Coaching for Leaders

By Dave StachowiakBusiness Careers Management

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Coaching for Leaders episodes

September 05, 2025 Embracing Both Technology and People, with Elham Bidar
Dave speaks with Elham Bidar, an alum of the Coaching for Leaders Academy, on the importance of balancing both technology and people in leadership.
Apply to the Coaching for Leaders Academy by Friday, September 12th.
12 min
September 01, 2025 747: How to Get Out of a Rut, with Anne-Laure Le Cunff
Anne-Laure Le Cunff: Tiny Experiments
Anne-Laure Le Cunff is an award-winning neuroscientist, entrepreneur, and writer. She is the founder of Ness Labs and author of its widely read newsletter, a researcher at the ADHD Research Lab, and an advisor for the Applied Neuroscience Association. She is the author of Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World*.
We all get into a rut sometimes. Once we notice we’re in one, our tendency is to work really hard to get out of it. In this conversation, Anne-Laure and I explore how starting with something tiny is often the better bet.
Key Points
SMART goals assume we know exactly where we’re heading. Most of the time, that’s not clear.
A tiny experiment focuses on outputs instead of outcomes.
To build more comfort with uncertainty, find one small place to experiment.
Our brain uses growth loops to constantly adjust our trajectory. We don’t go in circles; we grow in circles.
Improving growth isn’t about knowledge or skill; it’s thinking about your thinking, questioning your responses, and knowing your mind.
A simple, 5-minute tool is Plus Minus Next. It surfaces what’s working, what’s not, and your next steps.
Resources Mentioned
Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World* by Anne-Laure Le Cunff
Interview Notes
Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required).
Related Episodes
How to Become the Person You Want to Be, with James Clear (episode 376)
How to Change Your Behavior, with BJ Fogg (episode 507)
How to Create Space, with Juliet Funt (episode 540)
Discover More
Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.
30 min
August 27, 2025 Stop What’s Holding You Back, with Anna Bellini
Dave speaks with Anna Bellini, an alum of the Coaching for Leaders Academy, on how to stop a behavior in order to move forward.
Apply to the Coaching for Leaders Academy by Friday, September 12th.
18 min
August 25, 2025 746: How to Make Small Talk with Executives, with Lorraine K. Lee
Lorraine K. Lee: Unforgettable Presence
Lorraine K. Lee is passionate about helping ambitious professionals go from invisible to unforgettable in the modern workplace. She is recognized as a LinkedIn Top Voice in workplace communication and presence and spent over a decade as a founding editor at top tech firms like LinkedIn and Prezi, where she worked on core products including the LinkedIn Daily News module and LinkedIn Newsletters. She is the author of Unforgettable Presence: Get Seen, Gain Influence, and Catapult Your Career.
Small talk. We all love to hate it – and we also know that most of us will end up in small talk with someone who’s got a lot of influence. It may be an executive or an external stakeholder. Either way, handling it well can open up doors. In this conversation, Lorraine and I detail how to make small talk go better.
Key Points
Small talk is the starting point before a deeper relationship.
Most opportunities for executive small talk are predictable. Preparation will help you speak well.
Set the tone with positive energy. Rather than dominating the interaction or passively reacting to it, thread your conversations so each party shares equally.
At the office, be ready with a sentence or two about who you work with and what you’re working on. Relationships and outcomes are more memorable than titles.
At social events, share a hobby or interest and ask about theirs. Keep questions open-ended as you would with a friend.
Have a topic ready to go for quick interactions. Sharing a thought about a book or podcast that relates to your organization is a useful resource to have at the ready.
Review your go-to topics regularly so that you always have a relevant conversation topic.
Resources Mentioned
Unforgettable Presence: Get Seen, Gain Influence, and Catapult Your Career by Lorraine K. Lee
Lorraine's weekly newsletter
Lorraine's career tips on LinkedIn Learning
Interview Notes
Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required).
Related Episodes
Executive Presence with Your Elevator Speech, with Tom Henschel (episode 316)
How to Talk to People Who Intimidate You, with Shandy Welch (episode 706)
A Key Tactic for Way Better Conversations, with Alison Wood Brooks (episode 717)
Discover More
Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.
40 min
August 21, 2025 Building Team Visibility, with Mel Rivera
Dave speaks with Mel Rivera, an alum of the Coaching for Leaders Academy, on how she built visibility for her team.
Apply to the Coaching for Leaders Academy by Friday, September 12th.
21 min
August 18, 2025 745: How Music Can Help Us Lead, with Mort Sherman
Mort Sherman: Resonant Minds
Mort Sherman is the retired Senior Associate Executive Director of the American Association of School Administrators, known for his visionary leadership as a superintendent dedicated to elevating academic standards and promoting equitable education. Throughout his career, he championed initiatives that addressed achievement gaps and empowered communities to foster inclusive, impactful learning environments. He is the author, along with his daughter Sara Leila Sherman, of Resonant Minds: The Transformative Power of Music, One Note at a Time.
So many of us love music, and it’s often at the core of a lot of our personal lives, celebrations, and emotions. But we don’t often think about how we can leverage its power at work. In this conversation, Mort and I explore how music can help us set the tone for better leadership.
Key Points
One way to nurture our teams and ourselves is a continual call for leaders, and music is an avenue we don’t often consider.
Using music as mindful action, coupled with executive function skills, supports the habits of successful leadership.
Start meetings with music or mindfulness exercises for collective focus, productive discussions, and creative outcomes.
Create team playlists to build community. Combine playlists with meetings to help support trust and respect.
Use music to reinforce a message or theme, tied to the needs of the moment.
Resources Mentioned
Why Cooks Cook from The Bear
Interview Notes
Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required).
Related Episodes
The Power of Leadership Through Hospitality, with Will Guidara (episode 688)
How to Better Manage Your Emotions, with Ethan Kross (episode 719)
What Leaders Should Learn from Taylor Swift, with Kevin Evers (episode 739)
Discover More
Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus
40 min
August 14, 2025 The Power of Starting Small, with Erann Lincoln
Dave speaks with Erann Lincoln, an alum of the Coaching for Leaders Academy, on how she started small to build stronger relationships with her team.
Apply to the Coaching for Leaders Academy by Friday, September 12th.
17 min
August 11, 2025 744: Where Being Selfish is Better, with Jenny Wood
Jenny Wood: Wild Courage
Over an 18-year career at Google, Jenny Wood grew from entry-level to executive, most recently leading a large operations team that helped drive billions of revenue per year. In 2021, she started a passion project within Google called Own Your Career, which grew to one of the largest career development programs in Google’s history. Her work has since been featured in Harvard Business Review, Entrepreneur, and Forbes, and she’s now the author of Wild Courage: Go After What You Want and Get It*.
Leadership is about serving others – and it’s also ensuring that we take care of ourselves along the way. Sometimes leaders over-index on helping their organizations and teams, to their own detriment. In this conversation, Jenny and I explore where being a little more selfish might actually be better for everyone.
Key Points
Selfish redefined means having the courage to stand up for what you want.
People want to join a winning team, even if they don’t say that out loud.
Guilt is natural, but always caving to it is self-defeating.
Don’t do work that’s not actually promotable. There’s no prize for an empty inbox.
A belief like “I owe it to them,” may signal an over-commitment to the organization. They will not love you back.
Appreciate truth when you get it, but don’t sign up for a burned-out boss.
It’s inefficient to always be in the lead. Draft in another leader’s wake.
Resources Mentioned
Wild Courage: Go After What You Want and Get It* by Jenny Wood
Interview Notes
Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required).
Related Episodes
Align Your Calendar to What Matters, with Nir Eyal (episode 431)
The Ways Leadership Can Derail Us, with Bill George (episode 596)
The Path to More Joy in Work and Life, with Judith Joseph (episode 734)
Discover More
Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.
40 min
August 04, 2025 743: How to Teach Your Expertise to Others, with Roger Kneebone
Roger Kneebone: Expert
Roger Kneebone directs the Imperial College Centre for Engagement and Simulation Science and the Royal College of Music–Imperial College Centre for Performance Science. He researches what experts from different fields can learn from one another, including a creative team of clinicians, computer scientists, musicians, magicians, potters, puppeteers, tailors, and fighter pilots. He is the author of Expert: Understanding the Path to Mastery*.
Many leaders get into the roles they have because they are the experts in their work. But once you’re leading, the work is less about being the expert and more about teaching your expertise to others. In this conversation, Roger and I explore how to get better at doing this well.
Key Points
Experts don’t often recognize that they are experts.
A characteristic of many experts is a dissatisfaction with where they are and an awareness that they could do better.
Experts should notice what’s missing and what would be most helpful to the less experienced person.
Effective teachers zero in on one thing at a time, even if they notice many areas for improvement.
Passing along expertise is not just the skills themselves but the perspective of why each skill matters.
Land in the zone of proximal development. The skill should neither be too easy nor too difficult.
Resources Mentioned
Expert: Understanding the Path to Mastery* by Roger Kneebone
Interview Notes
Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required).
Related Episodes
Help People Learn Through Powerful Teaching, with Pooja Agarwal (episode 421)
The Art of Mentoring Well, with Robert Lefkowitz (episode 599)
How to Handle High-Pressure Situations, with Dan Dworkis (episode 701)
Discover More
Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.
38 min
July 28, 2025 742: The Problem Leaders Have With Authenticity, with Sabina Nawaz
Sabina Nawaz: You’re the Boss
Sabina Nawaz is an executive coach who advises C-level executives and teams at Fortune 500 corporations, government agencies, nonprofits, and academic institutions. During her 14-year tenure at Microsoft, she went from managing software development teams to leading the company’s executive development and succession planning efforts for over 11,000 managers and nearly a thousand executives, advising Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer directly. She’s the author of You're the Boss: Become the Manager You Want to Be (and Others Need)*.
Every leader I know intends to be authentic. Unfortunately, we sometimes use authenticity as an excuse not to do the critical work of calibrating our actions. In this conversation, Sabina and I discuss how to avoid that trap so we can show up more genuinely for others.
Key Points
“Yeah, but…” signals justification and holds us back from what we most need to learn.
Your success comes despite unhelpful traits, not because of them.
Pure authenticity is a complete fallacy. Authenticity is not singular.
We sometimes use authenticity as an excuse not to do the important work of calibrating our actions.
Don’t let the smokescreen of past “authenticity” get in the way of growth.
Authenticity is not static. Reading your old past social media posts will remind you of this.
When shifting, start with small experiments to nudge you in a new direction.
Language that may be warning signs of the authenticity trap:
“That’s just how I am.”
“I’m not the kind of person who…”
“I’m not being true to myself if…”
“That’s the way I’ve always done things, and it’s worked for me.”
Resources Mentioned
You're the Boss: Become the Manager You Want to Be (and Others Need)* by Sabina Nawaz
Interview Notes
Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required).
Related Episodes
How to Change Your Behavior, with BJ Fogg (episode 507)
How to Start a Big Leadership Role, with Carol Kauffman (episode 617)
The Habits That Hold Leaders Back, with Marshall Goldsmith (episode 696)
Discover More
Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.
38 min

About Coaching for Leaders

From the publisher's feed

Leaders aren’t born; they’re made. Many leaders reach points in their careers where what worked yesterday doesn’t work today. This Monday show helps leaders thrive at these key inflection points.…