LevelUp Leadership

About LevelUp Leadership

Navigating the complexities of modern leadership in large organisations. An award winning podcast (2026 AVA Digital Media Awards). Join Author and Leadership Coach Lee Whitmore for actionable strategies on leading change, implementing AI, and managing team dynamics. Whether you are rewiring workflows or managing burnout, LevelUp provides the toolkit for senior leaders to drive performance without losing their balance.

Publisher

LevelUp Leadership

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

22 Jun 2025

Latest episode

10 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

69 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   10 Oct 2026

   Who Do Top Leaders Actually Admire?

   Learn how to overcome organisational change resistance and build high-performance teams that execute under pressure.Driving major organisational change often fails because executives ignore the daily frictions their teams face. In this episode, 14 experts break down the exact operational choices that separate high-performance cultures from dysfunctional ones. You will understand how to replace outdated performance appraisals with daily accountability, why you must study the worldview of those resisting change, and how to position your team for structural success. Stop forcing transformation through hierarchy and start building systems based on rigorous listening, clear boundaries, and decisive action.CHAPTERS00:00 How to overcome organisational change resistance01:52 Leading through radical business disruption03:19 Fixing culture to drive commercial performance04:19 Human-centred approaches to transformation06:33 Why annual performance appraisals fail07:44 Accountability and strategic implementation08:32 Studying the worldview of those resisting change10:04 Conflict resolution over grievance policies11:18 Investing in team potential and capability12:00 Influencing strategy through careful listening12:38 Structuring teams for collective success14:18 The operational value of measured leadership15:53 Building camaraderie during execution risk16:58 Everyday interactions that shape careers18:48 Creating one percent daily improvements20:13 Finding the space between stimulus and responseRESOURCES MENTIONEDNo Rules Rules: A framework for challenging traditional organisational policies and adapting culture.The TCM Group: An organisation focused on deploying resolution frameworks over standard grievance policies.Start With Why: Simon Sinek's foundational concept on purpose-driven strategic alignment.Man's Search for Meaning: Viktor Frankl's work on finding purpose and the space between stimulus and response.KEY TAKEAWAYS FOR LEADERSDemand insight over hierarchy; instruct your team that their primary job is to prevent catastrophic failure, not to appease you.Audit your change management strategy by first studying the exact words and values of those resisting the transition.Replace delayed annual performance reviews with immediate, daily accountability loops.Position talent based on strict operational strengths rather than forcing individuals to fit outdated structural archetypes.Implement a resolution framework to handle team conflict instead of defaulting to bureaucratic grievance policies.KEY TAKEAWAYS FOR COACHESAsk clients to identify where their current hierarchy is actively silencing better operational thinking.Challenge leaders to map out the exact cultural bottlenecks standing in the way of their team's performance.Use the space between stimulus and response framework to help executives manage decision fatigue and reactivity.Thank you for watching/ listening.#ad Editing my podcast used to be the most time-consuming part of my week. I now use Descript to edit my audio and video by simply deleting words from a transcript. It allows me to create my YouTube Shorts and TikTok clips in a fraction of the time.If you want to try it for your own projects, you can sign up here: https://get.descript.com/LevelUpUsing this link costs you nothing extra, but the small commission I receive helps support the work I do on my podcast and articles.Disclaimer.LevelUp and the podcast host do not endorse, verify, or take responsibility for any products, services, views, or claims presented by guests during podcast episodes. Any opinions or statements made by podcast guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of LevelUp or its representatives.© 2026 LevelUp.This episode is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International.To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

2. 

   26 Sept 2026

   Burnout Prevention for Leaders: Fixing Workload Design

   Discover how to stop burnout culture by treating human capacity as a finite strategic resource rather than an elastic buffer. Burnout is rising across sectors, yet many organisations still treat it as an individual wellbeing issue. Providing resilience workshops will not fix a system where demand consistently exceeds capacity. This episode unpacks why burnout is fundamentally a structural leadership problem driven by poor workload design and decision bottlenecks. You will understand why managing human capacity requires the same discipline as managing a budget. We examine how to push decision-making to the edges to give teams autonomy, and how to use AI to identify workload risks before they cause team collapse. CHAPTERS00:00 Why burnout is a leadership problem01:46 The failure of wellbeing programmes05:00 Treating capacity as a strategic resource06:36 Fixing decision bottlenecks07:54 Using AI to manage workload risk09:23 Spotting the early warning signals RESOURCES MENTIONED Glassdoor: Employee experience and burnout data patterns Enhanced Leadership: Host's writing on how environment shapes performance whitmorelee.com KEY TAKEAWAYS FOR LEADERS Treat human capacity as a finite resource rather than expecting teams to absorb endless demand. Stop offering wellbeing apps as a solution for structural workload problems. Push decision-making to the edges to give your team greater autonomy and reduce cognitive load. Model sustainable boundaries by protecting your own recovery time and logging off visibly. Evaluate AI tools for their ability to remove low-value work and highlight capacity risks. KEY TAKEAWAYS FOR COACHES Audit the client's decision load to identify where they are acting as a bottleneck. Ask: "Where is your organisation creating pressure by design rather than demand?" Help leaders map the informal signals they send to their teams about availability and constant connectivity. ATTRIBUTIONS AND END NOTES Thank you for watching/ listening. #ad Editing my podcast used to be the most time-consuming part of my week. I now use Descript to edit my audio and video by simply deleting words from a transcript. It allows me to create my YouTube Shorts and TikTok clips in a fraction of the time. If you want to try it for your own projects, you can sign up here: https://get.descript.com/LevelUp (https://get.descript.com/LevelUp) Using this link costs you nothing extra, but the small commission I receive helps support the work I do on my podcast and articles. Music & Image: attribution. Podcast Background Track: https://pixabay.com/users/poorartistt-45918667/ (https://pixabay.com/users/poorartistt-45918667/)Images: https://gemini.google/overview/image-generation/ (https://gemini.google/overview/image-generation/) & https://www.perplexity.ai/ (https://www.perplexity.ai/) Disclaimer. LevelUp and the podcast host do not endorse, verify, or take responsibility for any products, services, views, or claims presented by guests during podcast episodes. Any opinions or statements made by podcast guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of LevelUp or its representatives. © 2026 LevelUp. This episode is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International.To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

3. 

   12 Sept 2026

   How to Give Difficult Feedback & Lead Like A Coach

   Learn how to frame difficult feedback so it stops feeling like a conflict and starts driving high performance.Are you tired of feeling "stuck in motion" - busy all week but with nothing to show for it? Executive coach Nikki Goldman unpacks the hidden cost of avoiding hard conversations and how "conflict debt" drains team performance. She shares practical frameworks for reframing feedback, bridging generational communication gaps, and defining what "winning" actually looks like for busy leaders.We also explore why maintaining your calm is a leader's ultimate superpower, especially when guiding teams through AI adoption and rapid organisational change. Discover how to step out of the weeds, stop dropping the glass balls, and start leading with intention.CHAPTERS00:00 Description01:54 Nikki Goldman's Journey to Coaching06:05 Bridging Generational Communication Gaps08:52 The "Spinach in Your Teeth" Feedback Rule13:30 Why Coaching Needs 360-Degree Feedback16:47 The Danger of Being "Stuck in Motion"18:58 Defining Your Personal Win Conditions20:00 Preparing Teams for AI-Driven Change22:15 Why Calm is a Leader's Superpower24:39 Real-World Example: Employee-First LeadershipRESOURCES MENTIONEDRadical Candor by Kim Scott: A framework for delivering feedback that challenges directly while caring personally.IO Coaching: https://www.iocoaching.co/Nikki Goldman's newsletter with weekly insights on leadership and performance: https://www.iocoaching.co/KEY TAKEAWAYS FOR LEADERSTreat negative feedback like telling someone they have spinach in their teeth: do it quickly, directly, and kindly.Stop relying on external validation; define your own clear "win conditions" for the week.Map out the communication styles of your team to reduce friction and misalignment.Treat your composure as a tool: if you cannot regulate your own emotions, you cannot lead your team effectively.View AI adoption as a capability to build into your team's development path, not just a tool to use.KEY TAKEAWAYS FOR COACHESConduct interview-style 360 reviews to pull the thread on complex stakeholder dynamics.Push clients to track the difficult conversations they are having—or avoiding.Help clients distinguish between "glass balls" (critical tasks) and "plastic balls" (tasks that can bounce).Recognise that your role is a temporary thought partner, not a permanent fixture; prepare clients to eventually fly solo.GUEST BIOGRAPHYNikki Goldman is the founder of IO Coaching, a Miami-based executive coaching firm specialising in leadership development, communication, and high-performance team dynamics.Thank you for watching/ listening.#ad Editing my podcast used to be the most time-consuming part of my week. I now use Descript to edit my audio and video by simply deleting words from a transcript. It allows me to create my YouTube Shorts and TikTok clips in a fraction of the time.If you want to try it for your own projects, you can sign up here: https://get.descript.com/LevelUpUsing this link costs you nothing extra, but the small commission I receive helps support the work I do on my podcast and articles.Music & Image: attribution.Podcast Background Track: https://pixabay.com/users/poorartistt-45918667/Images: https://gemini.google/overview/image-generation/ & https://www.perplexity.ai/Disclaimer.LevelUp and the podcast host do not endorse, verify, or take responsibility for any products, services, views, or claims presented by guests during podcast episodes. Any opinions or statements made by podcast guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of LevelUp or its representatives.© 2026 LevelUp.This episode is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International.To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

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Spotify

5.0 / 5

6 ratings