Leadership in Quarters: Leadership and Culture Insights

"It’s okay not to be okay, but it’s not okay to pretend that you’re okay when you’re not." In this episode of Leadership in Quarters, host Josh Seldin sits down with mindset coach, hypnotherapist, and host of The Curtis McCullom Show, Curtis McCullom, to explore the hidden internal factors, subconscious programming, and emotional baggage that secretly hold high-achieving leaders back from reaching their full potential.
Drawing from his LGET Mindset Framework (Learn, Grow, Expand, Transform) and tools like NLP and Mental Emotional Release, Curtis explains why leaders must empty their "emotional backpack" to align their personal values, eliminate imposter syndrome, and lead with authentic confidence rather than reactive stress.
In this deep dive into subconscious leadership, you'll discover:
✅ Uncovering Hidden Blind Spots: Why high-achieving A-type personalities suppress internal struggles and how to safely drop the mask.
✅ The 50 vs. 11 Million Bit Rule: Why your subconscious mind (processing 11M bits/sec) always overrides conscious effort (50 bits/sec) if underlying programming isn't fixed.
✅ Emptying the Emotional Backpack: Clearing childhood baggage and past failures before layering on new strategy or skills.
✅ Aligning Personal & Corporate Values: Why preach-only values create internal conflict and how true actions reveal what you actually value.
✅ The 4-Step Emotional Release Formula: How to pause, breathe, acknowledge emotions without identifying with them, and access inspired action.
✅ Shifting from Reactive Chaos to Conscious Leadership: Why leading through silence and parasympathetic nervous system activation prevents burnout and organizational dysfunction.
TIMESTAMPS & CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Introduction: Welcome Curtis McCullom to Leadership in Quarters
01:10 - The Most Common Internal Blind Spots in High-Achieving Leaders
02:30 - The Emotional Backpack: Baggage, Baggage Drops, and Subconscious Bits
04:05 - Conscious Mind (50 Bits) vs. Subconscious Mind (11 Million Bits)
05:10 - Dropping the Mask & Finding Authentic Leadership
06:40 - How Unseen Emotional States Transmit Non-Verbal Energy
08:15 - Why Business Values Fail Without Personal Value Alignment
11:00 - Testing Your True Values: Actions Speak Louder Than Slogans
13:10 - Breaking Through Growth Plateaus & The Power of Outside Perspective
14:15 - The 4-Step Formula to Process and Release High-Stress Emotions
17:00 - The Physical Cost of Suppressing Emotions & Listening to Your Body
19:10 - Moving from Reactive Firefighting to Calm, Conscious Leadership
22:00 - Final Takeaways: Embracing Mistakes, Rewriting Your Story & Closing Remarks
🔗 Connect with Curtis McCullom:
YouTube:    / @curtismccullom  
Website: http://www.bespokehumanpotentialcoach...
LinkedIn:   / curtis-mccullom  
Facebook Page:   / bespokehumanpotential  
Facebook:   / curtis.mccullom.bhpc  
Instagram:   / curtis.mccullom  
TikTok:   / curtismccullom  
📬 Contact Josh: leadinquarters@gmail.com
📱 Follow Leadership in Quarters: @leadinquarters on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok
Artwork: Adam Powell
#CurtisMcCullom #LeadershipInQuarters #SubconsciousMindset #ExecutiveCoaching #MindsetReset #AuthenticLeadership #OvercomingImposterSyndrome #EmotionalIntelligence #JoshSeldin #YourGrowthAscent

"Trust isn't a soft skill, it's the foundation of great relationships, and great relationships are the key to success." In this episode of Leadership in Quarters, host Josh Seldin sits down with executive coach, keynote speaker, and author Ken Sher to explore how leaders can build authentic trust, transform organizational culture, and drive peak team performance.
Drawing from 30 years of experience developing leaders at Johnson & Johnson and Bristol Myers Squibb, Ken breaks down his actionable TRUST Success Model. He reveals why transparency in chaotic times builds unshakeable credibility, how to satisfy core human psychological needs, and why autonomy is the ultimate demonstration of executive trust.
In this deep dive into modern organizational health, you'll discover:
✅ The TRUST Success Model: A practical 5-part framework—Transparency, Results, Understanding, Simplicity, and Teams—to elevate leadership performance.
✅ Soft Skill vs. Core Foundation: Why trust drives tangible business outcomes despite being hard to measure.
✅ Leading Through Uncertainty: How being vulnerable and transparent during high-stakes disruption builds team buy-in.
✅ Self-Determination Theory in Action: Supporting the 3 basic human needs—Autonomy, Relatedness, and Competence—to eliminate micromanagement.
✅ Spotting Trust in Hiring: How to evaluate EQ, self-awareness, and cultural fit during executive interviews.
✅ High-Trust Organizational Markers: What healthy, autonomous, and high-performing teams look like from the inside out.
TIMESTAMPS & CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Introduction: Welcome Ken Sher to Leadership in Quarters
01:10 - What is the TRUST Success Model? Lessons from Johnson & Johnson
02:50 - Is Trust Really a "Soft Skill"? Measuring Its Business Impact
04:15 - Transparency in Crisis: Communicating When You Don't Have All the Answers
07:10 - Ego, Vulnerability, and Building Real Credibility as a Leader
08:25 - The Breakdown of the TRUST Acronym: Results, Understanding, Simplicity, Teams
10:45 - Autonomy vs. Micromanagement: Giving Teams Room to Execute
12:00 - Self-Determination Theory: Meeting the 3 Core Human Needs at Work
14:35 - What a High-Trust Culture Looks Like from the Outside
17:00 - Constructive Conflict: Why Healthy Teams Challenge Ideas
18:20 - Hiring for Trust: Uncovering EQ and Authenticity in Interviews
20:15 - Final Takeaways & How to Connect with Ken Sher 🔗
Connect with Ken Sher:
Website: https://www.kensher.com/
Book: What's Trust Got to Do With It?: Transforming Leadership, Culture, and the Job Search
LinkedIn:   / kensher  
Facebook:   / shercoaching  
IG:   / shercoaching  
📬 Contact Josh: leadinquarters@gmail.com
📱 Follow Leadership in Quarters: @leadinquarters on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok
Artwork: Adam Powell
#KenSher #TRUSTSuccessModel #LeadershipDevelopment #WorkplaceCulture #ExecutiveCoaching #AutonomyInLeadership #JoshSeldin #LeadershipInQuarters #YourGrowthAscent

"We listen to respond, we don't listen to understand." In this episode of Leadership in Quarters, host Josh Seldin sits down with award-winning personality strategist, keynote speaker, and bestselling author Angel Tucker to break down how leaders and sales professionals can translate personality intelligence into instant trust, psychological safety, and meaningful connection.
With nearly 30 years of experience helping organizations like Walmart, Exit Realty, and the U.S. Air Force, Angel shares her proprietary GLOW Connection Method—a simple, repeatable four-step framework designed to eliminate friction, speed-read behavioral cues, and adapt your communication style without losing your authenticity.
In this masterclass on behavioral intelligence and human connection, you'll discover:
✅ The GLOW Connection Method: How Gain awareness, Lock on, Operate accordingly, and Win the connection transforms workplace communication.
✅ Speed-Reading Personality Cues: Micro-signals in handshakes, speech pace, and pauses that reveal DISC personality types in under 60 seconds.
✅ Moving Beyond Mechanical Active Listening: Shifting focus from repeating content to understanding context, cognitive pace, and emotional bandwidth.
✅ The Authenticity Myth: Why adapting your style to speak someone else's "personality language" is the ultimate form of courtesy, not being fake.
✅ Redefining "Winning" in Leadership: How to create forward-moving alignment where both parties feel understood, respected, and valued.
✅ Decoding DISC Behavior under Stress: How Dominant, Inspiring, Supportive, and Conscientious types process problems, build trust, and make decisions.
TIMESTAMPS & CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Introduction: Welcome Personality Strategist Angel Tucker
01:10 - Introducing the GLOW Connection Method: G-L-O-W Breakdown
03:00 - Traditional Active Listening vs. True Personality Intelligence
04:15 - Overcoming Modern Distractions & Consciously Paying Attention
05:30 - Speed-Reading People: Decoding Speech Pace & Handshakes in 60 Seconds
08:20 - Locking On to What Others Need: D vs. I Interaction Styles 09:45 - The Authenticity Trap: Why Adapting Your Style Isn't Being Fake
11:55 - Miscommunications & The "Blow It Off" Lesson
13:40 - Redefining "Winning" the Connection: Trust vs. Transactions
16:10 - Moving from Assumed Alignment to True Interactive Buy-In
17:40 - How D, I, S, and C Personality Types Signal Trust
19:15 - The Neuroscience & Psychological Safety of Aligned Interactions
20:45 - Applying Personality Intelligence at Home & Final Takeaways
🔗 Connect with Angel Tucker:
Website: https://personalityspeaker.com
Book: Stop Squatting With Your Spurs On
📬 Contact Josh: leadinquarters@gmail.com
📱 Follow Leadership in Quarters: @leadinquarters on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok
Artwork: Adam Powell
#AngelTucker #PersonalityIntelligence #GLOWMethod #LeadershipDevelopment #DISCProfile #ExecutiveCoaching #ActiveListening #CommunicationSkills #JoshSeldin #LeadershipInQuarters

"Experience tells you where they've been, readiness tells you where they can go." In this episode of Leadership in Quarters, host Josh Seldin sits down with Logan Yonavjak, Co-founder and CEO of The Readiness Engine, to explore how modern organizations can move beyond traditional personality assessments and start quantitatively measuring human capacity, emotional resilience, and leadership potential in an increasingly AI-driven workforce.
With over two years of experience moving hundreds of millions in institutional capital across climate strategies and holding an MBA and MF from Yale, Logan shares how quantitative linguistics, developmental psychology, and AI-driven transcript analysis can illuminate hidden behavioral patterns, eliminate unconscious hiring biases, and help leaders build higher-performing, more adaptable teams.
In this masterclass on modern leadership intelligence, you'll discover:
✅ The Limits of Traditional Assessments: Why Myers-Briggs, personality profiles, and EQ tests miss critical markers of leadership capability.
✅ Personality vs. Behaviors vs. Capacity: How to distinguish between self-reported preference masks, situational behaviors, and a leader's true operating system.
✅ Overcoming the 40% Promotion Failure Rate: Why technical high achievers often struggle when transitioning into people leadership roles, and how objective data prevents burnout.
✅ AI as a Technical Tool & Human Skill Catalyst: How automating execution-based tasks elevates the strategic need for developmental capacity, active listening, and relationship-building.
✅ Quantitative Linguistics & Transcript Analytics: How objective sentence structure analysis uncovers a leader’s ability to manage complexity without relying on tone or sentiment.
✅ Assessing True Coachability: How to evaluate a team member's willingness to adapt, accept direct feedback, and stretch beyond their current comfort zones.
TIMESTAMPS & CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Introduction: Welcome Logan Yonavjak to Leadership in Quarters
01:10 - Defining Leadership Capacity vs. Personality & Behaviors
03:40 - Measuring Development through Quantitative Linguistics & Transcript Data
05:15 - Moving Beyond Experience: Predicting Where Leaders Can Go Next
06:50 - Why 40% of Promotions Fail: Unconscious Bias & System Overload
09:20 - Augmenting Human Decision-Making to Reduce Leadership Fatigue
11:35 - Rebranding "Soft Skills" in an AI-Driven Business Environment
14:10 - Extracting Objective Data Across Diverse Communication Styles
16:25 - Measuring Coachability & Navigating the Discomfort of Growth
18:50 - Overcoming Ego in Self-Assessments: How Third-Party Data Creates Clarity
22:10 - Ripping Off the Band-Aid: Building Feedback Cultures & Psychological Safety
25:00 - Final Takeaways & Where to Connect with Logan Yonavjak
🔗 Connect with Logan Yonavjak:
Website: https://www.readinessengine.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/loganyonavjak
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/readinessengine
📬 Contact Josh: leadinquarters@gmail.com
📱 Follow Leadership in Quarters: @leadinquarters on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok
Artwork: Adam Powell
#LoganYonavjak #LeadershipInQuarters #LeadershipReadiness #HumanCapacity #PeopleAnalytics #AIandLeadership #DevelopmentalPsychology #ExecutiveCoaching #JoshSeldin #YourGrowthAscent

"Everyone has a strategy until chaos hits, then people revert to their default training." In this episode of Leadership in Quarters, host Josh Seldin sits down with leadership consultant, executive coach, and US Army infantry veteran Ed Brzychcy to explore how leaders can close the gap between having a plan and executing when everything is on the line.
Drawing from 12 years in the US Army, including three combat deployments to Iraq, Ed breaks down why business strategy taught in boardrooms breaks down under pressure, how centralizing command creates operational bottlenecks, and how to build a resilient execution culture that thrives through ambiguity, crisis, and change.
In this masterclass on modern leadership execution, you'll discover:
✅ The Intent-to-Execution Gap: Why knowing strategy on paper fails during high-pressure chaos and how to build trained operational reflexes.
✅ Military vs. Business Training: Shifting from an "execute always" mindset to baking deliberate practice and scenario playgrounds into daily operations.
✅ The PACE Planning Framework: Implementing Primary, Alternate, Contingency, and Emergency plans to navigate unexpected operational friction.
✅ Eliminating the Bottleneck Trap: How over-centralizing decisions drives executive burnout, limits team autonomy, and slows growth. ✅ Leading vs. Lagging Metrics: How to read early warning indicators before operational breakdowns show up on lagging dashboards.
✅ Diagnosing System Breakdowns: Differentiating between process failures, people challenges, and structural misalignment to fix root causes.
TIMESTAMPS & CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Introduction: Welcome Ed Brzychcy to Leadership in Quarters
01:10 - The Intent-to-Execution Gap: Why Good Plans Fail Under Chaos
03:00 - Military vs. Business: Training for Mayhem vs. Just Executing
05:15 - Building "Playgrounds" for Safe Failure & Developing True EQ
07:40 - Leading Indicators & Early Warnings: Cultivating Open Communication
10:20 - Eliminating the Bottleneck: Why Centralized Command Drives Burnout
12:50 - Interview Red Flags: Assessing an Organization’s Execution Culture
15:15 - Leading vs. Lagging Metrics: Shifting from Reactive to Proactive
17:30 - Leadership Comfort Zones & Adapting Styles in Times of Crisis
20:45 - The PACE Framework: Primary, Alternate, Contingency & Emergency Planning
24:10 - Leveraging Peer Networks & Breaking Down Cross-Functional Silos
26:50 - Diagnosing Operational Failure: Is it People, Process, or Strategy?
30:15 - Aligning Organizational Incentives for Sustainable Execution
🔗 Connect with Ed Brzychcy:
Website: www.ebmeridian.com
Email: ebrzychcy@ebmeridian.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ebrzychcy
📬 Contact Josh: leadinquarters@gmail.com
📱 Follow Leadership in Quarters: @leadinquarters on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok
Artwork: Adam Powell
#EdBrzychcy #MilitaryLeadership #StrategyExecution #LeadershipDevelopment #BusinessOperations #PACEFramework #ExecutiveCoaching #JoshSeldin #YourGrowthAscent

"Humanizing leadership isn't about being less professional—it's about acknowledging that the person leading is actually still a person." In this episode of Leadership in Quarters, host Josh Seldin sits down with executive psychotherapist, faculty lecturer, and business owner Tanna Brodbar to explore how leaders can break free from corporate detachment, manage high-stakes pressures, and show up authentically without compromising accountability.
Drawing from over 25 years of experience across finance, technology, risk management, and clinical psychotherapy, Tanna exposes the unspoken psychological toll of climbing the corporate ladder. She breaks down the critical distinction between containing emotions versus denying them, revealing how standard workplace coping mechanisms can quietly fuel executive burnout.
In this masterclass on leadership dynamics, you'll discover:
✅ Containing vs. Denying Emotion: How to process executive anxiety and stress without unloading burdens onto your team.
✅ The "Severance" Effect: Why attempting to compartmentalize work and personal identity creates defensive, unsustainable leadership habits.
✅ Defenses Rewarded as Strengths: Recognizing how perfectionism, over-intellectualization, and data reliance mask underlying leadership vulnerabilities.
✅ Cultivating Curiosity Over Judgment: How adopting a curious mindset diffuses team defensiveness and deepens strategic feedback conversations.
✅ Psychological Safety & Accountability: Why human-centered leaders build stronger trust and higher team performance than traditional command-and-control executives.
✅ Role Modeling Authentic Leadership: Practical steps for setting healthy professional boundaries while giving your team permission to be human.
TIMESTAMPS & CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Introduction: Welcome Tanna Brodbar to Leadership in Quarters
01:30 - Defining "Humanizing Leadership" in Modern Business
03:00 - The Myth of Leaving Emotions at the Door (The Severance Effect)
05:30 - Containing vs. Denying Emotions under High Pressure
07:45 - How Dehumanization Shapes Senior Executive Identity
09:10 - Recognizing Defensive Mechanisms: Intellectualization & Perfectionism
12:15 - Why Corporate Culture Rewards Maladaptive Coping Strategies
14:05 - Using Curiosity to Navigate Defensive Team Dynamics
17:35 - Balancing Authentic Human Connection with Professional Boundaries
21:10 - How Humanized Leadership Drives Real Business Accountability
23:40 - Final Takeaways & Where to Connect with Tanna Brodbar 🔗
Connect with Tanna Brodbar:
Percepta Leadership: https://perceptaleadership.com
For Psychotherapy Services: https://perceptaleadership.com/psychotherapy-for-professionals/
Center for Applied Psychodynamics: https://perceptaleadership.com/center-for-applied-psychodynamics/
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tannabrodbar
📬 Contact Josh: leadinquarters@gmail.com
📱 Follow Leadership in Quarters: @leadinquarters on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok
Artwork: Adam Powell
#TannaBrodbar #HumanizingLeadership #ExecutiveCoaching #LeadershipDevelopment #Psychodynamics #MentalHealthInLeadership #CorporateCulture #JoshSeldin #YourGrowthAscent