The Leadership Line

Hosted by Tammy Rogers and Scott Burgmeyer

Business Entrepreneurship

Website RSS feed

Episodes

256

Latest episode

Jul 2026

Language

EN-US

About the show

Leading people, growing organizations, and optimizing opportunities is not for the faint of heart. It takes courage, drive, discipline and maybe just a dash of good fortune. Tammy and Scott, mavericks, business owners, life-long learners, collaborators and sometimes competitors join forces to explore the world of work. They tackle real-life work issues – everything from jerks at work to organizational burnout. And while they may not always agree – Tammy and Scott’s experience, perspective and practical advice helps viewers turn the kaleidoscope, examine options and alternatives, and identify actionable solutions.

Listen to episodes

60 recent

July 8, 202615 min

Unsaid Expectations

Unsaid expectations are a preview of future resentments and once you see it, you can’t unsee it. We start with that simple line and trace how it shows up everywhere: leadership, teamwork, families, friendships, and even the way we argue when we feel wronged. When we expect people to read our minds, we set them up to fail and we set ourselves up to stay mad. We talk through why setting expectations is so hard for some leaders, from being “busy being busy” to making giant assumptions that other people will reach the same logical conclusion we do. Then we get concrete: what happens when a leader says “I just want my people to be professional” without defining what that means? One person’s definition is not another’s, and a single detail (like tennis shoes) can reveal how different the standards really are. We also explore how slippery big words can be, including ethics, and why shared definitions matter even more as workplaces navigate topics like the ethical use of AI. Scott adds some perspective by sharing a story about a teen driver, a late night, and realizing the real problem wasn’t the kid, it was the missing expectation. We close with practical leadership tools: ask “help me understand” before you assume bad intent, use the mirror test when you’re angry, calm down, and walk into the conversation to resolve the issue rather than win. If this helped you, subscribe, share it with a leader or teammate.

July 1, 2026Episode 2524 min

Knowing When To Move On

One word can be the spark that ends a chapter. Karman shares the moment she realized she had outgrown her first job after college, when a boss challenged her writing in a way that revealed something bigger than a single edit: the learning had stopped. From there, we dig into the real-life signals that tell you it’s time to move on from a job, a relationship, a project, or any situation where you’re doing all the work just to stay stuck. Scott brings a career advancement story that hits home for anyone who has ever felt capped: he’s offered a promotion that comes in under his minimum salary requirements and shuts down flexibility and scope he believes would make the work better. We talk about how to set decision criteria ahead of time, why turning down a “good” opportunity can be the most self-respecting move, and how golden handcuffs like pensions and buyouts can keep talented people in place long after growth is gone. Tammy adds the perspective many of us recognize but don’t like to admit: staying until the decision is forced. That opens up the coaching questions that cut through the noise, including “Is the juice worth the squeeze?” and “Are you running toward something or running away from something?” We also unpack the frog-in-slowly-heating-water problem, where small issues compound until you can’t see how heavy things got. If you’re looking for practical career change advice, leadership mindset, and a more intentional way to choose your next step, this conversation gives you language you can use today. If it resonates, subscribe, share it with a friend who’s on the fence. What’s the clearest sign you’ve ignored that it was time to move on?

June 24, 2026Episode 2414 min

Why Treating Everyone The Same Hurts Performance

“Treat everyone the same” sounds like good leadership advice until you watch it drain the life out of a team. We kick things off with a quick, funny peanut butter detour, then turn it into a serious management lesson: when leaders smear praise, raises, and feedback evenly across everyone, they create the peanut butter effect. It looks fair on paper, but it quietly punishes effort, blurs standards, and teaches people that results don’t matter.Tammy shares a story from waitressing that makes the point instantly: keeping your own tips rewards service and hustle, while tip pooling protects slackers and frustrates the people carrying the shift. From there, we dig into what fairness at work should actually mean in performance management, including when (and when not) factors like seniority should matter. Scott adds a key caveat: accountability only works when what you measure is fair and reasonable, and when you look at performance over a real time window, not just a last-minute burst before review season.We also bring in the “energy vampire” idea and the assessment from our book, Chief Optimization Officer, to ask a tough question: are you breathing life into the organization or sucking it out? The big takeaway is simple and sharp: equal treatment can disable performance. Differentiated recognition, consistent feedback, and transparent metrics help you keep your achievers, develop your steady contributors, and stop rewarding outcomes that never arrived. If this hits home, subscribe, share it with a manager you care about, and leave a review. What’s the worst “peanut butter” policy you’ve seen at work?To learn more about the energy vampire assessment, click here. To learn more about out book Chief Optimization Officer, click here.

June 19, 2026Episode 2321 min

Truth Telling At Work

The fastest way to poison a team isn’t a big argument, it’s the silence that comes before it. We start with a real workplace conflict and use it to unpack a skill most organizations say they want but rarely practice well: truth telling at work. For us, it’s not about “brutal honesty” or getting the last word. It’s about giving clear, meaningful feedback that protects trust, improves performance, and strengthens working relationships.We dig into the foundations that make honest communication possible. First, integrity and the say-to-do ratio: if your actions don’t match your words, people won’t give your feedback any weight. Then we challenge the harder question, intention. Are we sharing truth to help someone grow, repair a relationship, or prevent a repeated problem, or are we trying to vent, punish, or feel powerful? We talk candidly about what happens when feedback turns reactive and why even accurate points can become damaging when the goal is to make someone feel small.We also get practical about trust at work, psychological safety, and why relationship comes before critique. Feedback lands differently when there’s a civil, respectful connection and a history of follow-through. And because everyone misses sometimes, we close on a missing ingredient in workplace culture: forgiveness, the ability to repair after wrong words, wrong timing, or wrong tone so people don’t carry old mistakes forever.If you care about leadership, employee engagement, conflict resolution, and building a team that can actually talk to each other, hit play.

June 10, 202630 min

The Unspoken Rules Of Work

You can do great work and still get taken out by a rule nobody wrote down. We start with some light banter, then get real about the unspoken workplace norms that quietly shape careers: how you talk about your boss, how you push back, and how quickly “truth” can turn into a reputation problem.Tammy shares a painful early-career story where she trashed her manager to the company president and learned a blunt lesson about power dynamics. From there, we dig into organizational maturity, managing up, and why taking responsibility matters more than having the best argument. We also talk about the hidden culture builders leaders rarely name out loud: second chances, forgiveness, and the trust equation. If people cannot recover from mistakes without being punished forever, trust never sticks and teams turn toxic fast.Scott tells a story from his quality director days when he defied a high-level executive, stayed calm, and still triggered a decade of political collateral. We break down what he said, why it landed the way it did, and how to communicate truth with the right level of formality and framing so your message gets heard without torching your future. Along the way we reframe “organizational politics” as relationship, translation, and finding win-win outcomes without losing your integrity.If you care about leadership, workplace communication skills, accountability, and building trust at work, this one will hit home. Subscribe, share with a coworker.

June 3, 202619 min

The Simple Habits That Keep You Employed

Showing up late, ignoring direction, and making coworkers miserable will end more careers than a lack of technical skill. We start with a deceptively simple line from Tom Hanks about what it takes to succeed at work: show up on time, know the text, and have an idea. Then we put it under a microscope and talk about what “the minimum” really looks like in modern workplaces where reliability and teamwork feel rarer than they should be. We share a real story from a program built to close a middle-skill workforce gap in Iowa. The state funded technical training, yet people still struggled to stay employed. Employers weren’t complaining about the certificate or the knowledge. They were describing behavioral breakdowns: not showing up, not following procedure, and constant conflict. That insight led to a practical approach centered on self-awareness, clear expectations, and accountability around four basic employability skills: show up, show up on time, do what you’re asked, and be easy to work with. From there, we get honest about the hardest leadership problem we see everywhere: toxic employees who produce results but damage the culture. We talk about why “fixing the jerk” is less effective than leading so the organization stops tolerating jerk behavior in the first place, and we address the real-world constraint leaders bring up all the time: “I can’t replace them.” If that’s true, we push for a plan instead of acceptance, with thoughtful action rather than reactive blowups. If you want practical leadership advice, better team culture, and a clear framework for job performance, press play. Subscribe, share this with a leader or teammate who needs it.

May 27, 2026Episode 2221 min

Turning Pop Culture Into Better Leadership

What if the best leadership coaching you get this week comes from a movie night? We start with a deceptively simple question: what’s your favorite work-adjacent movie, and why does it feel true to real life at work? From there we connect scenes, characters, and team dynamics to the problems leaders deal with every day: pressure, performance, trust, and what to do when someone needs a push to see their own potential. We dig into Hoosiers and A League Of Their Own to talk about coaching, role clarity, and the underrated skill of building a strong team with the people you actually have. That leads to a blunt truth about management and workplace culture: everyone is imperfect, including the leader, so the job is to maximize strengths, reduce friction, and keep moving toward the goal without pretending people are easy. Then we jump to work-related TV shows, from Ted Lasso as a leadership primer to The Office as a painfully familiar workplace mirror. We even wrestle with the idea that “mind games” exist in business, while also naming the line you don’t cross: “killing people is not a good business plan.” The episode closes with practical reflective questions, a reminder to pivot when things get stuck, and a story about teaching emotional intelligence without fancy jargon. If you’ve ever learned more from a character than a training deck, you’ll feel seen. Subscribe for more, share this with a coworker who loves pop culture, and leave a review with the movie or show that taught you the most about leadership.

May 20, 2026Episode 2117 min

Say Yes

The fastest way to stall your career is to walk into your first job trying to prove you have already arrived. We start with a surprisingly perfect metaphor: cowbells outside the window, marathons running past the house, and the Bix Run in Davenport where the crowd cheers so hard it feels like a moving party. It is funny, but it is also real, because careers work the same way. The energy is out there, the opportunities are moving, and you decide whether you are going to stay in bed or step onto the course.From there, we pivot into graduation season and the advice we wish every new college grad would hear before entering the workforce. Our simple take: be curious and say yes. Not yes to nonsense, but yes to learning, yes to the invite that scares you, yes to staying late one day to understand the bigger picture, yes to the unexpected project that teaches you more than any class. Curiosity builds context, and context is what turns “smart” into effective.We also get blunt about entitlement, ego, and the overlooked skill of being a great follower. Listening well, aligning with leaders, and respecting authority can be the difference between building trust quickly and burning bridges early. We talk about how confidence grows when you do hard things you never thought you could do, and how to handle the real concern of being taken advantage of without shutting down opportunities too soon.If you are a new graduate, a parent of a grad, or a leader mentoring early-career talent, this one is packed with practical career advice, leadership lessons, and mindset shifts you can use immediately.

May 13, 2026Episode 2019 min

Disagree Without Being Disagreeable

The fastest way to lose trust is to “win” with power. We start with a simple question that shows up everywhere from leadership meetings to group chats: how do you disagree with people without becoming disagreeable? Along the way, we call out a pattern that feels normal right now, using authority, volume, or status to force agreement, and we name the real cost: you create compliance, not commitment, and you train people to stop thinking out loud.We talk through why power moves can look effective in the moment but limit growth over time. A team built on yes-people can’t adapt, and a leader who always needs to be right eventually hits a wall. One of the most helpful reframes we’ve ever heard anchors the conversation: do you want to be right, or do you want to be in relationship? We unpack what “relationship” means in a practical workplace sense, keeping enough respect and curiosity to understand another perspective and stay effective together.Then we get tactical. We lean on a simple decision approach that emphasizes options, because options turn conflict into collaboration. You’ll hear specific phrases you can use with a boss when you’re nervous to speak up, like “I see this differently. Are you willing to have a conversation about it?” and “Can we explore other options, or has the decision been made?” We also cover how to handle peer conflict, how to avoid the stuff-it-then-explode cycle, and how to decide when an issue is truly worth pushing on.If you want better conflict resolution, stronger communication skills, and more psychological safety on your team, hit play.

May 6, 2026Episode 1921 min

Stop Labeling Coworkers And Start Leading People

The fastest way to misunderstand your team is to label them first. We start with a story about a legendary English teacher who used to mark “WBG” for Wild Blatant Generalization, then we bring that same red pen to one of the most common workplace shortcuts: “Boomers are like this,” “Millennials want that,” “Gen Z won’t do this.”From there, we dig into what’s actually useful when you’re managing multigenerational teams. Yes, formative events and technology shifts can shape how people see the world, but we argue that “generation” is a messy proxy for something more real: personal experience, life stage, and the environment you grew up in. Scott compares generational talk to the Predictive Index and other personality assessments, where preferences can be helpful data but become harmful the moment we treat them as destiny or an excuse not to grow.We also get into the nature versus nurture debate, why stereotypes can quietly diminish individuality, and how leaders can build a healthier workplace culture by staying curious about the person in front of them. If you care about leadership, employee engagement, inclusion, and reducing bias at work, this one will sharpen how you think and how you talk.