Why Alex Simmons Left Microsoft to Help People Out of Pain

Performing Leadership vs. Actually Leading: Why Your Polished Self Is Costing You

Welcome to Integrity Over Scale, the podcast where leadership coach Dr. Leili Sadaghiani gets honest about what leadership actually costs, and what it gives back when you do it right. You walk into the meeting and before you say a word, something in you starts adjusting. Your voice changes. Your face changes. You reach for certainty faster than you actually feel it. You're not lying. You're performing the version of leadership you were taught gets rewarded. In this solo episode, Leili unpacks the gap between the leader you've learned to perform and the leader you actually know how to be. Drawing on her doctoral research on executive hubris, her own years leading from anxiety in corporate environments, and real client stories (including the executive repeatedly asked to take notes in her own meetings), she breaks down where the performance comes from, what it quietly costs you and your team, and the practical shift that closes the gap. You'll learn: * Why "confidence" is often compliance with a cultural script, and how to tell the difference * How performative leadership breaks trust through repetition, not one big failure * Power over vs. power with, and why one of them leaves your whole team exhausted * The question to ask instead of "Do I look like a leader right now?" This one gets personal. Leili names the double standards that make authenticity harder for some leaders than others, and why this conversation has to hold both the system and the self. Choose conscious over ego. Humanity over power. Connect with Leili at www.invivoleadershipstrategies.com [http://www.invivoleadershipstrategies.com] #PerformativeLeadership #AuthenticLeadership #LeadershipCoaching #ExecutivePresence #IntegrityOverScale

Authentic Leadership: Being Real Without Being a Jerk

Authentic Leadership: Being Real Without Being a Jerk explores what it truly means to “be yourself” as a leader without using authenticity as an excuse for bluntness, rigidity, or ego. In this episode, Dr. Leili Sadaghiani unpacks the core elements of authentic leadership—self-awareness, relational transparency, balanced processing, and a grounded moral compass—and shows how each one plays out in real organizational life. Drawing on research and lived leadership tensions, she breaks down the “authenticity paradox”: why clinging to a fixed idea of “this is just who I am” can block growth, damage relationships, and quietly erode trust. Through concrete examples of leaders who are “too nice” to give feedback and leaders who hide harshness behind “brutal honesty,” Leili illustrates how good values (like connection, candor, or excellence) can turn into harm when they’re left unbalanced. This conversation invites listeners to see authenticity not as unfiltered self-expression, but as alignment between values, behavior, and impact. You’ll walk away with language and frameworks to examine your own core values, spot where they can tip into their shadow side, and design a more honest, humble, and human way of leading. In short, this episode is for any leader who wants to be real and responsible—anchored in who they are, while still kind, open, and willing to grow. #AuthenticLeadership #LeadershipDevelopment #ConsciousLeadership #EmotionalIntelligence #HumanCenteredLeadership #LeadershipPodcast #IntegrityOverScale #WomenInLeadership #WorkplaceCulture #LeadWithHumility #ValuesBasedLeadership

Servant Leadership at 18: What a Founder Is Learning About Letting Go

What does it take to build a company at a young age? In this episode, Dr. Leili Sadaghiani sits down with Jacob Labagh, an 18-year-old aerospace engineering student at Embry-Riddle and the founder of EX3D, a 3D printing network that connects makers, designers, and customers across the country. Jacob and Leili met through Moonshot, where EX3D took third place. In this conversation, he walks through the real version of starting a business, not the polished one. He talks about the Etsy store that sparked the idea, the five business models his team cycled through before finding direction, and the months they spent stuck trying to figure out what they were actually selling. He also shares how he used AI tools like Base44 and Claude to build the website and connect the systems his team could not code on their own, and why he sees AI as a time multiplier rather than something to fear. They get into the harder parts too. Jacob opens up about a 3D printing journalist who publicly doubted the business would ever scale, and how he learned to set that aside, keep building, and make peace with the possibility of failure. From there the conversation turns to leadership. Jacob describes catching his own control freak tendencies, then stepping back to give his team real ownership, and why servant leadership turned out to be the right fit for a company sitting between two different audiences. If you are thinking about starting something of your own, Jacob's advice is worth the listen: do not start a company to make money. Start by finding a real problem and asking whether you are the right person to solve it. Where to find Jacob: Website: https://ex3dprints.com/ [https://ex3dprints.com/] LinkedIn: Jacob Labagh TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ex3dprints [https://www.tiktok.com/@ex3dprints] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ex3dprints/ [https://www.instagram.com/ex3dprints/] YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/@EX3DPrints/shorts [https://m.youtube.com/@EX3DPrints/shorts] Live your life InVivo. ---------------------------------------- #InVivoLeadership #LeadershipPodcast #ServantLeadership #Entrepreneurship #YoungEntrepreneur #StartupJourney #3DPrinting #EX3D #EmbryRiddle #Aerospace #SmallBusiness #AIforBusiness #TrialAndError #FoundersStory #PrescottAZ #SpaceTech #BusinessPodcast #LeadershipDevelopment

Integrity Over Scale: Building Culture That People Actually Want to Stay For | Maryam Parvaneh

Maryam Parvaneh spent years inside corporate HR before walking away to start Culture Bloom HR, a consulting firm focused on building people strategies for growing companies. She has a master's in organization development and a belief that has shaped every role she's held: you cannot build a business without building the people first. In this conversation, Maryam and Dr. Leili Sadaghiani talk about what corporate HR gets wrong, why AI will never replace the human side of people work, and the practical interview approach that has changed how she evaluates culture fit. She also gets candid about the harder reality of being a woman in corporate leadership, why women need to advocate for themselves louder than they think they should, and the difference between mentorship and sponsorship when you are trying to grow a career. This episode is for anyone leading people, building a team, or rethinking how their organization actually treats the humans inside it. ─────────────────WHAT YOU WILL LEARN * Why HR is no longer just admin work, and what people strategy actually looks like now * What AI can and cannot do inside HR processes * How to interview for culture fit using a casual, coffee-first approach * The role of organization development in blending psychology and business strategy * How feedback Fridays create the conditions for real growth * The difference between mentorship and sponsorship, and why women need both * Practical networking advice for introverts who would rather stay home * Why over-communicating is the most underrated leadership skill ─────────────────ABOUT THE GUEST Maryam Parvaneh is the founder of Culture Bloom HR, a consulting firm specializing in fractional HR, people strategy, and organization development for growing businesses. She holds a master's in organization development and spent years in corporate HR before launching her own firm in January. Find her at culturebloomhr.com and on LinkedIn under her name. Email: maryam@culturebloomhr.com [maryam@culturebloomhr.com] ─────────────────ABOUT THE HOST Dr. Leili Sadaghiani is the founder of InVivo Leadership Strategies and host of Integrity Over Scale. She coaches high-performing women navigating director and senior director roles in male-dominated industries. Learn more: https://invivoleadershipstrategies.com [https://invivoleadershipstrategies.com]Listen to more episodes: https://invivoleadershipstrategies.com/podcast [https://invivoleadershipstrategies.com/podcast]Work with Leili: https://invivoleadershipstrategies.com/contact [https://invivoleadershipstrategies.com/contact] ─────────────────CHAPTERS00:00 Introduction01:00 Maryam's journey from corporate HR to founding Culture Bloom04:00 Why she took the leap into consulting05:30 AI in HR: what it can do and what it never will06:30 The reality of being a woman in corporate leadership08:30 What has shaped Maryam's leadership10:30 Hiring for culture fit: how to actually do it well14:00 The coffee interview approach16:30 Organization development and the psychology of business22:30 Why feedback Fridays change everything24:30 Mentorship vs. sponsorship explained27:30 Why over-communicating is the most underrated leadership skill33:30 Networking advice for introverts37:30 The one person who knows 2,500 people38:30 How people have shown up for Maryam in her career42:30 Where to find Maryam #IntegrityOverScale #Leadership #HRStrategy #CultureBuilding #WomenInLeadership #OrganizationDevelopment #PeopleStrategy

Your Self-Doubt Isn't a Defect. It's Data.

Your self-doubt isn't a defect. It's data. In this solo episode, Dr. Leili Sadaghiani makes the case that the self-doubt and anxiety high-performing women carry in male-dominated industries isn't imposter syndrome to be fixed. It's a rational signal about the system you're operating in. She walks through four patterns where executives blame themselves for internal doubt, and where the real issue is almost always structural: role clarity gaps, values-and-culture mismatch, scale-at-all-costs norms, and invisible labor. Then she gives you the five-step practice she uses with her coaching clients to read the signal, map it to the actual gap, and decide how to lead inside the reality you're actually in. This episode is for directors, senior managers, and VPs who have the resume and the receipts and are still quietly wondering if they're missing something. You're not. You're picking up data your organization isn't honest enough to name yet. Connect with Leili: Website: https://www.invivoleadershipstrategies.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/leilisadaghiani Subscribe to The Behavior Brief: https://www.invivoleadershipstrategies.com