Bridges To Leadership

5 years of managing one of the coolest and busiest breweries on the east coast has taught Tracy many lessons.  In this podcast she shares her insights on what she has learned and her philosophy on leadership... - how to approach a team that is full of all stars - always listening to the dissenting opinion - learning is life long - "We take our business seriously but not ourselves" - enlightened hospitality Find Tracy on Instagram @tracyciscoofficial

To be a successful basketball coach for 2 decades in Indiana you must be doing something right! Honored to have my good friend Jason Ridge on the podcast this week.  Coach Ridge has been developing his leadership skills and those around him for over 20 years in the classroom and on the court.  He currently is the head women's basketball coach at St. Francis University in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  Jason has implemented strong leadership practices with his students and teams that have resulted in great success.  He touches on some of the many areas that have helped him and his students, coaches, players, and teachers succeed.  Topics covered in the podcast... - defining leadership - value of listening while pushing your vision - coaching vs mentoring - decision making through a prism of leadership, growth, service Email  jridge@sf.edu Instagram @thejasonridge22 @ladycougbball

Each summer season, 2 students from my alma mater ferry over to Nantucket Island for a 10 week internship with my company Nantucket Bike Tours.  We use this small business to teach them the people skills they will need to be successful in business and in life.   We sat down at the end of their 5th week to discuss what they have learned and their general experience.  I wanted to know what had they learned in 5 week, could you learn much of anything in 5 weeks?  It seems at first glance that improving your EQ in such a short amount of time could be daunting.  Marcus and Waleed are knocking it out of the park!  Here are some of the things the talk about... Self Awareness ^^ Giving and Receiving Feedback ^^ BINI - Be Interested Not Interesting ^^ Body Language ^^ Importance of a Smile This podcast episode is for anyone who thinks they might be able to, or want to, improve their people skills in a short window of time.  It is also for someone who wants to apply these type of principals to their work or life. Enjoy

Fatherhood Friday looks at parenthood through the lens of leadership.  Being a Dad has many challenges and many victories, which is parallel to all aspects of life.  The Dads that I interview haven't written a book on fatherhood and don't have a phD in child development.  They are every day Dads from all walks of life and many different family makeups.   For this Fatherhood Friday Carl Lindvall joins us, father of 3 children with his wife Sarah.  Carl grew up on Nantucket and has raised his kids here for the past 12 years.  It was hard to edit this podcast down to 40 minutes because of many lessons and  A couple of highlights of what Carl shared with us... - spending time with your partner - treating your children as peers - setting standards - ipad vs dishwasher - asking your kids for forgiveness Feel free to send any thoughts or comments my way to jason@nantucketbybike.com  Enjoy!

Fatherhood Friday looks at parenthood through the lens of leadership.  Being a Dad has many challenges and many victories, which is parallel to all aspects of life.  The Dads that I interview haven't written a book on fatherhood and don't have a phD in child development.  They are every day Dads from all walks of life and many different family makeups.   For this Fatherhood Friday we are joined by Geoff Smith, father of a 5 year old daughter.  Geoff wasn't sure how his "fly by the seat of his pants" lifestyle would work being a new Dad.  Before fatherhood, I ran into Geoff one day and I asked him what he was up to..."Oh, flying to Argentina tomorrow, rented an apartment for 3 months and hired a Spanish teacher".  This was a common occurrence with Geoff, always doing something out of the ordinary at a moments notice.   This is why I wanted the first Fatherhood Friday interview to be with Geoff - how was this guy going to adapt to being a father?  Well, he is a kick ass Dad and we are lucky for him to share his

Determining your negative listening habits will help you understand potential hurdles to becoming a top notch active listener.  Once you understand and are aware of them, you can then start to minimize them. In this podcast we look at 4 negative listening habits... The Faker The Interruptor The One Upper The Advice Giver Which of these do you find yourself doing the most?   What do you do when you catch yourself doing one of these bad habits?  Answer:  "Call it what it is!" Part 2 of Active Listening, coming in the next podcast, will focus on strategies you can add to your tool box to improve your listening skills.  Once you are fully aware of how you listen (or don't) then we can spend time working on paraphrasing, summarizing, and parroting.

Is fatherhood and leadership synonymous?  What's the best way a father can lead within a family?  How do you handle advice from other fathers?   These are some of the questions my wife, Courtney, asks me in this first episode of Fatherhood Friday.  And let's be clear right off the bat, I am not technically a father yet!  Still have some time before we through the go-bags in the trunk and head off to the hospital (but not too much time). I am no expert.  This interview takes place 4 weeks before my first child's arrival.  I figured what's the best way to get honest answers about my vision of fatherhood and how it connects with leadership - have your pregnant wife ask questions that you aren't prepared for. Courtney did not share her questions with me ahead of time - so my reactions and answers are the real deal.   This interview is for those that like to apply leadership in all areas of our life.  Even if you aren't a father (as I am not as this podcast is published), you have a father and you might be one day

Let's talk about the excuse we all love to make.  You know the one, you probably said it recently, "I'm terrible at remembering names".  When we make names a priority, we are shifting our focus from ourselves to those around us. In this podcast I talk about WHY its important to focus on names, TIPS and TRICKS on how to remember names, and WHAT to do when you are in a situation when you've forgotten someone's name you've known for a long time. Stop giving yourself permission to NOT remember names.  Every time you say "I'm terrible at remembering names", you are allowing yourself to do just that.  Make it a priority and shift your focus on the other person(s).  TIPS we review... 1) Say it out loud 2) Write it down 3) Assimilation If you space on someone's name that you have known for years, or feel that you should 100% know the name...call it what it is.  Tell them you've spaced the name.  Sounds awful, but its better in the long run because they know anyway.  This will build trust. Here's a couple ways of find

Here's the punchline...your staff won't work with you forever.  The days of 35 year careers are over, especially for small businesses like our coffee shop.  So how can you get the best out of your staff and team?  Help them move on.  That's right.  Invest in them to the point where the grow to the top of their position, and then move on.  If your company is large, they might be able to move up or over.   It hurts when good staff leaves, but the upside is too big not to.   Make the best of the time you have with your team and invest in them.  Be the Super Manager!  Find out their goals, ideals, and needs and help your staff achieve them. Find out how Kristen Hadeed invests in her staff to create a positive working environment. This works the other way as well. You can also be the Super Employee.  Ask the owner or manager if they will invest in you. Create a mutually beneficial environment where both parties, the business and the employee, can grow.   Here's a couple ways of finding out more and contacting me.

New year's resolutions never really worked for me.  Over the past couple years I adapted the "resolution" idea to be more effective over the long haul. Each year I come up with a theme to help me focus on something that I want to improve personally.  In this episode I share with you my themes for 2016, 2017, and how they helped me grow certain aspects of my life that needed some much needed help.   Without direction of these "Year of..." themes there is no way I would have stood in front of 200 people, in my underwear, and rapped (poorly) R. Kelly's Ignition.  I even give you a taste of that dreadful but amazing day, careful it might make your ears bleed! My hope is that this podcast will help you think about and define what you want 2018 to look like and help set goals to get you there.   Here's a couple ways of finding out more and contacting me. email: jason@nantucketbybike.com Website  www.jasonmbridges.com TEDx Talk Practicing Emotional Intelligence Instagram @jasonmbridges  

Many eons ago (okay about 10 years) I was a manager of a pizza shop where I learned many valuable lessons that continue to help me today as a leader.  I share one of my favorites about how my boss at the time handled a big mistake that I had made.  This lesson still sits with me today and has shaped my mindset on how I see a mistake...an opportunity.   This podcast focuses on how we handle mistakes when OTHERS make them.  When you google making mistakes the majority of what you will find is how to handle your own mistakes and how its is part of the learning process...all true.  But I could find little on how, in a leadership role, we can shift our mindset to turn a mistake into progress.   Enjoy!  And give me that feedback!   Forbes article on turning mistakes into opportunities   Here's a couple ways of finding out more and contacting me. email: jason@nantucketbybike.com Website  www.jasonmbridges.com TEDx Talk Practicing Emotional Intelligence Instagram @jasonmbridges

After someone takes the time out of their day to speak with us, invite us into their home, or helps us in any way we usually send a thank you after the fact (right?).  But what do you write in that email or that hand written note?  This podcast talks about how to structure a thank you note so you can spend less time doing it AND make it stick.  Its the small details like this that builds relationships, so don't overlook it! Let's stop sending the basic, generalized, "this could have been sent to anyone" thank you notes and put jusssssssst a little more thought into it.  The basic structure goes like this... Opener Connecter(s) Closing Pretty easy right?  So why don't we do it more often?  Why is it so hard for us to make a thoughtful thank you note.  The Connecting middle piece is the key!  Refer to something that happened within your shared experience, and be sincere + gracious when doing it. If you wonder if I really am recording a podcast from a coffee shop on Nantucket, or find an urge to work with me in

Now that you have mastered initiating small talk after listening to our last podcast  :-)  we can now concentrate how to respond when someone initiates conversation with us! In this podcast, I discuss different ways that I respond to small talk inquiries using examples of questions about our recent trip to Charleston and my pregnant wife.  Sounds kinda funny I know, but if you want to better connect with those around you we have to do better than a "I'm good" or "Great" or "thanks" type of response.  Yes, there are times when you aren't in the mood for small talk, no doubt about it.  When you are though, we can better engage with the initial connection to improve the conversation and further build that relationship. Test the waters with your first response to see if they want to go further in the conversation.  If you put a creative spin on your response, it could open up the conversation for a better connection. If you wonder if I really am recording a podcast from a coffee shop on Nantucket, or find an urge

Initiating small talk isn't easy, but if you put focus on those around you and use your personality to your benefit it will improve!   In this episode, I talk about strategies on how to start off with small talk using examples of how 2 different baristas at our coffee shop improved their interactions with customers.  Their personalities were different from one another so they chose different angles to better connect.   The two keys to successfully initiate small talk... 1) Be specific 2) Focus on the other person Focusing on small talk will help improve your self and social awareness, along with building better relationships.  Being interested in those around you is a good thing and key to effective leadership in any setting. If you wonder if I really am recording a podcast from a coffee shop on Nantucket, or find an urge to work with me in any way, here's a couple ways of finding out more and contacting me. email: jason@nantucketbybike.com Website  www.jasonmbridges.com TEDx Talk Practicing Emotional Intelli

Words matter. What are men supposed to do when inappropriate language about women occurs?  Obviously we should stand up and speak out against it.  But that doesn't always happen.  I discuss in this podcast a strategy for emerging male adults to combat this kind of dialogue that is degrading to women, dialogue that is too often exchanged and accepted in male environments and culture.  This is an leadership issue and a serious conversation that more men have to have. Over the years I have worked with many male college students who don't have the tools and strategies to stand up for women in these situations.  When you break it down into 3 actions it gives a path to what we all want...to shift male culture.  I discuss a quick strategy for these situations... 1) Leave 2) Change the subject 3) Speak out This podcast is for all men and anyone who wants to help men to no longer become what Jackson Katz calls the "bystander".  Check out his TED talk here, its well worth the 17 minutes! This is a very complex subject

Being aware of our body language and the body language of those around us at meetings is not easy to grasp AND stay involved with the discussion.  I share a brief story of some very interesting body language I experienced at a recent meeting I had.  Also give out 4 tips on what to think about in your next meeting. ~ keep your body open (don't cross your arms) ~ sit up straight, don't slouch ~ DON'T LOOK AT YOUR PHONE! ~ try to be the best active listener you can be   If you wonder if I really am recording a podcast from a coffee shop on Nantucket, or find an urge to work with me in any way, here's a couple ways of finding out more and reaching me. Website  www.jasonmbridges.com TEDx Talk Practicing Emotional Intelligence See what's up on instagram @jasonmbridges  

Here's a short description that led me to start this podcast.   Last year I did a TEDx talk at Wabash College about "Practicing Emotional Intelligence".  In this I describe the car accident that started it all, how I struggled with my new brain, and how I use EQ in a business setting via my coffee shop and bike tour company. If you wonder if I really am recording a podcast from a coffee shop on Nantucket, wonder what its like to be a storyteller on 2 wheels, or find an urge to work with me in any way, here's a couple ways of getting ahold of me. Email: jason@nantucketbybike.com Website  www.jasonmbridges.com Or shoot me a note on instagram @jasonmbridges