Great management isn't a "soft skill" — it's a measurable performance lever. Ashley Herd, founder and CEO of Manager Method and author of The Manager Method: Practical Strategies to Lead with Purpose and Confidence, joins host Mike Wallberg, CFA, to unpack why communication sits at the heart of effective leadership and how small managerial choices ripple through engagement, retention, and profitability. Drawing on her experience as a lawyer, in-house leader, and advisor who has trained more than 250,000 managers, Herd explains why promoting top performers into management roles so often backfires, how leaders can avoid micromanagement without disappearing, and why her "pause, consider, act" framework helps managers handle everything from delegation to performance conversations. The discussion also explores what investors and analysts can learn about management quality by listening closely to leadership behavior — not just the numbers — and why culture and innovation are inseparable from long-term returns.

Listen to the full episode of Enterprising Investor to hear practical insights on building better managers, stronger teams, and more resilient businesses.

Anna Martirosyan, strategy and transactions manager at EY Parthenon, speaks with guest host Lotta Moberg, CFA, about the ethical foundations of AI in finance, including fairness, transparency, model governance, and the risks that arise as firms automate more decisions. Drawing on her chapter in AI in Asset Management: Tools, Applications, and Frontiers, Anna explains how practitioners can use AI responsibly while navigating evolving global regulations.

Tune in to hear their full conversation.

Read the complete book online: https://rpc.cfainstitute.org/themes/technology/ai-in-asset-management

Follow the Financial Thought Exchange podcast for more expert perspectives: https://sites.libsyn.com/545057/site

In this extended deep dive, guest host Raymond Pang, Senior Researcher at CFA Institute, speaks with Greg Fisher, CFA, about how complexity science can offer a richer lens for understanding uncertainty, market behavior, and the limitations of traditional financial models. Building on themes explored in our recent episode with Richard Bookstaber and Genevieve Hayman — including feedback loops, emergent dynamics, and the need for more adaptive approaches to risk — Fisher expands the discussion to the historical roots of the mechanistic mindset and why a systems-based perspective may benefit investment practitioners. The conversation explores how narratives, structural change, and evolving patterns shape asset prices, and how asset managers can incorporate complexity-informed insights into their research and decision-making.

Listen and follow the podcast, and explore our report Reframing Financial Markets as Complex Systems for additional insights:

https://rpc.cfainstitute.org/research/reports/2025/reframing-financial-markets-as-complex-systems.