Episodes

What is the future of work? Will it be dominated by AI, as predicted by many of the voices we hear? Or will it be a future of work led by wisdom? In his book Leading into the Age of Wisdom: Reimagining the Future of Work, author and Qonversations host Brian Gorman examines the differences between intelligence and wisdom and calls out the danger of turning our future of work over to AI. In this episode of Qonversations, Brian addresses these challenges and, drawing from his book, discusses the tr...

It’s easy to make the case that there isn’t much that is constant in the workplace today. Change is no longer just a set of projects and initiatives; it is also an-ever roiling state of being. Today’s workforce, increasingly dominated by Millennials and Gen Z, is not the workforce of even a decade ago. Anyone with access and skill in creating prompts has immediate access to almost unlimited artificial intelligence. All of this and more is placing unprecedented pressure on leaders at all levels o...

In this episode, Tim Beattie, Founder and CEO of Stellafai, and host Brian Gorman dig into one of today’s more significant leadership challenges: what we measure isn’t always what matters. Productivity metrics like output and velocity don’t equate to impact. Together they explore how leaders can shift focus toward meaningful outcomes, foster psychological safety, and use storytelling to connect with people’s head, heart, and gut. They also discuss AI’s role in coaching and leadership, and how al...

We are facing an existential choice. Follow the path of allowing artificial intelligence to become more and more dominant in the workplace and our lives. Or bring the wisdom of people to the application of AI. On this episode, Social entrepreneur, author, and activist Shmuly Yanklowitz joins host Brian Gorman to discuss the path forward based on Brian’s upcoming book Leading into the Age of Wisdom: Reimagining the Future of Work. The conversation focuses on the choices leaders have to make as th...

Carl Gray III, founder of Raising Founders, shares how he’s building an “AAU for entrepreneurship” to empower young people, ages 12–20, to start businesses. He tells the story of Taylor, who turned a Raising Founders project into a thriving baking venture, trained at the American Culinary Institute, and is now interning in France. In this conversation with host Brian Gorman, Carl highlights the vital role of mentorship, the value of industry projects connecting youth with corporations, and his v...

Nate Green isn’t shy about sharing his stories. His successes, his failures, his opportunities, and his challenges all serve to inform Nate’s path forward. The author of Suck Less, Do Better: The End of Excuses and the Rise of the Unstoppable You, Nate joins host Brian Gorman to share some of the key lessons he has learned on his journey including the importance of self-discovery and understanding one's true identity and purpose. He highlights how upbringing and societal narratives can create co...

This episode begins with a few words from his website. “Mark loves leaders who love leaders.” Host Brian Gorman invitation to Mark L. Vincent, Executive Advisor at Teall Vincent Enterprises, to explain this statement leads into a deep exploration of transformational leadership and the importance of developing strong, ethical leadership benches while nurturing authentic relationships with leaders. The conversation concludes with an exploration of ROI, and ways in which to quantify the qualitative...

135: The Wisdom of Ignorance: In this time of unprecedented change, we crave for Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), human or AI, that can give us the answers. Alan Gregerman posits that this is the wrong path to the solution, and that ignorance is the wiser path forward. Alan, author of The Wisdom of Ignorance: Why Not Knowing Can Be the Key to Innovation in an Uncertain World (October 2025), joins host Brian Gorman to discuss the importance of embracing ignorance and the need for leaders to adapt a...

Looking for differences somehow makes it easier. From this perspective, leading in white collar organizations must be different than leading blue collar workers. But it's not. In this episode of Qonversations, Traci Austin, Chief Talent Officer of Elevated Talent Consulting, joins host Brian Gorman to share the lessons that she has learned over decades of working with and supporting leaders in the trades. The bottom line: people are people. Whether in the factory, the warehouse, the construction...

Long ago, Albert Einstein said, “The thinking that got us to where we are is not the thinking that will get us to where we want to be.” Today, that is truer than ever. While his focus is on “scaling businesses and scaling leaders,” the lessons that Loic Potjes shares in this episode are true for any leader looking to take their organization to a different place in the future. Loic, the Managing Partner of Disruptive Leap, joins host Brian Gorman to challenge leaders who think that their current ...

Leadership that wins is leadership that recognizes, builds relationships with, and values others. While You Win Again, Jack: The Story of a Man Who Stopped Needing to Win, and Finally Did is fiction, it is rich with lessons learned by author Scott DeLong. This is not a book to be read so much as a book to be reflected on. In this episode, Scott joins host Brian Gorman to discuss some of the many lessons he learned on his leadership journey, ranging from the reason that Scott likes meetings, to t...

On Qonversations, we always try to connect our listeners with our guests. After all, conversations don’t happen between a book and the host or a leader and the host; they happen between two people. That said, most of the time the focus of the conversation is not on the guest, but on the topic. On this episode, we turn our attention totally to our guest, Ziah Miller. Because their parents believed the world was going to end, Ziah and his seven siblings were raised without any education. He didn’t...

Max Klau, the guest for Qonversations Episode 35, returns to discuss his soon to be published book, Developing Servant Leaders at Scale: How To Do It and Why It Matters. Through his coaching, writing, and speaking, host Brian Gorman often makes the point that one of the responsibilities of leaders is to develop other leaders. Max has spent decades intentionally doing so. In this thought-provoking conversation, Max and Brian explore what is required to develop the knowledge, doing, and especially...

In their book Engaging Teams: How to Use Social Wellbeing to Boost Performance, Retention, and Culture, Nick Smallman and Dan Parry dive into the importance of social wellbeing in today’s organizations. Nick and host Brian Gorman explore the importance of leaders knowing the people they are leading, and not just the roles that those people play. The Industrial Age perception of people who are interchangeable and replaceable when they burn out is challenged, as Nick and Brian discuss the leader’s...

Whether you are a solopreneur or the leader of a global enterprise, every day, you are shaping your legacy. Alex Brueckmann, author of Strategy Legacy: How to Future-Proof a Business and Leave Your Mark, sets legacy as the framework for addressing what he identifies as the two primary responsibilities of a leader: strategy and culture. Citing the leader’s role in shaping organizational culture, Alex challenges leaders to not accept the culture that is, but to take responsibility to shape the cul...

Today’s guest is Salvatore Manzi, a leadership communications coach with over 20 years of experience helping technical, analytical, and data-driven leaders amplify their impact. With emphasis on frameworks, principles, and techniques, Salvatore empowers leaders to connect authentically and navigate high-stakes engagements with confidence. He’s an introvert who learned how to harness the power of the spotlight and has a passion for building inclusive, high-performing team environments through eff...

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer is a human capital strategist, coach, speaker, and author. In her LinkedIn profile, she writes “I work at the intersection of strategy and soul.” In this episode of "Qonversations," host Brian Gorman and Cynthia discuss the critical importance of leaders embracing humanity, aligning individual purpose with organizational roles, the importance of authenticity and psychological safety in leadership, and how leaders can help teams unlock their full potential. Cynthia intr...

The world of work is changing at an ever-accelerating rate. In this episode, Ted Whetstone, executive coach, thought leader, and “fellow philosopher on the road of life,” joins host Brian Gorman to explore new ideas on how to successfully lead through the changes we are experiencing. Along the way, they explore organizational design, the work week, innovation, thinking differently about what we sell, the very nature of leadership, and much more.

It isn’t a possibility. It isn’t a probability. It isn’t some far-off science fiction fantasy thing. We are in it now. The challenge, from the C-suite to the front line, is “How do I ensure not just that I (and my organization) survive, but that we thrive?” In this episode, Nicole Doyle, entrepreneur, start-up advisor, and Founder of Aspir joins host Brian Gorman to begin to answer these questions. Along the way, they discuss the disruptors that are on the horizon, the growing importance of inve...

If you are a leader, your success is dependent on your ability to effectively communicate with those who report to you. And your ability to successfully communicate with those who report to you is highly dependent on bringing a coach approach to your leadership. In this episode, communication coach Chris Marr joins host Brian Gorman to explore the changing role of leaders and the importance of coaching as a critical leadership tool. Chris Marr is the author of Becoming an Authoritative Coach: S...

Every day, Liz Weber, Advisor to Executives and Boards, encounters the challenges that leaders are facing as they seek to guide their organizations into the Digital age. In this episode, Liz joins host Brian Gorman to explore those behaviors that continue to serve leaders well as they move out of the Industrial Age model of leadership as well as the significant shifts in mindset and behavior that leaders at all levels – from the front lines to the Boards of Directors – need to make to successful...

In his book Nobody Is Smarter Than Everybody: Why Self-Managing Teams Make Better Decisions and Deliver Extraordinary Results, Rod Collins builds on the premise that “the digital revolution is far more than a technology revolution. It is also a sociological revolution that has generated an unprecedented capacity for mass collaboration and created new possibilities in how humans work together.” Under his leadership as the Chief Operating Executive of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Federal Employee Pr...

Your organization has a culture. You can be intentional about continuously shaping it or allow it to evolve and see what happens. You can also reshape it. In this episode of Qonversations, Tom Krause, Ph.D., and author of If Your Culture Could Talk, joins host Brian Gorman to delve into the hard truths about culture. They explore the cost of misalignment between what is said and the behavior of leaders as well as the five essential building blocks to make culture change efforts more effective. S...

Miles Everson, CEO of MBO Partners and author of Free Birds Revolution: The Future of Work and the Independent Mind of a Free Bird, and host Brian Gorman continue their conversation with a focus on the mind of a free bird. This includes an examination of the differences in the mindsets of traditional employees vs. free birds, the differences in how they spend their time on the job, and the differences in how they evaluate such things as their relationship between work and life outside of work, t...