The Leadership Project Podcast
Mick Spiers
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The Leadership Project Podcast with Mick Spiers explores inspirational leadership in the modern world, covering key issues and controversial topics. It helps young and aspiring leaders transition from individual contributors to inspirational leaders, and guides experienced leaders in adapting their styles for a digital world. The podcast also addresses the lack of diversity in leadership through confronting conversations with guest speakers.
Epizode
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332. The Mental Game of High Performance: Turning Ambition into Execution with Dre Baldwin 22.07.2026 1h 2minDay one is exciting. Day two still feels fresh. Day three is when the “new car smell” is gone and the work gets real, and that’s where most goals quietly die. We talk with Dre Baldwin (Dre All Day), former pro basketball player and founder of Work On Your Game, about how to push through that moment without waiting for motivation to magically return. We get practical about the difference between motivation and discipline, why you can’t build a career on feelings, and how to create execution r... -
331. Leading from the Center: Mastering the Five Stances of Leadership with Brad Semmens 15.07.2026 1h 4minThe fastest way to derail a team is to lead on autopilot. Walk into a meeting, speak first, “set direction,” and watch everyone quietly align to your opinion, even when they see a better answer. Step back too far, though, and the same team can feel abandoned, unclear, or unsupported. That tension is exactly where Brad Semmens lives. Brad is the founder of Objective Consulting and Employee Yield, and he brings a rare mix of real-world leadership experience and organizational psychology to a fr... -
330. The Leader's Playlist: Using Music and Neuroscience to Transform Leadership with Susan Drumm 08.07.2026 52minThat thought you can’t stop replaying isn’t just annoying. It quietly shapes how you walk into meetings, how you speak under pressure, and how safe other people feel around you. Susan Drumm, bestselling author of The Leader’s Playlist and founder of Meritage Leadership, joins me to unpack a powerful idea: every leader has a playlist. Some of it is literal music that shifts your energy fast. Some of it is the internal soundtrack of beliefs, doubts, old wounds, and reflex reactions that can end... -
329. Leadership is Sense-Making: Helping People Adapt, Care, and Connect with Mick Spiers 01.07.2026 28minTwo people can face the same change and walk away with totally different stories: one feels opportunity, the other feels threat. That gap is where leadership lives. We step back and synthesize three conversations into a simple but demanding framework for modern leadership: Adapt, Care, Connect and the deeper idea underneath it all that leadership is helping people make sense of their world. We talk about adaptive leadership as your context shifts: startup to scale up, stability to disr... -
328. Leading Through Change with Huw Thomas 24.06.2026 1h 5minMost change initiatives don’t fail because the plan is flawed. They fail because leaders confuse communication with conversation and then wonder why people feel anxious, resistant, or checked out. We sit down with returning guest Huw Thomas, author of Change Anything, to move beyond individual psychology and get practical about organizational change management that actually sticks. We dig into why “overcommunicate” often backfires, how one-way announcements create confusion, and what it look... -
327. Great Leaders Care: Developing Safe, Resilient and Successful Teams with Graeme Cowan 17.06.2026 1h 1minWhat if the leadership skill your team needs most is not sharper strategy or faster execution, but a leader who genuinely cares and knows what to do when things get hard? I sit down with Graeme Cowan, a leading voice on workplace mental health, resilience, and leadership, and a founding director of R U OK Day. Graeme also shares his own lived experience of depression and the long road back, plus the purpose that came from turning struggle into service. We dig into why caring leadership... -
326: Leadership Shifts: Embracing Change in Business with Mike Krupit 10.06.2026 51minThe leadership style that got you promoted can quietly become the thing that holds you back. When you move from building great work to leading people, the rules change fast, especially for technical founders and high-performing individual contributors who suddenly wake up running a business instead of writing code. We sit down with Mike Krupit, a serial entrepreneur and executive coach who has lived the journey from software engineer to CTO, COO, and CEO across eight startups. Together, we b... -
325. Leadership Is Cultivation: Creating the Conditions for Greatness with Mick Spiers 03.06.2026 12minWhat if the real job of a leader isn’t to get people to do what you want, but to create the conditions where people can do their best work? I’m reflecting on the biggest leadership lessons from this month’s conversations and pulling the common thread that ties them together: stop chasing control and start designing an environment where clarity, trust, and ownership can actually grow. We start with communication and culture, because every culture begins with what people hear, understand, and ... -
324. Brave Together: Leading Through Curiosity and Co-Creation with Chris Deaver 27.05.2026 1h 9minIf your leadership strategy still depends on being the smartest person in the room, AI is about to make that a painful game to play. We sit down with Chris Deaver, culture shaper, leadership coach, former HR leader with experience at Apple, Disney, and Pixar, and co-founder of Brave Core, to talk about what actually scales now: bravery, co-creation, and the skill of leading with questions. We unpack why fear is normal in a fast-changing world and how the “loss equation” fuels resistanc... -
323. Neurodiversity at Work: Unlocking Hidden Strengths with Wainwright Yu 20.05.2026 50minWhat if the person you’re frustrated with at work isn’t lazy, careless, or “not leadership material,” but simply stuck in an environment that works against how their brain operates? That question sits at the center of my conversation with Wainwright Yu, a senior technology executive and leadership coach who specializes in neurodiversity and cognitive diversity. We get personal quickly, starting with the moment an employee disclosed ADHD during a performance conversation, and the gut-punch of ... -
322. Communication as a Verb: Building Trust and Culture with Alejandra Ramirez 13.05.2026 48minIf you have ever walked out of a town hall thinking “we were crystal clear” only to hear your team say “we still don’t get it,” you’re not dealing with a motivation problem. You’re dealing with a communication and trust problem. Mick Spiers sits down with Alejandra Ramirez, internal communication strategist and founder of Ready Cultures, to show why leadership communication shapes organizational culture, and why culture is not a noun you describe but a verb you practice. We dig into what mak... -
321. Beyond Strategy: Why Leadership Is A Human Challenge with Mick Spiers 06.05.2026 15minThe hardest leadership problems rarely announce themselves as “leadership problems.” They show up as weight you carry in silence, conversations you keep postponing, success that still feels empty, and a loud inner voice that says you’re not ready. I step back and connect the biggest lessons from this month of The Leadership Project into one practical thread: leadership is human before it is tactical. We talk about the pressure that builds quietly over time and how strength is not carrying ev... -
320. The Surprising Gift of Doubt: Leadership Lessons with Marc A. Pitman 29.04.2026 1h 9minThat quiet voice saying “I’m not good enough” shows up for almost every leader, even the ones who look the most confident from the outside. Mick Spiers sits down with world-renowned leadership coach Marc A. Pitman, author of The Surprising Gift of Doubt, to unpack why self-doubt and imposter syndrome are so persistent and how they can actually point you toward growth, alignment, and better leadership decisions. We dig into the stories we tell ourselves and how confirmation bias turns those s... -
319. Stop Chasing Happiness: Leadership, Love, and the Myth of Success with Anthony Silard 22.04.2026 1h 19minWhat if the promotion, the praise, and the “big win” you’re chasing isn’t actually the thing you’re looking for? We sit down with Anthony (a professor and leadership researcher focused on relationships, loneliness, and sustainable leadership) to challenge a stubborn assumption in modern work culture: that success and outcomes are the path to happiness. We dig into why leaders get trapped by results, even though results live outside our control. Anthony offers a practical shift: focus on the ... -
318. The Last 8% Culture Map: High Care, High Accountability with Bill Benjamin 15.04.2026 55minYour culture isn’t what you say in calm moments. It’s what your team experiences when tension rises, deadlines slip, and someone has to tell the truth. We sit down with returning guest Bill Benjamin, co-author of The Last 8%, to move from individual stress behaviors to the bigger question leaders wrestle with: what happens to your culture when things get hard? Bill shares a simple, powerful way to diagnose any team culture using two dimensions that decide everything people do under pressure:... -
317. The Weight of Leadership: Presence, Perspective, and the Power of Reframing with Hank Minor 08.04.2026 1h 4minLeadership has a hidden cost we do not talk about enough: the quiet pressure of being the person everyone leans on while you wonder who you can lean on. Hank Minor joins me for a deeper conversation about the inner world of leadership, the emotional load leaders carry, and the moment the role starts consuming the person. Hank brings a rare mix of experience as a former counseling psychologist, a longtime CEO in a multigenerational manufacturing business, and a leadership mentor who now works ... -
316. The Invisible Barriers Holding Your Team Back with Mick Spiers 01.04.2026 19minHave you ever looked at a team that’s working hard and still thought, “Why are we not moving?” That gap rarely comes down to talent. I’m reflecting on the biggest leadership lessons I heard across three very different conversations this March and the pattern is blunt: what holds people back is usually interference. Fear. Hesitation. Labels that shrink what someone thinks they’re allowed to try. Assumptions nobody has challenged in years. I connect the dots between innovation, cognitive scien... -
315. Leading Through the Heat: Leadership Lessons with Fire Captain Mark Andrew 25.03.2026 52minWhen leadership gets real, titles stop mattering and habits take over. Fire Captain Mark Andrew joins me to share what he’s learned leading in the fire service, where trust, communication, and decision making aren’t abstract leadership ideas. They are the difference between a smooth operation and a dangerous one. We dig into why so many people are promoted without real leadership training, then fall back on outdated models they inherited from the leaders before them. Mark walks me through a ... -
314. Innovation Hesitation: Why Smart People Hold Back with Rich Braden and Tessa Forshaw 18.03.2026 56minMost innovation programs don’t fail because people lack talent. They fail because people hesitate. That hesitation is subtle: the moment someone decides they’re “not creative,” the moment a team rushes to certainty, the moment a leader rewards only the safe answer and accidentally trains everyone to stop trying. I’m joined by Rich Braden and Dr. Tessa Forshaw, co-authors of Innovation-Ish, to break down why everyday creativity gets trapped behind limiting beliefs, social fear, and a handful ... -
313. Rethinking Innovation: A Human-Centric Approach with Bruce Vojak 11.03.2026 58minWant more than buzzwords and brainstorms? Mick Spiers sits down with innovation authority Bruce Vojak to explore how real breakthroughs actually happen. His message is clear: innovation is a human act first. It comes from curious people who challenge assumptions and reframe problems. From the evolution of the carrot peeler to a billion-dollar innovation at Procter & Gamble, this conversation shows how deep user understanding drives real change. Bruce also shares a practical playbook for l...
