Culture & Change

Breaking Leadership Default Patterns: Why Your Past Is Running Your Team

Breaking Leadership Default Patterns: Why Your Past Is Running Your Team

Names the real driver of leadership burnout: outdated, safety-based default patterns, not weak effort.Uses 2025–2026 data: 22% manager engagement, 20% global engagement, $10T productivity loss.Introduces R³ (Reflect, Reframe, Respond) as a diagnostic lens on the past.Gives a simple, repeatable exercise to identify and reframe one costly leadership pattern.Written for event planners evaluating Cheryle Hays as a keynote speaker on courage, curiosity, and leadership.
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Silence Is Not Alignment in Cooperative Leadership

Silence Is Not Alignment in Cooperative Leadership

Culture & Change, Leadership, psycological safety, Teams, trust
Busts the myth that “if no one is complaining, we’re fine” in cooperative and corporate cultures.Uses research showing silence and voice are independent, and silence links more strongly to burnout.Connects CoopsDay 2026’s “Cooperatives for a Peaceful World” theme to everyday board and team decisions.Shows how Courageous Curiosity℠ and R³ help leaders decode silence as a culture signal, not a green light.Offers practical questions leaders can use to invite truth, accountability, and shared ownership in finance, insurance, and co-ops.
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Why Leadership Myths Break Your Default Operating System

Why Leadership Myths Break Your Default Operating System

Culture & Change, Leadership
- Why leadership myths feel like “just the way things are” — and what they’re really costing you.- How Courageous Curiosity℠ and R³ work as a leadership operating system, not just another framework.- Why global engagement and manager burnout data point to an OS problem, not a skills problem.- What changes when leaders stop solving for skills and start solving for their default operating system.- How event planners can tell when their leaders are stuck in default — and what to do next.
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World Productivity Day, Leadership Burnout, and Real Engagement

World Productivity Day, Leadership Burnout, and Real Engagement

Culture & Change, Leadership, psycological safety, Teams, trust
Why World Productivity Day should be a leadership OS check, not a hacks listHow default leadership drives burnout and falling engagement in the middleA practical R³ playbook to use in real meetings on June 20 and beyondWhen to use RESPOND 3-2-1 to interrupt high-pressure default reactionsWhat event planners can expect from a Courageous Curiosity keynote on this topic
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What Manufacturing Leaders Miss About the Cost of Toxic Culture

What Manufacturing Leaders Miss About the Cost of Toxic Culture

AI & Leadership, Culture & Change, Leadership, Teams
Why “we hit our numbers” is the most expensive lie in toxic manufacturing culturesHow default leadership quietly drives rework, turnover, and safety risk on the lineWhat it means to be a “keystone manager” in manufacturing and defense manufacturingHow Courageous Curiosity℠ and R³ help supervisors move from firefighting to first-pass qualityWhat event planners and leaders gain when they bring this message to their teams
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Why Default Leadership Quietly Drains Productivity

Why Default Leadership Quietly Drains Productivity

Culture & Change, Leadership
- Why default leadership quietly drains energy, engagement, and results.- How the cost of default leadership on productivity shows up in your day.- Why managers are paying the highest price – and what to do about it.- How Courageous Curiosity℠ and R³ turn reactions into better outcomes.- Why this matters to event planners booking their next leadership keynote.
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Why Women in Leadership Still Doubt Themselves Even When They Look Confident

Why Women in Leadership Still Doubt Themselves Even When They Look Confident

Culture & Change, Leadership, psycological safety, Teams, trust
– Why so many confident-looking women still feel like imposters at work.– How “looking the part” becomes a default leadership pattern that drains you.– What Courageous Curiosity℠ and R³ offer beyond “just be more confident” advice.– Practical examples of Reflect, Reframe, Respond in real meetings and moments.– Key FAQs event planners and leaders ask about Courageous Curiosity and women’s leadership.
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Blog Categories

AI & LeadershipCulture & ChangeLeadershippsycological safetyTeamstrustTrust & Psychological Safety

Meet Cheryle Hays

I am a leadership and business activator, dynamic speaker, advisor and coach, with a purpose to encourage and equip leaders for success.  I bridge data-driven strategies with a people-first approach to prepare leaders and teams for this new AI-driven, paradigm-shifting world.  
My 25+ years’ journey experience in male-dominated fields, reflects a "yes-and" career philosophy, embracing many varied roles culminating in the creation of InPower Strategists.   I am guided by my Christian values and commitment to ethical leadership in all I do, seeking to help others understand themselves, their choices, and their impact on others.  With my love of business, the natural outcome is to equip leaders, align teams, impact culture, engagement and the bottom line.  
I'm a new author, currently working on a new book, working title "Aspire to Lead", laying out my philosophy and Leadership Success Model.  I was blessed when my first, co-authored book 'People Fusion' reached #1 top seller list in 10 Amazon categories'.   My motto, 'Be In-Powered to Be Empowering,' both defines this foundation, and the value individuals, teams companies and the world receive when we choose the right leadership.

3 Personal Things About Me:  
Everyone has a life less ordinary, if only we look at it the right way.  My lies in my choice of the outcome I wanted, even in the face of the many un-welcome events that could have negatively impacted my life forever.  Everyone's journey is unique, as is what we do with it.  When people hire me, whether to help their company and teams, or for personal insight, no matter the products I sell, such as The Predictive Index, which I love, they are really hiring me, what I bring to the table, whether I can help solve their problem, make their load easier, and help them achieve the future they want.  So, I figured you should find out a little more about 'Cheryle'.  Here are three aspects of my character that help illustrate who I am, and why I strive to inspire those around me.
1.    My Pioneering Spirit:  I've been blessed to live a renaissance life, or, according to one of my favorite books, a "Yes, And" life. Striving to succeed in the 1990's, in male-dominated fields, coupled with my upbringing - nothing in that said "be more".  That came for my internal drive, even with others seeking to kill that aspect of me.  My initial response is always "yes, I can; then I figure out how,  Which means I also believe in using all the brains I have and all I can borrow.  2.    Persistent Curiosity & Evergreen Mindset:  I'm an enduring optimist, always seeking to uncover new possibilities, challenging myself and others to become more, do more, achieve more through breakthrough discovery, mindset change and choice. 
3.    Adversity as a Catalyst: It's easy to stay a victim, so many do, but the rewards are so much greater when you move through victim, survivor, thriver and overcomer and realize those words still had me looking back, living only an "in spite of" life.  I choose to be a visionary, living my "because of, forward looking" life.


Now, for 3 Personal Things About Cheryle:
  1. I love my 1 husband, 2 kids, and my 2 1/2 cats, but am glad I have a sense of humor 
  2. Great times require great people, but fine wine, fine food, fine chocolate (it worth a separate mention!) don't hurt!
  3. I use all of who I am and what I've learned, whether in business, with my husband, with my kids, with my friends, and when connecting with others.  You do too, whether you realize it or not, so it's a great thing that the people who love us have a sense of humor as well.
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