Episode #62: Redesigning Your Calendar, Expectations, and Leadership to Build Workplaces Where You and Your Team Thrive

Do you want to be part of a workplace that drains you—or one that gives you energy, clarity, and joy? In this episode of Missing Conversations, hosts Steven Jones and Ellen Burton talk with Shani Harmon, Founder and CEO of Stop Meeting Like This, who, for over 20 years, has consulted with Fortune 500 companies and is known for unraveling the complex problems that keep leaders and teams from doing meaningful work. Shani’s care began in her hometown in West Virginia, watching her father come home from long days of physical labor, and deepened when she entered the corporate world and saw how often people accepted miserable norms: endless meetings, low standards, defensive habits. Here, she shares how we can lead differently: design meetings that create value, reclaim focus time, raise standards with compassionate feedback and shared accountability, shift from having the answers to facilitating the right conversations, and close the gap between the culture you say you have as a leader and the one your team actually lives.

Key Moments You’ll Want to Hear

02:48: The care that led Shani into her work, and her belief that work can be both joyful and productive.
06:19: How leaders and teams reclaim time, attention, and space for what matters most.
09:19: Choosing abundance over scarcity, and why it transforms outcomes for you, your team, and your culture.
11:52: Shani’s turning point: discovering the environment that unlocked her unique genius.
14:26: Building a culture of shared accountability so everyone contributes at their best.
16:47: Becoming aware of the gap between the culture you wish for as a leader and the one your team is actually living, and how to close it.
18:15: Why leaders don’t need all the answers, and your real role is guiding the conversations that move teams forward.
21:13: Why the discomfort of change strengthens the brain and builds better leaders.
23:27: The single question Shani asked that expanded her compassion and deepened care for her team.
27:36: How to turn down the noise to center yourself and lead with clarity.
31:21: Creating focus time as a leader, and why it’s non-negotiable.
37:58: Why presence is the greatest gift leaders can give, and what it looks like in action.
41:21: How curiosity keeps leaders open, human, and effective.
43:49: The conversations teams aren’t having right now, and what’s lost when they stay unspoken.
46:42: Final takeaway: people who enjoy their work contribute more of their best.

We all have our unique genius.

🎧 Listen now to learn how to design meetings that matter, reclaim focus time, close culture gaps, and lead teams that contribute more of their best.

About Shani Harmon

Shani Harmon is the Founder and CEO of Stop Meeting Like This. As CEO, Shani’s job is to inspire corporate leaders to reimagine how work gets done and then partner with them to realize that aspiration. For over 20 years, Shani has consulted with Fortune 500 companies across the globe, helping them design and implement effective operating models, decision-making processes, and collaboration practices. She’s an expert at unraveling the complex problems that hold leaders and their teams back from achieving joyful productivity. 

Shani has an MBA and Master’s of Education from Stanford University and a BA in English from Harvard University. She hails from the hills of West Virginia but now calls Chicago home.

You can connect with Shani here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaniharmon/

About Altus Growth Partners

At Altus, we partner with CEOs and leadership teams who are serious about growth and willing to engage in new kinds of conversations to produce better results.

We care deeply about helping leaders and teams collaborate more effectively, navigate complexity with confidence, and foster a culture where people thrive. It’s in these environments that challenges are met with curiosity, people bring out the best in one another, and progress is anchored in shared purpose.

Because when leaders and teams are truly working together, they expand what’s possible and the meaningful impact they can make in their lives, their organizations, and the world around them.

You can find Altus Growth Partners on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/altus-growth-partners/ 

About the Book 

Growing Groups Into Teams: How do you turn a group of individuals into a highly effective, productive team? Growing Groups Into Teams is an unusually useful book written by a team of generative consultants and coaches who have helped thousands of groups become effective teams.

Through real-life stories combined with pragmatic advice, this book strengthens your ability to see what’s needed and take effective action:

• What two promises turn a group into a team.

• How to engage people to make those promises.

• How to invite responsibility and accountability.

• How to include and inspire people across differences.

• How to build and rebuild trust, and more!

Regardless of how productive your teams are today, the insights in this book will help you grow to the next level to drive your business or organization forward. Order your copy today!

Order from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Growing-Groups-into-Teams-Real-life-ebook/dp/B0CJLC23VS  

Order directly:
https://shop.ingramspark.com/b/084?l8SxF4Aexn9gq08iz7jFBbwutleujrftoZ2wAOFzCVH  

If you're looking to expand your leadership influence, shift your results, and develop a highly engaged, accountable team, we’d love to talk to you. Schedule a conversation with an Altus Team Member here: https://calendly.com/prollin-altusgrowth/zoom-video-30-min.

Follow us on social media:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/altus-growth-partners
https://www.facebook.com/AltusGrowth
https://www.instagram.com/altusgrowthpartners/

Keywords: 

#Leadership #Teamwork #WorkLifeBalance