Can mentorship really accelerate your career or are most people doing it wrong?

In Part 1 of this conversation on the Dear Global Leader Podcast, Tiphaine sits down with engineering leader and mentor Owen Lorena to uncover how strategic mentorship can become one of the biggest accelerators of professional growth.

After more than 25 years leading engineering teams across Asia and Europe, Owen shares why technical skills may get you hired but mentorship is what helps you reach leadership. Instead of relying on a single mentor, he explains how to build a personal "board of mentors" that supports your career, skills, network, and long-term development.

Together, they discuss the practical strategies that ambitious professionals can use to gain visibility, attract senior leaders, and create meaningful mentoring relationships that actually lead to career advancement.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why passive mentorship rarely leads to career growth
• How to build a strategic mentorship network
• The four types of mentors every professional should have
• How to prepare for mentoring sessions that create real value
• What senior leaders look for before investing their time in a mentee
• Why career success depends on different skills at every stage of your journey
• How to increase your visibility and create opportunities for promotion
• Practical networking strategies that help you build influential relationships

Whether you're an early-career professional, a manager preparing for leadership, or an executive looking to continue growing, this episode provides actionable insights to help you take ownership of your career.

🎧 Subscribe to the Dear Global Leader Podcast for conversations with global executives, leadership experts, and top performers who share the strategies behind exceptional careers.

#Leadership #CareerGrowth #Mentorship #CareerDevelopment #ExecutiveLeadership #LeadershipSkills #ProfessionalDevelopment #Networking #CareerAdvice #Management #ExecutivePresence #PersonalGrowth

Who decides your career future… and are you even in the room?

In Part 2 of this conversation, we dive into one of the most misunderstood topics in corporate life: succession planning and high-potential talent.

With expert Alan Colquitt, we uncover how companies actually identify future leaders and why many employees feel left out, confused, or stuck.

You’ll learn:

• What succession planning really is (and who it’s for)
• The difference between high potential, performance, and talent pools
• Why leadership tracks often exclude technical experts
• How companies secretly plan careers behind the scenes
• Why some roles are never posted (and already have a “chosen” candidate)
• How to position yourself for leadership or alternative career paths
• The real meaning of “taking ownership of your career”

This episode exposes the hidden systems shaping your career path and gives you practical ways to navigate them.

🎯 If you want to move up (or understand why you’re not), this is essential listening.

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Book Performance Enablement :https://global.oup.com/academic/product/performance-enablement-9780197830611

succession planning, high potential employees, leadership pipeline, talent management, career advancement, promotion strategy, HR processes, leadership development, career growth strategy, corporate leadership

Why do performance reviews feel unfair? And why do some people get promoted… while others don’t?

In this episode of Dear Global Leader, we go behind the scenes of corporate performance management with expert Alan Colquitt, specialist in talent management, succession planning, and organizational psychology.

You’ll discover what really happens during performance reviews — including the hidden conversations, internal politics, and decision-making processes that most employees never see.

We break down:

• How performance ratings are actually decided (and why they’re not objective)
• The role of manager influence, visibility, and internal politics
• Why being a top performer isn’t enough to get promoted
• What happens inside talent review and calibration meetings
• The difference between performance and potential
• Practical strategies to increase your visibility and career growth

If you’ve ever felt confused, overlooked, or frustrated by your performance review… this episode will change how you see your career.

🎯 Learn how to navigate the system —and position yourself for real advancement.

Find more about Alan on his Linkedin !

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performance review, career growth, promotion, talent management, HR process, leadership development, high potential, career strategy, workplace success, succession planning

In Part 2 of this powerful conversation, global leadership expert Terri Morrison reveals how cultural differences directly impact business success, leadership, and relationships.

This episode goes beyond theory and shows you how culture plays out in real corporate situations where deals are won or lost.

🎯 In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why business meals can make or break international deals
• The shocking story of a failed multimillion-dollar deal… over lunch
• How different cultures define trust, respect, and transparency
• Why being “too transparent” can actually damage your credibility
• The truth about office politics across cultures
• How individualistic vs collectivist cultures shape workplace dynamics
• 
  

💡 We also explore:

• Why relationships matter more than transactions in global business
• How to navigate stakeholder management across cultures
• The leadership styles that work in different parts of the world
• Practical ways to develop cultural intelligence as a leader

🔥 If you’ve ever struggled with:

• Being misunderstood at work
• Navigating office politics
• Leading international teams
• Closing deals across cultures

This episode will give you the clarity and tools you need.

🎧 Listen now and learn how to operate effectively in a global business environment.

In this powerful episode of the Dear Global Leader Podcast, we dive deep into the invisible rules of global business with world-renowned cross-cultural expert Terri Morrison.

If you’ve ever felt misunderstood in international meetings, struggled with communication across cultures, or wondered why deals fail despite great strategy, this episode will change your perspective.

🎯 In Part 1, you’ll discover:

• Why first impressions vary across cultures (and how they impact trust instantly)
• The hidden meaning behind handshakes, eye contact, and personal space
• The powerful concept of “Ma” (silence) and why talking less can make you more influential
• How different cultures interpret respect, engagement, and intelligence
• Why some cultures interrupt and others see silence as wisdom
• The real reason communication breakdowns happen in global teams

💡 You’ll also learn:

• How to adapt your communication style for international success
• Why cultural awareness is more important than strategy
• The key to building trust in global business environments

Whether you're a global leader, entrepreneur, expat, or working in international teams, this episode will help you develop cultural intelligence one of the most critical skills in today’s world.

🎧 Tune in now to unlock the hidden codes of global leadership.

👉 Don’t miss Part 2, where we explore how to apply these insights in corporate environments, leadership, and negotiations.

Where to find terri:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/terri-morrison-2a940a7/

Books series "Kiss, Bow, or shake hands

What if opportunities didn’t come from applying… but from your network?

In Part 2 of this conversation, investor and global leader Larissa Garcia shares how she built a powerful international network, and why today, opportunities come directly to her.

We dive into the concept of the “portfolio career” and why the future of work is no longer about one job, but multiple streams of income, impact, and identity.

You’ll learn:

• How to build a network that attracts opportunities (instead of chasing them)
• Why curiosity is the #1 networking skill
• How to become visible, credible, and “top of mind”
• The difference between networking and real relationships
• How to manage investments and work across multiple countries
• How global leaders navigate culture, trust, and influence
• How to build optionality in your career

Larissa also shares practical insights on:

• Managing uncertainty and incomplete information
• Making decisions with limited data
• Balancing risk across a global portfolio

🎯 If you want to grow your career, income, and influence, this episode will completely shift how you think about networking and opportunities.

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networking strategy, career growth, portfolio career, global leadership, personal brand, opportunity mindset, business networking, career development, leadership skills, international business

What if the best leaders didn’t just manage… but thought like investors?

In this episode of Dear Global Leader, we sit down with Larissa Garcia: investor, business angel, and honorary consul of Dominican Republic in Denmark , to break down how leadership, investing, and global thinking intersect.

From corporate telecom to real estate to venture capital, Larissa shares how she built a powerful portfolio career and the mindset shifts that made it possible.

You’ll learn:

• How to think like an investor (even in corporate roles)
• The real way investors evaluate people (human due diligence)
• Why execution matters more than ideas
• How to build a network that brings opportunities to YOU
• The truth about risk and how to get comfortable with uncertainty
• How to transition from employee mindset to ownership mindset
• Why the future belongs to “portfolio careers”

This episode is packed with practical insights for:

leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, and anyone looking to grow their career, income, and impact in a fast-changing world.

🎯 Whether you're in corporate, building a startup, or exploring investing, this conversation will change how you make decisions.

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leadership skills, investing mindset, venture capital, business angel, risk management, career growth, portfolio career, networking, decision-making, global leadership

When global travel stopped in 2020, Airbnb faced an existential threat.

Demand collapsed. Revenues dropped sharply.

And the company had to answer a fundamental question:

What is our core business when the world changes overnight?

In this episode of Dear Global Leaders, we break down how Airbnb navigated one of the most brutal crises in modern business and how it used that moment to rebuild a stronger, more focused company.

You’ll learn:

• Why strategy in crisis starts with subtraction
• How execution speed becomes a competitive advantage
• What it means to adapt to new behaviors instead of waiting for recovery

This is not just a story about Airbnb.

It’s a playbook for leaders operating in uncertainty.

👉 If you lead across markets, teams, or changing environments, this episode will give you practical lenses to act faster and with more clarity.

Can you grow, adapt, and succeed… without losing who you are?

In Part 2, we go deeper into identity, perspective, and the hidden dynamics shaping leadership and workplace relationships.

In this powerful continuation, Lise breaks down one of the biggest challenges in modern leadership:

👉 How to evolve in your career without disconnecting from yourself

From cross-cultural misunderstandings to workplace conflict and identity shifts, this episode explores why perspective, not competence, is often the real blocker.

You’ll discover how great leaders don’t just act differently… they see differently.

You will learn:

✔️ The difference between coaching vs mentoring (and why it matters)

✔️ How to take feedback without losing your identity

✔️ Why perspective shapes everything in leadership and teamwork

✔️ How cross-cultural differences create invisible friction at work

✔️ Why conflict is often a mismatch not a problem

✔️ The leadership skill that reduces tension and builds trust instantly

In a world of global teams, diverse cultures, and constant change, leadership is no longer about having the right answers.

It’s about:

• Understanding different lenses
• Navigating complexity
• Adapting with intention

And most importantly…

Choosing who you want to be in every situation.

About the guest:

Lise is an executive coach working with leaders and teams across cultures, helping them navigate identity, transitions, and complex environments while staying aligned with their values.

Find her on linkeidn (Lise Bruynooghe ) and on her website : Lisebruynooghe.com

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leadership mindset, identity and leadership, cross cultural leadership, workplace conflict, emotional intelligence, executive coaching, leadership perspective, communication skills, leadership growth, self awareness, coaching vs mentoring, team dynamics

What does it really mean to be coachableand why do so many high performers struggle with it?

In this episode, executive coach Lise breaks down the hidden behaviors that separate leaders who grow… from those who stay stuck.

In Part 1 of this conversation, we go behind the scenes of executive coaching to understand what actually drives growth in leaders, founders, and emerging talents.

Lise shares her journey from international finance to coaching top executivesand reveals why technical skills alone are never enough when navigating complexity, leadership, and career transitions.

This episode is a must-listen if you’re:

• Stepping into leadership for the first time
• Feeling stuck in your career despite strong performance
• Struggling with feedback, confidence, or decision-making
• Curious about what coaching really unlocks

You will learn :

✔️ What “being coachable” actually means (and why it’s uncomfortable)

✔️ The 3 recurring challenges leaders face: boundaries, fear, and difficult conversations

✔️ Why high performers struggle when moving into leadership roles

✔️ The difference between coaching, mentoring, and training

✔️ How to know if you’re ready for your next career step

✔️ Why discomfort is often the strongest signal of growth

Lise is an executive coach working with CEOs, leadership teams, and organizations navigating complexity, transformation, and cross-cultural challenges. She specializes in helping leaders align performance with identity, values, and long-term vision.

Please find her on her linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisebruynooghe/

And website: https://lisebruynooghe.com/

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executive coaching, leadership development, coachability, career growth, leadership skills, difficult conversations, emotional intelligence, leadership transition, personal development, management skills, coaching vs mentoring, leadership mindset

In 2007, Nokia was the undisputed king of mobile phones. It had the scale, the market share, the brand power, and the data. Then Apple launched the iPhone — and changed the future of the industry overnight.

But Nokia’s downfall was not simply a story of disruption. It was a story of leadership hesitation, strategic inertia, and the danger of protecting past success while the world moves on.

In this episode of Dear Global Leaders, Tiphaine Coste explores one of the most powerful business lessons of the modern era: how a global market leader saw a paradigm shift coming and still failed to act decisively.

This conversation unpacks what Nokia misunderstood about software, ecosystems, speed, and adaptation and why its story remains deeply relevant for today’s executives, founders, and ambitious leaders navigating change.

In this episode:

• Why market leaders often miss the future
• How the iPhone reshaped competition beyond hardware
• The strategic cost of moving too slowly
• What global leaders must learn about adaptation before it’s urgent

Nokia’s story is more than a case study in corporate decline. It is a reminder that foresight without action is not strategy.

If you lead in a fast-changing world, this episode is for you.

Leading a large, complex organization isn’t about control: it’s about clarity, trust, and people.

In Part 2 of this conversation, we dive deep into the real challenges of modern leadership: making hard decisions, leading diverse teams, and building trust at scale.

This episode is a masterclass in human-centered leadership, where performance meets empathy and strategy meets execution.

💡 In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How to lead through difficult decisions that impact people (and why it should feel hard)
• The secret to building trust across generations, cultures, and personalities
• Why great leaders act more like coaches than bosses
• How to prioritize when everything feels urgent (and avoid burnout leadership)
• The mindset shift from “doing” to enabling others to succeed
• How to spot and grow talent before they believe in themselves

🚀 You’ll also discover:

• Practical leadership frameworks for scaling teams
• How to navigate complexity without losing direction
• Why clarity beats politics in high-level leadership

🎯 Perfect for:

• Managers stepping into senior leadership roles
• Leaders scaling teams or organizations
• Anyone wanting to lead with impact, not ego

This episode will change how you think about leadership and how you show up as a leader.

👉 Subscribe now to keep learning from global leaders shaping the future of work.

What does it really take to lead a country-level organization inside a global tech giant?

In this powerful episode of Dear Global Leader, we go behind the scenes with a Deputy Country Manager to uncover the hidden realities of leadership at the highest level far beyond titles and strategy decks.

From shaping national strategy to translating global initiatives into local impact, this conversation reveals what happens before decisions are made public where leadership is built, tested, and refined.

💡 In this episode, you’ll discover:

• What a Country Manager actually does (and why it’s like being a CEO of a country)
• How to align global strategy with local market realities (the “Danish flair” approach)
• The art of influencing without authority and driving clarity across organizations
• How top leaders make decisions on talent, culture, and business growth
• Why saying “yes to challenges” can shape a high-impact leadership career
• 
  

🔥 This episode is a must-listen for:

• Aspiring leaders and future executives
• Professionals working in global companies
• Anyone curious about strategy, leadership, and organizational impact

If you’ve ever wondered what happens behind closed doors in leadership this is your backstage pass.

👉 Follow the podcast for more insights on leadership, career growth, and global impact.

The day Suez stalled, every map looked smaller. Leaders weighed reroute vs wait, recalculated time–cost–risk, and watched buffers evaporate. This episode follows that decision path—finding single points of failure, tracing tier-2/3 exposure, right-sizing safety stock, and choosing dual-sourcing or nearshoring without blowing up margins.

What emerges is a weekly stress-test rhythm and a design mindset: resilience as a choice made early, not a project started late.

Keywords: supply chain resilience, Suez Canal, chokepoints, rerouting, inventory strategy, dual sourcing, nearshoring, risk management, global trade, operations playbook.

Follow for sharp strategy breakdowns built for global leaders.

Why do global leaders misinterpret each other even when everyone speaks the same language?

In Part 2 of this deep conversation, Tiphaine Coste continues with Kasper Lohse Nørup Jelsbech, PhD anthropologist and cross-cultural leadership consultant, exploring the invisible forces shaping trust, identity, and communication in global organizations .

This episode goes beyond frameworks.

It challenges how we think about:

• National identity vs. lived experience
• Stereotypes in professional environments
• Why labeling teams as “the German team” or “the French team” is risky
• How one word can trigger conflict across cultures
• Direct vs. indirect communication styles
• The danger of interpreting behavior through your own cultural lens
• Why effective global leaders are not encyclopedias of cultures — but curious learners

Kasper introduces a powerful anthropological perspective:

Culture is not static.

It’s not an essence.

It’s something we practice every day in emails, meetings, silence, and rituals.

You’ll hear real stories about:

• Misinterpreted text messages
• Emotional vocabulary gaps in English
• Sarcasm across cultures
• How trust is built differently around the world
• 
  

💡 Key insight: The most effective global leaders are not those who “know everything” about other cultures but those who stay curious and aware of what they don’t know.

If you operate internationally, manage multicultural stakeholders, or aspire to become a truly global leader this episode will sharpen your cultural intelligence.

🎧 Listen now and redefine how you communicate across borders.

Follow Dear Global Leader for more deep conversations on global leadership, mindset, and cross-cultural growth.

What actually makes global teams perform and why do so many fail despite having top experts?

In this episode of Dear Global Leader, Tiphaine Coste sits down with Kasper Lohse Nørup Jelsbech, PhD anthropologist and cross-cultural leadership consultant at Implement Consulting Group, to unpack what truly drives collaboration in complex international organizations .

If you lead across borders, manage remote stakeholders, or work in global projects this conversation will change how you see performance.

We explore:

• Why competence is not what makes or breaks global teams
• The hidden cost of ignoring culture in high-performing environments
• How “professionalism” can blind leaders to cultural misalignment
• The difference between a group of experts and a real team
• Why global teams are often called “after performance breaks down”
• The powerful “mirror exercise” methodology to surface blind spots
• How silence (not conflict) is often the biggest red flag
• 
  

Kasper shares real cases from Scandinavian, Indian, and Romanian corporate collaborations and reveals why cross-cultural leadership is not a “nice-to-have” it’s a business necessity.

💡 Key insight: The more professional teams believe they are, the more they tend to underestimate cultural impact.

If you're building global projects, leading distributed teams, or navigating international stakeholders this episode will give you a new operating system.

🎧 Listen now and discover how to transform cultural friction into performance.

Follow Dear Global Leader for Part 2, where we dive into trust, identity, stereotypes, and communication through an anthropologist’s lens.

Picture the room: alarms, deadlines, eyes on the dashboard. The teams that hold don’t rely on heroics; they rely on cadence—war-room rhythms, clear owners, tight loops—and on guardrails that make speed safe.

Through the Boeing lens, this story maps the small choices that decide big moments: when to halt, when to push, how to escalate with incomplete info, and how supplier quality holds under stress. It’s not about moving fast at all costs; it’s about moving fast on purpose.

Keywords: execution under pressure, crisis leadership, operational excellence, speed vs safety, decision making, Boeing case study, supplier quality, risk management, global operations.

Follow for practical leadership playbooks told through real cases

Growth gets messy, great leaders make it scalable.

Founder Manuel Opitz breaks down how to scale teams from 8→15→35+, add process without bureaucracy, and protect quality across markets and regulations. If you’re building beyond Product-Market Fit, this is your operating system for clarity, speed, and consistency.

You’ll learn:

• The org inflection points and who to hire next
• Process signals: what to document, what to keep flexible
• A lightweight quality system for regulated/complex products
• Operating rhythms that keep global teams aligned
• Funding vs profitability: how to choose at your stage

Ambitious? Subscribe for weekly playbooks on scaling leadership, global teams, and execution, built for startups and operators who want to win without burning out.

Keywords: scaling leadership, startup operations, org design, operating rhythm, quality systems, cross-border teams, regulated industries, execution at scale.

Think like a founder. Lead like a global CEO.

Healthtech founder Manuel Opitz reveals the mindset and habits that turn uncertainty into traction: how to go 0→1, pitch across cultures, pick the right investors, and communicate clearly when plans change. This is the playbook for ambitious leaders who want growth without the fluff.

You’ll learn:

• The founder decision model great leaders use
• How to craft a clear, cross-border pitch that lands
• A simple framework for choosing investors (and saying no)
• Resilience tactics for when reality punches your roadmap

If you’re a startup, operator, or rising leader, hit Subscribe for weekly, practical conversations on global leadership, strategy, and growth. Watch till the end for a truth every leader needs to hear.

Keywords: founder mindset, global leadership, investor pitching, storytelling, decision-making, startup growth, Europe vs US, CEO insights.

It starts with a simple question: why would anyone pay gladly after loving “free”?

The Spotify story threads three moves leaders recognize on the ground: a freemium model that reveals clear value steps, local choices that feel personal (language, culture, payments), and a platform strategy that compounds distribution. No magic. Just design that nudges fans from free → paid without burning trust.

The episode closes with a compact framework leaders use to spot “upgrade moments,” tune localization, and keep the platform—not the catalog—at the center.

Keywords: Spotify case study, freemium model, conversion strategy, local relevance, localization, platform strategy, subscription growth, product strategy, global scale, digital offer.

Follow for concise strategy stories for global leaders.