The Learning To Lead Show with Mark J. Cundiff
The Learning to Lead Show with Mark J. Cundiff
Helping Good Leaders Become Great—One Practical Insight at a Time
You’re busy. The demands are real. But your desire to grow as a leader hasn’t gone anywhere.
That’s why The Learning to Lead Show is designed for leaders like you—driven, growth-minded, and always on the go. Hosted by Executive Leadership Coach Mark J. Cundiff, this podcast delivers practical leadership insights you can use today, not someday.
Each week, you’ll get:
- Short, focused teaching episodes packed with real-world lessons from decades of leadership experience, bestselling books, and proven frameworks.
- Authentic interviews with front-line leaders who share how they’re navigating challenges, building teams, and leading with purpose, right where they are.
Whether you’re commuting, working out, or grabbing a few quiet minutes between meetings, this show helps you invest in your leadership without adding to your already busy schedule.
Because great leadership isn’t about having more time—it’s about using the time you have to lead on purpose.
This show is for growth-minded professionals who want more than titles and tactics. It’s for those who want to lead with purpose, develop a legacy, and make their future bigger than their past.
So whether you're leading a team, a business, or yourself—tune in, take notes, and let’s grow together.
The Learning To Lead Show with Mark J. Cundiff
#17 Leaders are Great Communicators. Reflections on my conversation with Jim Little
In this episode of the Learning to Lead Show, host Mark Cundiff reflects on his conversation with Jim Little, a Navy veteran and reliability engineer, about important leadership lessons.
Key takeaways include the importance of building trust through listening and providing feedback, the role of clear communication in driving organizational change, the balance between friendliness and leadership to avoid favoritism, and the significance of servant leadership.
Jim emphasizes creating a fun, engaging work environment to boost team satisfaction. Listeners are encouraged to download leader notes for more insights and revisit the full conversation with Jim Little from previous episodes.
00:00 Introduction to the Learning the Lead Show
00:04 Insights from a Navy Veteran: Jim Little
00:33 The Importance of Trust and Feedback in Leadership
01:48 Communication: The Engine of Change
03:03 Balancing Friendship and Leadership
03:53 Embracing Servant Leadership
04:34 Injecting Fun into the Workplace
05:20 Conclusion and Key Takeaways
Free Learning To Lead Resources
🔎 About LeaderNotes
LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.
Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com
Hello. Welcome to the Learning the Lead Show. I'm your host, mark Cundiff. Today we're going to have some leadership reflections on my conversation with Jim Little communication and leadership's insights from a Navy veteran. It was very compelling to listen to Jim talk about what he has learned over the years. Starting with his years in the Navy and then progressing through his career as an electrical technician, moving into supervision and then running different sites, and now working as a reliability engineer. One of the things that I thought was really key was that he stated that trust is built by listening and closing the loop. Jim hears one complaint over and over. He says, I tell leadership something. And it disappears into a black hole. He said that he's determined not to be that leader, that he's not going to be a leader that is told something by someone on the front lines, and he does not give them feedback, that is something key for all of us to adhere to. As leaders, sometimes we listen, but we don't listen and then give feedback to what we've heard in a timely manner and let folks know that what they're telling us is important. So what happens when we stop listening, when we stop providing feedback is that you stop getting the information that you need to lead effectively. Jim states that. People come to me because they know I'll listen and I'll respond even if I can't give them what they want. Jim says he listens and people come to him because he does give them feedback that he is responsive to what they ask about. He said one of the keys to driving change is having good, clear communication. He says, communication is the engine of change. Turning a failing mill from the worst of first didn't happen by accident. They took over this paper mill that. Globally, there were 34 mills in this company in this division, and they were the number 34th ranked mill of all the mills. Over a period of a couple years, they went from last to first. This happened with a great cooperation from the mill manager. To the site manager that was working as an outsourced maintenance provider that was a part of our company, he saw that one of the keys that drove that change was how well that leadership team, the plant manager and the site manager. Communicated with authenticity that they told'em what the real issues were and they kept that in front of people over and over again so that they had a clear understanding of what needed to be changed, what needed to be improved, and what needed to move forward. He goes, we didn't keep secrets. Everyone knew the situation we were in, and that's what got people bought in to the change practices that they were doing. Then he talks about one of the times when he stumbled, he says, you can be friendly with those that are your direct reports, but don't confuse friendship with leadership. So he ran into some situations where he was being a leader of an organization and he was actually working for me at this time, he had a teammate that was taking advantage of that and he had to actually move that. Teammate into another department because of the issues that it was causing and the trust that it was destroying.'cause you can have a friendly relationship, but not one that affects your ability to lead. So you have to be very careful that you're not playing favorites, that you're not allowing your friendship to come into the workplace and cloud your judgment and cause favoritism and cause you not to hold somebody accountable or to hold them to the same standards that you're holding everybody else. Jim also discussed being a servant leader, talking about he really strives to be the go-to person, someone that people come to for help, that he's resourceful, that he's someone that serves first, then leads from that service relationship that he's built with this team. So it's really good to think about the concept, what he's talking about there, of working to be a servant leader with your people. Serving them in a good way so that you build trust, build relationships, and that they're willing to go to bat and serve your organization in a powerful way. He says, leadership can be demanding. But it should also be fun, and he likes to interject fun in there. I recently wrote a article about this, the Red Rubber Ball book by Kevin Carroll, talking about how that you interject fun into the workplace and it can make it at a place that's. That's joyful. That a place where people can enjoy coming every day, even if the work is hard, even if the work is challenging. How can you interject fun into the workplace and make it a place where people enjoy being around one another? Another book on that is Marcus Buckingham's recent book, love Plus Work, it also talks about this having a place that you love to go to work that you love, and making sure that it's a place that people. Don't dread coming to every Monday morning. So what are some of the key practices and concepts that you got out of today's episode? That's it for today's episode. Make sure you go and download our leader notes for each episode. It'll give you some clear, concise notes on the key topics discussed. If you haven't listened to the previous episode with Jim Little, make sure you go back and hear the full conversation. Also, please subscribe and share this with your friends, we also would ask that if you enjoyed this. Got some great. Leadership content out of this that you would go and give us a rating. This helps us spread the word about the Learning to Lead show now, go out and learn, grow and lead. As Craig Groeschel would say when the leader gets better, everyone gets better.