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

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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.

Send us Fan Mail
Jeff Fellows is currently the Business Development Executive for the Naval Air Missiles portfolio at Raytheon, focused on meeting warfighter demands for lethal and survivable mission effectors. With a background in 5th-generation tactics, Jeff has also spearheaded growth strategy and tactical applications for next-generation technology within Raytheon's Advanced Technology Strategic Business Unit.
Retiring from active-duty naval service in January 2022, Jeff spent 20 years leading high-velocity organizations as an officer and combat aviator. An experienced carrier pilot with more than 3,300 flight hours and 660 arrested landings in F/A-18 E/F Super Hornets and F-35C Lightning II aircraft, his career highlights include being hand-picked to command the Navy's first operational F-35C Lightning II squadron, graduating TOPGUN (Class 02-09), serving as a TOPGUN instructor and later TOPGUN Training Officer, a peer-selected role leading the entire instructor cadre, and completing three combat tours across Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.
A Couple of Quotes From This Episode
“If I know something about you, or you know something about me, then it really just kicks off whatever we're gonna go do as our task, our mission, or our job.”
“Say yes, be kind, and show up.”
"Connection is the weapon of elite leaders.”
Resources
Article: The Increasing Importance of a Best Friend at Work
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
Mark Shapiro is an American-born Canadian baseball executive, born April 3, 1967, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Shapiro joined the Cleveland Indians in 1991, rising from an entry-level role to general manager (2001) and then team president (2010). During his 24 years there, the Indians won six division titles and two AL pennants. He was named Sporting News Executive of the Year twice, in 2005 and 2007.
In 2015 he became president and CEO of the Toronto Blue Jays, succeeding Paul Beeston. He hired Ross Atkins as GM, oversaw renovations to the Dunedin player development complex and Rogers Centre, and signed a five-year extension in December 2025. Under Shapiro, the Blue Jays have reached the postseason five times, including their first AL pennant in 32 years in 2025.
He's also served on several MLB committees, helping introduce the Automated Ball-Strike System, instant replay, and the pitch clock. Personally, he's a dual US-Canadian citizen, has two children, and was portrayed by actor Reed Diamond in the 2011 film Moneyball.
A Few Quotes From This Episode
“Don't worry about being charismatic. Worry about caring deeply. Don't worry about being a super decision maker. Obsessively focus on the best process and prioritization and understanding leverage.”
"The best leaders lead a decision-making process. I'm very rarely making a decision, and if I am, we have a good chance to make a bad decision.”
“If you had to say what is the single most important value to building an elite, best-in-class organization, I would say open-mindedness, is where you have to start.”
Resources
Book: Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World by General Stanley McChrystal 
Book: Good to Great by Jim Collins 
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
Dr. Steven Segal is a psychologist, philosophical counsellor, and leadership coach. He is a former Associate Professor at the Macquarie Graduate School of Management and has spent more than two decades working at the intersection of psychology, philosophy, leadership, and organisational life. His work explores how individuals and communities respond to uncertainty, disruption, and existential threats—those moments when people experience a loss of meaning, belonging, identity, or a sense of being at home in the world. Through his therapy, counselling, coaching, teaching, and writing, he helps individuals and organisations navigate complexity, anxiety, and change while remaining connected to what matters most.
His most recent book is Mandela's Leadership Legacy: Emotional and Existential Wisdom. The book was written as a kind of conversation between Martin Heidegger’s existential philosophy and Mandela’s way of being a leader. It used Heidegger to shed light on Mandela’s existential journey and used Mandela to provide an accessible introduction to the philosophy of Heidegger.
A Couple Quotes From This Episode
"Mandela wasn't the kind of motivational speaker who gets people hyped up. His style was much more thoughtful in the sense of working through emotion."
"Dialogue across difference, it gets to your identity. And when our identity feels a bit threatened, we tend to become reactive rather than listening. Mandela was able to listen when there were threats to his identity."
Resources
Book: Business Feel: From the Science of Management to the Philosophy of Leadership
Philosophical Reflections and Insights for Psychologists and Psychotherapists (forthcoming)
Website - Dr. Steven Segal
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
Dr. Tyson Yunkaporta is an academic, arts critic, and researcher who is a member of the Apalech Clan in far north Queensland, Australia. He works as a senior lecturer in Indigenous Knowledges at Deakin University in Melbourne, where he also founded the Indigenous Knowledge Systems Lab.
He carves traditional tools and weapons alongside his academic work, and his writing process draws on this practice, often beginning with images and carvings rather than words. He is best known as the author of Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World (2019), which won the Small Publishers' Adult Book of the Year at the Australian Book Industry Awards and the Ansari Institute's Randa and Sherif Nasr Book Prize on Religion and the World. He followed it with Right Story, Wrong Story and has a third book, Snake Talk, rounding out what he describes as a trilogy.
His work applies Indigenous systems knowledge, not just Indigenous stories or artifacts, to questions of governance, economics, and organizational design. He also co-founded the Indigenous Systems Knowledge Collective, a nonprofit that supports Indigenous systems thinkers and helps organizations apply relational, complexity-based approaches to leadership and strategy. He lives in Melbourne.
Dr. Toby Newstead is a respected leadership scholar and practitioner at the University of Tasmania, located in lutruwita on the lands of the palawa and pakana people. With a background in corporate change, leadership development, and professional communications, she brings practical expertise to her academic, coaching, and consulting work.
An internationally recognized researcher, Dr. Newstead specializes in virtues-based leadership development, leadership ethics, and leadership in the volunteer sector. Her research appears in top journals. In 2023, she published a book titled Leadership and Virtues: Understanding and Practicing Good Leadership.
Dr. Newstead is an established executive leadership coach and deeply engaged with industry and community. She regularly delivers impactful workshops, keynotes, and facilitation sessions. Dr Newstead’s research, teaching, coaching and facilitation has local and international impact, shaping the leaders of today and tomorrow.
A Few Quotes From This Episode
"We don't say, 'I think, therefore I am,' but we say, 'I am located, therefore I am.'"
"Increase isn't about the quantitative growth of the system... Increase is about the growth of complexity and the growth of interconnectedness and interdependencies in the system."
"Innovation doesn't come from a singular genius. It comes from the most diverse community possible that you can create, the most diverse networks."
Resources
Book: Sand Talk
Book: Right Story, Wrong Story
Book: Snake Talk
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.