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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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 a disability care organization struggled with high turnover and poor morale, today's guest, Karen Ansen, suggested flipping its organizational chart to put frontline caregivers at the top.

The organization transformed its culture and operations by asking employees directly what they needed.

Karen is an employment lawyer and leadership coach who brings humanity to high-conflict employment situations. As an attorney who deals with terminations and workplace disputes, Karen creates space for authentic communication while managing legal risks. She coaches leaders through their fear of legal repercussions while addressing the underlying issues. By unpacking how organizations reach breaking points, she helps clients avoid repeating painful patterns.

Karen's wisdom comes from personal experience—she's felt the sting of workplace conflict and knows the toll it takes. "Every person you've ever talked to has a terrible war story about what happened to them at work," she notes. "And I often say to people, 'don't let this be your story.'" This perspective shapes her unique approach combining legal expertise with soul-centered leadership practices, including breathwork sessions for executives.

Ready to transform your approach to workplace challenges? Explore how compassionate leadership can strengthen your organization while maintaining appropriate boundaries. Your team deserves nothing less.

Karen Ansen is a heart-led employment lawyer and leadership coach who believes the greatest transformations—whether in workplaces or in life—begin with listening deeply and leading with compassion. With decades of experience supporting aged care and community care leaders through complex challenges, Karen brings a rare blend of legal wisdom, emotional insight, and soulful presence to everything she does.

She is the founder of Ignite HR & Employment Law and Ignite Your Purpose, two values-based businesses that blend compliance with care, structure with soul, and leadership with deep inner alignment.

Learn more about Karen on LinkedIn and by visiting the Ignite HR & Employment Law website.

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

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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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Leaders tend to bifurcate, going to one extreme or the other. Some become hyper-competent but emotionally disconnected. Others display overwhelming empathy without direction.

Crisis response expert Jeff Gorter reveals that effective leadership during traumatic events requires a delicate balance of compassion and competence. Drawing from his experience responding to organizational crises at R3 Continuum, Jeff explains why some leaders falter while others shine during critical moments.

The conversation explores our unprecedented era of "cascading collective crises" – a succession of traumatic events without adequate processing time between them. Unlike previous generations who might hear about distant disasters days or weeks later, today's technology delivers every tragedy in real time, often re-traumatizing us through repeated exposure. This constant barrage disrupts our essential human need to make sense of difficult experiences.

Particularly illuminating is Jeff's insight about how we interpret our trauma responses. When facing a crisis, our bodies naturally engage survival mechanisms – fight, flight, or freeze responses hardwired into our brains. The difference between prolonged suffering and recovery often lies in recognizing these reactions as normal human responses rather than personal failures. "It's not that I'm broken," he explains, "I'm simply having a bad case of being human."

Despite the challenges we face, hope persists. We don't get to pick when crisis happens, but we do get to choose how we respond. That choice defines our path to recovery.

Jeff Gorter, MSW, LCSW, is VP of Clinical Crisis Response Services at R3 Continuum. He brings over 30 years of clinical experience including consultation and extensive on-site critical incident response to businesses and communities. He has responded directly to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Hurricane Katrina, the earthquake/tsunami in Japan, the Las Vegas Shooting, the breaching of the US Capitol, the 2023 Hawaii Wildfires, the 2024 Asheville Floods, and the 2025 DC Aviation Disaster, among others.

You can learn more about R3 Continuum on its website R3c.com. And learn more about Jeff on LinkedIn or contact him via email: jeff.gorter@r3c.com

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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When tested, we don't rise to the level of our aspirations. We fall back to the level of our training, habits, and policies.

This episode originally aired on The Breakout podcast, where I joined hosts Dr. Keri Ohlrich and Kelly Guenther to talk about trauma, recovery, resilience, and how society fails invisible victims of traumatic events.

For every physical injury in mass violence events, studies show between 5-40 people suffer psychological injuries—yet these survivors remain largely unacknowledged. "People openly told me my experience didn't count," she shares, revealing how this invalidation creates a secondary trauma that compounds suffering. This stigma drives many trauma survivors into silence, delaying treatment and deepening isolation.

Our workplace environments significantly impact healing—we spend approximately 90,000 hours at work over our lifetimes, and research shows managers influence our mental health as much as spouses and more than therapists. Yet most workplaces remain ill-equipped to support employees dealing with trauma.

Good intentions aren't enough. Organizations need embedded structures that support psychological safety regardless of who manages a team.

Listen to this powerful episode to understand how workplace cultures can either accelerate or hinder healing, and discover practical ways to create environments where everyone—including trauma survivors—can bring their best selves to work every day.

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.

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In this first in an occasional series on what we owe each other after collective traumas, bioethicist Alham Saadat shares unique insights from her experiences as a refugee and her work in bioethics at the Broad Institute.

Alham offers insights into the obligations we have toward one another both during crisis and in everyday life. "What we owe to each other is at the core of my belief system," she reflects, challenging listeners to expand their understanding of human responsibility.

The conversation ventures into leadership accountability, the weaponization of resilience, and the courage required to acknowledge harm. She argues that institutional acknowledgment of wrongdoing is often the crucial first step that takes pressure and strain off a person who's experienced harm. And emphasizes that truly supporting others requires humility, deep listening, and recognition that there are few clear-cut answers in life's most important areas.

"It's short-sighted in assuming that being strong is somehow equated with being a good person," Alham observes, advocating instead for normalizing vulnerability both personally and professionally. This perspective offers a refreshing counterpoint to society's relentless pressure to demonstrate unwavering strength and fortitude.

Whether you're navigating personal trauma, leading an organization through crisis, or simply seeking to deepen your connection with fellow humans, this conversation offers practical wisdom for building what Alham describes as the muscle of empathy. Listen now and reconsider what we truly owe each other as we journey through life together.

Alham Saadat, M.S. was the Associate Director of Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications (ELSI) in Biomedical Research at the Broad Institute and the co-director of the Broad Bioethics Initiative, which fosters bioethical engagement within the Broad community. As a scientist, ethicist, and community leader, she strives to advance biomedical research and maximize its potential to improve patient outcomes, particularly for underserved communities.

You can learn more about Alham 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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Ever noticed how the most successful leaders somehow manage to build thriving businesses while maintaining genuine human connections?

Rob Gallaher discovered this secret the hard way. After years of working excessive hours, micromanaging his team, and watching his personal life deteriorate, he knew something had to change.

Rob joins us to share how compassion transformed his approach to leadership. As a CEO leading multiple companies and author of Profit Sharing: The Power of Shared Success, he explains why business relationships don't have to remain purely transactional. "When you are compassionate, when there's a relationship with your team members... business is easier and smoother," Rob explains, challenging the notion that professional success requires personal sacrifice.

The conversation reveals how Rob revolutionized his companies through profit-sharing as a way to create genuine alignment between business owners and employees. What's particularly refreshing is Rob's emphasis on simple, practical approaches to building workplace relationships. Rather than elaborate team-building events, he suggests brief walks with colleagues, shared lunches, or handwritten thank-you notes. These small investments yield massive returns through increased trust, better delegation, and stronger overall performance.

Whether you're a business owner feeling isolated at the top or a team member seeking more meaning at work, this episode offers a roadmap to more fulfilling professional relationships. As Rob powerfully states, "Whatever your measurement of success is, it really comes down to the number of lives that you affect every day and the quality of that influence that you have."

Rob Gallaher is CEO of Gallaher Co. and is passionate about profit sharing. He is the author of Profit Sharing: The Power of Shared Success and is launching an online course to teach others about profit sharing. You can learn more about Rob on his website, LinkedIn, or Facebook.

Learn more about his new course, Unlock the Power of Shared Success, here.

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