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Leading in Change
Leading in Change episodes
- Building Team Capacity: The Path to High-Performing Teams
In this episode of Leading in Change, Adrian Owen Jones and Devin Lemoine break down what team capacity building looks like in practice — and why most organizations wait until a crisis to start thinking about it.
If you keep giving stretch assignments to the same people and watching your go-to person burn out, if you’ve lost a key role and realized your bench is thinner than you thought, or if you’re asking whether you need to hire more people or just develop what you already have better, this episode will give you a practical framework for assessing your team, developing overlooked talent, and building the kind of distributed leadership that holds up under change.
Devin brings her experience working directly with organizations navigating high-growth and high-change environments, and she and Adrian walk through the capacity building matrix Success Labs uses with clients, the go-to person problem and what it costs over time, why your real succession risk lives in the middle of your org chart — not the top, and how delegation is one of the most underused development tools leaders have.
📥 Free Leadership Resources
https://successlabs.com/resources🗺️ Get the Team Capacity Matrix:
https://successlabs.myflodesk.com/capacity-matrix📩 Sign up for our newsletter:
https://successlabs.com/newsletter✅ Follow Success Labs:
https://www.instagram.com/success_labs https://www.tiktok.com/@successlabshq
https://www.facebook.com/successlabs🎵 Music recorded at Otaku Sound. Musical composition by Matt Lowery. Executive producers, Olive Lowery and Caroline Lowery. Featuring James Tiberius Kirk Madison Monroe.
RESOURCES & REFERENCES MENTIONED
Team Capacity Building Matrix — a simple tool for mapping your team’s skills and capacity against your future strategy. Available in the show notes at https://successlabs.myflodesk.com/capacity-matrix
41 min - Communicating in Change: How to Communicate Big Shifts in Org Strategy (Part 2)
In this episode of Leading in Change, Adrian Owen Jones sits down with Devin Lemoine to zoom out from the individual leadership conversation and talk about what effective communication looks like at the organizational level — what senior leaders and CEOs need to do differently when everything around them is in flux. If you’re a senior leader navigating a major organizational change and wondering why your messaging isn’t landing, if you’ve been through a restructure, technology rollout, or strategy shift and watched your team disengage or your best people walk out the door, or if you want a practical framework for communicating change across a whole organization in a way that keeps people grounded and moving forward, this episode will give you a concrete framework for doing exactly that. Devin and Adrian cover why your best people leave first when change is handled poorly, why silence from leadership is never neutral, how to be transparent without causing panic, what to do when you don’t agree with the decision you’re being asked to implement, and the difference between communicating change and actually bringing people with you through it. This is Part 2 of a two-part series — Part 1 with Melissa covers the one-on-one communication skills every leader needs, and Part 2 goes to the organizational level.
📥 Free Leadership Resources:
https://successlabs.com/resources📋 Communicating in Change Checklist:
https://successlabs.myflodesk.com/communicationinchangechecklist📩 Sign up for our newsletter:
https://successlabs.com/newsletter✅ Follow Success Labs:
https://www.instagram.com/success_labs
https://www.tiktok.com/@successlabshq
https://www.facebook.com/successlabs🎵 Music recorded at Otaku Sound. Musical composition by Matt Lowery. Executive producers, Olive Lowery and Caroline Lowery. Featuring James Tiberius Kirk Madison Monroe.
RESOURCES & REFERENCES MENTIONEDTool — Communicating in Change Checklist
Film reference — Invictus — the scene where the rugby captain says “We will do our best, that I can guarantee” and the team interprets it as pessimism; used to illustrate how leaders’ words are read differently than intended
Concept — Listen, Involve, Respond — Devin’s three-part framework for two-way communication during change
Concept — The happy warrior mentality — Adrian’s framing for staying energized and forward-facing through change even when it’s difficult
Concept — Transparency and visibility — Devin’s two non-negotiables for senior leaders in change
Concept — Your mood is the weather of your organization — Adrian’s mentor’s quote; how leaders’ emotional state radiates into the team
Episode reference — Communicating in Change, Part 1 (with Melissa Thompson) — covers individual/one-on-one communication skills
53 min - Communicating in Change: How to Have Hard Conversations When Everything Is Uncertain (Part 1)
In this episode of Leading in Change, Adrian Owen Jones and Melissa Thompson break down what effective communication actually looks like when everything around you is changing — and why most leaders get it wrong at exactly the moment it matters most. If you're a manager who has to deliver hard news and doesn't know how to prepare for it, if your team seems anxious and disengaged during a period of organizational change and you're not sure what to say, or if you've been in a high-change environment and defaulted to either going silent or oversharing and watched it backfire, this episode will give you a practical framework for communicating with clarity, honesty, and composure under pressure. Melissa brings her PhD research from ICU communication — studying how physicians delivered end-of-life news to families — and translates those lessons directly into the leadership conversations you're having right now. They cover how to prep for hard conversations, what to do when someone cries or gets angry in the room, why under-sharing feels safe but creates the most damage, how to communicate a strategy change so your team actually gets on board, and the one question every leader should ask themselves before walking into a difficult conversation. If you want to communicate better when the stakes are highest, this is a must-watch.
📥 Free Leadership Resources
https://successlabs.com/resources🗺️ Get the 90-Day New Leader Playbook:
https://www.successlabs.com/90-day-playbook📩 Sign up for our newsletter:
https://successlabs.com/newsletter✅ Follow Success Labs:
https://www.instagram.com/success_labs
https://www.tiktok.com/@successlabshq
https://www.facebook.com/successlabsReferences & Resources mentioned:
Celeste Headlee — "10 Ways to Have a Better Conversation"
https://www.ted.com/talks/celeste_headlee_10_ways_to_have_a_better_conversationCommunication Matrix — from the 90-Day New Leader Playbook; helps leaders articulate how they communicate and how their team likes to be communicated with. Learn more at https:///www.successlabs.com/90-day-playbook
🎵 Music recorded at Otaku Sound. Musical composition by Matt Lowery. Executive producers, Olive Lowery and Caroline Lowery. Featuring James Tiberius Kirk Madison Monroe.
37 min - The 90-Day Playbook: What New Leaders Should Do in Their First 30, 60, and 90 Days
In this episode of Leading in Change, Adrian Owen Jones and Melissa Thompson break down the 90-day playbook for new leaders — the exact framework, tools, and questions that Success Labs uses with clients to help new leaders get off on the right foot.
If you're stepping into a new leadership role and don't want to be part of the 40 to 50% of leaders who fail within 18 months, if you're an HR leader trying to set up a new hire for success and tired of watching great people leave because they weren't supported early, or if you're already past your first 90 days and feel like you missed something, this episode will give you a practical roadmap you can start using today.
Adrian and Melissa walk through all three phases — days one to 30 for listening and learning, days 30 to 60 for assessing and aligning, and days 60 to 90 for acting and building — along with every tool in the playbook: the 90-day snapshot, communication style guide, stakeholder mapping, listen and learn question bank, SWOT and SLEPT frameworks, quick wins framework, and PIE. If you want to make your first 90 days count, this is a must-watch.
🗺️ Get the 90-Day New Leader Playbook:
https://successlabs.com/90-day-playbook📥 Free Leadership Resources
https://successlabs.com/resources📩 Sign up for our newsletter:
https://successlabs.com/newsletter✅ Follow Success Labs:
https://www.instagram.com/success_labs
https://www.tiktok.com/@successlabshq
https://www.facebook.com/successlabs🎵 Music recorded at Otaku Sound. Musical composition by Matt Lowery. Executive producers, Olive Lowery and Caroline Lowery. Featuring James Tiberius Kirk Madison Monroe.
52 min - The Best Personality Assessment for Leadership Development (And When to Use Each One)
In this episode of Leading in Change, Adrian Owen Jones and Melissa Thompson break down the most commonly used personality assessments for leadership development — and give you a practical framework for figuring out which one is actually right for your situation.
If you've ever done a personality assessment with your team and watched the results collect dust on a shelf six months later, if you're trying to decide between tools like DISC, CliftonStrengths, MBTI, or Working Genius and don't know where to start, or if your team keeps clashing and you can't quite put your finger on why, this episode will give you the clarity to choose the right tool, use it the right way, and make the insights actually stick.
Adrian and Melissa walk through six assessments — CliftonStrengths, Hogan, DISC, MBTI, Enneagram, and Working Genius — covering what each one is best for, what the research says about their validity, the one rule that applies to all of them, and what a genuinely good debrief looks like that turns a one-time session into real behavior change. If you want to understand your team better and actually lead more effectively as a result, this is a must-watch.
📥 Personality Assessment Cheat Sheet: https://successlabs.myflodesk.com/personalityassessmentscheatsheet
📩 Sign up for our newsletter: https://successlabs.com/newsletter
✅ Follow Success Labs:
https://www.instagram.com/success_labs
https://www.tiktok.com/@successlabshq
https://www.facebook.com/successlabs🎵 Music recorded at Otaku Sound. Musical composition by Matt Lowery. Executive producers, Olive Lowery and Caroline Lowery. Featuring James Tiberius Kirk Madison Monroe.
1 hr 4 min - The Four Forces™ of Resilient Leadership: People & Problem Solving (Part 2)
In this episode of Leading in Change, Adrian Owen Jones and Melissa Thompson close out the Four Forces™ of Resilient Leadership with People and Problem Solving — the two forces that determine whether a leader can actually execute in constant change.
If your team doesn't trust you enough to tell you the truth, if you're making big decisions without the people closest to the work in the room, or if you keep implementing change and watching it stall because you didn't anticipate the ripple effects, this episode will give you the specific competencies that separate leaders who thrive in chaos from the ones who just survive it.
They cover real-time transparency, the one 360 competency that predicts whether a leader is coachable, how to use AI to get feedback you'd never get from a person, operational foresight, inclusive problem solving, and why your best innovation ideas are probably already sitting with the people nobody has been asking.
This is Part 2 of a two-part series. Part 1 covers Perspective and Purpose. If you want to lead through constant change with intention and confidence, this is a must-watch.
🎧 Listen to Part 1: The Four Forces™ of Resilient Leadership: Perspective and Purpose (Part 1) www.successlabs.com/podcast
🔎 Take the Resilient Leadership Self Assessment: https://successlabs.com/four-forces
📥 Free Leadership Resources https://successlabs.com/resources
📩 Sign up for our newsletter: https://successlabs.com/newsletter
✅ Follow Success Labs: https://www.instagram.com/success_labs https://www.tiktok.com/@successlabshq https://www.facebook.com/successlabs
🎵 Music recorded at Otaku Sound. Musical composition by Matt Lowery. Executive producers, Olive Lowery and Caroline Lowery. Featuring James Tiberius Kirk Madison Monroe.
31 min - The Four Forces™ of Resilient Leadership: Perspective & Purpose (Part 1)
In this episode of Leading in Change, Adrian Owen Jones and Melissa Thompson break down why everything you've been taught about leading through change is built for a world that no longer exists — and what resilient leaders actually do differently. If you feel like no matter how hard you work, you're always one step behind what's coming at you, if your team is struggling to make decisions without you in the room, or if you're tired of leading through one crisis only to find another one already waiting, this episode will give you a practical framework for leading in constant change instead of just surviving it.
This is Part 1 of a two-part series on the Four Forces™ of Resilient Leadership.
Adrian and Melissa dig into the first two forces — Perspective and Purpose — covering everything from learning agility and intellectual curiosity to values-based decision making, strategic agility in a poly crisis world, and why the most underrated leadership move right now is being transparent about your own development. Part 2 will cover People and Problem Solving.
🔎 Take the Resilient Leadership Self Assessment:
https://successlabs.com/four-forces📥 Free Leadership Resources
https://successlabs.com/resources📩 Sign up for our newsletter:
https://successlabs.com/newsletter✅ Follow Success Labs:
https://www.instagram.com/success_labs
https://www.tiktok.com/@successlabshq
https://www.facebook.com/successlabs🎵 Music recorded at Otaku Sound. Musical composition by Matt Lowery. Executive producers, Olive Lowery and Caroline Lowery. Featuring James Tiberius Kirk Madison Monroe.
34 min - How to Make Better Decisions (3-Part Framework for Leaders)
In this episode of Leading in Change, Adrian Owen Jones and Devin Lemoine get into one of the most universal leadership struggles right now — making decisions when you don't have complete information and everything around you is moving fast.
If you're the kind of leader who keeps waiting for more data before making the call, if your team is stalled because nobody is sure whose decision it is to make, or if you've been in a high-change environment and you know you're behind on decisions that need to happen, this episode will give you a clear framework for moving forward with confidence even when the picture isn't fully clear.
Adrian and Devin walk through the three-part decision making framework (Evidence, Experts, Evaluate), why most decisions are reversible even when they don't feel like it, the competing values problem that makes even obvious decisions hard, and why the opportunity cost of waiting almost always outweighs the risk of deciding wrong. If you want to get better at making decisions in uncertainty, this is a must-watch.
📥 Free Leadership Resources
https://successlabs.com/resources📩 Sign up for our newsletter:
https://successlabs.com/newsletter✅ Follow Success Labs:
https://www.instagram.com/success_labs
https://www.tiktok.com/@successlabshq
https://www.facebook.com/successlabs🎵 Music recorded at Otaku Sound. Musical composition by Matt Lowery. Executive producers, Olive Lowery and Caroline Lowery. Featuring James Tiberius Kirk Madison Monroe.
48 min - What Leaders Need to Know About Core Values
In this episode of Leading in Change, Gloria McConnell and Adrian Owen Jones break down why most organizational values aren't actually doing anything — and what it takes to make them real. If your team has to look up the company values when you ask them to name them, if you have the words on the wall but can't point to a decision those values actually changed, or if you're leading through a period of change and feeling like there's nothing solid for your team to hold onto, this episode will give you a practical framework for making values work.
Gloria and Adrian walk through the Above the Line/Below the Line exercise, the three stress-test questions every leader should answer, how to use values in feedback conversations instead of a policy manual, and what it looks like when values actually cost you something — including a real story about letting go of a multimillion dollar client. If you want your values to change how your team makes decisions, this is a must-watch.
📥 Free Leadership Resources
https://successlabs.com/resources📩 Sign up for our newsletter:
https://successlabs.com/newsletter✅ Follow Success Labs:
https://www.instagram.com/success_labs
https://www.tiktok.com/@successlabshq
https://www.facebook.com/successlabsMusic Recorded in Otaku Sound. Musical composition by Matt Lowery. Executive producers, Olive Lowery and Caroline Lowery. Featuring James Tiberius Kirk Madison Monroe.
48 min - 3 Things to Do Before Rolling Out AI in Your Organization
In this episode of Leading in Change, Adrian Owen Jones and Devin Lemoine break down what organizations need to do before rolling out AI — and why skipping these steps is exactly why most implementations stall or get reversed. If your leadership team keeps saying "we need an AI strategy" but nobody can agree on what that means, if you've already started rolling out AI tools and things aren't going the way you planned, or if you're heading into strategic planning season and want to get ahead of this before next year, this episode will give you a clear starting point.
🤖 AI Readiness Assessment — Is Your Organization Ready?
http://successlabs.com/ai-readiness-assessment📥 Free Leadership Resources
https://successlabs.com/resources📩 Sign up for our newsletter:
https://successlabs.com/newsletter✅ Follow Success Labs:
https://www.instagram.com/success_labs
https://www.tiktok.com/@successlabshq
https://www.facebook.com/successlabs46 min
About Leading in Change
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Leading in Change by Success Labs