100 Episodes of The Communicative Leader: The Century Mark

We celebrate 100 episodes by stripping the archive down into a practical master class on leadership communication, from self-talk and self-doubt to culture, connection, and influence. We trace how the show evolves into a guest-centered leadership library and what that shift teaches us about trading force for shared meaning. 

• the podcast’s growth from a research-to-boardroom bridge into a global community 
• the shift from solo teaching to curating world-class guests and facilitating dialogue 
• three recurring guest lenses: practitioners, academics, and culture shifters 
• moving away from the hero leader toward communication as infrastructure 
• mentoring as a lever for growth, sponsorship, and confidence 
• tools to reduce imposter syndrome, including a wins document and objective evidence 
• ask-not-tell leadership and involving people in the how and why 
• phases for the journey ahead, including adapting across cultures and choosing smart power 
• micro-habits that compound and listening for what isn’t being said 
• self-care as a practical requirement for sustainable leadership 

Now I want you to go out and make your work life what you want it to be. 

Transcript

100 Episodes And The Big Idea

Dr. Leah OH 0:00

Hi, I'm Dr. Leo Million Hodges. I'm known as Dr. O, and this is a really exciting day for me because I have published a hundred episodes of this podcast, The Communicative Leader. We have made it to the century mark, my friends. So in today's episode, episode 101, I'm going to kind of reflect on what we've learned, on the type of guests that we've had, on the trends that we've seen, and what we have planned for you next. So this is a really exciting and humbling moment for me. And thank you for trusting me. I do not take that lightly. So we know that leadership has always been the visible evidence of your invisible competence. But over the last 100 episodes, we discovered that the most powerful tool you possess, it's not your title. It's your voice, my friends. Hello and welcome to the communicative leader, hosted by me, Dr. Leah O'Millian Hodges. My friends call me Dr. O. I'm a professor of communication and a leadership communication expert. On the Communicative Leader, we're working to make your work life what you want it to be. So again, I am Dr. Leah O. In August of 2022, I sat behind a microphone for the first time with a simple goal to bridge that gap between rigorous research and the messy reality of the boardroom. 100 episodes later, that bridge has reached 95 countries, thousands of listeners, and some of the most brilliant minds on the planet. Today we aren't just looking back. We're stripping down a hundred hours of wisdom into a single definitive master class. We're talking about the evolution of power, the silent tax of self-doubt, and why the future of leadership belongs to those who trade force for connection. This is a milestone. This is a shift. This is episode 101, the archive master class. So let's begin. So welcome to episode 101 of the communicative leader. When I pressed record for the first time back in 2022, I was sitting right here thinking about how to bridge that gap. You know, as an academic, I spend so much time in academic theory, and I wanted to connect it with the messy, beautiful reality of leadership. And I had no idea that a hundred episodes later, that bridge would span the entire globe. Today we aren't just celebrating a number, we're celebrating a community. Our data shows that we're currently being heard in 925 cities across 95 countries and territories. Oh my goodness, think about that for a second. Whether you're listening on your commute in New York or Chicago, Boston or Detroit, or you're tuning in from Los Angeles or British Columbia, you are part of this global collective. But the reach goes so much further. We have listeners in Madrid, in Madrid, Valencia, Saxony, to those in London, Liverpool, the borough of Hackney, our community in Dublin and Brussels and Paris. Thank you. We're reaching Helsinki and Copenhagen and Stockholm and Amsterdam. We're in Belgrade and Rome and Milan. My friends, I have goosebumps. We've crossed into Cairo and Tel Aviv. We've landed in Singapore and Tokyo and Bangkok, Hong Kong. We have listeners in Marrakesh and in Moscow. From San Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro to Mexico City, right? We've even rich reached Saipan, San Juan, and the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. Whether you're in Alberta, Quebec, or Brisbane, the data's clear. 49% of you listen on your mobile devices. Likely while you're in the thick of your day, 44% of you are sitting at your computers in places like Cambridge or Bavaria taking notes and doing the hard work of leading. You are the 95 countries that prove leadership communication is a universal language of our time. So now I want to pull the curtain back on how we actually got here because the evolution of the show has mirrored the very leadership journey that we talk about every week. This podcast began modestly, and in many ways it really still is. It is just me. It is fueled by coffee and curiosity. Though I have been joined by two incredible interns along the way who have helped build the backbone of the show. Huge shout out to Michael Slowick and J.Leban. Thank you for helping me keep the lights on and the audio moving, especially in those early days. When season one launched, it was mostly just me behind the mic. And at that time, I had just reached a massive milestone in my day job. I earned my promotion to full professor. And in the world of academia, that's essentially the final summit. It represents over a decade of rigorous peer-reviewed research and survival, really. And while I deeply value my scholarly work and I'm still doing it, I found myself craving an outlet. I wanted a space to share what I was learning and working through outside the Ivory Tower. And in those early days, I was essentially answering the frequently asked questions of my life. I was taking the questions I heard from friends, from my students at Western Michigan University, the companies I was consulting with, and I was putting the answers down into episodes. It was my voice, my research, and my reflections. And then came the pivot. Season two is where the engine really started to hum. We brought on more guests, though I was still very much leading the way, but by season three, less than a year after we started, the show underwent a fundamental transformation. Every episode became guest-centered. It was a huge moment for me personally. I realized that the best way to serve you, the listener, wasn't just to give you my answers and my perspective, but to step back and welcome these world-class experts into the room. I shifted from being the sole source of information to just being a facilitator. And since then, we've seen this clear trend in messaging. Leadership is a collaborative dialogue. Whether we're talking to Melissa Dinwiddy about creativity, we're talking to Croft Edwards about presence, the trend over a hundred episodes has been a move towards evidence-based empathy. We're taking the hard data of organizational communication and leadership and humanizing it through these global conversations. We've really moved from what do I say to who are we becoming together? And that leads us to what I'm thinking of as a leadership library. As I mentioned, the real magic happened when I stepped back and started curating the genius, the insights, the experiences of others. And again, over a hundred episodes. We've built more than a podcast. We've built a leadership library. When I was thinking about it, getting ready for this episode, I was thinking we essentially have three distinct types of voices. We have our group one, our practitioners, our how-to experts. First, we have the practitioners, the people in the trenches making leadership happen every day. We have looked at strategic clarity and trust with Andrew Oxley. We've explored leadership presence. We've had John Gallagher on unleashing common, uncommon leadership. Jen Drummond, who took us from catastrophe to the summit of K2. They provided the how for our listeners in London and Tokyo and Chicago who need to lead that meeting tomorrow morning. Group two, our academics, our researchers, our data-driven voices. You know, this is my home base, right? The researchers. Because we are an evidence-based show, I've been honored to host voices that bring the data. We've had Dr. Alex Lyon, Dr. Julianne Miraval mapping out blueprints for effective communication. We've looked at manager metaphors with Dr. Scott Schenk and explored business ethics with Dr. Ryan Beisel. These conversations ensure that what we discuss, it's not just good advice, it is proven data-driven strategy. It's that difference between a gut feeling and a validated framework. And our third group, the culture shifters. These are the folks who are really good at pushing boundaries at extending them. These guests have challenged us to think about who's in the room and how they feel. We've had Dr. John Fry teaching us conflict literacy and Bernadette Smith on inclusive excellence. We've explored the silent tax with unique hurdles for women in STEM with experts like Dr. Megan Grunert, Kowalski, and Julie Sturza. We've even looked at the intersection of leadership and wellness with experts like licensed professional counselor Christine Sugg and Dr. Rosina McAlpine. When you look at this a hundred-episode archive, the trend is undeniable. We have moved away from the hero leader, that one person at the top with all the answers. Instead, we're moving toward communication as infrastructure. So if you go back to those very first episodes in August of 2022, my definition of a communicative leader was centered on the individual. It was about efficiency and assessment. And I've always said that communication is the yardstick others use to judge your leadership. And I still believe that is true. It is the visible evidence, again, of your invisible competence. We can't see that competence inside, but it becomes visible when you start communicating these verbals and these nonverbals. We've moved from talking about personal charisma to talking about conversations as cultural infrastructure. We've moved from kind of getting it done to unlocking momentum with Norman Wolfe. We aren't just talking about speeches anymore. We're talking about literacy. We're talking about navigating the invisible load of burnout. The communicative leader today isn't just someone who speaks well. They are an architect of shared meaning. So how do we put this into practice, my friends? If I had to distill 100 hours of conversation into a masterclass for you, it starts with the lessons from our number one all-time episode, mentoring and overcoming imposter syndrome. Even as a full professor and as a leadership coach, I've learned that the first person you have to communicate effectively with is yourself. And that can be really, really challenging. You can't amplify your leadership voice externally if it's still being muffled internally by self-doubt. So a few things that I want to pull out for you. The power of developmental relationships is clear. Relationships are essential. Again, the data is crystal clear here. Those with mentors earn higher salaries, they get promoted more frequently, they report higher job satisfaction. What about for our mentors? You, my friends, are hitting the peak of Mazlow's pyramid, that self-actualization through giving back. And when we think about mentors, we typically have two functions. So we have that psychosocial function, that is a role modeling, offering acceptance to our mentees, kind of counseling them, bonding with them, developing trust, maintaining that trust. Then we also have the career function aspect where we're helping to sponsor them, right? We're throwing their name in the ring for a new assignment or project lead. We are coaching them. If it happens, we're protecting them, right? We're shielding from backlash and we're offering them challenging assignments, so stretch assignments where it is doable, but it's going to be hard and it's going to be worth it. And so the simplest path to empowering your team is not to ask. Is I'm sorry, I got that wrong, is to ask, not tell. Wow. When you involve people in how, in the how and the why, what we see is a 93% success rate compared to the traditional 30% when we just bark orders. And that is how we can start to send imposter syndrome packing. Own your accomplishments. Look at objective evidence. Look at your resume, look at your CV. I encourage everyone to have a Wins document, whether it is a note on your phone, whether it is a document on your computer, whether it's something that you journal about before bed, it is what went well today. You know, and these don't have to be huge home rounds. It can be, you know, I got through those emails, right? I I was really proud of how I interacted with colleagues in that, in that contentious meeting. Right. So own those accompliments, return to them, stop comparing, right? Comparison is a thief to your own progress. Doesn't matter what others are doing. As long as you have a goal and you're making intentional steps toward it, you are succeeding. And again, I cannot stress the importance of tracking your wins. Keep that win list where it is handy. Other thing I want you to think about when we're still considering mentoring, when we're thinking about defeating imposter syndrome, it's a pygmalian effect. And what this concept tells us is that high expectations lead to high performance. What you expect from yourself and for your team, you're more likely to achieve it. So again, set that high goal. Make sure it's attainable, right? We don't want to set ourselves up to be unsuccessful with something that is not realistic, is not actually able to be accomplished with our resources or with the timing. But set that high expectation that is doable, but it is going to ask a lot of you, and you're more likely to get there. So now I want us to kind of think about you know the journey ahead. What is that? So I divided this into a couple phases. So phase one, find your footing, big mountains, take big teams, prioritize people over peaks. If that path is blocked, acclimatize. Seek life integration, not balance. One thing I think about often is from John Gallagher, and he talked about identifying the glass balls, you know, like family in your life. Protect them at all costs. Rubber balls, like maybe that project you really want to get out, but it's okay if it waits another day or another week. It's not gonna break. We drop family, drop the ball on family, that glass ball, that one's gonna break and do some damage, right? Phase two, expanding the horizon. I want you to adjust that global and that cultural lens. I want you to stop minimizing differences and start adapting to them. We think about communication accommodation theory, and it is a simple theory and one where it's acknowledging the best communicators, right? And when we have the strongest communicators, they're also demonstrating the strongest leadership skills. They are the ones who will adjust to meet their relationship partner, to reach the person that they're connecting with rather than expecting others to accommodate to them. When we take that step back and we start to adapt to others rather than asking them to always meet our needs, it is going to be really fun when you recognize all of the benefits that come with that. Trade force for smart power. Real power is found in the courage to merge, to collaborate, to create a third, you know, a third alternative, a third transformative reality. Vulnerability is a superpower. It can be really scary. But again, culture eat strategy for breakfast. These are some of these thoughtful takeaways from these conversations you've had over the last few years. Phase four, the communicative edge. I want you to choose clarity over complexity. I want you to get used to asking others what we should do here? What are your thoughts? What am I missing? Right? What what haven't we considered? Don't just tell them. And as Jen Drummond would say, check your ropes early. Small course correction today can save you from being a mile off course tomorrow or down the road. And that leads us to phase five, mastery and legacy. To lead others, you must first lead yourself. And again, we we talked about that own your win list. View failure as a springboard. When you are committing to, you know, lifelong learning, to playing the long game. I really want you to think about those natural talents, those natural strengths, and exhaust those gifts, right? They are things that you can lean into. Those are things that are going to benefit you that allow you then to help build up some of these areas that maybe we're not as strong with. For example, maybe you're a really skilled verbal communicator. You have the gift of gab. You can walk into a meeting, you can chat with anyone. There's not going to be an awkward lull because you are able to skillfully navigate that. But maybe active listening is a little trickier, right? So we lean, we exhaust that gift of our gift of gab, but at the same time recognize that, hey, when we're doing all that talking means that we're not necessarily leaving the space for others, right? And that it gives us a chance to flip that and consider we can lead better in that instance when we're practicing active listening as well. So a few other things I want you to consider. Lead with or without the title. We've said this from day one. Leadership, if we strip it down to its most basic definition, it is to influence. You don't need permission to be the most influential or the most helpful or the most insightful person in the room. You don't need to go through an interview process for that or take on the stress and responsibility of leading others. Again, you are always leading. You don't need a title to do so. I also want you to think about the power of the microhabit. Real change, it's not sexy. It is built in small, boring moments. It is that five-minute transition between meetings to stay present, right? So I want you thinking about what these small things are, whether it is a reflection at the end of the day where you're driving home or where you're logging off of your device, whether it is taking that moment every day to jot down a win, small or large, whether it is taking the time after you're leading big meetings to ask for feedback, ask, ask your team what went well, what could have gone better. There are these small things, these microhabits that with time compound and end up, you know, allowing us to level up. Also, I want you to think about the importance of listening for what isn't being said. And I know that sounds it sounds pretty tricky, but I want you to name the silence in the room. And it can be a comfortable silence where we know that we have this gift of psychological safety. We could throw innovative ideas at the wall and no one's going to ridicule us. But we can also recognize in other instances, whether it's in our team or certain meetings or ad hoc groups we're part of, that silence can be deafening. It can be very uncomfortable. We can recognize that it can be very harmful as well. So I don't want you to only listen, rely on what people are saying. Think about how that room feels. Back in episode one, we did an episode, or I'm sorry, back in season one, we did an episode on reading the room. And I believe that was with my good friend, Dr. Jen Patasic, who is so brilliant, so insightful. And she walks us through a lot of these elements that we should be aware of. If that is a way, again, if you're a titled leader, check in, see how that feels, ask people. If you're not, look and see if if it's a group you're not really enjoying being part of, it might be because of what's not being said, that safety isn't there. At the end of the day, I want you to be successful. But I don't want you to feel like you are being spent, like you are wringing out all that you have. So use those gifts to make your community, your team, your projects a better space. But remembering we can't give what we don't have. So we've spent a lot of time, we've talked to a lot of great leaders, you know, who are talking to us about the importance of self-care and how that is different for all of us. And it doesn't have to be expensive and it doesn't have to be a luxury. I was thinking about a conversation with Christine Sugg, who's a licensed professional counselor. And it can be as small as, okay, I'm gonna have a, I'm gonna take a few minutes to have a coffee break, right? And that can be the self-care that you need to kind of get through the afternoon. So again, we look back over those last hundred episodes. We're witnessing the slow, necessary death of command and control and kind of the birth of a more human, people-centered area. We're moving away from being the bottleneck to being the architect and from managing things to leading people. So I am so excited to share what we already have. And also to tell you, we have the next two seasons well in hand. Season 10, we have John Muller, we have Derek Chevrolet, in season 11, Neil Ford, Sue Hawks, right? We're we have this lead like a guide philosophy. We're going to be talking about the ROI of kindness. And as we close out this milestone, I want to speak to heart to heart. I've spent nearly two decades as a researcher. I've written articles and five books or four books, and I'm working on my fifth. My most recent book, Amplifying Your Leadership Voice. But besides parenting, the most transformative classroom I've stepped into is this podcast. I am beyond grateful for the way the show has reshaped my perspective. Thank you for trusting me, for walking alongside me, for sticking with me as we head into the next hundred episodes. It is an honor to grow with you. I am Dr. Leah O. This has been a special 101 episode. It is a retrospective of the communicative leader. Remember, leadership, it's not a destination, it is a conversation. And now I want you to go out and make your work life what you want it to be. All right, my friends, that wraps up our conversation today. Until next time, communicate with intention and lead with purpose. I'm looking forward to chatting with you again soon on the Communicative Leader.