Leaderful

When Founders Get Stuck — Scaling, Control & the Power of Letting Go with Tina Mathas & Pablo

In this episode of the Leaderful Podcast, Pablo is joined by leadership coach and fractional COO Tina Mathas. Together, they unpack the deeply human side of startup scaling—from control and ego to purpose, burnout, and how hard it is to let go of your “business baby.”
Drawing on decades of combined experience, Tina and Pablo explore what keeps founders from scaling effectively, and why bringing in a fractional COO can be a game-changer. You'll hear real stories of founders hitting their limits, the importance of reconnecting to values, and why “being nice” can sometimes be a leadership liability.
They also share how fractional roles—when done right—can bring clarity, structure, and renewed focus to growing teams, and how trusted advisors can serve as the mirror founders often need to move forward.
🔍 Also covered in this episode:
What ego and fear have to do with founder burnout
The value of trusted advisors vs. tactical consultants
How misaligned values create friction—and how to fix it
What it really means to “fall back in love” with your business
The difference between people-pleasing and service-oriented leadership
Signs it might be time to bring in a fractional COO
Whether you’re running a fast-growing startup or supporting one from the inside, this episode is filled with hard truths and compassionate strategies to help you grow—without losing yourself along the way.

Beyond Performative DEI — Building Team-Centered Equity with Dr. Christen Behzadi

In this episode of the Leaderful Podcast, Jeff and trusted advisor Denyelle Fraser sit down with Dr. Christen Behzadi—anesthesiologist turned DEI strategist and founder of IIC Firm—for a rich, honest conversation on what it really takes to create inclusive, high-functioning teams in today’s complex organizational climate.
Dr. Behzadi shares how her intercultural experience and early advocacy shaped her transition into equity work, and why she believes true DEI success starts with organizational maturity—not media trends or token efforts. Together, they unpack what readiness really looks like, why passive leadership is so harmful, and how methodical, diagnostic approaches can create lasting change.
You’ll hear how Dr. Behzadi strategically assesses organizations before engaging, why she avoids “identity deep dives” until the groundwork is laid, and how equity work done wrong can cause more harm than good.
🔍 Also covered in this episode:
The backlash against DEI—and what’s fueling it
How to assess if your organization is actually ready for equity work
The link between team connection and sustainable DEI outcomes
Why power, not identity, should be the starting point for equity training
How leaders can reduce harm by understanding their role power
The importance of maturity, not urgency, in long-term DEI success
Whether you're a DEI consultant, a team leader, or an executive navigating the future of inclusive leadership, this episode offers sharp insights and grounded strategies to help you do this work well—and do it right.

The Power of Psychological Safety: Creating High-Trust, High-Performance Teams with Nogol Madani

In this episode of the Leaderful Podcast, Jeff is joined by Nogol Madani—engineer turned workplace culture strategist and founder of Glee Factor—for a deep dive into psychological safety and why it matters more than ever.
Nogol shares her journey from engineering to exploring what makes teams thrive, and how a pivotal moment sparked her obsession with inclusion, team dynamics, and performance. Together, she and Jeff explore what psychological safety really is (and what it’s not), how it impacts learning and innovation, and how leaders can create conditions for candor, trust, and contribution.
You’ll hear practical tips for fostering psychological safety in meetings, rituals to open space for team voices, and the subtle habits that either build or erode trust on teams. Plus, Nogol shares why human skills are more important than ever in the age of AI—and how leaders can embrace intentional, human-centred transformation.
🔍 Also covered in this episode:
Common myths about psychological safety
What to look for in teams with low safety
Simple meeting rituals that boost trust
The connection between inclusion and innovation
Why culture work is all about daily behaviors, not big pronouncements
Whether you're a CEO, a people manager, or just curious about creating better team environments, this episode offers real-world strategies to bring psychological safety from theory to practice.

Supporting meaningful development with 360° feedback reviews

In this episode, Jeff Couillard and Pablo Romero dive into The Ally Co.’s Leadership Impact 360°s, powerful experiences designed to support both professional and personal development through a combination of useful feedback, meaningful review, and focused action.
They discuss some of the reasons people struggle to request and receive meaningful feedback through typical performance review processes and present an opportunity to approach this important growth process differently.  
Along the way, Pablo and Jeff take us through TACO’s Leadership Impact 360° client journey, exploring how intentional design and facilitation can help participants: 
Engage in feedback discussions that (truly) help 
Identify alignments and gaps that currently exist in different relationships  
Focus in on what’s most important to them 
Take action to make measurable progress 
Deepen connection and trust in their relationships 
The Leaderful Podcast explores the use of power within teams and organizations, through the stories and perspectives of impact-conscious leaders who are disrupting outdated thinking, systems, and ways of working. 
Have an idea for other topics you think we should be exploring? We’d love to hear it! Here’s where you can find us:  
Website 
Email 
LinkedIn 

Creating more equity for parents in the workplace with The Debut Co.

In their transition from working women to working mothers, Erin Smith and Saphina Benimadhu-Waters both had unique but challenging return-to-work experiences that didn’t support them in the way they needed. Now, as co-founders of The Debut Co., they provide professional coaching to help parents take charge of their career journey and help organizations champion equity. They describe a truly equitable workplace as one where a person of any gender can be a caregiver and earn equal pay for equal work. 
 
In this episode, Saphina and Erin sit down with Co.CEOs Jeff and Pablo to talk about how they’re working to help people operationalize their power within the workplace to create individual and systemic change.  
 
Mentioned in this episode: 
Power dynamics 
The CLEAR coaching model 
For the Love of Men by Liz Plank (book)  
Pay Up by Reshma Saujani (book) 
Daily Stoic (newsletter) 
Diary of a CEO (podcast) 
 
The Leaderful Podcast explores the use of power within teams and organizations, through the stories and perspectives of impact-conscious leaders who are disrupting outdated thinking, systems, and ways of working. 
 
Have an idea for other topics you think we should be exploring? We’d love to hear it! Here’s where you can find us:  
Website 
Email 
LinkedIn 

Neuroscience in leadership development with Tammy Arseneau

Tammy Arseneau is a consultant and coach who takes a science-based, systems-level approach to help leaders at all levels get to the root of common workplace challenges and build resiliency. In this episode, she joins Co.CEOs Jeff and Pablo to discuss: 
Why change can be so hard for individuals, teams and organizations. 
What leaders can do differently to operationalize their leadership and their power. 
How neuroscience can help us build capacity for engaging in crucial conversations that lead to better outcomes.  
 
Also mentioned in this episode: 
Impact assessments (our version of true 360° feedback reviews) 
Trusted advising 
Find Tammy on LinkedIn and learn more about Cortical Consulting and Coaching
 
 
The Leaderful Podcast explores human-centred, systems-conscious approaches to leadership and building high-functioning teams. We focus on the core problems of burnout, disconnection, conflict, misuses of power, unethical leadership and stuckness on teams and within organizations. 
Got an idea for other topics you think we should be exploring? We’d love to hear it! Here’s where you can find us:  
Website 
Email 
LinkedIn 

Fractional Leadership and the role of the Operational Integrator with Lindsay Sheldrake

In this episode of the Leaderful Podcast, Pablo and Jeff are joined by Lindsay Sheldrake to discuss how fractional COOs can help leaders get out of operational quicksand and into their strategic role(s), activate people around vision through focus and with trust, and operationalize power through more conscious ways of working. 
Lindsay Sheldrake is a wife, a mother, a project manager, a purpose-driven leader—and a trusted advisor at The Ally Co. 
Be sure to connect with Lindsay on LinkedIn!
The Leaderful Podcast explores human-centred, systems-conscious approaches to leadership and building high-functioning teams. We focus on the core problems of burnout, disconnection, conflict, misuses of power, unethical leadership and stuckness on teams and within organizations. 
Also mentioned in this episode: 
Leadership support 
The power dynamic (up-power and down-power) 
Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) 
The Four Disciplines of Execution (4DX) framework 
Have suggestions for topics we should be exploring? We’d love to hear them!
Here’s where you can find us:  
Website 
Email (team@theallyco.world)
LinkedIn 

Revisiting 'Leaderful' teams

In this episode of The Leaderful Podcast, we reflect on the last three years of The Ally Co.'s purpose and mission to create 'leaderful' teams.
🤔 What does being 'leaderful' mean and what have we been observing (and learning)?
A few insights from our conversation about creating 'leaderfulness' on teams:
🧭 Foundational Alignment -- Leaderful teams are foundationally aligned on the impact (goals, outcomes, objectives) they are seeking to accomplish as a collective, and how their core values are expected to be operationalized through key decisions, actions, and behaviours.
🌟 Power & Communication -- Leaderful teams are aware of the power dynamics and systemic forces at play for them, and therefore regularly create space for engaging in deep listening, meaningful dialogue, and purposeful direction activities.
🎁 Safety & Feedback -- Leaderful teams engage in healthy tension and conflict, by creating inclusive and safe spaces for team members to regularly (and meaningfully) request, provide, and make sense of feedback - for the sake of connection, innovation, and performance.
🛶 Traction & Accountability -- Leaderful teams elevate each other - individually and collectively - by regularly clarifying and recognizing their roles, responsibilities, and contributions. They hold each other accountable, ask for help, and celebrate their learnings (misses and all).
🔒 Connection & Trust -- There is a richness that comes from embracing diverse thoughts and perspectives, particularly from those who have been marginalized. Inclusivity not only drives innovation but also builds deeper connections and trust.
 
Learn more about our work with impact-conscious leaders by visiting our website, joining the conversation on LinkedIn or dropping us a note at team@theallyco.world.

Operationalizing Values for Alignment and Impact

In this episode of The Leaderful Podcast, Pablo and Jeff reflect on a part of our work that we've been doing more and more of with impact-conscious leaders and their teams - helping them with the operationalization of their core organizational values.
📽 Here are some takeaways!
🧭 Defining & Clarifying Values -- Many organizations and teams stop at nice-sounding lists with one-word values. This means they often miss out on the benefits of clearly articulated expectations for key behaviours associated (and maybe more importantly, not associated) with their values. Performative value statements can lead to misalignment, disconnection, distrust.
🏗 Core vs. Other Types of Values -- Distinguishing core values from 'table-stakes', 'permission-to-play," and/or 'aspirational' values, is important. Core values are the cornerstones or foundation of a team's or organization's culture. They help foster shared connection, understanding, alignment, and agreement. They are powerful drivers for high-functioning teams, if operationalized in the right way.
📢 Feedback & Accountability -- Establishing regular feedback rhythms is key for the collective operationalization of values. Clearly (and consciously) communicating the do and don't behaviours of your core values - through recognition, story-telling, and coaching - is how people will come to internalize and align their behaviours collectively.
Thank you for listening, and let us know what other topics you think we should be exploring!
 
Learn more about our work with impact-conscious leaders by visiting our website, joining the conversation on LinkedIn or dropping us a note at team@theallyco.world.

Activating Genuine Leadership and Culture Change with Trusted Advising

In this episode of The Leaderful Podcast, Co.CEOs (Pablo Romero and Jeff Couillard) reflect on TACO's journey this past year. Part of their discussion focused on the latest positioning of our offerings in today's leadership and culture space, and what's become clearer in our work to create leaderful teams. 
Some highlights from the conversation: 
⚡ Foundational Alignment & Leaderfulness -- Any meaningful change (e.g. developing adaptive capacity) requires power-based and systems-conscious leadership. The cultivation of awareness, skill, and alignment across organizational levels starts at the top.  
🔄 Purposeful Direction & Ways of Working -- Leaders must clearly communicate how values will be (and not be) operationalized, and what expectations they have of themselves and others in aligning organizational intention and impact. How a team works together - decision-making, feedback, meetings, etc. - should reflect its core values, priorities, and intended impact.  
🌟 Trusted Advising for Impact-Conscious Leaders -- TACO is focused on supporting leaders and teams who want to use their power to positively disrupt outdated thinking, systems, and ways of working. Our two core leadership archetypes are known as Courageous Activists and Supporting Sponsors.  
🧩 Getting Unstuck & Achieving Clarity -- TACO's Trusted Advisor work helps leaders and their teams to get unstuck by helping them to cultivate new levels of awareness, skill, and capacity. This involves exploring behavioral patterns, redesigning workflows and processes, and fostering deeper levels of connection and performance.