Great leaders don’t need to have all the answers. In fact, one of the most powerful leadership skills is knowing how to ask better questions.

In this episode, Audrey explores why leaders are often too quick to solve, advise, or take ownership of someone else’s problem—and how powerful questions can build confidence, ownership, and better thinking instead.

You’ll learn:

• Why the first problem someone brings you often isn’t the real problem

• What gets in the way of genuine curiosity

• Five characteristics of a powerful question

• Simple questions that can create deeper reflection

• Why silence is part of the skill

And in an AI-enabled world, the advantage isn’t being able to generate more questions. It’s knowing which question this person needs, in this moment—and having the restraint to let them answer it.

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It is easy to talk about leadership. It is another thing to have someone who works closely with you describe what your leadership actually feels like.

In this behind-the-scenes conversation, I sit down with Feliz, my assistant and program manager at The Leadership Lab, and ask the uncomfortable question: Do I practice what I preach?

We talk honestly about my leadership style, direct communication, decision-making, feedback, delegation, trust, and what happens when something does not go as planned. Feliz shares what initially intimidated her, what makes working with me easier—and harder—and how our working relationship has evolved over the past nine months.

We also explore what it takes to create real ownership, why failure does not have to destroy trust, and how leaders can help people grow without rescuing them or taking the work back.

Because leadership is not proven by what you say when you hold the microphone. It is revealed in how people experience you when the work gets uncomfortable.

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Many leaders divide their work into two categories: the “real work” and everything else that interrupts it.

But strategic thinking, building relationships, developing others, attending leadership events, and investing in your own growth are not distractions from the job. They are the job.

In this episode, Audrey explores why leaders often treat essential leadership responsibilities as extra work—and how that mindset creates double workloads, missed opportunities, and teams that remain overly dependent on them.

She breaks down four types of work that leaders need to intentionally make space for:

• Thinking strategically

• Building relationships and influence

• Developing others

• Developing yourself

You’ll also learn why visible, task-based work can feel more legitimate, how to evaluate what is missing from your calendar, and why your role is not only about completing today’s work.

Your job is also to build the judgment, relationships, people, and personal capacity that tomorrow’s work will require.

Follow for more insights: https://audreyblair.com

In this episode, I’m joined by Hanna Bauer for a conversation about leadership, resilience, and what Lean Six Sigma can teach us about building healthier human systems.

Hanna shares how her childhood experience with a serious heart condition shaped the way she thinks about signals, uncertainty, and resilience. From there, we explore how leaders can become more aware of the signals they may be missing before problems become crises.

We talk about the difference between signal and noise, the hidden waste that shows up inside teams, and why overprocessing, rework, unclear priorities, and lost human potential are not just operational issues — they are leadership issues.

This conversation is a reminder that process improvement is not about making people more mechanical. It is about creating systems that support people, reduce unnecessary friction, and make room for better decisions, stronger teams, and more sustainable growth.

In this episode, we discuss:

• How leaders can identify the signals they may be missing

• Why uncertainty often pushes teams into reactive mode

• What Lean Six Sigma can teach us about leadership

• How overprocessing and rework drain time, energy, and trust

• Why lost human potential is one of the most costly forms of waste

• How to build resilience before crisis hits

• Why healthy systems should serve people, not replace them

Change gets harder when we ignore the signals, tolerate the waste, and then act surprised when the system breaks. This episode invites leaders to pause, pay attention, and build systems that help people do their best work.

Learn more about Hanna: Heartnomics

Check out more episodes: https://www.audreyblair.com/podcast

AI is no longer just a tool leaders are experimenting with. It is becoming a leadership challenge.

In this episode, Audrey explores five of the biggest questions leaders are asking about AI right now:

• Are we moving fast enough?
• Where is the ROI?
• Who is accountable when AI gets it wrong?
• How do we prepare people without losing their trust?
• What does leadership look like when AI can do more of the work?

The real challenge is not simply learning how to use AI. It is deciding what should remain human, where judgment still matters, and what kind of leader this moment requires you to become.

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In this episode of Change Is Hard, Audrey continues the conversation about why knowledge alone is no longer enough — especially in an AI-supported world.

AI can summarize, generate, analyze, and help us move faster. But it cannot replace the human skills leaders need most: discernment, judgment under uncertainty, self-regulation, meaning-making, connection, creativity, taste, accountability, alignment, presence, and critical thinking.

This episode is a wake-up call for anyone still relying on information as their primary currency. As AI changes how we work, the value shifts toward how we think, how we decide, how we connect, and how we show up.

https://audreyblair.com

In this episode, Audrey talks with Jennifer Doty about career identity, feeling stuck, job search beliefs, and the mindset shift behind what Jennifer calls the “right now role.” They explore why so many people tie their worth to a title, how fear can sabotage career decisions, and how to make the most of where you are without assuming you have to stay there forever.

Jennifer also shares her own transition after nearly 20 years at MetLife, the beliefs she had to unlearn, and how she is now building a portfolio career with more freedom, purpose, and possibility.

This conversation is for anyone navigating a career transition, questioning what comes next, or trying to separate who they are from what they do.

Find Jennifer at https://jenniferdoty.com/

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We’ve all heard the phrase, “knowledge is power.” But knowledge by itself is only potential power.

In this episode, Audrey explores why more information isn’t always the answer — and how learning can sometimes become a way to avoid discomfort, uncertainty, or action. She breaks down the difference between knowledge gaps, skill gaps, confidence gaps, experience gaps, and avoidance gaps, and challenges listeners to ask a better question: What do I already know that I’m not applying?

Because real power doesn’t come from collecting more information. It comes from practice, application, courage, and lived experience.

FOMO gets a lot of attention, but in leadership, it is not always about missing out on something fun. Sometimes FOMO looks like joining meetings you do not need to be in, staying copied on every thread, or keeping yourself close to decisions that no longer require your direct involvement.

In this episode, Audrey explores how FOMO can quietly become a leadership trap. It often disguises itself as responsibility, commitment, or staying informed, but underneath it may be fear: fear of missing context, losing influence, not being represented, or becoming irrelevant.

JOMO — the joy of missing out — offers a different way to lead. It is not about disengaging. It is about discernment. It is the freedom to know where your presence matters, where it does not, and where stepping back may actually create more ownership for others.

JOMO is not checking out. It is choosing wisely.

Sometimes the most powerful leadership move is not being in every room. It is knowing which rooms actually need you.

In this episode of Change Is Hard, I’m joined by Scott Lackey, author of Wake Up to Die Again: Breaking Who You Became So You Can Be Who You Were Meant to Be.

We talk about the quiet but powerful impact of broken promises — especially the ones we make to ourselves. Scott shares how his own wake-up call led him to complete an Ironman, write his book, and begin rebuilding trust with himself one small commitment at a time.

This conversation explores why change often begins internally before it shows up externally, and why becoming who you’re meant to be usually requires letting go of something you’ve been holding onto.