Month: July 2025

Ep 183: Lori Hermann (GLN SVP, Summit Experiences) on Producing a World-Class Leadership Event

Posted on July 24, 2025 by - Collaboration, Communication, Conflict Management, Leading Organizations, Leading Others, Podcasts

Now introducing The Global Leadership Podcast presented by the Global Leadership Network.

SUMMARY 

With the 2025 Global Leadership Summit just a few weeks away, GLN President and CEO David Ashcraft sits down with Senior Vice President, Summit Experiences, Lori Hermann, to talk about how she leads the people that create and execute the world’s premier leadership event year after year. They also explore how leaders can get the most out of an event like the Summit, and which speakers they are looking forward to hearing.   

  

IN THIS EPISODE 

00:00 Intro 

03:20 How Lori came to be the Executive Producer of the Global Leadership Summit.  

05:40 An overview of how the GLS identifies and invites potential Summit speakers.  

09:15 The importance of actionable leadership content.  

10:35 Who are the potential surprise speakers at this year’s Summit?  

12:15 Who are the household names that will be at the 2025 Summit? 

14:10 Why excellence is important, and how to recognize it.   

16:50 How do you respond when a creative element is not going as well as you planned?  

19:20 How do you make decisions when you’re in the moment and there’s not enough time get all the information you’d like to have? 

22:30 How to respond as a leader when you get pushback from your team. 

25:30 Working through conflict (as a conflict-averse person).  

27:50 What can leaders expect to take away from the Summit experience?  

31:20 The power of bringing a team to the Summit.  

34:30 Outro 

  

LISTEN 

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube 

 

STANDOUTS AND TAKEAWAYS 

  •  Excellence honors God and inspires people. 
  • Excellence is not perfection; it is doing your best with the resources you have at that moment.
  • When something is not turning out the way you wanted or expected, before you move to blaming someone, ask questions to find out what is going on. Then, move to support and help solve any problems.
  • Over time, leaders can develop “unconscious confidence” and learn to trust their instincts when a decision needs to be made in the moment.
  • If you haven’t prepared—planned, tested and rehearsed—you shouldn’t be surprised if something goes wrong.
  • Having people in the right place to use their gifts and effective communication are also foundational to success.
  • Collaboration and continuity are important for building and maintaining trust in a team.
  • Dealing with conflict effectively requires trust.
  • If you want to get the most out of the Summit, commit to be present and minimize distractions.
  • Experiencing the Summit with a team creates common language and experience.  

 

LINKS MENTIONED 

Ep 182: Dr. James Hewitt on High Performance for Cognitive Work

Posted on July 8, 2025 by - Emotional Intelligence, Leading Organizations, Leading Others, Performance Management, Podcasts, Productivity, Relational Intelligence, Replenishment, Resilience, Servant Leadership, Supervising People, Wellness

Now introducing The Global Leadership Podcast presented by the Global Leadership Network.

SUMMARY 

Dr. James Hewitt is a human performance scientist who works with some of the world’s top businesses to bring about sustainable high performance through science-backed strategies. In this conversation with GLN President and CEO David Ashcraft, James shares the connection between knowledge work and high-performance activities like professional cycling and Formula 1 racing, and some simple steps that we can take to meet the demands of leadership.  

  

IN THIS EPISODE 

 0:00 Intro 

03:40 How James ended up studying human high performance. 

06:45 What are the differences between cognitive work and physical work?  

08:30 Defining “high performance,” and the pressure that can come with it.  

11:10 Exploring the three ingredients of high performance.  

14:30 What about perceived outliers who don’t seem to need to sleep?  

11:10 How can you assess whether or not you are getting enough sleep? 

24:45 How leadership activities impact high performance.  

26:30 Where high-performance ends and perfectionism begins, and how to tell the difference. 

30:30 How does cognitive work make us tired?  

34:45 How do you challenge leaders to step away from the pride associated with working overly long hours?  

37:25 Negotiating the tension between “balance” and the reality of paying the cost to do something great.  

40:25 Outro 

  

LISTEN 

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube 

 

STANDOUTS AND TAKEAWAYS 

  • High performance is about trying to understand the demands someone is facing, the capabilities they need to meet those demands, gap between the two, and then establishing a plan to close the gap. 
  • The same model that applies to physical performance can apply to knowledge work.
  • People who have been able to sustain high performance over the long term have three characteristics in common: 1) They are efficient and effective; 2) They are decisive and focused; and 3) They are energized and well-rested.
  • “Performance” is about being able to meet the demands that you are facing.
  • High Performance requires personal capabilities and conducive environments.
  • Studies have shown that much of the difference between effective leadership comes down to being effective in four activities: generating new insights, complex problem-solving, productive efficiency and emotional intelligence.
  • Lack of sleep (less than 7 hours) can severely inhibit our ability to solve complex problems and can impair a leader’s emotional intelligence.
  • There is a paradox in leadership: the skills that leaders need the most are compromised the most by leadership demands.
  • There is a very small number of outliers who do not need as much sleep as the general population, but the vast majority of sleep-deprived people are paying for it in some way: in error rates, or in their relationships at home.
  • A high-performance day begins the night before.
  • Rest is not a reward; it’s what makes great work possible.
  • Being awake for 18 hours can reduce your cognitive performance to the level that is equated to having a blood-alcohol level of .05.
  • The subtle qualities of leadership—presence, and engagement—are negatively impacted by lack of sleep.
  • The drive to excel needs to be tempered with self-compassion.
  • Every character strength or virtue that we possess has a sweet spot. Either under- or over-using it can diminish our capabilities.
  • Research suggests that regular periods of rest can help knowledge workers to perform higher over longer periods of time during the day.
  • There are times when you may need to go “all in” and make sacrifices, but don’t be afraid to step back and ask yourself, “Is this worth it?”
  • To achieve true sustainable high performance, not only do you need to know when you need to go “full gas,” but you must know when you need to back off.  

 

LINKS MENTIONED 

From Stay-at-Home Mom to CEO: 4 Leadership Lessons from Megan Tamte, Co-Founder of EVEREVE

Posted on July 8, 2025 by - Articles

By Amber Van Schooneveld

Megan Tamte was a stay-at-home mom when she started feeling the tug to follow a dream. After a dressing room disaster left her in tears, she was inspired to reimagine women’s shopping experience. 

Now, 20+ years later, she is the cofounder, co-CEO and Chief Brand Officer of EVEREVE, a fashion retailer with over one million customers, 100+ stores and a successful e-commerce business. EVEREVE is known for cultivating a warm, relational shopping experience — a culture built from Megan’s personal journey. 

Here are a few of her top leadership lessons that have helped her stay grounded and sane amidst the leadership hustle. 

 

Lean into who you were in fifth grade.  

Early in her journey, Megan read a book that encouraged her to explore who she was in the fifth grade — what she loved and wanted to do before the world got hold of her. She remembered that when she was in fifth grade, she started businesses, complete with business cards. She would sell things so she could buy clothes.  

But that didn’t fit the life Megan had built around her — or what she saw modeled.  

“I had a moment of panic because I was trained to be a teacher. I was a stay-at-home mom,” Megan says. “I didn’t have anyone in my life that was an example of being a Christian in the marketplace, so that felt very scary.”  

Growing up, Megan was surrounded by teachers, nurses and social workers. She admired them, but knew, deep down, that it wasn’t her path. So, she found great confidence and comfort realizing that God created her to be an entrepreneur: 

“It all clicked: This is who I am. I am that girl who loved to start businesses, who sold things, who hustled.”  

 

Get your confidence from God.  

When Megan and her husband launched their business, she was terrified. She worried she didn’t have the experience or knowledge to pull it off.  

“I felt like I was not enough,” Megan admits. “That’s where I leaned into God, my faith and lots of prayer.”  

No matter how busy she gets as the leader and Chief Brand Officer of a successful retailer, Megan prioritizes time every morning to pray, read Scripture and dive into leadership books. It helps to reaffirm her calling. 

“I just trust and stay on the path. I tell God, ‘If you ever want me off the path, I’ll get off,’” Megan says. “I approach it day by day — and each step of the way with God.”

 

Don’t root your identity in success — you will fail along the way.   

Megan believes it’s important to have a Plan B — because things won’t always work out. But you can still thrive because your identity doesn’t depend on the success of a particular venture.  

“Know that your identity is not rooted in whether you succeed or fail,” she says. “Your identity is rooted in Christ and His love for you.”  

Knowing this has helped Megan be resilient and lead with stability and confidence — because her identity isn’t rooted in outcomes.  

“Believe that God is for us, not against us, and whether something works or doesn’t work, you’ll still be fine because God is for us,” she says. “Just continue working on your relationship with God and continue to lean into Him for your identity — not your success or failure.” 

 

Pause each year to consider your leadership.  

As EVEREVE has grown, so has Megan’s understanding of what it means to lead with purpose and intention. One of the things that has made EVEREVE so successful is its focus on values. Megan has invested in scaling a culture they call HEART — Humility, Empathy, Authenticity, Relationship and Tenacity — across all their locations and with all their employees. 

She credits leadership insights she gained from the Global Leadership Summit, amongst other influences, with helping her and her husband, Mike, co-founder and co-CEO of EVEREVE, cultivate a values-driven culture. Each year, they prioritize the Summit to recalibrate their leadership.   

 “We have grown to love the ritual and the yearly break where we take time at the end of summer to pause and think about our leadership,” Megan says.  

  “It’s a ritual, a pause, a chance to just breathe. Every time we show up, we feel inspired, we feel excited and we feel energized for the next year.” 

 Want to pause and reflect on your own leadership? Get your tickets to the Global Leadership Summit this August.  

 Megan Tamte’s leadership journey has been shaped not just by business metrics, but by identity, faith, and reflection. Her leadership is a reminder that God has created each one of us for a unique calling — and will equip us along the way.  

Ep 181: GLN President and CEO David Ashcraft Vision

Posted on July 4, 2025 by - Communication, Culture, Leading Organizations, Leading Others, Podcasts, Vision

Now introducing The Global Leadership Podcast presented by the Global Leadership Network.

SUMMARY 

Developing, casting, and protecting an organization’s vision is one of the most critical functions of a leader. In this episode, GLN VP of Marketing Whitney Putnam asks President and CEO David Ashcraft to share what he’s learned about vision from his decades of leading. As always, you’ll find David’s insights to be practical, concise, and very clear. We hope you enjoy these tips on how to effectively share vision with your team.  

 

IN THIS EPISODE 

0:00 Intro 

02:30 How did David learn the importance of constantly casting vision? 

04:00 The importance of keeping vision simple.  

05:00 How would David coach someone to simplify their vision?  

07:00 How do you balance clarity on your vision and being open to input from others? 

08:30 What does David do personally to get clarity on the vision?  

13:30 Outro 

  

LISTEN 

 Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube 

 

STANDOUTS AND TAKEAWAYS 

  • Vision just means that you know where you are going and how you will get there.
  • If you can’t clearly understand or explain something yourself, you can’t expect other people to be able to communicate it either.
  • People will lose interest in hearing your vision if it is longer than 3 or 4 sentences.
  • Though the vision can be developed with others, it is the leader’s primary job to protect the vision.
  • Having a clear vision actually frees people up to do good work.
  • When crafting a vision, in addition to saying, “Here’s where we are going,” the leader also needs to be clear on, “and here’s how we are going to get there.” (Meaning our values and behaviors.)
  • For a leader, repeating the vision constantly may feel old, but it is necessary for the organization.  

 

LINKS MENTIONED