Teamwork - A Better Way

Hosted by Spencer Horn and Christian Napier

Business EducationInterviews guests

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Episodes

193

Latest episode

Aug 2026

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EN-US

About the show

Hosts Spencer Horn and Christian Napier discuss a better way to build and strengthen teams in any organization.

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60 recent

August 17, 2026Episode 1921 hr 0 min

How to Scale Your Business Without Becoming the Bottleneck | Shelli Warren

Your revenue is growing. So is your workload. That's a warning sign, not success. Most owners hit a ceiling because the business can't move without them. Every decision escalates back to their desk. Shelli Warren, host of the Stacking Your Team podcast, joins Spencer Horn and Christian Napier to share how owner dependency forms, why unclear decision rights force everything upward, and a practical framework for building leaders who run daily operations so you can focus on growth. Transcript Shelli Warren LinkedIn

August 5, 2026Episode 19159 min

Willing to Act: Two Generations of Lifesavers on Teams That Don't Freeze

Most teams don't fail because they lack knowledge. They fail because nobody acts when it matters. Captain Brad Newbury has spent 40 years in firefighting and prehospital medicine studying the difference between people who freeze and people who move. As President and CEO of the National Medical Education & Training Center and author of The Saved Effect and The First Responder Advantage, he's trained thousands of lifesavers worldwide. Joining him is his daughter Kiera Newbury, an EMT carrying that mission into the next generation. In this episode, Brad and Kiera break down how high-stakes teams build the trust, clarity, and shared standards that make action automatic under pressure, and what it takes to pass a culture of readiness from one generation to the next. If your team hesitates, overthinks, or waits for permission, this conversation shows you what the best crews in the world do differently. Transcript Brad Newbury Facebook Brad Newbury Instagram Brad Newbury LinkedIn The Saved Effect TikTok Kiera Newbury LinkedIn Kiera Newbury Instagram Kiera Newbury Facebook

August 1, 2026Episode 19053 min

From Friction to Forward: Aligning People, Leadership, and AI

Many organizations invest in new technology but overlook the friction that's holding their teams back. In this episode of Teamwork: A Better Way , Spencer Horn and Christian Napier welcome leadership strategist and conflict resolution expert DaSjaun Rose. Together, they explore how leaders can reduce hidden conflict, align people and expectations, and leverage AI to improve communication, accountability, and execution. Discover why sustainable performance isn't just about better tools—it's about creating teams that work better together. Free Team Diagnostic Transcript

July 21, 2026Episode 1891 hr 7 min

The Missing 80%: Why Your Team Isn't the Problem

Most leaders try to fix their team by fixing the people in it. What if that's only 20% of the equation? Pollyanna Lenkic joins Spencer and Christian to make the case that up to 80% of team performance comes from how a team is designed and supported, not from individual coaching alone. As leaders navigate reorgs, AI rollouts, and endless development programs, Pollyanna argues most of them are missing the real lever: they were never trained to see or lead at the level of the system. Before your next big initiative, she offers one question worth asking first — are you strengthening the system your people work within, or just working on the people? Book Transcript Free Team Diagnostic

June 26, 2026Episode 18856 min

When Teams Resonate: The Energy Behind High Performance

What if the reason your team is underperforming has nothing to do with skills, strategy, or structure? What if it comes down to energy? Kristin Mackey is the creator of Frequency Matters, a research-backed framework that connects the science of resonance to how people communicate, collaborate, and show up as leaders. On this episode, she introduces a new lens on employee engagement: Manage Your Particles. Spencer and Christian sit down with Kristin to explore what conscious leadership actually looks like in practice, how your internal frequency broadcasts to your team whether you intend it to or not, and why alignment is not just a strategy conversation. It is a frequency conversation. If you lead people, this episode will change how you walk into a room. Transcript

June 15, 2026Episode 1871 hr 0 min

Train Your Mind or Lose Your Edge

Most leaders think mental toughness is a personality trait. Jeff Jones has spent 20 years proving it is a training system. As a performance coach and former collegiate football coach who has been part of BCS championship programs at Auburn, Boise State, Arkansas State, and Appalachian State, Jeff has seen firsthand what separates teams that perform under pressure from those that collapse. The difference is not talent. It is the quality of the mental reps they put in every single day. In this episode, Jeff walks Spencer and Christian through his 10-Rep Framework for building mental toughness, the same practical system he now teaches to athletes, coaches, and high-performing organizations. If you lead a team, you will leave this conversation with a clearer picture of what mental performance actually looks like in a team environment, and the first rep you can start training tomorrow. Transcript Book: The Intentional Edge coachjeffjones.com Instagram: coach_jeffjones

June 12, 2026Episode 1861 hr 2 min

Manage to Fail: What Great Leaders Never Do

What if the fastest way to build a high-performing team is to learn how leaders accidentally destroy trust? In this episode of Teamwork: A Better Way, Megan Petrini, CPTD, talent development expert, certified Trust at Work specialist, and author of Manage to Fail , shares why trust isn't a personality trait or a lucky byproduct of good culture. It's a skill. Drawing on nearly two decades of experience building teams and developing leaders, Megan reveals the behaviors that silently erode trust, the habits that strengthen it, and why high performance is always built on a foundation of psychological safety, credibility, and connection. If you've ever wondered why some teams thrive while others struggle despite having talented people, this conversation will give you practical tools to build, maintain, and repair trust where it matters most. Transcript

May 29, 2026Episode 18558 min

The Home CEO: Running Your Household Like a High-Performing Team

Most leaders spend years mastering team alignment, delegation, and strategic planning at work — then walk through the front door and operate their household on chaos, assumption, and invisible labor. Lisa Woodruff argues that household management is not housework — it is executive leadership, and most families are running without a strategy. And if you’ve ever felt like the work of running a home goes unrecognized — this episode names it, values it, and gives it the strategic weight it deserves. This episode gives leaders a framework for bringing their best leadership behaviors home — and explores why doing so makes them better at work. Transcript https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2w8BMBq25cswE7mVRX1bDA https://organize365.com/podcast-landing-page/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisawoodruff/ http://instagram.com/organize365

May 19, 2026Episode 1841 hr 0 min

When High Performers Break: The Science of Staying Steady

Why do highly capable people become inconsistent under pressure — even when they are talented, experienced, and motivated? Ricardo J. Vargas has spent three decades and peer-reviewed research answering that question. In this conversation, he unpacks the relationship between happiness, flow, and adaptive performance — and why the strategies leaders rely on in stable conditions often collapse when things get hard. If you lead people through uncertainty, change, or high-stakes decisions, this episode reframes what it actually takes to perform when conditions stop cooperating. This is not a conversation about motivation. It is a conversation about the human capacity to perform when conditions deteriorate. Transcript Website Ricardo J. Vargas Spencer Horn Christian Napier

May 15, 2026Episode 18352 min

Stop Relying on Superheroes: Build a Company That Scales

Most leaders think their biggest problem is hiring the right people. Bruce McLeod says the real problem is what happens after they arrive — and what quietly destroys them once they do. In this episode, Bruce shares the framework he developed after more than a decade watching rapid growth hollow out companies from the inside: burning out top talent, rewarding the wrong behaviors, and leaving entire teams operating without a shared understanding of what winning even looks like. If your company depends on one or two people to hold everything together, this conversation will challenge how you think about leadership, structure, and what it actually means to build something that lasts. Transcript Owner, Company Connections Author, The Healthy Company Framework Connect with me on LinkedIn