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.
The Leadership Gambit
S05E06: Career Death By a Thousand Cuts: 5 Behaviors to Avoid
Your reputation at work is a form of political capital, and you’re either investing in it or quietly draining it away. In this episode, we pull back the curtain on five common workplace behaviors that silently damage your personal brand and limit your career growth. From passive-aggressive habits to over-apologizing, these are patterns managers notice even if you think they don’t.
You’ll learn:
- How these behaviors erode trust, credibility, and influence over time.
- Why they’re career killers even if you’re competent, skilled, or well-liked.
- Real-world examples and research-backed insights that reveal the hidden costs.
- Practical, easy-to-apply strategies to replace bad habits with reputation-building ones.
Whether you’re aiming for your next promotion, want to become a go-to team member, or simply want to avoid being first on the layoff list, this conversation will give you a candid look at what really matters to managers—and how to make sure you’re on the right side of it.
🎯 If you think your work speaks for itself, think again. The way you show up every day speaks louder—make sure it’s saying the right things.
References:
Porath, C.L., & Erez, A. (2012). "How Rudeness Takes Its Toll: The Effects of Incivility on Task Performance and Helpfulness." Journal of Applied Psychology, 97(1), 93–107.
Hess, U., Blairy, S., & Kleck, R.E. (2016). "The Social Consequences of Emotional Suppression." Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
Lam, C.F., Walter, F., & Huang, X. (2020). "Supervisors' Emotional Exhaustion and Team Members' Passive–Aggressive Behavior: The Role of Ethical Leadership." The Leadership Quarterly, 31(4).
Foster et al. (2018), Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
Okimoto, T. G., & Wenzel, M. (2015). “The Downside of Saying Sorry: Overapologizing in the Workplace.” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
Ready to take your personal development to the next level? Visit www.theleadershipmovement.net to request access to our FREE quick start guides, self-assessments, and other resources that you can use to turn your new knowledge into practice.