strategy – Leadership Kung Fu -The Podcast

Episode 67 – Expectation Drift: How Vague Leadership Breaks Execution

March 31, 2026March 31, 2026Jennifer Long

Welcome to episode 67 of Leadership Kung Fu!
If you’ve ever come up empty-handed when searching for answers from a leader, or your team is divided on what they thought the project completion standard was, you might have experienced Expectation Drift! Sandi and Jen jump in to tackle this topic to help teams and leaders identify and get ahead of a potential problem. Listen along as they discuss:

What IS Expecation Drift and how it happens
Employee engagement rates and other statistics around misalignment
What happens when leaders don’t know what expecations are
Leaders as learners
The role of accountability in expecation drift
Micromanaging vs. checking in
A rock analogy
How to get in front of the Drift and own it

and much more!

Thank you so much for listening! If you like what you hear, leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform, and make sure to check out the video cast under the “Videos” tab or over on the Leadership Kung Fu Youtube Channel!
Connect with Jen on LinkedIn and visit her website Own Up!®
Connect with Sandi on LinkedIn and visit her website Satori Consulting, Inc!

Have a comment, question, or topic for Sandi and Jen? Email us at podcast@own-up.com or leave us a comment on LinkedIn. If you like what you hear, leave us a review on your favorite listening platform!

Jen’s Website

Sandi’s Website

Episode 66 – Stop Outsourcing Thinking: Rebuilding Your Team’s Problem-Solving Muscles

February 27, 2026February 26, 2026Jennifer Long

It’s critical that you know that Episode 66 of Leadership Kung Fu is here!

Welcome to February’s topic of what outsourcing thinking actually does to your team and how your practices can keep the problem-solving muscles healthy. Sandi and Jen dive right into:

How the cost of time with critical thinking is a lie
Low accountability and leaderned helplessness
The role of psychological safety
System 1 and System 2 thinking
The importances of exploring your problem-solving tools
Critical Thinking and A.I.
Leadership self-reflection and the role it plays
Managing discomfort
How many places you might have abandoned thinking

and much more!

Jen’s Website

Sandi’s Website

Episode 65 – Strategy is Not a Slide Deck

January 22, 2026January 21, 2026Jennifer Long

Starting off 2026 strong, it’s episode 65 of Leadership Kung Fu!

Join Sandi and Jen in this new year as they revisit the topic of strategy in the workplace and how to get it unstuck from your meeting slide deck and out in action in your workforce. Listen along as they discuss:

Strategy to action
How strategies from Q4 are looking in Q1
Personal anecdotes
The importance of your “No” list
Facing the fears of “what if”
Real risk vs. risks we THINK are real
What strategy is and is not
Operationalizing
How alignment is an ongoing conversation
What happens when everything is deemed important
What each level of leadership needs to do with the strategy from the top
The importance of choosing the right words
Strategy upkeep and metrics
How strategy can die and what happens if it does
The effect of run-time on strategy
The 5 take-aways of strategy

and more!

Jen’s Website

Sandi’s Website

Episode 64 – Your New Leader Isn’t Ready (Yet!)

November 28, 2025December 2, 2025Jennifer Long

Start making plans, episode 64 of Leadership Kung Fu is here!

Jen and Sandi are thinking about the future on today’s episode and discussing workplace succession plans! What happens when your CEO has a medical event? Can someone easily take over if your manager has a family emergency? Who steps in when retirements are announced? Join Sandi and Jen as they cover how you and your team can think ahead as well as:

Succession success rate statistics
Where you should start planning and who can do what in the planning process
How strategy is involved
The role bias plays
Where training comes in and types
The benefits of assessments in leadership
PXT Select®
What Future Fit means
PrinciplesYou and EverythingDiSC®
What defining potential entails
What should be on your succession checklist
Red Teaming: How Your Team Can Conquer the Competition by Challenging Everything by Bryce G. Hoffman

and more!

Jen’s Website

Sandi’s Website

Episode 63 – Strategic Momentum: The Discipline of Aligned Action

October 31, 2025October 29, 2025Jennifer Long

Our actions have aligned to bring you Episode 63 of Leadership Kung Fu!
Join Sandi and Jen as they excitedly tackle the topic of aligned action and how your teams’ strategies can hinge upon it. Dive in with them as they cover:

What gets in the way of aligned action
Fragmented ownership
Working in silos vs. moving forward collectively
Decisions vs. feedback
Where incentives knock you out of alignment
Dashboards
Fighting stagnant policies/standards
The curse of unwillingness
Leadership drift
Giving strategy a chance to breathe
Buy-in vs. agreement
Movement based on workplace agility
Chance of success based on aligned action

and much more!

Thank you so much for listening! If you like what you hear, leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform, and make sure to check out the video cast under the “Videos” tab!
Connect with Jen on LinkedIn and visit her website Own Up!®
Connect with Sandi on LinkedIn and visit her website Satori Consulting, Inc!

Jen’s Website

Sandi’s Website

Episode 62 – First Moves Matter: Helping a New Leader

September 30, 2025September 29, 2025Jennifer Long

New to the group, it’s episode 62 of Leadership Kung Fu!

Sandi and Jen are enthusiastic about today’s topic of new leaders and how you and your organization can set them up for success and if you’re a new leader, how to tackle that transition with flying colors. Listen in as they discuss:

common new leader hurdles and transition difficulties
how values shift in a new role
the art of letting go
what your leadership will look like as you make the shift
technical skills and relationship skills
how relationships evolve when new leadership occurs
where Imposter Syndrome can affect the new role and how limiting it can be
Taming Your Gremlin by Rick Carson
troubles with the hand-off
trust during the transition
leadership groups for new-to leadership leaders
perks of being a brand-new leader

and much more!

Have a comment, question, or topic for Sandi and Jen? Email us at podcast@own-up.com or leave us a comment on LinkedIn! If you like what you hear, leave us a review on your favorite listening platform!

Jen’s Website

Sandi’s Website

Episode 61 – From Talking to Doing: Why Leadership Teams Stall

September 16, 2025September 12, 2025Jennifer Long

Welcome to episode 61 of Leadership Kung Fu! Jen and Sandi are talking the talk and walking the walk to bring you today’s topic: why leadership teams can stall! Settle in as they chat about:

Words are nice, but action is important
Stalling due to fear of conflict
Feeling safe in the workplace
How multiple priorities can actually be a hindrance
Corporate whiplash and fatigue
Alignment vs. accountability
The Knowing-Doing gap
How to stop “The Stall”
The One Hard Question
What parts you actually play
6 Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono
Where your bias lives
Timeboxing
Meeting habits

and much more!

Jen’s Website

Sandi’s Website

Episode 60 – The Art of the Mid-Year Check In

July 31, 2025July 28, 2025Jennifer Long

Ready for some self reflection? Here’s episode 60 of Leadership Kung Fu!

Sandi and Jen are asking us to take some time and join them a moment as they chat about the importance of a mid-year check in, not just with our teams, but with ourselves too! Listen along as they highlight:

The importance of sense-making
Measuring your efficacy, not your results
How often are you getting feedback?
Your leadership “brand”
Behavior that reflects value
Reactiveness and the signs of burnout, physical and non
Intentional resets
A.I. in leadership styles and the most popular uses as of recording
Goals and the metrics of goals
Are your metrics just a sign of activity?
Driving focus
The weights of risk and opportunity

and much more!

Jen’s Website

Sandi’s Website

Episode 59 – Conscious Un-Bossing: The New Distaste for Managing

May 31, 2025May 30, 2025Jennifer Long

It’s a group effort over here on Leadership Kung Fu, so we’re glad you’re here for episode 59!
Join Jen and Sandi as they dissect the topic of Concious Un-Bossing, and listen along as they cover:

Jen’s NEW book Workers are the Solution, Not the Problem: A Guidebook to Leading Differently
how Gen Z is bringing changes to the workplace
conscious uncoupling
what it means to start to change a workplace culture
purpose over power
inclusivity is a power tool
trust at every level and how it becomes an operating system
mature accountability systems
how group leadership makes you a better person
how leading is a capability, not a title
what advantages your business can gain from this model
how shifting to a new cultural model takes time
the books Humanocracy by Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini and The Social Leadership Handbook by Julian Stodd
what happens when human solve problems together

and more!

Jen’s Website

Sandi’s Website

Episode 58 – Leading Hybrid and Remote

April 30, 2025April 30, 2025Jennifer Long

Travel back in time with Jen and Sandi as they chat about a topic that’s not necessarily new, but is certainly still a topic of discussion: working remotely and hybrid workforces!

Whether you’re taking a break in the breakroom or moving laundry inbetween meetings, listen along as Jen and Sandi discuss:

The importance of asking questions and the weight of listening
a brief conversation about how engagement surveys can fail you
thinking about how your work is best done could influece hybrid work management
what working in a conducive environment to the work you do can influence work output
looking at the work instead of seeking giving “same treatment”
what can cause resentment among hybrid teams
the strategy of shaping in office/remote work around the type of people who work for/with you
the state of strategy
your workforce is the solution
if you are setting them up for success regardless of environment
new terms and slang that have come from 5 years of hybrid workforces
how celebrating success is important
half thebattle is understanding the correct problems to solve
Red Team Thinking benefits

and more!

Jen’s Website

Sandi’s Website