In Session: Leading the Judiciary

This hour-long bonus episode shared by FJC colleagues provides an in-depth exploration of generational differences, specifically in how they give and receive feedback, address wellness and mental health, and stay motivated and engaged. Dr. Arin Reeves explains that communication is a powerful influence across generations and offers actionable strategies to strengthen collaboration and productivity across all generations.

In her national bestseller, Your Best Meeting Ever: 7 Principles for Designing Meetings That Get Things Done, Dr. Rebecca Hinds challenges teams to replace the “default meeting” mindset with a critical one. Her research-backed approach shows how smarter metrics and intentional design can transform meetings from routine obligations into powerful drivers of clarity and connection that lead to meaningful results.

As experienced employees retire and fewer younger workers are available to step in to replace them, organizations risk losing critical knowledge faster than they can retain it. Our guest, Dan Pontefract, argues that leaders must be ready for this moment. In The Future of Work Is Grey, he shows how age confers unique strengths, such as deep expertise, steady reliability, and adaptive thinking—and why leaders who recognize and integrate those qualities will be the ones whose organizations stay resilient. Dan is a leadership and corporate culture strategist with twenty years of experience in senior roles at SAP, TELUS, and Business Objects. He has since advised organizations like Salesforce, Virgin Media O2, and Nestlé. An award‑winning author of five leadership books, he also writes for Forbes and Harvard Business Review, teaches at the University of Victoria’s Gustavson School of Business, and has earned honors including the Thinkers50 Radar list and HR Weekly’s 100 Most Influential People in HR.

Leaders shape the environments where wellbeing, connection, and performance take root. In Leading for Wellness: How to Create a Team Culture Where Everyone Thrives, Drs. Patricia Grabarek and Katina Sawyer show how everyday leadership behaviors directly influence employee retention, satisfaction, and overall health. Their research offers a science backed roadmap and practical insights for leading a workplace where employees can flourish. Dr. Patricia Grabarek brings more than a decade of experience improving workplace wellness, culture, and engagement across over 60 organizations. Her evidenced-driven work has strengthened performance and retention, earning recognition as one of Culture Amp’s Top 25 Emerging Culture Creators. Dr. Katina Sawyer, an award-winning researcher and Associate Professor at the University of Arizona, has shaped global conversations on work–life balance, leadership, and positive organizational behavior through more than 50 publications and features in outlets such as the Journal of Applied Psychology and Harvard Business Review.

Great workplaces aren’t built on blame—they’re built on clarity, connection, and the courage to own our impact. In this episode, Dr. David C. Tate offers a fresh perspective on accountability as a catalyst for stronger leadership, healthier collaboration, and more intentional organizational cultures. His work guides teams and institutions toward more mindful, connected, and high‑performing ways of working. A licensed clinical psychologist, professionally certified coach, organizational consultant, and Yale professor, Dr. Tate champions a human‑centered model of conscious accountability that deepens trust and sharpens focus. He is the co‑author of Conscious Accountability: Deepen Connection, Elevate Results, which encourages leaders to examine themselves and their relationships more fully.

AI, hybrid models, and generational shifts in work cause many to ask: Why are we here? In her latest book, Why Are We Here? Creating a Work Culture Everyone Wants, Jennifer Moss offers leaders a research-driven, human-centered roadmap for promoting purpose, belonging, and resiliency in the workplace. Her writing has shaped global conversations and she is a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review. She was named Canadian Business Innovator of the Year, International Female Entrepreneur of the Year and is a recognized thought leader in workplace well-being.

Dr. Andrew Brodsky is a management professor at the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin and author of Ping: The Secrets of Successful Virtual Communication. Ping offers a science-backed, practical framework for navigating the complexities of digital communication—whether email, video calls, or instant messaging. Drawing on cutting-edge research and real-world examples, Dr. Brodsky helps professionals understand when and how to use different communication tools to build trust, increase clarity, and avoid costly misunderstandings.

Steven Rogelberg, author of Glad We Met: The Art and Science of 1:1 Meetings, shares research on the importance of effective one-to-one meetings for employees, leaders and organizations. He shares how to effectively conduct these meetings for maximum impact. He also argues that while many leaders rate themselves as being very effective at conducting one-to-one meetings, many employees feel these same meetings as ineffective. Dr. Rogelberg is a pioneering scholar in organizational science, management, and psychology, with over 150 publications spanning leadership, team dynamics, employee well-being, and the science of meetings. He is a Chancellor’s Professor at UNC Charlotte where he is the founding Director of Organizational Science. He serves as the editor of the Journal of Business and Psychology, and is a recipient of numerous prestigious awards including the Raymond A. Katzell Award an

Amy Gallo, author of Getting Along: How to Work with Anyone (Event Difficult People), provides strategies for recognizing and working with difficult personality types so we can move through conflict and opposition to balance and cooperation and be happier and more productive in our work. Amy Gallo has written hundreds of articles for and is a contributing editor at Harvard Business Review. She is the author of the HBR Guide to Dealing with Conflict and is also a cohost of HBR’s Women at Work podcast. Her strategies have been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Fast Company, as well as on NPR and the BBC.

Dr. Elias Aboujaoude's research shows that leaders emerge from unpredictable personal, psychological and situational factors. His latest book, A Leader’s Destiny: Why Psychology, Personality, and Character Make All the Difference, cautions against relying on the often-marketed simplistic concepts of leadership and recommends organizations instead focus on the inherent psychological characteristics leaders need to be successful. Dr. Aboujaoude is a Clinical Professor, researcher and writer at Stanford University's Department of Psychiatry. He is the Chief of the Anxiety Disorders Section and Director of the Impulse Control Disorders Clinic. His work has been featured in publications to include The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review and The Chronicle of Higher Education, and on BBC, PBS, and CNN.