How do you build a high-performing team—without burning people out?

In this episode of Frog Talk, Nader Safinya sits down with Sean Barnes to talk through the mindset shifts leaders need to make if they want their teams to evolve, adapt, and actually trust each other. From the patterns that show up in dysfunctional cultures to the importance of psychological safety, Sean brings a blend of executive experience and coaching clarity to the conversation.

You’ll hear why accountability without empathy fails, how great leaders create space for honest feedback, and why self-reflection is the trait that separates good teams from great ones.

If you lead a team, are part of one, or want to be the kind of leader others actually want to follow—this conversation will land.

Episode Guest Details:

Sean Barnes

A keynote speaker and executive coach with an extensive background in technology and operations. Sean brings a fascinating perspective, having experienced the journey from technical roles to executive leadership before transitioning to help other leaders find their path to meaningful impact.

Key Takeaways:

High-performing teams are built through clarity, safety, and strengths—not pressure.

Great leaders embrace tension as a signal, not a threat.

Teams evolve in phases—and effective leadership adapts with them.

Psychological safety isn’t a nice-to-have; it’s a growth multiplier.

Leaders need to master both feedback and self-awareness to build trust.

When performance is down, trust and clarity are usually the first places to look.

Chapter Markers:

00:00 – Intro

02:12 – Sean’s early career and leadership turning points

07:40 – Understanding team dynamics through the Tuckman model

13:55 – Building psychological safety on real teams

20:11 – The limits of motivation without trust

25:08 – Self-awareness and personal growth as a leadership tool

30:14 – Creating feedback loops that actually work

35:47 – Coaching leaders through resistance and change

41:22 – Sean on building culture inside growth

45:50 – Final 8 quick-fire leadership questions

52:00 – Closing reflections

Keywords

Sean Barnes, leadership coaching, psychological safety, team performance, feedback culture, emotional intelligence, executive coaching, The Way of the Wolf, high-performing teams, leadership development, team trust, organizational culture, values-based leadership, Nader Safinya, Frog Talk podcast, Blackribbit.

What do you do when life hands you six months to live—not once, but three times?

In this episode, Tom LeNoble joins Frog Talk to talk about what it really means to lead with clarity, serve with humility, and live with intent. From the early days at Facebook (back when there were just 40 employees) to his current role leading the Academy for Coaching Excellence, Tom’s story is one of constant reinvention.

We dig into:

• Why coaching is misunderstood—and why it matters more than ever

• The power of removing the “hay” in your life to find your “needle”

• What most leaders get wrong about mentorship and influence

• Why Gen Z isn’t lazy—they’re just trying to find their way, like everyone else

And what happened when he looked into the eyes of a server and saw a pilot

Key Takeaways:

1. Coaching is about being, not fixing. Tom’s ontological approach to coaching focuses on how leaders are being—not what they’re doing wrong.

2. Purpose takes clarity, not just passion. Through his "haystack method," Tom helps people remove the noise to find what’s been buried under assumptions, expectations, and fear.

3. Leadership shows up in micro-moments. Whether coaching an executive or encouraging a server to step into his full potential, Tom sees leadership as a moment-to-moment responsibility.

4. You don’t need a title to be a leader. Tom’s influence on his team at Facebook—many of whom are now VPs and founders—came from presence, mentorship, and being someone worth learning from.

5. Resilience is a muscle. After being told multiple times he wouldn’t survive, Tom built a life and career defined by risk, recovery, and serving others more deeply than ever.

Guest Details:

Tom LeNoble is the CEO of the Academy for Coaching Excellence and a leadership coach with a career that spans Facebook, Palm, Walmart, and beyond. He’s worked across operations, HR, and customer service—bringing depth to every team he's touched. He’s a resilience coach at the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship and the host of the Opening Pathways podcast. His coaching approach, shaped by surviving multiple life-threatening diagnoses, cuts through the noise and helps leaders find clarity, purpose, and their own voice. Philanthropy is at the core of his work, particularly in support of first-generation students, underserved communities, and the arts.

Chapter Markers:

00:00 – Opening banter: Midwestern geysers and mispronunciations

01:58 – Intro to Tom LeNoble: From Palm to Facebook to philanthropy

03:00 – Growing up with love, not much else

05:30 – From ICU manager to bartending to tech

08:00 – Climbing the corporate ladder at MCI

09:30 – Why serving first-gen students fuels Tom’s purpose

11:30 – Joining Facebook when nobody knew what it was

13:30 – Culture shock: graffiti, no phones, and building trust

15:45 – Building a team, mentoring early talent

19:20 – The Facebook reunion: “The kids turned out alright”

21:30 – Becoming a coach while being told he had 6 months to live

24:30 – The coaching method rooted in ontology

27:00 – What the Academy for Coaching Excellence teaches

29:30 – Why coaching went global—and how it’s now more accessible than ever

33:00 – “Inspirator”: what Tom calls his life’s work

35:30 – The party metaphor: we all want the same things

42:00 – Helping people find clarity when they feel stuck

45:00 – Two coaching stories that changed lives

47:00 – Why most leaders avoid performance conversations

49:00 – The power of performing arts in team building

50:00 – “Would it be okay if life got easier?”

Keywords:

Tom LeNoble, Nader Safinya, Frog Talk podcast, Academy for Coaching Excellence, coaching leadership, ontological coaching, Facebook early days, coaching vs therapy, Gen Z leadership, resilience coaching, philanthropic leadership, personal development, first generation college students, startup culture, performance coaching, nonprofit leadership, growth mindset, coaching certification, emotional intelligence in leadership

Episode Guest Details: Ben Ortlip is the author of Culture Is the New Leadership and the creator of The Culture MRI®—a framework used by organizations like UPS, Chick-fil-A, Salesforce, and Delta to measure and repair the cultural cracks that leaders often miss. With three decades of insight, Ben brings both precision and heart to one of the most misunderstood dynamics in business: how culture actually works.

We get into:Let’s get into it.

• How great leaders actually use culture as a performance tool
• Why “values” often create more confusion than clarity
• What you should be measuring (and what to ignore)
• Why culture is a daily decision, not a department

Key Takeaways

• Culture can be measured. Using tools like The Culture MRI®, leaders can identify specific misalignments that impact performance—long before they become visible problems.
• Values don’t work if they aren’t interpreted. Posting values isn’t enough. You need shared definitions and behaviors tied to those values—or they’ll create more confusion than clarity.
• Alignment doesn’t require agreement. Culture gets stronger when people are clear on the goal—even if their methods or perspectives differ.
• Culture drives outcomes. Every leadership decision either strengthens or weakens the behavioral norms that drive performance.
• There’s no finish line. Culture is built or broken in daily interactions, not quarterly offsites.

Episode Description: What actually makes a company culture work?It’s not your values poster. It’s not a ping pong table. And it’s definitely not a one-time training.In this episode of Frog Talk, I sit down with Ben Ortlip—creator of The Culture MRI®—to unpack what most leaders miss when trying to “fix” their culture. We talk about measurable behaviors, unseen narratives, and why alignment isn’t about sameness, it’s about clarity.Ben’s experience spans three decades and includes working with culture-defining companies like Chick-fil-A, UPS, Delta, and Salesforce. But what stands out most is his commitment to compassionate, actionable frameworks that actually help people show up differently.If you lead a team, run a company, or care about the environment your people walk into every day, this episode is for you.

Chapter Markers:

00:00 – Intro

02:10 – What The Culture MRI® really measures

06:45 – Culture is not vibe

11:12 – Why most values fail in practice

14:55 – The difference between culture and community

19:30 – How culture drives performance

24:08 – What “alignment” actually looks like

28:22 – The three invisible forces shaping every team

35:15 – Helping leaders recognize their own impact

40:01 – Can culture scale with growth?

44:10 – Where most companies go wrong

48:20 – The simple question that changes everything

53:05 – Final thoughts from Ben

Keywords culture measurement, company culture, workplace culture, organizational behavior, Culture MRI, Ben Ortlip, Nader Safinya, Frog Talk podcast, how to build company culture, leadership strategy, leadership and culture, measuring culture, employee alignment, culture in business, workplace values, company values, organizational culture strategy, culture vs community, performance-driven culture, Chick-fil-A culture, Salesforce leadership, UPS values, Delta Airlines culture, Blackribbit, culture podcast, leadership podcast, how to create a healthy workplace