Susan Brady: CEO of Simmons University Institute for Inclusive Leadership

01/30/23 • 48 min

A powerful conversation with Susan Brady, CEO of Simmons University Institute for Inclusive Leadership and author of Arrive and Thrive: 7 Impactful Practices for Women Navigating Leadership.
In conversation with Coaching.com CEO Alex Pascal, Susan outlines the career journey that brought her to write her most recent book. She also shares her perspective on mastering your inner critic, including why men and women engage differently with theirs.
It’s not just problematic narratives in our own minds that make us feel smaller and not good enough; the world also reinforces these beliefs. Susan’s work is concerned with how we arrive back to a compassionate center, both for ourselves and other people. During this episode, she explains the importance of understanding who your best self is in order to be able to return to this person swiftly.
As an experienced expert in women’s leadership, Susan has many informed opinions on the most effective methods of increasing workplace diversity. One of the issues she identifies with Alex is that men may have justified concerns about stepping in to right the wrongs that they’ve observed.
Susan has ideas about how to avoid blaming and shaming and using compassion and empathy as the fuel for change. She also clarifies why she believes it’s crucial to pursue diversity across dimensions, beyond the well-intentioned but ultimately inadequate concept of allyship.
To unlock strategies for exercising empathy and reconnecting with your inherent worthiness, listen to the full episode!

Previous Episode

Mo Kasti: Founder of CTI Leadership, Author & Coach

A deep-dive into coaching in the healthcare space with Mo Kasti, founder of CTI Leadership and author of Physician Leadership: The Rx for Healthcare Transformation (2015) and Beyond Physician Engagement: A Roadmap to Partner with Physicians to Be All In (2018).
What does it take to be a doctor ? Prior to 2005, Mo explains that passing exams and achieving a great GPA was the only real criteria. However, he understands that success in the healthcare industry requires so much more than that.
In this conversation, he explains to Coaching.com CEO Alex Pascal why it matters whether a doctor can listen actively, collaborate with others, and communicate effectively. He also shares why he believes that STEM should include art to become STEAM.
Mo Kasti knows that when it comes to the “expert culture” of the healthcare industry, soft skills can be the hardest ones to teach. However, neglecting them is not an option - in this context, they can literally save lives. That’s why his work aims to combine clinical skill with emotional intelligence to ensure the best possible patient experience.
Coaching may have arrived late to the healthcare industry, but as Mo explains, it has the potential to transform it. Find out about Mo’s progress so far in his mission to put humanity back into healthcare and hear more about his plans for the future integration of coaching into this industry by listening to the full episode.

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Michael Bungay Stanier: Bestselling Author of The Coaching Habit

A conversation with author, teacher, and coaching industry rockstar Michael Bungay Stanier. Michael is known for writing The Coaching Habit, which has sold over a million copies, as well as the unconventional but accessible approach that has earned him high profile fans like Brene Brown and Marshall Goldsmith.
In this episode, Michael talks about how coaches can lean into curiosity to navigate uncertain times. He shares his “advice monsters” model, which is used to identify and address the ways in which a coach’s ego can show up in their practice.
Michael also shares guidance on how coaches can tame their need to add too much value to their sessions, causing information overload, and instead strive for simplicity on the other side of complexity.
It’s clear that Michael has had many previous lives, and he talks us through them in this episode. He almost became a solicitor before discovering coaching, then when he created his coaching practice he felt called to dismantle it and pursue another path. He is the founder of Box of Crayons, a training company, but he has chosen to step down as CEO.
During this candid chat with Coaching.com CEO Alex Pascal, Michael explains how both courage and lack of courage have informed his bold career decisions. He also shares how his “big purpose” and his “big business purpose” inform how and where he directs his energy.
Listen in to find out how he thinks coaches should embrace ambiguity and stop oversaturing sessions by adopting a “teach the least to have the most impact” approach.

Coaches on Zoom Drinking Coffee - Susan Brady: CEO of Simmons University Institute for Inclusive Leadership

Transcript

Coaches on Zoom Drinking Coffee - Susan Brady
(interview blurb)
Susan: When I say congruency, I’m not talking just about my own energy, I’m talking about my intention and the value of knowing that people want to be seen and valued and cared for and that leadership is a relationship. The value of knowing that is, I think, the ticket to producing exceptional results.
(intro)
Alex: Hi, I’m Alex Pascal, CEO of coaching.com, and this is Coaches on Zoom Drinking Coffee. My guest to