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.
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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
#63 Leadership Insights from my Conversation with Jennifer Doty
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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
Welcome to the Learning to Lead show. I'm your host, Mark Cundiff, and this is episode number 63, my leadership insights from my conversation with Jennifer Doty I am glad to let you know that we are celebrating our one-year anniversary this month. It was a year ago that I hit record, put up my first podcast episode, and launched the Learning to Lead show, and you've been a big part of this. This past week, I sent out a note to the Learning to Lead newsletter family and just made a note of several different things. In our first year, the Learning to Lead showed has been downloaded in sixty countries, three hundred and ninety-two cities, and forty-one states. We sat across the mic from twenty-nine guest leaders and published sixty-two episodes of real unfiltered conversations about what actually takes to lead. If you would like a copy of that, just email me at mark@markjcundiff.com if you're not on my subscribed list to my email newsletter, and I will be glad to forward that to you. We listed out our top ten episodes, and I'll go through those here today, so that if you wanna go back and hear some of the most popular episodes, you can do that. The top episode was episode number two, Why Storytelling, Selling, and Strategy Matter More Than You Think with Sean Eisenhower. Episode number fifty-two, Tough and Tender Leadership with Patrick Erwin. Episode number thirty-six, Leadership, Perseverance, and the Miracle of JMac with Coach Jim Johnson. Episode number thirty-four, Intentional Leadership: Turning Behavior into Results with Ken Wagner. Episode number twenty-four, What You Condone, You Endorse with Grandmaster Rick Rando. Episode number eleven, Leadership, Trust, and Integrity with Quentin Hodge. Episode number five, Muddy Boots, a Broom Closet, and Broken Expectations with Robert Owens. Episode number twenty-two, Mastering Your Mindset with Marianne Renner. And Episode number fifty, The Read to Lead Blueprint for Personal, Professional, and Leadership Growth with Jeff Brown. Those are our top ten for the first year. If you haven't listened to some of those, go and check out a couple of those episodes. I think you'll find those really compelling. They were our most popular episodes. Got a lot of great feedback about those. I wanna spend a few minutes focusing on my conversation with Jennifer Doty in episode number sixty-two. The title of that episode was You Don't Need All the Answers: Leading with Courage, Curiosity, and Confidence with Jennifer Doty This episode was a powerful conversation about mindset, leadership growth, career reinvention, and leading with confidence even when you don't feel ready. Jennifer is a former Fortune one hundred vice president, speaker, author, and executive coach who helps leaders and organizations break through limiting beliefs and keep people stuck. Drawing from more than twenty years of executive leadership experience, including leading global teams navigating career transitions, and reinventing herself after a corporate layoff, Jennifer teaches practical mindset strategies that transform both performance and personal fulfillment. One of the most compelling moments in this episode comes when Jennifer shares how she was unexpectedly asked to lead the IT integration of one of MetLife's largest global acquisitions, even though she had no technical background. That experience forever changed her definition of leadership. Instead of needing all the answers, she learned to ask better questions. Throughout the conversation with Jennifer, she shares practical tools leaders can use to overcome impostor syndrome, navigate uncertainty, build resilience, and shift the beliefs that ultimately shape behavior and results. This episode is for leaders who want to build confidence in unfamiliar situations, overcome self-doubt and impostor syndrome, lead through change and uncertainty, navigate career transitions with purpose, develop a resilient leadership mindset, and Create healthier daily leadership habits. Build organizations that stay custom-focused. Here are five key takeaways for growth-minded leaders from Jennifer. Number one, leadership is about influence, not expertise. Jennifer's biggest leadership breakthrough came when she was asked to lead a massive international technology integration despite having almost no technical knowledge. What she discovered was transformational. Organizations don't always need the smartest technical expert. They need leaders who can build trust, ask thoughtful questions, translate across departments, align people around a shared mission, create momentum. The key leadership lesson here is great leaders don't know everything. They know how to bring out the best in everyone else. Key takeaway number two, confidence is built through courage. Jennifer openly shares that imposter syndrome followed her for months after stepping into her new leadership role. So what helped her overcome it? One, trusted mentors. Two, asking for help. Three, listening more than speaking. Four, remaining teachable. And number five, being willing to learn in public. Confidence wasn't something she possessed before the assignment. It was something she developed because of it. Leadership insight. Growth rarely happens inside your comfort zone. Key takeaway number three: Your identity is bigger than your job. After nearly twenty years with MetLife, Jennifer realized she had unknowingly tied her identity to her corporate title. Losing that role forced her to answer a deeper question, "Who am I when my title disappears?" That season became one of the greatest gifts of her career. It helped her redefine success around purpose, fulfillment, relationships, and impact, not simply position or title. What's the key leadership lesson here? Never allow your title to become your identity. Key takeaway number four: Your mindset shapes your leadership. Jennifer believes leadership begins long before a meeting starts. It begins with the thoughts leaders choose every day. Her daily routine includes morning gratitude, evening reflection, recording daily wins, planning tomorrow's priorities, challenging limiting beliefs. These simple disciplines help her consistently choose possibility instead of fear. The key leadership insight here, leaders rarely outperform the mindset they practice every day. Key takeaway number five: ask better questions than your doubts. Jennifer shared one of her favorite coaching exercises. Whenever a limiting belief appears, number one, write it down. Number two, ask, "Is this actually true?" Number three, gather evidence against it. Number four, replace it with a truthful belief. That is a great practice for all of us to follow when doubts, confusion, frustration, lack of confidence come our way and when we have limiting beliefs like this. Listen to that again. Whenever a limiting belief appears, number one, write it down. Two, ask, "Is this actually true?" Number three, gather evidence against it. Number four, replace it with a truthful belief. Rather than accepting every negative thought as a fact, she teaches leaders to become investigators instead of victims. The key leadership lesson here for us to take away, your brain believes the stories you repeatedly tell it. Make sure they're true. That wraps up my five key takeaways from a conversation with Jennifer make sure that you download the leader notes. This will give you the outline of the key topics discussed, give you some key takeaways, some practical applications to apply. If you have not done so, subscribe to the podcast on your favorite app so that it appears in your podcast feed whenever we post a new episode. Also I really appreciate it when you go and give us a rating that helps us become more visible in the different podcast rankings so that more people learn about The Learning to Lead Show. This is a place where we help good leaders become great leaders through great conversations, now, go out this week, learn, grow, and lead, and take your organization to the next level