The Hard Skills

You became a leader to create impact, develop others, and drive change. But sometimes it seems like every person you spend time lifting up depletes your capacity. How do you build organizational capacity without depleting your own or creating dependency on you?

For the next few episodes, I will be talking with you about taking a deeper dive in understanding burnout from a perspective I personally don’t hear enough of: the psychosoci...

What does it mean to lead when your life's work seems to have been taken away from you? This is a critical conversation about naming the grief, loss, healing, and transformation for inclusive leaders and experts—and what it takes to stand with and through change.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

How do we cope when decades of progress disappear overnight—and the work you dedicated your life to is suddenly illegal, unwelcome, or irrelevant? W...

You respond to emails within minutes, you're always reachable, your team knows they can count on you. Being there for your team matters, right? So why does it still feel like you're falling behind on everything that actually matters?

For the next few episodes, I will be talking with you about taking a deeper dive in understanding burnout from a perspective I personally don’t hear enough of: the psychosocial drivers of burnou...

You pride yourself on being reliable, capable, and indispensable. But what if the very trait that built your career is now sabotaging your success?

For the next few episodes, I will be talking with you about taking a deeper dive in understanding burnout from a perspective I personally don’t hear enough of: the psychosocial drivers of burnout – what we as individuals bring to it, how social conditioning perpetuates it, and how organi...

It’s easy for us to call out the bad bosses. It’s harder to look in the mirror and confront the bad boss staring back at you. In this episode, you'll discover how anyone can fall into the trap of becoming a bad boss—often without realizing it—as well as strategies managers and employees can use to make work more manageable.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

During the course of her career, top workplace strategist Mita Mallick has worked for ...

Imagine how one conversation after another with 1,200+ global experts can rewire your thinking about influence and impact. We're exposing the pattern underneath daily habits that create massive impact — and what happens when you trust your instincts despite rejection.

Ha and his wife, Vivian are not afraid to chase what others fear or avoid. You'll hear how one couple turned daily curiosity into access to astronauts, Nobel P...

What happens when tech built to boost performance erodes trust? We unpack the legal, cultural, and human cost—and how leaders can protect psychological safety.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

Imagine discovering that the same workplace tech meant to make your job easier is quietly dismantling trust, blurring boundaries, and draining morale. In this episode of The Hard Skills, we pull back the curtain on how tools like productivity trackers, AI ...

Imagine discovering the hidden traits quietly sabotaging your leadership. This episode reveals the 11 risks that can derail even the most promising careers.

Leadership failure rates remain shockingly high—studies show that 50% to 75% of leaders are ineffective. Why? Because their hidden personality-based risk factors are quietly sabotaging performance, communication, and team results. Most leaders don’t even know these risks exi...

WHAT WILL THE AUDIENCE LEARN? 

What if tension isn’t a threat—but the key to breakthrough thinking and faster decisions? What if the conflict you’re avoiding is the conversation your team desperately needs?

In this episode, you’ll learn:

- Why the conflicts they're avoiding are actually the breakthrough conversations their organizations desperately need

- Why "keeping the peace" during rapid change leads to slower decis...

How do you live a fulfilling life? It’s not riches, it’s impact and legacy.  In this episode, you will learn how you can quantify mentoring, volunteering, and philanthropy so you can better understand how much impact you make every day, how to build and leave a rewarding legacy, and how to create a highly generative life. 

We all want to have impact, whether it is at work, at home, or in our communities. And while we are striving to...

Ever wonder what it's like to start and keep a podcast going? For my 100th episode I'm celebrating by sharing some insights, lessons learned, surprising benefits, and the greatest challenges I've faced so far hosting a radio broadcast and podcast show.

Today we are celebrating the 100th episode of The Hard Skills!! It is no easy feat to show up consistently like this and plan things out each week, it’s also a great topic...

Sport isn’t just a game—it’s a mirror of society and a powerful, untapped educational force with implications for life, learning, and leading. Tune in for an honest, inspiring, and research-backed conversation that might just change your perspectives on sports, yourself, and leadership.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

In this episode, Dr. Erianne Weight joins us to examine the leadership pipeline in sport—from the foundational levels of youth c...

Are you the kind of person who takes pride in sticking it out during difficult work situation to the point where you don’t always know when it’s time to move on or have any strategy for how to know when to endure and when to move on? We can definitely all grow from those tough experiences. But there is also growth in the wisdom gained from knowing how to strategically use the right timing to move on. 

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

Dr. Sonja B...

What if the way your organization measures success is quietly setting you up to fail? What if you've been measuring the wrong things to meet a strategic outcome. This episode unpacks how avoiding failure—not just chasing wins—might be the smarter strategic move, and a smart farmework for how to do it. 

We’re not just challenging metrics—we’re rethinking meaning. In this conversation with Mark L. Vincent, we explore what organiza...

Imagine doing everything “right” — and still feeling like it’s not enough. This episode of The Hard Skills isn’t just about burnout or ambition — we’re exposing the invisible blocks that sabotage even the most successful women — and the real shifts that unlock creative power, self-trust, and meaningful momentum. If you’ve ever felt overqualified but undervalued, this one will hit home. 

You’ve got the title, the accolades, the resum...

Ever felt like you’re working nonstop but still falling short? This episode cracks open the myth of busyness and builds a bold new definition of real productivity — one that actually holds up in today’s complex, chaotic work world. Because endurance in leadership isn’t about doing more — it’s about doing what matters, for the long haul.

Imagine this: You’re checking every box, attending every meeting, and still wondering: Is any of ...

What happens when diplomacy becomes avoidance and truth-telling becomes backlash? In this raw solo episode, Dr. Mira Brancu shares two very real, very different stories that led her to rethink how—and when—we speak up. If you've ever struggled to find the right words at the right time (or said nothing at all), this one’s for you.

In this candid and timely episode, Dr. Mira Brancu explores the complex dance between truth-telling ...

What are the common elements required to lead when you work with global or international teams? 

Because leadership is a social construct, it is influenced by social norms that drive how we define what a leader is, what characteristics we expect of them, and how we expect them to appear. However, there is one common element: all leaders must create a thriving environment for employees and by nature, there are some common elements ac...

Stress and burnout are rampant in today's incredibly uncertain and constantly changing business landscape. How can leaders protect themselves and continue to thrive in the face of adversity? In this episode, you will learn the Endurance Leader four-part framework to help you build your mental, physical, and interpersonal longevity, and get practical tips to help you embed these philosophies and practices into your leadership ap...