Flourishing Edge Podcast with Ashish Kothari

Hosted by Ashish Kothari

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196

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Sep 2026

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About the show

Research backed leadership practices to build high performance cultures and improve workplace wellbeing and employee engagement. Every week, Ashish Kothari sits down with the researchers, executives and practitioners doing the most rigorous work on improving workplace wellbeing and turns what they have learned into something you can implement right away. Not wellness perks. Not engagement surveys nobody acts on. The specific behaviors, systems and daily habits that separate organizations where people burn out from those where they thrive. Conversations range across rewiring habits, building resilience, sustaining energy, cultivating purpose and leading with greater humanity, and how individuals, teams and organizations create the conditions for people and performance to thrive together. Recent guests include Barbara Jeffrey on workplace wellbeing, Zeynep Ton on the Good Jobs System, Zach Mercurio on why mattering drives retention, and Dr. Kristin Neff on self-compassion. Every episode gives you something you can use on Monday. How to build high performing teams. How to lead culture change that holds. Why managers shape employee motivation and employee experience more than any program ever will. Made for business leaders, HR and people teams who own organizational culture and get measured on what it produces. Ashish spent 17 years at McKinsey watching brilliant, exhausted leaders burn out and leaders prioritizing higher profits at the cost of their people. He wrote Hardwired for Happiness and founded Happiness Squad to fix it. He created the Organizational Human Potential Index, along with the REWIRE and PEARL models behind programs run at Google, PepsiCo, Danone and MUFG. This podcast is where that work happens out loud. 180+ episodes and counting. New episodes weekly. More at happinesssquad.com

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September 29, 202642 min

How to Improve Emotional Intelligence: The 10-Second Move

Every decision you make is emotional, including the ones you are sure are logical. Most leaders never notice, react, and spend the following weeks cleaning up the consequences. Business psychologist Dr. Robin Hills, director of Ei4Change and the teacher of more than 500,000 people across 200+ countries, joins host, Ashish Kothari, and explains why AI makes emotional intelligence more valuable rather than less, why it is a power skill and not a soft one, and how the best individual performers end up leading from fear once they are promoted. You'll learn a simpler way to name what you feel, the 10-second move that keeps a difficult conversation from going wrong, and the one question that turned a shouting manager into a leader people came to for help. For managers, executives and anyone who has ever made a "rational" decision they later regretted. What You Will Learn: Every decision is emotional. Check before you act . Ask: pleasant or unpleasant, and is this building the relationship or damaging it? Emotional intelligence is a power skill, not a soft one . Hard conversations still happen. It's not the fact that you do it, it's how you do it. Swap "do it my way" for "how can I help?" Ask what the best way is and what you can unblock. Shouting gets rewarded; asking gets results. Practice the 10-second move . Name the emotion out loud, take a minute, and if it's still hot, decide tomorrow. Give AI the logic . Keep the choices human. Values, relationships, creativity and purpose are the part of your job it can't copy. Episode Chapters: 00:00 Emotional intelligence isn’t about being “soft”; it’s about doing the right thing, in the right way, for the right purpose. 01:37 Why emotional intelligence matters even more in an AI-driven world: machines can imitate empathy, but they cannot truly feel or share human experience. 08:11 Robin defines emotional intelligence as being smart with your feelings—combining thought and emotion to make better decisions and build authentic relationships. 17:29 How emotions quietly shape decision-making, and a simple way to notice whether a situation feels pleasant or unpleasant before reacting. 28:03 A more effective leadership approach: empower people, ask how you can help, and remove obstacles rather than directing every move. 36:37 A practical response for difficult conversations: name the emotion, take a pause when needed, and create space to choose a better response. Resources: Connect with the Guest LinkedIn: Doctor Robin Hills Connect with the Host LinkedIn: Ashish Kothari Website: Happiness Squad Book: Hardwired For Happiness YouTube: Happiness Squad Channel If this conversation sparked something for you, please subscribe and leave a review, it takes 30 seconds and helps more people discover the show.

September 22, 202645 min

How to Turn a Team of Leaders Into a Leadership Team?

A team of leaders is not a leadership team. Most executive groups spend their meetings sharing information silo by silo, defer every decision to the person at the head of the table, and then relitigate the whole thing in one-on-ones afterwards. Host Ashish Kothari sits down with Alexander and Janice Caillet, co-founders of Corentus and two of the most experienced team coaches in the world. They walk through the two telltale signs that your team is really a working group, the collective work products only a true team can produce, and how one executive team cut 100 meeting hours a year while finishing its strategic plan in half the time by doing it together. What the top team does echoes through every cross-functional meeting below it. For CEOs, executive team members, and anyone tired of drowning in meetings that decide nothing. What You Will Learn: 1. Diagnose before you fix. If the meeting is information sharing silo by silo, and the real problem solving happens afterwards in one-on-ones, you have a working group. Name it honestly. 2. Give the team work only the team can do. The strategic plan, succession, board prep, culture change. Move information sharing to pre-reads and reserve the room for deciding. 3. Wear both hats at once. Walk in as a functional leader and as a member of the organization's leadership team. Compromise stops feeling like losing when you are solving for the whole organization. 4. Have a move for the standoff. Stop and name it, hear each side's perspective and needs, then build the solution together. Even half of that lowers the temperature. 5. How you meet is the culture. Everyone below is watching how the top team gets along. Run one experiment this week and watch what changes. Episode Chapters: 02:58 The clearest signs a leadership team is really just a working group: siloed updates in meetings and real decisions happening in side conversations afterward. 07:20 The core shift to stronger teamwork: shared goals, collective work products, intentional meeting design, and clearer decision-making. 14:52 Why every executive needs to wear two hats: representing their function while acting as a member of the enterprise team. 18:09 The RAFT self-awareness framework: how thinking, feelings, actions, and results shape the way leaders show up. 20:29 A practical way to move through conflict: pause, hear each perspective, uncover needs, and work toward a shared solution. 32:45 The strategic-planning example: how one executive team reduced ineffective meeting time and completed planning in roughly half the time by doing the hard work together. Resources: Connect with the Guests LinkedIn: Alexander Cailett LinkedIn: Janice Cailett Company website: Corentus Connect with the Host LinkedIn: Ashish Kothari Website: Happiness Squad Book: Hardwired For Happiness YouTube: Happiness Squad Channel TEDx: How to make flourishing your competitive edge If this conversation sparked something for you, please subscribe and leave a review, it takes 30 seconds and helps more people discover the show.

September 15, 202642 min

How to Regulate Your Nervous System Before a Hard Decision

Most leadership problems cannot be solved. The harder you push, the more they slip away. Host Ashish Kothari talks with Carolyn Coughlin, co-author of Unleash Your Complexity Genius, about why people problems are complex rather than complicated. A complicated problem has an answer you find once and use again. A complex one shifts every time you touch it. Carolyn explains why your activated nervous system is the real obstacle, and how to regulate it in under a minute. You'll discover the physical warning sign that you are grasping at something you cannot hold, why 80% of good experiments should fail, and why harmony is quietly killing your team's best thinking. Ashish brings what he sees inside large transformations, where these moves either take hold or fall apart. What You Will Learn: 1. Some problems have answers. People problems do not. If it involves getting people to change, no plan will solve it. Start experimenting instead. 2. Your nervous system is the first lever. One long out breath. Shoulders down. Feet on the floor. 3. Run small experiments and expect most to miss. Three cheap, fast probes teach you more than one big plan, because you find out what is actually true. 4. Let yourself be known. Say "I don't know" when you don't. Say "I see this differently" when you do. Episode Chapters: 00:00 Why people and organizations are inherently unpredictable, and why that makes leadership a complexity challenge. 02:51 The practical distinction between complicated problems with repeatable solutions and complex problems with shifting, interconnected dynamics. 07:17 How leaders can recognize complexity through the feeling of efforting hard without making progress. 10:55 The importance of noticing: reading your own nervous system and widening your attention to what is happening around you. 16:54 Using breath, movement, and time in nature to regulate an activated nervous system before trying to solve a difficult problem. 24:42 Why leaders need an experimental mindset: small, low-risk tests that help teams learn rather than chase certainty. 32:20 How wonder, laughter, and playfulness build trust and create the openness needed to navigate uncertainty. 36:46 Why love and genuine positive regard at work can create the safety and connection complexity leadership requires. Resources: Connect with the Guest LinkedIn: Carolyn Coughlin Recommended Reading: Unleash Your Complexity Genius Growing Your Inner Capacity to Lead Connect with the Host LinkedIn: Ashish Kothari Website: Happiness Squad Book: Hardwired For Happiness YouTube: Happiness Squad Channel TEDx: How to make flourishing your competitive edge If this conversation sparked something for you, please subscribe and leave a review, it takes 30 seconds and helps more people discover the show.

September 8, 202643 min

Disengaged Employees Aren’t Unmotivated. They’re Unseen.

Your most disengaged employees may not have a motivation problem. They have an identity problem. They were hired for a title, and the parts of them that don't fit the title stay switched off. After 25 years as a biotech finance and strategy executive, Tony Martignetti walked out of a boardroom to help leaders reawaken the brilliance their workplaces put to sleep. He joins Ashish Kothari to explain why so many high performers end up outwardly successful and inwardly numb, why some people are burned out while others are simply bored, and the three questions that reveal what someone is good at but never gets asked to do. If your team is performing but not alive, start here. What You Will Learn: 1. Look for an identity problem before a motivation problem. When someone checks out, ask which part of them the job stopped asking for. People rarely lose their ability. They lose the chance to use it. 2. Know the difference between burned out and bored. Burnout is too much work. Boredom is work that stopped mattering. One needs a lighter plate, the other needs a reason to care. 3. Ask three questions that reveal what someone never gets asked to do. When did you last feel most alive? What do you do on autopilot? What's missing in your day. 4. Don't just engage people. Enrich them. Leave people better than you found them. Tell someone what you see in them, and swap one status question for "What surprised you this week?" Episode Chapters: 00:00 Reconnecting with your own light as the first step to helping others do the same. 05:28 A personal turning point: leaving a successful career to rediscover what was missing. 12:55 Why employee disengagement is often an identity issue, not simply a motivation problem. 22:02 The human capabilities that matter most in an AI-driven workplace: integration, meaning-making, and better questions. 28:33 The Illumination Framework for uncovering overlooked strengths and turning them into meaningful action. 38:13 Three practical leadership exercises to empower others, recognize overlooked strengths, and ask better questions. Resources: Connect with the Guest LinkedIn: Tony Martignetti Recommended Reading: Illuminating Hidden Brilliance: The Power of Multidimensional Leadership in a One-Dimensional World Connect with the Host LinkedIn: Ashish Kothari Website: Happiness Squad Book: Hardwired For Happiness YouTube: Happiness Squad Channel TEDx: How to make flourishing your competitive edge If this conversation sparked something for you, please subscribe and leave a review, it takes 30 seconds and helps more people discover the show.

September 1, 202648 min

How Compassionate Leaders Hold People Accountable

Fear and shame get short-term results. They also burn people out, destroy trust, and make flourishing impossible, which is why those results rarely last. Host Ashish Kothari sits down with Laura Berland and Evan Harrel, founders of the Center for Compassionate Leadership (1,200+ leaders trained across 75 countries), to unpack why compassionate leadership matters most in the age of AI, and why it is the opposite of being nice. It means setting boundaries, delivering hard feedback, and holding people accountable while protecting their dignity. You'll hear how a single interview question quietly reshaped an entire hospital network, and why the ripple reached the receptionist at the front door. You'll get three moves any leader can make this week without waiting for permission, starting with the boundary you've been avoiding. If you lead a team and suspect command-and-control is costing you more than it delivers, this conversation is your way out. What You Will Learn: 1. Ask what AI can elevate, not what it can replace. Replacement thinking stagnates. Elevation thinking compounds. Before your next AI decision, ask what human capability this tool could amplify. 2. Compassion is not niceness. Nice avoids the hard conversation because it wants to be liked. Compassion speaks truth with dignity: "It's not okay for you to do this, and I believe you can do better, and I will help you do better." 3. Regulate before you deliver hard feedback. Feedback given from anger arrives with a closed heart and a verdict already reached. Ground yourself first, then lead with curiosity about what's missing. 4. One small move in a role, routine, or network. Culture follows. A hospital shifted its entire culture with a single interview question. Steal the meeting prompt: "Tell me one way you can be supported or challenged this week." 5. Go first. The ripple travels further than you think. Compassionate acts move at least three degrees of contact. Set one boundary this week with kindness, or reach out to one person for no reason other than connection. Episode Chapters: 00:00 Opening framing on AI, workplace humanity, and the risk of treating people as expendable. 05:20 Why leaders need to recognize interdependence rather than rely on individualism and control. 09:07 Compassion versus “being nice”: accountability, hard feedback, and dignity can coexist. 18:19 A hospital leader’s small hiring change that helped shift a culture toward compassion. 27:38 The story of a middle manager building grassroots support during organizational burnout and resistance. 45:08 Three practical actions leaders can take immediately: invite support, set a kind boundary, and build a new human connection. Resources: Connect with the Guests LinkedIn: Laura Berland LinkedIn: Evan Harrel Website: Center For Compassionate Leadership Connect with the Host LinkedIn: Ashish Kothari Website: Happiness Squad Book: Hardwired For Happiness YouTube: Happiness Squad Channel TEDx: How to make flourishing your competitive edge If this conversation sparked something for you, please subscribe and leave a review, it takes 30 seconds and helps more people discover the show.

August 25, 202652 min

How to Stay Grounded When Everything Falls Apart

Most leaders treat fear as the thing blocking them. Amy Elizabeth Fox, CEO of Mobius Executive Leadership and Nicholas Janni, both co-authors of Leading in Chaos, argue the opposite: you block fear, and that blocking is quietly costing you presence, judgment, and your team's best thinking. Along with host Ashish Kothari, you'll discover why emotional intelligence in leadership starts in the body, the practices that ground you when everything is unpredictable, and why the times are urgent enough that we must slow down. For leaders and executives who are done white-knuckling through chaos and ready to lead from somewhere deeper. What You Will Learn: 1. Fear isn't the block. You are. "Fear doesn't block me. The problem is I block fear." Let the wave move through you before the hard conversation. What's on the other side is presence, not paralysis. 2. Get in your body before you decide . Soften the out-breath. Feel your feet, feel your chair. Thirty seconds changes your brainwave state, and you can do it mid-meeting. You can't steady a room you haven't steadied yourself in. 3. Stop performing certainty. The picture is too big for one mind . Sit with your team in "we don't know," listen until other views actually land, and watch the periphery for early signals instead of rushing to fix. 4. Slow down because the times are urgent . When you're moving fast in ten directions, you're busy but not effective. Block out time that's unplugged and unscheduled. One well-aimed move beats a dozen rushed ones. 5. Don't shrink, don't inflate. Humility isn't making yourself small. It's owning what you're actually good at while letting go of the need to control how things turn out. Try saying: "I don't know, but together we can figure it out." Episode Chapters: 02:58 Healing inherited trauma is part of leadership. 07:27 - Sense-making must go beyond intellect. 12:19 - Practical ways to become more grounded. 18:08 - Opening the heart strengthens teams. 21:23 - Emotions are meant to be felt, not suppressed. 31:51 - Spaciousness is a leadership discipline. 39:01 - Humility means occupying the right space. 43:29 - Intuition and “field intelligence” emerge through presence. 49:17 - Collective healing needs both justice and inner development. Resources: Connect with the Guest LinkedIn: Amy Elizabeth Fox LinkedIn: Nicholas Janni Recommended Reading: Leading in Chaos Connect with the Host LinkedIn: Ashish Kothari Website: Happiness Squad Book: Hardwired For Happiness YouTube: Happiness Squad Channel TEDx: How to make flourishing your competitive edge If this conversation sparked something for you, please subscribe and leave a review, it takes 30 seconds and helps more people discover the show.

August 18, 202641 min

How to Lead with Vulnerability Without Losing Authority

700 CEOs have gone through McKinsey's Bower Forum, and the data points to one uncomfortable truth: the best leaders spend less time telling people what to do. Ramesh Srinivasan, McKinsey senior partner, dean of the Bower Forum, and co-author of The Journey of Leadership, joins Ashish Kothari to unpack how top CEOs practice vulnerability in leadership without losing authority and why one of them was told he should fire any leader who says "I have no clue" in a crisis. You'll discover the to-be list that reshapes how you show up in your biggest meetings, the 15-second reframe elite athletes use under pressure, and why feedback you ask for is 10 times more effective than feedback you're given. If you lead people through uncertainty and want psychological safety at work that actually produces results, this conversation is your playbook. What You Will Learn: How to write a daily "to-be list" that decides how you show up in your biggest meetings, not just what you accomplish Why the best CEOs spend less time telling people what to do and what they do instead How to practice vulnerability with judgment: when "we don't know yet" builds trust, and when it should get a leader fired The "five sources of meaning" that mobilize a whole workforce beyond shareholder value How to make feedback ~10x more effective by asking for it first and cascade that habit through your team How to metabolize stress with Ramesh's "fear in the backseat" model, so purpose drives and fear keeps only a voice Episode Chapters: 04:49 Why leadership begins from the inside out 07:44 How leaders can reconnect with their values and purpose 09:57 Shareholder value, stakeholders, and the business case for purpose 13:16 Moving from constant doing to reflection and “to-be” leadership 16:43 Creating the emotional conditions for difficult conversations 18:55 What today’s uncertainty demands from leaders 19:28 Humility, vulnerability, truth-telling, and fearless learning 23:29 Building a culture where people can learn from failure 27:18 What vulnerability really means for leaders 32:38 Making stress an ally rather than a source of burnout 37:44 What gives Ramesh hope about the future of leadership Resources: Connect with the Guest LinkedIn: Ramesh Srinivasan Recommended Reading: The Journey of Leadership How CEOs Learn to Lead from the Inside Out Connect with the Host LinkedIn: Ashish Kothari Website: Happiness Squad Book: Hardwired For Happiness YouTube: Happiness Squad Channel TEDx: How to make flourishing your competitive edge If this conversation sparked something for you, please subscribe and leave a review, it takes 30 seconds and helps more people discover the show.

August 11, 202653 min

Improv Is the Resilience Skill Leaders Are Missing

What if the skill that makes a comedian great on an unscripted stage is the same skill that makes a leader great in an unpredictable economy? Layoffs and AI have left a lot of people feeling like a line item instead of a human being. Jordana Cole flips that on its head: you are not the resource, you are the source. Jordana is an applied improviser, Gallup Strengths Coach, and University of Pennsylvania positive psychology grad. In this episode she joins host Ashish Kothari to turn a decade on the improv stage into a practical playbook for leading through uncertainty. Together they dig into why AI has no source material without us, why uncertainty is the constant rather than the exception, why an 80/20 tilt toward strengths beats the grind of fixing what is broken, and why play is not a reward for hard work but the thing that makes hard work possible. Improvisation, not certainty, is the human edge in the age of AI. You will walk away with three things you can try this week and one brainstorming trick that changes how your team thinks. What You Will Learn: You are the source, not the resource . AI has nothing to learn from without us. Uncertainty is the constant, not the exception . Possibility, not threat. Play to the scene you're in . Accept reality first, then decide what's next. Lead with your strengths . Gallup: 3x higher quality of life, 6x more engagement. Co-create, including with AI . Treat AI as a partner, not a vending machine. Don't carry your mistakes . Park it and return to center. Episode Chapters: 00:00 Why human creativity and connection matter even more in an AI-driven world. 08:09 Jordana reframes uncertainty as a constant—and an opportunity. 10:17 Use AI to amplify your strengths rather than simply replace tasks. 17:17 How improv helps people adapt when plans change. 24:25 Focus on the reality you’re in and what you can control. 36:00 Co-creation: building better ideas by building on others’ input. 45:30 Why play is a catalyst for creativity, energy, and better work. 50:27 Three practical ways to navigate uncertainty with more confidence and play. Resources: Connect with the Guest LinkedIn: Jordana Cole Website: Ignited by Jordana TEDx: What to do when you don't know what's next Connect with the Host LinkedIn: Ashish Kothari Website: Happiness Squad Book: Hardwired For Happiness YouTube: Happiness Squad Channel TEDx: How to make flourishing your competitive edge If this conversation sparked something for you, please subscribe and leave a review, it takes 30 seconds and helps more people discover the show.

August 4, 202643 min

How to Trust Your Intuition When You’re Running on Empty

Cortney McDermott had the titles, the accolades, and the corporate jet and she was, in her own words, "miserably successful." In this episode, the two-time author joins Ashish Kothari to unpack why you can't win the game of externally sourced success, and how to trust your intuition when you're running on empty. You'll walk away with three deceptively simple practices - rest, movement, and yes, yawning - that change your state in minutes and turn the volume back up on your intuition. What You Will Learn: 1. Source your success from the inside, not the outside. 2. Responsibility is your ability to respond, not your share of the blame. 3. When you're overwhelmed, don't add more. Lie down. 4. Change your state before you try to change your story. 5. Treat your intuition as a faculty to develop, not a fluke. Episode Chapters: 1:31 - From corporate success to inner transformation 5:49 - When “having it all” still feels empty 11:49 — Why real change begins within 23:39 — Three practical ways to reconnect with yourself 33:02 — Cultivating intuition in a distracted world Resources: Connect with the Guest LinkedIn: Cortney McDermott Recommended Reading: Give Yourself Permission: Be Confident. Be Happy. Be You. Change Starts Within You: Unlock the Confidence to Lead with Intuition. Connect with the Host LinkedIn: Ashish Kothari Website: Happiness Squad Book: Hardwired For Happiness TEDx: How to make flourishing your competitive edge YouTube: Happiness Squad Channel If this conversation sparked something for you, please subscribe and leave a review, it takes 30 seconds and helps more people discover the show.

July 28, 202645 min

AI Saves You 2.5 Hours a Week. Most People Waste It

AI now hands the average worker 2.5 hours back every week. Most of us pour it straight into more busywork, then wonder why we are busier than ever. That reclaimed time is the most valuable thing AI has given us, and we are giving it away without deciding to. Bonnie Davis, co-author of Still Human with AI alongside Bijal Choksi, joins Ashish Kothari to talk about how to stop wasting it. Not with another productivity system, but by getting deliberate about what those freed-up hours are actually for: your wellbeing, your relationships, and the people you lead. Bonnie gives us a practical framework, and a step-by-step way to use it, for building a workplace where people flourish even as AI turns up everywhere. Her argument is that culture doesn't survive this shift by accident. Somebody has to shape it on purpose. What you'll learn: Decide what your reclaimed 2.5 hours are actually for, then put them on your calendar. Name the moments AI will never own, and ask your AI which ones. Write a human value proposition, not just an employee value proposition Give purpose a line of sight: carry the stories of who your work serves. Make learning a team sport. Courses are outdated, become a micro university: capture learning in the moment. Episode Chapters: 00:00 - The essence of flourishing: energy and resilience 06:37 - AI’s potential to help us flourish—or weaken connection 17:43 - The seven factors of flourishing 20:49 - Purpose and values as organizational building blocks 38:00 - Generative leadership for sustainable performance Resources: Connect with the Guest LinkedIn: Bonnie Davis Recommended Reading: Still Human with AI How to Build Organizations where Leaders and Teams Thrive with AI by Bonnie Davis and Bijal Choksi . Connect with the Host LinkedIn: Ashish Kothari Website: Happiness Squad Book: Hardwired For Happiness YouTube: Happiness Squad Channel If this conversation sparked something for you, please subscribe and leave a review, it takes 30 seconds and helps more people discover the show.