Why do leaders sit through great training and still freeze when the real moment shows up?
In this episode of the Performance Matters Podcast, host Michael Thiel sits down with Björn Billhardt, CEO of Abilitie, and Lisa Fagan, VP of Sales for Leadership Development and Inclusion at GP Strategies, to unpack why leadership capability isn’t built by collecting frameworks. It’s built through practice, at speed, and with the right partners.
Together, they explore the case for simulation-based leadership development, the role of AI in accelerating (and sometimes slowing down) how leaders grow, and what it really takes to move from knowing to doing. Drawing on 25 years of simulation design and decades of client work, Björn and Lisa make the case for social, consequence-based learning that delivers reps at scale.
The conversation tackles the hard questions: Why is giving feedback still one of the hardest things even seasoned leaders do? How do you actually measure leadership development beyond smile sheets? Where is AI genuinely accelerating capability, and where does human judgment still win? And why might the AI era paradoxically require leaders to slow down to speed up?
Catch the full episode below:
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