How to Make a Leader

Leadership isn’t just something we learn. It’s something we step into, often in moments we don’t get to rehearse. 

Sharifa Austin is a Senior Director, People Development & Organizational Effectiveness at Universal Music Group. She approaches leadership as something to be designed, built for the moments that matter most. This approach has been shaped inside a global business where leadership is tested in real time. Her work reframes leadership through a performance lens: not as something to perfect, but something to prepare for with intention. 

In this episode, Sharifa shares her intentional leadership design framework: Soundcheck, Spotlight, Setlist, Showtime. Leaders, she'll tell you, aren't just soloists. They're conductors, shaping how others come in, align, and deliver.

This episode was captured in front of a live audience, with audience Q&A included. 

About Sharifa Austin:
Sharifa Austin is the Senior Director, People Development & Organizational Effectiveness at Universal Music Group. She is a leadership strategist known for designing innovative, business-aligned development experiences across some of the world’s most iconic music labels—including Interscope, Capitol, Def Jam, Republic, and Motown. At Universal Music Group, she has built and scaled a global leadership ecosystem that is reshaping how leaders grow, influence, and perform in high-pressure creative environments. Trusted by senior executives for her insight and strategic clarity, Sharifa blends cultural fluency with cutting-edge program design. She holds a Bachelor of Arts with Specialization in Marketing from California State University Los Angeles and is a recognized as a thought partner in redefining leadership and people strategy for the next era of work.

Connect with Sharifa on Linkedin.

AI has flattened the information gap. Knowledge is no longer the differentiator. So what separates great leaders? Emotional intelligence: judgment, presence, the ability to read a room and know when to pause. Successful teams are building a system where EQ behaviors are a part of the organization's DNA.
Ash Panjwani has spent her career building leadership systems grounded in EQ at companies like Twilio, VMware, OneTrust, and Procore. In this episode, she explains why EQ can't be bolted on as another training program, and how to hardwire it into the decisions that already shape your organization: who you hire, who you promote, how you give feedback, how you hold leaders accountable.

Things to listen for:
(06:09) Leadership starts with behavior, not programs 
(10:41) Clear expectations and shared language for growth 
(19:08) Accountability in onboarding, promotions, and reviews 
(07:03) Moving from programs to behavior-driven systems 
(16:46) Emotional intelligence in the age of AI 
(18:14) Developing judgment, trust, and situational awareness 
(11:44) Coaching and feedback strategies for leaders 
(17:15) Standing out as a leader in an AI-augmented world 
(21:35) Designing programs that reflect real work contexts 
(23:39) Takeaways for L&D and people teams
About Ash Panjwani:

Ash Panjwani is the founder of wrkhappy, where she builds performance and leadership infrastructure for scaling tech companies. Before launching wrkhappy, she spent over a decade designing leadership and performance systems inside Twilio, VMware, OneTrust, and most recently Procore, where she led talent development. Ash is an I/O psychologist by training and an operator by practice, and writes regularly on what it takes to develop leaders in the AI era.
Connect with Ash on LinkedIn.
Learn more about wrkhappy.

Your managers are leading people they've never met in person, on teams that include both humans and AI agents. Most leadership programs weren't built for that.
Kameko Leung has built leadership development programs at Zillow, Michael Page, and now Pinterest, and she knows what it takes to develop leaders for that reality. She breaks down what distributed leadership requires: the operating systems, trust-building practices, and program design that make it work.

Things to listen for:
(01:47) Developing leadership in a distributed environment
(03:28) Adapting leadership programs for remote teams
(08:11) Building trust and collaboration in virtual teams
(10:59) Developing leadership instincts in remote environments
(13:50) Integrating AI into leadership training and development
(16:54) Using AI to improve feedback and manager training
(18:55) Coaching circles and peer-led leadership development
(21:15) The evolving role of managers in an AI-augmented world
(24:14) What strong AI leadership actually looks like
(25:40) How AI is changing learning and development roles
(27:47) Leadership advice for building trust in virtual teams

About Kameko Leung:

Kameko Leung manages Leadership Development programming for Pinterest and is the Founder of Bloom Mindset Consulting. With over 10 years of experience in learning and development, Kameko has experience providing the right developmental opportunities for leaders at each transition stage of their career journey - from aspiring manager to executive. With a special focus on leading and managing remotely, Kameko has worked with teams across tech, education, recruitment, engineering, sales, and non-profit to support leaders to evolve their practices and strategies for today's work environment. Kameko is a CPTD credential holder and actively involved in the talent development community.
Connect with Kameko on LinkedIn and check out her dog treat company: The Seattle Barkery.

T. Rowe Price doesn't do one-off training programs. They engineer leadership.
Ryan Smith leads Global Leadership and Career Development at T. Rowe Price, where he's spent nearly four years building a company-wide learning system that reaches leaders at every level, from the C-suite to frontline associates. The foundation: a belief that everyone, regardless of title, has the capacity to lead.
He shares how they built their leadership academies, why co-creation was non-negotiable at every level, foolproof tactics to get buy-in from the C-suite, and how they turn a learning event into lasting behavior change.
Things to listen for:
(00:00) Introducing Ryan Smith
(01:13) The “everyone is a leader” mantra
(02:39) The difference between leaders and managers
(05:51) Why systems of learning became a priority
(09:33) Defining a system of learning
(10:28) Leadership academies and behavior frameworks
(12:27) Insights from the Executive Leadership Academy
(13:37) Building manager capability
(15:16) Building communities of practice
(17:10) Driving adoption and executive buy-in
(19:56) Connecting learning systems to organizational metrics
(23:02) Measuring engagement and performance
(24:30) First steps for leadership development strategy
(25:53) Best leadership advice Ryan has received
About Ryan Smith:
Ryan Smith is the Head of Global Leadership and Career Development at T. Rowe Price, where he focuses on career mobility and building scalable leadership systems that develop leaders at every level of the organization.

Before joining T. Rowe Price, Ryan spent 15 years at Truist, leading leadership and professional development for more than 45,000 employees. His work centers on creating equitable access to leadership development and aligning learning with real business outcomes.
Connect with Ryan on LinkedIn.

We’re back with a Quick Question: one big question, one expert answer, in five minutes. 

Mike Taylor explains why learning teams often underestimate the role of attention, and how ideas from cognitive and marketing psychology can improve the way training is designed. He shares six simple attention triggers that make learning more relevant, tangible and memorable, and shows how L&D teams can move from one-off courses to campaign-style learning.
About Mike: 

With over two decades of experience as a learning consultant, Mike has been a driving force behind transformative instructional design and organizational performance. He is a Learning Consultant at Nationwide, a faculty member in Franklin University's Graduate Instructional Design and Technology program, and co-author of the book, Think Like a Marketer, Train Like an L&D Pro. His work bridges the gap between academic theory and real-world practice, equipping future learning professionals with the skills to excel in today's dynamic landscape. 

Connect with Mike here. Check out his book and his newsletter.