Bill Novelli | Blending Courage, Curiosity and Business Smarts to Chart New Paths

Bill Novelli, the founder of Business for Impact at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, is always asking, “What’s next?”

A master of reinvention, Bill’s career has taken him in a number of directions — from helping to create the concept of social marketing to co-founding his own public relations firm, Porter Novelli, to serving as CEO of the AARP. Bill’s latest book, Good Business: The Talk, Fight, Win Way to Change the World, challenges all of us to change the world for the better and is a blueprint for tackling today's critical issues. 

In this episode of Let Go & Lead, Bill talks with Maril about doing well while doing good. He and Maril explore the courage and curiosity required to lean into reinvention, how to balance making a meaningful change versus taking an unwarranted risk, the key characteristics of successful transformations and even the state of our political climate. 

Learn about:

6:41 — Inspiring reinvention within your work and life 

8:48  — Finding the balance between embracing change and avoiding unwarranted risk 

12:14  — The characteristics of successful transformations and how to build coalitions  

18:09  — Making “enlightened self-interest” work for you and your communities   

— 

Let Go & Lead is a leadership community founded by Maril MacDonald, CEO and founder of Gagen MacDonald, more than a decade ago. It explores how leaders inspire change and transformation in an environment in which they possess diminishing control.

The Let Go & Lead conversation series has existed in several iterations, from video interviews to its current form as a podcast, now in season 4. Over the years, Maril has conducted more than 70 interviews with business leaders, academics and creative thinkers, including former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, best-selling authors Mitch Albom and Dan Pink, Hyatt CHRO Malaika Myers and American Medical Association CEO James Madara. At its core, Let Go & Lead remains a place where people can access a diversity of perspectives on interdisciplinary approaches to leadership

Full episodes also available on: 

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/let-go-lead-with-maril-macdonald/id1454869525 

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Gaf7JXOckZMtkpsMtnjAj?si=WZjZkvfLTX2T4eaeB1PO2A 

Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9sZXRnb2xlYWQubGlic3luLmNvbS9yc3M 

Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/let-go-lead 

— 

Gagen MacDonald is a strategy execution consulting firm that specializes in employee engagement, culture change and leadership development. Learn more at http://www.gagenmacdonald.com.