Making Change from the Inside: Leadership Beyond Management Roles

Making change in a team is often associated with authority, hierarchy, or formal leadership roles. But in practice, some of the most meaningful change starts from the inside, through everyday actions and choices.

In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I sat down with Michael Reid, the narrator of the audiobook edition of Changing Your Team From The Inside, to celebrate its release and reflect on the ideas behind the book.

From audiobook to leadership practice

Beyond the audiobook itself, our conversation explored what it really means to act as a practitioner of change inside a team or an organization.

We discussed the importance of:

• making the work visible, so teams can see what is really happening and improve together
• investing time to learn through play, using simple games and practices to experiment safely
• building lasting relationships, as a foundation for trust and collaboration
• clarifying the goals of the team, to align efforts and reduce unnecessary friction

These are not abstract leadership concepts. They are concrete levers that anyone can use, regardless of role or title.

Leadership beyond management roles

One of the key points we come back to in this episode is that Changing Your Team From The Inside is not a book for managers only.

It is written for practitioners.
People who want to:

• take responsibility for their environment
• influence how work is done
• and create positive change where they are

The book, and this conversation, are grounded in the idea that leadership is not a position. It is a practice.

A final note

If you are looking for ways to improve collaboration, alignment, and satisfaction at work without waiting for permission or a reorganization, this episode will resonate with you.

It is an invitation to look at what is already within your reach and to start changing your team, from the inside.

Where to listen:

Le Podcast – Season Two

• 
  Playful Leadership: Helping Others Be Their Best
• 
  Blessed, Grateful, and Human
• 
  Build the Right Product, with Gojko Adzic
• 
  Hiring and Diversity Without Dropping the Bar
• 
  Leadership and Teamwork in a Crisis
• 
  Chief of Staff: The Role, the Craft, the Community
• 
  Belonging, Identity, and Better Hiring,
• 
  What Software Teams Can Learn from Sporting Teams
• 
  Agile and Open Innovation: Building the Bridge Between Tech and Business
• 
  Radical Focus: OKRs, Cadence, and the “Seduction of the Task”
• 
  Human-Centric Agility Coaching: The Expert Paradox and the Ideology Paradox
• 
  The Job of an Open Leader: Context, Trust, and Growing Others

Le Podcast – Season One

• 
  Growing as a Software Engineer: Learning, Sharing, and Impact
• 
  Thirteen Rules for Building Strong Teams
• 
  OKRs in Practice: Learning, Focus, and Common Pitfalls
• 
  The Myth of 10x Engineers: Growing Beyond Technical Skills
• 
  The Anatomy of Peace: Leadership Starts With Who You Are
• 
  Psychological Safety: Creating Teams Where People Can Speak Up
• 
  Leading Distributed Teams: Collaboration Across Time Zones
• 
  Changing Your Team from the Inside: A Practitioner’s View on Leadership
• 
  Why Shared Language Matters: How Terms Shape Collaboration
• 
  How (Not) to Give Feedback: Responsibility, Ego, and Relationships
• 
  Rock Stars and Superstars: Supporting Growth Without Losing Stability
• 
  Do Cultural Differences Really Block Agile Adoption?
• 
  How to Create Great Goals: Using OKRs to Focus on Impact
• 
  Making Change from the Inside: Leadership Beyond Management Roles
• 
  How to Form a Cross-Functional Team That Actually Works