Why Leadership Training Must Go Beyond Executives to Reach the Front Lines – Samantha Hurwitz

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.sharnafabiano.com/2026/07/29/why-leadership-training-must-go-beyond-executives-to-reach-the-front-lines-samantha-hurwitz/

Many organizations invest heavily in developing executives while overlooking the people closest to the daily work. Samantha Hurwitz challenges that top-down approach by showing why leadership capability must be developed across an entire organization — and how giving front-line employees the skills to influence decisions changes the way teams operate.

Samantha Hurwitz is co-author of Leadership is Half the Story and co-founder of FliP University, a training and development company based in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Together with her partner Marc Hurwitz, she developed practical programs that help organizations teach leadership skills across roles and levels, and they are also co-founders of the Global Followership Conference, where Samantha and Sharna first connected in 2019.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why leadership development programs often fail when they focus only on senior leaders
• How organizations can develop leadership skills among frontline employees
• Why shared responsibility improves inclusion and employee ownership
• What changes when companies move from a leader-centered model to a partner-centered culture
• How to measure the impact of organization-wide leadership development
  
  

Episode Resources

Flip University
http://flip.university

Leadership is Half the Story, Marc Hurwitz and Samantha Hurwitz
https://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Half-Story-Followership-Collaboration/dp/1487522460

Samantha Hurwitz on LinkedIn
http://ww.linkedin.com/in/samanthakerrhurwitz/

Global Followership Conference
http://ww.followershipconference.com

Referenced Articles

Meindl, J. R., Ehrlich, S. B., Dukerich, J. M. (1985). The romance of leadership. Administrative Science Quarterly, 30(1), 78-102. https://doi.org/10.2307/2392813

Hurwitz, M., & Hurwitz, S. (2009). The romance of the follower: Part 1. Industrial and Commercial Training, 41(2), 80-86. https://doi.org/10.1108/00197850910939117

Hurwitz, M., & Hurwitz, S. (2009). The romance of the follower: Part 2. Industrial and Commercial Training, 41(4), 199-206. https://doi.org/10.1108/00197850910962788

Hurwitz, M., & Hurwitz, S. (2009). The romance of the follower: Part 3. Industrial and Commercial Training, 41(6), 326-333. https://doi.org/10.1108/00197850910983929