LearnChair Radio Leadership Podcast

LearnChair Radio host Bob Dragone interviews longtime contributor Joe Santana on his new venture to use Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) as leadership development tools. Recent research has shown that while major companies have poured large amounts of funds into leadership development the outcome has been poor in terms of actual leaders developed. Joe’s solution is to use employee groups that already exist in companies to spot, assess and develop leaders for the company. An efficient and...

Military leadership is a topic we have not explored in depth on LearnChair Radio. To rectify this, LearnChair Radio host Bob Dragone interviews former Army Colonel Christopher Talcott. Chris was a field artillery officer who joined the Army in peacetime but found himself in combat as times quickly changed. Chris was deeply engaged in education as a teacher of military issues at West Point, UCLA and Baylor University. Chris’s comments on the current state of ROTC education are perceptive....

Are you interested in Art and Antiques? LearnChair Radio host Bob Dragone interviews John Hays, Deputy Chairman at Christie’s and a leading expert on American furniture and painting. John describes how starting as an unpaid assistant at Christie’s seven years later he ran the company’s furniture and decorative arts division. In the discussion with Bob, John explains how collectors can take risks in collecting unknown artists or concentrate on traditional areas such as American furniture. He...

Jim Kouzes is the best selling author of the leadership classic, The Leadership Challenge. Jim explains how an early inspiration by President Kennedy led him to a career in education and an expertise in leadership development. Now in its 6th edition, the book remains a well researched primer on how leaders lead and why people follow them. Jim explains that his book remains an essential book on leadership because it is evidence based, Is backed by a wealth of data, is simple and easy to...

Learnchair Radio host Bob Dragone interviews Christian Swain in this interesting and entertaining foray into the history of Rock and Roll. Chris explains how his interest in both Rock and Roll and history led him to founding the RocknRoll Archaeology Project, a series of programs and podcasts that delves deeply into the history of Rock music. a labor of love, Chris and his fellow archaeologists explore the roots of Rock following World War II and and discuss the branches that evolved over...

Over the course of two years, LearnChair Radio host Bob Dragone has heard some great leadership stories from his guests. Some of them were funny tales about clients if they do leadership development for companies or some were about people who inspired them to be better leaders. This podcast is the first in a series that will compile some of these stories for both your enjoyment and perhaps to inspire you too as well. Bob leads off with an explanation from TED talks expert Jeremy Donovan...

Renowned leadership expert and best selling author Chris Cebollero is interviewed by LearnChair Radio’s host Bob Dragone. Chris’s leadership expertise is based on many years in the emergency medical services field. Chris describes how he developed his leadership principles through trial and error in assuming leadership positions in the demanding and dangerous EMS field. He now applies these principles to help organizations and businesses develop good leadership to improve performance and...

LearnChair Radio Host Bob Dragone interviews the CEO of the Business Thinking Institute, Ram V. Iyer. Ram was invited to the podcast because of his innovative approach as to why businesses fail. As he notes, over 70 percent of businesses fail but not usually for the reasons owners believe. Ram subjected this issue to one of his annual “hard thinking projects.” and after much time and effort came up with his conclusions. Most owners think they fail because they lack something - funding,...

LearnChair Radio host Bob Dragone interviews best selling author Jason Jennings on his work analyzing great businesses and great leaders. Jason discovered a number of years ago that his main goal is to find the world’s great leaders and great companies. As a result, he is a world renowned author of eight books on business and leadership based on his research of 220,000 companies. Jason publishes a book at two year intervals. He interviews 800-1000 executives each year as research for his...

LearnChair Radio host Bob Dragone interviews chef and Texas barbecue master Jeffrey Hobbs on an exploration of leadership in the culinary field. Jeffrey is owner and operator of the Slow Bone restaurant in Dallas which is famous far and wide for its succulent smoked meats and excellent service. Jeffrey’s approach to the restaurant business goes beyond just serving good food, but centers on hospitality in all its aspects. Jeffrey describes his beginnings in the food industry and how he got...

Are you interested in art and antiques? Do you want to know what are the best collections you should visit and who has the best private collections? What media is being avidly collected these days and who are the artists drawing the most attention? These questions are answered in this episode as LearnChair Radio host Bob Dragone interviews Miller Gaffney. Miller is an internationally renowned art and antiques appraiser who many of you may know from her two TV shows, Market Warriors on PBS...

LearnChair Radio host Bob Dragone interviews one of the world’s top leadership development experts, Sylvia Lafair, in this podcast. Sylvia explains how a childhood tragedy led her to become a psychologist and how her work with family structures evolved into her leadership development methods. Sylvia realized that bosses are like parents, co-workers like siblings, and wages like allowances. Her program is called Total Leadership Connections. Her insight was to recognize that people develop...

LearnChair Radio host Bob Dragone interviews one of the top ten leadership thought leaders, Arthur Carmazzi. Arthur explains how he got to this ranking by starting with his list of personal failures and how he learned from them. Rather than perpetuate the behaviors he found in companies he worked for that led to failure, Arthur began to study them. This became the basis for his leadership methodology he terms Directive Communication Psychology. As he began to practice his methods, others...

LearnChair Radio host Bob Dragone interviews Danielle DiMartino Booth, the founder of Money Strong LLC and the former advisor to Richard W. Fisher of the Federal Reserve Bank in Dallas. Danielle is the author of, FED UP, An Insider’s Take on Why the Federal Reserve is Bad for America. Danielle explains what prompted her to write the book and why she is critical of the Fed’s broken policies. The interview focuses on Danielle’s views of leadership at the Fed beginning with the Fed’s...

LearnChair Radio host Bob Dragone interviews one of the nation’s top thinkers on leadership, Mike Mears. Mike’s leadership expertise is based on practical experience in the military, business and government fields. A West Point graduate, Mike worked with Jack Welch at GE and was the founder of the CIA Leadership Academy. Bob and Mike explore why with all the experts involved in leadership development there remains a dearth of truly affective leaders. They surmise that while principles are...

R. Gaines Baty is the bestselling author of Champion of the Barrio, a book about the legendary Texas football coach, Buryl Baty. Gaines decided to write a book about his father to honor the coach’s legacy. In doing so, he learned much about the father who died tragically when Gaines was only four. He also learned the leadership lessons his father imparted to his teams of hispanic kids, who he championed and guided. Gaines interviewed over a hundred people who knew Buryl and who testified to...

LearnChair Radio host, Bob Dragone interviews Caroline Avinger, the president of Protocol LLC. Caroline is an expert in teaching good etiquette and protocol. She explains why these are necessary skills for a leader to develop, since image and style have such an important impact on how a leader is perceived. Many people can benefit from perfecting their manners, since being a leader depends so heavily on developing a positive image. She also explains how developing good protocol skills...

Does your brain work for you or against you in making sound leadership decisions? LearnChair Radio host Bob Dragone examines this issue with Joe Santana. This is our second interview with Joe, who is a leading expert, teacher and consultant on bias and diversity in the workplace. Joe’s current emphasis is on unconscious bias and how the brain works. His focus is on how we make judgments and how the rules we live by affect our management decisions. Joe asks how do people make good decisions...

LearnChair Radio host Bob Dragone takes a look at leadership in the arts in this interview with up and coming metals artist Calina Shevlin. Callie is an expert in the art of guilloche, a technique used to engrave the elaborate and delicate patterns found on top end Swiss watches Faberge eggs, and increasingly in fine jewelry. She is one of only 27 artists in the world who have mastered the machines and methods used to produce the guilloche patterns. Recently, Callie published a book,...

LearnChair Radio host Bob Dragone interviews renewable energy expert Doug Faulkner on his views regarding the current state and future of sustainable energy programs and clean water initiatives. Doug has 30 years experience as a senior federal government sustainability expert who is now active in the private sector. Doug defines sustainability as improving humankind’s quality of life through efficient use of the earth’s resources. Doug notes that we are in the early stage of an historic...