Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership

The old playbooks for leadership? They aren't just gathering dust. They’re being rewritten in real-time. We’re moving away from command-and-control and toward something much more human, agile, and, frankly, much more exciting.This is Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I’m your host Alexis Monville.In each episode, I sit down with the visionaries, the quiet disruptors, and the bold thinkers who are shaping the next era of management and innovation. We aren't just looking for 'best practices.' We’re looking for the sparks of change that help us grow, not just as managers or individual contributors, but as PEOPLE.Expect deep dives, unexpected insights, and a healthy dose of curiosity. Whether you’re leading a global organization or leading your very first project, this is your space to explore how leadership is evolving.So, if you’re ready to challenge the status quo and step into the future of work, subscribe now.Let’s discover what’s emerging, together.

Agile transformed how small teams build software.But what happens when organizations grow to hundreds or thousands of people?In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, Alexis Monville welcomes Fabrice Bernhard, co-founder and CTO of Theodo and co-author of The Lean Tech Manifesto.Fabrice explains why the four values of the Agile Manifesto have inherent scale limits, and how Lean thinking helps organizations keep the same intention, without falling into bureaucracy.They explore:– what “value for the customer” really means at scale– why autonomy requires both leadership and architecture– how tech-enabled networks of teams work in practice– what it takes to build a true learning organization– and why Lean is not just good for people, but also for businessA grounded conversation for leaders, tech professionals, and change agents navigating growth, complexity, and responsibility.Find the transcript and the references in the companion blog post: https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2026/02/10/when-agile-scales-something-breaks/

Some leadership lessons are best learned far from meeting rooms and org charts.In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, Alexis Monville welcomes Francelina Amaral, a hospitality leader shaped by service excellence, attention to detail, and deep respect for people.Together, they explore what leaders in any industry can learn from hospitality:Why onboarding is not a checklist but invisible hospitality: preparation before arrival, small gestures, removing frictionHow leadership as service creates trust, safety, and conditions for others to succeedHow belonging is built (and broken) through everyday actionsWhy discipline and standards matter, but only work when rooted in genuine careHow leaders develop others by creating confidence, especially when mistakes happenA practical, human conversation about trust, ownership, and the kind of leadership that makes people feel expected, welcome, and valued.The full transcript of this episode is available in the companion blog post linked in the description, on alexis.monville.com.https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2026/01/15/invisible-hospitality-with-francelina-amaral-what-leaders-in-any-industry-can-learn-from-service-excellence/Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership is supported by Pearlside, where we help leaders and teams create the conditions for responsibility, clarity, and impact to emerge. You can learn more at pearlside.fr.

In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I welcome Teresa Torres, product discovery coach and author of the influential book Continuous Discovery Habits.Teresa shares how product teams can move beyond sporadic research and embed continuous customer discovery into their weekly routines. Drawing from years of coaching, teaching, and hands-on practice, she explains how teams can build better mental models of their customers, make stronger decisions, and consistently deliver outcomes rather than outputs.In this conversation, you’ll explore:Why continuous discovery is about habits, not occasional researchHow weekly customer conversations dramatically improve everyday decision-makingThe role of the Product Trio (Product, UX, Engineering) in balancing viability, desirability, and feasibilityHow Opportunity Solution Trees help teams stay aligned while navigating ambiguityWhy leaders must shift from managing outputs to enabling outcomes and adaptabilityHow Generative AI is reshaping product roles, collaboration, and discovery practicesA must-listen for product leaders, designers, engineers, and executives navigating uncertainty and seeking more adaptive, customer-centered ways of working.Find the transcript and the references in the companion blog post: https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2025/06/29/embracing-continuous-discovery-a-conversation-with-teresa-torres/

In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, Alexis Monville speaks with Manuel Pais, organizational design practitioner and co-author of the influential book Team Topologies (with Matthew Skelton).Together they explore how modern organizations can improve flow, reduce team cognitive load, and evolve structures without relying on disruptive “big reorgs”.You will learn:The four fundamental team types from Team Topologies: Stream-aligned, Enabling, Platform, and Complicated Subsystem teamsWhy cognitive load limits effectiveness, delivery speed, and satisfaction — and how to identify what drives itWhy team design is not about labels, but about interactions: Collaboration, Facilitation, and X-as-a-ServiceHow Platform teams should alternate interaction modes, not become ticket factoriesWhat leaders must do to enable evolutionary change: set expectations, invest in support, and protect learningWhy Manuel believes organizations should invest in dedicated “flow enablers” focused on removing bottlenecksA practical conversation for CTOs, engineering leaders, product leaders, and anyone shaping teams for sustainable delivery and employee satisfaction.Find the key findings, the references, and the transcript of the episode in the companion blog post: https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2025/06/02/unlocking-flow-and-effectiveness-a-conversation-with-manuel-pais-co-author-of-team-topologies/

In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, Alexis Monville welcomes back Gojko Adzic, renowned author and speaker in modern software delivery, named an AWS Serverless Hero (2019), and author of Impact Mapping, Specification by Example, and his latest book Lizard Optimization.Gojko shares a practical method for turning unexpected user behavior into product growth and better decisions. He calls it lizard optimization: spotting “misuse”, learning from it, and deciding whether to support it or block it.In this conversation, you will learn:Why unusual user behavior can reveal hidden value and new marketsThe LZRD loop: Learn, Zoom in, Remove obstacles, Detect unintended impactsHow “desire lines” apply to product teams and organizationsWhy controlled experiments matter, and why most ideas do not create measurable valueHow to stop falling in love with solutions and refocus on the problemA must listen for product leaders, engineering leaders, founders, and anyone building systems where adoption, learning, and impact matter.Find the key learnings, the transcript and more in the companion blog post: https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2024/10/29/optimizing-for-the-unexpected-insights-from-gojko-adzic-on-lizard-optimization/

In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, Alexis Monville welcomes Héloïse Rozès and Nikolai Fomm, first-time founders and co-founders of Corma, a startup building the “cockpit of truth” for software access and license management — helping companies control their SaaS stack, reduce waste, and improve employee experience.From their day-to-day reality at Station F to the intensity of building a company in survival mode, Héloïse and Nikolai share what leadership really looks like when you’re learning it in real time.You’ll hear practical insights on:Adapting communication across co-founders, employees, investors, and clientsLeading with empathy while still making tough callsSaying “no” to stay focused and avoid spreading the team too thinBuilding a value-driven culture through rituals, feedback, and programs like the CormacolindorUsing frameworks like Radical Candor to avoid ruinous empathy and make feedback usefulA grounded conversation for emerging leaders, early-stage founders, and anyone building teams under uncertainty.Find the transcript and the references in the companion blog post: https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2024/10/13/leadership-as-first-time-founders-with-heloise-rozes-and-nikolai-fomm/

What if the future of user experience wasn’t about smarter AI — but better human judgment?In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, Alexis Monville welcomes Sebastian Cao, a technology and user experience leader who has held key roles at Red Hat and Tesla, and who recently designed and taught a course at Stanford University on the future of User Experience.Drawing on his experience working with frontline technicians, engineers, and product teams, Sebastian shares a clear conviction: AI should not replace human judgment, but augment it.Together, Alexis and Sebastian explore:Why prediction without judgment leads to poor UX and low adoptionHow empathy becomes a core engineering skill in AI-driven systemsWhat “service augmentation” means in practice at TeslaWhy transparency and explainability are essential to trustHow open source plays a critical role in ethical AI adoptionThis episode is a deep, grounded conversation about the future of UX — where technology serves people, not the other way around.A must-listen for tech leaders, product managers, designers, and anyone shaping human-centered systems in an AI-powered world.Find the transcript and more in the companion blog posthttps://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2024/10/07/the-future-of-user-experience-with-sebastian-cao/

What if helping people think seriously about their future made them more committed today?In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, Alexis Monville welcomes Russ Laraway — former senior leader at Google and Twitter, co-founder and former COO of Candor Inc. (with Kim Scott), and author of When They Win, You Win.Russ shares lessons drawn from decades of leadership experience and from large-scale, data-driven research conducted at Qualtrics, where leadership behaviors were rigorously measured and correlated with employee engagement and business outcomes.Together, Alexis and Russ explore:Why career conversations are not about “greasing the skids” for people to leaveWhy retention at all costs is a losing and dehumanizing strategyHow managers directly influence engagement, satisfaction, and performanceWhy direction, coaching, and career are the three most critical leadership skillsThis conversation challenges common management reflexes and offers a deeply human — and evidence-based — view of leadership, where investing in people is not a risk, but a core responsibility.If you lead people and care about sustainable impact and satisfaction, this episode will reshape how you think about your role as a leader.Find the references and the transcript in the companion blog post: https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2024/07/27/redefining-leadership-a-conversation-with-russ-laraway/

Most leaders think they’re good communicators, until the stakes rise and the conversation derails.In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I speak with Jeffrey Fredrick, VP of Engineering at Ion Analytics and co-author of Agile Conversations, about how leaders can deliberately practice better communication, especially under pressure.Jeffrey shares the moment that changed his leadership: being told he was strong in advocacy but weak in inquiry. From there, we explore Chris Argyris’ unilateral control vs mutual learning models and the practical method Jeffrey uses to help teams improve conversations: the Four Rs.We also discuss why “Start With Why” is often not the best starting point. Jeffrey argues that the real foundation is trust, followed by the ability to surface fear without derailing into blame or silence.In this episode, you’ll learn:Why balancing advocacy and inquiry changes everythingThe Four Rs method: Record, Reflect, Revise, Role PlayWhy we misremember conversations and “hear music in our head”Why trust comes before why, and how vulnerability builds itHow to surface fear without venting or sugarcoatingHow practice reveals patterns: triggers, tells, and twitchesHow these skills spread in organizations, one person at a timeReferences mentioned:Chris Argyris: Model 1 (unilateral control) vs Model 2 (mutual learning)Agile Conversations (Jeffrey Fredrick and Douglas Squirrel)CitCon (conference for devs and testers before DevOps had a name)If you lead teams, facilitate tough discussions, or want to build a culture where people learn together rather than “win” arguments, this episode gives you a clear practice path.Find the summary, the transcripts and the references in the companion blog post: https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2024/06/30/exploring-agile-conversations-with-jeffrey-fredrick/

What happens to leadership when you can’t simply write a roadmap and “hand it to engineering”? In open source, influence replaces authority, and outcomes depend on communities, collaboration, and trust.In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I sit down with Maria Bracho, Chief Technology Officer for LATAM at Red Hat, to explore leadership through the lens of open source, global cultures, and building high-performing teams.Maria shares a memorable story from Japan (yes, ramen) to explain open source in a tangible way, then takes us inside what it means to lead across geographies, hire intentionally, and create momentum even when you don’t control all the variables.We also discuss Red Hat’s direction on AI, including RHEL AI and InstructLab, and what it means to approach AI the “Red Hat way” through openness and community.In this episode, we explore:A concrete, memorable explanation of open source (through the ramen industry)Why competitors collaborate on standards but still compete on differentiationLeading across cultures: US, Japan, LATAM (and how it shapes leadership)Taking on hard problems: persistence, learning, and influenceWhat product leadership looks like when communities choose what to buildMaria’s approach to recruitment and building cohesive teamsRed Hat’s AI direction: RHEL AI, InstructLab, and democratizing model tuningIf you lead in tech, build products with engineers, or want to understand open source as a leadership environment, this episode will give you practical shifts you can apply immediately.Find the transcript and the references in the companion blog post!

What does engineering leadership look like when your platform serves tens of millions of users and stores one of the largest content repositories on the web?In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I sit down with Tamar Bercovici, VP of Engineering at Box, to explore what it takes to lead engineering organizations at scale while navigating constant change.Tamar shares her journey from software engineer to executive leader, the challenges of transitioning from individual contributor to manager and then to organizational leadership, and how she approaches large-scale transformations such as infrastructure migrations and cloud adoption.We discuss how leaders create alignment without micromanaging, why clarity of purpose matters more than control, and how to manage risk in complex, high-stakes engineering environments.In this episode, we explore:Leading large-scale engineering platforms with lean teamsThe transition from IC to manager to organizational leaderAligning engineering work with business impactLeading through major infrastructure and organizational changeCreating clarity of goals so teams can make good local decisionsManaging risk through experimentation and early de-riskingInnovating with AI on top of large-scale content platformsThis conversation is essential listening for engineering leaders navigating growth, complexity, and continuous change.Find the transcript and more in the companion blog post:https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2024/05/03/engineering-leadership-at-scale-navigating-complexity-and-change-with-tamar-bercovici/

What does it really take to build and sustain excellence in engineering, especially inside a high-performance company?In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I sit down with Bruce Wang, Director of Engineering at Netflix and two-time founder, to explore leadership in tech through a simple but demanding philosophy: build trust, seek excellence, and drive customer delight.Bruce shares how leaders can balance these three pillars, why trust is the foundation for everything else, and what it looks like to scale leadership when you no longer manage individual contributors directly. We also unpack the less glamorous side of leadership: failure modes, shortcuts that break trust, and the humility required to rebuild.In this episode, we cover:The three pillars of Bruce’s leadership philosophy: trust, excellence, customer valueHow leaders lose trust by moving too fast, and how to repair itSetting vision before team structure: why “where we’re going” comes firstScaling leadership through managers, and learning to let go“People over process” and the real place of systems and lightweight structureLeadership as a “humble gardener”: cultivating conditions for growthLessons from Netflix’s shift to remote work during COVIDFind the transcript and the references in the companion blog post: https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2024/03/30/building-and-sustaining-excellence-with-bruce-wang-netflix/

What does it take to lead with outcomes without turning goals into top-down control?In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I sit down with Tim Beattie and Bella Bardswell, co-founders of Stellafai, to explore outcome-focused leadership, collaboration, and how teams can turn goals into a living way of working.We discuss why OKRs often fail in the real world (and what to do instead), how language shapes adoption (goals vs objectives, measures vs key results), and why collaboration in the room still matters. Tim and Bella also share how Stellafai uses AI as a team member that helps people think, align, and experiment, without replacing human conversations or coaching.In this episode, we cover:OKRs vs management-by-objectives: what creates resistance and how to fix itHow to make goals collaborative, measurable, and continuously used (not set-and-forget)Using impact mapping to create better outcomes and reduce wasted workAI that supports teams by nudging, suggesting, and accelerating alignmentBuilding inclusion from day one through practices that give everyone a voiceAdvice for emerging leaders: collaboration, prioritization, and making leadership enjoyableFind the transcript and the references in the companion blog post: https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2024/02/06/leading-with-outcomes-insights-from-stellafais-co-founders/

Michael Galloway has spent 20+ years building and leading cloud infrastructure and platform engineering teams across Yahoo, Netflix, and now HashiCorp. In this episode, we go beyond tools and buzzwords to unpack what modern infrastructure leadership really takes: understanding what sits beneath abstractions, setting the right defaults instead of hiding complexity, and building trust through predictable systems.We also dive into real change leadership stories: taking ownership during a workflow platform crisis, creating outcomes that matter (stability, scalability, confidence), and earning adoption by delivering early wins. Michael shares why “predictability beats velocity,” how to create urgency with a real cliff date, and what emerging leaders should focus on in their first 90 days.In this episode, you’ll learn:Why infrastructure platforms should enable “drill down” and operational ownershipHow to lead through incidents with clarity, accountability, and communicationPractical change management tactics for platform adoption at scaleHow to set outcomes, deliver early wins, and rebuild trust in internal platformsLeadership advice for platform and engineering managers: stakeholders, credibility, purposeFind the transcript and the references in the companion blog post: https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2024/01/24/navigating-the-evolution-of-cloud-infrastructure-insights-from-michael-galloway/

In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I talk with Ioanna Mantzouridou, Co-founder and CEO of Dextego, an AI-powered coaching platform designed to reduce top talent attrition through personalized leadership development.Ioanna shares her journey from HR and organizational psychology to building an AI coaching product that addresses one of today’s biggest leadership challenges: developing soft skills at scale, especially in remote and hybrid environments.We explore:Why traditional learning and leadership programs fail to develop real soft skillsHow AI can democratize access to coaching beyond the C-suiteWhat it means to lead an early-stage startup while balancing fundraising, sales, and visionWhy empathy, discipline, and continuous learning matter more than ever for leadersHow personalized development can dramatically improve top talent retentionThis conversation is for founders, leaders, HR and L&D professionals who want to understand how leadership development is evolving and what role AI can realistically play in building stronger, more human organizations.Find the transcript and more in the companion post.#LeadershipDevelopment #AI #EmergingLeaders #Podcast

In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I’m joined by Ali Schultz, co-founder of Reboot.io.Reboot has spent the last decade coaching CEOs and leadership teams with a simple belief: better humans make better leaders, and better leaders create more humane organizations. Ali shares what it took to build a brand bigger than its founders, why Reboot intentionally brings together coaches with different styles and lived experiences, and what “emerging leadership” looks like in the real world when self-doubt, responsibility, and relationships collide.We talk about the practices that support leaders over time, including journaling, reflection, and learning to slow down enough to make space for the humans in the room. We also explore what startups often get wrong when hiring, why not everyone needs to scale with a fast-growing organization, and why leadership development will need to become even more human in the coming years, AI included.Find the transcript and more in the companion blog post.

Remote work is often framed as a technology problem. Lisette Sutherland sees it differently: the hard part is remote collaboration, and the real challenges are human.In this episode, I’m joined by Lisette, founder of Collaboration Superpowers, host of the Collaboration Superpowers podcast, and author of Work Together Anywhere. We explore what remote work makes visible: personality clashes, misaligned expectations, communication overload, and the absence of clear team agreements.Lisette shares stories from her own experience, including how a team moved from private back-channeling to explicit conflict handling, why flat structures can make tension harder to resolve, and how a simple practice like Moving Motivators changed a working relationship by revealing what someone needed to feel connected.We also discuss what we can learn from WordPress eliminating email through documented decision trails, how a large German company runs hybrid PI planning sessions across three time zones, and why remote is often blamed for issues that existed long before remote.If you’re leading or working in a hybrid or remote environment, this conversation offers practical tools and a reminder: you can’t leave collaboration to chance. You need intention.Key takeaways you can reuseLisette focuses on remote collaboration, not remote work. The core value is freedom and possibility, not location.The toughest remote problems today are personality, conflict, and expectations, not tools.Team agreements are essential, yet most teams still don’t have them.Flat organizations can struggle in conflict because there is no decision owner, so facilitation and explicit conflict protocols become critical.You don’t need to be friends to work well together, but you do need professional trust and clarity.The biggest operational pain is communication overload (meetings, channels, email, constant input).WordPress offers a model: document decisions and reduce reinvention rather than drowning in messages.Hybrid PI planning across time zones can work when teams invest in rehearsals and shared tool fluency.Face-to-face is not mandatory, but it accelerates bonds and makes closeness easier to build.Remote work is often used as a scapegoat for poor management. Remote makes weak culture and weak leadership more visible.Intentional practices (icebreakers, virtual coworking, Pomodoro sessions) help teams create connection and focus.👉 Find the transcript and the references in the companion blog post!

In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I speak with Anne Caron, People Strategy consultant and former Google HR leader, about what it takes to build organizations that scale, without losing what makes them work.Anne draws on her decade at Google and her experience advising founders to explain why many startups wait too long to design the people side of the company. We explore her book From Zero to 1,000 and the five stages of startup growth: 0–30, 30–75, 75–200, 200–500, and 500–1,000 employees, using a child development analogy to show how each stage brings different challenges and requires different leadership moves.We talk about culture as something concrete, built on four pillars: purpose, mission, vision, and values, and why values must describe the real experience of working inside the company, not an aspirational poster. We also cover when to build an HR function, what profile to hire first, how candidate experience shapes employer brand, and why performance management should stay lean so it supports initiative rather than slowing it down.If you’re a founder or leader navigating growth, this conversation will help you anticipate what changes, and build the foundations early.Key takeaways you can reuseStartups face distinct growth stages: 0–30, 30–75, 75–200, 200–500, 500–1,000. Each stage needs different leadership and structures.Over-structuring too early reduces the startup’s main advantage: flexibility.Culture rests on four pillars: purpose, mission, vision, values. Values are about how work is really done.Founders shape most of the culture through actions, not slogans.Hire the people function earlier than you think, especially when hypergrowth is coming.A strong candidate experience is a competitive advantage and a key part of employer branding.Performance management should be lean and enable initiative, autonomy, and decision making.KPIs and OKRs are indicators, not tools for compensation decisions.Take time to think and address root causes, instead of creating processes for every problem.Find the transcript and the references in the companion blog post:https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2023/08/23/from-zero-to-1000-insights-from-anne-caron/

In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I sit down with Radhika Dutt, author of Radical Product Thinking: The New Mindset for Innovating Smarter. We explore why “iterate until something works” often becomes a trap, and what it takes to build products more deliberately.Radhika shares the idea of “product diseases”, from Hero Syndrome to obsessive sales disorder, and explains how Radical Product Thinking offers a more systematic way to innovate. We walk through the full framework: Product Vision, Strategy, Prioritization, Hypothesis Driven Execution and Measurement, and Culture.We also discuss how leaders can communicate tradeoffs at scale, avoid vision debt, and build a culture where innovation thrives through shared purpose, autonomy, and psychological safety. Radhika offers a memorable lens on culture using two dimensions: fulfilling versus non fulfilling, and urgent versus non urgent, with the goal of maximizing the time spent in meaningful, non urgent work.If you want to innovate smarter, reduce thrash, and create environments where people can do their best work, this conversation is for you.Iteration is not a strategy. A team usually can’t afford more than a few pivots before losing money or momentum.A product is a mechanism for creating a change, and it’s only successful if it creates that change.A strong product vision is not vague or grand. It is specific and answers who, what, why, when, and how.Strategy starts with real pain points, not imagined ones. A pain point is real only when it is verified and valued.Prioritization is leadership at scale: helping everyone understand tradeoffs without needing you in every meeting.Balance vision versus survival explicitly. Name vision debt when you take it on.Execution and measurement should test hypotheses derived from strategy, not incentivize metric gaming.Culture can be shaped like a product: reduce time in the “bad quadrants” and design for meaningful work.Key takeaways you can reuseFind the transcript and the references in the companion blog posts: https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2023/06/12/radical-product-thinking-a-conversation-with-radhika-dutt/