Practical Wisdom for Leaders with Scott J. Allen, Ph.D.

Send us Fan Mail
Dr. Nathan Eva is a Fulbright Scholar (2021) and the co-director of Engagement for the Department of Management at the Monash Business School. His research examines follower-first leadership approaches that deliver organizational performance combined with inclusive and supportive workplaces.

Associate Professor Eva received his Ph.D. from Monash University in 2014, received the 2015 Emerald/EFMD Outstanding Doctoral Research Award in Leadership, was awarded as a 2016 Greenleaf Scholar by the Greenleaf Centre for Servant Leadership, received the 2020 Dean's Awards for Excellence in Research by an Early Career Researcher, and was Highly Commended for his research as an Early Career Scholar for the 2018 ANZAM Excellence Awards. He received the 2016 and 2013 Dean's Award for Teaching Excellence at the Monash Business School, and has been consistently recognized for outstanding teaching by the Office of the Vice-Provost.

His peer-reviewed work appears in international outlets such as The Leadership Quarterly, Journal of Organizational Behavior, and Human Resource Management. His article on Servant Leadership in The Leadership Quarterly is the most downloaded and the most cited article in their journal since 2017, and his article on Psychological Safety in Human Resource Management Review received the journal's Scholarly Impact Award for the most impactful article (2017-2022).

Associate Professor Eva is a Board Member of the Network of Leadership Scholars, the Chair of the Leadership Scholarship stream for the International Leadership Association, and the Co-Chair of the International Leadership Association’s Leadership Education Academy. He is a Senior Editor for Management and Organization Review and an editorial board member of The Leadership Quarterly, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Business Ethics, & Group and Organizational Management.
A Few Quotes From This Episode & Nathan's Work
“Servant leadership is not just about serving others. It is about sending credible, repeated, observable signals that followers interpret as genuine service.”
"Servant leadership is quite costly because it's taking time away from other things that you could be doing. Things that might influence your promotion... you're having to go out on a limb for somebody."
"Pick a small set of behaviors or signals that are yours. It's not trying to be a leader who does everything. It's a leader who's trying to do three or four things incredibly, incredibly well, and they are just the things that you're known for. That's your reputation. That's your superpower."
Resources
Article: Signalling servant leadership: How followers interpret leader behaviours
Blog Post: Is there one best way to lead or have we overcomplicated what makes leaders effective? 
Google Scholar: Nathan Eva
About The International Leadership Association (ILA)
The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. Attend The Global Conference in Toronto, October 28-31.
About  Scott J. Allen
Website
Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders
My Approach to Hosting
The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Send us Fan Mail
Steve Drotter is an American leadership expert, widely read author, and executive consultant best known for being the lead author of the influential business book The Leadership Pipeline. He is widely recognized for his work in leadership development, succession planning and organization design.
Drotter has more than five decades working on the human side of business. He has worked with over 150 businesses, large and small, in 37 countries, across many industries. Working with boards and CEOs, he has advised on 50 CEO succession plans. Many of his customers lead their industries and use his leadership pipeline principles to maintain their competitive advantage. The first hand and validated interview information provides the substance for his books.
His career started at General Electric where he was a designer and implementor of their famous succession planning system. He ran human resources at two major corporations, INA (now called Cigna) and Chase Manhattan Corp. Drotter is Chairman of The Leadership Pipeline Institute where he continues to write, shape research and provide leadership development programs designed uniquely for each layer in the pipeline model.
Shawn Domeracki is the Vice President of Sales for the Lexus Division.  In this role Shawn is responsible for the Sales, training, and retail market development for Lexus in the United States of America.  In addition to these responsibilities, Shawn serves as a Board Observer on the Board of Directors for Ionna a joint venture between eight automotive companies to create electric vehicle charging infrastructure across North America.
Prior to his current role, Mr. Domeracki was the Vice President for Toyota Motor North America’s (TMNA) Product Planning and Strategy Department.  In this role Shawn was responsible for building a clear strategy and go to market plan for future battery electric vehicles in the Toyota and Lexus portfolio as well as mobility solutions outside of Toyota’s traditional vehicle business.  
Shawn received his bachelor’s degree from Indiana University in Bloomington, IN.  He is married and has two children.
A Few Quotes From This Episode
“The most noticeable thing about most companies is that the most important work is sitting in the corner; nobody's doing it."
"People think that managing managers is the same as managing others, just bigger. No, it's totally different."
"If you're not working at your right level... the succession plan is worthless. What are you a successor for?"
"Everybody in the world's a coach. Must be a million coaches just on LinkedIn alone. What do they know?"
Resources
Book: The Leadership Pipeline
Organization: The Leadership Pipeline Institute 
About The International Leadership Association (ILA)
The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. Attend The Global Conference in Toronto, October 28-31.
About  Scott J. Allen
Website
Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders
My Approach to Hosting
The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Send us Fan Mail
Gary Lloyd is a change leadership practitioner, author of Gardeners Not Mechanics: How to Cultivate Change at Work, and creator of Leadership Skills Lab and Leadership Skill Builder. He has spent much of his career leading complex change and developing leaders, including more than a decade as a mentor and former co-chair of Warwick Business School’s mentoring programme. His current work explores how AI can support safe practice, reflection, and genuinely personalised leadership development.
A Few Quotes From This Episode
“People are more open to feedback from the AI on the conversation they've had...it feels less threatening, it feels less like a human being."
"You can read about it till the cows come home...if people want to know what the possibilities are for them reinventing the way that they deliver leadership training, then go and get your hands dirty a bit. It's unbelievably easy."
Resources
leadershipskillbuilder.ai
About The International Leadership Association (ILA)
The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. Attend The Global Conference in Toronto, October 28-31.
About  Scott J. Allen
Website
Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders
My Approach to Hosting
The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Send us Fan Mail
Rob Kaiser is a road-worn veteran of executive selection and development in the C-suite and the author of five books, including The Versatile Leader and Fear Your Strengths (both with Bob Kaplan), along with Executive Selection, Filling the Leadership Pipeline, and The Perils of Accentuating the Positive. His work has also appeared in hundreds of peer-reviewed articles in behavioral science and business press, as well as in professional presentations. In the late 1990s, Rob's research identified versatility, the capacity to balance seemingly opposing leadership behaviors such as forceful and enabling, or strategic and operational, as the single most important capability for leading in a fast-paced world of disruptive change. That insight was ahead of its time and still shapes how he thinks about leadership today.
Based on that research, Rob created a suite of tools that place versatility at the core of leadership assessment and development, including the patented Leadership Versatility Index 360, the Integrated Personality Summary, and the Progress Report. He and his firm, Kaiser Leadership Solutions, put these ideas into practice every day, helping companies assess, identify, select, and develop executives who build strong teams and great cultures that deliver outstanding business results.
A Few Quotes From This Episode
“A strength can become a weakness through overuse."
"There's only one person in the world you can't see."
(Temple of Apollo) - "Know thyself. Nothing in excess. Surety brings ruin."
Resources
The Versatile Leader: Make the Most of Your Strengths Without Overdoing It 
Fear Your Strengths: What You Are Best At Could Be Your Biggest Problem 
Kaiser Leadership Solutions
Leadership Versatility Index (LVI) 360 
About The International Leadership Association (ILA)
The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. Attend The Global Conference in Toronto, October 28-31.
About  Scott J. Allen
Website
Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders
My Approach to Hosting
The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Send us Fan Mail
Jon Acuff is a New York Times bestselling author of 11 books, including Soundtracks, Finish, and All It Takes Is a Goal, which together have sold more than one million copies. His newest book, Procrastination Proof: Never Get Stuck Again (Baker Books, April 14, 2026), argues that procrastination isn't a character flaw but a learned coping mechanism, drawn from more than a decade of research and testing with over 30,000 participants. Named one of Inc.'s Top 100 Leadership Speakers, Acuff has delivered keynotes for organizations including Microsoft, Walmart, FedEx, Nissan, and Comedy Central.
Acuff hosts the podcast All It Takes Is a Goal, where he has helped hundreds of thousands of listeners move past overthinking and finish what matters most to them. On this episode of Practical Wisdom for Leaders, he and host Scott Allen dig into “seven reasons people don't choose remarkable,” drawing on stories from his own career, including his years working alongside Dave Ramsey and starting over in his thirties. Acuff lives outside Nashville with his wife and two daughters.
A Few Quotes From This Episode
“Procrastination is when your actions don't match your intentions. Remarkable is the opposite, when your actions match your intentions.”
“You're the most persuasive person you've ever met. You talked yourself into every decision, often bad ones.”
“Most resolutions fail because we try to do something for a year we've never done for a day.”
Resources
Book: Procrastination Proof: Never Get Stuck Again by Acuff
All of Jon's Books
About The International Leadership Association (ILA)
The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. Attend The Global Conference in Toronto, October 28-31.
About  Scott J. Allen
Website
Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders
My Approach to Hosting
The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.