Show Notes
What separates the best from everyone else isn't talent — it's what they do with failure. At the Navy's elite TOPGUN school, thirty percent of training flights end in failure by design. The question is never whether you'll fall short. The question is how you respond when you do. In this conversation, host Jonathan Kirschner, CEO of AIIR Consulting, welcomes three veterans of naval aviation to A Podcast About Leadership: Mike "Wizzard" McCabe, a former Top Gun instructor, J. Todd Ross, who served as Top Gun's intelligence officer after nearly four years of flying in the backseat of an F-14, Traci Ross, one of the very first women to deploy on a U.S. aircraft carrier in a combat role. All three are now executive coaches who bring the culture of carrier aviation directly into the boardroom. "We, Not Me" as a Culture Strategy — Top Gun's legendary patch means nothing if you're playing for yourself; Wizzard breaks down why culture always defeats tactics, and how one founding principle has held for five decades. The Top Gun Debrief — Goods and others, never strengths and weaknesses: J. Todd unpacks the debrief framework that built a learning culture across an entire military branch — and why civilian organizations still resist it. The Weight of Being First — Traci Ross on carrying the burden of representation, the isolation of being the only woman in a squadron, and why that experience made her a better coach for leaders under scrutiny. Listen, Learn, Then Lead — Why Wizzard's three-word sequence is deliberately ordered, and what happens to organizations when leaders skip the first two steps. Crisis as a Leadership Laboratory — J. Todd Ross on his assignment after 9/11, and why being physically present — with no agenda except care — is sometimes the only leadership that matters. If you lead a team and have wondered why excellence is so hard to sustain, this episode offers a precise and practical answer. The culture that built TOPGUN can be built anywhere — and these three coaches will show you how. To learn more about how AIIR Consulting helps leaders build resilient, high-performing teams, visit aiirconsulting.com.
More from A Podcast About Leadership
What do you do when you inherit a declining company with brilliant people, a powerful mission, and a culture that never learned how to compete? And what if the very thing that could save it — human connection at scale — is the same thing the rest of retail has been quietly eliminating for thirty years? Matt Baer is the CEO of Stitch Fix, the AI-powered personal styling service that pairs algorithmic precision with real human stylists to deliver one-to-one retail experiences at scale. He joined Jonathan Kirschner, CEO of AIIR Consulting and host of A Podcast About Leadership, alongside executive coach and author Jamie Ramsden for a candid conversation about leading from the front — and refusing to take shortcuts. The Anatomy of a Turnaround — Baer walks through the three-phase transformation strategy he built at Stitch Fix: rationalize, rebuild, and return to growth — and why getting the sequence right matters more than moving fast. Retail Is a Competitive Sport — On the danger of complacency, Baer explains why the best retailers live in a state of perpetual transformation and how he worked to embed that fighting mentality into a company that was built more like a tech startup than a retailer. AI as Amplifier, Not Replacement — Stitch Fix's governing philosophy on artificial intelligence isn't about automation — it's about using AI to deepen the human relationship between stylist and client, not dissolve it. The Say-Do Ratio — One of the episode's most memorable concepts: why the gap between what leaders promise and what they deliver is the single clearest measure of trust — and how Baer used it to rebuild confidence with his team, board, and investors. Patience Is Concentrated Strength — Ramsden introduces a Bruce Lee-sourced framework for the hardest moment in any transformation: when the work is done, the system is in motion, and the results haven't shown up yet. If you're leading through change — or about to be handed a situation that demands it — this episode gives you both the map and the honest account of what the terrain actually feels like. The distance between strategy and conviction is where most turnarounds are won or lost. To learn more about how AIIR Consulting helps leaders build resilient, high-performing teams, visit aiirconsulting.com.
What does it take to lead well when nothing is predictable anymore? According to Amanda Poole, Chief People Officer at Bristol Myers Squibb, and Vincent Garufi, VP of HR Innovation, Strategy and Operations at BMS, the answer isn't having a playbook. It's transparency, authenticity, and knowing how to make room for every voice in the room, even the quiet ones. In this episode of A Podcast About Leadership, AIIR CEO Dr. Jonathan Kirschner sits down with Amanda and Vinnie, two senior HR leaders at Bristol Myers Squibb, a 34,000-person company whose mission is transforming patients' lives through science, to talk about what it really takes to lead through change. Amanda shares the story behind Valuably Quiet, a grassroots initiative that started in BMS's research organization to help introverts and quiet contributors show up and add value on their own terms. She's an introvert herself leading a massive global function, and she talks about how that shaped the way BMS now defines high performance. Vinnie brings his own journey from selling power tools to leading HR innovation, and explains why he thinks of himself as a business leader first and an HR leader second. Amanda and Vinnie get into: Why Valuably Quiet became a cultural hallmark instead of just another training module The difference between withholding information to protect people and being genuinely transparent How to lead when change is always on instead of episodic, and why sorting what you can and can't control matters more than ever The courage it takes to say "I don't know" as a senior leader How AI is reshaping the CHRO role from talent steward to workforce architect Why leadership flexibility, curiosity, and resilience are becoming the core skills for the AI era Whether you're managing a small team or leading a global function, this is a candid, in the trenches conversation about building a culture where every voice, loud or quiet, can do great work. Topics covered: inclusion and culture, introverted leadership, transparency, change management, HR strategy, AI and the future of work, executive leadership, workforce transformation. To learn more about how AIIR Consulting helps leaders build resilience and navigate constant change, visit https://aiirconsulting.com.
What separates a great leader from a merely competent one? According to Ken Roberts, President of Atlas Roofing (and a 30 year veteran of Masco Corporation), and executive coach Jamie Ramsden, the answer isn't intelligence, charisma, or having all the answers. It's humility. In this episode of A Podcast About Leadership, host Jonathan Kirschner sits down with Ken Roberts, president of one of North America's leading building materials manufacturers, and CEO coach Jamie Ramsden, author of Let's Go: How Great Leaders Shape the Future, to talk about why humility is the leadership skill most executives overlook, and why it's so often mistaken for weakness. Ken shares the story of the hardest decision of his career: a gut call made during the COVID supply chain crisis with zero hard data behind it. That moment taught him a lesson that's stuck with him ever since. If you're the smartest person in the room, you probably haven't built a great team. Ken and Jamie get into: Why real humility means staying open to being wrong, not staying quiet The difference between delegation and abdication How to avoid getting pulled into "triangulation" and build genuinely collaborative teams The courage it takes to make high stakes decisions without complete information Why energy management, not time management, is the skill nobody warns you about How self awareness and coachability separate leaders who keep growing from those who stall out Whether you're a first time manager or a seasoned executive, this is a grounded, real world conversation about how humility, self awareness, and courage add up to stronger teams and better decisions. Topics covered: executive leadership, humility in leadership, decision making under uncertainty, team building, executive coaching, energy management, servant leadership, CEO advice.
Can real love for your people and the hard decision to let one of them go ever coexist? That's the paradox at the center of this bonus episode of A Podcast About Leadership, where host Jonathan Kirschner, CEO of AIIR Consulting, sits down with his close friend Jamie Ramsden — a former CEO with 25 years of international business experience, executive leadership coach, and author of Let's Go: How Great Leaders Shape the Future. Across a wide-ranging conversation touching life, love, and leadership, the two trade personal stories about the moments that test a leader's identity most: not the strategy decisions, but the human ones. Failure Isn't the Opposite of Success — Jamie explains why the accomplishments people admire most are usually "hatched from failure," and why failure only becomes a gift when it's examined instead of avoided. The Sleepless Night Before the First Firing — Jonathan opens up about the distress of letting go of an employee for the first time, and the surprising clarity that followed once the decision was made. Can You Love Someone and Still Let Them Go? — The conversation's central dilemma: true love is unconditional, but true leadership means actualizing a vision through others — even when that means prioritizing the business over an individual's feelings. Culture Is What You Tolerate — Jonathan shares the costly lesson of giving an underperformer "one more quarter," and the two high performers he lost as a result. Compassion and Hard Calls Aren't Opposites — Why the "how" matters more than the "what," and how leaders can treat people with empathy and sympathy while still making the tough calls no one else can make for them. This bonus episode is for any leader who has ever hesitated to make a hard call out of fear of hurting someone they care about. Jamie and Jonathan make the case that real compassion isn't avoiding the hard conversation — it's how you show up inside it. To learn more about how AIIR Consulting helps leaders navigate the hardest calls in business and in life, visit aiirconsulting.com.
Most organizations are running on the wrong fuel — and they don't know it. The tools leaders reach for most instinctively — competition, incentives, fear, measurement — may be the very things quietly killing the culture they're trying to build. Peter Arthur Smith has spent more than five decades studying, practicing, and quietly refining a theory of leadership that cuts against nearly everything business schools teach. A former British Army captain turned organizational consultant, Smith founded Leadership Solutions in Manhattan in 1994 and has advised leaders across nearly ninety countries. In this episode of A Podcast About Leadership, host Jonathan Kirschner, CEO of AIIR Consulting, sits down with Smith to explore the ideas behind his forthcoming book, The Enlightened Leader. Have To vs. Want To — Smith's central argument: most organizations operate on extrinsic pressure (his SIGFAM model — competition, incentives, goals, fear, accountability, measurement), when the highest-performing cultures are built on intrinsic motivators like purpose, camaraderie, and autonomy. The Five Curses of Conventional Management — Bureaucracy, hierarchy, efficiency obsession, negative messaging, and corruption — Smith names the forces that quietly hollow out organizations, and offers a concrete antidote to each. Periscope Time — Why the most important discipline a leadership team can develop is a structured, recurring practice of looking beyond today — and exactly how to build it. Leading from the Center, Not the Front — Drawing on military history and his own experience commanding troops, Smith makes the case that the most effective leaders are orchestrators, not heroes — and what happens when that distinction collapses. AI as a Leadership Symptom — A striking provocation: the rise of AI as a workforce replacement may be less about technology than about leaders who never learned to lead people in the first place. If you've ever suspected that the pressure-driven management culture around you is producing compliance but not commitment, this conversation will give you language — and a framework — to change it. The gap between conventional management and enlightened leadership is not abstract. It is the difference between an organization that winds itself up and one that slowly runs down. To learn more about how AIIR Consulting helps leaders build resilient, high-performing teams, visit aiirconsulting.com.