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The Talent Forge: Shaping Workforce Behaviors with Jay Johnson
Welcome to The Talent Forge: Shaping Workforce Behavior with Jay Johnson — the podcast where behavioral science meets the day-to-day challenges of leadership and talent development.
Each week, Jay Johnson, behavioral architect, two-time TEDx speaker, and corporate trainer, brings you bold conversations and tactical insights to help organizations develop better managers, improve communication, and shape workplace behavior that drives results.
Whether you're an emerging leader, a C-suite executive, an operations manager, or an individual seeking growth, this show delivers behavior-based strategies that stick. Jay and experts in the field come together to share a behind-the-scenes look at the tools that build high-performing teams, reduce burnout, and foster cultures of accountability and trust.
From leadership development and management coaching to behavioral intelligence and culture transformation, you'll walk away with actionable tools to improve your people, processes, and performance.
This isn’t theory. This is real-world behavior, transformed. Welcome to the Forge.
Interested in being a guest? Please contact Madison Bennett via email (madison@coeuscreativegroup.com).
Episodes
88 episodes
From Paralympic World Record to Daily Growth: The 1% Method with Mikael Avatar Stjernvall
A Paralympic world record doesn’t come from hype; it comes from tiny choices repeated for years. That’s where this conversation with Mikael Avatar Stjernvall goes: into the real mechanics of resilience, focus, and the kind of leadership habits ...
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Neuroscience Tools For Leadership and Change with Dr. Lisa Riegel
Your smartest plan can fail if the brain thinks it’s under threat. That’s why we brought on Dr. Lisa Riegel, a neuroscientist and author of Aspirations To Operations and NeuroWell, to translate brain science into leadership behaviors you can ac...
Solo Mission Series: Turn Vague Criticism Into Usable Behavior Change
Most leaders think the hard part is “giving feedback.” I think the real challenge is clarity. When we say things like “be more proactive” or “watch your tone,” we’re usually handing someone a foggy request they can’t translate into action, or w...
From White Knuckling to Thriving with Trauma-Informed Recovery Coaching with Jeanne Foot
Work performance problems rarely live only in a spreadsheet. They live in bodies, nervous systems, habits, and the quiet stories people carry into meetings. We sit down with Jeanne Foot, CEO of The Recovery Concierge, to talk about behavior cha...
Part 2: The Creativity Advantage with Steven Puri
Your calendar can be full and your team can still be stuck. We get into the real reason: creativity doesn’t die from lack of talent, it dies from lack of safety and lack of uninterrupted focus.Steven Puri returns to The Talent Forge and...
What if Leadership is Just Navigating Through Fog? with Pete Behrens
The fastest way to break a great technical team is to promote your best individual contributor and then pretend leadership is “common sense.” Jay Johnson sits down with Pete Behrens, an engineer turned leadership coach and author of Into the Fo...
Solo Mission Series: How to Replace Workplace Assumptions with Clarity
A two-word email. A silent reply. A vague “we’ll circle back.” Your brain fills the gap and suddenly a small moment becomes a big problem. We dig into why assumptions feel so convincing and how to replace them with fast, respectful clarity that...
Solo Mission Series: Why Quick Asks Create Chaos and How to Fix Them
Ever felt your focus hijacked by a “quick question” that turned into a day of rework? We go straight at drive-by delegation—the vague asks, Slack grenades, and meeting ambushes that pass uncertainty around like a hot potato—and replace them wit...
Solo Mission Series: Rewiring The Yes Reflex
Ever agreed to “something quick” and found yourself buried under drafts, meetings, and late‑night fixes? We dig into the yes reflex—the automatic compliance that sounds like teamwork and ends in burnout—and show how to replace it with clear, co...
What if Joy is Your Most Undervalued Business Strategy? with Joel Hilchey
What if the fastest way to better performance is more joy, not more grind? We sit down with engineer-turned-entertainer-turned-executive Joel Hilchey to unpack how purposeful play transforms culture, unlocks honest conversations, and helps team...
How Naming Your Feelings Can Transform Tough Conversations with Yancy Wright
Burnout isn’t the villain; it’s the flashing dashboard light you can’t afford to ignore. We sit down with leadership guide Yancy Wright to explore how the body signals trouble long before the mind admits it—and how tuning into those signals can...
SERIES: Tech and Tools - How Practicing Real Conversations Unlocks Talent and Culture with Matt Sussman
Meetings move at the speed of voice, and too many talented people stay quiet when it matters most. This week, we kick off our new Tech and Tools series with FLOW Speak co-founder Matt Sussman. Matt unpacks a simple idea with big impact: targete...
Practical Leadership For First-Time Managers with Dalmo Cirne
Promotions are exciting until the work changes under your feet. We sat down with leadership expert Dalmo Cirne to unpack why great individual contributors can stumble as new managers—and how to replace uncertainty with clarity, systems, and ste...
Remote Culture, Real Results with Chris Dyer
The biggest blocker to remote success isn’t the tool you picked. It’s the clarity you haven’t written down. Jay sits with culture expert Chris Dyer to unpack how a recession forced him to ditch the office, kill the bottlenecks, and build a remo...
Rethinking Power: Where Quiet Voices Change Teams with Greg Weinger
Loud doesn’t equal leader. Greg Weinger joins us to unpack why quiet professionals can become some of the most effective leaders in the room—and how to get there without faking extroversion or burning out. We dig into the real difference betwee...
From Hollywood Lessons to High-Performance Habits with Steven Puri
What if the secret to consistent high performance isn’t more grind, but a better story? We sit down with Steven Puri, a former studio executive turned founder, to connect surprising dots between Hollywood and the workplace: how timeless myths p...
Speak To Be Understood: The Human ROI Of Language with Stacy Richter
Fluency isn’t a streak; it’s a human connection. Jay sits down with Stacy Richter, CEO of Live Lingua, to unpack why real progress happens when we move beyond vocabulary drills and into immersive, person-to-person learning that mirrors how we a...
How Self-Compassion Transforms Leadership and Culture with Julie Booksh
Perfection looks powerful until it breaks a team. We sat down with Julie Booksh—licensed counselor, marriage and family therapist, and leadership coach—to rethink what real strength looks like inside complex systems. Julie’s journey from HR to ...
How to Stop Letting Emotions Run Your Day and Start Using Them to Lead with Dr. Greg Stewart
What if anger, fear, and stress weren’t problems to suppress but power you could steer? We sit down with Dr. Greg Stewart—author, counselor, coach, and former senior pastor—to unpack a practical roadmap for turning raw emotion into leadership l...
What Will Your Leadership Leave Behind? Smart Power, Real Impact with Dr. Sylvia Rohde-Liebenau
Feeling pulled in every direction, yet determined to lead well? We sit down with Dr. Sylvia Rohde-Liebenau—author of "Who’s in Charge?"—to unpack a practical path for impact that doesn’t cost your health or your soul. Drawing on her experience ...
How To Lead When You Don’t Know: Innovation, Engagement, & Psychological Safety with Alan Gregerman
What if admitting “I don’t know” is the most powerful leadership move you can make? We sit down with innovation consultant and author Alan Gregerman to unpack the “wisdom of ignorance” and why certainty can quietly sink companies while curiosit...
Stop Playing Corporate Telephone: Turn Top-Down Plans into Daily Behaviors with Kim Crowder
Strategy dies in the “telephone game.” We sat down with leadership expert Kim Crowder to unpack how to turn top‑down plans into daily behaviors people can actually do, coach, and scale. The core idea is deceptively simple: bring voices in early...
Behavior is a Choice and Choices Build Culture: A Conversation with Our Host Jay Johnson
A single question from a colleague—“Can you look at this?”—set off a chain of events that reshaped our host Jay Johnson's career. In this episode, he walks through the moment misaligned expectations between faculty and international...
From Martial Arts to Trauma-Informed Leadership: Laura Armstrong on Safety, Boundaries, and Real De-escalation
Safety isn’t a side project—it’s the system your team runs on. We sit down with martial arts champion and corporate coach Laura Armstrong to unpack trauma-informed training that actually works in the workplace.Laura breaks down the windo...
Design Roles, Not Tasks: AI’s Edge in HR and L&D with Scott Morris
Jobs don’t fail because people don’t work hard; they fail because the work isn’t designed to move the numbers that matter. That’s the uncomfortable truth we dig into with Scott Morris—longtime Chief People Officer, HR transformer, and founder o...