Stepsero

Matteo Casini
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Management
  • Updated Bimonthly

Modern work is demanding. Even for people who are good at what they do, the human complexity around it can be exhausting. Stepsero is a podcast for professionals who want to feel less overwhelmed by it all. Every episode is a focused, honest conversation on one of the topics that make modern work challenging: leadership, communication, difficult conversations, AI, mental well-being, and more. No filler. No hour-long rambles. One short conversation at a time, towards a little more clarity.

  1. Sep 8

    #118: Can You Build a Personal Brand While Employed?

    Giovanni Di Felice talks about what it takes to build a personal brand while representing an employer. He shares why he sees personal branding as helpful rather than necessary, how his following grew organically over just few years, and where he draws the line on authenticity (open about work challenges and opinions, but private about deeper personal moments). The conversation also covers his view that a well-crafted LinkedIn profile can replace a CV, what counts as a red flag on a candidate’s profile, and the tension between being an executive and being a content creator. Our Guest: Giovanni Di Felice Giovanni Di Felice is Director of Talent Acquisition at Statista. He is passionate about talent acquisition and people development and enjoys building high-performing teams of experts, which he leads with a consultative leadership style. Outside of work, he appreciates art and enjoys engaging in conversations on a wide range of topics. References: Giovanni Di Felice LinkedIn profile

    #118: Can You Build a Personal Brand While Employed?

  2. Sep 7

    #117: How to Structure a Feedback Conversation

    Giving feedback is one of the hardest parts of managing people, and most of us were never taught how to do it. In this conversation, we sit down with Katie O’Brien Ceccarini, Certified Executive Coach and author of Fearless Feedback, to unpack what actually makes a feedback conversation work. We start with mindset (Katie’s reframe of feedback as “food in someone’s teeth,”) and why she stopped calling it feedback altogether, choosing instead to think of it as information that helps someone succeed. From there we move into her “Headline, Observation, Ask” framework, walking through what a good opening line sounds like versus the kind that puts people on the defensive before the conversation even starts. We also get into when feedback is actually worth giving, using her “instance, pattern, and role-fit framework” and how often managers should be sharing it, including her 5-to-1 ratio and the idea of staying “high cadence, low stakes” rather than letting things build up. We close with a quick tip on how to receive feedback better, too. Our Guest: Katie O’Brien Ceccarini Katie O’Brien Ceccarini is the Founder of Endurance Management Coaching, a Certified Executive Coach, and author of Fearless Feedback: Everything Managers Have Never Been Taught About Feedback. Over the last 20 years, she’s managed, trained, and developed thousands of people — from scaling Customer Success at Yelp to leading Learning & Development at Opendoor. Today she works with organizations like eBay, LinkedIn, and AllState to build high-performing teams with the power of feedback. References: Katie O’Brien Ceccarini LinkedIn profile Fearless Feedback: Everything Managers Have Never Been Taught About Feedback (Amazon Link)

    #117: How to Structure a Feedback Conversation

  3. Jul 23

    #116: What Are You Being Taught to Believe About Yourself?

    In this conversation, leadership and performance facilitator Richard Gordon Kelly explores the invisible beliefs we carry about who we need to be, and how those beliefs, more than the work itself, create pressure and burnout. The discussion covers where these beliefs originate, why pressure acts as “expensive fuel,” and what happens when a thought is noticed rather than believed. It closes on presence and slowing down as a way of staying close to what is actually true in the moment. Our Guest: Richard Gordon Kelly   Richard Gordon Kelly is a leadership and performance facilitator working with executives, leaders, and teams across Europe. For more than 25 years, Richard has worked with people and organisations to explore what allows individuals and teams to perform at their best while staying connected to what matters most. He often notices something simple in his work: people are rarely struggling with work itself as much as with how work is being experienced internally — through pressure, thought, and the meaning we attach to what is happening.  Through conversations focused on trust, presence, and human connection, Richard helps people see their experience more clearly in real time. And when that clarity emerges, things often begin to shift naturally. Less pressure. More awareness. Better conversations. More sustainable performance. Not because something new is added, but because people reconnect with what was already there. References: Richard Gordon Kelly LinkedIn profile Listen to the next Episode All Podcast Episodes

  4. Jul 16

    #115: Sounding Alike: AI, Research, and the Risk of Convergence

    Cecilie Steenbuch Traberg joins Stepsero to discuss her co-authored paper, “AI is turning research into a scientific monoculture.” The conversation covers how reliance on the same AI tools drives convergence in language, methods, and questions, plus a productivity paradox, where individual gains in output create more collective work rather than less. It also touches on leadership overconfidence in AI leading to less oversight, and the risk of losing purpose and skill development when the effort behind work is handed to AI. Our Guest: Cecilie Steenbuch Traberg Cecilie Steenbuch Traberg is a Dr in Psychology from University of Cambridge and an assistant professor of digitalisation at copenhagen business school, where she conducts research on the intersection between psychology and technology. References: Cecilie Steenbuch Traberg LinkedIn profile Listen to the next Episode All Podcast Episodes

  5. Jul 16

    #114: AI at Work: Uneven Adoption, Real Risks

    In this episode, Olga Solovyeva explains why AI adoption inside organizations is so uneven, often coming down to leadership. Some leaders give teams freedom and time to experiment; others pause and “park” AI altogether. That caution has a cost. When leadership restricts AI, employees often turn to personal accounts instead (what Olga calls shadow AI use) which strips away any oversight the organization would otherwise provide. The conversation then turns to risk: data leaks from sensitive information entered into AI tools, and hallucinations that have already damaged reputations at major consulting firms. Olga closes on a subtler one: as AI makes longer reports easy to produce, those reports get AI-summarized on the receiving end too, leaving discussions built on content no one’s actually read, and no one’s accountable for. Our Guest: Olga Solovyeva   Olga Solovyeva, PhD, works at the intersection of technology governance and strategic communications. She advises boards on AI governance and risk at Chairwell Partners, and writes on the human side of AI adoption. Her doctoral research examined how tech companies wield political power — a thread she’s now pulling through a book on the transformation of one of Russia’s largest tech firms under state pressure. References: Olga Solovyeva LinkedIn profile Listen to the next Episode All Podcast Episodes

  6. Jul 3

    #113: Passion, Skills, and Why so Many People Get Their Career Wrong

    Most people approach their careers the same way: skip the thinking, go straight to applying. Hundreds of applications to roles they half-want, hoping something sticks. Alex McCann has spent the last few years trying to understand why, and building something to fix it. In this conversation, he breaks down why so many career decisions get made on autopilot, why the debate between following your passion and following your skills is more nuanced than most career advice suggests, and what it actually takes to find work that fits. Along the way, there are some honest reflections on the entrepreneurial path, including what building Rumbo has taught him, and what he’s still figuring out. Our Guest: Alex McCann   Alex McCann is the co-founder and Commercial Director of Rumbo, an AI career coaching platform that helps people understand themselves and the kind of work that suits them before they start applying for jobs. He also writes Still Wandering, a newsletter about careers, work and the changing labour market that reaches more than 18,000 readers. References: Alex McCann LinkedIn profile Listen to the next Episode All Podcast Episodes

  7. Jul 1

    #112: Psychological Safety in the Age of AI

    Psychological safety is one of those terms everyone has heard, and most people misunderstand. It’s not about being nice. It’s not about avoiding conflict. And it’s certainly not about lowering the bar. In this episode, Mehmet Baha breaks down what psychological safety actually means, why the data behind it is hard to ignore, and what gets in the way of building it in most organisations. The conversation also moves into AI territory: what happens when employees don’t feel safe admitting they don’t understand the tools they’re expected to use, why transparency around AI use matters, and what responsible AI adoption looks like in practice. A practical, grounded conversation for anyone leading a team in today’s workplace. Our Guest: Mehmet Baha His surname is Baha and everyone calls him Baha. From Amsterdam to Singapore, Washington DC to Dubai, Baha delivers inspiring keynote talks. He has given talks at the world’s leading business summits where TED speakers and New York Times bestselling authors were also speakers. After obtaining a scholarship from Fulbright, he finished his master’s in the USA on the topic of Conflict Resolution. He has lived and worked in Germany, Turkey, Ireland, Guatemala, and the USA with more than 24 years of work experience. Baha was one of the first employees of Facebook in Europe. So far, he has delivered training and given talks in more than 28 countries across 5 continents. Recently, he completed Harvard Business School’s Online Executive Education Programme “Organizational Leadership”. He is fluent in English, Spanish, Turkish, and German. In his free time, he loves to play percussion, travel with his family, and play basketball with his 9-year-old daughter. “Playbook for Engaged Employees“ is his first book. In September 2024, his second book “Creating Psychological Safety at Work“ was published. Daniel Pink, #1 New York Times bestselling author, describes it as a “timely book filled with fascinating case studies, robust research, and practical tools for driving change.” References: Mehmet Baha LinkedIn profile Creating Psychological Safety at Work: The Essential Guide to Boosting Team Performance Listen to the next Episode All Podcast Episodes

  8. Jul 1

    #111: Stress at Work: Too Many Demands, Not Enough Resources

    Stress happens when the demands of a situation outweigh the resources available to meet them. In the modern workplace, that gap is widening and it’s costing more than most people realise. In this episode, stress scientist Alexandra Crosswell breaks down what chronic low-grade stress is actually doing to the body, why AI has introduced a new kind of threat that hits differently from other workplace pressures,  touching both livelihood and sense of belonging, and what can be done practically to start recovering. Alexandra also touches on why the messy middle of uncertainty, as uncomfortable as it is, might also be where the most creativity lives. Our Guest: Alexandra Crosswell, PhD Alexandra D. Crosswell, PhD, is a stress scientist, leadership advisor, and former faculty member at the University of California, San Francisco. After more than 15 years leading NIH-funded research on stress and resilience, she now helps leaders navigate high demand, high stakes, work environments. Through her advising, speaking, and coaching work, Alexandra translates cutting-edge science into practical strategies to guide people in purusing ambitious work without sacrificing their health and well-being. References: Alexandra Crosswell LinkedIn profile Listen to the next Episode All Podcast Episodes

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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
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About

Modern work is demanding. Even for people who are good at what they do, the human complexity around it can be exhausting. Stepsero is a podcast for professionals who want to feel less overwhelmed by it all. Every episode is a focused, honest conversation on one of the topics that make modern work challenging: leadership, communication, difficult conversations, AI, mental well-being, and more. No filler. No hour-long rambles. One short conversation at a time, towards a little more clarity.

Information

  • Creator
    Matteo Casini
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    119
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Show Website
    Stepsero