The Unleashing Leaders Podcast

Stacie Baird, Chief People Officer at Community Medical Services, offers insights on the intersection of self-care, resilience, and ethical AI to elevate the human experience. She shares her professional journey to discovering her leadership purpose in addressing the opioid epidemic. She also shares the power of adversity in our personal lives to unlock our super powers and focus our contributions where it matter most. Get practical tips for how you can self-regulate or co-regulate anytime, anywhere in the face of adversity. Lastly, explore simple ways you can begin to use AI for your own self-care as well as apply it ethically to enhance your team's resilience and impact. Additional Resources: Connect with Stacie Baird on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/staciebaird/ HX in an AI World series: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7211145450941206528/ HX Podcast with Stacie Baird: https://staciebaird.com/the-hx-podcast Attend Unleashing Leaders University: https://unleashingleadersuniversity.com/curriculum Sign up for our newsletter: https://unleashingleadersuniversity.com/signup Learn more about Unleashing Leaders: https://unleashingleaders.com/ Follow Unleashing Leaders on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/unleashingleaders Connect with Lee on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leeallenscott/ Follow Unleashing Leaders on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UnleashingLeaders/ Follow Unleashing Leaders on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unleashingleaders/ Key Takeaways: Resilience is built through consistent practice, not bouncing back. Pause before carrying stressful energy into your next interaction. Speak to yourself like someone you deeply love. AI should amplify human connection, not replace it. Trust begins with self-awareness and trusting yourself first.

In this conversation, Lee sits down with two of Unleashing Leaders' top change agents, Skye Connors and Emily LaPorta, to tackle a problem every high performer eventually hits: too many priorities, not enough hours. Skye and Emily built UL's internal SOP for handling conflicting task requests and walk through how it works, from the physical warning signs of overload to the tiebreakers that step in when two tasks conflict. Feeling overloaded usually means you're trusted with more, not that you're falling short. Lee, Skye, and Emily break down the prioritization shortcuts that quietly wreck teams: First in, first out. Last in, first out. Whoever screams the loudest. And the fallback of declaring "everything is priority one," which just pushes the decision onto your team, leaving them to default to whatever's easiest. What UL actually uses instead is a framework that sorts commitments by required, desired, and optional, weighs critical path and impact, and falls back on real tiebreakers, like prior commitment and relative priority, when everything else ties. Emily closes with a reminder that this gets easier with practice: "Am I required?" and "What is the impact?" stop needing a checklist and become instinct. Additional Resources Attend Unleashing Leaders University: https://unleashingleadersuniversity.com/curriculum Sign up for our newsletter: https://unleashingleadersuniversity.com/signup Learn more about Unleashing Leaders: https://unleashingleaders.com/ Follow Unleashing Leaders on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/unleashingleaders Connect with Lee on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leeallenscott/ Follow Unleashing Leaders on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UnleashingLeaders/ Follow Unleashing Leaders on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unleashingleaders/ Key Takeaways: Feeling overloaded is a sign of trust and competence, not a warning sign of failure. Notice the physical tell (tight chest, racing heart) before it drives a bad decision. First in, first out, last in, first out, and "whoever screams loudest" all fail as standalone strategies. Declaring everything priority one pushes the decision to your team, and they'll default to whatever seems easiest, leaving the hard stuff undone. Sort every ask into required, desired, or optional before you commit to it. When priorities truly tie, fall back on real tiebreakers like prior commitment and relative project priority. With practice, questions like "Am I required?" and "What is the impact?" stop needing a checklist and become instinct.

In this conversation, Clayton Haas reflects on the turning points that shaped his leadership journey, from early lessons that challenged his assumptions to the moments that pushed him to grow. He shares how his approach evolved over time and what ultimately helped him become a leader who builds people, not just processes. Clayton shares an inspiring story of growing as a leader by learning to handle the hard parts of the job as we progress from individual contributor to front-line supervisor to middle and executive management. Leaders mature through a typical arch. Often they start by just doing things themselves, so they can avoid the harder and less fun parts of leading a team. Then they muster the resolve to do the hard things, but often with a cumulation of toil on the body and the spirit. The promise is to do the hard things better and with less stress, and to do them in a way the reduces how often you need to do them in the first place. It's good to be a leader who will handle the hard things, but that can come at a price. It's even better to be a leader who attracts and builds more people to handle the hard things. Clayton offers practical tips for how he made that personal transformation and has added years of peace and fulfilment to his life from it. Additional Resources: Connect with Clayton on LinkedIn Attend Unleashing Leaders University! Sign up for our newsletter! Learn more about Unleashing Leaders Follow Unleashing Leaders on LinkedIn Connect with Lee on LinkedIn Follow Unleashing Leaders on Facebook Follow Unleashing Leaders on Instagram Key Takeaways: Leaders must learn from both good and bad examples. Customer service is essential in any role, including government. Listening is a critical skill for effective leadership. Empowering employees leads to better outcomes. Difficult conversations are necessary for growth.

In this insightful conversation, Rosa Leal shares her inspiring journey from designing NASCAR alternators to leading commercial product strategy and customer experience at Rheem. With over 20 patents and a passion for innovation, Rosa reflects on how empathy, listening, and collaboration have shaped her leadership approach across engineering and product development. She dives into the complexity of designing for layered customer ecosystems, the importance of staying ahead of regulatory shifts, and how her experience as an immigrant and non-native English speaker sharpened her ability to truly hear customer needs. Rosa also unpacks the role of product management in aligning internal teams, managing risk through stage-gate processes, and fostering a culture where ideas and challenges are welcomed. This episode is a blueprint for leaders who want to drive innovation without sacrificing humility or humanity. Additional Resources: Strategic Leader | Engineer | Patent Holder | Selected as one of the 2023 Top Women in HVAC and Engineered Systems's 2023 20 to Watch: Women in HVAC Attend Unleashing Leaders University! Sign up for our newsletter! Learn more about Unleashing Leaders Follow Unleashing Leaders on LinkedIn Connect with Lee on LinkedIn Follow Unleashing Leaders on Facebook Follow Unleashing Leaders on Instagram Key Takeaways: Innovation starts with truly listening to customers. Product strategy succeeds when cross-functional teams align early. Empathy, kindness, and clarity drive stronger leadership. Regulatory shifts are opportunities, not obstacles. Building trust enables open, risk-aware innovation.

In this engaging conversation, KL Shaw shares her unique career journey from selling cars to becoming a C-suite executive and ultimately a professional coach. She emphasizes the importance of curiosity, problem-solving, and networking in career advancement. KL discusses the significance of embracing risk and overcoming fear, as well as the critical skills of negotiation and relationship-building. The conversation also touches on interview preparation and the mindset needed for success. Ultimately, KL highlights that kindness and a genuine desire to help others unlock their potential are key hallmarks of successful leadership. Additional Resources: Connect with KL Shaw on LinkedIn Attend Unleashing Leaders University! Sign up for our newsletter! Learn more about Unleashing Leaders Follow Unleashing Leaders on LinkedIn Connect with Lee on LinkedIn Follow Unleashing Leaders on Facebook Follow Unleashing Leaders on Instagram Key Takeaways: Vulnerability can lead to powerful connections. Curiosity is essential for problem-solving and growth. Networking is crucial; 80% of jobs are found this way. Every day is an opportunity to interview for your next role. Embrace risk; you have time to rebuild if needed.

In this episode, Dr. Derek Bub shares some of the less glamorous realities of navigating turbulence and rebuilding leaders after setbacks. Dr. Bub shares his unconventional career journey, starting as a fraud investigator to becoming the superintendent of the West Ada School District, the largest K-12 educational district in Idaho. The conversation delves into the 'dark side' of leadership, which recognizes that often leaders are found and forged in the foundry of a crisis. It isn't pleasant in the moment. Maybe you are stuck cleaning up a mess that had nothing to do with you; or maybe you made a mistake that you are recovering from. But it is these setbacks that are the setups for growing as a leader. Dr. Derek Bub outlines how to prepare for the inevitable setbacks, navigate them with grace, and then how to restore yourself or colleagues who might feel bruised by the gauntlet. He also highlights how to demonstrate compassion by listening to stakeholders and teammates, even when emotions run high and answers are unclear. And then following up after the fact to reflect and restore confidence, so leaders have the room to grow and learn. Additional Resources: Follow Dr. Derek Bub on Linkedin Learn more about West Ada School District Attend Unleashing Leaders University! Sign up for our newsletter! Learn more about Unleashing Leaders Follow Unleashing Leaders on LinkedIn Connect with Lee on LinkedIn Follow Unleashing Leaders on Facebook Follow Unleashing Leaders on Instagram Key Takeaways: Leadership is not confined to titles; it can manifest at all levels. Leadership is not always glorious, but the 'setbacks" are "setups" for growth. Don't just seek to understand; show others that you understand them, even when there are disparate views. Surprises often come from small issues rather than big ones. Any change will generate "resistance"; don't avoid it, invite it!