Many accomplished leaders reach a point where success stops meaning anything. The stories leaders live by were useful once, but they run their course, and no protocol, framework, or morning routine can fix one that has stopped working. In a time when a chatbot tends to agree with everything we say, the way forward is to welcome a different view, make the best decision we can without certainty, and take responsibility for it.

Federico Malatesta is the founder of FM Transformational Coaching and the author of They Are Lying to You: The Self-Help Delusion. He grew up in Rome and spent fifteen years in global energy, rising to chief investment officer, or CIO, of a $40 billion portfolio, before leaving to study why success stops meaning anything. He now coaches senior executives from a working horse ranch in Texas, drawing on narrative theory, neuroscience, and contemporary psychoanalytic thought. He writes regularly on identity, leadership transitions, and narrative collapse, and his newsletter is Almost Everything Is Context.

Chapters:

• (00:00) - Welcome and the unreliable narrator
• (02:50) - Four challenges leaders face today
• (04:46) - Meet Federico Malatesta
• (07:16) - Influences and a working horse ranch
• (09:33) - What horses pick up in leaders
• (11:47) - Why self-help protocols fail
• (15:54) - Knowing the why before the how
• (18:35) - The stories leaders live by
• (21:32) - Using AI as a challenger
• (22:52) - The client who kept leaving boards
• (25:13) - Emotional bookmarks and body signals
• (27:42) - Deconstructing a stressful moment
• (30:38) - Practicing in low-stakes moments
• (32:34) - Why authenticity is the wrong word
• (34:45) - Leadership as moving forward under uncertainty
• (39:04) - Challenging your own story
• (41:17) - Judgment in the boardroom
• (42:16) - Lightning round

Referenced in this episode:

Tasha Eurich on how rare self-awareness is - https://hbr.org/2018/01/what-self-awareness-really-is-and-how-to-cultivate-it

Federico Malatesta on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/federicomalatesta/

More about FM Transformational Coaching: https://federicomalatesta.com/about/

Leadership Development News is a Podcasts That Matter production: https://podcaststhatmatter.org

Many leaders believe work leaves no time for love or kindness, only for results. Yet the Apple Store became one of the most respected retailers in the world by serving people rather than selling to them, earning customers one at a time. In an age of AI, when common answers are a quick query away, the edge belongs to leaders who slow down and listen to their own inner voice.

Ron Johnson is the creator of the Apple Store, a sought-after speaker and board member, and the author, with Zander Nethercutt, of Shop Different: How Retail Revealed Apple's Genius. A Stanford alumnus and Harvard Business School graduate, he was a merchant leader at Target, where his collaboration with architect Michael Graves brought good design to everyday shoppers. Steve Jobs hired him in 2000 to create Apple's stores, which he built on a service philosophy rooted in love and kindness, values he traces to growing up outside Minneapolis. He later served as CEO of JCPenney and founded Enjoy, the first mobile retail store.

Chapters:

• (00:00) - Welcome and introduction
• (04:56) - Stores to overcome the fear of technology
• (06:45) - Where love and kindness come from
• (09:05) - Telling Steve Jobs to love the customers
• (12:50) - The mentors who shaped him
• (13:52) - Working for Steve Jobs
• (15:19) - A year of nightly phone calls
• (18:43) - From success to significance
• (22:57) - Serving, not selling
• (25:48) - Why his best days happened in stores
• (30:31) - Creativity, skeptics and believers
• (35:16) - Genius is a team game
• (37:11) - How a hotel shaped the Genius Bar
• (41:49) - What think different means day to day
• (45:00) - The conversation with yourself

Leadership Development News is a Podcasts That Matter production: https://podcaststhatmatter.org

Need support for your own podcast? Reach out: https://podcastsmatter.com

Every leader carries fears and insecurities they've learned to hide. Over time, those hidden struggles build invisible walls—walls that shape how we lead, how we relate, and how others experience us. What we think are strengths are often just sophisticated defense mechanisms.

Tyler Dickerhoof is a leadership mentor, entrepreneur, host of the Impact Driven Leader community, and USA Today best-selling author of The Things We Hide. With 25-plus years of experience and more than $750 million in business sales generated, he knows the real pressures leaders carry. A Cornell graduate, Tyler once measured his worth by achievement, often at the cost of relationships. Through personal growth and entrepreneurship, he faced the hidden insecurities driving his leadership. Now he helps leaders slow down, face what's really driving them, and lead with greater authenticity, clarity, and impact.

Today we have more intense emotions and a sense of overwhelm, causing all of us stress. Leaders are dealing with so much more than they have in the past. A study on stress in America tells us that 47% of people are experiencing Anxiety, 44% are sad, 39% are angry, while 75% of us feel we could use more emotional support. For much of that support, they are turning to their leaders, who now need more counseling and coaching skills. What are they and we to do with this abundance of emotions and feelings?

Drs. Greenberg and Nadler will take a deeper look at how you manage these feelings. In our Emotional Brilliance book, we presented a model of dealing with them called NAME. Notice and Name, Accept, Manage, and Express. We will look at the M for Manage: managing your thoughts and actions, which will help regulate these feelings. What is causing the most stress today, according to a recent American Psychological Association study, is:

Inflation (e.g., gas prices, energy bills, grocery costs): 87% Supply chain issues: 81% Global uncertainty: 81% Potential retaliation from Russia (e.g., cyberattacks, nuclear threats): 80% Russian invasion of Ukraine: 80%

For more leadership tools and information on Dr. Relly Nadler go to https://drrellynadler.com

In our fast-paced, high-tech, ever-evolving world the speed of change, decision-making is getting faster, the level of competition fiercer, and adversity, ambiguity are striking harder than ever. As this is the current and future state of our world, it is imperative that people stay level-headed and focused to effectively function at optimal capacity. The ability to be that stabilizing influence in a world of constant disruption can provide a true competitive advantage and determine the long-term success of any individual and company. This topic provides insights on facing, overcoming, and learning from obstacles, while also realizing that failure, change, and adversity can be leveraged as positive catalysts for growth…and to not only help you survive in the face of adversity but to thrive in it. Steve Gavatorta, the owner of the Steve Gavatorta Group, specializes in empowering individuals and organizations in exceeding performance goals. Steve has coached and trained thousands of high performers from small businesses on the move to Fortune 500 companies.

Dr. Dave Rabin, MD, PhD is a senior research scientist on faculty at The Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC), the Executive Director of The Board of Medicine, and the co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of Apollo Neuroscience. His research focuses on understanding the mechanisms of action of psychedelic drugs and developing evidence-based guidelines for unregulated medicines and therapies that have proven effectiveness.

His upcoming book A Simple Guide to Being Alive (June 2026) is a science-backed manual for anyone who's ever felt overwhelmed by the modern world, exploring themes of burnout and navigating hard times through humor and often-overlooked practical steps to a saner life. He has been studying the impact of chronic stress in humans for 20 years with a focus on non-invasive therapies for treatment-resistant illnesses. His primary research on MDMA-assisted therapy for severe PTSD indicates that trauma can be reversed at the epigenetic level, offering hope of a cure.

He received his MD in medicine and PhD in neuroscience from Albany Medical College and specialized in psychiatry with a distinction in research at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic.

For more information, please visit https://www.drdave.io/Email: dave@apolloneuro.com

For more information about Dr. Relly Nadler to to https://drrellynadler.com

Dr. Steven Stein is a world-renowned clinical psychologist, entrepreneur, and expert in emotional intelligence, hardiness, and human behavior. As Founder and Executive Chair of Multi-Health Systems (MHS), he has spent more than four decades helping leaders and organizations better understand what drives performance, teamwork, and success. Beyond his work with organizations around the world, Dr. Stein is known as the psychologist behind dozens of reality television productions, where he has helped assess and support contestants while gaining unique insights into leadership, relationships, conflict, and group dynamics.

For more information, please visit https://mhs.com/about-us/Email: steven.stein@mhs.com

For more information about Dr Relly Nadler go to https://drrellynadler.com

Find out why over 1M people view his TED Talks. Join us, especially if you're in Public Safety for a rare look at how extraordinary experiences shape us, our happiness, wellbeing and performance. Paul J. Zak is a professor at Claremont Graduate University and is ranked in the top 0.3% of most cited scientists with over 180 published papers and more than 19,000 citations to his research. Zak's two decades of research have taken him from the Pentagon to Fortune 50 boardrooms to the rainforest of Papua New Guinea. Along the way he helped start a number of interdisciplinary fields including neuroeconomics, neuromanagement, and neuromarketing. He has written three general audience books and is a regular TED speaker. His latest book, Immersion: The Science of the Extraordinary and Source of Happiness (2022), identifies the neurologic basis for extraordinary experiences and uses 50,000 brain measurements to show readers how to create high-impact training among other benefits.