Your Preshift

Ryan explores what it takes to enter and lead a true turnaround. Drawing on research from psychology and organizational behavior, he explains why struggling teams often become either helpless or defensive, how to identify the quiet employees who hold the most valuable institutional knowledge, and why fixing relationships is often the first step to fixing performance. The lesson: move quickly on broken systems, but slowly on your judgments about people.

This week on Your Preshift, Ryan explores one of the hardest parts of leadership: walking into a team you didn’t build. Whether you're taking over a restaurant, a department, a school, or a shift, the pressure to prove yourself can push you into changing things before you understand them. Ryan unpacks why organizations are more like archaeological sites than blank slates, how old processes often carry the scars of past successes and failures, and why the smartest thing a new leader can do is listen before they lead. Sometimes the most important work in your first 100 days is figuring out why the fence was built before you decide to tear it down.

AI is making answers easier to find than ever before. The problem is that every answer demands attention. Ryan explores why frontline leaders are feeling overwhelmed, how too many priorities create instability, and why the future of leadership is less about finding problems and more about creating priorities, focus, and sustainable change.

This week, Ryan explores what happens when AI makes everything look polished, but not everything is actually well thought out.

Through stories from the workplace, the luxury industry, and a simple paper airplane, he argues that the real value of leadership is found in the messy middle, the questioning, judgment, and decision-making that AI can't replace.

The episode offers practical ways to pressure-test AI-generated work and serves as a reminder that while technology can assist the work, leaders still have to do the thinking.

References:

1. https://impact.economist.com/technology-innovation/enterprise-ai-in-action/rewiring-the-maison
2. https://www.instagram.com/kevinboxstudio/?hl=en

In this episode, Ryan tackles "responsibility abdication", the habit of blaming a higher power to avoid tough conversations. While managers used to blame "Corporate," the predictive scheduling and automated tracking tools of 2026 have created a new hiding place: "The system did this." Ryan explores the psychology behind why we hide behind algorithms and challenges leaders to reclaim their authority and build trust.

We're rewinding a classic for the AI era: In this kickoff to the Lead Like a Gardener series, we explore why so many leaders default to pressure, control, and quick fixes, especially in fast-paced environments. Drawing on the contrast between mechanic-style leadership and gardener-style leadership, this episode unpacks how true growth doesn’t come from tightening bolts, but from tending to the soil people grow in. If you’ve ever felt like you're the only one driving results, or like you’re stuck being the fixer instead of the leader, this conversation is for you.

Because even in an AI-first world, you still get to choose how you lead.

"I lead you because I’ve done your job." For decades, this has been the ultimate safety net for frontline leaders. But in the era of AI, that safety net is disappearing.

In this episode, Ryan explores a massive shift in leadership identity where functional authority is no longer the leadership currency. Drawing on insights from a recent LinkedIn discussion with leaders like Tonya Witherspoon and Alex Formey, Ryan investigates what happens when we start managing digital "interns" and overseeing complex workflows we have never personally executed which makes the "what" and "how" less important than the "why" and "who".

In the age of AI, Ryan argues that frontline leadership is splitting into two distinct classes. On one side is the Receiver, the leader who treats new tech as a set of instructions to follow, often using AI to solve symptoms while ignoring the real problems. On the other is the Creator, who uses the tools in their pocket to hunt down root causes and redesign the system itself.

In this episode, Ryan's differentiates each type of leader and dives into why nearly 45% of AI initiatives fail due to frontline exclusion and how you can take the reins of your own leadership. We’ll discuss how to stop waiting for corporate permission and start using the organization in your pocket to move from merely managing the business to leading it.

Reference Links

1. New Study from PwC, MI Finds Frontline Leaders Play a Key Role in Manufacturing AI Adoption
2. Organizational Learning - Single and Double Loop

Ryan kicks off a new series on AI and frontline leadership, starting from a place a lot of people can relate to, he was late to take it seriously. What once felt like fantasy is now showing up in real ways across everyday work.

In this episode, he breaks down what AI actually is, how it’s shifting from a tool to something that can act alongside you, and why that changes what it means to be valuable at work.

The focus is on a simple but uncomfortable shift, moving from being the one who gets the work done to the one who leads how the work gets done. It’s a practical starting point for frontline leaders trying to stay human and relevant as everything around them starts to change.

Why do talented leaders end up with average results?

This episode looks at how systems, not people, usually cause the slide, rigid rules, busy work that doesn’t use your brain, and losing your say in how things run. It also gets into the shift happening right now with technology, where holding onto the old work can actually keep you stuck.

The challenge is simple: step out of the “machine work” and get back to the part of leadership only a human can do.