Leading self comes before leading anyone else, and executive coach Parker Gates spends this episode of Leadership That Shines proving exactly how. Parker walks host Natalie Davis through a leadership journey that started by accident, running a deli kitchen at nineteen, moved through two decades in corporate IT, and landed in a coaching practice built around three daily practices: journaling, meditation, and movement.
Parker traces the moment that changed everything, a week at Stanford's design school where he encountered a level of psychological safety and belonging he had never experienced in corporate America. That week led him to quit his job, build a company around design thinking, and eventually start teaching senior leadership teams why smart people in a room don't automatically make a good team.
In This Episode:
● Why personal development and professional development are the same work
● How psychological safety became the missing ingredient on every team Parker built
● The three daily practices Parker uses with C-suite clients: journaling, meditation,
movement
● How a recovery concept called "taking inventory" became a leadership tool
● Why "never skip day two" matters more than any single day of discipline
Parker also opens up about twenty-four years of recovery, the friend he lost to cancer that led to his first real meditation practice, and the repair work he now teaches leaders to do when they fall short with their teams. This conversation moves through self-awareness, humility, and the practical steps behind showing up as a better leader every day.
Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. New episodes drop every Wednesday.
Subscribe to the Flamingo Files newsletter on LinkedIn for a deeper dive into this conversation, published every Monday.
Contact: themagic@leadershipthatshines.com | leadershipthatshines.com Guest: Parker Gates,
executive coach | parkergates.com | Free practices video: parkergates.com/watch
