Lead the People · 2026-06-11 · 41 min
Your title tells people where you sit. Your mastery tells them why you matter. Most managers spend years chasing the next promotion, only to wake up realizing the ladder was leaning against the wrong wall. Julian Lighton , Business Coach at Moo Pie Coaching Inc., former McKinsey partner, four-time Chief Strategy Officer, and one of Silicon Valley's most sought-after executive coaches, has spent 30 years studying why some people break through and others stall. The answer has nothing to do with talent. In this episode, Matt Poepsel sits down with Julian, author of Navigating Your Next: Discover the Career You Want and the Path to Get There , to pull back the curtain on how high-stakes executive decisions actually get made, and why every manager below the C-suite needs that context. They dig into why the skills that got you here won't get you there, why AI isn't the threat most people think, and why the managers who lean into curiosity, hypothesis-building, and human judgment will come out ahead. The case Julian makes is simple: intentional navigation beats upward momentum every time.
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