Why Studying Volcanoes Changed How Stephen Gee Thinks About Leadership, and What Most Executives Get Wrong

I’m sitting down with Stephen Gee — CEO and co-founder of Blend — expecting him to give me a common story of his background, and at some point he casually says, “I actually went to college to become a volcanologist.”Volcanoes.Lava.Remote islands.No friends. (His words, not mine.)And somehow… that explains everything about how he sees leadership today.This episode of Liftoff Journeys is very much about Stephen’s journey — not the polished LinkedIn version, but the real one where he followed curiosity instead of a title and ended up exactly where he was supposed to be.Stephen walks through how studying volcanoes — systems under pressure, unseen fault lines, sudden eruptions — shaped the way he now spots what’s broken in modern leadership. Why siloed executives feel productive but miss what’s actually building beneath the surface. Why pressure narrows perspective instead of expanding it. And why the most dangerous leaders aren’t the ones who fail — they’re the ones who stop questioning.We laugh a lot in this conversation. About awkward rooms. About walking into spaces where you have no idea what anyone does. About realizing, decades into your career, that the most growth happens when you’re willing to say, “I don’t know — tell me more.”And we also get real about:how Stephen accidentally found his way into the human side of leadershipwhy community and cognitive diversity matter more than playbookshow Blend was built by intentionally breaking industry boundariesand why curiosity — not certainty — is what actually makes leaders betterWithout trying to, this conversation brings The AIR Method™ to life:Authenticity — being willing to admit what you don’t knowInspiration — letting unfamiliar perspectives reshape your thinkingRelatability — realizing no one’s path is as linear as it looksIf you’ve ever wondered how someone really ends up where they are — or if you’ve felt that quiet nudge that says there might be more growth outside your usual lane — this journey will stick with you.Because sometimes the very thing that seems like a detour…turns out to be the training ground for everything that comes next.