Scope creep and remote communication are two of the biggest challenges facing distributed teams, and this episode's guest deals with both daily. Sarah DeSimone made an unusual career jump from biology to book editing to IT support at a 33-office environmental consulting firm, and she's picked up a lot along the way about what makes cross-functional communication actually work.

We talk about the gap between how IT gets looped into projects (usually last) versus how it should work, why writing everything down is the single most effective scope creep prevention tool her team uses, and how tools like Teams and AI-generated meeting transcripts help teams stay aligned across offices spread from New England to New Mexico.

Sarah also shares how her company held onto culture through COVID and the "great resignation," why face time still matters even in a highly virtual company, and her take on the third-place spaces kids and communities have lost, and why that connects to how we build trust and rapport as adults.

Her closing communication advice ties directly back to the core idea of this show: the way you understand a message is not the same as the way the person next to you understands it, and building that awareness into how you communicate changes everything.

Have ideas for a show topic? Drop me a line and make a suggestion. I'd love to explore the topic and whether or not you would like to be the guest to discuss it!

Improv is more than a hobby, it's one of the best leadership training tools out there. In this solo episode, I break down how personality traits, specifically introversion and extroversion, shape both improv performance and business communication.

I recently auditioned for a house improv team (I made it) and a musical improv team (still recovering from the nerves), and it got me thinking about the Myers-Briggs dimensions and how directly they map onto what happens on stage, and in meetings.

Introverts tend to want a complete thought before they speak, both in improv and at work. That's a strength, it means better listening and closer observation. But it can also mean missing the moment to contribute before the conversation moves on. Extroverts think out loud, which helps them stay engaged and responsive, but can mean talking over others or jumping in before a scene, or an idea, has had time to develop.

I share the improv saying "follow your feet," a practical meeting tip that helps introverts and extroverts prepare differently for the same conversation, and why I think everyone in business, yes, even the terrified ones, should try an improv class at least once.

Next week: an interview on leading cross-functional teams. Coming up in future solo episodes: the rest of the Myers-Briggs dimensions and their connection to improv, plus an interview with a neurodivergent improv coach.

Got a personality trait you want me to dig into next? Email me: JDoran@neuroconversantleadership.com

Chapters

00:00Introduction to improv and business connection

02:10Understanding Myers-Briggs introversion and extroversion

03:42How personality traits influence improv performance

05:08Benefits of introversion in improv and business

06:51Challenges faced by extroverts in improv

08:48Practical applications of improv for leadership and meetings

10:56Encouragement to try improv for business growth

12:10Upcoming topics and future episodes

Overcoming imposter syndrome is one of the biggest hidden challenges in leadership. In this episode, executive coach and speaker Mark Pittman joins Jeremy Doran to talk about why almost every leader deals with imposter syndrome, and why that feeling might actually mean you're growing instead of failing.

Mark shares a line that stuck with him: it's only imposters who don't get imposter syndrome. We break down what "fake it till you make it" really means once you strip away the hustle culture baggage, and why Mark reframes it as strategic vulnerability instead.

We also dig into one of the hardest shifts in leadership: moving from being the person who does the work to being the person who builds a team that does the work. Mark tells the story of a former boss who made his team's growth the real product, and never made it about himself.

Other topics we cover: how psychological safety gets built through small, low-stakes mistakes, why the person who asks the questions controls the conversation, and why debriefing after wins matters as much as debriefing after failures.

If you've ever felt like the only one without it figured out, this conversation on leadership, imposter syndrome, and psychological safety is for you.

Connect with Mark Pittman at https://concordleadershipgroup.com/ or https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcapitman/

Got a question about imposter syndrome or leadership coaching you want covered on a future episode? Email ⁠JDoran@neuroconversantleadership.com⁠

On October 1st, 2013, healthcare.gov launched and crashed within hours. It wasn't a coding problem. It was a coordination problem.

A dozen different people all claimed to be in charge of the project. CMS believed one contractor was the lead integrator. That contractor didn't agree. Everyone shared the same goal, launch on time, but nobody had agreed on what success actually looked like or who got to make the call when priorities collided.

In this episode I break down what went wrong at healthcare.gov and how an engineer on loan from Google turned it around in about two months, not by touching the code, but by fixing how people talked to each other. Two daily standups. No finger pointing. Knowledge determines who talks, not rank.

I also touch briefly on the UK's National Savings and Investment Project as another example of the same pattern, then get into the three things every team needs when multiple people or organizations have to work together: a clear decision making process, upfront and ongoing agreement on success criteria, and the ability for anyone to speak up without fear of recrimination.If your team shares a goal but keeps hitting friction underneath it, this episode is for you.

Links to this week's article on stakeholder alignment: https://neuroconversantleadership.com/stakeholder-alignment-takes-more-than-just-common-goals/

More on the healthcare.gov turnaround: https://www.4sighthealth.com/healthcare-govs-death-defying-2013-launch-implications-govt-led-payment-reform/

The book is out. And I'm both relieved and completely in my head about it.

In this solo episode, I get honest about launch week. The marketing company sent more messages than I ever would have, and it made me feel icky watching people opt out. I hit the Amazon bestseller list, which felt great. And I got the kind of compliment on the book I never expected, from someone who's turned down thirty other requests for the same thing.

None of that fully quieted the voice asking if the book is actually any good.

So I looked into the research on imposter syndrome, and it turns out it shows up in two very different ways. One is the fear of looking unqualified, which stops people from asking questions. The other is not being able to accept it when you've actually succeeded. I don't have the first one. I ask questions all the time. I've got the second one, bad.

I share what I found, including a Stanford-based systematic review covering 14,000 people and a separate MIT study on how imposter thoughts actually show up at work, and what it means for how I'm handling compliments (badly) and asking for business (also badly, but for a different reason).

Email me at JDoran@neuroconversantleadership.com and tell me: which version do you carry?

Link to the study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31848865/

Sixty two percent of managers say they struggle to work with Gen Z. Forty five percent of Gen Z say they don't know how to make themselves visible to their managers. Something is getting lost in translation.

In this episode I talk with Anjan Kasi, CEO of Vision X, about what's actually happening in that gap. Anjan works with IT managers and supervisors to turn early career talent into self led performers who don't need constant handholding.

We get into why Gen Z needs to understand the why behind a project before they'll fully commit to the what. Why managers who convey purpose and impact get far more from their teams than managers who just hand out tasks. And why Gen Z should stop waiting for an invitation and start making their thinking visible instead of just their output.

Anjan also shares the one habit managers can change starting today if they want better results from their early career talent.

Connect with Anjan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anjan-kasi-sampath/

Check out his TEDx talk, nearing 270,000 views, on making wise choices when emotions run high at work.

Jonathan Lautermilch runs a book publishing company with his wife (the editor), a launch director, and a sound engineer, and none of them think the same way he does. He built it that way on purpose.

We start with how he manages a team whose brains work completely differently from his and from each other. He talks about hiring people who are willing to say no to him, and why that's saved the business more than once.

From there we get into delegation. Jonathan hands off the parts of the business he's not good at (by his own account, most of the tech side) and holds onto two things he won't budge on: the end goal and the team's core values.

We also talk about boundaries. Jonathan doesn't take texts at midnight, and he tells authors that up front instead of hoping it works itself out.

Along the way: psychological safety, why "do I want to be right or do I want to win" changed how he runs meetings, and the two questions he asks every author before they write a single word.

Jonathan is also the guy helping me publish my own book, so consider this an unfiltered look at what that's actually been like.

00:00 Introduction to Smart Publishing
02:49 The Power of Diverse Perspectives
05:32 Creating a Culture of Psychological Safety
08:37 Defining Goals and Priorities
11:22 The Spectrum of Author Engagement
14:01 Navigating the Writing Process
16:55 Building Trust and Communication
19:49 Consistency in Writing
22:52 Advice for Aspiring Authors
26:31 Final Thoughts and Resources

Find Jonathan at smartpublishingservices.com or on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jonathanlautermilch

Welcome back to Season Two of NeuroConversant Leadership. I took a month off. Here's why, and here's what's different now.

I hit a wall. I was writing my book, building a college curriculum, writing a blog, sending a newsletter, and putting out this podcast every week. I actually thought about quitting one or two of them, maybe all three. It stopped being fun. It felt like a chore. So instead of quitting, I took a break to figure out what was actually sustainable.

Here's what changed. New tagline: how to connect with people who think, work, and see the world differently. It's also the subtitle of my book, which comes out July 28th. New intro and outro music, that's me on the drums. And a new rhythm going forward: podcast every week, blog or article every other week, newsletter on the weeks in between.

I also talk about why I kept my personal life separate from my work for so long, and why I'm done doing that. Drumming turned into a good metaphor for me. Two drums can look almost the same but sound totally different depending on how you play them. That's basically what happens when people who think differently work on the same problem. You need both.

If you've got a hobby or personal interest you haven't brought into your work yet, I'd love to hear about it. Email me at jdoran@neuroconversantleadership.com.