Bridges to Leadership Jason Bridges

5 years of managing one of the coolest and busiest breweries on the east coast has taught Tracy many lessons.  In this podcast she shares her insights on what she has learned and her philosophy on leadership...
- how to approach a team that is full of all stars
- always listening to the dissenting opinion
- learning is life long
- "We take our business seriously but not ourselves"
- enlightened hospitality
Find Tracy on Instagram @tracyciscoofficial

To be a successful basketball coach for 2 decades in Indiana you must be doing something right!
Honored to have my good friend Jason Ridge on the podcast this week.  Coach Ridge has been developing his leadership skills and those around him for over 20 years in the classroom and on the court.  He currently is the head women's basketball coach at St. Francis University in Fort Wayne, Indiana. 
Jason has implemented strong leadership practices with his students and teams that have resulted in great success.  He touches on some of the many areas that have helped him and his students, coaches, players, and teachers succeed. 
Topics covered in the podcast...
- defining leadership
- value of listening while pushing your vision
- coaching vs mentoring
- decision making through a prism of leadership, growth, service
Email  jridge@sf.edu
Instagram @thejasonridge22 @ladycougbball

Each summer season, 2 students from my alma mater ferry over to Nantucket Island for a 10 week internship with my company Nantucket Bike Tours.  We use this small business to teach them the people skills they will need to be successful in business and in life.  
We sat down at the end of their 5th week to discuss what they have learned and their general experience.  I wanted to know what had they learned in 5 week, could you learn much of anything in 5 weeks?  It seems at first glance that improving your EQ in such a short amount of time could be daunting.  Marcus and Waleed are knocking it out of the park!  Here are some of the things the talk about...
Self Awareness ^^ Giving and Receiving Feedback ^^ BINI - Be Interested Not Interesting ^^ Body Language ^^ Importance of a Smile
This podcast episode is for anyone who thinks they might be able to, or want to, improve their people skills in a short window of time.  It is also for someone who wants to apply these type of principals to their work or life.
Enjoy, and give us some feedback please!
Jason

Fatherhood Friday looks at parenthood through the lens of leadership.  Being a Dad has many challenges and many victories, which is parallel to all aspects of life.  The Dads that I interview haven't written a book on fatherhood and don't have a phD in child development.  They are every day Dads from all walks of life and many different family makeups.  
For this Fatherhood Friday Carl Lindvall joins us, father of 3 children with his wife Sarah.  Carl grew up on Nantucket and has raised his kids here for the past 12 years.  It was hard to edit this podcast down to 40 minutes because of many lessons and 
A couple of highlights of what Carl shared with us...
- spending time with your partner
- treating your children as peers
- setting standards
- ipad vs dishwasher
- asking your kids for forgiveness
Feel free to send any thoughts or comments my way to jason@nantucketbybike.com 
Enjoy!

Fatherhood Friday looks at parenthood through the lens of leadership.  Being a Dad has many challenges and many victories, which is parallel to all aspects of life.  The Dads that I interview haven't written a book on fatherhood and don't have a phD in child development.  They are every day Dads from all walks of life and many different family makeups.  
For this Fatherhood Friday we are joined by Geoff Smith, father of a 5 year old daughter.  Geoff wasn't sure how his "fly by the seat of his pants" lifestyle would work being a new Dad.  Before fatherhood, I ran into Geoff one day and I asked him what he was up to..."Oh, flying to Argentina tomorrow, rented an apartment for 3 months and hired a Spanish teacher".  This was a common occurrence with Geoff, always doing something out of the ordinary at a moments notice.  
This is why I wanted the first Fatherhood Friday interview to be with Geoff - how was this guy going to adapt to being a father?  Well, he is a kick ass Dad and we are lucky for him to share his experiences with us.  
A couple of nuggets the Geoff shared with us...
- A new self awareness
- The importance of your village helping to raise your child
- Put down your phone and be present
- How he now sees his parents
Enjoy!

Determining your negative listening habits will help you understand potential hurdles to becoming a top notch active listener.  Once you understand and are aware of them, you can then start to minimize them.
In this podcast we look at 4 negative listening habits...
The Faker
The Interruptor
The One Upper
The Advice Giver
Which of these do you find yourself doing the most?  
What do you do when you catch yourself doing one of these bad habits?  Answer:  "Call it what it is!"
Part 2 of Active Listening, coming in the next podcast, will focus on strategies you can add to your tool box to improve your listening skills.  Once you are fully aware of how you listen (or don't) then we can spend time working on paraphrasing, summarizing, and parroting.