Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership

The old playbooks for leadership? They aren't just gathering dust. They’re being rewritten in real-time. We’re moving away from command-and-control and toward something much more human, agile, and, frankly, much more exciting.This is Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I’m your host Alexis Monville.In each episode, I sit down with the visionaries, the quiet disruptors, and the bold thinkers who are shaping the next era of management and innovation. We aren't just looking for 'best practices.' We’re looking for the sparks of change that help us grow, not just as managers or individual contributors, but as PEOPLE.Expect deep dives, unexpected insights, and a healthy dose of curiosity. Whether you’re leading a global organization or leading your very first project, this is your space to explore how leadership is evolving.So, if you’re ready to challenge the status quo and step into the future of work, subscribe now.Let’s discover what’s emerging, together.

Agile transformed how small teams build software.But what happens when organizations grow to hundreds or thousands of people?In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, Alexis Monville welcomes Fabrice Bernhard, co-founder and CTO of Theodo and co-author of The Lean Tech Manifesto.Fabrice explains why the four values of the Agile Manifesto have inherent scale limits, and how Lean thinking helps organizations keep the same intention, without falling into bureaucracy.They explore:– what “value for the customer” really means at scale– why autonomy requires both leadership and architecture– how tech-enabled networks of teams work in practice– what it takes to build a true learning organization– and why Lean is not just good for people, but also for businessA grounded conversation for leaders, tech professionals, and change agents navigating growth, complexity, and responsibility.Find the transcript and the references in the companion blog post: https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2026/02/10/when-agile-scales-something-breaks/

Some leadership lessons are best learned far from meeting rooms and org charts.In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, Alexis Monville welcomes Francelina Amaral, a hospitality leader shaped by service excellence, attention to detail, and deep respect for people.Together, they explore what leaders in any industry can learn from hospitality:Why onboarding is not a checklist but invisible hospitality: preparation before arrival, small gestures, removing frictionHow leadership as service creates trust, safety, and conditions for others to succeedHow belonging is built (and broken) through everyday actionsWhy discipline and standards matter, but only work when rooted in genuine careHow leaders develop others by creating confidence, especially when mistakes happenA practical, human conversation about trust, ownership, and the kind of leadership that makes people feel expected, welcome, and valued.The full transcript of this episode is available in the companion blog post linked in the description, on alexis.monville.com.https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2026/01/15/invisible-hospitality-with-francelina-amaral-what-leaders-in-any-industry-can-learn-from-service-excellence/Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership is supported by Pearlside, where we help leaders and teams create the conditions for responsibility, clarity, and impact to emerge. You can learn more at pearlside.fr.

In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I welcome Teresa Torres, product discovery coach and author of the influential book Continuous Discovery Habits.Teresa shares how product teams can move beyond sporadic research and embed continuous customer discovery into their weekly routines. Drawing from years of coaching, teaching, and hands-on practice, she explains how teams can build better mental models of their customers, make stronger decisions, and consistently deliver outcomes rather than outputs.In this conversation, you’ll explore:Why continuous discovery is about habits, not occasional researchHow weekly customer conversations dramatically improve everyday decision-makingThe role of the Product Trio (Product, UX, Engineering) in balancing viability, desirability, and feasibilityHow Opportunity Solution Trees help teams stay aligned while navigating ambiguityWhy leaders must shift from managing outputs to enabling outcomes and adaptabilityHow Generative AI is reshaping product roles, collaboration, and discovery practicesA must-listen for product leaders, designers, engineers, and executives navigating uncertainty and seeking more adaptive, customer-centered ways of working.Find the transcript and the references in the companion blog post: https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2025/06/29/embracing-continuous-discovery-a-conversation-with-teresa-torres/

In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, Alexis Monville speaks with Manuel Pais, organizational design practitioner and co-author of the influential book Team Topologies (with Matthew Skelton).Together they explore how modern organizations can improve flow, reduce team cognitive load, and evolve structures without relying on disruptive “big reorgs”.You will learn:The four fundamental team types from Team Topologies: Stream-aligned, Enabling, Platform, and Complicated Subsystem teamsWhy cognitive load limits effectiveness, delivery speed, and satisfaction — and how to identify what drives itWhy team design is not about labels, but about interactions: Collaboration, Facilitation, and X-as-a-ServiceHow Platform teams should alternate interaction modes, not become ticket factoriesWhat leaders must do to enable evolutionary change: set expectations, invest in support, and protect learningWhy Manuel believes organizations should invest in dedicated “flow enablers” focused on removing bottlenecksA practical conversation for CTOs, engineering leaders, product leaders, and anyone shaping teams for sustainable delivery and employee satisfaction.Find the key findings, the references, and the transcript of the episode in the companion blog post: https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2025/06/02/unlocking-flow-and-effectiveness-a-conversation-with-manuel-pais-co-author-of-team-topologies/

In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, Alexis Monville welcomes back Gojko Adzic, renowned author and speaker in modern software delivery, named an AWS Serverless Hero (2019), and author of Impact Mapping, Specification by Example, and his latest book Lizard Optimization.Gojko shares a practical method for turning unexpected user behavior into product growth and better decisions. He calls it lizard optimization: spotting “misuse”, learning from it, and deciding whether to support it or block it.In this conversation, you will learn:Why unusual user behavior can reveal hidden value and new marketsThe LZRD loop: Learn, Zoom in, Remove obstacles, Detect unintended impactsHow “desire lines” apply to product teams and organizationsWhy controlled experiments matter, and why most ideas do not create measurable valueHow to stop falling in love with solutions and refocus on the problemA must listen for product leaders, engineering leaders, founders, and anyone building systems where adoption, learning, and impact matter.Find the key learnings, the transcript and more in the companion blog post: https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2024/10/29/optimizing-for-the-unexpected-insights-from-gojko-adzic-on-lizard-optimization/

In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, Alexis Monville welcomes Héloïse Rozès and Nikolai Fomm, first-time founders and co-founders of Corma, a startup building the “cockpit of truth” for software access and license management — helping companies control their SaaS stack, reduce waste, and improve employee experience.From their day-to-day reality at Station F to the intensity of building a company in survival mode, Héloïse and Nikolai share what leadership really looks like when you’re learning it in real time.You’ll hear practical insights on:Adapting communication across co-founders, employees, investors, and clientsLeading with empathy while still making tough callsSaying “no” to stay focused and avoid spreading the team too thinBuilding a value-driven culture through rituals, feedback, and programs like the CormacolindorUsing frameworks like Radical Candor to avoid ruinous empathy and make feedback usefulA grounded conversation for emerging leaders, early-stage founders, and anyone building teams under uncertainty.Find the transcript and the references in the companion blog post: https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2024/10/13/leadership-as-first-time-founders-with-heloise-rozes-and-nikolai-fomm/

What if the future of user experience wasn’t about smarter AI — but better human judgment?In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, Alexis Monville welcomes Sebastian Cao, a technology and user experience leader who has held key roles at Red Hat and Tesla, and who recently designed and taught a course at Stanford University on the future of User Experience.Drawing on his experience working with frontline technicians, engineers, and product teams, Sebastian shares a clear conviction: AI should not replace human judgment, but augment it.Together, Alexis and Sebastian explore:Why prediction without judgment leads to poor UX and low adoptionHow empathy becomes a core engineering skill in AI-driven systemsWhat “service augmentation” means in practice at TeslaWhy transparency and explainability are essential to trustHow open source plays a critical role in ethical AI adoptionThis episode is a deep, grounded conversation about the future of UX — where technology serves people, not the other way around.A must-listen for tech leaders, product managers, designers, and anyone shaping human-centered systems in an AI-powered world.Find the transcript and more in the companion blog posthttps://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2024/10/07/the-future-of-user-experience-with-sebastian-cao/

What if helping people think seriously about their future made them more committed today?In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, Alexis Monville welcomes Russ Laraway — former senior leader at Google and Twitter, co-founder and former COO of Candor Inc. (with Kim Scott), and author of When They Win, You Win.Russ shares lessons drawn from decades of leadership experience and from large-scale, data-driven research conducted at Qualtrics, where leadership behaviors were rigorously measured and correlated with employee engagement and business outcomes.Together, Alexis and Russ explore:Why career conversations are not about “greasing the skids” for people to leaveWhy retention at all costs is a losing and dehumanizing strategyHow managers directly influence engagement, satisfaction, and performanceWhy direction, coaching, and career are the three most critical leadership skillsThis conversation challenges common management reflexes and offers a deeply human — and evidence-based — view of leadership, where investing in people is not a risk, but a core responsibility.If you lead people and care about sustainable impact and satisfaction, this episode will reshape how you think about your role as a leader.Find the references and the transcript in the companion blog post: https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2024/07/27/redefining-leadership-a-conversation-with-russ-laraway/

Most leaders think they’re good communicators, until the stakes rise and the conversation derails.In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I speak with Jeffrey Fredrick, VP of Engineering at Ion Analytics and co-author of Agile Conversations, about how leaders can deliberately practice better communication, especially under pressure.Jeffrey shares the moment that changed his leadership: being told he was strong in advocacy but weak in inquiry. From there, we explore Chris Argyris’ unilateral control vs mutual learning models and the practical method Jeffrey uses to help teams improve conversations: the Four Rs.We also discuss why “Start With Why” is often not the best starting point. Jeffrey argues that the real foundation is trust, followed by the ability to surface fear without derailing into blame or silence.In this episode, you’ll learn:Why balancing advocacy and inquiry changes everythingThe Four Rs method: Record, Reflect, Revise, Role PlayWhy we misremember conversations and “hear music in our head”Why trust comes before why, and how vulnerability builds itHow to surface fear without venting or sugarcoatingHow practice reveals patterns: triggers, tells, and twitchesHow these skills spread in organizations, one person at a timeReferences mentioned:Chris Argyris: Model 1 (unilateral control) vs Model 2 (mutual learning)Agile Conversations (Jeffrey Fredrick and Douglas Squirrel)CitCon (conference for devs and testers before DevOps had a name)If you lead teams, facilitate tough discussions, or want to build a culture where people learn together rather than “win” arguments, this episode gives you a clear practice path.Find the summary, the transcripts and the references in the companion blog post: https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2024/06/30/exploring-agile-conversations-with-jeffrey-fredrick/

What happens to leadership when you can’t simply write a roadmap and “hand it to engineering”? In open source, influence replaces authority, and outcomes depend on communities, collaboration, and trust.In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I sit down with Maria Bracho, Chief Technology Officer for LATAM at Red Hat, to explore leadership through the lens of open source, global cultures, and building high-performing teams.Maria shares a memorable story from Japan (yes, ramen) to explain open source in a tangible way, then takes us inside what it means to lead across geographies, hire intentionally, and create momentum even when you don’t control all the variables.We also discuss Red Hat’s direction on AI, including RHEL AI and InstructLab, and what it means to approach AI the “Red Hat way” through openness and community.In this episode, we explore:A concrete, memorable explanation of open source (through the ramen industry)Why competitors collaborate on standards but still compete on differentiationLeading across cultures: US, Japan, LATAM (and how it shapes leadership)Taking on hard problems: persistence, learning, and influenceWhat product leadership looks like when communities choose what to buildMaria’s approach to recruitment and building cohesive teamsRed Hat’s AI direction: RHEL AI, InstructLab, and democratizing model tuningIf you lead in tech, build products with engineers, or want to understand open source as a leadership environment, this episode will give you practical shifts you can apply immediately.Find the transcript and the references in the companion blog post!

What does engineering leadership look like when your platform serves tens of millions of users and stores one of the largest content repositories on the web?In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I sit down with Tamar Bercovici, VP of Engineering at Box, to explore what it takes to lead engineering organizations at scale while navigating constant change.Tamar shares her journey from software engineer to executive leader, the challenges of transitioning from individual contributor to manager and then to organizational leadership, and how she approaches large-scale transformations such as infrastructure migrations and cloud adoption.We discuss how leaders create alignment without micromanaging, why clarity of purpose matters more than control, and how to manage risk in complex, high-stakes engineering environments.In this episode, we explore:Leading large-scale engineering platforms with lean teamsThe transition from IC to manager to organizational leaderAligning engineering work with business impactLeading through major infrastructure and organizational changeCreating clarity of goals so teams can make good local decisionsManaging risk through experimentation and early de-riskingInnovating with AI on top of large-scale content platformsThis conversation is essential listening for engineering leaders navigating growth, complexity, and continuous change.Find the transcript and more in the companion blog post:https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2024/05/03/engineering-leadership-at-scale-navigating-complexity-and-change-with-tamar-bercovici/

What does it really take to build and sustain excellence in engineering, especially inside a high-performance company?In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I sit down with Bruce Wang, Director of Engineering at Netflix and two-time founder, to explore leadership in tech through a simple but demanding philosophy: build trust, seek excellence, and drive customer delight.Bruce shares how leaders can balance these three pillars, why trust is the foundation for everything else, and what it looks like to scale leadership when you no longer manage individual contributors directly. We also unpack the less glamorous side of leadership: failure modes, shortcuts that break trust, and the humility required to rebuild.In this episode, we cover:The three pillars of Bruce’s leadership philosophy: trust, excellence, customer valueHow leaders lose trust by moving too fast, and how to repair itSetting vision before team structure: why “where we’re going” comes firstScaling leadership through managers, and learning to let go“People over process” and the real place of systems and lightweight structureLeadership as a “humble gardener”: cultivating conditions for growthLessons from Netflix’s shift to remote work during COVIDFind the transcript and the references in the companion blog post: https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2024/03/30/building-and-sustaining-excellence-with-bruce-wang-netflix/

What does it take to lead with outcomes without turning goals into top-down control?In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I sit down with Tim Beattie and Bella Bardswell, co-founders of Stellafai, to explore outcome-focused leadership, collaboration, and how teams can turn goals into a living way of working.We discuss why OKRs often fail in the real world (and what to do instead), how language shapes adoption (goals vs objectives, measures vs key results), and why collaboration in the room still matters. Tim and Bella also share how Stellafai uses AI as a team member that helps people think, align, and experiment, without replacing human conversations or coaching.In this episode, we cover:OKRs vs management-by-objectives: what creates resistance and how to fix itHow to make goals collaborative, measurable, and continuously used (not set-and-forget)Using impact mapping to create better outcomes and reduce wasted workAI that supports teams by nudging, suggesting, and accelerating alignmentBuilding inclusion from day one through practices that give everyone a voiceAdvice for emerging leaders: collaboration, prioritization, and making leadership enjoyableFind the transcript and the references in the companion blog post: https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2024/02/06/leading-with-outcomes-insights-from-stellafais-co-founders/

Michael Galloway has spent 20+ years building and leading cloud infrastructure and platform engineering teams across Yahoo, Netflix, and now HashiCorp. In this episode, we go beyond tools and buzzwords to unpack what modern infrastructure leadership really takes: understanding what sits beneath abstractions, setting the right defaults instead of hiding complexity, and building trust through predictable systems.We also dive into real change leadership stories: taking ownership during a workflow platform crisis, creating outcomes that matter (stability, scalability, confidence), and earning adoption by delivering early wins. Michael shares why “predictability beats velocity,” how to create urgency with a real cliff date, and what emerging leaders should focus on in their first 90 days.In this episode, you’ll learn:Why infrastructure platforms should enable “drill down” and operational ownershipHow to lead through incidents with clarity, accountability, and communicationPractical change management tactics for platform adoption at scaleHow to set outcomes, deliver early wins, and rebuild trust in internal platformsLeadership advice for platform and engineering managers: stakeholders, credibility, purposeFind the transcript and the references in the companion blog post: https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2024/01/24/navigating-the-evolution-of-cloud-infrastructure-insights-from-michael-galloway/

In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I talk with Ioanna Mantzouridou, Co-founder and CEO of Dextego, an AI-powered coaching platform designed to reduce top talent attrition through personalized leadership development.Ioanna shares her journey from HR and organizational psychology to building an AI coaching product that addresses one of today’s biggest leadership challenges: developing soft skills at scale, especially in remote and hybrid environments.We explore:Why traditional learning and leadership programs fail to develop real soft skillsHow AI can democratize access to coaching beyond the C-suiteWhat it means to lead an early-stage startup while balancing fundraising, sales, and visionWhy empathy, discipline, and continuous learning matter more than ever for leadersHow personalized development can dramatically improve top talent retentionThis conversation is for founders, leaders, HR and L&D professionals who want to understand how leadership development is evolving and what role AI can realistically play in building stronger, more human organizations.Find the transcript and more in the companion post.#LeadershipDevelopment #AI #EmergingLeaders #Podcast

In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I’m joined by Ali Schultz, co-founder of Reboot.io.Reboot has spent the last decade coaching CEOs and leadership teams with a simple belief: better humans make better leaders, and better leaders create more humane organizations. Ali shares what it took to build a brand bigger than its founders, why Reboot intentionally brings together coaches with different styles and lived experiences, and what “emerging leadership” looks like in the real world when self-doubt, responsibility, and relationships collide.We talk about the practices that support leaders over time, including journaling, reflection, and learning to slow down enough to make space for the humans in the room. We also explore what startups often get wrong when hiring, why not everyone needs to scale with a fast-growing organization, and why leadership development will need to become even more human in the coming years, AI included.Find the transcript and more in the companion blog post.

Remote work is often framed as a technology problem. Lisette Sutherland sees it differently: the hard part is remote collaboration, and the real challenges are human.In this episode, I’m joined by Lisette, founder of Collaboration Superpowers, host of the Collaboration Superpowers podcast, and author of Work Together Anywhere. We explore what remote work makes visible: personality clashes, misaligned expectations, communication overload, and the absence of clear team agreements.Lisette shares stories from her own experience, including how a team moved from private back-channeling to explicit conflict handling, why flat structures can make tension harder to resolve, and how a simple practice like Moving Motivators changed a working relationship by revealing what someone needed to feel connected.We also discuss what we can learn from WordPress eliminating email through documented decision trails, how a large German company runs hybrid PI planning sessions across three time zones, and why remote is often blamed for issues that existed long before remote.If you’re leading or working in a hybrid or remote environment, this conversation offers practical tools and a reminder: you can’t leave collaboration to chance. You need intention.Key takeaways you can reuseLisette focuses on remote collaboration, not remote work. The core value is freedom and possibility, not location.The toughest remote problems today are personality, conflict, and expectations, not tools.Team agreements are essential, yet most teams still don’t have them.Flat organizations can struggle in conflict because there is no decision owner, so facilitation and explicit conflict protocols become critical.You don’t need to be friends to work well together, but you do need professional trust and clarity.The biggest operational pain is communication overload (meetings, channels, email, constant input).WordPress offers a model: document decisions and reduce reinvention rather than drowning in messages.Hybrid PI planning across time zones can work when teams invest in rehearsals and shared tool fluency.Face-to-face is not mandatory, but it accelerates bonds and makes closeness easier to build.Remote work is often used as a scapegoat for poor management. Remote makes weak culture and weak leadership more visible.Intentional practices (icebreakers, virtual coworking, Pomodoro sessions) help teams create connection and focus.👉 Find the transcript and the references in the companion blog post!

In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I speak with Anne Caron, People Strategy consultant and former Google HR leader, about what it takes to build organizations that scale, without losing what makes them work.Anne draws on her decade at Google and her experience advising founders to explain why many startups wait too long to design the people side of the company. We explore her book From Zero to 1,000 and the five stages of startup growth: 0–30, 30–75, 75–200, 200–500, and 500–1,000 employees, using a child development analogy to show how each stage brings different challenges and requires different leadership moves.We talk about culture as something concrete, built on four pillars: purpose, mission, vision, and values, and why values must describe the real experience of working inside the company, not an aspirational poster. We also cover when to build an HR function, what profile to hire first, how candidate experience shapes employer brand, and why performance management should stay lean so it supports initiative rather than slowing it down.If you’re a founder or leader navigating growth, this conversation will help you anticipate what changes, and build the foundations early.Key takeaways you can reuseStartups face distinct growth stages: 0–30, 30–75, 75–200, 200–500, 500–1,000. Each stage needs different leadership and structures.Over-structuring too early reduces the startup’s main advantage: flexibility.Culture rests on four pillars: purpose, mission, vision, values. Values are about how work is really done.Founders shape most of the culture through actions, not slogans.Hire the people function earlier than you think, especially when hypergrowth is coming.A strong candidate experience is a competitive advantage and a key part of employer branding.Performance management should be lean and enable initiative, autonomy, and decision making.KPIs and OKRs are indicators, not tools for compensation decisions.Take time to think and address root causes, instead of creating processes for every problem.Find the transcript and the references in the companion blog post:https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2023/08/23/from-zero-to-1000-insights-from-anne-caron/

In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I sit down with Radhika Dutt, author of Radical Product Thinking: The New Mindset for Innovating Smarter. We explore why “iterate until something works” often becomes a trap, and what it takes to build products more deliberately.Radhika shares the idea of “product diseases”, from Hero Syndrome to obsessive sales disorder, and explains how Radical Product Thinking offers a more systematic way to innovate. We walk through the full framework: Product Vision, Strategy, Prioritization, Hypothesis Driven Execution and Measurement, and Culture.We also discuss how leaders can communicate tradeoffs at scale, avoid vision debt, and build a culture where innovation thrives through shared purpose, autonomy, and psychological safety. Radhika offers a memorable lens on culture using two dimensions: fulfilling versus non fulfilling, and urgent versus non urgent, with the goal of maximizing the time spent in meaningful, non urgent work.If you want to innovate smarter, reduce thrash, and create environments where people can do their best work, this conversation is for you.Iteration is not a strategy. A team usually can’t afford more than a few pivots before losing money or momentum.A product is a mechanism for creating a change, and it’s only successful if it creates that change.A strong product vision is not vague or grand. It is specific and answers who, what, why, when, and how.Strategy starts with real pain points, not imagined ones. A pain point is real only when it is verified and valued.Prioritization is leadership at scale: helping everyone understand tradeoffs without needing you in every meeting.Balance vision versus survival explicitly. Name vision debt when you take it on.Execution and measurement should test hypotheses derived from strategy, not incentivize metric gaming.Culture can be shaped like a product: reduce time in the “bad quadrants” and design for meaningful work.Key takeaways you can reuseFind the transcript and the references in the companion blog posts: https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2023/06/12/radical-product-thinking-a-conversation-with-radhika-dutt/

Open source won at the level of code. But the cloud changed the game.In this conversation, Daniel Riek explores why cloud computing creates a new kind of threat for free and open source software: the software may be open, but the way it is operated becomes the proprietary differentiator. When “how to run it” is locked behind a service, control and freedom erode, even if the license is still open.Daniel argues that open source must expand beyond code in a repository to include operationalizing software as a service, and that decentralization is a key counterweight to the centralizing forces of the cloud. He also explains why dependency awareness is now a core leadership skill, not only for technologists but for anyone who cares about sovereignty, sustainability, and long term resilience in a software defined world.In the episode, you will learn:why cloud operational excellence can turn open source into a proprietary advantagewhat “open source at rest” misses in a service worldhow abstraction layers create distance and fragilitywhy GitHub is a revealing example of open source dependencywhat it would mean to “open source the operation”why decentralization matters, and what Mastodon teaches usthe leadership skills required in the cloud era: dependencies, control, sustainability, sovereignty, and clarity between software, product, and serviceFind the transcript and the references in the companion blog post: https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2023/06/05/how-the-cloud-threatens-open-source-and-what-we-can-do-about-it-a-conversation-with-daniel-riek/

What if leadership growth was not about doing more, but about seeing more?In this episode, we explore the BEPS framework, a simple model built around four axes that shape a leader’s effectiveness: Business, Execution, People, and System. The framework helps leaders step back from a default focus on execution and broaden their impact by developing clarity on the business, growing people, and improving the system that makes work possible.There is also a twist: for this recording, OpenAI is the host. Emma Monville impersonated OpenAI, asking the questions Alexis had prepared, so Alexis could be the guest and explain the framework in depth.In the episode, you will learn:what the BEPS framework is and why it was createdwhy leaders overinvest in Execution and neglect the other axeshow to use BEPS as a self reflection tool using your weekly calendarhow to use BEPS to assess a team’s priorities and blind spotswhy System and Execution must be separatedhow BEPS connects with servant leadership and other modelshow BEPS evolved over timethe two qualities that make BEPS work: curiosity and humilityFind the transcript and more in the companion blog post: https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2022/12/30/the-best-framework-to-grow-yourself-as-a-leader/

Open source has moved from a niche practice to a default foundation for how software is built. In this episode, I’m joined by Joseph Jacks, founder and General Partner of OSS Capital, a venture fund focused exclusively on early-stage commercial open source companies.We explore what makes open source companies different from proprietary software businesses, why Joseph built a focused fund in a world where many VC firms claim to invest in “great people building great companies”, and how OSS Capital often starts with a thesis on a project before even meeting the founders. We also dive into capital efficiency, community-driven product maturity, and why open source keeps expanding through a powerful mix of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations.In this episode, you will learn:why Joseph chose open source as an investment focuswhy OSS Capital often invests in projects before teamshow open source changes diligence through public data and signalswhat it takes to go from open source project to incorporated companywhy commercial open source companies can be more capital efficienthow open source lowers friction in enterprise adoption and saleswhy people contribute, and how intrinsic motivation sustains the flywheelthe leadership trait Joseph admires most: humilityFind the transcript in the companion blog post!

Complexity is rising, and collaboration is one of the few ways we can match it: diverse minds working together, with intention.In this episode, I’m joined by Philippe Coullomb and Charles Collingwood-Boots, co-authors of Collaboration by Design. They describe their work as designing collaborative journeys to help groups solve complex problems and make complex decisions, often in multi-stakeholder contexts. We unpack what really makes collaboration work: the sponsor work that happens before anyone enters the room, the importance of context setting, how facilitation is only the visible tip of the iceberg, and why space is not logistics but a design lever.We also explore virtual and hybrid collaboration: what stays the same, what gets harder, why intensity drops online, and why hybrid is especially challenging without strong technical setup and deliberate design.In this episode, you will learn:what matters when people gather to solve complex problemswhy a workshop is only the visible tip of the iceberghow sponsor selection and engagement shapes outcomeswhy context setting is essential for participant engagementhow facilitation differs from simply following an agendawhy teams enable agility and real-time pivotswhat changes in virtual collaboration and why it takes more effortwhy hybrid collaboration is very challenging and tech-dependentwhy space is a facilitation lever, not a logistics detailwhat happens after the workshop to turn outcomes into actionFind the transcript and the references in the companion blog post:https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2022/07/19/collaboration-by-design-with-philippe-coullomb-and-charles-collingwood-boots/

Ashley Freeman is the founder of Flourishing Work, where she supports leaders through facilitation and coaching. Her background started in medical research, then leadership education, and a first experience as a people leader that changed everything: she discovered how leadership theory, applied with care, can help teams flourish and improve outcomes at the same time.In this episode, we explore purpose at work, personal brand, and trust. Ashley shares why she runs a weekly book discussion club, how leaders build others through opportunities, and why leadership is not about title but about taking care of people. We also talk about personality work with teams, conflict, and the book she is publishing on finding your career purpose.In this episode, you will learn:what led Ashley to create Flourishing Workwhy leadership is taking care of peoplehow leaders help others grow through real opportunitieshow a weekly book discussion club accelerates learningwhat personal brand really means and how to manage ithow clarity on values supports trusthow personality tools can improve team collaborationhow to approach conflict by making value visiblewhat Ashley’s upcoming book teaches: a path to career purposeLearn more in the companion blog post.

Jurgen Appelo is an author, speaker, and entrepreneur. He’s known for Management 3.0, for building practitioner communities, and for pushing ideas about agility, leadership, and change into formats people actually use.In this episode, we talk about what led Jurgen to leave corporate leadership, how his books each came to life, and why experimentation and fast feedback loops remain central leadership skills in complex systems. We also explore the role of community, the difference between teaching and practicing leadership, and what Jurgen learned from the pandemic about travel, craft, and balance.In this episode you will learn:why fast feedback loops matter for leaders, not only teamswhat it means to manage and lead in complex social systemsthe role communities play for belonging and learninghow Jurgen approaches writing very different kinds of bookswhy being a great teacher differs from being a great practitionerwhat makes a great talk: intake, stories, humor, no bullet pointshow the pandemic reshaped the speaker business and travel choiceshow listening widely fuels leadership developmentFind the transcript and more in the companion blog post:https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2022/05/13/agility-innovation-and-leadership-with-jurgen-appelo/

Reputation is not what you say about your company. It is what people believe about you, based on what they see, feel, and experience. And in a world of hyper-transparency, that perception moves fast.Laurence Duarte describes herself as a business fixer and protector. She helps leaders understand reputation, identify reputational risks, and build “reputation shields” that make companies more resilient when a crisis hits and more credible when they speak.We also explore the reputational gap between brand and reality, why employees are the first shield, and why self-awareness may be the most critical leadership trait when navigating risk and responsibility.In this episode you will learn:the difference between brand and reputationwhy reputation matters for customers, investors, and employeeswhat reputational risks look like todayhow to spot the reputational gap between perception and realitywhy culture and trust act as reputational shieldswhy NGOs and regulators can be early warning signalshow leaders should share responsibility for reputation across the companywhy self-awareness shapes decision quality and integrityhow embodiment and emotional literacy can strengthen leadershipFind the transcript and more in the companion post to this episode.

Remote and hybrid work proved that many things can be done online. But should everything stay online? And if not, when does meeting in person still matter?Jared Kleinert, CEO and Co-Founder of Offsite, joins Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership to explore why intentional in-person gatherings remain essential for distributed teams. Jared has been a remote worker his entire career, and Offsite helps companies plan retreats and offsites end-to-end, combining planning services and software.We discuss what makes an offsite truly valuable, what needs to happen before, during, and after, and why facilitation can be the difference between a good gathering and a wasted budget. Jared also shares a practical framework for building relationships and growing your network: connect with yourself, connect with others, and connect at scale.In this episode we cover:why remote companies still benefit from meeting in personhow to choose the right cadence for offsiteswhat to do before an offsite: input, logistics, and preparationcommon mistakes: last-minute planning, hidden costs, missing inclusion detailsfacilitation as a critical success factorwhat to do after: feedback, metrics, translating decisions into executionwhy relationships shape the quality of your lifeJared’s networking framework: connecting with yourself, others, and at scalethe entrepreneurial mindset as a leadership traitFind more about the episode and its transcript in the companion post:https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2022/03/16/meeting-in-person-with-jared-kleinert/

Portia Tung joins Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership to explore play as a serious gift in leadership and transformation. Portia is an Executive and Personal Coach, an Executive Agile Coach, a play researcher, and a keynote speaker. We talk about how play creates safety, connection, creativity, and better work.Portia shares a simple and powerful “ping pong” one-to-one exercise that helps people truly meet each other, even when they think they already know. We also discuss why work and play are not opposites, how to introduce play in serious environments without triggering resistance, and what Portia calls the 5 Rs of playful leaders: resourceful, respectful, responsible, resilient, and real.We also go into leadership as personal leadership, one person at a time. Portia shares her working assumptions about leadership, her discomfort with leadership-as-ego, and her checklist for choosing the work that gives her energy and helps make the world better.In this episode we cover:the “ping pong” one-to-one exercise and how it builds trustplay as safe, fair, and “being a good sport”why work and play complement each otherintroducing play without calling it “a game” (simulation, XP Game, etc.)the Deming Red Bead Experiment and the power of risky playthe 5 Rs of playful leadersbringing your whole self to workleadership beyond title and egoPortia’s checklist for choosing engagementsFind the transcript and more in the companion blog post.

Avi Liran joins Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership to explore what it means to “deliver delight” as a leader. Avi is the Chief Delighting Officer at Delivering Delight and has lived multiple lives: CMO, entrepreneur, investor, trade commissioner. He also shares openly that he made and lost all his money three times.We talk about authenticity, values, and the daily choices that shape your leadership brand. Avi explains his “Delight Operating System” metaphor, the power of asking directly for what you need, and why “no” is rarely the end of the conversation. We also discuss boundaries, toxic people, and how to stay human without pretending everything is fine. The episode ends with a practical reframe for bad days: “Blessed and grateful… and sad.”In this episode we cover:why authenticity beats being likablehow values shape your why and your leadership credothe power to ask directlywhat to listen for after a “no”boundaries, empathy, and dealing with toxic peopleengagement as your branddelight as a choice, even in hard timesthe “blessed and grateful… and” reframe for bad daysCheck the transcripts and the links to the references in the companion post.

Gojko Adzic joins Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership to talk about building products that deliver value, not just output. Gojko is an AWS Serverless Hero, a long-time product builder, and the author of Impact Mapping and Specification by Example.We discuss the painful lesson behind Impact Mapping: shipping high-quality software at high speed while delivering no value, and how that experience pushed Gojko to build a simple, collaborative method to connect business goals to user behavior change and concrete deliverables. We also explore measurement, leading indicators, scoreboards, and cadence of accountability. Along the way, we get into pair programming, conflict in close collaboration, and why software and IT evolve in an upward spiral.In this episode we cover:what Impact Mapping is and why it mattershow teams can burn money efficiently and still failsimple vs easyleading indicators, scoreboards, and accountability rhythmsexperimentation and measuring valuecollaboration patterns, examples, and conflict handlingpair programming, quality, and sustainabilityhow product and software practices evolve over timeFind out the transcript and much more in the companion blog post!

In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I’m joined by Lucinda Duncalfe, serial entrepreneur and Founder and CEO of AboveBoard, an inclusive hiring platform focused on executive and board roles.We unpack why diversity is rarely a pipeline problem and how hiring systems quietly filter out great candidates long before an offer is made. Lucinda shares concrete practices to improve hiring, from simplifying job requirements to moving away from traditional CVs toward capability-based assessment. We also talk about leadership as creating a future and bringing people together, team design through complementary strengths, and why diversity is a dimension of the bar, not something separate from it.In the conversation we cover:why starting at board level accelerates changewhy diversity correlates with performance and decision qualitythe hidden signals that tell candidates “this company is not for you”job descriptions and the “too many bullet points” trapreplacing CV screening with competency and capability assessmentstructured interviewing vs first impressionsbuilding leadership teams through complementary profiles“diversity doesn’t equal dropping the bar”conscious capitalismmentoring as a network, not a single personone powerful principle: intentionalityFind the transcript and links to the references in the companion post.

In this episode of Le Podcast, I’m joined by Jeremy Brown, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Traveldoo (Expedia Group). It’s an emotional conversation about leadership and teamwork during a year that hit the travel industry hard.Jeremy shares what it means to lead when you can’t control the context, how the pandemic forced deep changes in ways of working, and why leadership is both about direction and being human. We also explore how to move from meeting-heavy coordination to more asynchronous collaboration, how to make remote discussions more inclusive, and why continuous recognition beats big award ceremonies.In the conversation we cover:leading through an extreme business shockthe difference between leaders and managersleadership as vision, explanation, and humanityshifting from office-first to written, asynchronous workreducing status meetings with workflows and lightweight ritualsmaking remote collaboration more inclusivewhat energizes and drains leadersthe role of personality profiles (CliftonStrengthsFinder)feedback, recognition, and culture-building in hard timesenvironment and relationships as accelerators of growthCheck the companion blog post for the transcript and more!

In this episode of Le Podcast, I’m joined by Scott Amenta, community builder, co-founder of Propel, and founder of the Chief of Staff Network. We explore what communities make possible for personal development and leadership, and why the Chief of Staff role is increasingly valuable in early and growth stage companies.We talk about what it means to build a community, how communities have evolved from open groups to more curated spaces, and what a Chief of Staff can bring when a company loses cadence or gets stuck in internal meetings. Scott also shares his view on leadership: vision, team building, and inspiration, and introduces the idea of hiring for exponential add through diversity.In the conversation we cover:what a community builder doesopen communities vs curated private communitieswhy the Chief of Staff role is ambiguous and powerfulwhy chiefs need peers, resources, and a shared narrativehow a Chief of Staff can reduce internal meeting overloadhow to build a leadership team (experience, culture, work style)culture-fit, culture-add, and exponential addlearning from community builders like Alexis Ohanianpractical development advice: find a mentor and find a communityYou can find more references and the transcript in the companion blog post.

In this episode of Le Podcast, I’m joined by Ally Kouao, Developer Advocate and Solution Architect at Red Hat, to explore Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion through a practical lens.We talk about what allyship really means beyond labels, how unconscious bias shows up in everyday interactions, and why small “innocent” questions can land as exclusion. We also dig into hiring and representation, why increasing diversity is not compromising on quality, and what concrete practices can help teams create fairer outcomes.In the conversation we cover:what allyship means in practicehow curiosity can override someone’s feelingslearning recent history through diverse perspectivesthe lived reality of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation immigrantsunconscious bias and how it shapes decisionshiring practices that reduce bias without lowering standardswhy representation needs to be visible and celebratedthe question “Where are you from?” and what is really happeninga simple test for hiring managers: would you hire yourself today for your first role?Recommended reading from Ally:Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine EvaristoAlso mentioned:The Autobiography of Malcolm X (as told to Alex Haley), especially the audiobook narrated by Laurence FishburneFind the references and more in the companion blog post.

What makes a team a great team?In this episode, I’m joined by Chris Foley, Principal Systems Design Engineer at Red Hat and sports coach. We explore a question that sounds simple but opens a lot of doors: can software teams learn from sporting teams?We talk about what sporting environments make very visible: clarity of roles, momentum, training versus performance, and how teams build confidence and recover from setbacks. Then we translate those ideas to software teams: releases, demos, bugs, stakeholder pressure, and the daily reality of cross-functional delivery.In the conversation we explore:what role clarity looks like when teams become cross-functionalhow momentum gets triggered in software work, and how to build on ithow negative momentum starts and how teams can stop it earlywhy leadership needs to be fostered across the boardwhat “teams win games” really means in engineeringhow to “keep score” in software without fooling ourselvesthe power of positive reinforcement and small challengeswhat sport teaches us about training intentionally, not only performingplaying to the team’s strengths, not only fixing weaknessesthe importance of communicating at the right level with stakeholdersIf you lead or coach teams, this one offers a practical way to look at team dynamics, progress, and performance through a different lens.Find all the references to the episode in the companion post.

How do you help a team move from “just doing agile” to actually improving how they work together, and why they work?In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I’m joined by Mary Provinciatto, author of Sprint a Sprint and Engagement Lead at Red Hat Open Innovation Labs.Mary shares her journey from software developer to coach and explains what pushed her to focus on a bridge that many teams still struggle to build: technology and business.We talk about:why forcing practices rarely works, even when you know the theoryhow to create safety so people can ask questions, surface mistakes, and learnteam building that actually changes the way people collaborate (including a story about fixing a standup problem without “fixing the standup”)what an Engagement Lead does, and how Open Innovation Labs residencies drive outcomes in 4 to 12 weekshow the Labs “drink their own champagne” through transparency, weekly reports, showcases, and continuous improvementwhat Mary learned from writing a book using MVP thinking, time-boxing, and early feedbackMary also shares a practical invitation: use, remix, and contribute to the Open Practice Library, a growing set of field-tested practices shared by practitioners.Find all the references in the companion post.

OKRs are everywhere. But most teams still fall into the same trap: they set goals and forget them.In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I am joined by Christina Wodtke (author of Radical Focus and The Team That Manages Itself, lecturer at Stanford) to explore what makes OKRs actually work.Christina explains OKRs in a way that connects strategy, learning, and teamwork:the objective as a “mission for three months”key results as outcomes, not tasksavoiding the “seduction of the task”why cadence is the real power behind OKRsWe also discuss:why she wrote Radical Focus as a fable and why stories teach better than facts alonewhy OKRs don’t scale through cascading and how alignment works insteadwhen teams should use OKRs versus simple KPIs (including the BCG portfolio lens)why individual OKRs usually backfire and what works insteadhow high performing teams rest on clear goals, clear roles, and clear normsIf you are hiring A players, why not let them be A players?Find all the references in the companion blog post.

Agile started with a clear value: people and interactions over processes and tools. And yet, as a community, we often haven’t lived up to it.In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I am joined by Geof Ellingham, business agility champion and leadership coach, to explore his work on Human-Centric Agility Coaching.I was skeptical at first. Why another model? And why “human-centric” when the Agile Manifesto already puts people first? Geof’s answer is simple and challenging: we haven’t really lived up to that value.Geof shares the research behind the model and two key paradoxes that agile coaches live every day:The expert paradox: clients hire agile coaches as experts, while coaching invites us to step back and trust the client’s capacityThe ideology paradox: ideology can accelerate change, but it can also freeze organizations into a new rigid “agile machine”We also discuss how to use models without doing harm, why “putting people in boxes” is risky, and how coaches can meet teams where they are while staying curious.This episode is for agile coaches, transformation leaders, and anyone trying to improve teamwork without turning agility into a new form of control.Find out more about the episode and the references in the companion article.

Open leadership is often described through values and principles. But what does it actually look like in practice?In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I am joined by Preethi Thomas, Software Engineering Manager at Red Hat, to explore the job of an open leader.Drawing from her journey from individual contributor to manager, Preethi shares grounded insights on:why mentoring is essential (“you need a village to help you succeed”)how to find a role at the intersection of opportunity, passion, and talent (the OPT model)why providing context is one of a leader’s most important responsibilitieshow trust and context enable collaborationwhat open organizations look like in practiceThis episode is for anyone practicing leadership, whether as an individual contributor or a manager, and wanting to help others grow while increasing collective impact.Find the transcript, references and highlights in the accompanying post.

Growing a career in software engineering is often framed as a purely technical journey. In practice, learning and sharing play a much bigger role.In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I am joined by Emilien Macchi, Senior Principal Software Engineer at Red Hat.Emilien is a long-time contributor to OpenStack, originally from France and now based in Canada. In our conversation, he shares how learning, collaboration, and knowledge sharing have been central to his growth as a software engineer.We discuss topics such as:peer reviews and pair programminglearning through collaborationremote work and why Emilien finds collaboration easier and better in distributed teamsthe skills that matter most for long-term growth as an engineerThis episode is for software engineers who want to grow their impact and satisfaction at work, not just their technical expertise.Find out more about the episode here.

Great teams don’t happen by accident. They are shaped by clear principles and everyday leadership choices.In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I am joined by Jason McKerr, Engineering Leader for Management and Automation at Red Hat, to explore his Thirteen Rules of a Team.I first discovered these rules during a mentoring conversation with a member of Jason’s team. They immediately stood out as a simple, practical framework for making good leadership decisions.In this episode, we discuss:the responsibilities of team members and team leadershow leaders create conditions for trust, accountability, and performancewhy leadership is always accountable for team healthhow these rules are used in practice, including during onboardingThis episode is for anyone leading or working in a team and looking for clear, grounded principles to guide everyday decisions.The thirteen rules are in the companion post.

OKRs are often introduced as a goal-setting framework. Used well, they are much more than that: they are a learning and alignment practice.In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I am joined by Bart den Haak to explore how OKRs work in practice.Bart is a software engineer who discovered OKRs more than 10 years ago in a startup environment and has continued to use them ever since. Today, he advises organizations on how to use OKRs in a meaningful way.Building on a previous episode about creating great goals with OKRs and Impact Mapping, we discuss:what OKRs are and what they are nothow OKRs differ from approaches such as MBOs, Balanced Scorecard, Hoshin Kanri, or 4DXwho can use OKRs: organizations, teams, or individualswhere to start when introducing OKRscommon pitfalls and how to avoid themThis episode is for anyone who wants to use OKRs as a tool for focus, learning, and impact rather than control.Find more in the companion post!

The idea of the “10x engineer” is often used to explain exceptional performance in software teams. But what does it really mean, and is it even the right goal?In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I am joined by Julien Danjou, open source software hacker with more than 20 years of experience and author of multiple books on Python.We explore the myth of 10x engineers and discuss what truly supports growth for software engineers:why technical excellence alone is not enoughhow understanding the business increases impactwhy the social dimension of work matters just as much as codehow engineers can grow their influence and responsibilityThis episode is for software engineers and tech leaders who want to move beyond individual heroics and focus on sustainable impact.https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2020/04/10/do-you-want-10x-engineers/

Many leadership and collaboration issues persist even when people “do the right things”. The missing piece is often not behavior, but inner stance.In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, John Poelstra and I explore the book The Anatomy of Peace by the Arbinger Institute.John originally recommended the book in our previous conversation on feedback. After reading it twice, I was struck by how deeply it resonates with leadership as a personal practice.Building on the idea that change starts with you, we explore how The Anatomy of Peace goes one step further: change starts with who you are.In this conversation, we discuss themes such as inner conflict, responsibility, judgment, and what it means to truly see others as people rather than obstacles.This episode is for anyone interested in leadership, conflict, and creating more humane and responsible relationships at work.Click here for more about this episode!

Psychological safety is often mentioned as a prerequisite for high-performing teams. But what does it actually mean in practice?In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I explore the concept of psychological safety, originally coined by Amy Edmondson, author of The Fearless Organization.Building on research such as Google’s Project Aristotle, I explain why psychological safety is a powerful conversation starter for teams and how it supports learning, collaboration, and responsibility.In this episode, I also share:concrete questions to assess psychological safety in a teamhow fear shows up in everyday interactionswhy speaking up, asking for help, and taking risks are leadership signalsThis episode is for anyone who wants to create conditions where people can contribute fully without fear of blame or rejection.https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2020/03/21/psychological-safety/

Distributed teams are no longer an exception. They are a reality for many organizations, and they challenge how we collaborate, communicate, and lead.In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, John Poelstra, Michael Doyle, and I explore what it takes to make distributed teams work.Our conversation takes place while we are spread across 15 time zones:John in Portland (USA), Michael in Brisbane (Australia), and myself in Boston (USA).Republished from John’s show, we discuss:how to collaborate effectively across time zoneshow leadership changes in a distributed contextpractices that support clarity, trust, and alignmentwhat makes remote collaboration sustainable over timeThis episode is for anyone leading or working in a distributed team and looking for practical ways to improve collaboration without adding unnecessary overhead.https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2020/03/10/when-your-team-is-distributed/

Changing a team is often associated with authority, plans, or formal transformation programs. In practice, real change usually starts much closer to the work.In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I share a conversation with John Poelstra, originally recorded on his show, about the ideas behind my book Changing Your Team From The Inside.We discuss:what really makes a team greathow change can emerge without formal authoritythe role of ego in leadership and transformationhow individuals can take responsibility for improving their teamThis episode is for practitioners who want to have a positive impact on their team and organization by practicing leadership from where they are.https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2020/03/06/changing-your-team-with-john-poelstra/

Many collaboration problems don’t come from disagreement, but from using the same words with different meanings.In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I am joined by Michael DeLanzo to explore why clarifying terms is a foundational leadership practice.The conversation was sparked by a feedback exchange following the episode How to Create Great Goals?, where we discovered that apparent disagreement was actually caused by different definitions of “goals” and “objectives”.Together, we discuss:why clarifying terms is the starting point for effective collaborationhow written and spoken communication differ in impactsynchronous versus asynchronous communicationhow cultural and language differences amplify misunderstandingswhy meetings should often be the last resort, not the firstThis episode is for anyone who wants to reduce friction, improve collaboration, and create shared understanding in teams.More details in this post.

Feedback is often treated as a technique. In reality, it is a relationship.In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I am joined by John Poelstra to explore a very personal experience around giving and receiving feedback.Rather than focusing on formulas, we discuss what really shapes the impact of feedback:the difference between the content of feedback and how it is deliveredthe role of ego in feedback conversationshow expectations and unmet needs influence reactionsshared responsibility on both sides of the interactionhow polarization and win–lose thinking make feedback harderWe also reflect on how feedback is part of an ongoing “dance” between people, and why how you show up matters as much as what you say.This episode is for anyone who wants to give feedback in a way that strengthens relationships instead of damaging them.Mode details in this post.