What does it truly mean to protect and empower your team? In this episode, Tanveer shares a remarkable - and unexpected - real-world leadership story that challenges how most leaders think about their role.

Inspired by a series of candid conversations with business leaders across North America and Europe, this episode cuts to the heart of what separates leaders who drive real impact from those who simply manage outcomes.

Listen to Leadership Espresso Shot 81 to hear something that will genuinely make you rethink how you show up for the people you lead.

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Over the past few years, we’ve seen a perceptual pendulum swing from leaders opening speaking out on a number of social and political issues, to many of those same leaders now being conspicuously quiet.

While this might seem reasonable in the face of increasing social divisiveness and economic uncertainty, my guest Matthew Kohut makes the case that this retreat into silence may carry a far higher cost than leaders realize.

Matthew is a communication strategist who joins me on this episode of “Leadership Biz Cafe” to talk about his book, ”Speaking Out: The New Rules of Business Leadership Communication” and what those new rules for speaking out are, along with a practical communication framework that can help leaders know when they should speak out, how to do it, and why it’s critical to their organization and its stakeholders.

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15 years ago, I got an email from Guy Kawasaki that would change the course of my life. He had a new book out and said if I wanted to interview him for a podcast, he’d be game. The only problem … I didn’t have a podcast.

But being able to have a one-on-one conversation with a successful leader and entrepreneur like Guy is not an opportunity one passes up. And so, this podcast “Leadership Biz Cafe” was created and I could never have imagined the journey and growth this podcast would lead to.

Over the past 15 years and 199 episodes, I’ve been able to have conversations with renowned thought leaders like Marshall Goldsmith, Tom Peters, Stephen M.R. Covey, and Robin Sharma, and a create platform that has reached leaders around the world.

And through such a long and successful journey, you pick up a few hard-earned lessons of what it takes to not only succeed, but persist no matter what uncertainties lie ahead.

That’s why I’ve decided for this milestone episode of this podcast to share the unexpected lessons I learned along the way - about why purpose matters more than certainty when starting new initiatives, why curiosity is a more effective leadership tool than waiting for the fog to clear, and the one thing that separates leaders who build something enduring from those who stall before they ever begin.

Listen now to discover what 15 years of podcasting taught me about leading with purpose.

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Most organizations treat inclusion as a checkbox exercise - build diverse teams, implement training programs, and assume employees will automatically feel like they belong.

But as Priya Nalkur reveals in this episode of “Leadership Biz Cafe”, this fundamental misunderstanding is exactly why so many workplace initiatives fail to create genuine connection.

Priya is the President of The RoundTable Institute and has taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Heller School for Social Policy and Management. She’s also the author of the book, “Stumbling Towards Inclusion: Finding Grace in Imperfect Leadership”.

Whether you’re leading inclusion initiatives or simply want to understand how to create a workplace where every employee feels empowered to deliver their best, this conversation will give you the insights and practical strategies you need to make meaningful progress.

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Have you set your leadership goals for this year? In this Leadership Espresso Shot, discover four essential goals that will help you build a resilient team ready to succeed.

Learn how shifting your focus from outcomes to empowering your people creates a stronger foundation for collective success.

Whether you're leading a small team or an entire organization, these goals will help you develop the capability and resilience needed to thrive this year.

Ready to strengthen your leadership approach?

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There’s a commonly held belief that leadership courage is a trait that you either have or you don’t. That only the most rarefied few have what it takes to rally people around them to press ahead and meet the uncertainty - or adversity - that stands before them.

But what if courage is not a rare trait, but instead something every leader can exemplify in everyday moments?

In this episode of "Leadership Biz Cafe," I speak with Alex Budak, award-winning UC Berkeley faculty member and author of "Becoming a Changemaker", about his Harvard Business Review article where he describes the six forms of everyday courage leaders can develop to successfully drive change and lead their organization through periods of adversity.

And a quick note here that this will be the last episode of “Leadership Biz Cafe” for 2025 as I’m taking a break for the month of December.

But I’ll be back in January 2026 with more guests, more Leadership Espresso Shots, and more insights on how you can succeed and grow in your leadership role.

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It seems there's not a lot everyone can agree on these days … except maybe how hard it can be to feel optimistic about things. After all, optimism is something reserved for when things are going well, not something we should expect during periods of uncertainty and disruptive change.

But what if our thinking about optimism is all wrong?

In this edition of my Leadership Espresso Shot series, I share a story from the life of an incredibly successful leader who faced a period of uncertainty much like we're experiencing now, the only difference is that his company was on the verge of bankruptcy.

But it’s what he did next that reveals a powerful lesson for how we should view optimism, especially during periods of uncertainty if we want to ensure we can continue to succeed and grow in the years to come.

I’ve shared this story in some of my leadership keynotes and I can tell you it really does help to inform and re-energize our understanding of what we can and should be doing to effectively lead our team through the fog of uncertainty and change.

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Workplace conflict has doubled since 2008, with over a third of employees dealing with it constantly. But what if the solution isn't eliminating conflict, but transforming it into opportunities for connection and understanding, if not also increasing our own self-awareness?

In this episode of "Leadership Biz Cafe," Karin Hurt and David Dye, founders of Let's Grow Leaders and authors of "Powerful Phrases for Dealing with Workplace Conflict," share their proven framework for turning destructive conflict into constructive conversations.

You'll discover the four dimensions of constructive conflict, learn the 12 GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) powerful phrases that actually work to transforming conflict into connection, and gain practical strategies for handling everything from workplace bullies to passive-aggressive colleagues to overwhelming workloads.

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