Lead From the Heart

    In an era marked by remote work, digital convenience, and a documented 24% decline in everyday social interactions, many leaders are noticing a subtle but significant erosion of human connection — both in their personal lives and across their organizations. Our guest is Dr. Gillian Sandstrom, associate professor of psychology at the University of Sussex and author of the new book Onc...

  Leaders who care about employee well-being are facing a hidden challenge that most aren’t talking about enough: widespread disconnection. Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Brigham Young University and Director of the Social Connection & Health Lab, has spent more than two decades showing how human connection — or the lack of it — directly shapes our phys...

    A photographic portrait of Julie Claeys When a global professional services firm decides that employee well-being deserves C-suite ownership — complete with metrics, guardrails, and consequences — it signals a major leap from perks to strategy. To that end, Frank Giampietro serves as the Americas Chief Well-Being Officer at Ernst Young (EY), leading well-being strategy across dozens...

    J en Fisher  is a pioneering leader in workplace well-being and human-centered leadership. She became the first  Chief Well – being Officer at Deloitte US , creating a role that, as far as we know, no other major company in the world had ever established. In that role, she helped reshape how one of the largest professional services firms approaches employee wellbeing, connectio...

    Some organizations have no heart at all. The best have three! That’s the thesis of the new book,  The Octopus Organization: A Guide to Thriving in a World of Continuous Transformation , co-authored by our guests,  Phil Le Brun and Jana Werner . Both work with leaders operating at global scale—Phil as an  Executive in Residence at Amazon Web Services , and Jana as a  Global Executive...

    F or decades, Wall Street has rewarded short-term thinking: layoffs, cost-cutting, and squeezing employees. Let’s be honest, investors have never been concerned about workers or their well-being. But that era is ending. David Van Adelsberg, CEO and co-founder of Irrational Capital (alongside renowned behavioral economist Dan Ariely), has helped produce some of the most rigorous resea...

  Due to a technical problem with Apple Podcasts, we had to reissue this episode to ensure all subscribers received it.  Sorry if it’s a duplicate for some. For only the second time since launching the Lead From The Heart podcast eight years ago, Mark is opening a new season by speaking directly to you—without a guest. In 2018, Mark used the very first episode to introduce himself and h...

    For only the second time since launching the Lead From The Heart podcast in 2018, Mark is opening a new season by speaking directly to you—without a guest. Eight years ago, Mark used the very first episode to introduce himself and his mission for the show. As this new season begins, he felt it was important to pause again, reflect, and—once more—clearly frame the context for what lie...

    The first chapter of my new book, The Power of Employee Well-Being is titled Know Thyself —and for good reason. I’ve long believed that the most important work a leader can do begins inward, with deeply understanding who you are, how you show up, and the patterns that shape your behavior. That’s exactly what Margaret Andrews explores in Manage Yourself to Lead Others . Leadership, sh...

    Mark Thompson is widely recognized as the world’s #1 CEO coach, bringing more than 30 years of experience preparing top executives and boards — from global corporations to fast-growing startups — to step confidently into their next leadership roles. As founding Chairman of the Chief Executive Alliance and former Chief Experience Officer at Charles Schwab Corporation, he has guided le...

    Have you ever noticed how many people — even highly successful leaders — live in constant overdrive? They’re productive, disciplined, and always “on,” but inside, they’re exhausted. That’s survival mode — and according to Jon Rosemberg, author of  A Guide to Thriving: The Science Behind Breaking Old Patterns, Reclaiming Your Agency, and Finding Meaning , it’s where far too many of us...

    Why Do Smart, Capable Leaders So Often Get In Their Own Way? Muriel M. Wilkins — executive coach, host of the Harvard Business Review podcast  Coaching Real Leaders , and author of the brilliant new book  Leadership Unblocked: Break Through the Beliefs That Limit Your Potential  — has spent her career helping senior leaders uncover the invisible beliefs that quietly sabotage their ef...

    The core message of Colin M. Fisher’s new book,  The Collective Edge: Unlocking the Secret Power of Groups , is simple but profound: we dramatically overestimate the role of individuals in success and underestimate the extraordinary power of groups. History celebrates “great men” like Edison, Jobs, and Musk, but the truth is that real breakthroughs nearly always come from teams—group...

    Klaus Kleinfeld has lived one of the most extraordinary leadership journeys of our time. He’s the only executive ever to serve as CEO of two Fortune 500 giants on different continents—Siemens in Germany and Alcoa in the U.S.—and he’s advised presidents and global leaders around the world. What struck me most in speaking with Klaus isn’t just the scope of his career—it’s what he belie...

    Laurie Santos is one of the world’s leading voices on the science of happiness and well-being. She’s a psychology professor at Yale University, where her course   Psychology and the Good Life   became the most popular class in Yale’s 300-year history. So many students enrolled that the university had to move it to a concert hall to accommodate the crowds. Building on that success, La...

For the second half of this podcast season, we’ve been focused on employee well-being —why it matters, how to foster it, and what happens when leaders fail to take it seriously. Our new guest, Amy Gilliland , shows what it looks like when a CEO makes well-being a true priority, not a mere slogan. Amy is president of General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) , a $9 billion global technology en...

That’s the groundbreaking case made by Dr. Angela Jackson, Harvard University professor and New York Times bestselling author of The Win-Win Workplace: How Thriving Employees Drive Bottom-Line Success . Angela’s journey is remarkable. After losing her mother at age four, she was raised by grandparents who grew up in the Jim Crow South and never advanced beyond sixth grade. Nonetheless, their resil...

    Nick Foster, former head of design at Google X — the “moonshot factory” — and author of Could, Should, Might, Don’t: How We Think About the Future , joins us to discuss his stunning conclusion that human beings are terrible at predicting the future, calling most forecasts “mostly nonsense.” For leaders, this insight is absolutely essential: we’re constantly asked to make...

    What’s worse than a boss who emails you at midnight, demanding instant replies? How about one who calls you “Mohammed” instead of your real name, Madhumita, or another who expects you to dive back into work just days after your father’s sudden death. Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author, Mita Mallick has faced these and 10 other toxic manager archetypes in her career,...

    In this thought-provoking episode, we sit down with Urs Koenig, author of “ Radical Humility: Be A Badass Leader And A Good Human ,” to explore leadership through a lens of selflessness and authenticity. Drawing from his experience as a peacekeeping mission commander in Kosovo, Urs shares surprising insights on leading in high-stakes environments, revealing how humility shaped his ap...

    Is Bree Groff delusional or naive to believe work should be a source of fun and joy? Having read her bestseller, Today Was Fun: A Book About Work (Seriously)  a nd interviewed her, we’re certain she’s spot-on—and voicing what many of us have long felt: work shouldn’t be a grind that erodes our happiness or well-being. Bree’s expertise stems from a dynamic career in organizational tra...

    As a statistician by trade, Cambridge University Emeritus Professor, Sir David Spiegelhalter might seem to be a huge outlier for our leadership podcast. At the beginning of our conversation he even acknowledges feeling this way. But his new book,  The Art of Uncertainty , was named an Amazon Best Book of 2025, a nd his investigations aimed at reducing uncertainty in life: about what...

    Ever wonder what 75 days a year glued to your phone is costing you?  That staggering figure—based on a 2024 study showing Americans spend an average of 5 hours and 16 minutes daily on their smartphones—reveals how deeply our devices dominate our lives.  Enter Richard Simon and his provocative bestseller, Unplug: How to Break Up with Your Phone and Reclaim Your Life. It’s not just a g...

    We’re thrilled to welcome back Margaret Heffernan to the podcast , a guest whose erudition and insight left us in awe last time! Margaret is one of the most remarkable people we’ve had on the show—an entrepreneur, former CEO, acclaimed author, and thought leader whose uncommon education and thirst for knowledge imbue her work with extraordinary depth. Her TED Talk, “Why it’s ti...

    Imagine you’re a leader who’s achieved great success, yet something suddenly feels off: roadblocks appear, your team seems less responsive and productive—and you’re not progressing as hoped. What’s holding you back? Martin Dubin, a clinical psychologist and author of, Blindspotting: How To See What’s Holding You Back As A Leader (being released next week) says career and leadership s...