Leading Together

What does it take to rebuild a broken leadership team? In this episode of Leading Together, we sit down with Phyllis Snodgrass - former CEO of Habitat for Humanity Austin and longtime executive leader - to explore what it really takes to turn around struggling teams and build high-performing leadership groups. Drawing from decades of experience stepping into complex, often broken organizations, Phyllis shares practical insights on breaking down silos, building trust, addressing dysfunction early, and creating shared ownership at the leadership level. We also explore the role of vulnerability, accountability, and peer groups in helping leaders grow and lead more effectively. If you’re leading a team that feels stuck, misaligned, or underperforming, this conversation will give you a clearer path forward.

In this episode of Leading Together, Shaun sits down with Brian Francis - former executive director of three Texas state agencies, author, speaker, and poet - to explore what it really takes to build a high-performing leadership team. Brian shares practical insights on leading with trust, vulnerability, and intention - from giving away decision-making power to creating a culture where feedback, accountability, and connection thrive. He also shares powerful stories on psychological safety, team ownership, and why great leaders don’t carry one meeting into the next. If you’re leading a team and want to strengthen trust, elevate performance, and build a culture people actually want to be part of, this conversation is for you.

In this episode of Leading Together, Shaun Lee and Joe Olwig sit down with Alistair Deakin, founder of SigBee, to explore what truly makes teams thrive. From the power of simple daily check-ins to the importance of clarity and honesty in leadership, Alistair shares lessons from decades of leading organizations and building high-performing teams. The conversation explores why so many teams struggle with focus, how leaders can cut through organizational noise, and the small rituals that help people feel seen, connected, and motivated at work.

What does it really mean for people to feel like they matter at work - and why does it have such a powerful impact on performance? In this episode, Shaun and Joe sit down with researcher and author Zach Mercurio to explore the science and practice of mattering in leadership. Drawing from his research and his book The Power of Mattering, Zach explains how feeling seen, valued, and needed shapes engagement, resilience, and team performance. Together, they unpack the everyday leadership behaviors that help people feel recognized and significant at work. This conversation offers practical insights for leaders who want to build healthier cultures where people feel motivated to contribute their best.

In this first episode of the Leading Together Interview Series, Shaun and Joe welcome former NFL running back and ESPN analyst Fozzy Whittaker for a powerful conversation on leadership, energy, and influence. Drawing from his experiences in college football, the NFL, and life beyond the field, Fozzy shares how contagious joy, encouragement, and conditioning shaped his approach to leadership. Together, they explore how leaders set the emotional tone for a team and why positive energy isn’t accidental - it’s cultivated. This episode is a compelling look at what it means to lead with resilience, intentionality, and team-first mindset.

Most teams put their energy into planning synchronous time such as meetings, offsites, and Zoom calls, but real collaboration actually happens asynchronously in Slack threads, shared docs, and decision logs. Without clear design, async work often devolves into scattered updates, missed handoffs, and interruptions. In this episode, Shaun and Joe share four practical asynchronous hacks that help teams reclaim focus, speed up decision making, and make meetings more meaningful: replacing endless update meetings with shared updates and Looms, moving data reviews into async walkthroughs, preparing for deep work through pre recorded context, and logging decisions outside of meetings. The result is that teams gain back time for real dialogue, make faster progress, and collaborate with greater clarity.

What makes a team brave? In this episode, we explore James Clear’s quote, “We don’t rise to the level of our goals, we fall to the level of our systems,” and ask what it really means for leadership today. With help from a powerful clip featuring Brené Brown and Adam Grant, we dig into the idea that courage is not just personal. It is structural. Well-designed, collaboratively built systems increase the odds that people can show up with presence, take meaningful risks, and hold each other to high standards. We also look at how the right systems create space for accountability to live across the team, not just with the leader, and how they help us rise above our own worst tendencies when it matters most. Because the best systems do more than support performance. They support people.

In this special episode, we pull back the curtain to share our own journey, sharing how two different paths led us to the same vision. Shaun reflects on his early experiences in AmeriCorps and nonprofit and entrepreneurial leadership, while Joe shares how his time in Teach for America and later as a principal shaped his calling. Together, we talk about how we met, why we built the 6 Levers Framework, and how that work grew into the Leading Together program. If you’ve ever wondered where our passion for leadership teams comes from, this is the story behind it all.

In this episode, we unpack the leadership lessons from The Bear, Season 2, Episode “Forks.” It’s the story of Cousin Richie, a guy stuck in old patterns, bitter and defensive until one week at a world-class restaurant changes everything. By the end, he’s energized and full of purpose. We explore how this transformation shows the power of team culture: Why excellence only lasts when anchored in purpose. How clear norms make direct communication easier. How purpose at work can spill over into purpose in life. The right team environment doesn’t just make work better, it has the power to shape who people become.

One-on-ones are a staple of leadership, but when they become the primary place for real conversations, teams pay the price. In this episode, we unpack why leaders over-rely on one-on-ones, the risks of pushing too much problem-solving into private meetings, and how to redesign them for genuine connection and development. If you want your team meetings to be more than status updates and your one-on-ones to be more meaningful, this conversation will spark some ideas for you.

Too many leaders are overwhelmed not because they care too much, but because they’re carrying too much. In this episode, we explore the mindset of shared ownership and why it’s one of the most powerful traits of high-performing leadership teams. Through the story of Didi from The Man on the Inside (brought to life by Stephanie Beatriz), we unpack what happens when leadership is isolated, and how to shift toward a culture where strategy, decisions, and accountability are shared.

If we want a culture of trust and belonging, accountability can’t be the thing we avoid. In this episode, we explore why even the most well-meaning leaders struggle to address underperformance, and what’s really going on under the surface. Using insights from Self-Determination Theory, we unpack the psychological barriers to accountability, what’s at stake when we delay, and how to step into these conversations with clarity, care, and courage. If you’ve ever hesitated to say the hard thing, this one’s for you.

A mission statement on a wall doesn’t shape culture - an activated identity does. In this episode, we explore what it means to have a truly alive organizational identity, using Costco as a gold-standard example. We unpack why identity must go beyond words, how leadership teams can activate it through decisions and systems, and why a clear sense of purpose creates resilience in the face of pressure. If your team feels disconnected or adrift, this conversation offers a powerful reminder of what it means to know who you are - and lead from it.

In this episode of Leading Together, Shaun and Joe explore the importance of conflict in building great teams. Join us as we discuss how effective conflict can serve as a catalyst for engagement, creativity, and stronger relationships among team members. We dive into the concept of conflict competence, emphasizing the need for psychological safety and open communication. We share practical strategies for surfacing tension early, creating shared language around conflict, and establishing common outcomes. You'll learn how to reframe conflict from a negative experience to a valuable opportunity for growth. Whether you're part of a leadership team or looking to improve your organization's dynamics, this episode provides actionable insights to help you lean into conflict effectively. Tune in for a transformative conversation that could reshape the way your team approaches challenges.

In this episode of Leading Together, we delve into the critical issue of organizational silos and how they hinder growth and innovation. Join me, Sean Lee, as I discuss with co-host Joe Ulwig the findings from a recent Bain & Company study that reveals half of all managers struggle with bureaucratic barriers that stifle collaboration. We explore how these silos often originate from leadership behaviors and mindsets, and the necessity for an org-first approach. By examining the contrasting behaviors of siloed versus org-first teams, we highlight actionable strategies for leaders to foster cohesion and shared purpose. Tune in to learn how embracing an org-first mindset not only empowers teams but is essential for organizational resilience and effectiveness.

In this episode, we explore the deep connection between psychological safety and high performance, through the lens of one of the NBA’s most admired teams: the San Antonio Spurs. Honoring the legacy of Coach Gregg Popovich, we examine how his philosophy of "people before players" and his modeling of vulnerability helped create a culture of trust, belonging, and sustained excellence. We unpack practical steps for building psychological safety, the role of intentional vulnerability, and the subtle ways leaders can either reinforce or erode trust. Use this link to get the free Builders and Breakers of Psychological Safety Guide we mentioned in the podcast: 6levers.kit.com/buildersandbreakers

In this episode of Leading Together, I engage with co-host Joe Ulwig to tackle the critical yet often overlooked issue of organizational systems. We explore the tendency to blame individuals for performance problems rather than examining the underlying systems that shape their work. Through a compelling example from our book, At The Heart of Work, we reveal how miscommunication and unclear priorities can hinder team effectiveness. We discuss strategies for leaders to shift their mindset, emphasizing the importance of understanding both people and systems in driving organizational success. Join us as we uncover practical steps to foster a more cohesive, high-performing leadership team by addressing systemic issues head-on.