Succession & Legacy in Leadership: Everyone Has a Story to Tell

In this special live episode of The Essence of You, host Steph Lokelani hands the mic to executive coach and mental performance strategist Mike Krause for a full podcast takeover recorded in front of over 50 leaders at the Hemingway Building on Boise State University campus as part of the Leadership Boise program through the Boise Metro Chamber.

Mike leads a rich, wide-ranging conversation on leadership, legacy, and succession with three guests who have each led organizations through growth, change, and transition: Kevin Bailey of the Idaho Community Foundation, Angela Taylor of the Taylor LEAD Foundation and former President and General Manager of the Atlanta Dream WNBA team, and host Steph Lokelani of In Real Life Films and #OMGFemaleFilmmakers.

Together they explore what it means to lead authentically and what gets in the way. From Angela's experience watching sports coaches lose themselves trying to replicate a predecessor, to Kevin's practice of writing his values on his bathroom mirror each morning, to Steph leaving a corporate career at HP to build IRL Films on her own terms, the conversation is candid, grounded, and full of hard-won wisdom.

They dig into how to build championship cultures (and what the San Antonio Spurs can teach your nonprofit), why having team members with different values makes you stronger, when to trust your gut even if it means being wrong, and what it truly takes to delegate when you're a founder who's done everything yourself.

Angela shares the story of the Taylor LEAD Foundation, a family-founded 501(c)3 focused on getting Idaho girls into sports and scholar athletes into college, including this: 94% of C-suite female leaders in Fortune 500 companies played sports. Kevin pulls back the curtain on how the Idaho Community Foundation manages over $300 million in charitable assets, and what the real funding gap looks like for nonprofits in Idaho.

And Steph's closing answer to Mike's final question about what she hopes the people she's filmed, mentored, and worked with will carry forward in ten years lands exactly where this podcast was always headed.

About the Guests:

Mike Krause is an executive coach and mental performance strategist with Global Bound, LLC, where he partners with executives and emerging leaders to enhance performance, support sustainable growth, and strengthen holistic wellbeing both inside and outside the workplace. He brings over 25 years of executive leadership experience in the nonprofit sector, including 4½ years with the United States Department of State in Southern and Central Africa, where his work focused on public health initiatives and cross-cultural leadership.

Mike serves as an executive coach for the Idaho Leads program and is the developer and lead facilitator of the Ascending Leaders initiative through the Idaho Community Foundation. He is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Sport and Performance Psychology, while co-hosting a weekly podcast and traveling throughout the country speaking on leadership, workplace culture, and mental fitness practices.

Kevin Bailey is the Vice President of Community Impact at the Idaho Community Foundation. He oversees the Idaho Nonprofit Center nonprofit support programming as well as ICF’s grantmaking functions. Kevin was previously the CEO of the Idaho Nonprofit Center and was part of merging the Idaho Nonprofit Center into ICF in late 2024. Kevin and his wife, Becca, have 3 young boys, ages 10, 8, and 5. In his spare time he loves to hike, bike, and ski in Idaho’s beautiful mountain areas.

Angela Taylor is a trailblazing sports executive, entrepreneur, and leadership strategist committed to helping people and organizations reach their full potential. A former Stanford women’s basketball player and two-time NCAA National Champion, Angela went on to hold leadership roles across the WNBA, including positions with the league office, Washington Mystics, Atlanta Dream, and Minnesota Lynx. Today, she brings that same championship mindset to her work as Co-Founder and Partner of The Dignitas Agency, where she advises clients on leadership development, organizational culture, inclusion, and sustainable change. Through The Taylor LEAD Foundation, Angela continues to invest in the next generation by creating pathways for young people, women, and underserved communities to thrive.

Steph Lokelani is a proud graduate of the 2023 LB cohort and has called Boise home for over 21 years. She founded #OMGFemaleFilmmakers 8 years ago and In Real Life Films in 2025 with a clear mission: to serve Idaho nonprofits and local businesses, such as HP and Boise Cascade, through purposeful video storytelling. What started as a local vision has grown into a recognized production company serving 25+ Treasure Valley nonprofits, attracting national partners, and creating local jobs. Steph leads with heart, annually offering pro bono video and podcast production and currently serves as board president of Treasure Valley Children's Theater. When she's not behind the camera, she's strength training, running half marathons for fun, and giving her dog and cats a safe and happy place to live.

Key Takeaways:

1. Authenticity is alignment, not a personality type. Being authentic as a leader isn't about having a certain style, it's about knowing your values, living them out, and showing up consistently enough that your team knows what to expect. When leaders try to replicate someone else, they erode trust without even knowing it.

2. Values are a toolkit, not a fixed list. Kevin keeps his core values written on his bathroom mirror and chooses one to lead with each day. As life changes, values shift. The goal isn't one immovable set it's knowing your values well enough to amplify the right ones in the right situations.

3. Difference is a feature, not a bug. Whether on a film set, a WNBA team, or a nonprofit, you don't want everyone to think like you. Different values, creative instincts, and strengths are where innovation lives. The key is alignment around organizational mission, not personal match.

4. The role of opposites in succession. Angela observed that when replacing an unsuccessful leader, organizations naturally look for someone different, but when replacing a successful one, they often clone, leaving no room for new vision. Real succession planning makes space for different leadership to carry the mission forward in new ways.

5. Leadership is stewardship, not ownership. All three guests circled back here: the role of a leader is to be a caretaker for the mission, the culture, and the people, not to make it about themselves. That humility is the foundation of lasting legacy.

6. You cannot grow your business if you're doing all the work inside it. Steph is living this right now - delegating for the first time, hiring an editor, sending her team to cover events while she focuses on business development. Angela and Kevin both name the discomfort: when you're a natural doer, stepping back feels like not doing enough. But leadership requires a different kind of output.

7. Trust your intuition and act on it sooner. Angela learned this the hard way: she knew within weeks which team members weren't right for her organization but waited a year to act. The delay cost the culture. Leaders who pause too long on people decisions often pay for it with everyone else's morale.

8. Communicating the why is not optional. Vision only moves teams when it's shared. If people don't understand the North Star, they fill the gap with resistance. And leading from a vision - not just a plan - is what allows you to navigate when the plan breaks down. The power outage the night before this recording was a live test of exactly that.

9. 94% of C-suite women in Fortune 500 companies played sports. Angela built the Taylor LEAD Foundation on this data. A 39-point gap separates girls below the poverty line from those with access to sports. Getting girls in the game isn't just an equity issue, it's a leadership pipeline issue.

10. Standing up for yourself is a leadership skill. Steph admits it comes naturally to stand up for her team - oldest of four kids, lifelong big sister energy - but advocating for herself as a business owner has been the hardest thing. Learning to speak up for her own needs and boundaries has been its own kind of growth.

Chapters:

00:00 — Welcome and Episode Intro

00:45 — Mike Introduces the Guests and Setting

03:27 — Kicking Off: How Do You Frame Leadership?

04:22 — Kevin: Lead From Who You Are, Not Who You Admire

05:57 — Angela: Everyone Can Be a Leader — Find Your Own Voice

08:10 — Steph: Authenticity Means Giving Your Team Room to Lead

09:02 — Mike Opens the Floor: What Is Authenticity, Really?

10:28 — Angela: When Leaders Lose Themselves (The Sports Coaching Analogy)

13:03 — Kevin: Writing His Values on His Bathroom Mirror

15:10 — Mike: Values Under Pressure, Trust, and Emotional Contagion

17:20 — Mike Asks Steph: What Made You Go Out on Your Own?

17:51 — Steph: Leaving HP and Choosing Alignment Over Stability

19:27 — From OMG Female Filmmakers to IRL Films: A Rebrand with Purpose

20:43 — Angela: Building Championship Culture — The Spurs Model

24:57 — Kevin: The CAR Model — Competency, Autonomy, and Relatedness in Hiring

27:07 — Legacy: What Are You Hoping to Leave Behind?

27:38 — Kevin: The Coaching Tree — Joy in Watching Others Find Their Footing

28:44 — Angela: From Achievement to Impact — The Moment She Found Her Why

30:42 — Steph: Leaving a Piece of Yourself in Every Story You Tell

31:42 — Mike: Leadership Is Stewardship

32:00 — Idaho Community Foundation: What They Do and How It Works

38:00 — Taylor Lead Foundation: Scholar Athletes, Girls in Sports & the 94% Stat

44:42 — Audience Q: Are Different Values on Your Team Good or Bad?

47:33 — Angela: The Role of Opposites in Succession Planning

52:35 — Steph: I Don't Want My Team to Have the Same Values as Me

53:25 — Working Across Differences: Steph's Political Client Story

54:00 — Angela: Values as a Funnel — Stop Drilling Down Into Division

57:01 — Mike and Kevin: Curiosity as a Leadership Superpower

59:14 — Audience Q: How Do You Step Back and Learn to Delegate?

59:55 — Kevin: The 80/20 Rule — On the Business vs. In the Business

1:01:07 — Angela: Six Types of Working Geniuses and Finding Your Role

1:06:50 — Steph: Delegating in Real Time — and Running a Half Marathon

1:08:45 — Audience Q: Women in Male-Dominated Leadership Spaces

1:09:12 — Steph: Approach Everyone as Equals and Be Direct

1:10:09 — Angela: Intention vs. Impact — Developing Your Leadership Range

1:11:14 — Audience Q: What Did You Have to Learn the Hard Way?

1:11:17 — Steph: Not Everybody Is Going to Like You

1:11:22 — Kevin: Keep Showing Up — How He Became a Leader

1:13:24 — Angela: Trust Your Intuition — Don't Wait a Year to Act

1:16:41 — Steph: Balancing Your Vision with Your Team's Input On Set

1:18:30 — Mike: Communicating the Vision from the Start

1:19:20 — Vision vs. Plan: What Happens When Things Fall Apart

1:21:35 — Angela: Leading from a North Star, Not a Blueprint

1:23:31 — Kevin: The Nonprofit Funding Crisis in Idaho

1:27:03 — Audience Q: What Was the Hardest Leadership Decision You've Made?

1:28:52 — Steph: The Hardest Thing Has Been Standing Up for Myself

1:29:44 — Closing: What Do You Hope Your Legacy Carries Forward?

1:30:04 — Kevin: I Hope They Authentically Be Themselves

1:31:00 — Angela: Mindset First — Lean Into Your Authentic Self Sooner

1:32:13 — Steph: Everyone Has a Story to Tell and Everyone Brings Value

1:32:48 — The Essence of You: Finding Who You Are Beyond Your Labels