Leadership NOW with Dan Pontefract

About Leadership NOW with Dan Pontefract

Dan Pontefract is an award-winning author, leadership strategist, and culture change expert. Dan's podcast explores all aspects of leadership, organizational culture, purpose, and professional development. Dan is the best-selling author of six books: THE FUTURE OF WORK IS GREY, WORK-LIFE BLOOM, LEAD. CARE. WIN., OPEN TO THINK, THE PURPOSE EFFECT, and FLAT ARMY. A renowned speaker, Dan has presented at five different TED events and also writes for Forbes and Harvard Business Review. Dan is an adjunct professor at the University of Victoria, Gustavson School of Business, and has garnered more than 20 industry awards over his career. Previously, as Chief Envisioner and Chief Learning Officer at TELUS—a Canadian telecommunications company with revenues of $14 billion and 50,000 global employees—he launched the Transformation Office, the TELUS MBA, and the TELUS Leadership Philosophy, all award-winning initiatives that dramatically helped to increase the company’s employee engagement to record levels of nearly 90%. Prior to TELUS, he held senior roles at SAP, Business Objects, and BCIT. He is honoured to be on the Thinkers50 radar list.

Publisher

Dan Pontefract

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

11 Jan 2019

Latest episode

5 May 2026

Latest episodes

1 of 150 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   5 May 2026

   Ep 4: The Silent Saboteur of Ageism

   In episode four of Five Shades of Grey — a five-part limited series within Leadership NOW — Dan Pontefract takes on the fourth shade of his sixth book, "The Future of Work Is Grey." Why ageism is the last socially acceptable bias in the modern workplace. Why seventy-eight percent of American workers between 40 and 65 have personally experienced or witnessed it. Why the EEOC's 2026 docket is full of cases nobody read about — Wendy's, Builders FirstSource, South Valley Care Center, J&M Industries. Why ageism runs in every direction — against the young, the middle, and the experienced — and why the form your inclusive colleagues commit most often is the one they cannot see. And why the silent saboteur stays silent only as long as you refuse to name it. The cost is rising. Five Shades of Grey is a five-part limited series.

2. 

   5 May 2026

   Ep 5: The Leader's Move Toward the Experience Dividend

   In the final episode of Five Shades of Grey — a five-part limited series within Leadership NOW — Dan Pontefract closes the loop on the argument at the heart of his sixth book, "The Future of Work Is Grey." Why most organizational responses to the demographic shift are searches conducted under the streetlight, not where the keys actually are. Why Age Debt has a mirror image — the Experience Dividend — and why the leaders of the next decade will be the ones earning it. Why the leader's move is not a six-step framework, not a transformation programme, not a slide deck. Why one decision, made differently this week, matters more than ten frameworks read and forgotten. And what to think about doing differently. The future of work is grey but the next move is yours, to turn it to gold. Five Shades of Grey is a five-part limited series.

3. 

   4 May 2026

   Ep 3: The Pressure Points of Longevity

   In episode three of Five Shades of Grey — a five-part limited series within Leadership NOW — Dan Pontefract walks through the third shade of his sixth book, "The Future of Work Is Grey." Why the modern concept of retirement is barely a hundred years old, and was actuarially broken from day one. Why seven percent of recent American retirees have already come back to work — and forty-one percent of older job-seekers say the reason is rent. Why eighty percent of older Americans now face financial insecurity in retirement.Why your HR systems were built for a workforce that retires once, cleanly, at 65 — a workforce that no longer exists. And why the longevity gift has become the longevity bill.Living longer is the easy part. Working longer is where it falls apart. Five Shades of Grey is a five-part limited series.

Inside a recent episode

Author Faisal Hoque on Preserving Humanity in the Artificial Intelligence Era

Published 6 Apr 2025 · Transcript excerpt

[…] It puts a different context because one person versus brains of thousands of million people is quite daunting. So, so when we looked at the book and when I'm saying, we mean my, my team of you're cracking research team that I have is that, you know, we looked at it like, okay, look, there's the business and there's the technology, but there's the humanity that kind of sits in between and when you talk about the opportunity and, and it's risk, it kind of gets very philosophical. So if you look at the book, it's really intersection of philosophy, business, technology, and humanity and how do we really protect the human agency and, and not become a slave to this new technology that we're collectively pushing out there and try to do something with it. […]

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

67,345

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

5 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

2 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 76 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

88

Social presence

0

YouTube

76

Engagement

81

Contact Leadership NOW with Dan Pontefract

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

Questions about Leadership NOW with Dan Pontefract