Is your team in conflict over the work, or over something nobody is saying out loud?

Most leaders I work with treat conflict as a problem to shut down. The real issue usually sits underneath: unmet motivators, missing context, and a self-awareness gap that most of us don't know we have. Until you address those, the same fights keep coming back.

In this episode of The Perfect Route, I sit down with Robyn McTague, conflict transformation specialist and founder of A Life of Choice. Robyn brings years of corporate union and joint committee work, training in negotiation, mediation, and counseling psychology, and a deeply personal story about learning to move from conflict-afraid to conflict-curious.

In this conversation, we cover:

• How childhood patterns of rage or silence show up in our adult work relationships
• Why today's workforce expects to bring its whole self to work, and what that means for leaders
• How Motivational Maps reveal the nine motivators that drive engagement, fit, and retention
• The small business story where three competing "experts" became a collaborative team, and revenue rose within months
• Why conflict so often starts with short texts and emails that strip away context
• Tasha Eurich's research on the self-awareness gap, and why "I don't know" is a leadership strength
• The one mantra Robyn uses to begin every conflict conversation

Whether you lead a large organization, run a small business, or coach leaders yourself, this episode offers a practical, human lens on turning tension into trust.

Connect with Robyn McTague:

• alifeofchoice.ca
• linkedin.com/in/robynmctague

Listen on your favorite platform:

YouTube | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | n3ed.com/podcast

#Conflict Resolution #Business Coaching #Leadership Development #Employee Engagement #Self Awareness #Motivational Maps #Enneagram #The Perfect Route #Bill Sodeman #Podcast For Leaders

What changes when the person running the company can actually lose?

Most conversations about leadership incentives stop at the upside: bonuses, options, equity grants. Haren Bhakta argues the real difference shows up on the downside. Leaders who buy shares with their own money feel their mistakes, and that changes how they think about strategy, risk, and innovation.

In this episode of The Perfect Route, I sit down with Haren, founder and CEO of the Inside Ownership Index, the first stock market index built to track companies where insiders hold meaningful stakes. He built it by working through roughly 20,000 proxy filings by hand.

In this conversation, we cover:

• The Berkshire Hathaway meeting moment that sparked the Inside Ownership Index
• Why leaders without meaningful ownership drift toward quarterly thinking
• What Silicon Valley Bank's proxy filing revealed about leaders with nothing at risk
• The zoo animal versus wild lion: two very different kinds of CEO
• Why you can't innovate by committee, and why small failures matter
• The one pattern Haren found behind nearly every hundred-bagger stock since 2000

Whether you're a senior executive, a board member, or a rising leader learning to think like an owner, this conversation will change how you look at accountability.

This episode is for educational purposes only and is not investment advice.

Connect with Haren Bhakta:

insideownership.com

Listen on your favorite platform:

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube | n3ed.com/podcast

#Leadership #ExecutiveLeadership #Strategy #CorporateGovernance #Innovation #OwnershipMindset #ThePerfectRoute #BillSodeman #PodcastForLeaders

Are you investing in technology faster than you're investing in your people?

Most organizations I work with aren't short on tools. They're short on leaders who show up. AI, automation, and virtual meetings have made it easy to manage from a distance, and that distance shows up in turnover, lost accounts, and customers yelling "Agent!" into the phone.

In this episode of The Perfect Route, I sit down with Emery Geositz, a 30-year IT industry leader, executive coach, and partner at GeoLark Partners. Emery started out planning to become a priest, did a stint in stand-up comedy, and built a career in technology leadership by focusing on people first.

In this conversation, we cover:

• Why Emery treats employees as his first customers and aims for 100% satisfaction
• The 65 to 70% rule for how much attention leaders should give their people
• How people-first leadership helps smaller firms compete with big tech for talent
• Why cutting travel and training in a budget crunch often backfires
• What cameras-off culture signals in virtual meetings and sales calls
• Where AI customer service falls short, and the case for onshore call centers
• Why community is the new water cooler for distributed businesses

Whether you're a CIO, a startup founder, or a manager stepping into your first executive role, this one is a reminder that the human side of leadership is still the competitive advantage.

Listen on your favorite platform:

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | n3ed.com/podcast

#Leadership #ITLeadership #ExecutiveCoaching #PeopleFirst #CustomerService #AI #Toledo #ThePerfectRoute #BillSodeman #LeadershipDevelopment #PodcastForLeaders