Are you ready to take charge of your career, earn what you’re worth, and lead with confidence? In this episode of The Leadership Toolkit, host Mike Phillips sits down with Nate Dinet, digital entrepreneur, product leader, and founder of The Step Manager, a platform that’s helped more than 56,000 professionals worldwide achieve promotions, negotiate raises, and build leadership confidence that lasts.

Nate shares his journey from tech consultant to leadership coach, and the lessons he’s learned about building trust, leading with authenticity, and owning your professional growth. He introduces his powerful CARA Method—a simple weekly system for tracking your achievements and setting yourself up for success in every annual review, salary negotiation, or leadership opportunity.

Whether you’re looking to move into management, build a better culture, or finally ask for that raise, this conversation is your complete playbook for clarity, confidence, and career advancement.

In this episode:

• How to walk into your next review with confidence and data

• The difference between leadership, management, and mentorship

• Why listening and recognition are the foundation of great culture

• The importance of boundaries when leading former peers

• How to find an internal advocate for your promotion

🎙 Hosted by Mike Phillips, The Leadership Toolkit brings together the world’s top minds in leadership, communication, and culture—equipping you with the tools to grow yourself and your team.

Contact Info:

Nate Dinet

Email: info@thestepmanager.com

Links: https://thestepmanager.com | LinkedIn

Mike Phillips

Email: mike@TheLeadershipToolkit.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/LeadTheTeam

Twitter: @LeadershipTLT

YouTube: YouTube.com/@MikePhillips

Hosted by Mike Phillips
Produced by The Leadership Toolkit Team
Guest: Nate Dinet — Founder of The Step Manager, Career Growth Expert, and Digital Entrepreneur

🎧 Watch more episodes of The Leadership Toolkit at https://spotify.TheLeadershipToolkit.com

If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a 5-star review and share this conversation with someone ready to take the next step in their career,

Thank you for watching and listening!

* Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by guests on this show are solely those of the guest(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the host, producers, or any affiliated parties. The host and production team make no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information discussed by guests on the show. Listener discretion is advised.

*** Affiliate Disclaimer: Some of the links listed go to my websites and some are affiliate links that may generate me a sales commission if you make a purchase.

In this episode, Mike Phillips sits down with Doug Gray, PhD, CEO of Action Learning Associates, to unpack practical, outcome based leadership and family-business succession that actually works. Doug reframes SWOT so leaders focus on what they can control, explains why the least structure necessary accelerates execution, and walks through his simple rubric for succession: pace, space, grace. You will also hear when to use closed LLMs to protect sensitive data, how to leverage AI as a right-seat tool, and why curiosity is currency for modern leaders.

What you’ll learn

• A cleaner way to apply SWOT for real decisions

• How to assess organizational maturity without bureaucracy

• The “pace, space, grace” model to reduce conflict in family transitions

• Smart AI adoption for compliance-heavy workflows

• Actionable next steps leaders can run this week

Guest highlightsDoug has coached thousands of leaders across sectors, authored multiple books on leadership and OKRs, and builds tools that help teams make better decisions with measurable results.

Resources mentioned

• Action Learning Associates: Action-Learning.com

• Family Business assessment directory: Family-Wealth.org

• JIT Coach: JITcoach.com

Contact Information:

Doug Gray, PhD

Web: Action-Learning.com

LinkedIn: Linkedin.com/in/Doug-Gray-PhD

Mike Phillips

Email: ⁠⁠⁠⁠mike@TheLeadshipToolkit.com⁠⁠⁠⁠

LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Linkedin.com/in/LeadTheTeam⁠⁠⁠⁠

Twitter: ⁠⁠@LeadershipTLT⁠

YouTube: ⁠YouTube.com/@MikePhillips

Credits:

Hosted by Mike Phillips

Produced by The Leadership Toolkit Team

Guests: Doug Gray, PhD — Outcome based leadership strategist and family-business succession guide

Watch more episodes of the Leadership Toolkit at https://spotify.TheLeadershipToolkit.com

If you enjoyed this episode please consider leaving a 5-star review!

Make sure you share this as a resource with friends and colleagues.

Thank you for watching and listening!

* Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by guests on this show are solely those of the guest(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the host, producers, or any affiliated parties. The host and production team make no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information discussed by guests on the show. Listener discretion is advised.

*** Affiliate Disclaimer: Some of the links listed go to my websites and some are affiliate links that may generate me a sales commission if you make a purchase.

Leadership inspires. Management delivers. In this high energy conversation, Dr. James Chitwood joins host Mike Phillips to show why organizations must stop over indexing on “leadership” and start training managers in the nuts and bolts of performance. You will learn a simple weekly one on one format that blends humanity with accountability, how to quantify work so you can actually manage it, and Dr. Chitwood’s TRAC model that unifies Training, Recognition, Accountability, and Communication into one performance system.

We also dig into psychological safety, building internal communication that helps employees “see themselves in the numbers,” and using the question “What’s your next” to align company goals with each person’s personal and professional goals.

🧰 Tools of the Trade: Top Takeaways You Can Use

1️⃣ Leadership vs management: Leadership gets people to want the job. Management ensures the job gets done. Bake the management cake first, then add leadership icing.

2️⃣ Weekly one on ones that matter: Split time in half. Human first, performance second. Arrive prepared with data so reviews never surprise anyone.

3️⃣ TRAC model for performance: Training, Recognition, Accountability, Communication work as one unified strategy, not four disconnected initiatives.

4️⃣ Internal comms carry culture: Great internal communication helps every employee see how their work moves the whole. It must flow up, down, and across.

5️⃣ Develop people through, “What’s your next...?”: Align company goals to employees’ personal and professional next steps to build motivation and loyalty.

Contact Information:

Email: dr.j@performanceculture.expert

Linkedin: Linkedin.com/in/DrJChitwood

Web Links: LeadershipIsNotEnough.com, DrJamesChitwood.com

Mike Phillips

Email: ⁠⁠⁠⁠mike@TheLeadshipToolkit.com⁠⁠⁠⁠

LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Linkedin.com/in/LeadTheTeam⁠⁠⁠⁠

Twitter: ⁠⁠@LeadershipTLT⁠

YouTube: ⁠YouTube.com/@MikePhillips

Credits:

Hosted by Mike Phillips

Produced by The Leadership Toolkit Team

Guests: Dr. James Chitwood, performance culture architect and author of Leadership Is Not Enough

Watch more episodes of the Leadership Toolkit at https://spotify.TheLeadershipToolkit.com

If you enjoyed this episode please consider leaving a 5 star review.

Make sure you share this as a resource with friends and colleagues. Thank you for watching and listening.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by guests on this show are solely those of the guest(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the host, producers, or any affiliated parties. The host and production team make no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information discussed by guests on the show. Listener discretion is advised.

Affiliate Disclaimer: Some of the links listed go to my websites and some are affiliate links that may generate me a sales commission if you make a purchase.