Episode #69: What Holds Teams Together When Things Don’t Go as Planned
Release Date: 12/18/2025
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_outlineWhat 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 at once: a sense of abundance and an honest acknowledgment of what is genuinely hard.
As you close out the year, this conversation highlights the moments that matter most and offers grounded practices for leading with presence and possibility. 🎧Listen now.
Key Moments You’ll Want to Hear
02:05: How leaders respond when plans fall apart.
03:43: Why leaders can’t “think” abundance. They must embody it.
04:24: How to be in abundance while not bypassing reality.
05:58: Redefining abundance as care, contribution, and relational capacity.
07:44: How comparison leads to an unhealthy perspective of abundance.
09:07: How leaders create possibility in relationships.
11:07: A mom’s wisdom for appreciating the unexpected, “Look what grace planted.”
12:54: What appreciation actually does to team dynamics.
15:14: How gratitude steadied one CEO during organizational chaos.
17:01: How to be with what's really hard and also grateful at the same time.
18:30: Why breakdowns show us we’re doing meaningful work.
20:17: How appreciation restores meaning for teams under pressure.
24:08: Leading change while holding opposite truths.
27:02: A simple meeting practice that strengthens team culture.
28:10: How executive teams surface untapped ideas.
32:41: A powerful practice of gratitude that shows your real impact.
By the end of this conversation, you’ll hear answers to:
How can leaders cultivate abundance and gratitude on their teams?
Leaders cultivate abundance and gratitude by how they show up in moments of pressure—not by what they say when things are easy. In this episode, the Altus team describes abundance as a practice, not a mindset. It shows up when leaders acknowledge what’s working while staying honest about what’s broken, and when they slow down enough to notice contributions that often get lost in the rush to fix problems. One CEO steadied their team during organizational chaos by consistently naming what the team had already built together, which helped restore clarity and forward movement. Timestamps: 03:43, 05:58, 15:14, 20:17
How can leaders express appreciation to their teams in a way that actually matters?
Appreciation lands when it connects people to meaning, not just effort. The coaches highlight that teams under pressure often lose sight of how their work matters, especially when leaders hold more context than those doing the work. Effective leaders make appreciation specific, relational, and visible—naming how someone’s actions supported the broader mission or helped the team navigate a difficult moment. Simple practices, like closing meetings with shared appreciations or naming contributions across silos, help teams feel seen and grounded during chaos. Timestamps: 12:54, 20:17, 27:02, 32:41
How can leaders hold abundance while facing real challenges and breakdowns?
Strong leaders learn to hold two realities at once: acknowledging what is genuinely hard while staying connected to possibility. The conversation shows that gratitude doesn’t bypass breakdowns—it helps leaders think more clearly inside them. One insight shared is that large breakdowns often signal meaningful work and bold commitments. Leaders who can name the difficulty and express appreciation for their people create space for better decisions, deeper trust, and sustained resilience. Timestamps: 17:01, 18:30, 24:08
Once you have clarity about what's enough to take care of the cares that you have, then you're always in abundance. ~ Dan Winter
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:
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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 #Abundance #Gratitude