Lead Smarter Podcast

Brian Anderson joined me on the show, and we explored what it takes to lead an organization through a shift as big as AI, and why that kind of leadership has to start with the leader going first. Brian is the CEO and co-founder of Augusto Digital, where he helps organizations harness AI, custom software, and rapid innovation to drive real business outcomes. He has spent over two decades building s...

"The fact that you're even willing to doubt yourself means you're self-aware enough that if you didn't feel like you were doing a great job, you would go and try to improve yourself. So David, I pronounce you, based on the power vested in me, a good leader." - Ben Arendt I'd just told Ben I wasn't sure I'd qualify as a good leader if I actually took the test. He gave me a pass anyway, and his reas...

Tracey Grove says the best leaders ask before they tell. In this episode she explains why and how question-led leadership builds ownership in a team while answer-led leadership builds dependency. Tracey is a leadership consultant, executive coach, and the founder of Pure Symmetry Coaching and Consulting. She frames trust as behavior multiplied by time, and she makes the case that character is what...

Dr. Aurora Dawn Benton joined me on the show, and we explored how leaders underestimate the power of change management at the microlevel and often mistake human problems as something that can be fixed with structure and policy. Aurora is the Founder and Chief Change Agent of Astrapto LLC, a sustainability consultancy that helps organizations turn social and environmental ambitions into operational...

Perfectionism can get mistakenly glorified as a commitment to quality. Todd Greider has spent years coaching leaders through the fear response that sits underneath it. In this conversation, Todd and David work through the patterns that cause leaders to stall decisions, block releases , and stay behind the scenes longer than serves them or their teams. Todd draws on his own experience as a recoveri...

The instinct to step in, solve the problem, and move the team forward is exactly what made you a great individual contributor. It's also what keeps many leaders stuck. In this conversation, Katie Anderson and David explore what it really means to make the shift from doing to leading , and why most leaders underestimate how hard that shift actually is. Katie draws on her work with Toyota's learning...

Most leaders think their title gives them influence. It doesn’t. In this episode of Lead Smarter , leadership consultant Wesley Dove shares the lessons he learned early in his career when he was tasked with implementing change in a manufacturing facility — while having zero authority. He had to convince people who had been doing their jobs longer than he’d been alive to change the way they worked....

Expectations sound reasonable. But they create an imbalance. In this episode, Andrew D. Wittman breaks down why expectations often fail teams and how agreements transform accountability. Andrew shares lessons from military leadership, federal service, and decades of resilience training to explain: • Why expectations create takers • How agreements create shared ownership • Why predictability builds...

Most leaders believe multitasking makes them more productive. Research suggests the opposite. In this episode of Lead Smarter, David Kent speaks with leadership strategist Michael de Lisser about the hidden performance costs of multitasking — and why focus, communication, and self-awareness are the real leadership accelerators. Michael has coached over 500 senior leaders and designed leadership pr...

How do you lead a team you can’t see? In this episode of Lead Smarter, David Kent sits down with best-selling author and executive coach Corinna Hagen to debunk the myths of remote management. Corinna shares why many leaders struggle with the "busy-trap" and how to transition from an individual contributor to a high-impact leader through the art of delegation. In this episode, you’ll learn: - The...

Leadership gaps don’t usually appear overnight. They form slowly, through burnout, early exits, and systems that promote people faster than they’re prepared to lead. In this episode of the Lead Smarter Podcast, I sit down with Kate Anderson Foley, Founder & CEO of a private education and leadership consultancy, to unpack what’s really happening behind today’s leadership void — and why it’s sho...

Scaling a business isn’t just about better systems, more capital, or faster growth. At a certain point, it requires the founder to evolve. In this episode of The Lead Smarter Podcast , host David Kent sits down with Matt Racz , founder of Founders That Scale , to unpack one of the most difficult and least discussed phases of business growth: the transition from scrappy startup to scalable company....

Most people don’t become leaders because they were trained to lead —  they become leaders because they were good at the job . And as Kelly Hirn explains, that’s exactly where everything starts to break.  In this episode of the Lead Smarter Podcast , David Kent sits down with leadership coach Kelly Hirn , who has spent 20+ years developing leaders across industries — from insurance and construction...

How do you scale a law firm in an industry built on risk-avoidance? In this episode, David Kent sits down with Margaret , award-winning consultant and strategic advisor to law firms, to unpack the leadership challenges leaders face inside the legal industry — from culture and change management to time tracking, operational bottlenecks, and the rise of AI. With decades of experience working in firm...

Confidence isn’t a trait, it’s a choice. David Kent and Alyssa Dver , CEO of the American Confidence Institute, unpack the neuroscience of confidence, the fears that sabotage it, and why great leaders build confidence by giving it away. #LeadSmarterPodcast #Leadership #Confidence #AlyssaDver

Leadership isn’t hard because you lack strategy; it’s hard because you’re managing people, expectations, and your own self-doubt. In this episode of Lead Smarter, host David Kent sits down with Aleta Maxwell, CEO, CHRO, best-selling author, and leadership coach, to dive into the real challenges leaders face, and how to navigate them with clarity and confidence. Aleta works with high-achieving fema...

Leadership and management are not the same, and according to Chuck Blakeman, they don’t even belong in the same room. In this episode of Lead Smarter, host David Kent sits down with serial entrepreneur, best-selling author, and leadership renegade Chuck Blakeman to challenge one of the most deeply held assumptions in business today: that managing people makes them more productive. Spoiler: It does...

𝗪𝗲𝗹𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁, 𝗵𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝗗𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗱 𝗞𝗲𝗻𝘁. This show exists for one reason: to have real conversations with people who are actively reshaping what leadership looks like in today’s world of work. No fluff. No corporate-speak. Just straight talk from the people in the trenches. In this debut episode, David sits down with Jaime Klein, CEO of Inspire Human Resources, to unpack what’s r...

See if we can help you: https://leadershiplens.club/podcast Summary Nik Greenblatt shares his leadership journey and experiences in building his own business, from being a sponsored snowboarder to founding Defy. He started his career in snowboarding and then pursued studies in photography and graphic design. He founded his first company with his father and later started 2ONE5 Creative, which event...

See if we can help you: https://leadershiplens.club/podcast Summary Dela Quist shares his background and journey to becoming a thought leader in the space of email and digital marketing. He emphasizes the importance of being flexible and open to opportunities in a rapidly changing world. Dela discusses his experience in the media and publishing industry, where he learned the value of eyeballs and...

See if we can help you: https://leadershiplens.club/podcast Summary Alec Parower, CEO and co-founder of Fieldhouse, shares his leadership journey and the problem he's solving in the sports and health tech industry. He discusses his personal experience with injuries and the lack of integrated and actionable insights from various health and fitness devices. Parower explains how Fieldhouse centralize...

See if we can help you: https://leadershiplens.club/podcast Summary Kartik Tewari, an experienced entrepreneur in the robotics and autonomous vehicle sector, discusses his journey in the medical sector and the development of autonomous surgical robots. He explains how his background in robotics led him to explore the intersection of robotics and healthcare. Kartik also shares his experience in dev...

See if we can help you: https://leadershiplens.club/podcast Summary Yiqi Wu, CEO of Aimerce, discusses the problem of third-party cookies going away on the internet and the impact it has on e-commerce brands. She explains that Aimerce provides a privacy-centric solution for e-commerce brands to target their market using first-party cookies and pixels. Yiqi also talks about the challenges of custom...

Welcome to Lead Smarter. The podcast where you'll hear powerful, no nonsense conversations with top leadership experts from around the world.  Get the strategies, insights and secrets they've learned on the journey to Lead Smarter, Not Harder.