Al Dea—Finding Stability When Everything Around You Is Changing

Brain Aware Podcast

Al Dea shares his journey from management consulting to founding The Edge of Work, a leadership and talent development consulting firm focused on helping leaders build skills for today's workplace. He explores how navigating personal and professional change has shaped his approach to leadership development.
• From technology transformation consultant to leadership development expert focused on people and culture
• Experienced the challenge of feeling out of control during multiple rapid organizational changes at Salesforce
• Found stability by becoming a "sturdy rock" for others and identifying what remains constant during change
• Recognizes that new parenthood and other major life changes teach valuable lessons about adaptation
• Emphasizes that all work fundamentally involves change—getting people to start, stop, or modify behaviors
• Recommends leaders start with self-awareness before guiding others through change
• Suggests starting where momentum already exists rather than focusing on skeptics
• Promotes progress over perfection and creating psychological safety for experimentation
• Uses the leadership tools of "what you say, what you do, and what you reward" to create change-ready cultures
Connect with Al on LinkedIn

Chapters

1. Introduction to Al Dea (00:00:00)

2. Career Journey and Leadership Development (00:04:22)

3. Navigating Organizational Change (00:07:43)

4. Personal Change and Parenthood (00:12:22)

5. Change in Leadership Development (00:14:48)

6. Strategies for Leading Through Change (00:19:53)

7. Addressing Fear of Failure (00:22:43)

8. Looking Forward and Final Thoughts (00:24:08)