Decision-Making & Insights Episodes

What separates leadership as an idea from leading as a daily practice? For Dr. Thom Mayer, the distinction matters. Leadership can become a collection of concepts, titles, and aspirations. Leading is what people actually do, especially when circumstances are uncertain, the stakes are high, and there is no playbook to follow. Dr. Mayer has spent much of his career in precisely those environments. He served as the command physician at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, and is the longtime Medica...

When AI can generate plausible ideas and polished content in seconds, producing more of it is not a competitive advantage. For CEOs and senior executives, the more consequential question is whether they have an idea worth advancing, an audience for whom it genuinely matters, and the credibility to influence how others think and act. In this episode of Partnering Leadership, Mahan Tavakoli speaks with Bill Sherman, a leading authority on thought leadership and coauthor of The Thought Leadership ...

As uncertainty rises, people often look to leaders for greater certainty. Yet the more complex the environment becomes, the less credible it is for any one person to claim they have the answers. The leadership challenge is no longer simply making better decisions. It is creating the conditions for better questions, broader participation, and stronger collective judgment. In this episode of Partnering Leadership, Mahan Tavakoli speaks with Larry Robertson, leadership advisor, Fulbright Scholar, ...

Welcome to the Summer Leadership Reset on Partnering Leadership. We have more access to ideas than ever before. More books. More podcasts. More articles. More insights. The challenge isn’t finding more information. It’s spending enough time with the ideas that can change how we think, decide, and lead. I have seen this in my own life. The books and conversations that have influenced me most aren’t the ones I rushed through and moved on from. They are the ones I returned to, wrestled with, and...

Welcome to the Summer Leadership Reset on Partnering Leadership. We have more access to ideas than ever before. More books. More podcasts. More articles. More insights. The challenge isn’t finding more information. It’s spending enough time with the ideas that can change how we think, decide, and lead. I have seen this in my own life. The books and conversations that have influenced me most aren’t the ones I rushed through and moved on from. They are the ones I returned to, wrestled with, and...

This episode offers a different lens on leadership in a time of accelerating change. In this conversation, Mahan Tavakoli is interviewed by Vimi Appadoo and Akilesh Deerpalsingh, senior leaders working closely with CEOs and executive teams in Mauritius through their roles at Dale Carnegie Mauritius and Baker Tilly Mauritius. The discussion emerged as part of a broader set of conversations leading up to a C-suite dialogue with senior leaders in the region. The questions they explore will sound...

Trust sits at the center of every meaningful leadership conversation. Yet many leaders struggle to create the conditions where people feel comfortable sharing what they really think. In this episode of Partnering Leadership, Mahan Tavakoli speaks with Brad Beeler, a former U.S. Secret Service agent and the author of Tell Me Everything: A Secret Service Agent’s Proven Strategies for Earning Trust, Revealing the Truth, and Communicating with Anyone. Drawing on more than two decades of experience c...

Growth stalls in organizations far more often than leaders expect. Not because ambition fades, or talent disappears, but because focus drifts. In this episode of Partnering Leadership, Mahan Tavakoli sits down with Kevin Lawrence, a long-time advisor to CEOs and executive teams, to explore why capable organizations lose their growth orientation and how leaders can recognize the warning signs early. Kevin draws on decades of experience in boardrooms and leadership off-sites around the world, as ...

In this episode of Partnering Leadership, Mahan Tavakoli is joined by Jen Fisher, one of the most influential voices shaping how leaders think about work, wellbeing, and human sustainability. Jen is the former Chief Wellbeing Officer at Deloitte, where she spent more than two decades helping leaders confront burnout, redesign work, and rethink what success actually means inside large, complex organizations. The conversation centers on the ideas behind Jen’s book, Hope Is the Strategy, and chall...

Negotiation and sales are often treated as tactical skills. Something leaders do at the end of the process, armed with tricks, pressure, and leverage. In this conversation, Todd Caponi makes the case that this mindset is outdated—and increasingly damaging for leaders operating in a world of transparency, information abundance, and long-term accountability. Todd draws on his experience as a former Chief Revenue Officer, his deep study of the history of sales and negotiation, and his latest book,...

In this episode of Partnering Leadership, Mahan Tavakoli speaks with Les Csorba — senior partner at Heidrick & Struggles and author of Aware: The Power of Seeing Yourself Clearly. Drawing on decades advising CEOs, boards, and leadership teams, Les makes a compelling case that self-awareness is not a soft skill but a strategic differentiator. With leaders facing complexity, speed, and pressure unlike anything in recent memory, Les argues that the ability to see yourself clearly has become a true ...

What if the greatest risk to your organization isn't economic uncertainty, market volatility, or disruptive technology—but the decisions being made in your own boardroom? In this episode of Partnering Leadership, Mahan Tavakoli speaks with Didier Cossin, IMD professor and global expert in board governance, whose book High Performance Boards has become a must-read for senior leaders looking to elevate board effectiveness. Drawing from decades of research, real-world consulting, and cross-disci...

In this episode of Partnering Leadership, Mahan Tavakoli is joined by Greg Shove, CEO of Section and a serial entrepreneur with a deep track record of leading transformative growth. Shove’s leadership journey includes multiple successful pivots, and in this conversation, he brings a uniquely grounded perspective on how AI is fundamentally changing the role of leaders and the structure of modern organizations. From board-level decision-making to frontline productivity, he doesn’t just speculate—h...

In this timely and compelling episode of Partnering Leadership, Mahan Tavakoli welcomes back Rich Diviney, retired Navy SEAL Commander and bestselling author of The Attributes. This conversation focuses on Rich’s latest book, Mastering Uncertainty, and delivers insights highly relevant to leaders navigating today’s volatile, complex environment. With more than 20 years of experience in the SEAL teams—including leading training within SEAL Team Six—Rich draws from intense operational settings to...

In this compelling episode of the Partnering Leadership podcast, Mark Schaefer returns to share fresh, provocative insights from his latest book, Audacious: How Humans Win in an AI Marketing World. A globally respected marketing strategist, bestselling author, and deep observer of technological change, Schaefer brings sharp clarity to a pressing leadership question: what does it take to stay relevant when artificial intelligence makes intelligence itself abundant? Rather than offering a simplist...

What can today’s executives and business leaders learn from a ruler who lived 2,500 years ago? As it turns out, quite a lot. In this episode of Partnering Leadership, host Mahan Tavakoli welcomes Darius Lahoutifard, a seasoned entrepreneur, leadership expert, and the author of Leadership by Cyrus the Great: Unlocking Xenophon’s Cyropaedia. Drawing on the remarkable leadership legacy of Cyrus the Great, one of history’s most effective and visionary leaders, Darius reveals how Cyrus’s principles o...

In today’s fast-changing world, leaders are expected to navigate complexity, make high-stakes decisions, and provide clarity—even when certainty is impossible. But how can leaders embrace ambiguity without losing their strategic edge? In this episode of Partnering Leadership, host Mahan Tavakoli sits down with Jennifer Garvey Berger, a world-renowned leadership expert and the author of Changing on the Job: How Leaders Become Courageous, Wise, and Steady in an Anxious World. Jennifer has spent de...

John Livesay, The Pitch Whisperer and author of best-selling books, including Better Selling Through Storytelling and The Sale is In the Tale, joins Mahan Tavakoli on the Partnering Leadership podcast to share his insights on storytelling for leaders. In the conversation, John Livesay shares practical techniques to craft compelling stories that motivate teams, win business, and drive change. Additionally, John provides memorable examples and easy-to-apply storytelling frameworks, including the 3...

In this episode of Partnering Leadership, explore the intersection of leadership development and cutting-edge AI as Mahan Tavakoli’s 4-Step Framework to unleash a team’s full potential comes to life in an unexpected way. Instead of a traditional discussion, Mahan uses Google’s Notebook LM to transform his framework into a dynamic conversation between two AI avatars. This engaging dialogue captures key leadership principles, demonstrating how AI can turn complex ideas into accessible, compelling ...

In this episode of the Partnering Leadership podcast, host Mahan Tavakoli is joined by Andre Laplume, co-author of Spinout Ventures: Transitioning from Employees to Entrepreneurs. Andre Laplume shares his research and perspectives on the dynamic world of spinouts—those entrepreneurial ventures born out of larger organizations when employees break away to pursue ideas that don’t quite fit within the corporate mold. From his own journey as a management consultant and professor to his experiences i...

In this Partnering Leadership conversation, Mahan Tavakoli speaks with Eduardo Briceño, author of The Performance Paradox: Turning the Power of Mindset into Action. In the discussion, Eduardo dives into the transformative power of a growth mindset and how we can apply it to unlock our potential. He shares how a crippling physical injury early in his career led him to Carol Dweck's pioneering work on a growth mindset. This proved life-changing for Eduardo, setting him on a path to teaching indivi...

In this episode of Partnering Leadership, Mahan Tavakoli speaks with David Rubenstein, co-founder & co-chairman of Carlyle Group & President of the Economic Club of Washington DC. In the conversation David Rubenstein shares his journey from working at the White House to starting one of the largest private equity investment firms globally. He also talks about his leadership lessons, philanthropy, Peer-to-Peer interviewing for the Economic Club of Washington DC and Bloomberg TV, and the legacy he ...

What if AI could free up bandwidth, spark creativity, and boost productivity for executives and teams? Jordan Wilson, Founder of Everyday AI and host of the Everyday AI podcast, joins Mahan Tavakoli, sharing pragmatic tips so leaders can harness cutting-edge generative AI. Jordan advises an agile, sprint-based approach to rapidly experiment rather than get stuck in opaque long-term AI projects that often trigger resistance. He recommends executives audit workflows to systematically evaluate wher...

In this Partnering Leadership conversation, Michael Thatcher shares insights from his extensive leadership experience spanning the nonprofit and technology sectors. As the CEO of Charity Navigator, the largest charity evaluator in the U.S., he provides an inside look at leading this influential organization through a period of rapid growth and digital transformation. Touching on topics from building trust with boards to measuring nonprofit impact, Michael Thatcher offers thoughtful perspectives...