A Podcast About Leadership
A Podcast About Leadership explores the evolving skills and mindsets leaders need to navigate complexity, uncertainty, and change. Each episode features conversations with leaders and thinkers in business, psychology, neuroscience, and human performance. The podcast offers insights and practical advice for individual leaders and HR, talent, and learning professionals. Hosted by Dr. Jonathan Kirschner, founder and CEO of AIIR Consulting.
Episodes
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 a
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 Aus
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
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.Jonat
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 isl
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 thi
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 Pod
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.
The Art and Science of CEO Succession with National Vision CEO Alex Wilkes and Executive Chairman Reade Fahs
What does CEO succession look like when it’s planned, values-led, and built for continuity and change at the same time?In this episode of A Podcast About Leadership, host Jonathan Kirschner, founder and CEO of AIIR Consulting, sits down with three leaders who’ve lived the succession story from every angle:Reade Fahs, who led National Vision for more than two decades, guiding the company from a mod
Leading with Love with Bob Chavez, Former CEO of Hermès Americas
Can love be a serious strategy in today’s high-pressure business environment?In this episode of A Podcast About Leadership, host and AIIR Consulting CEO Dr. Jonathan Kirchner is joined by Bob Chavez, former President and CEO of Hermès Americas, and Jamie Ramsden, author and executive coach to both Jonathan and Bob. Together, they explore a leadership philosophy centered on trust, care for people,
Thriving Through Constant Change with Ian Wilcox and Dr. Joy Nissen
What does it take to lead when change is no longer episodic but constant and fluid? On this episode of A Podcast About Leadership, AIIR Consulting CEO Dr. Jonathan Kirschner sits down with Dr. Joy Nissen and Ian Wilcox to explore how leaders can stay grounded, resilient, and effective in a world where stability feels increasingly out of reach.Drawing on careers in psychology, organizational scienc
The Evolving Role of the CHRO with C-Suite Whisperer John Touey
What really determines whether a company thrives or unravels under pressure? According to John Touey, one of the country’s most trusted C-suite recruiters, it comes down to a single, often overlooked truth: the CEO, CFO, and CHRO form the power structure that governs the entire enterprise. If that trio isn’t aligned, nothing else works.On this episode, AIIR Consulting CEO Dr. Jonathan Kirschner si
Staying Human in the Age of AI with Gideon Rosenberg from NVIDIA
What does “human-first” leadership look like inside a company building the future of artificial intelligence? AIIR Consulting CEO Jonathan Kirschner and Joy Nissen sit down with Gideon Rosenberg — Deputy General Counsel and Head of HR for NVIDIA Israel — to explore how empathy and uncompromising standards can (and should) coexist.Gideon offers a rare inside view into NVIDIA’s culture under CEO Jen
Leading with Agility, Curiosity, and Care with Reese Haydon
In this episode of A Podcast About Leadership, Dr. Jonathan Kirschner sits down with Reese Haydon to explore what it takes to lead with agility, curiosity, and care in today’s fast-moving world.Reese's career has included senior talent management roles at some of the biggest companies in the tech industry, including Cisco, Dropbox, and Salesforce, among others.Drawing from his extensive experience
Is Coaching Really That Different Than Therapy? With Dr. Davida Vogel
For decades, executive coaching and psychotherapy have been treated as distinct disciplines — one focused on business performance, the other on unpacking unproductive patterns and personal healing. But, in recent years, the two have been creeping closer together. As they have, it has begged the question, are coaching and therapy really that different?In this thought-provoking episode of A Podcast
Leading Cross-Functional Pharma Teams with Ian Wilcox and Megan Marshall
In pharma, the barrier to progress isn’t usually the science—it’s how well leaders align brilliant, functionally deep experts to move an asset forward together. In this candid conversation, AIIR Consulting CEO Jonathan Kirschner sits down with Ian Wilcox (AIIR Advisory Board member; former Global Head of Life Sciences at HayGroup; executive advisor and investor) and Megan Marshall (Managing Partne
Rethinking the New Deal at Work with Wharton Professor Dr. Peter Cappelli
Fifty years ago, it wasn’t uncommon for someone to spend their entire career at a single company, with a clear career path and the resources and training programs to give them the skills they needed to advance along that path. Today, that world has largely disappeared. Organizations hire to meet their needs, employees move on quickly, and the bonds of loyalty have dissolved in both directions.Few
Helping Leaders Navigate Uncertainty with AIIR Consulting CEO Dr. Jonathan Kirschner
In this episode of A Podcast About Leadership, Dr. Jonathan Kirschner, founder and CEO of AIIR Consulting, explores the mindset and skillset leaders need to navigate uncertainty. As volatility and complexity redefine the workplace, Kirschner challenges traditional notions of resilience and offers a modern, science-backed approach to navigating ambiguity with confidence. Drawing on AIIR’s proven le
Recommended
10000 MINUTES
1000 Things You Should Know
1000x
1001 Classic Short Stories & Tales
1001raah | هزار و یک راه
1001 Sherlock Holmes Stories & The Best of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
1001 Songs That Make You Want To Die
100 Famous Dogs
#100MasterCoaches with Mel Leow, MCC
100% Mixtape Podcast
100 With The Hunter's
10-41: A UCSO Podcast
