Episode #46: The Case for Workplace Civility: How Psychological Safety and Clear Standards of Behavior Drive Team Success: A Conversation with Ellen Burton
Release Date: 04/17/2025
Episode #69: What Holds Teams Together When Things Don’t Go as Planned
Missing Conversations
What shows up when you show up, especially when things don’t go as planned? When you walk into the room, do your teams experience steadiness, appreciation, a sense that something more is still possible? In this final episode of 2025, Altus executive coaches Heather Neely, Dan Winter, Don DeVito, and Amy Vodarek gather to reflect on these questions through the lens of abundance as a lived leadership practice. They explore how gratitude steadied a CEO during organizational chaos, why appreciation expands what teams can see in the midst of challenge, and how leaders learn to hold two realities...
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Episode #68: The Leadership Shifts Behind Every Crisis-Ready Team
Missing Conversations
The first leader Den Jones ever worked for broke his trust. Good thing—because that moment made Den a leader with a deep, lifelong commitment to serving his people. In this episode, Altus executive coaches Lynette Winter and Dan Winter talk with Den—founder of 909Cyber, former Adobe and Cisco leader, and a storyteller whose Scottish wit cuts through complexity with honesty, humor, and practical insight. You’ll hear Den talk plainly about leading in a world of AI and fake profiles, shifting from “defensible moat” thinking to zero trust, repairing trust after a breach, setting...
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Episode #67: Leading Through Chaos: The Secret to Keeping Your Team Aligned and High-Performing When Demand Is High
Missing Conversations
When your business is hit by a pandemic, a capacity crunch, or clients who treat your work like a commodity, how do you protect your people, your standards, and your own sanity? In this episode of Missing Conversations, hosts Dan Winter and Heather Neely talk with Jeff Weinberg, owner of JW Catering, who has spent 25 years in Silicon Valley “controlling chaos” as he and his team serve events from 5 to 5,000 people. Jeff shares how a chance complaint at a concert turned into a decades-long partnership, how he and his team pivoted in just five weeks to ghost kitchens and a pop-up Jewish deli...
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Episode #66: Facing Uncertainty? Here’s The One Thing Your Team Needs Most From You Today
Missing Conversations
When your organization is moving fast and uncertainty spikes, your leadership presence becomes the difference between a team that breaks and one that moves forward together. In this episode of Missing Conversations, hosts Lynette Winter and Ellen Burton sit down with Amy Riley, an internationally respected leadership coach, speaker, and author who has spent over two decades helping leaders bring out the best in their teams. Amy shares insights from rooms where jobs were on the line, strategies were rewritten overnight, and leaders had to align vision and reality in real time—VPs steadying...
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Episode #65: How to Create Psychological Safety at Work: Small Leadership Practices That Build Trust, Respect, and Performance
Missing Conversations
$2.7 billion a day. That’s what U.S. workplaces lose in productivity when people don’t feel emotionally or psychologically safe. Psychological safety isn’t a policy. It’s the everyday experience of being able to speak up, ask questions, admit mistakes, challenge assumptions, and be fully ourselves at work. In this conversation, Altus Growth Partners executive coaches Steven Jones, Ellen Burton, and Lara Guille explore how leaders build that safety through small, intentional practices: curiosity before correction, deep listening, open-ended and consent-based questions, and the...
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Episode #64: Inside Reytek: How CEO Ed Kuyper Grows People, Strengthens Community, and Redefines Success
Missing Conversations
Some leaders step into new roles; others step into new ways of leading. In this episode of Missing Conversations, Altus Growth Partners executive coaches Dan Winter and Lynette Winter talk with Ed Kuyper, CEO of Reytek Equipment, a New Mexico–based manufacturer serving the semiconductor, aerospace, and biotech industries. Ed shares the inner work and practical choices behind his transition from corporate executive to small-business CEO, and what it really means to lead with trust, humility, and care. His story reflects a leader’s deepest responsibility: to grow people, strengthen...
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Episode #63: Anticipating Tomorrow: Leadership Aligned, Financial Impact Clear, and the AI Edge Defined
Missing Conversations
David Coulombe began his career as a mechanical engineer, but it was his restless curiosity that reshaped his path. He wanted to know why organizations miss what matters most, and how they could do better. That drive led him into internal auditing and risk management, where he challenged the old model of combing through past mistakes. Instead, he redefined audit as a forward-looking partner: one that tests readiness, strengthens trust, and raises capability across the enterprise. Now, David is pioneering how artificial intelligence can transform his field, and the organizations it serves. In...
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Episode #62: Redesigning Your Calendar, Expectations, and Leadership to Build Workplaces Where You and Your Team Thrive
Missing Conversations
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...
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Episode #61: From Mountains to Boardrooms: How adventure and experiential learning help leaders build trust, embrace conflict, and elevate teams
Missing Conversations
“It’s not about the intensity of what you do, it’s about the intention.” That guiding belief runs through Ryan Soares’ life, from backcountry skiing to hang-gliding launches to building global practice fields where leaders experiment, stumble safely, and discover what elevates their people. In this episode of Missing Conversations, hosts Heather Neely and Amy Vodarek sit down with Ryan, founder of Soares Consulting, to explore how an adventurous spirit, deep empathy, and hands-on learning help leaders design psychological safety, embrace conflict as fuel, and turn missing...
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Episode #60: Six Practices for How to Lead From What You Care About Most
Missing Conversations
To lead others well, we must first return to what we care about most. In this Missing Conversations episode, hosts Amy Vodarek and Ellen Burton talk with their Altus colleague Lara Guille, who blends her background as a clinical psychologist, executive coach, and generative leadership practitioner to help leaders do just that. Lara shares six practices for how to lead from your cares, elevating you as a leader and your team: “Zoom out” to see what’s really driving the moment Name competing cares so you can choose with intention Use self-awareness to stay grounded amid...
info_outlineWant a more generous, high-performing team? Create a culture and environment where your people feel safe. In this sharp and energizing episode, Ellen Burton joins Amy Vodarek and Lynette Winter for a conversation every leader needs to hear. Ellen is an executive leadership coach, keynote speaker, and author of The Civility Project, which raises awareness of old patterns of unhealthy and harmful behaviors in the workplace and opens pathways to a more reverent and civilized culture.
Her gift for changing minds and hearts is evident as she shares her insights on the staggering cost of toxic culture to the quiet power of clearly communicated standards of behavior. Whether you're hiring, setting expectations, or navigating conflict, her wisdom will help you build a culture where humans—and results—truly thrive.
Key Moments You’ll Want to Hear:
03:01 – Why psychological safety leads to generosity, and how leaders can foster it.
05:16 – The real secret to motivating your team.
07:09 – The hidden costs of toxic culture—lost talent, broken trust, damaged partnerships—and why unaddressed conflict drains your bottom line.
12:35 – Why your interview process should already be modeling the standards of behavior you expect inside your organization.
16:52 – What today’s high performers want from leadership—and what they won’t tolerate.
19:20 – The difference between “call-in” and “call-out” culture and how each impacts team trust and growth.
23:24 – Practical ways to set standards of behavior that help everyone succeed—starting now.
27:27 – The #1 teambusting behavior—and how to spot it before it spreads.
28:20 – Hiring smarter starts with better questions. What to ask before you make a costly mis-hire.
31:33 – How to navigate conflict based on the type of trust that’s (actually) present.
36:34 – Your team’s biggest opportunity? Slowing down.
42:13 – What leaders in high-stakes environments can teach the rest of us about working better together.
45:03 – Conversations that count. What presence looks like—and why it matters.
48:19 – Practices to show up as your best self—even on hard days.
Leadership is not about telling, it's about teaching. It's about coaching.
Sit back, slow down, and enjoy this wonderful conversation with our newest team member, Ellen Burton. Listen now. 🎧
About Ellen Burton
An inspirational leader and catalyst for change, Ellen is an Executive Coach, business lecturer, and motivational speaker. Formerly an Executive Sales Consultant with pharmaceutical corporations, she founded her Executive Coaching firm in 2004. Ellen authored The Civility Project and contributed to Professional Leadership. She enjoys golf, tennis, and community service.
You can find her on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ellen-j-burton-she-her-0702289/
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:
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What two promises turn a group into a team.
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How to engage people to make those promises.
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How to invite responsibility and accountability.
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How to include and inspire people across differences.
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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
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Keywords:
#Leadership #TeamDevelopment #PsychologicalSafety #CivilityProject #WorkplaceCulture #ConflictResolution #Trust #Communication #Generosity #EmotionalSafety