Leadership Lessons from Show Business - A Conversation with Steven Puri
Release Date: 09/09/2025
Designing Organizations That Breathe: How Structure Shapes Culture, Leadership, and Impact - A Conversation with Salima Hemani
A Leadership Beyond
In today's environment, clarity isn't a luxury—it's a multiplier that unlocks every dollar you've invested in your people. -Salima Hemani Here's the truth most leaders don't realize: You're already shaping your organization's culture and performance every single day—whether you know it or not. Every leader needs some understanding of organizational design's impact. Not to become an OD expert or efficiency consultant, but because aligning structure with culture and creating environments where people do their best work is fundamentally your responsibility. When budgets...
info_outline
Mastering Executive Presence - A Conversation with Sue Reynolds Frost
A Leadership Beyond
Presence is more that just being there. -Malcolm S. Forbes If you're a leader, coach, or communicator seeking to elevate your presence and influence, this episode is a masterclass in showing up with clarity, confidence, and authenticity. Sue Reynolds Frost—Managing Director of Sloan Group International and co-author of Deliberate Mindset—joins us on the Leadership Beyond podcast to unpack the art and science of executive presence. With warmth, candor, and strategic insight, she shares how leaders can align their message, mindset, and somatic cues to inspire trust and drive impact....
info_outline
Aligning Business and People Strategy - A Conversation with Laurent Pierre Jr.
A Leadership Beyond
In this conversation, Laurent Pierre Jr., Senior Vice President of Global Customer Support at Precisely, demonstrates the power of aligning business strategy with people strategy—and how viewing business problems through a human-centric lens transforms not only operations but culture. With a career spanning IBM, Microsoft, and NielsenIQ, Laurent’s stories reveal how technology, data, and people come together to drive meaningful, sustainable change. Episode Highlights People, Process, and Technology—Intertwined: Laurent emphasizes that sustainable transformation demands...
info_outline
Creating Trust and Belonging Through Peer Groups - A Conversation with Aiko Thurlow of InFounders
A Leadership Beyond
We are grateful for having connected with Aïko Thurlow. Aiko is Ceo of InFounders: In this compelling conversation, Aiko shares how she transformed her own lonely entrepreneurial journey into a mission to bring people together through carefully facilitated peer groups. After discovering the power of Masterminds, she founded her company to help organizations—from industry associations to corporations—create spaces where professionals can authentically connect, problem-solve together, and experience genuine belonging in an increasingly transactional business world. Key Highlights • Trust...
info_outline
Leadership Lessons from Show Business - A Conversation with Steven Puri
A Leadership Beyond
Leadership Lessons from Show Business In this episode, Tom and Adrienne chat with Steven Puri and trace his unexpected path from a “code monkey” in Northern Virginia to an Academy Award–winning visual-effects producer and later a tech entrepreneur. Steven shares how he bridged left-brain engineering and right-brain creativity on films like Independence Day, Braveheart, and several David Fincher projects. He reflects on lessons learned in Hollywood—managing creatives, nurturing “lightbulb” moments, and building culture—that carry over into hybrid and remote leadership. Long before...
info_outline
Exploring Predictive Index with A Leadership Beyond
A Leadership Beyond
There’s a big difference between watching a leadership tool in action—and experiencing it with your own team, focused on your real business challenges. That’s the power of our People Strategy Power Hour. At A Leadership Beyond, we believe people-first doesn’t mean soft—it means strategic. When leaders understand their own leadership DNA and how their team naturally works together, they can move faster, solve business problems more effectively, and stay aligned to what matters most. In this week’s podcast episode, we walk through a live demo of the Predictive Index...
info_outline
Thriving Through Transition - A Conversation with Ben Baker
A Leadership Beyond
Thriving Through Transition In this engaging conversation, Ben Baker shares his journey of professional transition, moving from owning a communication consulting company for 17 years to rebranding himself and exploring new opportunities. The discussion delves into the nuances of personal and professional evolution, resilience, and the importance of adaptability. Key Highlights: - Ben closed his company, Your Brand Marketing, at the end of 2024 to focus on coaching, mentoring, and solving problems. - Emphasized the importance of creating a transition that allows continued connection with...
info_outline
Understanding People First, Results Follow: A Conversation with Dot Proux
A Leadership Beyond
We’re all experiencing the same thing, only differently -Adrienne Guerrero Since 2021, our A Leadership Beyond community has examined leadership through diverse lenses, bringing together insights from business leaders and human development experts. Today's conversation with Dot Proux (a community member, podcast guest and dear friend) represents a natural evolution in our journey—moving from facilitating discussions about leadership challenges to offering collaborative, tailored solutions. While our community of conversation remains a vibrant space for exchanging ideas and perspectives, we...
info_outline
The Power of The Pause - Adrienne Guerrero and Tom Rosenak
A Leadership Beyond
“Keep it simple and focus on what matters. Don’t let yourself be overwhelmed.” -Confucius The Power of the Pause Congratulations to our co-host Adrienne Guerrero on rocking her TEDx talk on the Power of the Pause. She did it! We'll keep you posted when it's published. You won't want to miss it! The P.A.U.S.E framework emerged from Adrienne's personal struggles with the symptoms of living and doing from a reactive state. She learns what she teaches, teaches as she learns! A Leadership Beyond emerged as we saw our synergy and had big ideas, inspiring possibilities of working together....
info_outline
Listen, Lead, and Love Your Work - A Conversation with Michele Stowe
A Leadership Beyond
How important it is to walk along, not in haste but slowly, looking at everything and calling out Yes! No! The swan, for all his pomp, his robes of grass and petals, wants only to be allowed to live on the nameless pond. The catbrier is without fault. The water thrushes, down among the sloppy rocks, are going crazy with happiness. Imagination is better than a sharp instrument. To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work. — Mary Oliver, "Yes! No!" Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays, Beacon Press, Boston, 2003, p. 27 In this week’s release of A Leadership Beyond,...
info_outlineLeadership Lessons from Show Business
In this episode, Tom and Adrienne chat with Steven Puri and trace his unexpected path from a “code monkey” in Northern Virginia to an Academy Award–winning visual-effects producer and later a tech entrepreneur.
Steven shares how he bridged left-brain engineering and right-brain creativity on films like Independence Day, Braveheart, and several David Fincher projects. He reflects on lessons learned in Hollywood—managing creatives, nurturing “lightbulb” moments, and building culture—that carry over into hybrid and remote leadership.
Long before remote work became a buzzword, Steven was orchestrating VFX teams across studios in Los Angeles, London, and Sydney, balancing creative, financial, and logistical mindsets over distance—an early test of distributed leadership that today’s managers face.
Throughout the conversation, candid anecdotes like the famed “Bart” trailer story illustrate why inviting every voice can spark game-changing ideas. As our work (and often our brains) has scattered in today’s culture, Steven is dedicated to bringing us the tools for intentional focus.
Here are a few of the gems gleaned from this fun and flowing conversation:
- Embrace Diverse Talents: Success in both film and tech comes from uniting creatives, technical experts, and business minds around a shared goal, much like assembling a movie crew.
- Manage Creativity with Intention: Great leaders know how to create the right environment for creativity—sometimes by giving people more than one project, or by encouraging "rubber ducking" (talking through problems out loud).
- Best Idea Wins Culture: The most effective teams foster a safe space where anyone, regardless of role, can contribute ideas—echoing Steven Spielberg’s approach of valuing input from everyone, even the “coffee boy.”
- Hire for Passion and Culture Fit: Skills can be developed, but passion and alignment with the team’s mission are essential. Hiring the right people is more important than micromanaging.
- Purposeful Markers and Storytelling: Leaders should set clear markers and use storytelling to help teams understand where they are and where they’re going, just as a film uses acts and foreshadowing.
- Active Listening is Key: The best leaders practice active listening, seeking feedback from users, team members, and even critics, and using it to improve.
- Leadership is a Practice: Leadership isn’t just a set of concepts—it’s something you do and refine every day, much like honing a craft in show business.
Steven is the Founder and CEO of The Sukha Company with the mission to help millions of people find their focus, achieve more and have a healthy work life.
Steven's career started as a newscaster/interviewer for the #1 youth news show in the DC/Baltimore market (on WTTG-TV) and then as a junior software engineer & Thomas J. Watson Scholar at IBM. After attending USC in Los Angeles, he began working in film production and produced computer-generated visual effects for 14 movies including Independence Day which won the Academy Award for Visual Effects.
Steven’s first tech company was Centropolis Effects that produced those CGI effects, and he eventually sold it to the German media conglomerate Das Werk when he was 28.
Steven then produced some indie films and eventually went studio-side to develop and produce live-action features as a VP of Development & Production at 20th Century Fox (running the Die Hard and Wolverine franchises) and an EVP at DreamWorks Pictures for Kurtzman-Orci Productions where he worked on Star Trek, Transformers and more.
After Fox, Steven returned to building tech companies and founded The Sukha Company - ‘sukha’ means ‘happiness from self-fulfillment’ in Sanskrit. The Sukha is a focus app that bundles all the tools necessary to have a focused experience and a healthy, productive workday.
Steven lives in Austin, TX now.
Connect with Steven: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-puri/.
The Sukha Company: https://www.thesukha.co
A Leadership Beyond exists to support the alignment between the business strategy and people strategy - to drive results with people not at the expense of people (Talent Optimization).
Subscribe to our podcast to join the Leadership Beyond Community of Conversation and hear insights from thought leaders and human development experts leading the way in the field of Talent Optimization.
We are grateful to you and always eager to hear from you!
To learn more visit https://aleadershipbeyond.com
Adrienne & Tom