IMPACTFUL Teamwork

Host Julia Felton argues that silence on leadership teams is often a rational response to the environment leaders create, not a lack of courage, and that psychological safety is built continuously through everyday interactions.

Citing Kurt Lewin’s idea that behaviour is a function of the person and their environment, she describes Amy Edmondson’s hospital findings that better teams report more errors because admitting mistakes is survivable, warning that “clean” error logs may signal suppression.

Using horse-based examples and Nokia’s 2005–2010 smartphone decline research, she shows how fear and misaligned pressure distort information flow and decision...

On the Impactful Teamwork podcast, host Julia Felton interviews Rachel Franco, founder of Fail Smarter, about why teamwork and learning from failure are competitive advantages.

Franco shares how her Fortune 500 innovation enablement work and a Northwestern capstone on barriers to learning from failure led her to focus on helping leaders and teams overcome fear of failure so they can innovate.

The conversation emphasises psychological safety—making it safe to speak up with ideas, concerns, and mistakes—through leader role-modelling, thoughtful responses, and measurement using Amy Edmondson’s Fearless Organization Scan.

Franco cites data linkin...

The episode argues that teamwork is a key competitive advantage and that many organisational problems—failed change initiatives, low engagement, and poor collaboration—reflect outdated leadership models.

Drawing from June Gunter’s book "Chaos to Clarity" and the host’s training with horses, it introduces the diamond model of shared leadership based on herd dynamics: the lead mare provides direction from the front, the lead stallion protects and unifies from behind, and sentinels lead from the middle with awareness, advocacy, and integration of newcomers.

The host recounts executives observing wild horses at Return to Freedom and seei...

Host Julia Felton welcomes Craig Bromage, Head of Infrastructure and Platforms at National Highways and creator of The Everyday Leader, to discuss teamwork and leadership.

Craig reflects on nine years in the RAF, noting promotions often tied to courses, time served, and poor management with little HR correction, and contrasts this with civilian leadership development. They explore how technical experts are frequently promoted into management without the right skills, creating bottlenecks and divided focus, and argue for rewarding technical excellence without forcing people leadership.

Craig’s leadership philosophy centres on “everyday” leadership, psychological safety, honest feedba...

This episode argues leadership teams are often not misaligned but overly “agreeing,” confusing verbal consent with true alignment, which is behavioural, accountable, and must hold under pressure.

It explains how meetings can produce nodding and positivity yet no change in the following weeks, because silence is treated as consent, seniority distorts discussion, offsite decisions don’t survive real-world conditions, and agreement avoids hard trade-offs.

Citing Gallup mid-2026 data (49% know what’s expected; 31% US engagement; 20% global engagement in 2025) and ILM research attributing 86% of business failure to silos and poor collaboration, it links clarity and alignment to engageme...

On the Impactful Teamwork podcast, Julia Felton interviews David Guttman, a three-time Inc. 500 entrepreneur with multiple eight- and nine-figure exits, about servant leadership and building high-performing teams.

Guttman shares how a misdiagnosis of terminal cancer at 24 prompted him to shift from achievement-obsession to putting coworkers first, arguing leaders serve their people and that caring can’t be faked. They discuss authenticity, trust, assuming positive intent, and the ripple effect of leadership on employees’ lives, plus the importance of hiring for humility and curiosity and firing quickly when culture fit is wrong.

Guttman outlines practical scaling prac...

Host Julia Felton welcomes Kelly Wendorf, founder of Equus and author of "Flying Lead Change: 56 Million Years of Wisdom for Leading and Living," to discuss how horses and nature inform leadership and teamwork.

Wendorf shares her journey from equestrian ambitions to coaching and equine-facilitated leadership, emphasizing experiential learning and presence. They explore modern disruption as a catalyst for evolution using nature’s adaptive cycle (new beginnings, growth, consolidation, letting go) and the “messy middle” of change, plus the metaphor of a flying lead change for collective pivots amid climate change, AI, war, and unrest.

Wendorf outlin...

The episode argues teamwork is a key competitive advantage amid record-low global engagement (20%) and falling manager engagement (30% to 22%), noting managers drive 70% of team engagement variance and disengagement costs an estimated $10 trillion annually.

It warns leaders that AI won’t fix culture but will amplify it, making intentional culture design urgent. Drawing on Peter Matthies and the Conscious Business Institute, it outlines four culture levels:

Level 1 output culture (mechanistic, results-only, people as resources; AI accelerates volume and can fuel exhaustion)

Level 2 intentional culture (purpose and discernment guide AI as collaborator but trust and wellbeing ma...

On the Impactful Teamwork Podcast, host Julia welcomes Jean Walters, a personal growth consultant and seven-time Amazon best-selling author, to discuss teamwork as a competitive advantage and how “business energetics,” universal laws, and metaphysics influence organisational success.

Jean argues that everything is energy and that leaders can either work with it consciously or suffer its effects, emphasising gratitude, positivity, and empowerment over criticism. She shares an exercise contrasting emotions like anger vs. peace to help skeptics experience energy’s impact, and a story illustrating how negativity affected health.

They explore leadership practices such as living and re...

Julia Felton explores two research findings: 65% of leaders would rather appear decisive and be wrong than admit uncertainty and be right, and “invisibility is no longer read as neutral” but as avoidance.

Drawing on a Forbes article by Doug Melville, she argues that C-suite credibility now depends on visible, human storytelling aligned with operational truth, not polished messaging, especially amid rapid change like AI and expectations of headcount reduction.

She contrasts this with the “decisiveness crisis” research on “certainty theatre,” linking it to shame, threat responses, and transformation failure driven by uncertainty resistance.

Felton argue...

Carrie Gallant and Julia Felton collaborate on a joint episode of The Tall Poppy Revolution Radio Show and the Impactful Teamwork Podcast to discuss how leaders can create conditions for better decision-making amid uncertainty and pressure.

They explore decision fatigue, reluctance to decide, and how inaction is still a decision, linking these patterns to engagement, agency, and culture. They argue that consultative decision-making, context, and psychological safety improve buy-in and reduce bottlenecks at the top, while frontline input often leads to better outcomes.

They also highlight that decisions are influenced by emotions, intuition, and energy...

Julia Felton argues that the UK has a leadership problem driven by chronic, unrelenting pressure that the nervous system isn’t designed to sustain, leading to slower decisions, reduced trust, political caution, and emotional exhaustion.

She contrasts short-term pressure (where humans perform well) with long-term dysregulation that organisations often suppress through policies and norms, creating numbness that looks like professionalism.

Felton explains why AI cannot solve trust deficits or poor collaboration, citing Gallup engagement data and failure rates tied to silos, and notes AI can’t “read the room” or detect safety and withdrawal. She describe...

On the Impactful Teamwork Podcast, host Julia Felton interviews sales-team coach Luke Jorgenson, who spent 10 years in US door-to-door solar sales, about resilience, coaching, and building high-performing sales teams.

Luke explains how repeated rejection builds a “sales muscle” and says leaders should help new hires break fear quickly by getting them in the field with support and mentoring. He argues coaching should be normalised in business, as in sports, to accelerate learning and uncover blind spots.

Luke shares his “Proven Five Sales Systems” framework—compensation, incentives, sales training, team culture, and leadership mentoring—emphasising a holistic app...

The episode argues that teamwork is a key competitive advantage and explores why work often gets stuck departments due to unclear ownership and accountability.

Drawing on Deloitte’s 2026 Human Capital Survey, it highlights that 66% of C-suite leaders say pushing beyond traditional functions (HR, finance, IT, legal, procurement) is critical, yet only 7% report real progress, creating a 59-point gap. It describes simultaneous pressures on functions—cost-cutting via shared services and automation, alongside executive calls for substantial reinvention—while noting structure and “turf” impede change.

Using a horse herd and the diamond model of shared leadership as an analogy...

Host Julia Felton welcomes high-performance coach and breathwork expert Lucas Kulbis to discuss how breathwork helps leaders regulate stress and improve team performance.

Lucas shares his journey from an AI-focused computer science path and startup burnout to discovering breath as a foundational tool for state control, presence, and resilience. They explain how shallow breathing can reinforce anxiety and how intentional breathing can shift the nervous system from fight-or-flight (amygdala-driven) to calmer, clearer decision-making (prefrontal cortex), supporting emotional regulation and co-regulation with others.

Lucas teaches practical techniques including the physiological sigh for rapid resets, a bedtime...

This episode of the Impactful Teamwork podcast explores “decision drag,” where routine decisions climb back up the hierarchy and leave leaders returning from holiday to a backlog of unresolved calls.

Citing McKinsey research that executives spend 37% of their time on decisions that could be made lower down, the host explains how leaders inadvertently train teams to wait, creating an accountability trap that limits scale.

Julia reframes accountability as proactive ownership of outcomes (not blame), distinguishes it from responsibility, and outlines three levels—individual (clarity, capability, psychological safety), team (mutual investment or “teamship”), and organizational (systems that rewar...

In this episode of the Impactful Teamwork podcast, Julia interviews senior retail and quick-service restaurant veteran Nate Robinson about building customer-centric teams and improving the customer journey.

Nate explains his “Three I” framework—Inspire, Invest, Innovate—sharing how leaders can learn employees’ “why,” invest in team development, and use creative training methods (including games like Diner Dash) to build skills like urgency.

They discuss how leadership requires adapting to individuals rather than following a one-size-fits-all playbook, the importance of culture and authenticity, and the challenges middle managers face balancing KPIs with increasing coaching and wellbeing expectations...

In this Impactful Teamwork episode, Julia Felton explores what nature teaches about regenerative leadership, inspired by adopting a lamb named Charlie and observing Canadian geese offspring.

Using Yellowstone’s trophic cascade, she explains how removing wolves collapsed ecosystem relationships and how reintroducing them restored balance—paralleling how organisations remove key relationships and then wonder why performance collapses.

She critiques extractive, command-and-control leadership that fuels silos, poor collaboration, CEO bottlenecks, and change fatigue, citing data on business failure and cross-functional unity.

Drawing on lichen and horse herds, she highlights interdependence, rhythm over relentlessness, and rela...

In this Impactful Teamwork episode, Julia Felton talks with neuroscience-based mindfulness expert Kelly Corbett about the inner game of leadership and how mindfulness improves presence, connection, creativity, and decision-making.

Kelly explains “beginner’s mind” as approaching meetings without labels or fixed assumptions, and shares evidence that mindfulness/meditation strengthens the prefrontal cortex and executive function.

She describes how reframing problems can unlock innovation, including a company that replaced harmful chemicals with water by rethinking industry standards. Practical tactics include mindful breathing—especially the “cyclic sigh” technique—to calm the nervous system, plus walking meditation and time in nature...

Host Julia Felton shares why teamwork is a competitive advantage and argues businesses are in a full-scale reset driven by AI, citing widespread company failures, declining revenues, layoffs, and the reality that team members now face around 10 major changes at once.

She explains that success now depends less on pressure and more on the pace of reinvention, as companies must reinvent roughly every three years rather than optimise old models.

Drawing on insights from the Reinvention Academy and shifts in consulting, she outlines 15 practical areas for reinvention—products/services, platforms, holistic solutions, ideal customers, customer ex...

Host Julia Felton welcomes Ryan Ware, CEO of Connective Consulting Group, to discuss why curiosity is essential in business, especially in construction where teams and conditions constantly change.

Ryan explains how “hand-me-down” answers and routines can prevent validation and learning, and how fear on both sides of change can block curiosity, making psychological safety critical. They explore connecting the human side of work to technology and process shifts (including AI), building relationships as social capital, and reducing judgment through asking better questions.

Ryan shares an example of leading a change-fatigued team by apologising for past chur...

in this episode of the Impactful Teamwork Podcast, Julia Felton explores how leaders can scale without becoming the business bottleneck by shifting from control to coaching.

She explains how leaders become the “answer person,” creating dependence, decision drag, mental clutter, and stalled momentum even though they appear busy and visible.

Using herd leadership and “Teamship” as a model, she contrasts compliance-driven control with capability-building coaching, emphasing that the goal is transferring judgment, not just delegating tasks. Practical coaching prompts and a meeting reset question (“What’s stuck and what needs to happen for it to move?”) help...

On the Impactful Teamwork Podcast, Julia Felton interviews Anthony Garone, founder of Edify Content, which helps B2B tech companies create sales and marketing content.

Anthony shares how he discovered writing as his “superpower” after years in IT leadership and a company acquisition, then went all-in on content when COVID ended face-to-face selling.

The conversation focuses on authentic leadership, helping team members bring their whole selves to work, and building strong relationships to uncover hidden talents. Anthony argues many leaders get stuck playing a role, and advises subtracting what isn’t essential to better serve custom...

This Impactful Teamwork Podcast episode, inspired by Ron Friedman’s Harvard Business Review article “How to Build a Super Team that Keeps Getting Better,” explains how top “super teams” improve over time and links the ideas to the host’s Unbridled Teamship roadmap (trust, contribution, adaptability).

Drawing on research from 6,000+ knowledge workers, it highlights that super teams manage time/energy/attention well, make one another feel better, and continually build skills. The episode focuses on seven practices: run more small experiments and reward intelligent risk-taking; model curiosity and admit what you don’t know to build psychological safety; ask “w...

Host Julia welcomes transformational coach Sheila Belanger to discuss how leaders can resource themselves as business paradigms shift and old models become unfit.

Sheila emphasises reconnecting with nature and activating “other ways of knowing” beneath the strategic mind: body/gut instinct, heart wisdom and emotional intelligence, and imagination. She offers practical steps such as breathing before meetings, feeling feet on the ground, and briefly touching the heart to regulate and sense the room.

Sheila also introduces “inner team” stewardship—tracking who has “the keys to the car” (e.g., wounded or reactive parts) and returning leadership to...

This episode of the Impactful Teamwork Podcast focuses on “Reward the Try” and how psychological safety enables innovation, decision-making velocity, retention, and accountability in frenetic, uncertain business conditions.

The host argues most teams have a “psychological safety debt,” causing risk avoidance, silence, politics, and leader dependency, and asks listeners to rate how safe their teams feel to experiment.

Drawing on Amy Edmondson’s definition and Google’s Project Aristotle findings, the episode explains that psychological safety supports learning, high standards with low fear, and effective team dynamics.

Four practices are offered: frame work as learning...

In this special Podcaston Week episode of the Impactful Teamwork Podcast, host Julia Felton speaks with Simon Errington, CEO of Children in Distress, about the charity’s 35-year journey from supporting Romanian children after the fall of communism to evolving its focus toward funding grassroots projects in the UK while maintaining legacy work in Romania.

Simon shares current initiatives including Casa Maria in Bucharest for children with neurological and physical disabilities, an annual 5,000-shoebox Christmas campaign, and UK pilot programs in Hull that build community, education, and confidence through cooking clubs and heritage-language learning.

He di...

Host Julia Felton welcomes health and fitness expert Brian Parana to discuss how leaders’ physical and mental fitness affects business performance, team energy, and credibility. They argue self-care must be treated like a business department and built through systems and processes rather than relying on discipline or willpower.

Brian explains how health influences confidence, clarity, and professional outcomes, sharing an example of a client who lost 13 pounds and secured a $65,000 higher salary.

Practical foundations include adequate hydration, daily movement (10K steps), strength training 2–3 times weekly, 6–7+ hours of sleep, and nutrition focused on food quality and portio...

In this 100th birthday episode of the Impactful Teamwork Podcast, host Julia Felton reflects emotionally on reaching 100 episodes, her love of lifelong learning, and why she keeps guest conversations organic amid concerns about losing human connection to AI.

She shares her backstory as an award-winning business owner, Amazon bestselling author, and creator of the Unbridled Business Blueprint and Unbridled Teamship roadmap, inspired by nature and equine-assisted leadership.

Julia recounts building a global hospitality data analytics business inside Arthur Andersen/Deloitte, the impact of the Enron scandal on trust and stability, and her eventual burnout. A...

Welcome to the Impactful Teamwork Podcast with your host Julia Felton. In this episode, Julia is joined by Steve Frazier, a serial entrepreneur, self-sabotage coach, and author of 'Release the Coffee Cuffs.'

Steve shares his entrepreneurial journey, from starting as a paperboy to building multiple restaurants and battling self-sabotage. He highlights key strategies for overcoming physical and mental self-sabotage, the importance of passion and motivation in business, and the necessity of detailed business planning.

Steve also discusses how to maintain a positive mindset, the value of journaling, and the power of positive affirmations for...

Recorded for Chinese New Year on 17 February 2026, this episode marks the start of the Fire Horse year and explores what that shift means for leadership and business.

The host contrasts the previous Year of the Snake—focused on shedding, refinement, truth-seeing, and releasing what no longer serves—with the Fire Horse invitation for clean, aligned action, courage, and momentum without chaos or burnout. Using lessons from working with horses as “leadership mirrors,” the episode emphasises leading as a living system rather than managing like a machine, highlighting how teams (like herds) read energy, respond to clarity, and need saf...

In this episode of the Impactful Teamwork Podcast, host Julia Felton welcomes Victor Martinez, President and Founder of Elite Life Coaching. Together, they discuss the transformative power of teamwork, leadership in high-stakes environments, and strategies for eliminating excuses to achieve excellence.

Martinez shares insightful lessons from his military career, emphasizing trust, loyalty, and effective communication within teams. The discussion also explores how these principles can be applied to business settings to create high-performing, cohesive teams. Tune in for actionable advice on building trust, managing team dynamics, and fostering a productive work environment.

00:00 Introduction to Impactful...

In this episode of the Impactful Teamwork Podcast, host Julia Felton dives into the critical importance of reinvention in business.

Using the historical example of the Titanic's sinking, Julia highlights six warning signs that went unnoticed, leading to the disaster. These lessons are directly applied to modern business practices, emphasising the need for proper handovers, correct equipment, safety drills, adequate resources, prioritising the right tasks, and not relying solely on past successes.

Julia introduces the concept of 'Titanic Syndrome' and encourages businesses to stay vigilant and adaptable to avoid their own potential downfalls.

00:00...

Welcome to this week's edition of Impactful Teamwork!

Join us as we talk to Brian Vogel, the founder of Sun Dog Coaching and co-founder of Sensible HR. With 25 years of HR experience, Brian shares his journey into coaching, elaborating on how he shifted his career to focus on leadership coaching and mental fitness.

Discover how his background as a swim coach has influenced his approach to HR and coaching, and gain valuable insights into developing coaching skills, the importance of one-on-ones, and affirming and adjusting team behaviours.

Brian also introduces tools like the...

In this episode of the Impactful Teamwork Podcast, host Julia Felton delves into the crucial topic of reinvention and its importance for businesses in 2026 and beyond.

Julia discusses the concept of reinvention as a mindset shift akin to moving from a fixed to a growth mindset. She provides insights on how reinvention can serve as a systemic approach to thriving in chaos, much like nature continually adapts.

Julia also introduces a practical framework—the four R's of reinvention: reflect, reimagine, recalibrate, and repeat. Highlighting significant statistics and offering practical tips, this podcast aims to equip yo...

In this episode of 'Impactful Teamwork,' host Julia Felton welcomes Maria Brink, founder and president of Zynergy International. The discussion centres on the need for a shift from traditional, hyper-masculine leadership models to more balanced, inclusive, and ecologically mindful approaches.

Maria shares insights from her book, 'The Leadership We Need,' emphasising the importance of incorporating diverse voices, widening circles of connection, and balancing masculine and feminine leadership traits.

The conversation also explores the concept of 'poly crises' and what can be learned from indigenous and animal leadership structures. Both Julia and Maria highlight...

In this episode of Impactful Teamwork, the host delves into the impact of AI in business, emphasising the importance of human vitality over machine functionality.

Drawing on insights from Daniel Priestley and ancient Stoic virtues, the discussion highlights how AI assumes repetitive tasks, leaving humans to bring their unique energy, authenticity, and leadership to the table. The episode encourages leaders to transition from managing tasks to fostering team vitality, using AI as a partner to enhance overall performance and overcome modern challenges like burnout and misalignment.

00:00 Introduction and New Year Greetings

00:11 Exploring the...

In this episode of Impactful Teamwork, host Julia Felton is joined by Stuart Webb, an expert in transforming businesses through scientific approaches. Stuart shares his journey from a scientific career to entrepreneurship, emphasising the power of applying scientific principles to business processes.

They delve into Stuart's innovative PATH system (Purpose, Action, Team, Harmony) and his structured four-step process for effective team management: feedback, one-on-one meetings, coaching, and delegation.

The discussion highlights the importance of starting small, giving consistent feedback, and the role of empathy in leadership. Stuart also emphasises the benefits of establishing systems and...

Join Julia Felton in this week's episode of Impactful Teamwork where she delves into the significance of gratitude and appreciation, especially during the year-end holiday season.

Reflecting on both personal and professional experiences, Julia emphasises the transformative impact of practicing daily gratitude on lowering stress levels and enhancing team performance. She shares insights, studies, and practical tips on how leaders can foster a culture of appreciation within their teams, leading to increased trust, energy, and productivity.

Julia invites listeners to adopt specific gratitude practices and challenges them to recognize and appreciate their team members' contributions...

In this heartfelt episode of 'Impactful Teamwork,' Julia shares her personal journey of rest, reflection, and reinvention from Thailand. Prompted by a series of personal losses and the realisation of unprocessed grief, Julia emphasises the necessity of taking time out from the daily grind to recharge physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

Speaking from a detox retreat, Julia discusses the significance of health in achieving business success and offers insights into the value of self-care and finding one's identity post-retirement. Listeners are encouraged to carve out time for self-reflection to improve overall well-being and leadership efficacy.