Podcast Summary: Redefiners – The Truth About Talent, AI, and Why Some Leaders Get It Wrong

Host(s): Marla Oates & Emma Combe
Guest: Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Chief Science Officer at Russell Reynolds Associates
Date: January 14, 2026
Episode Theme: Exploring the intersection of talent, leadership, AI, and authenticity in a rapidly evolving workplace landscape, with candid insights from Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic.

Episode Overview

This episode kicks off Season 6 of the Redefiners podcast in partnership with the Leadership Lounge series, bringing together experts from Russell Reynolds Associates. Hosts Marla Oates and Emma Combe welcome Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, the firm’s new Chief Science Officer, acclaimed author, and international thought leader in people analytics and talent management. Together, they explore pressing questions around talent, AI, organizational leadership, and what separates effective leaders from the rest, rooting the conversation in Chamorro-Premuzic’s personal journey and research-backed perspectives.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introducing Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic

• Background:
  • Grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina; spent equal time in UK (London) and now US (Miami)
  • Career highlights: Academic, consultant, entrepreneur (co-founder of Deeper Signals & MyTrudy), CEO of Hogan Assessment Systems, Innovation lead at ManpowerGroup
  • Life’s work: Bridging science and practice to make organizations more data-driven about leadership and talent (05:12)
• Why RRA:
  • Driven by the mission to improve how the world is led, motivated by witnessing Argentina’s decline due to bad leadership:

  "I can't fix my country. But if I can contribute to improving how organizations and business are led and the world is led... that's amazing." – Tomas (05:22)

2. The “Redefiner Moment”: Influence of Upbringing on Leadership Worldview

• Argentina’s journey from prosperity to decline shaped an obsession with leadership quality (06:34)
• Experiencing economic turmoil and political instability as a child provided a lasting lesson:

  "I remember vividly being eight years old and holding the equivalent of a $20... note and suddenly being told it's now worth two cents in the next three or four weeks." – Tomas (06:44)

• Leaving Argentina for the UK was a pivotal, identity-shaping decision, reinforcing the importance of adaptability and cross-cultural perspective:

  "Only 6% of people work in a country other than the one they were born. Guess what? They tend to be more open-minded, more curious, more resilient, more hardworking." – Tomas (07:51)

3. Universal Leadership Challenges & The Nuance of Authenticity

• In every geography, leaders grapple with:
  • Navigating AI’s integration and humanizing the workplace (09:06)
  • Balancing investment in technology with ROI and adoption
  • Building collaborative, high-performing teams and focusing on leadership potential over past performance (09:06)
• The role of authenticity varies widely by culture, but being seen as authentic is universally vital:

  "The universal bits are really important because anywhere in the world, if you want to be an effective leader, you have to be seen as authentic by others." – Tomas (12:09)

• Authentic leaders excel at impression management, emotional intelligence, and knowing where self-expression ends and responsibility to others begins:

  "What makes you trust somebody...is not whether they are brutally honest, but whether they are safe, reliable, and predictable." – Tomas (13:00)

  • Notable quote called out by Emma:

    “Where your right to be yourself ends and your commitment to others begins, that is gold dust in my view.” – Emma (13:55)

4. The Human-AI Dynamic: Staying Human in an Accelerating World

• AI’s rise is inevitable, but human qualities must not be outsourced. Even as AI does more “IQ work,” leaders must double down on EQ:

  "AI will continue to advance and be superhuman if you like, but we should not turn into machines, especially if you’re a leader." – Tomas (14:46)

• The down side: knowledge work becoming robotic, standardized, stripped of personal expression and creativity
• Call to action: Rediscover and re-invest saved time in distinctly human, humane activities (16:30)

5. Entry-Level Jobs, Early Career Experience & Organizational Pipelines

• The efficiency drive risks eliminating entry-level roles, endangering talent development, generational learning, and societal stability
• Value in learning through doing, cross-generation interactions, and outsider perspectives:

  "You get the richness of different generations interacting... people who haven’t been institutionalized and who are outsiders see a different perspective." – Tomas (20:16)

• Societal risks if youth are shut out: unrest and loss of critical skill-building opportunities

6. Confidence vs. Competence in Leadership

• Optimal confidence matches your actual ability; overconfidence (especially common in men) often leads to hiring people for roles they can't succeed in

  "The correlation between confidence...and competence...is 0.3, which means there’s like a 9% overlap." – Tomas (23:03)

• Leaders with “impostor syndrome” may be more competent, as repeated self-doubt leads to hard work and preparation (24:40)
• Professional paranoia and moderate insecurity are beneficial:

  "It’s annoying and you would rather not have it. But it’s also a career-enhancing disposition, isn’t it?" – Tomas (27:19)

7. Power of Negative Thinking

• While positive thinking is usually celebrated, a touch of self-doubt and negative thinking ensures elite preparation and performance; it’s about over-preparing internally while presenting with confidence externally

8. Looking Ahead: 2026 Leadership Trends

• AI fatigue, but unrelenting relevance: Organizations still struggle with the human-AI balance
• Organizational design: Dueling trends—AI-native startups with minimal headcount vs. legacy multinationals trying to reimagine their structures
• Skills Development & Education: Pressure on universities and employers to focus on employability, skills over static knowledge (29:40)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "I've always been obsessed with talent and leadership and sort of like bridging the gap between science and practice..." – Tomas (04:32)
• "Argentina... was the Dubai of the times. Through a series of bad leadership choices, we managed to almost devolve." – Tomas (06:36)
• "The best level of confidence is that which aligns with your actual competence..." – Tomas (23:03)
• "Efficiency is great, but it’s often the opposite of humanity." – Tomas (19:27)
• "If you suffer from impostor syndrome, the best thing about that is that you're probably not an actual imposter." – Tomas (27:39)
• "I think 2026, when it comes to leadership, HR, organizations, will be more or less like 2025. So AI will still be the dominant topic." – Tomas (28:02)

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Segment | Timestamp (MM:SS) | |-------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------| | Introduction & Guest Bio | 01:13 – 03:39 | | Tomas’ Career Overview & Why He Joined RRA | 03:39 – 06:18 | | Redefiner Moment – Argentina, Migration, Mindset | 06:18 – 08:36 | | Leadership Challenges & Authenticity Across Cultures | 08:44 – 14:02 | | The Human-AI Balance | 14:02 – 17:12 | | AI in Customer Service & Human Connection | 18:47 – 20:00 | | Entry-Level Jobs, Generational Learning | 20:00 – 21:59 | | Confidence, Competence & Overconfidence | 23:03 – 25:09 | | The Power of Negative Thinking | 25:09 – 27:39 | | 2026 Leadership Trends | 28:02 – 30:03 | | Rapid Fire Personal Questions | 30:03 – 32:41 |

Lighthearted & Personal Rapid Fire (30:03 – 32:41)

• New Year's Resolution: No (with the fact that 85% are broken anyway).
• Morning or Night Owl: Now a morning person.
• Most Unusual Food: Insects in Mexico.
• Childhood Nostalgia: Playing soccer on the pavement, enjoying analog pleasures.
• Olympic Sport: Snowboarding (not that he’d be good at it).
• Advice to Younger Self: "Have an open mind and go with the flow...work out what you don't want to do and avoid it. And then if you think you like something, throw everything into that."
• Looking Ahead: Excited to potentially co-host the podcast.

Tone & Takeaways

The conversation flows with warmth, humor, and candid self-reflection, offering both research-backed insights and street-level wisdom. Tomas weaves together personal narrative and scientific findings to illuminate tough questions facing modern organizations and leaders—especially as they try to navigate authenticity, AI, generational change, and the real meaning of leadership success. The episode closes with excitement about the future of leadership, the evolving podcast, and Tomas' new role at RRA.