Building Better Leaders: Motivation, Mindset & Meaning - H.R. Huntsman

What really drives performance in today’s best leaders? This episode explores the mindset and methods that create high-impact leadership.

In this episode of Behind The Numbers With Dave Bookbinder, we’re exploring how great leaders are made—not born.

Dave Bookbinder welcomes H.R. Huntsman, organizational strategist, keynote speaker, and founder of Leaders Edge, to unpack the real mechanics of leadership. From a difficult upbringing to global humanitarian efforts, H.R.’s journey is a masterclass in resilience and purpose-driven leadership.

We dive deep into:

• How understanding human motivation drives team performance

• Why mindset is the foundation for effective leadership

• The role of creative conflict and psychological safety in innovation

• How to foster accountability without micromanaging

• The Leaders Edge performance engine and how it’s transforming organizations

Whether you’re a business owner, a manager, or someone aspiring to lead with more impact, you’ll walk away with practical insights to build trust, boost engagement, and align people with purpose.

Subscribe to Behind The Numbers With Dave Bookbinder on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. If you enjoyed this conversation, please share it with your network and leave a review—it helps more business owners and advisors discover the show!

About Our Guest: HR Huntsman is the founder of Leader’s Edge. He is also a business and leadership keynote speaker, organizational strategist, author, business executive coach, and business leadership consultant. HR founded Leader’s Edge to be able to invest in leaders, especially young leaders. His passion stems from his backstory of overcoming early childhood struggles then going on to building successful and impactful organizations.

HR now shares many of the life and leadership principles he learned in his 30+ years of leadership with other leaders. He firmly believes to succeed one must begin with mindset, then move on to principles and disciplines which create long term success for a company or individual. HR is an accomplished speaker having given roughly 4000 talks to approximately 400k people around the world.

About the Host:

Dave Bookbinder is known as an expert in business valuation and he is the person that business owners and entrepreneurs reach out to when they need to know what their most important assets are worth. Known as a collaborative adviser, Dave has served thousands of client companies of all sizes and industries. 

Dave is the author of two #1 best-selling books about the impact of human capital (PEOPLE!) on the valuation of a business enterprise called The NEW ROI: Return On Individuals & The NEW ROI: Going Behind The Numbers. 

He’s on a mission to change the conversation about how the accounting world recognizes the value of people’s contributions to a business enterprise, and to quantify what every CEO on the planet claims: “Our people are this company’s most valuable asset.”

Dave’s book, A Valuation Toolbox for Business Owners and Their Advisors: Things Every Business Owner Should Know, was recognized as a top new release in Business and Valuation and is designed to provide practical insights and tools to help understand what really drives business value, how to prepare for an exit, and just make better