Partnering Leadership
Partnering Leadership is an award-winning global podcast for CEOs, board members, and senior executives who want to think more clearly about what is changing, what may be coming next, and what it means for their organizations. Hosted by Mahan Tavakoli, the podcast draws on 450+ conversations with CEOs, founders, researchers, futurists, and leading thinkers on strategy, leadership, organizational transformation, innovation, and AI. The conversations go beyond generic leadership advice. They explore the questions senior leaders increasingly need to wrestle with: What is changing that could reshape our business? Which assumptions about strategy, customers, work, and organizations may no longer hold? What will AI change beyond productivity? Where might value move next? How should organizations and leadership evolve as the answers change? Guests have included Ram Charan, John Kotter, Stephen M.R. Covey, Ajay Agrawal, Azeem Azhar, Ranjay Gulati, Sangeet Paul Choudary, David Marquet, Bob Johansen, David Rubenstein, Jean Case, Paul Daugherty, Carolyn Dewar, Whitney Johnson, Ron Adner, and many others shaping how leaders think about strategy, organizations, technology, and the future of business. Mahan brings an advisor’s perspective to each conversation, pushing beyond surface-level answers to explore the choices, trade-offs, and implications that matter in the C-suite and boardroom. The result is a broader, more forward-looking perspective on the decisions leaders are making today and the ones they may need to make sooner than they think. Available on all major podcast platforms and at PartneringLeadership.com.
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Latest Episode
474 From Expertise to Impact: How Leaders Take Ideas to Scale with Bill Sherman
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
Featured Episode
Recent Episodes
Sept. 29, 2026
474 From Expertise to Impact: How Leaders Take Ideas to Scale with Bill Sherman
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
Sept. 22, 2026
473 Strategy Means Choice: What Washington, Grant, and Eisenhower Teach Us About Leadership with Matt Cavanaugh
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 wi
Sept. 15, 2026
472 Beyond AI Adoption: How to Reinvent Your Organization for the Age of Abundant Intelligence with Brian Solis and Dave Wright
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 towa
Sept. 8, 2026
471 How to Ask Better Questions and Lead Through Uncertainty with Larry Robertson
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,
Sept. 3, 2026
470 [Thursday Refresh] Leading Change: How Leaders Create Lasting Transformation with John Kotter
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
Sept. 1, 2026
469 Why AI Adoption Is a Psychology Problem, Not a Technology Problem with Gleb Tsipursky
AI adoption is often treated as a technology challenge: choose the right tools, train people to use them, and drive implementation. Dr. Gleb Tsipursky argues that this framing misses the harder problem. Unlike previous technology shifts, AI can trigger fear about job security, challenge professional identity, and create social stigma around how work gets done. For organizations trying to move from experimentation to meaningful business impact, understanding those human dynamics may matter as muc
Recent Blog Posts
Sept. 29, 2026
How to Build Thought Leadership Without Creating AI Slop
In an era where generative artificial intelligence can produce polished text in seconds, producing a higher volume of content is no longer a competitive advantage for enterprise leaders. Executives who rely on automated tools to flood professional n…
Sept. 22, 2026
Strategy Means Choice: Why Leadership Requires Hurting Feelings to Succeed
Strategic leadership is not about building consensus or keeping everyone happy. True strategy requires making hard choices that inevitably disappoint stakeholders, commit scarce resources under intense uncertainty, and demand personal responsibility…
Sept. 18, 2026
Decision-Making in Turbulence: Lessons on Leading When Everything Is Changing
Navigating the Fog of Uncertainty When visibility drops to zero in aviation, pilots must rely on their instruments rather than their instincts, which can easily be fooled by spatial disorientation. In business leadership, the "fog of uncertainty" c…
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