FranklinCovey On Leadership

Carol Tomé, CEO of UPS and former Home Depot CFO, led major transformation with a people-first, customer-focused approach. She discusses guiding UPS through 2020 disruption, the shift to “better, not bigger,” expansion into healthcare logistics, and how AI and automation are changing supply chains. She also covers talent development, leadership traits like curiosity and empathy, and keeping human connection in tech-driven operations.

Julia Dhar, behavioral scientist and BCG managing director who founded BCG's Behavioral Science Lab, explains why most transformations fall short. She introduces “change distance,” warns against false alignment, and shows how honest, specific storytelling and designing for real human behavior boost adoption. Practical tactics include testing agreement, easing take-up, and tracking emotional and ending rituals.

Joe Atkinson, Global Chief AI Officer at PwC who leads AI strategy and workforce transformation. He discusses why human skills like empathy, listening, and clear communication matter as AI accelerates. He covers practical leader actions, balancing speed with trust, building data readiness, and developing an AI-native workforce through continuous learning and apprenticeship.

Eric Ries, entrepreneur and author of The Lean Startup and Incorruptible, explains why leadership and systems—not people—stifle innovation. He discusses small leader-led experiments, redesigning incentives to reward learning, the culture bank for building trust, and aligning governance with long-term purpose. Practical, contrarian ideas for making organizations adaptable and trustworthy.

Leadership is a constant tension between driving results and genuinely caring for people. Jennifer Colosimo, former president of FranklinCovey's enterprise division, shares how great leaders navigate that balance. Drawing on decades of experience across consulting, sales, and executive leadership, she explains why performance and people leadership cannot be separated—and why expecting more from teams must be matched with stronger coaching, clarity, and trust. Colosimo also outlines the core ideas behind her upcoming book, Expect a Lot, Care a Lot, including practical approaches to feedback, delegation, and building high-performing teams. As Will Houghteling steps away from the show and passes the hosting role into her hands, this episode marks an evolution of FranklinCovey On Leadership—setting the tone for what leadership looks like in practice: principled, demanding, and deeply human.   FranklinCovey’s world-class learning solutions—delivered Live-Online, On Demand, or Live In-Person—are designed to build exceptional leadership skills and enrich your culture at every level of your organization.   To learn more, email us at info@franklincovey.com, visit franklincovey.com, or call us at: 1-888-868-1776

Ashley Herd, author of The Manager Method and former HR executive, offers practical people-leadership tips. She explains the pause, consider, act framework and why pausing beats reacting. Topics include re-engaging disengaged high performers, building culture on remote teams, onboarding new leaders, balancing autonomy with structure, and how AI will reshape but not replace human connection.

Howard Yu, LEGO Professor of Management at IMD and author of Leap, studies how companies scale new capabilities to stay competitive. He discusses the knowing–doing gap and why disciplined incremental capability-building beats flashy moonshots. Practical examples like BYD and Google show how performing today while building tomorrow creates lasting advantage.

Chris Anderson, former journalist and longtime TED leader who grew TED into a global platform, shares what makes ideas spread. He explores clear, persuasive communication, storytelling as a leadership skill, and the risks of info overload. He also discusses radical generosity, putting talks online, and the fast pace of AI.

Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, seasoned tech executive and current CEO of Xero, former leader at Google and StubHub, and founder of theBoardlist. She argues that playing it safe can stall growth. Short takes on choosing the right CEO role, building a risk muscle, reshaping teams during restructuring, treating AI as opportunity, and expanding markets with new technology.

Jeetu Patel, President and Chief Product Officer at Cisco who led AI and platform transformations, discusses Cisco’s shift to an AI-first, integrated platform. He talks about opening ecosystems to partners. He explains how AI agents will change work, why leaders must separate megatrends from hype, and how culture change needs top-down clarity plus grassroots participation.