In this second episode focused on succession planning as a leadership theme, co-hosts Kathy Edersheim and Mike Madison dig into connections between leadership succession and leadership - and organizational - success.

Connecting concepts with practices, the conversation weaves in case studies of organizations and companies where succession planning has gone well - and where leadership transitions have gone poorly.

We add to that mix some key observations about special cases: challenges of managing leadership transitions in small businesses, especially family businesses, and in startups.

Find Your Leadership Podcast online at yourleadership.net, and use that site to send in questions and comments.

Production notes:

Your Leadership Podcast is produced and engineered by Commander Buffalo.

While the Commander may use AI to help us organize our interviews, our podcast features only human voices, and our musical accompaniment is composed and performed by the very human Matt Madison.

We begin this season's tour of leadership themes with this interview with the incredible Dr. Xiaoyan Huang. The theme: succession and success.

Dr. Huang is a remarkable and accomplished professional both as a cardiologist and leader in clinical care in Portland, Oregon and as a volunteer leader in her community and across the US. Read about her record and career here, on LinkedIn.

Co-hosts Mike Madison and Kathy Edersheim invited Dr. Huang to draw on all elements of her experience, so that she could draw out a range of leadership lessons with value both to those managing and participating in leadership "pipelines." As always, and as Your Leadership Podcast has emphasized from its beginning, context matters. In this conversation, that beginning leads to a surprising and important conclusion.

Find Your Leadership Podcast online at yourleadership.net, and use that site to send in questions and comments.

Production notes:

Your Leadership Podcast is produced and engineered by Commander Buffalo.

While the Commander may use AI to help us organize our interviews, our podcast features only human voices, and our musical accompaniment is composed and performed by the very human Matt Madison.

We kick off Season 2 with this introduction to three key leadership themes that will occupy the season as a whole:

• succession and succession planning as critical leadership competencies;
• what we refer to as "curatorial" leadership - the idea that leaders are often "curators" of the people, values, and purposes of their organizations and groups; and
• differences and similarities between leadership in online and virtual contexts and leadership in face-to-face and other analog settings.

Inevitably, Generative AI enters the leadership picture. What do we make of the possibility of "robot" leaders?

Co-hosts Mike Madison and Kathy Edersheim devote this episode to preliminary tours of each of those topics. There are deeper dives to come, together with some incredible guests.

Find Your Leadership Podcast online at yourleadership.net, and use that site to send in questions and comments.

Your Leadership Podcast is produced and engineered by Commander Buffalo.

While the Commander may use AI to help us organize our interviews, our podcast features only human voices, and our musical accompaniment is composed and performed by the very human Matt Madison.

Your Leadership Podcast returns for Season 2. In this preview, co-hosts Kathy Edersheim and Mike Madison highlight key leadership themes anchoring the coming weeks' episodes.

We have a fresh theme to pair with compelling conversations and usable takeaways for leaders and aspiring leaders alike.

Catch up on Season 1 via this series of short essays on LinkedIn.

Your Leadership Podcast is produced and engineered by Commander Buffalo.

While the Commander may use AI to help us organize our interviews, our podcast features only human voices, and our musical accompaniment is composed and performed by the very human Matt Madison.

This finale of Season 1 prompts hosts Kathy Edersheim and Mike Madison to tie together three central themes woven through all of Your Leadership Podcast so far: how great leaders rely on moral and ethical frameworks, how leaders (and followers) understand and build on context, and the key role that team-first perspectives play in organizations with thriving leaders.

Producer and engineer: Commander Buffalo

Hosts Kathy Edersheim and Mike Madison dig into themes in a new book by Columbia University Business School professor Adam Galinsky, titled "Inspire: the Universal Path for Leading Yourself and Others." They work from a recent Harvard Business Review article from Professor Galinsky that summarizes its key points: inspiring leaders distinguish themselves by playing three key roles: visionary, exemplar, and mentor. The conversation finds some surprising connections between Professor Galinsky's findings and the themes of "Your Leadership Podcast."

The book: Adam Galinsky, "Inspire: the Universal Path for Leading Yourself and Others."

Adam Galinsky at the Harvard Business Review.

Producer and engineer: Commander Buffalo.

Hosts Kathy Edersheim and Mike Madison tackle a key element of leadership in context. What's expected of a leader who steps into that role in an organization or community that already has an established history and culture? How does that differ from tackling leadership when starting fresh, building and leading from the ground up?

The case study for the conversation: religion and religious practices, both old and new.

Producer and engineer: Commander Buffalo

Hosts Mike Madison and Kathy Edersheim dig into and pull apart followership, an all-important complement to leadership. They jump off from a recent report by Gallup, Inc. titled, "Global Leadership Report: What Followers Want." The conversation takes on not only what followers want, but also when they want it, and how, and what that means for leaders.

Download the Gallup report here.

For more research on followership and what that means for leaders, take a page from Robert E. Kelley's 1992 book "The Power of Followership."

Producer and engineer: Commander Buffalo.