Unlocking Radical Self-Acceptance: A Journey with Dr. Laura Gallaher

Welcome to today's enlightening episode of the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast. Join host Andrea Samadhi as she explores the insights of Dr. Laura Gallaher, an organizational psychologist and executive coach. Dr. Gallaher shares her earlier days at NASA, revealing how she tackled the challenges following the Columbia shuttle disaster to reshape organizational culture and highlight the importance of psychological safety.

Through an engaging conversation, Dr. Gallaher discusses her personal journey towards radical self-acceptance and how it transforms career and personal relationships. Learn how leaders can foster vulnerability and courage to build more productive, aligned, and self-aware teams, and discover the contagious nature of authentic connections based on self-awareness and acceptance. Tune in for an inspiring discussion that blends neuroscience, psychology, and real-life experiences to encourage growth both at work and home.

Watch our interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/b0Pc6bKKWwM

On today's EPISODE #349 “Unlocking Radical Self-Acceptance with Dr. Laura Gallaher” we will cover:

✔ Where Dr. Gallaher's career began, leading her to work with NASA.

✔ How can radical self-acceptance transform our career, and personal lives.

✔ Uncover where YOU are on the self-acceptance quadrant, so you can blend science and psychology to take your results to new heights.

On today’s episode #349, we meet with Dr. Laura Gallaher, an Organizational Psychologist, Speaker, Facilitator, and Executive Coach. She is the founder and CEO of Gallaher Edge[i], which she started in 2013 where she works with busy executives to help you get your arms around the challenges in your organization. They work with you from the inside out, helping your executive team have conversations you didn’t even know you needed to have. They help to increase self-awareness, team alignment, and shared accountability until your organization runs like a well-oiled machine. Organizations (she asserts) are just people.

Her noteworthy career began after the Space Shuttle Columbia exploded upon re-entry in 2003. Following the tragedy, NASA hired Laura and a team of organizational psychologists to change the cultural influences that were deemed to play a role in the accident. She worked for 8 years to positively influence culture, develop leadership capacity, and improve organizational performance at Kennedy Space Center. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, and a Masters and PhD in Organizational Psychology. Laura is a Licensed Human Element® Practitioner, a Certified Radical Collaboration Trainer, and a Certified Coach.

Let’s meet Dr. Laura Gallaher, and learn together where we could possibly take our personal and work environments to new heights.

Welcome Dr. Gallaher. Thank you for joining me today. Are you in Orlando now? I know that you have deep roots in the Phoenix area (and lots of places around the world).

INTRO Q: Dr. Gallaher, before asking you questions about your book, and your work, I have to say that there was something that drew me to you, before even looking at your bio. When you first meet someone, I think that what goes on inside us, (our mindset) shows on the outside, and I felt like you had a story to tell of where you began. When did you first learn about the importance of radical self acceptance, and how do you think that we can all use this skill in our personal and professional life?

Q1: While coming up for some questions for you, I watched your TED TALK “How to Feel at Home Anywhere”[ii] where you talk about the ability to discover your inner confidence, and your ability to cope with the world (so that literally any place in the world) can feel like home. What drew you to create this TED TALK?

Q2: It’s interesting to me that your topic was “How to Feel at Home Anywhere” because I’ve thought about this concept often. While I’ve not worked and travelled to the places and countries that you have (other than via Google Maps) I have noticed that I’ve always been comfortable walking into a gym. Now I stopped going to a gym around the time of the pandemic, but I can recall always feeling a sense of belonging, and just the place that would fill me up with those feel-good vibes, when I was on the road, and would walk into a gym. Can you share what’s important for us, as human beings, or the recipe that you’ve discovered, to feel comfortable…and make ANY place feel like home?

Q3: Can we go to the questions that I think can open the door and help all of us, whether we are an employee in a company, a part of a bigger whole, or a teacher in a school, or a member of a team, how can we take this concept of radical self-acceptance to take us to new heights?

Q4: We’ve been focused on taking our results to higher levels on this podcast. How important is what we think on the inside (our mindset with radical self-acceptance) to our results (on the outside)?

Q5: Why are you so passionate about radical self-acceptance? How did NASA help you to uncover the gaps of where you were (actually) and where you wanted to go?

Q6: What is psychological safety and how does it relate to how safe people feel to be vulnerable?

Q7: Have you ever had a 360 Evaluation at work? How about asking your children how you are showing up as a parent? What can you learn from honest feedback from others?

Q8: Dr. Gallaher helps Andrea to dig deeper into feedback that her children gave her. “What bugs me about you, is really about me.”[iii]

Q9: How can we take radical self-acceptance into the workplace?

Q10: Would you say the most critical leadership traits today would be vulnerability and courage?

Q11: What are some stress reduction secrets you can share with us?

Q12: How do we put this all together to become more self-aware?

Dr. Gallaher, I want to thank you for your time meeting with me today. For people who would like to connect with you, I will put your contact information in the show notes. Do you have any final or closing thoughts?

Take the Self-Acceptance Quiz Here https://www.gallaheredge.com/sa-quiz-lp

Andrea received the Pushing but Pressured quadrant that shows high on self-improvement, (which she would agree with) but low on self-acceptance (where she is right now) and she would agree this area could use some work.

Take the Self-Acceptance Quiz to see what quadrant you end up in, and see what you can learn about yourself.

CONNECT with DR. GALLAHER

Join her mailing list https://www.gallaheredge.com/leaders-journey-mailing-list

Website: https://drlauragallaher.com/

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-gallaher-phd/

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/drlauragallaher/

TED TALK Dr. Gallaher “How to feel at home anywhere” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUxT8wuDsG4

The Missing Links: Launching a High Performing Company Culture Published2021 https://www.amazon.com/Missing-Links-Launching-Performing-Company/dp/1637350880

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

We were grateful to be featured as a Top 30 #neuroscience #podcast and Top 20 #sel podcast for 2025! https://podcast.feedspot.com/neuroscience_podcasts/ https://podcast.feedspot.com/social_emotional_learning_podcasts/

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Website https://www.achieveit360.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samadi/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Achieveit360com

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

Twitter: https://twitter.com/andreasamadi

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andreasamadi/

REFERENCES:

[i] Dr. Laura Gallaher https://drlauragallaher.com/

[ii] TED TALK Dr. Gallaher “How to feel at home anywhere” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUxT8wuDsG4

[iii] https://blog.gallaheredge.com/what-bugs-me-about-you/