Professor Isaac Getz is the professor of Idea, Initiative and Innovation Management at the EACP Europe Business School and author of a new book that gets right to the very heart of what it takes to do Great Work in an organization: Freedom Inc.

It’s a terrific book and follows on nicely from the previous interview with Bob Cialdini. The book tells the stories of organizations that are approaching work by thinking about how to work differently and succeeding because of this approach. The subtitle says it all: Free Your Employees and Let Them Lead Your Business to High Productivity, Profits and Growth. Isaac incorporates his own background of innovation but looks at a bigger picture of how work is evolving, and that’s what we talk about in this interview. We discuss:

• How the style of “liberating leaders” is the starting point for any Freedom Inc.
• The importance of people feeling intrinsically equal – and what that actually means
• The impact of a lessening of control from the top – and the impact that has on agility and ability to serve your customers

You can learn more about Professor Isaac Getz and his book at freedomincbook.com.

Listen to my interview with Professor Getz

Dave Ulrich is a titan in the world of HR, a champion for HR to get out of the ‘comp and bens’ ghetto to have a strategic impact. I first met him when we were both speaking at a conference in India. A big crowd, all ready to be lectured for the day by Dave. And the session was electric. Dave found the perfect balance between sharing wisdom, being provocative and being playful with the group. He is a prolific writer, with articles and books on many aspects of HR and leadership, his most recent book is The Leadership Code: Five Rules to Lead By. Dave is a partner and co-founder of The RBL Group and is also a professor of business at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

Dave and his wife Wendy have written a lovely piece in Do More Great Work.

In this interview we discuss:

• the art of finding simplicity in complexity – and how that fits with system thinking
• the value of staying in a place of ambiguity rather than rushing to decisions
• the link between energy and engagement
• and why, at the end of the day, you shouldn’t take things too seriously

You can find Dave at on his website.

Listen to my interview with Dave Ulrich.

If you’re interested in leadership, you know that a new book on the topic gets published, oh, about every 20 seconds. And most of them are eminently missable – the same tired truisms with a new smear of lipstick – with the life of a mayfly.

And then there are a few classics, books that have really stood the test of time. One of those is The Leadership Challenge, co-authored by Jim Kouzes and his long-time writing partner Barry Posner. It was recently nominated by 800 CEO Reads as one of their best business books of all time, and in part its strength lies in the fact that it is insight based on research, not just someone’s thought du jour. Jim is not only a author, he’s also the Dean’s Executive Professor of Leadership at the Leavey School of Business in Santa Clara University and at one stage was CEO of the Tom Peters Company for ten or eleven years.

In our interview we talk about:

• How 25% of the success of leadership can be explained (and what to do about that other 75%)
• Why challenging the process is a crucial part of Great Work
• A terrific story from Ben & Jerry’s. (Anything involving icecream fits into Great Work as far as I’m concerned.)
• The power of a creative partnership – and how he and Barry have maintained their working relationship for close to three decade

You can get access to a wide range of leadership materials at Jim’s website

Listen to my interview with Jim Kouzes

David Rock is a bridge builder. He’s connected the amazing developments in neuroscience that have occurred in the last ten years, and brought them to the disciplines of leadership and coaching. Neuroleadership is the new frontier for how we think – literally – about leadership. David’s a prolific author. Following Quiet Leadership a couple of years ago, he’s put out two truly excellent books in late 2009, Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long and, as a co-author with Linda Page a text book on coaching called Coaching with the Brain in Mind. He is the founder of the Neuro Leadership Institute and his coaching company, Results Coaching Systems. And he’s an Aussie to boot, which is just an added bonus.

In this interview we talk about:

• The two fundamental states of the brain – and the impact they have on engagement
• Why the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is flawed
• The SCARF model, which David calls the most important work he’s done
• And why high (but not too high) stress situations can actually bring out your best work.

You can follow David on Twitter at @DavidRock101 and on his blog.

Listen to my interview with David Rock

Kevin Cashman’s Leadership from the Inside Out was published in 1998 and has firmly established itself as a classic in the leadership genre. It really covers a wide approach to thinking about what are the areas of mastery you need to look at and approach to step into your full power as a leader, whether you’re at the top of the tree or just starting out on your career. Kevin is the Senior Partner of Leadership and Talent Consulting at Korn/Ferry International, one of the really big players in the HR and executive and talent consultancies in the world. He and his team have done coaching work for thousands of senior executives and senior teams in more than 50 countries world wide and Kevin was recently named one of the top 15 leaders in the world by Executive Excellence magazine.

In this interview we discuss:

• The one question at the one moment that gave Kevin clarity and focus
• How our accomplishments can obscure something more important about who we really are
• Why managing your energy is so critical
• And meditation as a leadership tool.

Listen to my interview with Kevin Cashman

You can learn more about Kevin’s work at the Korn Ferry workshop here.