David Burkus Presents

A lot of leadership advice assumes everyone on your team actually works for you, but modern teams are often blended teams, full-time employees, freelancers, contractors, consultants, and fractional leaders all trying to move work forward with different schedules, incentives, and priorities. That can get messy fast. In this video, we’ll break down how to manage a blended team without wasting people...

Is your team always waiting until the last minute...all the time? You'd be surprised. It’s not about laziness. It's usually about stress, unclear expectations, vague milestones, and bottlenecks leaders don’t always see. Now, don't you procrastinate here, I'm here to help! In this video, I’ll show you how to handle procrastination without micromanaging or becoming the boss nobody wa...

Most leaders treat time management like a logistics problem. Not enough hours. Too many demands. A calendar that's already full before Monday starts. So they grind harder—and still feel behind. Laura Vanderkam has spent two decades studying how people actually spend their time, and her research keeps arriving at the same uncomfortable finding: most of us aren't as busy as we believe. We&#3...

Does something feel off at your job? The Sunday scaries creeping in harder and harder? Jealously bubbling up from other people’s work at other places? Or are simply bored? Well, it might be time for a career change. Before you make the leap to possibly brighter pastures that promise purpose and maybe even cure those Sunday scaries, take it from me, you’ll want to take a few strategic steps before...

If you’ve ever felt the “vibe shift” at work, fewer responsibilities, less communication, and more criticism...you may be getting managed out. No one wants to be in this situation. And if that sounds like you, I'm here to help. In this episode, I break down the subtle signs your boss or organization may be quietly pushing you toward the exit, and more importantly, what you can do about it. It&...

Most organizations are treating AI like a software upgrade. Buy the licenses, hand it to IT, measure adoption rates, call it a transformation. It isn't. Charlene Li has spent the last several years inside organizations actually leading AI transformation — not just talking about it — and her diagnosis is blunt: the problem isn't the technology. It's that leaders keep handing off a leade...

Perfectionism feels like a strength, but it’s often the very thing slowing you down. In this video, we break down the hidden costs of perfectionism and how it quietly sabotages productivity, decision-making, and team performance. Drawing on research and real-world examples, you’ll learn the critical difference between pursuing excellence and chasing perfection, and why that distinction matters mor...

Want to get promoted and land the high-profile projects? Just doing great work isn't enough. You need a strong internal reputation that speaks for you even when you're not in the room. In this video, I'm breaking down five proven strategies to build your workplace reputation without playing politics. I'll show you how to make yourself visible, how to make others look good (and in t...

Most leaders think creativity belongs to a handful of people on their team—the ones in marketing, R&D, or the corner office with the whiteboard. Everyone else executes. And that assumption, more than any lack of talent, is what's quietly killing your team's best ideas before they ever surface. Josh Linkner has spent years studying what actually happens when people create together at th...

Failure at work isn’t the problem, it's how leaders respond to it is. In this video, I break down how great leaders turn mistakes into momentum by building trust, reinforcing psychological safety, and creating a culture where teams actually learn. You’ll learn a simple, practical framework: acknowledge what happened, separate effort from outcomes, run effective post-mortems, and reestablish cl...

Most people think leadership comes with a title. A promotion. A team. But in reality, leadership starts long before any of that...and often without it. In this video, we’re unpacking what it really means to lead without formal authority. Because stepping up without the title isn’t just a career move, it’s a proving ground. It’s where you build the skills, relationships, and reputation that make le...

You’ve probably worked with someone like this: they hit every deadline, their numbers look great, and leadership sees them as a star performer. But ask the rest of the team, and you’ll hear a...very...different story. In this episode, I tackle a challenge almost every leader faces: how to handle a high performer who creates friction on the team. The truth is, performance isn’t just about individua...

Most leaders are searching for the formula. The right strategy, the right talent, the right incentive structure. And when teams underperform, they add more—more process, more accountability, more pressure. What they almost never do is pause. In his new book Flourish, Daniel Coyle spent five years visiting the highest-performing teams, organizations, and communities on the planet—and he never found...

We tend to picture leaders as bold, charismatic extroverts. The loudest voice in the room. But that stereotype is costing organizations great talent. In this video, I break down the research on introverted leaders and why quiet, thoughtful professionals often make some of the most effective managers and team builders. You’ll also learn practical strategies introverted leaders can use to build high...

Most leaders think high performance is a simple equation: more hours, more hustle, more grit. And in a short-term crisis, that approach can even look like it’s working—war rooms, late nights, and relentless pressure that “proves” productivity. But sustained high performance doesn’t come from staying on all the time. It comes from knowing when to push—and when to recover—so your energy, judgment, a...

Are all your productivity tools actually making you...less productive? The average knowledge worker toggles between platforms 1,200 times a day. That’s four hours lost just reorienting your brain. Email, Slack, project tools, shared docs… they were supposed to help us, not hijack our focus. In this video, I’ll break down why productivity platforms often backfire and how to fix it. We’ll look at ho...

If you're struggling to delegate as a manager, it's time to fix that. Have no fear. In this video, I break down the most common mistakes managers make when delegating and then I’ll give you strategies to delegate in a way that actually builds high-performing, autonomous teams. We’ll talk about task vs. ownership, how to create trust without micromanaging, and why delegation isn’t about off...

We all make the same promise, sometimes more than once: "This time, I’ll be more productive.” But most productivity goals fail, not because we lack motivation, but because we’re managing the wrong thing. Based on powerful research, we’ll uncover how your natural energy rhythms can unlock your peak performance. You’ll learn how to identify your personal energy peaks, timebox your workday, and...

2025 was a noisy year. Quiet quitting, quiet firing, corporate catfishing? Yeah, we heard it all. But as we head into 2026, smart leaders aren’t chasing headlines, they’re looking for the signal in the noise. I break down the workplace trends that actually matter and how to lead your team through them. From hybrid work to generative AI, flexibility to psychological safety, we’ll cover what’s here...

Want to build your best team ever? Join 25,000+ who receive these insights in my free newsletter: https://davidburkus.com/podcast You’ve got a great idea. A new workflow. A game-changing tool. A better way to run meetings. You bring it to your manager…and get hit with “let’s stick with what we know.” Sound familiar? I'm breaking down why smart people reject great ideas, and more importantly, h...

Want to build your best team ever? Join 25,000+ who receive these insights in my free newsletter: https://davidburkus.com/podcast AI can boost creativity, but is it killing collaboration? It'a true, tools like ChatGPT can help and also hurt your team's ability to innovate together. I’ll walk you through research-backed insights showing how over-reliance on AI can lead to sameness, less sur...

Want to build your best team ever? Join 25,000+ who receive these insights in my free newsletter: https://davidburkus.com/podcast Most leaders know goal setting matters, but most are doing it wrong. I’ll break down the common mistakes leaders make when setting goals and how they unknowingly sabotage performance, trust, and motivation on their teams. I’ll show you how to distinguish between perform...

Want to build your best team ever? Join 25,000+ who receive these insights in my free newsletter: https://davidburkus.com/podcast Ever sit through a meeting where someone says, “Let’s circle back and align our KPIs”—and everyone just nods, while you're silently wondering what on earth that even means? Yeah. Corporate jargon is everywhere. And while some of it can help teams move faster, too of...

Want to build your best team ever? Join 25,000+ who receive these insights in my free newsletter: https://davidburkus.com/podcast In today’s hybrid world, where the lines between work and life are blurrier than ever, leaders can’t afford to ignore how emotions shape performance for themselves and the people they manage. If you want a team that stays engaged, communicates well, and actually enjoys...

Want to build your best team ever? Join 25,000+ who receive these insights in my free newsletter: https://davidburkus.com/podcast Every team needs A-Players. But spotting and supporting your high performers isn’t just nice to do, it’s essential leadership. In this episode, I’ll show you how to find the real A-Players on your team (hint: they’re not always the loudest in the room), and more importa...