Chain of Learning: Leadership Strategies for Transforming Culture, Developing People, and Getting Results

Your leadership style isn't the problem. Your default is.

The gap between how you're leading and what the person in front of you actually needs is one of the most common and most invisible places leaders get stuck. Most of us default to one mode and don't notice the mismatch until something breaks down.

Suzie Bishop has spent over a decade at the Center for Leadership Studies helping leaders close that gap and strengthen their leadership effectiveness. Her new book, Situational Leadership, puts nearly sixty years of research into a practical framework for reading the situation, building leadership flexibility, and adapting your approach.

Suzie walks through the four leadership styles, how to read what someone needs in a given situation, and how to adapt your approach to coach, develop leaders, and lead through influence.

The best leaders don't pick one style and commit. They pause, assess the situation, and flex to have the impact you intend.

You’ll Learn:
Why "leadership is influence" reframes how you lead, and why influence has nothing to do with manipulation or control
How to diagnose what someone needs, and why one person can require four different approaches in the same conversation
How leadership flexibility and adaptability differ—and why knowing the styles isn't the same as knowing when to use them
Why only asking coaching questions can leave people stuck, and how to know when to step in with more directive leadership
How the "power of the pause" helps you move from reacting out of habit to adapting with intention
ABOUT MY GUEST:
Suzie Bishop is VP of Product Development at The Center for Leadership Studies. She's a Certified Professional in Training Management, a Stakeholder Centered Coach, and a Marshall Goldsmith 100 Coach. Suzie is co-author of Situational Leadership: The Model for Leading Others, Navigating Change and Unlocking Performance and is currently writing her next book, Match: How to Meet Leaders Where They Are, with Marshall Goldsmith.

IMPORTANT LINKS:
Full episode show notes: ChainOfLearning.com/81 
Connect with Suzie Bishop: linkedin.com/in/suzie-bishop 
Purchase a copy: Situational Leadership: The Model for Leading Others, Navigating Change and Unlocking Performance by Suzie Bishop and Sam Shriver
Match: How to Meet Leaders Where They Are by Suzie Bishop and Marshall Goldsmith (November 2026)
Learn more about The Center for Leadership Studies: situational.com
Follow me on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kbjanderson 
Subscribe to my newsletter: kbjanderson.com/newsletter 
Check out my website for resources and working together: KBJAnderson.com 
Join us on the Japan Leadership Experience: KBJAnderson.com/japantrip 
TIMESTAMPS FOR THIS EPISODE:
02:52 Why leadership is influence, not control
04:43 Creating the conditions without controlling
06:51 What Situational Leadership looks like in practice
07:35 Flexibility vs. adaptability: the critical difference
07:48 The four Situational Leadership styles
11:41 How to recognize your natural leadership tendency
13:08 When asking questions isn’t effective coaching
16:46 How to be directive without taking away ownership
17:37 The cost of not adapting how you lead
21:37 Why organizations need a common leadership language
24:05 Creating the conditions for people to ask for help
25:24 The leadership challenge even top executives struggle with
29:06 How to give direction without taking over
30:33 Influence versus control when you have authority
31:06 Three types of power that shape your influence
32:51 Why trust is your most important source of power
36:02 The difference between flexibility and adaptability
37:08 Practice an intention pause before you respond

Enter for your chance to win a copy of Suzie Bishop's book "Situational Leadership" before August 14th at 11:45pm Pacific Time.

How many problems are actually visible in your organization?

Research shows senior leaders see just 4%. The other 96% stay hidden — invisible, yet still there. And some aren't even recognized by employees as problems anymore, because they have become the norm.

We all say we want psychological safety. But you don't get it by saying you want it. People-centered leadership is about creating conditions for people to speak up and highlight issues by how you, and leaders across your system, respond.

Recorded live with a group of global leaders participating in my Japan Leadership Experience in May 2026, this special episode celebrates the sixth anniversary of Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn. You'll hear Isao Yoshino, a 40-year Toyota leader and the subject of my book, reflect on three of the book's most talked-about stories.

These examples bring two of Toyota's mottos to life, "bad news first" and "no problem is a problem," and show why a leader's response is what turns problems into a culture of improvement:
How his manager's response to a huge paint-shop mistake in his first months at Toyota shaped how he saw a leader's role
How andon — signaling a problem and stopping the line — changed the culture at NUMMI
How he found the courage to highlight his failing water ski boat business to President Fujio Cho
Whether on the front line or in the boardroom, creating the conditions where bad news comes first, and support follows, is what builds a culture of excellence.

You’ll Learn:
Why a leader's response to a mistake is fundamental to effective leadership and matters more than the mistake itself
The two actions behind a bad-news-first culture: respond down to help, not blame, and signal up when something's off course
Why andon is a leadership practice, not just a factory signal, that works from the shop floor to the executive suite
What the NUMMI turnaround shows about culture change: people adopt a better way when they discover it, not when they're told
Why "thank you for this mistake" is the keystone move for building psychological safety
ABOUT MY GUEST:
Isao Yoshino spent forty years at Toyota, from the late 1960s to the early 2000s, where he helped shape the people-centered learning culture the company is known for today. He was a key leader in the Kan-Pro senior-management development program and led the training of the American managers at NUMMI, the Toyota-GM joint venture, where he hired John Shook. He is the subject of Katie Anderson's Shingo Publication Award-winning book, Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn.

IMPORTANT LINKS:
Full episode show notes: ChainOfLearning.com/80
Order your copy of Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn: LearningToLeadLeadingToLearn.com
Follow me on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kbjanderson
Subscribe to my newsletter: kbjanderson.com/newsletter
Check out my website for resources and working together: KBJAnderson.com
Join us on the Japan Leadership Experience: KBJAnderson.com/japantrip
TIMESTAMPS FOR THIS EPISODE:
02:18 Andon: Why a leader's response matters
03:16 The paint mistake that shaped Mr. Yoshino's leadership
05:28 Why Mr. Yoshino was thanked for his mistake
09:34 The leadership lesson that lasted 40 years
11:22 Why Toyota starts every leader on the front line
12:18 Inside the early days of NUMMI
17:13 Why workers were afraid to stop the line
23:34 What changed the culture at NUMMI
24:40 Why leaders only see 4% of problems
25:16 Responding down instead of blaming
25:50 Asking for help at the leadership level
28:43 Why President Cho flew to a failing business
34:17 The power of bad news first
35:54 Mr. Yoshino's biggest leadership regret
38:19 When doing it yourself becomes the problem
39:05 The response that creates culture
40:28 The two behaviors every leader needs
42:02 Two questions to reflect on this week

Enter for your chance to win a copy of Suzie Bishop's book "Situational Leadership" before August 14th at 11:45pm Pacific Time.

Efficiency and cost savings aren't what makes operational excellence last. People are.

The leaders who create enduring, high-performing organizations are after something beyond business results. They want a company where people end the day more capable, more confident, more energized than when it began. That's the difference between a workplace that wears people down and one that builds powerful people.
Gary Peterson spent more than 30 years building that kind of culture of continuous improvement at OC Tanner. But the hardest part wasn't creating the systems or processes to get better outcomes. It was his own transformation — coming to see how, without meaning to, he'd become the leader getting in his people's way.
Put people first, and the results follow. 
And the deepest transformation you'll ever lead is your own.
You’ll Learn:
Why operational excellence only lasts when leaders focus on building people, not just cutting costs and eliminating waste
Why the best leaders make an identity shift from being the expert with every answer to creating the conditions for others to solve problems
What it takes to move managers from enforcers to coaches and make continuous improvement something your team never fears, even as roles and headcount shift
How to influence real organizational change when you have no authority to make anyone follow
Why so many leaders give up on culture change too soon, and how long it really takes
ABOUT MY GUEST:
Gary Peterson spent more than 30 years at OC Tanner, where he held leadership roles across manufacturing, marketing, and operations, most recently as Executive Vice President of Supply Chain and Manufacturing. He led the people-first transformation that earned OC Tanner the Shingo Prize and made it one of the few companies Toyota holds up as a global showcase for its system outside automotive. Gary is an Association for Manufacturing Excellence Hall of Fame inductee.
IMPORTANT LINKS:
Full episode show notes: ChainOfLearning.com/79 
Connect with Gary Peterson: linkedin.com/in/garypeterson 
Follow me on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kbjanderson 
Subscribe to my newsletter: kbjanderson.com/newsletter 
Check out my website for resources and working together: KBJAnderson.com 
Join me on the Japan Leadership Experience: KBJAnderson.com/japantrip
TIMESTAMPS FOR THIS EPISODE:
03:44 Why Toyota saw something different at OC Tanner
05:02 The real purpose of operational excellence
07:19 How Gary knew the culture was changing
09:00 Creating people who change the world
12:13 The outcome every leader should want
13:07 Two pillars that shaped the journey
14:26 Breaking a culture of fear and control
15:35 The five-minute habit that changed everything
17:15 Redefining what it means to be a manager
19:12 Why transformation takes longer than you think
20:05 What to do when leaders don't support the change
22:26 The experiment that almost got shut down
24:19 Helping managers make the coaching shift
25:23 When people outgrow their leaders
28:28 Why improvement should never threaten jobs
30:23 The manager who couldn't stop yelling
32:23 The leadership habit that destroys ownership
35:35 Becoming the leader you never wanted to be
37:00 The habit that was holding people back
38:01 The executive behavior that shuts people down
40:07 Proving your worth vs. creating conditions
45:37 Showing results isn't the same as showing people
49:53 Where transformation really begins
51:16 The question every leader should ask about their people
53:34 When helping starts limiting growth
55:14 The shift that made everything else possible

Enter for your chance to win a copy of Suzie Bishop's book "Situational Leadership" before August 14th at 11:45pm Pacific Time.

Have you poured months into a strategy your team couldn't bring to life? Or watched capable people work harder than ever, and still struggle to pull together as a team?

High performance isn't about a better strategy, more talent, or longer hours. It's about how your team works together, every single day.
Karina Mangu-Ward, author of Teams That Meet the Moment, has spent more than a decade helping complex organizations redesign the messy day-to-day of how people actually get things done together. Her belief: good everyday teaming habits are both good for people and good for results. You don't have to choose between them.
Making this real doesn't require a reinvention. You just need the right structure and the intention to show up differently. In this episode, Karina shares simple, tangible practices you can use in your very next meeting or strategic project.

You’ll Learn:
The three lies leaders tell themselves about teamwork, and why believing them holds your team back
How the framework of the "Even Over" ends the swirl when your team is stuck choosing between two competing options
Why creating a "Safe to Try" process gets a team unstuck when you're chasing consensus and certainty
What a steady team cadence unlocks when everything around you feels like an emergency
The instinct nearly every high performer has to unlearn before they can build a team that thrives
ABOUT MY GUEST:

Karina Mangu-Ward is a partner at August Public, an organizational change consultancy that helps large, complex organizations build more human-centered ways of working, whose clients include PepsiCo, Planned Parenthood, and Sundance. She's the author of Teams That Meet the Moment: 9 Practices for Unlocking Performance and Growth in Uncertain Times. Karina's passion is helping groups navigate complexity, gain insight, and unlock highly complex challenges.
IMPORTANT LINKS:
Full episode show notes: ChainOfLearning.com/78 
Connect with Karina: linkedin.com/in/karina-mangu-ward 
Purchase a copy of Karina's book: Teams That Meet the Moment
Learn more about Karina’s company: aug.co 
Take the Team assessment: assessment.aug.co 
Follow me on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kbjanderson 
Subscribe to my newsletter: kbjanderson.com/newsletter 
Check out my website for resources and working together: KBJAnderson.com 
Join us on the Japan Leadership Experience: KBJAnderson.com/japantrip 
TIMESTAMPS FOR THIS EPISODE:
03:01 Why great strategy still fails
04:13 The hustle culture myth that's burning teams out
05:20 Everyday habits drive extraordinary teams
07:11 Meeting the moment in uncertain times
09:13 The "Safe to Try" mindset that breaks gridlock
11:18 Setting guardrails without limiting innovation
12:06 Why small bets outperform big risks
13:29 Unlearning the need to have the answer
15:17 Why sticky practices beat complicated frameworks
17:16 Simple retrospectives that strengthen learning
20:19 The surprising cost of treating everything like an emergency
22:09 Using "Even Over" to make better trade-offs
25:28 Intention over reaction in decision-making
30:32 When perfection becomes procrastination
31:53 Why working in public accelerates learning
34:22 The power of stories over instruction
37:08 Intention + practice = better leadership
39:14 What trade-off do you need to make?

Enter for your chance to win a copy of Suzie Bishop's book "Situational Leadership" before August 14th at 11:45pm Pacific Time.

Joy isn't a perk. It's a business strategy.
Have you ever wondered whether work has to feel this hard? Whether the team you've built can actually function without you? Whether there's a way to lead that doesn't burn you — or your people — out?

Rich Sheridan built Menlo Innovations around one bold idea: ending human suffering in the workplace. The result is a company where joy isn't a slogan. It's how things actually get done. It's a place built on collaboration, human energy, and pride in what people create together.

Joy isn't constant happiness. It's the long arc of meaning and contribution alongside people who care. And it becomes possible the moment you stop being the center of every problem and start creating the conditions for ownership, continuous learning, and yes, joy.
You don't have to change the world. You just have to change your world.
You’ll Learn:
The mistake most leaders make about mistakes, and why more mistakes can get you ahead faster
Why what looks like a questionable decision from below makes sense from above
The difference between joy and happiness, and why most leaders are chasing the wrong thing
Why running a small experiment will move you further than creating the perfect plan
What it really takes to build a company designed to last a hundred years
ABOUT MY GUEST:
Rich Sheridan is the co-founder, CEO, and Chief Storyteller of Menlo Innovations, a software development and consulting firm known for its people-centered culture and focus on joy in the workplace. He is the author of Joy, Inc. and Chief Joy Officer and was inducted into the Shingo Academy in 2022 for his contributions to organizational excellence.
IMPORTANT LINKS:
Full episode show notes: ChainOfLearning.com/77
Connect with Rich Sheridan: linkedin.com/in/menloprez
Follow me on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kbjanderson
Subscribe to my newsletter: kbjanderson.com/newsletter
Check out my website for resources and working together: KBJAnderson.com
Join us on the Japan Leadership Experience: KBJAnderson.com/japantrip
Purchase a copy of Rich's books: Joy, Inc. and Chief Joy Officer
Learn more about Menlo Innovations: menloinnovations.com
Tugboat Institute: tugboatinstitute.com
TIMESTAMPS FOR THIS EPISODE:
02:37 When work no longer feels sustainable
05:26 The moment Rich realized the problem wasn't technology
07:27 What an 8-year-old noticed about leadership
08:23 Why hero-based organizations scale through exhaustion
09:39 When caring becomes carrying
12:21 The codependency leaders develop with crises
14:09 What joy at work actually means
17:13 Working with pride and delighting customers
19:17 Why human energy is a leadership responsibility
21:00 What's the cost of not having joy?
23:28 From constant firefighting to two emergencies in 25 years
25:24 Joy vs. happiness: What's the difference?
27:02 Why joy isn't happiness every day
32:17 The phrase that keeps Menlo moving forward
34:15 The leadership lesson Rich learned from flying
40:39 Why Menlo isn't chasing exponential growth
43:02 The book that changed Rich's career
45:18 Why crisis practices work when there isn't a crisis
47:28 Why your system keeps producing the same results
49:38 The shift from carrying to creating conditions for change leadership
51:46 Why stepping in can hold people back

Enter for your chance to win a copy of Suzie Bishop's book "Situational Leadership" before August 14th at 11:45pm Pacific Time.