David Burkus Presents

The people who lost their jobs are gone but that doesn’t mean the layoff is over for the people who stayed. Research shows that employees who survive layoffs often experience anxiety, guilt, lower morale, reduced productivity, and a loss of trust in leadership. And trying to rush everyone back to “business as usual” can make things worse. I’ll walk you through how managers can rebuild trust through honest communication and consistency, redistribute workloads without creating burnout, recognize employees who are carrying additional responsibilities, and give the team something meaningful to work toward. If you’re managing a team through layoffs or organizational change, your people don’t expect you to have every answer. But they do need communication, honesty, consistency, and a leader they can count on. Chapters: 00:00 There was a layoff. Now what? 00:39 Meet Dr. David Burkus 00:54 Day One After A Layoff 02:05 Be Upfront From The Get-Go 03:16 Rebuild Trust Through Consistency 04:30 Be Smart About Delegation 07:31 Give The Team Something To Work Toward // NEWSLETTER Want to build your best team ever? Join 25,000+ leaders who receive these insights in my free newsletter: https://davidburkus.com/podcast // SPEAKING Like what you heard? Learn more or find out how to bring me to your company or event: https://davidburkus.com/keynote-speaker/ // ABOUT DAVID One of the world’s leading business thinkers, David’s forward-thinking ideas and bestselling books are changing how companies approach leadership, teamwork, and collaboration. An organizational psychologist and professor at Columbia University, Dr. David Burkus is the bestselling author of five books about business and leadership. His books have won multiple awards and have been translated into dozens of languages. Since 2017, David has been ranked multiple times as one of the world’s top business thought leaders. His insights on leadership and teamwork have been featured in the Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, CNN, the BBC, NPR, and CBS Mornings. David now works with leaders from organizations across all industries, including PepsiCo, Fidelity, Adobe, and NASA. David’s keynotes aren’t just entertaining and enlightening—they’re evidence-based and immensely practical, offering leaders at all levels a set of actionable takeaways they can implement immediately. //CONNECT LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidburkus/ Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/davidburkus Facebook: http://www.FB.com/DrDavidBurkus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DavidBurkus

In 1998, Pixar lost two months of Toy Story 2 to a stray delete command. A dozen people gave up a weekend to claw it back. Ten weeks later, four colleagues watched what they'd rescued and threw away more of it than the computer had. The interesting part isn't the accident. It's that the verdict came from people with no power to enforce it — and that's the reason it worked. Feedback research is uncomfortable here: across six hundred measurements, criticism made performance worse more than a third of the time, and what predicted the damage wasn't harshness. It was where the note landed. This is a case study in how one studio engineered its way out of that problem — the two rules that keep a hard note from becoming a referendum on a person, why stripping authority out of the room raised the quality of what got said, and what it cost the crew to learn it the expensive way. If you lead a team where someone can already see what's wrong and keeps saying the eighty-percent version of it, the fix isn't asking for more honesty. It's lowering what honesty costs. // NEWSLETTER Want to build your best team ever? Join 25,000+ leaders who receive these insights in my free newsletter: https://davidburkus.com/youtube // LEADERSHIP LESSONS -Separate the note from the power to enforce it — the moment criticism arrives with a chain attached, people defend their standing instead of the work -Ask for the diagnosis, not the cure — where someone got lost is a fact about the work, while what they'd do instead is a verdict on your judgment -Declare the bad first version expected, so finding problems stops reading as an indictment of whoever made it -Watch where feedback lands rather than how it sounds — identical words can arrive as information or as a referendum on competence -Treat candor as a price you lower with structure, not a character trait you hire for -Build the room that surfaces the problem in March, because hearing it in December is courage, and courage is expensive // SPEAKING Like what you heard? Learn more or find out how to bring me to your company or event: https://davidburkus.com/keynote-speaker/ // ABOUT DAVID One of the world’s leading business thinkers, David’s forward-thinking ideas and bestselling books are changing how companies approach leadership, teamwork, and collaboration. An organizational psychologist and professor at Columbia University, Dr. David Burkus is the bestselling author of five books about business and leadership. His books have won multiple awards and have been translated into dozens of languages. Since 2017, David has been ranked multiple times as one of the world’s top business thought leaders. His insights on leadership and teamwork have been featured in the Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, CNN, the BBC, NPR, and CBS Mornings. A former business school professor, David now works with leaders from organizations across all industries, including PepsiCo, Fidelity, Adobe, and NASA. David’s keynotes aren’t just entertaining and enlightening—they’re evidence-based and immensely practical, offering leaders at all levels a set of actionable takeaways they can implement immediately. //CONNECT LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidburkus/ Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/davidburkus Facebook: http://www.FB.com/DrDavidBurkus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DavidBurkus

What happens when everyone on your team thinks the boss is wrong...but nobody says anything? That’s exactly what happened at Netflix. In 2011, co-founder Reed Hastings made a decision that cost the company customers, millions of dollars, and a massive drop in stock price. The surprising part? Dozens of Netflix leaders suspected the decision would fail before it happened. They just stayed silent. In this video, I break down the psychology of organizational silence, why smart employees don’t speak up even when leaders genuinely want feedback, and how Netflix turned one of its biggest failures into a leadership practice called “farming for dissent.” More importantly, I’ll show you how to apply the same idea to your own team. Chapters: 00:00 You're boss just pitched a bad idea...what do you do? 00:17 What Netflix Did In 2011 01:22 The Mistake That Started It All 04:24 Research Calls This "Organizational Silence" 05:13 Reed Hastings' "Farming For Dissent" 06:45 The Lesson From The Mistake 07:21 Reed Hastings' "Socializing An Idea" 08:41 What I Hope For You // NEWSLETTER Want to build your best team ever? Join 25,000+ leaders who receive these insights in my free newsletter: https://davidburkus.com/youtube // SPEAKING Like what you heard? Learn more or find out how to bring me to your company or event: https://davidburkus.com/keynote-speaker/ // ABOUT DAVID One of the world’s leading business thinkers, David’s forward-thinking ideas and bestselling books are changing how companies approach leadership, teamwork, and collaboration. An organizational psychologist and professor at Columbia University, Dr. David Burkus is the bestselling author of five books about business and leadership. His books have won multiple awards and have been translated into dozens of languages. Since 2017, David has been ranked multiple times as one of the world’s top business thought leaders. His insights on leadership and teamwork have been featured in the Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, CNN, the BBC, NPR, and CBS Mornings. A former business school professor, David now works with leaders from organizations across all industries, including PepsiCo, Fidelity, Adobe, and NASA. David’s keynotes aren’t just entertaining and enlightening—they’re evidence-based and immensely practical, offering leaders at all levels a set of actionable takeaways they can implement immediately. //CONNECT LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidburkus/ Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/davidburkus Facebook: http://www.FB.com/DrDavidBurkus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DavidBurkus

Does it feel like every business has gotten worse? Longer hold times, endless bureaucracy, frustrating customer service, and workplaces buried under layers of process. In this video, I explore why so many organizations feel broken—and why the problem isn't lazy employees or bad leaders. It's the systems we've built. Drawing on research in organizational psychology, I explain how concepts like suboptimization, Goodhart's Law, and goal displacement quietly shift companies away from serving people and toward serving metrics. From the Wells Fargo scandal to lessons from NVIDIA and KPMG, I'll show how even well-intentioned organizations drift into fragmentation, bureaucracy, and burnout—and what the healthiest companies do differently. We'll also explore why trust, psychological safety, meaningful work, and human-centered leadership matter more than ever in the age of AI. If you're a leader, manager, or simply someone who's tired of feeling like work has become more transactional and less human, this video will help you understand why—and what great organizations must do to stay human as they grow. // NEWSLETTER Want to build your best team ever? Join 25,000+ leaders who receive these insights in my free newsletter: https://davidburkus.com/podcast // SPEAKING Like what you heard? Learn more or find out how to bring me to your company or event: https://davidburkus.com/keynote-speaker/ // ABOUT DAVID One of the world’s leading business thinkers, David’s forward-thinking ideas and bestselling books are changing how companies approach leadership, teamwork, and collaboration. An organizational psychologist and professor at Columbia University, Dr. David Burkus is the bestselling author of five books about business and leadership. His books have won multiple awards and have been translated into dozens of languages. Since 2017, David has been ranked multiple times as one of the world’s top business thought leaders. His insights on leadership and teamwork have been featured in the Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, CNN, the BBC, NPR, and CBS Mornings. A former business school professor, David now works with leaders from organizations across all industries, including PepsiCo, Fidelity, Adobe, and NASA. David’s keynotes aren’t just entertaining and enlightening—they’re evidence-based and immensely practical, offering leaders at all levels a set of actionable takeaways they can implement immediately. //CONNECT LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidburkus/ Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/davidburkus Facebook: http://www.FB.com/DrDavidBurkus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DavidBurkus

If you're managing under a toxic or chaotic senior leader, your job is more than just keeping projects on track. It's protecting your team. In this video, I share practical leadership strategies for managing up, shielding your team from unnecessary chaos, and building a healthy team culture even when senior leadership creates uncertainty. You'll learn how to act as a shock absorber instead of a stress amplifier, communicate with honesty without spreading panic, and create a strong micro-culture that keeps your team engaged and focused on meaningful work. I'll also explain when it's time to push back, how to give senior leaders feedback that actually gets heard, and when protecting your team may mean making a bigger career decision. Whether you're dealing with a toxic boss, poor executive leadership, constant organizational change, or workplace dysfunction, these research-backed leadership principles will help you lead with confidence and keep your team performing at its best. Chapters: 00:00 A Bad Leader Is All Too Common 01:00 Be The Shock Absorber 02:08 Be Transparent, But Know The Limit 02:56 Build A Micro-Culture 03:47 Keep Your Team Anchored 04:40 Know When To Escalate // NEWSLETTER Want to build your best team ever? Join 25,000+ leaders who receive these insights in my free newsletter: https://davidburkus.com/podcast // SPEAKING Like what you heard? Learn more or find out how to bring me to your company or event: https://davidburkus.com/keynote-speaker/ // ABOUT DAVID One of the world’s leading business thinkers, David’s forward-thinking ideas and bestselling books are changing how companies approach leadership, teamwork, and collaboration. A skilled researcher and inspiring communicator, Dr. David Burkus is the bestselling author of five books about business and leadership. His books have won multiple awards and have been translated into dozens of languages. Since 2017, David has been ranked multiple times as one of the world’s top business thought leaders. His insights on leadership and teamwork have been featured in the Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, CNN, the BBC, NPR, and CBS Mornings. A former business school professor, David now works with leaders from organizations across all industries, including PepsiCo, Fidelity, Adobe, and NASA. David’s keynotes aren’t just entertaining and enlightening—they’re evidence-based and immensely practical, offering leaders at all levels a set of actionable takeaways they can implement immediately. //CONNECT LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidburkus/ Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/davidburkus Facebook: http://www.FB.com/DrDavidBurkus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DavidBurkus

A lot of leadership advice assumes everyone on your team actually works for you, but modern teams are often blended teams, full-time employees, freelancers, contractors, consultants, and fractional leaders all trying to move work forward with different schedules, incentives, and priorities. That can get messy fast. In this video, we’ll break down how to manage a blended team without wasting people’s time or creating resentment. You’ll learn why role clarity matters, how to protect contractors from unnecessary meetings, how to give fractional team members a reason to care, and how to address tension with your full-time employees before assumptions take over. Chapters: 00:00 Does your team look like this? 01:21 Meet Dr. David Burkus 01:32 Set The Foundation 03:13 Protect Their Time 04:41 Give Them A Reason To Care 06:12 Don't Ignore The Tension 07:57 Build Trust Through Small Actions // NEWSLETTER Want to build your best team ever? Join 25,000+ leaders who receive these insights in my free newsletter: https://davidburkus.com/podcast // SPEAKING Like what you heard? Learn more or find out how to bring me to your company or event: https://davidburkus.com/keynote-speaker/ // ABOUT DAVID One of the world’s leading business thinkers, David’s forward-thinking ideas and bestselling books are changing how companies approach leadership, teamwork, and collaboration. A skilled researcher and inspiring communicator, Dr. David Burkus is the bestselling author of five books about business and leadership. His books have won multiple awards and have been translated into dozens of languages. Since 2017, David has been ranked multiple times as one of the world’s top business thought leaders. His insights on leadership and teamwork have been featured in the Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, CNN, the BBC, NPR, and CBS Mornings. A former business school professor, David now works with leaders from organizations across all industries, including PepsiCo, Fidelity, Adobe, and NASA. David’s keynotes aren’t just entertaining and enlightening—they’re evidence-based and immensely practical, offering leaders at all levels a set of actionable takeaways they can implement immediately. //CONNECT LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidburkus/ Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/davidburkus Facebook: http://www.FB.com/DrDavidBurkus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DavidBurkus

Is your team always waiting until the last minute...all the time? You'd be surprised. It’s not about laziness. It's usually about stress, unclear expectations, vague milestones, and bottlenecks leaders don’t always see. Now, don't you procrastinate here, I'm here to help! In this video, I’ll show you how to handle procrastination without micromanaging or becoming the boss nobody wants to work for. You’ll learn why teams stall, how psychological safety helps surface problems faster, and practical actions to take to create the best team ever. 00:00 Procrastination has infected the team! 00:13 Meet Dr. David Burkus 01:10 It's Not A Laziness Problem 02:17 Start A Conversation 03:15 Manage Each Person, Not Just The Project 04:42 Look In The Mirror 05:28 Break Down Deadlines Into Milestones 06:53 Make Timeliness A Team Value // NEWSLETTER Want to build your best team ever? Join 25,000+ leaders who receive these insights in my free newsletter: https://davidburkus.com/podcast // SPEAKING Like what you heard? Learn more or find out how to bring me to your company or event: https://davidburkus.com/keynote-speaker/ // ABOUT DAVID One of the world’s leading business thinkers, David’s forward-thinking ideas and bestselling books are changing how companies approach leadership, teamwork, and collaboration. A skilled researcher and inspiring communicator, Dr. David Burkus is the bestselling author of five books about business and leadership. His books have won multiple awards and have been translated into dozens of languages. Since 2017, David has been ranked multiple times as one of the world’s top business thought leaders. His insights on leadership and teamwork have been featured in the Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, CNN, the BBC, NPR, and CBS Mornings. A former business school professor, David now works with leaders from organizations across all industries, including PepsiCo, Fidelity, Adobe, and NASA. David’s keynotes aren’t just entertaining and enlightening—they’re evidence-based and immensely practical, offering leaders at all levels a set of actionable takeaways they can implement immediately. //CONNECT LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidburkus/ Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/davidburkus Facebook: http://www.FB.com/DrDavidBurkus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DavidBurkus

Most leaders treat time management like a logistics problem. Not enough hours. Too many demands. A calendar that's already full before Monday starts. So they grind harder—and still feel behind. Laura Vanderkam has spent two decades studying how people actually spend their time, and her research keeps arriving at the same uncomfortable finding: most of us aren't as busy as we believe. We're just zoomed in too close to see it. In this conversation, we dig into Laura's new book Big Time and the core insight behind it—that the way we frame time (in days, in tasks, in pressure) actively prevents us from seeing the abundance that's already there. We explore why high-earning leaders often feel the least in control of their schedules, what a dedicated weekly planning habit actually changes, and how leaders can model time abundance for their teams without it looking like bragging. If your people are burning out, and your answer is "we need to work smarter," this conversation will sharpen what that actually means. // NEWSLETTER Want to build your best team ever? Join 25,000+ leaders who receive these insights in my free newsletter: https://davidburkus.com/podcast // LEADERSHIP LESSONS -Zoom out before you optimize. Most leaders experience scarcity because they plan in days. Shifting to weeks—and eventually to seasons and years—reveals space that the daily view hides entirely. -Busyness is often a framing problem, not a workload problem. The same week looks overwhelming in 24-hour slices and completely manageable across 168 hours. The math matters more than the feeling. -Leaders who hold the most power often have the most control over their time—if they choose to exercise it. Senior leaders frequently surrender schedule autonomy they technically have, out of habit or cultural pressure. -Track before you optimize. You wouldn't change a budget without looking at the numbers first. Time tracking—all 168 hours, not just work hours—gives leaders the data they need to make deliberate choices instead of reactive ones. -Modeling matters more than messaging. When you share how you spent your week, ask your team what they'd like to see you spend more time on, and visibly protect time for life outside work, you give your people permission to do the same—which is worth more than any policy. -Evening intentions are an underrated leadership tool. Encouraging your team (and yourself) to name one non-work, non-housework thing to do each evening changes how the whole week feels—less like a grind, more like a life. // SPEAKING Like what you heard? Learn more or find out how to bring me to your company or event: https://davidburkus.com/keynote-speaker/ // ABOUT DAVID One of the world’s leading business thinkers, David’s forward-thinking ideas and bestselling books are changing how companies approach leadership, teamwork, and collaboration. A skilled researcher and inspiring communicator, Dr. David Burkus is the bestselling author of five books about business and leadership. His books have won multiple awards and have been translated into dozens of languages. Since 2017, David has been ranked multiple times as one of the world’s top business thought leaders. His insights on leadership and teamwork have been featured in the Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, CNN, the BBC, NPR, and CBS Mornings. A former business school professor, David now works with leaders from organizations across all industries, including PepsiCo, Fidelity, Adobe, and NASA. David’s keynotes aren’t just entertaining and enlightening—they’re evidence-based and immensely practical, offering leaders at all levels a set of actionable takeaways they can implement immediately. //CONNECT LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidburkus/ Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/davidburkus Facebook: http://www.FB.com/DrDavidBurkus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DavidBurkus

Does something feel off at your job? The Sunday scaries creeping in harder and harder? Jealously bubbling up from other people’s work at other places? Or are simply bored? Well, it might be time for a career change. Before you make the leap to possibly brighter pastures that promise purpose and maybe even cure those Sunday scaries, take it from me, you’ll want to take a few strategic steps before doing so. In this video, I’ll tell you first hand why I made a career change a few times in my professional life and research backed steps to make it more effective. This is a big deal, and typically not an easy transition to make. But I can tell you, when done well, you’ll be looking back less and less and only regretting not taking that leap sooner. Chapters: 00:00 Does something feel off at your job? 00:18 Meet Dr. David Burkus 01:18 Why I Changed Careers 02:36 Investigate Why You’re Feeling The Pull 05:18 Making The Change 08:29 Give Yourself A Decision Deadline // NEWSLETTER Want to build your best team ever? Join 25,000+ leaders who receive these insights in my free newsletter: https://davidburkus.com/podcast // SPEAKING Like what you heard? Learn more or find out how to bring me to your company or event: https://davidburkus.com/keynote-speaker/ // ABOUT DAVID One of the world’s leading business thinkers, David’s forward-thinking ideas and bestselling books are changing how companies approach leadership, teamwork, and collaboration. A skilled researcher and inspiring communicator, Dr. David Burkus is the bestselling author of five books about business and leadership. His books have won multiple awards and have been translated into dozens of languages. Since 2017, David has been ranked multiple times as one of the world’s top business thought leaders. His insights on leadership and teamwork have been featured in the Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, CNN, the BBC, NPR, and CBS Mornings. A former business school professor, David now works with leaders from organizations across all industries, including PepsiCo, Fidelity, Adobe, and NASA. David’s keynotes aren’t just entertaining and enlightening—they’re evidence-based and immensely practical, offering leaders at all levels a set of actionable takeaways they can implement immediately. //CONNECT LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidburkus/ Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/davidburkus Facebook: http://www.FB.com/DrDavidBurkus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DavidBurkus

If you’ve ever felt the “vibe shift” at work, fewer responsibilities, less communication, and more criticism...you may be getting managed out. No one wants to be in this situation. And if that sounds like you, I'm here to help. In this episode, I break down the subtle signs your boss or organization may be quietly pushing you toward the exit, and more importantly, what you can do about it. It's not always over. Sometimes you can make changes and create a comeback story. But other times, well, don't be afraid to reignite that network just in case. 00:00 Something feels different... 00:16 Meet Dr. David Burkus 01:21 What "Being Managed Out" Looks Like 02:57 How To Reverse Course 03:07 Have A Direct Conversation 04:07 Understand the Bigger Picture 05:00 Assess The Problem 05:46 Activate Your Network 06:53 Prepare For An Exit // NEWSLETTER Want to build your best team ever? Join 25,000+ leaders who receive these insights in my free newsletter: https://davidburkus.com/podcast // SPEAKING Like what you heard? Learn more or find out how to bring me to your company or event: https://davidburkus.com/keynote-speaker/ // ABOUT DAVID One of the world’s leading business thinkers, David’s forward-thinking ideas and bestselling books are changing how companies approach leadership, teamwork, and collaboration. A skilled researcher and inspiring communicator, Dr. David Burkus is the bestselling author of five books about business and leadership. His books have won multiple awards and have been translated into dozens of languages. Since 2017, David has been ranked multiple times as one of the world’s top business thought leaders. His insights on leadership and teamwork have been featured in the Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, CNN, the BBC, NPR, and CBS Mornings. A former business school professor, David now works with leaders from organizations across all industries, including PepsiCo, Fidelity, Adobe, and NASA. David’s keynotes aren’t just entertaining and enlightening—they’re evidence-based and immensely practical, offering leaders at all levels a set of actionable takeaways they can implement immediately. //CONNECT LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidburkus/ Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/davidburkus Facebook: http://www.FB.com/DrDavidBurkus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DavidBurkus

Most organizations are treating AI like a software upgrade. Buy the licenses, hand it to IT, measure adoption rates, call it a transformation. It isn't. Charlene Li has spent the last several years inside organizations actually leading AI transformation — not just talking about it — and her diagnosis is blunt: the problem isn't the technology. It's that leaders keep handing off a leadership challenge to the wrong person. When the CEO outsources AI to the CIO, the whole organization stays stuck in adoption mode. Tools get installed. Behavior doesn't change. Value doesn't follow. In this conversation, Charlene and I dig into what leading AI transformation actually requires — why it has to start at the strategic level, how to move past the fear and stigma that keeps most employees treating AI like a cheat code, and what governance looks like when it accelerates instead of stalls progress. We also get into the jagged frontier debate, what AI fluency actually means for next-generation leaders, and why the most dangerous question you can ask your team isn't "are you using AI?" — it's "what are you using it for?" If you're a senior leader sitting on a pile of licenses and not much to show for it, this conversation is for you. // NEWSLETTER Want to build your best team ever? Join 25,000+ leaders who receive these insights in my free newsletter: https://davidburkus.com/podcast // SPEAKING Like what you heard? Learn more or find out how to bring me to your company or event: https://davidburkus.com/keynote-speaker/ // ABOUT DAVID One of the world’s leading business thinkers, David’s forward-thinking ideas and bestselling books are changing how companies approach leadership, teamwork, and collaboration. A skilled researcher and inspiring communicator, Dr. David Burkus is the bestselling author of five books about business and leadership. His books have won multiple awards and have been translated into dozens of languages. Since 2017, David has been ranked multiple times as one of the world’s top business thought leaders. His insights on leadership and teamwork have been featured in the Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, CNN, the BBC, NPR, and CBS Mornings. A former business school professor, David now works with leaders from organizations across all industries, including PepsiCo, Fidelity, Adobe, and NASA. David’s keynotes aren’t just entertaining and enlightening—they’re evidence-based and immensely practical, offering leaders at all levels a set of actionable takeaways they can implement immediately. //CONNECT LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidburkus/ Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/davidburkus Facebook: http://www.FB.com/DrDavidBurkus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DavidBurkus

Perfectionism feels like a strength, but it’s often the very thing slowing you down. In this video, we break down the hidden costs of perfectionism and how it quietly sabotages productivity, decision-making, and team performance. Drawing on research and real-world examples, you’ll learn the critical difference between pursuing excellence and chasing perfection, and why that distinction matters more than you think. I'll also explore the three types of perfectionism and how they show up at work, from being overly critical of yourself to placing unrealistic expectations on your team. More importantly, you’ll walk away with practical strategies to overcome perfectionism without lowering your standards, like setting guardrails, focusing on progress over perfection, and adopting a more process-driven mindset. Chapters: 00:00 Perfectionism Creeps In.... 00:23 Meet Dr. David Burkus 01:43 The Three Types Of Perfectionism 02:43 Audit The Cost Of Your Perfectionism 02:59 Questions For You To Try! 04:03 Focus On Process, Not Perfection 04:49 Experiment With “Good Enough” 05:33 As A Leader, Set The Tone // NEWSLETTER Want to build your best team ever? Join 25,000+ leaders who receive these insights in my free newsletter: https://davidburkus.com/youtube // SPEAKING Like what you heard? Learn more or find out how to bring me to your company or event: https://davidburkus.com/keynote-speaker/ // ABOUT DAVID One of the world’s leading business thinkers, David’s forward-thinking ideas and bestselling books are changing how companies approach leadership, teamwork, and collaboration. A skilled researcher and inspiring communicator, Dr. David Burkus is the bestselling author of five books about business and leadership. His books have won multiple awards and have been translated into dozens of languages. Since 2017, David has been ranked multiple times as one of the world’s top business thought leaders. His insights on leadership and teamwork have been featured in the Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, CNN, the BBC, NPR, and CBS Mornings. A former business school professor, David now works with leaders from organizations across all industries, including PepsiCo, Fidelity, Adobe, and NASA. David’s keynotes aren’t just entertaining and enlightening—they’re evidence-based and immensely practical, offering leaders at all levels a set of actionable takeaways they can implement immediately. //CONNECT LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidburkus/ Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/davidburkus Facebook: http://www.FB.com/DrDavidBurkus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DavidBurkus

Want to get promoted and land the high-profile projects? Just doing great work isn't enough. You need a strong internal reputation that speaks for you even when you're not in the room. In this video, I'm breaking down five proven strategies to build your workplace reputation without playing politics. I'll show you how to make yourself visible, how to make others look good (and in turn make you look good), and why building relationships across your organization matters just as much as managing up. I'll also share why your external reputation can supercharge how colleagues see you internally and why consistency is the secret ingredient that ties it all together. Your reputation is being built right now, whether you're actively shaping it or not. Let's make sure you're taking charge of it. 00:00 What you want usually requires a good reputation. 00:11 Meet Dr. David Burkus 00:39 Why Your Internal Reputation Matters 01:34 The Problem With Playing Politics 02:38 Make Yourself Visible 03:58 Make Others Look Good 05:11 Build Relationships Across, Not Just Up 06:01 Don't Forget Your External Reputation 07:20 Be Relentlessly Consistent // NEWSLETTER Want to build your best team ever? Join 25,000+ leaders who receive these insights in my free newsletter: https://davidburkus.com/podcast // SPEAKING Like what you heard? Learn more or find out how to bring me to your company or event: https://davidburkus.com/keynote-speaker/ // ABOUT DAVID One of the world’s leading business thinkers, David’s forward-thinking ideas and bestselling books are changing how companies approach leadership, teamwork, and collaboration. A skilled researcher and inspiring communicator, Dr. David Burkus is the bestselling author of five books about business and leadership. His books have won multiple awards and have been translated into dozens of languages. Since 2017, David has been ranked multiple times as one of the world’s top business thought leaders. His insights on leadership and teamwork have been featured in the Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, CNN, the BBC, NPR, and CBS Mornings. A former business school professor, David now works with leaders from organizations across all industries, including PepsiCo, Fidelity, Adobe, and NASA. David’s keynotes aren’t just entertaining and enlightening—they’re evidence-based and immensely practical, offering leaders at all levels a set of actionable takeaways they can implement immediately. //CONNECT LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidburkus/ Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/davidburkus Facebook: http://www.FB.com/DrDavidBurkus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DavidBurkus

Most leaders think creativity belongs to a handful of people on their team—the ones in marketing, R&D, or the corner office with the whiteboard. Everyone else executes. And that assumption, more than any lack of talent, is what's quietly killing your team's best ideas before they ever surface. Josh Linkner has spent years studying what actually happens when people create together at their best. His concept of co flow—a shared state of creative momentum, built on the dynamics of jazz improvisation—challenges the myth of the solo genius and replaces it with something more practical, more powerful, and more accessible to every leader and team. In this conversation, Josh and David explore what the research on collective intelligence reveals about high-performing teams, why domain fluency matters more than mastery, and how psychological safety functions as the on-ramp to creative collaboration. They also dig into the five forces Josh believes drive synchrony—and why optimizing them changes everything about how teams produce their best work together. If you've ever been on a team where time bends and the ideas just flow—this is why that happened, and how to build it on purpose. // NEWSLETTER Want to build your best team ever? Join 25,000+ leaders who receive these insights in my free newsletter: https://davidburkus.com/youtube // LEADERSHIP LESSONS -Reframe genius as a system, not a person. The most creative output on any team comes from the interplay between contributors—not from a single brilliant individual carrying the load. -Treat creative collaboration as a dial, not a switch. Co flow isn't something your team either has or doesn't have. It exists on a spectrum, and leaders can deliberately move the needle. -Domain fluency unlocks contribution; domain mastery can block it. Teams need members who know enough to play together—not experts so entrenched in their own domain that they can't receive ideas from outside it. -Risk permission is the prerequisite, not the bonus. Without psychological safety to try, share, and fail at small ideas, none of the other conditions for creative collaboration can take hold. -Creativity isn't a job title—it's a leadership mandate. Every role on your org chart is a creative role. If it isn't, you don't need a human being doing it. -Start small to build a creative culture. Micro-innovations—low-stakes experiments in better thinking—build the capability and confidence that compound into transformational creative output over time. // SPEAKING Like what you heard? Learn more or find out how to bring me to your company or event: https://davidburkus.com/keynote-speaker/ // ABOUT DAVID One of the world’s leading business thinkers, David’s forward-thinking ideas and bestselling books are changing how companies approach leadership, teamwork, and collaboration. A skilled researcher and inspiring communicator, Dr. David Burkus is the bestselling author of five books about business and leadership. His books have won multiple awards and have been translated into dozens of languages. Since 2017, David has been ranked multiple times as one of the world’s top business thought leaders. His insights on leadership and teamwork have been featured in the Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, CNN, the BBC, NPR, and CBS Mornings. A former business school professor, David now works with leaders from organizations across all industries, including PepsiCo, Fidelity, Adobe, and NASA. David’s keynotes aren’t just entertaining and enlightening—they’re evidence-based and immensely practical, offering leaders at all levels a set of actionable takeaways they can implement immediately. //CONNECT LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidburkus/ Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/davidburkus Facebook: http://www.FB.com/DrDavidBurkus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DavidBurkus

Failure at work isn’t the problem, it's how leaders respond to it is. In this video, I break down how great leaders turn mistakes into momentum by building trust, reinforcing psychological safety, and creating a culture where teams actually learn. You’ll learn a simple, practical framework: acknowledge what happened, separate effort from outcomes, run effective post-mortems, and reestablish clear direction. These aren’t just soft skills, they’re leadership behaviors that drive better performance, smarter risk-taking, and more engaged teams. Chapters: 00:00 Everyone makes mistakes. It happens. 00:13 Meet Dr. David Burkus 01:24 Step One: Acknowledge It. 02:34 Step Two: Conduct A Post-mortem. 04:10 Step Three: Reestablish Direction. // NEWSLETTER Want to build your best team ever? Join 25,000+ leaders who receive these insights in my free newsletter: https://davidburkus.com/podcast // SPEAKING Like what you heard? Learn more or find out how to bring me to your company or event: https://davidburkus.com/keynote-speaker/ // ABOUT DAVID One of the world’s leading business thinkers, David’s forward-thinking ideas and bestselling books are changing how companies approach leadership, teamwork, and collaboration. A skilled researcher and inspiring communicator, Dr. David Burkus is the bestselling author of five books about business and leadership. His books have won multiple awards and have been translated into dozens of languages. Since 2017, David has been ranked multiple times as one of the world’s top business thought leaders. His insights on leadership and teamwork have been featured in the Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, CNN, the BBC, NPR, and CBS Mornings. A former business school professor, David now works with leaders from organizations across all industries, including PepsiCo, Fidelity, Adobe, and NASA. David’s keynotes aren’t just entertaining and enlightening—they’re evidence-based and immensely practical, offering leaders at all levels a set of actionable takeaways they can implement immediately. //CONNECT LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidburkus/ Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/davidburkus Facebook: http://www.FB.com/DrDavidBurkus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DavidBurkus

Most people think leadership comes with a title. A promotion. A team. But in reality, leadership starts long before any of that...and often without it. In this video, we’re unpacking what it really means to lead without formal authority. Because stepping up without the title isn’t just a career move, it’s a proving ground. It’s where you build the skills, relationships, and reputation that make leadership possible in the first place. But let’s be honest: it’s not easy. There’s extra work, social risk, and no positional power to fall back on. Which means if you want people to follow you, they have to want to follow you. Chapters: 00:00 Authority isn't always tied to a fancy title. 00:16 Meet Dr. David Burkus 00:56 Why Lead Without a Title? 02:24 The Costs Of Stepping Up 04:02 How to Lead Well Without the Title 04:17 Lead With Expertise, Not Ego. 05:23 Build Relationships Before You Need Them. 06:33 Clarify the Goal, Not the Roles. 07:50 Model the Behavior You Want to See. 08:49 Make Others Look Good. // NEWSLETTER Want to build your best team ever? Join 25,000+ leaders who receive these insights in my free newsletter: https://davidburkus.com/podcast // SPEAKING Like what you heard? Learn more or find out how to bring me to your company or event: https://davidburkus.com/keynote-speaker/ // ABOUT DAVID One of the world’s leading business thinkers, David’s forward-thinking ideas and bestselling books are changing how companies approach leadership, teamwork, and collaboration. A skilled researcher and inspiring communicator, Dr. David Burkus is the bestselling author of five books about business and leadership. His books have won multiple awards and have been translated into dozens of languages. Since 2017, David has been ranked multiple times as one of the world’s top business thought leaders. His insights on leadership and teamwork have been featured in the Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, CNN, the BBC, NPR, and CBS Mornings. A former business school professor, David now works with leaders from organizations across all industries, including PepsiCo, Fidelity, Adobe, and NASA. David’s keynotes aren’t just entertaining and enlightening—they’re evidence-based and immensely practical, offering leaders at all levels a set of actionable takeaways they can implement immediately. //CONNECT LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidburkus/ Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/davidburkus Facebook: http://www.FB.com/DrDavidBurkus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DavidBurkus

You’ve probably worked with someone like this: they hit every deadline, their numbers look great, and leadership sees them as a star performer. But ask the rest of the team, and you’ll hear a...very...different story. In this episode, I tackle a challenge almost every leader faces: how to handle a high performer who creates friction on the team. The truth is, performance isn’t just about individual results. It’s about how someone’s work affects everyone around them. In modern organizations, success is a team sport. Chapters: 00:00 High performer? Or team breaker? 01:19 Redefine What High Performance Looks Like. 02:28 Make Teamwork Expectations Specific. 03:33 Position This As A Growth Oppurtunity. 05:58 If All Else Fails, Make The Tough Decision. // NEWSLETTER Want to build your best team ever? Join 25,000+ leaders who receive these insights in my free newsletter: https://davidburkus.com/podcast // SPEAKING Like what you heard? Learn more or find out how to bring me to your company or event: https://davidburkus.com/keynote-speaker/ // ABOUT DAVID One of the world’s leading business thinkers, David’s forward-thinking ideas and bestselling books are changing how companies approach leadership, teamwork, and collaboration. A skilled researcher and inspiring communicator, Dr. David Burkus is the bestselling author of five books about business and leadership. His books have won multiple awards and have been translated into dozens of languages. Since 2017, David has been ranked multiple times as one of the world’s top business thought leaders. His insights on leadership and teamwork have been featured in the Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, CNN, the BBC, NPR, and CBS Mornings. A former business school professor, David now works with leaders from organizations across all industries, including PepsiCo, Fidelity, Adobe, and NASA. David’s keynotes aren’t just entertaining and enlightening—they’re evidence-based and immensely practical, offering leaders at all levels a set of actionable takeaways they can implement immediately. //CONNECT LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidburkus/ Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/davidburkus Facebook: http://www.FB.com/DrDavidBurkus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DavidBurkus

Most leaders are searching for the formula. The right strategy, the right talent, the right incentive structure. And when teams underperform, they add more—more process, more accountability, more pressure. What they almost never do is pause. In his new book Flourish, Daniel Coyle spent five years visiting the highest-performing teams, organizations, and communities on the planet—and he never found a single person thriving alone. Not one. Meaning, he argues, is not something you discover in isolation. It's something you build together. And the leaders who understand that aren't just more effective—they're building something that actually lasts. In this conversation, Daniel and I dig into what separates teams that merely function from teams that genuinely flourish. We talk about the Cleveland Guardians, who've won as many games as the Yankees while spending over a billion dollars less—by redesigning how players develop themselves. We talk about Ed Catmull at Pixar, who built a culture where "I might be wrong" is the starting point, not an admission of weakness. And we talk about what Daniel Coyle calls "awakening cues"—the small, almost invisible moments where leaders either create connection or quietly kill it. If you've ever been on a team where everything just clicked—and had no idea how to explain it afterward—this conversation is the closest thing to a map. // NEWSLETTER Want to build your best team ever? Join 25,000+ leaders who receive these insights in my free newsletter: https://davidburkus.com/podcast 0:00 Introduction to Daniel Coyle and Flourish 1:15 Why Meaning Is a Social Construct (Not a Solo Journey) 3:30 Awakening Cues: The Leadership Move Most People Miss 6:00 What Mr. Rogers Got Right About Leading People 8:30 The Cleveland Guardians and Constraints-Led Development 12:00 Complicated vs. Complex: Why Leaders Need to Probe, Not Push 16:00 Total Football, Group Flow, and the Team Brain 19:30 The Humanist Revival: Are Leaders Finally Catching Up 23:00 Key Takeaways // SPEAKING Like what you heard? Learn more or find out how to bring me to your company or event: https://davidburkus.com/keynote-speaker/ // ABOUT DAVID One of the world’s leading business thinkers, David’s forward-thinking ideas and bestselling books are changing how companies approach leadership, teamwork, and collaboration. A skilled researcher and inspiring communicator, Dr. David Burkus is the bestselling author of five books about business and leadership. His books have won multiple awards and have been translated into dozens of languages. Since 2017, David has been ranked multiple times as one of the world’s top business thought leaders. His insights on leadership and teamwork have been featured in the Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, CNN, the BBC, NPR, and CBS Mornings. A former business school professor, David now works with leaders from organizations across all industries, including PepsiCo, Fidelity, Adobe, and NASA. David’s keynotes aren’t just entertaining and enlightening—they’re evidence-based and immensely practical, offering leaders at all levels a set of actionable takeaways they can implement immediately. //CONNECT LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidburkus/ Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/davidburkus Facebook: http://www.FB.com/DrDavidBurkus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DavidBurkus

We tend to picture leaders as bold, charismatic extroverts. The loudest voice in the room. But that stereotype is costing organizations great talent. In this video, I break down the research on introverted leaders and why quiet, thoughtful professionals often make some of the most effective managers and team builders. You’ll also learn practical strategies introverted leaders can use to build high-performing teams, including leveraging deep listening, maximizing one-on-ones, sharing the spotlight, and designing a leadership style that fits your energy. Chapters: 00:00 Myth: Introverts Don't Make Good Leaders (Wrong!) 01:11 What Does "Introverted" Mean? 03:22 How To Actually Succeed as an Introverted Leader 04:11 Lean Into Listening 05:42 Share the Spotlight Strategically 07:46 Plan Around Your Energy 09:03 Don't Forget Your Own Development // NEWSLETTER Want to build your best team ever? Join 25,000+ leaders who receive these insights in my free newsletter: https://davidburkus.com/podcast // SPEAKING Like what you heard? Learn more or find out how to bring me to your company or event: https://davidburkus.com/keynote-speaker/ // ABOUT DAVID One of the world’s leading business thinkers, David’s forward-thinking ideas and bestselling books are changing how companies approach leadership, teamwork, and collaboration. A skilled researcher and inspiring communicator, Dr. David Burkus is the bestselling author of five books about business and leadership. His books have won multiple awards and have been translated into dozens of languages. Since 2017, David has been ranked multiple times as one of the world’s top business thought leaders. His insights on leadership and teamwork have been featured in the Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, CNN, the BBC, NPR, and CBS Mornings. A former business school professor, David now works with leaders from organizations across all industries, including PepsiCo, Fidelity, Adobe, and NASA. David’s keynotes aren’t just entertaining and enlightening—they’re evidence-based and immensely practical, offering leaders at all levels a set of actionable takeaways they can implement immediately. //CONNECT LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidburkus/ Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/davidburkus Facebook: http://www.FB.com/DrDavidBurkus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DavidBurkus

Most leaders think high performance is a simple equation: more hours, more hustle, more grit. And in a short-term crisis, that approach can even look like it’s working—war rooms, late nights, and relentless pressure that “proves” productivity. But sustained high performance doesn’t come from staying on all the time. It comes from knowing when to push—and when to recover—so your energy, judgment, and emotional control don’t quietly degrade the very results you’re chasing. In this conversation with James Hewitt, we unpack why “always on” leadership can actually reduce inspiration, erode psychological safety, and trap teams in reactive cycles. And we explore a smarter alternative: treating recovery as a strategic advantage, using small experiments to shift behavior, and building teams that can respond skillfully under pressure instead of just grinding harder. If you want high performance that lasts—without burnout—this is the mindset shift that changes everything. // NEWSLETTER Want to build your best team ever? Join 25,000+ leaders who receive these insights in my free newsletter: https://davidburkus.com/podcast // SPEAKING Like what you heard? Learn more or find out how to bring me to your company or event: https://davidburkus.com/keynote-speaker/ // ABOUT DAVID One of the world’s leading business thinkers, David’s forward-thinking ideas and bestselling books are changing how companies approach leadership, teamwork, and collaboration. A skilled researcher and inspiring communicator, Dr. David Burkus is the bestselling author of five books about business and leadership. His books have won multiple awards and have been translated into dozens of languages. Since 2017, David has been ranked multiple times as one of the world’s top business thought leaders. His insights on leadership and teamwork have been featured in the Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, CNN, the BBC, NPR, and CBS Mornings. A former business school professor, David now works with leaders from organizations across all industries, including PepsiCo, Fidelity, Adobe, and NASA. David’s keynotes aren’t just entertaining and enlightening—they’re evidence-based and immensely practical, offering leaders at all levels a set of actionable takeaways they can implement immediately. //CONNECT LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidburkus/ Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/davidburkus Facebook: http://www.FB.com/DrDavidBurkus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DavidBurkus