It’s just the nature of our show that we often talk to folks in the mastery part of their professional S-Curve. It’s easy to talk to a CEO about leadership. It’s also another fact that our guests tend to be older – at least, out of college. But it is rare that we come across an entrepreneur in that very first launch point of their career. A person that put college on hold to pursue an idea, a person willing to put their dreams on hold for an hour to talk to us. Austin Hillam is the...

If we’re being honest, we’ve all felt the toll of going into a meeting on a couple hours sleep and a double espresso. The work can often come first, and the body comes second. But as leaders, we can’t do our job effectively if we’re jittery and wiped. We can’t do our job if we’ve got the worry of heart disease lurking the back of your mind. What if we could take charge of our health before any of these things happen? Not just waiting for the symptoms, but… intecepting them? Dr. Bill Kapp...

The last time you had to navigate change – real, structural change – who did you turn to? When we’re working from a place of ambiguity, when we’re stuck inside our own head, another person can make all the difference. But let’s be honest, sometimes, painfully… that person is no one at all. We can have this instinct, as leaders, that reaching out is weakness. We can see it as this flashing neon sign that, hey, I have no idea what I’m doing. Someone, please help. Melissa Werneck’s spent her...

We throw around this term a lot in the management profession, in the coaching profession, really everywhere in business – top thinker.  But how often do we really interrogate that title? Because, really, wouldn’t we all like to think of ourselves as top thinkers? In politics, it’s the journalists that hold politicians to account. In the world of management, there are two former journalists who are holding these top thinkers to account as well. Stuart Crainer and Des Dearlove used to write...

For all the credit Superman gets, for being the Man of Steel, do you think he ever cries? When he’s Clark Kent, working at the paper, do you think Superman’s ever broken down in a bathroom stall? When he’s flying folks out of a burning building, it’s easy to forget that his parents are dead, his home is dust and the only family he has wants him dead. All we see is the Man of Steel. For 45 years, James Dixon only showed others what they wanted to see. What they didn’t see, was his prosthetic...

When you’re making decisions, professional or personal, what’s your north star? How many people know your north star? How many of your colleagues know what you’ve built your life around? There’s this idea, of leaving home at home and only bringing into work your work self. Can you really leave at home what fuels you and drives you? When Lori Winkler at the top of Johnson and Johnson’s HR department, she was a high achiever, sure – but as you’ll hear her say, no one really know who Lori...

 Human resources can be a funny term. What kind of resources do we rely on as humans? Food, water, shelter – but what about emotional resources? What about the resources to become a good person, not just a healthy person? In a company, human resources are always comprised of other humans, and Chris Rainey’s made it his mission to cast a light on the wonders of this profession. We can forget that HR has a hand in just about everything a company does, and Chris’s podcast HR Leaders is out to...

There’s a saying that curiosity killed the cat. Have you ever seen a cat investigate a glass you left on the countertop? Or knock over a shelf of books while they try to perch on top?  There’s something to admire in that attitude, that kind of pure, unabashed curiosity. You’ll find Diana Kander to be that same kind of curious. A self-described serial entrepreneur, she played and continues to play a vital role in building up the Kansas City economic area. Today, she’s packaged what she’s...

Who were you ten years ago? How did that person think? How did they see the world? And what about today? How have those things changed? How would you feel if you passed that person on the street tomorrow? Would you recognize them? Now instead of who you were, ten years ago, what if it’s who you want to be ten years from now?  Hal Hershfield understands that connecting with our future selves can feel like a vague, unfulfilling endeavor. But to hear him say it, it’s one of the most valuable...

Isn’t it frustrating when you just can’t say what you want to say? You have all the words ready in your head, you’ve practiced what you’re going to say, but you… just… can’t? It’s frustrating in part because it seems like we’re failing at the basics. Communication? Saying words out loud? Didn’t we figure that out around the same time we figured out farming, and the wheel? So why are we sweating and stuttering in a conference room in 2023? Matt Abrahams has an idea. His new book, Think...

To give to another is to give up something you have. It’s the basis of the world philanthropy, “phila,” meaning love for one another. Two episodes ago we talked with Alan Mulally, about how that kind of love isn’t wired anywhere in our brains. We are not that far from our hunter-gatherer ancestors – why would we ever give up our food to strangers? Aren’t we hungry too? Our guest today is a philanthropist, to no surprise. Gail Miller is the wealthiest person in the state of Utah, having...

With ChatGPT now released in a usable format, the world’s been abuzz with the potentials – and pitfalls – of artificial intelligence.  Our guest today says that the word – artificial intelligence – is misleading. Artificial anything, artificial turf, sweeteners, they all try to get as close to the real thing as possible. Chris Duffey, strategic development manager for Adobe, says that isn’t the goal. This tech revolution isn’t so much about replacing us, as amplifying the magical powers we...

What does it mean to advocate for something? We all know what it’s like to give a nervous presentation. But to adjust the question a bit – what does it mean to advocate for someONE? Specifically, yourself? Joining us today is Jayshree Seth, Chief Science Advocate at 3M. Her role today involves clearing away the brush and undergrowth of misinformation to show the world that science is not a scary monolith. She's also coming up with new ways to show us that we’re all scientists in our own...

Today, we’ve got a special episode, one of my personal heroes––Alan Mulally. You’ve probably sat in a Boeing 777 before. He was the chief engineer on that plane. You might have a Ford sitting out in your driveway. He’s the reason Ford was the only major American car company that didn’t take a bailout in 2008. Alan Mulally has sat in many seats — President and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, President and CEO of Ford — but you have to hear it from him personally, how you put together...

Attention is the real currency of all advertising. It’s how many seconds they can keep your eyes glued on whatever billboard or TV ad is in front of you at that moment. And then there’s the science of why exactly it caught your attention, in the first place. Advertisers represent this fascinating intersection of business and psychology, so today we want to find out what we can glean from this unique industry.  Today we're joined by Sam Horn, CEO and founder of the Intrigue Agency, where she...

For almost as long as humans have been using coins and dollars to trade and grow, we’ve also been using them as weapons.  It’s almost a magical thing, one thing that can be traded for anything you want. And the people in charge of that currency control the magic. The idea of a common currency is intertwined in just about every facet of our lives, up to the very top on Capitol Hill. It seems natural that someone should be in charge of this huge power. But this is where a cryptocurrency butts...

We form teams every day. Boarding a plane, figuring out the best place for overhead bags. On the highway, we form impromptu caravans to squeeze through traffic. There are the more formal teams, too, the ones we occupy at work or at home. We’re all teammates. So how can we be better? David Burkus has the answer. The best-selling author of Leading From Anywhere and Friend of a Friend is out with a new book – Best Team Ever, The Surprising Science of High-Performing Teams. NASA, Adobe,...

Were we born with our instincts, or were they imprinted on us as at an early age? How do turtles know to lay their eggs in the exact spot they themselves were hatched? It's part of a field called evolutionary psychology -- evolving in ways that influence our behaviors as much as whether or not we walk on two legs. Shade Zahrai is a master of unpacking that hindbrain thinking. Shade is a behavioral strategist and leadership coach, and the founder of Influenceo Global Inc, where she works to...

We start every episode of this show with those words -- the building block of that growth is you. Today, we want to bring our focus back to that philosophy, that change begins with the individual. Every question for our guests, and every show itself, is structured around that core idea.  So we’ve got a special episode – a roundtable discussion of business leaders from around the world, as well as big fans of the podcast. We want to turn the mic back to the individuals listening to us, to...

A rat learns to cook. A trash compactor learns to love. Two office workers -- who are the monsters under your bed, mind you -- discover a new source of renewable energy. The possibilities at Pixar are infinite. But how do you shoot a movie entirely on computers? And who’s going to make the software for all of this? Ed Catmull took on those questions in the early 70s, inventing many of the early computer techniques that got a 3D image on the big screen. With funding from fellow visionary...

If this show was about medicine, we do a lot of classroom learning. But today we’re going to hear from the equivalent of a front-line Army medic, hitting the ground to get an idea of how all these theories about leadership actually get used.  Sudha Ranganathan is the Director of Product Marketing at LinkedIn. In that role, ecosystems are at the heart of what she does. She creates the conditions that allow these ideas like the s-curve thrive in the ecosystems she builds. From the University...

When sales are down and overhead costs are skyrocketing, what’s the instinct? Cut costs, maybe? Fire some folks? Trim down, get leaner? Zeynep Ton says that instinct is shortsighted. It’s outdated. More than just old, it’s a deadly cycle, because cutting costs continues to come at the expense of the foundational unit – the employee. Zeynep is a professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Business, and her new book – The Case for Good Jobs – is out next month. By turning almost 40 years of Jack...

Representation is the basis of our political system. We can’t get everyone’s vote on every issue – folks are busy, and that would take way too much time. So we pick someone we trust. Have you ever represented someone else? It's terrifying. You have to make decisions on behalf of all those people, and those decisions could impact their home, their business, their politics, their whole way of life. But in that way, representation can be one of the highest callings a human can achieve. Our...

What does it mean to be the only one in the room who knows something is wrong? You're the only one in your company who sees the number they missed. What do you do? Do you speak up? Try this on -- is anything really that bad going to happen if you keep it to yourself? All those little decisions, to sit on some information, or fudge a number, they add up to the tune of about one trillion dollars of fraud a year.  Kelly Richmond Pope is a forensic accountant, a professor at DePaul University...

It’s said that cliches become cliches for a reason. There’s at least a bit of truth to them. So try this one on - you are your own worst enemy. There’s a reason it gets repeated. Everyone finds a moment where you just can't get out of your own way, no matter how good your intentions are and how strong your will is. So how does the founder and CEO of Positive Intelligence fight back against his own saboteurs? Shirzad Chamine is the mind behind democratizing Positive Intelligence, sometimes...