Many of the world’s wisdom traditions teach that we humans all have a core purpose – a gift uniquely assigned to us by the universe. Eastern religions call this “dharma,” and we also know it as “an inner calling.” What’s intriguing about this idea is that we know so many people are unhappy in their […]

  As an entrepreneur and CEO, Ron Shaich has had one truly remarkable career. He’s the founder and former chairman and CEO of Panera Bread, a groundbreaking restaurant brand that today has more than 2,400 bakery cafés, 120,000 employees – and nearly $6 billion in annual sales. Under Shaich’s leadership, for multiple years, Panera generated […]

  Frances Frei (left) is a tenured professor at the Harvard Business School, and two years ago, was an extraordinary guest on this podcast when we discussed her brilliant understanding on how to build, retain and restore trust. Listeners should note that she also gave a remarkable TED Talk on trust that shouldn’t be missed. Frances […]

Our drive to create change, have impact & solve problems all comes from emotional energy. Who we become – how dynamic & powerful we are as people & leaders – depends upon our learning to work with this energy. Leaders may feel as if they don’t control this energy, that it’s just a product of […]

What comes to mind when you think about failure – specifically, a failure of your own? Intellectually, we may all agree that failures are great teachers, but deep down the idea of failing at anything in life tends to produce some distressing emotions & feelings. The truth is, most of us (try as we will) […]

In what might seem to be the least likely workplace imaginable to implement this, automaker BMW now has five generations of people working under one roof in their factories collaborating & contributing their unique skills and perspectives. If, by chance, you’re wondering how older workers could possibly keep up with the rigorous demands of building cars on an […]

Very few people know their life’s purpose at an early age, but as a young college student, Ed Catmull started dreaming of making the world’s first computer animated movie. He went on to nurture that dream by earning a Ph.D. in Computer Science before forging a partnership with George Lucas (of Star Wars fame) that […]

What makes for a happy life? A good life? In 1938, Harvard University researchers launched what’s now become the longest in-depth longitudinal study of human life ever done. The Harvard Study of Adult Development has followed the lives of two generations of individuals, from the same families, for nearly 85 years.  And the conclusion from all these […]

Seemingly overnight, the COVID pandemic caused a massive societal transformation — a structural change in how and where people work and live. And while we may be hearing that CEOs is general still have dreams of having all of their employees back in the office five days a week as they once did, the truth […]

One of the through lines of this podcast is the idea that the COVID pandemic profoundly and permanently changed how people think about work – not to mention the value exchange we now expect from it. Consequently, in a post-pandemic world, our common and traditional ways of motivating human performance in our workplaces instantly lost […]

As life today seems to be becoming more complex & unpredictable by the minute, it sure would be nice if we had a crystal ball to see into the future. And, while seeing into the future with any degree of certainty is, of course, a fantasy, there are trends occurring in the world that some informed […]

The post-pandemic world we’re all living in sure seems to be more volatile, more toxic, more stressful and more subject to radical change due automation, downsizing, and globalization than ever. And that just means it’s become much harder for any of us human beings to truly flourish in our lives. As if the past three […]

When hybrid cars first became mass produced over a decade ago, Honda and Toyota had two different strategies. Honda chose to produce a hybrid version of its wildly popular “Civic,” believing brand familiarity would help customers feel more comfortable with its brand-new technology. Toyota not only decided to produce an entirely new model car, they […]

When you think about our world today, “turbulent” might be the first word you use to describe it. After a three-year long COVID pandemic fatigued us all, we’re now bewildered by a surprising number of employee layoffs occurring in all industries, & equally uncertain about how disruptive the AI-GPT technology will be to our work […]

When Bob Chapman was thirty years old, his father died of a sudden heart attack – instantly making Bob CEO of a small, unprofitable manufacturing company his dad had only recently purchased. For the next two decades, leveraging an MBA from the University of Michigan, and a few years’ experience as a senior level accountant […]

Our most precious resource isn’t money. It’s time. We’re all given the same twenty-four hours a day – &, for most of us, that never feels enough. We flatter ourselves for being “so busy” in our jobs, yet end our days feeling depleted & without enough time to get to the gym, read the books […]

According to PepsiCo’s award-winning, and first, Chief Design Officer, Mauro Porcini, “our world is radically changing, and is forcing us to innovate as never before. And, we are entering a new, modern renaissance fueled by the reborn, humanistic necessity of putting people at the center of everything.” And when Porcini says, “put people at the […]

You might not think a book on philosophy could be a bestseller these days, but the title of MIT professor, Kieran Setiya’s new book, “Life Is Hard” clearly has wide appeal.  We’ve just come out of a two-year global pandemic, have experienced record inflation due in part to a seemingly endless war in Ukraine – […]

For our 100th episode – and our final episode of the 2022 season – we bring you a guest who is the true embodiment of the Lead From The Heart philosophy. Bill George is formerly the CEO of Medtronic – a Fortune 200 medical device company which has 90,000 employees across 120 countries. And, for […]

“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” ~ Mother Teresa. Social belonging is a fundamental human need, hardwired into our DNA. And yet, 40% of people say that they feel isolated at work, and the result has been lower organizational commitment and engagement. I suppose […]

Are you someone who would love to make a positive change in the world? Could you be an influential change maker? University of California, Berkeley Haas Business School professor, Alex Budak believes all of us have the potential. And he created a wildly popular class called “Becoming a Changemaker,” which has quickly grown into one […]

Leadership is full of paradoxes: Should we build close relationships with our employees or keep a suitable distance? Should we trust our staff, or keep an eye on what’s happening? Are we best to display self-confidence – or is humility a greater power? For many of us, these competing & interwoven demands are a source […]

Being a CEO at any of the world’s largest companies is among the most challenging roles in business. Billions, and even trillions, are at stake – and the fates of tens of thousands of employees often hang in the balance. Yet, even when “can’t miss” high-achievers win the top job, very few prove to excel. […]

Tiffani Bova is the global growth evangelist at Salesforce and the author of the Wall Street Journal bestselling book “GROWTH IQ: Get Smarter About the Choices that Will Make or Break Your Business.” She’s been named to the latest Thinkers50’s list of the world’s top management thinkers.  Along with Columbia University and Stanford University, Bova […]

Uncertainty in life is, ironically, certain. Amid a pandemic, the past two years have been no exception. None of us needs to think very hard to recall the unprecedented and sudden need we had to move employees en masse to their homes to work, the lingering fears we all had around an unknown virus, and […]