Partnering Leadership

In this episode of Partnering Leadership, Mahan Tavakoli sits down with Phil Le-Brun and Jana Werner, co-authors of The Octopus Organization. Drawing on decades of leadership experience across global organizations, they challenge one of the most deeply embedded assumptions in business: that organizations can still be run like machines.

At the heart of the conversation is a stark contrast between what they call “tinman” organizations...

This episode offers a different lens on leadership in a time of accelerating change.

In this conversation, Mahan Tavakoli is interviewed by Vimi Appadoo and Akilesh Deerpalsingh, senior leaders working closely with CEOs and executive teams in Mauritius through their roles at Dale Carnegie Mauritius and Baker Tilly Mauritius. The discussion emerged as part of a broader set of conversations leading up to a C-suite dialogue with senior...

Most leaders don’t struggle with strategy. They struggle with how people respond to it.

In this episode of Partnering Leadership, Mahan Tavakoli sits down with Amy Jacobson, author of The Emotional Intelligence Advantage: Mastering Change and Difficult Conversations. Amy brings a practical, grounded perspective on emotional intelligence, shaped by her work with leadership teams navigating real organizational challenges, not theoreti...

What if the “panic habits” leaders default to are the very things burning out their best people? In this Partnering Leadership episode, Mita Mallick—author of The Devil Emails at Midnight—joins Mahan to unpack practical ways senior leaders can replace performative urgency with clear operating rules that people can trust. You will hear why bad bosses are made, not born, and how pressure from markets, role models, and personal crises...

Trust sits at the center of every meaningful leadership conversation. Yet many leaders struggle to create the conditions where people feel comfortable sharing what they really think. In this episode of Partnering Leadership, Mahan Tavakoli speaks with Brad Beeler, a former U.S. Secret Service agent and the author of Tell Me Everything: A Secret Service Agent’s Proven Strategies for Earning Trust, Revealing the Truth, and Communicat...

In this compelling conversation, Raj Sisodia — co-founder of Conscious Capitalism and bestselling author of Firms of Endearment — joins the podcast to discuss his newest work, Healing Leaders. Widely recognized as one of the most influential voices reshaping modern business thinking, Raj brings decades of research, lived experience, and global perspective to a topic that sits at the center of organizational performance: the inner s...

In this episode of Partnering Leadership, Mahan Tavakoli sits down with Steve Brown, a leading AI futurist and former executive at organizations including Intel and DeepMind. Brown brings a rare combination of technical depth and leadership perspective, shaped by decades at the forefront of technological change and his work advising leaders around the world on the implications of artificial intelligence.

The conversation centers on ...

Growth stalls in organizations far more often than leaders expect. Not because ambition fades, or talent disappears, but because focus drifts. In this episode of Partnering Leadership, Mahan Tavakoli sits down with Kevin Lawrence, a long-time advisor to CEOs and executive teams, to explore why capable organizations lose their growth orientation and how leaders can recognize the warning signs early.

Kevin draws on decades of experien...

What does it take to build something that lasts—not just for years, but across generations? In this episode of Partnering Leadership, Mahan Tavakoli is joined by Alfredo De Massis, a globally recognized expert on family enterprise and author of The Family Business Book: A Roadmap for Entrepreneurial Families to Prosper Across Generations. As one of the most cited scholars in the field and a trusted advisor to multi-generational fam...

In this episode of Partnering Leadership, Mahan Tavakoli is joined by Jen Fisher, one of the most influential voices shaping how leaders think about work, wellbeing, and human sustainability. Jen is the former Chief Wellbeing Officer at Deloitte, where she spent more than two decades helping leaders confront burnout, redesign work, and rethink what success actually means inside large, complex organizations.

The conversation centers ...

As AI accelerates, many leadership conversations focus on tools, efficiency, and productivity. This episode of Partnering Leadership takes a different approach. Host Mahan Tavakoli is joined by Andrea Iorio, a global AI thought leader, former senior executive at Tinder and L’Oréal, and the author of Between You and AI.

Andrea brings a rare combination of global operating experience, deep technology fluency, and philosophical clarity...

In this episode of Partnering Leadership, Mahan Tavakoli is joined by Margie Warrell, a global leadership advisor and the author of The Courage Gap. The conversation goes beyond familiar ideas about confidence and resilience to explore what courage really looks like when leaders are facing uncertainty, fear, and high-stakes decisions.

Drawing on her upbringing on a small dairy farm in Australia and decades of work with senior leader...

In this episode of Partnering Leadership, Mahan Tavakoli sits down with Mohammad Anwar, founder and CEO of Softway and co-author of the book Love as a Change Strategy. Together, they take on one of the most misunderstood ideas in leadership: whether love has any place in driving performance, innovation, and large-scale change.

Mohammad’s perspective is not theoretical. He shares a deeply personal leadership story, tracing how a fear...

In this episode of Partnering Leadership, Mahan Tavakoli is joined by Greg Shove, CEO of Section and a serial entrepreneur with a deep track record of leading transformative growth. Shove’s leadership journey includes multiple successful pivots, and in this conversation, he brings a uniquely grounded perspective on how AI is fundamentally changing the role of leaders and the structure of modern organizations. From board-level decis...

Negotiation and sales are often treated as tactical skills. Something leaders do at the end of the process, armed with tricks, pressure, and leverage. In this conversation, Todd Caponi makes the case that this mindset is outdated—and increasingly damaging for leaders operating in a world of transparency, information abundance, and long-term accountability.

Todd draws on his experience as a former Chief Revenue Officer, his deep stud...

In this episode of Partnering Leadership, futurists Bob Johansen and Jamais Cascio join the conversation to explore the ideas behind their new book, The Age of Chaos: A Sense-Making Guide to a BANI World That Doesn’t Make Sense. Both guests bring decades of deep foresight work, scenario planning, and leadership insight—Bob through more than 50 years with the Institute for the Future, and Jamais as the originator of the BANI framewo...

In this episode of Partnering Leadership, Mahan Tavakoli sits down with Louisa Loran, a seasoned executive advisor whose career spans legacy brands, global industrial giants, and one of the world’s most influential technology companies. Louisa brings a rare perspective shaped by leadership roles at Diageo, Maersk, and Google—giving her a front-row seat to how strategy, operating models, and leadership expectations shift across indu...

In this episode of Partnering Leadership, Mahan Tavakoli sits down with Eric Termuende, leadership thinker, speaker, and author of Rethink Work: Finding & Keeping the Right Talent, for a grounded conversation about what actually holds teams together in times of uncertainty.

Rather than focusing on trends or surface-level engagement tactics, the discussion explores why trust, clarity, and human connection remain the real differen...

In this episode of Partnering Leadership, Mahan Tavakoli speaks with Les Csorba — senior partner at Heidrick & Struggles and author of Aware: The Power of Seeing Yourself Clearly. Drawing on decades advising CEOs, boards, and leadership teams, Les makes a compelling case that self-awareness is not a soft skill but a strategic differentiator. With leaders facing complexity, speed, and pressure unlike anything in recent memory, L...