The Next Interview Show

Lisa A. Riegel joins the conversation to break down one of the biggest leadership challenges: why change doesn’t stick. Drawing on neuroscience and real-world leadership experience, she reveals what’s actually happening beneath the surface when teams resist—and how trust, clarity, and behavior shape performance. If you’re a leader trying to drive results without burning out your team, this episode gives you a new lens. This isn’t about pushing harder—it’s about leading smarter, understanding how the brain responds under pressure, and building systems that support real execution. Key Insights & Strategies: • Build trust through consistency—one broken signal starts erosion • Recognize fear triggers before they disrupt performance • Replace motivation tactics with systems that drive commitment • Lead behavior change by reducing cognitive overload Q&A • Why do teams resist change? → Because their brain perceives threat, not opportunity • How do leaders build trust fast? → Through reliability, clarity, and consistency • What breaks trust? → One repeated inconsistency Timestamps • 0:00 – Lisa’s journey • 18:00 – Brain science of fear • 30:00 – Trust breakdown • 40:00 – Leadership tools Follow, subscribe, and share if you’re committed to building empowered teams. Guest: Lisa A. Riegel Author: NeuroWell Website: https://www.epinstitute.net/ Host: The Next Interview is hosted by Doland White Lead With Confidence®: https://a.co/d/0hqSy7LA

Your teams have AI tools. Can they explain what they’re trying to accomplish together? In this solo episode of The Next Interview, executive coach and author Doland White explores the leadership work that connects AI strategy to everyday decisions, team priorities, and coordinated execution. An instruction to “go implement AI” leaves a lot for your Directors and VPs to interpret. Without a clear business purpose, departments can build separate initiatives that pull the organization in different directions. Doland explains how leaders create common meaning so people understand both the intended outcome and why their own contribution matters. If you’re a Director, VP, Founder, or CEO responsible for AI adoption, this conversation gives you a practical place to begin. It connects executive leadership with the conversations teams need before they can act confidently. You’ll also hear five reflection questions covering strategic intent, leadership sense making, common meaning, connection to work, and coordinated direction. You’ll learn how to: • Clarify what AI should accomplish and what progress would look like. • Translate executive intent into priorities your team can use. • Check understanding instead of assuming agreement means alignment. • Connect departmental initiatives, decisions, and process dependencies. • Make progress visible so people can see how their work contributes. Start with one question at your next team meeting: “What are we trying to accomplish with AI, and what does that change about your priorities?” Listen for different interpretations and use them to decide what needs clarification. Estimated chapters — verify against the final recording: 00:00 Why AI implementation requires leadership 02:15 The Director and VP translation challenge 04:20 Why AI needs a meaningful business purpose 05:35 How disconnected initiatives deepen silos 07:25 Define strategic intent and visible progress 10:05 Leadership sense making 11:40 Create common meaning 13:55 Connect AI to decisions and priorities 16:20 Coordinate direction across departments 18:40 Review your scores and choose one action Subscribe to The Next Interview for practical leadership coaching and conversations that help you empower your team and lead with confidence. Share this episode with a leader implementing AI, and comment: Where does your strategy lose clarity? Hosted by Doland White, executive coach, author of Lead With Confidence®, and The Empowerment Guy. Explore Doland’s work: dolandwhite.com Order Lead With Confidence®: https://a.co/d/0hqSy7LA Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dolandwhite/ Tags leadership development, executive leadership, leadership coaching, business leadership, leadership mindset, The Next Interview, Doland White, AI leadership, AI implementation, AI readiness, strategic alignment, leadership communication, common meaning, AI adoption, team alignment, executive coaching, decision making, coordinated action, Lead With Confidence, organizational culture Hashtags #LeadershipDevelopment #ExecutiveLeadership #LeadershipCoaching #BusinessLeadership #TheNextInterview

Your strategy may fail when an outdated identity builds it. Cassandra Shea, founder and Leadership Scaling Consultant at The Possibility Investor, explains why identity must come before strategy—and how that choice accelerates aligned growth. Directors, VPs, founders, and CEOs will connect Leadership Development, Executive Leadership, Leadership Coaching, Business Leadership, and Leadership Mindset to clearer decisions, communication, execution, Workplace Culture, Team Performance, and Accountability in the Workplace. • Future-cast your role before the plan. • Treat imposter syndrome as skill-gap data. • Test in short sprints; share the learning. Why identity first? It shapes what leaders see and choose. How can leaders make change practical? Test one future behavior and measure the signal. How do retrospectives build Leadership Trust? They make learning and commitments visible. 00:00 — Identity first | 13:30 — Imposter syndrome | 30:00 — Lead change | 54:30 — Learn and recalibrate Subscribe, follow, share, and comment with the identity your next season requires. Cassandra Shea — Founder, The Possibility Investor Website: possibilityinvestor.com LinkedIn: Cassandra Shea The Next Interview is hosted by Doland White, executive coach, author of Lead With Confidence®, and known as The Empowerment Guy. Each episode delivers practical insights, powerful stories, and bold conversations designed to help leaders empower their teams, accelerate growth, and lead with confidence. Visit dolandwhite.com/lwc and order your copy of Lead With Confidence® today.

The skills that made you successful can eventually make you the bottleneck. Entrepreneur, business coach, and Grow Smart author Mike DeJong joins Doland White to explore how Leadership Development turns individual capability into Leadership Trust, better Team Performance, and stronger accountability. If you're a Director, VP, Founder, or CEO who still owns too many decisions, this conversation challenges your Leadership Mindset. Executive Leadership isn't about remaining indispensable—it's about developing people capable of leading. • Identify whether you're operating as a Hunter, Architect, or GSD—and what capabilities your team needs around you. • Use clear guardrails to expand autonomy without abandoning Accountability in the Workplace. • Transfer small decisions first and expand authority as competence grows. • Hire people capable of becoming better than you at work you shouldn't continue owning. How do leaders stop being bottlenecks? Build people and systems that can make decisions without constant escalation. How do you improve Workplace Culture? Pair autonomy with clarity, coaching, and accountability. 00:00 Mike's leadership journey
 13:30 Becoming the bottleneck
 17:30 Three leadership styles
 29:30 Building leaders through guardrails Subscribe, follow, share, and comment for more Leadership Coaching and Business Leadership conversations. Mike DeJong — Entrepreneur, Business Coach & Author of Grow Smart: Your Path to Transformation
 Website: https://mikedejong.com/
 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikedejongspeaker/ The Next Interview is hosted by Doland White, executive coach, author of Lead With Confidence®, and known as The Empowerment Guy. Each episode delivers practical insights, powerful stories, and bold conversations designed to help leaders empower their teams, accelerate growth, and lead with confidence. Visit: https://www.dolandwhite.com/lwc and order your copy of Lead With Confidence® today.

Putting people first doesn't mean lowering the bar. It may actually be one of the smartest ways to raise it. David Guttman is a serial entrepreneur, investor, and CEO mentor with more than 30 years of experience and multiple eight- and nine-figure business exits. In this episode of The Next Interview, David joins Doland White to challenge a common misconception about servant leadership: caring about people doesn't mean avoiding accountability. Their conversation explores Leadership Development, Executive Leadership, Leadership Coaching, Business Leadership, and the Leadership Mindset required to build Leadership Trust without sacrificing performance. They unpack how transparency strengthens Workplace Culture, why autonomy requires responsibility, and how better communication improves Team Performance and Accountability in the Workplace. If you're a Director, VP, Founder, or CEO trying to empower people while maintaining high standards, this episode is for you. • Give people context and ownership—not simply instructions. • Hire for curiosity and humility, not skills alone. • Practice strong opinions, loosely held. • Make accountability continuous so difficult conversations are never a surprise. Q: Does servant leadership mean being soft? No—strong servant leaders combine genuine care with clear expectations. Q: How do leaders build trust? Give people information, autonomy, and responsibility. Q: What strengthens accountability? Consistent, candid feedback before performance becomes a crisis. 00:00 David's journey and facing mortality 15:00 What servant leadership really means 24:00 Transparency, ownership, and trust 38:00 Accountability and difficult conversations Subscribe, follow, share, and comment with the leadership lesson you're putting into action. Guest: David Guttman — Serial Entrepreneur, Investor & CEO Mentor Website: https://www.guttmanmedia.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drguttman YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RealDaveGuttman The Next Interview is hosted by Doland White, executive coach, author of Lead With Confidence®, and known as The Empowerment Guy. Each episode delivers practical insights, powerful stories, and bold conversations designed to help leaders empower their teams, accelerate growth, and lead with confidence. Visit: https://www.dolandwhite.com/lwc and order your copy of Lead With Confidence® today.