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TitlePub. DateDuration
The Courage to Question | Leadership Lessons from Richard Feynman29 Jun 202600:16:15

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Your title cannot bend reality. Your confidence cannot change the facts. Great leadership starts when we stop protecting our image and start pursuing the truth.

In this episode of The Leadership Buzz, we explore Richard Feynman’s book What Do You Care What Other People Think? and the leadership lessons behind the Nobel Prize-winning physicist’s lifelong commitment to curiosity, humility, and scientific integrity.

Feynman reminds us that knowing the name of something is not the same as understanding it. That lesson applies directly to modern leadership. We use words like trust, accountability, culture, transparency, and empowerment — but do our actions prove we truly understand them?

We explore questions every leader should consider:

  •  Does your open door actually get used? 
  •  What happens when someone challenges your thinking? 
  •  Do people tell you the truth before problems become crises? 

We also examine Feynman’s role in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster investigation and his famous O-ring demonstration, a powerful reminder that reality cannot be ignored. Challenger provides lasting lessons about organizational culture, communication breakdowns, decision-making pressure, and the importance of listening to the people closest to the work.

Whether you lead a company, a military unit, a small team, or yourself, this conversation challenges you to build a culture where honesty wins over appearances and curiosity beats certainty.

Because the best leaders are not focused on proving they are right — they are committed to discovering what is right.

Topics include:
• Richard Feynman’s leadership lessons
What Do You Care What Other People Think?
• Challenger disaster and organizational learning
• Psychological safety and speaking up
• Leadership humility and curiosity
• Why truth matters in high-performing teams
• Moving from certainty to discovery

If this conversation challenges you, subscribe to The Leadership Buzz, share it with a leader who values truth, and leave a review to help others discover the show.

Work hard. Tell the truth.

The Leadership Buzz is hosted by Lloyd “Buzz” Buzzell, an ICF-ACC executive coach, DISC practitioner, and retired U.S. Air Force officer with 37 years of leadership experience. Each episode focuses on one book, one idea, and one practical leadership concept to help you align your behavior with your values and lead with greater clarity, trust, and impact.

If you’re a leader who wants to build stronger teams, improve communication, and create real ownership, subscribe and share this episode with someone on your team.

Connect with Buzz on LinkedIn or visit workhardtellthetruth.com for coaching and leadership development resources.

Work hard. Tell the truth.

No Mess, No Magic | Building Fearless Teams Through Psychological Safety22 Jun 202600:16:16

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o Mess, No Magic: Why Fearless Teams Tell the Truth

Every leader says they want honesty. But the real question is — have we created a culture where people feel safe enough to give it?

In this episode of The Leadership Buzz, we explore Amy Edmondson’s The Fearless Organization and the power of psychological safety. Fearless teams are not teams without mistakes, conflict, or hard conversations. They are teams that trust each other enough to step into the mess — because that is where learning happens.

No mess. No magic.

We discuss:
• why psychological safety is not about comfort or lowering standards
• the difference between silence and true agreement
• how small leadership reactions can create either curiosity or fear
• why the words “my door is always open” may not be enough
• aviation, Crew Resource Management, and the importance of speaking up
• the Miracle on the Hudson and how trust is built before the crisis
• practical questions leaders can ask to invite honesty and uncover hidden risks

The best teams do not avoid the truth. They build enough trust to face it.

If this conversation challenged your thinking, subscribe to The Leadership Buzz and share it with a leader who is working to build a stronger team.

And if these leadership questions resonate with you and you want to explore them more deeply, I’d love to connect.

Work hard. Tell the truth.

The Leadership Buzz is hosted by Lloyd “Buzz” Buzzell, an ICF-ACC executive coach, DISC practitioner, and retired U.S. Air Force officer with 37 years of leadership experience. Each episode focuses on one book, one idea, and one practical leadership concept to help you align your behavior with your values and lead with greater clarity, trust, and impact.

If you’re a leader who wants to build stronger teams, improve communication, and create real ownership, subscribe and share this episode with someone on your team.

Connect with Buzz on LinkedIn or visit workhardtellthetruth.com for coaching and leadership development resources.

Work hard. Tell the truth.

Earthrise Leadership | Bill Anders and the Power of Perspective15 Jun 202600:16:16

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What if the biggest leadership breakthrough is not working harder — but seeing differently?

This week on The Leadership Buzz, we explore William Thorndike’s The Outsiders and the remarkable leadership journey of Bill Anders — Apollo 8 astronaut, creator of the iconic Earthrise photograph, and former CEO of General Dynamics.

On Christmas Eve 1968, Anders helped humanity see Earth from a completely different perspective. Years later, he brought that same ability to challenge assumptions into business leadership.

When Anders took over General Dynamics during a period of major change in the defense industry, he rejected the idea that bigger always meant better. Instead of chasing growth for growth’s sake, he focused the company, reduced complexity, sold businesses that no longer fit the future mission, and created lasting value.

His story challenges every leader to ask:

Are we measuring what truly matters?

We also explore one of the most difficult leadership transitions — moving from individual contributor to leading through others. The skills that create early success are not always the same skills required for the next level.

Leadership requires perspective, humility, and the courage to redefine success.

In this episode:

  •  Bill Anders, Apollo 8, and the leadership lesson of Earthrise
  •  How General Dynamics transformed by becoming smaller and stronger 
  •  Why great leaders practice stewardship, not ownership 
  •  The shift from individual contributor to developing others 
  •  How coaching helps leaders create space for new perspectives 

One book. One idea. One story. Three coaching questions.

Book referenced in this episode:
The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success — William N. Thorndike Jr.

Work hard. Tell the truth.



The Leadership Buzz is hosted by Lloyd “Buzz” Buzzell, an ICF-ACC executive coach, DISC practitioner, and retired U.S. Air Force officer with 37 years of leadership experience. Each episode focuses on one book, one idea, and one practical leadership concept to help you align your behavior with your values and lead with greater clarity, trust, and impact.

If you’re a leader who wants to build stronger teams, improve communication, and create real ownership, subscribe and share this episode with someone on your team.

Connect with Buzz on LinkedIn or visit workhardtellthetruth.com for coaching and leadership development resources.

Work hard. Tell the truth.

Make Your Bed | Small Things Are Never Small Things08 Jun 202600:16:16

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Admiral William H. McRaven’s Make Your Bed reminds us of a powerful leadership lesson: small habits create lasting impact.

Leadership is not built in one big moment. The big moment usually reveals the discipline, character, and habits you have been building all along.

In this episode of The Leadership Buzz, we explore how small daily actions shape stronger leaders. Making your bed is not really about the bed — it is about discipline, personal standards, accountability, and becoming someone others can trust.

We discuss servant leadership, military leadership lessons, and the challenge leaders face as they gain rank, titles, and authority. Great leaders do not separate themselves from the work. They step forward, take responsibility, support their teams, and demonstrate the behaviors they expect from others.

Leadership credibility is created through consistency. People notice:
• Who shows up prepared
• Who steps forward when things get difficult
• Who serves instead of waiting to be served
• Who does the right thing when nobody is watching

We also explore values-based leadership and why values written on paper mean little unless they show up in everyday decisions. Integrity, trust, discipline, and character are built through small choices repeated over time.

“Work hard” is not just about working more hours. It is about commitment, responsibility, and keeping promises to yourself and others.

Because small things are never just small things.

Small things become habits.
Habits become character.
Character becomes leadership.

You’ll leave with three coaching questions to reflect on your habits, your values, and the legacy you are building one day at a time.

If this episode helps you, subscribe, share it with another leader, and leave a rating or review so more leaders can find The Leadership Buzz.

Work hard. Tell the truth.

Book reference:
Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life...And Maybe the World
Admiral William H. McRaven (2017)

The Leadership Buzz is hosted by Lloyd “Buzz” Buzzell, an ICF-ACC executive coach, DISC practitioner, and retired U.S. Air Force officer with 37 years of leadership experience. Each episode focuses on one book, one idea, and one practical leadership concept to help you align your behavior with your values and lead with greater clarity, trust, and impact.

If you’re a leader who wants to build stronger teams, improve communication, and create real ownership, subscribe and share this episode with someone on your team.

Connect with Buzz on LinkedIn or visit workhardtellthetruth.com for coaching and leadership development resources.

Work hard. Tell the truth.

What Leaders Celebrate, Teams Repeat | Praise, Encouragement, and Positive Energy in Leadership01 Jun 202600:16:16

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How do great leaders create influence without relying on authority, position, or title?

In this episode of The Leadership Buzz, we explore leadership lessons from Leading Without Authority by Keith Ferrazzi and discuss how praise, encouragement, gratitude, and celebration shape workplace culture, employee engagement, trust, motivation, and leadership effectiveness.

Buzz shares practical leadership insights on using timely and personal recognition, building momentum through small wins, and creating positive energy that spreads throughout teams and organizations. This episode explores emotional intelligence in leadership, understanding how different people prefer to be appreciated, and how leaders unintentionally shape team culture through what they consistently reward and celebrate.

The conversation also looks at:
 • Leadership without authority
 • Praise and encouragement in leadership
 • Building positive workplace culture
 • Employee engagement and team motivation
 • Emotional intelligence and recognition
 • Leadership communication and appreciation
 • Celebrating small wins to build momentum
 • The WD-40 persistence story and leadership resilience
 • Gratitude and appreciation in leadership
 • How recognition drives behavior and performance
 • Coaching questions for leaders and teams
 • Positive leadership and team energy

If you want to become a stronger leader, improve team culture, increase employee engagement, and lead with greater emotional intelligence, this episode provides practical leadership tools you can apply immediately.

If you found this episode valuable, subscribe to The Leadership Buzz, leave a review, and share this episode with another leader.

Work hard. Tell the truth.

Book Reference: Leading Without Authority by Keith Ferrazzi.

The Leadership Buzz is hosted by Lloyd “Buzz” Buzzell, an ICF-ACC executive coach, DISC practitioner, and retired U.S. Air Force officer with 37 years of leadership experience. Each episode focuses on one book, one idea, and one practical leadership concept to help you align your behavior with your values and lead with greater clarity, trust, and impact.

If you’re a leader who wants to build stronger teams, improve communication, and create real ownership, subscribe and share this episode with someone on your team.

Connect with Buzz on LinkedIn or visit workhardtellthetruth.com for coaching and leadership development resources.

Work hard. Tell the truth.

Leadership Under Pressure | Built Long Before the Pressure Arrives25 May 202600:16:16

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In this episode of The Leadership Buzz, we explore how leadership under pressure is usually built long before the pressure arrives. Using Todd Beamer’s story from Lisa Beamer’s Let’s Roll, this conversation looks beyond the headline moments of September 11th and into the values, habits, mentors, faith, and daily choices that shape courageous leadership over time.

We discuss:
• Todd Beamer and Flight 93 as an example of values-based leadership under pressure
• Why courage is usually developed over a lifetime, not created in a crisis
• How everyday leadership decisions reveal character and integrity
• The influence of mentors, coaches, family, faith, and workplace culture
• Why leadership is often shaped quietly through repeated habits and behaviors
• Choosing truth, responsibility, humility, and calm under pressure
• The importance of protecting the foundation underneath your leadership

If you enjoy conversations about leadership, character, executive coaching, integrity, resilience, and personal growth, please subscribe and share the show with others. And if this episode resonates with you, I’d love to hear your thoughts or continue the conversation with you directly.

Book Reference:
Beamer, L., & Abraham, K. (2002). Let’s Roll!: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Courage. Tyndale House Publishers.

Work hard. Tell the truth.



The Leadership Buzz is hosted by Lloyd “Buzz” Buzzell, an ICF-ACC executive coach, DISC practitioner, and retired U.S. Air Force officer with 37 years of leadership experience. Each episode focuses on one book, one idea, and one practical leadership concept to help you align your behavior with your values and lead with greater clarity, trust, and impact.

If you’re a leader who wants to build stronger teams, improve communication, and create real ownership, subscribe and share this episode with someone on your team.

Connect with Buzz on LinkedIn or visit workhardtellthetruth.com for coaching and leadership development resources.

Work hard. Tell the truth.

Bonus Episode | Three Defining Moments That Shaped My Leadership21 May 202600:11:06

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In this special bonus episode of The Leadership Buzz, Lloyd “Buzz” Buzzell reflects on three defining moments from the summer of 1983 that shaped his understanding of leadership, resilience, responsibility, mentorship, integrity, and service. From witnessing an extraordinary act of servant leadership on a nuclear power plant construction site, to the sudden loss of his father on a golf course, to a life-changing mentorship conversation that led him into the United States Air Force, this episode explores how defining moments shape character long before leadership is ever tested.

This leadership podcast episode focuses on:
• servant leadership and leadership under pressure
• resilience, adversity, and personal growth
• mentorship and leadership development
• executive leadership and values-based leadership
• integrity, accountability, trust, and responsibility
• military leadership and a lifetime of service
• emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and purpose
• how ordinary life moments can shape a leadership journey and influence decades of coaching and leadership

If you enjoy leadership podcasts focused on leadership development, executive coaching, personal growth, character, communication, trust, resilience, and authentic leadership, subscribe to The Leadership Buzz and share this episode with someone who may need it.

Connect with Buzz on LinkedIn or visit workhardtellthetruth.com.

Work hard. Tell the truth.



The Leadership Buzz is hosted by Lloyd “Buzz” Buzzell, an ICF-ACC executive coach, DISC practitioner, and retired U.S. Air Force officer with 37 years of leadership experience. Each episode focuses on one book, one idea, and one practical leadership concept to help you align your behavior with your values and lead with greater clarity, trust, and impact.

If you’re a leader who wants to build stronger teams, improve communication, and create real ownership, subscribe and share this episode with someone on your team.

Connect with Buzz on LinkedIn or visit workhardtellthetruth.com for coaching and leadership development resources.

Work hard. Tell the truth.

Engage With Honor | Courageous Accountability for Everyday Leaders18 May 202600:16:15

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In this episode of The Leadership Buzz, we explore Engage with Honor: Building a Culture of Courageous Accountability by retired Air Force Colonel and Vietnam POW Lee Ellis and discuss how these leadership lessons apply directly to business, teams, organizations, families, and everyday life.

This conversation is not just about military leadership. It is about resilience, workplace culture, dignity, accountability, and the repeated daily choices leaders make under pressure. We discuss why the real lesson from the Hanoi Hilton is not one dramatic moment of bravery. It is the daily grind of leadership: staying engaged, encouraging others, holding standards, and continuing forward when it would be easier to withdraw.

We also break down courageous accountability built on character, courage, and commitment, and why talent without character eventually damages trust and creates silence inside organizations.

A major theme in this episode is dignity and respect. We explore four traps that quietly destroy workplace culture: domination, withdrawal, gossip, and judging. If you want better communication, stronger accountability, healthier teams, and more trust in your organization, dignity is not a soft skill. It is foundational leadership.

Stick around for three coaching questions you can apply immediately, and share this episode with a leader who cares about doing things the right way.

Referenced books:


Engage with Honor – Lee Ellis
A POW’s Story: 2801 Days in Hanoi – Larry Guarino
The Passing of the Night – Robbie Risner

The Leadership Buzz is hosted by Lloyd “Buzz” Buzzell, an ICF-ACC executive coach, DISC practitioner, and retired U.S. Air Force officer with 37 years of leadership experience. Each episode focuses on one book, one idea, and one practical leadership concept to help you align your behavior with your values and lead with greater clarity, trust, and impact.

If you’re a leader who wants to build stronger teams, improve communication, and create real ownership, subscribe and share this episode with someone on your team.

Connect with Buzz on LinkedIn or visit workhardtellthetruth.com for coaching and leadership development resources.

Work hard. Tell the truth.

Multiplier vs Diminisher Leadership: Are You Making Your Team Smarter or Quieter? Liz Wiseman | Multipliers | Leadership, Team Performance, Psychological Safety11 May 202600:16:15

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Are you a multiplier or a diminisher as a leader?

The fastest way to lose a room is to walk in thinking you need to have every answer. In this leadership podcast episode, we break down Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter by Liz Wiseman and explore a critical leadership question: are you amplifying your team’s intelligence or shutting it down?

We’ve both seen it—same team, same mission, same pressure—but one leader changes everything. People either speak up, take ownership, and bring better ideas… or they go quiet and wait to be told what to do.

We unpack how capable, well-intentioned leaders become accidental diminishers by stepping in too quickly, correcting too often, and controlling outcomes—especially when those behaviors get rewarded as “results.” Then we shift to what multiplier leaders do differently: they ask better questions, create space for thinking, and slow things down just enough so their teams can move faster and perform at a higher level.

We also use a story from Bobby Orr to illustrate what it looks like when one person elevates everyone around them—boosting confidence, performance, and belief across the entire team.

If you’re leading meetings, pay attention to this: what does silence in the room really mean? We talk about psychological safety, team dynamics, and the leadership discipline of holding the silence long enough for real concerns and better ideas to surface.

This episode is for leaders who want to:

  •  Build trust and ownership on their teams 
  •  Improve communication and engagement 
  •  Stop being the bottleneck and start developing people 
  •  Lead without having all the answers 

Subscribe for more leadership coaching focused on self-awareness, team performance, and real-world leadership lessons. Share this with a leader who needs it, and leave a review to help others find the show.

What’s one habit you need to change so your team gets louder, more confident, and more capable?

The Leadership Buzz is hosted by Lloyd “Buzz” Buzzell, an ICF-ACC executive coach, DISC practitioner, and retired U.S. Air Force officer with 37 years of leadership experience. Each episode focuses on one book, one idea, and one practical leadership concept to help you align your behavior with your values and lead with greater clarity, trust, and impact.

If you’re a leader who wants to build stronger teams, improve communication, and create real ownership, subscribe and share this episode with someone on your team.

Connect with Buzz on LinkedIn or visit workhardtellthetruth.com for coaching and leadership development resources.

Work hard. Tell the truth.

Radical Candor | Care Personally, Challenge Directly04 May 202600:16:15

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Most leaders think they’re being kind when they hold back the truth—but what if the real damage comes from silence? In this leadership podcast episode, we dig into Radical Candor by Kim Scott and explore one of the most important leadership skills: giving honest feedback to people you genuinely care about.

We break down the core of the Radical Candor framework—caring personally while challenging directly—and why that balance is essential for building trust, improving team performance, and strengthening workplace communication. We also explore the common traps leaders fall into when feedback gets uncomfortable: ruinous empathy (nice but unclear), obnoxious aggression (direct but damaging), and manipulative insincerity (two-faced and trust-killing). If you’ve ever softened a message until it lost meaning, avoided a difficult conversation, or relied on blunt honesty without connection, this episode will challenge how you lead.

Along the way, we connect candid leadership and feedback to what people actually want at work: clarity, growth, and to feel valued. We share real leadership insights from military teams where trust and accountability made the difference, and we highlight how leadership coaching and honest conversations can build stronger, more cohesive teams. If you care about leadership development, team culture, psychological safety, and accountability, this is a practical place to start.

Subscribe for more leadership coaching conversations, share this episode with a leader who needs it, and leave a rating or review so more people can find the show.

What’s one truth you need to say this week?

The Leadership Buzz is hosted by Lloyd “Buzz” Buzzell, an ICF-ACC executive coach, DISC practitioner, and retired U.S. Air Force officer with 37 years of leadership experience. Each episode focuses on one book, one idea, and one practical leadership concept to help you align your behavior with your values and lead with greater clarity, trust, and impact.

If you’re a leader who wants to build stronger teams, improve communication, and create real ownership, subscribe and share this episode with someone on your team.

Connect with Buzz on LinkedIn or visit workhardtellthetruth.com for coaching and leadership development resources.

Work hard. Tell the truth.

People Matter: Ownership Changes Everything27 Apr 202600:16:22

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Ownership is the quiet force that turns average teams into teams you can trust under pressure. When something goes wrong, do you default to “whose fault is this,” or do you ask the question that changes everything: “what part of this is mine to own?” That single shift builds credibility, reduces blame, and creates real momentum, even when the workload is heavy and the system feels imperfect.

We lean on insights from Josh Block, author of People Matter at Work, who argues that leadership is bigger than results or competence. The healthiest workplace culture is one where people feel safe, seen, and successful, and that emotional reality drives employee engagement, initiative, and retention. Josh describes moving from a “me” mindset to a “we” mindset, where trust is normal and people feel connected to the mission. When that happens, people stop acting like short-term employees and start acting like owners who care about quality, customers, and teammates.

Coach Buzz brings it down to a practical framework: renters versus owners. Renters wait, minimize risk, and outsource responsibility to the boss or the circumstances. Owners take responsibility for their attitude, effort, and impact, and they look for what they can fix without needing perfect conditions first. We share military stories that make ownership tangible, from putting your name on your work to maintaining standards when nobody is inspecting, and we close with three coaching questions you can use immediately with your team.

Subscribe for more leadership coaching, share this with a leader who needs a push toward ownership, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What’s one place in your life where you’re renting instead of owning?


Book: People Matter @work | Fostering a Culture Where Team Members Thrive and Everyone Wins | Follow on linkedin

The Leadership Buzz is hosted by Lloyd “Buzz” Buzzell, an ICF-ACC executive coach, DISC practitioner, and retired U.S. Air Force officer with 37 years of leadership experience. Each episode focuses on one book, one idea, and one practical leadership concept to help you align your behavior with your values and lead with greater clarity, trust, and impact.

If you’re a leader who wants to build stronger teams, improve communication, and create real ownership, subscribe and share this episode with someone on your team.

Connect with Buzz on LinkedIn or visit workhardtellthetruth.com for coaching and leadership development resources.

Work hard. Tell the truth.

How to Get a Return on Failure | The Power of the Debrief20 Apr 202600:16:15

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Failure is not a leadership flaw. It is a leadership guarantee.

What separates strong leaders from stuck leaders is what happens after the miss. Do we hide, blame, and move on too quickly, or do we slow down and learn?

In this episode, we lean on John Maxwell’s How to Get a Return on Failure and a military practice called the debrief. High-performing teams review the game tape, walk back through what happened, and ask four simple questions:

What happened?
Why did it happen?
What did we learn?
What will we do differently next time?

We talk about why the best debriefs are built on honesty, psychological safety, and facts over ego. Then we translate that process into business leadership and everyday team life.

If you have ever led through a mistake, setback, missed goal, difficult conversation, or disappointing result, this episode is for you.


Subscribe for more practical leadership coaching, share this with a leader who needs it, and leave a review if it helps. What failure are you ready to debrief this week?

The Leadership Buzz is hosted by Lloyd “Buzz” Buzzell, an ICF-ACC executive coach, DISC practitioner, and retired U.S. Air Force officer with 37 years of leadership experience. Each episode focuses on one book, one idea, and one practical leadership concept to help you align your behavior with your values and lead with greater clarity, trust, and impact.

If you’re a leader who wants to build stronger teams, improve communication, and create real ownership, subscribe and share this episode with someone on your team.

Connect with Buzz on LinkedIn or visit workhardtellthetruth.com for coaching and leadership development resources.

Work hard. Tell the truth.

Leaders Are Readers | Why Reading Makes You a Better Leader13 Apr 202600:17:22

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Leaders who don’t read don’t stay sharp, they just stay busy. Today we unpack a simple belief with huge consequences: leaders are readers, and the ones who keep learning are the ones who make better calls when pressure hits.

TJ tees up General James Mattis’ famous message on professional reading, and I explain why Mattis saw books as a way to “light a dark path ahead.” When we skip reading, we’re forced to learn only through our own experience, and that often means learning the hard way. Reading gives us borrowed wisdom, faster pattern recognition, and the perspective to adapt before a situation turns into a crisis.

From there, we connect the habit of reading to three leadership basics I come back to again and again: trust, service, and truth. We walk through book recommendations that shaped my thinking, including Call Sign Chaos, Vietnam POW stories that spotlight character under extreme conditions, and Holocaust memoirs like Man’s Search For Meaning that show how purpose helps people endure. We also hit team and culture lessons from The Five Dysfunctions Of A Team, The Legacy, and The Hard Hat, plus The Talent Code on deliberate practice and coaching.

We close with three coaching questions to help you choose what to read next and how to apply it at work. If you get value from the show, subscribe, share it with a leader you respect, and leave a review so more people can find it. What book has shaped the way you lead most, and why?

Some books discussed and others worth taking a look at include Call Sign Chaos, Engage With Honor, Legacy, The Hard Hat, Hammerproof, Living Proof, Team of Teams, Leading Change, Start With Why, Leaders Eat Last, True North, The Talent Code, The Killer Angels, 2801 Days in Hanoi, Once an Eagle, Man's Search for Meaning, The Happiest Man on Earth, and The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.


The Leadership Buzz is hosted by Lloyd “Buzz” Buzzell, an ICF-ACC executive coach, DISC practitioner, and retired U.S. Air Force officer with 37 years of leadership experience. Each episode focuses on one book, one idea, and one practical leadership concept to help you align your behavior with your values and lead with greater clarity, trust, and impact.

If you’re a leader who wants to build stronger teams, improve communication, and create real ownership, subscribe and share this episode with someone on your team.

Connect with Buzz on LinkedIn or visit workhardtellthetruth.com for coaching and leadership development resources.

Work hard. Tell the truth.

Leaders Eat Last: How Great Leaders Build Trust 06 Apr 202600:16:15

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Most teams do not fail because they lack talent. They fail because they do not feel safe enough to tell the truth, take smart risks, or trust their leaders when things get hard. We dig into Simon Sinek’s Leaders Eat Last and the real point behind that phrase: leadership is service, sacrifice, and putting your people first, even when nobody is watching.

Buzz shares a unforgettable story from his early days at a nuclear power plant, where a foreman named Red runs into danger to carry an injured worker out. It is a masterclass in leadership trust and a reminder that the strongest “culture statement” is what we do under pressure. From there, we connect the lesson to Buzz’s experience in the US Air Force and why the leaders people follow are not always the loudest or the smartest, but the ones who stay calm, take responsibility, and protect their team.

We also break down the “circle of safety” and why workplace culture, employee engagement, and team performance are deeply tied to human biology. When people feel valued and protected, collaboration and loyalty rise. When they feel threatened or disposable, stress and office politics take over. We talk practical ways to build psychological safety through small, consistent actions: keeping your word, sharing credit, admitting mistakes, listening well, and offering simple encouragement that lands.

If you want to lead with integrity and build a high-trust team, hit play, then take one idea and use it this week. Subscribe for more leadership coaching, share this with a leader who needs it, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

The Leadership Buzz is hosted by Lloyd “Buzz” Buzzell, an ICF-ACC executive coach, DISC practitioner, and retired U.S. Air Force officer with 37 years of leadership experience. Each episode focuses on one book, one idea, and one practical leadership concept to help you align your behavior with your values and lead with greater clarity, trust, and impact.

If you’re a leader who wants to build stronger teams, improve communication, and create real ownership, subscribe and share this episode with someone on your team.

Connect with Buzz on LinkedIn or visit workhardtellthetruth.com for coaching and leadership development resources.

Work hard. Tell the truth.

Delegation for Leaders: How to Build Trust and Develop Your Team30 Mar 202600:16:16

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Delegation can look like leadership while quietly turning into control. If you’ve ever handed something off and then felt the urge to step back in, rewrite it, or “just do it yourself,” you’re not alone and it’s costing you more than time. We dig into what delegation really means: transferring ownership, authority, and space so someone else can deliver an outcome, not just complete a task.

We bring in Ashley Herd, author of The Manager Method, to walk through her practical Pause Consider Act framework for stronger management and team performance. We talk about the moment you need to pause before you default to “I’ll handle it,” then the key things to consider that most leaders skip: does your team member truly understand the ask, have you heard their plan, and what else is already on their plate. From there, we get specific about what it means to act with clarity and follow-through, including how to check in without hovering and accidentally taking back trust.

You’ll also hear a real story from my early Air Force leadership days when I delegated poorly and learned the hard lesson that being involved in everything is not the same as building a capable team. We use the Big Blue Rock example to show why clear expectations matter, then close with coaching questions you can use immediately to identify what you’re holding on to, how you delegate today, and what signals your team is getting from you.

This episode draws on The Manager Method by Ashley Herd, focusing on delegation as a leadership behavior that builds trust, develops people, and strengthens team capacity.

If this helps, subscribe, share it with a leader who needs it, and leave a rating or review so more people can find the show.




The Leadership Buzz is hosted by Lloyd “Buzz” Buzzell, an ICF-ACC executive coach, DISC practitioner, and retired U.S. Air Force officer with 37 years of leadership experience. Each episode focuses on one book, one idea, and one practical leadership concept to help you align your behavior with your values and lead with greater clarity, trust, and impact.

If you’re a leader who wants to build stronger teams, improve communication, and create real ownership, subscribe and share this episode with someone on your team.

Connect with Buzz on LinkedIn or visit workhardtellthetruth.com for coaching and leadership development resources.

Work hard. Tell the truth.

How Honest Leaders Build Trust That Lasts23 Mar 202600:16:16

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How Honest Leaders Build Trust That Lasts

The most dangerous leadership moments rarely announce themselves. They show up in quiet rooms, with incomplete facts, time pressure, and someone offering an easy shortcut. In this episode, we explore telling the truth as a daily leadership discipline and why trust erodes quickly when words, actions, and values fall out of alignment.

Drawing from What You’re Made For by George Raveling and Ryan Holiday, we focus on the chapter “To Tell the Truth.” Buzz shares a leadership story from 9/11 during the Looking Glass mission, where a simple inventory error created a defining moment: document the truth or cover it up.

You’ll walk away with a simple framework: think about it ahead of time, talk about it often, and act on it when it counts.

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Key Topics

  • Truth telling in leadership
  • Building trust through honesty
  • George Raveling insights
  • 9/11 Looking Glass leadership story
  • Over-talking vs. withholding

Coaching Questions

  • Where am I holding back the truth?
  • How do I respond to hard truth?
  • What does alignment look like for me?

The Leadership Buzz is hosted by Lloyd “Buzz” Buzzell, an ICF-ACC executive coach, DISC practitioner, and retired U.S. Air Force officer with 37 years of leadership experience. Each episode focuses on one book, one idea, and one practical leadership concept to help you align your behavior with your values and lead with greater clarity, trust, and impact.

If you’re a leader who wants to build stronger teams, improve communication, and create real ownership, subscribe and share this episode with someone on your team.

Connect with Buzz on LinkedIn or visit workhardtellthetruth.com for coaching and leadership development resources.

Work hard. Tell the truth.

Perfection Is a Lie: The Leadership Lesson from Malmstrom16 Mar 202600:15:09

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Perfection is a tempting leadership standard because it feels like discipline, pride, and professionalism. But I’ve seen the darker side: when leaders communicate that anything less than flawless performance is unacceptable, people don’t get better they get quieter. They protect appearances, avoid questions, and hide uncertainty. That is how a team with “high standards” can become a team with high fear.

We dig into David Burke’s newly published book The Need to Lead and his blunt idea that perfection is a lie. To make it real, we walk through the 2014 Malmstrom Air Force Base missile officer testing scandal and what it teaches about organizational culture, accountability, and integrity under pressure. The lesson isn’t that standards should drop. In nuclear operations and in everyday leadership, the mission matters and consequences are serious. The point is that there’s a difference between demanding excellence and demanding a perfect score, and that difference shows up in behavior when no one is watching.

From there, we talk about psychological safety and why it’s not soft leadership. It’s a performance system: debriefs, constant small corrections, clear checklists, and leaders who model humility so people speak up early. We end with three coaching questions you can use with your team to spot the signals you send about mistakes, learning, and accountability especially in high-stakes moments.

If this resonates, share the episode with a leader who needs it, follow or subscribe, and leave a rating or short review so more people can find the show.

The Leadership Buzz is hosted by Lloyd “Buzz” Buzzell, an ICF-ACC executive coach, DISC practitioner, and retired U.S. Air Force officer with 37 years of leadership experience. Each episode focuses on one book, one idea, and one practical leadership concept to help you align your behavior with your values and lead with greater clarity, trust, and impact.

If you’re a leader who wants to build stronger teams, improve communication, and create real ownership, subscribe and share this episode with someone on your team.

Connect with Buzz on LinkedIn or visit workhardtellthetruth.com for coaching and leadership development resources.

Work hard. Tell the truth.

Trust Is Personal: How Leaders Build Trust09 Mar 202600:15:15

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Trust is the operating system of leadership. When trust is strong, teams communicate openly, move faster, and perform better. When it is weak, even simple decisions become difficult.

In this episode of The Leadership Buzz, Buzz Buzzell explores a key idea from the book The Seven Rules of Trust — Make It Personal. Trust is not built through titles, authority, or slogans on the wall. It grows through everyday interactions between people.

Buzz reflects on why trust is built person to person, how leaders can avoid becoming transactional, and why spending time with people is essential if we want teams to feel valued rather than treated like just another number.

The episode closes with three coaching questions to help you reflect on how you are building trust with the people you lead.

Work hard. Tell the truth.

The Leadership Buzz is hosted by Lloyd “Buzz” Buzzell, an ICF-ACC executive coach, DISC practitioner, and retired U.S. Air Force officer with 37 years of leadership experience. Each episode focuses on one book, one idea, and one practical leadership concept to help you align your behavior with your values and lead with greater clarity, trust, and impact.

If you’re a leader who wants to build stronger teams, improve communication, and create real ownership, subscribe and share this episode with someone on your team.

Connect with Buzz on LinkedIn or visit workhardtellthetruth.com for coaching and leadership development resources.

Work hard. Tell the truth.

Strong Ground: What Leaders Build Before Results05 Mar 202600:14:47

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In this episode of The Leadership Buzz, we explore the newly published book Strong Ground by Brené Brown and the leadership idea that real performance starts with a strong foundation. Before teams can move fast or perform well, they need stability. Trust, clarity of values, and connection create the ground people stand on. When leaders rush past those things, teams often end up compensating for weak foundations. We also discuss the relationship between managers and leaders and why healthy organizations need both. Managers help execution happen while leaders shape the culture and direction that allow people to do their best work. If leadership is ultimately about service, then part of that responsibility is creating the ground others can stand on. The episode concludes with three coaching questions to help you reflect on the kind of leadership foundation you are building. Work hard. Tell the truth.

The Leadership Buzz is hosted by Lloyd “Buzz” Buzzell, an ICF-ACC executive coach, DISC practitioner, and retired U.S. Air Force officer with 37 years of leadership experience. Each episode focuses on one book, one idea, and one practical leadership concept to help you align your behavior with your values and lead with greater clarity, trust, and impact.

If you’re a leader who wants to build stronger teams, improve communication, and create real ownership, subscribe and share this episode with someone on your team.

Connect with Buzz on LinkedIn or visit workhardtellthetruth.com for coaching and leadership development resources.

Work hard. Tell the truth.

Be the Leader They Want to Work For02 Mar 202600:21:46

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In this episode, we explore what it means to be the leader people actually want to work for. Drawing from Quick Leadership by Selena Rezvani, we reflect on how everyday behaviors responsiveness, clarity, and follow-through shape how leadership is experienced. Through story and coaching insight, this episode invites leaders to examine the small moments that quietly build trust or erode it. We close with coaching questions to support more intentional leadership.

The Leadership Buzz is hosted by Lloyd “Buzz” Buzzell, an ICF-ACC executive coach, DISC practitioner, and retired U.S. Air Force officer with 37 years of leadership experience. Each episode focuses on one book, one idea, and one practical leadership concept to help you align your behavior with your values and lead with greater clarity, trust, and impact.

If you’re a leader who wants to build stronger teams, improve communication, and create real ownership, subscribe and share this episode with someone on your team.

Connect with Buzz on LinkedIn or visit workhardtellthetruth.com for coaching and leadership development resources.

Work hard. Tell the truth.

Lead Beyond Control; Build What Lasts02 Mar 202600:16:23

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Control can turn a crisis around, but does it build a team that lasts? We dig into the hard gap between short-term wins and long-term strength, guided by Surrender to Lead from Jessica Kriegel and Joe Terry and a field-tested equation: purpose plus strategy plus culture equals results. Through a candid military story, we show how metrics can spike while psychological safety sinks, why innovation dries up under constant pressure, and how a leader’s presence can become the bottleneck if everything depends on them.

We get practical fast. You’ll hear how to decide when to step in and when to step back, how to use “intent and bookends” to return decisions to your team, and why clear standards with real trust beat endless oversight. We talk about surrender not as weakness but as discipline: yielding recognition, resisting the urge to solve, and creating space for others to grow. If you tend to chase control or praise, you’ll learn to spot those tells and trade them for habits that scale your impact.

Culture sits at the center. It’s slower to measure and easier to ignore, yet it multiplies every plan you make. We unpack ways to build psychological safety, invite dissent, and respond to bad news without blame, so truth travels faster and judgment improves. The three coaching questions near the end help you test your legacy: what would still work if you stepped away, where your push for results limits someone else’s growth, and what will remain because of how you lead.

If this conversation sparks something, share it with a leader who values both performance and people, then hit subscribe for weekly insights. Leave a quick review with your biggest takeaway and the one habit you’ll change this week—we read every note and it shapes what we build next.

The Leadership Buzz is hosted by Lloyd “Buzz” Buzzell, an ICF-ACC executive coach, DISC practitioner, and retired U.S. Air Force officer with 37 years of leadership experience. Each episode focuses on one book, one idea, and one practical leadership concept to help you align your behavior with your values and lead with greater clarity, trust, and impact.

If you’re a leader who wants to build stronger teams, improve communication, and create real ownership, subscribe and share this episode with someone on your team.

Connect with Buzz on LinkedIn or visit workhardtellthetruth.com for coaching and leadership development resources.

Work hard. Tell the truth.

Trailer | The Leadership Buzz27 Feb 202600:01:27

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A brief introduction to The Leadership Buzz and what listeners can expect in future episodes.

The Leadership Buzz is hosted by Lloyd “Buzz” Buzzell, an ICF-ACC executive coach, DISC practitioner, and retired U.S. Air Force officer with 37 years of leadership experience. Each episode focuses on one book, one idea, and one practical leadership concept to help you align your behavior with your values and lead with greater clarity, trust, and impact.

If you’re a leader who wants to build stronger teams, improve communication, and create real ownership, subscribe and share this episode with someone on your team.

Connect with Buzz on LinkedIn or visit workhardtellthetruth.com for coaching and leadership development resources.

Work hard. Tell the truth.

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