Uncommon Leadership

Can you do the one thing most leaders refuse to do?   Welcome back to the Uncommon Leadership Podcast. Today, I sit down with Christy Pretzinger, the CEO of WG Content and founder of the Better Leader Project, for one of the most honest leadership conversations you'll hear this year.   Christy has spent over 30 years building organizations where people thrive. But behind the success was an inner c...

Why does leadership feel so exhausting? Why do so many smart, responsible leaders feel like they have to hold everything together?   In this episode of Leadership Rewired, Michael Hunter from Uncommon Teams explores one of the biggest traps leaders eventually fall into: the belief that if they just try harder, plan better, or control more, they can guarantee the outcomes they want.   But what if t...

Do your daily routines dissolve the moment pressure hits?   If so, you aren't failing. And you definitely aren't broken. You just haven't had the chance to test your habits under duress.   In this episode of the Uncommon Leadership Podcast, I sit down with CHRISTOPH merrill, The Habit Freak, to dismantle mainstream advice on habit formation. CHRISTOPH shares his take on why habits formed in perfec...

Most leaders believe they are being rational. But when you only see two options, that is not a choice — it is a paradox.   And it is one of the clearest signs your survival brain has taken over.   In this episode of the Uncommon Leadership Podcast, I sit down with Mitch Weisburgh, author of MindShifting: Stop Your Brain from Sabotaging Your Happiness and Success , to unpack why even experienced le...

Leadership doesn't have to be confusing, but it does need to be precise.   If you've heard of EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) but aren't sure how to make it work in the real world, this episode is exactly what you need.   On today's episode, I'm joined by Chris Hallberg, better known as the Business Sergeant.   From the high-pressure environments of the military and law enforcement to the b...

Why would a senior Hollywood executive walk away from massive franchises like Die Hard , Wolverine , and Transformers to help leaders and executives unlock their flow states?   In this episode of the Uncommon Leadership Podcast, join me, Michael Hunter, as we unpack the fascinating career pivot of Steven Puri.   As a former 20th Century Fox and DreamWorks executive turned tech founder, Steven take...

What happens when AI starts doing the things we once believed made us valuable?   In this episode of the Uncommon Leadership Podcast, I, Michael Hunter of Uncommon Teams, sit down with Ross Smith from Microsoft to explore a question most conversations about AI miss entirely: What does it mean to stay human in this unpredictable age of AI?   Tune in to find out: How to use AI as a strategic sparrin...

You've spent your career mastering the technical.  You know how to debug a system, optimize a workflow, and drive efficiency with data.  But as you move higher into leadership, you realize your most reliable tools, logic and evidence, often fail when applied to the most complex system of all: the human one. In this milestone 100th episode of Uncommon Leadership, Michael Hunter and Jon Bach step aw...

Are you constantly putting out fires but feeling like your team still isn't moving forward?  This might be happening because you might be solving the wrong problem. In this episode of the Uncommon Leadership Podcast, I, Michael Hunter sits down with Todd Hanson, founder & inventor of Compass Carts.  In this episode, Todd shares his incredible journey from corporate banking to building a hardware c...

Why are so many tech startups struggling even after hitting their quarterly goals?   In this episode, I, Michael Hunter, invite Radhika Dutt, an MIT alum and the author of Radical Product Thinking , to the Uncommon Leadership Podcast.    Together, we debunk the classic Silicon Valley mantra: Build→Test → Learn →Scale   The problem with the traditional goal-setting approach is that it often pulls t...

Are you expecting predictable outcomes in a non-deterministic world? When you are a tech leader, your instinct is to rely on systems and logic to drive results.   But when an organizational change stalls, your team resists a new direction, or you find yourself exhausted by constant pivots—logic alone won't bridge the gap.   In fact, ignoring the fundamental physics of human systems is one of the m...

Are you trying to solve human problems with spreadsheets and logic?   When you are an analytical leader in the tech space, your instinct is to rely on data. But when a project stalls, a client becomes contentious, or your top performers start disengaging—no amount of logic or data will fix the friction.   In fact, ignoring the squishy emotional reality of your team is one of the most expensive ope...

It is easy to spend an entire career in tech scaling products, hitting deadlines, and climbing the ladder-- only to wake up one day feeling completely misaligned.   Your body starts keeping score. You experience burnout. Self-sabotage. And the quiet realization that you are leading in a system that wasn't built for who you truly are.   In this episode of the Uncommon Leadership Podcast, Michael Hu...

As a leader (especially in tech), you're constantly expected to have every answer, fix every issue, and carry the full weight of decisions.   But what if you don't need to solve every problem or know everything to lead effectively?   Real leadership means recognizing when questions reveal deeper issues, using vulnerability to ease tension, and encouraging your people to find their own solutions.  ...

In a world where the old playbooks no longer apply — where artificial intelligence is reshaping how we think, work, and lead — what is the real competitive advantage for a tech organization? It's not more data. It's not a better tech stack. It's emotional clarity.   Because in a world where no one has the full answers, certainty is an illusion. And the leaders who thrive aren't the ones with all t...

Early in his career, Jordan Stone sat in a consulting workshop where the idea of a work self and a home self was presented as normal.   The premise made sense on paper. But something about it felt off.   Why should the experiences, preferences, and perspectives that shape who we are outside of work suddenly become irrelevant once we step into it?   As Jordan's career progressed, he saw firsthand h...

Leadership isn't defined by title or authority. It's revealed in presence — how you listen, how you respond, and how your behavior shapes the space around you.   In this episode of the Uncommon Leadership Podcast , Michael Hunter sits down with Mary Kennedy Thompson, CEO of BNI, for a thoughtful conversation on what it really means to lead.   From an early Marine Corps lesson that reshaped her und...

The most expensive thing in your business isn't your tech stack. It's the message you haven't shared with your team because you're waiting to speak up. In this episode of the Uncommon Leadership Podcast, I, Michael Hunter from Uncommon Teams, sit down with Everett O'Keefe—international bestselling author and founder of Ignite Press—for a conversation about the intersection of innovation, authority...

What if I told you that all those technical problems keeping you up at night—missed dates, buggy releases, burnout—are actually just symptoms of a team that doesn't feel safe enough to tell the truth.   Hi! This is Michael Hunter, and I've spent over 35 years debugging code. Today, I help CEOs, founding teams, and heads of people debug themselves and identify those hidden patterns that are stallin...

Why do we treat joy or happiness as a reward?   Something we're allowed to feel only after the sprint is over, or the code is shipped, or the crisis is averted.   When we cut out joy to focus solely on getting it done, we trigger a dangerous biological shift called predatory aggression—a state where our doer brain takes over, shutting down curiosity, connection, and empathy. The very emotions we n...

For many tech leaders—especially the neurodivergent—success often feels like a performance. You mirror the behaviors you see, fit ourselves into neurotypical boxes, and pay for it with our mental and physical health.   But leadership doesn't have to be a grind. When you stop fighting your own wiring and start leveraging your Pattern Recognition Engine, you don't just work faster—you work with Cogn...

You cannot separate your numbers from your nervous system.   When you operate from a "hijacked" state—driven by financial pasts, debt snowballs, or "rich but empty" milestones—you're driving on the rough shoulder of the road.   You're wrecking your suspension (your health and relationships) and wondering why the journey feels like a grind.   Success without joy is neither an achievement nor joyful...

If you see your team stalling, projects dragging, and an invisible friction you can't quite name—this podcast is for you. When tech leaders feel a gap between expectations and outcomes, their first natural response is often to withdraw or try to fix the situation with more rules and processes. And without even realizing it, that distance creates a cycle of silence. Your team begins to play it safe...

Tech leaders are struggling because they're carrying too much— too much pressure to have answers, too much responsibility for outcomes, too little space to be human.   And it's exhausting.   In the latest episode of the Uncommon Leadership Podcast, I, Michael Hunter from Uncommon Teams, sit down with leadership and mindset coach Gary Montalvo for a deeply honest conversation about what actually bl...

As leaders, we're taught to push through.   Work harder. Focus longer. Stay disciplined.   But what if resilience isn't built by endurance at all? What if it's shaped in the small, almost invisible moments—how teams reset, reconnect, and rehumanize their work before exhaustion sets in?   In this episode of the Uncommon Leadership Roundtable Podcast , Michael Hunter from Uncommon Teams brings toget...