Episode 73: Noticing Your Grip: Creative Leadership in the Modern Workplace – Dale Allen

Conscious leadership isn’t a one-size-fits-all skill. It’s a series of conscious decisions to address the needs of your team, build strategies rooted in empathy, and understanding the value of conflict management.

Dale Allen, an executive leadership coach who uses a unique empathetic brain-based approach, sat down with Shaun Majumder at CREA’s 2026 Leadership Summit to discuss the importance of creativity and flexibility in leadership. She also shared insights into the value of emotional intelligence, checking in with yourself as a leader, and “noticing your grip.”

Transcript

Dale Allen: You don't want to learn to swim when you're drowning, so it's what you do now. This is why I'm saying about desire, oftentimes, I'm working with people, and they want the change, but they don't want to do the work because it's not crisis time yet. I'm saying, don't wait until there's a crisis. You really do need to practice.

Shaun: I love it. Welcome. This is so exciting, guys. Are you guys stoked to see a live podcast now? No fights are going to break out. This is going to be like-- We're just going to have a great conversation. I've so enjoyed doing this podcast over the last year and a half now. We're so excited to have Dale Allen. Dale, first of all, why don't you tell us a little bit more about who you are, what your company is, what your passion is, and let's talk about leadership. I'm stoked to talk about leadership.

Dale: Sounds good. I am Dale Allen. I've been called many things, but Dale is my name. My company is called ConsciousLead, and I have a real ache for being around people, working with people, connecting with people who want to do things with people, like understand how people work. I just think that it's a bit of a tragedy, in many organizations, that we can do this stuff, where we're leading people, we have to make decisions with people yet we might not take the time and create the space to really understand how people work.

Sometimes, just because we have a leadership title, we can assume that we understand how people work, and I think that that can be a myth. I love, and I am telling you, I'm committed to, and have an ache for when people understand that that part's important.

Shaun: Yes, I think it is. I feel like, in the world, if you're an ambitious person at all, and you want to achieve great things, a lot of people spend a lot of time in their own head, right? We're spending lots of time, as creative people, thinking about, "Okay, I want to do this. I want to achieve this, but I'm really thinking about I, I, I," and we're not focusing on the people around you and what you need to get out of them, I guess, in order to help you achieve the things that you want to achieve, right?

Dale: Yes.

Shaun: I want to ask you a bit about that because I'm pretty stoked now. I've gone from being-- I'm an actor and a comedian. I do all this creative stuff, but I've now taking a much more entrepreneurial role, and I've created my own company now. It's called Lafboy Films. I want to be the leader of this company, but I know I need to get better at being a leader. Why don't we talk a bit about that?

You have an interesting approach. I hear you have something called a brain-based [chuckles] approach to leadership. Thank God, because when I think about AI has taken over the world, I'm like, "Thank God, this is going to be an organic, wet brain approach to leadership." Explain a bit about that. What do you mean by that?

Dale: Yes. Some years ago, we had-- I've been coaching for 21 years, so my partner and I have had this business. Some years ago, we started to really study neuroscience and understand the impact of what it means to be together, the impact that we are having on each other right now. I was thinking about whether you have clients or you're looking at your own team or your team at home, the fact that we are actually always in response to people's brains.

If their brain is in a threat state, then it closes. It can't open to the ideas that we have, to what we want to share with them. I've got two kids, so I know that for sure.

Shaun: I've got two kids.

Dale: You know what it's like, right?

Shaun: How old are your kids now?

Dale: 16 and 18.

Shaun: Oh, wow. Mine are 4 and 6.

Dale: Oh, it's so yummy.

Shaun: Yes, so yummy.

Dale: That's also where it started for us, too. Our children are young, and we were really understanding how the brain works so that we could be really great parents for them. It makes me think that if all of us here, of course, we've got brains, right? Yes, you're with me on that one, so we do. It's that anytime we walk into a room, anytime we walk into a conversation, as we wake, our brain is always scanning our environment for a threat or a reward.

Just in knowing that, to me, I think it's so important for us to know how do we actually help ourselves when our brain is in a threat state in a given moment. It can happen. We can go into a threat state like that.

Shaun: It's a blink.

Dale: Oh, yes, and we don't even know it. To me, it's like if we understood that principle, and then we looked at, then, how do I know when my colleague or a client or another board member or whichever is in that threat state, even for a blink? What would I do differently then to invite them into a state where they could be more open, they could hear what I have to offer? In particular, when things are challenging. I always say leadership shows up when things are challenging. When life's easy--

Shaun: Oh, when life's easy, man, it's like I am-- I've always joked around about this. I feel like I can be full enlightened Buddha when I am by myself, and there's not another input around me. I have no influence. Then you put me on the highway, and someone cuts me off when I'm merging, or they don't merge, all of a sudden, I'm getting triggered, or my partner, she says something that affected me 15 years ago. Then all of a sudden, this thing comes up.

I'm here preaching to her about being calm and don't lead with fear, and here I am freaking out inside about being fearful. It's so hard to be a human, to have a brain. It's really hard. When you apply that to your team, and when you're thinking about that, I heard you say something just now, which I find interesting. A lot of it that I've worked on as a parent has been about my own awareness of my own reactions to things. When you talk about how can I get a client or a team member in that same headspace, what are the tools that you use to get them there so that they are open to hearing your leadership style? Talk to me about that.

Dale: I'm glad you asked because I've got my toolbox. I don't [crosstalk] I was actually thinking about this because I got to meet with some people before from CREA, and I was sharing with them. I do have a process. I absolutely do. One of the things I'll say is I'm going to name some steps because we like steps, don't we? Everyone's like, step 1, you do this, you be aware.

I suppose it is that, though. I think it is about being aware. I think before that, even if I was to give you the steps, I think that we need a desire. We've gone through this life, for example, without knowing about the brain, let's just say. We've gone through our businesses, and we've parented and we've been partners to our spouses or whatever. We've gone through life just fine. I think it starts with desire. What I notice is it's just like when I used to personal train as well. I would give people their program. Then I was like, "Oh, that's not it. If you can Google it, then you don't need me." That way To me, you need to have a desire to want to lead in a way that has people's brains open. It really does start there.

Shaun: Wait, back up. You're saying you want to have a desire to lead in a way that opens people's brain?

Dale: Which is really like opening their hearts, right?

Shaun: Right, right. Having the desire. You have to start from that place?

Dale: You do. The reason why I was saying that is because sometimes people will say, brain-based leadership or even coaching or doing leadership development, some people don't want to do it. If you've ever worked with anyone where you're like, they're just not going to do it. That's so normal. It's just like in school, right? There's a certain percent of the population who is going to do the work, right? We have to honor that that's true for us. The desire becomes important because, in an organization, there'll be about 20%. It's the Pareto principle, just like in anything else.

Shaun: What is that? Can you explain that?

Dale: The Pareto principle, it's the 80-20 rule. It applies in everything. When you look at behavior, for example, or anything that you see in our life where you go, 80% of the people will do the general way, and the 20% will be the ones who will do something different. That's what I find here, too. There'll be 20% when I work with a team, 20% of the folks will do the work. It's just how it goes. You'll see that, even if you look at your teams now-- I don't mean that other people aren't working. I just mean you'll see the difference in terms of who is like, "Yes, let's go, let's do it," because it's work.

Again, if I was to give you all a fit