The Unconventional Leadership Podcast

The Unconventional Leadership Podcast isn’t just another leadership show — it’s a call to rethink everything.We bring you raw conversations, real wisdom, and stories that go beyond surface success. Each episode features world-class leaders who share their highs, lows, and everything in between — so you can lead with greater courage, clarity, and purpose.If you’re ready to ditch the status quo, unleash your team's full potential, and build a legacy that matters, you’re in the right place.It’s time to lead differently. It’s time to lead unconventionally.

The Unconventional Leadership Podcast is a business podcast hosted by Talent Magnet Institute, with 254 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.

Talent Magnet Institute hosts The Unconventional Leadership Podcast, a business show with 254 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 #253

  How This Woman Broke Into the C-Suite — And Refused to Stay Silent

  Aug 5, 20261h 6mS4

  This episode is sponsored by Xavier University's Executive MBA Program. To learn more, visit: https://unconventionalpodcast.com/emba Season 4, Episode 253 How This Woman Broke Into the C-Suite — And Refused to Stay Silent (feat. Teresa Tanner & Mike Sipple Jr.) Teresa Tanner spent 30 years making the toughest calls in rooms most leaders never enter — from a heroic boss who carried her through her daughter's cancer diagnosis, to leaving the C-suite at the top of her game to build something no one had built before. In this conversation, she and Mike Sipple Jr. unpack how to find your voice at work, why a culture of integrity is impossible without healthy conflict, and how leading from your values (not your fear of loss) changes everything. They dig into the people-first strategy that cut new-parent attrition by 25%, why every applicant is a potential customer, the rhythms of reflection that keep leaders healthy, and the trail Teresa blazed with Reserve Squad to keep great talent connected instead of walking out the door. Timecodes: 00:00 - "Don't silence your voice" 01:05 - Meet Teresa Tanner: 30 years in rooms few people enter 02:44 - When her daughter Kayla was diagnosed with leukemia 05:00 - The boss who said "now it's our turn" 07:10 - Leading from your values when fear takes over 09:10 - The entrepreneur bug and falling into HR 10:01 - Why she pursued an Executive MBA at Xavier 13:38 - The "People P&L": invest in people, make more money 18:04 - Why chase the C-suite as a woman in business 19:40 - "You won't run me off in 19 months" 23:36 - Courageous leadership: never be afraid to be fired 26:00 - Why there's no culture of integrity without conflict 29:05 - How to find your voice (and not be a jerk) 31:13 - The maternity concierge program born in a town hall 35:49 - Every applicant is a possible customer 38:21 - Walking away from the C-suite at the top 42:08 - Retreats, rhythms, and reflection 43:18 - A cancer diagnosis 90 days after leaving 46:06 - "You're not too busy for a mammogram" 48:18 - Launching Reserve Squad: a terrifying leap 51:10 - Watching great talent walk out the door 54:05 - Building a new lane on the employment highway 59:27 - Starting a nonprofit: Web & Activated 1:01:33 - Working alongside her daughter Kayla 1:03:07 - What drives her to blaze new trails 1:04:34 - What unconventional leadership means to her Links and Resources: - Connect with Teresa Tanner: https://www.linkedin.com/in/teresa-tanner - *Episode Sponsor* Xavier University Executive MBA Program: https://unconventionalpodcast.com/emba ___ Subscribe & Listen to more content here: ➡️ Web: https://www.talentmagnet.com/podcast ➡️ YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGtiiP79wCZ2ALPztpr-7XWMl7uQUFRvB ➡️ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/unconventional-leadership-podcast/id1378659047 ➡️ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4O6tNE9H2cuWba5Ovnum8C ___ Connect with the Mike Sipple, Jr! LinkTree: ➡ https://www.linktr.ee/mikesipplejr LinkedIn: ➡ https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikesipplejr ___ Connect with the Talent Magnet Institute! YouTube: ➡ https://www.youtube.com/@talentmagnetinstitute LinkedIn: ➡ https://www.linkedin.com/company/talentmagnetinstitute ___ Connect with the Centennial on LinkedIn: ➡ https://www.linkedin.com/company/centennial-inc

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  Episode #252

  It's Not Talent, It's Daily Habits

  Jul 22, 20261h 7mS4

  Season 4, Episode 252 It's Not Talent, It's Daily Habits (feat. Leighann Rechtin & Mike Sipple Jr.) Connect & ask your leadership question here: https://www.talentmagnet.com/contactus Dr. Leighann Rechtin, Learning and and Engagement Officer at Talent Magnet Institute, joins Mike Sipple Jr. to unpack why the gap between great managers and average ones has nothing to do with talent -- and everything to do with daily habits -- previewing eight Leadership Labs topics TMI is rolling out. In this episode: - Why mid-level managers absorb the most tension in an organization -- they're relaying decisions they didn't make to people who don't trust the message - The one daily habit -- genuine check-ins, not micromanaging -- that separates great managers from average ones - Why most people are terrible at receiving positive feedback, and what that reveals about a leader's culture - How to build critical thinking in people who were only ever rewarded for executing without question - Why using AI to lead better means learning to verify its output, not fear or blindly trust it - The data behind the crisis: 21% global engagement, 73% of companies say they need to reinvent the manager role, and only 7% are actually doing it - Why belonging -- not fitting in -- is the real driver of employee engagement - The listening exercise (with a Bible trivia twist) that exposes how much information your brain skips when someone else is talking Timecodes: 06:15 Where Leighann's passion for learning and development started 11:14 The psychology of micro-expressions and why teams communicate more than they realize 22:12 Topic 1 -- feedback that changes behavior, and why leaders struggle to give and receive it 27:27 Topic 2 -- using AI to lead better without losing human judgment 34:21 Topic 5 -- the daily habits that separate great managers from everyone else 53:02 The engagement data: 21% disengaged, 73% know they need to change, only 7% are doing it 58:31 Why 93% of employees say they'd stay if they felt actively invested in Resources mentioned: - Talent Magnet Institute's Leadership Labs (8-part learning series) - Gallup employee engagement research - Talent Magnet's HR Mastermind program Links and Resources: - Connect with Leighann Rechtin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leighann-rechtin-edd-09b80945/ ___ Subscribe & Listen to more content here: Web: https://www.talentmagnet.com/podcast YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGtiiP79wCZ2ALPztpr-7XWMl7uQUFRvB Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/unconventional-leadership-podcast/id1378659047 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4O6tNE9H2cuWba5Ovnum8C ___ Connect with the Mike Sipple, Jr! LinkTree: https://www.linktr.ee/mikesipplejr LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikesipplejr ___ Connect with the Talent Magnet Institute! YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@talentmagnetinstitute LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/talentmagnetinstitute ___ Connect with the Centennial on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/centennial-inc

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  Episode #251

  Great Leaders, Multiply People

  Jul 8, 20261h 7mS4

  Connect & ask your leadership question here: https://www.talentmagnet.com/contactus John Yockey has spent decades leading teams and now coaches C-suite executives as faculty at the Talent Magnet Institute -- and in this episode he and Mike Sipple Jr. tackle the question every accomplished leader eventually faces: when does being the most capable person in the room stop helping your team and start holding them back? In this episode: - Trust is the foundation before strategy -- without it, challenge feels like a personal attack, and even talented teams underperform - New leaders who skip relationships and jump straight to the technical work lose a window they never get back - The Airport Story: when people are in uncertainty, they will fill the silence with their own story -- communicate what you can, when you can, even without perfect information - During acquisitions and high-growth phases, the most powerful move is communicating proactively before communications go quiet - Trust is built through vulnerability, not efficiency -- treating relationships like a transaction is the fastest way to lose your team - The hardest leadership transition is becoming a multiplier -- if everything still flows through you, you're a bottleneck, not a leader - Resolve decisions at the lowest possible level; overriding every uncomfortable call destroys the empowerment you claim to want - Approachability is not a soft skill -- it's what gets people two levels down comfortable enough to tell you what's actually going on Timecodes: 1:10 Introduction -- who is John Yockey and what he brings to leadership teams 2:47 Lencioni's Five Dysfunctions of a Team as the foundation for trust 4:03 Why curiosity is the starting point for building a leadership network 5:17 The hidden cost of losing your network when you enter a new organization 8:50 The Airport Story -- how to lead communication with incomplete information 12:37 Communicating through acquisitions when you can't share everything 16:25 Proactive communication -- say what you can before the blackout period hits 20:29 Trust through vulnerability -- why being efficient with relationships doesn't work 22:16 When high performers become bottlenecks -- the smartest person in the room problem 23:09 Multiplier vs. individual contributor -- what it actually means to lead Resources mentioned: - The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni - Connect with John Yockey: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-yockey-cpc/ ___ Subscribe & Listen to more content here: - Web: https://www.talentmagnet.com/podcast - YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGtiiP79wCZ2ALPztpr-7XWMl7uQUFRvB - Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/unconventional-leadership-podcast/id1378659047 - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4O6tNE9H2cuWba5Ovnum8C ___ Connect with the Mike Sipple, Jr! LinkTree: https://www.linktr.ee/mikesipplejr LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikesipplejr ___ Connect with the Talent Magnet Institute! YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@talentmagnetinstitute LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/talentmagnetinstitute ___ Connect with the Centennial on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/centennial-inc

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  Episode #249

  The Father, The Founder, and 50 Years of Unconventional Leadership

  May 28, 20262h 1mS3

  <p>Season 3, Episode 249</p><p>The Father, The Founder, and 50 Years of Unconventional Leadership (feat. Mike Sipple, Sr. & Mike Sipple Jr.)</p><p><br></p><p>Connect & ask your leadership question here: </p><p>https://www.talentmagnet.com/contactus</p><p><br></p><p>Mike Sipple, Sr. walked into a Cincinnati recruiting firm in 1975 with no suit and no plan -- and spent the next 50 years building one of the region's most trusted executive search firms into a multigenerational legacy. This episode answers the question every leader avoids: what does it actually mean to build something that outlasts you?</p><...

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  Episode #248

  Stop Trying to Retain Your People

  May 13, 20261h 6mS3

  <p>Season 3, Episode 248</p><p>Stop Trying to Retain Your People (feat. Travis Dommert & Mike Sipple Jr.)</p><p><br></p><p>Connect & ask your leadership question here: https://www.talentmagnet.com/contactus</p><p><br></p><p>Travis Dommert, Senior Client Executive, People & Performance, of One Digital has spent years sitting across from CEOs navigating the most personal transition in business: stepping into the top job. What he sees isn't a strategy problem -- it's an identity problem. The leaders who get it right stop trying to be who the role was and start figuring out who the role...

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