The Leadership Buzz | Work Hard. Tell the Truth.

Buzz Buzzell
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The Leadership Buzz is a short, practical leadership podcast where Lloyd “Buzz” Buzzell, ACC turns one key idea from a leadership book into real-life takeaways you can use immediately plus three coaching questions to reflect on.

  1. 2D AGO

    Leadership Under Pressure | Built Long Before the Pressure Arrives

    Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Leadership Buzz, we explore how leadership under pressure is usually built long before the pressure arrives. Using Todd Beamer’s story from Lisa Beamer’s Let’s Roll, this conversation looks beyond the headline moments of September 11th and into the values, habits, mentors, faith, and daily choices that shape courageous leadership over time. We discuss: • Todd Beamer and Flight 93 as an example of values-based leadership under pressure • Why courage is usually developed over a lifetime, not created in a crisis • How everyday leadership decisions reveal character and integrity • The influence of mentors, coaches, family, faith, and workplace culture • Why leadership is often shaped quietly through repeated habits and behaviors • Choosing truth, responsibility, humility, and calm under pressure • The importance of protecting the foundation underneath your leadership If you enjoy conversations about leadership, character, executive coaching, integrity, resilience, and personal growth, please subscribe and share the show with others. And if this episode resonates with you, I’d love to hear your thoughts or continue the conversation with you directly. Book Reference: Beamer, L., & Abraham, K. (2002). Let’s Roll!: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Courage. Tyndale House Publishers. Work hard. Tell the truth. The Leadership Buzz is hosted by Lloyd “Buzz” Buzzell, an ICF-ACC executive coach, DISC practitioner, and retired U.S. Air Force officer with 37 years of leadership experience. Each episode focuses on one book, one idea, and one practical leadership concept to help you align your behavior with your values and lead with greater clarity, trust, and impact. If you’re a leader who wants to build stronger teams, improve communication, and create real ownership, subscribe and share this episode with someone on your team. Connect with Buzz on LinkedIn or visit workhardtellthetruth.com for coaching and leadership development resources. Work hard. Tell the truth.

    16 min

  2. 6D AGO

    Bonus Episode | Three Defining Moments That Shaped My Leadership

    Send us Fan Mail In this special bonus episode of The Leadership Buzz, Lloyd “Buzz” Buzzell reflects on three defining moments from the summer of 1983 that shaped his understanding of leadership, resilience, responsibility, mentorship, integrity, and service. From witnessing an extraordinary act of servant leadership on a nuclear power plant construction site, to the sudden loss of his father on a golf course, to a life-changing mentorship conversation that led him into the United States Air Force, this episode explores how defining moments shape character long before leadership is ever tested. This leadership podcast episode focuses on: • servant leadership and leadership under pressure • resilience, adversity, and personal growth • mentorship and leadership development • executive leadership and values-based leadership • integrity, accountability, trust, and responsibility • military leadership and a lifetime of service • emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and purpose • how ordinary life moments can shape a leadership journey and influence decades of coaching and leadership If you enjoy leadership podcasts focused on leadership development, executive coaching, personal growth, character, communication, trust, resilience, and authentic leadership, subscribe to The Leadership Buzz and share this episode with someone who may need it. Connect with Buzz on LinkedIn or visit workhardtellthetruth.com. Work hard. Tell the truth. The Leadership Buzz is hosted by Lloyd “Buzz” Buzzell, an ICF-ACC executive coach, DISC practitioner, and retired U.S. Air Force officer with 37 years of leadership experience. Each episode focuses on one book, one idea, and one practical leadership concept to help you align your behavior with your values and lead with greater clarity, trust, and impact. If you’re a leader who wants to build stronger teams, improve communication, and create real ownership, subscribe and share this episode with someone on your team. Connect with Buzz on LinkedIn or visit workhardtellthetruth.com for coaching and leadership development resources. Work hard. Tell the truth.

    11 min

  3. MAY 18

    Engage With Honor | Courageous Accountability for Everyday Leaders

    Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Leadership Buzz, we explore Engage with Honor: Building a Culture of Courageous Accountability by retired Air Force Colonel and Vietnam POW Lee Ellis and discuss how these leadership lessons apply directly to business, teams, organizations, families, and everyday life. This conversation is not just about military leadership. It is about resilience, workplace culture, dignity, accountability, and the repeated daily choices leaders make under pressure. We discuss why the real lesson from the Hanoi Hilton is not one dramatic moment of bravery. It is the daily grind of leadership: staying engaged, encouraging others, holding standards, and continuing forward when it would be easier to withdraw. We also break down courageous accountability built on character, courage, and commitment, and why talent without character eventually damages trust and creates silence inside organizations. A major theme in this episode is dignity and respect. We explore four traps that quietly destroy workplace culture: domination, withdrawal, gossip, and judging. If you want better communication, stronger accountability, healthier teams, and more trust in your organization, dignity is not a soft skill. It is foundational leadership. Stick around for three coaching questions you can apply immediately, and share this episode with a leader who cares about doing things the right way. Referenced books: Engage with Honor – Lee Ellis A POW’s Story: 2801 Days in Hanoi – Larry Guarino The Passing of the Night – Robbie Risner The Leadership Buzz is hosted by Lloyd “Buzz” Buzzell, an ICF-ACC executive coach, DISC practitioner, and retired U.S. Air Force officer with 37 years of leadership experience. Each episode focuses on one book, one idea, and one practical leadership concept to help you align your behavior with your values and lead with greater clarity, trust, and impact. If you’re a leader who wants to build stronger teams, improve communication, and create real ownership, subscribe and share this episode with someone on your team. Connect with Buzz on LinkedIn or visit workhardtellthetruth.com for coaching and leadership development resources. Work hard. Tell the truth.

    16 min

  4. MAY 11

    Multiplier vs Diminisher Leadership: Are You Making Your Team Smarter or Quieter? Liz Wiseman | Multipliers | Leadership, Team Performance, Psychological Safety

    Send us Fan Mail Are you a multiplier or a diminisher as a leader? The fastest way to lose a room is to walk in thinking you need to have every answer. In this leadership podcast episode, we break down Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter by Liz Wiseman and explore a critical leadership question: are you amplifying your team’s intelligence or shutting it down? We’ve both seen it—same team, same mission, same pressure—but one leader changes everything. People either speak up, take ownership, and bring better ideas… or they go quiet and wait to be told what to do. We unpack how capable, well-intentioned leaders become accidental diminishers by stepping in too quickly, correcting too often, and controlling outcomes—especially when those behaviors get rewarded as “results.” Then we shift to what multiplier leaders do differently: they ask better questions, create space for thinking, and slow things down just enough so their teams can move faster and perform at a higher level. We also use a story from Bobby Orr to illustrate what it looks like when one person elevates everyone around them—boosting confidence, performance, and belief across the entire team. If you’re leading meetings, pay attention to this: what does silence in the room really mean? We talk about psychological safety, team dynamics, and the leadership discipline of holding the silence long enough for real concerns and better ideas to surface. This episode is for leaders who want to:  Build trust and ownership on their teams  Improve communication and engagement  Stop being the bottleneck and start developing people  Lead without having all the answers Subscribe for more leadership coaching focused on self-awareness, team performance, and real-world leadership lessons. Share this with a leader who needs it, and leave a review to help others find the show. What’s one habit you need to change so your team gets louder, more confident, and more capable? The Leadership Buzz is hosted by Lloyd “Buzz” Buzzell, an ICF-ACC executive coach, DISC practitioner, and retired U.S. Air Force officer with 37 years of leadership experience. Each episode focuses on one book, one idea, and one practical leadership concept to help you align your behavior with your values and lead with greater clarity, trust, and impact. If you’re a leader who wants to build stronger teams, improve communication, and create real ownership, subscribe and share this episode with someone on your team. Connect with Buzz on LinkedIn or visit workhardtellthetruth.com for coaching and leadership development resources. Work hard. Tell the truth.

    16 min

  5. MAY 4

    Radical Candor | Care Personally, Challenge Directly

    Send us Fan Mail Most leaders think they’re being kind when they hold back the truth—but what if the real damage comes from silence? In this leadership podcast episode, we dig into Radical Candor by Kim Scott and explore one of the most important leadership skills: giving honest feedback to people you genuinely care about. We break down the core of the Radical Candor framework—caring personally while challenging directly—and why that balance is essential for building trust, improving team performance, and strengthening workplace communication. We also explore the common traps leaders fall into when feedback gets uncomfortable: ruinous empathy (nice but unclear), obnoxious aggression (direct but damaging), and manipulative insincerity (two-faced and trust-killing). If you’ve ever softened a message until it lost meaning, avoided a difficult conversation, or relied on blunt honesty without connection, this episode will challenge how you lead. Along the way, we connect candid leadership and feedback to what people actually want at work: clarity, growth, and to feel valued. We share real leadership insights from military teams where trust and accountability made the difference, and we highlight how leadership coaching and honest conversations can build stronger, more cohesive teams. If you care about leadership development, team culture, psychological safety, and accountability, this is a practical place to start. Subscribe for more leadership coaching conversations, share this episode with a leader who needs it, and leave a rating or review so more people can find the show. What’s one truth you need to say this week? The Leadership Buzz is hosted by Lloyd “Buzz” Buzzell, an ICF-ACC executive coach, DISC practitioner, and retired U.S. Air Force officer with 37 years of leadership experience. Each episode focuses on one book, one idea, and one practical leadership concept to help you align your behavior with your values and lead with greater clarity, trust, and impact. If you’re a leader who wants to build stronger teams, improve communication, and create real ownership, subscribe and share this episode with someone on your team. Connect with Buzz on LinkedIn or visit workhardtellthetruth.com for coaching and leadership development resources. Work hard. Tell the truth.

    16 min

  6. APR 27

    People Matter: Ownership Changes Everything

    Send us Fan Mail Ownership is the quiet force that turns average teams into teams you can trust under pressure. When something goes wrong, do you default to “whose fault is this,” or do you ask the question that changes everything: “what part of this is mine to own?” That single shift builds credibility, reduces blame, and creates real momentum, even when the workload is heavy and the system feels imperfect. We lean on insights from Josh Block, author of People Matter at Work, who argues that leadership is bigger than results or competence. The healthiest workplace culture is one where people feel safe, seen, and successful, and that emotional reality drives employee engagement, initiative, and retention. Josh describes moving from a “me” mindset to a “we” mindset, where trust is normal and people feel connected to the mission. When that happens, people stop acting like short-term employees and start acting like owners who care about quality, customers, and teammates. Coach Buzz brings it down to a practical framework: renters versus owners. Renters wait, minimize risk, and outsource responsibility to the boss or the circumstances. Owners take responsibility for their attitude, effort, and impact, and they look for what they can fix without needing perfect conditions first. We share military stories that make ownership tangible, from putting your name on your work to maintaining standards when nobody is inspecting, and we close with three coaching questions you can use immediately with your team. Subscribe for more leadership coaching, share this with a leader who needs a push toward ownership, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What’s one place in your life where you’re renting instead of owning? Book: People Matter @work | Fostering a Culture Where Team Members Thrive and Everyone Wins | Follow on linkedin The Leadership Buzz is hosted by Lloyd “Buzz” Buzzell, an ICF-ACC executive coach, DISC practitioner, and retired U.S. Air Force officer with 37 years of leadership experience. Each episode focuses on one book, one idea, and one practical leadership concept to help you align your behavior with your values and lead with greater clarity, trust, and impact. If you’re a leader who wants to build stronger teams, improve communication, and create real ownership, subscribe and share this episode with someone on your team. Connect with Buzz on LinkedIn or visit workhardtellthetruth.com for coaching and leadership development resources. Work hard. Tell the truth.

    16 min

  7. APR 20

    How to Get a Return on Failure | The Power of the Debrief

    Send us Fan Mail Failure is not a leadership flaw. It is a leadership guarantee. What separates strong leaders from stuck leaders is what happens after the miss. Do we hide, blame, and move on too quickly, or do we slow down and learn? In this episode, we lean on John Maxwell’s How to Get a Return on Failure and a military practice called the debrief. High-performing teams review the game tape, walk back through what happened, and ask four simple questions: What happened? Why did it happen? What did we learn? What will we do differently next time? We talk about why the best debriefs are built on honesty, psychological safety, and facts over ego. Then we translate that process into business leadership and everyday team life. If you have ever led through a mistake, setback, missed goal, difficult conversation, or disappointing result, this episode is for you. Subscribe for more practical leadership coaching, share this with a leader who needs it, and leave a review if it helps. What failure are you ready to debrief this week? The Leadership Buzz is hosted by Lloyd “Buzz” Buzzell, an ICF-ACC executive coach, DISC practitioner, and retired U.S. Air Force officer with 37 years of leadership experience. Each episode focuses on one book, one idea, and one practical leadership concept to help you align your behavior with your values and lead with greater clarity, trust, and impact. If you’re a leader who wants to build stronger teams, improve communication, and create real ownership, subscribe and share this episode with someone on your team. Connect with Buzz on LinkedIn or visit workhardtellthetruth.com for coaching and leadership development resources. Work hard. Tell the truth.

    16 min

  8. APR 13

    Leaders Are Readers | Why Reading Makes You a Better Leader

    Send us Fan Mail Leaders who don’t read don’t stay sharp, they just stay busy. Today we unpack a simple belief with huge consequences: leaders are readers, and the ones who keep learning are the ones who make better calls when pressure hits. TJ tees up General James Mattis’ famous message on professional reading, and I explain why Mattis saw books as a way to “light a dark path ahead.” When we skip reading, we’re forced to learn only through our own experience, and that often means learning the hard way. Reading gives us borrowed wisdom, faster pattern recognition, and the perspective to adapt before a situation turns into a crisis. From there, we connect the habit of reading to three leadership basics I come back to again and again: trust, service, and truth. We walk through book recommendations that shaped my thinking, including Call Sign Chaos, Vietnam POW stories that spotlight character under extreme conditions, and Holocaust memoirs like Man’s Search For Meaning that show how purpose helps people endure. We also hit team and culture lessons from The Five Dysfunctions Of A Team, The Legacy, and The Hard Hat, plus The Talent Code on deliberate practice and coaching. We close with three coaching questions to help you choose what to read next and how to apply it at work. If you get value from the show, subscribe, share it with a leader you respect, and leave a review so more people can find it. What book has shaped the way you lead most, and why? Some books discussed and others worth taking a look at include Call Sign Chaos, Engage With Honor, Legacy, The Hard Hat, Hammerproof, Living Proof, Team of Teams, Leading Change, Start With Why, Leaders Eat Last, True North, The Talent Code, The Killer Angels, 2801 Days in Hanoi, Once an Eagle, Man's Search for Meaning, The Happiest Man on Earth, and The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. The Leadership Buzz is hosted by Lloyd “Buzz” Buzzell, an ICF-ACC executive coach, DISC practitioner, and retired U.S. Air Force officer with 37 years of leadership experience. Each episode focuses on one book, one idea, and one practical leadership concept to help you align your behavior with your values and lead with greater clarity, trust, and impact. If you’re a leader who wants to build stronger teams, improve communication, and create real ownership, subscribe and share this episode with someone on your team. Connect with Buzz on LinkedIn or visit workhardtellthetruth.com for coaching and leadership development resources. Work hard. Tell the truth.

    17 min
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The Leadership Buzz is a short, practical leadership podcast where Lloyd “Buzz” Buzzell, ACC turns one key idea from a leadership book into real-life takeaways you can use immediately plus three coaching questions to reflect on.

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