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Are you a business owner, executive, leader, team leader, aspiring future leader, leadership junkie, a scientist, a design thinker, or simply the leader of your own life? If you are, then you are a leader, and as such, you should be experimenting!

Welcome to The Experimental Leader, a podcast where we tackle the ways leaders are experimenting in their own work. Hosted by Melanie Parish and Dr. Mel Rutherford, we dive into the most interesting questions about leaders and get into real-life conversations about how people might be experimenting with their leadership. What they are trying? How they are leading and managing their flow of work and throughput? How are they managing bottlenecks, mission, vision, strategic, operational, and tactical intents? How do they organize experiments? How do they succeed? How do they fail? How do they collect data?

The loneliness of leadership can be overwhelming, especially when a leader gets promoted and doesn’t have a roadmap for how to lead. They might feel like they are supposed to have the answers, and yet they have to figure out what that really means. The hardest part can be not having anyone to talk to about their leadership journey.

  The show’s guest in this episode is Paulo Gregory. He is a designer, facilitator, and community builder focused on transforming systems through collaboration and collective wisdom. He is the inventor of Cohado®, a strategic relational framework that helps teams and communities create aligned, sustainable solutions. With more than 30 years of experience, Paulo supports leaders and groups in building resilient, collaborative cultures. —   Listen to the podcast here  Leading Through Collective Wisdom with Paulo Gregory Hi. I’m Mel Rutherford. I’m McMaster University’s first transgender department chair, and I’m a co-host of the experimental leader podcast. And hello,Read More
Explore leadership strategies designed for the fast-paced December season. This episode breaks down practical ways to streamline meetings, foster cultural inclusion, and design joyful, sustainable holiday practices that strengthen team connection and performance. —   Listen to the podcast here  Seasonal Leadership Experiments: Efficiency, Culture, and Connection I’m Melanie Parish. I’m one of the CO hosts of the Experimental Leader Podcast. I’m a coach and author, a content creator and a team coach, and it’s great to be here with you today. Hi. I’m Mel Rutherford. I’m McMaster University’s first transgender department chair. I’m a co-host of the experimentalRead More
  The show’s guest in this episode is Dr. Torben Noerby.  He is a leadership expert, CEO of People & Performance, author of The Contextual Leader, and creator of CLAI – The Contextual Leadership AI Bot. With over 30 years of experience spanning the military, retail, and global consulting, he helps executives adapt their leadership to organizational context, driving performance and transformation. —   Listen to the podcast here  Leading in Context: Dr. Torben Noerby on Adaptive Leadership Hello and welcome to the show. I am Melanie Parish. I am an executive coach, and I coach empire builders, thoughtRead More
  The show’s guest in this episode is Charlotte Otter. She is an author, speaker, and advisor with global experience leading communications at companies like SAP and Anglo American. She now helps organizations of all sizes manage reputation, drive change, and build effective teams. In today’s noisy world, she believes it’s stories and our humanity that truly break through. —   Listen to the podcast here  Reputation, Resilience, and New Leaders with Charlotte Otter Hello. I am Melanie Parish. I’m one of the co-hosts of the Experimental Leader podcast. I am a Master Certified Coach, and I love coaching,Read More
  The show’s guest in this episode is Col. Bree Fram. She is an astronautical engineer, author, and one of the highest-ranking out transgender officers in the U.S. Space Force, with over 20 years of military service. She is a recognized advocate for LGBTQ+ inclusion and the author/editor of multiple books, including Forging Queer Leaders and With Valor and Visibility. —   Listen to the podcast here  Transcending Limits: Leadership, Identity, and Advocacy in Uniform with Col. Bree Fram Hello and welcome to the Experimental Leader Podcast. I’m Melanie Parrish. I’m an author, a speaker, an executive coach, andRead More
  The show’s guest in this episode is Frankie Berkoben. She is an executive coach and sought-after speaker who works with leaders at top companies like Google, Airbnb, and the White House. She helps high-achieving professionals break free from overwhelm and inconsistency, unlocking clarity, confidence, and sustainable success. Combining design thinking, the scientific method, positive psychology, and ADHD expertise, Frankie empowers clients to perform at their best without relying on grit or willpower. Her systems-based approach digs into neuropsychology to address the root causes of friction, optimizing for success by shaping the right conditions. A behavioral psychology expert, Frankie makesRead More
  The show’s guest in this episode is Dr. Liz Cavallaro. She is an Executive Coach, Adult Development Scholar, and co-author of Forging Queer Leaders: How the LGBTQIA+ Community Creates Impact from Adversity. She co-hosts the Forged in Fire LGBTQ+ Leadership Podcast and shares her research widely through journals, conferences, and keynotes. She currently serves as a tenured Associate Professor of Leader Development at the U.S. Naval War College, working with senior national security leaders to deepen self-awareness and cognitive capacity. Dr. Cavallaro has also taught at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Bay Path University. She holds an Ed.D. in HumanRead More
  The show’s guest in this episode are Leah Kedar, MS, MCC, and Robin Goodbary, MBA, MCC. They are both Master Certified Coaches with extensive expertise and impactful approaches to coaching. Leah is an ICF Advanced Certified Mentor Coach and a two-time recipient of the ICF Prism Award for coaching excellence with the National Institute of Health and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. Known for her ontological and integral coaching style, Leah focuses on honoring the full humanity of her clients while supporting them in achieving personal, professional, and organizational goals. Robin specializes in Business and Leadership Coaching as wellRead More
    —   Listen to the podcast here  Five Years of Experimentation: A Conversation with Melanie Parish Hi there. I’m Mel Rutherford. I’m McMaster University’s first transgender department chair, and I’m the co host of the experimental leader podcast. For the last four years, I’ve been learning about leadership and experimenting with leadership in my role as department chair, some of the things I’ve been thinking about recently is how to implement values based leadership. I’ve started my term as chair determined to center values, and today I actually was reading the literature on values based leadership. AndRead More
  The show’s guest in this episode is Tara Landes. For over 25 years, she has helped 300+ small business leaders tackle operational challenges. A certified change management practitioner and licensed influence trainer, she leads Bellrock’s management training programs, graduating 950+ students, and has delivered nearly 100 presentations to organizations like TEC Canada and CPHR BC & Yukon. —   Listen to the podcast here  Unlocking Operational Excellence with Tara Landes Hello. I’m Melanie Parish. I’m an author and an executive coach, a team coach, and it’s great to be here with you today. Hi. I’m Mel Rutherford. I’mRead More

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