Courage to Advance with Kim Bohr

SparkEffect
  • 5.0 (11)
  • Management
  • Updated Semiweekly

Courage to Advance is built for CHROs, VPs, and senior leaders who know their organizations can do better and are willing to do the hard work to get there. Host Kim Bohr, CEO of SparkEffect, brings you real conversations with leaders who challenged outdated practices, rebuilt trust during disruption, and created something worth following. Every episode pairs honest storytelling with practical strategies you can put to work. If you’re leading people through change, you’ll find both the inspiration and the tools here.

  1. Sep 29

    The ER Text That Held a Mirror Up to Success

    Most senior leaders can feel it but rarely say it out loud: the math has stopped working. More hours, more output, more visibility, and a quiet question about whether any of it is adding up to better leadership. Most organizations treat constant motion as proof of commitment, rewarding output while the capacity to actually lead erodes. Dawn Christian gives that erosion a name, Capacity Debt, the cost that builds when there is no space left for the thinking and presence leadership requires. Dawn is the founder and CEO of BeLeadership, a TEDx speaker, and the creator of the Ethos-Driven Leadership framework. After 25 years in senior executive roles, she left corporate life because she could see the pattern clearly enough to name it. In this conversation with host Kim Bohr, she reframes capacity for an age of AI and the work of leading yourself before you lead anyone else. What You'll Discover Why busyness is not a proxy for leadership What Capacity Debt is, and why running on empty puts major decisions at risk How to use AI to build capacity rather than just produce more Why assertiveness only works when it comes with the reasoning behind it How to move from managing teams to building collaborators What Ethos-Driven Leadership asks of a senior leader The 15-minute practice Dawn recommends every leader try this week Dawn Christian:  “The point is capacity.” Kim Bohr:  “Transformative leadership isn't about having all the answers, it's about having the courage to find them.” Courage to Advance is hosted by Kim Bohr, CEO of SparkEffect, and brings senior HR and business leaders into honest conversation about leading people through real complexity. New episodes drop every second, third, and fourth Tuesday of each month. Subscribe wherever you listen, and at https://sparkeffect.com/sparkeffect-podcast-courage-to-advance/

    The ER Text That Held a Mirror Up to Success

  2. Sep 22

    Business as Usual Was Never Stability. How to Lead When Disruption Is the Norm.

    Most leaders are still waiting for work to settle down. The research says the wait is the problem. In year two of SparkEffect's study of organizational trust, 85% of people reported a significant disruption in the past two years, up from 71%. Disruption is not the storm that passes. It is the climate. The common response is to treat it as a stability problem and reach for another training. The data points somewhere else. Support is widespread but thin, no single form of help reached more than a third of people, and the weight of holding trust together during change lands on one person, the direct manager, who is being handed AI and told to figure it out at the same time. Host Kim Bohr, CEO of SparkEffect, is joined by Aaron Delgaty, PhD, a cultural anthropologist and the founder of Note & Niche, who led year two of Trust in Turbulence. Together they make the case that trust is not soft or mysterious. It is measurable, and it moves the business. What You'll Discover Why business as usual was never a promise of stability Why thin, one-size support is a bigger risk than most leaders realize Why a resource employees do not know about does not functionally exist Why AI landed twice as hard on managers What employees actually want from a manager during uncertainty How trust shows up in revenue, retention, and reputation From the episode Aaron Delgaty, PhD: “The managers are a lot like the transmission in a car. They're constantly being used. And if your transmission goes out in your car, it's probably totaled.” Kim Bohr: “You can measure trust, and it has a direct impact on these four Rs. Companies should be concerned about the decisions their customers are making based on trust.” About the Podcast Courage to Advance brings senior HR and business leaders into honest conversation about leading people through real complexity, hosted by Kim Bohr, CEO of SparkEffect. New episodes drop every second, third, and fourth Tuesday of each month. Subscribe at https://sparkeffect.com/sparkeffect-podcast-courage-to-advance/.

    Business as Usual Was Never Stability. How to Lead When Disruption Is the Norm.

  3. Sep 8

    When Everyone You Trust Says Your Best Idea is a Mistake

    Most of us are taught to wait for proof before we move. Find the data, find the comparable, make sure someone has done it first. But the ideas that matter most rarely come with evidence attached. In the fall of 2021, one of the best women's soccer teams in the country was one win from a championship, and not a single bar in Seattle would show the game. The response Jen Barnes got when she called around was casual and complete: maybe after the men's football games, if there is anything left. The inequity was not hidden. It had just become so normal that most people had stopped seeing it. Jen spent more than 25 years leading other people's companies before she opened Rough & Tumble, the world's first bar built for gender equity in sports viewing, in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood in 2022. She did it with no market comparable, no proof of concept, and nearly everyone in her life telling her it would fail. Host Kim Bohr, CEO of SparkEffect, sits down with Jen for an honest conversation about moving on conviction when the data has not caught up, and what every leader owes their own judgment when the room says wait. What you'll discover: - How Jen built a case for an idea with no market data behind it - How to tell a gut instinct worth following from wishful thinking - Why saying no to the industry playbook became her growth strategy - What keeps a team together in an industry known for burning people out - How leading changes when you stop building every decision around consensus - The real costs putting neighborhood restaurants at risk Notable Quotes “There was no question in my mind that this was going to make it.”  - Jen Barnes “This is a conversation about what it takes to carry a room when the only evidence you have is your own belief.”  - Kim Bohr Hosted by Kim Bohr, CEO of SparkEffect, Courage to Advance brings senior HR and business leaders into honest conversation about leading people through real complexity. New episodes drop every second, third, and fourth Tuesday of each month. Subscribe at https://sparkeffect.com/sparkeffect-podcast-courage-to-advance/.

    When Everyone You Trust Says Your Best Idea is a Mistake

  4. Sep 1

    A Life Shaped by Listening to Build Trust

    Most leaders are told to close the deal first and earn the relationship later. Witney Schneidman spent fifty years proving the reverse, and in this episode he shows host Kim Bohr how trust is really built. In a market that rewards speed, most of us rush the one thing that cannot be rushed. SparkEffect's research found that 71% of employees have lived through a major disruption in the past two years, and that how leaders handle those moments can lift trust by 12% or sink it by 28%. Schneidman's career is a long argument for the patient, relationship-first path. A Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, the founder of Schneidman & Associates International, and a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, he built his work on understanding who he was dealing with, learning what they actually wanted, and aligning his goals with theirs before asking for anything. What You'll Discover How he decides whether a person or organization is worth trusting, before he commits The relationship-first sequence he uses instead of rushing to a deal Why leading with what you do not know builds trust rather than undermining it How he aligns his goals with the other side's priorities to create a shared vision How he stayed effective for fifty years by reinventing his focus every few years Why a durable career runs on a vision larger than yourself From the conversation Witney Schneidman: “Who is this person and how have I come to know them? Because relationships matter.” Kim Bohr: “Pausing and figuring out how to genuinely build relationships seems to be something that we need to focus even more on now.” Courage to Advance is hosted by Kim Bohr, CEO of SparkEffect. New episodes drop every second, third, and fourth Tuesday of each month. Subscribe at https://sparkeffect.com/sparkeffect-podcast-courage-to-advance/.

    A Life Shaped by Listening to Build Trust

  5. Aug 25

    Why Leading People Through AI Comes Down to Trust

    Most organizations have already spent the money on AI training. Far fewer have anything that looks like real adoption. A DataCamp study found that 82% of organizations train employees on AI while 59% still report a skills gap. So what is actually going wrong? On this episode of Courage to Advance, host Kim Bohr and Elayne Fluker put the answer somewhere most rollouts overlook: trust. People will not commit to a tool that feels like a threat to their standing, and mandating adoption only sharpens the fear that they are training their own replacement. What closes the gap is whether people trust that their experience still counts. Elayne is a Certified AI Consultant, an ICF-trained executive coach, and the founder of the AI-Ready Leader Platform. She spent 25 years as a media executive at Essence, Martha Stewart Living, and Conde Nast, and is the author of Get Over "I Got It" (HarperCollins Leadership). Her framework, Human Nurture, is the deliberate work of developing people so they can rise to the AI moment instead of being broken by it. What you'll discover Why AI adoption comes down to trust, not tooling The four tenets of Human Nurture: safety over fear, development over extraction, honoring experience, and leaders who go first Why mandates deepen the exact fear that blocks adoption What it means to honor experience so people trust their expertise still matters The Five R's of the Empowered Ask: Ready, Reasons, Receipts, Request, Reciprocity How to test a big change before committing to it Kim Bohr: "What if the AI era won't be won by the leaders with the best tools, but by the ones who protect what those tools can't replace?" Elayne Fluker: "I think organizations are trying to mandate their way to AI capability." Courage to Advance is hosted by Kim Bohr, CEO of SparkEffect, and brings senior HR and business leaders into honest conversation about leading people through real complexity. New episodes drop every second, third, and fourth Tuesday of each month. Subscribe at https://sparkeffect.com/sparkeffect-podcast-courage-to-advance/.

    Why Leading People Through AI Comes Down to Trust

  6. Aug 18

    The Real Driver of Profit Growth Isn't Your Strategy

    Only 2% of leaders believe their performance management process adds any real value. That is a problem, because the number one driver of profit growth in any company is people growth. When the system built to grow people is broken, growth stalls. On this episode of Courage to Advance, host Kim Bohr talks with leadership team coach Mike Goldman about what actually holds teams back. It is rarely strategy or product. It is the wrong people, or good people no one is developing, papered over with annual reviews and core values that live on a website. Mike Goldman is a leadership team coach and USA Today bestselling author of The Strength of Talent. Over close to 20 years working with small and mid-market leadership teams, he built the Talent Density Framework and its companion metric, the Talent Density Indicator, to help leaders grow people the way they grow revenue. What You'll Discover Why annual reviews fail as a growth tool, and what replaces them How to tell whether your expectations are actually clear The test that separates a real core value from website copy Why protecting a high-producing culture violator costs more than the revenue they bring How to make a difficult exit a kindness From the Conversation Mike Goldman: “The number one driver of profit growth is people growth.” Kim Bohr: “There's a lot of scary stuff coming at us and we can put our head in the sand or we could embrace it and just step forward and take it on.” About the Podcast Courage to Advance explores how visionary leaders build the organizations they wish existed through trust, transparency, and the willingness to challenge what no longer works. Hosted by Kim Bohr, CEO of SparkEffect, it brings senior HR and business leaders into honest conversation about leading people through real complexity. Subscribe for new episodes every second, third, and fourth Tuesday of each month at https://sparkeffect.com/sparkeffect-podcast-courage-to-advance/

    The Real Driver of Profit Growth Isn't Your Strategy

  7. Aug 11

    The Apology That Rebuilds Trust After You Break It

    Most leaders are taught that apologizing is a legal risk and a sign of weakness. So they avoid the conversations that would repair a broken relationship at work, and the damage compounds. Jon Bui, J.D., makes the opposite case: apology is a skill leaders can learn, and avoidance is the costly choice. Where most conflict resolution runs on the force of law and a monetary settlement, Jon saw a set of workplace problems that call for a relationship outcome resolved long before anyone hires an attorney. His fix is to treat apology as a structured process rather than a feeling: acknowledge the harm and your role in it, then make restitution that either restores the person or fixes the trait that caused the harm in the first place. On this episode of Courage to Advance, host Kim Bohr, CEO of SparkEffect, talks with Jon Bui, an attorney, mediator, and founder of The Negotiated Apology Project. A graduate of Lewis & Clark School of Law and a former legal recruiter, Jon now teaches leaders how to turn mistakes into stronger relationships. What You'll Discover Why the legal-risk view of apology misses what actually repairs trust The two kinds of restitution that repair harm, and the performative one that does not Why rebuilt trust takes a new shape instead of returning to what it was What low trust costs, from turnover to a $250,000 lawsuit Why confidence, not technique, is what stops people from starting Notable Quotes Kim Bohr: “Most leaders are coached to treat apology as a legal risk.” Jon Bui: “It’s better to permeate your organization with people who are comfortable having these tough conversations when the stakes are at their lowest.” About the Podcast Courage to Advance brings senior HR and business leaders into honest conversation about leading people through real complexity. Hosted by Kim Bohr, CEO of SparkEffect. New episodes drop every second, third, and fourth Tuesday of each month. Subscribe at https://sparkeffect.com/sparkeffect-podcast-courage-to-advance/

    The Apology That Rebuilds Trust After You Break It

  8. Jul 21

    The Business That Can’t Run Without You Won’t Sell

    If you stepped away from your business tomorrow, not for a week or a quarter but for good, would it still run? Most owners cannot say yes, and on this episode of Courage to Advance, host Kim Bohr and Ted Wolf dig into why that answer is also the reason so many businesses never sell. A company that depends on one person is not an asset yet. It is a job that ends when they walk away. Most owners never see the trap coming. They fall in love with what they built, they reward the person who is great at putting out fires without asking why the fires keep starting, and they treat "someone will buy it someday" as a plan. Kim and Ted put real numbers to it: take a business to market today and you have about a 30 percent chance of selling it, which means roughly 70 percent of owners never find a buyer. Ted Wolf knows both sides of that math. He and his brother started a technology staffing company with 500 dollars each, grew it to 650 billable people, and sold it to Iron Mountain, going through the full private equity process himself. He is the author of The Intelligent Business Equation and the Co-Founder and CEO of Guidewise.ai, where he helps leaders close the gap between what they expect and what actually gets done as AI reshapes work. What you'll discover: Why a business that depends on one person reads as risk to a buyer, and what makes cash flow transferable What optionality means, and the five choices it gives an owner instead of a forced sale The five closes Ted runs every month and quarter, and how they feed the next 90 days Why adopting AI and planning your exit are the same governance question How to bring AI in without breaking trust, and what not to do Why resistance to change is usually protective rather than irrational Kim Bohr: "If you stepped away from your business tomorrow, would it still run? Not for a week, not for a quarter, but for good." Ted Wolf: "You don't grow a business just to sell it." Courage to Advance brings senior HR and business leaders into honest conversation about leading people through real complexity, hosted by Kim Bohr, President and CEO of SparkEffect. New episodes drop every second, third, and fourth Tuesday of each month. Subscribe at https://sparkeffect.com/sparkeffect-podcast-courage-to-advance/

    The Business That Can’t Run Without You Won’t Sell
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About

Courage to Advance is built for CHROs, VPs, and senior leaders who know their organizations can do better and are willing to do the hard work to get there. Host Kim Bohr, CEO of SparkEffect, brings you real conversations with leaders who challenged outdated practices, rebuilt trust during disruption, and created something worth following. Every episode pairs honest storytelling with practical strategies you can put to work. If you’re leading people through change, you’ll find both the inspiration and the tools here.

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