That quiet voice saying “I’m not good enough” shows up for almost every leader, even the ones who look the most confident from the outside. Mick Spiers sits down with world-renowned leadership coach Marc A. Pitman, author of The Surprising Gift of Doubt, to unpack why self-doubt and imposter syndrome are so persistent and how they can actually point you toward growth, alignment, and better leadership decisions.

We dig into the stories we tell ourselves and how confirmation bias turns those stories into “proof.” Mark shares practical ways to rescript self-talk with simple language shifts that move you from fixed labels to a growth mindset, plus the pattern-interrupt questions that help you stop reacting on autopilot. We also talk about fear of loss, why it blocks action, and how reframing rejection through a “Go for No” mindset can make hard calls and bold moves feel more doable.

From there, Mark maps the Leader’s Journey through four quadrants, showing why copying others only works for so long and how authentic leadership emerges when you integrate internal signals like values, emotions, and lived experience with external inputs like books, mentors, and training. We also cover strategic vulnerability, the fear of judgment in social settings, and how to help team members who doubt themselves by giving specific feedback they can actually believe and repeat.

🌐 Connect with Marc:
• Website: https://www.nonprofitacademy.com/
https://concordleadershipgroup.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcapitman/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marcpitman/

📚 You can purchase Marc's books on Amazon:
• The Surprising Gift of Doubt: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1989603998/
• Ask Without Fear!: https://www.amazon.com/dp/193807906X/

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📕 You can purchase a copy of the Mick Spiers bestselling book "You're a Leader, Now What?" as an eBook or paperback at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09ZBKK8XV

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What if the promotion, the praise, and the “big win” you’re chasing isn’t actually the thing you’re looking for? We sit down with Anthony (a professor and leadership researcher focused on relationships, loneliness, and sustainable leadership) to challenge a stubborn assumption in modern work culture: that success and outcomes are the path to happiness.

We dig into why leaders get trapped by results, even though results live outside our control. Anthony offers a practical shift: focus on the process you can control, accept the reality you’re operating in, and invest in the quality of relationships that make teams thrive. Along the way, we explore his framework that moves from acceptance to forgiveness to gratitude to love, and why resentment can quietly paralyze leaders and poison culture. We also talk about the difference between goals and values, why “respect” is deeper than politeness, and what compassionate, meaningful, sustainable relationships look like in real organizations especially in a hybrid and remote world.

You’ll hear stories and research that connect personal well-being to leadership effectiveness, including how solitude and presence help us stop living an inherited life of “shoulds” and start building a life of meaning. If you’re wrestling with burnout, disengagement, or that nagging feeling that achievement still isn’t enough, this conversation will give you language and tools to reset your compass.

🌐 Connect with Anthony:
• Website: https://theartoflivingfree.org/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-silard-a305516/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anthony.silard/

📚 You can purchase Anthony's books on Amazon:
• Love and Suffering: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0981785379/
• Screened In: https://www.amazon.com/dp/098178531X/

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✅ Follow The Leadership Project on your favourite podcast platform and listen to a new episode every week!

📝 Don’t forget to share your thoughts on the episode in the comments below.
 
🔔 Join us in our mission at The Leadership Project and learn more about our organisation here:  https://linktr.ee/mickspiers

📕 You can purchase a copy of the Mick Spiers bestselling book "You're a Leader, Now What?" as an eBook or paperback at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09ZBKK8XV

If you would like a signed copy, please reach out to [email protected] and we can arrange it for you too.

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Your culture isn’t what you say in calm moments. It’s what your team experiences when tension rises, deadlines slip, and someone has to tell the truth.

We sit down with returning guest Bill Benjamin, co-author of The Last 8%, to move from individual stress behaviors to the bigger question leaders wrestle with: what happens to your culture when things get hard? Bill shares a simple, powerful way to diagnose any team culture using two dimensions that decide everything people do under pressure: courage and connection. We unpack what it looks like when courage shows up without care (transactional, results-first, often unsustainable) and when care shows up without courage (the “family” vibe that can quietly breed frustration, slow decisions, and protect underperformance). We also name the fear-based culture many people recognize and the real costs of silence.

From there, we focus on the target: high care with high accountability. We talk about why connection comes before courage, how leaders can create psychological safety without lowering standards, and how to handle the last 8% moments that define trust. You’ll also get highly practical tools for leadership communication, including a two-step feedback approach that reduces defensiveness, helps you stay specific, and ensures the hard message actually lands. We close on why culture is the operating system for strategy, execution, engagement, and retention.

If this helps you see your team more clearly, subscribe, share the episode with one person who needs it, and leave a review with the quadrant you think your culture lives in today.

🌐 Connect with Bill:
• Website: https://ihhp.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-benjamin-12b671/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bill.benjamin/

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✅ Follow The Leadership Project on your favourite podcast platform and listen to a new episode every week!

📝 Don’t forget to share your thoughts on the episode in the comments below.
 
🔔 Join us in our mission at The Leadership Project and learn more about our organisation here:  https://linktr.ee/mickspiers

📕 You can purchase a copy of the Mick Spiers bestselling book "You're a Leader, Now What?" as an eBook or paperback at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09ZBKK8XV

If you would like a signed copy, please reach out to [email protected] and we can arrange it for you too.

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Leadership has a hidden cost we do not talk about enough: the quiet pressure of being the person everyone leans on while you wonder who you can lean on. Hank Minor joins me for a deeper conversation about the inner world of leadership, the emotional load leaders carry, and the moment the role starts consuming the person. Hank brings a rare mix of experience as a former counseling psychologist, a longtime CEO in a multigenerational manufacturing business, and a leadership mentor who now works with leaders at their threshold.

We dig into a problem every manager recognizes: people “download” their stress onto you, and if you do not have the right mindset and tools, you go home carrying a sack full of other people’s problems. Hank explains why perspective is the senior principle. He shares a practical mental model he calls bifocal vision: staying grounded at street level while also holding a wider context so you do not get lost in the weeds. We also talk about stress release and recovery, from mindfulness and meditation to hobbies, nature, and relationships, because sustainable leadership requires a way to offload pressure.

Then we take on reframing and presence. What if the hard conversation is not just a problem, but a gift and even a form of leadership training? What if giving and receiving are simultaneous, turning “transactional” interactions into relational trust? We explore how presence creates psychological safety, strengthens culture, and unlocks courageous conversations where people finally tell the truth about what is really going on.

If you take one thing away, let it be this: culture can start with one person, and that person can be you. 

🌐 Connect with Hank:
• Website: https://www.hankminor.com/
https://www.thewayofleadership.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hank-minor-ab865629b/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hankminorleadership/

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✅ Follow The Leadership Project on your favourite podcast platform and listen to a new episode every week!

📝 Don’t forget to share your thoughts on the episode in the comments below.
 
🔔 Join us in our mission at The Leadership Project and learn more about our organisation here:  https://linktr.ee/mickspiers

📕 You can purchase a copy of the Mick Spiers bestselling book "You're a Leader, Now What?" as an eBook or paperback at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09ZBKK8XV

If you would like a signed copy, please reach out to [email protected] and we can arrange it for you too.

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Have you ever looked at a team that’s working hard and still thought, “Why are we not moving?” That gap rarely comes down to talent. I’m reflecting on the biggest leadership lessons I heard across three very different conversations this March and the pattern is blunt: what holds people back is usually interference. Fear. Hesitation. Labels that shrink what someone thinks they’re allowed to try. Assumptions nobody has challenged in years.

I connect the dots between innovation, cognitive science, and frontline firefighting leadership to show how real progress happens. We talk about why creativity isn’t reserved for “the gifted few,” how leaders can remove the friction that suppresses ideas, and why innovation is not mainly a process problem. Yes, simple structure helps, but breakthroughs often start when someone steps off autopilot and asks a better question: Are we even solving the right problem? Who is this really for? What have we normalized without noticing?

We also dig into deep listening as a performance advantage and why presence matters more than control. Listening isn’t weakness or indecision. It’s awareness, trust-building, and the skill that helps you know when to step in and when to step back. I also reframe “fail fast” into something more useful for culture and learning: learn fast, so teams stay focused on discovery instead of ego.

If you want stronger leadership, better team culture, and more innovation without piling on more process, hit play. Then subscribe, share this with one leader who needs it, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

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✅ Follow The Leadership Project on your favourite podcast platform and listen to a new episode every week!

📝 Don’t forget to share your thoughts on the episode in the comments below.
 
🔔 Join us in our mission at The Leadership Project and learn more about our organisation here:  https://linktr.ee/mickspiers

📕 You can purchase a copy of the Mick Spiers bestselling book "You're a Leader, Now What?" as an eBook or paperback at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09ZBKK8XV

If you would like a signed copy, please reach out to [email protected] and we can arrange it for you too.

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When leadership gets real, titles stop mattering and habits take over. Fire Captain Mark Andrew joins me to share what he’s learned leading in the fire service, where trust, communication, and decision making aren’t abstract leadership ideas. They are the difference between a smooth operation and a dangerous one. We dig into why so many people are promoted without real leadership training, then fall back on outdated models they inherited from the leaders before them.

Mark walks me through a practical way to learn from “horrible bosses” without carrying bitterness, and how to turn those memories into a clear personal leadership standard. We spend a lot of time on active listening as a critical leadership skill, not just for morale but for better situational awareness and smarter calls under pressure. If you’ve ever wondered why teams stop speaking up, or why problems “suddenly” blow up after months of warnings, this will hit home.

We also unpack the leadership trap of swinging from micromanagement to delegation that turns into abdication, then land on the middle path Mark emphasizes: presence. You’ll hear concrete examples of delegating with follow-up, confirming understanding so people don’t leave with different interpretations, and building trust through empathy plus accountability. If you lead people in any field and want stronger leadership habits, better team culture, and clearer decision making under stress, you’ll take a lot from this conversation.

🌐 Connect with Mark:
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/markdbnfire/

📚 You can purchase Mark's book on Amazon:
• Leading Through the Heat: https://www.amazon.com/dp/196982610X/

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✅ Follow The Leadership Project on your favourite podcast platform and listen to a new episode every week!

📝 Don’t forget to share your thoughts on the episode in the comments below.
 
🔔 Join us in our mission at The Leadership Project and learn more about our organisation here:  https://linktr.ee/mickspiers

📕 You can purchase a copy of the Mick Spiers bestselling book "You're a Leader, Now What?" as an eBook or paperback at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09ZBKK8XV

If you would like a signed copy, please reach out to [email protected] and we can arrange it for you too.

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Most innovation programs don’t fail because people lack talent. They fail because people hesitate. That hesitation is subtle: the moment someone decides they’re “not creative,” the moment a team rushes to certainty, the moment a leader rewards only the safe answer and accidentally trains everyone to stop trying.

I’m joined by Rich Braden and Dr. Tessa Forshaw, co-authors of Innovation-Ish, to break down why everyday creativity gets trapped behind limiting beliefs, social fear, and a handful of stubborn neuromyths. We talk about the “creativity gap” we see in classrooms and boardrooms alike, and we use stories like Apollo 13 to show why analytical work and creative thinking are inseparable in real problem solving.

Then we get practical for leaders: how to build psychological safety without lowering standards, how to celebrate learning (even when an experiment fails), and how to start meetings by aligning the mindset you want people to use. We also challenge the way teams use design thinking and templates, treating tools as prompts that spark better questions rather than recipes that shut down human judgment.

We close with a timely conversation on AI and innovation. AI can lift the floor, but it doesn’t automatically raise the ceiling. The real edge comes from “active metacognition” checking how the work is going while you’re doing it, not just reflecting after the fact, so the team stays intentional, curious, and in control.

🌐 Connect with Rich & Tessa:
• Website: https://www.innovationish.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardcoxbraden/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tessaforshaw/

📚 You can purchase Rich and Tessa's book on Amazon:
• Innovation-ish: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1394318901

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✅ Follow The Leadership Project on your favourite podcast platform and listen to a new episode every week!

📝 Don’t forget to share your thoughts on the episode in the comments below.
 
🔔 Join us in our mission at The Leadership Project and learn more about our organisation here:  https://linktr.ee/mickspiers

📕 You can purchase a copy of the Mick Spiers bestselling book "You're a Leader, Now What?" as an eBook or paperback at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09ZBKK8XV

If you would like a signed copy, please reach out to [email protected] and we can arrange it for you too.

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Want more than buzzwords and brainstorms? Mick Spiers sits down with innovation authority Bruce Vojak to explore how real breakthroughs actually happen. His message is clear: innovation is a human act first. It comes from curious people who challenge assumptions and reframe problems.

From the evolution of the carrot peeler to a billion-dollar innovation at Procter & Gamble, this conversation shows how deep user understanding drives real change. Bruce also shares a practical playbook for leaders: create internal alignment, keep processes simple, empower your innovators, and focus on learning fast.

We also tackle the harder question of unintended consequences and why leaders must ask: What can we make possible, and what have we just made possible?

🌐 Connect with Bruce:
• Website: https://www.breakthrough-innovation-advisors.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bvojak/

📚 You can purchase Bruce's books on Amazon:
• No-Excuses Innovation: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1503627586/
• Serial Innovators: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0804775974/

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✅ Follow The Leadership Project on your favourite podcast platform and listen to a new episode every week!

📝 Don’t forget to share your thoughts on the episode in the comments below.
 
🔔 Join us in our mission at The Leadership Project and learn more about our organisation here:  https://linktr.ee/mickspiers

📕 You can purchase a copy of the Mick Spiers bestselling book "You're a Leader, Now What?" as an eBook or paperback at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09ZBKK8XV

If you would like a signed copy, please reach out to [email protected] and we can arrange it for you too.

If you're thinking about starting a podcast or upgrading your hosting, Buzzsprout is a great option! This link will give both of us a $20 credit when you upgrade:

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Feeling busy yet strangely stuck? We pull together a month of conversations to reveal a clearer path: lead with conscious influence, not control. Across three standout themes—self-leadership, emotional fitness, and meeting design—we show how small, intentional choices create outsized cultural ripple effects.

We start by reframing where leadership lives: not in titles or dashboards, but in behavior and micro moments. Tracy Clark’s lens on self-awareness challenges us to look for where we unintentionally bottleneck our teams by over controlling or rushing to certainty. The move is from hero to catalyst—asking better questions, creating space for others to step up, and letting curiosity replace the need to be right. You’ll hear practical reflection prompts and a simple weekly action to step back once and watch ownership grow.

Next, we add emotional depth with Melinda McCormack. People do not leave their lives at the door, and disengagement rarely happens overnight. We practice the intentional pause: notice, name, and ask why this emotion, why now, then choose a values-aligned response. Treat emotions as data that point to met or unmet needs—belonging, respect, significance. This is how leaders create psychological safety, regulate under pressure, and earn trust that compounds over time.

Finally, Rebecca Hinds equips us to reclaim our calendars. Meetings aren’t bad; they’re badly designed. We challenge visibility bias, clarify purpose, and treat meetings like a product with users, outcomes, and constraints. You’ll learn how to run a calendar reset, redesign who’s in the room, set tighter timeboxes, and use small structural tweaks—like 3:05 starts—to protect energy. One better meeting can reset a team’s focus and signal what your culture truly values.

We close with an integrated challenge: lead one moment with self-awareness, handle one situation with empathy and emotional regulation, and redesign one meeting to be more intentional. Ready to trade busyness for impact? Subscribe, share with a leader who needs this, and leave a review with the one change you’ll try this week.

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✅ Follow The Leadership Project on your favourite podcast platform and listen to a new episode every week!

📝 Don’t forget to share your thoughts on the episode in the comments below.
 
🔔 Join us in our mission at The Leadership Project and learn more about our organisation here:  https://linktr.ee/mickspiers

📕 You can purchase a copy of the Mick Spiers bestselling book "You're a Leader, Now What?" as an eBook or paperback at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09ZBKK8XV

If you would like a signed copy, please reach out to [email protected] and we can arrange it for you too.

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What if your calendar isn’t a badge of honor but a map of wasted potential? We sit down with Rebecca Hinds, PhD and author of Your Best Meeting Ever, to challenge the idea that more meetings mean more value—and to rebuild meeting culture from the ground up. Rebecca unpacks the visibility bias that equates busyness with status, explains why meetings multiply when clarity disappears, and shows leaders how to design time together like a product with purpose, users, and measurable outcomes.

We dive into the 4D rule—only meet to decide, debate, discuss, or develop—and how that single filter slashes status updates and nudges real work back to async. You’ll learn why eight is a magic ceiling for decision meetings, how to include voices without overinviting through pre-reads and transparent notes, and the art of closing the loop so people feel heard even when their idea isn’t acted on yet. Rebecca shares counterintuitive time design: odd-start meetings to beat Parkinson’s Law, strategic buffers to prevent “meeting hangovers,” and the cultural signal sent when you end early because the purpose is done.

Ready for a reset? This episode explores “meeting doomsday,” a 48-hour calendar cleanse where every meeting must earn its place. The biggest gains come from small redesigns like shorter meetings and fewer attendees. You’ll also learn how to use ROTI feedback, clearer agendas, and technology the right way to improve focus and decision-making. 

If you’re tired of back-to-back Zooms and wondering when real work happens, this conversation gives you a practical blueprint. You’ll gain clear norms, language to protect your team’s time, and leadership moves that turn meetings into a competitive advantage. Subscribe, share with a teammate, and ask yourself: which meeting will you redesign first?

🌐 Connect with Rebecca:
• Website: https://www.rebeccahinds.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-hinds/

📚 You can purchase Rebecca's book on Amazon:
• Your Best Meeting Ever: https://www.amazon.com/dp/166806748X/

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Support the show

✅ Follow The Leadership Project on your favourite podcast platform and listen to a new episode every week!

📝 Don’t forget to share your thoughts on the episode in the comments below.
 
🔔 Join us in our mission at The Leadership Project and learn more about our organisation here:  https://linktr.ee/mickspiers

📕 You can purchase a copy of the Mick Spiers bestselling book "You're a Leader, Now What?" as an eBook or paperback at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09ZBKK8XV

If you would like a signed copy, please reach out to [email protected] and we can arrange it for you too.

If you're thinking about starting a podcast or upgrading your hosting, Buzzsprout is a great option! This link will give both of us a $20 credit when you upgrade:

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