Leadership is Broken: David Ross on Conflict, Connection & Rebuilding Culture

The Mike Litton Experience

Mike Litton

Business, Kids & Family, Parenting, Careers

5.0 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 1 October 2025

⏱️ 78 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode of The Mike Litton Experience, host Mike Litton sits down with international conflict strategist and author David Ross—the founder of Phoenix Strategic Management and a recognized Fragile World Strategist. With decades of experience navigating the complex intersections of government policy, corporate strategy, and community impact, David shares how modern leadership is failing—and what we must do to fix it.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

Why traditional leadership models are crumbling
How to rebuild trust and connection in toxic or disconnected workplaces
The secret to effective conflict resolution—deep listening and legitimate empathy
How “heroic leadership” is being replaced by co-creation and collaboration
Why inclusive decision-making is the secret weapon for innovation and employee engagement
How leaders can move from reaction to strategic clarity in a complex world

About David Ross:
David Ross is an internationally respected strategist and the author of Confronting the Storm, a powerful exploration of how organizations can navigate today’s turbulent social, environmental, and economic conditions. He has advised CEOs, government leaders, Indigenous communities, and corporate boards. His unique title—Fragile World Strategist—captures the essence of his work: helping organizations thrive in uncertain times by listening deeper, thinking wider, and leading with vulnerability, curiosity, and humility.

Takeaway:
If you’re a leader, manager, entrepreneur—or just someone trying to create positive change in your organization—this conversation will leave you inspired, challenged, and better equipped to lead with empathy, purpose, and clarity.

Subscribe to The Mike Litton Experience
If this episode resonated with you, don’t forget to LIKE, COMMENT, and SUBSCRIBE to our channel. Tap the bell to be the first to hear when new episodes drop!

Follow us on your favorite podcast platform and connect with Mike on social for more thought-provoking conversations with industry leaders, changemakers, and top performers.

Connect with David Ross:

LinkedIn: David Ross – Fragile World Strategist
Website: Phoenix Strategic Management

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	that leadership is broken now, the stories of leadership we had for centuries about the great
0:07.9	leader, the heroic leader, and yes, we still have some of those and they deserve to be seen
0:12.0	as heroic leaders. But a lot of the time, I think what's been wired into us is that if I get
0:18.9	into a leadership position,
0:25.1	I've got a almost like putting on a jacket, a superhero cake.
0:31.4	And we're not sleeping well or something your viewers may not know much about or haven't really considered is I have, again,
0:35.3	the privilege of speaking to people who have put their lives on hold, Mike,
0:41.1	to fight the big end of town.
0:46.5	So corporate strategy, government policy isn't working the way it used to.
0:51.7	So I get brought in at that end to get them to think about,
0:56.7	to ask the questions about scratching beneath the surface. I trained some years ago under a
1:03.3	gentleman named Johann Galtung who he just passed away at 93 years of age.
1:13.7	I trained under him when he was about 86 years of age.
1:17.9	He was seen as one of the founding fathers of conflict resolution.
1:23.9	Did you know there's a technology that's actually an app on your phone that uses sound waves to tell your brain what you want your brain to do?
1:27.0	We had a young man that was a guest on our podcast, the Mike Litton Experience, who had a traumatic
1:31.9	brain injury.
1:32.8	He was sleeping three hours a night.
1:34.7	He's using Newcomb now and he's sleeping more.
1:37.0	Go to Newcom.com, Mike 15 promo code.
1:40.5	Newcom promo code Mike 15 for an extra 15% off.
1:44.2	Go today.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Mike Litton, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Mike Litton and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.