Courage, justice, wisdom, humanity, transcendence…are such virtues just nice-to-have elements of a leader’s development or the indispensable building blocks of a successful career? Michael and Gregg are joined by Dr. Toby Newstead, a scholar at the Tasmanian School of Business and Economics, Management, to explore some thorny questions: Do you need to be a good person to be a good leader? How does a leader develop character?

In this not-to-be- missed episode Dr. Hannes Leroy, professor of leadership development at the Rotterdam School of Management, joins Michael and Gregg to discuss his somewhat radical thoughts on authenticity and leadership. As this spirited conversation evolves, Dr. Hannes challenges us with the question: “Is much of our popular leadership development just happy-making?’

Read the MIT Sloan Management Review article

Is sharing one’s deep personal beliefs, values and feelings a prerequisite to developing as a leader or just the facilitator/coach’s desire for “pastoral power”? Have we created a pervasive culture of confession? To what end? Are we grooming leaders or compliant subjects? Dr. Nicole Ferry of the Copenhagen Business School joins Michael and Gregg in a conversation that tackles these thorny questions.

Our guest, Dr. David V. Day, is one of the true icons of leadership research. With decades of work shaping the field, he pulls no punches—arguing that much of what passes for “leadership development” today isn’t grounded in real science. From overused assessments to flimsy models, Dr. Day challenges our industry to raise its game. If you care about what actually works in developing leaders, this is a conversation you won’t want to miss.

A must-read! David’s latest book. Developing Leaders and Leadership: Principles, Practices, and Processes

Michael and Gregg continue their conversation with Dr. Eva exploring the dramatic shifts needed in today’s LD programs, the pressing need for collective leadership training and the deep-rooted propensity to lead based on how others look.

Our guest, Dr. Nathan Eva and his colleagues recently published a ground-breaking paper entitled “An Inconvenient Truth: A Comprehensive Examination of the Added Value (or Lack Thereof) of Leadership Measures”, that challenges the underpinnings on many of our industry’s most popular models and development programs. Are leadership styles virtually indistinguishable? Do the associated assessments essentially measure popularity? Should we scrap these programs and focus on a handful of leadership behaviors that actually produce tangible results?

We know intuitively that performance feedback is a key element in accelerating the development of leaders, but is it worth it? It is often time-consuming, poorly delivered and demotivating. In this episode, Michael and Gregg discuss this perplexing dilemma with Dr. Ken Nowack and Dr. Sandra Mashihi, authors of the recently published book, Performance Feedback Strategies: Driving Successful Behavior Change.

On this powerful episode of The Edge of Leadership, we’re joined by the legendary Prof. Henry Mintzberg, who doesn’t hold back in his bold critique of political and corporate managerial incompetence. Get ready for a no-holds-barred discussion as Mintzberg takes aim at the likes of Elon Musk and President Trump, exposing the dangers of arrogance in leadership.