Innovating Leadership: Co-Creating Our Future

Guest: Jack Myers, author of Your Third Brain

Your AI business case measures time saved and costs reduced. Does it measure the judgment ability your organization could lose?

Jack Myers joins Maureen Metcalf to explore how automation and management cuts can quietly dismantle the very human mentoring, relationships, and accountability that help organizations make sound decisions.

Drawing on five decades in the media industry and his ...

Guest: Mike Morrow-Fox

You thought this made you a good boss: you hired capable people and gave them room to work. But do they experience that freedom as trust, or as being left on their own?

The answer could indicate they see you as a bad boss instead.

Maureen Metcalf and Mike Morrow-Fox examine what separates a good boss from a leader who is simply good at running operations. Mike shares the story of a manager whose hands-off a...

Guest: Mike McLellan, COO, DHL Supply Chain North America

You hired capable leaders. Can they make a decision you wouldn’t have made…and still count on your support?

Mike McLellan, Chief Operating Officer of DHL Supply Chain North America, admits he likes control. But when a vice president proposed a reorganization different from his own vision, he recognized that his plan wasn’t better, dhl.comand told her to e...

Guest: Lesley Southwick-Trask

You’ve earned a reputation for knowing what you’re doing. When did you last let yourself learn something you might be bad at?

Cultural anthropologist, CEO, and leadership strategist Lesley Southwick-Trask joins Maureen Metcalf to explore how unfamiliar experiences can help accomplished leaders see problems differently. Through stories of a skeptical engineer in an art museum, soldiersl lear...

Guest: Jonathan Reams

Your leadership team identifies a recurring problem, redesigns the process, and sees improvement…temporarily. Then the same problem returns wearing slightly different clothes.

What didn’t the leaders fix? According to adult-development researcher Jonathan Reams: “Themselves.”

In this conversation with host Maureen Metcalf, Jonathan explains why a decision process can perform only as ...

Guest: Paul Gibbons

What if your organization’s greatest strength is also making it dangerously fragile?

In this specially selected archival follow-up, Maureen Metcalf revisits a provocative conversation with Paul Gibbons, author of The Science of Successful Organizational Change. Paul explains why resilience -- returning to where you were before a disruption -- may no longer be enough. Truly antifragile organizations use sh...

Guest: Ruth Milligan

Your expertise may earn you a seat at the table, but it doesn’t guarantee anyone will remember what you say.

Executive communication coach and TEDx pioneer Ruth Milligan joins Maureen Metcalf to explain why accomplished leaders struggle to influence a room, especially when their command of the subject tempts them to share too much. The audience rarely needs everything you know. It needs one consequential...

Guests: Jim Ritchie-Dunham, Annabel Membrillo & Ana Claudia Goncalves

Why do organizations hire capable people, then squeeze them into systems that prevent them from contributing their best?

Jim Ritchie-Dunham, Ana Claudia Goncalves, and Anabel Membrillo join Maureen Metcalf to examine the invisible agreements that shape organizational culture, employee engagement, and business performance.

Drawing on a multiyear transformation...

Guest: Paul Gibbons 

Why do intelligent leaders approve sound change initiatives, then struggle to turn them into action? 

In this episode, host Maureen Metcalf speaks with Paul Gibbons, organizational change expert and author of The Science of Successful Organizational Change. Drawing on behavioral science, philosophy, and decades of business experience, Paul explains why facts and rational arguments ...

Guest: Manfred Kets de Vries

Every executive has experienced it.

A strategy looked sound. The data was convincing. The leadership team agreed. Yet the outcome still fell short.

Why?

According to renowned leadership scholar Manfred Kets de Vries, the answer isn't in the strategy itself, but in the psychology of the people making decisions.

In this thought-provoking episode, Maureen Metcalf sits down with one of the world's foremost ...

Guest: Cindy Wigglesworth

Can leaders continue to grow after mastering emotional intelligence?

For years, leadership development has emphasized IQ and Emotional Intelligence (EQ) as essential capabilities. But there is another dimension that separates good leaders from truly exceptional ones.

In this episode, Maureen Metcalf welcomes Cindy Wigglesworth, founder of Deep Change and creator of the groundbreaking SQ21® Spiritual Intel...

What if your organization's leadership shortage isn't a talent problem, but a leadership job design problem?

Many organizations are investing heavily in leadership development while watching their leadership pipelines grow weaker. Why? According to Gallagher's latest research, talented employees are looking at leadership roles and deciding they don't want them.

In this episode, Maureen Metcalf speaks with Steve Dion, National Manag...

Guests: Dave DuBose & Will O’Brien

What if your labor shortage isn't really a hiring problem?

When workers are scarce, the conventional responses are predictable: raise wages, offer bonuses, hire earlier, add temporary labor, and hope you make it through the next peak. But what if those tactics are treating the symptoms while leaving the real problem untouched?

Supply chain leaders Will O'Brien and Dave DuBose join Mauree...

Guests: Greg Moran & Christopher Washington

What if your organization's biggest competitive disadvantage isn't your strategy; it's how long it takes to turn insight into action?

Many leadership teams are filled with smart, experienced people, yet they still struggle to respond quickly to problems. The issue is rarely the quality of their leaders. It's the system those leaders are working within.

In this episode, Dr. Christopher...

Guests: Scott Dresser & Sandy Gordon, Amazon VPs

As organizations race to adopt AI and automation, many leaders are asking the wrong question. The challenge isn't how to deploy better technology. It's how to build human-centered systems that allow people and technology to thrive together.

In this special episode, Maureen Metcalf speaks with two Amazon executives responsible for making one of the world's most complex organizatio...

Guest: Mats Alvesson

If your organization is full of smart people, why does it keep making bad decisions?

In this thought-provoking episode, Maureen Metcalf and Christopher Washington are joined by Professor Mats Alvesson, one of the world's leading organizational scholars and author of The Stupidity Paradox.

Alvesson introduces the concept of “functional stupidity”—the tendency for intelligent individuals and org...

Guests: Brian Ahearn Chief Influence Officer

Many leaders believe their job is to deliver results, not to be liked. But what if that assumption is limiting their effectiveness?

In this episode, Maureen Metcalf welcomes back Brian Ahearn to explore the leadership power of liking and reciprocity. Drawing on decades of research in influence, Brian explains why people are more willing to support leaders they trust, how small acts of ...

Guest: Holly Sullivan, Amazon VP of Worldwide Economic Development

What happens when leadership decisions affect not just an organization, but entire communities?

In this episode, Maureen Metcalf speaks with Holly Sullivan, Vice President of Worldwide Economic Development at Amazon. Holly oversees initiatives that influence billions of dollars in investment, workforce development, infrastructure, and community partnerships across t...

Guests: Christopher & Sheila Cooke

Today's leaders face a paradox: the problems confronting organizations are increasingly complex, yet the leadership approaches we've relied on for decades are producing diminishing returns.

In this episode, Maureen Metcalf is joined by Christopher and Sheila Cooke, founders of Five Deep and pioneers in the study of human emergence, developmental leadership, and systems awareness. Together, the...