Time to Reset

What does it really take to succeed at work without sacrificing the relationships that matter most? For entrepreneurs, executives, and working parents, finding work-life balance can feel impossible. But what if the answer isn't about balancing everything? What if it's about being more intentional with your time, attention, and leadership? In this episode of Time to Reset, Penny Zenker sits down with H. Adam Holt, entrepreneur, financial advisor, co-founder of Asset-Map, and co-author of Rebl Dad, to explore what successful leaders can teach us about being more present at home. After interviewing more than 100 CEO dads, Holt and his co-author discovered powerful patterns in how high-performing leaders approach parenting, relationships, and personal growth. Their findings reveal that intentional presence, shared experiences, and small daily decisions can make a lasting difference. Penny and Adam discuss why traditional work-life balance may be the wrong goal, how technology and constant distractions affect family relationships, and why the leadership skills we develop at work are just as important at home. In this conversation, you'll discover:Why work-life balance may be less important than intentional living.What interviews with more than 100 CEO dads revealed about successful parenting and leadership.How to be fully present with your family, even when work demands your attention.Practical ways to reduce digital distractions and protect meaningful time together.Why shared experiences create stronger parent-child relationships.How small changes in mindset and behavior can create long-term results.Why aligning your intentions, actions, and mindset is essential to leading by example.One of the most powerful insights from this conversation is that our children aren't just watching what we accomplish. They're watching how we show up.And that lesson extends far beyond parenting.Through Penny's Reset Mindset framework—Step Back, Get Perspective, and Realign—we're reminded that meaningful change starts when we notice where our actions are no longer aligned with our priorities.Whether you're a business leader, entrepreneur, parent, or someone looking to create stronger relationships, this conversation offers practical ways to reset your priorities and become more intentional about how you spend your time.The question to ask yourself: Are my actions and mindset supporting my intentions?Because success isn't just about what you accomplish. It's also about the relationships you build along the way.Learn more about H. Adam Holt and Rebl Dads: www.rebldads.com/Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://pennyzenker360.com/positive-productivity-podcast/

Are competing priorities keeping you and your team stuck, overwhelmed, and struggling to make progress?Here's a hard truth: If you have competing priorities, you don't have priorities.In this solo episode of Time to Reset, leadership expert and keynote speaker Penny Zenker explores why competing priorities create confusion, slow decision-making, and prevent teams from achieving meaningful results.When everything feels urgent, how do you decide what actually deserves your attention?The answer isn't doing more. It's getting clear on what matters most, understanding the trade-offs, and creating alignment between your priorities and your goals.Penny shares how to use the Effort-Impact Matrix to evaluate competing demands, make better decisions, and focus your energy on the activities that deliver the greatest results.In this episode, you'll discover:Why competing priorities are often a sign of unclear leadership objectives.How to distinguish between understanding organizational goals and taking ownership of them.Why effective prioritization requires making difficult trade-offs.How to use the Effort-Impact Matrix to identify high-value activities.Why adding something to your to-do list should mean removing something else.How Reset Moments help you reassess priorities as circumstances change.How to empower your team to make decisions that support organizational goals.Here's your reset challenge:On a scale of 1 to 10, how effectively are you setting and resetting your priorities?What criteria are you using to decide what deserves your attention?Remember, not everything that demands your attention deserves your attention.When you get clear on your priorities, you can stop reacting to everything and start focusing on the 20% of activities that drive 80% of your results.Because focus determines performance, and now is as good a time as any to reset.🎧 Listen now and discover how to turn competing priorities into clarity, alignment, and meaningful action.Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://pennyzenker360.com/positive-productivity-podcast/

What if the biggest shift in your leadership doesn't start with a new strategy, but with you?In this episode of Time to Reset, Penny Zenker sits down with award-winning entrepreneur, international speaker, and executive coach Pauline Nguyen to explore what it means to move from reacting to consciously choosing how you lead, work, and live.Drawing from her extraordinary personal journey, Pauline shares how she learned to stop allowing her past to determine her future. Her experience became the foundation for a powerful approach to conscious leadership: change the story, shift your internal state, and make more intentional choices about what happens next.Penny and Pauline explore:How to move from reactive leadership to conscious choiceWhy self-mastery is an essential leadership skillHow the stories we carry influence our decisions, behavior, and leadershipWhy resilience isn't just about getting back up, but knowing what to put downHow a reset moment can become the beginning of lasting changeWhy your internal state affects the way your team responds and performsWhat it means to lead by design rather than by defaultHow leaders can build greater capacity without simply pushing harderPauline also shares lessons from 25 years of leading Red Lantern, where she built a culture that went beyond employee engagement and loyalty to what she calls team devotion. Her experience demonstrates how the way a leader shows up can shape trust, commitment, and the culture of an entire organization.If you're a leader, executive, entrepreneur, or manager who feels caught in a cycle of reacting, pushing harder, or constantly trying to keep up, this conversation offers a different kind of reset.You don't have to wait for circumstances to change before you do.The leadership reset starts within.Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://pennyzenker360.com/positive-productivity-podcast/

Are you addicted to distraction? Do you constantly check your phone, struggle to stay focused, or feel like your attention is no longer under your control?In this solo episode of Time to Reset, Penny Zenker explores why we're becoming addicted to distraction, how our phones are shaping our habits, and what it takes to regain control of our attention.Penny shares a personal story about reaching for her phone during a funeral, an experience that made her question just how deeply connected we've become to our devices. From phantom phone vibrations to the constant urge to check notifications, distraction has become more than an occasional interruption. It's a habit that can affect our productivity, creativity, relationships, and well-being.But here's the reset: We have more control over our distractions than we think.In this episode, discover why distraction can become a self-reinforcing habit, how to recognize when your phone is controlling your attention, and why taking ownership of your focus is the first step toward meaningful change.Penny challenges you to stop simply reacting to distractions and start intentionally directing your energy toward the people, priorities, and goals that matter most.Ready to find out what's stealing your focus?Take Penny's free Distraction Profile Assessment to discover your distraction habits and identify practical skills to strengthen your focus in just 5–10 minutes a day.https://pennyzperspective.com/distractionIt's time to stop letting distractions run your day. Take back your focus, take back your time, and reset what matters most.About Penny Zenker: Penny Zenker is the host of Time to Reset, where she explores the Reset Mindset, helping leaders and professionals step back, gain perspective, and realign their focus to achieve more meaningful results.Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://pennyzenker360.com/positive-productivity-podcast/

What happens to your leadership when the pressure rises?When emotions run high, personalities collide, or uncertainty takes over, people look to the leader for cues about how to respond. And as resilience educator and leadership facilitator Sara Wegwitz explains, calm is contagious.In this episode of Time to Reset, Penny Zenker and Sara explore how leaders can stay calm under pressure, regulate their emotional state, and create the steadiness their teams need to think clearly and respond effectively.You'll discover why your emotional state can influence a room before you say a word, how to become the "thermostat instead of the thermometer," and simple techniques for staying grounded when tension starts to rise.You'll learn:Why calm leadership matters in high-pressure and uncertain environmentsHow a leader's emotional state affects team communication, trust, and decision-makingWhat it means to "observe, don't absorb"How to create space between stimulus and responseSimple techniques to regulate your nervous system in stressful momentsWhy calm is a skill you can practice, not a personality trait you're born withYou don't need the perfect words or all the answers to lead effectively through a difficult moment. Sometimes the most powerful reset is simply learning how to steady yourself first.Because when you change the energy you bring into the room, you can change what happens next.Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://pennyzenker360.com/positive-productivity-podcast/