Got Your SiX with Dr. Traci Eisenberg-Rayburn

About Got Your SiX with Dr. Traci Eisenberg-Rayburn

Are you leading from Strategic Altitude, or have you become the "designated shock absorber" for everyone else's chaos? Welcome to Got Your Six, the podcast for senior leaders and business owners who are tired of carrying the weight of the "cape" alone. Hosted by Dr. Traci Eisenberg-Rayburn, a retired Army Officer and high-level Leadership Consultant, this show provides a tactical intervention for those who have the title but are operating in survival mode. We move beyond "fluffy" leadership theory to deliver battle-tested strategies that work in the real world... from the commander’s table to the kitchen table. Whether you’re navigating high-stakes business pivots, managing organizational culture, or trying to reclaim your presence at home, Dr. Traci offers the "Operational Blueprint" you need to lead with sustainable clarity. Because leadership is not forged in comfort - it is forged in responsibility, awareness, and follow-through. Press play to stop "powering through" and start leading from a place of regulated, unshakeable confidence. And remember, we've got your six!

Publisher

Dr. Traci Eisenberg-Rayburn

Category

business · business · education

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

2 Mar 2026

Latest episode

13 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

41 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   13 Oct 2026

   Authentic Leadership: Why Real Beats Polished Every Time | Toni Will

   Authentic leadership does not mean falling apart in front of your people. It means you stop pretending the hard call was easy to make. If you have ever made a decision with half the information, walked out of the room looking calm, and then sat in your car for 10 minutes before driving home, you know the gap between real and polished. Everyone tells you to be authentic. Nobody shows you how when the whole room is watching your face. ➡️ Bring one thing you took from this episode to a free 20 minute collaborative call with Dr. Traci, and her book Inside Out Leadership: Transforming Your Life from the Core, plus the companion workbook, are yours at no cost: https://drtraci.erbusinessconsulting.com/mission-check-in-call (https://drtraci.erbusinessconsulting.com/mission-check-in-call) On this episode of Got Your SiX, Dr. Traci Eisenberg-Rayburn, Retired U.S. Army Officer, leadership consultant, and creator of the Battle-Tested Leadership Methodology™, sits down with Toni Will, General Manager and Governor of the Kalamazoo Wings and the first woman to hold that role in team history. Toni also hosts the Women In podcast, is a TEDx speaker and two-time IRONMAN, and wrote Rebellious Success: Six Truths to Release Perceived Weaknesses and Become Unstoppable. You hear how Toni led through a player strike and an arena move, why she called out a fan who attacked her personal pages, and why a leader who announces psychological safety probably has not built it. Dr. Traci shares the colonel who told her she never had to dim her light. Be real. Own the call. Stay with it. In this episode, you’ll discover: What authentic leadership really means: being real does not mean falling apart in front of your team, it means refusing to pretend a hard call was easy when it was not. Why Toni Will shows up as the same person in front of 1,000 people, 10 people, or at the grocery store, and why calculated, over-polished leaders lose trust. How to respond when you are told “It’s okay to speak up, just not too loudly,” and the colonel’s advice that taught Dr. Traci you never have to dim your light to be heard. Why psychological safety at work cannot be announced by a leader, and how Toni keeps her team through a player strike and an arena move by letting them bring her the hard days. How to lead people through change they did not ask for: find an expert, put skin in the game, and accept that real, sustainable change takes longer than you want. The rebel mindset behind Rebellious Success, and why setbacks, messy moments, and perceived weaknesses do not cancel out your success or define who you are as a leader. One authentic leadership move to make today: Toni’s “just be you” awareness challenge, plus why she tells leaders to read one book when so few leaders actually do. We talk about: 00:00 What authentic leadership really means 02:41 Meet Toni Will, first woman GM of the Kalamazoo Wings 05:23 Why perceived weaknesses can be strengths 10:05 What does being real as a leader look like? 14:41 When a fan went after her personal pages 17:38 You don’t need to dim your light 21:56 Lift each other up, get mad at time 25:05 How do you lead people through change? 29:33 Why psychological safety cannot be announced 32:41 The rebel mindset behind Rebellious Success 36:30 What do you give up to lead at this level? 41:28 Just be you: one move to make today Connect with Toni Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tonilentini (https://www.facebook.com/tonilentini) Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imtoniwill/ (https://www.instagram.com/imtoniwill/) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonildaniels/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonildaniels/) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ToniWill (https://www.youtube.com/@ToniWill) Website: https://www.toniwill.com/ (https://www.toniwill.com/) Website: https://kwings.com/ (https://kwings.com/) Connect with me Leadership Call: https://www.erbusinessconsulting.com/coaching/ (https://www.erbusinessconsulting.com/coaching/) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-traci-55410868/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-traci-55410868/) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrTraciER/ (https://www.facebook.com/DrTraciER/) Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drtraci_battletested/ (https://www.instagram.com/drtraci_battletested/) Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gotyoursixpodcast/ (https://www.instagram.com/gotyoursixpodcast/) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@erbusinessconsulting (https://www.youtube.com/@erbusinessconsulting) Website: https://www.erbusinessconsulting.com/ (https://www.erbusinessconsulting.com/) Email: info@erbusinessconsulting.com (mailto:info@erbusinessconsulting.com) #Leadership #AuthenticLeadership #RealLeadership #LeadingUnderPressure #HardDecisions #PsychologicalSafety #LeadingThroughChange #WomenInLeadership #WomenInSports #WomenInHockey #LeadershipDevelopment #BusinessOwner #ValuesBasedLeadership #MilitaryLeadership #LeadershipPodcast #ComposedOperator #BattleTestedLeadership #GotYourSiX

2. 

   6 Oct 2026

   Command or Convene? How to Lead the Moment You Are In | Jeanine Becker

   Command and control leadership is the instinct to make every call yourself, and it is usually what got you promoted in the first place. Then one day it becomes the reason nothing moves without you. If you are a business owner, a senior manager, or a leader at any level, you know the trap. First sentence: "I am the bottleneck." Second sentence: "But if I don't make the call, it won't get made right." Both can be true. The question was never whether you are a good leader. The question is which leader this exact moment needs. ➡️ Bring one thing you took from this episode to a free 20 minute collaborative call with Dr. Traci, and her book Inside Out Leadership: Transforming Your Life from the Core, plus the companion workbook, are yours at no cost: https://drtraci.erbusinessconsulting.com/mission-check-in-call (https://drtraci.erbusinessconsulting.com/mission-check-in-call) On this episode of Got Your SiX, Dr. Traci Eisenberg-Rayburn, Retired U.S. Army Officer, leadership consultant, and creator of the Battle-Tested Leadership Methodology™, sits down with Jeanine Becker, founder and CEO of On Purpose Together, former corporate attorney, and a negotiation and collaboration instructor at Stanford for a decade. They do not agree on everything, and that is the point. You walk away with Jeanine's three pillars of collaborative leadership, a decision-making matrix that tells you when to tell, test, consult, or co-create, and the story of a foundation leader who moved $3.5 million instead of $1 million by changing how she saw her role. Command when it matters. Convene when it counts. Know the difference before the moment decides for you. In this episode, you’ll discover: When command and control leadership works and when it fails: simple or complicated problems call for a decisive call, while complex problems with no single right answer demand input from others. The three pillars of collaborative leadership Jeanine Becker taught at Stanford: agency (knowing what you want and saying it), curiosity about what others bring, and the ability to sit in the unknown. How to stop being the bottleneck as a leader by choosing one lever, owning it up and out, and giving your team the freedom to experiment on how to move it. Why your meetings should be a series of questions instead of report-outs, and what a four-star general taught Dr. Traci about the cost of reading slides to a senior leader. Who owns the outcome when the team owns the decision: the leader owns the lever and the direction, while the team owns the experiments, the results, and the failures. Why leaders promoted for having the answers feel like imposters once they lead areas outside their expertise, and how inviting questions replaces the need to know everything. How autonomy, belonging, and competence build internal motivation that outlasts "because I said so," and why command and control leadership alone cannot create it. We talk about: 00:00 Are you the bottleneck in your business? 02:15 Leading without rank or title 06:47 When the board overruled her legal advice 09:00 The Disneyland lesson on command versus curiosity 15:10 Why a four-star general stopped a slide briefing 16:34 The identity shift from expert to leader 18:14 Three pillars of collaborative leadership 19:46 How a $1M grant plan became $3.5M 27:09 Choose one lever, then get out of the way 33:53 Who owns the outcome when the team decides? 38:05 Command and control leadership or convening 40:48 Tell, test, consult, or co-create decision matrix Connect with Jeanine Discover your style of engaging difference + the Decision Making Matrix: www.onpurposetogether.com/grow (http://www.onpurposetogether.com/grow) Collective Counsel: www.onpurposetogether.com/collective-counsel (http://www.onpurposetogether.com/collective-counsel) Website: www.onpurposetogether.com (http://www.onpurposetogether.com/) LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/beckerjeanine (http://www.linkedin.com/in/beckerjeanine) Connect with me Leadership Call: https://www.erbusinessconsulting.com/coaching/ (https://www.erbusinessconsulting.com/coaching/) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-traci-55410868/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-traci-55410868/) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrTraciER/ (https://www.facebook.com/DrTraciER/) Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drtraci_battletested/ (https://www.instagram.com/drtraci_battletested/) Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gotyoursixpodcast/ (https://www.instagram.com/gotyoursixpodcast/) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@erbusinessconsulting (https://www.youtube.com/@erbusinessconsulting) Website: https://www.erbusinessconsulting.com/ (https://www.erbusinessconsulting.com/) Email: info@erbusinessconsulting.com (mailto:info@erbusinessconsulting.com) #Leadership #CommandAndControl #CollaborativeLeadership #DecisionMaking #LeadershipDevelopment #BusinessOwner #ExecutiveLeadership #Delegation #TeamOwnership #Accountability #MilitaryLeadership #VeteranLeadership #LeadingTeams #LeadershipPodcast #ComposedOperator #BattleTestedLeadership #GotYourSiX

3. 

   22 Sept 2026

   Your Leadership Style Is Shaping Your Leadership Traits | Dr. Traci Eisenberg-Rayburn

   Leadership style vs leadership traits is the distinction most leaders skip, and it is the reason a strong trait can still produce the wrong result. Your traits never reach your team directly. They travel through your leadership style first, and that style decides how much of what you intended actually lands. If your decisiveness has started to feel like control, or your collaboration has quietly turned into paralysis, the trait is probably not the problem. The way it is being expressed is. Across autocratic, democratic, transactional, transformational, and laissez-faire leadership, the same strength shows up as either an asset or a liability depending entirely on the style carrying it. Retired U.S. Army officer and Got Your SiX host Dr. Traci Eisenberg-Rayburn walks through all five styles from her book, Inside Out Leadership: Transforming Your Life from the Core, using Patton, Eisenhower, Alfred Sloan, Nelson Mandela, Howard Schultz, and a pointed comparison between Warren Buffett and Ken Lay to show exactly where each style earns its keep and exactly where it collapses. You will leave with three questions to identify the leadership style you default to under pressure, the trait it is quietly costing you, and the style your team may need from you that you have been avoiding. Lead with clarity. Lead with courage. Dr. Traci has got your six. In this episode, you’ll discover: Why the same leadership trait, like confidence or accountability, changes meaning entirely depending on the leadership style carrying it, and why adding more traits never fixes a style problem. How autocratic leadership earns its place in a crisis the way General Patton used it, and the exact point where that same decisiveness turns into control. Why democratic leadership still needs a boundary, using General Eisenhower's D-Day decision as proof that real collaboration still ends in one clear call. What happened inside General Motors when Alfred Sloan's transactional leadership traded long-term commitment for measurable performance, and what that trade actually costs. Why transformational leaders like Nelson Mandela and Howard Schultz become the single point of failure the moment their vision never gets built into a lasting system. What Warren Buffett and Ken Lay's nearly identical hiring philosophy reveals about the real difference between healthy autonomy and abandonment, and why only one of those companies still exists. The three questions Dr. Traci wants every leader to ask under pressure to name their default leadership style, the trait it is overusing, and the style their team actually needs from them. We talk about: 00:00 Why the same leadership trait can create the wrong impact 01:29 Meet Dr. Traci and the Got Your SiX mission 02:49 Leadership traits are not the same as leadership styles 09:07 Autocratic leadership and the Patton decision that ended a career 12:52 What is your team's buy-in actually worth 15:22 Transactional leadership and the General Motors reputation problem 18:52 When inspiration turns into exhaustion 21:27 Mandela, Schultz, and what happens when vision has no system 25:47 Buffett, Ken Lay, and the leadership style everyone misreads 29:32 How does confidence change depending on your leadership style 35:38 Three questions to find your default leadership style 38:41 How to get the free Inside Out Leadership book and workbook Resources: Bring one thing you took from this episode to a free 20 minute collaborative call with Dr. Traci, and her book Inside Out Leadership: Transforming Your Life from the Core, plus the companion workbook, are yours at no cost: https://drtraci.erbusinessconsulting.com/mission-check-in-call (https://drtraci.erbusinessconsulting.com/mission-check-in-call) Connect with me Leadership Call: https://www.erbusinessconsulting.com/coaching/ (https://www.erbusinessconsulting.com/coaching/) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-traci-55410868/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-traci-55410868/) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrTraciER/ (https://www.facebook.com/DrTraciER/) Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drtraci_battletested/ (https://www.instagram.com/drtraci_battletested/) Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gotyoursixpodcast/ (https://www.instagram.com/gotyoursixpodcast/) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@erbusinessconsulting (https://www.youtube.com/@erbusinessconsulting) Website: https://www.erbusinessconsulting.com/ (https://www.erbusinessconsulting.com/) Email: info@erbusinessconsulting.com (mailto:info@erbusinessconsulting.com) #LeadershipStyles #LeadershipTraits #BattleTestedLeadership #GotYourSiX #ComposedOperator #LeadershipDevelopment #MilitaryLeadership #SituationalLeadership #SelfAwareLeadership #AutocraticLeadership #DemocraticLeadership #TransformationalLeadership #TransactionalLeadership #LaissezFaireLeadership #InsideOutLeadership #LeadershipUnderPressure #ExecutiveLeadership #WomenInLeadership #VeteranLeadership #LeadershipPodcast

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

15 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

2 ratings