The LeaderLab: Powered by LifeLabs Learning

Step into The LeaderLab, where leadership gets practical. Get ready for real-world insights from standout people leaders + bite-sized leadership skills you can use today. Each episode brings you either a candid conversation with a senior HR leader or a short solo dive from a LifeLabs Learning facilitator — all designed to deliver real talk, research-backed insights, and Tipping Point Skills™ you can apply right away. The LeaderLab is hosted by Micaela Mathre, Chief Marketing Officer, searching for the antidote to the toxic workplace.

The LeaderLab: Powered by LifeLabs Learning is a business podcast hosted by LifeLabs Learning, with 52 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

LifeLabs Learning hosts The LeaderLab: Powered by LifeLabs Learning, a business show with 52 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #44

  What AI Can’t Replace: Building Better Managers Through Human Connection

  Jul 31, 202637 minS4

  AI can accelerate insight, sharpen thinking, and remove friction from how work gets done. But it cannot replace the trust, reflection, feedback, and human connection that help people grow. In this episode of The Leader Lab , Megan Wheeler, Director of People Development at Articulate, joins Micaela Mathre to explore what leadership development needs to look like in an increasingly remote and AI-enabled workplace. Drawing on nearly two decades of experience in organizational psychology, facilitation, coaching, and leadership development, Megan shares what she learned moving from studying and teaching leadership to leading teams herself. One of her biggest lessons: skills training alone is not enough. For new behaviors to stick, they must be reinforced by organizational systems and modeled consistently by senior leaders. Megan also takes listeners inside Articulate’s approach to developing managers in a fully remote organization, including why the company brought leaders together in person to practice coaching, feedback, psychological safety, and cross-functional problem-solving. Tune in to learn: Why a leader’s emotional energy can shape the entire team Why manager development requires both individual skills and system-level support How in-person learning can strengthen connection in remote organizations What leaders should and should not outsource to AI How the Most Important Things method creates clarity during constant change Why great managers do more asking and less telling A grounded conversation for People, HR, and L&D leaders designing the next generation of manager development. Workshops: Coaching Delegation Effective 1-1s Feedback Skills Lab Programs: Manager Core Collaboration & Trust Read: Manager Conversations: How to Use AI to Prepare for 1-1s Without Losing the Human Touch (CAMPS) Delegation Skills That Help Managers Scale Their Impact Manager Feedback: How to Keep Clarity and Trust When Using AI (Playing Cards Method) Resources: Manager Training Leading Change Adaptivity & Resilience Watch: Preparing for a Defining Moment: The Obama Foundation’s Investment in Leadership How SonderMind’s VP of People Is Scaling Managers, Culture, and AI Readiness From “War for Talent” to “War on Talent”: Change, Fear, and Executive Alignment in NerdWallet’s AI Shift

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  The LeaderLab: Powered by LifeLabs Learning

  Preparing for a Defining Moment: The Obama Foundation's Investment in Leadership

  Jun 17, 202644 min

  How do you create a culture where learning becomes part of the way people work? In this episode of The Leader Lab, Patrick Choquette, Director of Learning & Development at The Obama Foundation, shares lessons from a career spanning public service, education, international development, and leadership development. From teaching in Ghana as a Peace Corps volunteer to leading learning programs across global teams and mission-driven organizations, Patrick explores what it takes to create environments where people grow, managers thrive, and learning becomes part of everyday work. He shares why managers represent the highest ROI for organizational development, how strong systems create better learning outcomes than standalone training programs, and why AI may be one of the most powerful learning reinforcement tools available today. 🎧 Tune in to learn: Why managers have the biggest impact on employee growth and engagement How to create learning systems instead of relying on one-off training events Lessons from scaling development across thousands of employees globally What mission-driven organizations can teach us about leadership How AI can help reinforce leadership behaviors and learning habits Why behavior change matters more than knowledge transfer A practical conversation for People leaders, L&D professionals, and executives building stronger managers and more adaptive organizations. Workshops: Coaching Delegation Effective 1-1s Feedback Skills Lab Programs: Manager Core Collaboration & Trust Read: New Leadership Programs for Today’s Workplace Challenges The Science Behind Effective Delegation (And Why Managers Struggle With It) Manager Conversations: How to Use AI to Prepare for 1-1s Without Losing the Human Touch (CAMPS) Resources: Manager Training Leading Change Adaptivity & Resilience Watch: Inside Fabletics: How L&D is Preparing for an AI-First Future How SonderMind’s VP of People Is Scaling Managers, Culture, and AI Readiness From “War for Talent” to “War on Talent”: Change, Fear, and Executive Alignment in NerdWallet’s AI Shift

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  The LeaderLab: Powered by LifeLabs Learning

  Give Feedback That Lands: The Playing Cards Method with Kathy Pearce

  May 27, 202617 min

  What makes feedback useful instead of just emotional? In this Skills Spotlight episode of The Leader Lab, Kathy Pearce, Facilitator at LifeLabs Learning, joins host Micaela Mathre to unpack the Playing Cards Method™, one of LifeLabs’ most memorable frameworks for turning blurry feedback into clear, actionable communication. Using the four suits in a deck of cards, Kathy explains how Hearts and Clubs represent vague praise and criticism, while Diamonds and Spades point to the specific behaviors someone should keep doing or change. Kathy shares practical workplace examples, including how managers can give clearer feedback about AI-generated work, why public Diamonds can create ripple effects across teams, and how “Diamond Days” help organizations build stronger feedback habits. 🎧 Tune in to learn: Why “great job” and “that was terrible” are equally unhelpful How to turn Hearts into Diamonds and Clubs into Spades Why specific praise helps teams replicate great work How to avoid leading with assumptions in feedback conversations What managers often get wrong when giving feedback about AI Why feedback skills require constant practice, even for experts How shared language makes feedback easier to recognize and improve A thoughtful, practical conversation for managers, People leaders, and teams who want feedback to create clarity instead of confusion.

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  Episode #44

  How SonderMind’s VP of People Is Scaling Managers, Culture, and AI Readiness

  Apr 15, 202649 minS4

  What does it take to scale teams, culture, and leadership at the same time? In this episode of The Leader Lab , Sara Marzitelli-Sanchez, VP of People at SonderMind, shares how she’s helping leaders grow alongside their organizations by focusing on manager development, human-centered leadership, and practical AI adoption. From her unconventional path into HR to her belief that “people are complex beings,” Sara explains why the fundamentals of People leadership stay consistent across industries, and why this role is more industry-agnostic than most think. She also shares how meeting every employee helps her build trust (and make HR feel less “scary”), how it gives her a 30,000-foot view of the business, and how that insight shapes smarter People strategies. 🎧 Tune in to learn: Why investing in manager training is a core business strategy & not just L&D How to remove the “HR is scary” barrier and build trust across teams What it looks like to lead with a 30,000-ft view of team function and challenges Why brain science-backed training creates more effective, scalable managers How to navigate the shift from individual contributor to people leader What it takes to build AI fluency across an organization A practical, grounded conversation for People leaders building resilient, scalable teams in a fast-changing world.

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  Episode #43

  From “War for Talent” to “War on Talent”: Change, and Executive Alignment in NerdWallet’s AI Shift

  Mar 11, 202648 minS4

  What does it take to lead people well when the rules of work keep changing? In this episode of The Leader Lab , Lynee Luque, Chief People Officer at NerdWallet, shares how she’s navigating AI adoption, organizational change, acquisitions, and remote-first leadership, while keeping the human side of work at the center. Hear how Lynee approaches leading through ambiguity, why copying and pasting playbooks rarely works, and how People teams can act as the testing ground for change before it scales across the organization. 🎧 Tune in to learn: How to lead through uncertainty without over-relying on process Why mindset shifts need to come before AI skill-building What it takes to support a truly remote-first workforce How NerdWallet approaches acquisitions by elevating, not absorbing, new companies Why today’s shift from the “war for talent” to the “war on talent” matters for every People leader A thoughtful, practical conversation for People leaders building resilient, adaptive teams in a fast-changing world.

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