LeaderSHOP

Leadership today demands far more than technical expertise and sound decision-making. Executive coach and author Mette Norgaard argues that the most effective leaders cultivate something deeper: the capacity to remain fully present, resourceful, and grounded when circumstances become difficult. She calls this quality “aliveness”—the ability to meet life’s inevitable challenges with clarity, resili...

John R. Miles, award-winning author, keynote speaker, host of the Passion Struck podcast, and former Fortune 50 executive, joins Rodger Dean Duncan to explore one of our most fundamental human needs: knowing that we matter. Drawing from his new book, The Mattering Effect: Creating a Life of Meaning and Worth, Miles distinguishes mattering from belonging, connectedness, and purpose. Belonging means...

Many organizations invest heavily in perks, technology, and collaboration spaces, believing these will create high-performing teams. Social psychologist Ron Friedman argues that exceptional teams are built differently. Drawing on research involving more than 6,000 workers, he explains that great teams consistently outperform others not because they work harder, but because leaders intentionally cr...

New York Times bestselling author, researcher, speaker, and entrepreneur Jon Acuff has spent years studying why capable people get in their own way. In his latest book, Procrastination Proof: Never Get Stuck Again, he challenges the familiar idea that procrastination is simply a failure of discipline. Instead, he argues that procrastination is often a solution people use to avoid fear, criticism,...

Martha MacCallum has spent more than two decades interviewing presidents, Supreme Court justices, and other influential figures in American life. As anchor and executive editor of The Story with Martha MacCallum and author of Unknown Valor and The Book of Valor, she brings a perspective shaped by both public leadership and ordinary people who rise to extraordinary challenges. Listen in as Martha e...

Ron Johnson has helped reshape modern retail at Target and Apple, experienced the painful lessons of attempting to transform JCPenney, and spent a career discovering what leadership looks like when purpose, service, and humanity are taken seriously. Drawing from his new book, Shop Different: How Retail Revealed Apple’s Genius, Johnson joins Rodger Dean Duncan to explore the experiences and relatio...

Most organizational change initiatives fail—not because the strategy is flawed, but because leaders underestimate the behavioral challenges involved in helping people adopt new ways of working. Julia Dhar, managing partner at Boston Consulting Group and founder of BCG’s Behavioral Science Lab, explains that successful transformation depends on understanding how people experience change, not simply...

In today’s fast-paced workplace, many leaders assume that moving faster is the key to higher performance. Leadership researcher Shawn Vanderhoven challenges that belief, arguing that sustainable success comes not from constant activity but from creating the conditions where people can focus on the work that matters most. Drawing on years of research with organizations such as Amazon, Google, and L...

Conventional wisdom tells us that greater freedom, unlimited choices, and abundant resources lead to better performance. Bestselling author David Epstein challenges that assumption. Drawing from research in psychology, business, sports, design, and innovation, he argues that meaningful constraints often produce better thinking, stronger creativity, and more effective leadership. Rather than limiti...

At age nine, John O’Leary survived a devastating house fire that left him burned over 100 percent of his body and given virtually no chance of survival. Rather than allowing tragedy to define his future, he learned from his parents, caregivers, mentors, and friends that our circumstances do not determine our destiny—our choices do. Today, O’Leary inspires audiences around the world with a message...

Psychological safety has become one of the most widely discussed leadership concepts in modern organizations, but understanding its importance is much easier than putting it into practice. Leadership consultant and author Minette Norman defines psychological safety as the belief that people can ask questions, seek help, challenge ideas, and take risks without fear of embarrassment, exclusion, or p...

Organizations have invested billions of dollars in data platforms, analytics, dashboards, and artificial intelligence, yet many still struggle to make better decisions. Dr. Sebastian Wernicke argues that the problem is rarely the technology itself. Instead, organizations often use data to reinforce existing assumptions rather than challenge them. While becoming data-driven improves efficiency and...

Accountability is one of leadership’s most misunderstood responsibilities. Many leaders avoid difficult conversations because they fear conflict, damaging relationships, or provoking defensiveness. Justin Hale argues that silence carries a far greater cost. When expectations go unspoken and broken commitments go unaddressed, trust erodes, performance declines, and organizational culture slowly acc...

High performance is often portrayed as the product of exceptional talent, perfect timing, or fortunate circumstances. Ryan Hawk offers a different perspective. After interviewing more than 700 world-class leaders, athletes, entrepreneurs, and performers, he has concluded that excellence is rarely the result of a single breakthrough. Instead, it emerges through countless small decisions made consis...

For decades, leaders have relied on incentives, rewards, recognition, and accountability systems to motivate people. Susan Fowler argues that this approach has been built on a misunderstanding of human behavior. People are never unmotivated—they are always motivated by something. The real leadership challenge is not generating more motivation but cultivating higher-quality motivation. Drawing on m...

In a world where information spreads instantly and public opinion forms in seconds, crisis communication has become far more complex than issuing a press release or managing a difficult headline. Bradley Akubuiro argues that modern leaders operate in an environment that is faster, messier, and tougher than ever before. Drawing on experiences ranging from corporate crises at Boeing to public servic...

Most people spend years learning the technical skills required to do their jobs, but few are taught the unwritten rules that determine success in the workplace. Erin McGoff calls these rules the “secret language of work”—the hidden etiquette, communication strategies, and professional norms that are often passed down informally through family, mentors, or experience. Through practical frameworks a...

Artificial intelligence is reshaping the world of work at a pace few people have experienced before, but Aneesh Raman argues that the real story is not about machines replacing humans. It is about humans rediscovering what makes them uniquely valuable. Drawing on LinkedIn’s workforce data and insights from his book Open to Work, Raman explains that the future belongs to people who are willing to a...

Leadership wisdom is often presented as complex and difficult to master, but Mark Miller argues that great leadership is rooted in a simple principle: leaders serve. Discussing the fourth edition of The Secret, co-authored with Ken Blanchard, Miller explains that servant leadership is not soft or passive. Rather, it is a rigorous and intentional approach that helps leaders create environments wher...

Most people think of purpose as something grand and distant — a life mission to discover someday in the future. But bestselling author and leadership researcher Tom Rath argues that purpose is far more practical than that. In this conversation with Rodger Dean Duncan, Rath explains that purpose is not a philosophy. It is a daily decision about how we invest our time, energy, attention, and relatio...

For more than two decades, Dr. Lois P. Frankel’s bestselling book Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office has helped women identify the subtle, often unconscious behaviors that quietly undermine career growth. In this conversation with Rodger Dean Duncan, Frankel explains why many of those patterns still persist today, even as younger generations of women enter the workforce with far more empowerin...

What if most persuasion strategies fail because they target the wrong part of the brain? According to behavioral science expert Leslie Zane, people do not primarily make decisions through conscious logic. They make them instinctively, through networks of subconscious memories and associations she calls the “brand connectome.” In this conversation with Rodger Dean Duncan, Zane explains how instinct...

Employee engagement is often discussed as a “soft” topic, but according to Gallup Chief Scientist of Workplace Management and Well-Being Dr. Jim Harter, the evidence tells a very different story. After decades of studying workplace culture, leadership, burnout, and performance across millions of employees worldwide, Harter argues that engagement is one of the strongest predictors of organizational...

Marcus Buckingham says the most powerful force in business is not engagement, satisfaction, or loyalty — it is love. In this conversation, Marcus explains why the best leaders intentionally design workplaces and customer experiences that people genuinely love, and why organizations lose their humanity when the “founder’s flame” is replaced by the relentless maintenance of the machine. Marcus unpac...

In this episode of LeaderSHOP, Rodger Dean Duncan explores a reality that every leader eventually faces—being called to move forward without feeling fully prepared. Whether stepping into a new role, navigating adversity, or facing uncertainty, leaders are often required to act before they feel ready. This conversation highlights a different way to approach those moments, one grounded in faith, cou...