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
#45 Leadership Insights from my Conversation with Erin Treacy
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Host Mark Cundiff recaps Episode #44 of the Learning to Lead Show featuring leadership coach and former Alpine ski racer Erin Treacy, focusing on how to lead effectively without burning yourself or your team out.
Drawing on her experience in ski racing, broadcast news, business ownership, and coaching, Erin argues that growth comes from leading better, not doing more, and that long-term success is built by investing in people over systems.
Key topics include:
- Discipline and resilience
- Internal growth versus external solutions
- Communication gaps that create bottlenecks
- Staying connected to frontline teams
- Trust built through consistency and clarity
- Process over outcome (including Nick Saban’s approach)
- Supporting middle managers
- Simple intentional check-ins
- Reframing feedback as a growth tool
- The value of having a coach or mentor
Cundiff’s five takeaways emphasize developing current teams, addressing burnout through clarity and communication, prioritizing people, building trust daily, and using brief check-ins for big impact.
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🔎 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 to Lead Show. My name is Mark Cundiff, and I'm your host if you've never joined us before. Our objective with this podcast is to encourage, equip, and inspire leaders to take their leadership to the next level. Today we're going to do what I call leadership insights. Talk about the interview that we just had with Erin Treacy. She's a. Leadership coach who formerly was an Alpine ski racer. So the title of the episode number 44 was from Alpine Ski Racer to Leadership Coach with Erin Treacy. Erin joined the show to share practical leadership insights on how to lead effectively without burning out yourself or your team. With a background in broadcast news, business ownership, and leadership coaching, Erin brings a grounded. Real world experience on why so many leaders feel overwhelmed and how to shift toward clarity, sustainability, and a people first Leadership style at the core of this conversation was a powerful truth. Growth doesn't come from doing more. It comes from leading better. Erin challenges leaders to rethink how they approach growth, communication, and development. She emphasized that long-term success is built by investing in people. Not just systems. This episode is a must listen for leaders who are carrying too much responsibility for themselves, trying to scale, but feeling stuck, focused on results, but messing the people behind them. If you want to lead with more clarity, confidence, and consistency, the conversation I had with Erin will give you a better way forward. Here's some highlights of the key topics that we discussed, and then I'll give you five key takeaways. First of all, Erin's leadership journey started in four H, her athletic career and business ownership. Secondly, she shares some lessons in discipline and resilience from what she learned on the Alpine ski racing circuit, and she also shares why leaders must stop chasing more and start developing people. This is one of the things that I really. Resonated with her was her focus on developing people and how many organizations have gotten away from doing this well. She also talks about the real cause of burnout in leaders and teams. She talks about internal growth for a company versus external solutions like hiring tech and systems. She talks about how to focus on that in a good way. She also lists how communication gaps create bottlenecks and frustration. She talks about how investing in people delivers the highest return on investment, a four to seven x return. She talks about the importance of staying connected to frontline teams. Erin also gives us some insights about trust versus productivity, building long-term performance based on trust. She likes to use sports analogies. She uses one of her favorite coaches, Nick Saban's process, where he talks about process over outcome as a leadership principle. Great illustration. She shares there, she talks about supporting middle managers and preventing burnout, and then she talks about the power of simple. Intentional check-ins. She also goes through reframing feedback as growth tool, not criticism, and she talks about why every leader needs a coach or a mentor. My five key takeaways for growth-minded leaders in this episode starts with number one. Growth starts from within, not from adding more. She talks about how many believers believe growth means more people, more tools, more systems, but she talked about how real growth starts by developing the people you already have. She talks about a blind spot that many organizations that she's dealt with have of not investing and developing the people they already have, maximizing their effectiveness and their output and their results for the company. And she says, many times companies go looking for external solutions when they have a lot of the answers right in front of them. So the key leadership lesson there is before you start to add resources, maximize your current team key takeaway number two, burnout is a leadership problem, not just a workload problem. Burnout often comes from lack of clarity. Poor communication. Undefined expectations, not just too much work. Leadership insight. When people are clear and supported, they can handle more than you think. Number three, invest in people first. Everything else follows. Many organizations invest heavily in systems, but neglect their people. What is the result? Tools without Traction. I have seen this so many times during my career where companies invest millions in tools and systems and equipment, but invest very little in the people that are going to use those tools, execute those systems, and make things happen on the shop floor or in the front lines of the business. So what's the leadership lesson there? A well-developed team will outperform any system you install. Number four, trust is built through consistency and clarity. Trust isn't built through big moments. It's built through daily interactions like explaining the why, following through consistently, and communicating clearly. These three basic practices can help improve your trust. Consistency is so important. I have worked with so many leaders that are inconsistent from what they say to what they do, to following through on projects and over promising and under delivering that inconsistency of actions and. Not matching their words causes a breakdown in trust and causes confusion throughout the organization. A key leadership insight there. When people understand your thinking, they trust your leadership. Number five, our last takeaway. Small check-ins create big impact. You don't need complex systems to improve your leadership. You need intentional moments. Simple questions like, what's working? Where are you stuck? How can I help? These simple questions can elevate your leadership, elevate the connection that you have with your team, and additionally take your team to the next level of performance. So the leadership lesson there five minutes of intentional leadership can change everything. Thank you for listening in on today's Leadership Insights with my conversation with Erin Treacy. If today's episode was helpful, make sure that you share it with a friend. Make sure you go and subscribe so you get each new episode in your podcast app, Additionally, I would appreciate it if you would go and give us a rating on your favorite podcast app. Those ratings help people come to learn more about what we're doing here on the Learning to Lead Show. And then also make sure you go download the leader notes that will give you the application guide and give you the outline of the key subjects and books and things that were discussed on this episode. Make sure you go out and learn, grow and lead, and take your organization to the next level.