Lead Smarter Podcast

How do you lead a team you can’t see? In this episode of Lead Smarter, David Kent sits down with best-selling author and executive coach Corinna Hagen to debunk the myths of remote management. Corinna shares why many leaders struggle with the "busy-trap" and how to transition from an individual contributor to a high-impact leader through the art of delegation.

In this episode, you’ll learn:
- The "Leadership without Authority" concept and why respect is earned, not assigned.
- How to use AI (like ChatGPT) as a training tool for better delegation and prompt engineering.
- The importance of self-awareness in building clarity and making confident decisions.
- Why over-communication is the essential infrastructure for remote teams.

About Corinna Hagen:
Corinna is the founder of Zaradigm and an award-winning coach who has worked with hundreds of leaders at firms like Microsoft and Airbnb to master high-stakes communication.

About the Host
David Kent is the host of The Lead Smarter Podcast, where he has honest, grounded conversations with leaders shaping the future of work, leadership, and organizational growth.

🎧 LISTEN ON THE WEBSITE: https://leadsmarterpod.com/
🔗 Follow David on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-james-kent/

Leadership gaps don’t usually appear overnight.
They form slowly, through burnout, early exits, and systems that promote people faster than they’re prepared to lead.

In this episode of the Lead Smarter Podcast, I sit down with Kate Anderson Foley, Founder & CEO of a private education and leadership consultancy, to unpack what’s really happening behind today’s leadership void — and why it’s showing up across every sector, not just education.

Kate brings a rare perspective shaped by work at the district, state, and national policy level, combined with deep experience coaching senior leaders who are navigating volatility, political pressure, and rapid organizational change.

We talk candidly about:
- Why experienced leaders are leaving earlier than expected
- The hidden pressure placed on emerging leaders who are promoted too fast
- How COVID accelerated leadership gaps instead of creating them
- The difference between culture and climate — and why leaders confuse the two
- What agile leadership actually means (and what it doesn’t)
- Why psychological safety isn’t “soft,” and why trust can’t be mandated
- How coaching supports leaders without turning into control or correction
- What organizations get wrong about developing and retaining leaders

This conversation isn’t theoretical.
It’s grounded in real systems, real people, and the consequences leaders rarely see until it’s too late.

If you’re leading a team, stepping into leadership sooner than expected, or responsible for developing leaders inside your organization, this episode will give you language, clarity, and perspective you can actually use.

00:00 – Why leadership gaps are growing
03:40 – COVID, burnout, and early exits
07:15 – Emerging leaders promoted too fast
11:10 – Why leadership becomes lonely at the top
14:45 – What agile leadership really means
18:30 – Culture vs climate (and why leaders confuse them)
23:00 – Psychological safety and trust in real organizations
28:10 – Coaching leaders without creating dependency
33:20 – Why feedback often fails new leaders
37:50 – Leading closer to the “street level”
41:40 – Investing in leaders before they burn out
44:10 – Kate’s advice to leaders navigating uncertainty

About the Host
David Kent is the host of The Lead Smarter Podcast, where he has honest, grounded conversations with leaders shaping the future of work, leadership, and organizational growth.

🎧 LISTEN ON THE WEBSITE: https://leadsmarterpod.com/
🔗 Follow David on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-james-kent/

Scaling a business isn’t just about better systems, more capital, or faster growth.
At a certain point, it requires the founder to evolve.

In this episode of The Lead Smarter Podcast, host David Kent sits down with Matt Racz, founder of Founders That Scale, to unpack one of the most difficult and least discussed phases of business growth: the transition from scrappy startup to scalable company.

Matt draws from his own experience as a founder and advisor to explain why many businesses stall or collapse just after product–market fit, and why the real constraint is often leadership, not strategy.

This conversation explores what it actually means to “build a company” rather than just a product, and how founders can step out of survival mode without losing momentum, culture, or purpose.

I
n this episode, we cover:

• Why what got you early traction won’t sustain growth
 • How founders unintentionally become the bottleneck
 • The difference between being a builder and becoming an executive leader
 • Why slowing down can be the most strategic move forward
 • How culture and values function as real business infrastructure
 • What it takes to scale without burning out your people or yourself

If you’re a founder navigating growth, complexity, or leadership strain, this episode offers clarity, perspective, and practical insight.

About the Guest

Matt Racz is the founder of Founders That Scale, where he works with traction-stage founders and leadership teams to help them institutionalize their businesses, strengthen leadership capacity, and scale sustainably.

Website: https://foundersatscale.com

LinkedIn: Matthew Racz

About the Host

David Kent is the host of The Lead Smarter Podcast, where he has honest, grounded conversations with leaders shaping the future of work, leadership, and organizational growth.

Most people don’t become leaders because they were trained to lead —
 they become leaders because they were good at the job. And as Kelly Hirn explains, that’s exactly where everything starts to break. 

In this episode of the Lead Smarter Podcast, David Kent sits down with leadership coach Kelly Hirn, who has spent 20+ years developing leaders across industries — from insurance and construction to education and sales.

Together they unpack:

• Why the traditional path to leadership is fundamentally flawed
Many leaders rise through performance, not leadership readiness, leading to micromanagement and burnout. 

• The “cheat code” entrepreneurs have — and the trap they fall into
Entrepreneurs often understand the vision… yet struggle to communicate it or trust others to carry it out. 

• Why middle managers are the most critical (and overlooked) leaders
This layer influences up, down, and sideways — and can make or break organizational alignment. 

• How to lead without knowing how to do the work
Kelly shares how not knowing her team’s technical tasks forced her to adopt curiosity, empowerment, and trust — a leadership advantage she still teaches today. 

• How to influence “old-school” leaders
Kelly gives real-life examples of coaching leaders who were stuck in outdated top-down norms — and how small wins + objective demonstration can create meaningful change. 

• Why curiosity is the most underrated leadership skill
The fastest way to build trust is to stop assuming—and start asking. 

Later in the episode, Kelly reveals the top books she recommends for new and established leaders, including:
 Strengths Based Leadership, Start With Why, and How to Win Friends and Influence People — a book she has read at least four times. 

Kelly also shares details about her 6-month coaching program and her “Lead With Confidence Challenge” designed for emerging leaders.

If you’re an entrepreneur, a new manager, or a leader stepping into bigger responsibility… this conversation will shift the way you lead.

How do you scale a law firm in an industry built on risk-avoidance?
In this episode, David Kent sits down with Margaret, award-winning consultant and strategic advisor to law firms, to unpack the leadership challenges leaders face inside the legal industry — from culture and change management to time tracking, operational bottlenecks, and the rise of AI.

With decades of experience working in firms and now with firms, Margaret shares:

• Why law firms resist change more than other industries
• The three SOPs every growing firm needs: billing, client onboarding, and new-hire onboarding
• How to manage underperformance without harming culture
• The #1 habit that successful hybrid teams share
• Why most managing partners unintentionally become the bottleneck
• How to track non-billable time realistically
• What AI adoption actually looks like inside firms (and why some are banning it entirely)
• Her most important advice for any new managing partner on day one

Margaret also reveals the biggest lessons she’d tell her younger self, the leadership books she recommends ("Buy Back Your Time"), and what she’s building next inside her consultancy.

If you lead a team — legal or not — this conversation will change how you think about time, people, and scaling.

Confidence isn’t a trait, it’s a choice.
David Kent and Alyssa Dver, CEO of the American Confidence Institute, unpack the neuroscience of confidence, the fears that sabotage it, and why great leaders build confidence by giving it away.

#LeadSmarterPodcast #Leadership #Confidence #AlyssaDver

Leadership isn’t hard because you lack strategy; it’s hard because you’re managing people, expectations, and your own self-doubt.

In this episode of Lead Smarter, host David Kent sits down with Aleta Maxwell, CEO, CHRO, best-selling author, and leadership coach, to dive into the real challenges leaders face, and how to navigate them with clarity and confidence.

Aleta works with high-achieving female executives who feel like they’re carrying it all:

- The impostor syndrome before big meetings
- The frustration of repeating expectations
- The constant time crunch
- The awkwardness of holding people accountable without damaging relationships
- Through her company, Uplifting Leadership, Aleta equips leaders with simple, effective strategies to build high-performing, drama-free teams while reclaiming their time and confidence.

You’ll learn:
✔️ Clear, actionable communication strategies
✔️ Practical tools to silence impostor syndrome
✔️ Frameworks for healthy accountability that strengthen relationships
✔️ Time management approaches that actually work for leaders

With over 20 years of experience leading large, fast-paced organizations — scaling one from 3 to 22 locations and $4M to $62M in revenue — Aleta now empowers executives across industries to lead with alignment, intention, and curiosity.

🔔 Subscribe for more leadership insights every week.
👍 Like this episode if you’ve ever felt the weight of leadership on your shoulders.
📝 Drop a comment: What’s the hardest part of leadership for you right now?

New episodes drop regularly. Subscribe to Lead Smarter for honest, expert conversations that help you lead with clarity, confidence, and humanity.

🌐 https://leadsmarterpod.com/

📌 Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lead-smarter/?viewAsMember=true

Leadership and management are not the same, and according to Chuck Blakeman, they don’t even belong in the same room.

In this episode of Lead Smarter, host David Kent sits down with serial entrepreneur, best-selling author, and leadership renegade Chuck Blakeman to challenge one of the most deeply held assumptions in business today: that managing people makes them more productive. Spoiler: It doesn’t.

Chuck shares powerful stories, surprising data, and real-life examples from companies around the world (including Google, GE, and a tomato paste empire) that are thriving without traditional managers, and thriving because of it.

You’ll learn:
Why management was built on the belief that people are stupid and lazy
How to replace managers with distributed decision-making
The difference between managing stuff and leading people
Why the most organized, efficient companies often have no hierarchy
The leadership principles that scale from 5 to 50,000+ people

📚 Chuck’s latest book: Sell Less, Earn More
📘 Also mentioned: Re-HUMAN-izing the Workplace by Giving Everybody Their Brain Back

𝗪𝗲𝗹𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁, 𝗵𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝗗𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗱 𝗞𝗲𝗻𝘁.
This show exists for one reason: to have real conversations with people who are actively reshaping what leadership looks like in today’s world of work. No fluff. No corporate-speak. Just straight talk from the people in the trenches.

In this debut episode, David sits down with Jaime Klein, CEO of Inspire Human Resources, to unpack what’s really happening behind the buzzwords of fractional work, remote leadership, and the return-to-office wave sweeping across major industries.

Jaime has been ahead of the curve since 2007, building remote-first, fractional HR teams long before it was trendy. In this episode, she and David dig into:
  • Why fractional roles are exploding (and why they work)
  • What most companies are still getting wrong about remote work
  • How proximity bias is quietly undermining DEI efforts
  • Why AI in HR isn’t hype, it’s already happening
  • How to give better feedback and hold harder conversations, remotely
  • What must leaders do to build real trust, cohesion, and culture?
  • Why hybrid models require more intentionality than ever before
  • And yes, why having fun for fun’s sake still matters

Discover Inspire Human Resources- https://www.inspirehumanresources.com/

If you're a leader, founder, people manager, or just someone trying to navigate the constantly shifting terrain of modern work, this conversation will change how you think about your team, your culture, and your role as a leader.

New episodes drop regularly. Subscribe to Lead Smarter for honest, expert conversations that help you lead with clarity, confidence, and humanity.

https://leadsmarterpod.com/

Find us on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@LeadSmarterPodcast
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lead-smarter/?viewAsMember=true

00:00 - Navigating Fractional Work in HR

02:52 - The Evolution of Remote Work

05:46 - Challenges and Opportunities in Remote Leadership

08:57 -The Dynamics of In-Person vs Remote Work

11:53 -Managing Difficult Conversations Remotely

14:54 - The Future of Hybrid Work Models

18:05 - The Role of AI in HR

21:08 - Proximity Bias and DEI in Remote Work

24:05 - Advice for Future Leaders

26:55 - Book Recommendations and Closing Thoughts

See if we can help you: https://leadershiplens.club/podcast

Summary

Nik Greenblatt shares his leadership journey and experiences in building his own business, from being a sponsored snowboarder to founding Defy. He started his career in snowboarding and then pursued studies in photography and graphic design. He founded his first company with his father and later started 2ONE5 Creative, which eventually became Defy. The agency focuses on looking at things through a defiant lens and helping brands stand out. Nik discusses the challenges of working with luxury brands and the importance of storytelling in branding. He emphasizes the value of branding for startups and the impact it can have on their valuation and acquisition potential. In this conversation, Nik Greenblatt discusses the importance of storytelling and brand lines in marketing. He shares his experience working with a Maverick CEO and how their vision inspired him to expand outside of his core client base. Nik also talks about his personal branding journey and the value of sharing personal stories and opinions on platforms like LinkedIn. He emphasizes the importance of learning from mistakes, embracing change, and investing in presentation skills. Finally, Nik encourages leaders to ask for help, be open to different perspectives, and invest in people who complement their core.

Keywords

leadership journey, building a business, snowboarding, photography, graphic design, branding, luxury brands, storytelling, startups, valuation, acquisition, storytelling, brand lines, marketing, Maverick CEO, personal branding, opinions, AI, presentation skills, learning from mistakes, change, investing in people