Leading Smart
Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
Episodes
Academy Road
25 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The end of Season Two heralds a new journey: the road to the Leading Smart Academy. The Academy will be a deep resource for leaders just starting out,...
Time Change
18 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The most indelible cultural change is led from the top. Where the leader lives, promotes, recognizes, and corrects in furtherance of the effort. In th...
Conversation with Bob Muglia
11 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Bob Muglia has led teams from as many as 10,000 to a small startup, often taking over teams in distress and returning them to success. But his focus h...
Sense of Change
04 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Changing an organizational culture is a heavy lift even if the issue is not especially thorny. The real question is who can make that change? In this ...
Conversation with Brian Pedersen
25 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Brian Pedersen's team helps companies negotiate the maze of corporate taxes. On top of the unique experience that requires, he faces all the challenge...
Harmonics
18 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When a solid team mixes with a clear vision and an outstanding culture, the resulting brew can be magical. Success that breeds more success, enough to...
Conversation with David Sobeski
11 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
David Sobeski has exercised his skill of a broad view with a detail focus at some of most customer-obsessed companies in the world including Disney an...
Culture Club
04 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What makes up an organization's culture? What effect does culture have on the output of the team? Does a culture bend to the market or does the market...
Conversation with Liz Pearce
28 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Liz Pearce was in marketing at Sony, Google, and Amazon, and then a marketing consultant. At one of her clients, she rose from contract marketing cons...
I Swear
21 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The series on communication wraps up with a look at cursing in the workplace. We explore my tendency to use expletives inappropriately as well as how ...
Conversation with Donn Denman
14 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Donn Denman was an engineer at Apple in the very early years and is now at Google. In our conversation he shares what it was like working with Steve J...
How's It Going
07 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The series on communication continues with the best way to understand how your team and project are doing. There's a wrong way and a right way to find...
Bottom Feeder Redux
31 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The exploration into firing continues with a look at the low end. What is magical about the bottom ten percent? How does stack ranking cheat some peop...
Duck and Cover Redux
24 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How a brutal performance review meeting ended with me getting a stapler hurled at my head. And how that lead to one of my most steadfast rules: in the...
Conversation with Adam Bosworth
17 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Adam Bosworth has led major startup projects both inside and outside of seminal companies of the tech world. In our talk he shares what he learned abo...
Survey Says
10 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The series on communication continues with a look at how to get good feedback. We examine the many pitfalls and one good way to use surveys as a mecha...
Conversation with Somasegar Part 2
03 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Somasegar pushed Microsoft to "build the muscle" of remote work, long before it was cool … or required by the pandemic. He also stretched himself to...
Conversation with Somasegar Part 1
26 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Somasegar traveled from India to the US for his advanced degrees and ended up joining Microsoft for an illustrious 27-year career. Now he's a venture ...
Echolocation
19 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The series on communication continues with the focus on listening. We examine why careful examination of the echo of a leader's message can help not o...
Conversation with Peter Spiro
12 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Peter Spiro's work helped build Microsoft into an enterprise software giant. He also led one of the company's most visible project downfalls. Through ...
Repeat After Me
05 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The series on communication continues with a look at why saying something once is never enough. Even a few times is insufficient. The key to successfu...
Conversation with Tod Nielsen
29 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Tod Nielsen is a multi-time CEO who heads the ERP company FinancialForce. His journey is one of ever-increasing responsibility all the way to the corn...
Not in Your Head
22 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
For the start of a series of episodes on communication as a leader, we delve into some scary territory: the boss's mind. We explore why letting the te...
Conversation with Laura Butler
15 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Laura Butler is much more than just the first female Technical Fellow at Microsoft. She is a smart, thoughtful, and accomplished leader. In this conve...
Suite Story
08 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The corporate C-suite, with all its many Chiefs, has become crowded and unwieldy. Along with this has come some pretty crass pandering. This episode t...
Conversation with Michael Kennedy
01 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Kennedy's experience leading finance operations around the world has served him well as the CFO of the Muscular Dystrophy Association, especia...
Merit Badge
24 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The goal of creating a meritocracy seems admirable. But as Michael Sandel points out, it's unobtainable, and working to get there creates a culture th...
Conversation with Brenda Leaks
17 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Brenda Leaks is developing the next generation of leaders. She does much of that by being an outstanding leader herself. Her op-ed in the Seattle Time...
Every Little Thing
10 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Sweating the details isn't always about dollars and cents. It's often the little changes a leader can make that improve life for their team. Even if i...
Conversation with David Risher
03 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
What do you do after you help Amazon grow by over 26,000 percent? You move on to the audacious goal of getting a billion people reading. In this conve...
It's About Time
27 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Sometimes building a team takes time. Building a team that consistently welcomes diversity of thought takes time in many ways. It takes leaders with s...
Conversation with Rick Rashid
20 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Building and leading a world-class research organization from scratch is an enormous leadership challenge. Pushing boundaries, attracting talent and m...
Think Different
13 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The struggle for more diversity and inclusion is at its core a quest for more and better ideas, for an array of perspectives, and for a broader reach....
Conversation with Tim Williams
06 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Commercial building projects are one-off translations of ideas and creativity into incredibly complex creations that take years and cost millions. Lea...
Not Just a Job
30 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Many organizations struggle with the challenges of diversity and inclusion. In this episode we examine the many ways to make a lot of noise and not a ...
Conversation with Brad Silverberg - Part III
23 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The conversation with Brad Silverberg concludes with a discussion of his move into the world of venture capital. In this third and final episode, Brad...
Conversation with Brad Silverberg Part II
16 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The conversation with Brad Silverberg continues with a detailed discussion of leadership and vision. In this second of three episodes he shares his ma...
Conversation with Brad Silverberg - Part I
09 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Brad Silverberg's fascinating life in the tech world included leading the creation of Windows 95. In this first of three episodes, he shares the seren...
Mass Exit
02 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In the fifth and final episode on firing we look at how to do a layoff. The pandemic has given us a number of great examples of how NOT to do it. We e...
Conversation with Matt Horvat
25 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Leading Smart Season 2 begins with the first of my conversations with leaders. This inaugural is on leadership in education. All about managing and le...
Pulling the Plug
16 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The fourth episode on firing, this time for the hard part: actually firing someone. We explore the do's and don'ts of firing an individual. How it's s...
Season Two
09 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A short announcement about the exciting changes and additional voices coming to Leading Smart with Season Two. It starts in just a couple of weeks, wi...
Trading Places
31 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this third episode on firing, we ask a lot of questions. When is performance bad enough to cut your losses? When is a superstar worth having around...
Bottom Feeder
15 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The exploration into firing continues with a look at the low end. What is magical about the bottom ten percent? How does stack ranking cheat some peop...
Superstar
30 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This episode begins a multipart series on firing, on when and how to let go. The exploration starts with that special person, the amazing performer wh...
Hocus Focus
15 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In the final episode on visions, we take a look at how to use your well-crafted vision. And explore how overheard conversations provide a window into ...
Remote Control
31 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This is a special episode prompted by the Stay at Home orders due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In this episode we explore the movement from centralized h...
Mark My Words
15 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Why words matter, especially words you use for your mission and vision. We also explore how wasting words is an easy trap to fall into. In this third ...
Clear View
29 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How the greatest business failure of the 20th Century was largely caused by the lack of a good vision. And how success lies in the framework of Missio...
2020 Hindsight
15 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A clear, crisp vision is the foundation for a successful project, especially one that involves brainpower workers. And a project with a poor, or no, v...
Soft Landing
31 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Once you've decided on that great candidate, the next challenge is convincing them to take the job. Brainpower workers want more than just a paycheck ...
Fits and Starts
15 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
One of the challenges of hiring brainpower workers is finding that "perfect fit". But often when you do, that's when you should start to worry. In thi...
Wonder Why
31 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Interviewing brainpower workers is the search for intelligence, passion, communication skills, and a thirst for learning. There are lots of ways to do...
Testing Limits
15 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Hiring junior level brainpower workers can be overwhelming. There are simultaneously too many candidates and not enough good ones. Many organizations ...
Hunting Skills
30 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Hiring senior level brainpower workers is much more than posting the job and sifting through the resumes. It's beyond hiring, even beyond recruiting. ...
Accentuate the Positive
15 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A song from 1944 sets the tone for good employee feedback. Featuring an upbeat cover from 1972, and far too many sandwich metaphors, yet still offers ...
Annual Ritual
31 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
First episode of two looking into the annual ritual of performance reviews. This episode focuses on the process, and why it doesn't have to be painful...
Duck and Cover
15 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 3 – Duck and Cover How a brutal performance review meeting ended with me getting a stapler hurled at my head. And how that lead to one of my...
The Brainpower Age
15 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 2 – The Brainpower Age How a simple question about failure of a single project lead to the most important research project of my life. And ...
The Hit Man
14 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 1 – The Hit Man Introducing the Leading Smart podcast - How a job in the car stereo business ended up being mostly about firing people. And ...