S3E9 - Kate Leto - Self-Awareness as Strategy: Leading with EQ

2025-09-30

What if the real driver of strategy wasn't frameworks - but emotional intelligence? In this episode, Kate Leto - product leader, coach, and author of Hiring Product Managers: Using Product EQ to Go Beyond Culture and Skills joins us. With over 20 years of experience at startups, scale-ups, and global brands like Yahoo and Moo.com, Kate has seen first-hand how strategy often fails not from lack of plans, but from a lack of people skills. Together, Kate and Simon explore the human side of strategy - why self-awareness, empathy, and...

What if the real driver of strategy wasn't frameworks - but emotional intelligence?

In this episode, Kate Leto - product leader, coach, and author of Hiring Product Managers: Using Product EQ to Go Beyond Culture and Skills joins us. With over 20 years of experience at startups, scale-ups, and global brands like Yahoo and Moo.com, Kate has seen first-hand how strategy often fails not from lack of plans, but from a lack of people skills.

Together, Kate and Simon explore the human side of strategy - why self-awareness, empathy, and emotional intelligence are essential for leaders navigating ambiguity and conflict.

What You'll Learn

Product EQ in Practice: How emotional intelligence transforms hiring, team building, and leadership.

Values That Work: Why co-created values matter-and how to make them live in daily decisions.

Self-Awareness as a Meta-Skill: Why knowing yourself is the foundation for strategy, conflict management, and influence.

Kate's insights remind us that the strongest strategies aren't just built on processes-they're powered by people who understand themselves and each other.

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