Randall Smith

Let’s be honest—most of us didn’t grow up in leadership cultures that celebrated vulnerability. We were taught to lead with confidence. To have the answers. To hold it all together. And somewhere along the way, we absorbed a dangerous idea: that being human—uncertain, emotional, imperfect—was a liability. But what if the opposite is true? What if the real strength of leadership is found in the moments we drop the armor, admit we don’t have it all figured out, and show up as ourselves?

Welcome to episode 213 of The CUInsight Experience podcast with your hosts, Randy Smith, co-founder of CUInsight, and Jill Nowacki, President and CEO of Humanidei. This episode is sponsored by The Sheeter Group - a leading executive benefits firm that meets your retention and succession needs. This includes non-qualified benefit plans, short and long-term incentive plans, compensation studies, scorecard design, performance evaluation, and more. Learn more at sheetergroup.com.

We tend to talk about legacy like it’s something that happens at the end—after the career, after the title, after the party with the sheet cake and the slideshow. But I think that’s backward. Legacy isn’t what you leave. It’s what you build in real time. It’s happening now—every day, in every conversation, in every decision about who you lift up, make space for, and believe in. And if we’re not paying attention to that . . . we’re missing the point.