The Hard Skills

Hosted by Dr. Mira Brancu

BusinessInterviews guests

Episodes

Language

EN-US

About the show

Welcome to “The Hard Skills” podcast, a practical and research-driven show that explores the core leadership skills needed to fuel leadership to activate real change, such as creating inclusive and healthy workplaces. Through expert interviews and live coaching calls, we challenge the notion of "soft skills," question long-held but inaccurate leadership development beliefs, and offer real, practical solutions for complex leadership challenges. Hosted by Dr. Mira Brancu, a clinical and organizational development psychologist with extensive leadership experience, we’ll delve into topics of leadership identity, leading with uncertainty, navigating workplace politics, and creating critical organizational change. This podcast will especially appeal to high-achieving leaders in healthcare, tech, and academic, industries. Whether you're seeking personal growth, looking to enhance your leadership abilities, or interested in Dr. Brancu's coaching services and membership community, join us as we unravel the complexities of leadership and inspire you to embrace the hard skills.

Listen to episodes

60 recent

52 min

How to Network Without Feeling Fake or Transactional, with Becky Brown

How to network without feeling fake? Professional networking and LinkedIn networking start with relationships you build before you need help. On The Hard Skills, Dr. Mira talks with Becky Brown about building a network that supports your career through change. Becky shares how her experiences with layoffs changed her approach to relationships, why she began connecting beyond her immediate team, and how a growth mindset helped her pursue a new role. They explore ways to meet people through community groups, offer small acts of support, and stay in touch without making every conversation an ask. You will hear how to reconnect after a long silence, follow up after an event, and turn thoughtful LinkedIn comments into meaningful conversations. Becky also explains how to bring online connections into coffee chats and keep those relationships going afterward. For leaders and professionals who find networking uncomfortable, this conversation offers practical ways to make it a regular habit. The focus stays on clear goals, genuine curiosity, and helping others while building trust over time. Subscribe for weekly conversations on leadership, workplace relationships, and career resilience. Find our guest here: Connect with Becky Brown: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bebr/ To find more of my work: Subscribe to this channel Newsletter: mailchi.mp/2079c04f4d44/subscribe Book a consultation: calendly.com/mira-brancu/30-minute-initial-consultation LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/MiraBrancu Website: www.gotowerscope.com Books: gotowerscope.com/books Join the next leadership training cohort: https://gotowerscope.com/fellowship Free Resources: Strategic Clarity and Leadership Resilience assessment: https://mailchi.mp/e1ebf8505764/slr-assessment Burnout Root Cause Assessment: https://mailchi.mp/29d7d18fae4a/burnout-root-cause-assessment Workplace Grief Guide: https://mailchi.mp/46873b910380/workplace-grief-field-guide Watch this full Episode on Youtube : https://youtu.be/RxPSNYC47fQ #thehardskills #mirabrancu #selfawareness #leadershipdevelopment #emotionalintelligence #executivecoaching

58 min

Leadership Lessons From a Pop Culture Convention, with Brandon Peters

What can a pop culture convention teach you about workplace culture and leadership? More than you think. Brandon Peters shares the leadership lessons behind building a stage people line up for. Brandon runs the live podcast stage at Indy PopCon, a locally owned pop culture convention in Indianapolis that runs on volunteers. It took him years of trial and error to turn a lonely table in a loud food court into a stage with a waitlist. In this conversation with Dr. Mira Brancu, he talks about what actually made the difference. You'll hear how the PopCon team keeps volunteers happy without micromanaging them, why "if my people are happy, everyone is happy" is more than a nice saying, and how they bring in new audiences without pushing out the regulars. Brandon also shares what happened when a two-night stadium concert crowd clashed with convention guests, and Mira explains why leaders who go quiet during a crisis only make it worse. If you lead a team, a community, or anything built on passion, this one is for you. Subscribe for weekly conversations on leadership, workplace culture, and building healthier organizations. Find our guest here: Connect with Brandon Peters: https://popcon.us/popcon-indy/ https://thebrandonpetersshow.com/ https://popcon.us/creator-summit/ To find more of my work: Subscribe to this channel Newsletter: mailchi.mp/2079c04f4d44/subscribe Book a consultation: calendly.com/mira-brancu/30-minute-initial-consultation LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/MiraBrancu Website: www.gotowerscope.com Books: gotowerscope.com/books Join the next leadership training cohort: https://gotowerscope.com/fellowship Free Resources: Strategic Clarity and Leadership Resilience assessment: https://mailchi.mp/e1ebf8505764/slr-assessment Burnout Root Cause Assessment: https://mailchi.mp/29d7d18fae4a/burnout-root-cause-assessment Workplace Grief Guide: https://mailchi.mp/46873b910380/workplace-grief-field-guide Watch this Episode on Youtube : https://youtu.be/SeIiDKi4Aok

1 hr 13 min

13 Leadership Mistakes That Are Easy to Overlook

Is your team difficult, or are you misreading the signals? Build leadership skills by looking beneath workplace burnout and micromanagement. In this Season 12 compilation of The Hard Skills, Dr. Mira revisits 13 common leadership misinterpretations through guest conversations and solo episode highlights. Discover why incivility can signal exhaustion or organizational grief, why burnout requires more than resilience, and how a leader's self-talk shapes the emotional climate of a team. For technical experts moving into leadership, the conversation explores why expertise, accuracy, and high standards need new skills in relationships, prioritization, and influence. You'll also hear why productive friction matters, how to coach high performers through a new learning curve, and why generational labels can obscure individual differences. Other highlights connect compassion with accountability, explain when empowerment can feel like abandonment, and reframe managing up as joining up. The central invitation is to pause before judging behavior, examine the pressures beneath it, and choose a response that addresses the individual, team, organization, or wider system. Subscribe for weekly conversations on leadership, workplace wellbeing, and the human realities of work. Watch this Episode on Youtube : https://youtu.be/H5I4kVpxeI8 Find our guests here: Dr. John O'Brien : https://youtu.be/t9-osoC_qgg Dr. Dana Gionta : https://stream.redcircle.com/episodes/4edaec00-83ac-4cb8-a043-7791d50ae282/stream.mp3 Jamie Ramsden and Dr. Suzie Burke: https://youtu.be/bDSp1vmwQS8 Ross Blankenship and Maggie Sass : https://youtu.be/MNGdGGJ8dHo Dr. Ryne Sherman : https://youtu.be/P-IoU4aIe_U James Dismond : https://youtu.be/2PiCI1KRX0U Dr. Sam Shriver and Suzie Bishop : https://youtu.be/5sJAe6E-fA0 Emily Ambrose : https://youtu.be/dYW5otMRrDA To find more of my work: Subscribe to this channel Newsletter: mailchi.mp/2079c04f4d44/subscribe Book a consultation: calendly.com/mira-brancu/30-minute-initial-consultation LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/MiraBrancu Website: www.gotowerscope.com Books: gotowerscope.com/books Join the next leadership training cohort: https://gotowerscope.com/fellowship Free Resources: Strategic Clarity and Leadership Resilience assessment: https://mailchi.mp/e1ebf8505764/slr-assessment Burnout Root Cause Assessment: https://mailchi.mp/29d7d18fae4a/burnout-root-cause-assessment Workplace Grief Guide: https://mailchi.mp/46873b910380/workplace-grief-field-guide #thehardskills #mirabrancu #selfawareness #leadershipdevelopment #emotionalintelligence #executivecoaching

14 min

6 Reasons Bosses Micromanage (And How to Deal With It)

Dealing with a micromanaging boss, or worried you're the one who can't stop micromanaging? The fix depends on why it's happening, and there's more than one reason. Micromanaging isn't the same as a healthy progress check-in. It's when the review gets so detailed that people stop owning their work and start wondering why they should even try. In this solo episode of The Hard Skills, Dr. Mira Brancu, a clinical psychologist turned executive advisor, walks through six reasons people micromanage: anxiety, skill gaps, trust problems, organizational pressure, personality, and misreading what engaged leadership looks like. She also gets honest about being on both sides of the trust problem, and how pushing harder can make someone share even less. Once you can name the real reason behind it, you'll know how to respond. That might mean offering to take more off your boss's plate, setting up steady check-ins, or getting support for your own anxiety, trust, or skill gaps as a leader. Watch this Episode on Youtube - https://youtu.be/Zdw24T4XRvA Subscribe for weekly conversations on leadership, workplace politics, and the human side of leading. To find more of my work: Subscribe to this channel Newsletter: mailchi.mp/2079c04f4d44/subscribe Book a consultation: calendly.com/mira-brancu/30-minute-initial-consultation LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/MiraBrancu Website: www.gotowerscope.com Books: gotowerscope.com/books Join the next leadership training cohort: https://gotowerscope.com/fellowship Free Resources: Strategic Clarity and Leadership Resilience assessment: https://mailchi.mp/e1ebf8505764/slr-assessment Burnout Root Cause Assessment: https://mailchi.mp/29d7d18fae4a/burnout-root-cause-assessment Workplace Grief Guide: https://mailchi.mp/46873b910380/workplace-grief-field-guide Episodes and other resources referenced: https://youtu.be/QUeBQe8QLp8

1 hr 0 min

The Unseen Iceberg Under Every Difficult Employee, with Emily Ambrose

Your team is grieving, even when nobody says it out loud. Dr. Mira Brancu talks with HR leader and coach Emily Ambrose about the organizational grief behind burnout and quiet quitting. Most leaders learn to push past the hard stuff. A retirement gets a quick mention, a reorg gets a memo, and everyone moves on before anyone actually feels what changed. Emily Ambrose has spent 20 years inside organizations watching what happens when that grief never gets named, and it usually shows up later as burnout, disengagement, or good people quietly leaving. In this conversation, Emily and Mira walk through what it actually looks like to acknowledge loss at work, from a two-second check-in that changed how one employee showed up for months, to the SCARF model that explains why even small changes can feel like a threat. You will also hear how stay interviews work, why ambiguous grief shows up in things like remote work and pregnancy, and what to say when you do not have all the answers but still need to lead. Subscribe for weekly conversations on leadership, burnout, and mental health at work. Find our guest here: https://emilyambrose.com/ https://shape.colostate.edu/ Watch this video on youtube - https://youtu.be/dYW5otMRrDA Newsletter: mailchi.mp/2079c04f4d44/subscribe Book a consultation: calendly.com/mira-brancu/30-minute-initial-consultation LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/MiraBrancu Website: www.gotowerscope.com Books: gotowerscope.com/books Join the next leadership training cohort: https://gotowerscope.com/fellowship Free Resources: Strategic Clarity and Leadership Resilience assessment: https://mailchi.mp/e1ebf8505764/slr-assessment Burnout Root Cause Assessment: https://mailchi.mp/29d7d18fae4a/burnout-root-cause-assessment Workplace Grief Guide: https://mailchi.mp/46873b910380/workplace-grief-field-guide

11 min

Why We Should Retire "Managing Up" (and What To Do Instead)?

Managing up is broken advice. Dr. Mira Brancu breaks down the leadership skill that actually builds trust with your boss, and it isn't managing anyone at all. Most advice about "managing up" treats your boss like a problem to handle. Dr. Mira Brancu, a clinical psychologist turned executive advisor, thinks that framing is backwards, and she has the story to prove it. In this episode she breaks down what one exceptional research coordinator did differently that made her impossible to replace, then walks through the two part shift from managing up to joining up: empathizing with what your leader is actually carrying, then bringing value only you can offer. You will learn how to spot blind spots before they blindside your team, how to read whether a leader is defensive, overwhelmed, or just wired differently, and why the same message can land completely differently depending on how you deliver it. If your relationship with your leader has felt more transactional than collaborative, this reframe will change how you show up. Subscribe for weekly conversations on leadership, burnout, and the human side of work. Watch this video on youtube - https://youtu.be/1lND5f_Bd3Q To find more of my work: Subscribe to this Podcast Newsletter: mailchi.mp/2079c04f4d44/subscribe Book a consultation: calendly.com/mira-brancu/30-minute-initial-consultation LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/MiraBrancu Website: www.gotowerscope.com Books: gotowerscope.com/books Join the next leadership training cohort: https://gotowerscope.com/fellowship Free Resources: Strategic Clarity and Leadership Resilience assessment: https://mailchi.mp/e1ebf8505764/slr-assessment Burnout Root Cause Assessment: https://mailchi.mp/29d7d18fae4a/burnout-root-cause-assessment Workplace Grief Guide: https://mailchi.mp/46873b910380/workplace-grief-field-guide

1 hr 9 min

Situational Leadership 50 Years Later, with Dr. Sam Shriver and Suzie Bishop

Most managers are so afraid of micromanaging that they default to one leadership style. Then change hits, the team stalls, and nobody can name what went wrong. Dr. Mira Brancu sits down with Suzie Bishop and Dr. Sam Shriver from the Center for Leadership Studies, the home of the situational leadership model, to talk about why the approach that works beautifully with one person fails completely with the next. They break down the four steps, why performance readiness shifts the moment anything changes, and why the styles that feel most uncomfortable are often the ones that build the most trust. You will hear why being great at your job can actively work against you when you step into management, what to do when a high performer suddenly loses confidence, and the exact sentence to use when you can tell your approach is not landing. Subscribe for weekly conversations on leadership, workplace dynamics, and mental health at work. View this episode on youtube - https://youtu.be/5sJAe6E-fA0 Find our guest here: Connect with Suzie Bishop: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzie-bishop/ and https://situational.com/ Connect with Dr. Sam Shriver: https://situational.com/ To find more of my work: Subscribe to this channel Newsletter: mailchi.mp/2079c04f4d44/subscribe Book a consultation: calendly.com/mira-brancu/30-minute-initial-consultation LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/MiraBrancu Website: www.gotowerscope.com Books: gotowerscope.com/books Join the next leadership training cohort: https://gotowerscope.com/fellowship Free Resources: Strategic Clarity and Leadership Resilience assessment: https://mailchi.mp/e1ebf8505764/slr-assessment Burnout Root Cause Assessment: https://mailchi.mp/29d7d18fae4a/burnout-root-cause-assessment Workplace Grief Guide: https://mailchi.mp/46873b910380/workplace-grief-field-guide

59 min

CEO EXPLAINS: How Grief Made Him a Better Leader, with James Dismond

Most leaders treat grief and burnout like a personal weakness. James Dismond thinks differently. James became a CEO for the first time in 2023. Ninety days in, his mother entered hospice care, and he found himself running a hospice organization while sitting on the other side of the bed as a grieving son. That experience changed how he leads, and this conversation is about what it changed. He and Dr. Mira Brancu get into why saying "that person is burning out" quietly moves the blame onto the wrong shoulders, what he actually did to carry an entire organization through a rebrand and expansion without gutting their trust, and the practice he built to replace the useless feedback sandwich. He also talks about when to let a good person fail on purpose, and why he refuses to fake it until he makes it. If you have ever had to hold someone accountable while they were falling apart, this one is for you. Subscribe for weekly conversations on leadership, burnout, and workplace mental health. Find our guest here: Connect with James Dismond: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-dismond/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/mirasolhealth https://mirasolhealth.org/ To find more of my work: Subscribe to this channel Subscribe to my free newsletter at: mailchi.mp/2079c04f4d44/subscribe Work with me one-on-one: calendly.com/mira-brancu/30-minute-initial-consultation Connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/MiraBrancu Learn more about my services: www.gotowerscope.com Get practical workplace politics tips from my books: gotowerscope.com/books Get my free Strategic Clarity and Leadership Resilience assessment: https://mailchi.mp/e1ebf8505764/slr-assessment Get my Free Burnout Root Cause Assessment: https://mailchi.mp/29d7d18fae4a/burnout-root-cause-assessment Get my Workplace Grief Guide: https://mailchi.mp/46873b910380/workplace-grief-field-guide Find other free resources to support your leadership growth: https://gotowerscope.com/other-free-stuff Join the next Towerscope leadership workshop or fellowship: https://gotowerscope.com/fellowship Episodes and other resources referenced: Watch this next: https://youtu.be/Yh04IHzEMqU?si=V7HzqPP4qg7_qT23

1 hr 1 min

Your Generation Explains Only 4% of Your Personality, with Dr. Ryne Sherman

Everyone says you have to manage each generation differently. The data says otherwise. Your generation explains about 4 percent of your personality. You explain almost 80 percent. Dr. Mira Brancu sits down with Dr. Ryne Sherman, Chief Science Officer at Hogan Assessments, to take apart one of the most repeated ideas in leadership: that Gen Z, Millennials, and Boomers are fundamentally different people who need to be managed in fundamentally different ways. Ryne brought the data: Once you statistically separate age, time period, and birth cohort, generation accounts for roughly 4 percent of the variability on a personality assessment. Age accounts for 12 to 15 percent. The individual person accounts for nearly 80 percent. They get into why our brains build these shortcuts in the first place, what genuinely does change as people get older, why agreeableness drops off after retirement, and what it really costs you when you make hiring and promotion calls based on someone's birth year or generation. Ryne also shares the five human skills he thinks will matter most as AI takes over more of the work. Subscribe for weekly conversations on leadership, workplace psychology, and what actually makes teams work. Find our guest here: Connect with Dr. Ryne Sherman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rynesherman/ Hogan Assessments: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hogan-assessments Subscribe to my free newsletter at: mailchi.mp/2079c04f4d44/subscribe Work with me one-on-one: calendly.com/mira-brancu/30-minute-initial-consultation Connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/MiraBrancu Learn more about my services: www.gotowerscope.com Get practical workplace politics tips from my books: gotowerscope.com/books Get my free Strategic Clarity and Leadership Resilience assessment: https://mailchi.mp/e1ebf8505764/slr-assessment Get my Free Burnout Root Cause Assessment: https://mailchi.mp/29d7d18fae4a/burnout-root-cause-assessment Get my Workplace Grief Guide: https://mailchi.mp/46873b910380/workplace-grief-field-guide Find other free resources to support your leadership growth: https://gotowerscope.com/other-free-stuff Join the next Towerscope leadership workshop or fellowship: https://gotowerscope.com/fellowship

7 min

How to Manage High Performers

Managing high performers takes a completely different skill set than managing low performers, and giving feedback to a high achiever the usual way can backfire badly. There is probably someone on your team who used to be your strongest player and lately something is off. They are missing deadlines, questioning everything, or moving so fast they are rubbing the team the wrong way. And you keep putting the conversation off, because how do you tell someone they are amazing and they are not meeting your expectations at the same time? Dr. Mira Brancu breaks down why most supervisors freeze here, why "just be direct" is incomplete advice when you are dealing with talented people, and what to say instead. You will learn the “wise” feedback method, a research-backed way to frame the conversation so it lands as investment rather than punishment. You will also learn how to reframe leadership itself as a second specialty your high performer has to master, and why that single shift makes frequent check-ins feel like support instead of micromanaging. Subscribe for weekly conversations on leadership, burnout, and the human side of high pressure work. To find more of my work: Subscribe to this channel Subscribe to my free newsletter at: mailchi.mp/2079c04f4d44/subscribe Work with me one-on-one: calendly.com/mira-brancu/30-minute-initial-consultation Connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/MiraBrancu Learn more about my services: www.gotowerscope.com Get practical workplace politics tips from my books: gotowerscope.com/books Get my free Strategic Clarity and Leadership Resilience assessment: https://mailchi.mp/e1ebf8505764/slr-assessment Get my Free Burnout Root Cause Assessment: https://mailchi.mp/29d7d18fae4a/burnout-root-cause-assessment Get my Workplace Grief Guide: https://mailchi.mp/46873b910380/workplace-grief-field-guide Find other free resources to support your leadership growth: https://gotowerscope.com/other-free-stuff Join the next Towerscope leadership workshop or fellowship: https://gotowerscope.com/fellowship