September 5, 2025

Leader Lab Episode 2: Building Trust in Times of Change with Conner Doyle

In this episode of the LEAD3R Lab mini-series, Dane Groeneveld interviews Conner Doyle, Vertical President for Healthcare & Practice Management at Full Steam, to hear about his winding path from marketing student to leading hundreds of people across multiple organizations. Conner shares how early mentors, resilience through multiple acquisitions, and a willingness to embrace both freedom and failure shaped his leadership style. He also shares how he approached a major organizational shift by starting with open communication, crowdsourcing input, and building trust through over 140 one-on-one conversations. Instead of imposing rigid structures, he focused on creating buy-in, fostering a culture of learning, and empowering his team to “fail fast” and move forward together.

From his three leadership pillars – fail fast, embrace humility, and culture eats strategy – to practical tools like skip-level conversations, applauding successes, and encouraging direct communication, Conner offers a refreshing look at how leaders can build connection and accelerate growth in any environment.

Whether it’s reorganizing departments to reduce turnover, or fostering collaboration across remote teams, you won’t want to miss Conner’s wisdom on leading through uncertainty and driving meaningful change.

🔗 Connect with Conner Doyle on LinkedIn

🔗 Episode 84: Harnessing Team Power and Creative Energy in the Workplace with Dr. André Martin

Leadership Development Exercise: How Do You Lead3r?

Leadership, like any discipline, is strengthened through consistent practice. Just as physical training develops strength and resilience, reflective leadership exercises help build emotional intelligence, awareness of your natural response tendencies, and an understanding of healthy team dynamics. 

This exercise is part of the ‘How Do You Lead3r?’ series – incorporating short, purposeful prompts designed to stretch your thinking around the topic of ‘leadership and teamwork’.  

You can complete the questions individually as a journaling activity or use them to spark a rich conversation with your team or peers. The goal is to reflect honestly, share generously, and develop practical insights you can carry into your everyday leadership practice.

Reflective Questions:

1. When have you stepped into a role that didn’t match your formal background or training, and what helped you adapt or succeed in that situation?
2. How do you approach building trust with teams during moments of organizational change or uncertainty?
3. In your current role, do you provide others with the freedom to experiment and even fail?
4. How do you differentiate between setting expectations and leading to a standard?
5. Have you ever managed people with more experience than you? What helped you earn their trust?
6. What’s your approach to cross-functional learning and are your teams set up to share what works (and what doesn’t)?
7. What do you do to ensure your team knows they matter?

Next Steps:

Remember, there’s no ‘right or wrong’ answer – leadership is contextual and constantly evolving. The real value comes from engaging with the questions, staying curious, and listening to others’ perspectives.

For more bite-sized leadership development drills like this, explore the full ‘How Do You Lead3r?’ series at the Future of Teamwork Podcast. Each episode and exercise is designed to help you lead with greater intention, connection, and impact. If you’re looking for a fuller development program – connect with our Team Effectiveness or Coaching specialists to learn more about your options.