How Great Leaders Grow Through Challenge: A Conversation with Arielle Lechner
October 17, 2025
In this episode of Getting to Aha!, host Darshan Mehta welcomes Arielle Lechner, Executive Coach and founder of NewPO, to explore the deep personal transformations that define great leadership. Arielle shares how leaders can evolve from hands-on founders to strategic visionaries, why embracing discomfort drives growth, and how reframing failure accelerates learning. She also explains the power of intuition in decision-making and the importance of confronting imposter syndrome. This conversation offers practical wisdom for anyone seeking to unlock authentic, resilient, and purpose-driven leadership.
In this episode of Getting to Aha!, host Darshan Mehta welcomes Arielle Lechner, Executive Coach and founder of NewPO, to explore the deep personal transformations that define great leadership. Arielle shares how leaders can evolve from hands-on founders to strategic visionaries, why embracing discomfort drives growth, and how reframing failure accelerates learning. She also explains the power of intuition in decision-making and the importance of confronting imposter syndrome. This conversation offers practical wisdom for anyone seeking to unlock authentic, resilient, and purpose-driven leadership.
Arielle Lechner is a seasoned executive coach and founder of NewPO, a boutique coaching firm specializing in transformational leadership. With a background in go-to-market strategy for B2B SaaS and Web3 companies, she has transitioned into helping CEOs, founders, and senior leaders navigate high-stakes challenges and achieve transformational results. Her unique approach blends deep leadership psychology with actionable business growth strategies, focusing particularly on early-stage founders at seed and Series A levels.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
👉 Recognising Leadership Shadows and Imposter Syndrome: Arielle explains that even top leaders experience imposter syndrome and self-doubt. These “shadows” are universal human patterns, not personal flaws. Through executive coaching, leaders can learn to identify and reframe these unconscious behaviours, helping marketing executives make clearer decisions, lead with confidence, and realise their full leadership potential.
👉 Using Discomfort as a Leadership Compass: Arielle introduces “discomfort as a compass,” the idea that what leaders avoid often holds the key to growth. By leaning into difficult conversations and decisions, marketing executives can uncover valuable insights, accelerate learning, and transform challenges into breakthrough opportunities. Embracing discomfort helps leaders strengthen resilience and drive meaningful progress.
👉 Transformational Coaching for Lasting Change: Arielle distinguishes between surface-level accountability and deep transformational coaching that rewires thinking patterns. True growth, she notes, comes from shifting how leaders think and show up, not just tracking actions. For marketing executives, this deeper work creates sustainable leadership development and long-term impact beyond the coaching engagement.
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Arielle Lechner on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ariellethecoach/
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Previous guests include: Luca Popovac, Senior Executive, Abhilasha Sinha of Open Secret, Laura Beavin-Yates, Stephen Griffiths of Level 2, Kristin Luck or ScaleHouse, Melina Palmer of The Brainy Business, Nicolas Zeisler of We’re Doing CX Wrong and How To Get It Right, Pricilla McKinney of Little Bird Marketing, Brooke Sellas of B Squared Marketing and Joseph Michelli of The Michelli Experience.
Check out the 3 most downloaded episodes:
- Changing the Direction of Customer Experience with Luka Popovac, a Senior Customer Experience Executive
- Innovation, Curiosity, and Being Human with Abhilasha Sinha, Chief Growth Officer at Open Secret
- [Greatest Hits ] Emotions & Consumer Behavior with Laura Beavin-Yates
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