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What's the true value of kindness in business?

According to Tara May, CEO of Aspiratech, compassion is a powerful driver of innovation, revenue, and profit.

Our conversation explores the ROI of kindness, a concept that challenges traditional views by connecting human-centered leadership directly to business outcomes. Tara shares compelling insights from her experience leading a tech company where over 90% of employees are autistic adults, revealing how embracing neurodiversity creates a workplace where everyone can thrive as their authentic selves.

We discuss the leadership development gap that plagues many organizations. Too often, companies promote stellar individual contributors into management roles without providing proper training, setting them up to struggle.

"Leadership is a very different skill from individual excellence," Tara explains, "and it's a muscle that needs to be built up over time." This perspective offers a refreshing take on why compassionate management requires intentional cultivation.

As we navigate technological disruptions like generative AI, Tara makes a compelling case that psychological safety—the ability to take risks and fail without fear—has never been more crucial. Companies that create environments where people feel safe experimenting will be the ones that thrive through constant change.

Whether you're a seasoned executive or an emerging leader, this episode offers both practical wisdom and inspiring vision for creating workplaces where kindness and business success go hand in hand. Connect with Tara and learn more about Aspiritech at www.aspiritech.org.

Tara May is a leader in the movement for neurodiversity in the workplace. She is CEO of Aspiritech, a revolutionary tech company that employs more than 100 autistic adults representing more than 90% of its team. Tara is co-director of Neurowrx and a member of the strategic committee for HAAPE, or Helping Adults with Autism Perform and Excel, advocating for neurodiversity and employment both nationally and internationally and is a renowned speaker championing embracing neurodiversity, mental health, and most of all kindness, in the workplace.

You can learn more about Tara and here work at Aspiritech or on LinkedIn.

Go to https://betterhelp.com/resilience or click Notes on Resilience during sign up for 10% off your first month of therapy with my sponsor BetterHelp.

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Producer / Editor: Neel Panji

Invite Manya to inspire and empower your teams and position your organization as a forward-thinking leader in well-being, resilience, and trauma sensitivity.

Please subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your listening platform of choice. It really helps others find us.

#trauma #resilience #compassion #MentalHealth #CompassionateLeadership #leadership #survivor

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When crisis hits, what separates exceptional leaders from the rest?

Dr. Heidi Steinecker draws from her remarkable career as Deputy Director of the California Department of Public Health and US Citizen Diplomat to reveal the unexpected qualities that define crisis leadership.

"What will do the least amount of harm?"

This guiding question frames her approach to crisis management: She acknowledges that perfect solutions rarely exist, but strategic thinking can minimize suffering. Rather than merely reacting, she advocates for a proactive stance that combines data-driven decision-making with boots-on-the-ground intelligence gathering.

Heidi challenges conventional wisdom about crisis response. Being too calm during congressional testimony once drew criticism, yet she argues that compartmentalizing emotions while remaining focused is precisely what effective leaders must do. This emotional intelligence extends to recognizing when teams need mandatory breaks, a lesson learned during marathon pandemic response efforts when staff worked seven days a week for months.

The conversation explores how relationship-building before crises creates the foundation for an effective response and how trust and cultural understanding outweigh technological solutions. Her unique global perspective bridges lessons from remote villages to state-level pandemic management. And she finds hope in the next generation of leaders entering the workforce, who bring fresh enthusiasm and innovative approaches to complex problems. Their creativity and comfort with new tools promise more responsive, effective crisis management for the future.

Dr. Heidi W. Steinecker is a distinguished public health leader with over two decades of experience in healthcare delivery systems and public health policy.

She has held several key leadership roles, including serving as a US Citizen Diplomat for US Department of State, Deputy Director at the California Department of Public Health and Principal at Resultant Consulting, where she advises government leaders on innovative ways to improve healthcare system strengthening, disease surveillance infrastructure, data modernization, and proactive analytic systems for preventative interventions in population health. Her work spans pandemic preparedness, quality and safety systems, and global health security, including epidemiological fieldwork in Uganda’s border of DRC and Rwanda. With a proven ability to align strategy, policy, and operations, Dr. Steinecker is committed to building resilient health systems and disease mitigation platforms to improve local and global health. Her expertise lies in integrating data-driven systems with people-centered processes to drive transformational change across all levels of healthcare and public health infrastructure.

You can learn more about her on LinkedIn.

Go to https://betterhelp.com/resilience or click Notes on Resilience during sign up for 10% off your first month of therapy with my sponsor BetterHelp.

Support the show

__________

Producer / Editor: Neel Panji

Invite Manya to inspire and empower your teams and position your organization as a forward-thinking leader in well-being, resilience, and trauma sensitivity.

Please subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your listening platform of choice. It really helps others find us.

#trauma #resilience #compassion #MentalHealth #CompassionateLeadership #leadership #survivor

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No one will listen to you and really embrace you unless they know that you're there with the right intentions.

Ali Uren, founder of Kiikstart, challenges conventional thinking about what truly drives workplace success.

The episode introduces Ali's powerful concept of the kindness bank--a framework where leaders make daily deposits through acts of generosity, attentiveness, and support. These deposits create a reserve from which leaders can draw when difficult conversations arise.

Ali also explores adversity intelligence, the skill set, mindset, and attitude that allows individuals to transform challenges into opportunities while maintaining well-being. Compassionate leadership creates the conditions for adversity intelligence to flourish, providing teams with the resources needed to bounce back (and forward) from setbacks.

The conversation tackles why leadership development often fails in organizations worldwide. We frequently promote individuals based on technical prowess rather than leadership capacity, creating a fundamental disconnect between expectations and reality. Ali points to a critical gap: decision-makers often view learning and development as mere information transmission rather than a strategic business driver.

For those seeking practical ways to measure compassion in the workplace, Ali offers surprisingly simple but profound questions:

• How kind was your manager to you in the last two weeks?
• How did that kindness show itself?"

These straightforward inquiries provide concrete data points for assessing a leader's compassionate impact.

Visit Ali's website Kiikstart.com and connect with her on LinkedIn where she shares daily content on developing people and businesses.

Go to https://betterhelp.com/resilience or click Notes on Resilience during sign up for 10% off your first month of therapy with my sponsor BetterHelp.

Support the show

__________

Producer / Editor: Neel Panji

Invite Manya to inspire and empower your teams and position your organization as a forward-thinking leader in well-being, resilience, and trauma sensitivity.

Please subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your listening platform of choice. It really helps others find us.

#trauma #resilience #compassion #MentalHealth #CompassionateLeadership #leadership #survivor