Teresa Amabile is the Edsel Bryant Ford Professor of Business Administration and a Director of Research at Harvard Business School. Originally educated as a chemist, Teresa received her doctorate in psychology from Stanford University. She studies how everyday life inside organizations can influence people and their performance. Teresa’s research encompasses creativity, productivity, innovation, and inner work life – the confluence of emotions, perceptions, and motivation that people experience as they react to events at work.

In this interview, we discuss her latest research project, chronicled in her new book The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work. The book, based on research into nearly 12,000 daily diary entries from over 200 professionals inside organizations, illuminates how everyday events at work can impact employee engagement and creative productivity

0209 | Teresa Amabile

Bob Frisch, managing partner of The Strategic Offsites Group, has worked with organizations ranging from Fortune 500 companies to German mittelstand family businesses to the U.S. Department of State. Bob’s work has been featured in the Harvard Business Review, theWall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek, and Fortune. In this interview, we talk about the difference between senior management teams and kitchen cabinets, why he hates matrix organizations and his new book Who’s in the Room: How Great Leaders Structure and Manage the Teams Around Them.

0304 | Bob Frisch

Heidi Grant Halvorson is Associate Director of the Motivation Science Center at the Columbia Business School. She is co-author (with E. Tory Higgins) of Focus: Use Different Ways of Seeing the World for Success and Influence. In this interview, we talk about the two different motivational focuses people can have on the world, how it affects their behavior, and how mastering these two perspectives can make you a better teammate, leader and even spouse.

0412 | Heidi Grant Halvorson

Larry Keeley is a strategist who has worked for over three decades to develop more effective innovation methods. Larry is President and co-founder of Doblin Inc, an innovation strategy firm known for pioneering comprehensive innovation systems that materially improve innovation success rates. Doblin is now a unit of Deloitte Consulting, where Keeley serves as a Director. He is also co-author of Ten Types of Innovation: The Discipline of Building Breakthroughs. In this interview we talk about what innovation looks like and how to get it to happen more in your organizations.

0420 | Larry Keeley

Aubrey C. Daniels is the author of the bestselling management classic Performance Management: Changing Behavior that Drives Organizational Effectiveness, recently re-released in a fifth addition. His management consulting firm, Aubrey Daniels International, works with business leaders around the world. Daniels is an internationally recognized expert on management, leadership, and workplace issues. He has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Fortune, and on CNN and CNBC. In this interview, we chat about the birth of performance management as a discipline and how to create a culture the drives organizations to excel.

0512 | Aubrey Daniels

Scott Eblin is the the author of "Overworked and Overwhelmed: The Mindfulness Alternative," and founder of the Eblin Group, a professional development firm committed to helping executives and managers improve their leadership presence by being fully present. In this interview, we talk about the growing number of overwhelmed leaders and how mindfulness and purpose contribute to better leadership and better lives.

0521 | Scott Eblin

Joshua Wolf Shenk is a curator, essayist, and author, most recently, of "Powers of Two." His magazine pieces include cover stories in Harper’s, Time, and The Atlantic, where his essay "What Makes Us Happy?" was the most read article in the history of that magazine’s website. In this interview, we discuss how the essence of innovation starts in creative pairs, not solo work.

0601 | Joshua Wolf Shenk

Dan Ariely is a behavioral economist and triple New York Times bestselling author. His most recent projects include Timeful, a calendar app aimed at using behavioral science to maximize productivity, a documentary on dishonesty, and Irrationally Yours, a compilation of essays on applying behavioral economics to every day life. In this interview, we discuss how to better bridge the gap between social science and everyday practice.

0613 | Dan Ariely

Heidi Grant Halvorson is a social psychologist and Associate Director of the Motivation Science Center at Columbia Business School. She is the author of four bestselling books, including "Nine Things Successful People Do Differently" and her new book No One Understands You and What To Do About It." In this interview, we discuss the cognitive biases that make authentic interactions so difficult...and what to do about it.

0614 | Heidi Grant Halvorson

Jeffrey Pfeffer is the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, where he has taught since 1979. In this interview, we take a hard-hitting dissection of the leadership industry and ways to make workplaces and careers work better.

0704 | Correcting Leadership BS with Jeffrey Pfeffer

Dane Atkinson is the founder and CEO of SumAll, a company that made headlines for committing to salary transparency and sharing with employees what every other employee gets paid. In this interview, Dane and I discuss the downsides of secrecy and the surprising upside of pay transparency.

0709 | The Power of Transparency with Dane Atkinson

Sydney Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dart­mouth College and the di­rector of Tuck’s Center for Leadership. He is consistently voted one of the top thinkers in management by Thinkers50. In this episode, we discuss what he calls "SuperBossess" (also the title of his new book), and the role that exceptional managers play in personal and organizational success.

0714 | How Superbosses Master The Flow Of Talent with Sydney Finkelstein

Leigh Stringer is a workplace strategist who blends her master's in architecture with her MBA and a passion for research with practical application. She works for EYP, an architecture, engineering and building technology firm. She is also author of "The Healthy Workplace." In this interview, we discuss how the workplace affects the well-being of employees...and a company's bottom line.

0724 | How The Work Place Affects Work with Leigh Stringer

Jurgen Appelo is a pioneering management consultant who helps creative organizations survive and thrive in the twenty-first century. He is the author of Managing for Happiness, andd the CEO of the global business network Happy Melly. In this interview, we discuss how the changing nature of work requires a change in management…and why management is too important to be left up to managers alone.

In This episode, You’ll Learn:

Why traditional performance measurement fails
Why management is everybody’s business
Why happy workers are creative workers

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0729 | Managing for Happiness with Jurgen Appelo

Srinivas Rao uses the internet to make things, and leads a creativity and innovation revolution while he does. Rao is the author of “Unmistakeable” and the founder of the Unmistakeable Creative podcast, where he's interviewed over five hundred creative people. Former guests on the show include Seth Godin, Elle Luna, Tim Ferriss, Gretchen Rubin, Simon Sinek, Adam Grant, and Danielle LaPorte. In this episode, we discuss why being the only in a niche is better than being the best.

0733 | Why Only Is Better Than Best with Srinivas Rao

Cal Newport is a writer and an assistant professor of computer science at Georgetown University. He also runs the popular website Study Hacks: Decoding Patterns of Success. He is the author of "Deep Work" and "So Good They Can't Ignore You." In this interview, we discuss why deep work creates all the value and how to train yourself to work deeper.

0735 | How To Focus In A Distracted World with Cal Newport

Greg McKeown writes, teaches, and speaks around the world on the importance of living and leading as an Essentialist. He has spoken at companies including Apple, Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Salesforce.com, Symantec, and Twitter and is among the most popular bloggers for the Harvard Business Review and LinkedIn Influencer’s group. In this interview, we talk about how to focus in on what’s essential and pursue less but better in our life and career.

0737 | The Disciplined Pursuit Of Less with Greg McKeown

Gareth Jones is a Fellow of the Centre for Management Development at London Business School. He is co-author (with Rib Goffee) of “Why Should Anyone Be Led By You?” and the new book “Why Should Anyone Work Here?” In this interview, we discuss how to create an authentic organization and unlock people to do their best work.

0738 | Why Should Anyone Work Here with Gareth Jones

Sally Hogshead is an American author, professional speaker, chief executive officer of Fascinate, Inc and a former advertising executive. She is the author of Fascinate and How the World Sees You. Over the past decade, Hogshead has studied the science of fascination and what persuades and captivates people. In this interview, we discuss how individuals and leaders benefit from knowing what is so fascinating about them and how to put it to work.

0739 | How The World Sees You with Sally Hogshead

Brad Szollose is the foremost expert on cross-generational leadership development strategies and the award-winning author of "Liquid Leadership: From Woodstock to Wikipedia." Brad is a former C-level executive of a publicly traded company that he co-founded which went from entrepreneurial start-up to IPO in less than three years. In this interview, we discuss the new generation of business leaders, and how to help them maximize their cross-generational corporate culture, management expectations, productivity, and sales growth in The Information Age.

Radio Free Leader

0801 | How To Work With Millennials with Brad Szollose

Jennifer earned her PhD in Social and Developmental Psychology at Brandeis University, and has been on the faculty of many top business schools including the Wharton School, Yale School of Management and NYU's Stern School of Business. She published the paper, “The Bias Against Creativity,” which went viral and was downloaded over 65,000 times—receiving more than 100 media mentions. Her book “Creative Change” reveals the answer she found to the question of why people desire but reject creativity. In this interview, we discuss the basic assumptions about how we recognize creative ideas, creative leaders, and the very fabric of how we structure organizations for innovation.

0805 | Why Creativity Gets Rejected...And How To Accept It with Jennifer Mueller

Paul Zak is the founding Director of the Center for Neuroeconomics Studies and Professor of Economics, Psychology and Management at Claremont Graduate University. Pauls’s two decades of research have taken him from the Pentagon to Fortune 50 boardrooms to the rain forest of Papua New Guinea.  All this in a quest to understand the neuroscience of human connection, human happiness, and effective teamwork. His academic lab and companies he has started develop and deploy neuroscience technologies to solve real problems faced by real people. His latest book, Trust Factor: The Science of Creating High Performance Companies, uses neuroscience to measure and manage organizational cultures to inspire teamwork and accelerate business outcomes. In this interview, we discuss the key role trust building plays in enhances performance.

0808 | The Science of Creating High Performance Companies with Paul Zak

Melissa Agnes is a sought-after, international crisis management keynote speaker. She delivers powerful talks that help today’s organizations understand the realities that loom when crisis strikes. Her customized presentations provide tools and strategies that create a proactive, crisis-ready corporate culture. In this interview, we discuss how leaders can best respond to a crisis.

0812 | How To Lead In A Crisis with Melissa Agnes

Having been involved in a lot of well-intentioned innovation and change initiatives in industry, government and small businesses, Dave Gray noticed that people have an astonishing ability to miscommunicate and misunderstand one another, and often work at cross-purposes to the very things they are trying to accomplish. In 1993 He founded XPLANE, the visual thinking company, to help people develop shared understanding, so they can make better, faster decisions, and work better together to create more lasting, sustainable impact. In this interview, we discuss what's blocking many people from making lasting change, and how to overcome it.

0818 | Finding, Creating, and Using Thresholds to Create Change with David Gray

Jim Kouzes is a bestselling author, an award-winning speaker and, according to the Wall Street Journal, one of the twelve best executive educators in the United States. 

Currently Jim is Dean’s Executive Fellow of Leadership, Leavey School of Business, at Santa Clara University, and also lectures on leadership around the world to corporations, governments, and nonprofits. In 2010, Jim received the Thought Leadership Award from the Instructional Systems Association, the most prestigious award given by the trade association of training and development industry providers. He was listed as one of HR Magazine’s Most Influential International Thinkers for 2010 and 2011, named one of the 2010 and 2011 Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior by Trust Across America, and ranked by Leadership

Radio Free Leader.au

0819 | How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen Within Organizations with Jim Kouzes

0820 | How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter with Liz Wiseman

Jocelyn K. Glei is obsessed with how we can find more creativity and meaning in our daily work. Her latest book is Unsubscribe, a modern guide to killing email anxiety, avoiding distraction, and getting real work done. Her previous books include Manage Your Day-to-Day, Maximize Your Potential, and Make Your Mark, which offer pragmatic, actionable advice for creatives on managing their time, their careers, and their businesses. She was formerly the founding director of the 99U Conference and editor-in-chief of 99u.com, which earned two Webby Awards for Best Cultural Blog. Jocelyn has given talks at leading creative companies and conferences all over the world, including Google, The Guardian, How To Academy, The Next Web (TNW), and CreativeMornings, among others. Her writing and ideas have been featured in outlets including NPR, New York Magazine, Fast Company, BuzzFeed, SELF, Harvard Business Review, GQ, and Brain Pickings. You can find her online at jkglei.com.

0821 | How to Kill Email Anxiety, Avoid Distractions, and Get Real Work Done with Jocelyn Glei

Jeff Goins is the author of four books, including the national best seller, The Art of Work. He is also a full-time blogger, speaker, and entrepreneur. Jeff’s award-winning blog, GoinsWriter.com, has been visited by over four million people from around the world. His work has been featured in the Washington Post, USA Today, Entrepreneur, Forbes, and Psychology Today. He and his wife, Ashley, live just outside of Nashville, TN with their two children and dog.

0822 | Timeless Strategies for Thriving in the New Creative Age with Jeff Goins

Andrew Davis is a bestselling author and internationally acclaimed keynote speaker. Before co-founding, building and selling a thriving digital marketing agency, Andrew Davis created programming for local television, produced for NBC’s Today Show, worked for The Muppets in New York and wrote for Charles Kuralt. He has marketed for tiny start-ups and Fortune 500 brands. In 2016, Davis founded Monumental Shift, the world’s first talent agency for marketing thought leaders.

0823 | How to be Known for Something with Andrew Davis

Claire Díaz-Ortiz is an author, speaker, and technology innovator who has been named one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company. Claire was an early employee at Twitter, where she was hired to lead corporate social innovation.

0824 | How to Find and Work With a Mentor with Claire Diaz-Ortiz

Dr. Srini Pillay is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry (Part-Time) at Harvard Medical School. He is known for combining “head and heart” (figuratively and literally) in an approach to personal development and goal mastery that blends science, spirituality, and horns-grabbing joie de vivre to combat the stresses faced by ambitious and high-achieving people in academia, business, and life. After graduating at the top of his class from medical school in South Africa, he received a Medical Research Council Scholarship to study the neurochemistry of panic. Thereafter, he completed his residency in psychiatry at McLean Hospital—Harvard’s largest freestanding psychiatric hospital—with the most accolades ever given to a single resident. Srini also completed fellowships in Psychopharmacology, Structural Brain Imaging and Functional Brain Imaging. He has been an expert guest for CNN, Fox, NPR, The New York Times, Washington Post, Huffington Post, Harvard Business School, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Forbes, Fortune, Business Insider and many other news outlets in a variety of media and is known as a highly entertaining guest.

0825 | How to Unlock The Power of an Unfocused Mind with Srini Pillay

Sam Walker is The Wall Street Journal’s deputy editor for enterprise, the unit that directs the paper’s in-depth page-one features and investigative reporting projects. A former reporter, sports columnist, and sports editor, Walker founded the Journal’s prizewinning daily sports coverage in 2009. In addition to The Captain Class, he is the author of Fantasyland, a bestselling account of his attempt to win America’s top fantasy baseball expert competition (of which he is a two-time champion). Walker attended the University of Michigan. He lives in New York City with his wife and two children.

0826 | The Hidden Force That Creates the World's Greatest Teams with Sam Walker

Daniel McGinn is the author of "Psyched Up: How the Science of Mental Preparation Can Help You Succeed." McGinn works as a senior editor at Harvard Business Review, where he edits the IdeaWatch and How I Did It sections, manages the magazine’s annual Best Performing CEOs in the World ranking, and edits feature articles on topics including negotiation, sales, and entrepreneurship. He has appeared as a guest on NBC’s Today Show, the CBS Morning Show, PBS’s NewsHour, CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, and NPR.

0827 | How the Science of Mental Preparation Can Help You Succeed with Dan McGinn

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1000 | A Special Announcement from David Burkus on Radio Free Leader

Radio Free Leader is a podcast dedicated to helping you lead smarter by tearing down the walls between the ivory tower and the corner office. Each week, host David Burkus interviews outstanding thinkers and doers in leadership, innovation, and strategy like Daniel Pink, Marcus Buckingham, Tom Rath, Adam Grant, and more.

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