The Unleashing Leaders Podcast

Hosted by Lee Scott

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Aug 2026

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Unleashing Leaders podcast empowers leaders with stories and strategies to tackle tough challenges. Host Lee Scott shares practical steps to strengthen teams, clarify vision, and engage people.

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September 9, 202647 min

Holding Constructive Accountability Conversations to Delegate and Elevate Your Team with Gina Cotner | Ep 61

In this conversation, Lee sits down with Gina Cotner, founder and CEO of Athena Executive Services. They dig into the conversation almost every leader avoids: telling someone their delegated work isn't landing. If you've ever put off that talk, or had it blow up in your face, this one's for you. Gina traces her approach back to two unlikely classrooms. The first was a middle school production of The Wizard of Oz. The second was the back of a rowing shell, where Gina spent her teenage years as a coxswain. In that seat, she learned to see what her rowers, facing backward, couldn't. She also learned something else. A good leader doesn't solve your problems. They hold you accountable for your team and your work. Gina's job was making sure the boat was ready to race, and that distinction became the foundation for everything she does now. From there, Gina breaks down her framework for accountability conversations, built on a handful of simple questions most leaders never think to ask. The approach starts before delegation even happens and shapes how deadlines get set. When work goes missing, Gina takes an internal accountability approach and gives you steps to take before you ever say a word to the person who owns it. Ever wondered how to hold someone accountable without becoming the boss everyone dreads? This is the playbook that will increase your effectiveness and build an accountability culture. Additional Resources: Connect with Gina Cotner on LinkedIn Learn more about Athena Executive Services Attend Unleashing Leaders University! Sign up for our newsletter: https://unleashingleadersuniversity.com/signup Learn more about Unleashing Leaders Follow Unleashing Leaders on LinkedIn Connect with Lee on LinkedIn Follow Unleashing Leaders on Facebook Follow Unleashing Leaders on Instagram Key Takeaways: "Any questions?" invites a no. "What questions do you have for me?" assumes there are some and invites a response. Giving someone a deadline instead of asking for one quietly takes their accountability off the table. "You get what you inspect, not what you expect." Go look for the finished work yourself before you ask anyone about its status. As a leader, part of your job is aligning and motivating people around work you can't do alone. Learning when to be direct and when to bring someone along is a skill.

August 26, 202650 min

Replay: Elevating the Human Experience with Practical Self-Care and Ethical AI with Stacie Baird

Stacie Baird, Chief People Officer at Community Medical Services, offers insights on the intersection of self-care, resilience, and ethical AI to elevate the human experience. She shares her professional journey to discovering her leadership purpose in addressing the opioid epidemic. She also shares the power of adversity in our personal lives to unlock our super powers and focus our contributions where it matter most. Get practical tips for how you can self-regulate or co-regulate anytime, anywhere in the face of adversity. Lastly, explore simple ways you can begin to use AI for your own self-care as well as apply it ethically to enhance your team's resilience and impact. Additional Resources: Connect with Stacie Baird on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/staciebaird/ HX in an AI World series: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7211145450941206528/ HX Podcast with Stacie Baird: https://staciebaird.com/the-hx-podcast Attend Unleashing Leaders University: https://unleashingleadersuniversity.com/curriculum Sign up for our newsletter: https://unleashingleadersuniversity.com/signup Learn more about Unleashing Leaders: https://unleashingleaders.com/ Follow Unleashing Leaders on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/unleashingleaders Connect with Lee on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leeallenscott/ Follow Unleashing Leaders on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UnleashingLeaders/ Follow Unleashing Leaders on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unleashingleaders/ Key Takeaways: Resilience is built through consistent practice, not bouncing back. Pause before carrying stressful energy into your next interaction. Speak to yourself like someone you deeply love. AI should amplify human connection, not replace it. Trust begins with self-awareness and trusting yourself first.

August 12, 202654 min

Ep 60: Speaking Truth to Power: How to Elevate Unpopular Risks to Upper Management with Payson Hall

In this conversation, Lee sits down with Payson Hall, founding member and consulting project manager at Catalysis Group. Payson was one of Lee's earliest mentors. Together they unpack a skill most leaders avoid: delivering bad news before it becomes a crisis. Payson traces the lesson to a Ranger sergeant in a Georgia swamp who refused to let him fake confidence with a map and a fat gloved finger. The fix became a career long habit Payson calls the pine needle test. Name your uncertainty precisely. Don't point vaguely and hope nobody asks a follow up question. From there, Payson and Lee dig into the moments that test a leader's nerve. In the "when in June" story, a product team confidently promised a June ship date. Payson asked each group to name the exact day. The whole schedule unraveled in real time. Then there's the cheeseburger talk: Payson's name for the one on one, out of office conversation he has with every sponsoring executive early in an engagement. Payson also draws a line that trips up a lot of consultants. Project or scope change management is a different animal from technology or organizational change management. Confusing the three is where "unpopular fact" conversations go sideways. Additional Resources: Connect with Payson Hall on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paysonhall/ Attend Unleashing Leaders University: https://unleashingleadersuniversity.com/curriculum Sign up for our newsletter: https://unleashingleadersuniversity.com/signup Learn more about Unleashing Leaders: https://unleashingleaders.com/ Follow Unleashing Leaders on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/unleashingleaders Connect with Lee on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leeallenscott/ Follow Unleashing Leaders on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UnleashingLeaders/ Follow Unleashing Leaders on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unleashingleaders/ Key Takeaways: Leaders who deliver bad news early prevent small risks from becoming full-blown crises. The pine needle test means naming your uncertainty precisely rather than pointing vaguely and hoping nobody asks a follow-up question. Asking "when in June" instead of accepting "June" can unravel a schedule that looks solid on the surface. Building trust with executives through informal, out-of-office conversations early in an engagement makes harder conversations possible later. Project change management, technology change management, and organizational change management are different disciplines, and confusing them is where difficult conversations go sideways.

July 22, 20261 hr 7 min

Ep 59: Prioritizing Conflicting Task Requests with Skye Connors and Emily LaPorta

In this conversation, Lee sits down with two of Unleashing Leaders' top change agents, Skye Connors and Emily LaPorta, to tackle a problem every high performer eventually hits: too many priorities, not enough hours. Skye and Emily built UL's internal SOP for handling conflicting task requests and walk through how it works, from the physical warning signs of overload to the tiebreakers that step in when two tasks conflict. Feeling overloaded usually means you're trusted with more, not that you're falling short. Lee, Skye, and Emily break down the prioritization shortcuts that quietly wreck teams: First in, first out. Last in, first out. Whoever screams the loudest. And the fallback of declaring "everything is priority one," which just pushes the decision onto your team, leaving them to default to whatever's easiest. What UL actually uses instead is a framework that sorts commitments by required, desired, and optional, weighs critical path and impact, and falls back on real tiebreakers, like prior commitment and relative priority, when everything else ties. Emily closes with a reminder that this gets easier with practice: "Am I required?" and "What is the impact?" stop needing a checklist and become instinct. Additional Resources Attend Unleashing Leaders University: https://unleashingleadersuniversity.com/curriculum Sign up for our newsletter: https://unleashingleadersuniversity.com/signup Learn more about Unleashing Leaders: https://unleashingleaders.com/ Follow Unleashing Leaders on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/unleashingleaders Connect with Lee on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leeallenscott/ Follow Unleashing Leaders on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UnleashingLeaders/ Follow Unleashing Leaders on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unleashingleaders/ Key Takeaways: Feeling overloaded is a sign of trust and competence, not a warning sign of failure. Notice the physical tell (tight chest, racing heart) before it drives a bad decision. First in, first out, last in, first out, and "whoever screams loudest" all fail as standalone strategies. Declaring everything priority one pushes the decision to your team, and they'll default to whatever seems easiest, leaving the hard stuff undone. Sort every ask into required, desired, or optional before you commit to it. When priorities truly tie, fall back on real tiebreakers like prior commitment and relative project priority. With practice, questions like "Am I required?" and "What is the impact?" stop needing a checklist and become instinct.

July 8, 202649 min

Ep 58: Longevity and Leadership - Optimizing Your Health for the Peak Years of Your Career with Dr. Sandra Kaufmann

In this conversation, Lee Scott and Dr. Sandra Kaufmann explore the science of longevity and its direct connection to leadership performance. Here's a hard truth: a dead leader is not a great leader. Neither is one who hits the peak of their wisdom right as their body starts to fail. Sandy is a physician, author, and transitional medical director for Envision Healthcare. She has spent years investigating why we age at the cellular level and, more importantly, what we can do about it. Sandy walks through her Kaufman Rating System, a research-based framework that scores supplements and molecular agents across seven categories of cellular aging. Learn about her Longevity Pyramids, a tiered protocol that starts with daily fundamentals like movement, sleep, and hydration and scales up from there. Hear about real outcomes from the high-performing athletes, executives, and military leaders she works with. She closes with a surprising answer to Lee's signature question: the single hallmark of an unleashed leader is annoyance. It is the person who won't stop pushing until their drive gets pointed in the right direction. Additional Resources: Learn more about the Kaufmann Protocol: https://kaufmannprotocol.com/ Visit Kaufmann Longevity: https://www.kaufmannlongevity.com/ Get Dr. Kaufmann's book: https://a.co/d/006LZJfd Get The Kaufmann Protocol: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B5MVFBVQ?ref_=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cp_ud_dp_NYX1J1P7R7Z1J8ZZX3SE&bestFormat=true Follow Kaufmann Longevity on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kaufmannlongevity/ Attend Unleashing Leaders University: https://unleashingleadersuniversity.com/curriculum Sign up for our newsletter!: https://unleashingleadersuniversity.com/signup Learn more about Unleashing Leaders: https://unleashingleaders.com/ Follow Unleashing Leaders on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/unleashingleaders Connect with Lee on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leeallenscott/ Follow Unleashing Leaders on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UnleashingLeaders/ Follow Unleashing Leaders on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unleashingleaders/ Key Takeaways: When you reach the peak of your wisdom, that is when your health starts to fail, and longevity science exists to close that gap. The Kaufman Rating System gives leaders a research-based way to evaluate supplements and agents across seven cellular categories. Daily fundamentals, including movement, sleep, hydration, and diet, are the non-negotiable foundation before anything else. Effective longevity interventions require sustained commitment, not one-time fixes. The hallmark of an unleashed leader is productive annoyance. Drive that gets channeled toward impact.

June 24, 202613 min

Ep 57: What Does "Be More Strategic" Actually Mean? A Five Level Map with Lee Scott

"You need to be more strategic." It shows up on performance reviews constantly. And almost nobody explains what it actually means. In this quick hit episode, Lee Scott breaks it down with a practical five level model that maps exactly where someone is on the strategic thinking spectrum and what it takes to move them forward. From the Hapless Victim defined by their conditions, to the Strategic Operator who is informed by them. Each level carries a distinct mindset, blind spot, and coaching approach. Whether you are developing someone else or trying to unravel the formula for yourself, this episode is for you. Additional Resources: Attend Unleashing Leaders University: https://unleashingleadersuniversity.com/curriculum Sign up for our newsletter!: https://unleashingleadersuniversity.com/signup Learn more about Unleashing Leaders: https://unleashingleaders.com/ Follow Unleashing Leaders on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/unleashingleaders Connect with Lee on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leeallenscott/ Follow Unleashing Leaders on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UnleashingLeaders/ Follow Unleashing Leaders on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unleashingleaders/ Key Takeaways: The 5 Levels of a Strategist: Hapless Victim, Blind Activist, Focus Doer, Efficient Performer, and Strategic Operator, what separates each one Conditions vs. Choices: the defining distinction between someone stuck at the bottom and someone operating at the top The Coaching Question Shift: why you cannot ask a Hapless Victim the same questions you ask an Efficient Performer and expect results Running From vs. Running To: how to help a Blind Activist stop reacting and start aiming Working Smarter, Not Harder: the time and priority questions that move a Focus Doer out of brute force mode Building Bridges Before You Need Them: what Strategic Operators do today that others won't think of until it's too late

June 10, 202647 min

Ep 56: Perseverance in the Face of Adversity: From Geopolitics to the Gut Check with George Tagg Jr.

Setbacks don't send a calendar invite. They show up at 6 a.m. on a Teams call. In a hospital room. On a battlefield. George Tagg Jr. has met adversity at every one of those addresses. And every single time, he found a way forward. Attorney. Former DOJ Nazi hunter. A State Department and DOD official who negotiated in the Caucasus, was on the ground in Kyiv when Russia's invasion began, and managed the deconfliction line between U.S. and Russian forces in Syria. George has served across multiple presidential administrations. He is now founder and CEO of GTC 360 Advisors. And writing a book on resilience, including a chapter on dealing with bullies. Starting with Putin. But if you ask George, his hardest moments were never on a battlefield. Losing his grandparents young. Then his father, one of the most magnetic lobbyists in DC during the 90s, gone suddenly to a heart attack six months after 9/11. George was 20. He could have gone the other direction. Instead, he picked up the legacy, held onto the lessons, and kept going. That is what this episode is really about. Not the geopolitics. The process. A repeatable, human way of turning your worst moments into the thing that moves you forward. If you have ever faced a moment that felt unsurvivable, this one is for you. Additional Resources: Connect with George on LinkedIn Learn more about GTC 360 Advisors Attend Unleashing Leaders University! Sign up for our newsletter! Learn more about Unleashing Leaders Follow Unleashing Leaders on LinkedIn Connect with Lee on LinkedIn Follow Unleashing Leaders on Facebook Follow Unleashing Leaders on Instagram Key Takeaways: Lick Your Wounds, Then Move: why giving yourself grace after a setback is not weakness, it is the first step The Blamestorm Trap: how blaming others feels good for a minute and keeps you stuck indefinitely The 180 Turn: George's three-phase framework from retrospective grief to forward-facing momentum The Rabbi Rule: why your results will never speak for themselves and the connective tissue that keeps you standing The Rule of Threes: why trying something once tells you almost nothing and how to find what reignites you Compounding Works Both Ways: small investments in action compound powerfully

May 27, 202643 min

Ep 55: From Brain Dump to Breakthrough: Lessons from Healthcare's Frontlines on Getting Teams to Use Data That Saves Lives with Anna Basevich

Information transferred is not information absorbed. It sounds obvious. And yet most leaders keep running the same play anyway. The boot camp. The all-hands demo. The two-day blitz. And then three weeks later, nobody's using the tools. Anna Basevich has spent her career at the intersection of health data and human behavior. As SVP at Arcadia, she helps healthcare organizations turn fragmented, siloed data into life-saving decisions. She spent years flying across the country delivering marathon trainings that felt great in the room and evaporated by Monday. It took a pandemic, a rapid acquisition, and a ban on hospital hopping to force a better way. What came out the other side was a playbook built around one stubborn truth: people don't absorb what they're handed. They absorb what they use, revisit, and discover for themselves. The examples here come from the deep end. Nine-figure implementations. Heavily regulated data. Cross-functional teams who barely speak the same language. But every principle in this episode translates directly to any leader rolling out new tools, whether that's an enterprise platform or an AI pilot for a team of 20. Key Takeaways: The Brain Dump Trap: why cramming everything into two days guarantees your team forgets it by week three The T-Shaped Learner: broad awareness plus targeted depth beats the pure generalist and the siloed expert Chunk It or Lose It: bite-sized iterative rollouts unlock more value than any boot camp ever will Outcomes as North Star: why revisiting customer goals feels redundant until the moment it saves the whole project The Peer Effect: organic knowledge sharing among teammates beats top-down training every time The Unleashed Leader: passionate about the work and the outcome, together, not separately Additional Resources: Follow Anna on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annabasevich/ Attend Unleashing Leaders University! Sign up for our newsletter! Learn more about Unleashing Leaders: https://unleashingleaders.com/ Follow Unleashing Leaders on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/unleashingleaders Connect with Lee on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leeallenscott/ Follow Unleashing Leaders on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UnleashingLeaders/ Follow Unleashing Leaders on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unleashingleaders/

May 13, 202639 min

Ep 54: Music, Meaning, and the Power of Relentless Recognition: Unleashing Leaders Through Encouragement with Karen Jean Reed

What does a gospel saxophonist, a forensic psychiatric program director, and a community pillar have in common? They're all the same person, and she's been quietly unleashing leaders for over three decades. In this episode, Lee Scott sits down with Karen Jean Reed, Program 3 Director at Atascadero State Hospital, a cancer survivor, musician, and leader who built a culture of relentless recognition in one of the most demanding workplace environments imaginable. Frustrated early in her career by leaders who only spoke up when something went wrong, Karen stepped into management with a mission: change the music. Drawing on her roots as a music therapist, where she learned that every person has a "key signature" that unlocks their potential, she built a team culture anchored in one bold belief: Program 3 is the best program ever. Backed by 200+ framed certificates a year, potlucks, T-shirts, and specific weekly encouragement, her message never wavers: you are seen, valued, and essential. This episode is for any leader who has wondered whether the small gestures actually matter. Karen Jean Reed is living proof they do. Additional Resources: Attend Unleashing Leaders University! Sign up for our newsletter!: https://unleashingleadersuniversity.com/signup Learn more about Unleashing Leaders Follow Unleashing Leaders on LinkedIn Connect with Lee on LinkedIn Follow Unleashing Leaders on Facebook Follow Unleashing Leaders on Instagram Key Takeaways: How music bypasses the defenses that conventional leadership cannot Why Karen stepped into management when representation was scarce and changed the culture of recognition The "Program 3 is the best program ever" philosophy: aspiration as a leadership strategy Practical recognition tactics that cost little but land with lasting impact How faith, community leadership, and personal tragedy shaped her capacity to lead through adversity

April 22, 202614 min

Replay: Six Fundamentals of Human Needs with Lee Scott

What really drives people to say yes, lean in, and follow through? Lee Scott breaks down one of his go-to leadership frameworks: the six fundamental human needs, and how understanding them can instantly sharpen the way you lead. From certainty and variety to significance, connection, growth, and contribution, Lee explores how these needs shape motivation, influence behavior, and reveal what matters most to the people around us. He shows leaders how to listen for the clues, adapt their language, and connect change to what already fuels someone internally. This episode is a practical deep dive for people-first leaders who want to communicate with more clarity, inspire with more intention, and lead in a way that truly resonates. Additional Resources: Attend Unleashing Leaders University! Sign up for our newsletter!: https://unleashingleadersuniversity.com/signup Learn more about Unleashing Leaders Follow Unleashing Leaders on LinkedIn Connect with Lee on LinkedIn Follow Unleashing Leaders on Facebook Follow Unleashing Leaders on Instagram Key Takeaways: Motivation starts with understanding underlying human needs. People prioritize needs differently in each situation. Better leaders tailor language to individual drivers. Healthy strategies meet needs without harmful side effects. Influence grows when leaders speak others' need language.