The Hard Skills

Most people think leading and learning should be easy, but psychology proves that it requires both cognitive and emotional effort. In this episode, Dr. Mira Brancu and Dr. Jeffrey Greene use a spicy sauce challenge to reveal why you must embrace "desirable difficulties" to truly lead and grow. Are you suffering from an "infodemic"? In a world of infinite information, the most impor...

Layoffs and restructuring leave deep invisible scars on a team. If you try to "business as usual" your way through it, you will lose your best people. Here is the exact framework to heal the damage. In this final episode of the Ambiguous Grief series, Dr. Mira Brancu reveals why standard corporate responses to loss actually increase toxicity. When leaders minimize change or force false opt...

Is your team cynical, disengaged, or "quiet quitting" despite your best efforts to stay positive? You might be accidentally overlooking "Ambiguous Grief"—and your leadership style could be making it worse. In Part 2 of this special series on The Hard Skills, Dr. Mira Brancu reveals breaks down the three specific "villains" of leadership during crisis: The Minimizer ("It...

Is your team "Quiet Quitting" or are they mourning? Discover when traditional change management fails and how to fix an unknown root cause of disengagement: Ambiguous Grief. In this episode of The Hard Skills, Dr. Mira Brancu reveals the hidden psychology destroying workplace culture: Ambiguous Grief. If you have recently gone through a restructure, layoff, or leadership change, your team...

Most of us spend 70% of our lives working, yet struggle to articulate what we actually do. Matt Paddock, Director of Recruiting at AKQA, reveals how the stories we tell about our careers unlock hidden strengths, clarify values, and shape our professional futures—especially when navigating layoffs, AI disruption, and career pivots. From jazz musician to talent strategist, he shares why career story...

Ever wonder why your best advice falls flat? Or why it's hard to give good feedback successfully? If you've ever struggled with giving feedback that doesn't stick, managing teams that feel disconnected, or making decisions with incomplete information, this episode offers a mindset shift that transforms not just conversations, but organizational culture itself. You've been there: a...

How do you think strategically when it feels like all you do is put out fires? It's a common challenge among all leaders a in this episode, we'll be learning about how to tackle this from a very unlikely and different perspective: someone who teaches frameworks to military leaders who manage geopolitical crises that can help you build a stronger workplace culture, lead through disruption,...

When everything feels like it's falling apart—restructures, burnout, losses you can't quite name—most advice tells you to push harder or rest more. But what if the answer lies in between? In this episode, you'll learn about micro-adjustments: small, evidence-based shifts that help you lead through chaos without losing yourself. We're getting into ambiguous grief, organizational bet...

What's the missing gap between the promise of AI in the future of work and its actual adoption? What is the difference between the organizations that spend millions on technological advances that ultimately fail and those that can unlock unprecedented innovation? You'll learn the one thing that makes a difference in this episode. EPISODE SUMMARY: "WHAT YOU WILL LEARN: Most companies ar...

You've tried the breathing apps, the gratitude journals, the five-minute breaks. You're still exhausted. What if the problem isn't that you need more coping strategies - but that your entire system is set up for failure? This is the 4th and final of my Bonus 4-part Burnout series, talking with you about taking a deeper dive in understanding burnout from a psychosocial perspective.  In...

You became a leader to create impact, develop others, and drive change. But sometimes it seems like every person you spend time lifting up depletes your capacity. How do you build organizational capacity without depleting your own or creating dependency on you? For the next few episodes, I will be talking with you about taking a deeper dive in understanding burnout from a perspective I personally...

What does it mean to lead when your life's work seems to have been taken away from you? This is a critical conversation about naming the grief, loss, healing, and transformation for inclusive leaders and experts—and what it takes to stand with and through change. WHAT YOU WILL LEARN: How do we cope when decades of progress disappear overnight—and the work you dedicated your life to is suddenly...

You respond to emails within minutes, you're always reachable, your team knows they can count on you. Being there for your team matters, right? So why does it still feel like you're falling behind on everything that actually matters? For the next few episodes, I will be talking with you about taking a deeper dive in understanding burnout from a perspective I personally don’t hear enough of...

You pride yourself on being reliable, capable, and indispensable. But what if the very trait that built your career is now sabotaging your success? For the next few episodes, I will be talking with you about taking a deeper dive in understanding burnout from a perspective I personally don’t hear enough of: the psychosocial drivers of burnout – what we as individuals bring to it, how social conditi...

It’s easy for us to call out the bad bosses. It’s harder to look in the mirror and confront the bad boss staring back at you. In this episode, you'll discover how anyone can fall into the trap of becoming a bad boss—often without realizing it—as well as strategies managers and employees can use to make work more manageable. WHAT YOU WILL LEARN: During the course of her career, top workplace st...

Imagine how one conversation after another with 1,200+ global experts can rewire your thinking about influence and impact. We're exposing the pattern underneath daily habits that create massive impact — and what happens when you trust your instincts despite rejection. Ha and his wife, Vivian are not afraid to chase what others fear or avoid. You'll hear how one couple turned daily curiosit...

What happens when tech built to boost performance erodes trust? We unpack the legal, cultural, and human cost—and how leaders can protect psychological safety. WHAT YOU WILL LEARN: Imagine discovering that the same workplace tech meant to make your job easier is quietly dismantling trust, blurring boundaries, and draining morale. In this episode of The Hard Skills, we pull back the curtain on how...

Imagine discovering the hidden traits quietly sabotaging your leadership. This episode reveals the 11 risks that can derail even the most promising careers. Leadership failure rates remain shockingly high—studies show that 50% to 75% of leaders are ineffective. Why? Because their hidden personality-based risk factors are quietly sabotaging performance, communication, and team results. Most leaders...

WHAT WILL THE AUDIENCE LEARN?  What if tension isn’t a threat—but the key to breakthrough thinking and faster decisions? What if the conflict you’re avoiding is the conversation your team desperately needs? In this episode, you’ll learn: - Why the conflicts they're avoiding are actually the breakthrough conversations their organizations desperately need - Why "keeping the peace" during...

How do you live a fulfilling life? It’s not riches, it’s impact and legacy.  In this episode, you will learn how you can quantify mentoring, volunteering, and philanthropy so you can better understand how much impact you make every day, how to build and leave a rewarding legacy, and how to create a highly generative life.  We all want to have impact, whether it is at work, at home, or in our commu...

Ever wonder what it's like to start and keep a podcast going? For my 100th episode I'm celebrating by sharing some insights, lessons learned, surprising benefits, and the greatest challenges I've faced so far hosting a radio broadcast and podcast show. Today we are celebrating the 100th episode of The Hard Skills!! It is no easy feat to show up consistently like this and plan things ou...

Sport isn’t just a game—it’s a mirror of society and a powerful, untapped educational force with implications for life, learning, and leading. Tune in for an honest, inspiring, and research-backed conversation that might just change your perspectives on sports, yourself, and leadership. WHAT YOU WILL LEARN: In this episode, Dr. Erianne Weight joins us to examine the leadership pipeline in sport—fr...

Are you the kind of person who takes pride in sticking it out during difficult work situation to the point where you don’t always know when it’s time to move on or have any strategy for how to know when to endure and when to move on? We can definitely all grow from those tough experiences. But there is also growth in the wisdom gained from knowing how to strategically use the right timing to move...

What if the way your organization measures success is quietly setting you up to fail? What if you've been measuring the wrong things to meet a strategic outcome. This episode unpacks how avoiding failure—not just chasing wins—might be the smarter strategic move, and a smart farmework for how to do it.  We’re not just challenging metrics—we’re rethinking meaning. In this conversation with Mark...

Imagine doing everything “right” — and still feeling like it’s not enough. This episode of The Hard Skills isn’t just about burnout or ambition — we’re exposing the invisible blocks that sabotage even the most successful women — and the real shifts that unlock creative power, self-trust, and meaningful momentum. If you’ve ever felt overqualified but undervalued, this one will hit home.  You’ve got...