Management Muse

Your team agrees with you. They nod in meetings.And yet… nothing changes.
In this episode of Management Muse, Cindi Baldi sits down with Leslie Ellis, CEO of Meaningful Change Consulting, to unpack one of the most frustrating leadership challenges: when alignment in the room doesn’t translate into action.
The problem isn’t as simple as individual resistance, it’s also how organizations fundamentally think about change.
Most companies still treat change as a one-time event: something to roll out, push through, and move past. But in today’s environment, disruption is constant, and that model is breaking down.
Leslie introduces a more effective approach: shifting from “change” to continuous reinvention. More importantly, she argues that reinvention can’t just be an initiative, it has to be embedded into the culture. When reinvention becomes part of how an organization operates, teams become more resilient, and organizations stay on the cutting edge amidst ongoing disruption.
Together, they explore why evolution beats revolution, how to build reinvention into your organization’s rhythm, and why leaders must model this shift before expecting it from anyone else.
If your change efforts aren’t sticking, this conversation will help you understand why, and how to build an organization that can actually keep up.
Episode Highlights:
The reason alignment doesn’t translate into action
Why big “change pushes” often create more resistance than progress and how to fix it
The hidden risk of treating long-term plans as fixed commitments
How to normalize revisiting decisions without triggering ego or ownership issues
What it looks like to build adaptability into your organization’s rhythm
The leadership behaviors that signals “it’s safe to evolve here”
About Leslie Ellis:
Leslie Ellis is an executive change advisor and CEO of Meaningful Change Consulting, helping leaders succeed in complex, high-stakes transformation. She works with senior teams navigating enterprise change, culture shifts, and reinvention. She focuses on what most organizations miss: leadership alignment, decision-making, and setting the right conditions before execution. With 20+ years of experience, Leslie has supported 55+ organizations across 42 countries, impacting over 900,000 stakeholders. She’s often brought in when change is stalled or at risk—or to prevent those outcomes entirely. Leslie is a Forbes Business Council member, Certified Change Management Professional, and Certified Reinvention Practitioner.
Connect with Leslie:
 Website | Linkedin | Instagram | Facebook
Watch This Episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/J4ZZNBntXGE
Get your copy of The Uncertainty Playbook: 14 Strategies for Work Success in a Chaotic World here. 
→ Use code PLAYBOOK20 for 20% off.
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Want to Go Deeper? Check Out Our Recommended Reading:
Sonenshein, Scott. "We're Changing--Or Are We? Untangling the Role of Progressive, Regressive, and Stability Narratives During Strategic Change Implementation," Academy of Management Journal, 53 (3), 30 Nov. 2017, https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2010.51467638 
 McGrath, Rita Gunther and Gourlay, Alex. The End of Competitive Advantage: How to Keep Your Strategy Moving as Fast as Your Business, Harvard Business Review Press, 4 Jun. 2013, https://a.co/d/06GdXTAg 
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What happens when your customers don’t just change… they disappear?
In this episode of Management Muse, Cindi Baldi and Geoffrey Tumlin unpack how demographic shifts are rewriting business strategy, often long before leaders realize what is happening. From aging populations and labor shortages to dropping birth rates and school closures, they explore how changes in population, behavior, and generational preferences can disrupt entire industries right under your nose.
And here’s the catch: too often, brands don’t realize the shift until it hits them over the head.
Using examples from healthcare, education, hospitality, and live events, Cindi and Geoff show why strategy cannot stay static when the people you serve are evolving. They tackle a key leadership challenge: how to adapt to new markets without abandoning the customers you already have.
If you lead people, serve customers, or build strategy, this is a shift you can’t afford to ignore.
Episode Highlights:
How generational shifts are reshaping business strategy
Why aging populations create winners in some industries and decline in others
What labor shortages reveal about changing workforce demographics
What Gen Z’s changing social habits mean for brands
How leaders can adapt without overreacting or alienating current customers
Watch This Episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/s14j_fp9N5Q
Get your copy of The Uncertainty Playbook: 14 Strategies for Work Success in a Chaotic World here. 
→ Use code PLAYBOOK20 for 20% off.
Get Science-Backed Insights and Exclusive Perks Straight to Your Inbox:
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Want to Go Deeper? Check Out Our Recommended Reading:
Sciubba, Jennifer D. “The Global Population Is Aging. Is Your Business Prepared?,” Harvard Business Review, 18 Nov. 2022, https://hbr.org/2022/11/the-global-population-is-aging-is-your-business-prepared 
Lund, Susan et al. “The Future of Work After COVID-19,” McKinsey Global Institute, 18 Feb. 2021, https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/the-future-of-work-after-covid-19
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Walking away from a decade of training and a prestigious title? Most people would call that reckless. Dr. Seema Desai calls it survival.
In this episode of Management Muse, Cindi Baldi sits down with former dentist turned keynote speaker and author Seema Desai to explore one of leadership's most difficult questions: When do you walk away from what you built? 
Seema unpacks her journey from wielding the "Dr." title as armor to discovering that ego-driven success was costing her everything: her peace, her parenting, and her sense of self. She reveals how the sunk cost fallacy keeps high achievers trapped in misery, why privilege isn't the same as entitlement, and how small, intentional experiments can lead to transformative change without blowing up your life overnight.
This conversation is for anyone who's ever thought, "I should be grateful for this... so why am I so unhappy?" If you've been waiting for permission to reimagine your path, this is it.
Episode Highlights:
The sunk cost fallacy and why past investment shouldn't dictate your future
How ego-driven identity creates fragile, unsustainable success
Maslow’s hierarchy and the cost of misalignment
Why clarity often comes from action, not planning
What it really takes to reinvent yourself
About Dr. Seema Desai:
Dr. Seema Desai is a keynote speaker, author, certified coach, and creator of The Joy First Method™. She works with high-performing leaders and teams who seek sustainable, meaningful, and aligned results, moving beyond pressure-driven success models. 
Dr. Desai teaches leaders to use joy as a strategy—not a reward—for high performance. Her work reframes joy as a competitive advantage that strengthens decision-making, resilience, innovation, and long-term results. She is the author of Connected and co-host of the award-winning podcast Happy and Human. A wife, mom, and trained general dentist, she offers a grounded perspective on high-performance leadership.
Connect with Seema: Website | Instagram | Linkedin
Watch This Episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/VyNGC5-Nb5E
Get your copy of The Uncertainty Playbook: 14 Strategies for Work Success in a Chaotic World here. 
→ Use code PLAYBOOK20 for 20% off.
Get Science-Backed Insights and Exclusive Perks Straight to Your Inbox:
→ Sign up for our newsletter and get our FREE guide to the 6 Habits You NEED to Level Up Your Management Skills in 2026!
Want to Go Deeper? Check Out Our Recommended Reading:
Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking, Fast and Slow, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013, https://a.co/d/09E15XTn 
Kegan, Robert and Lahey, Lisa. Immunity to Change: How to Overcome it and Unlock the Potential in Yourself and Your Organization, Harvard Business Review Press, 2009, https://a.co/d/0a8DykXV 
A.H. Maslow. “A Theory of Human Motivation,” Psychological Review, 1943; 50, 370-396, https://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Maslow/motivation.htm 
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What can workplace memes teach us about leadership?
More than you might think.
To celebrate 100 episodes of Management Muse, we have a special episode for you. The team pulled together a collection of workplace reels—from unlimited PTO policies to the trials of middle management—and challenged Cindi and Geoff to react to them live.
Some are hilarious. Some are painfully accurate. And almost all of them contain a kernel of insight into how organizations function.
Along the way, Cindi and Geoff unpack what these viral clips reveal about workplace culture, leadership myths, and the dynamics shaping modern organizations. Why do meetings multiply so quickly and how can they be reigned back in? Why can holiday bonuses spark frustration instead of gratitude? And what role do friendships, incentives, and workplace norms actually play in performance?
Come for the laughs. Stay for the science-backed insights that might just change how you think about work.
Episode Highlights:
The real role of middle managers
A radical meeting reform idea
How holiday bonuses can backfire
The dark motive behind unlimited PTO
Why your boss’ emails never have punctuation
Kombucha taps to nap pods: the office perk arms race
Watch This Episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/dtUwst_HnhM
Get your copy of The Uncertainty Playbook: 14 Strategies for Work Success in a Chaotic World here. 
→ Use code PLAYBOOK20 for 20% off.
Get Science-Backed Insights and Exclusive Perks Straight to Your Inbox:
→ Sign up for our newsletter and get our FREE guide to the 6 Habits You NEED to Level Up Your Management Skills in 2026!
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The biggest risk of AI isn't that it will replace us; it's that it will stunt our growth.
In this episode of Management Muse, Cindi Baldi and Geoff Tumlin explore the rapidly growing belief that artificial intelligence will transform, or even replace, large parts of work and leadership. They argue that this narrative misses something fundamental about how organizations actually function. From decision-making and strategy to coaching and customer service, they unpack where AI actually adds value and where human judgment, relationships, and real-world experience will have true staying power.
The conversation challenges the assumption that more efficiency always leads to better outcomes. In many cases, the moments that feel inefficient—difficult conversations, feedback, mentorship, and trust-building—are exactly what make teams stronger and organizations more resilient. If you want to understand how to use AI without losing the human edge that makes leadership effective, don’t miss this episode.
Episode Highlights:
How AI distorts self-evaluation
The risk of removing friction from the workplace
Upskilling and the future of work
Why strategy can't be automated
The relationship that keeps employees loyal
Watch This Episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/KeEoSALhvlk
Get your copy of The Uncertainty Playbook: 14 Strategies for Work Success in a Chaotic World here. 
→ Use code PLAYBOOK20 for 20% off.
Get Science-Backed Insights and Exclusive Perks Straight to Your Inbox:
→ Sign up for our newsletter and get our FREE guide to the 6 Habits You NEED to Level Up Your Management Skills in 2026!
 
Want to Go Deeper? Check Out Our Recommended Reading:
Hau, Isabelle C. "Welcome to the Era of Relational Intelligence," Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2026, https://ssir.org/articles/entry/era-of-relational-intelligence 
Bjork E.L. & Bjork R.A., "Making things hard on yourself, but in a good way: Creating desirable difficulties to enhance learning," Psychology and the real world: Essays illustrating fundamental contributions to society, Worth Publishers, pp. 56-64, https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2011-19926-008 
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Accountability sounds straightforward…until you try to enforce it.
In Part 2 of this series on Management Muse, Cindi and Geoff move from defining the boundaries of micromanagement to confronting the real challenge: what real accountability requires. They explore how leaders over-control when they’re anxious and under-coach when roles evolve.
They turn to the real engine of accountability: feedback. Why public reminders don’t work. Why sugarcoating dilutes the message. Why deadlines change behavior. And why leaders with high emotional intelligence may be the most tempted to avoid the very conversations that drive performance. If you want accountability without resentment, this is where the work actually begins.
Listen to Part 1 here.
Episode Highlights:
How to unlearn micromanaging behaviors you might have inadvertently picked up
The hidden accountability gap when roles change but expectations don’t
The “Poop Sandwich" and why it backfires
How to give feedback that boosts accountability
The importance of effective conversations and deadlines
Watch This Episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/WAYLyFHXSJI
Get your copy of The Uncertainty Playbook: 14 Strategies for Work Success in a Chaotic World here. 
→ Use code PLAYBOOK20 for 20% off.
Get Science-Backed Insights and Exclusive Perks Straight to Your Inbox:
Sign up for our newsletter and get our FREE guide to the 6 Habits You NEED to Level Up Your Management Skills in 2026!
 
Want to Go Deeper? Check Out Our Recommended Reading:
DiGangi, Julia. “The Anxious Micromanager,” Harvard Business Review, Sep-Oct. 2023. https://hbr.org/2023/09/the-anxious-micromanager 
Ilgen, D., Fisher, C., and Taylor, M.S. “Consequences of individuals feedback on behavior in organizations,” Journal of Applied Psychology, 1979, 64(4), 349-371. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.64.4.349
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There are far fewer micromanagers than you might think.
In this episode of Management Muse, Cindi and Geoff challenge one of the most persistent myths in leadership: that holding people accountable makes you controlling. Drawing on classic leadership and expertise research, they share a simple framework that explains why most managers pull back long before they should.
Using their own pizza-making adventures as a running example, Cindi and Geoff explore how people develop competence in a role, and how managers should behave at each stage to support them. They discuss the hidden danger of ‘aloof’ management, and why generational complaints often miss the real issue.
Part 1 of a two-part series on how holding people accountable without being the villain.
→ Listen to Part 2 here.
Episode Highlights:
The job progression model to calibrate your leadership style
How to determine the bounds of micromanagement
Why on-the-job-training is costing you
The importance of feedback and when to give it
Watch This Episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/KHdhHi0Rw00
*Get your copy of The Uncertainty Playbook: 14 Strategies for Work Success in a Chaotic World here. 
→ Use code PLAYBOOK20 for 20% off.
*Get Science-Backed Insights and Exclusive Perks Straight to Your Inbox:
Sign up for our newsletter and our FREE guide to the 6 Habits You NEED to Level Up Your Management Skills in 2026!
Want to Go Deeper? Check Out Our Recommended Reading:
EBSCO, “Situational leadership theory,” https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/social-sciences-and-humanities/situational-leadership-theory
Penney, CA. “Are You a Micromanager or Too Hands-Off?” Harvard Business Review, 2 Aug. 2024, https://hbr.org/2024/08/are-you-a-micromanager-or-too-hands-off 
Ericsson, K. A., Krampe, R. T., & Tesch-Römer, C. “The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance,” Psychological Review, 1993, 100(3), 363–406. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.100.3.363
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When the future gets blurry, people start making bad decisions.
In this episode of Management Muse, Cindi Baldi and Geoffrey Tumlin explore uncertainty from every angle: not just how leaders respond to it, but how they create it, how organizations amplify it, and how individuals shrink themselves because of it. From miscalibrated risk assessments to communication breakdowns, they unpack how ambiguity distorts decision making at every level.
You will hear why leaders often overreact to potential threats, how silence can unintentionally signal danger, and why high performers sometimes hold themselves back when outcomes feel unclear. Cindi and Geoff share practical ways managers can stabilize teams, communicate more effectively, and think more clearly when the future feels unsettled.
If you lead people, manage change, or simply want to stop playing small when things feel unclear, this episode will help you learn how to make uncertainty work for you.
Episode Highlights:
The hidden cost of fear-driven decision making
Why we overestimate risks and underestimate opportunities
A framework for calibrating your risk assessment skills
Why organizations overcorrect in the face of uncertainty
How to fix communication breakdowns during periods of change
What managers can do to create steadiness
Want to Go Deeper? 
Get your copy of The Uncertainty Playbook: 14 Strategies for Work Success in a Chaotic World here. 
→ Use code PLAYBOOK20 for 20% off.
Watch This Episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/wwHYN3edVqk 
Get Science-Backed Insights and Exclusive Perks Straight to Your Inbox:
Sign up for our newsletter and our FREE guide to the 6 Habits You NEED to Level Up Your Management Skills in 2026!
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If your employees could fire you… would they?
This week Cindi is joined by author and CEO Dr. Keith Levick to discuss research that reveals 60% of employees would fire their boss if they could—and even more disturbingly, many would sacrifice salary, vacation, or promotions to make it happen. Why? Because too many workplaces lack psychological safety, flexibility, and real ownership.
The good news? Keith lays out how leaders can reverse this pattern by developing social and emotional intelligence. He breaks down the difference between the two, and offers a clear roadmap for reading the room, building trust, and leading with more awareness and empathy.
This episode is a must-listen for any manager brave enough to ask: Would my team keep me if they had the choice?
Episode Highlights:
What employees wish their boss understood
Why leadership failure is usually interpersonal, not technical
Emotional intelligence vs. social intelligence (and why both matter)
Easy steps to developing self awareness
The importance of empathy and flexibility 
About Dr. Keith Levick:
Keith Levick, PhD, or “Dr. Keith,” as many of his clients refer to him, holds a Master of Social Work and a Doctorate in Counseling from Detroit’s Wayne State University and has worked with large, medium, and small companies and corporations. Dr. Keith is the CEO of Goren and Associates, a professional development, executive coaching, and consulting firm in Farmington Hills, Michigan. He has spent many years in clinical practice as a psychologist and has since transitioned his clinical expertise into organizational psychology and business. Keith is an adjunct professor at Wayne State University and Lawrence Technological University.
* Purchase Keith’s book, The Insightful Leader: Discover Your Blind Spots Through the Eyes of Employees
* Connect with Keith: Linkedin | Insightful Leaders | Goren & Associates
Watch This Episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/6HvROyp9h6E
*Purchase your copy of The Uncertainty Playbook here
*Sign up for our newsletter and our FREE guide to the 6 science-backed habits you NEED to level up your management skills in 2026!
Want to Go Deeper? Check Out Our Recommended Reading:
Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking, Fast and Slow, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013, https://a.co/d/0gsQLnWO 
Goleman, Daniel. Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships, Bantam, 2007, https://a.co/d/05ArEUkA 
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Habits aren’t just about willpower.
In this episode of Management Muse, Cindi and Geoff uncover a radical insight from behavioral science: most habits are powered by underlying anxiety. Willpower alone isn’t enough, because habits aren’t just actions, they’re emotional coping strategies.
From sleep routines to workplace distractions, Cindi and Geoff break down the surprising psychology of habits and offer practical ways to make real change stick. You’ll learn why starting small creates large payoffs, how to time your habit launches for success, and what it means to replace—not just remove—habitual behaviors.
Whether you're trying to lead better, live healthier, or stop doomscrolling before bed, this episode gives you a fresh framework for transforming habits with more clarity and control.
Episode Highlights:
The anxiety-habit connection
Why willpower alone sets you up to fail
The Fresh Start Effect
How starting smaller can lead to bigger wins
The trick to breaking bad habits
A gut-check for your organization
Watch This Episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/3xjk1xc55Ds
*Purchase your copy of The Uncertainty Playbook here
*Sign up for our newsletter and our FREE guide to the 6 science-backed habits you NEED to level up your management skills in 2026!
Want to Go Deeper? Check Out Our Recommended Reading:
Brewer, Judson. Unwinding Anxiety, Avery, 2022. https://a.co/d/7pjMANH 
Dai, H., Milkman, K.L, and Riis, J. “The Fresh Start Effect: Temporal Landmarks Motivate Aspirational Behavior,” Management Science, 2014, 60(10), 2563-2582. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2204126& 
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