How to Make a Leader

AI has flattened the information gap. Knowledge is no longer the differentiator. So what separates great leaders? Emotional intelligence: judgment, presence, the ability to read a room and know when to pause. Successful teams are building a system where EQ behaviors are a part of the organization's DNA. Ash Panjwani has spent her career building leadership systems grounded in EQ at companies like...

Your managers are leading people they've never met in person, on teams that include both humans and AI agents. Most leadership programs weren't built for that. Kameko Leung has built leadership development programs at Zillow, Michael Page, and now Pinterest, and she knows what it takes to develop leaders for that reality. She breaks down what distributed leadership requires: the operating systems,...

T. Rowe Price doesn't do one-off training programs. They engineer leadership. Ryan Smith leads Global Leadership and Career Development at T. Rowe Price, where he's spent nearly four years building a company-wide learning system that reaches leaders at every level, from the C-suite to frontline associates. The foundation: a belief that everyone, regardless of title, has the capacity to lead. He sh...

We’re back with a Quick Question: one big question, one expert answer, in five minutes.  Mike Taylor explains why learning teams often underestimate the role of attention, and how ideas from cognitive and marketing psychology can improve the way training is designed. He shares six simple attention triggers that make learning more relevant, tangible and memorable, and shows how L&D teams can mo...

Building a manager development program from scratch is hard. But scaling it is harder. Sarah Bright leads Learning & Development at Darktrace. She built a tiered manager development program from scratch, training 75% of all managers across 20 learning cohorts in two years. She shares how her team designed a program that adapts to a fast-moving business, the core competencies that define great...

Introducing Quick Questions : one big question, one expert answer, in five minutes. Giving constructive feedback is uncomfortable for most leaders. Amy Gallo is a best-selling author and contributing editor at Harvard Business Review who has written extensively about communication, conflict, and feedback. She explains why intention matters just as much as wording, and shares a straightforward fram...

Jonny Thomson isn’t an L&D professional. He’s someone who’s spent years figuring out how to earn learners’ attention.  After teaching philosophy in Oxford, Jonny shifted to short-form educational content, building an audience of over two million people across social platforms. He’s spent years capturing attention, encouraging curiosity, and making learning content that resonates with his audie...

Most leadership development programs look good on paper but fall short in practice. Leaders often miss the real support, core skills, and clear metrics they need to succeed. Over the last few months, Lavinia Mehedințu, co-founder of Offbeat, spoke with over 150 L&D professionals to understand what’s working, what’s not, and how people feel about leadership development heading into 2026. In thi...

Every great learning culture starts with one thing: a clear philosophy of how people grow.  Dwayne Britton has spent his career shaping culture and capability at Apple, Lululemon, Adidas, Zalando, and On. Across each, he’s learned that lasting impact comes when learning is guided by philosophy, not just programming. In this episode, Dwayne shares how L&D teams can redefine their role from cont...

Technical expertise doesn’t automatically translate into leadership traits. So how do we help engineers, scientists, and specialists become confident and effective managers? Leadership development expert and former SpaceX trainer, Matt Gjertsen, shares how to grow strong leaders inside technical organizations. Drawing on 15 years of experience across aerospace, defense, and emerging tech, Matt spe...

Ingrid Hu Dahl believes the most effective leaders are those who intentionally break rules, challenging the status quo.  With diverse experience as a punk-rock musician, executive coach and L&D leader at Gap, Meta and Capital One, Ingrid offers a radically human perspective on leadership - one that is rooted in rebellion and genuine connection. She shares personal stories and learnings about w...

Suzy Welch has helped thousands find clarity on the question: What am I meant to do with my life?  In this conversation, she shares the 3-circle methodology behind her wildly popular “Becoming You” methodology, which she also teaches at NYU Stern School of Business. She explains why knowing your true values is more powerful than skills training alone, and offers a practical path to purpose, at any...

Nearly 8 out of 10 workers feel stressed at work, and most say it's leaving them completely drained. If you're seeing warning signs on your team or feeling the impact yourself, this deep dive into the burnout epidemic will give you the science-backed strategies you need. Dr. Ethan Kross, neuroscientist at the University of Michigan and author of Chatter and Shift , breaks down what's actually happ...

In this episode of How to Make a Leader , we're joined by Al Dea, founder of Edge of Work consulting and a respected voice in talent and leadership development. Al breaks down why true leadership success hinges on a human-centric approach focused on two essential drivers: viewing leaders as developers of people and building social capital within organizations. Drawing from his extensive experience...

In this episode of How to Make a Leader , we sit down with members of Big Think+’s very own product team, Charlotte Sharpe and Monica Karunakaran. They share insights learned from observing the learning habits and preferences of 115,000 learners that used our platform last year, as well as learnings from our 300 person user survey.  They share juicy insights such as the truth behind optimal learni...

Can conflict actually make your team stronger? In this episode of How to Make a Leader, communication expert and Harvard Business Review podcast host Amy Gallo discusses the communication dynamics that shape high-performing professionals and teams. Amy shares strategies to build trust, improve collaboration, and ensure that even the toughest conversations lead to progress. Whether you’re a team le...

How do strong leaders tackle today’s DEI challenges? In a time of shifting policies and conflicting public discourse around DEI, consider this episode a practical guide to build inclusive teams with inclusive leaders. In this special How to Make a Leader episode, we’re sharing a virtual panel discussion with experts Chloé Valdary, Ruchika T. Malhotra, and La’Kita Williams, who bring decades of exp...

How do you turn early talent into future leaders? Harvard career advisor and WSJ best-selling author Gorick Ng shares the “unspoken rules” of professional growth and talent development. From career navigation to building a diverse leadership pipeline, he shares real-world insights garnered from thousands of interviews with professionals and his advisory work with Fortune500 companies.  Whether you...

Forget the AI buzzwords. Ross Stevenson, founder of Steal These Thoughts! , dives into how L&D teams can actually use AI to save time, solve real problems, and keep learning human. Most importantly, he asks us to consider: Are AI tools always the answer? From smarter ChatGPT prompts to must-have tools, Ross shares practical, no-nonsense tips to level up your learning programs. If you’re ready...

Data. It’s loved by some, feared by many, but there’s no arguing that it’s an essential tool in a leader’s toolkit. But how do we turn numbers into knowledge? In this episode, Figma ’s Eric Grant shares why data fluency isn’t all about the tools—it’s about hands-on practice. He explains how consistently working with data drives better learning insights and leadership decisions, and argues that und...

What can the leaders of the past teach us about leadership in the present? In this episode of How to Make a Leader , historian and management professor Martin Gutmann challenges our conventional understanding of leadership with a look back at leaders throughout history. In many organizations, we often associate leadership with the loudest voices or the most dramatic actions, but Martin argues that...

The challenge of leading multigenerational teams is gaining more and more attention. With up to five generations now sharing the modern workplace, how can leaders bridge the gap and leverage age diversity as a strength? Enter Chip Conley, founder of MEA (the world’s first midlife wisdom school) and Airbnb’s former advisor, hospitality strategist and resident “modern elder”. He draws on his experie...

Learning programs aren’t one-size-fits-all. How can we craft learning experiences that are authentic to each learner, no matter their role at the organization? In today's episode, we dive into how Sue Denning , the Senior Director of Global Talent Development for PVH Corporation— the company behind iconic brands Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger—achieves just that. PVH employs over 30,000 associates...

In a world where change is the only constant, leaders must navigate their teams through uncertainty, inspire motivation, and maintain focus on collective goals. The modern leader is constantly faced with making decisions that will impact both the business, and the people working within it. Questions like: How do you navigate a corporate acquisition successfully? How do you adapt to constant techno...

Have you struggled to make learning a core priority at your organization? Or wondered how to transform your organization's learning culture from the ground up? These are questions we set out to explore in the inaugural episode of the How to Make a Leader podcast.  For answers, we turned to S&P Global’s dynamic Director of Learning and Development, Jamie Blakey. A champion for lifelong learning...