Activating Greatness Podcast Episodes

Episode 53: Fruitful Friction: Why Polite Leadership Stalls Progress — with Hilary Blair

Alec McChesney — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 13:00:00 GMT

Polite Is the Death of Progress: Hilary Blair on Fruitful Friction

In this post: Hilary Blair, CEO of ARTiculate: Real & Clear, explains fruitful friction, her idea that friction is inevitable and conflict is optional, and why polite stalls progress. She shares how tone, self-awareness, and presence help leaders invite pushback.

Hilary Blair had spent a full day running improv exercises with two teams that kept butting heads. They were not in open conflict, but they were spinning. When the workshop ended, a project manager who went to MIT strode toward her.

Episode 52: Construction Leadership Development Without a Playbook — with Lisa O'Brien

Alec McChesney — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Construction's 3 Transformations at Once: Lisa O'Brien on Leading Without a Playbook

In this post: Construction leadership development has been underserved, and Procore's Lisa O'Brien explains why the industry now faces technology, business, and culture transformations at once. She shares three shifts that help veteran executives become the bridge to the next generation.

Lisa O'Brien set out to find the handful of levers that matter most to construction leaders. Her team defined 12 factors and expected three to six of them to rise to the top. All 12 came back equal.

Episode 51: Execution Over Process: Why a Perfect Plan Can Still Fail — with Seth Ingall

Alec McChesney — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 13:00:00 GMT

You Don't Need the Best Process to Win: Seth Ingall on the Discipline of Execution

In this post: Crash Champions Chief Legal Officer Seth Ingall makes the case for execution over process, drawn from 38 years at GEICO. He explains how to hire for attitude, run a train and audit loop, and help a fast-growing company mature.

Seth Ingall started at GEICO in 1986, when the mainframe sat on a lazy Susan so two people could share it and every form came in triplicate on carbon paper. Over the next 38 years he watched business move through personal computers, Windows 95, the internet, and now artificial intelligence. One lesson held through all of it, and it runs against most corporate instincts: execution over process.

Episode 50: How Teams Treat Failure: Run an Autopsy Without Blame — with David Esposito

Alec McChesney — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 08:00:00 GMT

Autopsy Without Blame: David Esposito on How Great Teams Treat Failure

In this post: ONL Therapeutics CEO David Esposito explains how teams treat failure when it counts, using an autopsy without blame borrowed from Army after-action reviews to surface the truth, own mistakes, and help people get back in the fight.

David Esposito does not hide the bankruptcies. By his own accounting, he has taken a few companies into bankruptcy over a career spent building early- and mid-stage life sciences businesses. Those losses shaped his thinking on how teams treat failure.

Episode 49: Recruiting Financial Advisors: Hire Entrepreneurs First — with Chad Foster

Alec McChesney — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 08:00:00 GMT

This Career Is Not for Most: Chad Foster on Recruiting Entrepreneurs in Financial Services

In this post: Chad Foster of Modern Woodmen of America explains his approach to recruiting financial advisors: hire entrepreneurs, not salespeople. He shows how early candor, managers grown from within, and layered mentoring build an agency team that stays.

Most recruiting pitches in financial services sound alike. The money is great. You help people. You make every recital and ball game.

Episode 48: Competition as a Leadership Engine: Scoreboards That Work — with John Worden

Alec McChesney — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 08:00:00 GMT

Share the Why to Get the Buy: John Worden on Competition as a Leadership Engine

In this post: Javara commercial leader John Worden explains how to use competition as a leadership engine without creating lone wolves. He shares how he builds KPIs from both ends, explains the why behind every target, and celebrates the work behind each win.

Early in his management career, long before he came to see competition as a leadership engine, John Worden did what many new managers do. He handed out direction and expected the team to follow it.

Episode 47: Spotting Hidden Strengths in Employees: Lessons From Pfizer — with Jenny Gattari

Alec McChesney — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 08:00:00 GMT

The Strengths You Dismiss: Jenny Gattari on Spotting Hidden Talent in Your People

In this post: Pfizer CentreOne's Jenny Gattari shares her approach to spotting hidden strengths in employees, from asking what people loved most about a project to handing them stretch assignments. Her goal is a team that sees and taps each other's strengths.

Jenny Gattari's team was overloaded when her manager handed her help. The new team member was a clinician, not a marketer. She had no MBA. She did not know how to price a product, and she did not understand the concept of margin. What she had going for her was that she was free.

Episode 46: Evolving Organizational Culture Through Crisis and Growth — with Tom Ulbrich

Alec McChesney — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 08:00:00 GMT

Evolve, Don't Replace: Tom Ulbrich on Growing Goodwill From $6 Million to $25 Million

In this post: Goodwill of Western New York CEO Tom Ulbrich shares how evolving organizational culture, not replacing it, carried his team through COVID-19. He explains why accountability needs constant coaching and why the next stage of growth needs a builder.

Tom Ulbrich's lesson in evolving organizational culture started on May 1, 2020, when he took over as President and CEO of Goodwill of Western New York. The departing CEO handed him the keys with a pair of barbecue tongs.

Episode 45: Organizational Health: The Hidden Business Risk Boards Miss — with Jim Brown

Alec McChesney — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 08:00:00 GMT

Your People Are Giving 60%: Jim Brown on the 4 Hidden Risks Behind Organizational Health

In this post: OrgHealth Founder Jim Brown explains why organizational health belongs on the board agenda as risk management, not an HR line item. He maps four hidden risks and shows what 60% effort quietly costs revenue.

The plant was running out of time.

Episode 44: Culture Beats Strategy When Leaders Live It — with Mike Ansay

Alec McChesney — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 08:00:00 GMT

Culture Has No Value If You Don't Live It: Mike Ansay on 80 Years of Give to Get

In this post: Culture beats strategy only when leaders live it, says Mike Ansay, CEO of 80-year-old Ansay & Associates. He explains how give to get, disciplined recognition, and patient acquisitions grew one file cabinet into a top 75 firm.

When Mike Ansay graduated from college, the family business he would one day run consisted of one file cabinet and one telephone. His father, 46 years his senior, shook his hand and offered no guarantees. What Ansay built from there became his proof that culture beats strategy, but only when leaders live it.