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Building our emotional intelligence is hard. We speak about it all the time, read books about it, yet when it comes time to practice the skills we need we fall short. In this episode you will learn specific techniques you can start using today to build your emotional intelligence.

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In this episode of Partnering Leadership, Mahan Tavakoli is joined by Greg Shove, CEO of Section and a serial entrepreneur with a deep track record of leading transformative growth. Shove’s leadership journey includes multiple successful pivots, and in this conversation, he brings a uniquely grounded perspective on how AI is fundamentally changing the role of leaders and the structure of modern organizations. From board-level decision-making to frontline productivity, he doesn’t just speculate—he shares what he’s doing inside his own company to lead through the change.

Greg originally joined Section to turn it from a media startup into a next-gen education company. But when he first used ChatGPT, he knew instantly that business education itself needed to evolve. That insight led to a bold pivot: transforming Section from an online business school into an AI-powered academy focused on accelerating performance and capability at scale. It’s a rare look at what it really takes to lead a high-velocity pivot—one grounded not in hype, but in strategy, execution, and conviction.

Throughout the conversation, Greg challenges conventional thinking on AI adoption, leadership credibility, and the future of knowledge work. He breaks down why many leaders are stuck in experimentation mode—and what it takes to move into actual transformation. CEOs and boards will find his views on performance, upskilling, and AI decision support to be especially compelling and uncomfortably timely.

If you're tired of surface-level conversations about AI and want to understand what the shift actually looks like inside a company, this episode delivers. Whether you're leading a small team or a global enterprise, Greg's insights on using AI as a leadership advantage—not just a tech upgrade—will spark new thinking and bold action.

Actionable Takeaways:

• You'll learn why Greg believes the greatest leadership returns come not from better execution—but from catching the right wave at the right time.
  
  
  
• Hear how AI is already matching 90% of the value delivered by human board members—and what that means for your next board meeting.
  
  
  
• Discover why most corporate training is already obsolete, and how AI can turn learning into personalized, outcome-driven coaching.
  
  
  
• Hear how Shopify’s CEO linked headcount approvals to AI productivity—and how that kind of thinking will soon become the norm.
  
  
  
• You'll gain perspective on how to model AI adoption as a leader, and why failing to do so erodes credibility at every level of the organization.
  
  
  
• Learn Greg’s approach to building AI habits inside leadership teams—and why small, visible systems often matter more than a “transformation plan.”
  
  
  
• Find out what question every CEO should be asking before making a major decision—and why it might be time to invite AI into the room.
  
  
  
• Hear why Greg believes business model innovation—not technology—will be the real competitive battleground in the age of AI.
  
  
  
• Understand the deeper threat AI poses to entry-level jobs and talent pipelines—and why CEOs need to rethink how organizations grow their future leaders.
  
  
  
• You’ll hear the provocative question Greg uses to challenge his own team—and how it might reshape your own strategy discussions.
  
  
  

Connect with Greg Shove:

Greg Shove Website 

Greg Shove LinkedIn 

Section 

Connect with Mahan Tavakoli:

Mahan Tavakoli Website 

Mahan Tavakoli on LinkedIn 

Partnering Leadership Website

Welcome to the Best Of series on Partnering Leadership.

While many of us take a bit of a breather in July and August, we’re revisiting standout episodes—conversations that are worth hearing again, especially as leadership challenges shift and new moments call for fresh thinking.

I’ve also pulled together 12 of the leadership books I recommend most often—each linked below to my conversation with the author.

Whether it’s your first listen or a return visit, the best conversations have a way of revealing something new when the moment calls for it. 

We’ll be back in September with more great conversations and powerful ideas.

Thanks for continuing to learn, grow, and lead in ways that make a real difference.

—Mahan

Trust & Inspire – Stephen M. R. Covey

CEO Excellence – Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller & Vik Malhotra

Simple Truths of Leadership – Ken Blanchard & Randy Conley

Leading Change – John Kotter

How to Lead – David Rubenstein

Prediction Machines – Ajay Agrawal, Avi Goldfarb & Joshua Gans

The Performance Paradox – Eduardo Briceño

How Minds Change – David McRaney

Human + Machine – Paul Daugherty & H. James Wilson

10 Stories Great Leaders Tell – Paul Smith

Turn the Ship Around! – L. David Marquet

Magic Words – Jonah Berger

"I would rather read the best 100 books over and over again until I absorb them rather than read all the books."  Naval Ravikant

Connect with Mahan Tavakoli:

Mahan Tavakoli Website 

Mahan Tavakoli on LinkedIn 

Partnering Leadership Website

In this episode of Partnering Leadership, Mahan Tavakoli speaks with Justin Evans, a seasoned executive and author of The Little Book of Data. With a career spanning leadership roles at major media and tech firms including Microsoft, NBCUniversal, and Paramount, Evans brings a rare combination of commercial acumen and data fluency to the conversation. His insights offer a refreshing—and deeply practical—framework for how senior leaders should think about data, not as a technical layer, but as a strategic lens.

Far too often, CEOs and boards delegate “data” to specialists, only to find themselves disconnected from the systems shaping growth, innovation, and increasingly, AI-driven decision-making. Evans challenges that mindset. He argues that data is now a core leadership discipline—and avoiding it is no longer an option. But here’s the twist: embracing data doesn’t require becoming a data scientist. It requires leading with the right posture, questions, and level of clarity.

Throughout the conversation, Evans offers real-world stories, from nonprofits reducing senior loneliness using conversational analytics, to multinationals unlocking hidden growth by surfacing unused operational data. What sets his thinking apart is not just the depth of his data expertise, but how convincingly he ties it back to purpose, impact, and leadership judgment.

This is not a technical conversation. It’s a strategic one. And for leaders wondering how to navigate a world increasingly shaped by algorithms, dashboards, and machine learning, this episode is both a wake-up call and a guidepost. If you’ve ever felt a step behind in the data conversation—or feared being sidelined in the age of AI—this dialogue will help you reframe and reengage with confidence.

Actionable Takeaways:

• Hear how Justin Evans reframes data as a leadership language, not a technical specialty—and what that means for the C-suite
  
  
  
• You’ll learn why humility and confidence are the twin mindsets leaders need to lead well in a data-driven world
  
  
  
• Hear how to spot the untapped 8% of growth potential that may be hiding in your organization’s existing data
  
  
  
• Discover how great leaders crystallize complexity—and why that’s the superpower that separates insight from noise
  
  
  
• You’ll learn what to do when you feel out of your depth in technical conversations—and why that moment can be your greatest advantage
  
  
  
• Hear why delegating understanding can quietly erode strategic control—and how to reclaim it without micromanaging
  
  
  
• Learn the real reason some executives quietly bounce off data-driven initiatives—and what to do to avoid it
  
  
  
• Gain a framework for using data as a force multiplier for purpose and innovation, not just reporting
  
  
  
• Hear how AI is beginning to create its own data streams—and what leaders must do to ensure alignment with mission and impact
  
  
  
• Discover the kinds of questions leaders should be asking of their data teams—and why asking better questions is more important than knowing the answers
  
  
  

Connect with Justin Evans

Justin Evans LinkedIn 

The Little Book of Data: Understanding the Powerful Analytics that Fuel AI, Make or Break Careers, and Could Just End Up Saving the World 

Connect with Mahan Tavakoli:

Mahan Tavakoli Website 

Mahan Tavakoli on LinkedIn 

Partnering Leadership Website

In this eye-opening episode of the Mob Mentality Show, we sit down with software engineer and consultant William Bernting to explore a radical approach to hiring, teamwork, and technical leadership.

William walks us through his real-world experience with mob programming interviews—a collaborative hiring process where candidates join the team in an ensemble coding session, not a contrived solo coder test. He shares the surprising benefits of evaluating candidates through communication, alignment, and problem-solving over individual technical trivia.

We dive into:

Why mob programming is a great way to assess team fit and long-term success

How to structure collaborative interviews that reduce anxiety and reveal true strengths

What happens when you ditch traditional project-led methods and focus on predictability through steady flow

How the Cynefin framework helps make sense of complex team dynamics and guides leadership decisions

What freelance engineering looks like when trust, autonomy, and collaboration lead the way

William also discusses how he's made his work more stable and sustainable—for both clients and team members—without relying on estimates or rigid plans. Instead, he uses continuous delivery, test-driven development (TDD), and mobbing to achieve results that are both reliable and adaptable.

Whether you're a hiring manager rethinking your interview process, an engineer looking to join better teams, or a leader trying to move beyond chaotic delivery cycles, this conversation offers practical takeaways and fresh perspective.

In this episode of Leaders of Code, Stack Overflow CEO Prashanth Chandrasekar and Christina Dacauaziliqua, Senior Learning Specialist at Morgan Stanley, talk about the importance of experiential learning in fast-paced environments. They emphasize the value of creating intentional learning environments where innovative tools meet collaborative communities to support growth for both individuals and organizations. 

The discussion also:

• Explores why leaders need to model continuous learning to inspire their teams.
• Explains three practical principles to embed a culture of ongoing learning into everyday operations successfully.
• Touches on Morgan Stanley's multi-year strategic initiatives centred on talent excellence and how they empower employees through an intentional learning framework and metric tracking. 

Notes:

• Connect with Christina Dacauaziliqua and Prashanth Chandrasekar.
• Learn how to empower learning within your organization with Stack Overflow for Teams.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this two-part episode of Leaders of Code, Peter O’Connor, Director of Platform Engineering, welcomes Ryan J. Salva, Senior Director of Product at Google, Developer Experiences, for a deep dive into the future of software development. They explore how AI-assisted tools are reshaping the developer experience, going far beyond just writing code. From breaking down deployment bottlenecks to streamlining operations and transforming how teams collaborate, this conversation unpacks where developer tooling is headed and how AI is changing the game at every stage of the software lifecycle.

The discussion also:

• Addresses how AI is transforming team structures, enabling engineering teams to operate effectively with just a few people, reducing collaboration overhead and accelerating decision-making.
• Highlights the future of platform engineering and DevOps, where AI will assist with standardization and dynamically create and manage deployment pipelines in real time.

Episode notes:

• Connect with Peter O’Connor and Ryan J Salva.
• Check out Google’s open source repository, Gemini-CLI, on GitHub.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In 2022, Josh Harris founded 26North, an alternative asset management firm that has reached close to $30 billion in assets under management in its first 3 years. Josh also co-founded Apollo Global Management and Harris Blitzer Sports and Entertainment (HSBE) and is a prominent figure in the sports management arena. He has stakes in the Washington Commanders, Philadelphia 76ers, New Jersey Devils, and Crystal Palace Football Club, amongst other teams.

In this episode, Josh speaks with our North America Chair and senior partner Eric Kutcher, sharing insights that span his high school wrestling years, to starting anew at the age of 55 with 26North. His thoughts on leadership, culture, and resilience traverse both the worlds of investment and sports.

Related insights 

A CEO For All Seasons: Mastering the Cycles of Leadership
CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest
The Strategic CEO newsletter
Doug Parker, former chairman and CEO of American Airlines, shares leadership lessons
John Stankey talks about leaning into the long term at AT&T

Support the show: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/mckinsey-strategy-&-corporate-finance/

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Bret Taylor is the CEO of Sierra and Chairman of the Board of OpenAI. He previously served as co-CEO of Salesforce. I sat down with Bret to explore how the AI revolution compares to previous platform shifts and what it means for both startups and incumbents navigating this transition.

(00:00) Introduction and Recent Milestone
(00:38) AI Market and Historical Comparisons
(02:30) Competitive Landscape and Business Models
(06:02) Outcome-Based Pricing and Value Creation
(13:52) Technological Shifts and Business Transitions
(26:32) Adoption Challenges and Forward Deployed Engineering
(37:21) Early Investment in Snowflake and Cloud Strategy
(38:02) Enterprise Software Market Dynamics
(38:38) AI Agents and Implementation Costs
(41:06) Democratization of Software Development
(43:35) The Future of Software Companies and AI Agents
(49:36) Consumer Behavior and AI Agents
(58:56) The Role of AI in Customer Experience
(01:01:25) Career Advice in the Age of AI

Executive Producer: Rashad Assir
Mixing and editing: Justin Hrabovsky

Check out Unsupervised Learning, Redpoint's AI Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@UCUl-s_Vp-Kkk_XVyDylNwLA

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About the Show
Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode, Logan goes behind the scenes with world-class entrepreneurs and investors. If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every Friday for new episodes.