Leadership NOW with Dan Pontefract
Dan Pontefract
Dan Pontefract is an award-winning author, leadership strategist, and culture change expert. Dan's podcast explores all aspects of leadership, organizational culture, purpose, and professional development.
Dan is the best-selling author of five books: WORK-LIFE BLOOM, LEAD. CARE. WIN., OPEN TO THINK, THE PURPOSE EFFECT, and FLAT ARMY. A renowned speaker, Dan has presented at four different TED events and also writes for Forbes and Harvard Business Review. Dan is an adjunct professor at the University of Victoria, Gustavson School of Business, and has garnered more than 20 industry awards over his career.
Previously, as Chief Envisioner and Chief Learning Officer at TELUS—a Canadian telecommunications company with revenues of $14 billion and 50,000 global employees—he launched the Transformation Office, the TELUS MBA, and the TELUS Leadership Philosophy, all award-winning initiatives that dramatically helped to increase the company’s employee engagement to record levels of nearly 90%. Prior to TELUS, he held senior roles at SAP, Business Objects, and BCIT. He is honoured to be on the Thinkers50 radar list.
Dan is the best-selling author of five books: WORK-LIFE BLOOM, LEAD. CARE. WIN., OPEN TO THINK, THE PURPOSE EFFECT, and FLAT ARMY. A renowned speaker, Dan has presented at four different TED events and also writes for Forbes and Harvard Business Review. Dan is an adjunct professor at the University of Victoria, Gustavson School of Business, and has garnered more than 20 industry awards over his career.
Previously, as Chief Envisioner and Chief Learning Officer at TELUS—a Canadian telecommunications company with revenues of $14 billion and 50,000 global employees—he launched the Transformation Office, the TELUS MBA, and the TELUS Leadership Philosophy, all award-winning initiatives that dramatically helped to increase the company’s employee engagement to record levels of nearly 90%. Prior to TELUS, he held senior roles at SAP, Business Objects, and BCIT. He is honoured to be on the Thinkers50 radar list.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jun 19, 2023 • 29min
Having the Courage to Leap and to Lead with Master Coach CB Bowman
CB Bowman: Known as the Courage Consultant, CB is the host of the very popular "Courage: To Leap & Lead" podcast, and is the CEO of the Association of Corporate Executive Coaches. CB is a global "Certified Master Corporate Executive Coach" with experience working in marketing, coaching, and branding.
CB join Leadership NOW with Dan Pontefract to discuss her latest book, “Courage: to Leap and to Lead.”
CB strongly believes that master-level corporate executive coaches have to be “enterprise-wide business partners™" with their clients, yes, full of courage.
She is formerly head of branding for ready-to-eat cereals for General Foods. She was responsible for the visual impact of Post Cereals for iconic brands such as Honey Bunches of Oats, Golden Crisps, and Pebbles. CB was also responsible for their classic brands including Post Shredded Wheat, Grape Nuts, Shake N' Bake and Raisin Bran, and won several awards for product marketing and branding.
Named one of the Power List of the Top 200 Biggest Voices in Leadership by Leadershum; Top 50 coaches in the world by Thinkers50; and Global Gurus also named her as one of the top 15 experts in branding.
More about Dan Pontefract and Leadership NOW at https://www.danpontefract.com
More about CB Bowman at https://courage-consulting.com/

Jun 16, 2023 • 30min
How to 'Work Here Now' with Melissa Swift of Mercer
As Transformation Leader at Mercer US and Canada, Melissa Swift is responsible for workforce transformation, HR transformation, HR digitization, DEI, and workforce analytics.
Melissa drops by Leadership NOW with Dan Pontefract to discuss her latest book, “Work Here Now: Think Like a Human and Build a Powerhouse Workplace."
As a recognized thought leader on the subject of the future of work post-covid, Melissa has been quoted on the subject in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, The Economist, The Washington Post, Axios, and The Daily Mail, and has appeared on NPR and Al-Jazeera English. Earlier in her career, Swift helped build businesses in the ESG transformation space, including launching the Sustainability Services and Cleantech practices at Deloitte, and conducting two landmark carbon credit derivatives trades at Deutsche Bank.
Her latest book, "Work Here Now," explores different ways to improve the growth-impeding, borderline inhumane people management practices we’ve created and endured over time. The book contains the following:
50 strategies to create a powerhouse workplace at organizational level
50 strategies to create a powerhouse workplace at team level
A simple framework to help you make people-centered decisions
More about Dan Pontefract and Leadership NOW at https://www.danpontefract.com
More about Melissa Swift and Mercer at https://www.mercer.com/solutions/transformation/

May 30, 2023 • 29min
Shell's Rahul Malhotra and the Power of Purpose
In his nearly 27-year career with Procter & Gamble and Shell, Rahul Malhotra has led several multi-billion dollar, global businesses as P&L head, and helped lead several global brands.
Rahul is currently the Global Head of Brand Strategy and Stewardship for the Shell Group, managing strategy and operations for a brand valued at US $50 billion. Under his leadership and tenure, Shell's brand value has grown by over +67% in the last 6 years. He is a recognized expert on defining and embedding Purpose into organizations.
It's exactly why Rahul dropped by the Leadership NOW program -- to chat about all things related to purpose, including insights into Shell's implementation of organizational purpose.
Rahul is a permanent resident of Singapore and active in the community, offering expertise to various organizations. One of his passions and expertise areas is to inspire organizations and young leaders in the private sector to be more purpose driven, leveraging their skills and resources to make a real difference to the people and ecology of the planet.
More about Dan Pontefract and Leadership NOW at http://www.danpontefract.com
More about Shell at http://www.shell.com

May 26, 2023 • 30min
Warwick Business School's Christian Stadler on Strategy
Christian Stadler is a Professor in Strategic Management at Warwick Business School. Prior to, he was at University of Bath School of Management, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, and Innsbruck University.
Christian joins Leadership NOW with Dan Pontefract to discuss the relationship between strategy, culture, leadership, job hopping, and hope.
Christian addresses fundamental strategic questions that enable companies to grow, adapt, and consistently beat their competitors. In his book Open Strategy. Mastering Disruption from Outside the C-Suite he explains how companies can craft strategy in a new unconventional way, one tailor-made for today's faster, more volatile business environment. His work has been featured thousands of times in the Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Bloomberg Business Week, the BBC, amongst others.
Christian's research examines how organizations can achieve sustainable competitive advantage. He is particularly interested in questions related to 1) learning and innovation, as well as 2) diversification.
In 2021 Thinkers50 shortlisted Christian for the Strategy Award and in 2013 placed him on the Thinkers50 Radar List.
More about Dan Pontefract at http://www.danpontefract.com
More about Christian Stadler at http://www.christianstadler.org

May 22, 2023 • 38min
Business Lessons From Entrepreneurial and Branding Wizard Mitch Joel
Mitch Joel is Co-Founder of ThinkersOne - a platform that empowers companies with personalized and bite-sized thought leadership from the best Thinkers in the world. Mitch joins Leadership NOW with Dan Pontefract to discuss the new platform.
He has been called a visionary, digital expert and community leader. He is also an entrepreneur, investor, author, trusted advisor, chronic reader and passionate speaker who connects with people worldwide by sharing his insights on business transformation, innovation and marketing.
Prior to ThinkersOne, Mitch spent close to three decades in the technology and media industry as both an executive and entrepreneur. This included publishing music magazines, launching a record label, building out media sales at one of the first search engines, marketing one of the first mobile content publishing platforms, and eventually building, running and selling his own agency to WPP - one of the world's most valuable marketing and communications holding companies. In that role, he was President of a global marketing agency operating in 25 countries with close to 3000 employees.
Mitch is also a bestselling business book author. His first book, Six Pixels of Separation named after his successful blog and podcast is a business bestseller. His second book, CTRL ALT Delete was named one of the best business books of 2013 by Amazon.
More about Dan Pontefract and Leadership NOW at http://www.danpontefract.com
More about ThinkersOne and Mitch at http://www.thinkersone.com and http://www.mitchjoel.com

May 15, 2023 • 33min
The Intangible Labs with Nilofer Merchant: Redefining Value Creation Metrics
Renown author, speaker and strategist, Nilofer Merchant, drops by the Leadership NOW show to discuss her latest venture, The Intangible Labs.
Launched in partnership with Tim Kastelle, The Intangible Labs offers a new lens, a mathematical model, and related practice so organizations (whether public, private, profit, non-profit, small, and large) can measure and thus tune the actions that create value for all their stakeholders.
As the name suggests, the goal is to create many learning labs while the Intangible Labs will serve as a hub. Over time, insights will be codified into software, usable as an ESG standard.
The Intangible Labs: defining the metrics of 21st Century Value Creation.
Nilofer is ranked as one of the top management thinkers in the world by @Thinkers50, as well as HR magazine., Her operating heft as a tech executive (Apple, Autodesk, goLive and more) lends all these big ideas fidelity; she's been personally involved in shipping over 100 products netting $18 Billion in revenues. She's authored three books on how value creation grows in distributed networks through shared purpose.
Her most recent is the "Power of Onlyness," that spot in the world only you stand in, a function of your distinct history and experiences, visions and hopes for which she also landed the notable Future Thinker Award. The very best companies hire her to inspire and advise. Those who want to do more than manage today but create—or rather co-create—the future.
More about Dan Pontefract and Leadership NOW at http://www.danpontefract.com
More about Nilofer Merchant at http://www.nilofermerchant.com or https://theintangiblelabs.com/

May 8, 2023 • 40min
Rising Together with Best-Selling Author Sally Helgesen
Sally Helgesen is an internationally best-selling author, speaker and leadership coach. She has been inducted into the Thinkers 50 Hall of Fame, which honors those whose ideas have shaped the field of leadership worldwide. She is also ranked number 3 among the world’s thought leaders by Global Gurus.
Sally drops by Leadership NOW with Dan Pontefract to discuss her latest book, "Rising Together: How We Can Bridge Divides and Create a More Inclusive Workplace" The book offers practical ways to build more inclusive relationships, teams, and workplaces. It soared to Amazon’s number one top-seller in its field in the first week of publication.
"Rising Together" builds on Sally’s remarkable success with How Women Rise, co-authored with legendary executive coach Marshall Goldsmith, which examines the behaviors most likely to get in the way of successful women as they move forward in their careers. Rights have been sold in 23 languages.
Other books include "The Female Advantage," "Thriving in 24/7" and "The Web of Inclusion: A New Architecture for Building Great Organizations."
For over 30 years, Sally has delivered workshops and keynotes for companies, partnership firms and associations, working in 37 countries around the world.
More about Dan Pontefract and Leadership NOW at https://www.danpontefract.com
More about Sally Helgesen at https://sallyhelgesen.com/

Apr 28, 2023 • 34min
Bill Williams and How to Lead an Electric Life
He’s called “Electric Bill” for a reason. Bill Williams is on a mission to shock us out of our static daily routines, known for his unique brand of electrified methodologies for the workplace.
Electric Bill drops by Leadership NOW with Dan Pontefract to discuss his latest book is titled “Electric Life: 12 Microsteps to Pay Attention, Be Brilliant and Go Deep.”
Bill’s honest, succinct, and enthusiastic approach to leadership has inspired and reshaped countless national organizations over the span of thirty years. Whether coaching an individual over Zoom, or speaking to rooms of more than a thousand delegates, Bill’s impact is equally felt. His power comes from hearing “No” and reformulating it as “Not Yet.”
Bill is the principal and president of the boutique leadership development firm, The B4 Group Inc, and the host and brand ambassador for The Art of Leadership Summit and The Art of Leadership for Women. Bill caters his solution-based strategies to individuals and corporations in the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors.
Visit http://www.danpontefract.com for more information about Dan and the Leadership NOW program.
Visit https://www.billgwilliams.com/ for more information about Bill and his book.

Apr 24, 2023 • 31min
Artificial Intelligence in the Film Industry with StoryFit's Monica Landers
Monica Landers is the founder and CEO of StoryFit, a rapidly-growing tech company that provides AI insights for the media and entertainment industry.
Monica drops by Leadership NOW with Dan Pontefract to discuss StoryFit, Artificial Intelligence, the hit HBO show "The Last of Us," and audience positioning. It's a fascinating chat.
She has two media technology patents and extensive experience in media, ranging from producing for ABC News and Good Morning America to executive leadership roles at several content companies, including VP Media Innovation at Demand Media.
Monica is deeply involved in Austin's startup community and serves as an advisor to the Techstars and Comcast accelerators, as well as the universities of Texas, St. Edwards, and Texas State.
Visit http://www.danpontefract.com for more information about Dan and the Leadership NOW program.
Visit https://storyfit.com/ for more information about the company and Monica.

4 snips
Apr 15, 2023 • 29min
Discussing Deloitte's 2023 Global Human Capital Trends with David Mallon
David Mallon is Vice President and Chief Analyst at Deloitte and is the market leader for Deloitte’s Insights2Action team.
In this episode of Leadership NOW with Dan Pontefract, David discusses the 2023 Global Human Capital Trends from Deloitte.
David and the Insights2Action team help clients to sense, analyze, and act—with purpose and precision—at the ever shifting intersection of work, workforce, workplace, and industry.
Part of Deloitte since 2013, David is the former Head of Research for Bersin. He brings more than 20 years of experience in human capital and is a sought-after researcher, thought leader, and speaker on organization design, organizational culture, HR, talent, learning, and performance.
Deloitte’s 2023 Global Human Capital Trends survey polled 10,000 business and HR leaders across every industry, with 105 countries participating. Executive interviews from some of the top companies in today's market supplement the survey data. These insights shaped the trends in the report.
Visit http://www.danpontefract.com for more information about Dan and the Leadership NOW program.
Visit https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/profiles/dmallon.html for more information about David and Deloitte.


