09 Building Credibility with Clarity & Commitment with Abhinav Roy

09 Building Credibility with Clarity & Commitment with Abhinav Roy

Meet Abhinav Roy, an accomplished portfolio delivery lead with international experience in the banking industry and financial services industry, helping teams and organizations build the capability, clarity, and confidence to deliver at scale. With his support, they learn how to shift perspectives, embrace change, and create meaningful transformation. His global experience spans India, Europe, the US, and Australia, and he wears many hats - Enterprise Agile Coach, Leadership Coach, and a Certified Yoga Instructor! 4 key highlights in this deeply honest and reflective conversation:  1. Vulnerability is a leadership accelerator, not a liability. Abhinav’s turning point came when a team member told him he appeared “very robotic” and overly certain. That moment pushed him to show more of his human side — honesty, imperfection, presence. This experience reshaped his coaching style into what he calls hands‑on leadership — mentoring, modeling, and being human alongside his teams. 2. Culture and identity shape how we lead — and how we’re received. Growing up in a disciplined academic family in Bihar, India, and later working across India, Europe, the US, and Australia taught Abhinav to deeply respect context. He learned to interpret directness, silence, disagreement, and feedback through a cultural lens — a skill that makes cross‑border collaboration far more effective. 3. Middle managers carry invisible emotional labor — and credibility is the antidote. Abhinav names the unique tension of the messy middle: “Absorb the ambiguity from the top and the frustration from the bottom.” This constant orbiting around others can erode one’s sense of center. His antidote: build credibility through clarity, commitment, and doing the right work even when no one is watching. 4. AI becomes empowering when you engage with it. Abhinav moved from skepticism to hands‑on experimentation, building and breaking his own AI app to truly learn how it works. As he put it, “I built it, deployed it, broke it, built it, deployed it… the best way for me to learn AI was to do it myself.” His biggest insight: AI isn’t the threat; “staying incurious… that’s the threat.”   Connect with Abhinav on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhinavroy19/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhinavroy19/] or at https://www.perspectivecatalyst.co/ [https://www.perspectivecatalyst.co/]  Connect with me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/meenakshi-iyer-northstar/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/meenakshi-iyer-northstar/]  Learn more about NorthStar Solutions and Services LLC - https://www.northstaratwork.com/ [https://www.northstaratwork.com/]

08 Leading with Intention and Integrity with Tezeswari (Tez) Nettimi

Meet Tezeswari Nettimi, who goes by Tez, an award-winning technology and transformation leader with experience in driving IT modernization and strategic program delivery. A parent of two active teenagers, she is passionate about creating community impact through leadership, innovation, and mentorship. This straight-from-the heart conversation highlighted Tez's values-based, servant leadership and her commitment to leading with intention and integrity. Here are three key takeaways from this amazing conversation: 1. Lead with intention, not intensity. Tez emphasizes that sustainable leadership comes from clarity, prioritization, and intentionality, not just working harder or putting in more hours. As she put it, “Sustainability and performance comes not through intensity. It’s about longevity,” a reminder that boundaries and self‑compassion are essential for leaders and their teams. 2. Empower teams instead of having all the answers. A defining lesson from her early leadership experience: you don’t need to be the expert in everything. Your job is to bring the right people together, create psychological safety, and enable their strengths. True leadership is in being that enabler of collaboration and outcomes. 3. Consistency builds trust, and trust builds influence. As organizations get flatter and AI-driven, influence matters more than authority. Tez highlights that clear communication, active listening, and consistent values‑based behavior build trust—and trust is what gives leaders real influence across cultures, generations, and hierarchies.   Connect with Tez on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tnettimi/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/tnettimi/]  Connect with me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/meenakshi-iyer-northstar/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/meenakshi-iyer-northstar/]  Learn more about NorthStar Solutions and Services LLC - https://www.northstaratwork.com/ [https://www.northstaratwork.com/]

07 Looking back to Pause and Reflect with Host, Meenakshi Iyer

What our six guests have taught us about Humanity, AI, and Leading at the Messy Middle In this special retrospective episode, I, your host, Meenakshi Iyer, am inviting you to pause and reflect, to take in, and synthesize the biggest insights from our first six conversations on this podcast. In the American philosopher John Dewey's words, "We do not learn from experience...we learn from reflecting on experience." This episode weaves together the most powerful themes shared by our six previous guests: Padmini Nidumolu, Meshia Adams, Shreya Kaushik, Dr. Elena Bozylinski, Leanna Holmquist, and Kristján G. Mathiesen. The bottom line? The messy middle is where leadership is being redefined — and its leaders are rising to meet the moment. In an AI‑enabled world, it’s these leaders in middle management who are the most equipped to connect strategy, context, people, and performance. Six recurring themes: * the invisible emotional labor middle leaders carry every day * why empathy, trust, and authenticity are becoming strategic leadership skills * how clarity, context, and communication shape team culture * what AI is changing — and what it never will * the role of identity, culture, and lived experience in how we lead * the courage it takes to grow, evolve, and lead through ambiguity 🎧 Listen in for a thoughtful and inspiring look back — and a powerful reminder the messy middle is where true leadership is!   Connect with me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/meenakshi-iyer-northstar/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/meenakshi-iyer-northstar/]  Learn more about NorthStar Solutions and Services LLC - https://www.northstaratwork.com/ [https://www.northstaratwork.com/]

06 Leading With Your Whole Self with Kristjan Mathiesen

Meet Kristján G. Mathiesen (KGM), an "Icelander living in the States", an innovative tech leader who prioritizes being genuinely human in this AI-first world! He leads with humor, empathy, and curiosity to connect with people and help them feel confident in technology. His love for teamwork shapes how he shows up at work and in life. These are 3 of the many remarkable Kristján shares in his usual unassuming and authentic manner: 1. Being genuinely human is a leadership superpower. Kristján’s biggest turning point was realizing he couldn’t “play the manager.” The moment he stopped performing and started showing up as his real, imperfect, human self, trust deepened and relationships transformed. 2. Context, culture, and connection shape how people work. Having lived across Iceland, the UK, and the US, Kristján brings wide‑angle empathy to global teams. He sees how culture, identity, and background influence expectations—and why genuine curiosity and connection matter more than ever. 3. Empathy takes energy - and it makes all the difference! Being human at work takes energy. Emotional presence doesn’t clock out at 5 PM. But when teams reciprocate with trust, humor, and openness, they create the kind of culture people want to stay in—especially in an AI-driven workplace.   Connect with Kristjan - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristjanmathiesen/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristjanmathiesen/]  Connect with me - https://www.linkedin.com/in/meenakshi-iyer-northstar/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/meenakshi-iyer-northstar/]  Learn more about NorthStar Solutions and Services LLC - Unpacking Leadership™ at the "Messy Middle" [https://www.northstaratwork.com/]

05 'Staying frosty' in the age of AI with Leanna Holmquist

Meet Leanna Holmquist, an intuitive product leader shaping how humans and intelligent systems communicate and is passionate about making AI actually usable by humans. She specializes in AI enablement, product ownership, and NLP behavior modeling, blending technical depth with a sharp instinct for language and user experience. In this powerhouse of an episode, 1. Don’t Let AI “happen to you" - "stay frosty"! Leanna’s core message is that AI is reshaping work, but leaders - especially in the messy middle - should not be passive recipients of that change. Instead, they should stay curious, experiment thoughtfully, and understand where AI can genuinely help their teams. “Don’t let AI be a thing that happens to you… stay curious, stay frosty.” 2. Middle Managers are more essential than ever; AI doesn’t replace the human layer Despite headlines predicting the collapse of middle management, Leanna emphasizes that AI cannot replace the human-centered leadership functions that managers provide - psychological safety, context-setting, coaching, and navigating resistance. “Middle managers bring something AI never will… psychological safety… knowing when teams are overwhelmed.” AI may automate coordination tasks, but the orchestration layer - the glue that turns strategy into outcomes - remains deeply human. 3. Successful AI adoption is a cultural transformation, not a technical one Leanna stresses that most digital transformations fail not because of technology, but because of people. AI adoption requires clear guardrails, ongoing enablement, and constant feedback loops - not just tool access. “Technology alone does not transform organizations - people do.” Connect with Leanna on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/leanna-h/] Connect with me on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/meenakshi-iyer-northstar/] Learn more about NorthStar Solutions and Services LLC [https://www.northstaratwork.com/]