The Learning To Lead Show with Mark J. Cundiff

Mark J. Cundiff
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The Learning to Lead Show with Mark J. Cundiff Helping Good Leaders Become Great—One Practical Insight at a Time You’re busy. The demands are real. But your desire to grow as a leader hasn’t gone anywhere. That’s why The Learning to Lead Show is designed for leaders like you—driven, growth-minded, and always on the go. Hosted by Executive Leadership Coach Mark J. Cundiff, this podcast delivers practical leadership insights you can use today, not someday. Each week, you’ll get: Short, focused teaching episodes packed with real-world lessons from decades of leadership experience, bestselling books, and proven frameworks. Authentic interviews with front-line leaders who share how they’re navigating challenges, building teams, and leading with purpose, right where they are. Whether you’re commuting, working out, or grabbing a few quiet minutes between meetings, this show helps you invest in your leadership without adding to your already busy schedule. Because great leadership isn’t about having more time—it’s about using the time you have to lead on purpose. This show is for growth-minded professionals who want more than titles and tactics. It’s for those who want to lead with purpose, develop a legacy, and make their future bigger than their past. So whether you're leading a team, a business, or yourself—tune in, take notes, and let’s grow together.

  1. Sep 3

    #74 Own Your Story: Communication, Confidence, and the Courage to Pivot with Katie Neal

    Episode #74: Own Your Story — Communication, Confidence, and the Courage to Pivot with Katie Neal  Episode Overview If you don't tell your story, someone else will tell it for you. That's the thread running through my entire conversation with Katie Neal — communications leader, certified executive coach, and my first-ever Demon Deacon guest. Katie has built a career on helping people and organizations own their narrative, and in this episode, she brings that same wisdom to us: how to lead through crisis, communicate with confidence, and navigate the fear that comes with betting on yourself.   Whether you're leading a team, building a business, or standing at a career crossroads, this episode will give you language and tools you can use today. Key Takeaways Own your story before someone else writes it for you. Proactive communication builds trust; silence invites speculation.Preparation is the foundation of calm leadership. Crisis response isn't improvised — it's rehearsed.Your language shapes your credibility. Small shifts — flagging, bridging, cutting jargon — dramatically change how you're perceived.Clarify your core values to get unstuck. They've likely been guiding you since childhood, whether you've named them or not.High achievers need to be led differently. Ask them what energizes and drains them — then act on what you hear.Confidence is built through repetition. Practice isn't optional. Do the reps.  About Katie Neal Katie Neal, ACC, is a certified executive coach, award-winning communications leader, and sought-after speaker and facilitator. As CEO and principal of Katie Neal Consulting & Coaching, she helps high achievers lead with intention and advance their careers. She brings more than 20 years of journalism, PR, and strategic communications experience, having held senior communications roles at TimelyCare and her alma mater, Wake Forest University. Today, through coaching, keynotes, and workshops, she develops leaders and empowers them to show up with clarity, confidence, and purpose.   What We Cover in This Episode Katie's Leadership Journey From nearly becoming a doctor, to falling in love with public speaking at Wake Forest, to a year in broadcast journalism, to building a career across PR agencies in Sacramento, San Francisco, and Singapore — Katie shares how a leap of faith with her now-husband set her career in motion, and how another leap, this time to Lexington, Kentucky, eventually led her to launch her own coaching practice. Why Every Leader Needs to Be a Storyteller Katie unpacks a striking Gallup statistic: across 56 countries, people said they want four things most from their leaders — hope, trust, compassion, and stability. The through line connecting all four? Communication.   "If you don't tell your story, someone else will tell it for you." The Traits of Truly Great Leaders They are exceptional listenersThey collaborate before they decideThey communicate the decision and rally people around itThey lead with high emotional intelligenceThey stay connected to both their purpose and their peopleCrisis Communication: What Separates Calm Leaders from Reactive Ones Katie breaks down why preparation is the difference-maker in a crisis — using the American Airlines/Army helicopter tragedy as a case study in calm, transparent leadership. She also addresses a threat leaders couldn't have imagined a decade ago: deepfakes of senior leadership, and why every organization — especially nonprofits — needs a crisis communications plan and the discipline to practice it. Key steps for building a crisis-ready organization: Budget time and resources toward a communications planIf you don't have in-house expertise, bring in someone who knows your marketUpdate your plan regularly — does it account for today's threats (like AI-generated misinformation)?Run crisis communication drills, not just written plansPrepare a communications cascade so every audience-facing team has an aligned messageNavigating a Career Pivot Katie walks through how she coaches people who feel stuck — starting with a values clarification exercise to identify the five or six core values that have guided you since childhood. She shares her own: trust, responsibility, relationships, communication, achievement, and fun.   "When you realize what really motivates you and guides your decision-making, it's easy to say no to what doesn't align — including an unrealistic version of success." She also encourages listeners to ask: Who's on your personal board of directors, and what do they see in you that you don't see in yourself? Telling Your Own Story (Without Sounding Boastful) Katie shares her framework for a strong elevator pitch — who you are, what you do, and why it matters to the organization in front of you — and why that pitch should flex depending on your audience. The Hidden Struggles of High Achievers   Katie describes the "swan on water" phenomenon — high performers look calm on the surface while paddling furiously underneath. Common struggles include: Perfectionism and unreasonably high self-expectationsImposter syndrome — constantly wondering, "When will they figure out I don't belong here?"Burnout, often because high achievers get handed more work, not lessKatie's go-to coaching question for imposter syndrome: "What is the evidence that you don't belong in the room?"  The Power of Language in Leadership   This is one of the most practical parts of the conversation. Katie introduces three techniques for sharpening executive presence: Flagging language — "If you remember one thing, it's this..."Bridging language — moving confidently from a hard question to your key messageThe ABC method — Acknowledge, Bridge, Conclude — for answering questions you don't have full answers to, without saying "no comment"She also names two common communication mistakes leaders make: leaning on jargon instead of real language, and speaking too much instead of listening. What Authentic Leadership Communication Looks Like Katie shares practical, tactical advice for leaders — especially on video: eye contact with the camera, open-hand gestures, strong posture, and above all, practice. She reflects on preparing for her TED Talk at Bellarmine University and the discipline it took to deliver a scripted message that still sounded like her. Betting on Herself Katie opens up about leaving a stable VP role at TimelyCare to build her coaching practice from scratch — and how she manages the very real, everyday fear that comes with entrepreneurship without letting it steal her sleep. Advice for Young Professionals Entering the Workforce Lean into your network — including relationships you haven't even considered yetShow up and connect — at networking events, on LinkedIn, through thank-you notes — and treat networking as relationship-building, not transactionPolish your communication — handshake, eye contact, asking good questions, and cutting words like "just" and "I'm sorry"Resources & Recommendations from Katie The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay StanierThe Good Enough Job  by Simone StolzoffAuthor to follow: Brené BrownPodcast: Coaching Real Leaders with Muriel Wilkins Connect with Katie: WebsiteNewsletterLinkedInInstagramFree Learning To Lead Resources Free Book: The Trust GapThe Learning To Lead NewsletterLeaderNotes🔎 About LeaderNotes LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one. Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

  2. Aug 31

    #73 Leadership Insights from my Conversation with Adam Roach

    What does it cost you to keep chasing success once it stops feeling like enough?   That's the question sitting at the center of this episode. Last week, Adam Roach joined the show for a candid, story-filled conversation in Episode #72, From Success to Significance: The Beach Chair Moment.  Adam is the founder of the I Love Coaching community, where he helps established coaches build businesses rooted in clarity and ownership. Before that, he built and sold a real estate franchise, owned a SaaS technology company, and even ran the Beverly Hills Tennis Club in his twenties.   By every outside measure, Adam had already won. Then his father, a Hall of Fame Olympic swim coach, passed away in 2019. Standing in front of hundreds of people his father had shaped over a lifetime, Adam had a realization that would change everything: he had spent years building success, while his dad had quietly built significance. In this episode, I'm sharing the five biggest leadership insights I took from that conversation, and I'm challenging you to sit with them the same way I did. 5 Key Takeaways from My Conversation with Adam Roach 1. Success and Significance Are Not the Same Thing   Adam spent years chasing success. Franchises. A software company. A comfortable lifestyle. It wasn't until he lost his father that he saw the difference clearly. In Adam's words:   "Significance should be coming from your leadership, and if you focus on significance first, success will always follow." Success alone eventually hits a ceiling. Significance is what outlasts you. It's what filled the room at Adam's father's funeral, decades after some of those relationships began.   Success can build your name. Only significance builds your legacy. 2. Leadership Is Caught, Not Taught Adam's father and grandfather never sat him down to teach him leadership theory. They simply lived it — hard work, consistency, showing up — and Adam absorbed it by watching. The people you lead are absorbing your example far more than your instructions. What are you modeling when you don't realize anyone's watching? 3. Every Leader Is Wearing a Pose This might be the most piercing idea Adam shared. He offered a simple framework: a wound creates a lie, the lie creates a vow, and the vow becomes the pose you perform every day — often without realizing it.   For Adam, it looked like this:   The wound: watching his father find validation from the outside worldThe lie: he was inadequateThe vow: win at everythingThe pose: a performer who had to achieve in order to feel worthy Until you name the wound driving you, you're likely leading from a mask instead of your true identity. 4. Trust Is Built Through Invitation, Not Persuasion Adam's Real Coach method — Relevant, Experiential, Authentic Leader — is built on one idea: when you're clear on who you are and the outcome you offer, you never have to sell. You invite. Clarity removes the need to convince anyone of anything. 5. Standards Outlast Presence When Adam ran his real estate offices, his team recited their vision statement every week and answered one question: "What's the one thing you did to move us closer to it?" Two simple rules governed everything: no one says "it's not my job," and no one has more fun than we do. That kept the team aligned even when Adam wasn't in the room. A team that only performs when the leader is watching doesn't yet have real standards. It's just supervision. The Beach Chair Moment One of the things that stuck with me most is how much quiet reflection shapes Adam's life. He takes a morning walk every day just to get his mind right. And then there's the beach chair moment he shares in the full episode — sitting on the beach with his Bible, some water, and a notebook, working through where his life was headed next. That reflection is what's driving Adam's clarity and purpose today, as he works to help coaches around the world reach and impact 100 million people. So let me ask you what I'm asking myself: What is your mission? What is your vision? Where are you actually headed in this next season of your life? If you haven't listened to the full conversation yet, go back to Episode 72 and hear Adam tell the beach chair story in his own words. A Quick Thank You The Learning to Lead Show has now been downloaded in 431 cities, across 65 countries and 42 U.S. states. That growth is because of listeners like you sharing the show. If you haven't already, subscribe so every new episode lands in your podcast app automatically — and if today's episode (or any episode) added value to your leadership journey, a rating helps us reach more leaders with these conversations. Now go out and learn, grow, and lead. Take your leadership to the next level. Related: Episode 72 — From Success to Significance: The Beach Chair Moment with Adam Roach Free Learning To Lead Resources Free Book: The Trust GapThe Learning To Lead NewsletterLeaderNotes🔎 About LeaderNotes LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one. Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

  3. Aug 25

    #72 From Success to Significance: The Beach Chair Moment with Adam Roach

    #72 From Success to Significance: The Beach Chair Moment with Adam Roach You can check every box success is supposed to give you — the businesses, the income, the lifestyle — and still feel like something's missing. That's exactly where my guest today found himself. Adam Roach built three real estate franchises, a SaaS technology company, and ran a Beverly Hills tennis club in his twenties. By every outside measure, he'd made it. Then his father — a Hall of Fame Olympic swim coach — passed away in 2019. Standing in front of hundreds of people whose lives his dad had shaped, Adam realized he'd spent years chasing success while his father had quietly built something far more lasting: significance. That realization sent him to a beach chair with a Bible, a journal, and one prayer. Within weeks, he'd sold three businesses in a single day and started over with nothing but a calling he couldn't yet see the shape of. Today he leads the I Love Coaching community, helping coaches on four continents build businesses rooted in clarity and ownership — all pointed at a North Star he received in that very beach chair moment. In this episode, we talk about: The difference between success and significance, and why success alone always leads to a dead endThe beach chair moment that led Adam to sell three businesses in one dayThe W + L + V = POSE framework for uncovering the wound, lie, and vow driving your identityWhy leadership is "caught, not taught"How Adam learned to stop being self-reliant — including forgiving a $250,000 debt mid-negotiationThe REAL Coach Method for building trust without ever having to sellWhy a silent, phone-free morning walk is his most important daily discipline What he's learned about leadership from his friendship with John MaxwellIf you've ever felt the itch that there's something more waiting for you, even in the middle of success, this conversation is for you. Connect with Adam Roach:  Instagram:LinkedInWebsiteAdam's Free Resources: Grab a free Copy of the 6 Things You DON'T need to be a World Class Coach (these are the 6 things I had to learn the hard way)Serious about becoming a coach? Learn more on the I Love Coaching Community Discovery Page.  If the copy and the video on that page Resonates with you.. Take the next step (see no. 3)Become a member and get unstuck from your current situation. Build a 6- and 7-figure coaching business using The REAL Coach Method. Free Learning To Lead Resources Free Book: The Trust GapThe Learning To Lead NewsletterLeaderNotes🔎 About LeaderNotes LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one. Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

  4. Aug 21

    #71 Leadership Insights from my Conversation with Greg Gerber

    Episode 71: Leadership Insights from My Conversation with Greg Gerber The Question Behind This Episode What happens when the career that once defined you disappears? That's the question at the heart of this episode. It's my follow-up reflection on Episode 70, Stories of Reinvention, Forward from 50: How to Rediscover Purpose, Passion, and Possibility with Greg Gerber — and I wanted to sit with it a little longer, because I think a lot of us are closer to this moment than we realize. Meet Greg Gerber Greg spent nearly 20 years as a journalist covering the RV industry, building his own daily publication to 16,000 subscribers. Then he did something almost unheard of in his field: he sold everything, bought a motor home, and lived in it full-time for three years — traveling to all 48 lower states to report from inside the industry he'd spent two decades covering. What he found on the road led to a series of editorials that cost him nearly two-thirds of his revenue within weeks, and eventually, the business itself. That loss became the foundation for Forward from 50 — Greg's platform helping people over 50 discover that meaning and purpose don't end at retirement. They just change shape. Nearly 200 interviews later, he keeps hearing the same story: people stepping out of careers that no longer fit and into work that finally does. The truth we kept coming back to: You don't retire from your purpose. You retire from your job. What We Talked About Recognizing apathy creep before it drains your passionSeparating the job you had to do from the purpose you're meant to doTurning pain and loss into a new directionIdentifying your natural talents through honest self-evaluationOvercoming imposter syndrome when starting something newUsing curiosity to stay sharp and engaged at any ageFinding purpose by helping someone else, not just yourself5 Key Takeaways 1. Your Purpose Doesn't Retire When Your Job Does Greg lost nearly two-thirds of his income within weeks, and within a couple of years, the business he'd spent 20 years building was gone. But here's what he told me: "You don't retire from your purpose because your purpose has changed. You want to do something that makes an impact. And once you discover what it is that you want to do, you pick up that baton, and you run that race." Leadership lesson: A job ending is not the same as your purpose ending. The role changes — the mission doesn't have to. If you're in a career transition, a season of change, or you're just not sure what's next, take a moment to ask yourself what your purpose really is, separate from the title you've been holding. You've been given gifts and talents for a reason. There's still a race for you to run. 2. Apathy Creep Is Real, and It's Quiet Greg names something I think a lot of high achievers will recognize. Boredom sets in. Results feel less satisfying. A quiet sense of being pushed aside starts to erode the enthusiasm you once had. Leadership insight: Disengagement rarely announces itself. It creeps in through routine — and you have to interrupt it on purpose. 3. Purpose Isn't Purpose Unless It Helps Someone Else Greg was direct about this one. Recreation and hobbies are enjoyable, but they aren't the same as purpose. What turns an activity into a calling is using it to help someone else. "I personally don't believe you can have a purpose without helping other people." Leadership lesson: If you want your next chapter to feel meaningful — not just busy — build it around who it serves, not just what you enjoy. 4. You Don't Need All the Answers to Guide Someone Else Greg admitted he wrestled with imposter syndrome when he first started Forward from 50. What freed him wasn't expertise — it was reframing what guidance actually requires. "You don't need to know everything and have all the answers. You just need to be a step or two ahead of the person seeking assistance." Leadership insight: You don't have to take someone from A to Z. You just have to get them to point B and connect them to what's next. 5. Curiosity Is What Keeps Leaders Sharp This might be my favorite part of the conversation. Greg points to curiosity — not recreation — as the real driver of sustained energy and sharpness over time. It reminded me of Dan Sullivan's Laws of Lifetime Growth, where the very first law is: always make your future bigger than your past. "The people who remain curious, who are always looking and learning and asking questions, they are the ones that their minds tend to remain sharp." Leadership lesson: Growth isn't a phase of life. It's a daily habit of staying curious enough to keep learning. Leaders who keep asking questions keep growing. Leaders who stop, stay comfortable — and eventually stall. Final Word You don't retire from your purpose. You retire from your job. Wherever you are in your journey — whether you're navigating a career transition, feeling that quiet apathy creep in, or just wondering what's next — I hope this episode reminded you that your best contribution might still be ahead of you. Pick up the baton. Run your race. Thank You We've now been downloaded in 423 cities, across 65 countries, and 42 states in the U.S. Thank you for helping us spread the word. Subscribe so every new episode hits your podcast app the moment it's publishedLeave a rating and let us know what you think of the conversations we're havingDownload Leader Notes for a comprehensive summary of the topics and resources covered in this episodeNow go out and learn, grow, and lead — and take your organization to the next level. — Mark Cundiff, Host, Learning to Lead Free Learning To Lead Resources Free Book: The Trust GapThe Learning To Lead NewsletterLeaderNotes🔎 About LeaderNotes LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one. Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

  5. Aug 16

    #70 Stories of Reinvention, Forward from 50: How to Rediscover Purpose, Passion, and Possibility with Greg Gerber

    #70 Stories of Reinvention, Forward from 50: How to Rediscover Purpose, Passion, and Possibility with Greg Gerber  What happens when the career that defined you for 20 years disappears, not slowly, but all at once?  That's exactly what happened to my guest today, Greg Gerber. For nearly two decades, Greg was the voice of the RV industry, building a daily publication that reached 16,000 subscribers. Then he sold everything, bought a motor home, and lived in it full time for three years, reporting from inside the industry he covered. What he uncovered led to a series of editorials that cost him almost two-thirds of his revenue within weeks, and eventually, the business he'd built his identity around.  That loss became the doorway to Forward From 50, the platform Greg founded to help people over 50 rediscover purpose, not just recreation, in the years ahead of them. Nearly 200 interviews later, he's heard the same story again and again: people stepping away from careers that no longer fit, and into work that finally does.  In this episode, we talk about:  🔹 What "apathy creep" looks like, and why so many high achievers drift into it without realizing it  🔹 The real difference between retiring from your job and retiring from your purpose  🔹 How losing nearly everything forced Greg to rebuild his identity from scratch  🔹 Why purpose isn't real purpose unless it's helping someone else  🔹 The story of an engineer who traded MRI machines for balloon animals, Olympic officiating, and quieter pickleball courts  🔹 The 22-question guide that can help anyone who feels stuck find direction  🔹 Why curiosity — not recreation — is what keeps us sharp as we age  If you've ever wondered what comes next after the title, the paycheck, or the identity you built your life around, this conversation is for you.  Connect with Greg Gerber: 🌐 Website: forwardfrom50.com  📱 Community: Forward From 50 on Facebook  🎧 Podcast: Forward From 50 Podcast  About Greg: Greg Gerber is the founder of Forward From 50, a Wisconsin native who moved to Arizona in 2009. A journalist by trade, he created the RV industry's first entirely online news site and its first business-related podcast before founding Forward From 50 in 2021 to help people over 50 pursue lives of purpose. Learn more: forwardfrom50.com/about  Free Learning To Lead Resources Free Book: The Trust GapThe Learning To Lead NewsletterLeaderNotes🔎 About LeaderNotes LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one. Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

  6. Aug 10

    #69 Leadership Insights from my Conversation with Hanna Bauer

    Episode #69: Leadership Insights from My Conversation with Hanna Bauer  What if the crisis you're dreading isn't actually your biggest problem? What if it's simply the spotlight that finally shows everyone what was already there?   That's the question I couldn't stop thinking about after my conversation with Hanna Bauer in Episode #68, "The Great Recession of Trust: How Leaders Can Rebuild What's Been Lost." In this episode, I'm unpacking five key takeaways from that conversation — insights I believe every growth-minded leader needs to hear.   Meet Hanna Bauer Hanna is the founder of Heartnomics, a Maxwell Leadership Certified Facilitator, a Six Sigma Black Belt, and a Baldrige Examiner who has guided leaders and organizations across 29 states and 7 countries. But here's what makes Hanna's story different: her framework didn't come out of a business school case study. It came from a childhood spent fighting a life-threatening heart condition — surviving two heart attacks before the age of 10, and becoming part of a pioneering 1992 heart surgery that has since saved more than 3,000 children. Years later, as a CEO, Hanna nearly broke her own company by mastering strategy and systems while letting go of the thing she knew best: her people. That collapse — and the industry-wide disruption that followed — taught her a truth she's built her entire career on: Crisis doesn't create culture's problems. It reveals the ones that were already there.   What We Talked About   Throughout our conversation, Hanna unpacked why we're living through what she calls "the great recession of trust." We talked about why love is the foundation beneath empathy and accountability — not a soft skill leaders can afford to skip. And we explored why resilience has to be built long before a crisis ever arrives.   Here are the topics we covered:   Why crisis doesn't stop you — it reveals youWhy love is the foundation of trust, not a soft skillWhy building resilience before you need it is imperative to your successDiagnosing organizational misalignment before it costs you your best peopleBalancing love with accountability without losing credibilityUnderstanding trust as the true currency of leadershipMeasuring the cost of lost human potentialLeading transformation at the individual, organizational, and national level If you haven't listened to Episode #68 yet, I'd challenge you to go back and take in the full conversation. Hanna speaks from her heart — she named her business Heartnomics for a reason — and it comes through in a deeply authentic way as she walks all the way back to her childhood and the battle she fought just to stay alive.   Five Key Takeaways for Growth-Minded Leaders 1. Crisis Doesn't Stop You — It Reveals You   When Hanna's industry faced total disruption, she realized the crisis wasn't creating new problems. It was bringing to light the ones that had been tolerated all along.   Leadership insight: The culture that shows up under pressure was already there in good times — it just wasn't being tested yet. Ask yourself: what would a crisis reveal about my team right now? 2. Love Is the Foundation of Trust — Not a Soft Skill Hanna pushes back hard on the idea that love is fluff. She connects it directly to empathy, authenticity, confidence, and the genuine ability to value people. As she puts it, you cannot have a valued workforce without also having a loved workforce. Leadership insight: You can't ask your team for empathy, authenticity, or engagement without first giving them love. It's the root — not the extra. 3. Resilience Is Built Before You Need It   Just like cardiovascular endurance, resilience isn't something you can summon in the middle of a crisis. Hanna says it has to be trained in the calm. Here's how she describes it: "Resilience is really the result of the leadership, the result of learning from failures, the result of being able to debrief. It's basically that bank account so that when those times require you to use resilience, you have something to pull from." Leadership insight: If you're waiting for a crisis to start building resilience in your team, you're already behind. 4. Misalignment Shows Up in Patterns, Not Single Events Hanna outlines the early warning signs of a misaligned organization: high turnover, no succession plan, constant bottlenecks, and — above all — a meeting culture where you need a meeting before the meeting, and another one after it, just to solve the same issues. Leadership insight: Misalignment rarely announces itself. It shows up first in your calendar and your org chart — long before it ever shows up in your numbers. 5. Trust Is the Leader's Currency According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, over 64% of people don't trust the organizations they work with. Hanna connects that deficit directly to a leader's ability to drive change. Think about your own organization for a moment. What's your trust rating? How would your people describe the trust they have in you as a leader — and in the organization as a whole? I've seen this play out time and again in coaching and consulting engagements: low trust between levels and departments is almost always at the root of a struggling culture. Leadership insight: You can't spend trust you haven't built. Every ask for change is a withdrawal from an account leaders have to fill first. The Bottom Line   Trust is the currency of leadership, and it has to be built before it's spent. Great leaders don't demand trust because of their title — they build it through love, consistency, and systems that keep people at the center.   So here's my challenge to you this week: go build that trust. Show your team you have their back. Love and care for them well enough that when the ask comes, they already know the answer. Connect with Hanna: Website: heartnomics.comLinkedIn: Hanna Bauer  Resources Mentioned Episode #68: The Great Recession of Trust: How Leaders Can Rebuild What's Been Lost — listen to the full conversation with Hanna Bauer Take Action   If this episode resonated with you, here's how you can help:   Subscribe to the Learning to Lead Show so every new episode lands right in your podcast appLeave a rating in your favorite podcast app — it helps us climb the rankings, reach more growth-minded leaders, and attract guests you'll want to hear fromDownload your free Leader Notes for this episode — a comprehensive summary of the key topics and resources, linked in the show notes Until next time — go out this week and learn, grow, lead, and take your organization to the next level. Free Learning To Lead Resources Free Book: The Trust GapThe Learning To Lead NewsletterLeaderNotes🔎 About LeaderNotes LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one. Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

  7. Aug 6

    #68 The Great Recession of Trust: How Leaders Can Rebuild What's Been Lost with Hanna Bauer (John Maxwell Faculty Member)

    #68 The Great Recession of Trust: How Leaders Can Rebuild What's Been Lost with Hanna Bauer Episode Summary   What do you do when the very system you built to create clarity ends up costing you the heart of your organization? That's the question Hanna Bauer had to face — and it's the question we're wrestling with together in this episode.   Hanna's story starts long before her career in leadership development. At just four years old, she was diagnosed with a life-threatening heart condition. What followed was a childhood spent in and out of hospitals, enduring two heart attacks by age 10, failed treatments, and a groundbreaking heart ablation surgery that hadn't been tried before, a surgery her doctor compared to finding one light switch in a pitch-black, spinning room. It worked. And twenty years later, that same procedure had saved 3,000 more children.   That's a miracle. But it's also, as Hanna discovered, a masterclass in leadership, one she didn't recognize until decades later, when she found herself as a results-driven executive who had gotten so good at strategy and systems that she'd let go of what she knew best: the heart. The people.   In this conversation, we talk about: The four leadership lessons Hanna learned as a child — courage, the language of love, empathy without answers, and reframing failure as part of the processWhy she believes "crisis doesn't stop you — it reveals you" and what that means for the culture you're building right now, in the calm before the stormHer HEART framework and BEAT methodology, born not from a whiteboard session but from her own lived experience of survivalWhy love isn't a soft skill — and how she connects empathy, authenticity, confidence, and trust directly back to itHow to balance love with accountability without losing credibility as a leaderThe signs of a misaligned organization — from meeting-about-the-meeting culture to the silent cost of lost human potentialWhy we're living through what Hanna calls "a great recession of trust" — and what leaders can do to start rebuilding itWhat it's been like serving on the John Maxwell faculty, including leading full-country transformation initiatives in the Dominican Republic, Argentina, and Panama  Key Quotes from the Episode   "Strategy's great, we need it. Processes are great, they give us clarity. But without people, without the heart, you really don't have anything." "Crisis really doesn't... the crisis is not there to stop you. The crisis there is there to reveal you." "Resilience is really the result of the leadership, the result of learning from failures, the result of being able to debrief. It's basically that bank account... so that when those times require for you to use the resilience, you have something to pull from." "You cannot have a valued workforce without also having a loved workforce." "Once you've tasted significance, success is never enough."   Takeaways You Can Apply This Week   If you walk away from this episode with nothing else, let it be this: Audit your own alignment. Are your systems clear, but your people quietly disengaged? Misalignment often hides behind productivity, until it doesn't.Build resilience before you need it. Like cardiovascular endurance, resilience is trained in the calm, not summoned in the crisis. Where are you investing in your team's capacity today?Redefine accountability as a byproduct of community. You can't hold people accountable to a culture they don't feel safe in. Proximity and trust come first.Start measuring what actually matters. Are you tracking satisfaction, belonging, and meaning — or just deadlines and deliverables?Remember: service is leadership. Hannah didn't set out to become a leader. She simply started serving. Sometimes that's exactly where leadership begins for you too.About Hanna Bauer Hanna Bauer is a leadership consultant, John Maxwell faculty member, and Six Sigma Black Belt who helps individuals and organizations align strategy, systems, and people so they can navigate crisis and seize opportunity with resilience. She is the creator of the HEART framework and BEAT methodology, and has led leadership and transformation initiatives across multiple countries, including the Dominican Republic, Argentina, and Panama. Connect with Hanna:   Website: heartnomics.comLinkedIn: Hanna Bauer  A Question to Sit With Before you close this out and move on to the next thing, ask yourself: Where in my leadership have I let systems replace people? You don't have to have all the answers today. You just have to be willing to be there and to lead from the heart, like Hanna's grandmother once did for her.   If this episode moved you, share it with a leader in your circle who needs to hear it — and subscribe to The Learning to Lead Show so you never miss what's next. Free Learning To Lead Resources Free Book: The Trust GapThe Learning To Lead NewsletterLeaderNotes🔎 About LeaderNotes LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one. Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

  8. Aug 2

    #67 Leadership Insights from my Conversation with Neill Marshall & Kurt Mosley

    #67 Leadership Insights from my Conversation with Neill Marshall and Kurt Mosley Guests: Neil Marshall & Kurt Mosley, HealthSearch Partners Episode Overview What if the most important leadership decisions you'll ever make happen before you've even earned the right to lead? In this episode, I sit down with Neil Marshall and Kurt Mosley of HealthSearch Partners — an executive search firm that has guided more than 700 executive-level searches in hospitals and healthcare. Across all that experience, they've uncovered a pattern that holds true no matter the industry: the first 90 days aren't about strategy. They're about trust. Get that window right, and everything else accelerates. Get it wrong, and you could spend the next year trying to recover credibility you never built in the first place. Neil and Kurt share story after story — from a CEO who replaced worn-out mattresses in a hospital residence the same day he heard about them, to a leader who quietly climbed a ladder to fix a light bulb instead of delegating it away. Small acts. Enormous credibility. At the heart of it all is one simple, powerful truth: Trust is earned before it is given.Great leaders don't walk in the door and announce who they are. They show it — one consistent, credible action at a time. What You'll Learn in This Episode Building trust before you try to lead changeUsing symbolic acts to set the tone for a new roleListening well enough to understand culture before changing itCreating an early win that builds lasting credibilitySeparating real problems from isolated complaintsAvoiding the most common first 90-day mistakesTurning early wins into sustainable systemsResetting with integrity after a misstepWhether you're stepping into a brand-new role or you're a season into your current one and need a reset, this episode will help you: Build trust faster — without rushing your decisionsRead culture accurately before trying to change itCreate early wins that actually matterLead with consistency instead of big declarationsRecover credibility after a misstep5 Key Takeaways for Growth-Minded Leaders 1. Trust Is Earned in the First 90 Days — Not Given by Title Most new leaders assume their title has already earned them a followership. Neil and Kurt see it differently: it's not your strategy people need to trust first — it's you. The first 90 days are a momentum phase. Build trust early, and everything that follows accelerates. Skip that step, and you'll spend the next year trying to recover credibility you never built. Leadership Lesson: Your title gives you authority. Your first 90 days determine whether you've earned the right to lead. 2. Small Symbolic Acts Build Lasting Credibility One CEO moved into a hospital's residence dorms for his first 90 days. When a resident mentioned the mattresses were worn out, he had them replaced that same day. Another leader quietly climbed a ladder to fix a burned-out light bulb rather than pointing it out to someone else. Neither leader gave a speech. Both built credibility that outlasted their tenure. Leadership Insight: One symbolic act is worth more than a hundred emails or edicts. 3. Listening Has to Come Before Declaring New leaders are often expected to move fast. Neil and Kurt caution against mistaking motion for progress. The leaders who last diagnose before they prescribe — they ask before they act. Four questions to ask early in any new role: What's working that I shouldn't mess up?What's getting in your way?What are people not saying out loud, but everybody knows?If we're successful in 90 days, what's different?Leadership Lesson: Ask before you act. People trust leaders who understand them before they try to change them. 4. Culture Is the Multiplier As Kurt put it plainly: misreading culture can undo a leader's best work. "Culture is the multiplier. It'll take ten of your big wins away from you if you misread it."A leader has to earn the right to change a culture by first understanding it. Otherwise, even good decisions land as tone-deaf ones. Leadership Insight: You can't lead what you don't understand. 5. Ownership Turns Mistakes Into Trust Even the best leaders stumble in their first 90 days. What separates leaders who recover from those who don't is simple: ownership. People forgive mistakes — but they won't forgive you for being disingenuous. The leaders who reset well go back to their team, and often their board, and say plainly what they got wrong, what they learned, and what they're changing. Leadership Lesson: Accountability isn't weakness — it's how credibility is rebuilt. Bringing It Home Whether you're starting a brand-new role or you need to reset where you currently stand, these five principles are practices you can put into place right now — and take your organization to the next level. Resources Mentioned Leader Notes — Download your free summary and outline of every topic covered in this interview.Connect & Subscribe Subscribe so every new episode of Learning to Lead arrives in your favorite podcast player as soon as it's published.If this episode added value, a 5-star rating helps more leaders find the show — we'd be grateful for yours.Now get out there this week and learn, grow, and lead — and take your organization to the next level. — Mark Cundiff, Host, The Learning to Lead Show Free Learning To Lead Resources Free Book: The Trust GapThe Learning To Lead NewsletterLeaderNotes🔎 About LeaderNotes LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one. Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

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The Learning to Lead Show with Mark J. Cundiff Helping Good Leaders Become Great—One Practical Insight at a Time You’re busy. The demands are real. But your desire to grow as a leader hasn’t gone anywhere. That’s why The Learning to Lead Show is designed for leaders like you—driven, growth-minded, and always on the go. Hosted by Executive Leadership Coach Mark J. Cundiff, this podcast delivers practical leadership insights you can use today, not someday. Each week, you’ll get: Short, focused teaching episodes packed with real-world lessons from decades of leadership experience, bestselling books, and proven frameworks. Authentic interviews with front-line leaders who share how they’re navigating challenges, building teams, and leading with purpose, right where they are. Whether you’re commuting, working out, or grabbing a few quiet minutes between meetings, this show helps you invest in your leadership without adding to your already busy schedule. Because great leadership isn’t about having more time—it’s about using the time you have to lead on purpose. This show is for growth-minded professionals who want more than titles and tactics. It’s for those who want to lead with purpose, develop a legacy, and make their future bigger than their past. So whether you're leading a team, a business, or yourself—tune in, take notes, and let’s grow together.

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