The Climb: Leadership Development and Confident Leader Podcast

You explained it clearly. So why aren't people listening or taking action? For leaders, communicating the message is often the easy part. Getting people to trust it, buy into it, and act on it is much harder—especially when you don't have the authority to simply tell them what to do. In this episode of The CLIMB: Leadership Development & Confident Leader Podcast, Rahul Karan Sharma sits down with entrepreneur, author, and human behavior expert Joe Rocky Jr. to explore how to influence people without authority, communicate with different personalities, build trust, and turn a message into action. And Joe challenges a piece of advice almost every leader has heard: “Treat others the way you want to be treated.” What if that's part of the problem? Leaders can unknowingly communicate based on how they think, what motivates them, and what worked for them. But the person on the other side may think, respond, and make decisions very differently. Rahul and Joe explore: How to influence people without title or authority Why people don't listen—even when your message makes sense Why the Golden Rule can become a leadership blind spot How curiosity and better questions create influence Why assumptions can weaken communication and trust How to communicate with different personalities Why listening can be more powerful than speaking How ownership creates stronger buy-in during change How genuine relationships can strengthen teams and performance One idea captures the conversation: Authority may get you compliance. Influence earns commitment. Because leadership isn't simply about making people hear your message. It's to understand people well enough that the message matters to them. So the next time your team isn't responding the way you expected, instead of asking: “Why aren't they listening?” Try asking: “Do I understand them well enough for my message to land?” About Joe Rocky Jr. Joe Rocky Jr. is an entrepreneur, author, sales and human behavior expert, and owner of Elite Business Cruises. He has built 29 businesses and focuses his work on understanding what motivates people and strengthening relationships with employees and customers. Connect with Joe: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joerockey/About Rahul Karan SharmaRahul Karan Sharma is a Leadership Advisor to Staffing CEOs, organizational development strategist, keynote speaker, author, and host of The CLIMB. His work focuses on strengthening leadership capacity, accountability, and the organizational systems companies need to grow. Connect with Rahul: https://linkedin.com/in/rahulkaransharma #LeadershipDevelopment #InfluenceWithoutAuthority #LeadershipCommunication #ConfidentLeadership #TheCLIMB

What if employee turnover isn't the real problem—but a symptom of something deeper inside the organization? When people keep leaving, the typical response is to recruit faster. But hiring more people into the same environment others have already rejected doesn't solve the problem. It simply continues the cycle. In this episode of The CLIMB: Leadership Development & Confident Leader Podcast, Rahul Karan Sharma sits down with Clark Ingram, Founder and President of People Profits and author of CHURN, to challenge some conventional thinking around employee turnover, retention, and leadership. Clark brings an unusual perspective. He began his career in finance before his CEO asked him to take over HR during a serious workforce-retention problem. That experience changed how he thought about people, performance, and the systems behind both. In this conversation: Why you can't recruit your way out of a turnover problem Why turnover needs an organization-specific diagnosis The hidden business cost of an unstable workforce Why people and profits aren't competing priorities What Clark calls the “VP disease” Why industry-average turnover can create false comfort How HR leaders can speak the language of the business Why listening to employees matters only when leaders act One of the most important ideas from our conversation: People don't always leave because of one bad manager. Sometimes they leave because the system around them no longer works. And when leaders stop chasing symptoms and start fixing the system, retention can become an outcome—not another initiative. About Clark Ingram: Founder and President of People Profits, executive consultant, keynote speaker, and author of CHURN: Proven Strategies to Overcome Failing Conventional Talent Management and Achieve Zero Turnover.Connect with Clark: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clark-ingram-mba-shrm-scp-cebs-cpcu-06385111/ About Rahul Karan Sharma: Leadership Advisor to Staffing CEOs, organizational development strategist, author, and host of The CLIMB and the Staffing Truth. Connect with Rahul: https://linkedin.com/in/rahulkaransharma 🎙️ What would you fix inside your organization before hiring the next person? #LeadershipDevelopment #EmployeeRetention #TheCLIMB

What if leadership confidence isn't something you either have or don't have but something you can intentionally build? And what if one of the biggest differences between confident leaders and everyone else is their ability to see patterns others miss? In this episode of The CLIMB: Leadership Development and Confident Leader Podcast, leadership advisor Rahul Karan Sharma sits down with leadership educator, organizational consultant and Sheppard Partners founder Charlie Sheppard to explore where real confidence comes from—and why it goes much deeper than appearing certain. Charlie makes an important distinction: genuine confidence isn't false bravado. It develops as leaders expand their capabilities, understand their patterns and become more intentional about how they respond. One of the most interesting ideas in the conversation is the connection between confidence and systems thinking. Rahul and Charlie also explore why leadership is a choice, how presence affects leadership, why ownership matters more than blame, and what organizations can learn by studying low performers instead of only trying to replicate high performers. In this episode: Why confidence can be intentionally developed The difference between genuine confidence and projected confidence Why competence often comes before confidence How systems thinking helps leaders navigate complexity Why seeing patterns can increase leadership confidence What organizations can learn from studying low performers? Why presence gives leaders greater choice in how they respond Internal vs. external locus of control How our stories and unconscious patterns can either serve or sabotage us Why taking ownership changes the way we lead Episode Highlights: 00:00 What If Confidence Begins With a Choice?01:55 Can Confidence Actually Be Developed?03:55 Charlie's Journey Into Leadership Development06:41 Why Charlie Started Studying Low Performers09:28 Leadership Is a Choice12:33 Why Presence Matters in Leadership15:15 Creating the Human Presence Institute19:46 Are Our Stories Sabotaging Our Confidence?23:22 Why Leaders Need to Take Ownership27:38 Internal vs. External Locus of Control28:24 What Makes Someone Genuinely Confident?28:41 The Connection Between Confidence and Systems Thinking30:55 Seeing What Others Miss31:25 How Sheppard Partners Develops Leaders34:08 Rapid-Fire Leadership Round35:40 Rahul's Biggest TakeawaysAbout Charlie Sheppard Charlie Sheppard is the founder of Sheppard Partners and an experienced leadership educator and organizational-development practitioner. His work includes behavioral modeling, leadership development, organizational culture, influence and performance. He is also the author of Save Your Drama for Your Mama: Drama or Leadership Is a Choice. Connect with Charlie: 🌐 Website: https://www.sheppardpartners.com/ 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charliesheppard/ About Rahul Karan Sharma Rahul Karan Sharma is a Leadership Advisor to Staffing CEOs, organizational development strategist, author and host of The CLIMB: Leadership Development & Confident Leader Podcast. His work focuses on helping organizations develop confident leaders who can influence, take ownership and create sustainable performance. Connect with Rahul: 🌐 Website: https://rahulkaransharma.com 💼 LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/rahulkaransharma Question for you: What has built more confidence in your career—learning something new or successfully navigating something difficult?#LeadershipDevelopment #ConfidentLeadership #SystemsThinking #TheCLIMB #rahulkaransharma

A great résumé can tell you where someone has been. It can't tell you whether they can lead your company where it's going. So why do so many founders still make one of their most important leadership decisions based primarily on experience, interviews and gut instinct? In this episode of The CLIMB: Leadership Development & Confident Leader Podcast, leadership strategist Rahul Karan Sharma sits down with Alec Broadfoot, Founder & CEO of VisionSpark and author of Hiring Your Right #2 Leader, to explore why hiring the wrong leader can quietly become one of the biggest constraints on growth. Alec learned this lesson through experience. In an earlier business, he was firing 7 out of every 10 people he hired. Introducing structured assessments helped completely change his approach to hiring—and eventually contributed to the creation of VisionSpark. But this conversation goes beyond recruiting. Rahul and Alec explore a question every growing founder eventually faces: Can you build an organization that performs without you being involved in everything? In this episode, you'll learn: Why experience and a strong résumé aren't enough when hiring leaders What founders should evaluate beyond qualifications? Why mental acuity, adaptability, and people skills matter How hiring the wrong leader creates invisible organizational costs Why founders struggle to delegate and how trust affects delegation How to determine whether a leader can support 3X or 5X growth Why your best salesperson may not be your best manager What to look for in a strong #2, COO or Integrator Why being indispensable may actually limit your organization's growth About our Guest: Alec Broadfoot is Founder & CEO of VisionSpark, an executive search firm focused on helping entrepreneurial and growth-oriented companies hire critical leaders. He is also the author of Hiring Your Right #2 Leader. Connect on LinkedIn with Alec: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alecbroadfoot/About our Host Rahul Karan Sharma is a leadership strategist, organizational development practitioner, author, and host of The CLIMB. Through Steady Steps and the CLIMB Framework™, his work focuses on developing confident leaders and helping organizations strengthen leadership capability and performance. Connect on LinkedIn with Rahul: https://linkedin.com/in/rahulkaransharma Key Highlights from the episode: 00:00 The Leadership Mistake That Can Change Everything01:48 Alec Broadfoot's Entrepreneurial Journey03:25 The Hiring Failure That Changed Alec's Career04:40 When the Assessment Said “Don't Hire Her”07:23 The Invisible Cost of a Bad Hire09:13 Why Founders Struggle to Delegate10:31 Will Your Leaders Handle 3X–5X Growth?11:00 Why a Résumé Isn't Enough12:28 Are You Hiring Through the Halo Effect?13:48 What If the Right Person Is in the Wrong Seat?17:23 Authority vs. Influence18:53 Why Founders Need the Right #222:06 The Hidden Cost of Doing Everything Yourself26:01 What Founders Should Stop Doing29:07 Rapid-Fire Leadership Round30:08 Rahul's Biggest Leadership Takeaways Question for you: If you disappeared from your business for two weeks, would your leadership team keep moving or would decisions start waiting for you? #LeadershipDevelopment #ExecutiveHiring #FounderLeadership #TheCLIMB

A leadership setback doesn't have to destroy your confidence. What if failure isn't evidence that you're failing—but feedback showing you what to do differently? In this episode of The CLIMB: Leadership Development & Confident Leader Podcast, leadership advisor Rahul Karan Sharma sits down with entrepreneur, leadership teacher and A Mindful CEO host Aaron Hendon to explore how leaders recover from failure, rebuild confidence and use mindfulness to respond rather than react. Aaron offers a powerful reframe: Failure is feedback. An action may fail to produce the result you wanted. But that doesn't make you a failure. It gives you information—and the opportunity to choose a different action. Rahul and Aaron take that idea into the realities leaders face every day: a presentation that goes badly, a business decision that doesn't work, a first-time manager trying to prove themselves, or a mistake made in front of the team. And sometimes, trying to hide the mistake creates more damage than the mistake itself. In this episode, you'll discover: Why failure should be treated as feedback How leaders can rebuild confidence after a setback Why adaptability matters more than getting everything right How mindfulness can become a leadership performance tool Why leaders should own mistakes instead of hiding them How self-kindness can strengthen leadership Why meditation isn't about “emptying your mind” What first-time managers can learn before trying to reinvent the wheel How to stay centered when things don't go according to plan Episode Highlights 00:00 – Why Leaders Need to Talk About Failure 02:17 – Aaron's Biggest Business Failure 03:40 – Stop Reinventing the Wheel Too Early 06:50 – Why Failure Doesn't Mean You're Incapable 07:12 – Failure Is Feedback 09:25 – Mindfulness as a Leadership Performance Tool 12:00 – How to Rebuild Confidence After Failure 14:49 – What Successful Leaders Understand About Mindfulness 16:40 – How to Start Practicing Mindfulness 18:49 – Why Owning Mistakes Builds Credibility 20:11 – You Can't Give What You Don't Have 21:23 – Aaron's Work & Upcoming Book 22:59 – Inside A Mindful CEO Podcast 24:04 – Rapid-Fire Leadership Round 24:38 – Rahul's Biggest Leadership Takeaways About Guest Aaron Hendon Aaron Hendon is an entrepreneur, leadership teacher, speaker and host of A Mindful CEO Podcast. His work explores the intersection between mindfulness, leadership performance, business results, and living intentionally. Connect with Aaron:🌐 Website: https://www.thegratefulbreath.com/ 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronhendon/ About our Host Rahul Karan Sharma is a leadership advisor, organizational development strategist, keynote speaker, author, and host of The CLIMB: Leadership Development & Confident Leader Podcast. Rahul's work focuses on developing confident leaders, strengthening leadership pipelines, and helping organizations build leaders who can create influence, accountability, and sustainable performance. Connect with Rahul: 🌐 Website: https://rahulkaransharma.com 💼 LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/rahulkaransharma 🎙️ What's one failure that ultimately taught you something success couldn't? Share your perspective in the comments. Keep learning. Keep evolving. Keep climbing. #LeadershipDevelopment #ConfidentLeadership #LeadershipMindset #Mindfulness #TheCLIMB