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The Good Leadership Podcast

The Good Leadership Podcast

Charles Good 305 Episodes Jun 30, 2026

The Good Leadership Podcast helps leaders outlearn, outthink, and outperform. Each week, host Charles Good sits down with leading authors, researchers, and practitioners to unpack the science of leadership, learning, behavior change, decision-making, and human performance. More than inspiration, each episode delivers practical ideas you can apply to think better, lead smarter, and perform when it matters most.

Episodes

The Price of Nice: Why Brave Leaders Choose Clarity Over Comfort Jun 30, 2026 00:37:30 Nothing was wrong in that meeting. That's exactly the problem.Everyone was polite. Heads nodding. Full agreement in the room. And then everyone left — and nothing changed. The frustration no one named kept building. The project everyone quietly doubted kept moving. The talented person who never felt heard started updating their resume.Amira Barger calls this the price of nice.In this episode o
The Hidden Forces Shaping Leaders in the AI Era with Dan Ariely Jun 23, 2026 00:43:49 Your work has never looked better. So why do you feel less sure of yourself than you did five years ago?In this episode of The Good Leadership Podcast, behavioral economist Dan Ariely (author of Predictably Irrational and Misbelief) unpacks a quiet problem facing ambitious leaders right now: AI is polishing your output faster than you're actually growing your capability. The result is an &quot
How to Keep Rising in the AI Era with 6 of Today’s Most Respected Voices Jun 16, 2026 00:35:31 For our 300th episode, Charles Good sat down separately with six of the most influential thinkers alive, and asked them all the same question: in an age where AI can produce the work, what's actually happening to us?Dan Ariely. Dorie Clark. Sally Helgesen. Whitney Johnson. Dave Ulrich. Alison McCauley. None of them heard the others' answers. They work in completely different fields. And ev
How to Build a Team That Keeps Getting Better with Dr. Ron Friedman Jun 9, 2026 00:31:20 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝗱𝗼 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗹𝘆?In this episode of 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁, award-winning social psychologist 𝗗𝗿. 𝗥𝗼𝗻 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗱𝗺𝗮𝗻 joins us to unpack the science behind high-performing teams and the practical habits that turn ordinary groups into superteams.Drawing on the most comprehensive study of elite teams ever conducted, featured in his new book 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘁𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗛
How to Do Great Work When Everything Keeps Changing with Melissa Swift Jun 2, 2026 00:33:33 The hours are the same, or maybe fewer, but the work has gotten heavier. More context-switching, more overlapping priorities, more pings fracturing your attention. And a nagging sense that all the effort is producing diminishing returns.Melissa Swift has a name for what's happening and a framework for fixing it.In this episode of The Good Leadership Podcast, Charles Good sits down with Melissa
The Aging Workforce Crisis Leaders Can’t Afford to Ignore with Dan Pontefract May 26, 2026 00:37:38 The workforce is aging faster than at any point in human history, and most organizations are responding by quietly writing off the very people who hold their hardest-won knowledge. Dan Pontefract calls the cost of that denial AgeDebt, and he believes it's building toward a crisis as slow-moving and as expensive to ignore as climate change.In this conversation, Dan Pontefract joins Charles Good
The Art of Trust Building: How Leaders Transform Teams & Organizations with Dennis & Michelle Reina | TGLP #297 May 19, 2026 00:55:43 Trust isn't a soft skill. It's a discipline.In this powerful conversation, Charles Good sits down with Dr. Dennis Reina and Dr. Michelle Reina, the pioneers of behavioral trust research and authors of the new masterwork The Art of Trust Building, to break down what trust really is, how it's built, how it breaks, and how leaders can rebuild it stronger than before.For over three decades
Are You Still Getting Sharper? Why Mid-Career Professionals Plateau May 12, 2026 00:20:17 Somewhere between year eight and year twelve of a knowledge-work career, something shifts. The title is good. The compensation is good. The reviews are good. The output has never been more polished, especially in the last two years, because AI has put a layer of polish on everything you ship. But the feeling of getting visibly better, the feeling that defined your first decade, has quietly disappe
Stop Giving Advice: The Coaching Questions Every Leader Needs with Michael Bungay Stanier May 5, 2026 00:39:18 Most leaders were promoted because they had answers. But the higher you rise, the more dangerous that habit can become.When every problem runs through you, your team gets slower. When every answer comes from you, your people stop thinking as deeply. And when your identity becomes being the helpful problem-solver, you can quietly become the bottleneck.In this episode of The Good Leadership Podcast,
Built to Survive Monday — The Good Leadership Podcast Trailer May 5, 2026 00:01:33 Most leadership advice sounds brilliant in the moment and disappears by Monday morning.The Good Leadership Podcast is built for leaders, managers, and high achievers who want ideas that hold up when the pressure is on. Hosted by Charles Good, President of the Institute for Management Studies, the show features conversations with bestselling authors, researchers, experts, and recognized thought lea
Why Core Values Fail: How to Make Them Real with Dr. Paul Ingram Apr 27, 2026 01:00:44 Most leaders underestimate how much their values shape decisions, trust, and performance, especially under pressure.In this episode, Charles Good has a conversation with Dr. Paul Ingram, Columbia Business School professor and author of What Do You Really Stand For?, who explains why values are not soft ideals but practical tools for better leadership. He shows how aligning your choices with your c
The Succession Planning Crisis Hiding in Plain Sight Apr 20, 2026 00:22:57 Why are so many organizations one departure away from a leadership gap? Why do succession plans often fail when tested? And what leaders do to build real bench strength before it is too late? Drawing on current research, real organizational pain points, and the science of how leaders actually develop, Charles Good unpacks a better way to think about succession planning.In this episode, you will le

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