Most leadership challenges aren't actually about strategy or execution—they're about emotion regulation. Executive coach Ed Batista, who has conducted nearly 10,000 coaching sessions over two decades at Stanford GSB, reveals why mastering your emotional responses is the meta-skill that determines leadership effectiveness.

Drawing from extensive work with founder CEOs and tech executives, Ed explains how unregulated emotions create procrastination, communication breakdowns, and team dysfunction—even when leaders have brilliant strategic insights. He shares practical frameworks for self-coaching, the real purpose of journaling (it's not what you think), and why "force isn't power" when your authority grows.

Learn how to recognize when your communication style needs recalibrating as your company scales, build psychological safety without walking on eggshells, and develop the emotional awareness that separates effective leaders from those who flame out. Ed also discusses his AI coaching experiment "Edbot" and the future of augmented leadership development.

Essential listening for any leader who wants to understand the invisible currents that actually drive organizational performance.

Real estate investing attracts tech entrepreneurs seeking diversified income, but most underestimate the operational complexity. Dupree of Woodbine Development Corporation reveals the economic fundamentals that separate successful hotel investments from expensive mistakes to brand selection and partnership structures. He shares why his company transformed hiring practices to prioritize cultural fit over credentials to build longevity in a high-turnover industry. Tech leaders and aspiring real estate investors gain actionable frameworks for evaluating hotel opportunities and building organizations where cultural alignment drives sustainable performance.

Shopify VP of Engineering Farhan Thawar reveals how to build and scale high-performance engineering teams in the age of AI. Drawing from his experience managing over 1,000 engineers remotely, Farhan shares Shopify's unique approach to weekly demos over burndown charts, their controversial decision to hire 1,000 interns in 2025, and why they're moving back to a monorepo architecture. Learn how Shopify's leadership stays deeply involved in project details through their intensive monthly review process, why they built custom internal tools instead of adopting industry standards, and how they're preparing their entire organization for an AI-first future. Essential insights for engineering leaders navigating rapid growth, remote work challenges, and the fundamental shifts happening in software development.