The Strategy and Leadership Podcast with Anthony C. Taylor

What does it take to lead 24,000 people through the largest telecom merger in US history — during COVID — and come out the other side with a stronger team?

In this episode of the Strategy & Leadership Podcast, Anthony Taylor sits down with Tracy Nolan, SVP at Humana and board member at Dress for Success. Tracy has driven $31B in revenue through a $6B operating budget across a Fortune 100 career that includes leadership roles through the Sprint/T-Mobile merger, the Verizon/Alltel merger, 9/11, and Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.

Tracy shares the six ingredients she looks for in every team she builds, why "if your name is on the invite, you've earned the right to be in the room," and the story of a goose in a parking lot that reshaped how she thinks about listening as a leader.

Whether you're leading a mid-market company through change or building your first executive team, the fundamentals in this conversation apply.

What you'll learn:
• The six success ingredients Tracy uses to evaluate any team (trust, integrity, commitment, execution, teamwork, right people)
• How to build two-way trust before you need it
• The "open bridge" method Tracy used to lead 12,000 people through a merger during COVID
• Why vulnerability at the executive level accelerates transformation
• The concept of "full circle leadership" — managing your team, peers, boss, and customers as one system
• The most overlooked element of transformation plans (and why decisiveness beats consensus)
• How Dress for Success helps women re-enter the workforce

Chapters:
00:00 – Introducing Tracy Nolan
01:11 – Heart + leadership: how Tracy defines her MO
03:09 – The six success ingredients
05:14 – Building trust during major transformation
06:11 – The Sprint/T-Mobile merger & the goose in the parking lot
10:59 – Being the first woman in the boardroom
14:39 – Driving results and full circle leadership
20:49 – What most leaders miss in transformation
22:46 – Dress for Success and giving back
25:15 – Where to connect with Tracy

Connect with Tracy Nolan:
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tracy-nolan

Learn more about Dress for Success: dressforsuccess.org

About the host:
Anthony Taylor is the founder of SME Strategy Consulting and host of the Strategy & Leadership Podcast. He helps mid-market leadership teams get aligned on one destination and execute on it. Learn more at smestrategy.net.

If you got value from this conversation, leave a review and let us know your biggest takeaway.

#Leadership #StrategyAndLeadership #Transformation #ChangeManagement #ExecutiveLeadership

Dr. Justin Anderson CEO of Premier Sport Psychology and Premier Performance Advising Justin’s work has supported Hall of Famers, All-Pros, world and national champions, and organizations across the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS, WNBA, NWSL, Olympic sports, collegiate athletics, and executive leadership spaces.He shares insights on how elite performers achieve their success through mental frameworks, attention management, and intentional focus. Discover practical strategies to enhance your performance and leadership by understanding the mind's role in overcoming challenges.Key Topics-The importance of attention in performance-Breaking through mental barriers-The five personal attributes for success-The role of biases, fears, and insecurities-The intentional attention framework-Managing pressure and stress effectively-The concept of amnesia and forgetting the past-Renewal strategies for high performers-The impact of routines and language on mindset-Practical tips for leaders and athletes

What if resistance to change isn't stubbornness or rebellion, but biology? Travis Hahler has spent nearly two decades sitting between great strategies and the people who have to adopt them, and he has a startling answer for why so many transformations stall: change signals threat to the human brain, and most leaders have no idea they are triggering it.
In this episode of the SME Strategy and Leadership Podcast, host Anthony Taylor sits down with Travis Hahler, Senior Director of Global Strategy and Transformation at Salesforce, former Global Change and Transformation Lead at Google, and founder of The Neurological Nomad. Drawing on a background that spans neuroscience research, an MBA, and change leadership at Google, Salesforce, and Deloitte, Travis brings a rare fusion of brain science and boardroom experience to the question every leader eventually faces: how do you actually get people to move?
Together they unpack why 70 percent of change initiatives fail to achieve their expected ROI, how the brain interprets organizational change as a loss of competence, relationships, or control, and why urgency and free rein so often backfire. Travis shares the practical shift that separates the successful 30 percent from the rest, including why your program manager gets a project live but your change manager is the one who actually delivers the return.
What You Will Learn in This Episode
How the brain interprets organizational change as a threat, and what leaders consistently misread when teams push back
Why every change equals loss, and how to lead through the three types of loss people experience at work: competence, relationships, and control
Why "just go play with it" is the wrong way to roll out AI, and what people actually need before they will engage
The difference between program management and change management, and why underinvesting in the second one quietly kills your ROI
How to think about adoption in terms of ROI, and why 20 percent adoption rarely justifies the investment
About Travis Hahler
Travis Hahler is Senior Director of Global Strategy and Transformation at Salesforce and the founder of The Neurological Nomad. Over more than fifteen years he has guided over one hundred companies through organizational transformation, earning the nickname "Resistance Fortune Teller" for his ability to predict where change efforts will fail. His signature keynote, The Neuroscience of Change, has reached over 25,000 leaders across 150 global events. His book, Rethink Resistance: Embracing Neuroscience to Lead Transformational Change, is forthcoming from Fast Company Press. Travis has held change and transformation roles at Google and Deloitte, studied neuroscience at Harvard and conducted EEG research at Aalborg University in Denmark, and holds an MBA from the University of South Dakota.
Connect with Travis Hahler
Website: https://www.theneurologicalnomad.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/travisdhahler/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theneurologicalnomad/
About the Podcast
The SME Strategy and Leadership Podcast is where leaders come to sharpen their thinking on strategy, execution, and the human side of moving plans forward. Hosted by Anthony Taylor, each episode brings candid conversations with executives and experts who help teams get aligned and turn strategic plans into action.
Strategy Resources
Get help facilitating your strategic plan: https://www.smestrategy.net/strategic-planning-facilitator
Connect with Anthony Taylor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyctaylor604
Learn more about SME Strategy: https://www.smestrategy.net
Produced by Rednyne Productions: https://www.rednyne.com

The global ocean economy is doubling in size to three trillion US dollars. Canada, a country with the longest coastline in the world and the fourth largest ocean territory, sits at roughly fifty billion. Kendra MacDonald calls that gap the opportunity of a generation, and she left one of the largest professional services firms on the planet to go after it.
In this episode of the SME Strategy and Leadership Podcast, host Anthony Taylor sits down with Kendra MacDonald, CEO of Canada's Ocean Supercluster and former Chief Audit Executive of Deloitte Global. After twenty five years at Deloitte, Kendra stepped out of a 275,000 person organization to become the first employee of a not for profit built to grow Canada's ocean economy. She talks candidly about why she made the leap, what it takes to align competing industries and countries around a shared goal, and why leadership in this moment looks different from what most people picture.
The conversation moves from the raw economic case for the ocean economy to the messy reality of collaboration at national and international scale. Kendra explains how a supercluster functions as a network of networks, why the devil is in the details when it comes to budgets and intellectual property, and how she keeps fishing executives, oil executives, researchers, and government partners focused on a common objective instead of the friction between them. She also shares a personal turning point that shaped her whole career, and makes the case for stepping into leadership even when you do not feel ready.
What You Will Learn in This Episode
How Kendra frames the size of the ocean economy opportunity and why Canada is significantly undersized relative to its coastline. Why collaboration is harder in practice than it sounds, and where partnerships tend to break down. How to keep diverse stakeholders aligned by returning to shared purpose rather than fixating on friction points. What it takes to lead a national initiative that spans four Atlantic provinces, coast to coast to coast, and nine countries. How technology, from sensors and autonomous platforms to AI, is being used to instrument the ocean and solve real problems. Why one moment should never be allowed to become career defining, and why the current moment needs more people to step into leadership.
About Kendra MacDonald
Kendra (she/her) is the CEO for Canada's Ocean Supercluster (OSC), responsible for driving the sustainable growth of Canada's Ocean Economy. Along with the OSC team, Kendra is passionately committed to raising awareness of Canada's ocean opportunity and role as an ocean nation.
Connect with Kendra
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kendramacdonald-40b574
Canada's Ocean Supercluster: https://oceansupercluster.ca
Saltwater Signals on Substack: https://substack.com/@saltwatersignals
About the Podcast
The SME Strategy and Leadership Podcast brings you conversations with leaders and thinkers from around the world on strategy, leadership, and building organizations that last. Hosted by Anthony Taylor, founder of SME Strategy Consulting and strategic advisor to leadership teams across North America, each episode gives executives practical perspective they can bring back to their own teams.
Strategy Resources
Looking to align your leadership team around a clear strategic plan? Learn more about strategic planning facilitation with Anthony and the SME Strategy team: https://smestrategy.net/strategic-planning-facilitator
Connect with Anthony on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/anthonyctaylor604
Produced by Rednyne Productions: https://rednyne.com

Note: This episode contains some strong language.
When a recruiter called George Barrios about a CFO job, George was treasurer of The New York Times Company. His verbatim reaction when he heard the company was WWE: "are you fucking kidding me?" He took the role anyway. Twelve years later, the stock had gone from $15 to $100, and he had helped engineer the largest acquisition in sports entertainment history.
In this episode of the Strategy and Leadership Podcast, Anthony C. Taylor speaks with George Barrios, former Co-President and Board Member of WWE, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Isos Capital, and author of Sometimes Wrong but Never in Doubt, about how deep preparation builds the conviction to act when everyone says you are wrong. George and his business partner Michelle Wilson took WWE from a roughly $1 billion North American event business to the company that anchored the $9.3 billion merger with UFC to form TKO Group.
Anthony and George explore the insight that the entire industry rejected, why being right when everyone else is wrong is the only kind of right that matters, how over 1,100 meetings in three and a half years changed the market's mind, and what it takes to rebuild after being fired in front of your whole industry. The conversation also goes deep on the research method behind every decision George makes, the partnership dynamic with Vince McMahon, and how he now applies the WWE playbook across La Liga, Ligue 1, and the WTA.
What You Will Learn in This Episode
- How George and Michelle Wilson took WWE from roughly $1 billion to a $9.3 billion valuation
- Why deep preparation, not self-confidence, is the real source of conviction
- The insight about live content that the entire industry insisted was wrong
- Why being right when everyone else is wrong is where the value lives
- What over 1,100 meetings in three and a half years actually accomplished
- How George rebuilt after being fired publicly and then called back to finish the deal
About George Barrios
George Barrios is a business leader, investor, and operator working at the intersection of sports, media, and technology. He is Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Isos Capital, where he invests across sports, entertainment, and media. He is also an investor in and Director of Global Sport Group (GSG), a CVC-backed sports investment platform whose portfolio includes La Liga, Ligue 1, the WTA, and Equine Network, and serves as a Trustee of the University of Connecticut.
George is best known for his tenure as Co-President and Board Member of WWE, where he helped transform the company into a global, multi-platform entertainment business and lead its merger with UFC to form TKO Group. Earlier in his career, he held senior executive roles at The New York Times Company, Time Warner, HBO, and Praxair. He holds an MBA from the University of Connecticut School of Business. A first-generation Cuban American raised in Queens, New York, he is the author of Sometimes Wrong but Never in Doubt.
Connect with George Barrios
Website: https://georgebarrios.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgebarrios/
About the Strategy and Leadership Podcast
The Strategy and Leadership Podcast is hosted by Anthony C. Taylor, a strategic advisor to mid-market leadership teams ($30M to $300M) across North America. He works directly with CEOs and senior leaders to align their teams, clarify priorities, and execute strategy in complex organizations, interviewing founders, executives, and industry leaders about what actually works when strategy has to survive execution.
Strategy Resources for Leaders
Work with a Strategic Planning Facilitator: https://www.smestrategy.net/strategic-planning-facilitator
Connect with Anthony Taylor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyctaylor604/
Produced by Rednyne Productions: https://www.rednyne.com