ROAR Mindset: Leading Through Chaos

In this episode of ROAR Mindset, Peter Brandenburger sits down with Jen Lashua, a Fractional CMO and executive brand strategist who helps leaders build personal brands that reflect the level at which they are operating.

Jen explains that your personal brand exists whether you intentionally shape it or not. It is how people see and experience you, and LinkedIn often serves as an invisible reference check before someone agrees to a meeting, considers you for an opportunity, or responds to your outreach.

Together, Peter and Jen explore why highly accomplished leaders often struggle to accurately describe what they have achieved. They discuss the fear of appearing self-promotional, the distinction between humility and making yourself smaller, and how leaders can own their impact while still recognizing the contributions of their teams.

Jen shares a formative story from early in her career when a senior leader invited her to take her seat at the table. She also offers practical ways to uncover the value in your experience, including reviewing past performance feedback, asking what would have happened without your leadership, and seeking perspective from people who know your work.

The conversation also examines authenticity in an AI-heavy world. Jen and Peter discuss how AI can support ideation, challenge your thinking, and improve your writing without replacing the experience, perspective, and voice that make someone worth following.

Whether you are building a business, pursuing a new role, or preparing for an opportunity you cannot yet see coming, this conversation is an invitation to stop underselling your leadership and intentionally shape how others experience your mindset.

Connect with Jen to get help with your brand:

Jen Lashua on LinkedIn (LinkedIn)

Chapters

00:16 Episode Introduction

01:43 What Matters Most: Managing Change

05:56 What Is a Personal Brand?

08:25 LinkedIn as an Invisible Reference Check

10:49 Learning from Leaders You Admire

12:44 Authenticity and Executive Ghostwriting

14:37 Why Accomplished Leaders Undersell Themselves

16:05 Taking Your Seat at the Table

19:17 Recognizing and Claiming Your Impact

23:18 Owning Your Impact While Crediting the Team

25:44 Humility vs. Making Yourself Smaller

28:43 Using AI Without Outsourcing Your Voice

33:38 When Gratitude Undercuts Leadership Stature

38:02 Practical Steps to Strengthen Your LinkedIn Presence

40:19 Sharing Your Expertise and Building Visibility

43:36 Leadership Lessons from Running

46:08 Change and Optimism in Leadership

49:15 Peter’s Closing Reflections

In this episode of ROAR Mindset, Peter Brandenburger sits down with Ousmane Diallo, innovation strategist, systems thinker, and author of The Cognitive Revolution: Navigating the Algorithmic Age of Artificial Intelligence.

While their conversation begins with artificial intelligence, it quickly becomes something much deeper. Together, Peter and Ousmane explore what it means to lead in a world where technology is accelerating faster than our institutions, organizations, and even our ability to adapt.

Ousmane introduces four leadership lenses, systems thinking, emotional intelligence, strategic foresight, and anticipatory governance, and explains how they help leaders build resilient organizations that can thrive through disruption. Drawing from his global leadership experience at Intel and beyond, he shares practical stories about transforming struggling international programs, building trust across cultures, and leading with genuine care for people.

The conversation explores why AI should amplify strong leadership rather than replace it, why leaders must learn to see systems instead of isolated problems, and how preparing for multiple futures creates confidence without requiring certainty.

Whether you're leading a global organization, navigating rapid technological change, or simply trying to become a more thoughtful leader, this episode offers practical insights for staying deeply human while leading through disruption.

Since this recording, Ousmane has published Digital Sovereignty in the Cognitive Age, extending the governance frameworks discussed in this episode. Available at blogs.inspire-aspire.net

Connect with Ousmane at

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dialloousmane/

https://www.inspire-aspire.net/

Read, listen or view his book and content at:

https://blogs.inspire-aspire.net/

https://www.youtube.com/@YourCompassOusmaneDiallo

https://www.amazon.com/Cognitive-Revolution-Navigating-Algorithmic-Intelligence/dp/B0G14RT3BJ/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.ZHaTG1rvc5_GSlo8AXB_Zg.AlRLc8fnQaONKzOVq-BSKurk9_u1V0XtZd_wB0IxtwE&qid=1763366294&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/New-Nexus-Perspective-Information-Discovery-ebook/dp/B0FGWKKJNH/ref=sr_1_1?crid=XTVW78UNXEPX&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.3ZgBJzvXedVYAbDTexWoR2HY0yGHKqg2EprK2JVmLEibpei1OQF9CZleAboU5I4-nC9N59RmJBH4FumEOnq4U-_J7dctCc-YiYxbV4skszpXxR6Q_8Wb8InCYFqKel6F6EPGP5UjpYJ416_oYxhh3A.fE3k_1t-uCYFuXTaJjfD6QA5-12fVTjDLeJtraRl-Ts&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+new+nexus%3A+a+systems+thinking&qid=1772625262&sprefix=the+new+nexus+a+systems+thinking%2Caps%2C232&sr=8-1

Chapters

00:00 Introduction: Human Leadership in an AI World

01:25 Building Resilience in the Age of AI

03:20 Becoming a Systems Thinker

04:18 Why Leadership Is Still About People

06:50 The Four Leadership Lenses

08:01 Strategic Foresight and Preparing for Uncertainty

11:31 Why AI Accelerates an Old Leadership Challenge

12:59 The Pace of the Cognitive Revolution

14:48 Continuous Learning, Unlearning, and Adaptation

17:38 Anticipatory Governance and Leading Ahead of Change

20:10 AI Amplifies What Already Exists

22:41 Keeping Humans in the Loop

25:46 Healthcare, AI, and the Importance of Guardrails

28:03 The Origins of the Four Lenses

30:53 Rebuilding Trust Across Global Teams

36:18 Authentic Leadership Across Cultures

37:55 Lessons from Leading Around the World

40:20 Systems Thinking vs. Local Optimization

44:41 Hope, Humanity, and the Future of Leadership

47:17 Three Leadership Reflections

In this episode of ROAR Mindset, Peter Brandenburger sits down with Jayadevi Matt, an Engineering Director in Intel's Silicon and Platform Engineering Group, a certified coach, and the Global Asia Region Ambassador of the Women at Intel Network.

Jaya shares how she has navigated organizational change, family milestones, health challenges, and leadership transitions while continuing to lead with optimism, gratitude, and possibility.

Together, Peter and Jaya explore what it means to influence without authority, build trust in matrixed organizations, and empower teams through accountability. Jaya shares lessons from leading global engineering teams, helping teams do more with less, and creating shared understanding when priorities, resources, and organizations are shifting.

The conversation also explores mentorship, community leadership, continuous learning, and the importance of giving back. Whether you are leading through change, expanding your influence, or helping a team move forward through uncertainty, Jaya offers practical insights for leading with confidence, curiosity, and gratitude.

Chapters

00:16 Introduction to Jaya Matt

01:51 What Matters Most and the Meaning Behind Her Name

04:35 Gratitude, Family, and Navigating Life's Ups and Downs

07:35 Leading Through Disruption and Career Transitions

12:01 Influencing Without Authority

14:21 Trust, Emotion, and Decision Making

17:08 Leading Former Peers Across Global Teams

18:59 Listening, Reflecting, and Asking

21:01 Navigating Organizational Change

24:46 Empowerment Through Accountability and Trust

26:45 Doing More With Less Without Just Working Harder

28:28 Breaking Down Complexity and Prioritizing Impact

29:52 Clear Communication During Change

32:46 Community Engagement and Mentorship

37:48 Becoming a Certified Coach

38:31 Continuous Learning and Adaptability

39:25 Leading Globally from India

41:37 Conscious and Curious Leadership

In this episode of ROAR Mindset: Leading through Chaos, I sit down with Mike Uhl, a senior technology executive and advisor with more than 30 years of leadership experience across global engineering, software, and platform organizations.

Mike shares stories from across his career, from early failures that required full system redesigns to high-stakes programs that demanded focus, collaboration, and resilience. These moments reveal a consistent theme in his leadership approach: people matter most.

We explore how leaders can create environments where mistakes become learning, how to focus when everything feels important, and why leadership is less about control and more about engaging others to move through complexity together.

There are practical reflections on assuming positive intent, building strong relationships, and leading with a human-centered mindset.

Please check out Mike Uhl Coaching & Insights on LinkedIn to see how he is helping leaders sharpen focus, lead intentionally, and grow with purpose:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeuhl1/

Chapters

00:00 – Introduction and Background

01:41 – What Matters Most

03:00 – Portfolio Career Transition

06:00 – The Power of the Pause

09:50 – Early Career Failure

14:30 – Learning Without Blame

19:10 – High-Stakes Leadership

21:30 – Accountability and Empowerment

24:00 – Focus and Prioritization

27:00 – Experience and Mentorship

28:50 – How Can I Help

30:00 – The Sounding Board

32:00 – Vulnerability in Leadership

35:30 – Leadership Across Contexts

36:30 – Architecting Organizations

40:00 – Decision-Making and Design

45:00 – Inclusion and Human Worth

47:50 – Lessons from Fly Fishing

49:30 – Servant Leadership

52:00 – Staying Curious

53:30 – Leadership and Loneliness

55:25 – Closing Reflections

In Part 2 of this conversation with Lynette Winter, we move into how leaders apply these ideas in real situations.

We explore how leaders can leverage vulnerability, not having all the answers, to unlock the intelligence of their team and create space for better thinking. Lynette shares a powerful reframe on conflict: people are always trying to get their needs met, and when leaders shift to finding shared care, conversations begin to open instead of stall.

We also dive into practical tools from the Intel Leadership Fitness Program, including Relationship, Possibility, and Action (RPA), along with LRA and the 3-2-1 perspective shift. These tools help leaders structure conversations, stay grounded, and move from tension to productive outcomes.

If you’ve ever felt stuck in conversations or misaligned with your team, this episode offers simple practices you can apply immediately.

Enjoy!

Chapters

00:00 – Introduction and focus on vulnerability and shared care

01:20 – Leading without having all the answers

03:00 – Beginner’s mindset vs expert mindset

05:00 – Introducing RPA: Relationship, Possibility, Action

07:00 – Leadership is about people, not just systems

08:30 – People are always trying to get their needs met

10:00 – Finding shared care to unlock conversations

11:30 – Structuring conversations with RPA

13:30 – Aligning on the type of conversation (relationship vs action)

15:30 – Naming where you are in the conversation

17:00 – Balancing preference for action vs possibility

18:00 – Divergence and convergence in decision making

19:30 – Practicing RPA as a team habit

22:00 – Reducing unproductive conflict through structure

24:00 – Practice over perfection: building the habit

27:30 – Start in low-stakes situations to build skill

31:00 – Leadership mindset: curiosity

32:00 – Lessons from parenting: humility and letting go of control

36:30 – Final takeaway: people are always trying to meet their needs

In this conversation with Lynette Winter, we explore how leaders show up in moments that matter.

Lynette shares her perspective on reducing unnecessary suffering in teams by creating environments where people can both perform and feel a sense of belonging. We dive into how leadership starts within, and how a leader’s ability to regulate themselves directly impacts the team around them.

We also explore how to navigate disruption and uncertainty, not by controlling outcomes, but by asking better questions and staying open to what is emerging.

This episode introduces foundational tools from the Intel Leadership Fitness Program, including Listen, Reflect, Ask (LRA), and practices for engaging in difficult conversations and gaining perspective.

If you’re navigating tension, uncertainty, or change, this episode offers practical ways to stay grounded and lead effectively.

Chapters

00:00 – Introduction and Lynette’s focus on reducing suffering in organizations

01:30 – What matters: performance, belonging, and meaningful work

05:45 – Leadership starts within: self-awareness and regulation

09:00 – Leading through uncertainty and disruption

10:00 – “Things fall apart and come back together” mindset

14:00 – Innovation through disruption (COVID example)

18:00 – The role of community and support in uncertainty

20:00 – Navigating paradox and finding a third path

24:30 – From “right answer” to experimentation and learning

28:00 – Asking better questions: “What needs to be true?”

30:00 – Getting out of the room: talk to real people, not assumptions

33:00 – Curiosity question: “How might I be wrong?”

37:30 – Introduction to LRA: Listen, Reflect, Ask

42:00 – Listening beyond words: values, emotion, and intent

48:30 – Difficult conversations and regulating in the moment

55:00 – Perspective shift with 3-2-1

58:30 – Reflection: dysregulation and curiosity in leadership

Summary

In this episode of ROAR Mindset: Leading through Chaos, Peter Brandenburger sits down with Anil Kumar, Principal Engineer and System Architect at Intel, to explore what technical leadership means and why its lessons apply to every leader navigating complexity.

Anil explains that technical leaders are not just expert problem solvers. They are accelerators for others. Their role is to elevate capability, remove friction, clarify direction, and create conditions where teams move faster and with greater coherence.

The conversation covers collaboration across ecosystems, aligning innovation with business needs, and ensuring coherence across hardware, software, and go-to-market realities. Anil reflects on career lessons that shaped him, including the importance of zooming out, adapting plans with humility, and continuing to learn even when success feels comfortable.

Key Takeaways

• Technical leaders act as accelerators for others, increasing the performance of the whole system.

• Collaboration across disciplines creates coherence and impact.

• Innovation succeeds when it aligns with business and ecosystem realities.

• Understanding go-to-market constraints strengthens technical credibility.

• Coaching fosters ownership and sustainable growth.

• Adaptability requires humility and the willingness to pivot.

• Trust with customers and partners is a long-term advantage.

• Communication improves when you focus on what matters to the other person.

• Leaders must continuously assess the value they are adding.

• Zooming out prevents misalignment and wasted effort.

Links to Anil’s Books

Connecting the Internet of Things

https://www.amazon.com/Connecting-Internet-Things-Connectivity-Standards/dp/1484288963

Demystifying Internet of Things Security

https://www.amazon.com/Demystifying-Internet-Things-Security-Successful/dp/1484228952

Subscribe for more conversations on leading through chaos.

Chapters

00:00 – Why Technical Leadership Matters

02:05 – What Matters Most: Multiplying Capability

04:10 – Defining Technical Leadership

06:41 – The Three Criteria of Technical Leadership

09:39 – Communicating Across Disciplines

13:07 – Technical Leadership vs. Management

15:09 – The Wave Analogy: Coherence Across the Stack

19:38 – A Career Lesson: Another Technological Mistake

22:41 – Go to Market Reality

25:22 – Google TV and Scaling Under Pressure

28:37 – Leaving Comfort: What Am I Learning?

33:06 – The Three Criteria for a Role Shift

34:01 – Why a Technical Leader Became a Coach

36:39 – Calm Adaptability

38:44 – Synthetic Deadlines and Context Switching

41:04 – AI, Long Cycles, and Future Thinking

42:23 – Trust as a Competitive Advantage

44:37 – The Leadership Question That Guides It All

45:46 – Final Reflection

In Part 2 of the conversation with Chris Kelly, he shares his experiences and insights from his time at Intel, with a particular focus on his leadership role in Malaysia. He discusses the importance of building trust, the challenges of managing projects, and the significance of honesty in leadership. Kelly emphasizes the need for authentic relationships, and you might be intrigued by his leadership lessons from soccer.

Book: Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson

Chapters

00:00 Intro

01:52 Building Trust for an Uncertain Organization

10:04 Know Your Capability Set

14:40 Headcount is NOT Success

18:10 Answering Challenging Questions in an Open Forum

19:58 Access to Leaders

22:09 Greatness Remains

25:16 The Power of Honesty in Leadership

28:27 Leadership Lessons from Soccer (Real Football)

In Part 1 of this ROAR Mindset conversation, Peter speaks with Chris Kelly, a global technology leader with 28 years of experience at Intel. Chris shares how stepping into new spaces, both in life and in leadership, taught him to lead with clarity, honesty, and presence.

They explore what Chris learned after leaving corporate life, how long-distance walking shaped his understanding of pace and agency, and two leadership stories from his time at Intel: building the PC reference board infrastructure and reframing senior technical leadership. Along the way, Chris offers practical insights on shelving ego, learning from mistakes without personalizing them, and avoiding the trap of vicious compliance.

This episode is filled with guidance for leaders navigating uncertainty and leading teams through disruption.

Book: Things Become Other Things by Craig Mod. The Japanese word Yoyū was the word from this book.

00:00 Introduction to the Roar Mindset

00:19 What matters to Chris Kelly

01:41 Detoxing from Corporate Life

02:52 Abundance Mindset

06:37 Power of Agency

08:01 Exploring the World

16:26 Too Many Reference Boards

18:52 Navigating Uncertainties

26:20 Trust and Resiliency

32:43 Learning from Failures

36:11 Radical Honesty

40:35 Embracing Failure and the End

43:32 Celebrating Transitions

46:42 Midmortems: Learning and Improving Mid-Project

48:22 Creating Space for Creativity and Abundance

51:09 Radical Honesty and Authenticity in Leadership

54:30 The Pitfalls of Inauthentic Relationships

01:04:30 Improving Meeting Efficiency and Decision Making

01:13:59 Conclusion and Key Takeaways

In this episode, Peter Brandenburger speaks with Josh Newman, Vice President at Intel, who led the creation of Project Athena and the subsequent launch of the Intel® EVO™ brand. Josh shares how the PC industry reached a moment where the old innovation approach no longer applied, and how he and his team stepped into that disruption with curiosity and a user-centered mindset.

Josh describes how Project Athena began with uncertainty and no defined path forward. By listening directly to users, the team uncovered the insight of why people turn to their PCs. This reframed the direction and led to a new vision for what laptops should become. This is a story of leading a disruption, one you create, with curiosity instead of control, partnering across a global ecosystem, and letting clarity emerge through connection and insight. It is also a reminder that even the most successful innovations begin with ambiguity and require leaders to act before they know exactly where the work will lead.

Learn more about Intel® EVO™ at https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/systems-devices/laptops/evo.html l

Reference to Melissa Gregg's book Work’s Intimacy

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to the Roar Mindset

01:18 Meet Josh Newman: What matters most

02:47 PC Innovation Initiative

05:15 Understanding PC User Behavior

09:50 Project Athena: Vision and Execution

18:52 The Rise of Freelancers and the Impact of COVID-19

22:34 Reflecting on Remote Work and COVID-19

23:16 The Power of Connected Minds in Innovation

25:00 Industry-Wide Collaboration and the Intel® Evo™brand

27:30 Challenges and Successes in the PC Ecosystem

36:56 The Future of AI and PC Innovation

42:58 Leadership Insights and Final Thoughts