The Leadership Gambit
The Leadership Gambit
The Toolkit for Business and Life You Were Never Taught
Let’s be real: you don’t need more cliche advice and a lot of content doesn’t go deep enough. You need practical guidance you can actually use to help you overcome your challenges or achieve your goals.
Recent studies show most people today feel unsupported, underprepared, and overwhelmed by a system and management that teaches very little about navigating, leading, or thriving in the chaos of modern life.
This podcast is for anyone who’s ready to take ownership of their personal journey and needs a guide to support them along their path.
We take over 20 years of real-world experience, hundreds of field experiments, and the best of leadership, psychology, and personal development knowledge and turn it into clear, honest, and useful guidance you can start using right away.
No fluff, real talk, and real tools, to thrive at work and in life.
Hosted by Chris Miller and Dane Smith. Edited by Joseph Pitz.
Episodes
86 episodes
S11E03: The Heart of Business: A Story of Putting People First
When Hubert Joly became CEO of Best Buy in 2012, most experts believed the company was beyond saving. Amazon was disrupting retail, customers were using Best Buy stores as showrooms before buying online, employee morale had collapsed, and Wall ...
S11E02: Presentations That Change Minds: The Art of Persuasion
Most people think great presentations are about speaking confidently or building impressive PowerPoint slides. The truth is, the most persuasive presentations have very little to do with slides and everything to do with changing beliefs, creati...
S011E01: The Career Conversation That Can Change Your Life
What if a single conversation could completely change the direction of your career?In this episode of The Leadership Gambit, Chris and Marija explore one of the most overlooked skills in leadership: coaching. While most managers f...
S10E08: Success Fades. Impact Lasts.
Success Fades. Impact Lasts.What if the success you've been chasing isn't what will ultimately bring you fulfillment?In this episode, Chris and Marija explore the difference between success and significance. They discuss wh...
S10E07: The Calm Advantage: Why Mindfulness Improves Performance
What if one of the most powerful performance tools available to you had nothing to do with working harder?In a world filled with constant distractions, information overload, and increasing demands on our attention, many people are findin...
S10E06: Burnout is Not a Badge of Honor
Burnout has become so common that many people treat it as a sign of ambition. Long hours, constant stress, and always being "on" are often celebrated as proof that you're committed, driven, and successful. But what if the very behaviors we're r...
S10E05: Profits Without Prosperity: Why Hard Work No Longer Feels Rewarding
Why does it feel like the economy is growing while so many ordinary people feel like they’re falling behind?In this episode, we take a deep dive into the idea of “profits without prosperity” and explore how modern corporate culture shift...
S10E04: Two Leaders, One Life: Resilience Is Built, Not Born
Many people believe resilience is something you’re either born with or you’re not, but what if resilience is actually built through life experience, adversity, self-trust, and growth? In this episode, Chris and Marija explore the psychology and...
S10E03: Two Leaders One Life: Leadership, Identity, and the Cost of Success
Is leadership really worth it?Leadership is often sold as prestige, power, influence, and financial success, but very few people talk honestly about what leadership can actually cost you. In this episode, Chris and Marija have a candid c...
S10E02: Two Leaders One Life: There Is Only One Leadership Style (And You’ve Been Lied To)
What if everything you’ve been told about leadership is wrong?In this episode, There Is Only One Leadership Style (And You’ve Been Lied To), we challenge the idea that leadership comes in dozens of styles. From coaching to trans...
S09E01: What Happened to Tolerance?
What happened to our ability to disagree without turning it into division? In this episode, we unpack the growing tension between tolerance and acceptance, and how blurring the line between the two is quietly fueling conflict in our...
S08E09: Managements War on Leadership
Everyone talks about leadership but where are all the actual leaders?After 20 years working with senior managers and executives, one thing became clear, real leadership is rare. What most people experience isn’t leadership, it’s manageme...
S09E07: Two Leaders One Life: Are You Having a Bad Day or Just a Bad Moment?
Are you really having a bad day… or did one moment just take control of everything that followed? In this episode, we unpack how quickly a single interaction, comment, or frustration can spiral into something much bigger, and why mo...
S09E06: The Upside of Managing Gen Z
Gen Z is often labeled as lazy, entitled, or difficult to manage.But what if the problem isn’t the generation…it’s how we’re leading them?In this episode, I break down what’s really going on with Millennials and Gen Z. You’ll lear...
S09E05: Grief is Not What We Are Taught in School
This episode is my most personal yet.I share the story of losing my younger brother and what it was like returning to work just two weeks later, not because I was ready, but because I needed something to distract me from the pain. It’s a...
S09E04: Nice vs Kind: Why Being Nice Is Holding You Back
Being “nice” might feel right, but it’s often what holds people back.In this episode, we break down the difference between nice vs kind, and why confusing the two can hurt your leadership, relationships, and long-term impact.<...
S09E02: Two Leaders One Life: How to Calmly Handle Conflict
Conflict is unavoidable. Whether you’re leading a team, working with colleagues, or navigating relationships at home, disagreement will happen. The problem is that most of us were never taught how to handle conflict well.In this episode,...
S09E01: Why No One Listens to You (And How to Fix It)
Have you ever explained something perfectly and still gotten zero buy-in?You laid out the facts. The logic made sense. The idea was solid. And yet people tuned out, pushed back, or completely ignored it.The problem isn’t your idea...
S08E08: Two Leaders, One Life
What if the quality of your closest relationship is the clearest reflection of your leadership?In this special episode, we welcome our first guest to the show, Marija, national sales leader, consultant, coach, and my life partner. Togeth...
S08E07: Quick Happiness Hacks for a Noisy and Busy World
Why does it feel hard to be happy today?Between constant comparison, nonstop notifications, achievement pressure, and global chaos before breakfast, a lot of Millennials and Gen Z feel burned out, overstimulated, and somehow still behind...
S08E06: The Invisible Layer of Communication You’ve Been Missing
Ever walk out of a conversation thinking, “That’s not what I meant at all”? Or watch a perfectly reasonable message trigger anger, defensiveness, or confusion?This episode breaks down the invisible layer shaping every conver...
S08E05: The Workplace Games People Play (And What to Do About Them)
Most workplaces aren’t just about doing good work. They’re full of unspoken rules, power dynamics, and no-win situations no one prepares you for.In this episode, we break down real workplace scenarios people actually deal with, subtle mi...
S08E04: Why Trust Is the Foundation of Everything
In this episode, we break down why trust is the foundation of effective leadership, strong teams, and healthy workplaces, and why so many organizations struggle without realizing it. Using real examples and a simple, practical framework, we exp...
S08E03: The Spectrum of Care: Sympathy, Empathy, and Compassion
“Leaders need more empathy” is one of the most common pieces of advice in modern leadership, and one of the most misunderstood.In this episode, we challenge the idea that empathy is always the right answer. We explore when empathy actual...