Leading in Change

In this episode of Leading in Change, Adrian Owen Jones and Devin Lemoine break down what team capacity building looks like in practice — and why most organizations wait until a crisis to start thinking about it. If you keep giving stretch assignments to the same people and watching your go-to person burn out, if you’ve lost a key role and realized your bench is thinner than you thought, or if you’re asking whether you need to hire more people or just develop what you already have better, this episode will give you a practical framework for assessing your team, developing overlooked talent, and building the kind of distributed leadership that holds up under change. Devin brings her experience working directly with organizations navigating high-growth and high-change environments, and she and Adrian walk through the capacity building matrix Success Labs uses with clients, the go-to person problem and what it costs over time, why your real succession risk lives in the middle of your org chart — not the top, and how delegation is one of the most underused development tools leaders have. 📥 Free Leadership Resources https://successlabs.com/resources🗺️ Get the Team Capacity Matrix:https://successlabs.myflodesk.com/capacity-matrix📩 Sign up for our newsletter: https://successlabs.com/newsletter✅ Follow Success Labs:https://www.instagram.com/success_labs https://www.tiktok.com/@successlabshqhttps://www.facebook.com/successlabs🎵 Music recorded at Otaku Sound. Musical composition by Matt Lowery. Executive producers, Olive Lowery and Caroline Lowery. Featuring James Tiberius Kirk Madison Monroe.RESOURCES & REFERENCES MENTIONEDTeam Capacity Building Matrix — a simple tool for mapping your team’s skills and capacity against your future strategy. Available in the show notes at https://successlabs.myflodesk.com/capacity-matrix

In this episode of Leading in Change, Adrian Owen Jones sits down with Devin Lemoine to zoom out from the individual leadership conversation and talk about what effective communication looks like at the organizational level — what senior leaders and CEOs need to do differently when everything around them is in flux. If you’re a senior leader navigating a major organizational change and wondering why your messaging isn’t landing, if you’ve been through a restructure, technology rollout, or strategy shift and watched your team disengage or your best people walk out the door, or if you want a practical framework for communicating change across a whole organization in a way that keeps people grounded and moving forward, this episode will give you a concrete framework for doing exactly that. Devin and Adrian cover why your best people leave first when change is handled poorly, why silence from leadership is never neutral, how to be transparent without causing panic, what to do when you don’t agree with the decision you’re being asked to implement, and the difference between communicating change and actually bringing people with you through it. This is Part 2 of a two-part series — Part 1 with Melissa covers the one-on-one communication skills every leader needs, and Part 2 goes to the organizational level.📥 Free Leadership Resources: https://successlabs.com/resources📋 Communicating in Change Checklist:https://successlabs.myflodesk.com/communicationinchangechecklist📩 Sign up for our newsletter: https://successlabs.com/newsletter✅ Follow Success Labs: https://www.instagram.com/success_labs https://www.tiktok.com/@successlabshq https://www.facebook.com/successlabs🎵 Music recorded at Otaku Sound. Musical composition by Matt Lowery. Executive producers, Olive Lowery and Caroline Lowery. Featuring James Tiberius Kirk Madison Monroe.RESOURCES & REFERENCES MENTIONEDTool — Communicating in Change Checklist Film reference — Invictus — the scene where the rugby captain says “We will do our best, that I can guarantee” and the team interprets it as pessimism; used to illustrate how leaders’ words are read differently than intendedConcept — Listen, Involve, Respond — Devin’s three-part framework for two-way communication during changeConcept — The happy warrior mentality — Adrian’s framing for staying energized and forward-facing through change even when it’s difficultConcept — Transparency and visibility — Devin’s two non-negotiables for senior leaders in changeConcept — Your mood is the weather of your organization — Adrian’s mentor’s quote; how leaders’ emotional state radiates into the teamEpisode reference — Communicating in Change, Part 1 (with Melissa Thompson) — covers individual/one-on-one communication skills

In this episode of Leading in Change, Adrian Owen Jones and Melissa Thompson break down what effective communication actually looks like when everything around you is changing — and why most leaders get it wrong at exactly the moment it matters most. If you're a manager who has to deliver hard news and doesn't know how to prepare for it, if your team seems anxious and disengaged during a period of organizational change and you're not sure what to say, or if you've been in a high-change environment and defaulted to either going silent or oversharing and watched it backfire, this episode will give you a practical framework for communicating with clarity, honesty, and composure under pressure. Melissa brings her PhD research from ICU communication — studying how physicians delivered end-of-life news to families — and translates those lessons directly into the leadership conversations you're having right now. They cover how to prep for hard conversations, what to do when someone cries or gets angry in the room, why under-sharing feels safe but creates the most damage, how to communicate a strategy change so your team actually gets on board, and the one question every leader should ask themselves before walking into a difficult conversation. If you want to communicate better when the stakes are highest, this is a must-watch.📥 Free Leadership Resourceshttps://successlabs.com/resources🗺️ Get the 90-Day New Leader Playbook:https://www.successlabs.com/90-day-playbook 📩 Sign up for our newsletter:https://successlabs.com/newsletter✅ Follow Success Labs:https://www.instagram.com/success_labshttps://www.tiktok.com/@successlabshqhttps://www.facebook.com/successlabsReferences & Resources mentioned:Celeste Headlee — "10 Ways to Have a Better Conversation"https://www.ted.com/talks/celeste_headlee_10_ways_to_have_a_better_conversationCommunication Matrix — from the 90-Day New Leader Playbook; helps leaders articulate how they communicate and how their team likes to be communicated with. Learn more at https:///www.successlabs.com/90-day-playbook🎵 Music recorded at Otaku Sound. Musical composition by Matt Lowery. Executive producers, Olive Lowery and Caroline Lowery. Featuring James Tiberius Kirk Madison Monroe.

In this episode of Leading in Change, Adrian Owen Jones and Melissa Thompson break down the 90-day playbook for new leaders — the exact framework, tools, and questions that Success Labs uses with clients to help new leaders get off on the right foot. If you're stepping into a new leadership role and don't want to be part of the 40 to 50% of leaders who fail within 18 months, if you're an HR leader trying to set up a new hire for success and tired of watching great people leave because they weren't supported early, or if you're already past your first 90 days and feel like you missed something, this episode will give you a practical roadmap you can start using today. Adrian and Melissa walk through all three phases — days one to 30 for listening and learning, days 30 to 60 for assessing and aligning, and days 60 to 90 for acting and building — along with every tool in the playbook: the 90-day snapshot, communication style guide, stakeholder mapping, listen and learn question bank, SWOT and SLEPT frameworks, quick wins framework, and PIE. If you want to make your first 90 days count, this is a must-watch.🗺️ Get the 90-Day New Leader Playbook:https://successlabs.com/90-day-playbook📥 Free Leadership Resources https://successlabs.com/resources📩 Sign up for our newsletter: https://successlabs.com/newsletter✅ Follow Success Labs: https://www.instagram.com/success_labs https://www.tiktok.com/@successlabshq https://www.facebook.com/successlabs🎵 Music recorded at Otaku Sound. Musical composition by Matt Lowery. Executive producers, Olive Lowery and Caroline Lowery. Featuring James Tiberius Kirk Madison Monroe.

In this episode of Leading in Change, Adrian Owen Jones and Melissa Thompson break down the most commonly used personality assessments for leadership development — and give you a practical framework for figuring out which one is actually right for your situation. If you've ever done a personality assessment with your team and watched the results collect dust on a shelf six months later, if you're trying to decide between tools like DISC, CliftonStrengths, MBTI, or Working Genius and don't know where to start, or if your team keeps clashing and you can't quite put your finger on why, this episode will give you the clarity to choose the right tool, use it the right way, and make the insights actually stick. Adrian and Melissa walk through six assessments — CliftonStrengths, Hogan, DISC, MBTI, Enneagram, and Working Genius — covering what each one is best for, what the research says about their validity, the one rule that applies to all of them, and what a genuinely good debrief looks like that turns a one-time session into real behavior change. If you want to understand your team better and actually lead more effectively as a result, this is a must-watch.📥 Personality Assessment Cheat Sheet: https://successlabs.myflodesk.com/personalityassessmentscheatsheet📩 Sign up for our newsletter: https://successlabs.com/newsletter✅ Follow Success Labs: https://www.instagram.com/success_labs https://www.tiktok.com/@successlabshqhttps://www.facebook.com/successlabs🎵 Music recorded at Otaku Sound. Musical composition by Matt Lowery. Executive producers, Olive Lowery and Caroline Lowery. Featuring James Tiberius Kirk Madison Monroe.