The Leader's Mindset

Getting promoted is not the same as knowing how to lead. The exact skills that made you the best performer are not the skills that make you a good manager. And if nobody tells you that, you'll spend your first year doing everyone's job except your own. In this Leadership TTP episode, Jason LeDuc breaks down what to do in your first weeks as a new manager — how to stop out-working your team...

Most leaders think a great culture comes from a program, a committee, or a one-day training. It doesn't. Culture is built by leaders who pour into their people — and it shows up (or quietly disappears) in your retention numbers. In this episode of The Leader's Mindset, Jason LeDuc sits down with Michelle Edwards — award-winning leadership advisor, speaker, and author of DEI Died. Leadershi...

Training that doesn't stick is not a bad-training problem. It is a follow-through problem. The money isn't wasted in the training room — it's wasted in the days after, when nobody reinforces what people learned. In this Leadership TTP episode, Jason LeDuc breaks down how to make team training actually stick — the debrief that turns a workshop into changed behavior. 💡 This episode is f...

Most people think they're informed. They're actually being influenced — and they can't tell the difference. In this episode of The Leader's Mindset, Jason LeDuc sits down with Kira Shishkin — founder and CEO of informed.now, the news-by-SMS service on a mission to put the power of facts back in your palm — to unpack the difference between being informed and being influenced, why se...

You're not behind because you're not working hard enough. You're behind because you never get an hour to just think. The day fills up with fires and "got a sec?", and the big moves that would actually change your business keep getting pushed to "someday" — and someday never shows up on the calendar. In this Leadership TTP episode, Jason LeDuc breaks down five tactic...

Everyone posts the laptop on the beach. Nobody posts the 2 a.m. reality. If you've ever been sold the dream of "working for yourself" — freedom, flexibility, sunsets — the truth is that building something real is unglamorous, relentless work, and the leaders who last are the ones who show up for it anyway. In this episode of The Leader's Mindset, Jason LeDuc sits down with Lauren...

A stuck business is almost never an effort problem. It is a diagnosis problem. Revenue's flat, the team's working hard, and you can't figure out why the needle won't move. The longer the real constraint stays hidden, the more effort you pour straight into the wrong place. In this Leadership TTP episode, Jason LeDuc breaks down five tactics (plus a bonus) to diagnose what's really jammed — the same...

Most founders treat raising venture money as the finish line. A lot of them are chasing a round they don't actually need. And while they're chasing it, the thing that would have built the company — getting in front of clients — doesn't get done. In this episode of The Leader's Mindset, Jason LeDuc sits down with Matt Ober — managing partner at Social Leverage, an early-stage ventur...

Hitting a ceiling is not a talent problem. It is a feedback problem. You've been good for years — and that's exactly the trap. The higher you climb, the less honest feedback you get. Everyone tells you what you want to hear, so the one blind spot that would unlock your next level stays invisible. In this Leadership TTP episode, Jason LeDuc breaks down five tactics (plus a bonus) to break t...

Most leaders try to fix their team before they fix their own foundation. But you can't pour into your people from an empty cup — and no title, rank, or org chart changes that. In this episode of The Leader's Mindset, Jason LeDuc sits down with Tiffany Morice — combat veteran, federal executive, and leadership and motivational speaker — to unpack how leading yourself first, disciplined habi...

Getting promoted is not a reward problem. It is a training problem nobody warned you about. Friday you were a teammate. Monday you're the boss — and no one handed you a playbook. Yesterday's peers are today's direct reports, and the cost of guessing is real: your best people start checking out within weeks if you get the first 90 days wrong. In this Leadership TTP episode, Jason LeDuc...

Most people network the way they were taught: collect business cards, pitch what you do, and wait for the business to roll in. It doesn't work anymore. If you're grinding through events and still hearing crickets, the problem usually isn't you — it's the spray-and-pray playbook. In this episode of The Leader's Mindset, Jason LeDuc sits down with Sarah Hubbard — author of The In...

Hitting a growth ceiling is not a hustle problem. It is a leadership problem. You built the thing — and now the thing is bigger than you can lead. Every problem still lands on your desk, every decision waits on you, and the company you started is quietly stalling because you've become the bottleneck. The skills that won you customers are not the skills that build a team. In this Leadership TTP...

Pitch Investors Like You're the Expert — Tristan Pollock on Fundraising, Scaling Startups, & Building MovementsMost founders walk into the pitch meeting already losing — treating the investor like the smartest person in the room. But that investor sees a hundred pitches a week. You're the one who actually lives in the business. So why do so many founders shrink in the one conversation...

Your team doesn't need more tasks. They need to know what matters most this week — and why. When leaders communicate tasks without intent, people guess. Priorities compete. Decisions slow down. And everyone defaults to the loudest fire instead of the right priority. In this episode of The Leader's Mindset Leadership Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs), Jason LeDuc breaks down What t...

Use AI to Amplify Your People, Not Replace Them — Steve Brown on AI Strategy, AI-First Leadership, & Business Growth Most leaders are using AI to do the same things a little faster and a little cheaper. That's 20th-century thinking — and it's how you get out-competed. Used right, AI doesn't shrink your team. It turns your people into superheroes — and lets a small company hit like...

A missed deadline is not a discipline problem. It is a conversation problem. If you dread the talk that has to happen after someone drops the ball, you do not need more courage. You need a repeatable reset script that moves the conversation from blame to standards — fast. In this Leadership TTP episode, Jason LeDuc breaks down a 2-minute conflict reset you can run the moment a deadline slips — so...

Most people are still playing by the old rules — show up, do good work, stay loyal, and you'll be taken care of. The problem? The social contract changed, and nobody told you. Fear-based leadership is no longer the exception — it's becoming the default, and the people it targets usually don't see it coming until it's too late. In this episode of The Leader's Mindset, Jason LeDu...

Delegation that comes back wrong is not a people problem. It is a hand-off problem. If work keeps boomeranging back to your desk — or you keep redoing it yourself — the breakdown usually isn't who you picked. It's how you handed it off. In this Leadership TTP episode, Jason LeDuc breaks down the 3-part hand-off that reduces rework, builds ownership, and lets your team actually run with the...

Most leaders aren't held back by a shortage of ideas. They're held back because they can't make people feel them. You can be the smartest person in the room and still watch your best thinking die in silence — simply because you never learned to use your voice. In this episode of The Leader's Mindset, Jason LeDuc sits down with Sebastian Uzcategui — founder of Stocks University and...

A bad meeting is not a people problem. It is a preparation problem. When you walk into a meeting without a clear outcome, defined roles, or the hard question you are actually trying to answer, you get a long discussion, unclear owners, and a follow-up meeting to schedule the next meeting. In this Leadership TTP episode, Jason LeDuc breaks down the 10-minute pre-brief — a five-step operating system...

Most leaders spend their whole careers chasing success — titles, compensation, recognition. Then they move on, and everything they built quietly slows down. Success is what you achieve. Significance is what continues because of you — and almost no one is taught how to build the second one. In this episode of The Leader's Mindset, Jason LeDuc sits down with Raj Gupta — CEO and Managing Partner...

Email overload is not a discipline problem. It is a leadership systems problem. If you're checking messages every 20 minutes, you're paying a focus tax your calendar can't afford — and your real priorities never move. In this Leadership TTP episode, Jason LeDuc breaks down a five-tactic response window system that puts you back in control of your day — without going dark and without mi...

Most leaders are using AI to write faster emails and clear busywork. That is the smallest thing it can do. The real payoff is strategic: better thinking, better hiring, and better conversations with the people you lead. In this episode of The Leader's Mindset, Jason LeDuc sits down with Jason P. Carroll — founder of Aptive Index — to talk about "people intelligence" and why the next...

A weak one-on-one is not a time problem. It is a structure problem. When your one-on-ones keep getting canceled or drift into status updates, your team learns something you never meant to teach: this is not a priority. And the one place where small problems get surfaced early quietly disappears. In this Leadership TTP episode, Jason LeDuc breaks down a 10-minute weekly one-on-one format that actua...