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. 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

  2. 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

  3. 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

  4. 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.

  5. 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

  6. 09/11/2025

    From Informing to Transforming: Inside a Leadership Development Experience That Actually Works

    What makes leadership development actually stick? In this episode, we unpack the full lifecycle of Bespoke—a structured leadership program that moves leaders from unconscious habits to empowered, scalable leadership. Joined by Astrid Benedetto and Jim Lee, we explore how combining 5 Voices, data partnerships, and a rhythm of training, coaching, and apprenticeship transforms individuals and drives ROI. Key Quotes: "You can't do this alone. You need the right partner with the right data." — Astrid"Most leadership development stops at informing. That's not enough to transform anyone." — Jim Show Outline: 4:00 - Astrid's motivation to join the Bespoke program5:40 - Cultural insights and 5 Voices awareness9:30 - Jim's vision behind designing the program13:30 - Subjective vs. objective leadership blind spots17:30 - Proving ROI through data partnerships21:00 - The Intentional Multiplication Model: Inform, Train, Coach, Apprentice36:40 - What a month looks like inside Bespoke43:40 - Why most internal programs fall short45:00 - Where leaders get stuck & how to move forward48:30 - One bold move for leaders today

    From Informing to Transforming: Inside a Leadership Development Experience That Actually Works

  7. 08/06/2025

    Culture Isn’t the Problem—It’s the Solution: How Micro-Moments Shape Performance with Jeff Lovell

    "Culture is revealed when behavior collides with values." — Jeff Lovell (07:53) In this summer-session episode of the Leaders Rising Podcast, Jeff Lovell and Aaron Lee pull back the curtain on a timely truth for growth-stage organizations: Culture isn’t the enemy of performance—it’s the pathway. With candid reflections from their own compressed schedules and real client stories, Jeff and Aaron dig into the friction leaders feel when aspirations don’t match behavior. Whether you’ve got posters on the wall or ping-pong tables in the office, this conversation reframes culture from a vibe to a diagnostic. You’ll hear how performance stress, feedback gaps, and people-first leadership all intersect—and how micro-decisions are shaping your workplace more than your strategy slides. ---- ==== Take the Culture Pulse Assessment 6 minutes. 8 questions. Find out what's really going on. Take the Culture Pulse Assessment and get a clear picture on where your team is headed. Link in the show notes @ LeadersRisingNetwork.com/podcast ==== ---- Key Quotes “Culture doesn’t have to be perfect. It has to be practiced.” – Jeff Lovell“We all footnote our values. The leadership moment is deciding whether we’ll own it.” – Aaron Lee“Ask your team: Where is our culture not showing up the way we say it does?” – Jeff Lovell Show Outline 00:00 Summer tensions and the leadership pulse check03:27 The culture problem myth: What we miss when we blame culture05:39 Culture as what we do, not what we say07:53 Behavior vs. values: Where real culture is revealed11:08 Feedback, reviews, and owning the story14:25 Client example: Execution wins, culture slips17:00 Human capital is not a machine21:30 Whole people, whole week: Building space for humanity24:35 A practical reflection tool for cultural gaps28:08 Bold step: Ask where your culture isn’t showing up29:35 Invitation for follow-up and free culture conversations

    Culture Isn’t the Problem—It’s the Solution: How Micro-Moments Shape Performance with Jeff Lovell

  8. 07/23/2025

    From Teacher to Culture Builder: How Humility Fueled Becky Rivest’s Leadership Journey

    Becky Rivest didn’t set out to become a leadership coach. But her journey from public school classrooms to corporate training floors—and now to LRN—shows what happens when learning and humility drive everything. In this personal and thoughtful episode, Aaron Lee sits down with Becky to explore the twists and turns of her leadership development story. From standing in front of her first class of students to helping corporate teams transform from the inside out, Becky shares insights that resonate with every leader navigating change and growth. You’ll hear how unexpected shifts, great mentors, and bold humility paved the way for a career that’s still evolving—and making an impact. Whether you're just stepping into leadership or helping others rise, Becky’s story will help you reflect on your own path. Connect with Becky LinkedIn @BeckyRivest Key Quotes “Nobody ever asked me what kind of leader I wanted to be in that classroom.”“There’s another way to teach—and for me, it wasn’t in a school.”“Humility is what lets us learn, grow, and lead with love.” Show Outline 0:00 What Becky’s learning outside of work this summer2:36 First leadership memory: from student to student teacher5:00 Feedback, fatigue, and finding her footing in the classroom7:54 Why she walked away from teaching—and what came next10:22 Discovering a different kind of teaching inside a contact center12:54 The leaders who shaped her: accountability + humanity18:03 Joining LRN: finding a team aligned with her purpose21:03 Becky’s go-to advice for leaders (hint: it’s not a skill)25:28 Humility as a leadership superpower26:06 Go-to books, music, and life beyond 9 to 5

    From Teacher to Culture Builder: How Humility Fueled Becky Rivest’s Leadership Journey
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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
    14
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2025 Leaders Rising Network
  • Show Website
    Leaders Rising Podcast