126: The Skill Nobody Trains You On Before You Lead Other Leaders w/ Mackie McAdam

The Skill Nobody Trains You On Before You Lead Other Leaders Ready to Level Up Your Leadership? Get the GAIN Framework — my free system for leading with clarity and intention. Sign up for the newsletter at seanpatton.me/newsletter and get instant access. Want to work together? If you're a leader who's ready to stop spinning and start leading with real clarity, book a free Vision Call at seanpatton.me/executive-coaching.    Guest: Mackie McAdam — Executive Coach at Novus Global, Chief Marketing Officer Host: Sean Patton, No Limit Leadership   Mackie McAdam spent his early career in faith-based leadership before moving into the corporate world, where he now serves as a CMO and executive coach. In this episode, he and Sean dig into the hardest jump in any leader's career: moving from leading individual contributors to leading other leaders. They cover why companies promote people into that gap unprepared, how to actually give feedback that lands, and why no AI tool can replace what a real leader does in the room.     Key Takeaways   Leading leaders is a different skill, not a bigger version of the same skill. The jump from managing individual contributors to leading other leaders is a wide chasm — most people get promoted across it with zero training for what's actually different. Your best producer isn't automatically your best leader. Promoting top performers (sales reps, engineers, specialists) into leadership because they're great at the job is one of the most common — and costly — mistakes companies make. Clarity of intent matters more the higher you go. Leaders of leaders can't have a personal touch with every person on the ground, so vision and communication have to be clear enough that leaders below them can make good calls without constant input. "Don't tell me your priorities — show me your calendar and your budget." If a company says it develops leaders but has no actual program, time, or spend behind it, that's the real answer. Direct and neutral beats indirect and emotional. The best feedback is delivered as data, not as an emotionally charged "compliment sandwich." Triangulated, indirect feedback is the most damaging kind. Ask permission before giving feedback. Letting someone choose when and on what they want feedback — and telling them in advance what you're working on yourself — makes feedback land instead of landing as an attack. Vulnerability is a leadership tool, not a liability. Leaders who openly ask their team to call them out on specific blind spots build more trust and get better results than leaders who try to look like they have it all figured out. AI can't do what a leader does. AI tends to validate whatever you tell it and rarely disrupts your thinking or invites a new perspective — the kind of mid-sentence "hang on, that's not true" moment that changes a career.   Chapter Markers   00:00 — Intro: the hardest promotion in leadership 00:38 — Welcome Mackie McAdam 01:09 — Mackie's path from faith-based leadership to the corporate world 04:25 — "The more pigs you add to the pen" — what changes when you lead leaders 05:26 — The five levels of leadership and the chasm at level three 10:47 — Why clarity of intent becomes critical at higher levels 12:00 — Testing leaders before promoting them — and the calendar/budget test 13:35 — The mistake of promoting your best producer into leadership 15:50 — Why fast-scaling companies create leadership gaps 33:25 — The power of disruption in coaching 34:41 — Why AI can't replace a leader's feedback 36:26 — How meta-performance coaching changed Mackie's own leadership 38:28 — The critical elements of effective feedback: directness and neutrality 41:22 — Asking permission for feedback and aligning it to someone's vision 43:16 — "Telling on yourself" — using vulnerability to invite accountability 44:49 — Where to find Mackie and closing thoughts   Connect with Mackie McAdam   Coaching: novus.global/mackiemcadam LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mackiemcadam No Limit Leadership is the go-to podcast for growth-minded executives, middle managers, and team leaders who want more than surface-level leadership advice. Hosted by executive coach and former Special Forces commander Sean Patton, this show dives deep into modern leadership, self-leadership, and the real-world strategies that build high-performing teams. Whether you're focused on leadership development, building a coaching culture, improving leadership communication, or strengthening team accountability, each episode equips you with actionable insights to unlock leadership potential across your organization. From designing onboarding systems that retain talent to asking better questions that drive clarity and impact, No Limit Leadership helps you lead yourself first so you can lead others better. If you're ready to create a culture of ownership, resilience, and results, this leadership podcast is for you.