Leaders Rising Podcast

Leaders Rising Network
  • 5.0 (5)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Weekly

Real conversations on leadership, culture, and multiplying impact. Join our team and guests as we explore what it takes to lead well, build healthy teams, and create lasting organizational change—one episode at a time. We equip growing companies to create bigger futures and build thriving cultures by developing leaders worth following.

  1. Sep 8 ·  Video

    Intent versus experience: What 360 degree feedback can teach us

    Everyone on your team already knows what it's like to work for you. So do your peers. You're the only one still guessing. In this episode, we take on the gap between what a leader intends and what the team experiences. Most leaders have never had a mechanism for hearing the truth from their leaders, their peers, or their direct reports at the same time. We dive into the stories of an operations leader whose 360 put an active listening score near the top of the scale next to a direct-report score at the very bottom, and the two next steps that turned that report into better meetings and a turnover metric that dropped. Show outline 03:34 Why every leader has this gap04:43 Intent versus experience05:41 Where feedback systems fail07:19 The operations leader and the listening score09:30 One behavior that shows up clearly12:05 The three question audit13:59 The full mirror, and your next bold move Takeaways Your title edits your feedback. Once you start signing off on raises and shaping careers, people edit what they tell you. The quiet in your meetings is a filter, and it grows with every promotion you get.You grade yourself on what you meant; your team grades you on what they heard. Self-perception is a broken instrument because it only measures intent, and the distance between intent and behavior is where trust erodes.A blind spot is the place where your score and your team's score disagree, and you're the only one who hasn't seen it yet. In the story, listening was the leader's highest self-rating and the team's lowest score for the leader.Data doesn't change your leadership; what you do with it does. Surveys that end in a committee, and 360s that end in a drawer, teach everyone that feedback isn't real.Pick one behavior and make it observable: did other people talk first, and did their ideas survive contact with the boss's opinion?Go first, say it out loud. When a leader names their own gap to the team before explaining it away, trust rises. Then build a small, boring, repeatable rhythm around it: the team scores the meeting, and the leader keeps the pledge.Run the 3 question audit this week. Ask a supervisor, a peer, and a direct report, in-person: what should I keep doing, what should I stop doing, and what's one thing you've always wanted to tell me but haven't? Say thank you, write it down, and don't defend. The moment you explain yourself, the feedback ends.The leader's line after the feedback: "I thought I knew myself pretty well, but I was the only one who didn't." The LRN 360 is a structured, full-circle assessment: the people above, beside, and below you answer the same questions about how they experience your leadership, and the results open a conversation with a guide. See how the LRN 360 works. Connect with the host Aaron Lee on LinkedIn More from Leaders Rising All episodes of the Leaders Rising Podcast

  2. Sep 4 ·  Video

    Leadership Is a Learned Skill: The STEM Connect Trainers on Seattle, Sessions, and the Hallway

    Every fall, the calendar fills with conferences. Most hand you a badge, a schedule, and a room full of strangers. Ahead of STEM Connect 2026 in Seattle, Aaron Lee sits down with four of the trainers preparing to lead sessions there: Jim Lee, Hope Yin, Christine Lee, and Jeff Lovell. What follows is an honest conversation about getting real value out of any professional event. Jim makes the case for a career pathway you can actually see. Hope talks about what changes when leading one team becomes leading an organization. Christine explains why knowing yourself comes before leading yourself. Jeff, the self-described resident introvert, says out loud what half the room is thinking: you don't have to be awesome all the time. Show outline 00:16 Why this conference, year after year03:46 One word for STEM Connect10:22 Inside the sessions16:40 Walking in and actually meeting people21:12 The question that opens a real conversation27:15 Beyond the sessions31:38 Last words, and a local's guide to Seattle Takeaways Talented people leave when good work goes unrecognized. Jim Lee describes watching it happen around year five, and the pattern that follows: job hopping, then company hopping, in search of a pathway nobody drew for them.Christine Lee: "leadership is not a personality trait, it's a learned skill." If it's learned, it can be taught, and the absence of it is a gap rather than a verdict.The strength that earned the promotion can become the constraint. Jeff Lovell puts it plainly: keep solving the problems you were good at solving, and you become the bottleneck your team has to route around.Networking is a muscle, and it's fine to say so out loud. Jim, who runs the conference, admits he trains for the late-night conversations and that it never gets easy, only easier. Naming the awkwardness is what breaks it.Ask the easy question first. "Where did you travel from" and "what do you do at your company" are cliches because they work. Save "what do you think is your growth opportunity" for after trust exists.Plan the unprogrammed hours. Dinner with a trainer on Wednesday, one or two people you commit to following up with, and one thing you'll do differently. Attending without a plan produces a stack of business cards nobody ever contacts. STEM Connect 2026 Seattle, October 1 to 3. Conference details and registration. Leaders Rising Podcast listeners: use promo code PPLRN26 for 50% off. Connect with our guests Jim LeeHope Yin, PCCJeff LovellChristine LeeAaron Lee

    Leadership Is a Learned Skill: The STEM Connect Trainers on Seattle, Sessions, and the Hallway

  3. Aug 13 ·  Video

    From Rigid to Real: An Engineer's Decade-Long Lesson in Feedback and Leading People with Derek Stake

    Derek Stake came up as an engineer, and for years he ran his teams the way he ran a production line: manage the variation, follow the process, and the outcome takes care of itself. It worked, until it didn't. Becoming a father forced a patience with people that his engineering training never taught him, and a string of managers modeled a steadiness he wasn't ready to receive until years later. In this conversation, Derek traces that shift: the year he realized the problems he kept running into were his own, the Navy SEAL advice about failed parachutes that reshaped how he opens hard conversations, and the discipline of choosing consistency over intensity when people are watching how their leader responds. Derek walks through the LRN360 and how structured feedback turns feedback from something he dreaded into something he now seeks out. Show outline 01:40 Balancing process and people04:03 What a decade of fatherhood changed06:31 The mentors who modeled what he wasn't ready to hear10:24 The lesson from a failed parachute14:08 Coaching discipline into a team18:05 Rebuilding his relationship with feedback21:43 What's next: balancing the individual and the whole Takeaways Process protects against variation, but only people supply the creativity and speed that make a process better. The job is protecting both at once, not choosing one.The biggest shift in Derek's leadership didn't come from a course. It came from becoming a parent, which forced a patience with people his engineering training never taught him.A reflexive reaction gets overridden by one deliberate move: breathe first, then decide. It's the same instruction given to a Navy SEAL whose parachute fails mid-jump.Consistency, not intensity, is what a team actually trusts. People stop approaching a leader whose reaction they can't predict.Feedback stopped being a threat once Derek let it sit before responding, instead of defending or explaining it away in the moment. His own LRN360 was the starting point.Happiness comes from the climb, not the summit. Treating the milestone as the source of happiness gets the order backward. Resources We Mentioned Masters of Uncertainty, Rich DivineyDiscipline Equals Freedom, Jocko Willink Let's Connect Derek Stake, VP of Operations and Engineering, The Cleveland Vibrator Company LinkedIn Company siteTake the LRN 360: leadersrisingnetwork.com/360

    From Rigid to Real: An Engineer's Decade-Long Lesson in Feedback and Leading People with Derek Stake

  4. Jun 17

    Below the Waterline: What Leaders Don't Know About Their People with Tim Dittloff

    Most leaders know their team at the surface level. They know the roles, the deliverables, the performance trends. What they don't know is what's going on below the waterline in the lives and motivations of their people. And according to Tim [LAST NAME], not knowing is how organizations quietly run aground. Tim is a USCG-licensed merchant mariner and leadership coach who uses sailing as both a metaphor and a hands-on experience for executive teams. He joined Aaron Lee to talk about what it takes to actually know the people you lead, and why the teams that can't talk to each other on the water are the same teams that can't talk to each other in the building. The conversation moves from the Indian Ocean to Mongolia — and picks up a Harvard Business Review line along the way that is hard to shake: hurry and care can't coexist. Key moments0:17 — "Below the waterline": what leaders miss when they only coexist with their teams2:32 — The Vestas Wind: how a professional race crew ran aground in the Indian Ocean with GPS on4:10 — Zach Mercurio (HBR): "Hurry and care can't coexist"6:31 — The best leader Tim ever worked for: a three-star general who knew his kids' names four times a year7:30 — Merle Freytag and "lack of candor can kill"10:32 — How a toxic race crew became the idea for a leadership business13:40 — USCG Rule 5 on the water and in an architectural art firm's org chart19:00 — 5 Voices in Mongolia: three languages, one shared framework, a nurturer who finally understood his role23:10 — Every role on a sailboat matters — including the "rail meat"24:00 — New addition: a karate dojo and why the basics are the whole game About Tim DittloffTim Dittloff on LinkedInFull Sail Leadership Experiences Tim Dittloff is a USCG-licensed merchant mariner and leadership coach. He works with executive teams using sailing as a hands-on leadership experience, and partners with Leaders Rising Network on 5 Voices-based development. He shares leadership insights regularly on LinkedIn. Resources5 Voices AssessmentZach Mercurio, "The Power of Mattering at Work" — Harvard Business Review About the showLeaders Rising is the podcast of Leaders Rising Network, a culture and leadership consultancy based in Glen Allen, VA. New episodes drop regularly. Subscribe wherever you listen.

    Below the Waterline: What Leaders Don't Know About Their People with Tim Dittloff

  5. Apr 22

    Training in 2026: Everyone Wants Growth, No One Has Time

    You keep telling your team that development is the priority. You mean it. Then Monday hits. The meetings run long. The email pile grows. The project list shows up with the same work and fewer weeks. By Friday, development is still on the board. It just never got touched. In this episode, Aaron sits down with Becky Rivest to work through Training Magazine's take on what 2026 looks like for people focused leaders. AI is moving faster than policy. Return to office is still a fight. A Gen Z quarter life crisis is pulling good people out early in their careers. And through all of it, leadership development keeps landing at number one on the priority list and last on the actual calendar. Becky names the real issue. It is not that leaders do not care. Every change requires a slow down, and almost nobody has permission to take one. The fix is not another workshop. It is not a new platform. It is one honest conversation with one employee on your team. Ask them if they can see the line from their role to where the company is going. Start there. Everything else follows. Show Outline 03:53 What overwhelm actually looks like in a leader's day06:58 Return to office in 202609:06 HR, IT, and the AI conversation nobody is ready for11:21 Upskilling and the Gen Z quarter life crisis14:41 Where change fatigue really comes from17:30 Why development stays stuck at number one20:57 Rhythms over events and the five moments of need25:13 One move leaders can make this week Resources mentioned: Training Magazine: What's in the Mix for 2026. https://trainingmag.com/whats-in-the-mix-for-2026/WSJ: Sharpie brings US production back through upskilling. https://www.wsj.com/business/sharpie-us-production-cost-cutting-d9ba2abdBob Mosher: The Five Moments of Need framework Visit the LRN Learning Center for full show notes at LeadersRisingNetwork.com

  6. Apr 8

    Building the System When You Don't Have a Roadmap

    Year one was slow. There were empty seats at the leadership table, a culture that needed rebuilding, and no clear map for how to get from where things were to where they needed to go. What came out of those years was not a perfect plan. It was a system, built gradually, through clarity about people, through honest assessment of gaps, and through a commitment to developing leaders on purpose rather than by accident. In this episode, recorded live during the Rising book launch event, Aaron Lee shares the story of stepping into a leadership role with more problems than answers, and what it actually took to build something that worked. Tom Nebel follows with a look at the tensions that don't disappear even when your systems are healthy: leaders who never asked for the role they're now carrying, the balance between support and challenge, and what genuine accountability looks like when it comes from the top. This episode closes out our three-part series from the Rising launch event, and it may be the most personal conversation of the three. What you'll hear in this episode: What it looks like to build a people system from scratch, without a roadmapThe growth pathway every leader travels, and how to develop people through it intentionallyWhy organizations don't rise because of heroic leaders, they rise because of intentional systemsThe tension between being supportive and being demanding, and why both matterWhat honest humility looks like from the front of the room, and why it changes everything Rising is a book for organizations that are growing but quietly losing clarity along the way. Written by Jeff Lovell and Aaron Lee of Leaders Rising Network, it makes the case that most growth problems are clarity problems, and that the path forward is building an intentional people system, not pushing harder. Get a free copy of Rising. Show Outline 6:24 - Building a System of Clarity and Infrastructure8:50 - Developing Leaders and Overcoming Overwhelm12:56 - World-Class Leadership and Organizational Success14:28 - Tensions in Leadership and Organizational Health19:07 - Balancing Support and Challenge in Leadership24:27 - The Role of Intentional Systems in Leadership25:02 - The Impact of Leadership on Organizational Success

  7. Mar 25

    Why New Technology Makes a Struggling Culture Worse

    When something isn't working inside an organization, the instinct is to find a better tool. A new platform, a new system, a new application that promises better collaboration and faster execution. It's a reasonable instinct. And it almost always backfires. Technology is an amplifier. It makes healthy organizations more efficient and struggling organizations more broken. The problem is never really the tool. The problem is the operating system you're installing it on. In this episode, recorded live during the Rising book launch event, Steve walks through why technology implementations so often fail to solve the problems they were meant to fix, and what leaders need to examine before they implement anything new. He then introduces the organizational operating system that sits underneath every initiative, every tool, and every culture conversation: identity, goals, people, rhythms, and systems, all working together or quietly working against each other. This episode is for leaders who have watched a promising implementation fall flat, or who suspect that the real issue in their organization runs deeper than any tool can reach. What you'll hear in this episode: Why technology amplifies organizational health, and organizational dysfunction, in equal measureThe difference between solving a people problem and masking it with a process solutionWhat an organizational operating system actually looks like and what happens when it's misalignedWhy clarity doesn't begin at the organizational level, it begins with the individual leaderHow identity, goals, people, rhythms, and systems either reinforce each other or undermine each other Rising is a book for organizations that are growing but quietly losing clarity along the way. Written by Jeff Lovell and Aaron Lee of Leaders Rising Network, it makes the case that most growth problems are clarity problems, and that the path forward is building an intentional people system, not pushing harder. Get a free copy of Rising.

  8. Mar 11

    Why Culture Drifts (And What Leaders Can't See When It Does)

    Most leaders don't think their culture is broken. They're too close to it. What they notice instead is that meetings feel heavier, decisions take longer, and the same energy they keep pouring in isn't producing the same results. That's not a culture collapse. That's a culture drift. And it almost always starts in the gap between what leaders intend and what their teams actually experience. In this episode, recorded live during the Rising book launch event, Jeff Lovell opens with a diagnostic that most leaders will recognize immediately: pressure doesn't create culture, it reveals it. Becky Rivest follows with a look at how clarity shapes communication, especially in the moments that matter most. And Mike closes with one of the more honest leadership stories you will hear, about a season when good intentions, hard work, and urgency combined to make everything worse. This conversation is for leaders who carry real weight for their organizations and are starting to sense that something is drifting, even if they can't quite name it yet. What you'll hear in this episode: Why culture drifts under pressure and what it's actually revealing when it doesThe gap between what leaders intend and what their teams experience, and why it widens with authorityHow blind spots compound the higher you riseWhy communication is the outward expression of leadership clarityWhat happens when a leader confuses urgency with wisdom Rising is a book for organizations that are growing but quietly losing clarity along the way. Written by Jeff Lovell and Aaron Lee of Leaders Rising Network, it makes the case that most growth problems are clarity problems, and that the path forward is building an intentional people system, not pushing harder. Get a free copy of Rising. Show Outline 0:52 - Why We Wrote Rising2:32 - The Weight Leaders Carry4:10 - Culture Doesn't Break, It Drifts5:00 - What Pressure Actually Reveals7:30 - The Gap Between Intent and Experience10:00 - Leaders Judge Culture by Intentions, Teams Judge by Experience12:45 - What You Permit, You Promote15:00 - The One Question That Stabilizes Leadership17:45 - Communication as the Outward Expression of Leadership18:21 - The Cost of Drama at Work19:02 - Finally, Someone Who Will Tell the Truth22:12 - Mike's Story: When Hard Work Made Things Worse26:09 - The Cost of Urgency Without Clarity27:23 - Effort Is a Tool, Not a Solution

See All (17)

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
5 Ratings

About

Real conversations on leadership, culture, and multiplying impact. Join our team and guests as we explore what it takes to lead well, build healthy teams, and create lasting organizational change—one episode at a time. We equip growing companies to create bigger futures and build thriving cultures by developing leaders worth following.

Information

  • Creator
    Leaders Rising Network
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    17
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Leaders Rising Network
  • Show Website
    Leaders Rising Podcast