The Leadership Podcast

Geoffrey Cain is an award-winning investigative journalist and bestselling author. A former correspondent for The Economist and TIME, he has spent more than 15 years covering technology, geopolitics, and global business. His latest book is "Steve Jobs in Exile."

Geoffrey explores the lesser-known years after Steve Jobs was pushed out of Apple, and how that period changed the way he approached leadership. J...

Shawn Achor is one of the world's leading experts on the connection between happiness and success. His research on mindset has appeared in Harvard Business Review, his TED Talk has been viewed more than 25 million times, and he is the New York Times bestselling author of The Happiness Advantage and Big Potential. His latest book is The Power of Beliefs: How Strengthening Seven Core Beliefs Predicts Greater Success and ...

David Robson is an award-winning science writer and author of The Intelligence Trap, The Expectation Effect, and The Laws of Connection. His work has appeared in the BBC, New Scientist, and The Guardian, and has been translated into more than 15 languages.

David explores why intelligence and expertise don't always protect leaders from bad judgment. He explains how the "curse of expertise" can create overco...

Lee Benson, CEO of Execute to Win and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of "Your Most Important Number," and "Value Creation Family," believes families and organizations have something in common: they're perfectly designed to produce the results they get.

In this conversation, Lee explains why removing every obstacle—whether for employees or children—often creates dependence instead of own...

David Craig is the author of the Bluebook: How Bold Leadership Unlocked a $27 Billion Success Story, and the former CEO of Refinitiv. 

David believes organizations rarely fail because of strategy or market conditions. They fail when complexity quietly replaces clarity, making it harder for people to make decisions, serve customers, and move the business forward.

In this conversation, Davi...

Patrick Emmons is the founder of DragonSpears and president of Improving Chicago. For more than two decades, he has built, scaled, and sold technology companies while helping organizations develop stronger leaders and healthier teams.

Patrick believes the strongest organizations don't depend on a few exceptional leaders. They grow because leaders are developed at every level.

In our conversati...

Purpose isn't something you find once and follow forever. It's something you practice every day.

Tom Rath is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of StrengthsFinder 2.0, How Full Is Your Bucket?, Eat Move Sleep, and his latest book, What's the Point?: Turning Purpose Into Your Daily Superpower.

After decades studying what helps people thrive, Tom believes we've been thinking about purpose ...

Kim Svoboda is the founder of Aspiration Catalyst and author of BOLD Leadership: The Adventure of Building Excuse-Proof, Goal-Crushing Teams.

Kim argues that leadership isn't about position, power, or title. It's about creating a vision others believe in while leading in a way that aligns with your values. Too many leaders achieve external success without ever asking whether the life they're building refle...

Donnie Boivin is the CEO and founder of Success Champion Networking, five-time bestselling author, and founder of the Badass Business Summit.

Donnie argues that traditional networking fails anyone selling high-value services. Too many people spend their time collecting business cards from people who will never buy from them instead of building relationships with people who can open the right doors.

David Gray is the CEO of FedUp Foods, a values-driven beverage company serving major retailers. His purpose-driven leadership has earned national recognition, including being named one of the MO 100 Top Impact CEOs, an annual ranking of purpose-driven business leaders, and receiving the Pros to Know Award.

David believes the best leaders never force a choice between empathy and accountability. In times of ...

Patrick Ryan is the author of "The Moral Market: Adam Smith and the Promise of Virtuous Capitalism."

Patrick argues that capitalism was never intended to be separated from morality. Modern business leaders often treat ethics as a compliance issue or a reputational concern. Adam Smith saw it differently. He believed markets only function when they are built on justice, reciprocity, and trust.

I...

Jill Schulman is a keynote speaker, Marine Corps veteran, and bestselling author of "The Bravery Effect: A Parable Teaching the Science of Conquering Fear, Achieving More, and Living Life to the Fullest.".

Jill argues that bravery is not a personality trait. It's a skill. Most people assume brave people are simply wired differently. The research suggests something else: bravery is built through repeated ac...

Jim Brown is the author of "The Imperfect CEO: Making the Climb to Organizational Health" and founder of Org Health. For over 30 years he has worked with CEOs, boards, and executive teams to build healthy organizational cultures and lead with clarity, courage, and shared responsibility.

Jim argues that leadership accountability is the most underestimated pillar of organizational health. Not because leaders...

Joth Ricci is CEO of LYBL (Live Your Best Life), owner of Winderlea Winery, author of The System, executive chair of Burgerville, and former CEO of Dutch Bros and Stumptown Coffee. 

In this conversation, Joth explains why great companies aren't built by leaders who solve more problems—they're built by leaders who teach their people how to solve them. He breaks down the difference between executi...

Murshed Chowdhury is the founder of Tech Duels, a communication and training platform redefining how individuals and organizations develop critical thinking and decision-making skills through structured debate.

Murshed believes debate is one of the most underused leadership development tools available today. Not because it teaches people how to win arguments, but because it teaches them how to truly think,...

Karen Doll is a licensed psychologist, author of "Building Psychological Fitness: How High Performers Achieve with Ease," a partner at Psynet Group and chairs the Flourishing at Work initiative under Harvard's Flourishing Program.

Most leaders know how to push through stress. Far fewer know how to recover from it. Karen argues that the difference matters more than most people realize.

In this ...

Nick Black is the founder and CEO of GoodUnited, a former Army officer, co-founder of Stop Soldier Suicide, a Presidential Leadership Scholar, and a UNC Distinguished Alumnus.

Nick focuses on a cost most leaders refuse to calculate: isolation.

What happens to your people when no one is checking on them?

After deploying 27 months in combat with the 173rd Airborne, Nick watched one ...

Kevin Rice is the former co-founder and president of Hathaway, a digital consultancy acquired by Bounteous in 2021. He is now an angel investor at Theorem One Capital and host of the CEOs and ABCs podcast.

Kevin focuses on a gap most leaders don't want to look at. The difference between who you are at work and who you are at home.

At work, the metrics are clear. You perform, you grow, you win....

What happens when you spend 10 years interviewing some of the world's top leaders?

After 500 interviews with CEOs, generals, founders, bestselling authors, athletes, and elite performers, Jim Vaselopulos and Jan Rutherford discovered a surprising pattern. The most successful leaders were NOT the most polished, they were the most self-aware, adaptable, and relentlessly committed to growth.

In t...