Asking for help at work when we’re struggling with mental ill health can feel risky. So, how do we gauge if it’s safe to speak up, and how do we actually do it? Geoff McDonald, mental health advocate and former Global VP of Human Resources for Unilever, shares his advice on this topic as well as his provocative thoughts on leaders’ responsibilities for building work cultures that foster employee wellbeing.

Trey Northrup, CEO of LIXIL Americas, talks with Michael about how a large-scale, human-centered culture change is contributing to the company’s historic business successes. Trey also shares LIXIL’s return-to-work approach as well as his own story about how clarifying his own life purposes helps him grow his own leadership capabilities.

Have you ever wanted to learn the performance-under-pressure secrets elite athletes use? In this episode, Michael talks with Judd Hoekstra, co-author of Crunch Time: How to Be Your Best When It Matters Most, about the techniques baseball Hall of Famers, All-Star athletes, Olympians and CEOs use to perform at their best when the pressure is on and the stakes are high.

How is it possible for us to spend so much energy pursuing success, status, fame and wealth only to find out later that we’re not fulfilled despite all we’ve achieved? Usually, it’s because those things represent “acquired” values that come from our outer world and focusing on them too much decreases our wellbeing. But when we can learn to let our true “core” values shape our actions and decision we thrive. Dr. Senka Holzer shares her research on this fascinating topic.

Our level of satisfaction at work often depends how well managers, coworkers and employers meet our unwritten, and often unspoken, agreements and expectations. And people tend to quit their jobs when these expectations aren’t met. Dr. Melanie Hicks, Founder and Chief Impact Officer of InPursuit Research, is an expert on psychological contracting, and she explains how this works and what employees and managers can do when we realize our expectations aren’t being met.

Michael Netzley, CEO and Founder of Extend My Runway, explains how neuroscience, behavioral economics and AI can help people extend their careers in fulfilling ways that also contribute to raising their organizations’ work performance and competitiveness.

David Bishop, former President to Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and MGM Home Entertainment, shares highlights from his research with Harvard’s Institute of Coaching on leading with humanity. We also talk about coaching early-stage startup founders, organizational challenges related to the hybrid workplace and fostering connection and wellbeing.

Vickie Skorji is the Director of the Tokyo English Lifeline (TELL), and explains mental health trends and challenges in Japan, how to take care of our mental health in a crisis, and what’s unique about doing so during the covid pandemic. We also talk about what you can do be an effective listener over chat, overcoming common apprehensions related to seeking or giving support to the people we care about.

Derek Lundsten is on a mission to eliminate unnecessary suffering of 1 billion people in the next 15 years. Derek is the CEO of LifeGuides, and he shares his perspective on how technology can be used to battle presenteeism and foster wellbeing at scale. Along the way we talk about the importance of reframing as a life skill and the different ways having a life purpose helps us lead better, more resilient lives.

Adam Kahane, author and Director of Reos Partners, joins me to talk about how transformative facilitation helps people move forward together on their most important and intractable issues. We talk about the necessity of removing obstacles to power, love and justice to facilitate change as well as Adam’s experiences helping South Africa transition away from apartheid and his work to help end the Colombian civil war. Adam also connects the dots between facilitative leadership and workplace well-being.