The principal focus of today’s discussion revolves around the profound notion that the most significant impediment to an organization’s growth may not stem from a deficiency in talent, strategy, or resources, but rather from a pervasive blind spot that remains concealed in plain sight. We are joined by the esteemed Hacia Atherton, a trailblazer who has made history as the first female CEO of a major plumbing company in Australia, and who has transformed her near-fatal accident into a catalyst for advocating healthier, safer, and more inclusive workplaces. Hasiya elucidates the transformative power of organizational culture in unlocking human potential, warning that failure to address psychological safety and the hidden costs of exclusion may inadvertently cost businesses billions. Our conversation promises to reshape our understanding of leadership and success, urging leaders to prioritize the well-being and engagement of their employees. I invite you to remain with us, as this dialogue may redefine your approach to fostering a more inclusive and effective organizational environment. An intriguing inquiry into organizational psychology reveals that the most significant threat to growth may not reside in the conventional domains of talent, strategy, or resources, but rather in the pervasive and insidious blind spots that exist within organizational culture. The conversation unfolds with a profound exploration of how the cultures we foster can either unlock immense human potential or, conversely, incur staggering losses in productivity and morale, costing businesses billions of dollars. The episode features the remarkable journey of Hacia Atherton, who not only shattered the glass ceiling as the first female CEO of a major plumbing company in Australia but also survived a near-fatal accident that catalyzed her transformation into a leading advocate for safer, healthier, and more inclusive workplaces. Her narrative is one of resilience and purpose, illuminating the critical importance of psychological safety and the hidden costs associated with exclusion in the workplace. Asiya's insights challenge traditional notions of leadership and success, urging listeners to reevaluate how they measure achievement and to consider the often-overlooked human elements that drive organizational success.

Takeaways:

• The most significant threat to an organization's growth may not be resources, but rather a blind spot that is overlooked.
• Cultures within organizations can either unlock human potential or lead to substantial financial losses.
• The journey of a female CEO in a traditionally male-dominated industry exemplifies overcoming barriers and achieving leadership milestones.
• Experiencing a near-fatal accident can profoundly change one's life trajectory and inspire a commitment to fostering inclusive workplaces.
• Leadership must evolve to prioritize psychological safety and address the hidden costs associated with exclusion.
• This conversation emphasizes the necessity of rethinking how we measure success in leadership and organizational culture.

What if the greatest threat to an organization's growth isn't a lack of talent, strategy or resources, but a blind spot hiding in plain sight?

What if the cultures we create are either unlocking human potential or quietly costing business billions?

Today's guest shattered barriers by becoming the first female CEO of a major plumbing company in Australia.

Surviving near fatal accident that changed her trajectory of her life and is now leading a global movement, helping organizations build healthier and more safer and more inclusive workplaces.

Our message is transforming in how we think about leadership, psychological safety and hidden cost of exclusion.

Stay with us because this conversation may change how you lead people, build culture and measure success.

Today I'm honored to welcome Hasiya Atherton.

Asiya is the author of the Billion Dollar Blind Spot, international speaker, leadership strategist and advocate for transformational workplace culture.

She has made a history of being the first female CEO of a major plumbing company in Australia, has become a powerful voice for leadership in traditional male dominated industries.

After surviving a near fatal horse riding accident, ASEA transformed adversity into purpose, launching empowered women in trades and spearheading initiatives focused on psychological safety and inclusive leadership, workforce transformation and cultural reform.

Her work is helping organizations worldwide discover what happens when people feel valued, respected, empowered and contribute at their highest level.

Asiya, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you for having me.

So good to have you on and your journey sounds like one we want to really get into and kind of share and tell and kind of let the audience know how you are really transforming your, your workplace and the people you come in contact with.

Yeah, I'm very excited to have this conversation and when I speak to a lot of leaders and executives, CEOs, boards, I always like to get them to, first of all think there's a very big difference between employees that are committed to staying and the ones that are hesitant in leaving.

And what I see, yeah, what I see in a lot of workplaces when I start to speak to the employees, they're there because they're hesitant to lead leave because they've got mortgages, they've got kids in schools, they got medical bills, they've got all of these external reasons that's making them hesitant to leave that paycheck, which means they're showing up in a very, very different way to employees that are committed to stay and work with the team, work through the challenges, work towards the common goal.

So that's one of the first things I always ask leaders.

If you look at your team, do you reckon they're committed to stay or.

They're hesitant in leaving, that's an important question.

Oh, wow.

So I'm looking forward to getting this with you, but I'm gonna ask my favorite question.

Kind of get us warmed up.

What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?

Ah, I reckon it's a very simple one.

What happens, happens.

Learn to really anchor yourself in a space of acceptance so you can be very present in your life and not kind of live in the past, live in the future.

Just what will happen, will happen.

Oh, wow.

I love that.

I want to get into your story because I find your story fascinating.

So tell us about your journey into leadership.

What ultimately led you to become the first female CEO of a major plumbing company, of all things, in Australia.

So I'm actually from a fifth generation plumbing family.

All of the other generations above have been male Athertons that have got into the plumbing business and everything like that.

And because I was a girl, the trade was never anything that was necessarily put in front of me, nor did I ever ask as well.

When I was going through discovering what careers I should look at, I never put my hands up and said, hey, can I ride along with the trades people or go down to the factory floor and experience all of that?

So I went off and did more of the, I guess, corporate side of the family business and learning the marketing accounting.

Got my accounting qualifications and my real passion was horse riding anyway.

So I was just looking for a career that would pay the bills and allow me to work towards my dream of riding for my country in dressage.

So I hadn't really proactively, really thought about work.

It was just literally something to get a paycheck so I could do what I loved.

And my young horse, she straight up and I fell off her.

And she took that as an opportunity to do a bit of role reversal.

After all of these years of me sitting on top of her, her back legs gave way and she sat down on top of me, which was.

So there was a big, big weight difference there.

So unfortunately, she.

She crushed me.

I managed to somehow get out from underneath her.

My.

My name actually means protected by God.

And I definitely was in that moment because I was sitting up and there was only millimeters between kind of being here to have this conversation or not being here to have this conversation.

So God, the universe, however you want to see it, was definitely looking over me in that moment and, and put me in this place to be able to survive that.

So I managed to kind of get out from underneath her because I knew when she stood up, she was going to trample on me.

And I flipped over onto my stomach and army crawled out of the way because I couldn't move either of my legs.

And then just collapsed in the sand a few meters away from her.

And the ambulance came and I got airlifted to hospital and yeah, informed that I may never walk again in any meaningful way, I had to wait two days before I could have a surgery because of all of the swelling and everything that was happening.

And they had to also get in a very specialized surgeon.

And he worked on my body for nine hours and then had to stop because the more he worked, the more the bones would fracture, the more damage he could see.

And he decided that the best, the best thing was to stop working.

And he did what he could do.

I've had over 30 procedures since the accident, so we've slowly been putting Humpty Dumpty back together again, including two computers inside me to help with all of the nerve damage that I have.

Wow, that's quite a.

Quite a journey you've on.

So as you were going through that, how did, what lessons did that teach you about resilience?

I'm amazing.

All those surgeries, I mean, you could have just like, I'm just done.

Just let me just like sit here in the corner and just leave me alone.

How did you find the resilience to say, I gotta keep going?

Yeah.

It took time.

There was definitely moments earlier on that I used to remember holding my breath.

I would hold my breath, hold my breath, hold my breath.

Because when you're trapped in a hospital bed, I was non weight bearing.

I couldn't move at all.

So I would just literally think, how can I just end this?

And I would just convince myself to almost stop breathing.

And then the machines would deep and the nurses would come in and they would obviously keep me going.

But that was something that kind of started to really hit me that I had given up.

But I have a whole team around me that hadn't given up on me.

They were always checking in my medication, my pain levels.

No matter where I was in my mindset, that team around me showed up to make sure I was as comfortable as possible.

I was still moving forward every minute of every day.

And so then I started to think.

And my psychology team at hospital really introduced me to positive psychology.

And I kind of started to feel the responsibility if These people are showing up every single day.

They're leaving their families, they're leaving their pets at home, they're coming and their day is all revolved around me.

I've got to start showing up for them because that's how I respect them.

I respect their time that they're investing in me.

I've got to change my mindset and start showing up for these people.

And that's where the resilience started to come because it wasn't for me, it was to show up to respect the team that was showing up for me every single day.

And how did that, those experiences shape your leadership philosophy?

Yes.

So that's where it all started to really come to life in understanding the power of self leadership, of selfless leadership as well.

So the more I wanted to show up for the team, the more I started showing up for myself and then the better the team started showing up for me because they enjoyed being around me.

We started talking a lot more.

I started to build that psychological safety with my team so I felt more comfortable being vulnerable and open to them.

So I was being more honest about what was happening in my body, what was happening in my mind.

So then I got better treatment and my, my rehab team could tailor my plan better and all those different things.

So I started to see really authentic open communication in an environment where we can trust each other, we can challenge each other.

Because my, my therapists again, when I was like oh, you know, it hurts, I want to give up.

They knew from how I was describing my pain, what was my brain just protecting me and they could push me through that pain.

And what was okay, yes, we, we have done enough today, we have to stop.

So it was very interesting.

I started to learn so much about communication, so much around being open and honest with the team around you and allowing your team to push you when you needed to be pushed, but also for you to understand as well when you really need to say, hey, this, this, this is going past my capacity.

I do need to rest now as well.

So let's get into your book.

Your, your book has an attention grabbing title right off the bat.

The Billion Dollar Blind Spot.

What inspired you to write that Billion dollar blind spot?

One Looking at the experiences I had in hospital, there was a lot of dehumanizing experiences when you're non weight bearing and you can't be washed, is transferred once you've been undressed onto this cold plastic kind of bed and wheeled through the hospital and almost hosed down like a racehorse at the end of the race now that that's just how you have to care for someone in the position that I was in.

And it is a very, very dehumanizing experience.

But when I'm in the, when I've come into the corporate world, I've seen very dehumanizing moments in how people have been treated in the workplace.

And those moments do not belong in corporate America and corporate Australia and corporate anywhere.

That experience and someone to feel like that at the workplace is never, never, never anything that has to happen in hospital.

I appreciate it's very hard to take those elements away in the workplace.

There is no place for them.

So I think because I deeply personally felt that experience in hospital and then I could see in the workplaces positive psychology, my theory around leadership and around human connection and human psychological thriving can remove those situations from the workplace.

And that really puts fire in my belly.

So for those who are hearing this for the first time, how would you define the billion dollar hotspot?

For me, it is very much around thinking that human beings are a tool to be used in the workplace.

That we're equivalent to a hammer or equivalent to a nail, that we're cogs in this machine.

That was a way that looked at human beings back in the Industrial revolution.

And a lot of us as society in corporates has progressed from how we treat people, particularly often men as well in male dominated environments.

We treat them as if we're still back in the Industrial revolution.

And as human beings we psychologically evolved a lot through that.

We understand ourselves a lot better.

And I feel that is the biggest blind spot.

We're not looking as human beings as assets, as resources for innovation, as resources to be able to make our organizations thrive.

We're looking at them as worker bees to clock in and clock out and produce an outcome.

So I've had so many people in the business world on my podcast lately and we all have gotten to this idea of emotional intelligence.

And you're talking about that really is how do you make sure you see people as humans, not just like you said, a cog in a machine or a service or a commodity to be used?

Why are some people still struggling with this idea of balancing seeing the humanness in people and also trying to make sure that they're still productive.

How do you kind of align those.

Two values as society?

We haven't really been taught, I guess, a lot of the basics of how we actually connect with each other.

And in this day and age with social media in different ways, we're even losing that form of Connection so much more through storytelling or through just even understanding.

As all humans, regardless of the body that we're born into, our basic psychological needs is to feel a sense of autonomy, competence and belonging, but particularly the belonging one.

When I speak to people, a lot of people can't even describe what a sense of belonging is for themselves.

And we're not taught that in schools.

We've really lost understanding of what a sense of belonging to a community looks like.

Sounds like feelings, feels like it's been politicized a lot with so many different lenses of different, I guess, you know, social agendas that are out there.

We've become so confused as human beings of what we actually need, ourselves.

And so then when it comes to a leader, trying to build that for the team, if you can't define what a sense of belonging looks like for you, how can you actually lead that for your team as well?

Right, exactly.

So who is this book written for?

I mean, it's got a lot of good stuff there.

Is this written for the CEO?

Is it written for the corporation?

Written for the worker?

Who are you targeting with this book?

So the great thing about this book is it's kind of written for all.

It's definitely written for the CEO.

It's written for human beings that want to be able to go through that self discovery process as well to really understand how do I make myself thrive as a human being and use positive psychology to do that.

And then also someone that wants to lead.

Now, a lead is not necessarily a CEO.

I've met some CEOs that have the title, but I still wouldn't call them a leader.

And I've met some graduate accountants that are in their first year of corporate, you know, their corporate career and I would call them a leader.

So it's really written for those people that want to lead, that want to shape the environment around them, that want to influence those people that are around them through leading, by influencing themselves every single day and making themselves that 1% better.

So I'm looking at your book and I want you to kind of help our audience by unpacking for us what is the respect equity models, the REM model as you call it in your book.

Yes, yes.

And this is a very interesting thing I started to do a lot of research on around the concept of respect.

Again, a question I, when I was doing the research really was still stumped of like how do I feel a sense of respect and how do I show a sense of respect?

And so I started to overlap positive psychology and very bringing in the concept of curiosity, of understanding different people's perspective through that lens of curiosity.

So again, Australian, a white female Australian.

I've lived a very different life to yourself and come from a very different history.

So from naivety, I could show up and do things or say things that might be disrespectful without, without knowing.

But if I come to you with a sense of curiosity, with a sense of questions, with again, vulnerability, if there's some things that I'm not aware of as well in, in America or all these different things, please educate me.

I invite you to educate me on how I can become aware of my blind spots and what I'm not aware of.

And when you come in that space of respect, equality of, I want to understand and create that space and I give you permission to educate me when I might have accidentally been disrespectful without knowing, that's where that model really starts to unpack.

How do we create psychological safety for those conversations to happen and for me to give you permission to be able to mentor and guide me in something that I clearly can't understand because I wasn't born with, with that history or that knowledge.

So if I'm trying to create a culture of respect of REM in my organization, one of the key parts you have down is psychological safety.

Tell me a little bit about how I go about the art of appreciative inquiry, because that's what you talk about, that, that sense of curiosity.

How do you, how do you have time in a, in a company or corporation where you're trying to worry about productivity and the bottom line to take the time to say, yeah, but, but this art of appreciative inquiry is important for us to be able to do this effectively and still get the job done.

Yes.

And that's where we start looking at when do we have those opportunities in our meetings, in our, in our huddles, in all of those data collecting moments when we're touching with our team to start to collect that.

So what is great about last week?

If you're on your Monday morning huddle, what is some fantastic wins that we had last week?

If we were going to change anything about last week, what's the one thing you'd want as a team for us to protect?

So you start to know what's the, what's the goodness in that organization, then another kind of great question to ask is, well, if we reflected on last week or last quarter, what is one thing that didn't happen that we would like to happen?

So what's that future vision of as a team or as we're dealing with our clients?

What is something that we wish could have happened and didn't happen?

So you've got your, you've got what you want to protect, you've got that desired dream state.

And then it's kind of a bit of a planning process.

Okay, what can we do to make sure that we achieve moving closer and closer to that new dream state that we've just identified.

Ideally, as a team would love to have.

So you also have in your book dealing with the male female dynamics in the workplace.

So tell me about this idea of leveraging the power of masculinity in the workplace.

Yes.

So I love this topic because so many people lock array the masculine and the feminine into our biological bodies, but we're not, we have masculine psychology and feminine psychology as human beings.

Our feminine psychology allows us to have that compassion, that empathy, that that gut feel, that intuition.

Masculine psychology is very at those moments where we have to sometimes show up with that very logical strength and look at the facts, look at the situations, make quick decisions.

So when I come to talking about that, that balance of the masculine and feminine in the workplace is really understanding how as a human being we can move between the two concepts, understand and analyze the situation of like what energy needs to show up right now?

Do I need to show up in a space of compassion or do I need to show up in a space of.

I understand that this is very difficult right now, but we've got to go into this big pitch.

So for now we've just got to focus on the pitch, on the data on the client.

When we're out of that meeting, let's go have a coffee and talk about what's upset you.

And that's where that really healthy balance and for us as human beings to be able to slide through the spectrum of our masculine and feminine energies, but also understand where we naturally sit and we naturally thrive.

And that doesn't necessarily mean where your biology tells you you should be more in your feminine or your masculine is where you as a human being naturally lead your character strengths to your emotional strengths and kind of balance that out.

So if I pick up this book and I'm not at the top of my organization, but I do feel see the need for our group to change.

How do I help the people at the top begin to transform the workplace to be more like what you're describing in this billion dollar blind spot?

Yes.

So I often this is like leading up which can be very Very, very scary.

But those kind of leaders that I've mentored, when you're leading up at the end of the day, you've got to understand your bosses want the best version out of you.

So if you're coming to them and you're saying, hey, I've been doing some self development and I really identified for me to thrive, these are some key things that I like to do.

I've been doing this, for example, perma, as a psychological wellbeing framework I talk about in the book.

So if you're like, I have actually been doing some exercises connected to perma and that's really helped me deal with stress.

Could I actually lead one of those exercises at the next huddle and lead the team through that exercise?

Because I found it really useful for stress management.

Your boss is up above you be like, that's fantastic.

I see the team's really stressed.

I'm too stressed to work out how to de stress it.

If you want to lead that, absolutely go for it.

You've just taken something off my to do list.

So that's really good ways where you're showing, I've done this.

It's helped me.

I can see it helping the team.

Can I please have an opportunity to take the team and educate the team on something I've just learned?

That's good.

If readers remember one lesson from your book, what would you want that to be?

Ah, that the most important thing is our psychological success.

I think as humans, we get so caught up in titles and we need to get married, we need to have kids, we've got to get kids to swim in carnivals, we've got to get the next promotion.

We look at so many different external metrics of success, we forget our own psychological success.

Do we get home at the end of the day and look in the mirror and go, I've had a good day.

I feel happy with myself.

I feel like I contributed today.

Are we lying in bed looking forward to the next day?

Because that is the true metric of success.

If we're thriving psychologically, everything else comes from that.

But I find often people focus on all of these external metrics and they get to the end of the day and they're exhausted and they're like, I just don't want to get into doing all of that again tomorrow.

So I'm sure you've worked with a lot of leaders just from listening to you.

How do you help leaders identify blind spots in their own organization?

Because it's easier to see in other people's organizations.

But how do you help them see it in their own organization?

So this comes back to the concept of curiosity and using the two key frameworks that I use, which is, I call it the ABC framework.

So looking at autonomy, competence and belonging, and the PERMA framework, which looks at positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning and achievement.

And I kind of get, I've, I've developed some questionnaires and get leaders to go through all of that.

And once you start seeing in yourself on your team, okay, autonomy is really, really low, then that's a lot of micromanagement starting to happen.

And why is that micromanagement happening?

Well, we've got tight deadlines, we've got this, we've got that.

So once you can identify that, for example, autonomy is low, that's often connected to micromanagement, then you can kind of go through the problem solving.

Why is there so much micromanagement right now?

Or if competence is very low and it's like, are we hiring the right people?

Or you've got the right training involved so you can start to kind of go through problem solving.

And then with the PERMA framework, again, the one that I often see very, very low in workplaces, ironically, is a sense of achievement because people are just waiting for the KPI figures to come out or the quarterly reports to come out to see if they've achieved something or not achieved something.

Something they're not spending every week actually reflecting up what did we achieve this week?

What are those small little milestones?

So by the time everyone's so tired, they've done the quarter and yay, they met the numbers.

All of that hard work for that little, yes, we met the numbers doesn't give you the reward of that hard work.

So that's where again the blind spot is.

We're not taking the moment to celebrate the micro wins that got to that big number and therefore we're actually exhausted in achieving success.

That's great.

I noticed that you've also have a passion for pouring into the next generation.

So what inspired you to find, I mean to found empower women in trades.

So that definitely comes from my experience of coming from a fifth generation, plumbing family, understanding that world and still not being curious in it or feeling, because I was a woman and plumbers are generally men, that I should ask the question of what that career looks like and sounds like.

So that really made me want to do something to really encourage the younger generation not to just accept what society tells them they can or can't do because of how they're born.

And for them to actually, really start to understand what curiosity is and bring play into deciding their career.

Have a go, fail, decide you're bad at that, decide you love that.

I feel the system is so set up that you have to go to school, you have to get good schools, you have to get into university.

It's this really, really broken system that takes curiosity and play out of the younger generation.

And therefore, they're just following pathways that become so empty for them.

And we're seeing so much psychological distress in the workplace, people that have just gone into careers that aren't aligned with what actually makes them thrive as human beings.

So for the younger generation, like, I'm very passionate at making sure they stay in that state of play, that state of curiosity.

They fail and see that as a great thing because they've learned that that wasn't for them, or they've learned that they actually enjoyed the process, but they just got to keep refining their skill.

And I think with.

With AI and technology and things like that, we've robbed the younger generation of really understanding critical thinking, understanding how to play, understanding, understand how to be curious, understand how to find answers on their own without just talking to an AI that will spit out whatever information and.

And you're in question whether that information's biased or not.

So what barriers are you still seeing for women in these industries today?

So a lot of internal barriers, too, are still there of women questioning whether they're going to be able to do the job, whether they'll be safe in those.

In those jobs, and different things like that.

And then I find in a lot of organizations I work for, again, some kind of identity work needs to be done with the male demographic, because so many of them have gone through that pathway of I'm a plumber, therefore I'm a man.

So when a woman comes in and starts being a plumber alongside them, they kind of start questioning what does that mean for me and my masculinity.

So a lot of barriers is still really educating, particularly men, to anchor their masculinity into things that aren't connected to a job or to a title or to a role as a father or a husband and back into their values of what being a man actually means for them as well.

And that's the kind of work that I find really exciting.

And when you start to do that, then a lot of the barriers to bringing women into those environments disappear because it's not a threat to the masculine identity.

Oh, that's encouraging.

So the theme of this podcast is bridge building.

So what does being a bridge builder mean to you?

For me, it's very much taking a perspective off one side and the perspective to the other.

When I do this work, I often bring in that drawing where you can see a young woman or an old woman.

And I will ask the two sides, is this a piece of paper?

I'd get them to agree, is there black ink on it?

I get them to agree.

And then one sees the old woman and young.

One sees the young woman and get them to understand.

The truth is it's a piece of paper with ink in it, but they're seeing it from their different perspectives.

So how can we actually show and educate where the young woman is, where the old woman is, and get the other people to see, see that perspective when we start to build the bridge through educating each other, and then you don't necessarily have to agree with that perspective, but we get back to that respect.

It's like, okay, I, I, I easily see the young woman.

I can appreciate there's an older woman if I look at it that way, but I still naturally see the younger woman.

And, and once I do that exercise and then start to take it to a workplace conflict, people will start to go, okay, well, I see how when you said that you were coming from a place of frustration, it was upsetting how you treated me, but I can, I can have a little bit more understanding of where you were, where that situation happened, and then from the other side, the person's like, yep, I should have been more upfront that I'm dealing with a lot of pressure, and I probably should have put my hand up for a little bit more help.

I should have checked in on your work a little bit more earlier and not left you isolated, alone, guessing how to do this process project.

And then all of a sudden, we build a bridge of, like, moving forward.

We're going to handle that situation a lot better, and we give each other permission to put their hands up and call each other out on our behavior when we see the same problem starting to happen again.

That's good.

I love it.

So I'm going to do some lightning round questions, just some fun things to get to know you a little bit more.

So, coffee or tea?

Coffee, definitely coffee.

Mountains or ocean?

Oh, that's a hard one.

I reckon.

Mountains.

All right.

Morning person or night owl?

Night owl, definitely night owl.

Leadership or entrepreneurship?

Leadership.

One word that defines a great leader.

Human.

Hmm.

Most underrated.

Business skill.

Storytelling.

Best leadership book you've ever read?

Oh, I reckon it was Simon Sinek.

Leaders Ate.

Lost.

Oh, I like that one.

Yeah, yeah.

Courage or confidence?

Courage.

One daily habit you never skip.

Reflecting on my day and who I was in that day and where I want to be better tomorrow.

Most important workplace value.

I'm going to say patience.

Favorite way to recharge.

Oh, for me, that is definitely.

Sitting outside in my garden watching the sunset with my partner.

I love it.

One trait every successful leader must develop.

Being able to be comfortable in discomfort.

Biggest leadership mistake people make.

That you've got to have all the answers.

One word that describes the billion dollar blind spot.

Oh, one word.

One word.

Hope.

What motivates you every day?

My partner.

Looking back on your career, what accomplishment makes you the most proud?

I would have to say the move to America, that was definitely like coming.

Coming over here was.

Was exciting, was scary, was following a calling without knowing what it was going to look like once I got here.

I can imagine.

So I'll ask my guest this question.

What do you want your legacy to be?

That leaders reconnect back into our human state?

That in this AI revolution that's starting to happen, that we actually start to understand we have such a beautiful spectrum of emotions, from the ones that break our hearts to the point that we're not crying, to the ones that make us absolutely so happy we feel we're in utopia.

And having the courage to go from one to the other with respecting and understanding, all of them are as important for our lived experiences as each other.

The painful ones, the joyful ones.

That all is what makes us human.

And that is the most special gift that we've been given, that we get to feel those emotions.

So don't be so scared of them.

That's great.

So we have something on the podcast that's new this year, and that is a surprise question.

Pick a number between one and ten for your surprise question.

Oh, all right, let's go.

Eight.

Eight.

If you got stuck in an elevator and were forced to listen to one song, what song would you pick?

Oh, okay.

What song, Song would I pick?

Oh, that's a really good.

Really good.

Really good question.

Oh, my goodness.

This one.

That one's going to stump me.

What song would I pick?

Oh, my goodness.

I can't even think now.

You've absolutely stumped me.

What song would I pick?

What song would I pick?

What song would I pick?

Oh, I actually, like, really like trance music.

So it would probably be like something from Armin Van Buren or one of his songs, I think.

All right, that's cool.

So where can people find you and connect you and also get your book.

Yeah so book you can get barnes and no mall and Amazon or from my website the links are will be there so heya atherton.com and then on LinkedIn as well is a great place just heya Atherton on LinkedIn to connect with me as well.

Well he thanks so much for sharing your story, your insights, and your passion for helping organizations become healthier, stronger and more inclusive.

Your journey reminds us that leadership is not simply about results.

It's about people.

It's about building environments where individuals feel safe, valued, empowered and equipped to reach their full potential.

Friends, if today's conversation challenged and inspired you, I encourage you to pick up a copy of Hasiya's book the Billion Dollar Blind Spot.

Whether you're a business owner, executive manager, HR professional, ministry leader, or someone seeking to create positive change within your organization, this book offers powerful insights into the hidden cultural challenges that impact success.

You can also learn more about her through her work that will be linked in the show notes below.

Her speaking engagements, her leadership initiatives, and empowered women in trades where she helping shape a stronger, more inclusive future for generations to come.

If you've enjoyed today's episode of Becoming Bridge Builders, please subscribe, leave a review and share this conversation with a leader, entrepreneur, or a team member who's committed to building healthier workplaces and stronger communities.

Here's a challenge for my listeners as well.

Before you move on from your day, here's this week's Listener Challenge.

Identify one place in your life, workplace, ministry or community where someone may not feel fully seen, valued, or included.

This week, take one intentional step to build a bridge.

Start a conversation.

Ask a thoughtful question.

Listen without rushing to respond.

Invite someone's voice into the room.

Look for one practical way to help another person feel safe, respected, empowered to contribute.

Because bridge building does not begin with a program, a policy, or a title, it begins with a choice.

So this week, choose to be the kind of leader who notices people, values people and helps them flourish.