Guest: Helle Bank Jorgensen Does your board of directors have the slightest clue what to do with AI?   As AI creeps into your organization, your board has a fiduciary duty to determine its parameters in the workplace AND in the boardroom…such as figuring out how much information is relevant, and whether it’s trustworthy, misinformation, or just way more than you need. There are ethical considerations, too.   Fortunately, guest Helle Bank Jorgensen has tips to help. She’s the founder and CEO...

Are leaders letting democracy die?   Less than half of the world’s nations are full-fledged democracies today. That’s down from just 20 years ago.   Part of the problem is a nation’s democratic death usually isn’t dramatic or sudden; it’s often a series of subtler, slower moves such as only appointing loyalists to cabinet posts and judgeships, or threatening the press if coverage isn’t towing the party line.   How does this happen in leadership? In this episode, three international thought...

Guest: Tom Krouse Lots of leaders claim their products are made with love. Donatos Pizza means it: they practice Agape Capitalism.   As CEO Tom Krouse explains in this episode, Agape Capitalism puts a love of humanity at the center of their company processes and revenue generation. Its origins are rooted in founder Jim Grote’s observations as a teen working in a pizzeria with two owners: one a frugal bean counter, the other a passionate people-person. Sales soared higher the nights the...

Guest: Ron Riggio Are great leaders born, or forged?   Ron Riggio followed up on the four-decade-long Fullerton Longitudinal Study to uncover the childhood characteristics that indicated later leadership qualities. Those results further informed his work on transformational leadership. He discusses his findings with host Maureen Metcalf…as well as the interplay between transformational leadership and ethics.   Produced in partnership with the International Leadership Association:...

Guest: John Driscoll What’s the surest way people will follow you into battle? Show you care — about them and their families.   That’s a major lesson John Driscoll learned in the Army…and it’s served him well in the private sector, including his current role at Walgreens, where he’s focused on improving service to patients in the healthcare industry. John shares his leadership insights, and the need to focus on healthcare leadership, in this episode. Here's what John and Maureen cover: Why...

Guest: Parminder Vir At the 4th Women and Leadership Conference, participants spent three days discussing and debating ways women’s leadership potential can be unleashed: developed, energized, and liberated in the workspace. Parminder Vir took part, and discusses the results…along with her own experiences as a female leader through four decades of work and across cultures and continents. Her tips and wisdom can be a hammer in helping break through your own glass ceiling.   Produced in...

Guest: Kim Campbell Climate change is already hitting businesses’ bottom lines – and those business costs are only beginning. As guest Kim Campbell – the former Prime Minister of Canada – points out, we hit this tipping point through poor corporate leadership in the past. The question now is: what can today’s leaders do about it?   Kim has some stats, and a lot of ideas! Here's what Kim and Maureen cover: Why insurance companies may be the drivers of corporate climate change initiatives; The...

Guests: Margaret Heffernan & Ira Chaleff What we need from leaders today is vastly different than even a decade ago. That change began years ago; the pandemic merely accelerated it. The reason is simple: turbulence and uncertainty are now chronic conditions. Now, guest Margaret Heffernan says, leadership is about building organizations that thrive in turbulence. She shares six steps to make that happen. Then, Ira Chaleff switches the perspective to your followers. After all, the best...

Guest: Celina Caesar-Chavannes What’s your secret identity?   Our true selves are often buried so deeply that they’re a secret to us. It’s hard enough to lead authentically when you don’t know who you are – but how can you motivate your team if you don’t know who they really are, either?   The key is the praxis of humanization, a way of helping your coworkers bring their authentic selves to the office. Guest Celina Caesar-Chavannes discovered this truth in her own personal journey – a journey...

Guests: Joanne Ciulla & Keith Grint Why do so many leaders have trouble acting ethically?   For nearly three decades, Joanne Ciulla has focused her research on ethics in leadership. Even though the framework for ethics is over 2,400 years old, our definition of being ethical holds firm today. Why is it taking so many leaders so long to catch on? Her answers may surprise you.   Joanne earned the International Leadership Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018. Keith Grint did, as...

Guests: Rob Elkington & Les Sylven To serve and protect: servant leadership takes on a whole new meaning for a law enforcement leader. Society’s expectations for policing have changed radically – for example, up to 80% of what officers do overlaps with what social workers do! Add calls for reduced funding, labor shortages, brutality…and gone are the days of simple “cops and robbers” policing.   But the leadership and hierarchy of policing have changed very little. So can law enforcement...

Guest: Carsten Engel There’s a big gap between resources and patient needs in the healthcare sector. That’s just one area of healthcare requiring change; without it, lives truly do hang in the balance.   Carsten Engel and the International Society for Quality in Healthcare have studied healthcare systems around the globe extensively, and they have practical solutions for patients, practitioners, and the leaders of the medical industry. He shares them with host Maureen Metcalf in this episode....

Guests: Martha Piper and Indira Samarasekera “What do you expect with a woman?”   That’s the attitude our guests encountered on their leadership journeys – but, as Georgia O’Keefe said, “It takes a kind of nerve…and a lot of hard, hard work.” That nerve is exactly what Martha Piper and Indira Samarasekera developed. It served them well, with both becoming the first woman president of their respective universities.   In this episode, they share tips to help other women (and men!) develop the...

Guests: Nathan Eva & Nicole Ferry Your leadership training may be missing the mark.   That’s because most programs develop you as an individual – but, in reality, we work with other leaders in addition to our own teams. In fact, the most effective organizations foster collective leadership. Our guests Nicole Ferry and Nathan Eva point out that the best collective leadership incorporates multiple models and views from women, other cultures, and more…because the old MBA-style leadership...

Guest: Christopher Washington What will affect your leadership the most in 2024? We’ve identified seven trends you’ll have to contend with through the coming year.Christopher Washington (Provost & EVP of Franklin University) interviews ILI’s CEO, Maureen Metcalf, to get the details on all seven. Knowing them will help your organization navigate the destabilizing effects of those trends…and take advantage of the opportunities they create. Here's what Christopher and Maureen cover: Why...

Guest: Sheri Bachstein Can your business weather the storm? We mean that quite literally!   There’s not a business on the planet that isn’t impacted by weather at some level. Leaders must prepare their organizations for what’s to come. It’s not just obvious climate change decisions, like making sure you don’t build that new factory in a hurricane hotspot. It’s little things, too, like a grocer stocking extra ice cream when weather keeps people indoors and craving comfort food (even in the...

Guest: Beverley McLachlin Making decisions can be the toughest part of a leader’s job. Judges up the ante; their decisions can literally mean the difference between life or death.   Beverley McLachlin was the Chief Justice of Canada’s Supreme Court. In this episode, she reflects on her leadership journey — from a farm in rural Alberta to the top court in the land. That journey has powerful perspectives on the decision-making process for leaders of all stripes: from law-firm partners to...

Guest: Mike Hardy Leading the world into peace is so monumentally difficult, it’s never been done (Rome’s propaganda about the Pax Romana aside!). But understanding how leaders have brought regional peace, and ends to war, has been done – and more than worthy of study. Guest Mike Hardy founded the Center for Trust, Peace and Social Relations at Coventry University.  He’s also the board chair of the International Leadership Association. Mike with host Maureen Metcalf about the importance of...

Guest: Beryl Tomay One of the biggest keys to success is failure. It seems counterintuitive, but the reality is we ALL make mistakes. Highly successful leaders embrace stumbles and fumbles, and learn from them. As Beryl Tomay points out, that’s especially true at Amazon. Their innovation culture is so highly effective because Amazon learns from each step, good or bad, and builds from it. Indeed, some of Amazon’s most successful products wouldn’t have seen the light of day if not for what was...

Guests: Lisa DeFrank Cole & Sherylle J. Tan Women account for more than half of the world’s population – a little more than half in the United States. Yet they still make up far less than half of leadership roles…despite getting higher education degrees far more than men. Why? That’s what guests Lisa DeFrank-Cole and Sherylle Tan unpack. In this episode, they explore how women’s career journeys are different than men’s, why women have “nontraditional” career paths, and why women...

Guest: Suchi Srinivasan AI is disruptive. It’s already disrupting society, and is disrupting business faster than the internet did. It’ll disrupt you, too. But is that bad…or good?   The answer is up to you. Guest Suchi Srinivasan of Boston Consulting Group shares her comprehensive view of the effects of AI on business now – and in the near future. The bottom line? Artificial intelligence is a tool like any other: embrace it and adopt it wisely, and it can be a significant boon to your...

Guest: Greg Moran When your competitor’s (or CEO’s) decisions don’t make sense, pause: there’s something to learn there. What do they know that you don’t?That’s just one insight guest Greg Moran offers about dealing with the irrational in your organization. Sometimes a decision is just bad; but more often than not, it’s been made from a perspective or with information you don’t see. And that perspective might just be the missing key to your success! Here's what Greg and Maureen cover: The...

Guest: Brad Jackson Theory is one thing. Practice is another. That’s just as true of leadership coaches and their theories as with any science. Guest Brad Jackson understands that, and works to put leadership theory into real-world contexts so it can be truly useful.   That’s the focus of his book: Revitalising Leadership – Putting Theory and Practice into Context. It argues that the universal prescriptions favored by most leadership scholars ignore the reality that context always matters in...

Guests: Hyppolite Ntigurirwa & Mike Hardy Seeing your family members tortured and murdered will have a major influence on your leadership mindset. But not necessarily in the ways that you think.   Hyppolite Ntigurirwa survived the Rwandan genocide as a child. Growing up, he thought of vengeance and retribution. But after encountering exceptional kindness, his mindset shifted – and he now leads efforts for peace and reconciliation. As he reveals his gripping story, Mike Hardy joins the...

Guests: Gama Perruci, Sadhana Warty Hall & Karen Ford Are you spending a hefty budget on leadership training, and wondering if it’s worth it? You’re far from alone. According to the American Society of Training and Development, U.S. businesses spend more than $170 billion on leadership-based curriculum…and many wonder about the results. McKinsey reports "There is no silver bullet for successfully developing leaders—more than 40 key actions must be taken to increase chances of success to...