16 episodes

Level Up is where mission driven leaders get learning content, resources, and insights that help them to improve their Head and the Heart leadership skills in order to create powerful professional relationships.

Level Up - A Leadership Podcast James Lee

    • Business
    • 5.0 • 5 Ratings

Level Up is where mission driven leaders get learning content, resources, and insights that help them to improve their Head and the Heart leadership skills in order to create powerful professional relationships.

    Consistency and Discipline with Chris Heinz

    Consistency and Discipline with Chris Heinz

    What are the building blocks of consistency?  How disciplined are you at...discipline?

    Leaders have the double-duty of being disciplined and creating discipline in their organizations.  I looked to Chris Heinz from Westport One in this conversation to discuss consistency and discipline in some key areas of leadership. 

    Some key discussion points gave us opportunities to discuss: 
    The building blocks of disciplineWhere does passion really come from?Tying discipline to your motivations not your outcomesCreating processes and automation that help with consistencyNot letting "great" stand in the way of "good enough" (FOMO)I believe that in a lot of cases "lack of discipline" is actually a misalignment between a person's true motivations and their work.  It is nearly impossible to have discipline in the long run about things that don't deeply connect to your WHY.

    Thanks for listening!

    • 1 hr 17 min
    Psychological Safety with Erin Thompson

    Psychological Safety with Erin Thompson

    Erin Thompson shares her leadership experiences, anecdotes and lessons learned about psychological safety in the work place.  Erin and I share a lot of similar experiences, and we dug into some examples of environments where safety was not the top priority.  We examined potential causes or reasons this is so prevalent in an industry that touts care, warmth and empathy - at least toward its customers.

    We also explored practical tips and approaches to create psychological safety and trust within teams.

    Thanks for listening to this episode of Level Up Leadership Podcast with James Lee and guest Erin Thompson.  Please also check out Erin's podcast "Aspire for More with Erin".

    • 59 min
    Purposeful Pause

    Purposeful Pause

    Nathan Jones is a former college football coach turned senior living advocate. Nathan was introduced to the world of senior living just out of college, and from the moment he first stepped foot into a senior living community, he was hooked. Since that day, Nathan's mission has been to change the negative perception surrounding aging & senior living through sharing authentic stories of older adults.  He does much of this work through his company, Dash Media.

    In a prep conversation together for a different episode topic, I learned that Nathan hadn't been returning my text because he was in the hospital. It led to an important conversation together about the nature of work, self-imposed hustle, and the need for purposeful pauses - especially as an entrepreneur in a passion-fueled industry like senior living.

    The pressures of keeping up with and responding to everyone, talking about how we're feeling, taking breaks, being a good leader... these and so many more factors of running a business can easily become a compounding snowball of depleting mental well-being.

    For content creators like Nathan and me, it is also challenging to experience impactful moments without our brains shifting in the moment to how this will translate to a good story.  Ironically, this pulls us out of the moment and fully experiencing it.

    This was an important conversation about entrepreneurship, content, mental health, and everything in between. 

    • 1 hr 4 min
    Do People In Aging Services Perpetuate Ageism? with Guest, Ashton Applewhite

    Do People In Aging Services Perpetuate Ageism? with Guest, Ashton Applewhite

    Season 3 of the Level Up Leadership Podcast kicks off with a rather provocative episode: “Do People in Aging Services Perpetuate Ageism?”  [YouTube vide of episode.]

    It’s a long title, but I thought it deserved the full weight of the question.

    I was SO fortunate to interview Ashton Applewhite. In my readings and study on this topic, I couldn’t find a more compelling and articulate activist than she.

    Ashton’s Ted Talk, “Let’s End Ageism” is a masterful storytelling experience that gives audience an opportunity to examine “a prejudice that pits us against our future selves.”

    I read her book, “This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism” while on vacation. I’m grateful I had a moment in time without normal distractions to become engrossed in this book. Our episode delves into some really intriguing questions and possible self-examination for those of us in aging services. I hope you enjoy and will reflect on this conversation.

    • 1 hr 5 min
    Conflict Management with Dana Garnett

    Conflict Management with Dana Garnett

    "Don't just think positive thoughts.  Feel positive feelings."  This is just one of many golden nuggets of wisdom I gained from my conversation with Dana Garnett, a conflict management strategist and professional mediator.   Dana is an insightful conflict expert who helps businesses and teams clear the deepest rifts to working in harmony fast. Founder of The Mindful Strategy she applies her vast business and life lessons learned to help improve business and social dynamics. 

    In this episode, we explore what causes conflict to exist - both in individuals and on teams.  She shares her insights on the elements of a successful team and how conflict arises when one or more of those elements is not in sync with the others.

    How does taking someone else's position actually help you?  What's the harm in leaders ending conflict with "let's agree to disagree"?  Can leaders actually get better at managing conflict or is it something you troubleshoot when it comes up? 

    Let's dig in.  Your conflict management strategist is dialed in.

    • 1 hr 9 min
    Leading a Startup Organization with Jack York

    Leading a Startup Organization with Jack York

    Jack York is a successful leader who self-describes as a "mediocre CEO".  A co-founder of the senior living technology company, iN2L, Jack is the prototypical Head + Heart leader that we talk about.  In this episode, Jack shares some of his own story, insights into how to lead a startup business, and what's next for him.  The episode spans topics like: 


    Launching a technology product into a wary senior living industryThe tough early years of leading an organizationWhere he would focus between Product, Sales or Team when launching a businessHow cancer affected his perspective on lifePreparing your personal finances and expectations of profitabilityHis upcoming road show and reality TV show focused on storytellingThanks to Jack for joining me for this conversation and for his great advice to our starting organization, Bella Groves.  

    • 40 min

Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5
5 Ratings

5 Ratings

Top Podcasts In Business

The Dough
Lemonada Media
The Ramsey Show
Ramsey Network
REAL AF with Andy Frisella
Andy Frisella #100to0
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Money News Network
Most Innovative Companies
Fast Company
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
DOAC