Flourishing Edge Podcast with Ashish Kothari

Research backed leadership practices to build high performance cultures and improve workplace wellbeing and employee engagement. Every week, Ashish Kothari sits down with the researchers, executives and practitioners doing the most rigorous work on improving workplace wellbeing and turns what they have learned into something you can implement right away. Not wellness perks. Not engagement surveys nobody acts on. The specific behaviors, systems and daily habits that separate organizations where people burn out from those where they thrive. Conversations range across rewiring habits, building resilience, sustaining energy, cultivating purpose and leading with greater humanity, and how individuals, teams and organizations create the conditions for people and performance to thrive together. Recent guests include Barbara Jeffrey on workplace wellbeing, Zeynep Ton on the Good Jobs System, Zach Mercurio on why mattering drives retention, and Dr. Kristin Neff on self-compassion. Every episode gives you something you can use on Monday. How to build high performing teams. How to lead culture change that holds. Why managers shape employee motivation and employee experience more than any program ever will. Made for business leaders, HR and people teams who own organizational culture and get measured on what it produces. Ashish spent 17 years at McKinsey watching brilliant, exhausted leaders burn out and leaders prioritizing higher profits at the cost of their people. He wrote Hardwired for Happiness and founded Happiness Squad to fix it. He created the Organizational Human Potential Index, along with the REWIRE and PEARL models behind programs run at Google, PepsiCo, Danone and MUFG. This podcast is where that work happens out loud. 180+ episodes and counting. New episodes weekly. More at happinesssquad.com

Flourishing Edge Podcast with Ashish Kothari is a business podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 0 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Unknown Host hosts Flourishing Edge Podcast with Ashish Kothari, a business show with 0 episodes published.

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  Episode #185

  How to Lead with Vulnerability Without Losing Authority

  Aug 18, 202641 min

  700 CEOs have gone through McKinsey's Bower Forum, and the data points to one uncomfortable truth: the best leaders spend less time telling people what to do. Ramesh Srinivasan, McKinsey senior partner, dean of the Bower Forum, and co-author of The Journey of Leadership, joins Ashish Kothari to unpack how top CEOs practice vulnerability in leadership without losing authority and why one of them was told he should fire any leader who says "I have no clue" in a crisis. You'll discover the to-be list that reshapes how you show up in your biggest meetings, the 15-second reframe elite athletes use under pressure, and why feedback you ask for is 10 times more effective than feedback you're given. If you lead people through uncertainty and want psychological safety at work that actually produces results, this conversation is your playbook. What You Will Learn: How to write a daily "to-be list" that decides how you show up in your biggest meetings, not just what you accomplish Why the best CEOs spend less time telling people what to do and what they do instead How to practice vulnerability with judgment: when "we don't know yet" builds trust, and when it should get a leader fired The "five sources of meaning" that mobilize a whole workforce beyond shareholder value How to make feedback ~10x more effective by asking for it first and cascade that habit through your team How to metabolize stress with Ramesh's "fear in the backseat" model, so purpose drives and fear keeps only a voice Episode Chapters: 04:49 Why leadership begins from the inside out 07:44 How leaders can reconnect with their values and purpose 09:57 Shareholder value, stakeholders, and the business case for purpose 13:16 Moving from constant doing to reflection and “to-be” leadership 16:43 Creating the emotional conditions for difficult conversations 18:55 What today’s uncertainty demands from leaders 19:28 Humility, vulnerability, truth-telling, and fearless learning 23:29 Building a culture where people can learn from failure 27:18 What vulnerability really means for leaders 32:38 Making stress an ally rather than a source of burnout 37:44 What gives Ramesh hope about the future of leadership Resources: Connect with the Guest LinkedIn: Ramesh Srinivasan Recommended Reading: The Journey of Leadership How CEOs Learn to Lead from the Inside Out Connect with the Host LinkedIn: Ashish Kothari Website: Happiness Squad Book: Hardwired For Happiness YouTube: Happiness Squad Channel TEDx: How to make flourishing your competitive edge If this conversation sparked something for you, please subscribe and leave a review, it takes 30 seconds and helps more people discover the show.

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  Episode #184

  Improv Is the Resilience Skill Leaders Are Missing

  Aug 11, 202653 min

  What if the skill that makes a comedian great on an unscripted stage is the same skill that makes a leader great in an unpredictable economy? Layoffs and AI have left a lot of people feeling like a line item instead of a human being. Jordana Cole flips that on its head: you are not the resource, you are the source. Jordana is an applied improviser, Gallup Strengths Coach, and University of Pennsylvania positive psychology grad. In this episode she joins host Ashish Kothari to turn a decade on the improv stage into a practical playbook for leading through uncertainty. Together they dig into why AI has no source material without us, why uncertainty is the constant rather than the exception, why an 80/20 tilt toward strengths beats the grind of fixing what is broken, and why play is not a reward for hard work but the thing that makes hard work possible. Improvisation, not certainty, is the human edge in the age of AI. You will walk away with three things you can try this week and one brainstorming trick that changes how your team thinks. What You Will Learn: You are the source, not the resource . AI has nothing to learn from without us. Uncertainty is the constant, not the exception . Possibility, not threat. Play to the scene you're in . Accept reality first, then decide what's next. Lead with your strengths . Gallup: 3x higher quality of life, 6x more engagement. Co-create, including with AI . Treat AI as a partner, not a vending machine. Don't carry your mistakes . Park it and return to center. Episode Chapters: 00:00 Why human creativity and connection matter even more in an AI-driven world. 08:09 Jordana reframes uncertainty as a constant—and an opportunity. 10:17 Use AI to amplify your strengths rather than simply replace tasks. 17:17 How improv helps people adapt when plans change. 24:25 Focus on the reality you’re in and what you can control. 36:00 Co-creation: building better ideas by building on others’ input. 45:30 Why play is a catalyst for creativity, energy, and better work. 50:27 Three practical ways to navigate uncertainty with more confidence and play. Resources: Connect with the Guest LinkedIn: Jordana Cole Website: Ignited by Jordana TEDx: What to do when you don't know what's next Connect with the Host LinkedIn: Ashish Kothari Website: Happiness Squad Book: Hardwired For Happiness YouTube: Happiness Squad Channel TEDx: How to make flourishing your competitive edge If this conversation sparked something for you, please subscribe and leave a review, it takes 30 seconds and helps more people discover the show.

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  Episode #183

  How to Trust Your Intuition When You're Running on Empty

  Aug 4, 202643 min

  Cortney McDermott had the titles, the accolades, and the corporate jet and she was, in her own words, "miserably successful." In this episode, the two-time author joins Ashish Kothari to unpack why you can't win the game of externally sourced success, and how to trust your intuition when you're running on empty. You'll walk away with three deceptively simple practices - rest, movement, and yes, yawning - that change your state in minutes and turn the volume back up on your intuition. What You Will Learn: 1. Source your success from the inside, not the outside. 2. Responsibility is your ability to respond, not your share of the blame. 3. When you're overwhelmed, don't add more. Lie down. 4. Change your state before you try to change your story. 5. Treat your intuition as a faculty to develop, not a fluke. Episode Chapters: 1:31 - From corporate success to inner transformation 5:49 - When “having it all” still feels empty 11:49 — Why real change begins within 23:39 — Three practical ways to reconnect with yourself 33:02 — Cultivating intuition in a distracted world Resources: Connect with the Guest LinkedIn: Cortney McDermott Recommended Reading: Give Yourself Permission: Be Confident. Be Happy. Be You. Change Starts Within You: Unlock the Confidence to Lead with Intuition. Connect with the Host LinkedIn: Ashish Kothari Website: Happiness Squad Book: Hardwired For Happiness TEDx: How to make flourishing your competitive edge YouTube: Happiness Squad Channel If this conversation sparked something for you, please subscribe and leave a review, it takes 30 seconds and helps more people discover the show.

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  Episode #182

  AI Saves You 2.5 Hours a Week. Most People Waste It

  Jul 28, 202646 min

  AI now hands the average worker 2.5 hours back every week. Most of us pour it straight into more busywork, then wonder why we are busier than ever. That reclaimed time is the most valuable thing AI has given us, and we are giving it away without deciding to. Bonnie Davis, co-author of Still Human with AI alongside Bijal Choksi, joins Ashish Kothari to talk about how to stop wasting it. Not with another productivity system, but by getting deliberate about what those freed-up hours are actually for: your wellbeing, your relationships, and the people you lead. Bonnie gives us a practical framework, and a step-by-step way to use it, for building a workplace where people flourish even as AI turns up everywhere. Her argument is that culture doesn't survive this shift by accident. Somebody has to shape it on purpose. What you'll learn: Decide what your reclaimed 2.5 hours are actually for, then put them on your calendar. Name the moments AI will never own, and ask your AI which ones. Write a human value proposition, not just an employee value proposition Give purpose a line of sight: carry the stories of who your work serves. Make learning a team sport. Courses are outdated, become a micro university: capture learning in the moment. Episode Chapters: 00:00 - The essence of flourishing: energy and resilience 06:37 - AI’s potential to help us flourish—or weaken connection 17:43 - The seven factors of flourishing 20:49 - Purpose and values as organizational building blocks 38:00 - Generative leadership for sustainable performance Resources: Connect with the Guest LinkedIn: Bonnie Davis Recommended Reading: Still Human with AI How to Build Organizations where Leaders and Teams Thrive with AI by Bonnie Davis and Bijal Choksi . Connect with the Host LinkedIn: Ashish Kothari Website: Happiness Squad Book: Hardwired For Happiness YouTube: Happiness Squad Channel If this conversation sparked something for you, please subscribe and leave a review, it takes 30 seconds and helps more people discover the show.

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  Episode #181

  How to Show People They Matter in 3 Small Moves | Zach Mercurio

  Jul 21, 202650 min

  Only 39% of employees strongly agree that someone at work cares about them as a person, and that number has fallen faster than any other engagement measure since 2020. Zach Mercurio, organizational psychologist and author of The Power of Mattering, joins Ashish Kothari to explain why billions spent on recognition platforms and perks can't fix what only an interaction can, and shares the three research-backed practices leaders use to show people they're noticed, affirmed, and needed. You'll discover why people need to feel valued before they can add value, the "noticing notebook" that transformed a factory team, and the five words that instantly show someone they're relied on. If you lead people and want performance without burning them out, this conversation is for you. What You Will Learn: Value people before they perform, not after. Zach's research shows feeling seen and valued is what fuels performance, not a reward for it. Start with who someone is, not what they produce. Mattering is built through interactions, not programs. Belonging and inclusion respond to initiatives. Mattering, the sense that the group wouldn't be complete without you, is built one conversation at a time. Spend less on programs and more on your managers' daily interactions. Upgrade your thank-you with four parts. Name when and where it happened, the specific behavior, the person's unique gift, and the impact it made. "Good job" is appreciation. This is affirmation: it shows people exactly how they made a difference. Say the five words: "if it wasn't for you." Needing is the practice leaders score lowest on. Tell someone what wouldn't have happened without them. Tell people what you missed when they were gone. Being relied on, and knowing it, is one of our deepest needs at work. Episode Chapters: – 4-5 key stamps (Key moments YouTube) (00:29) Janitor study: a moment of mattering, a 30-year career (08:04) What mattering is (10:40) Why feeling valued comes before adding value (15:38) The three practices: noticing, affirming, and needing (17:47) The biggest gap: showing people they're relied on (36:45) Affirming: proof of impact and the four-part thank you (44:56) $50b in recognition can't replace one caring interaction (51:23) Three anti-mattering forces: distraction, busyness, and AI Resources: Connect with the Guest LinkedIn: Zach Mercurio Recommended Reading: The Power of Mattering How Leaders Can Create a Culture of Significance Connect with the Host LinkedIn: Ashish Kothari Website: Happiness Squad Book: Hardwired For Happiness YouTube: Happiness Squad Channel TEDx: How to make flourishing your competitive edge If this conversation sparked something for you, please subscribe and leave a review, it takes 30 seconds and helps more people discover the show.

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