Skip Level is your daily shortcut to that leader. A daily 8-minute podcast for mid-senior leaders who want to get noticed by the top table — and be ready before the role opens. Every morning, in about eight minutes, hosts Maya and Marcus break down one strategic-leadership idea: what’s new, why it matters, and exactly how to use it before your next meeting.
The promotion goes to the leader who’s already thinking two levels up. Hard work got you here. It won’t get you there.
Promotions don’t go to the busiest leaders. They go to the ones senior leaders already recognize as peers — people who speak the language of strategy, carry executive presence, and make decisions like they already own the bigger role.
Maya brings the frameworks and ideas. Marcus asks the questions you’re already thinking and keeps everything grounded in real situations. Every episode ends with action steps you can actually take that day.
This show is developed by Joe Dutkiewicz of Crayon Leadership. Joe equips mid-senior leaders to think and act two levels up, so they’re recognizable to top leaders and ready for the promotion before it opens. Find Joe on LinkedIn, X, YouTube, Facebook, and here at the Crayon Leadership website.
What you’ll get
- A daily 8-minute episode — short enough for the commute, sharp enough to change how you show up.
- Strategy you can speak — learn to frame your work the way promotion committees think.
- Executive presence, decoded — the most cited, least explained factor in who gets promoted.
- Real stories, real moves — no theory without application, no advice without action steps.
Episodes
Episode 135: The Outsider’s Edge
You do not need to have built the car to drive the company. Each leader has an area of responsibility. Bringing in an outsider’s view can propel your success by eliminating the other operational items blocking your team’s efforts and that are beyond your skill level…
Episode 134: Let It Incubate
The answer you are grinding for may already be waiting in the quiet. The brain needs its proper state to do deep thinking before changing states to execute. Are you reaching it?…
Episode 133: Leave It Stronger
A leader’s last act is not the farewell. It is the bench they leave behind….
Episode 132: Grow the Field
The future you will be asked to lead is already growing. The question is whether you planted it….
Episode 131: One Neck on the Line
Two heads can help. Two necks on the line just means nobody’s is….
Episode 130: Build the Coalition First
No coalition, no change. Do you have a first follower helping your build the coalition now?…
Episode 129: Steadiness, Not Dread.
Your team does not need a leader who has no pressure. They need one who will not hand them yours….
Episode 128: Burnout Is Contagious. So Is Steadiness.
Your team does not catch your intentions. They catch your state. The strain spreads….
Episode 127: Lead the Messy Middle
Every change has a middle nobody wants to talk about. The old way is gone, the new way does not work yet, and everyone is pretending otherwise….
Episode 126: Find the Stuck Letter
When a change stalls, leaders usually blame resistance. But what if the problem is not resistance at all — just one stuck letter?…
Episode 125: Build Your Own Box
What if the reason your team is stuck is not too little freedom, but too much?…
Episode 124: Move at the Speed of Culture
Culture now moves on a three-day cycle — and brands stuck in data are missing it….
Episode 123: Your Next Ally Is Not Like You
Do you have to like someone to trust them at work? Four kinds of connections have been described by Adam Grant. Is who sponsoring you an ally or a companion?…
Episode 122: Your Reports Are Leaders Now
You got promoted because you were the best doer in the room. Now your reports are leaders, and managing them like contributors is the fastest way to stall your own rise….
Episode 121: Your First Thirty Days Start Now
What if the most important part of your next big promotion is already over before your first day even begins?…
Episode 120: Settle Nothing in the Heat
When a colleague crosses a boundary you set clearly, what’s your next play?…
Episode 119: Don’t Think Out Loud
Tossing out a half-formed idea in a meeting feels honest and collaborative; however…
Episode 118: Your Best Idea Was Never Said
Your best idea was probably in the room at your last meeting — and never said out loud….
Episode 117: The Two-Dollar Hot Dog
A table of food lovers was leaving New York without one thing…it goes beyond servicing others…
Episode 116: Dig Wider, Not Deeper
The career advice that built you — dig deeper, specialize — can trap you at the next level…
Episode 115: Is Your OQ Showing?
Climbing takes more than brains and people skills. Psychologist Daniel Goleman’s research found emotional intelligence explains nearly ninety percent of the gap…yet people still stall…
Episode 114: The Six Ideas That Rose to the Top
What if everything you need to get promoted is already in how you work — and the only thing missing is knowing which parts of it actually matter?…
Episode 113: Nobody’s Coming to Promote You
She waited three years to be noticed. Then she built a business case, booked a dedicated meeting, and asked — landing the VP role…
Episode 112: Write Like the Room You Want to Enter
His forty-slide deck died in the exec meeting. His two-page memo got the decision. Unpack why the higher you climb, the more writing matters…
Episode 111: Influence Without Authority
75% of cross-functional teams fail at their basic goals. But a program manager with zero direct reports shipped a launch across four teams…
Episode 110: Managing Up Without Sucking Up
It’s one of the most promotable skills there is…
Episode 109: The Strategic No
He said yes to 11 initiatives. His flagship slipped twice. “No” is a promotion skill…
Episode 108: Your Work Doesn’t Speak for Itself
Her dashboard saved the company millions. Nobody upstairs knew her name — until…
Episode 107: Stop Collecting Mentors
You’ve got five mentors. Zero sponsors. And that’s why you’re stuck….
Episode 106: The Real Meeting Happens Before the Meeting
You brought the best data in the room. And the decision went the other way.
Episode 105: The Override Call — When to Trust Your Judgment Over the AI
The AI said yes. Her judgment said no — and she was right.
Episode 104: The Succession Logjam — Why Nobody Above You Is Leaving (and What That Unlocks for You)
What if the biggest thing between you and your next promotion isn’t a competitor or a budget — but the fact that your boss isn’t going anywhere?
Episode 103: The Information Tax at the Top
The higher you climb, the less truth you hear….
Episode 102: Executive Presence — The 26% Nobody Explains
A quarter of your next promotion has nothing to do with your results….
Episode 101: The Promotion Language Is Strategy
What if the reason you’re not getting promoted has nothing to do with how hard you work?…