Episodes 19
Avg. Duration 30m
Activity Highly Active
Since Sep 2020
Latest Episode Dec 2025

Publishing Details

Schedule
Every 2 Months
Format
Episodic
Hosting
feeds.buzzsprout.com

About This Podcast

We have been sold a myth: that good, successful leaders are fiercely competitive battlers. The aggressive combative leaders we have been taught to admire actually hold a deep seated anxiety that they and their world have a profoundly unbalanced power relationship. That their world is an actual or potential threat. Drawing from his book “How successful leaders do business with their world”, as well as conversations with top leaders, author and coach-mentor Stephen Barden argues that truly successful leaders, those who act on behalf of their entire constituencies, have learned that they and their worlds are partners with a manageable power balance. That their power lies in that balance. (Theme music: "Celtic Spirit" by Julius H. from Pixabay)

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Recent Episodes

S1E19 The Power of Tenderness

Dec 28, 2025 28m

Surely this is an absurd idea: that tenderness can be - is ,in fact - powerful?  In this episode Stephen Barden dives into the even more absurd idea that tenderness in the workplace is an…

S1E18 HOW WE OUTSOURCE OUR POWER

Sep 19, 2025 36m Transcript

Host Stephen Barden asks: How do we make sure that we don’t shrink ourselves when we outsource to others – to technology or to other people? How do we keep a reasonable balance between making sure we…

Speakers of Truth to Power: Lt. General (retired) Ben Hodges

Aug 12, 2025 55m

The third guest in this special series is not someone you would immediately think of as speaking truth to power. Yet retired Lieutenant General Ben Hodges has consistently done just that — especially…

Speakers of Truth to Power: Razan

Jun 25, 2025 45m

Stephen Barden speaks to a post graduate student in Norway who, by speaking truth to power, managed to get her university in Stavanger to change a core policy. What has this to do with business and…

Speakers of Truth to Power: Harold Strachan

May 18, 2025 21m

In this first episode of a new season of the Power of Balance - focusing on Speakers of Truth to Power - Stephen Barden tells the story of Harold Strachan, a man who sacrificed all but his life when…

S1E14 Fearful Power

Apr 08, 2025 23m Transcript

Contact me hereFor more information about Stephen Barden and his work please visit:www. stephenbarden.orgor https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenbarden/ Please subscribe to, review or comment on this…

Wherefore Art Thou - The EU

Feb 23, 2025 25m Transcript

Stephen Barden turns his "Wherefore" spotlight on the European Union to ask: Where does the EU see its highest value in its world? Can that "Wherefore" carry it through the inevitable turmoil of next…

Wherefore Art Thou - the Organization

Jan 13, 2025 22m Transcript

In the second in the series "Wherefore Art Thou", Stephen Barden argues that if  human beings need to have a balance of meaning and value with their world, then organizations certainly do.  Contact…

S1E11 Wherefore Art Thou - not the why but the wherefore

Nov 28, 2024 18m

Stephen Barden suggests that before we ask ourselves why? - to give us purpose - we could be asking "wherefore?" What is that place where we and our world value one another at the deepest level? And…

There's no going back to normal

Sep 15, 2024 16m Transcript

Stephen Barden follows up on the previous episode's theme of refletingContact me hereFor more information about Stephen Barden and his work please visit:www. stephenbarden.orgor…

Living at work

Sep 02, 2024 22m Transcript

Despite the fact that flexible and hybrid working has been widely welcomed, there is disturbing evidence that it is leaving many people exhausted and overwhelmed. Equally worrying is that it may be …

S1E8 Who Moved My World?

Aug 12, 2024 30m Transcript

Stephen Barden's central theme in this series on power is that  those who believe they have a balanced, manageable relationship with their world are the most effective and healthy members of our…

S1E7 The Great Divide

May 05, 2023 20m

As a species we are probably the most aggressive, destructive and  divisive that have ever walked this earth. We have destroyed countless other species, including human species. We have enslaved  -…

S1E6 Lessons from a working-class, female leader: why diversity isn't enough

Jun 28, 2021 41m Transcript

In this episode, I sat down with financial sector leader Jenny Knott to discuss how deceptive the drive to  diversity can be.   How can we ensure that diversity really means inclusivity and does not…

S1E4 A conversation with Manfred Kets De Vries, Professor of leadership development and organizational change at INSEAD,

Apr 26, 2021 39m Transcript

I recently sat down with the author of the“CEO Whisperer” and Insead distinguished professor Manfred F.R Kets De Vries whose fascinating work focuses on leaders, leadership and the dynamics of…

S1E5 David Lane Interviews Stephen Barden About Leadership

Apr 26, 2021 46m Transcript

David Lane of the Professional Development Foundation interviews Stephen Barden about the research for his new book How Successful Leaders Do Business with Their World: The Navigational…

S1E3 The myths and nonsense of leadership traits

Jan 11, 2021 26m Transcript

Leadership coaches inundate us with advice on "What great leaders do"  or "The 6 characteristics of a good leader" or "The 14 leadership Traits" or, pick a number, "The 5  habits of great leaders."…

S1E2 Battles, Balance and the Fastest Kid in Florida

Nov 19, 2020 33m Transcript

In episode 2 of the series, Stephen Barden talks to Lieutenant General (Ret) Ben Hodges, Pershing Chair in Strategic Studies at the Centre for European Policy Analysis, to find out whether the US…

S1E1 Let's talk about power

Sep 12, 2020 17m Transcript

Coach mentor and author Stephen Barden introduces this podcast series,"The Power of Balance". In this first episode he argues that the childhood assumption we form about the power balance we hold…

Frequently Asked Questions

How many episodes does The Power of Balance have?

The Power of Balance has published 19 episodes since September 2020, covering topics in Business, Entrepreneurship.

Is The Power of Balance still active?

The Power of Balance is currently highly active with new episodes every 2 months. Average episode length is 30m.

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