Career Sessions

What happens when the strengths that made you successful become the very things holding you back?   You've worked hard, built your career, and earned greater responsibility. But now something isn't working. Your team isn't responding the way you'd hoped. Your leadership style feels less effective. Or perhaps you've hit a career plateau despite doing everything that made you successful in the...

Are today's managers too nice? In our efforts to create more compassionate workplaces, have we gone too far in avoiding difficult conversations, lowering expectations, and letting poor performance slide?   In this episode of Career Sessions, J.R. Lowry sits down with Matt Hunter, executive coach and co-author of Tough Enough: How to Lead a Team to Greatness Without Being a Jerk, to explore wh...

What happens when your commitment to putting others first comes at the expense of your own well-being? Kristen Hadeed built Student Made into a successful business known for its people-first culture. But after years of prioritizing her team and company above herself, she reached a breaking point. She had lost her passion, felt disconnected from herself, and realized that the leadership philosophy...

A lot of people spend plenty of time thinking about how to succeed in their jobs, but far less time thinking about how to choose the right jobs in the first place. In this episode of Career Sessions, J.R. Lowry sits down with Kelly O. Kay, managing partner at executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles and co-author of Show Up to Win: The Insider’s Guide to Getting the Career You Want. Drawing...

You may not think of yourself as a salesperson, but every day at work, you’re selling something—an idea, a proposal, your capabilities, or even yourself.   In this episode of Career Sessions, J.R. Lowry sits down with sales expert, author, and longtime podcast host Andy Paul to explore what the rest of us can learn from great salespeople about influence, curiosity, and human connection. &nbsp...

What if you achieve everything you thought you wanted in your career, and still find yourself wondering if that's really all there is? Former Vertex CEO Jeff Westphal joins host J.R. Lowry to discuss how you can build a Work Life Worth Living when traditional status isn't enough. Jeff Westphal spent two decades as CEO of Vertex, helping grow the company from roughly 75 employees to more than 1,000...

Most professionals assume great work speaks for itself, but solid Product Positioning proves that value never communicates automatically. When competitors offer flashy feature checklists or when crowded markets blur real differentiation, buyers and hiring managers get confused quickly. Host JR Lowry sits down with April Dunford , leading positioning expert and bestselling author of Obviously Aweso...

What's the real job of a leader? According to Dave Ulrich, it isn’t having all the answers, building your own reputation, or even telling a compelling story about where you’re going. Great leaders help the people around them build their stories—and create value for others. In this episode of Career Sessions, J.R. Lowry sits down with Dave , one of the world’s most influential thinkers on leadershi...

Finding a job has never been easy, but today’s hiring process can feel particularly frustrating. Hundreds of applicants compete for a single role, AI is reshaping how candidates are screened, and qualified people often struggle to get noticed. At the same time, employers insist they can’t find the talent they need. So what’s really going on? In this episode of Career Sessions, J.R. Lowry talks wit...

AI can already draft, summarize, analyze data, write code, and find patterns faster than most of us. So as these capabilities become increasingly commonplace, what will make you valuable? In this episode of Career Sessions, J.R. Lowry talks with Liat Ben-Zur, former senior executive at Microsoft, Qualcomm, and Philips and author of The Bias Advantage, about how AI is changing the skills that matte...

AI can write, analyze, summarize, code, and create—and its capabilities are advancing at a remarkable pace. So as machines become more intelligent, what will keep humans indispensable?   Johan Roos believes the answer lies in what he calls “human magic”: the distinctly human capabilities that technology can support, but never replace. Johan is an internationally recognized strategy scholar, f...

Why do some teams consistently outperform while others—with equally talented people—struggle with endless meetings, constant interruptions, and burnout? In this episode of Career Sessions, JR Lowry sits down with organizational psychologist and bestselling author Ron Friedman to explore what separates exceptional teams from average ones. Drawing on research involving more than 6,000 workers for hi...

For decades, a good job meant stability, career development, and a long-term relationship between employers and employees. But according to MIT Sloan professor Paul Osterman, that social contract has fundamentally changed. In this episode of Career Sessions, JR Lowry sits down with Osterman to discuss the ideas behind his new book, Disposable Workers, and why more than one-third of today's workfor...

Most people were never taught how to manage money. Yet they're expected to navigate rising housing costs, student debt, investing, retirement planning, and an economy that often feels stacked against them.   In this episode of Career Sessions, Career Lessons, JR Lowry sits down with Carrie Joy Grimes , founder of WorkMoney and author of the USA Today bestselling book The Joy of Money , to exp...

What if the biggest financial risk in your life isn't the stock market—but your paycheck?   Most professionals spend years building successful careers, yet their entire financial future depends on a single employer. In today's world of layoffs, AI disruption, and economic uncertainty, that's becoming an increasingly fragile strategy.   In this episode, JR Lowry sits down with Jon Ostenso...

Most careers stall because professionals wait for permission, confidence, or the right timing rather than taking action. In this episode, host J.R. Lowry sits down with former professional athlete and entrepreneur Dre Baldwin to dissect why professional discipline outperforms raw motivation every time. Baldwin reveals how he translated lessons from overseas sports courts into scalable business fra...

What if becoming a better leader has less to do with learning new management techniques and more to do with becoming more yourself? In this episode, former RBC executive and HomeEquity Bank CEO Katherine Dudtschak shares a deeply personal journey that transformed not only her life, but also her philosophy of leadership. After publicly affirming her gender while leading thousands of employees, Kath...

Everyone talks about AI as the future of work. But what if the bigger story is something we're overlooking? In this episode, JR speaks with leadership strategist and author Dan Pontefract about why experience—not youth—may become one of the most valuable assets in tomorrow's workplace. As workforces age and labor shortages grow, Dan argues that organizations must rethink how they hire, develop, an...

Why does work feel so overwhelming, even when you're getting everything done? In this episode, leadership expert and bestselling author Liane Davey explains why the problem isn't your workload—it's your thought load: the hidden combination of cognitive demands, emotional burden, and depleted energy that makes work feel harder than it should. In this episode, you'll learn: Why working harder won't...

Anxiety is often treated as something to overcome. But what if it’s also one of the forces driving your success?   In this episode, JR speaks with Morra Aarons-Mele , author of The Anxious Achiever and host of Harvard Business Review’s popular podcast of the same name, about the complex relationship between anxiety, achievement, leadership, and performance.   Morra argues that anxiety is...

Most teams don't fail because they lack talent. They fail because they're not having the conversations that matter. In this episode of Career Sessions, Career Lessons, I sit down with workplace culture expert, consultant, and author Gustavo Razzetti to discuss his new book, Forward Talk . Gustavo argues that the biggest threat to team performance isn't conflict—it's silence. When concerns go unspo...

Most people spend a huge portion of their lives at work. So why do so many of us dread it? In this episode, JR speaks with Debbie Lovich , Senior Partner Emerita at Boston Consulting Group and author of Make Work Work , about why employee engagement has remained stubbornly low for decades despite billions spent on leadership training, culture initiatives, and workplace transformation programs. Deb...

Most people see careers as ladders to climb. Mohamed Isa sees them as mountains to explore. In this episode, Mohamed shares his remarkable journey from working as a cleaner in a bank to becoming the youngest CFO of a publicly listed company in Bahrain. Along the way, he learned that success isn't about following a predetermined path—it's about taking calculated risks, continually reinventing yours...

Most people think overwhelm is a productivity problem. Corrie LoGiudice argues it’s something much deeper.  In this episode, JR speaks with Corrie LoGiudice, author of The Five Overwhelm Culprits , about why so many high performers feel exhausted, disconnected and stuck — even when their lives look successful on paper. Corrie explains why burnout is often misdiagnosed as a time-management iss...

Most companies don’t fail because they’re outcompeted. They fail because they succeed. In this episode, JR speaks with Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup and Incorruptible , about why successful organizations so often lose their mission, values and long-term vision. Eric explains how modern corporate systems incentivize short-term extraction over long-term value creation and that the problem is...