SightShift with Chris McAlister

We measured how over 1,000 leaders show up under pressure — and across 37 companies, one pattern kept repeating. At the C-suite level, 87% default to hiding. Not yelling. Not dominating. Hiding. And it doesn't look like fear — it looks like composure.

AI doesn't make you a better leader. It makes you a louder version of the leader you already are.

In this episode, Chris and Mark walk through the framework at the heart of the new book

The 3% Shift — the three human capacities AI can imitate but never replace:

Imagination — AI optimizes what exists; it can't picture the unseen reality worth leading toward.

Discernment — hard-fought wisdom that knows the territory, not just the map.

Relationship — AI remembers every mistake. Only a human can forgive one.

You'll hear why chasing AI as a shortcut quietly trains it to amplify your insecurities, and how to use it to sharpen your thinking instead of outsourcing it.

If you lead a team and feel the pull to let the tool do your thinking, this one's for you. 

Most companies have data on revenue, retention, and engagement. Almost none have data on what their leaders actually do under pressure. SightShift® does — across over 1,000 leaders and 37+ organizations. Today on Lunch with Chris: the data nobody has on your leaders, and the #1 mistake it reveals.

In episode 2 of the 3% Shift series, Chris and Mark go deeper than the identity gap they named in episode 1, into what happens when the most powerful technology ever built quietly trains itself to mirror your insecurities back at you. The higher up the org chart you sit, the faster the loop accelerates. AI doesn't just hand you an echo chamber. It hands the C-suite a long, slow, well-funded death propped up by an assistant that always says yes.

Everyone is talking about AI. Almost no one is talking about it correctly.

In the final episode of the Make Culture Your Edge series, Chris and Mark walk through the Culture Impact Script: the nine-stop framework SightShift uses to take teams through a real breakthrough.

Using Michigan basketball's national championship as the running example, Chris breaks down what it actually takes to sustain greatness, not just talk about it

Your AI tool outperforms 97% of people. Alice knows that — and she's running every decision through the model. Here's why that's exactly backwards, and what the 3% do instead.

In this episode of the Make Culture Your Edge series, Chris and Mark double-click on the second pillar of the SightShift culture model, Right Change, using the breaking of the Fellowship at Amon Hen as the running metaphor. The mission didn't change. The vision didn't change. But the structure that carried them up to that point had to fracture. And how each character responded to that fracture is the whole story of leading change.

If you're the leader who pushes harder when the team feels heavy, doubles intensity when the metrics stall, and confuses urgency for transformation — there's a drill sergeant running your insides. Here's why white-knuckling doesn't actually drive change, and what does.

Most leaders say they want open dialogue. What they actually want is conformity. Chris and Mark open the Conflict pillar of the culture model and reframe everything you've been taught about handling disagreement on a team.