Integrity Over Scale with Dr. Leili Sadaghiani

Most people see aviation as just flying ... but for Kelsey, it's about breaking barriers and redefining norms as a woman in aerospace. From a childhood fascination with roller coasters to becoming a pilot and now a training manager, her journey exemplifies resilience, authenticity, and the power of visibility in a male-dominated industry. Discover. how she navigates gender stereotypes, leadership...

Ever feel like technology is taking over but forgetting the human touch? Here’s why we must prioritize empathy in leadership! I speak with Hector Villasenor. He shares insights on the intersection of AI and human-centered leadership. While tech evolves fast, remember: - We’re working with people who have emotions, backgrounds, and stories. - A simple "How are you today?" can foster a safe workplac...

Meet Jakson, the newest member of the Integrity Over Scale Podcast. Confidence is essential for leadership, but unchecked confidence can quietly become ego, blind spots, and relational damage. This episode slows down the moment where confidence tips from asset to liability and invites leaders to examine where that might be happening in their own behavior. Our sincere apologies for the sound echoin...

Welcome to Integrity Over Scale, the podcast where leadership coach Dr. Leili Sadaghiani gets honest about what leadership actually costs, and what it gives back when you do it right. You walk into the meeting and before you say a word, something in you starts adjusting. Your voice changes. Your face changes. You reach for certainty faster than you actually feel it. You're not lying. You're perfor...

Authentic Leadership: Being Real Without Being a Jerk explores what it truly means to “be yourself” as a leader without using authenticity as an excuse for bluntness, rigidity, or ego. In this episode, Dr. Leili Sadaghiani unpacks the core elements of authentic leadership—self-awareness, relational transparency, balanced processing, and a grounded moral compass—and shows how each one plays out in...

What does it take to build a company at a young age? In this episode, Dr. Leili Sadaghiani sits down with Jacob Labagh, an 18-year-old aerospace engineering student at Embry-Riddle and the founder of EX3D, a 3D printing network that connects makers, designers, and customers across the country. Jacob and Leili met through Moonshot, where EX3D took third place. In this conversation, he walks through...

Maryam Parvaneh spent years inside corporate HR before walking away to start Culture Bloom HR, a consulting firm focused on building people strategies for growing companies. She has a master's in organization development and a belief that has shaped every role she's held: you cannot build a business without building the people first. In this conversation, Maryam and Dr. Leili Sadaghiani talk about...

Your self-doubt isn't a defect. It's data. In this solo episode, Dr. Leili Sadaghiani makes the case that the self-doubt and anxiety high-performing women carry in male-dominated industries isn't imposter syndrome to be fixed. It's a rational signal about the system you're operating in. She walks through four patterns where executives blame themselves for internal doubt, and where the real issue i...

Alex Simmons spent 20 years at Microsoft before walking away to become a posture therapist. The pivot was not just career, it was his body finally getting the attention his career had been taking from it. In this episode, Alex and Dr. Leili Sadaghiani talk about why excellent corporate performance can quietly cost you your health, what the Egoscue Method actually does, and the moment an 87-year-ol...

Hustle culture sold us a lie dressed up as ambition — that depletion is proof of dedication and burnout is a resume credential. In this solo episode kicking off the rebrand to On Her Own Terms , Dr. Leili Sadaghiani pulls apart why so many high-achieving women are exhausted from over-performing and calling it excellence. Leili unpacks how "I do hard work" quietly becomes "I am a hard worker" — fus...

Leading with Heart: Stephanie Fryar on Authentic Leadership and Hiring for Fit Stephanie Fryar, Director of Sleep Apnea Options, joins Dr. Leili Sadaghiani of InVivo Leadership Strategies to talk about what it really takes to build a team from scratch — and lead it with humanity. Stephanie shares how she grew from a "party of one" with a laptop and a notepad into director of a thriving practice, a...

You are highly capable. You are perceptive. You care about doing good work. And somewhere along the way, you stopped leading from your own judgment -- and started calibrating to the room. This is not a confidence problem. It is a pattern. And it is one of the most quietly costly dynamics in leadership today. In this episode, Dr. Leili Sadaghiani breaks down external validation -- where it actually...

BlackBerry built the smartphone category from the ground up. Market cap over $60 billion. Revenue peaking at $20 billion. A device so beloved it earned the nickname CrackBerry -- carried by executives, presidents, and Wall Street alike. Then came the iPhone. And in five years, BlackBerry went from category dominance to 0.2% global market share. In this episode, Dr. Leili Sadaghiani does a full cas...

Women earn more degrees than men. They represent nearly half the workforce. By every traditional measure, the leadership pipeline is full. So why do women hold fewer than 10% of Fortune 500 CEO positions? In this episode, Dr. Leili Sadaghiani breaks down the gender leadership gap through the lens of decades of organizational research — and makes the case that this is not a talent problem, a confid...

What does 23 years in professional liability insurance teach you about leadership, relationships, and knowing when to walk away? Host Leili sits down with Chris Clark, former Associate Vice President at The Doctors Company, and the rare kind of leader who ran on gut instinct, radical honesty, and genuine human connection. Chris shares how a teaching career shaped the way he approached every client...

Most executives think they have 90 days to establish themselves as transformation sponsors. In reality, the most critical window is far shorter: the first 90 hours . In this episode of Integrity Over Scale , Lely and interim host Max break down why the earliest hours of a transformation initiative determine whether change will succeed—or quietly fail. Drawing from leadership consulting experience...

Have you ever seen a "Ghost Ship" in business? It’s that $20,000 software integration or $2M merger that looks perfect on paper but sits empty and unused six months later. In this episode of Integrity Over Scale , host Layli Sani and co-host Max dive deep into the Adoption Paradox . They discuss why brilliant leaders—armed with high IQs and technical brilliance—constantly fall into the trap of pri...

Is AI scaling your leadership impact, or just scaling your chaos? Join Leili Sedagiani and co-host Max Bergstrom as they explore the "In Vivo" perspective on AI integration in 2026. Moving beyond the technical "plumbing," this episode focuses on the human side of automation, specifically how high-integrity leadership is required to prevent "Automated Resentment" within a workforce. Key Discussion...

Why do multi-million dollar strategies fail despite polished PowerPoint decks and perfectly sequenced roadmaps? In this episode of Integrity Over Scale , Dr. Leili Sadagiani breaks down the "Reality Gap"—the space between theoretical strategy and lived behavior. Joined by co-host Max, Layla explores the shift from In Vitro (lab-based) leadership to In Vivo (real-life) leadership. What You’ll Learn...

Dr. Sadaghiani announces a change within the firm and also goes into Trust and it's importance in the work of leadership and humility.

Leadership isn’t always smooth. Sometimes it’s heavy, unpredictable, even lonely. In this episode, we break down what real resilience looks like. Dr. Sadaghiani does not use the buzzword version, but the kind that helps you lead through hard seasons without losing your humanity. You’ll hear: What resilience is and what it isn’t Micro-habits to rebuild after setbacks Why being resilient doesn’t mea...

In this episode, we take a deeper look at the misunderstood trait that sets great leaders apart:  humility . If you think humility means being weak, quiet, or unsure — think again. This episode unpacks how humble leaders build trust, foster innovation, and create long-term success without losing authority or presence. You’ll learn: Why humility outperforms hubris How to lead with confidence  and  ...

In this episode, I sit down with the leader behind  Earthbound Energies , Jacqueline (aka Jai)— a Reiki practitioner and holistic healer passionate about helping others reconnect with their true selves. We dive into her powerful new guided journal,  Reclaimed and Rewoven , a healing companion designed to support your inner work, reflection, and spiritual realignment. Tune in to hear how energy wor...

BONUS Episode this week. In this powerful episode, Iranian-American therapist  Melika Biglarpour Watson  joins executive coach  Leili Sadaghiani for a raw and reflective conversation on how to stay grounded, compassionate, and resilient amid the emotional weight of what’s happening in Iran and the internal unrest in the U.S. From the lens of both mental health and leadership, we explore how to nav...

In this episode of  Surviving AI , I’m joined by Hassan Archer—a rare leader who blends tech expertise with change and clinical insight. From Microsoft to mental health, Hassan’s journey gives him a unique lens on what’s  really  holding companies back. We dive into how leaders can stop avoiding the hard conversations, navigate the messiness of human dynamics, and embrace AI as a  true partner  in...