Thriving Leaders Podcast

The strategy meeting ends and everyone appears to agree. Then the real conversation begins elsewhere. I’ve seen this happen in leadership teams, and it leaves me wondering: what made it difficult to say those things in the room? I’m joined by Megan Reitz, Professor of Leadership and Dialogue at Hult International Business School and Associate Fellow at Saïd Business School, Oxford University. Mega...

Can you be kind to your people and still hold them accountable? In this Best Of episode, Jeremy and I explore a distinction that can change how we lead: the difference between being kind and being nice. We talk about the conversations leaders sometimes avoid, and what that means for trust, accountability and the way a team works together. Are you saying what your team needs to hear, or what feels...

When two priorities both matter, why do leaders feel such pressure to choose one? The day-to-day work needs attention, but so does the future. A team needs room to act, but it also needs direction. Wendy Smith has spent more than 25 years studying these recurring tensions. She joins me to explore why an either/or decision can feel so satisfying in the moment, yet leave leaders facing the same prob...

What separates a meaningful team conversation from another meeting where people simply exchange information? In this Best Of episode of the Thriving Leaders Podcast, I revisit a standout moment from my conversation with Grant about the five skills behind better team conversations. We explore why the quality of a conversation matters more than the amount of talking taking place and how greater pres...

Why do so many strategies sound compelling in the boardroom but struggle to shape what people actually do? In this episode of the Thriving Leaders Podcast, I speak with Alicia McKay, an Aotearoa New Zealand-based writer, speaker and strategist who has spent 15 years advising leaders on strategy, change and leadership. She is also the author of From Strategy to Action, You Don’t Need an MBA and Loc...

Why do capable people find it so difficult to ask for help? Leo Bottary argues that strong teams treat asking for help as an act of resourcefulness—not an admission of weakness. In this Best Of episode of the Thriving Leaders Podcast, Leo and I explore the connection between psychological safety, feedback and shared accountability. We discuss why team members can struggle to speak up, how a simple...

Most meetings are designed around content. Someone presents, everyone else listens, and contribution is invited at the end with: “Any questions?” By then, it may be too late. Chad Littlefield believes connection is not the warm-up before the real work. It is part of the work — particularly when leaders need people to think together, speak honestly and collaborate beyond their usual teams. Chad is...

How can teams disagree without damaging trust or making the conversation personal? Claire Gray and Dr Kaye Monk-Morgan explore how leaders can create healthier conflict and make honest challenge less risky. In this Best Of episode of the Thriving Leaders Podcast, Kaye explains why people sometimes need explicit permission to disagree, why challenging an idea is different from challenging authority...

Do leaders need to know who is neurodivergent before they can lead more inclusively? I’m joined by Mariane Power, a behavioural scientist and former clinical psychologist whose work sits at the intersection of neurodiversity and leadership. Mariane works with neurodivergent founders and executives, workplace and government teams, and elite sport. She is also the creator of Master Your Magic and ho...

How can leaders build team trust when people think, communicate and work differently? Understanding different working styles helps teams turn potential friction into stronger performance. In this Best Of conversation, I speak with Claire de Carteret from Gallup about the relationship between strengths, leadership bias and trust within teams. Claire shares the example of a fast-paced leader who unc...

Where does a leader’s time actually go? It is not only swallowed by meetings and email. Some of the biggest drains on our time never appear in the calendar. In this episode of the Thriving Leaders Podcast, I speak with Neal Schore, co-founder and CEO of The 25th Hour Group, former founder, president and CEO of Triton Digital, executive coach and author of The 25th Hour: How to Thrive (And Gain Rid...

When everything feels urgent, teams become trapped in reactive work—and the strategic priorities that matter most keep getting pushed aside. In this Best Of conversation, productivity expert and bestselling author Dermot Crowley explains why workplace urgency is not simply a personal time-management problem. It can become part of the team’s culture, particularly when people feel they must immediat...

Why do some teams consistently outperform others, even when they have similar talent, experience and resources? The answer often isn't strategy, structure or capability. It's how people experience leadership every single day. In this episode, I'm joined by Kristy Macfarlane, Deputy CEO of Diversity Partners, executive coach and one of Australia's leading experts in inclusive leadership. Over the p...

Why do leadership teams leave meetings believing they are aligned, only to discover later that little has changed? Often, silence is mistaken for agreement. People may support a decision in the room without feeling heard, committed or clear about what happens next. In this Best Of episode of the Thriving Leaders Podcast, I revisit my conversation with Professor David Clutterbuck, one of the world’...

The pace of change isn't slowing down. AI continues to evolve, climate challenges are becoming more visible, organisations are under pressure to adapt, and many leaders are wondering how to make sense of it all. The question isn't whether things will change. It's whether we're willing to change with them. In this episode, I'm joined by Caroline Stokes, global leadership strategist, executive coach...

One of the biggest misconceptions in leadership is that trust and psychological safety are the same thing. They're closely connected, but they're not interchangeable, and understanding the difference changes how you lead teams. In this Best Of conversation, I sit down with Amy Edmondson to unpack where trust and psychological safety overlap, where they differ, and why leaders need to pay attention...

What if the answers to some of your biggest leadership challenges are already sitting inside your team, but nobody is saying them out loud? In this episode, I sit down with Jeff Wetzler, founder of Ask Approach, co-founder of Transcend, former Chief Learning Officer at Teach For America, and author of Ask: Tap Into the Hidden Wisdom of People Around You for Unexpected Breakthroughs in Leadership a...

The way we think becomes the way we lead. Our habits, emotions, assumptions, and internal stories shape how we show up every day, often without us even realising it. In this episode, Sue Langley explores the science behind human flourishing and why understanding ourselves may be one of the most important leadership capabilities of all. I’m joined by Sue Langley, one of Australia’s leading experts...

If you've been feeling stretched, reactive, or like you're constantly doing more without actually moving the needle, this episode is for you. I'm joined by Jennifer Garvey Berger, CEO and co-founder of Cultivating Leadership, Harvard-educated developmental psychologist, and one of the world's leading thinkers on adult development, complexity, and leadership. Jennifer is the author of four widely a...

Most of us know the feeling. There's someone at the table we don't agree with, don't particularly like, or don't quite trust, and the situation isn't going away. Whether it's a difficult peer, a misaligned executive, a stakeholder relationship that's gone a bit stale, or a cross-functional partnership that feels like it's going nowhere, the instinct is often the same: work around it, avoid it, or...

What if your team is using the same words, but imagining completely different futures? This conversation is a powerful reminder that alignment is not about sameness, it is about helping people see clearly, think together, and move forward with intention. In this episode, I’m joined by Rebecca Sutherns, trusted advisor, bestselling author, master facilitator, certified coach, and someone I deeply a...

So many leaders are not short of ideas. What they are short of is space, confidence, and permission to bring those ideas to life. In fast-moving workplaces, creativity can feel like something we will get to later, but as Paul Fairweather reminds us in this conversation, later rarely comes. In this episode, I’m joined by Paul Fairweather, creative leadership speaker, workplace culture facilitator,...

Many leaders know collaboration matters, but far fewer have figured out how to make it work across silos, competing priorities, and complex stakeholder relationships. In this episode, I’m joined by Dr. Heidi Gardner, Distinguished Fellow at Harvard Law School, former Harvard Business School professor, Thinkers50 ranked thought leader, and co-author of Smart Collaboration and Smarter Collaboration....

Many leaders are working hard to build cultures of trust, connection, and performance, yet people still leave work feeling unseen, overlooked, or undervalued. In this conversation, I sat down with Zach Mercurio, researcher, speaker, leadership development facilitator, and author of  The Power of Mattering  and  The Invisible Leader , to explore why the need to matter is so fundamental to how we ex...

There is a lot of noise right now about artificial intelligence. Excitement. Fear. Big predictions about job losses. Quiet uncertainty in leadership teams.  If you’re wondering what AI actually means for your team, your culture, and your role as a leader, this episode is essential listening.  I’m joined by Dawid Naude, Founder and CEO of Pathfinder, Australia’s leading AI accelerator and an offici...