Radio Free Leader

Mike is the Founder and Managing Director of thoughtLEADERS, LLC – a professional training firm focused on leadership development. He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1993 where he was an honor graduate and a Distinguished Cadet. Upon graduation, he was commissioned as an officer in the United States Army. He spent five years as an Armor officer in a variety of roles including Platoon Leader, Executive Officer, Personnel Officer and ROTC Instructor at Duke University. After leaving the Army, he joined McKinsey and Company as a management consultant before starting THOUGHleaders. His new book One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership is designed to help leaders define who they are and what their personal leadership philosophy is.

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

Pam Fox Rollin is an executive coach and the head of IdeaShape, a coaching and consulting firm for senior executives. Pam is an experienced consultant who has worked with leading organizations such as Verizon, eBay and Charles Schwab. Pam is the author of 42 Rules for Your New Leadership Role. In this interview, we discuss what “rules” leaders need to know as the take on a senior leadership position.

Jesse Lyn Stoner has worked closely with leaders for over twenty-five years, helping them create collaborative, engaged organizations that make a powerful and positive impact on the world. A business consultant, former executive, and bestselling author, Jesse has worked in a wide range of industries including Fortune 500s, small startups, government agencies, and nonprofits. In this interview, we discuss her book Full Steam Ahead (co-authored with Ken Blanchard).

Dr. Mitchell Kusy, an international consultant, has worked internally in several organizations including American Express Financial Advisors as head of leadership development. He is a full professor in the Ph.D. Program in Leadership & Change at Antioch University. He is the co-author of The Little Book of Leadership Development. In this podcast, we discuss the simple ways everyday managers can develop the leaders on their teams.

Tim Harford is a senior columnist for the Financial Times. His column, “The Undercover Economist,” reveals the economic ideas behind everyday experiences. He is also the author of Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure. In this interview, we discuss how leader’s can build organizations ready to learn from their (and others’) failures.

Todd Dewett, Ph.D., is a tenured Professor of Management in the Raj Soin College of Business at Wright State University. He is also a noted speaker and consultant on leadership and management. In this interview, we talk to Todd about the various projects he has underway, including his new book The Little Black Book of Leadership.

Guy Kawasaki is the former Chief Evangelist of Apple and current head of Alltop. He is the author of the new book Enchantment and, in this interview, talks about what it takes for leaders to enchant their followers…and for followers to be enchanting back.

Guy Harris describes himself as a Recovering Engineer. He has served as an officer aboard a US Navy Submarine, and he has held leadership positions in both major multi-national and small businesses. Guy is the author, with Kevin Eikenberry, or From Bud to Boss, a new book that focused on equipping newly promoted leaders.

Siddhartha Herdegen is the Assistant Chair of Leadership, Ethics and Law at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. In this podcast, we discuss the methods and challenges of developing leadership among the midshipmen of the Naval Academy.

Les McKeown is the President & CEO of Predictable Success. He has started over 40 companies in his own right, and was the founding partner of an incubation consulting company that advised on the creation and growth of hundreds more organizations worldwide. His book, Predictable Success, discusses the lifecycle of organizations in plain English.

Jim Kouzes has been a fixture in the world of leadership studies for over 30 years. He is co-author, with Barry Posner, of the seminal The Leadership Challenge and the duo have just released a new book, The Truth About Leadership.

Diana Whitney Ph.D. is the President of Corporation for Positive Change, an international consulting firm specializing in the application of Appreciative Inquiry – the revolutionary process she helped develop and spread – to resolve the most pressing challenges of our time. In fields ranging from healthcare to education; from peace-building to business; from community development to government, Diana coaches executives and their teams in support of organization culture transformation, and strategic development.

Robert Sutton is Professor of Management science at the Stanford Engineering School and researcher in the field of Evidence-based management. He is an IDEO Fellow and a Professor of Organizational Behavior, by courtesy, at Stanford Graduate School of Business. In this interview, we discuss his known famous book The No Asshole Rule and his newest release Good Boss, Bad Boss.

Liz Wiseman is president of The Wiseman Group, a leadership research and development center headquartered in Silicon Valley. She advises senior executives and leads strategy and leadership forums for executive teams worldwide. A former executive at Oracle Corporation, she worked as the Vice President of Oracle University and as the global leader for Human Resource Development for 17 years. She is the author of Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter. In this interview, we talk about how aspiring leaders can become multipliers with their people.

Michael Lee Stallard and Jason Pankau are co-founders of E Pluribus Partners. They are also co-authors of Fired Up or Burned Out. In this podcast, they make a compelling case for why the next competitive advantage is engaged employees and explain how to build the connection culture that engages them.

Becky Robinson is the blogger behind LeaderTalk, a recent addition but a staple in the blogging community. In addition she serves as an adjunct at Mountain State University’s School of Leadership and Professional Development. In this interview, we discuss MSU, LeaderTalk and the wealth of information found in the blogging community.

Steve Farber is the president of Extreme Leadership, Incorporated—an organization devoted to the cultivation and development of Extreme Leaders in the business community. His latest book,Greater Than Yourself: The Ultimate Lesson In Leadership, is a Wall Street Journal® and USA Today® bestseller.

Dr. Marshall Goldsmith is a world authority in helping successful leaders get even better by achieving positive, lasting change in behavior for themselves, their people and their teams. Marshall is an executive coach, speaker and author or editor of 29 books including What Got You Here Won’t Get You There and his newest release MOJO.

Michael Petty is the managing partner of North Star Partners, a firm that assists companies in the areas of leadership development, strategic thought and application, and financial stewardship.