
The Enlightened Executive
Where your personal evolution sparks your leadership (r)evolution.
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Learn groundbreaking techniques and strategies to get the edge and enhance your personal and leadership effectiveness with these candid, conversational, and in-depth interviews hosted by Susan Drumm.
Most Recent Episodes
Inspiring more and controlling less as a leader (feat. Bill Adams)
Maybe you recognize yourself or another leader you know in this common but ineffective leadership pattern: A leader wants to scale their organization, so they start working even harder, adding more hours to their workday and everyone else’s, pursuing results at the...
Training your emotional health for peak performance (feat. Joey Klein)
There are countless fitness training programs to optimize your physical health. But what about training programs to optimize your emotional and mental health? Many leaders have wellness routines that include activities like going to a spin class, lifting...
Why knowing your life purpose makes you a more effective leader (feat. Rabbi Jacobson)
Launching a company without a clear mission statement is a recipe for disaster. Yet, so many of us walk around as individuals without a clear “mission statement” for our lives… and then wonder why we don’t feel fulfilled or motivated. This lack of...
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More Episodes
How Your Nutrition and Fitness Affect You as a Leader (feat. Lisa Holmes)
Have you ever considered how your nutrition and exercise habits impact your abilities as a leader? Just as you schedule meetings to speak with members of your team, it is imperative to schedule meetings for your well-being. This week’s guest Lisa...
Leading authentically through the power of meditation (ft. Dina Kaplan)
If you’re not embodying your authentic self, your team will sense that and begin to lose trust in you as a leader. Dina Kaplan learned this lesson in her former career as the co-founder and COO of tech startup Blip.tv. In the male-dominated world of...
Want Loyal Customers? Focus On Employees (feat. Shep Hyken)
Often the best companies to do business with are also likely the best companies to work for. There is a direct connection between employee experience (EX) and customer experience (CX) and the most successful senior leaders know this. Studies show that happy...
The Secret to Improving Your Performance Under Pressure (feat. Rollin McCraty)
If you’ve ever been told to “just relax!” during a high-stress situation, you know exactly how unhelpful that advice is. Where we are right now — on the cusp of post-pandemic life — is the definition of a high-stress situation for many leaders, as we navigate the...
How Emotions Affect Your Health and Leadership (feat. Dr. Bradley Nelson)
Ever feel like there’s some annoying thing holding you back? Something that’s inhibiting your success in business or your personal life? Maybe it’s related to mental health, such as depression, anxiety, or panic attacks. Maybe it’s actual physical pain, such as...
AI: How It Will Impact Leadership & Business (feat. David Shrier)
You can run and you can hide, but AI is coming to our workplaces whether we like it or not. What kind of impact will it have on you? Although AI has already been implemented into the workforce in factory or repetitive work, it hasn’t previously been...
The New Fascination with Ayahuasca
Here’s a question you may not have asked yourself, but should: How do your past wounds impact your leadership today? Most leaders, if they haven’t done the work to heal them, are carrying core wounds from childhood into their professional life and not realizing their...
Leading through an overwhelming, post-COVID world (feat. Stephen Travers)
Are you or your employees feeling “so over it” and overwhelmed? After a year of change, isolation and upheaval from the impacts of COVID, I’m hearing from almost every CEO that I coach the deep concern that they have about the overbearing stress employees are...
An ancient skill to succeed in modern business: Face reading (feat. Eric Standop)
If you are in contract negotiations with a Chinese-owned business, and there are more than three people on the other side of the room, chances are one of them is a face reader, says my guest, Eric Standop, who is a facial diagnostics expert. So, what is face reading?...
Meet the Enlightened Executive Host

Susan Drumm is a CEO Advisor and Leadership Coach with over 20 years of experience leading teams and senior executives to achieve their potential.
Her consulting firm, Meritage Leadership, focuses on leader and team effectiveness by helping leaders develop the capacity and mindsets to lead in today’s disruptive environment. Meritage utilizes over a dozen exceptional coaches in its senior leadership programs.
Susan draws on many disciplines in her approach. She has graduate degrees from Harvard Law School, Carnegie Mellon University, and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
Learn More About Susan →
Susan obtained the highest level of coaching certification as Master Certified Coach (MCC) through the International Coaching Federation.
While working with fast moving organizations and industries, Susan discovered that there are three levels of leadership: individual, team, and systemwide — all of which need to be developed to meet the complexity of today’s environment. Meritage developed a blended, whole-systems approach that enables organizations to transform more rapidly than the simple “1:1 coaching plan” most other firms offer.
Susan’s clients include C-suite executives from financial services, private equity, technology, healthcare, professional services, media, consumer products, consulting and law. She has worked with organizations such as KPMG, Oracle, Viacom, Microsoft, Conde Nast, L’Oreal, A&E Networks, Cisco, Merrill Lynch, Symantec, Merck, KCI, Staples, MTV Networks, and Genentech.
Prior to founding Meritage Leadership Development, Susan was a Senior Consultant for The Boston Consulting Group, Director of Marketing and Master Black Belt for NBC/GE and Associate Partner at The Trium Group in leadership development consulting.
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