Welcome to Happiness Squad.
This is the podcast dedicated to helping you unlock your full potential by mastering the art and science of happiness.
We bring on the best leading experts on the topic of human flourishing to help you unlock your true potential and live with more joy, health, love, and meaning in your life.
Your host is Ashish Kothari, the Founder and CEO of Happiness Squad, a company focused on helping individuals and organizations make flourishing their competitive edge and operate at their fullest potential.
Thanks for being here and joining the squad!
Learn more: https://happinesssquad.com/
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Données mises à jour le 04/07/2026
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Flourishing Through Work: Leading with Courage and Kindness with Grace Zuncic
Épisode 145
mardi 30 septembre 2025 • Durée 01:00:00
What truly drives people to thrive at work isn’t perks or programs, but the culture leaders create every single day. But when the day-to-day culture at work is marked by fear, unclear roles, and pressure from the top, people disengage no matter how many benefits you offer.
Leaders often miss this because they’re chasing quarterly targets or process checklists, leaving human potential untapped. Grace Zuncic’s journey from small-town roots to Chobani, Cotopaxi, and now Manna Tree Partners shows a different path.
In this episode of the Happiness Squad Podcast, Ashish Kothari and Grace Zuncic explore how flourishing comes when work itself is designed around courage and kindness.
Grace Zuncic is a seasoned executive and board member with deep experience in scaling purpose-driven companies. She has held leadership roles at Chobani, Cotopaxi, and now serves as Partner at Manna Tree, a private equity firm focused on improving human health through investment in food and wellness businesses.
In the conversation, Ashish and Grace highlight why the answer isn’t to bolt wellbeing programs onto broken systems but to build workplaces where flourishing is the operating model—unlocking both human potential and business performance.
Things you will also learn in this episode:
• Why fear is the biggest barrier to flourishing at work
• How Chobani became a model of human-centered leadership during COVID
• The role of courage and kindness in effective leadership
• Why private equity has more influence on culture than it realizes
• How board service shapes perspective on building enduring, purpose-driven companies
Don’t miss this episode—an urgent call for leaders to lead with courage, act with kindness, and create workplaces where people can truly flourish.
How Leaders Can Empower Teams to Flourish and Create Big Change at Work with Gretchen Spreitzer
Épisode 144
mardi 23 septembre 2025 • Durée 51:46
Work doesn’t have to be a grind. In fact, the smallest acts of care, recognition, and empowerment can spark extraordinary transformation in how people show up and thrive. Yet too many leaders still chase big programs and sweeping changes, overlooking the everyday moments that actually matter most. What if the secret to flourishing at work has been in front of us all along?
In this episode of the Happiness Squad Podcast, Ashish Kothari sits down with Gretchen Spreitzer, Professor of Management and Organizations at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, to explore how leaders can empower teams to flourish through meaning, competence, autonomy, and impact. Together, they uncover the science of positive organizations and how leaders can create workplaces where people come alive.
Gretchen Spreitzer is a pioneering scholar in the field of positive organizational scholarship. At the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, she has spent decades researching and teaching topics such as thriving at work, leadership development, and empowerment. Her work has shaped how leaders and organizations around the world design conditions for people to flourish and succeed.
If you’ve ever wondered how to truly unleash your people’s full potential at work and create a positive organization, this conversation will change the way you approach leadership and people empowerment.
Things you will also learn in this episode:
• Why small acts of leadership can have a bigger impact than grand gestures
• The four dimensions of empowerment and how to apply them in your team
• How recognition and authentic feedback can transform workplace culture
• Why managers—not just executives—hold the key to reducing burnout
✅Resources:✅Books:
How to Move From Victimhood to Agency in Leadership and Life with Shawn Quinn
Épisode 143
mardi 16 septembre 2025 • Durée 55:35
Leaders often assume transformation comes from learning new skills or following the latest management trend. But real change begins when we confront our own beliefs, reflect deeply, and choose to step out of victimhood into agency. That inner work is what lays the foundation for lasting growth in how we lead and live. Only then can leaders create change that resonates far beyond the workplace.
In this episode of the Happiness Squad Podcast, Ashish Kothari and Shawn Quinn talk about the deep reflection leaders need to build their own reality and move from victimhood to agency in life and leadership.
Shawn Quinn is the Managing Partner of Lift Consulting and Faculty Director of the Positive Leadership program at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. A leading voice in positive leadership and organizational transformation, he has advised global companies including GE, Coca-Cola, American Express, and the U.S. Army. Shawn is also co-author of Leading Innovation: How to Jumpstart Your Organization’s Growth Engine.
Shawn and Ashish explored how transformation doesn’t come from another training, another framework, or another leadership fad. It happens when we pause, reflect, and face the beliefs that hold us back.
Things you will also learn in this episode:
• Breaking free from a victim mindset
• Why belief shifts matter more than skills in true transformation
• The power of small experiments, reflection, and awareness to spark change
• How leaders at any level—not just executives—can create meaningful impact
• How workplace behaviors ripple outward into family, children, and community
• The challenge of systems and people resisting change
✅Resources:
Unlocking Human Potential By Rethinking Talent Development for a Flourishing Future of Work with Stacey Dietsch
Épisode 142
mardi 9 septembre 2025 • Durée 51:30
For years, companies have relied on credentials and rigid job structures that filter out talent instead of developing it. But in a world where roles are shifting fast, especially with AI, those old models are holding organizations back and leaving employees frustrated. It’s time for organizations to unlock human potential by rethinking talent development for the future of work.
In this episode of the Happiness Squad Podcast, Ashish Kothari sits down with Stacey Dietsch—former McKinsey partner and senior executive at Liberty Mutual— to explore how skills-based practices, leadership investment, and responsible AI adoption can help organizations empower people and close the talent gap.
Stacey Dietsch is Executive Vice President of Talent Pipeline at Liberty Mutual Insurance, where she leads the end-to-end talent lifecycle—including strategic workforce planning, talent attraction, onboarding, learning and development, performance management, and career growth across 45,000 employees globally.
Before joining Liberty Mutual in January 2024, Stacey spent nearly two decades as a Partner in McKinsey & Company’s People & Organizational Performance Practice, helping organizations align their talent, culture, and operating models to drive sustainable performance and meaningful work.
Stacey emphasizes that building thriving organizations requires deliberate choices—simplifying structures, developing leaders at every level, and giving people ownership of their growth and impact. Tune in now and learn what unlocks your team’s real potential.
• The role of purpose, autonomy, and trust in employee flourishing
• The shift from credential-based to skills-based hiring and promotion
✅Resources:✅Books:
How to Make Workplace Wellbeing a Business Strategy That Drives Real Results with Julie Rust-Bodenmann
Épisode 141
mardi 2 septembre 2025 • Durée 54:50
Most organizations aren't blind to the rising stress, burnout, and quiet quitting at work. They're just implementing workplace well-being programs that don't work. Leaders are left wondering why their people are disengaged despite offering meditation apps and mental health webinars. The real issue is that wellbeing isn't built into the business strategy.
In this episode of the Happiness Squad Podcast, Ashish Kothari and Julie Rust-Bodenmann, former Global Head of Wellbeing at Credit Suisse, reveal what it takes to embed wellbeing into the DNA of a business, even during a crisis.
Drawing from her time at McKinsey, Credit Suisse, and UBS, Julie walks us through how she designed and rolled out a global wellbeing strategy, secured C-suite buy-in, and mobilized a 500-person wellbeing champion network across the organization.
Learn how you can make wellbeing a strategic lever, not just a benefit.
Things you will learn in this episode:
• Why most wellness programs fail to move the needle
• How to shift from treating wellbeing as a benefit to a business strategy
• The critical role of role modeling and middle managers
• How storytelling and regulatory pressure can win executive support
• Why starting small and scaling what works beats big, flashy initiatives
• Julie’s own wellbeing practices, and why leaders must start with themselves
Tune in now and walk away with a practical blueprint and the conviction that flourishing workplaces aren’t just possible, they’re profitable.
How to Activate Boundless Leadership to Shift from Survival to Flourishing with Joseph Loizzo and Elazar Aslan
Épisode 140
mardi 12 août 2025 • Durée 52:47
We’ve got more tools, more tech, and more opportunities than any generation before us. On paper, we should be thriving. So why is it that, despite all this progress, work still feels exhausting? Why have our workplaces become places of stress and burnout even though we've never been more prosperous?
In this episode of the Happiness Squad Podcast, Joseph Loizzo and Elazar Aslan, co-authors of Boundless Leadership, join Ashish Kothari to talk about how you can move from survival mode to truly flourishing by activating boundless leadership.
Joseph Loizzo, MD, PhD, is a renowned human flourishing consultant, meditation researcher, and contemplative psychotherapist. He founded the Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science and co-developed the Boundless Leadership program, integrating rigorous scientific research, deep meditation practice, and compassionate psychotherapy.
Elazar Aslan, MBA, CPC, is an accomplished author, speaker, and executive coach who has pioneered the field of Conscious Leadership, guiding leaders in cultivating clarity, compassion, and embodied presence. As Director of Boundless Leadership at the Nalanda Institute and founder of Caterfly Solutions, Elazar empowers organizations to shift from stress-driven survival to purpose-driven flourishing.
What does it mean to be a boundless leader? Learn how to rewire your mind, heart, and body so you can lead with clarity, compassion, and energy, and turn from survival mode to flourishing.
Things you will learn from this episode:
• Why workplaces keep us stuck in survival mode—and how to break free
• The leadership risk of AI if we don’t use it with intention
• The three disciplines of Boundless Leadership: mind, heart, and body
• How self-awareness helps you lead with more clarity
Resources:Books:
The Trust-First Approach to Leadership and Culture That Led to a Major Company Breakthrough with Michelle Poole
Épisode 139
mardi 5 août 2025 • Durée 57:07
On paper, everything looks right: your team is talented, your strategy is solid, and your goals are clear. So why does it still feel like progress is harder than it should be?
Often, the real barrier isn’t a lack of strategy. It's because your people don't feel safe to bring their best selves to work. The issue is in your culture, which may have been shaped by years of fear and pressure. And in trying to fix things, it’s common to reach for more structure: more meetings, tighter KPIs, added pressure.
But that rarely works. That only feeds the cycle of stagnant growth, silent disengagement, and widespread burnout. The missing ingredient isn’t strategy. It’s trust.
In this episode of the Happiness Squad Podcast, Ashish Kothari and Michelle Poole unpack the trust-first, people-first leadership approach that transforms cultures and leads to company breakthroughs.
Michelle Poole is a seasoned consumer and footwear leader with over three decades of experience, most notably as Brand President at Crocs where she spearheaded a cultural and financial turnaround. She champions authentic, people-first leadership, fostering psychological safety, inclusivity, and trust to drive high-performing, engaged teams.
Things you will learn in this episode:
• How life experiences shift priorities from achievement to well-being
• Gender balance at work and feminine leadership energy
• Turning around a struggling brand into a market leader
• How inclusivity and belonging drive performance
• Three key practices for building trust in times of change
If you feel your results are stagnant, it’s time to stop pushing harder and start leading differently.
Tune in now and change the trajectory of your team and your business.
Resources:Books:
The Case for Flourishing: The Smartest $12 Trillion Business Move You’re Not Making with Ashish Kothari
Épisode 138
mardi 29 juillet 2025 • Durée 42:44
Organizations love to talk about well-being. But scratch beneath the surface, and it’s the same old perks: gym discounts, meditation apps, an extra day off. All while work itself remains exhausting.
Leaders, you need to wake up!
Only 20% of employees are thriving.
More than 60% report daily stress.
And the economic cost of poor workplace well-being is an estimated $12 trillion.
It’s time to fix the way we work.
It’s easy to slap “well-being” on a poster. Harder to design work that doesn’t drain people in the first place. In this special solo episode of Happiness Squad Podcast, Ashish Kothari, Founder and CEO of Happiness Squad, explores why flourishing at work must be a strategic imperative for leaders and organizations.
Drawing on decades of research and lived experience, Ashish makes a clear case for why organizations that invest in well-being don’t just support their people, they outperform the rest.
Things you will also learn in this episode:
• A 5-question diagnostic to assess if you're truly flourishing at work
• How traditional wellness programs fall short—and what to do instead
• Why organizations must move from treating symptoms to redesigning work
• The science-backed PEARL model and Human Potential Index for building resilient, high-performing teams
• A practical playbook for implementing flourishing as a scalable organizational strategy
Flourishing isn’t reserved for top performers or well-funded companies. It’s a way of working, and leading, that any team and leader can choose.
Tune in now to discover how to unlock workplace flourishing, not just for the bottom line, but for the people who make it possible.
Resources: Books:
Why Happiness at Work Starts with the System, Not the Individual with Jennifer Moss
Épisode 137
mardi 22 juillet 2025 • Durée 57:29
If a factory machine breaks, leadership responds within hours.
If a system glitch halts production, it’s triaged immediately.
But when a team’s morale is tanking, the response takes 6–12 months—if it comes at all.
How did we get to a point where our physical assets get more respect than our human ones? We've spent years treating burnout like a solo thing to fix when it’s actually an organizational problem.
In this episode of the Happiness Squad Podcast, Ashish Kothari and Jennifer Moss tackle this problem head on, and discuss what it truly takes to build happy, healthy organizations.
Jennifer Moss is an award-winning journalist, international speaker, and workplace culture strategist. She co-founded Plasticity Labs and is the author of Why Are We Here?, and The Burnout Epidemic (Harvard Business Review Press, 2021), which was named one of the 10 Best New Management Books by Thinkers50 and shortlisted for the 2021 OWL Literary Award. A regular contributor to Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Forbes, and Fortune, she’s renowned for reframing burnout as an organizational rather than individual issue.
In the conversation, Ashish and Jennifer unpack the evolution of happiness at work, from early “choose happiness” mantras to a more nuanced understanding of systemic well-being.
Things you will also learn from the episode:
• Rethinking the phrase “Happiness is a Choice”
• How both individual practices and organizational design influence happiness
• The problem of blaming individuals for burnout instead of fixing workplace environments
• Understanding the concept of the
Resources: ✅Books: ✅
How to Flourish and Be More Productive By Leading From a Place of Wholeness with Mieke Jacobs
Épisode 136
mardi 15 juillet 2025 • Durée 01:01:06
When an organization is trapped in survival mode, it doesn’t just face external pressure. It suffers an internal collapse of energy, creativity, and coherence. Chronic stress becomes the culture, innovation dries up, and people burn out trying to keep the lights on. But just as individuals can heal from trauma, so can organizations, if leaders are willing to shift from constant doing to conscious being.
In this episode of the Happiness Squad Podcast, Ashish Kothari and Mieke Jacobs explore how energy mastery and systemic intelligence can help leaders break free from the freeze response, reconnect to purpose, and restore wholeness to their teams and systems, unlocking the kind of flourishing that outlasts any crisis.
Mieke Jacobs is a Belgium-based leadership advisor serving as Transformational Faculty and Senior Executive Coach at Mobius Executive Leadership. Drawing on two decades at DuPont in operations and large-scale change, she now guides executive teams worldwide with systemic intelligence and energy mastery. Mieke is also the author of Poet Assassin and co-author of Emergent: The Power of Systemic Intelligence to Navigate the Complexity of M&A.
This episode is your invitation to lead differently by slowing down, tuning in, and trusting that wisdom lives not in doing more, but in being fully present.
Things you will learn in this episode:
• What happens when leaders create space for silence and stillness
• Practical energy mastery tools for leaders and facilitators
• Why systemic intelligence is essential for modern leadership
• Rituals to shift team energy—songs, silence, and charged fields
• How to spot invisible dysfunctions hidden in your company’s “order”
• Ways to create workplaces that energize rather than deplete
Resources:Books:
• The role of empowerment in the age of AI and organizational change
• How to spot and spread the “bright spots” of flourishing inside your company
Tune in now to discover how you can start building a workplace where people flourish—not someday, but today.
• Boundless Leadership: The Breakthrough Method to Realize Your Vision, Empower Others, and Ignite Positive Change by Elazar Aslan and Joseph Loizzo https://a.co/d/a6FB83v
• More Human: How the Power of AI Can Transform the Way You Lead by Rasmus Hougaard: https://a.co/d/4O3poBf
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