On today’s season finale of On the Balcony, Michael Kohler welcomes Professor Ronald Heifetz, author of Leadership Without Easy Answers, the book that has formed the focus of this season.

In this episode of On the Balcony, Michael welcomes guest Susanna Krueger, a serial social entrepreneur and former CEO of Save the Children Germany, the oldest and largest independent child’s rights organization in the world. She’s here to engage with the final chapter of Ron Heifetz’s Leadership Without Easy Answers, entitled “The Personal Challenge,” which outlines a set of reflective questions you can ask yourself to better practice leadership around difficult adaptive work.

On the eleventh episode of the On the Balcony podcast, Michael continues his conversation with George A. Papandreou, former Prime Minister of Greece, about Chapter 10 of Heifetz’s Leadership Without Easy Answers. Papandreou picks up the discussion by sharing how Heifetz inspired his decision to stage an intervention through an inclusive approach, encouraging the Greek people to take their future in their own hand.

On the tenth episode of the On the Balcony podcast, Michael Kohler welcomes a most fitting guest to discuss Heifetz’s book, particularly the chapter entitled “Assassination”. Former Prime Minister of Greece, George A. Papandreou will be joining the podcast for two episodes to discuss Chapter 10 of Leadership Without Easy Answers, and its impact upon his role in salvaging the Greek economy in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the hunt for scapegoats when things got heated and people had to endure real losses, and the immense challenges of adaptive work.

On the ninth episode of the On the Balcony podcast, Michael welcomes Ashley B. Stewart to talk about Chapter 9 of Ron Heifetz’s, Leadership Without Easy Answers, the importance of pushing boundaries, taking risks and managing the dangers of practicing leadership building from Ashley’s experience working as an Executive Coach, Transformation Facilitator, and Racial Consciousness Consultant as well as Executive Director for Talent and Organizational Development in the Baltimore City Public School System.

On this episode of the On the Balcony podcast, Michael is joined by Julia Fabris McBride today to discuss the eighth chapter of Ron Heifetz’s book, Leadership Without Easy Answers. Today the pair reckon with the idea of leadership as it functions without authority. McBride is an actor, author, and President and CEO of the Kansas Leadership Center (KLC). In her work with KLC, McBride strives daily to foster civic leadership and create stronger and healthier Kansan communities. In doing so, she must engage with different factions, their values, and opinions. It can be hard fulfilling an authority role, especially when those you lead have differing versions of success.

On today’s episode of On the Balcony, Michael is joined by Jevan Soo Lenox to discuss chapter seven of Ronald Heifetz’s Leadership Without Easy Answers. Jevan has held Chief People Officer roles at multiple exciting Bay Area growth companies, including Blue Bottle, Stitch Fix, and most recently, insitro, where he has brought the adaptive leadership framework to life in fast-paced hyper-growth environments. Today, he helps us bridge the lessons from Heifetz’s examples of leadership failures into today’s world.

On this sixth episode of the On the Balcony podcast, Michael is joined by Ian Palmquist, Deputy Director at the Equality Federation and the Board President of the Adaptive Leadership Network. In his experience of advocating for LGBTQ+ rights with government officials, Palmquist has become familiar with authority and its resources and constraints for the practice of leadership. When advocating and legislating meet, Ian has discovered that it can be challenging to satiate one side’s appetite for change while assuaging the other’s fear of it.

On the fifth episode of the On the Balcony podcast, Michael welcomes Radha Ruparell, author and Head of Global Leadership Accelerator at Teach For All, into the conversation to talk about the main ideas in Chapter 5 of Ron Heifetz legendary book, Leadership Without Easy Answers (1998), namely informal and formal authority, holding environments, and nurturing our inner capacity.

On this episode of the On the Balcony podcast, Michael Koehler welcomes Lauren Lyons to chat about chapter four of Ron Heifetz’s legendary book.

Professor Kimberlyn Leary on overcoming the binary between admiration and allergy

Learning how systems respond to moments of shock or disruption from the status quo

Exploring the roles of identity and silence in practicing leadership

An introduction to the On the Balcony podcast