Innovating Leadership: Co-Creating Our Future

Guest: Kathy Starkoff, former Ohio State CIO Your team is already stressed to the max. Now you need them to transform the business, too. Major change – whether it’s a new system, process, or reorganization -- may promise better results, but getting there requires people to learn unfamiliar ways of working while continuing to serve customers and deliver on existing commitments. Plus their enthusias...

Guest: James Robbins, Nine Minutes on Monday creator Your team knows the targets. You’ve clarified expectations. Why does getting results still require so much pushing?   Leadership expert James Robbins joins Maureen Metcalf to explore how demands for greater accountability can backfire when employees already feel undervalued,and what leaders can do to change that dynamic.   Drawing on his work wi...

Guest: Maryanna Klatt, Ph. D. Everyone needs your attention. But you’re exhausted; how much do you have left?   When your days are filled with meetings, messages, and difficult decisions, pushing through the overload and stress becomes a habit. You keep delivering, but finish the day exhausted, distracted, and still replaying a conversation that ended hours ago.   Maureen Metcalf welcomes mindfuln...

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 dec...

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...

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.com...

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...

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 perf...

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 an...

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 kn...

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. Dr...

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 argum...

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 dow...

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...

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 spe...

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'Brie...

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 withi...

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 t...

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 in...

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 l...

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,...

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, a...

Guest: Howard Hochhauser, CEO, Ancestry Many organizations are rushing to embrace AI, launch new initiatives, and pursue growth. But in the process, they’re losing sight of the very things that made them successful in the first place: their mission, their customers, and their identity. In this episode, Maureen Metcalf sits down with Howard Hochhauser, CEO of Ancestry , to explore how he helped ret...

Guest: Brian Ahearn, Chief Influence Officer Most leaders assume their biggest challenge is strategy. In reality, the greater challenge is getting people to willingly move with you. In this episode, Maureen Metcalf speaks with persuasion expert Brian Ahearn about the psychology of persuasion and why ethical influence has become one of the defining leadership capabilities of our time. Drawing on th...

Guest: James Taylor, Supercreativity author In this thought-provoking episode, we sit down with global creativity and innovation expert James Taylor to explore one of the defining leadership questions of our time: As AI automates more routine work, what becomes uniquely human — and uniquely valuable? James introduces the concept of “super creativity”: the amplification of human creativity through...