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A Podcast About Leadership: Daily Summaries Delivered
by AIIR Consulting
Leadership has the power to shape the future — of work and of the world. But in a period of history increasingly defined by complexity, uncertainty, and change, the skills and mindsets leaders need to succeed are shifting faster than ever. A Podcast About Leadership faces this challenge head-on, offering the insights and inspiration leaders need to navigate change and shape a better future.Each episode, we speak with leaders and leading thinkers in business, leadership, psychology, neuroscience, and human performance. Together, we explore the challenges leaders face today— from leading through volatility and uncertainty to developing the empathy, resilience, and strategic vision required to thrive in the years ahead.Whether you’re an individual leader looking to increase your impact or a human resources (HR), talent, or learning and development leader shaping the future of leadership across your organization, A Podcast About Leadership has the information, inspiration, and practical application you need.Meet the HostsDr. Jonathan Kirschner is the founder and CEO of AIIR Consulting, a global authority on executive coaching and leadership development. A psychologist and entrepreneur, Jonathan has nearly two decades of experience helping leaders at the world’s most respected organizations accelerate performance, transform cultures, and unlock human potential. His expertise sits at the intersection of behavioral science, business strategy, and technology, making him a sought-after advisor to executives navigating complexity and change.Dr. Joy Nissen is a psychologist and seasoned executive passionate about helping leaders unlock their full potential and accelerate business performance. Joy brings both scholarly rigor and deep human empathy to her work, and has a unique ability to translate psychological insight into practical strategies that drive organizational results. Her coaching has shaped C-suite leaders, rising executives, and high-potential talent, making her a trusted voice for anyone serious about leadership growth.Presented by AIIR ConsultingAIIR Consulting is a global leadership development firm trusted by Fortune 500 companies and forward-thinking organizations across industries. With a foundation in psychology and a commitment to measurable business impact, AIIR helps leaders and teams excel in today’s complex world. From executive coaching to team effectiveness to leadership development at scale, AIIR delivers solutions that enable organizations to thrive. You can learn more at www.aiirconsulting.com.
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- Yesterday1h 9m
TOPGUN Leadership: Lessons from Naval Aviation's Elite
What separates the best from everyone else isn't talent — it's what they do with failure. At the Navy's elite TOPGUN school, thirty percent of training flights end in failure by design. The question is never whether you'll fall short. The question is how you respond when you do.In this conversation, host Jonathan Kirschner, CEO of AIIR Consulting, welcomes three veterans of naval aviation to A Podcast About Leadership: Mike "Wizzard" McCabe, a former Top Gun instructor, J. Todd Ross, who served as Top Gun's intelligence officer after nearly four years of flying in the backseat of an F-14, Traci Ross, one of the very first women to deploy on a U.S. aircraft carrier in a combat role. All three are now executive coaches who bring the culture of carrier aviation directly into the boardroom."We, Not Me" as a Culture Strategy — Top Gun's legendary patch means nothing if you're playing for yourself; Wizzard breaks down why culture always defeats tactics, and how one founding principle has held for five decades.The Top Gun Debrief — Goods and others, never strengths and weaknesses: J. Todd unpacks the debrief framework that built a learning culture across an entire military branch — and why civilian organizations still resist it.The Weight of Being First — Traci Ross on carrying the burden of representation, the isolation of being the only woman in a squadron, and why that experience made her a better coach for leaders under scrutiny.Listen, Learn, Then Lead — Why Wizzard's three-word sequence is deliberately ordered, and what happens to organizations when leaders skip the first two steps.Crisis as a Leadership Laboratory — J. Todd Ross on his assignment after 9/11, and why being physically present — with no agenda except care — is sometimes the only leadership that matters.If you lead a team and have wondered why excellence is so hard to sustain, this episode offers a precise and practical answer. The culture that built TOPGUN can be built anywhere — and these three coaches will show you how.To learn more about how AIIR Consulting helps leaders build resilient, high-performing teams, visit aiirconsulting.com.
- 2 weeks ago1h 8m
Bricks, Culture & The Building Blocks of Leadership with Brickworks' Steve Bell & Jamie Ramsden
What does a brick — one of humanity's oldest building materials — have to teach us about leading through disruption, integration, and change? The answer turns out to be more than you'd expect, and it starts with the paradox at the heart of great leadership: enduring strength combined with the willingness to adapt.Steve Bell is President of Brickworks North America, the US subsidiary of Australia's largest brick manufacturer — a company producing over 300 million bricks a year across eight facilities. His path to the top is anything but conventional: Steve came up through HR, which gives him a rare lens on people, culture, and what it actually takes to build an organization that lasts. He joins Jonathan Kirschner, CEO of AIIR Consulting, on A Podcast About Leadership alongside Jamie Ramsden — former CEO, author of How to Shape a Better Future, and one of AIIR's elite executive coaches — who has coached Steve through the transition from trusted advisor to final decision-maker.Culture Is Never a Finished Project — Steve and Jamie dismantle the dangerous myth that M&A integration has an end date, and explain why treating culture like a spreadsheet exercise is the fastest path to silent organizational collapse.From HR Advisor to the Hot Seat — Steve reflects on what the move from HR leader to president actually cost him psychologically, and why the hardest shift wasn't operational knowledge — it was learning to own the decision.Humble, Hungry, and Even-Keeled — Jamie unpacks the three qualities he looks for in a leader worth betting on, and explains why the most dangerous executive in any room is the one who needs the credit.Compassion Without Paralysis — Both Steve and Jamie confront the uncomfortable truth about tolerating the wrong person in the wrong role, and why the truly compassionate act is often the hardest one.The Three Domains of Sustainable Leadership — Steve shares the personal framework he uses to keep work, family, and self from falling out of balance — and why all three require active investment, not just good intentions.This one is for any leader who has ever confused loyalty with leadership, or mistaken a quiet team for an aligned one. You'll finish this conversation with a clearer sense of what it means to build something that lasts — in business, and in life.To learn more about how AIIR Consulting helps leaders build resilient, high-performing teams, visit aiirconsulting.com.
- May 5, 20261h 3m
When Culture Is the Strategy: Lessons from Elite Leaders in HR
The CHRO role has been quietly transforming — not in the gradual, incremental way of most professional evolution, but in a sharp, compressed shift that has redrawn what it means to lead people inside a major organization. The question is no longer whether HR belongs in the room where strategy gets made. The question is whether HR leaders are ready for what that actually demands.Jonathan Kirschner sits down with three accomplished voices in the field: Maxine Carrington, Chief People Officer at Northwell Health, Bill Strahan, EVP of Human Resources at Comcast, and John Touey, Managing Partner of Trilogy Talent Advisors. The result is one of the most candid and substantive conversations about the CHRO role you're likely to hear.From Functional to Enterprise Leader - The CHRO has moved from managing the competition for talent to sitting alongside the CFO and COO in the highest-stakes business decisions; John Touey explains why this shift has fundamentally changed what boards are asking for.Culture as an Enabling Force - Maxine Carrington makes the case that culture isn't a feeling or a values poster — it's the infrastructure that allows organizations to move fast, absorb shock, and do things they never thought possible, as Northwell proved during COVID.What M&A Gets Wrong - Both Carrington and Strahan share hard-won lessons on why cultural due diligence has to come before policy alignment, org charts, and branding — and what it costs when it doesn't.The AI Reckoning - The panel surfaces the uncomfortable truth underneath all the AI enthusiasm: organizations risk hollowing out the human judgment they need most, right at the moment they're being told to automate faster.Leading Teams Into an Uncertain Future - Touey's parting challenge lands hard: your people are being trained for jobs that won't exist in five years, and it's on HR leadership to see that clearly and act now.This episode is for anyone who leads people — or leads leaders — and wants to think more honestly about what that responsibility requires in 2026 and beyond. To learn more about how AIIR Consulting helps leaders build resilient, high-performing teams, visit aiirconsulting.com.
- Apr 16, 20261h 4m
The Hidden Cost of Harmony: Wissam Adib on Leadership in the GCC
What does it take to lead in a place where ambition has no ceiling — where building the world's tallest skyscraper is just the beginning, and failure isn't an option? The Gulf Cooperation Council region has achieved what many thought impossible: transforming desert into global economic powerhouses in a single generation. But that kind of velocity creates a unique leadership challenge.Jonathan Kirschner speaks with Wissam Adib, executive coach and leadership advisor based in Dubai, who has spent twenty years at the center of the UAE's transformation. Adib, a veteran of Dubai's government reform programs and now part of AIIR Consulting's executive coaching practice, has watched leaders navigate the tension between massive ambition and the psychological weight of never being allowed to fail. Joy Nissen, AIIR Managing Partner and business psychologist, joins the conversation to explore how leaders in high-stakes environments manage anxiety, contain risk, and build cultures that can sustain relentless growth.The Social Contract of Ambition — How tribal leadership structures create clarity and loyalty, but also concentrate the emotional burden of achievement at the top.When Anxiety Leaks — The three reactive tendencies (controlling, protecting, complying) that emerge when leaders can't contain the fear of failure — and why these patterns drain energy without delivering results.Building Bigger Containers — Practical strategies for creating psychological safety at four levels: individual, relational, systemic, and symbolic.The Limits of "Fail Fast" — Why Silicon Valley mantras don't translate in cultures where failure is socially costly, and how to create space for innovation without undermining trust.Who Contains the Leader? — Why executive coaching isn't remedial — it's structurally essential when the stakes are this high.This conversation is for senior leaders navigating high-growth environments, HR professionals building resilience into ambitious cultures, and anyone interested in the psychology of achievement under pressure. You'll walk away with a deeper understanding of how cultural context shapes leadership — and how to design systems that support rather than exhaust the people driving them.To learn more about how AIIR Consulting helps leaders build resilient, high-performing teams, visit aiirconsulting.com.
- Apr 9, 202619 min
What Monkeys Can Teach Us About Leadership with Michael Platt - Bonus Episode
In this bonus episode of A Podcast About Leadership, AIIR CEO Dr. Jonathan Kirschner sits down with Dr. Michael Platt — professor across three schools at the University of Pennsylvania, founder of the Wharton Neuroscience Initiative, and author of The Leader's Brain — to explore the science of social connection and what it means for leadership. From a landmark monkey study on a Puerto Rico island to the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, Dr. Platt shares surprising findings about resilience, friendship, and the brain's capacity to adapt under pressure. The conversation spans genetics, grooming, empire-building, and why the most connected employees help companies outperform the S&P 500.If you lead teams, communicate under pressure, or want to understand the hidden biology driving human performance, this episode offers a rare and fascinating look at what is really happening beneath the surface of every great team, every great conversation, and every great leader.To learn more about how AIIR Consulting helps leaders build resilient, high-performing teams, visit aiirconsulting.com.
- Mar 24, 20261h 21m
The Leader's Brain: What Neuroscience Reveals About the Future of Leadership with Michael Platt
What is actually happening in the brain when a team clicks, a leader inspires, or a group of individuals becomes something greater than the sum of its parts? According to one of the world's leading neuroscientists, the answer lies not in strategy decks or personality assessments, but in the biology of human connection — and most leaders are only scratching the surface of what that means.On this episode of A Podcast About Leadership, AIIR Consulting CEO Jonathan Kirschner is joined by Dr. Michael Platt, professor across three schools at the University of Pennsylvania, founder of the Wharton Neuroscience Initiative, and author of The Leader's Brain. Drawing on decades of research, from neuroeconomics to brain synchrony and AI, Dr. Platt makes the case that understanding how the brain actually works is one of the most powerful and underutilized tools available to leaders today.The conversation spans the neuroscience of decision-making, the biology behind team chemistry, and why the human brain's unchanging nature makes great leadership more urgent than ever in the age of AI.In this episode, we explore:Why the Brain Hasn't Changed in 200,000 Years — But the World Has. How the accelerating pace of technological change is outpacing human evolution, and why leadership is the critical bridge between the two.The Social Brain Network. What neuroscience has revealed about how our brains are wired for human connection — and why loneliness is now proven to be worse for your health than smoking a pack of cigarettes a day.The Neuroscience of Team Chemistry. Why "clicking" as a team is not a feeling but a measurable biological phenomenon, and what interpersonal brain synchrony actually looks like in high-performing groups.Why Self-Reported Data Lies — and the Brain Tells the Truth. How passive brain data predicts real-world behavior far more accurately than surveys, assessments, or what people say in the room.Practical Neuro Hacks for Leaders. Simple, science-backed ways to build trust, boost synchrony, and create the conditions for psychological safety — before the real work even begins.AI, the Future of Work, and What Keeps a Neuroscientist Up at Night. Why Dr. Platt sees AI as the most significant disruption human society has ever faced — and where he finds reason for optimism anyway.If you lead teams, communicate under pressure, or want to understand the hidden biology driving human performance, this episode offers a rare and fascinating look at what is really happening beneath the surface of every great team, every great conversation, and every great leader.To learn more about how AIIR Consulting helps leaders build resilient, high-performing teams, visit aiirconsulting.com.
- Feb 5, 20261h 0m
The High-Performance Mindset of Elite Athletes with Leaders from the NBA, MLB, and Elite Endurance Sports
What separates good performers from truly elite ones, and why do some teams suddenly turn things around while others stay stuck? According to leaders working at the highest levels of professional sport, the answer is not just talent, technique, or effort. It is mindset, decision-making, recovery, and the often invisible dynamics that shape how people perform under pressure.On this episode of A Podcast About Leadership, AIIR Consulting CEO Dr. Jonathan Kirshner is joined by three world-class performance experts operating at the intersection of sport, psychology, and leadership: Simon Rice, Vice President of Athlete Care for the Philadelphia 76ers; Holly Benner, elite ultramarathoner; and Lindsay Shaw, Director of Sport Psychology for the Cleveland Guardians. Together, they offer a rare, inside look at how elite performance is built, sustained, and recovered when things go off track.Drawing from professional basketball, Major League Baseball, endurance sport, and executive coaching, the conversation explores why excellence is less about pushing harder and more about aligning people, culture, and decision-making over time. The group unpacks how leaders can navigate burnout, ruts, and losing streaks, and why the same principles that drive athletic turnarounds apply directly to organizations under pressure.In this episode, we explore: What Actually Separates Elite Performers. Why love of the craft, self-belief, and consistency over time matter more than raw talent or relentless grinding.Mindset as a Performance Lever. How subtle shifts in internal language, such as “we will” versus “we have to,” change behavior, resilience, and outcomes.Turnarounds Without Changing the Roster. How leadership, culture, and shared mental models can unlock performance even when the players stay the same.Decision-Making Under Uncertainty. Why leaders can make the right call and still lose, and how elite performers stay grounded anyway.Recovery as a Competitive Advantage. Why focusing on sleep, nutrition, hydration, and mental recovery drives better performance than chasing marginal gains.Coaching, Support, and Self-Leadership. Why the highest performers invest in coaching, and why great coaches have coaches of their own.If you lead teams, operate under pressure, or want to elevate performance without burning out, this episode offers practical, hard-earned insights from environments where feedback is immediate and the stakes are public. To learn more about how AIIR Consulting helps leaders build resilient, high-performing teams, visit aiirconsulting.com.
- Jan 22, 202659 min
Confetti and Chaos: An Inside Look at Leading an IPO with Kat Williamson and Gary Survis
From the outside, an IPO can look like it's all confetti, bell ringing, and a soaring valuations. But, behind the scenes, it’s one of the most intense leadership transitions a company can face. Scrutiny increases overnight. The margin for error shrinks. And the leadership behaviors that fueled early growth can break under the weight of scale.In this episode of A Podcast About Leadership, host Dr. Jonathan Kirchner sits down with two leaders who have seen what it really takes to navigate that shift: Gary Survis (Operating Partner, Insight Partners) and Katherine “Kat” Williamson (VP of Talent Development, Gong). Together, they unpack the realities that rarely make it into the celebratory headlines — from the human toll of “living in transformation,” to the cultural rewiring required when a company goes from building fast to delivering predictably.Gary and Katherine explore how founders and executives must evolve as the organization matures — including the hard truth that what got you here won’t get you there. They discuss why charisma and “good vibes” can’t substitute for clarity, discipline, and accountability — and how the best leaders learn to trade heroics for systems. You’ll hear how to identify which leadership skills will scale, which ones become liabilities, and why the companies that succeed long-term are the ones that treat reinvention as the job, not the exception.This conversation is also a practical guide for leaders preparing for their next inflection point. Expect insights on building a “ready-now” leadership bench, managing expectations from investors and boards, and creating alignment when the pressure to execute is relentless. If you’re navigating hypergrowth, preparing for an IPO, integrating new executive talent, or trying to build a company that can thrive under constant change — this episode delivers the perspective (and the realism) you need.
About A Podcast About Leadership
Leadership has the power to shape the future — of work and of the world. But in a period of history increasingly defined by complexity, uncertainty, and change, the skills and mindsets leaders need to succeed are shifting faster than ever. A Podcast About Leadership faces this challenge head-on, offering the insights and inspiration leaders need to navigate change and shape a better future.Each episode, we speak with leaders and leading thinkers in business, leadership, psychology, neuroscience, and human performance. Together, we explore the challenges leaders face today— from leading through volatility and uncertainty to developing the empathy, resilience, and strategic vision required to thrive in the years ahead.Whether you’re an individual leader looking to increase your impact or a human resources (HR), talent, or learning and development leader shaping the future of leadership across your organization, A Podcast About Leadership has the information, inspiration, and practical application you need.Meet the HostsDr. Jonathan Kirschner is the founder and CEO of AIIR Consulting, a global authority on executive coaching and leadership development. A psychologist and entrepreneur, Jonathan has nearly two decades of experience helping leaders at the world’s most respected organizations accelerate performance, transform cultures, and unlock human potential. His expertise sits at the intersection of behavioral science, business strategy, and technology, making him a sought-after advisor to executives navigating complexity and change.Dr. Joy Nissen is a psychologist and seasoned executive passionate about helping leaders unlock their full potential and accelerate business performance. Joy brings both scholarly rigor and deep human empathy to her work, and has a unique ability to translate psychological insight into practical strategies that drive organizational results. Her coaching has shaped C-suite leaders, rising executives, and high-potential talent, making her a trusted voice for anyone serious about leadership growth.Presented by AIIR ConsultingAIIR Consulting is a global leadership development firm trusted by Fortune 500 companies and forward-thinking organizations across industries. With a foundation in psychology and a commitment to measurable business impact, AIIR helps leaders and teams excel in today’s complex world. From executive coaching to team effectiveness to leadership development at scale, AIIR delivers solutions that enable organizations to thrive. You can learn more at www.aiirconsulting.com.
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