The Future of Leadership

Happy new year and welcome to the first episode of the Zoë Routh Leadership Podcast for 2024!   In this solosode I explore seven critical areas for leadership reform: democracy, healthcare, food production, education, wealth distribution, climate change, and urbanisation. Additionally, I identify three key trends that leaders need to navigate this year: redefining the employee work contract, incor...

We have made it to the end of the year! And this is the wrap up episode for the Zoë Routh Leadership Podcast. I'm going to do my best to summarise the highlights, the insights and the awesomeness that was this year's show. We did a lot of great interviews and I'm really keen to showcase some of the awesome highlights from the year.  Of course I'm already planning and recording interviews for 2024...

Grayson James is a former CEO, author of Full Contract Performance The Internal Art of Organizational Collaboration and he's a sixth Dan black belt in Aikido - a particular interest of mine as I often use the term emotional Aikido in my programs to help people master the difficult conversations that are part of leadership.  Together we go deep on the embodied experience of leadership and especiall...

Get ready for an amazing, inspiring and enlightening conversation with my guest this week, Alysia Silberg - author and Venture Capitalist. She is so many things: a natural entrepreneur with insatiable curiosity and courage. She sees a challenge and she wants to solve it. She is a prolific reader and assimilates knowledge at an incredible rate. She's a survivor with a harrowing and inspiring story....

Human resources specialist Kimberly Williams is extremely dedicated to building safe, inclusive cultures and she joins me to explore the challenges of dealing with toxic CEOs and workplaces, generously sharing her own experiences of speaking truth to power.  Kimberly arrived at HR via an unconventional route: first as a history professor and then a diplomat in the US Foreign Service before falling...

There is no hiding in this solosode as I share how I approached a leadership mistake with a focus on being proactive and rebuilding trust. I took full accountability - and it hurt! But it was the right thing to do and the only way to move forward. In this episode I also talk about above and below the line leadership behaviours and their ripple effect, role modelling ethics and values as a leader a...

If you're looking for a leadership perspective that is not only relatable but also grounded in the reality of our current times, my guest Dr Karuna Ramanathan has some vital insights for you.   An ex naval warship captain, formerly the Senior Principal Change Consultant in Singapore Government and, prior to that, Deputy Head of the Center for Leadership Development in the Singapore Armed Forces, K...

Work-Life Balance or Work-Life Bloom? My guest, award-winning author Dan Pontefract, argues that the traditional concept of work-life balance is a zero-sum game that sets us up for failure and the data backs it up. Instead, he introduces the idea of "work-life bloom," a gardening metaphor that encourages personal growth and fulfilment in both work and life. In this episode Dan explains his unique...

I've known my guest, Bernard Desmidt, for several years and it has been wonderful to see his success and impact in the world of work. A corporate coach, facilitator and author obsessed with the importance of team dynamics and the factors that contribute to high-performing teams, Bernard emphasises the significance of moods, language, and the body in team dynamics and introduces the concept of the...

I'm searching for better ways forward in this solosode. In the current context it's easy to feel hopeless but that won't help us to progress and change so I'm asking the big leadership question of: What human systems can we design that allow for all human flourishing? There's a nuanced difference to this question rather than simply, 'what problems can we solve'?  I also talk about the deep roots n...

Far from her childhood on a farm in Bavaria, Regina Huber has lived and worked in Argentina, Brazil, US and Africa. She brings this richness of understanding of the human experience to her work of helping people connect more deeply with one another. Regina is the author of Speak up, Stand out and Shine and is CEO of Transform Your Performance and her journey to where she is now is a fascinating on...

My guest Doug Thorpe is a leadership consultant, prolific writer, and fellow podcaster. Doug describes leadership as a lifelong passion, from his studies at college, to his military commission and career in banking, and now coaching and supporting others in their leadership journeys. Together we delve into the topic of trust at work and how to build it within a team. We also touch on imposter synd...

Oksana Kukurudza is a Ukrainian American author, speaker and management consultant who joins me from upstate New York to share her remarkable family history and her perspective on what's happening today in Ukraine. We time-jump almost 100 years and yet many things remain or resonate for people who have already lived through unimaginable conflict, displacement and hardship.  We navigate through Oks...

This is a really special solosode, so thank you for being here - thank you for connecting with me. That's one of the big themes of this episode - how are we intentionally creating and sustaining connections, especially in our fragmented working lives? So I'm sharing some key reflections on that in a leadership context. I also talk about how important goodwill is in creating solid cultures. Goodwil...

My guest this week is team performance expert and author Adrian Baillargeon who shares his fascinating journey from corporate work in Saskatoon, Canada, to becoming an independent consultant in Australia via Major League Baseball in Africa!  We delve into the importance of creating a sense of belonging within a team, the impact of poor leadership decisions, and how to turn around a sinking team. ...

From joining the Navy at just 17 and now reflecting on a 30-plus year military career,  retired Commodore Peter Scott returns to the podcast to talk about his memoir Running Deep which offers insights into the life of a submariner.  Peter has written an open hearted, courageous, honest and compelling account of his naval life and the many personal and leadership challenges he has faced and overcom...

The entirely frank and fearless Retired Lieutenant Colonel Oakland McCulloch shares his decades of leadership wisdom in this episode as we grapple with the big question: What makes a good leader?  Oakland shares his experience as a combat arms officer in the US Army and his views on leadership, emphasising the need for accountability and servant leadership. We discuss decision-making, micromanagem...

Join me for this solosode where I reflect on conversations with recent podcast guests, plus what has been inspiring me - from books to amazing developments in technology. Then I respond to a question about executive presence and its role in effective, influential leadership. Strength of character really comes to mind here - and that includes knowing your values, recognising your biases and challen...

My guest this week is author and expert in business and finance, Chris Lautenslager. We talk about Chris' book The Prosperity Loop and explore his views on purpose-driven business and capitalism. We get into the importance of building relationships, adapting to change, and creating shared prosperity in business. Chris believes that businesses should focus on enhancing the value of the people they...

Tom Fox is literally the guy who wrote the book on compliance, with his international best seller The Compliance Handbook now into its third edition. Also going by the monikers of Compliance Evangelist™ and the Voice of Compliance, Tom is unequivocally committed to compliance!  In my conversation with Tom we delve right into the compliance landscape and its impact on leadership. We move from macro...

In this episode, I'm welcoming back friend of the pod and productivity expert Donna McGeorge. We talk about Donna's latest book The ChatGPT Revolution , including, in a very meta moment, how AI helped her write that book!  Donna shares her experience with ChatGPT and its productivity benefits plus we also get into the biases in AI, the limitations of AI and the importance of human editing and crit...

In a career that from the outside appears to zig and zag across journalism, law and philanthropy, Laura Fredricks saw a through line : asking questions and listening, really listening, to the answers. Laura went on to develop the 'ask' framework and has written seven books about it, with her latest - Hard Asks Made Easy - already a bestseller.  Laura has an amazing approach to hard asks, from the...

Brace yourself! Here's a bold statement: Sometimes, simplicity is the secret ingredient for long-term success in strategic planning. That is just one of the leadership insights from my guest, entrepreneur, author and master of the quick iteration, Brandon White.  We talk about how we can make strategic planning easier and faster, the importance of exceptional customer service and simplifying the p...

Want to hear two passionate Canadians riffing about the systems that are not designed to support parity, equity or inclusion? You got it! My guest this week, Katherine Lazarus, shares her leadership journey from teaching music and singing opera to becoming an executive coach. We delve into the concept of executive presence - what it is and whether it is still relevant in today's world. We discuss...

  This is a deeply reflective episode where I consider my 53 years on this planet and share some non-obvious introspective questions that will help you to look at where you are, where you came from and where you want to go next. As well as contemplating what the book of your life would be titled! I also get into the importance of addressing long-term strategic questions and not just focusing on ur...