What if your greatest impact as a leader begins after your "official" career ends?

Joe Davis, former Managing Director and Senior Partner at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and author of "The Generous Leader: 7 Ways to Give of Yourself for Everyone’s Gain", joins Peter Winick to share insights from his extraordinary shift from consulting titan to impactful thought leader.

Joe reveals how the disruptions of COVID-19 inspired him to write his book—not just as a professional calling card, but to encourage executives to lead with heartfelt generosity and empathy. He emphasizes that legacy leadership isn't measured by revenue alone but by meaningful connections, personal growth, and empowering others.

This episode is for CEOs and senior leaders contemplating their own "Act Three." Joe discusses the challenges and opportunities when transitioning from a structured corporate role into thought leadership and advisory work. He highlights the importance of being selective and intentional about the roles you choose post-retirement, avoiding burnout, and keeping control over your time.

Joe also candidly discusses how success is redefined after a corporate career. He measures impact differently now, valuing deep personal connections, mentoring opportunities, and moments spent with family—especially his grandchildren.

If you're an executive thinking about your next meaningful chapter, listen in as Joe Davis shares hard-won wisdom and practical guidance on building your legacy beyond the boardroom.

Three Key Takeaways:
• Legacy Starts Now: True leadership legacy isn’t shaped by quarterly earnings or titles—it's built through empathetic connections, generosity, and empowering others, starting today.

• Choose Wisely Post-Retirement: After a high-powered career, saying "yes" to everything can quickly lead to burnout. Be selective; prioritize roles that align deeply with your purpose.

• Redefine Success on Your Terms: Success beyond the C-suite isn't measured by traditional metrics. Meaningful impact emerges from mentoring, family time, and genuinely fulfilling activities.

If Joe Davis’s insights on moving from executive roles to impactful thought leadership resonated with you, check out our episode featuring Vaughn Sigmon. Vaughn shares how he successfully transitioned from corporate leadership at CarMax to launching his own thriving leadership development firm. Both episodes explore how intentionality, authenticity, and clear personal branding drive meaningful post-corporate careers.

Three Key Takeaways:

• Emotional intelligence is critical for elite performance — Especially in high-pressure fields like surgery, EQ impacts malpractice rates, team dynamics, and patient outcomes.

• Thought leadership bridges knowledge gaps — Introducing EQ to surgeon leaders requires translating soft skills into evidence-based, practical tools that resonate with data-driven professionals.

• Early intervention creates lasting change — Embedding emotional intelligence training into medical residency programs can shape more effective leaders from the start.

If this episode got you thinking about the power of emotional intelligence in high-performance environments, you’ll want to keep going with our conversation with David Wood: The Effects of Soft Skills in Thought Leadership. Both episodes tackle a common challenge—how to introduce and scale “soft skills” like EQ in expert-driven fields where they’re often undervalued. Gina Catalano and David Wood each show that these so-called soft skills are actually mission-critical for leadership, trust-building, and long-term success.

Listen now and discover how soft skills can create hard results.

What if the worst-performing team you’ve ever seen could become the best—without changing a single person?

Today, Peter Winick sits down with Michael Abrashoff, former U.S. Navy captain and author of the mega-bestseller "It’s Your Ship: How Great Leaders Inspire Ownership From The Keel Up". Michael shares the extraordinary turnaround story of the USS Benfold—once one of the lowest-ranked ships in the fleet—and how he transformed its culture by focusing on something rare in the military: personal connection.

He didn’t ask for a new crew. He didn’t get a bigger budget. What he did instead? Interviewed all 310 sailors, created personal index cards with their goals, strengths, and passions—and committed to leadership by listening.

Peter and Michael dig into the difference between authority and influence, and why so many brilliant technical leaders fail when they're promoted. Michael also explains how he helped shift a culture of compliance into a culture of ownership—one small improvement at a time.

You’ll hear how his military insights apply directly to boardrooms, sales teams, pharma execs, and even Boilermakers. And why the top five reasons people leave organizations haven’t changed in 25 years!

This conversation is a masterclass in practical leadership. Because whether you're running a ship or a startup, the most powerful tool you have isn't command—it's connection.

Three Key Takeaways:

• Connection Drives Performance – Leaders who invest time in personally understanding their team members build trust, loyalty, and higher performance without needing more resources or authority.

• Small Improvements Compound – A mindset of daily 1% improvements can lead to transformational change, even within rigid systems like the military.

• Respect and Listening Are Retention Tools – People don’t leave organizations for money alone; they leave when they don’t feel valued, heard, or developed—making culture a strategic priority.

If you found value in our conversation on leadership transformation and culture change, you'll want to check out our episode with Christian "Boo" Boucousis, a former Royal Australian Air Force fighter pilot turned CEO and thought leader. Boo shares how he applied military precision and adaptability to navigate the challenges of transitioning Afterburner, a global consultancy of elite military professionals, into the virtual realm during the pandemic. His insights on converting information into wisdom, engaging audiences across modalities, and leading with agility offer a compelling complement to our discussion on building high-performing teams through connection and ownership. Tune in to discover how discipline, curiosity, and emotional resonance can elevate your thought leadership to new heights.