ENGLEWOOD, Fla., Sept. 21, 2026 — Leadership development consultant, certified coach and author Jana Cardona joined Dr. Tamara Patzer on the Thought Leaders Show to discuss the idea at the center of her book, “The Leadership Mirror: Becoming the Person People Love to Work For and With.” The episode, recorded Aug. 26, 2026, examines what Cardona calls the starting point for effective leadership: a leader’s willingness to ask what it is actually like to be on the other side of them.
Cardona, founder of Designed 4 Success, works with individuals, teams and organizations to build people-centered leaders. In the conversation, she told Patzer that most leadership training focuses outward, on techniques for managing other people, while her book begins with an inward question instead.
“What is it actually like to be on the other side of me?” is the question Cardona said she asks leaders to sit with before anything else changes.
The episode traces that question through childhood experiences and the limiting beliefs they can create in adult leaders, the effect of comparison on confidence, and the role of mentors and what Cardona calls “courage builders” in helping leaders move past those beliefs. Cardona, a certified Gallup CliftonStrengths coach, also walked through how tools such as CliftonStrengths and DISC help leaders understand their own thinking and communication styles, and why leaders should not expect the people they manage to think or communicate the way they do.
Much of the discussion centered on the shift from authority to empathy. Cardona and Patzer talked through how leaders can communicate expectations clearly across different communication styles, how empathy changes the way a leader is experienced by their team, and how trust develops when leaders move away from control. Cardona also addressed a point she said often gets missed: valuing someone even when a leader disagrees with them.
The episode also previews the 12 lessons that structure “The Leadership Mirror.”
Questions the episode answers include why leadership begins with self-awareness, how childhood beliefs affect adult leadership, how assessments help leaders understand themselves, why team members interpret the same instructions differently, how leaders can communicate with people who think differently than they do, what people-centered leadership looks like in practice, how empathy changes leadership, and how leaders move from control toward trust.
Cardona is an ICF Certified Personal and Professional Development Coach, a Certified Gallup CliftonStrengths Coach, a Certified Working Genius Coach, and holds certifications in Emotional Intelligence (EQi 2.0) and DISC. Through Designed 4 Success, she runs two mastermind and cohort groups, one for Christ-centered business owners and one built around practicing people-centered leadership principles.
The episode is available on YouTube and through Business Innovators Radio.
About Jana Cardona
Jana Cardona is a leadership development consultant, certified coach, trainer, facilitator and author, and founder of Designed 4 Success. She is the author of “The Leadership Mirror: Becoming the Person People Love to Work For and With.” She can be reached at jana@designed-4-success.com or through www.designed-4-success.com.
About Dr. Tamara Patzer and the Thought Leaders Show
Dr. Tamara Patzer is a journalist who was a member of a Pulitzer Prize finalist team at Sun Coast Media Group, and is a publisher and founder of TAMI LLC, Blue Ocean Authority Publishing and Daily Success Media Network. She hosts the Thought Leaders Show, where she interviews authors, consultants and industry leaders about the ideas behind their work.