Stepping into your true voice often requires letting old versions of yourself die. In this episode, leadership coach Maximos Lih unpacks how identity, culture, and courage intersect so leaders can stop playing small in rooms where they were meant to lead.

In this episode, Kevin and Maximos Lih discuss:

• Navigating multiple identities and cultures as a leader
• Transitions as “resurrection moments” in career and life
• Disengagement, anxiety, and the real cost of poor leadership
• Building influence, allies, and psychological safety in the room
• Creating culture through self-awareness, conflict, and curiosity

Key Takeaways:

• Leadership grounded in self-awareness frees people from self-consciousness, making it possible to truly serve others instead of performing for approval.
• Major transitions demand an identity shift; clinging to who you used to be can block you from stepping into your next level of purpose and impact.
• Disengagement is one of the most expensive costs in any organization, often fueled by anxious leaders who never address their own fears, biases, or blind spots.
• Influence scales through people, not performance; building allies and relationships before the meeting creates the safety to speak boldly in the room.
• Culture always takes its cues from leadership—what leaders actually model and resource will shape whether conflict sharpens people or quietly burns everything down.

"If you find yourself being the only person in the room, and it's a challenge to be bold, find a way to recruit one other person to be on your team, and it's your team that will actually generate the success." - Maximos Lih

About Maximos Lih:

Maximos Lih is an Executive Coach and founder of Emboldened LLC, where he helps small teams scale without losing their edge, and leaders grow with purpose and trust. His leadership philosophy was shaped by his grandfather—a self-taught orphan who became a four-star general—who taught him that true greatness is measured by how you make people feel. After immigrating to the U.S. and graduating from UC Berkeley, Maximos joined Google, where he specialized in recruiting top engineering talent before moving to Google Ventures. There, he guided hundreds of founders through rapid growth, witnessing companies like Uber and Flatiron Health scale at remarkable speed. Today, he draws on those experiences to coach the next generation of leaders in building mission-driven, high-performing teams.

Connect with Maximos Lih:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/maximoslih

Connect with Kevin Neal:

Website: https://drkdneal.com

Book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0C47RZDSS

https://www.amazon.com/Guided-Greatness-Mentorship-Developing-professionals-ebook/dp/B0FGBH1VNS

Email: coachkd63@gmail.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coachkd63