S8 E9: The New Rules of Leadership Communication with Jennifer Gabriele

In this episode of the Inspire Podcast, Bart Egnal welcomes Jennifer Gabriele, Partner and National Leader, Leadership & Team Development at Humance and co-author of The Inspirational Leader. Drawing on insights from her research and work with leaders across Canada, Jennifer explores how leadership has evolved in the wake of COVID and what it takes to manage and inspire teams in today's workplace. She discusses the shift toward shared leadership, the importance of executive presence, and why authenticity matters more than charisma.

Jennifer goes on to share practical lessons from her book, including the difference between clarity and certainty, the power of curiosity, cultivating excellence, and why managerial courage is critical for navigating difficult decisions. As a renowned executive coach and facilitator to many of Quebec's leading organizations and companies across Canada, Jennifer brings these ideas to life through real-world stories and actionable insights in a lively conversation between two people passionate about leadership communication.

Show notes: 00:32 Show intro 01:10 Welcoming Jennifer 01:43 The Inspirational Leader 01:57 What's the book about and why did you write it? 02:13 What makes a great leader? 03:32 What is Jennifer's story that led her to Humance? 03:51 We brand companies but not humans. Why not? 04:25 Products have far fewer dimensions than a person 04:36 Coca-Cola example 05:41 Her practice before Humance: executive branding 06:00 Why some persuade and others don't 06:36 The move to Humance 08:40 Acquiring Lord Communication 09:21 Focus on managers and executives 11:35 Interviewing leaders for the book: what did you find? 12:48 Themes that emerged from her qualitative research 13:02 Misplaced nostalgia for the "good old days" 13:47 Shared leadership 14:10 The impact of COVID on work culture 14:28 The amount and quality of presence required 14:44 During COVID, managers thought they needed to be 24/7 present 15:32 Bart discusses the decline in deference 16:27 Society has changed, too 16:34 Shortage of labour 17:31 What does it mean to be an inspirational leader? 18:15 You don't need to speak like Barack Obama; you just need to walk the talk 19:28 Getting people to follow you 19:49 Authority doesn't work. People need to believe in you 19:58 Passive-aggressive resistance to directive-style leadership 20:47 Three rules for inspiring leadership 21:23 The importance of having communication goals 25:19 The difference between clarity and certainty 25:43 What is cultivating excellence? 25:58 If you want to be an inspirational leader, you can't be a know-it-all 26:50 Example of the curious leader 27:20 How does curiosity tie to cultivating excellence? 27:54 Setting a standard for what excellence looks like 28:13 Teasing out unrealistic expectations and perfectionism vs. a healthy pursuit of excellence 28:48 Try your best vs. try not to make mistakes 29:11 How can leaders communicate this? 29:38 Don't hide if you don't know something 29:51 Instead of "Why did you do this?" say "How do we fix this?" 30:55 Example of dealing with a high-performing but toxic employee 32:18 Managerial courage 33:33 You lose talent if you're not a courageous leader 34:13 What did you learn from writing The Inspirational Leader? 35:47 Thank-yous 36:10 Show outro