This week, I had the honor of sitting down with Jigar Thakkar a fellow Microsoft alum whose journey embodies both innovation and leadership at scale. Jigar spent nearly two decades at Microsoft, playing pivotal roles across products from Dynamics CRM to Windows Phone, Bing, and MSN. Most notably, he served as a founding engineering leader for Microsoft Teams, helping bring one of the world’s most transformative collaboration tools to life.

Read the article on LinkedIn.

This week's episode of Leading With Respect features a conversation with Jess Almlie a former Vice President of Learning and a dynamic leader in the learning and development field. She is passionate about empowering L&D professionals to increase our impact by evolving from order takers to strategic business partners. With three decades of experience and a proven track record of driving strategic initiatives, Jess helps organizations solve talent challenges and improve performance.

Watch/listen to the full episode here. Read the LinkedIn artile here.

In addition to consulting and speaking, Jess hosts the podcast, L&D Must Change, and is the author of the book, L&D Order Taker No More: Become a Strategic Business Partner, published by ATD Press.

Our conversation delved into what respect truly means in the workplace, particularly in the contexts of learning, leadership, and organizational change.

In this episode of Leading with Respect, I had the privilege of reconnecting with a longtime friend and former client, Peter Morada. We first worked together during his time at AT&T, and since then, he’s led teams at Amazon and now at Premera Blue Cross, where he oversees Brand and Voice of the Customer.

Disclaimer: All perspectives expressed by my guests are their own and do not represent the organizations for which they work.

What struck me most in our conversation is how Peter has consistently been chosen not just for his technical expertise, but for his ability to unify diverse teams, listen deeply, and create trust across cultures.

Read the full article on LinkedIn. Watch/listen to the full episode on YouTube.

I’m delighted to share my latest Leading With Respect conversation. In this episode, I spoke with Maryanne Battles, a fellow Microsoft alum, whose career journey has also taken her through Google, the Gates Foundation, and private equity firms.

Maryanne brings a rare perspective: she has seen respect or the lack of it play out across both the fast-moving tech industry and the philanthropic sector. Her lens on systems theory and talent strategy adds real depth to how we think about respect in times of disruption.

Read the full article on LinkedIn. Watch/listen to the full episode on YouTube.

In this week’s Leading with Respect, I had the privilege of sitting down with Ruby Deol Chief Operating Officer at Alert Enterprise, a company that brings people, processes, data and technology together in true security convergence. Trust is at the center of everything they do. Ruby’s leadership spans continents, with a global perspective shaped by her roots in India and her work in the U.S., making her an ideal voice for exploring respect in the workplace.

Read the full article on LinkedIn.

Watch/listen to the full conversation here.

For Ruby, respect is not a “nice-to-have”—it’s the core foundation upon which healthy, high-performing company cultures are built.

She points out that values like teamwork, innovation, and integrity cannot be sustained without respect at their core. In both professional and personal relationships, respect is the glue that fosters trust, safety, and gratitude.

In this week’s episode of Leading with Respect, I had the pleasure of reconnecting with a longtime friend and fellow global citizen, Ian Kawetschanky, who is now the Chief of Staff at SupportNinja. Ian and I first crossed paths through the international student leadership organization, AIESEC. His journey from student leadership into nonprofit management and now executive operations is as inspiring as it is insightful.

Today, Ian wears many hats in his Chief of Staff role, supporting executive leadership, internal communications, and employee engagement across a global team. What stood out most in our conversation was his unwavering focus on building a respectful culture through humility, consistency, and intentionality.

Read the full article on LinkedIn. Watch/listen to the full episode on YouTube.

“Respect begins with self-respect.” That simple but powerful idea came up early in my conversation with Tammy Snow, and it anchored everything we explored together. Tammy is a longtime friend from my Microsoft days and now serves as Vice President of Research, Analytics, and Design (RAD) at Workday. In our recent chat, we explored how respect shows up in leadership, culture, feedback, and design, and why it always starts from within.

Tammy leads a team focused on research, analytics, and design—fittingly known as RAD. And as she shared, that acronym is more than a label. It’s an ethos. A way of working. A call to be radical in how they approach human-centric change. For Tammy and her team, respect isn’t just about the end user. It’s about each other. It’s about how they show up, how they challenge one another, and how they commit to being accountable, dependable, and respectful at every level.

Read the full article on LinkedIn. Watch/listen to the full episode on YouTube.

How do you build a thriving business grounded in respect?

Meet Ivan Fernandez, CISSP, the founder and CEO of SPN Networks, a 24-year-old IT and cybersecurity firm that Ivan launched straight out of high school, with no marketing plan, just grit, hustle, and a commitment to service. Today, his company employs 17 people across the U.S. and is quietly redefining what it means to lead with both heart and consistency.

Watch/listen to the entire conversation here.

Ivan and I met at a Microsoft networking event, and what struck me immediately was his humanity. Following him on LinkedIn only confirmed it—especially the way he integrates his family into his work life and leads with vulnerability.

In our conversation, Ivan offered powerful reflections on what respect looks like in action:

Ivan reminds us that respect isn't always loud. It's often the quiet moments: eye contact, follow-through, owning mistakes, that build respect over time.

Read the full article on LinkedIn. Watch/listen to the full episode on YouTube.