22. The Role of Honest Dialogue in Healthy Leadership Teams

This week on Bad Boss Confessional, Beth Fahey welcomes Dennis Purcell, Chief Human Resources Officer at Skidmore Sales & Distributing Co., Inc., for a conversation about what happens when leaders develop talent without asking the questions that matter most. Dennis shares the painful lesson he learned after mentoring a high potential team member for years, only to discover in a heated leadership meeting that others had been struggling with that relationship all along. What began as a well intentioned effort to coach performance became a wake up call about trust, communication, and the difference between being nice and being kind. Dennis explains how his team rebuilt leadership health by normalizing people issues in their weekly meetings, creating language that makes hard conversations safer, and using one simple prompt, “What else?” to invite the truth before it is too late. Timestamps 00:00 Introduction to Bad Boss Confessional 02:33 Dennis Purcell’s Career Journey 06:28 A Painful Leadership Lesson 11:18 Building a Healthier Leadership Team 15:17 Navigating ‘Nice’ vs. ‘Kind’ Teams 20:10 Biggest Misconceptions of Leadership 26:35 The ‘What Else’ Tattoo and Retirement About:  Beth Fahey is a leadership coach, Expert EOS Implementer, and co-creator of the How to Be a Great Boss Workshops. With nearly 40 years of hands-on leadership experience, Beth has worn many hats: from working in film and owning a bakery to leading a national trade association.   Now, as the host of The Bad Boss Confessional, she shares candid stories about the challenges of leadership, mistakes made, lessons learned, and the path to becoming the kind of boss your team actually wants to follow. Through humor, honesty, and heart, Beth is on a mission to help leaders grow, one confession at a time.   Show Links For more information about Beth Fahey follow the links below. Website: www.eosworldwide.com/beth-fahey  Facebook: www.facebook.com/BethFaheyEOS Instagram: www.instagram.com/bethfaheyeos/ TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@bethfaheyeos LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/bethfahey/ Bad Boss Confessional YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/@badbossconfessional  Beth's Youtube:  https://www.youtube.com/@bethfaheyeos  Guest Links For the past 13 years, Dennis has served as the HR leader at Skidmore Sales and Distributing, a food ingredient distributor.  Prior to Skidmore, Dennis spent 23 years at The Hennegan Company, a commercial printer, handling HR functions, including labor negotiation, as well as managing administrative and operational departments. Dennis is a graduate of Williams College and obtained an MBA in finance from Xavier University. Website: https://skidmoresales.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dennispurcellssdc Sponsor Links Thanks to our Sponsors A big thank you to our amazing sponsors for making this episode possible: Titus Talent – Helping organizations make the best hiring decisions with performance-based talent strategies. Strety – Empowering teams through strategic planning and performance management tools built for modern workforces.

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