Welcome to We Are Human Leaders podcast. After our recent episode on the 4 Day Work Week with Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, we’ve been flooded with questions and held space for robust debates around how this might look and if it could work for different businesses around the world. Almost unanimously you asked us if we could give a tangible example of a company who’s been through the process.

In this episode we’re speaking with Banks Benitez. Former CEO of Uncharted where he led the organization through the process of transitioning to a 4 Day Work Week in the height of the pandemic in 2020. At the time, the conversation around work was focused on the transition of hybrid and remote work, yet Banks had the foresight to use this catalyst for change to implement the 4 Day Week simultaneously, a shift he tells us was less challenging than the swift and forced remote work we faced during the pandemic.
Banks was incredibly gracious in this conversation, sharing both his personal journey as a Leader and entrepreneur through navigating change like the 4 Day Week, and gave us some very real and tangible insights to what this looks like from within an organization.
Since taking a sabbatical after the merger of Uncharted, Banks is now the Founder of Smart Workweek and Head of Venture Development at Ezra Climate - he passion for creating workplaces where humans can thrive is palpable in this conversation. We can’t wait for you to hear it, let’s dive in!

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Is there space for compassion in the justice system? How does a public defender and a leader find the courage to care, and to fight for justice at an individual and systemic level?

In today's episode we speak with Robin Steinberg who is having a huge impact in creating access to justice for thousands of people. 

Robin Steinberg is founder of the Bail Project, the Bronx Defenders, the Bronx Freedom Fund, and Still She Rises. She has taught at leading law schools across the US, and received multiple awards for her work. She’s also author of the brand new book, The Courage of Compassion: A Journey from Judgment to Connection, published by Simon Sinek’s Optimism Press. 

In this conversation we cover her journey as a public defender, how to break down fear as a leader, and the steps we can all take to turn judgment into compassion, even and especially when it’s hardest to do so.

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What do you think of when you think of rituals? And how can rituals form a part of how we lead, work and connect? Today we dive deep on the meaning and impact of rituals at work and beyond with Ezra Bookman. Ezra Bookman is an internationally recognized ritual designer, artist, and founder of Ritualist, the first ever creative studio specializing in the design of secular ritual. He’s worked with numerous organizations and thought leaders and his insights into the scope for ritual to create connection and meaning in our lives will change how you view everything from your morning coffee, to facilitating a company-wide meeting. 
Ezra Bookman is a nationally recognized ritual designer, artist, facilitator, and Founder of Ritualist, the first ever creative studio specializing in the design of secular ritual. His work has been featured in the NYTimes, The Atlantic, VICE, and ABC News, and he has collaborated with an eclectic variety of organizations and thought-leaders including Esther Perel, Priya Parker, The Esalen Institute, Accenture, Intuit, The NYC Mayor’s Office, House of Yes, and The Dream Bigger Foundation.

You can learn more about Ezra’s work including his course, the Ritual Lab, at www.ritualist.life or check the show notes.

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When it comes to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, often our intentions don’t always have the level of impact we truly want or need.

In this conversation with Lily Zheng we deep dive into DEI to explore how to drive impactful, systematic change in our organizations and as individuals.

Regarded as one of the foremost specialists within the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) vertical, Lily has defined a crystal clear boundary between practice and preach.

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Rest is so much more than just getting enough sleep. In this episode we explore the seven types of rest we all need, and how to get them with Medical Doctor and Author of 'Sacred Rest' Dr Saundra Dalton-Smith.

Rest is critical for all human beings to how replenish and restore our energy to perform at our best.

Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith is a Board-Certified internal medicine physician, speaker, and award-winning author. She is an international well-being thought-leader featured in numerous media outlets including Prevention, MSNBC, Women’s Day, FOX, Fast Company, Psychology Today, INC, CNN Health, and TED.com. She is the author of numerous books including her bestseller Sacred Rest: Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity, including insight on the seven types of rest needed to optimize your productivity, increase your overall happiness, overcome burnout, and live your best life. Over 250,000 people have discovered their personal rest deficits using her free assessment at RestQuiz.com. Learn more about Dr. Saundra at DrDaltonSmith.com.

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Have you ever experienced  work with a true sense purpose and meaning? 
Knowing that what you’re contributing has an impact on outcomes greater than yourself?
How did that make you feel? 
If you’ve never experienced this, you’re not alone. Many of us struggle to find meaning in the work we do everyday, it may not be your fault.

Welcome to We are Human Leaders.  In this conversation with Zach Mercurio we explore how meaningfulness at work can transform our lives and workplaces.

In this episode we explore how organizations who drives cultures where employees experience meaningful work can not only find profitability and success, but can positively contribute to the lives of their employees.
Zach Mercurio, Ph.D. is an author, researcher, speaker, and consultant specializing in purposeful leadership, meaningful work, and positive organizational psychology. He wrote "The Invisible Leader: Transform Your Life, Work, and Organization with the Power of Authentic Purpose," which was praised by Arianna Huffington as "a compelling book filled with powerful stories, cutting-edge research, and practical tools that show us how to lead with purpose."
Zach works with hundreds of companies, governments, and schools around the world to forge purposeful leaders and cultivate positive cultures that enable more meaning, mattering, motivation, well-being, and performance.

Zach earned his Ph.D. in Organizational Learning, Performance, and Change from Colorado State University where he serves as an Honorary Fellow in the Department of Psychology's Center for Meaning and Purpose and as an Instructor in the Organizational Learning, Performance, and Change program.
This conversation will elevate your thinking around work, and powerful opportunity we have as Leaders to create a meaningful experiences for the human beings we lead.

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Many of us tend to think of work and play as two separate concepts. We banish play to outside work hours, or as busy working adults some of us barely play at all. Today, Alexis Zahner and I are speaking with a woman who will change how you think about play. Dara Simkin shares how these restrictive, rigid ideas about play do us, our leadership and our business a massive disservice. She unpacks how play is actually an essential component of our humanity, and what we stand to gain when we welcome play into our worklives and beyond.
Dara Simkin is a play pioneer, speaker and facilitator, who works with leaders looking to unlock creativity, connectedness and innovation for themselves and their teams. She is founder and Chief Play Officer at CultureHero, and is a thought leader in shifting our understanding of play and its implications for business. 

Her playful, experiential craft as a speaker and facilitator creates an engaging learning space for audiences. The content she delivers is both thought-provoking and entertaining — exploring the transformative benefits of purposeful play and the urgency for it in our working lives. She empowers professionals to embrace the beauty of discomfort, while challenging them to consider the consequences of a life void of play. She has shared the stage with world-renowned play researcher Dr Stuart Brown and IDEO Play Lab founder Brendan Boyle when she created and hosted the 2018 and 2019 Break Out play conferences in Melbourne. She’s also presented to organisations like AGL, PWC, McKinsey, MYOB, MediBank and IAG. Her unique energy and enthusiasm is contagious. She emulates the importance of being playfully bold to bring forth greater connection, well-being and new thinking in the world of work. 

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In this conversation we explore what it means to be an anxious overachiever and how Leaders can harness their anxiety and fear to use it for good.

Perfectionism, imposter syndrome, social anxiety and burnout are all issues that can impact leaders and high achievers, in this conversation with Morra we unpack what these are and and give Leaders evidence-back support to move through them.
Morra not only speaks from expertise, but from a place of lived-experience - she knows first-hand what it’s like to be an anxious over achiever.

As an “extremely anxious overachiever,” Morra Aarons-Mele is passionate about helping leaders understand what their anxiety is telling them, and how they can put this knowledge to work.

Morra Aarons-Mele is the host of The Anxious Achiever, a top-10 management podcast that helps people rethink the relationship between their mental health and their leadership. Morra founded Women Online and The Mission List, an award-winning digital-consulting firm and influencer marketing company dedicated to social change, in 2010, and sold her business in 2021. She helped Hillary Clinton log on for her first internet chat and has launched digital campaigns for President Obama, Malala Yousafzai, the United Nations, the CDC, and many other leading figures and organizations. Named among LinkedIn’s Top 10 Voices in Mental Health in 2022, Morra lives outside Boston with her family.

To find Morra’s books and to contact her directly, see her website here.

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Welcome to We Are Human Leaders.

This conversation with Jason Rosoff of Radical Candour illuminates the power in caring personally about those we work with  and having the courage to challenge directly. It debunks the myths of brutal honesty and presents a more effective and compassionate way to have hard conversations that drive psychological safety. 
It's a lesson that’s important well beyond our worklife.
Jason is the CEO and Co-founder of Radical Candor, working alongside Kim Scott the author and researcher behind the Radical Candour concept. Over the last four years, Jason has helped all kinds of organizations, from tiny startups to the giants in the Fortune 100, realize the power of creating a more Radically Candid culture. Through this work, he’s helped hundreds of companies develop real human relationships between team members and through those relationships, achieve amazing results collaboratively.
You’ll hear more in the podcast about Jason’s self-described career meander and how he’s coming to doing this work.
In his past lives, Jason received undergraduate and graduate degrees in business from New York University. He also worked as a product design team lead at Fog Creek Software, the small-but-mighty New York-based software company that created well-loved products like Trello and Stackoverflow. In 2010, he moved to California and helped launch Khan Academy, the world-renowned educational tech non-profit. Over the next seven years, he helped it grow from three people to a few hundred and reach over 100 million students around the world as both chief people and chief product officer.
Jason lives in a small town on the coast of Connecticut with his partner Jillian and dog Jack.

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Welcome to the We are Human Leaders podcast, today we are discussing the 4 Day Work Week with Alex Soojung-Kim Pang.
Imagine a career that adds years to your life. This is exactly the work Alex and his team are doing at 4 Day Work Week Global - they’re helping people and organizations create a million years of free time.
As an individual the four day working week gives you back around 10 weeks every calendar year - imagine how you could spend that time.
In this conversation we debunk the long-held view that to achieve more we need to work longer. Alex gives us the data from global companies through to health-care institutions and local pest control businesses that show a shorter working week, can in fact lead to more productive outcomes as an organization, and greatly benefit the lives of employees.
Alex Soonjung-Kim Pang is the  program manager at 4 Day Week Global, he’s the Author of SHORTER: WORK BETTER, SMARTER AND LESS-- HERE'S HOW, REST: WHY YOU GET MORE DONE WHEN YOU WORK LESS and soon to be published Work Less, Do more: Designing the Four Day Week. 
Find all of Alexs' recent publications here:
Shorter: How Working Less Will Revolutionise the Way Your Company Gets Things Done. Penguin Business, 2020.“UAE Joins the Global Movement for a Shorter Workweek,” Gulf News (12 December 2021). “How to Rest Well,” Psyche (November 2021).“Why We Need to Consider Switching to a 4-Day Workweek — Now,” TED Ideas (July 2021).“How Better Routines Create Happier Workers,” Financial Times, 28 September 2020.“Surprising COVID-19 Side Effect: More Companies Adopt the 4-day Workweek,” Fast Company, 19 August 2020. “To Safely Reopen, Make the Workweek Shorter. Then Keep It Shorter,” The Atlantic, April 30, 2020.“It’s Time to End 9-5 Office Hours,” The Guardian, 10 March 2020.“Shorter Hours Make Stronger Businesses,” Wall Street Journal, 27 February 2020.“Why Companies Should Say Goodbye to the 996 Work Culture, and Hello to 4-day Weeks,” South China Morning Post, 20 April 2019.

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