Upsize Your Leadership

Hosted by Mike Armour

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125

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Jun 2026

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About the show

From the smallest of startups to the C-Suite of global corporations, Dr. Mike Armour has shown thousands of leaders how to step up their game. Now he brings this same wisdom and insight to his audience on Upsize Your Leadership. Every episode explores timeless principles of management, leadership, and personal success. Dr. Mike underscores these principles with engaging stories and interviews with exceptional guests. Whether you’re a C-Suite executive, a veteran manager, or even an aspiring leader, you will always find practical, actionable ideas on Upsize Your Leadership.

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June 2, 202626 min

A Leader's Success Hinges on Five Essentials

Exceptional leadership isn't about perfecting scores of different competencies. It's about understanding and implementing five fundamental principles. When they are developed sequentially and executed correctly, the result is a cascade of positive outcomes across your entire organization. This episode is the first in a series in which Mike introduce these five principles one-by-one. Together they form an integrated, interactive system of leadership priorities. This initial episode is foundational. It provides an overview of the five principles within a framework that Mike has developed over decades of leadership experience. The five are: Exemplify extraordinary character Cultivate high trust Maximize alignment around vision, values, and strategies Engage people in ways that motivate and inspire them Create a results-oriented culture that demands excellence of itself These aren't random principles. They are sequential and reinforcing. Character creates the foundation for trust. Trust enables alignment. Proper alignment fosters a climate where engagement can thrive. Engagement produces the momentum that makes a results-oriented culture possible. This episode summarizes the structure of this system. Subsequent episodes, will then dive into each essential, exploring how to audit the current health of this system in your organization at present, how to close critical gaps, and how to build the kind of leadership that creates sustained success. A PDF transcript of the episode is available on the Upsize Your Leadership website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

April 29, 202615 min

Executive Leadership: Maneuver Warfare in a Suit

In a business landscape defined by speed, disruption, and constant uncertainty, competitive advantage no longer goes to the biggest companies. It goes to the fastest. In this episode of Upsize Your Leadership, Dr. Mike Armour reveals why successful organizations must operate more like combat units trained for maneuver warfare than traditional corporate hierarchies. Drawing from decades of leadership experience and his background as a naval intelligence officer, Dr. Armour breaks down how maneuver warfare provides a powerful conceptual framework for modern executive leadership. In fact, he describes executive leadership as "maneuver warfare in a suit." Listeners will learn how agile companies thrive in environments marked by rapid change, incomplete information, distributed teams, and asymmetric threats -- the same conditions that define maneuver based military strategy. A PDF copy of this podcast can be downloaded at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/episodes/2602-maneuver-leadership.htm. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

April 22, 202621 min

How Executive Leadership Became So Complex

As a C-Suite leadership coach for nearly 30 years, I've watched the complexity of executive leadership steadily intensify. In this episode I trace the historical factors that led us to this state of affairs. I explore why today’s C‑Suite environment feels exponentially more complicated than anything leaders faced in previous generations. As I note in the episode, “You’re navigating complexity that is not just different from what your predecessors faced. It’s of a different order altogether.” To understand why, we step back nearly 200 years to the birth of the modern corporation. In the early 1800s, when the first states allowed the creation of corporations, businesses were small, local, and limited by daylight, geography, and manual labor. But as steam power, railroads, electricity, and national communication networks emerged, everything changed. Competition expanded. Companies grew. And leadership challenges multiplied. The 19th century introduced Expanding Competition — a relentless push to innovate, specialize, and reduce costs. The 20th century layered on Entrenched Complexity, as supply chains, regulations, global markets, and technology created a web of interdependencies no leader could ignore. And now, in the 21st century, we face what I call Endless Disruption — a world where shocks like the dot‑com bust, the financial collapse of 2008, the COVID epidemic, and now AI reshape industries overnight. And where markets and technology change so rapidly that survival demands constant realignment and frequent restructure. As the episode puts it, “Executive leadership today must therefore contend with Endless Disruption sitting on top of Entrenched Complexity which in turn sits on top of Expanding Competition.” These forces aren’t slowing down. They’re cumulative. They’re synergistic. And they’re redefining what it takes to lead. If you’ve ever felt that leadership today is more perplexing than ever, you’re not imagining it. This episode gives you a historical lens — and a strategic framework — to understand why. A PDF transcript of this episode is available at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/episodes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

December 23, 202512 min

A Flawed Assumption in Trump's Peace Plan

In this episode, Dr. Mike Armour examines what he sees as a major miscalculation at the heart of the Trump Administration’s proposed peace plan for the Russia‑Ukraine war. Drawing on years of firsthand experience in both nations, he challenges a prevailing assumption in the U.S. negotiating strategy. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, he managed widespread humanitarian efforts in both Russia and Ukraine. His organization's largest operations center was located in Donbas, the primary battlefield of the war. On the eve of Russia’s 2022 invasion, he used this podcast to predict that Ukraine would mount a fierce and unexpectedly effective resistance, contrary to global expectations of a rapid Russian victory. Time proved that prediction correct. Now, as new peace proposals circulate among world leaders, he warns that another flawed assumption may once again lead policymakers astray. Some of their peace proposals seem to be guided by a belief that Russian‑speaking Ukrainians are naturally aligned with Moscow. In this episode Dr. Armour explains why this assumption is not only inaccurate, but dangerously misleading. He uses this development as a case study in strategic blind spots—how leaders, even at the highest levels, can make consequential decisions based on incomplete or oversimplified assumptions that later prove costly. A PDF transcript of this episode is available at https://www.upsizeyourleadership/transcripts/2511-flawed-assumption.pdf. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

October 30, 202523 min

Business Scorecards Have a Blindspot

In this episode Dr. Mike challenges conventional approaches to performance metrics by highlighting their limitations in a rapidly changing world. Using Nokia’s dramatic fall from market dominance as a cautionary tale, he arguex that traditional business scorecards often measure the wrong things—relying too heavily on past performance to forecast what lies ahead. KPIs and automated scorecards reflect historical success but fail to anticipate emerging threats or shifts in customer sentiment. Examples like Wells Fargo, Blockbuster, and Kodak illustrate how companies can meet internal targets yet lose market trust or miss disruptive trends. To counter this, he proposes a four-dimensional framework that serves as a counterbalance to overdependence on business scorecards: Strategic Foresight – Leaders must scan the horizon for change, test assumptions, and prepare for volatility rather than merely optimize current operations. Cultural Resonance – Leaders must stay emotionally attuned to shifting preferences and purchasing trends among their customer community to assure that their brand still connects meaningfully. Trajectory of Trust – Leaders must view trust as a form of capital that is to be monitored as carefully as any physical asset. Declining trust—internally or externally—is a warning sign that demands attention. Adaptive Capacity – Leaders must develop organizations that learn, unlearn, and relearn quickly. The ability to pivot strategically and culturally is essential for survival. Dr. Mike closes the episode with a reminder that leadership effectiveness depends not just on tracking performance, but on cultivating clarity, trust, and adaptability in the face of uncertainty. A PDF transcript of this podcast is available at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/episodes/2510-biz-scoreboards.htm. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

April 3, 202522 min

Trust: The Key to Customer Loyalty

Building Trust Builds Customer Loyalty Research consistently confirms that customers will pay more for a product or service if they trust the provider. Companies should therefore cease on every opportunity to foster a climate in which trust can flourish. Customer loyalty never takes root where trust in a brand or company is low. And trust takes shape only in settings where ethics are held in high regard. This episode explores five factors which are particularly powerful in determining whether customers will trust a company enough to be loyal to it. These are basically common-sense principles. But it's always worthwhile to be reminded of them so that they are not allowed to languish. A PDF transcript of this program is available at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/episodes/2509-trust-and-loyalty.htm. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

March 19, 202518 min

Postwar Ukraine: The Challenges

The Staggering Challenge of Rebuilding Ukraine For the first time in years, the possibility of peace in Ukraine is in the headlines. Ignored in most media coverage, however, is the immense complexity of getting the country back on its feet economically, industrially, and in terms of fundamental services. In this episode, I examine realities that are unknown by most Americans, but are momentous challenges that Ukraine's postwar government must confront. The price tag for meeting these challenges is as great as the price tag for the war itself. Yet little is said about them -- or known about them -- outside of Europe. Not the least of these issues is a nation that will have a disproportionately small population of young families, which creates demographic imbalance for decades to come. With relatively few young families, Ukraine has an exceptionally small replacement population of children and teens. Rebuilding any economy with a shrinking population is a staggering task. Unlike nations who have made the investment to allow disabled workers to be integrated into the workplace, the infrastructure in Ukraine (and Russia, as well) is horrendously inadequate to accommodate people with physical liabilities. With hundreds of thousands of people now maimed by the war, the available workforce for rebuilding the nation will be terribly lacking in numbers. The podcast takes up other related postwar issues. A transcript is available at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/transcripts/2508-postwar-ukraine.pdf. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

February 14, 202520 min

To Climb the Ladder, Change Your Mindset

Five Essential Mindset Changes as You Climb the Management Ladder Have you known people with tremendous promise as managers or leaders whose careers got derailed and they never rose to the heights that they seemed destined for? No doubt you have. And as a leadership development coach, I’ve seen plenty of them. Of course, we could cite hosts of reasons why this happens. From what I’ve observed, failure to make appropriate change in one of five mindsets may be the single greatest the single greatest contributor to derailed careers. In this episode, I chronicle these five and explain why they are so pivotal in determining how high up the ladder you can climb. A PDF transcript of the program is available at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/transcripts/2507-management-ladder.pdf Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

February 5, 202519 min

Four Pillars of Pacesetting Leadership

Four Things that Pacesetting Leaders Get Right Our business world is not merely competitive. It's hypercompetitive. Run-of-the-mill performance is no longer acceptable. To stay ahead, companies need leaders who build and maintain sustained high performance. Over two decades ago, I began studying leaders who had done that very thing. I started to identify common denominators in organizations – both profit and nonprofit – which had attained exceptional, pacesetting performance. Even more importantly, I began to condense what I learned into models and methodologies which I could share with clients. Along the way, I came to realize that I could categorize the leadership principles for achieving peak performance under four headings: · People Alignment Culture · Engagement Recently I've embarked on developing an online course entitled how to be a PACEsetting leader, with the letters P-A-C-E intentionally capitalized. These letters form an acronym consisting of the first letters of the words people, alignment, culture, and engagement. In this podcast, I survey critical leadership traits under each of those headings. They are indeed the pillars that support PACEsetting leadership. A PDF transcript of this program is available at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/episodes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

January 28, 202518 min

Beneficial Owner Report: Going Away? Or Coming Back?

A Supreme Court Decision That Changed Nothing The Future of the Beneficial Ownership Information Report Remains Uncertain After bouncing around in district and appeals courts for months, the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) and its mandated Beneficial Ownership Information Report had their first day before the Supreme Court this month. On January 23, the Court lifted a temporary restraining order (TRO) which had suspended enforcement of the reporting requirement since December 2. But perhaps for the first time in the history of the Supreme Court, the justices lifted a TRO and their decision made no practical difference whatsoever. I trace this strange development in this episode and lay out the possible scenarios which may play out in the weeks ahead with the CTA. I look at the question, is the Beneficial Ownership Information Report going away? Or coming back? Some 30 million small business owners are waiting to find out. You can download the script for this program at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/transcripts/2505-boi-coming-back.pdf. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices