Rise to Lead | Grow, Lead, and Inspire

Doran Anderson
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Real Leadership, Real Talk, and Real Impact. The Rise To Lead Podcast helps leaders grow with confidence, character, and purpose. Hosted by executive leadership coach and HR executive Doran Anderson, each episode delivers practical leadership insights, career development strategies, personal growth lessons, and faith-informed principles. Whether you're an emerging leader, seasoned professional, or entrepreneur, you'll gain actionable tools to maximize your potential, develop others, and lead with lasting impact.

  1. 1d ago

    3 Stories You Need to Prepare Before Every Job Interview | #16

    You don't need to prepare answers to 25 different interview questions. You need three great stories. In Episode 16 of Rise to Lead, Doran Anderson explains how to prepare for behavioral interview questions like: “Tell me about a time when you solved a difficult problem.” “Tell me about a conflict with a coworker.” “Tell me about a result you're proud of.” Most behavioral interview questions are ultimately trying to discover a few things: How do you solve problems? How do you work with people? And how do you create results?  Doran breaks down the three stories you should prepare before your next interview: ✅ The Problem You Solved — Show how you think, take action, communicate, collaborate, and create results. ✅ The Difficult People Situation — Demonstrate professionalism, conflict resolution, communication, and emotional maturity. ✅ The Result You're Proud Of — Clearly show the impact you made and, whenever possible, quantify that impact. You'll also learn how to simplify the traditional STAR interview method into: Problem → Action → Result What was happening? What did you do? What happened because of it? That simple framework can help keep your answers focused and prevent you from rambling. And remember: while it's important to give your team credit, the interviewer needs to understand your specific contribution. Before your next interview, prepare these three stories and practice telling each one naturally in about 60–90 seconds. Don't memorize a script. Know your stories. Know your contribution. And be prepared to clearly communicate the value you can bring into the next room. 🎙️ Subscribe to Rise to Lead for practical leadership development, career growth, and strategies to help you prepare for your next opportunity. #RiseToLead #InterviewTips #JobInterview #BehavioralInterview #CareerAdvice #InterviewPreparation #LeadershipDevelopment #CareerGrowth #JobSearch (00:00) - Why Interview Answers Fall Apart (01:35) - Story 1: The Problem You Solved (03:55) - Story 2: The Difficult People Situation (06:50) - Story 3: The Result You’re Proud Of (08:25) - The Problem-Action-Result Formula (09:42) - Clearly Communicate Your Contribution (10:20) - Prepare 3 Stories, Not 25 Answers (12:06) - The Rise to Lead Challenge

  2. Sep 23

    Why You’re Failing in Interviews…| #15

    “Tell me about yourself.” It sounds like one of the easiest interview questions you'll ever be asked. After all, who knows more about you than you? Yet it's also one of the questions candidates frequently struggle to answer clearly. Some start at the beginning of their careers and walk through every job they've ever had. Others share too much personal information. Some give such a broad response that the interviewer still doesn't understand who they are professionally. In Episode 15 of Rise to Lead, Doran Anderson breaks down a simple four-part formula for answering “Tell me about yourself” with clarity and confidence:    1. Where are you now?    2. What prepared you?    3. What do you do especially well?    4. Why does this opportunity make sense? You'll also learn why your answer should generally stay within 60–90 seconds, the four common mistakes to avoid, how to tailor your introduction to each opportunity, and a practical exercise you can use to improve your answer before your next interview. Your experience has value. Your story matters. But you have to learn how to communicate it in a way people can understand and remember. Preparation isn't pretending. It's respecting the opportunity enough to be ready for it. 🎙️ Subscribe to Rise to Lead for practical conversations about leadership, career growth, professional development, and becoming the leader you're capable of becoming. #RiseToLead #JobInterview #InterviewTips #CareerDevelopment #Leadership #TellMeAboutYourself #CareerGrowth #JobSearch (00:00) - Why Tell Me About Yourself Is So Difficult (01:42) - The Biggest Interview Mistake (02:26) - The Four-Part Answer Formula (04:47) - Communicating Your Strengths (05:52) - Why This Opportunity Makes Sense (07:11) - Four Interview Mistakes to Avoid (08:48) - Prepared, Not Programmed (09:37) - The Practice Exercise (11:03) - Your Rise to Lead Challenge (11:59) - What's Coming Next

  3. Sep 9

    When Your Job Starts Changing Who You Are | #14

    Are you going through a difficult season at work? Maybe you're tired. You feel overlooked or unappreciated. Your environment has changed. Your boss has changed. Maybe you've changed. And slowly, you've stopped showing up like the person you used to be. In this episode of Rise to Lead, Doran Anderson tackles an important leadership and career question: How do you keep a bad season from changing who you are? Every career has seasons—seasons of growth and recognition, but also seasons when you feel disappointed, frustrated, or completely overlooked. The danger comes when a temporary environment begins creating a permanent version of you. In this episode, you'll discover: ✅ How difficult workplace seasons can change your attitude ✅ Why your character shouldn't depend on your circumstances ✅ How to protect your reputation when you're ready to leave ✅ Why excellence is part of who you are—not just who you work for ✅ How to avoid carrying bitterness into your next opportunity ✅ When leaving may actually be the right decision ✅ Three questions to ask during a difficult season ✅ How to make career decisions from purpose instead of frustration ✅ Why your current situation doesn't define your entire story Doran isn't telling you to tolerate disrespect or stay in a job you should leave. Sometimes leaving is the right decision. But there's a difference between leaving a difficult situation and allowing that situation to leave something ugly inside of you. Take the lesson. Take the experience. Take the growth. But leave the bitterness behind. Your bad season may teach you. It may strengthen you. It may even redirect you. But don't give a temporary season permission to permanently change who you are. 🎙️ Subscribe to Rise to Lead for practical conversations about leadership, character, career growth, and becoming the kind of leader people want to follow. #RiseToLead #Leadership #CareerGrowth #LeadershipDevelopment #WorkplaceBurnout #Character #LeadershipMindset #CareerAdvice #PersonalGrowth #LeadershipPodcast (00:00) - When a Bad Season Starts Changing You (01:00) - Don't Let Your Environment Define You (02:23) - Protect Your Character (03:10) - Leave the Bitterness Behind (03:45) - Three Questions to Ask Yourself (04:20) - Your Situation Isn't Your Story

  4. Sep 2

    Answering questions IS the problem | #13

    Are you accidentally training your employees to depend on you for every decision? When someone brings you a problem, giving them the answer feels productive. It's quick. It's efficient. And sometimes, it feels good to be needed. But there's a problem: If you solve everything yourself, you may be doing the work while missing the leadership opportunity. In Episode 13 of Rise to Lead, Doran Anderson explains why one of the biggest transitions in leadership is moving from: “I know how to do it” to “I know how to develop someone else to do it.” In this episode, you'll discover: ✅ Why constantly giving answers creates dependency ✅ How leaders unintentionally become team bottlenecks ✅ The simple question that develops independent thinking ✅ How to coach employees through problems instead of solving them ✅ Three questions you can start using immediately ✅ How to develop better judgment and decision-making ✅ When leaders should step in and give direct answers ✅ Why employees sometimes need room to make mistakes ✅ How to know when to direct versus coach ✅ Why leadership success changes as you grow Doran gives leaders three simple questions to use when someone brings them a problem: 1. What do you think we should do? 2. What options have you considered? 3. What would you recommend and why? Then comes the difficult part: Be quiet and let them think. Because confidence isn't built by watching the leader make every decision. Confidence is built by making decisions. 🎙️ Subscribe to Rise to Lead for practical leadership development focused on building stronger people, stronger teams, and leaders others actually want to follow. #RiseToLead #Leadership #LeadershipDevelopment #TeamLeadership #Coaching #DevelopLeaders #ManagementSkills #EmployeeDevelopment #LeadershipSkills #LeadershipPodcast (00:00) - Stop Giving All the Answers (01:20) - From Expert to Leader (02:29) - Turn Problems Into Development (03:15) - Ask What Do You Think (04:00) - Teach People How to Think (04:50) - Develop Better Judgment (05:45) - Let Them Do It Differently (07:12) - Know When to Coach or Direct (08:00) - Are You the Bottleneck? (09:20) - Three Questions Every Leader Should Ask (10:20) - Stop Trying to Have Every Answer (11:45) - Develop Capability Not Dependence

  5. Aug 26

    Great Leaders Change the Room Before They Say a Word | #12

    What does your team feel when you walk into the room? Every leader brings a temperature with them. Confidence or anxiety. Calm or frustration. Hope or fear. Clarity or confusion. In Episode 12 of Rise to Lead, Doran Anderson explores why leadership isn't only about managing people—it's also about managing yourself. Your team watches how you respond when plans fail, pressure rises, someone makes a mistake, deadlines tighten, or criticism comes your way. That's when leadership is tested. In this episode, you'll discover: ✅ Why your presence matters as a leader ✅ How leaders influence the emotional temperature of a team ✅ The difference between reacting and responding ✅ Why your employees shouldn't have to manage your emotions ✅ How to create urgency without creating chaos ✅ Why calm is an underrated leadership strength ✅ How emotional discipline builds trust ✅ How faith keeps leaders grounded during storms ✅ How to change the atmosphere instead of absorbing it Doran makes an important distinction: calm doesn't mean passive. It means the urgency around you doesn't control what's happening inside you. Mark 4 gives us a powerful picture: the disciples were surrounded by a storm and fear, yet Jesus wasn't controlled by the storm around Him. Leaders will face storms—but the storm around you doesn't have to become the storm inside you. Before your next meeting, phone call, or difficult conversation, ask yourself: What am I bringing into the room? 🎙️ Subscribe to Rise to Lead for practical leadership development rooted in character, faith, purpose, and real-world experience. #RiseToLead #Leadership #LeadershipDevelopment #EmotionalIntelligence #LeadershipSkills #ChristianLeadership #LeadershipMindset #LeadUnderPressure #ServantLeadership #LeadershipPodcast (00:00) - What Temperature Are You Setting? (01:15) - How Leaders Change the Room (02:27) - Leadership Under Pressure (03:20) - Your Team Shouldn't Manage Your Emotions (04:10) - Stop Reacting Start Responding (04:52) - The Power of Calm Leadership (05:55) - Don't Absorb the Room Change It (07:16) - Faith in the Storm (08:00) - What Are You Bringing Into the Room? (09:00) - Set the Temperature

  6. Aug 19

    Why Great Leaders Don't Avoid Difficult Conversations | #11

    Are you avoiding a difficult conversation because you don't want to create conflict? That conversation may be more important than you realize. In Episode 11 of Rise to Lead, Doran Anderson explains why great leadership requires the courage to address problems instead of hoping they'll disappear. Performance issues grow. Resentment grows. Confusion grows. And eventually, the conversation you're avoiding becomes the conversation you can no longer afford to avoid. Doran shares a practical framework for handling difficult conversations with both courage and compassion: ✅ Get your heart right before the conversation ✅ Focus on facts instead of assumptions ✅ Address behavior without attacking character ✅ Listen before reaching conclusions ✅ Clearly communicate what needs to change ✅ Follow up, coach, and recognize improvement ✅ Create an environment where people can also speak honestly to you Being direct doesn't require being disrespectful. You can tell the truth and still protect someone's dignity. As Doran explains, “Accountability without support can feel like punishment. Accountability with support can become development.” Ephesians 4:15 calls us to speak the truth in love. Truth without love can become harsh. Love without truth can become avoidance. Leadership requires both. 🎙️ Watch Episode 11 of Rise to Lead and ask yourself: What conversation have I been avoiding? #RiseToLead #Leadership #LeadershipDevelopment #DifficultConversations #ConflictResolution #LeadershipSkills #ChristianLeadership #Management #CommunicationSkills #ServantLeadership (00:00) - The Conversation You're Avoiding (01:15) - When Keeping the Peace Becomes Poor Leadership (02:23) - Clarity Is Kindness (03:20) - Courage Over Comfort (04:00) - Correcting People with Compassion (04:49) - The Danger of Staying Silent (05:45) - How to Have a Difficult Conversation (07:10) - Accountability with Support (08:20) - Can People Tell You the Truth? (09:32) - Speak the Truth in Love (10:25) - Your Leadership Challenge (12:00) - The Conversation That Could Change Everything

  7. Aug 12

    The Best Leaders Make Themselves Replaceable | #10

    What if becoming a better leader means becoming less necessary? One of the hardest transitions in leadership is learning to let go. We develop people, coach them, encourage them, and tell them we believe in them—but eventually, we have to do something much harder: Trust them to lead. In Episode 10 of Rise to Lead, Doran Anderson explains why leaders who refuse to release control eventually limit the very people they're trying to develop. In this episode you'll discover: ✅ Why control can create dependency ✅ How effective delegation develops leaders ✅ What Moses learned about trying to do everything himself ✅ Why failure is necessary for leadership development ✅ The difference between developing people and controlling them ✅ How Jesus modeled leadership multiplication ✅ Why your greatest leadership success may happen without you ✅ How to prepare the next generation of leaders The goal of leadership isn't to make yourself indispensable. It's to build people who are confident and capable enough to lead when you're no longer in the room. Great leaders don't cling to influence. They multiply it. 🎙️ Subscribe to Rise to Lead for practical leadership development rooted in faith, character, purpose, and real-world experience. #RiseToLead #Leadership #LeadershipDevelopment #Delegation #TeamLeadership #ServantLeadership #ChristianLeadership #LeadershipPodcast #DevelopLeaders #ExecutiveLeadership (00:00) - Intro (01:00) - Why Leaders Struggle to Let Go (02:00) - Stop Creating Dependency (02:27) - What Moses Learned About Delegation (03:10) - Pride Fear and the Need to Be Needed (03:40) - How Jesus Multiplied Leaders (04:15) - Let People Learn Through Failure (04:52) - Make Yourself Replaceable (06:00) - Prepare the Next Leader

  8. Aug 5

    Great Leaders Don't Build Followers—They Build Leaders | #9

    The greatest leaders aren't remembered for their titles—they're remembered for the people they develop. In Episode 9 of Rise to Lead, Doran Anderson explores one of the most powerful principles of leadership: investing in others. Drawing inspiration from Jesus' intentional development of the disciples and Barnabas' encouragement of Paul, this episode reveals why leadership is ultimately measured by the leaders you help create. Discover how believing in others, equipping them for growth, and intentionally mentoring future leaders creates a legacy that lasts far beyond your career. If you lead at work, in ministry, at home, or in your community, this episode will challenge you to multiply your influence through people. Subscribe for weekly leadership insights designed to help you rise, grow, and lead with purpose. #Leadership #ChristianLeadership #LeadershipDevelopment #Mentorship #RiseToLead #LeadershipPodcast #PersonalGrowth #Influence #FaithBasedLeadership #ServantLeadership (00:00) - Intro – Leadership Is About People (01:10) - Your Leadership Legacy (02:25) - Jesus Developed Twelve (03:30) - The Power of Belief (04:44) - Barnabas & Paul (05:50) - Equip, Don't Control (06:25) - Invest in One Person This Week (07:09) - Preview: Letting Go

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Real Leadership, Real Talk, and Real Impact. The Rise To Lead Podcast helps leaders grow with confidence, character, and purpose. Hosted by executive leadership coach and HR executive Doran Anderson, each episode delivers practical leadership insights, career development strategies, personal growth lessons, and faith-informed principles. Whether you're an emerging leader, seasoned professional, or entrepreneur, you'll gain actionable tools to maximize your potential, develop others, and lead with lasting impact.

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