Welcome to the Trap!

Join Kris and David, along with their guests, to learn how you can avoid the traps of leadership — whether you created it or it hits you by surprise – they’re out there! The Leadership Trap helps you develop your own trap radar for the challenges ahead as a leader and influencer.

As experts in leadership development, executive coaching, strategic human capital, and much more – they are keenly aware that every manager has blind spots. The best workplaces foster high trust and commitment. Leaders who learn from the traps they fall into throughout their careers are better equipped to manage with humility and develop an intuitive sense of ‘the right thing’ in creating great organizational cultures. The Leadership Trap podcast’s purpose is to introduce its listeners to accomplished, successful leaders who learned along the way – converting hazardous traps to seizing big opportunities on the other side.

Dr. Kris Potrafka

Dr. Potrafka loves solving complex organizational challenges. Through the human resources profession, he's worked with leaders to weave together the elements of change management, employee engagement, compensation, coaching, learning & development, and other human factors to build an engaged workforce. He has also served as an operations leader, executive coach, and Chief of Staff to a CEO allowing him to work with leaders from several unique angles.

These experiences coupled with his Ph.D. in Organizational Development and Change and his love for Austin live music led to him founding Music Firsthand, a music technology start-up focused on improving how people book and experience live music. This is Dr. Potrafka's second podcast he has developed and produced. His first venture into podcasting began in 2016 with the popular weekly vodcast/podcast Comedians Interviewing Musicians.

The Leadership Trap podcast brings his wide-ranging perspectives, academic knowledge, and on-the-ground business experiences to each episode. Contact Kris.

David Hughen

Founder and CEO of AustinWorkNet, a strategic human capital and executive coaching consulting firm. Most recently he served as Cofounder and Principal of Austin HR, having successfully sold that firm to Asure Software in 2018. He brings over 25 years of experience driving creative human resource strategies and solutions. Over the past fifteen years, his firms have provided outsourced HR services to over 500 clients (private, public and non-profit organizations) adding significant value to their operations and positively impacting their bottom line.  As an executive coach, he's provided guidance to hundreds of leaders over the past 20 years - individually and in group settings. He has the rare advantage of partnering with a number of early to mid-stage companies in a consulting capacity as well as leading human resource operations of prestigious companies such as Applied Materials, Exterprise, ClearCommerce, NEC Electronics, and HelioVolt in a variety of industries — including public sector, nonprofit, semiconductors, internet, software, hardware, and clean technology. He holds Bachelor's and Master's of Science degrees in Human Resources and Organization Development, Executive Coaching Credential from Columbia University as well as a number of relevant certifications.

Hughen’s emphasis is on optimizing employee commitment and productivity—linked to the organization’s strategic business goals. And, of course, guiding leaders around those inevitable "Traps"! Contact David.