EXECUTIVE COACH EXPLAINS: How Humor Makes You a Better Leader, with Dr. Paul Damiano

The Leadership Skill MBA Programs Don't Teach You, with Dr. David W. Robinson-Morris

Imagination as a leadership skill? Most people wouldn't even put it in their top 10. But what if it's the one thing separating leaders who repeat old systems from those who build new futures? In this conversation, Dr. Mira Brancu sits down with Dr. David W. Robinson-Morris, founder of Reimaginelution, to talk about why imagination might be the most underrated leadership competency of our time. David breaks down how imagination shows up in strategy, finance, and communication, and shares what happens when skeptical, numbers-driven leaders finally slow down and start asking: what have we been conditioned not to see? This is a business discussion like none you’ve ever heard. You'll hear about the connection between Ubuntu philosophy, contemplative practice, and how historically marginalized communities have been practicing imaginative leadership for centuries! And here's the biggest reframe: scarcity thinking is already an imaginative act, just pointed in the wrong direction. It takes the same energy to imagine futures of possibility as it does to imagine futures of loss. If you've ever felt stuck in reactive mode or trapped in a cycle of cutting, controlling, and surviving, this episode offers a completely different way through. Subscribe for weekly conversations on leadership, resilience, and the human side of work. Find our guest here: Websites:  www.reimaginelution.com www.centerforthehumanspirit.org www.drmphd.com  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidrm/  To find more of my work: Subscribe to this podcast Subscribe to my free newsletter at: mailchi.mp/2079c04f4d44/subscribe Work with me one-on-one: calendly.com/mira-brancu/30-minute-initial-consultation Connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/MiraBrancu Learn more about my services: www.gotowerscope.com Get practical workplace politics tips from my books: gotowerscope.com/books Get my free Strategic Clarity and Leadership Resilience assessment: https://mailchi.mp/e1ebf8505764/slr-assessment  Get my Free Burnout Root Cause Assessment: https://mailchi.mp/29d7d18fae4a/burnout-root-cause-assessment Get my Workplace Grief Guide: https://mailchi.mp/46873b910380/workplace-grief-field-guide  Find other free resources to support your leadership growth: https://gotowerscope.com/other-free-stuff  Join the next Towerscope leadership workshop or fellowship: https://gotowerscope.com/fellowship

Working Hard But Your Team Still Doesn't See It? (Here's Why), with Margaret Andrews

You've been working so hard to be an effective leader, and somehow your team still doesn't see it. This episode shows you exactly why, and how to close the gap before it stalls your career. Margaret Andrews ran the MBA program at MIT Sloan for seven years and is now an Associate Dean at Harvard. She's spent two decades teaching leadership and emotional intelligence to high achievers, and her conclusion is uncomfortable: some of the highest achievers still get stuck in the people management skills even when they have developed the greatest business strategies. In this conversation with Dr. Mira Brancu, Margaret breaks down the S-curve framework that explains why your growth sometimes feels like regression, six questions that build real self-awareness, and an interactive Best Boss Exercise you can do right now. Plus the story of Phil, an executive who looked in the mirror, didn't recognize the leader he had become, and rebuilt himself from scratch. Subscribe for weekly conversations on the intersection of culture, mental health, and the real hard skills of leadership. Find our guest here: Connect with Margaret Andrews Website: https://www.margaretandrews.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/margaretcandrews/  To find more of my work: Subscribe to this channel Subscribe to my free newsletter at: mailchi.mp/2079c04f4d44/subscribe Work with me one-on-one: calendly.com/mira-brancu/30-minute-initial-consultation Connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/MiraBrancu Learn more about my services: www.gotowerscope.com Get practical workplace politics tips from my books: gotowerscope.com/books Get my free Strategic Clarity and Leadership Resilience assessment: https://mailchi.mp/e1ebf8505764/slr-assessment  Get my Free Burnout Root Cause Assessment: https://mailchi.mp/29d7d18fae4a/burnout-root-cause-assessment Get my Workplace Grief Guide: https://mailchi.mp/46873b910380/workplace-grief-field-guide  Find other free resources to support your leadership growth: https://gotowerscope.com/other-free-stuff

Signs Your Cult-ure Drifted Into Cult-like, with Candice Schutter

Emotional intelligence is supposed to make workplaces better. But what if it might also teach people to tolerate what should be intolerable? Candice Schutter spent two decades inside the wellness industry, leading programs, training instructors, building cultures of care, until her body started screaming that something was wrong through panic attacks and a nervous system in overdrive. She started digging into cult dynamics, coercive control, and the psychology of mission-driven organizations. What she found changed everything. In this conversation with Dr. Mira Brancu, Candice breaks down what she calls "the drift," the slow, invisible process by which caring cultures slide into high-control environments. You will learn when wellness programs can train people to tolerate dysfunction, why high emotional intelligence can suggest greater ability to manipulate, and what the dark side of transformational leadership looks like from the inside. If you have ever felt a disconnect between the language of psychological safety and the reality of structural control at your workplace, this episode will give you the frameworks to name what you have been feeling. Subscribe for weekly conversations on leadership, mental health, and navigating workplace dynamics. Find our guest here: https://thedeeperpulse.com/  https://www.linkedin.com/in/candiceschutter/  https://www.facebook.com/candice.schutter  https://www.instagram.com/candiceschutter/ To find more of my work: Subscribe to this channel Subscribe to my free newsletter at: mailchi.mp/2079c04f4d44/subscribe Work with me one-on-one: calendly.com/mira-brancu/30-minute-initial-consultation Connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/MiraBrancu Learn more about my services: www.gotowerscope.com Get practical workplace politics tips from my books: gotowerscope.com/books Episodes and other resources referenced: How to Speak Up When it Matters Most, with Ira Chaleff: https://youtu.be/_sUAHNUw6N0  IF YOU ENJOYED THIS EPISODE, CAN I ASK A FAVOR? We do not receive any funding or sponsorship for this podcast. If you learned something and feel others could also benefit, please leave a positive review. Every review helps amplify our work and visibility. This is especially helpful for small women-owned boot-strapped businesses. Simply go to the bottom of the Apple Podcast page to enter a review. Thank you! Subscribe to my free newsletter at: mailchi.mp/2079c04f4d44/subscribe [http://mailchi.mp/2079c04f4d44/subscribe] Work with me one-on-one: calendly.com/mira-brancu/30-minute-initial-consultation [http://calendly.com/mira-brancu/30-minute-initial-consultation] Connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/MiraBrancu [http://www.linkedin.com/in/MiraBrancu] Learn more about my services: www.gotowerscope.com [http://www.gotowerscope.com/] Get practical workplace politics tips from my books: gotowerscope.com/books [http://gotowerscope.com/books] Add this podcast to your feed: www.listennotes.com/podcasts/the-hard-skills-dr-mira-brancu-m0QzwsFiBGE/ [http://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/the-hard-skills-dr-mira-brancu-m0QzwsFiBGE/]

EXECUTIVE COACH: Why Strong Women Burn Out at the Top, with Duygu Alptekin Gursu

Most women in leadership got there by working twice as hard as the men around them. And it's quietly destroying their health. In this conversation, Dr. Mira Brancu sits down with executive coach Duygu Alpteka Gursu, who spent nearly three decades climbing the corporate ladder at companies like Coca-Cola and Unilever before her body finally forced her to stop. Duygu shares the moment she realized the rules of leadership were never written for her, including the day a male colleague with less experience got promoted two grades above her immediately after returning from nine months of military service. She and Mira walk through the three career moments where most women either lean in or quietly check out. They get into the messy stuff nobody talks about at the office, like burnout recovery, motherhood penalties, and the menopause years that hit right when women are at the peak of their careers. If you've ever felt like you have to choose between your career and your well-being, this one is for you. Subscribe for weekly conversations on leadership, burnout, and women's leadership in the real world. Find our guest here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/duygualptekingursu [https://www.linkedin.com/in/duygualptekingursu] https://www.instagram.com/duygualptekingursu/ IF YOU ENJOYED THIS EPISODE, CAN I ASK A FAVOR? We do not receive any funding or sponsorship for this podcast. If you learned something and feel others could also benefit, please leave a positive review. Every review helps amplify our work and visibility. This is especially helpful for small women-owned boot-strapped businesses. Simply go to the bottom of the Apple Podcast page to enter a review. Thank you! Subscribe to my free newsletter at: mailchi.mp/2079c04f4d44/subscribe [http://mailchi.mp/2079c04f4d44/subscribe] Work with me one-on-one: calendly.com/mira-brancu/30-minute-initial-consultation [http://calendly.com/mira-brancu/30-minute-initial-consultation] Connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/MiraBrancu [http://www.linkedin.com/in/MiraBrancu] Learn more about my services: www.gotowerscope.com [http://www.gotowerscope.com/] Get practical workplace politics tips from my books: gotowerscope.com/books [http://gotowerscope.com/books] Add this podcast to your feed: www.listennotes.com/podcasts/the-hard-skills-dr-mira-brancu-m0QzwsFiBGE/ [http://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/the-hard-skills-dr-mira-brancu-m0QzwsFiBGE/]

I/O PSYCHOLOGIST EXPLAINS: When Success Demands Self-Abandonment, with Dra. CarolLaine Garcia

What if everything you were taught about success and leadership was causing you to abandon your own needs?  This conversation will completely change how you see work, identity, and what it means to truly win in life. In this episode of The Hard Skills, Dr. Mira Brancu sits down with Dr. CarolLaine M. Garcia, a Dominican-American I/O psychologist, decolonial researcher, and creator of Queen Mindset Leadership(R) who spent a decade consulting for Fortune 500 companies before walking away to rebuild leadership from lived experience. CarolLaine unpacks why self-abandonment has been typecast as leadership, and what it actually means to lead from wholeness rather than exhaustion. You'll learn about the four data centers of mind, heart, body, and spirit that most leaders leave completely offline, why burnout recovery starts with tuning into the intelligences you've been trained to ignore, and how personal development rooted in creativity and decolonial thinking can transform the way you lead yourself and others. Whether you're navigating burnout prevention, questioning traditional leadership development, or simply tired of performing a version of success that doesn't feel like yours, this conversation will give you both the language and the permission to lead differently. Subscribe for weekly conversations on leadership, mental health, and the hard skills nobody teaches you. Learn more about Dra. CarolLaine M. Garcia at: https://www.drcarollainemgarcia.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/drcarollainemgarcia https://www.instagram.com/drcarollainemgarcia IF YOU ENJOYED THIS EPISODE, CAN I ASK A FAVOR? We do not receive any funding or sponsorship for this podcast. If you learned something and feel others could also benefit, please leave a positive review. Every review helps amplify our work and visibility. This is especially helpful for small women-owned boot-strapped businesses. Simply go to the bottom of the Apple Podcast page to enter a review. Thank you! Subscribe to my free newsletter at: mailchi.mp/2079c04f4d44/subscribe [http://mailchi.mp/2079c04f4d44/subscribe] Work with me one-on-one: calendly.com/mira-brancu/30-minute-initial-consultation [http://calendly.com/mira-brancu/30-minute-initial-consultation] Connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/MiraBrancu [http://www.linkedin.com/in/MiraBrancu] Learn more about my services: www.gotowerscope.com [http://www.gotowerscope.com/] Get practical workplace politics tips from my books: gotowerscope.com/books [http://gotowerscope.com/books] Add this podcast to your feed: www.listennotes.com/podcasts/the-hard-skills-dr-mira-brancu-m0QzwsFiBGE/ [http://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/the-hard-skills-dr-mira-brancu-m0QzwsFiBGE/]