Partnering Leadership

Partnering Leadership is a top global podcast designed to help CEOs and senior leaders navigate the complexities of leadership, strategy, culture, and innovation. Hosted by Mahan Tavakoli—a seasoned leadership advisor with over 25 years of experience and recognized as a top thought leader in management—the podcast brings you real-world insights and practical advice to drive meaningful results. Mahan’s experience as a trusted advisor shapes each discussion, driving deeper insights that challenge conventional thinking and uncover innovative approaches. Drawing from his extensive advisory background, Mahan dives into candid conversations with purpose-driven CEOs and global thought leaders, exploring how they overcame their biggest challenges and achieved transformative success. Each episode provides actionable strategies, real-world examples, and proven approaches to help you navigate change, align teams, and drive lasting impact. Hear directly from top experts such as Ra

Partnering Leadership is a business podcast hosted by Mahan Tavakoli, with 474 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Mahan Tavakoli hosts Partnering Leadership, a business show with 474 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Partnering Leadership

  474 From Expertise to Impact: How Leaders Take Ideas to Scale with Bill Sherman

  Sep 29, 202643 min

  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 Handbook: How the Experts Elevate Their Big Ideas and How You Can Too . Drawing on more than two decades of advising executives, authors, and organizations, as well as hundreds of conversations with thought leadership practitioners, Bill explains what separates meaningful thought leadership from content marketing, personal branding, and the growing volume of AI-generated noise. The conversation explores how leaders can turn expertise into ideas that travel beyond them. Bill shares why reaching more people is often the wrong goal, how leaders can become deeply relevant to the right audience, and what it takes to make an idea simple enough to remember without stripping away the depth that makes it valuable. He also explains why thought leadership should not reside only with the CEO and how organizations can enable more people to advance important conversations with customers, partners, and their industries. Mahan and Bill also examine the role of credibility in a world of abundant intelligence. AI may provide instant access to knowledge and recommendations, but consequential decisions still raise questions of judgment, sourcing, and accountability. When the stakes are high, who stands behind the recommendation may matter as much as the intelligence used to produce it. Bill also reflects candidly on why he waited so long to write a book despite helping others develop and scale their ideas. His experience reveals the uncertainty, sacrifice, and sense of responsibility involved in moving from private expertise to public contribution. This conversation offers a grounded examination of how leaders can use ideas not simply to gain attention, but to create meaningful and lasting impact. Actionable Takeaways You’ll learn why thought leadership is not about being known by everyone, but about becoming deeply relevant to the people whose thinking and decisions you hope to influence. Hear how to distinguish genuine thought leadership from content marketing, personal branding, and ideas that merely repeat what others have already said. You’ll discover why simplicity does not require oversimplification and how the strongest ideas can be understood by a new manager while still challenging an experienced CEO. Hear why understanding a problem makes you an expert, but helping others understand and apply what you have learned is what allows an idea to scale. You’ll learn how leaders can move thought leadership beyond the executive suite by enabling employees across the organization to advance valuable conversations with customers and stakeholders. Hear how AI-generated content changes the thought leadership landscape and why credibility, attribution, and accountability may become more valuable as intelligence becomes more abundant. You’ll discover why a smaller, actively engaged audience can create more business impact than a large following that pays little attention. Hear why meaningful thought leadership requires giving substantial value before asking for attention, opportunity, or commercial return. You’ll learn what finally convinced Bill Sherman to write his own book after decades of helping other experts develop theirs, and why people with hard-earned insight may have a responsibility to share it. Connect with Bill Sherman Bill Sherman LinkedIn Thought Leadership Leverage Connect with Mahan Tavakoli : Mahan Tavakoli Website Mahan Tavakoli on LinkedIn Partnering Leadership Website

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  Partnering Leadership

  473 Strategy Means Choice: What Washington, Grant, and Eisenhower Teach Us About Leadership with Matt Cavanaugh

  Sep 22, 202645 min

  Most leaders understand that strategy requires choices. Fewer are prepared for what follows: disappointing people, committing resources under uncertainty, and accepting responsibility when the consequences are significant. Those pressures are not unique to the battlefield. They show up whenever CEOs and senior executives must choose a direction while facing incomplete information, competing stakeholders, and no risk-free option. In this episode of Partnering Leadership, Mahan Tavakoli speaks with Matt Cavanaugh, a military strategist, combat veteran, former West Point professor, and author of Who Wins Wars? Lessons in Leadership, Power, and Supreme Command from Washington, Grant, and Eisenhower . Drawing on more than a decade of research, Cavanaugh examines what separated these commanders from the capable opponents they faced and what their decisions reveal about leadership under pressure. Rather than treating victory as proof of brilliance, Cavanaugh looks closely at moments when outcomes remained uncertain and leaders made consequential choices. He explains how Washington survived repeated tactical defeats, why Grant refused to follow the accepted rhythm of Civil War campaigns, and how Eisenhower weighed conflicting advice before one of the most consequential military operations in history. Their success depended on more than courage or military expertise. Each leader had to absorb competing perspectives, manage political relationships, understand adversaries, work within constraints, and then exercise judgment. The conversation explores the balance between openness and conviction: listening broadly enough to see the situation clearly while still accepting the responsibility to choose. Cavanaugh also considers what these lessons mean in an age of artificial intelligence. AI can expand the information available to leaders and strengthen their thinking, but it cannot carry the human consequences of a decision. For leaders facing higher stakes and accelerating change, this conversation offers a historically grounded examination of how judgment develops, why strategic and tactical excellence are not the same, and what it takes to lead when there is no obvious answer. Actionable Takeaways You’ll learn why strategy inevitably disappoints someone and what that means for leaders who mistake broad agreement for strategic clarity. Hear how Washington, Grant, and Eisenhower developed superior judgment rather than simply possessing it from the beginning of their careers. You’ll learn how to distinguish strategic leadership from tactical excellence, including why an organization can execute exceptionally well and still lose the larger competition. Hear how Eisenhower evaluated sharply conflicting recommendations before D-Day and accepted personal responsibility for a decision with enormous human consequences. You’ll learn why emotional intelligence is a strategic capability, not merely a tool for maintaining relationships or improving morale. Hear how great leaders combine openness with conviction, taking in competing ideas before choosing a direction and staying with it through criticism. You’ll learn why no strategic leader succeeds alone and how Washington, Grant, and Eisenhower used advisers, councils, and trusted colleagues differently. Hear how effective leaders work within political and resource constraints without allowing those limitations to become excuses for inaction. You’ll learn how AI can amplify strategic thinking while leaving consequential judgment with human leaders who remain responsible for the outcome. Connect with Matt Cavanaugh Matt Cavanaugh on X @mlcavanaugh Connect with Mahan Tavakoli : Mahan Tavakoli Website Mahan Tavakoli on LinkedIn Partnering Leadership Website

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  Partnering Leadership

  472 Beyond AI Adoption: How to Reinvent Your Organization for the Age of Abundant Intelligence with Brian Solis and Dave Wright

  Sep 15, 202647 min

  What happens to the way we design organizations when intelligence is no longer scarce? That is the provocative question at the heart of this conversation with Brian Solis and Dave Wright, co-authors of Infinite: How Visionary Leaders Transform Today’s Business Into AI-Forward Companies . Drawing on decades of experience at the intersection of technology, strategy, innovation, and enterprise transformation, Brian and Dave challenge executives to think beyond AI adoption and productivity gains toward a much larger opportunity: rethinking how organizations create value. The conversation explores why simply layering AI onto existing workflows may leave much of its potential untapped. Organizations were largely designed around scarcity, particularly the scarcity and cost of human expertise and capacity. AI changes that assumption. Brian and Dave discuss what becomes possible when leaders stop asking only how AI can make today’s work faster and begin asking what the organization could do that previously wasn’t possible. A central tension throughout the episode is the difference between efficiency and reinvention. Dave shares a compelling example from IKEA that illustrates how productivity gains from AI can become the starting point for entirely new sources of value rather than simply cost reduction. Brian builds on that idea by challenging executives to examine the legacy assumptions, structures, and even “sacred cows” they may be protecting. The question is not simply where AI can be deployed, but where intelligence can be applied to rethink work, customer value, and future growth. The discussion also gets into the harder leadership questions surrounding AI transformation: employee fear, trust, learning and unlearning, resource allocation, and the pressure from boards and shareholders to demonstrate ROI. Brian and Dave explain why AI transformation cannot simply be delegated to technology teams or pursued through disconnected pilots. They explore what it takes to create enough clarity and trust for people to challenge poor uses of AI while also experimenting with fundamentally different ways of working. For CEOs and senior executives, this conversation offers a useful reframing of the AI opportunity. The advantage may not go to the organizations that deploy the most AI or generate the largest number of productivity gains. It may go to those that learn how to convert new intelligence and capacity into better workflows, new sources of value, and the ability to continually reinvent themselves. Actionable Takeaways You’ll learn why an AI strategy shouldn’t really be about AI and what Brian and Dave believe executives should focus on instead when deciding where AI belongs in the organization. Hear why using AI to make existing work faster may capture only a fraction of its potential, and how shifting from optimization to reinvention changes the questions executives should be asking. Discover what changes when intelligence moves from scarcity toward abundance, including why organizational structures and workflows designed for the previous era may increasingly become constraints. Hear how IKEA turned AI-driven efficiency into a new source of growth, offering a powerful example of what can happen when organizations deliberately reinvest capacity rather than simply bank the savings. You’ll learn why trust around AI requires more than encouraging adoption. Brian and Dave explain why people also need the freedom to challenge AI and say when it is not the right tool for the job. Explore the concept of “learning velocity” and why the ability to learn and unlearn at speed may become an increasingly important organizational capability as AI continues to evolve. Hear why disconnected AI pilots often struggle to produce meaningful enterprise ROI, and why resource allocation and executive-level direction become critical when productivity gains appear across different parts of the organization. You’ll learn why traditional AI metrics can be dangerously misleading, and why measuring the performance of the entire workflow can reveal whether AI is actually creating better outcomes or merely generating more activity. Consider a provocative resource-allocation question: if AI effectively gave your organization hundreds of additional people’s worth of capacity, what would you choose to do with it? Connect with Brian Solis and Dave Wright Brian Solis LinkedIn Dave Wright LinkedIn Infinite: How Visionary Leaders Transform Today’s Business Into AI-Forward Companies Connect with Mahan Tavakoli : Mahan Tavakoli Website Mahan Tavakoli on LinkedIn Partnering Leadership Website

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  Partnering Leadership

  471 How to Ask Better Questions and Lead Through Uncertainty with Larry Robertson

  Sep 8, 202639 min

  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, and author of Great Question: The Art of the Ask and Getting More of What You Really Want . Drawing on his research into entrepreneurship, creativity, and leadership under uncertainty, Larry explains why questioning is not merely a communication technique. It is a core organizational capability that helps leaders test assumptions, recognize emerging threats, and see opportunities before they become obvious. The conversation examines the difference between asking more questions and building a genuinely questioning culture. Larry challenges leaders to consider whether the questions inside their organizations are authentic or simply statements disguised as questions. He also explores who is permitted to ask, which questions receive serious attention, and whether senior leaders are willing to be changed by what they hear. Mahan and Larry also address the growing role of artificial intelligence. AI can identify patterns and generate predictions from what has already happened, but that raises a consequential leadership question: What happens when the assumptions embedded in historical data no longer hold? Their discussion reveals why human curiosity, contextual judgment, and intellectual humility may become more important as AI becomes more capable. Throughout the conversation, Larry offers memorable ways to strengthen leadership judgment, from learning to “quiet your cleverness” and “listen atmospherically” to distinguishing functional questions from the great questions that shape strategy and direction. This episode provides a practical and timely examination of how CEOs and senior executives can lead without pretending to possess certainty they do not have. Actionable Takeaways You’ll learn why rising uncertainty should produce more and better questions, even as employees, boards, and stakeholders increasingly pressure leaders to provide definitive answers. Hear how the expectation that senior leaders should have all the answers can weaken organizational judgment and prevent essential information from reaching decision-makers. You’ll discover how to distinguish authentic inquiry from questions that are actually statements, challenges, or tests of allegiance. Hear why a questioning leader and a questioning culture are fundamentally different, and what must change before people throughout an organization feel able to challenge assumptions. You’ll learn what leaders can uncover by observing who asks questions, which questions receive attention, and where questioning quietly stops within the hierarchy. Hear how to distinguish functional questions that help operate the business from larger questions that can reshape its strategy, direction, and future value. You’ll discover why intellectual humility does not require leaders to minimize their expertise, but does require them to recognize when that expertise may no longer fit the situation. Hear how “quieting your cleverness” and “listening atmospherically” can help experienced executives notice context, signals, and perspectives they might otherwise miss. You’ll learn why AI’s reliance on historical patterns makes human questioning especially important when technologies, markets, and customer expectations are changing. Hear how forward-looking reflection can improve future judgment rather than merely helping leaders interpret decisions they have already made. Connect with Larry Robertson Larry Robertson Website Larry Robertson LinkedIn Connect with Mahan Tavakoli : Mahan Tavakoli Website Mahan Tavakoli on LinkedIn Partnering Leadership Website

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  Partnering Leadership

  470 [Thursday Refresh] Leading Change: How Leaders Create Lasting Transformation with John Kotter

  Sep 3, 202647 min

  In this episode of Partnering Leadership, Mahan Tavakoli speaks with John Kotter, professor emeritus at Harvard Business School, co-founder of a management consulting firm Kotter International and a pioneer in organizational change. John Kotter is the author of 22 books on change, including his most recent book, Change: How Organizations Achieve Hard-to-Imagine Results in Uncertain and Volatile times . John Kotter talks about the struggles leaders and teams face when it comes to change and how to transform organizations to adapt to change effectively and rapidly. Some highlights: -John Kotter on the role of human nature on our resistance to change -The essential components for initiating change in the organization -Understanding the Survive and Thrive mode and how it impacts our ability to change -The power of Guiding Coalition to help bring expertise, energy, and perspective across the organization -The difference between management and leadership Connect with John Kotter: Change: How Organizations Achieve Hard-to-Imagine Results in Uncertain and Volatile Times John Kotter - Kotter International Inc John Kotter on LinkedIn John Kotter on Facebook John Kotter on Twitter Connect with Mahan Tavakoli : Mahan Tavakoli Website Mahan Tavakoli on LinkedIn Partnering Leadership Website

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