From technical expert to leader of people
Guests who rose on technical skill describe finding that leading means focusing people rather than supplying answers, admitting what they don't know, and supporting new managers. Most of it comes from EMBA graduates and women founders speaking about themselves, not from Petro.
How it developed: It moves from a business improvement practitioner's advice (2018) to first-person shifts told by EMBA graduates (2020–2022). It closes with women founders leading teams whose technical work they don't do themselves.
The thread's title and description are AI-written, drawn from the episodes below. The quotations are verbatim from the episode audio, each linked to the moment it was said.
What was said
“So a big shift that we want to get people to make is, particularly at the leadership level, is pull away from solutions, be, be more capable in the area of focusing people on the right things,”
“I realized I knew so little about people. I was, you know, I was so skilled in everything else.”
“many organizations, leaders kind of are just chosen from individuals within the organization, not necessarily based on leadership capability or leadership skills, but because they've either been there longest or because they're the best accountant or best engineer.”
“understanding that as the leader, you don't have to have all the answers.”
“We're not very good at training our managers. And our managers are so important because they are the culture translators from the C-suite to employees.”
“you don't have to be able to do the job to know how it needs to be done well, and you can still guide that process.”
Episodes in this thread
- #004 George Lee Sye | Intersection between change management and business improvement 30 March 2018
- #016 Kosheek Sewchurran | Creating worlds through conversation 13 July 2020
- #020 Chris Smith | Finding happiness at work 16 June 2022
- #023 Harnessing shared leadership to improve strategic coherence | Jordan Ludlow 18 July 2022
- #043 We Need New Leaders | Charlotte Otter 9 September 2025
- #048 The Accidental Entrepreneur | Carmel Peinke 2 June 2026