High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 768: Why Most Leadership Advice Is Wrong with Larry Coval

Episode Date: August 20, 2026

Leadership is often framed around qualities like authenticity, empathy, and vulnerability. Larry Coval believes effective leadership ultimately depends on something more practical: the skills and behaviors required to help other people succeed. In this episode, Dr. Cindra Kamphoff speaks with Larry, a seasoned business executive, leadership strategist, and founder of Arcane Leadership Concepts. After nearly four decades leading people and organizations, Larry wrote the leadership manual he wishes he had received when he first became a supervisor at 23. Larry explains why many leaders are unprepared for today's workplace, including the challenges created by hybrid teams, increasingly diverse workforces, and artificial intelligence. He also introduces the ARCANE model, a continuous process leaders can use to recognize their shortcomings, commit to meaningful change, and become more effective for the people they lead. In this episode, you'll learn: Why leadership should be viewed as a set of learnable skills and behaviors How the ARCANE model helps leaders identify and address performance gaps What business leaders can learn from the way sports coaches observe and develop people Why delegation should be used as a developmental tool How leaders can approach performance improvement plans more effectively Why AI represents a shift in the skills employees need rather than clear evidence of a widespread jobs collapse How leaders can better support hybrid and diverse teams Episode Resources & Links Lary's Website: https://arcaneleadership.com/ Mentally Strong Institute: https://mentallystronginstitute.com/ Request a Free Mental Breakthrough Call: https://freementalbreakthroughcall.com/ Download the National Confidence Research Study: https://confidencestudy.com/ Pre-order The Confidence Habit: https://www.confidencetools.com/

Hi, friends, Dr. Sindra here, and I'm so excited to announce that my new book, published by Simon and Schuster, is now available titled The Confidence Habit. Our national research study on confidence showed there is a confidence crisis in America today. One in two Gen Zers and young millennials feel like they are not enough. Women still scored lower on all markers of confidence compared to men. And this book provides the tangible research-backed strategies to grow your confidence and I can't wait for you to read it. You can head over to Confidence Tools.com to purchase your copy where there's over $594 of bonuses over there. Again, check it out at ConfidenceTools.com and I can't wait to hear what to think about it. Welcome to the High Performance Mindset

Podcast. I'm really excited to be joined today by Larry Colville. Larry, thank you so much for joining us here today. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you, Sandra. It's great to be with you. I can't wait today to talk about your new book coming out September 1st called Misled, why almost everyone or everything we learned about leadership is wrong and how to fix it. So I can't wait to hear what you have to say about that. You can already pre-order the book today. So Larry is going to be telling us about how to do that. And so Larry is a seasoned business executive, a leadership strategist,

and a force behind his company, arcane leadership concepts. And today we're going to be talking about practical tools to help you be the best leader that you can be and the mindset required to do that. So Leary, why should people keep listening to us today? Well, I think it's really hard for leaders right now. There are lots of new challenges facing them that they're largely unprepared for. Three important ones that I'll talk about a little bit. The first one is the post-pandemic work environments, largely remote and hybrid work oriented. So a lot of things we used to do in the office. together we can't do as much of anymore.

And some of it, we can't do at all. So that has created a lot of complexity for leaders. The second thing is that we're leading the most diverse workforces ever. And that's a good thing from the standpoint that we get the benefit of diverse experiences, diverse thought processes, diverse approaches. But it too makes things more complex for leaders because they've got to really think about the new ways of communicating so that they see people for who, they are and what they bring to the table and don't use words that disenfranchise, but rather ones that

bring people together. And then the third thing, which is usually what, you know, people associate with panic in the streets, is how AI, specifically agentic AI is going to change the complexion of work as we know it. And how leaders actually harness the full power of AI rather than, you know, fearing it is really, really important. And they've got to figure out how to do that pretty quickly. Well, I can't wait to talk to you about all those things today. I'd like to start with why you do what you do and tell us a bit about your origin story of coming to this work. Yeah, well, it started at age 23. I got my first job out of college working for AT&T in a large call center.

And I was supervising very tenured employees. I mean, people that had worked there longer than I'd been alive. and I knew nothing about how to do that job. And what's worse is everybody else knew. I knew nothing about how to do that job. Luckily for me, I had a great boss who was willing to give so much of their time and energy to helping me become skilled enough to do my job on my own. And from there, I started to see some pretty significant success.

And that was the beginning of a career that spanned nearly four decades. multiple companies, multiple cultures, roles, levels, all kinds of places where I started to develop a different, unique style of leadership that really I was able to apply and increase kind of employee loyalty, engagement, and productivity and got a lot of really good feedback on it and did that until I retired and started writing the book. I wish I'd been given when I was starting out. Yeah. That is why I wrote my book. Actually, it's out September 1st, just like yours, Larry. It's called The Confidence Habit, and it's all about seven practices that transform self-doubt into self-belief. So we got the same book birthdays, which is kind of fun. But I wrote the book, honestly,

because it's what I needed as well. So tell us something about your book. Again, that's coming out September 1st, misled, why almost everything we learned about leadership is wrong and how to fix it. Yeah, the book is actually a part manifesto and part user manual with sharp teeth. It's divided into four distinct parts. First is leadership archetypes. It's figuring out to some degree who you are as a leader and how you are as a leader, especially under stress. Second section is all about the foundational skills that leaders at all levels, from CEOs down to that frontline supervisor, all of them need in order to be effective, competent and confident leaders, to your point. Third section is about destructive behaviors. Sometimes we do things when we're under

pressure that we don't even realize is eroding trust or putting people on blast and making them run from us when they need to be running toward us to get help. And then the final section is really about specific leadership scenarios, starting off a new. group or taking over a group that's underperforming, things like that and how you handle it as a leader. So yeah, it's a manifesto that indicts to some extent the leadership development industry for, you know, taking us down what I think is the wrong path. And it's also a user manual that leaders can use and start applying as they turn the pages. Larry, one of the things that I really appreciate about your work is you talk about how industry made leadership out of, you know,

kind of the set of emotions, that's really what it is, when it's actually a set of skills and behaviors that can be learned and practiced and applied. Tell us more what you mean by that, that it's a set of skills and behaviors rather than just emotions. Yeah, I mean, I want to be clear at the onset. I don't think anybody would raise their hand and say, yeah, I'd love to go work for a jerk.

That's not what I'm saying. But in nearly 40 years of leading people in all kinds of scenarios, the things that I saw that really contributed to effective leadership, that is creating sustained success, revolved around the skill sets that those leaders brought to the table. Why is that? So if you reframe your idea around leadership as being job number one, I'm going to make my people successful.

I'm going to do everything in my power to enable their success. Well, how do you do that? You have to coach them. You have to develop them. You have to provide them career opportunities, delegate certain things to them so that they can grow from them. Those are all skill sets that so many leaders don't bring to the table today. And because of that, we see a lot of leaders without those skills kind of going into what I would call negative and self-destructive behavior. So they lead instead through fear and badgering and things like that.

And we want to see that eradicated in the workplace environment. Instead, we want really skilled competence. leaders. So think about things like managing a meeting, something as simple as that. What are the things that you need to run in efficient, effective meeting? Well, tight agenda, a purpose that everybody understands and buys into, the right kinds of open dialogue, decisions made, actions taken, all those things that people can benefit from so that when they leave that meeting, they feel better for having attended it rather than bitter. Those are the kinds of skills that I write about in my book and are sorely missing in today's leadership population. And it's because the books

and keynotes and programs out there continue to focus on things other than skills. They focus on authenticity and, you know, vulnerability and all those kinds of things, which don't have zero value by any stretch. But they're not nearly as important as having somebody's who has those skills because the most vulnerable, empathetic, likable, incompetent leader is still known as an incompetent leader. Larry, one of the things I really like about your work is your arcane model. And I'd love for you to explain what it is, what the acronym means, because I think it could really help people just reflect on their leadership and why it's different.

Yeah, it's actually three things. First, it's a word not many people know. it means kept hidden kind of secret, only known to select few people. It's also an acronym, which I'll go through in a second. And it's also kind of a continuum. It's this process you go through of relentlessly trying to improve your craft. So arcane as an acronym starts with an aspiration. It's about people who aspire to be better leaders for their people.

emphasize that for their people part because that's the most important first step you have to take. And if you can get past that threshold, then you can start to really embark down the path. And that starts with a reflection, right, on what you need to do differently, what you need to change. And I always talk about how people need to see the space between the leader that they are and the leader that their people need them to be. And I think that really lines up well. with the gap you talk about when you talk about Hank's Hope and how it was really important to understand little improvements make a huge difference

when you can see where you're heading towards, right? And I love that, by the way. So if you get to that point where you've reflected and you've decided, okay, this is something I wanna do, the next step is to commit. You have to make a commitment to change it, changing your skill set, changing the work, the words you use, changing your behaviors when you're under stress. There's a whole list of things

you can change. And you document those. You write them down. You make sure you have that laundry list of things. And then you move to acting. You have to act on those words. That means coming up with a couple of things. Maybe it's a new skill you want to develop and a behavior that's creating some problems for you that you want to suppress. Whatever those things are, you come up with one or two things, and you focus your energies on that, and that means getting help. You're going to need people that will call you when you make mistakes and tell you about it and give you that unabashed feedback, right, unfiltered. This is what I saw, and this is what you got to change, but also help you understand when you're making progress. So that's the really big part of taking action. It's

getting people to help you. And then along the way, you know you're going to run into challenges and problems and you're going to see yourself backslide and fall in your face a few times. It's your ability to navigate those challenges and push through them that get you to the point where you have actually changed who you are as a leader. And now you've evolved as someone who can do more to help their people be successful. And then once you've done that, you go right back to the beginning because you're about relentless improvement, which I'm betting is exactly what you see when you're working. with most top-tier athletes in sports.

Am I wrong about that? Absolutely. That's exactly what they do. You know, they're always working to continue to improve every day, you know, 1% better. I really love Larry that this, the acronym. I feel like it gives people a framework to use when they think about their leadership. And thanks so much for sharing about Hank's hope. That's all about my dad and when he passed.

And, you know, we were actually celebrating his wins every day. and it was really hard not to look at what was wrong or what was missing, you know. And so that helped us to stay positive in general. Can you give us an example of how you use the arcane model, like how you've used it, or maybe you've had a client or someone else that you've worked through the model with? Yeah, so I'll make it very personal. When I was a young leader, I had a real problem delegating things to people. I hoarded work because I didn't have that level of trust that I had in myself, right?

So I didn't trust that other people could get the work done with as much speed and quality and all those things that I'm really accustomed to having at a high level. So again, I kind of kept those tasks to myself. And it wasn't until I ended up working for a leader who actually gave me an assignment that really pushed me well beyond my comfort zone. Created a lot of stress for me at first. But it in the end forced me to develop new skills in order to accomplish the task

that I realized that keeping all that work to myself was actually keeping my group from being able to develop faster. So I saw leadership and delegation as being one of the same, right? You have to find ways to use it as a developmental tool for people in the way it was used for me. And so that was something I decided I had to change. I made the commitment to it. I started getting people to help me because it wasn't easy. I wasn't really so keen on the idea of letting that stuff go.

It was very difficult. But the feedback I got from people as I worked with them to make sure that what they were doing was not only developmental, but I didn't let them fall on their face. I made sure that they were moving forward and learning from the process. It was so great. It was another coaching moment where you get to say, I help those people develop, and now they can do more without me than they could before. Yeah, absolutely. And I think we're all learning and growing and we're, you know, work in progress.

So I appreciate you just like being open and honest about that. You know, one of the things I also really like about your work is you talk about how we need, You know, one thing that sports coaches do, that we need more in business, that we need more of the foundation of real coaching, and we need more wins. And I think about that because I work with a lot of different sports teams, particularly in the fall. I work with a lot of football teams. So I'd love to hear what you think about, like, how, what can we learn from sports that we maybe aren't doing in business right now? I think we can learn a lot from sports. The one that always jumps out at me when I talk about this with groups is that sports coaches,

are able to directly observe their people, their players, whether they're in the pool, they're in on the court or on the field, but they're right up next to them watching them perform their tasks. And that act of observation is really, really important because once you've seen a player do something five, six, seven times, and you've noticed a pattern of something they're not doing as well as they could have, that gives you that opportunity to correct that behavior. help them by virtue of them being able to run a route better or hit their fifth step on a drop back pass and deliver it to the certain spot. They're suddenly better at what they're supposed to do and they've elevated what that team can do. So I think that the most important gap that I see today

between sports and and business is that in this post-pandemic environment where we're not on the field together, so to speak, right? There's a lot of, well, like you and I are right now. We're not in the same room together. So it's really hard if you were my leader to observe me doing what I do and give me coaching after you've recognized a pattern. So we've got to think of new strategies on how to observe and by extension coach them. And the only way for business leaders to do that today is really think differently and understand that it's going to be more challenging, but they can still do it. Yeah, and what are the ways that you think that business leaders need to think differently? And I'm going back to kind of what you said at the beginning about that's such a diverse workforce.

And there's so much hybrid work. And so it's hard to feel connected. And also what you said about the AI, right? And how people are really nervous about AI. So how do you think we need to think differently at this point to be able to thrive in business? Yeah. You talk about confidence a lot. And I think, based on my experience that competence is kind of the foundation for confidence. You hear sports coaches, you hear players, you hear lots of people who are in that discipline say, trust the work, right? What does that mean?

That means they went through reps. Trust the process. Right. They worked through it over and over and over. So the point where they've done it so many times, they don't really have to think as much about it, they just have to play. They just have to perform. And so I think it's the same with the challenges we're facing right now. You've got to find new ways to observe and coach your people, but you can still do it so that, you know, in those moments where you are together, they're not just how, how are you doing,

how are things going, what can I help you with? It's programmed to time together. It's, I'm going to watch you do your work today. And I'm going to take notes and then I'm going to watch you again, and then I'm going to watch you again. And when I see patterns, I'm going to talk to you about it so that we can work on making you better. That kind of structure really does help employees trust their leader in a way that they can't when they're constantly remote from them. So I think that's just one example of the things that people need to think about who are in leadership today.

We've talked about the fact that it's a diverse environment. And I can't say enough about how powerful that is to global business. It really is the way to get the business. best thinking and pull it all together so that the best decisions are always made. But still, it comes with complexity, how we communicate, where we communicate, you know, meeting people where they are. All of those things are really, really important. And it's important not to look for sameness. It's really important to go look for some people that are different than what you have in your existing groups or teams to level them up, right? It's that newness that really helps

bring new skills to the table. And then finally, the AI piece, I think we talked. about it earlier, but I'll use reps as an example again. It's using it as a tool. There's so many things that AI can do now that gift leaders time, which is their most precious resource. So some of those administrative tasks that have taken you hours and hours a week to do, if you can automate those things, suddenly have more time that you can repurpose into working with your people and making them better. So there's upside in all of the worry and fear, uncertainty, that comes with AI. And I see that as true for most things that come up as challenges in the workplace, but really our opportunities. Absolutely. One of the things that you, you know, you talk

about is there's no data to support this kind of full-blown job meltdown taking place because of AI, but it's just simply a reset of skills so people can continue to be productive. Tell us about your thoughts on that because I think, you know, AI has helped me be a lot more productive. But I still need a delegate and I still need, you know, I still need supportive people around me. Yeah, I think it would be naive to say that AI, especially agentic AI, isn't going to have a significant impact on the workplace. But I talk about this as being kind of a reset of skills. A lot of the hiring and layoff data that's out there right now is a bit skewed in my eyes because while AI is used as the biggest reason for most of the layoffs that are taking place in American business,

I see that as being more of a scapegoating than the truth. The fact of the matter is some of these companies are a little bloated in terms of certain levels of employment. And so these are probably decisions that they should have made two years ago, a year and a half ago, and we're either too slow or too afraid to make those calls. and now they need to do that in order to right size themselves for purpose. And the result is, you know, they blame AI because it's, you know, an easy whipping point. So the fact is there's not a lot of data that says we're, you know, wholesale reducing

workforces. What we're seeing is those same companies that are laying people off are actually looking for people that know how to use AI. And it's really the people that are struggling. to make that transition than are at risk. One of the things that I've noticed, Larry, as an executive coach, like I, you know, there's themes that people come to me for, and I work with a lot of leaders and executives,

and we have a company called Mentally Strong. So we're a leadership coaching company, so we help people, you know, be better leaders through coaching. But when I think about, like, kind of main, the main reasons people come to us, it's like they feel overwhelmed or sometimes, they're lacking confidence. And a lot of times they need skills on delegation.

And I'd love to ask you a question about that because I'd love to hear what you think about what can leaders do to better delegate and so they can really work with their team effectively and not feel as overwhelmed. Yeah, as I mentioned earlier, I think a lot of people in leadership look at delegation as a way to get things off their to-do list, especially the things they don't want to do, right? You know, those really big, ugly things that just like, oh, who can I give that to? So they find the most capable person and hand that project off to them. And they say, oh, look, I'm delegating.

Well, you're not delegating. That's just not what's happening. What you do is pawning off stuff that's on your responsibility list that you don't want to do. And you're giving it to somebody that you know can do it. So you're not stretching them in any way. They're not benefiting from it. The only person benefiting from it is the leader. And that's inherently wrong.

And it's one of those things that I'm looking to change using the arcane model when we recognize that people are delegating the wrong way. And they see that. And I think that the large majority of people are going to say, I don't want to do that to people. I want to be better. And then we help them understand the triggers, use delegation as a developmental tool, and great things come about as a result. Nice.

How would you tell us to do that? For those people who are listening that really want some tools on delegation, how can we do that most effectively and how can it be a developmental tool? Yeah. So the first is a great question because I've thought a lot about this. And my experience tells me one of the most important foundations to being able to delegate appropriately is understanding what your people can do today, what they want to do tomorrow and what you want them to be able to do next.

Right. So those three things are really important. And they kind of come together when you're developing jointly with your people, a career plan, right? Where do you want to go with your career and what are your interests and what are your passions and how do we blend those all together in a career arc for you? And then you take stock with them of what are their current skill sets? What are the skill sets they need to develop to get to those places?

And that gives you a kind of roadmap. And it helps the leader understand those tasks that they can delegate to that person that will actually help them grow and develop. and be more prepared to take that next job that comes up when it's available. And they walk into those interviews, having done some of those things as a result of being delegated from their boss. Yeah, absolutely. Well, Larry, what have I not asked you that you love to talk about, or maybe there's a concept from your book that you'd like to share with us? Well, you know, I talk a lot about performance improvement plans and fixing the broken mechanics of PIPs.

And whenever I say PIPS in public scenes and scenarios, I see people's body language clench up. They get really nervous and they don't want to talk about it. And I get it, right? The PIP started off as a second chance for people whose performance had actually slipped for any number of reasons. But it was built as a model to help people get back on track. specific activities, frequent check-ins, all the things that you would associate with good leadership,

right? And somewhere along the way, lawyers got involved, finance people got involved, maybe HR people got involved, came together and said, hey, we need to look at this differently. We need to see it as a way of a fast track to exit for people who've fallen below the line in terms of productivity, who we no longer see as being able to get there, which is completely unfair. and it's a corruption of the original intent of the PIP. So what people in leadership don't realize is that the way it's thought of today really makes it kind of robotic. So leaders don't invest a whole lot of time in the people who are on the performance

improvement plan, the people that get the PIP start working on their resumes. They're really not that focused on getting back because they think everybody knows the outcome and that they don't have a chance here. what leaders don't realize is that everybody in their group everybody in their peer group everybody around them is always watching them and when you treat a pip the way corporate America has taught us to treat the pip your people start to lose trust they're creating this backdrop a context for who you are as a human being as their leader and if they think you don't have their back when something goes wrong in their personal life that might affect their performance or any number

of reasons, even if it's somebody that won't make it through the PIP, the energy and effort you put into it is being watched. And when you do it the right way, it's actually a trust building, confidence building, competence building exercise for you and for the people that work for you. Excellent. What do you think is the right way to do that? Yeah. As I said, you have a have to come into this with the right words and the right mindset. Every time I have delivered a performance improvement plan and I've delivered hundreds in my career, I always made sure that the person I was talking to knew that I was going to put forth a ton of energy to help them get back on track, get back to being successful.

The only thing I asked for from them was to match my level of energy and intensity around it. If they were going to give me their all, I would do everything I can to make sure that they had the tools they needed to be successful and they had the structure they needed to help get them step by step back to where they need to be. And I think that alone, that foundation allowed people who may not have put time and energy into the PIP to change how they saw our relationship. and I'm proud to say a lot of the performance improvement plans I delivered turned out to be great comeback stories and that elevated how I was seen in the organizations where I worked. So I think there's a tremendous amount of value in just changing your approach. And yes, some people will not make it through and I understand that. But that doesn't mean you have to be robotic.

It doesn't mean you have to be dismissive about it. And you absolutely never want to, you know, erode the dignity of the people who are in the process. Thank you so much for sharing that, Larry. So tell us a bit more about where people can find your book misled, why almost everything we learned about leadership is wrong and how to fix it and how people can follow along with your work. Yeah, you can follow me on LinkedIn, Larry Coval, or better yet, come and check out my website. It's brand new.

It's up. It's fully functional. it's www. arcaneleadership.com. And I think there's a lot of good things on there. You get to learn about what the arcane model is, but also where you can get the book. The launch date, again, is September 1st. And yeah, I'm pretty excited.

I got my first advanced reader copy, as I said. That's awesome. Holding it for the first time is surreal. It's incredible. Well, thank you, Larry. One of the things I really appreciated about our time together is like just hearing your story about why you've rose. the book. I did appreciate also your I cane model and the acronym there and just the what we talked about

related to delegation as a developmental tool and why we need more sports and business. So thank you so much for joining us here today. Go check out Larry's book, Ms. Flood. Thank you so much. Thank you. Way to go for finishing another episode of the high performance mindset. I'm giving you a virtual fist pump. Holy cow, did that go by way too fast for anyone else? If you want more, remember to subscribe. And you can head over to Dr. Sindra for show notes and enjoy my exclusive community for high performers, where you get access to videos about mindset each week. So again, you can add over to Dr. Cyndra.com. See you next week.