you accepted help?

There’s something profound about this simple exchange. Accepting help can build connection. It can strengthen trust. It can spark community. So, what does that have to do with interdependence? Everything. In this episode, we share stories of when interdependence was simply “the way we did life” - and why it still matters for leaders today.

We hope you love this week’s episode - and that it reminds you that leadership, at its core, is relational. 💕

In this Lifting Leaders Podcast Gems episode, we revisit key insights from our conversation with Julie Pham, PhD, author of 7 Forms of Respect and share what we discovered after taking her Respect Assessment.

This brief reflection revealed powerful aha moments about how respect is experienced differently across teams and cultures. We explore what the assessment uncovered for us, how leaders can intentionally build trust and respect, and why co creating team norms and working guidelines is essential for a healthy culture.

If you are a leader looking to strengthen trust belonging and respect on your team, this episode offers practical insight and inspiration to spark meaningful cultural shifts.

✨ We hope this episode lights a spark and supports you in leading with greater awareness and intention to make a better world.

What does respect really mean and why does it look so different across cultures, teams, and leadership contexts?

In this episode of the Lifting Leaders Podcast, we’re joined by Julie Pham, PhD, author of 7 Forms of Respect, to explore how respect shapes leadership effectiveness, influence, trust, and belonging, especially in today’s polarized world.

Julie challenges the assumption that respect is universal, inviting leaders to examine how culture, micro-cultures, hierarchy, and lived experience shape both the respect we expect and the respect we extend to others. Together, we dive deeply into two often overlooked forms of respect and why misunderstanding them can quietly erode trust, collaboration, and inclusion on teams.

Grounded in our 2026 focus on Influencing Genuine Hope, this conversation explores how curiosity about respect can:

• Reduce polarized communication

• Bridge cultural and relational divides

• Strengthen leadership influence without authority

• Foster trust, psychological safety, and belonging

Insightful, practical, and deeply human, this episode offers leaders a hope-forward path one where respect becomes an everyday leadership practice that brings people closer together rather than pushing them apart.

In this special Lifting Leaders Podcast “Gems” episode, we revisit the most powerful insights from our two Three-Peat conversations with Lindsey Godwin, Jeff McAuliffe, and Carla Ondrasik, three voices shaping the future of leadership, hope, and human-centered change.

These conversations were rich with practical wisdom, and today we’re highlighting the moments that truly stood out, the ideas that continue to light the spark, ignite genuine hope, and help leaders lead meaningful change in 2026 and beyond.

In this episode, we explore questions that matter deeply for today’s leaders:

• Why does language matter so much in leadership and change?

• What’s missing as we look toward the future of our organizations and our world?

• How does the way we show up influence whether people resist or embrace change?

• What capabilities and mindsets do leaders need to create a hopeful, sustainable future?

As we reflected on these conversations, a powerful meta-message emerged: Slow down. Pay attention. Take intentional steps forward.

You’ll hear our guests’ heartfelt recommendations for leaders, including:

• Starting small and building momentum

• Noticing where energy and possibility are emerging

• Reducing distractions to focus on meaningful action

• Reflecting on lessons learned before setting forward-focused intentions

Whether you’re a senior leader, coach, or change agent, this episode offers practical insights and reflective prompts to help you lead with clarity, courage, and hope.

🎧 Listen in—and if you haven’t heard the original Three-Peat episodes yet, be sure to explore them on your favorite podcast platform.

Hope-led leadership. Strategic slowness. Accountability. Collective action. What happens next when The Three-Peat conversation continues?

✨ Deeper reflection. Bolder truth-telling. Practical wisdom for leaders navigating 2026.

In Part 2 of The Three-Peat, Dr. Lindsey Godwin, Jeff McAuliffe, and Carla Ondrasik return to explore the mindsets and behaviors leaders need for sustainable, hope-led leadership in a complex world.

As the year unfolds, this powerful conversation invites leaders to slow down, pay attention, and lead with greater intention. Together, they challenge urgency culture and explore strategic slowness as a leadership practice, one that creates space for wiser decisions, stronger relationships, and long-term impact.

• Why strategic slowness strengthens leadership rather than weakening it • The importance of clarifying intentions at the start of a new year • How accountability turns intention into action and keeps hope moving • A surprising insight about motivation and leadership behavior • What leaders must stop doing-and start doing-in 2026

This conversation calls leaders to release habits that no longer serve and to choose practices rooted in purpose, responsibility, and hope in action.

✨ Listen in and lead differently. Because hope doesn’t rush. Leadership isn’t performative. And the future we’re creating depends on what we choose - starting now.

🎙️ Lifting Leaders Podcast | The Three-Peat-Part 2 Let’s keep lighting the spark.

Hope-led leadership. Resilience. Courageous action. What happens when three trusted leadership voices come together for the first time?

✨ A Three-Peat—and a powerful conversation to launch the new year with clarity, purpose, and hope.

In this special two-part episode of the Lifting Leaders Podcast, we welcome back three influential leaders and authors Lindsey Godwin, Jeff McAuliffe, and Carla Ondrasik, for a deep conversation about leadership in uncertain times, meaningful change, and what it takes to move from intention to action.

Together, they explore how hope functions as a leadership practice, why curiosity and possibility matter more than ever, and how leaders can break free from unsustainable norms in their organizations, communities, and lives.

• Why hope is not passive, but relational and actionable • How resilience and commitment are built over time • Why leaders must create positive visions of the future • How curiosity, purpose, and courageous leadership open new paths forward

This episode is more than a reunion, it’s a call to lead with hope, act with intention, and create meaningful impact.

✨ Join us for Part 1 of The Three-Peat and begin the year with hope-led leadership and real-world action.

As we step into 2026, we’re inviting you into a bold new chapter of hope-driven, human-centered leadership, one grounded in action, connection, and real-world impact.

This year on Lifting Leaders Podcast, our focus is clear: Light the Spark. Ignite Genuine Hope. Lead the Change.Together, we’ll explore how leaders can create meaningful change, in themselves, their organizations, their communities, and the world, especially in complex and uncertain times.

In 2026, listening goes beyond inspiration. We’ll challenge the idea that hope is simply optimism and instead explore why hope is relational, actionable, and essential for leadership today. Through candid conversations, practical leadership tools, and powerful stories, we’ll show how hope must be practiced and lived or it fades.

Expect episodes that:

• Expand how you think about leadership, purpose, and possibility

• Offer practical tools you can apply immediately

• Explore leadership as a force for connection, courage, and positive change

• Ground hope in intention, action, and human relationships

If you’re ready to lead with intention, spark genuine hope, and be part of a leadership community that believes leadership can truly be a force for good, we’d love to have you with us in 2026.

🎧 Subscribe, listen, and join us as we light the spark together.