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Join Jason LeDuc to talk with impactful leaders and entrepreneurs about the challenges they face, how they get through them, and what keeps them up at night.
Why Most Companies Still Don’t Get It – Makoto Kern on The Leader’s Mindset Podcast
The Leader's Mindset
1 hour 1 minute 5 seconds
5 days ago
Why Most Companies Still Don’t Get It – Makoto Kern on The Leader’s Mindset Podcast
What if the real reason your company struggles to innovate isn’t your tech stack — it’s your mindset?In this episode of The Leader’s Mindset, Jason LeDuc sits down with Makoto Kern, a Las Vegas–based UX Product Design Strategy Leader and host of the Make an IIIMPACT Podcast. With 20+ years of experience helping organizations shift from feature-centric to user-centric design, Makoto reveals why the next generation of leaders must combine empathy, data, and strategy to stay ahead.From the early days of the dot-com boom to the current AI revolution, Makoto has seen the same mistakes repeated again and again — rushing products to market, ignoring the user, and confusing speed with direction. In this powerful conversation, he explains how great companies avoid those traps and create products that truly make an impact.💡 What You’ll Learn:• Why most organizations aren’t as aligned as they think — and how to fix it through strategic workshops that bring leaders together.• How to develop empathy-driven product strategy that connects business goals with user pain points.• The dangers of the modern “AI gold rush” and how to recognize when your team is chasing trends instead of solving problems.• Why leaders must focus on both speed and direction to outperform competitors.• The surprising leadership lessons from Makoto’s journey — from building high-performing teams to scaling a podcast that just passed 94,000 YouTube subscribers.• How to help young engineers, designers, and developers evolve into strategic thinkers and future CTOs.• Why communication, alignment, and curiosity are still the most valuable leadership skills in 2025.🧠 Key Quote:“You feel like you’re speeding up, but without direction, you’re actually just going faster toward the wrong goal.”🎯 Who Should Watch:• Corporate Executives looking to align cross-functional teams.• People Managers striving to build more collaborative, data-driven environments.• Training and HR Leaders focused on improving communication and leadership capability.• Startup Founders & Entrepreneurs navigating rapid growth in tech-driven industries.🔗 Watch, Learn, and Lead:If you’re ready to rethink how your organization approaches design, AI, and leadership — this episode will challenge your assumptions and inspire smarter decisions.💬 Join the Conversation:What’s one area of your business that could benefit from more user-centric thinking?.Onward and Upward! 🚀✅ If you got value from this episode, do these 3 things:1) Like this video – It helps more people find these insights.2) Subscribe – New leadership content every week!3) Share this episode with a leader who needs to hear this!📌 Exclusive Leadership ProgramsWant to take your leadership development to the next level?📖 Take charge of your own leadership development with our online program: https://www.leducleadership.com/bethebossprogramIf you’re a Human Resources or Learning and Development professional and have a bunch of leaders you’d like to get trained, check out our corporate Leadership Academy for Tech Managers program: https://www.leducleadership.com/leadershipacademy📅 Ready to elevate your leadership skills? Book a discovery call: https://link.marketingmoneymachine.co/widget/bookings/training-discoveryLet’s create the leaders your team deserves.How to reach Makoto:Make an IIIMPACT Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@makeaniiimpactYTWebsite: https://www.iiimpact.io/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/productuxdesigner/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/makotoiiimpact/How to reach Jason LeDuc:Email: info@leducleadership.comWebsite: https://www.leducleadership.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-leduc-3469823/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leducleadership
The Leader's Mindset
Join Jason LeDuc to talk with impactful leaders and entrepreneurs about the challenges they face, how they get through them, and what keeps them up at night.
