The World Class Leaders Show: The CEO leadership podcast for leaders who solve big problems and build better futures.

Here's something I've learned after coaching hundreds of CEOs. When a company stalls, the strategy is rarely the first thing that fails. The top team failed first, quietly, months before the numbers showed it. In this episode I walk through the six signs that tell you your leadership team is failing you, often long before the results do. Leadership breakdowns don't announce themselves. They show u...

Most leadership models assume tomorrow will look like today. But what happens when war, a pandemic, economic shocks, or AI reshape your market overnight? In this episode, Andrea Petrone sits down with Alain Bejjani, former CEO of Majid Al Futtaim Group, investor, Shark Tank Lebanon panelist, and author of *NEXT: Leading Through the New Realities*. Alain led a 50,000-person, multi-billion-dollar gr...

Every CEO faces this moment: a high-stakes decision with enormous consequences, real money on the line, thousands of people affected and not enough information to know what's right. The board wants conviction. The team wants clarity. And you're sitting there thinking: I'm not sure. In this episode, I'm breaking down what the best CEOs actually do under pressure, why the thing slowing down your dec...

Most leaders are trained to lead inside one system: one company, one market, one culture, one playbook. But what happens when your career requires you to move across countries, governments, boardrooms, startups, and global power structures — and still build trust? In this episode, Andrea Petrone sits down with Arun M. Kumar, Managing Partner at Celesta Capital, former Chairman and CEO of KPMG Indi...

There are four words that could rebuild trust on your team, surface the best thinking of the people around you, and lift a weight off your shoulders you've been carrying for years. Most CEOs will never say them, because saying them feels like the opposite of what the job demands. In this episode, we unpack why "I need your help" is the hardest sentence in leadership. Drawing on Adam Bryant's conve...

Most leaders are taught to push harder, move faster, and never give up. But what if that mindset is exactly what puts their health, judgment, relationships, and long-term performance at risk? In this episode, Andrea Petrone sits down with Sébastien Page, Head of Global Multi-Asset and Chief Investment Officer at T. Rowe Price, author of The Psychology of Leadership, and a leader overseeing more th...

In this episode of The World Class Leaders Show, I unpack the pattern I've observed across more than a decade of coaching leaders at the top and that Adam Bryant confirmed after interviewing over a thousand of them. The CEOs who perform under the most pressure almost always share the same origin. They were shaped by adversity. Not as a metaphor. As a lived reality that burned away hesitation and r...

Most CEOs are trying to figure out how to turn AI into real strategic value, not just productivity gains. In this episode, Andrea Petrone speaks with Charlene Li, a bestselling author and leadership advisor, about why AI transformation is not just a technological challenge, but also a leadership, cultural, strategic, and decision-making challenge. Charlene explains why the companies that win with...

In this solo episode of The World Class Leaders Show, I unpack the pattern I've seen destroy more leaders than any market shift ever has. It's not uncertainty that breaks CEOs. It's what uncertainty creates inside them. Under real pressure, most leaders revert to the version of themselves that used to win. I call this Achieved Identity and under pressure, it takes the wheel without asking permissi...

AI is not going to destroy every software company — but it may expose the ones without a clear strategy. In this episode of The World Class Leaders Show, host Andrea Petrone is joined by Dr John Bates, CEO of Doxis, a former Cambridge computer science academic, and a technology leader who has built and led five successful companies. John shares what he has learned from leading through the dotcom c...

In this solo episode of The World Class Leaders Show, I explore one of the most difficult leadership risks for CEOs to recognise: the moment when the operating mode that created success begins to limit the organisation. Using Tim Cook’s transition at Apple as a lens, I examine how strength, identity, and context can quietly fall out of alignment at the top. This episode is for CEOs, founders, succ...

Most leaders say they’re ready for change. Very few are ready to lead when the answers are incomplete, trust is not yet earned, and the pace keeps accelerating. In this episode of The World Class Leaders Show, Andrea Petrone sits down with Francesca Lagerberg, CEO of Baker Tilly International, to explore what leadership really demands in today’s environment: building trust fast, making decisions w...

The first six months as a new CEO is where authority is decided, where the leadership team forms its view of you, and where the organisation calibrates to your signals. Most new CEOs who struggle don't fail because they lack capability. They fail because they make early mistakes that feel like the right call at the time. In this solo episode, I walk through five specific mistakes I see new CEOs ma...

From stuttering waiter to President at Cisco, this is the real story behind world-class leadership. In this episode of The World Class Leaders Show, host Andrea Petrone is joined by Jeetu Patel, President and Chief Product Officer at Cisco and Board Member at JLL.  Jeetu shares his journey from growing up with uncertainty and responsibility in India to becoming a leader at one of the world’s large...

This episode goes inside a private CEO roundtable where the usual leadership script disappeared within minutes. What emerged wasn’t polished insight, but unfiltered reality, the pressures, trade-offs, and decisions CEOs rarely articulate in formal settings. It reveals how quickly the quality of conversation changes when performance is removed and the right question is introduced. More importantly,...

We're closing the founding member window for WCL21 at the end of March. If you're a CEO running a mid-market or growth-stage company and want a private space to pressure-test decisions with peers who understand the weight. We have two seats left. 👉 Request your invitation TODAY: https://andreapetrone.com/wcl21   Leading at the highest level right now is not simply a matter of capability. It is a...

In this episode of The World Class Leaders Show, host Andrea Petrone is joined by Santiago Iñiguez de Onzoño , President of IE University , Author of book Dante in the Workplace , Member of the Board at EFMD Global and Board Member of Headspring Executive Development . Santiago shares his perspective on leadership, virtues, and the role of character in modern business. Drawing on the Seven Deadly...

In this episode of The World Class Leaders Show, host Andrea Petrone is joined by Jennifer Dulski , CEO & Founder of Rising Team , Faculty Lecturer in Management at Stanford University Graduate School of Business , and Lead Independent Director at Arcadia . Jennifer shares insights from over 25 years of executive experience leading teams at companies like Facebook , Google , and Yahoo . She ex...

Stepping into the CEO role is not simply a change in responsibilities. It is a profound psychological transition. Research shows that a significant portion of new CEOs struggle within their first 18 months, not because they lack the capabilities required for the role, but because they remain anchored to the expertise that earned them the promotion in the first place. The instinct to remain deeply...

We’re opening doors to WCL21. The first private and exclusive community for CEOs who want to grow their leadership, pressure-test decisions, and create meaningful connections with other peers in a trusted environment.   👉 Request your invitation: https://andreapetrone.com/wcl21   Want to establish authority and lead with confidence from Day One as a CEO? Grab your FREE copy of “10 Foolproof Ways...

We’re opening doors to WCL21. The first private and exclusive community for CEOs who want to grow their leadership, pressure-test decisions, and create meaningful connections with other peers in a trusted environment. 👉 Request your invitation:  https://andreapetrone.com/wcl21   __________________________________________ Want to establish authority and lead with confidence from Day One as a CEO?...

We’re opening doors to WCL21. The first private and exclusive community for CEOs who want to grow their leadership, pressure-test decisions, and create meaningful connections with other peers in a trusted environment. 👉 Request your invitation: https://andreapetrone.com/wcl21   Want to establish authority and lead with confidence from Day One as a CEO? Grab your FREE copy of “10 Foolproof Ways Ne...

We’re opening doors to WCL21. The first private and exclusive community for CEOs who want to grow their leadership, pressure-test decisions, and create meaningful connections with other peers in a trusted environment. 👉 Request your invitation: https://andreapetrone.com/wcl21   Want to establish authority and lead with confidence from Day One as a CEO? Grab your FREE copy of “10 Foolproof Ways Ne...

We’re opening doors to WCL21. The first private and exclusive community for CEOs who want to grow their leadership, pressure-test decisions, and create meaningful connections with other peers in a trusted environment. 👉 Request your invitation:  https://andreapetrone.com/wcl21   __________________________________________ Want to establish authority and lead with confidence from Day One as a CEO?...

We’re opening doors to WCL21. The first private and exclusive community for CEOs who want to grow their leadership, pressure-test decisions, and create meaningful connections with other peers in a trusted environment. 👉 Request your invitation: https://andreapetrone.com/wcl21   Want to establish authority and lead with confidence from Day One as a CEO? Grab your FREE copy of “10 Foolproof Ways Ne...