The Climb: Leadership Development and Confident Leader Podcast

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

Great leaders don't need to be the hero. They need to become the guide. In this episode of The CLIMB Leadership Development and Confident Leader Podcast, Adam Roach challenges how we think about leadership, influence, success, failure, and the identity we build around our careers. Adam's journey has taken him from competitive tennis and entrepreneurship to building real estate businesses, technology ventures and ultimately a coaching community focused on helping others create impact. But one of the biggest turning points came when Adam began questioning the identity he had built around success. In this conversation with Rahul Karan Sharma, Adam shares why leadership is ultimately about influence, why high performance alone doesn't make someone ready to lead, and why leaders must stop positioning themselves as the hero in someone else's story. Adam also shares a deeply personal moment involving his father and longtime friend and mentor John Maxwell—one that challenged him to stop chasing success and start creating significance. In this episode, you'll discover: Why leadership is influence, not title Why people are watching how you lead—even when you don't realize it The difference between being the hero and the guide Why empathy and competence matter in leadership Why your highest performer may not be your best future leader How to identify authentic leaders with a genuine desire to serve Why leaders sometimes need to ask: “Do you want me to feel it or fix it?” How career transitions often require an identity transition Why failure should never become your identity The difference between chasing success and significance Adam describes leadership as influence and influence as getting someone to take action. Later, he argues that organizations should look beyond performance when selecting leaders and instead examine authenticity, service and whether people genuinely want to follow that individual. Key Highlights from the episode: 00:00 – When Is It Time to Reinvent Yourself? 02:21 – Why Career Transitions Are Really Identity Transitions 08:24 – What Do People “Catch” From Your Leadership? 10:44 – Why You Can't Replace a Great Mentor 11:26 – Stop Being the Hero. Become the Guide. 15:51 – “Do You Want Me to Feel It or Fix It?” 19:11 – What Actually Makes Someone a Leader? 23:06 – Why High Performance Doesn't Equal Leadership Potential 24:35 – Positional Leaders vs. Authentic Leaders 27:35 – When Success Becomes the Wrong Priority 30:30 – Why Failure Shouldn't Become Your Identity 31:21 – Adam's REAL Coach Method & Community 33:51 – Rapid Fire Leadership Round 35:55 – Rahul's Biggest TakeawaysAbout our guest, Adam Roach Adam Roach is an entrepreneur, coach, and founder of I Love Coaching Co. His career has spanned competitive tennis, real estate, business ownership, technology, and coaching. Through the REAL Coach Method—Relevant, Experiential, Authentic Leader—Adam and his community help coaches build businesses around service, impact, and significance. Connect with Adam: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamrroach/ 🌐 Website: https://ilovecoachingco.com/About our host Rahul Karan Sharma Rahul Karan Sharma is a leadership advisor, organizational development strategist, keynote speaker, author, and host of The CLIMB: Leadership Development & Confident Leader Podcast. Through conversations with leaders, entrepreneurs, and change-makers, The CLIMB explores what it takes to develop confident leaders capable of creating influence, building trust, and leading others through change. Connect with Rahul: LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/rahulkaransharma 🌐 Website: https://rahulkaransharma.com Keep learning. Keep evolving. Keep climbing. #LeadershipDevelopment #ConfidentLeadership #Leadership #ExecutiveCoaching #TheCLIMB

What if everyone agreeing in your meetings is actually a warning sign? Silence, harmony, and good engagement scores don't always mean your team feels safe enough to speak honestly. In this episode of The CLIMB Leadership Development and Confident Leader Podcast, host Rahul Karan Sharma sits down with executive coach and Quantum Leader Solutions founder Daniela Rusu to explore what psychological safety actually looks like inside real teams and the warning signs leaders often miss. Daniela challenges an important assumption: a team can appear collaborative on the surface while difficult conversations are happening behind closed doors. She explains why silence can be a warning sign, excessive harmony can hide unresolved conflict, and psychological safety may look different across cultures and individuals. Rahul also shares an experience from his own leadership career in which an employee directly challenged one of his decisions and why a leader's response in moments like these tells employees whether speaking up is truly safe. In this conversation, you'll discover: • Why silence doesn't necessarily mean agreement • The difference between being nice and building genuine trust • How cultural differences influence psychological safety • Why employee surveys may tell leaders only part of the story • How absenteeism and burnout can signal deeper team problems • Why leaders must create space for difficult conversations • How human connection rebuilds trust inside struggling teams • Why assuming positive intent can change how teams handle disagreement Episode's Highlights 00:00 – Everyone Agrees—but Do They Really? 02:16 – Daniela's Unexpected Leadership Journey 07:45 – What Psychological Safety Actually Means 10:39 – Is the Threat Real—or Is Fear Holding You Back? 13:22 – The #1 Warning Sign: Silence 17:12 – When “Everyone Gets Along” Becomes a Problem 18:48 – How Leaders Can Diagnose Psychological Safety 20:22 – The Hidden Cost of Psychological Stress 21:11 – Who Is Responsible for Psychological Safety? 23:44 – Why Employee Surveys Can Mislead Leaders 25:09 – Rebuilding Trust When It Has Already Broken 28:29 – Why Human Connection Changes Team Performance 30:26 – What High-Trust Teams Do Differently 32:25 – How to Disagree Without Making It Personal 33:58 – Working With Daniela Rusu 34:55 – Rapid Fire 37:14 – Rahul's Biggest Leadership TakeawaysAbout our Guest- Daniela Rusu Daniela Rusu is an executive coach, lead facilitator, and founder of Quantum Leader Solutions. She works with leaders and organizations to strengthen communication, build trust, navigate difficult conversations, and create healthier workplace relationships. Her work focuses on helping leaders move beyond surface-level communication and create environments where people feel respected, heard, and able to contribute their best thinking. Connect with Daniela LinkedIn: Daniela Rusu https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielarusu09/ Website: https://quantum-leader.comAbout our host -Rahul Karan Sharma Rahul Karan Sharma is a leadership strategist, Forbes Coaches Council member, author, and creator of the CLIMB Framework™. Drawing on more than two decades of corporate leadership and organizational development experience, Rahul helps leaders strengthen confidence, influence, trust, and the human capabilities organizations need to perform in an AI-driven workplace. He hosts The CLIMB Leadership Development and Confident Leader Podcast, a Global Top 1.5% podcast featuring practical conversations on leadership development, mindset, workplace culture and the future of leadership. Connect with Rahul 🌐 Rahul Karan Sharma https://www.rahulkaransharma.com #PsychologicalSafety #LeadershipDevelopment #TeamCulture #ConfidentLeadership #TheCLIMBPodcast

What if burnout isn't simply caused by working too hard—but by spending too much time working out of alignment with who you are? In this episode of The CLIMB Leadership Development & Confident Leader Podcast, host Rahul Karan Sharma sits down with Debbie Sodergren, founder and CEO of UP Vibrations LLC and creator of Harmonic Sovereignty, to explore confidence, burnout, boundaries, and sustainable leadership. Debbie challenges the familiar advice to “fake it till you make it,” arguing that sustainable confidence isn't something leaders perform for others. It develops when their priorities, decisions, work, and personal well-being become better aligned. Together, Rahul and Debbie explore why successful leaders can appear highly accomplished on the outside while quietly becoming depleted on the inside and what leaders can do before burnout takes over. Key Highlights from the episode 00:00 – Can confidence come from alignment instead of performance? 01:46 – Debbie Sodergren's leadership journey 03:08 – High performers, alignment and burnout 04:21 – Why “fake it till you make it” can become dangerous 05:44 – Finding your most productive working hours 07:25 – Rethinking hustle, work and success 11:06 – Hidden signs successful leaders may be struggling 14:19 – Priorities, presence and preventing burnout 15:36 – How to recognize when someone may need support 17:55 – Understanding your strengths and knowing when to delegate 20:11 – Learning to say no and protect your priorities 23:43 – Why successful leaders still struggle with self-confidence 24:17 – The fear of taking your foot off the career accelerator 25:30 – Why you can't do everything alone 27:18 – Why mentors, coaches and accountability matter 29:53 – How to connect and work with Debbie 30:44 – Rapid Fire Round 31:17 – Rahul's biggest leadership takeaways About our Guest- Debbie Sodergren She is the founder and CEO of UP Vibrations LLC and creator of Harmonic Sovereignty. With decades of experience in energy work and executive wellness, Debbie works with high-achieving entrepreneurs and leaders to help them explore alignment, well-being, confidence, and sustainable success. Learn more about Debbie Sodergren and Harmonic Sovereignty: ⁠https://harmonicsovereignty.com⁠ About our Host- Rahul Karan Sharma He is a Leadership Advisor to Staffing CEOs, Organizational Development Strategist, Forbes Coaches Council member, and creator of the CLIMB Framework™. Rahul helps leaders and organizations identify the leadership gaps that slow growth, strengthen leadership capability, and build more confident, high-performing teams. Through The CLIMB Leadership Development & Confident Leader Podcast, Rahul brings together executives, entrepreneurs, psychologists, authors, coaches, and thought leaders to explore the human side of leadership in an increasingly complex workplace. Ranked among the Global Top 1.5% of podcasts, The CLIMB explores leadership development, confident leadership, executive presence, mindset, career growth, organizational development, and the human capabilities leaders need to succeed in the AI era. The goal is simple: Help professionals move from Invisible → Influencer. Learn more about Rahul Karan Sharma and The CLIMB Podcast: 🌐 Rahul Karan Sharma https://www.rahulkaransharma.com 🎙️ The CLIMB Podcast https://www.rahulkaransharma.com/the-climb-podcast If this conversation gave you a new perspective on confidence, burnout, or leadership, subscribe, share the episode, and tell us your biggest takeaway in the comments. #LeadershipDevelopment #ConfidentLeadership #LeadershipBurnout #ExecutiveLeadership #LeadershipMindset #HighPerformers #BurnoutPrevention #LeadershipConfidence #TheCLIMBPodcast #RahulKaranSharma