Innovation Is a Leadership Competency: What a Sponge and a Pill Can Teach You About Leading

Innovation Is a Leadership Competency: What a Sponge and a Pill Can Teach You About Leading

What’s in your scrap box? Episode 4 asks a hard question: is your scrap box full of dead ideas or dormant ones? From a sponge that became a $220 million empire to a waste product that became aspirin, this episode will challenge how you think about failure, innovation, and what to do with the ideas you almost gave up on. This episode will help you revisit one shelved idea, reframe it, and take one innovative action this week. Listen in, then screenshot the episode and share what you’re pulling out of storage.

Lead The Room You're In

Before they owned the rooms, they mastered the ones they were given. Mary Kay Ash led boardrooms that wouldn’t promote her and then built her own pink-empire blueprint from a book draft. Indra Nooyi reshaped PepsiCo’s global strategy long before she sat in the CEO chair, proving that leadership isn’t about the title, it’s about the table you’re already at. In this episode, we break down The Room You’re In Audit — four steps to turn your current space into your leadership training ground: own it, study it, solve above your title, and document the lessons. Because the leader who masters today’s room earns tomorrow’s. This is your reminder: Don’t wait for the mic. Lead the meeting, the project, the moment — the room you’re in is the rehearsal and the real thing.

Build the Table: Stop Waiting for a Seat That Was Never Built for You

A fax machine saleswoman with $5,000 and a pair of scissors. A washerwoman earning $1.50 a day with a homemade formula and a dream. Neither was invited to any table in their industry. Neither had investors, connections, or permission. So they built their own. In this episode, Princess Otigbu unpacks the stories of Sara Blakely (founder of Spanx) and Madam C.J. Walker (America’s first female self-made millionaire) — two women separated by a century who share one thing in common: they stopped waiting for a seat and built tables that millions of people are still sitting at today. You’ll also get The Builder’s Blueprint , a practical four-step framework for identifying the gap no one is filling and building something that didn’t exist before. If you’ve been waiting for permission, an invitation, or the right moment — this episode is your redirect.

The (Hidden) Benefits of Imposter Syndrome

During the Israeli-Arab conflicts in 1973, a fierce wind swept across a desert minefield — and instead of destroying the soldiers, it exposed every hidden mine in their path. The moment they made it through? The wind stopped. What if imposter syndrome works the same way? In this debut episode of The Leader's Edge, host Princes Otigbu, The Leader's Coach flips the script on imposter syndrome. Instead of treating it as the enemy, she reveals what it's actually trying to show you: buried beliefs, identity gaps, and growth areas you didn't know were there. You'll learn: * Why imposter syndrome is a signal, not a verdict * The 3 things it's trying to expose in your leadership * How to hold an "Honest Board Meeting" with yourself * The difference between revelation and renovation — and why most leaders stop too soon If you've ever walked into a room you prayed to be in and thought, "What am I doing here?" — this one's for you.