Lead the People

Matt Poepsel, PhD
  • 5.0 (10)
  • Management
  • Updated Weekly

Lead The People is your guide to unlocking your true potential as an authentic leader. Hosted by Dr. Matt Poepsel—The Godfather of Talent Optimization—this podcast dives deep into the art and science of what it takes to lead at the next level. With insightful conversations and practical strategies, each episode equips executives, strategic HR pros, and aspiring leaders with the tools it takes to boost performance, inspire teams, and drive meaningful impact. Whether exploring the latest workplace trends or tackling real-world leadership challenges, Lead The People offers an enlightened approach to leadership. Embark on a rewarding journey to become the leader your people deserve—the leader you were meant to be.

  1. 2d ago

    #191 How Uber's Culture Broke Its Brand Promise (feat. Denise Lee Yohn)

    Start with our free behavioral assessment. Go to trypi.com/ltp . Travis Kalanick built Uber on a promise of democratic freedom, everyone gets to feel like a rockstar, not just people who can afford a limo. Denise Lee Yohn tells Matt Poepsel what came next: a tech-bro internal culture so far removed from that promise that customers eventually deleted the app in protest. "We're not going to believe what you say about yourself," she says. "We're actually going to act on what we know and experience about your brand." That gap between the brand a company claims and the culture it actually runs on is the subject of this conversation. Denise, founder of Denise Lee Yohn, Inc. and author of Fusion: How Integrating Brand and Culture Powers the World's Greatest Companies, walks Matt through what she learned as Sony Electronics' first brand manager, why category values like integrity and teamwork are table stakes rather than differentiators, and why she treats customer experience and employee experience as manifestations of the same underlying culture rather than two separate budget lines. She also makes the case, using an analogy about parents who only listen to one of two kids, for why employee feedback deserves the same weight leaders give customer feedback. You'll learn: Brand Starts Inside: Internal alignment and clarity have to come before any outward campaign, or the brand promise rings hollow.Category Values Aren't Core Values: Integrity, teamwork, and respect are table stakes, distinctive values are what actually drive differentiation.CX and EX Are One System: Employees can't deliver an experience they don't personally have; treating customer and employee experience separately costs you both.Culture Needs Deliberate Energy: Values on a poster don't do anything, they need to show up in meetings, recognition, and daily operations. Highlights:(00:00) Meet Denise Lee Yohn(02:39) Why brand building needs to start inside a company(06:01) When Uber's brand promise and internal culture didn't match(08:02) Operationalizing values instead of just aspiring to them(09:10) Category values versus core values(13:18) Treating customer experience and employee experience as one system(16:26) The parent who only listens to one of two kids(17:15) Why employee expertise is a competitive advantage(20:20) Everyone contributes to culture, not just leadership(26:06) Reinforcing values through recognition in daily meetings(28:53) Are you smarter than AI? Resources:Learn more about Denise Lee Yohn: https://deniseleeyohn.comFollow Denise on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deniseleeyohn Follow Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattpoepsel/Subscribe to The Predictive Index on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ThePredictiveIndex Created in partnership with Share Your Genius: shareyourgenius.com Experience it for yourself at trypi.com/ltp .

    #191 How Uber's Culture Broke Its Brand Promise (feat. Denise Lee Yohn)

  2. Sep 24

    #190 Why 70% of Transformations Still Fail (feat. Jackie Insinger)

    Start with our free behavioral assessment. Go to trypi.com/ltp . Most leadership models still treat change like a project: a start, an end, and a return to normal in between. Jackie Insinger, CEO and Founder of Spark Brilliance, argues that premise is exactly what's breaking down. There's no dry land left to land on, which means the old idea of "managing" change through to completion isn't just outdated; it's the thing quietly wearing leaders and teams down. Matt Poepsel sits down with Jackie Insinger, CEO and Founder of Spark Brilliance, to unpack her new framework, the Four Drivers of Change: signal, safety, agency, and purpose. Jackie makes the case that a single leadership style can't hold up once things get this unpredictable; leaders need to read what a team actually needs moment to moment, the same instinct behind PI's behavioral data. She and Matt dig past the framework's language into what each driver actually looks like in practice: what a leader says in the first five minutes of a hard conversation, how they respond when someone brings them a mistake, and why purpose, the thing everyone's told to lead with, only works once trust, safety, and ownership are already in place. What you'll learn: Change Management Is a Dying Model: With no beginning or end to disruption anymore, leaders need durable capacity to navigate change continuously, not a sequence of steps to manage through it.One Leadership Style Doesn't Survive Pressure: Reading what a team needs in the moment, not defaulting to a fixed style, is what separates leaders who keep their people moving from those who lose them.Signal Becomes Culture in 33 Milliseconds: Teams absorb a leader's emotional state almost instantly. The signal a leader sends, intentional or not, becomes the echo across the whole organization.Purpose Is the Last Driver, Not the First: People need signal, safety, and agency in place before purpose can activate anything: skip the order, and even a great "why" falls flat. Highlights:(00:00) Meet Jackie Insinger(03:24) The forces driving change all at once(06:18) Why change management hasn't worked in 30 years(08:08) Introducing the Four Drivers of Change(15:28) Signal: the echo every leader sends(19:06) Safety: building a culture where mistakes surface early(22:02) Agency: the difference between compliance and commitment(24:50) Purpose: why "start with why" comes last(29:28) Building self-care into the change model(33:25) Where to find Jackie's free leadership diagnostics Resources:Follow Jackie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackieinsinger/Learn more about Spark Brilliance: https://www.sparkbrilliance.com Follow Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattpoepsel/Subscribe to The Predictive Index on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ThePredictiveIndex Created in partnership with Share Your Genius: shareyourgenius.com Experience it for yourself at trypi.com/ltp .

    #190 Why 70% of Transformations Still Fail (feat. Jackie Insinger)

  3. Sep 17

    #189 Stop Calling Your Workers a Line Item (feat. Tracie Sponenberg)

    Start with our free behavioral assessment. Go to trypi.com/ltp . Most leaders can point to their P&L and show you exactly where the money moves. Ask them to point to their people on that same page, and the room goes quiet. For Tracie Sponenberg, who spent nine years as Chief People Officer at The Granite Group, a wholesale distributor with 700+ employees across six states, that silence is the whole problem. Her new book, The Frontline People Strategy, makes the case that distribution and manufacturing leaders have been treating their workforce as a line item instead of the asset that actually drives revenue, and that the fix starts with a mindset most executives have never been taught. Matt Poepsel sits down with Tracie Sponenberg, consultant and author of The Frontline People Strategy, to dig into why "that's just the way it is" is never a real answer for high turnover, why promoting your best forklift operator can quietly wreck your org chart, and why engagement is something you earn, not something you demand. Tracie draws on nearly a decade leading HR through four acquisitions and a pandemic to explain what it actually takes to build a culture for a deskless workforce, and why curiosity, not charisma, is the leadership skill that moves the needle. What  you'll learn: The Turnover You're Not Counting: High turnover isn't just "how the industry is", it's a cost with a real number attached, and leaders who accept it as normal are leaving money on the table.Experience Before Engagement: Engagement is a byproduct of a good employee experience, not something you can push onto people directly.The Promotion Trap: Rewarding your best frontline worker with a management role they're not trained for is a systemic failure, not an individual one.Curiosity as a Leadership Skill: Getting to know frontline workers as people, not job functions, is simple to describe and hard to practice, but it works. Highlights:(00:00) Meet Tracie Sponenberg(03:13) A first job that taught her about bias(04:34) Why "show me your people" exposed a blind spot(06:00) The best ideas live on your front line(09:02) Leading through four acquisitions and a pandemic(10:41) Culture is built location by location, not by memo(12:24) The hidden cost of promoting your best worker(15:37) Engagement is a byproduct, not a goal(18:01) Getting curious is a leadership skill(22:22) The real cost of "that's just the way it is"(25:06) Are You Smarter than AI? Resources:Follow Tracie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/traciesponenberg/Learn more about Tracie and her new book, "The Frontline People Strategy"Follow Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattpoepsel/Subscribe to The Predictive Index on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ThePredictiveIndex Created in partnership with Share Your Genius: shareyourgenius.com Experience it for yourself at trypi.com/ltp .

    #189 Stop Calling Your Workers a Line Item (feat. Tracie Sponenberg)

  4. Sep 10

    #188 What 250-Year-Old Companies Know About Surviving Chaos (feat. Meridith Elliott Powell)

    Start with our free behavioral assessment. Go to trypi.com/ltp . Most leaders treat uncertainty like a storm to wait out. Meridith Elliott Powell has spent two decades proving that's the wrong instinct. As CEO of MotionFirst, author of a benchmark study spanning more than 800 CEOs, and Hall of Fame speaker with the National Speakers Association, she argues the businesses that come out ahead aren't the ones with the most information. They're the ones who move while everyone else is still waiting for the shoe to drop. In this episode, Matt Poepsel sits down with Meridith to dig into why false bravado isolates leaders rather than protects them, why the most durable companies treat their values as a litmus test, and why the antidote to anxiety is always action, not answers. Meridith draws on her research into nine companies that have thrived for 250 years and on her own experience rebuilding after two hurricanes, tracing what actually separates the businesses that grow through disruption from the ones that just survive it. Together, they explore why uncertainty is a team sport, not a solo climb, and how two simple team exercises can build a workforce that's ready for change before it arrives. In this episode, you'll learn: The Upside of Uncertainty: Every major disruption, from world wars to recessions, has also produced real opportunity for the businesses willing to embrace it instead of resisting it.Why False Bravado Backfires: Leaders who insist on having all the answers isolate themselves and their teams; asking for help instead gives people a sense of control.What 250-Year-Old Companies Share: Durable companies pair a clearly communicated vision with values so firm they'll turn away a customer, employee, or product that doesn't align.The Real Job of a Leader: Once you're leading, your job isn't to be the best at the work anymore. It's to produce people better than you at it.Highlights:(00:00) Meet Meridith Elliott Powell(02:34) Why uncertainty always has an upside(03:50) The fear every leader is wired for(05:53) Making change something people choose, not something done to them(06:52) The generation most unprepared to lead(09:25) Why your job now is producing better leaders, not being one(10:40) What nine 250-year-old companies have in common(15:15) Surviving two hurricanes and rebuilding twice(20:06) Two team exercises that build change-ready teams(23:33) Leading through the power of the question Resources:Follow Meridith on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meridithelliottpowell/ Meredith’s Website: https://www.meridithelliottpowell.com/Explore Meridith's research and speaking at MotionFirst: https://valuespeaker.com/ Follow MotionFirst on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/motionfirst/ Follow Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattpoepsel/Subscribe to The Predictive Index on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ThePredictiveIndex Created in partnership with Share Your Genius: shareyourgenius.com Experience it for yourself at trypi.com/ltp .

    #188 What 250-Year-Old Companies Know About Surviving Chaos (feat. Meridith Elliott Powell)

  5. Sep 3

    #187 Why Your Executive Team Is The Company's Bottleneck (feat. Adam Weber)

    Start with our free behavioral assessment. Go to trypi.com/ltp . Most executive teams don't fail because someone drops the ball. They fail quietly, over months, while every function runs fine on its own and nobody can name what's actually wrong. For Adam Weber, executive coach at Adam Weber Coaching and co-founder of Helm, that quiet failure has a name and a shape, and it's measurable. In this episode, Matt Poepsel sits down with Adam Weber, co-founder of Helm, to unpack why the real conversation on most executive teams happens in the hallway instead of the room, why an offsite's impact rarely survives past 90 days, and why work doesn't get lost inside functions; it gets lost in the margins between them. Adam introduces the five signals his team uses to diagnose executive team health: candor, agility, ownership, altitude, and cohesion, and makes the case that healthy teams aren't the ones who avoid hard problems, but the ones who face them together. Together, they explore what it actually takes to turn a team's unspoken tension into productive, ongoing conversation. In this episode, you'll learn: The Hallway Effect: When people stop saying the real thing in the room, the conversation doesn't disappear, it just moves to informal side conversations that never reach the CEO.The Five Signals of a Healthy Team: Candor, agility, ownership, altitude, and cohesion aren't individual traits; they're conditions the whole team creates together.Why Offsites Don't Stick: A great offsite can shift the room for a season, but without ongoing structure, teams snap back to old patterns fast.Where Work Actually Gets Lost: It's rarely inside a function; it's in the margins between functions, where nobody quite owns the problem. Highlights:(03:08) What it feels like inside a stuck executive team(05:51) Why offsites only work for about 90 days(07:43) The five signals of a healthy executive team(09:14) Candor means hearing hard things, not just saying them(11:20) Where work actually gets lost: the margins(12:40) Why balance across the five signals beats individual strength(14:35) How a CEO's altitude cascades through the whole org(16:03) Turning a low score into growth instead of grading(19:31) Turning taboo topics into safe conversations(23:09) Business is just a series of problems Resources:Follow Adam on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meetadam/ Learn more about Helm: helmteams.co Follow Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattpoepsel/Subscribe to The Predictive Index on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ThePredictiveIndex Created in partnership with Share Your Genius: shareyourgenius.com Experience it for yourself at trypi.com/ltp .

    #187 Why Your Executive Team Is The Company's Bottleneck (feat. Adam Weber)

  6. Aug 27

    #186 Why Credibility Beats Charisma in Leadership (feat. Steve Farber)

    Start with our free behavioral assessment. Go to trypi.com/ltp . Steve Farber has been arguing that love is a legitimate business discipline for over two decades, and people still flinch at the word. Companies print "we love our customers" on buttons and banners without breaking a sweat. Backing it up with policy, budget, and follow-through is where most of them quietly give up. His new book, The Radical Promise, co-written with Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, makes the case that the real gap in leadership isn't between people who talk about love and values and people who don't. It's between what any leader says and what they actually do. In this episode, Matt Poepsel sits down with Steve Farber, founder of the Extreme Leadership Institute and author of The Radical Promise, to dig into why "we love our customers" is easy to print and hard to practice, why credibility might be the one trait that actually predicts whether people follow you anywhere, and how a shipping company came back from bankruptcy by asking one uncomfortable question about every policy on the books. Steve breaks down the acronym behind his research, DWYSYWD, do what you say you will do, and argues the gap between the two is where trust quietly erodes, one small unnoticed commitment at a time. Together, they trace what closing that gap actually looks like on a Monday morning, from customer policy down to the lunch plans you forgot you made. In this episode, you'll learn: The Default Drift: Without deliberate practice, "we love our customers" turns into decoration instead of a standard anyone is held to.The DWYSYWD Test: Credibility comes down to a simple, uncomfortable measure: whether your actions match what you said you'd do.The Commitment You Didn't Know You Made: Leaders create credibility gaps without realizing it, and every small one compounds.Credibility Plus Vision: Forty years of research point to a two-part answer for why anyone chooses to follow a leader anywhere. Highlights:(00:00) Meet Steve Farber (01:50) Why love makes business people nervous (07:01) Love as a practice, not a sentiment (08:17) The Trailer Bridge turnaround (09:58) Raising the standard beyond satisfaction (11:30) The credibility formula behind DWYSYWD (13:38) The commitment you didn't know you made (17:01) Three strikes and your credibility is out (21:59) High tech, high touch (24:21) Credibility plus vision Resources:Follow Steve on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevefarber/Get Steve's new book, "The Radical Promise: Mastering the Art of Doing What You Say You Will Do": https://theradicalpromise.com/  Follow Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattpoepsel/Subscribe to The Predictive Index on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ThePredictiveIndex Experience it for yourself at trypi.com/ltp .

    #186 Why Credibility Beats Charisma in Leadership (feat. Steve Farber)

  7. Aug 20

    #185 Why Executives Resist the Change They Approved (feat. Lata Hamilton)

    Start with our free behavioral assessment. Go to trypi.com/ltp . Most change management still assumes there's a gap between disruptions—a chance to catch your breath before the next transformation lands. Lata Hamilton's clients don't get that gap anymore. Change has stopped being an event and started being the weather. In this episode, Matt Poepsel sits down with Lata Hamilton, founder and CEO of Passion Pioneers, accredited change manager, NLP practitioner, and bestselling author of Pioneer Your Career Change. They dig into why change triggers a survival instinct even when the stakes seem small, and why executives sometimes resist the very transformations they signed off on. Lata also breaks down a technique called "chunking up" that gets people to stop arguing over details and reconnect with why the change matters at all. The natural break is right after her bio, so the intro sentence carries all the credentials and the second sentence starts the actual content. If you'd rather keep it tighter at two sentences, just fold that last line back in with an "and how" before "a technique called 'chunking up.'" Lata makes the case that change fatigue isn't a personal failing; it's a structural one, and that leaders who skip the emotional side of change are setting themselves up for roadblocks down the line. Together, they explore what it means to lead from the "magic in the middle" and why purpose, not process, is what actually gets people on board. In this episode, you'll learn: The Survival Instinct Behind Resistance: Even minor changes threaten people's sense of job security, which is why resistance is instinctive, not irrational.Executive Sabotage Is Real: Leaders sometimes approve transformations they don't personally believe in, and that lack of belief leaks through and stalls projects at the worst possible moment.Chunking Up Builds Agreement: The more specific and detailed a conversation gets, the more disagreement it creates. Moving people to a higher-level "why" builds consensus fast.Purpose Beats Process: People don't rally around a new system or a workflow. They rally around what that system means for their lives, their team, or their community. Highlights:(00:00) Meet Lata Hamilton(02:54) Why change is harder to pull off than ever(04:27) The hidden tax of constant change(07:00) The three positions you can hold in any change(12:03) How change triggers the survival instinct(14:45) When executives resist the change they approved(17:45) Finding the magic in the middle(21:12) The NLP technique called chunking up(23:44) Getting to the real purpose behind the change(26:21) Why storytelling is what makes change stick Resources:Follow Lata on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/latahamilton/Visit Lata's website and grab her free guide to change management: https://latahamilton.com/Get Lata's book, "Pioneer Your Career Change" Follow Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattpoepsel/Subscribe to The Predictive Index on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ThePredictiveIndex Created in partnership with Share Your Genius: shareyourgenius.com Experience it for yourself at trypi.com/ltp .

    #185 Why Executives Resist the Change They Approved (feat. Lata Hamilton)

  8. Aug 13

    #184 The Real Reason 85% of Culture Change Fails (feat. Kevin Oakes)

    Start with our free behavioral assessment. Go to trypi.com/ltp . Culture isn't a slogan on a values slide; it's the daily discipline of listening to the people the org chart forgets. Most companies assume culture change means demolition, blow it up, start over, transform into something new. But Kevin Oakes, founder and chief strategy officer of i4cp and author of the Amazon bestseller Culture Renovation, has spent decades studying hundreds of companies and found the opposite: the ones who actually pull it off don't tear the house down. They renovate it. In this episode, Matt Poepsel sits down with Kevin Oakes, founder and chief strategy officer of i4cp and author of Culture Renovation, to dig into why only 15% of companies that try to change their culture actually succeed, why the "energizers" who actually shape culture are almost never the ones on the org chart, and why AI has turned into an unplanned stress test for every company's culture. Kevin makes the case that a strong culture isn't a nice-to-have sitting next to strategy, it's the thing that determines whether strategy survives contact with reality, especially now that AI is exposing every crack that was already there. Together, they explore what future readiness actually means when culture, skills, and AI readiness stop being three separate conversations and become one. In this episode, you'll learn: Renovate, Don't Demolish: The 15% of companies that successfully change culture keep what works and build on it, rather than starting from scratch.Find the Real Influencers: The people who actually shape culture, the "energizers", are usually buried in the org chart, not sitting at the top of it.AI as a Culture Mirror: How a team responds to AI reveals whether trust, safety, and experimentation already exist in the culture, or never did.One Integrated Agenda: Culture readiness, skills readiness, and AI readiness aren't separate initiatives, treating them that way is what causes organizations to stall.Highlights:(00:00) Meet Kevin Oakes(01:40) What separates the 15% who succeed(06:56) Finding your organization's energizers(08:59) Renovation, not transformation(10:49) Is business performance the only signal to change?(12:11) How AI has changed and confirmed the renovation thesis(19:41) Why culture, skills, and AI readiness can't be siloed(23:05) Is purpose making a comeback? Resources: Follow Kevin on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kevinoakes/ Learn more about Kevin and i4cp: i4cp.comGet Kevin's book, Culture Renovation Follow Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattpoepsel/Subscribe to The Predictive Index on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ThePredictiveIndex Created in partnership with Share Your Genius: shareyourgenius.com Experience it for yourself at trypi.com/ltp .

    #184 The Real Reason 85% of Culture Change Fails (feat. Kevin Oakes)
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About

Lead The People is your guide to unlocking your true potential as an authentic leader. Hosted by Dr. Matt Poepsel—The Godfather of Talent Optimization—this podcast dives deep into the art and science of what it takes to lead at the next level. With insightful conversations and practical strategies, each episode equips executives, strategic HR pros, and aspiring leaders with the tools it takes to boost performance, inspire teams, and drive meaningful impact. Whether exploring the latest workplace trends or tackling real-world leadership challenges, Lead The People offers an enlightened approach to leadership. Embark on a rewarding journey to become the leader your people deserve—the leader you were meant to be.

Information

  • Creator
    Matt Poepsel, PhD
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    194
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2025 Lead the People
  • Show Website
    Lead the People

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