Advertise on podcast: Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership

Some leadership lessons are best learned far from meeting rooms and org charts. In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, Alexis Monville welcomes Francelina Amaral, a hospitality leader shaped by service excellence, attention to detail, and deep respect for people. Together, they explore what leaders in any industry can learn from hospitality: Why onboarding is not a checklist but invisible hospitality: preparation before arrival, small gestures, removing friction How leadership as service creates trust, safety, and conditions for others to succeed How belonging is built (and broken) through everyday actions Why discipline and standards matter, but only work when rooted in genuine care How leaders develop others by creating confidence, especially when mistakes happen A practical, human conversation about trust, ownership, and the kind of leadership that makes people feel expected, welcome, and valued. The full transcript of this episode is available in the companion blog post linked in the description, on alexis.monville.com. https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2026/01/15/invisible-hospitality-with-francelina-amaral-what-leaders-in-any-industry-can-learn-from-service-excellence/ Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership is supported by Pearlside, where we help leaders and teams create the conditions for responsibility, clarity, and impact to emerge. You can learn more at pearlside.fr.

Welcome to Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership.I’m Alexis Monville, and in this show, we explore what it means to lead organizations where people take responsibility and deliver impact. In each episode, I’ll share conversations, insights, and stories that help us rethink leadership, not as something reserved for a few at the top, but as something that can emerge at every level of an organization. If you’d like to dive deeper into what we discuss, you’ll find references and full transcripts in the companion blog posts I publish on alexis.monville.com⁠. That’s also where you can subscribe to the Emerging Leadership Newsletter, a space where I share ideas, tools, and practices to help you and your teams grow. Once again, the address is: alexis.monville.com. Thank you for joining me on this journey. Let’s begin.

In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I welcome Teresa Torres, product discovery coach and author of the influential book Continuous Discovery Habits. Teresa shares how product teams can move beyond sporadic research and embed continuous customer discovery into their weekly routines. Drawing from years of coaching, teaching, and hands-on practice, she explains how teams can build better mental models of their customers, make stronger decisions, and consistently deliver outcomes rather than outputs. In this conversation, you’ll explore: Why continuous discovery is about habits, not occasional research How weekly customer conversations dramatically improve everyday decision-making The role of the Product Trio (Product, UX, Engineering) in balancing viability, desirability, and feasibility How Opportunity Solution Trees help teams stay aligned while navigating ambiguity Why leaders must shift from managing outputs to enabling outcomes and adaptability How Generative AI is reshaping product roles, collaboration, and discovery practices A must-listen for product leaders, designers, engineers, and executives navigating uncertainty and seeking more adaptive, customer-centered ways of working. Find the transcript and the references in the companion blog post: https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2025/06/29/embracing-continuous-discovery-a-conversation-with-teresa-torres/

In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, Alexis Monville speaks with Manuel Pais, organizational design practitioner and co-author of the influential book Team Topologies (with Matthew Skelton). Together they explore how modern organizations can improve flow, reduce team cognitive load, and evolve structures without relying on disruptive “big reorgs”. You will learn: The four fundamental team types from Team Topologies: Stream-aligned, Enabling, Platform, and Complicated Subsystem teams Why cognitive load limits effectiveness, delivery speed, and satisfaction — and how to identify what drives it Why team design is not about labels, but about interactions: Collaboration, Facilitation, and X-as-a-Service How Platform teams should alternate interaction modes, not become ticket factories What leaders must do to enable evolutionary change: set expectations, invest in support, and protect learning Why Manuel believes organizations should invest in dedicated “flow enablers” focused on removing bottlenecks A practical conversation for CTOs, engineering leaders, product leaders, and anyone shaping teams for sustainable delivery and employee satisfaction. Find the key findings, the references, and the transcript of the episode in the companion blog post: https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2025/06/02/unlocking-flow-and-effectiveness-a-conversation-with-manuel-pais-co-author-of-team-topologies/

In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, Alexis Monville welcomes back Gojko Adzic, renowned author and speaker in modern software delivery, named an AWS Serverless Hero (2019), and author of Impact Mapping, Specification by Example, and his latest book Lizard Optimization. Gojko shares a practical method for turning unexpected user behavior into product growth and better decisions. He calls it lizard optimization: spotting “misuse”, learning from it, and deciding whether to support it or block it. In this conversation, you will learn: Why unusual user behavior can reveal hidden value and new markets The LZRD loop: Learn, Zoom in, Remove obstacles, Detect unintended impacts How “desire lines” apply to product teams and organizations Why controlled experiments matter, and why most ideas do not create measurable value How to stop falling in love with solutions and refocus on the problem A must listen for product leaders, engineering leaders, founders, and anyone building systems where adoption, learning, and impact matter. Find the key learnings, the transcript and more in the companion blog post: https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2024/10/29/optimizing-for-the-unexpected-insights-from-gojko-adzic-on-lizard-optimization/

In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, Alexis Monville welcomes Héloïse Rozès and Nikolai Fomm, first-time founders and co-founders of Corma, a startup building the “cockpit of truth” for software access and license management — helping companies control their SaaS stack, reduce waste, and improve employee experience. From their day-to-day reality at Station F to the intensity of building a company in survival mode, Héloïse and Nikolai share what leadership really looks like when you’re learning it in real time. You’ll hear practical insights on: Adapting communication across co-founders, employees, investors, and clients Leading with empathy while still making tough calls Saying “no” to stay focused and avoid spreading the team too thin Building a value-driven culture through rituals, feedback, and programs like the Cormacolindor Using frameworks like Radical Candor to avoid ruinous empathy and make feedback useful A grounded conversation for emerging leaders, early-stage founders, and anyone building teams under uncertainty. Find the transcript and the references in the companion blog post: https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2024/10/13/leadership-as-first-time-founders-with-heloise-rozes-and-nikolai-fomm/

What if the future of user experience wasn’t about smarter AI — but better human judgment? In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, Alexis Monville welcomes Sebastian Cao, a technology and user experience leader who has held key roles at Red Hat and Tesla, and who recently designed and taught a course at Stanford University on the future of User Experience. Drawing on his experience working with frontline technicians, engineers, and product teams, Sebastian shares a clear conviction: AI should not replace human judgment, but augment it. Together, Alexis and Sebastian explore: Why prediction without judgment leads to poor UX and low adoption How empathy becomes a core engineering skill in AI-driven systems What “service augmentation” means in practice at Tesla Why transparency and explainability are essential to trust How open source plays a critical role in ethical AI adoption This episode is a deep, grounded conversation about the future of UX — where technology serves people, not the other way around. A must-listen for tech leaders, product managers, designers, and anyone shaping human-centered systems in an AI-powered world. Find the transcript and more in the companion blog post https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2024/10/07/the-future-of-user-experience-with-sebastian-cao/

What if helping people think seriously about their future made them more committed today? In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, Alexis Monville welcomes Russ Laraway — former senior leader at Google and Twitter, co-founder and former COO of Candor Inc. (with Kim Scott), and author of When They Win, You Win. Russ shares lessons drawn from decades of leadership experience and from large-scale, data-driven research conducted at Qualtrics, where leadership behaviors were rigorously measured and correlated with employee engagement and business outcomes. Together, Alexis and Russ explore: Why career conversations are not about “greasing the skids” for people to leave Why retention at all costs is a losing and dehumanizing strategy How managers directly influence engagement, satisfaction, and performance Why direction, coaching, and career are the three most critical leadership skills This conversation challenges common management reflexes and offers a deeply human — and evidence-based — view of leadership, where investing in people is not a risk, but a core responsibility. If you lead people and care about sustainable impact and satisfaction, this episode will reshape how you think about your role as a leader. Find the references and the transcript in the companion blog post: https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2024/07/27/redefining-leadership-a-conversation-with-russ-laraway/

Most leaders think they’re good communicators, until the stakes rise and the conversation derails. In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I speak with Jeffrey Fredrick, VP of Engineering at Ion Analytics and co-author of Agile Conversations, about how leaders can deliberately practice better communication, especially under pressure. Jeffrey shares the moment that changed his leadership: being told he was strong in advocacy but weak in inquiry. From there, we explore Chris Argyris’ unilateral control vs mutual learning models and the practical method Jeffrey uses to help teams improve conversations: the Four Rs. We also discuss why “Start With Why” is often not the best starting point. Jeffrey argues that the real foundation is trust, followed by the ability to surface fear without derailing into blame or silence. In this episode, you’ll learn: Why balancing advocacy and inquiry changes everything The Four Rs method: Record, Reflect, Revise, Role Play Why we misremember conversations and “hear music in our head” Why trust comes before why, and how vulnerability builds it How to surface fear without venting or sugarcoating How practice reveals patterns: triggers, tells, and twitches How these skills spread in organizations, one person at a time References mentioned: Chris Argyris: Model 1 (unilateral control) vs Model 2 (mutual learning) Agile Conversations (Jeffrey Fredrick and Douglas Squirrel) CitCon (conference for devs and testers before DevOps had a name) If you lead teams, facilitate tough discussions, or want to build a culture where people learn together rather than “win” arguments, this episode gives you a clear practice path. Find the summary, the transcripts and the references in the companion blog post: https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2024/06/30/exploring-agile-conversations-with-jeffrey-fredrick/

What happens to leadership when you can’t simply write a roadmap and “hand it to engineering”? In open source, influence replaces authority, and outcomes depend on communities, collaboration, and trust. In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I sit down with Maria Bracho, Chief Technology Officer for LATAM at Red Hat, to explore leadership through the lens of open source, global cultures, and building high-performing teams. Maria shares a memorable story from Japan (yes, ramen) to explain open source in a tangible way, then takes us inside what it means to lead across geographies, hire intentionally, and create momentum even when you don’t control all the variables. We also discuss Red Hat’s direction on AI, including RHEL AI and InstructLab, and what it means to approach AI the “Red Hat way” through openness and community. In this episode, we explore: A concrete, memorable explanation of open source (through the ramen industry) Why competitors collaborate on standards but still compete on differentiation Leading across cultures: US, Japan, LATAM (and how it shapes leadership) Taking on hard problems: persistence, learning, and influence What product leadership looks like when communities choose what to build Maria’s approach to recruitment and building cohesive teams Red Hat’s AI direction: RHEL AI, InstructLab, and democratizing model tuning If you lead in tech, build products with engineers, or want to understand open source as a leadership environment, this episode will give you practical shifts you can apply immediately. Find the transcript and the references in the companion blog post!

What does engineering leadership look like when your platform serves tens of millions of users and stores one of the largest content repositories on the web? In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I sit down with Tamar Bercovici, VP of Engineering at Box, to explore what it takes to lead engineering organizations at scale while navigating constant change. Tamar shares her journey from software engineer to executive leader, the challenges of transitioning from individual contributor to manager and then to organizational leadership, and how she approaches large-scale transformations such as infrastructure migrations and cloud adoption. We discuss how leaders create alignment without micromanaging, why clarity of purpose matters more than control, and how to manage risk in complex, high-stakes engineering environments. In this episode, we explore: Leading large-scale engineering platforms with lean teams The transition from IC to manager to organizational leader Aligning engineering work with business impact Leading through major infrastructure and organizational change Creating clarity of goals so teams can make good local decisions Managing risk through experimentation and early de-risking Innovating with AI on top of large-scale content platforms This conversation is essential listening for engineering leaders navigating growth, complexity, and continuous change. Find the transcript and more in the companion blog post: https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2024/05/03/engineering-leadership-at-scale-navigating-complexity-and-change-with-tamar-bercovici/

What does it really take to build and sustain excellence in engineering, especially inside a high-performance company? In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I sit down with Bruce Wang, Director of Engineering at Netflix and two-time founder, to explore leadership in tech through a simple but demanding philosophy: build trust, seek excellence, and drive customer delight. Bruce shares how leaders can balance these three pillars, why trust is the foundation for everything else, and what it looks like to scale leadership when you no longer manage individual contributors directly. We also unpack the less glamorous side of leadership: failure modes, shortcuts that break trust, and the humility required to rebuild. In this episode, we cover: The three pillars of Bruce’s leadership philosophy: trust, excellence, customer value How leaders lose trust by moving too fast, and how to repair it Setting vision before team structure: why “where we’re going” comes first Scaling leadership through managers, and learning to let go “People over process” and the real place of systems and lightweight structure Leadership as a “humble gardener”: cultivating conditions for growth Lessons from Netflix’s shift to remote work during COVID Find the transcript and the references in the companion blog post: https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2024/03/30/building-and-sustaining-excellence-with-bruce-wang-netflix/

What does it take to lead with outcomes without turning goals into top-down control? In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I sit down with Tim Beattie and Bella Bardswell, co-founders of Stellafai, to explore outcome-focused leadership, collaboration, and how teams can turn goals into a living way of working. We discuss why OKRs often fail in the real world (and what to do instead), how language shapes adoption (goals vs objectives, measures vs key results), and why collaboration in the room still matters. Tim and Bella also share how Stellafai uses AI as a team member that helps people think, align, and experiment, without replacing human conversations or coaching. In this episode, we cover: OKRs vs management-by-objectives: what creates resistance and how to fix it How to make goals collaborative, measurable, and continuously used (not set-and-forget) Using impact mapping to create better outcomes and reduce wasted work AI that supports teams by nudging, suggesting, and accelerating alignment Building inclusion from day one through practices that give everyone a voice Advice for emerging leaders: collaboration, prioritization, and making leadership enjoyable Find the transcript and the references in the companion blog post: https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2024/02/06/leading-with-outcomes-insights-from-stellafais-co-founders/

Michael Galloway has spent 20+ years building and leading cloud infrastructure and platform engineering teams across Yahoo, Netflix, and now HashiCorp. In this episode, we go beyond tools and buzzwords to unpack what modern infrastructure leadership really takes: understanding what sits beneath abstractions, setting the right defaults instead of hiding complexity, and building trust through predictable systems. We also dive into real change leadership stories: taking ownership during a workflow platform crisis, creating outcomes that matter (stability, scalability, confidence), and earning adoption by delivering early wins. Michael shares why “predictability beats velocity,” how to create urgency with a real cliff date, and what emerging leaders should focus on in their first 90 days. In this episode, you’ll learn: Why infrastructure platforms should enable “drill down” and operational ownership How to lead through incidents with clarity, accountability, and communication Practical change management tactics for platform adoption at scale How to set outcomes, deliver early wins, and rebuild trust in internal platforms Leadership advice for platform and engineering managers: stakeholders, credibility, purpose Find the transcript and the references in the companion blog post: https://blog-alexis.monville.com/en/2024/01/24/navigating-the-evolution-of-cloud-infrastructure-insights-from-michael-galloway/

In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I talk with Ioanna Mantzouridou, Co-founder and CEO of Dextego, an AI-powered coaching platform designed to reduce top talent attrition through personalized leadership development. Ioanna shares her journey from HR and organizational psychology to building an AI coaching product that addresses one of today’s biggest leadership challenges: developing soft skills at scale, especially in remote and hybrid environments. We explore: Why traditional learning and leadership programs fail to develop real soft skills How AI can democratize access to coaching beyond the C-suite What it means to lead an early-stage startup while balancing fundraising, sales, and vision Why empathy, discipline, and continuous learning matter more than ever for leaders How personalized development can dramatically improve top talent retention This conversation is for founders, leaders, HR and L&D professionals who want to understand how leadership development is evolving and what role AI can realistically play in building stronger, more human organizations. Find the transcript and more in the companion post. #LeadershipDevelopment #AI #EmergingLeaders #Podcast