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We would like to announce Dr. Durst and I have created a new leadership novel, The Fifth Gear of Leadership: A Leader’s Transformation, built around the MBR program and written for people who learn best through story, pressure, and choices that actually feel familiar.

The Fifth Gear book walk through why a narrative can teach leadership development better than a list of tips. Our main character, Jack Morris, starts as a machinist with a young family and grows over two decades, facing career reviews, staff development, missteps, and the “oh wow” moments that turn a supervisor into a leader. Along the way, we lay out our five leadership gears: passive management, task-driven control, rational leadership with listening and vulnerability, accountability rooted in integrity, and fifth gear transformation where clarity, trust, and legacy take center stage.

We also go straight at the hard side of supervisor training: performance problems, coaching, and termination. We share how MBR pushes us to communicate clearly, guide consistently, and avoid surprises, so people are genuinely set up to succeed. And we close with a practical challenge you can use right away: ask yourself what gear you’re in, name one choice that would move you up, then do that one thing.

If this helps you, subscribe, share it with a new manager in your life, and leave a review so more leaders can find the show.

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Presented by John Wandolowski and Greg Powell