What if Leadership is Just Navigating Through Fog? with Pete Behrens

The fastest way to break a great technical team is to promote your best individual contributor and then pretend leadership is “common sense.” Jay Johnson sits down with Pete Behrens, an engineer turned leadership coach and author of Into the Fog, to unpack why so many new managers underperform within a couple of years and what to do differently before the promotion happens.

We dig into the real difference between leadership and a leader title, and why influence without authority is the skill that predicts success. Pete shares what he looks for when considering someone for management, plus concrete ways people can practice leadership right now: guiding decisions, running better meetings, pulling quiet voices into the room, and creating alignment around a shared purpose. We close with the fog metaphor: leadership means moving forward into uncertainty, and the hardest fog is often the inner fog between our ears, including blind spots, ego, and imposter syndrome.

If you enjoy conversations about leadership development, engineering management, organizational behavior, and leading through change, subscribe to The Talent Forge, share this episode with a manager you care about, and leave a review with your biggest leadership lesson from the last year.

About Pete Behrens: Pete Behrens is a speaker, author, and coach who helps leaders navigate uncertainty when the path forward isn’t clear. An engineer by training, Pete spent the first half of his career solving technical problems before discovering that the most complex challenges aren’t technical at all—they’re human.

He is the CEO of Agile Leadership Journey, where he works with leaders and organizations facing uncertainty, change, and growth. Pete's work is grounded in a simple belief: leadership isn’t about having the right answers, but about the curiosity to ask better questions, the courage to make difficult choices, and the willingness to move forward without certainty.

He is the author of Into the Fog: Leadership Stories from the Edge of Uncertainty, a collection of honest, story-driven reflections on what leadership looks like when clarity is elusive. Pete also speaks internationally and hosts the Relearning Leadership podcast, blending practical insights, vulnerability, and real-world experience.

Connect with Pete: https://www.agileleadershipjourney.com/

Meet the Host
Jay Johnson works with people and organizations to empower teams, grow profits, and elevate leadership. He is a Co-Founder of Behavioral Elements®, a two-time TEDx speaker, and a designated Master Trainer by the Association for Talent Development. With a focus on behavioral intelligence, Jay has delivered transformational workshops to accelerate high-performance teams and cultures in more than 30 countries across four continents. For inquiries, contact [e-mail] or connect below!

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayjohnsonccg/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jayjohnsonccg/
Speaker Website - https://jayjohnsonspeaks.com