Episodes

In this episode, we delve into the pervasive issue of burnout & dissatisfaction in modern work cultures & explore how rethinking workplace operations can enhance employee well-being. Our guest, Brigid Schulte, author of the bestseller “Over Work: Transforming the Daily Grind in the Quest for a Better Life,” provides uncommonly researched perspectives on this topic. Brigid critiques the extreme work expectations set by figures like Elon Musk, who advocates for grueling work hours & dismisses rem...

We have the distinct honor of hosting a true visionary in human resources and organizational culture, Laszlo Bock. His name is synonymous with innovation, empathy, and transformative leadership. His journey is a testament to leading with both the mind and the heart, a philosophy that has revolutionized the workplaces he has touched. Laszlo earned a BA from Pomona College and an MBA from the Yale School of Management. He honed his skills at General Electric and McKinsey before his tenure at Googl...

The idea of balancing the rational aspects of leadership with the intelligence of the heart and the wisdom of the soul is suddenly emerging as a legitimate best practice in organizations. At last, were moving away from traditional thinking — & knee-jerk assumptions — that caring about employees & giving them more power & agency, is a very bad way to drive performance. Kim & Erin Clark are the co-authors of the new bestseller, “Leading Through: Activating The Soul, Heart & Mind Of Leadership.” ...

One of the most common questions on the minds of workplace managers today is, “How can I most successfully manage the new generation of people entering the workforce?” This is a crucial question, as not only are the dynamics of the workplace rapidly changing – the generation of workers aged 18 to 25 really does have unique needs needing our support. Dr. David Yeager, a renowned developmental psychologist and the author of the groundbreaking bestseller, “10 To 25: The Science of Motivating Young...

In the post-COVID era we now live in, warnings about our lack of social connection – largely the result of habits we developed during the pandemic, and the new normal of working remotely – have become far more frequent. But what’s the real harm in having fewer in-person interactions with other people – especially with work colleagues? Many of us think we’re doing just fine spending time with partners, children and close friends. Is this a false alarm? In a groundbreaking study, science writer ...

Research shows that people consistently overestimate their ability to make accurate inferences about what other people are thinking & feeling in any given moment. In actuality, our success in “reading” other people proves to be no better than a coin flip! But because we’re all so solidly convinced that we’re uniquely skilled at deducing what’s going on inside of people’s minds and hearts, we often go on to make wrong assumptions that end up getting us into trouble – assessments that easily could...

Matt Beane is a researcher & professor in the Technology Management Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara – & the author of the new bestseller, “The Skill Code: How To Save Human Ability In An Age Of Intelligent Machines.” In his book, Beane delves into the critical challenge of maintaining valuable skills in a world increasingly filled with AI & robots – & warns that younger workers especially are already falling behind in their skill development, a real crisis in the making. ...

John Mackey is the visionary founder of Whole Foods Market which today employs 90,000 people, has 500 stores in America, the UK & Canada & generates $22 billion in annual sales. Mackey started the well-known natural foods grocery chain 44 years ago in Austin, Texas – & a few years ago sold it to Amazon which operates it today. John has just published what amounts to an autobiography – & it’s really the story of how a college dropout had the vision to launch an organic foods store just as consci...

According to the most recent statistics, 42 percent of the global workforce feels burned out at work today – a higher percentage than before or during the COVID pandemic. The World Health Organization defines burnout as work related stress that produces feelings of exhaustion, negativity & cynicism related to a person’s job & an overall lack of engagement. One consistent theme of this podcast is that taking steps to support employee well-being has become an essential leadership practice simply ...

Marshall Goldsmith is one of the top executive coaches in the world. He was a pioneer in the use of 360-degree feedback which involves gathering input from peers, subordinates, and supervisors to assess a manager’s impact and effectiveness. His approach to coaching emphasizes self-awareness, behavioral change and constant improvement. And he has personally coached over 200 global CEOs in various industries. Marshall is also a New York Times bestselling author of several influential books on lea...

In our every day experience at work, we attend innumerable events – team meetings, orientations, employee recognition events, etc.) – that all have the potential to become really tedious & uninspiring simply because they feel routine & therefore joyless. But there’s an extremely powerful way of reinvigorating these kinds of events & making them truly meaningful to people. According to Harvard Business School professor, Michael Norton, adding rituals “can convert ordinary acts from black & white...

Saul Perlmutter, Nobel Laureate 2011 for Physics, in his office. There’s a lot that’s remarkable about the new book, Third Millennium Thinking: Creating Sense in a World of Nonsense, starting with the fact that one of its three co-authors is a Nobel laureate who earned the Nobel prize in physics for discovering the accelerating expansion of the universe. One might imagine that UC Berkeley professor, Saul Perlmutter could have written this book on his own, but instead, he intentionally collabora...

Nearly two decades ago, Stanford University psychologist, Carol Dweck, introduced the groundbreaking idea that human flourishing can be dramatically influenced by how we think about our talents & abilities. In her classic book, “Mindset: The New Psychology Of Success,” she taught us that some people have a general belief that their talents and intelligence are predetermined, & largely unalterable (hence, “fixed mindset”), while others believe their talents & abilities can indeed be nurtured and ...

As a professor in NYU’s prestigious Stern School of Business, Alison Taylor spends a lot of time with the next generation of business leaders. In her new best seller, “Higher Ground: How Business Can Do the Right Thing in a Turbulent World,” she tells us that her MBA students are not hoping to have careers working for ethical companies. They now expect to. For decades, organizations largely committed themselves to doing whatever was legally allowable to maximize shareholder value – a singular fo...

Human beings are social creatures. We’re hard-wired to connect deeply & intimately with others. We want to feel valued, supported, & needed. And this makes connection a fundamental aspect of our existence. But in our busy, technology-driven lives today, we have fewer friends than people did in past generations, we interact less with our neighbors, & the majority of interactions we have with people are now held virtually – not face-to-face. Many of us are even working remotely some days of the w...

In his new bestseller, “The Geek Way,” Andrew McAfee makes the fascinating case that the most important technological revolution of our time isn’t what companies make, it’s in how they’re being managed. And by his definition, being geeky isn’t a pejorative but rather a clear description of leaders who are perennially curious, not afraid to tackle hard problems or embrace unconventional solutions. Those few assertions alone piqued our interest in having Andrew as a guest; and then we learned The...

When we think about the highest performing people in all disciplines of life, they all commonly share the ability to think clearly, stay focused & shrug off setbacks all while under very high levels of stress. In their most critical moments, in other words, they know how to maintain intellectual clarity & emotional control – which allows them to consistently perform at exceptional levels. While we might believe that people like this are born into the world with uncommon abilities, the truth is ...

Every organization is plagued by what Stanford University Business School professor, Bob Sutton, calls “destructive friction:” forces that make it harder, more complicated, or downright impossible to get things done. In Sutton’s language, “the convoluted, time-consuming & soul-crushing gyrations that drive people crazy and undermine organizational performance.” Along with his co-author, SBS professor, Huggy Rao, Sutton spent seven years studying the ways in which companies unintentionally create...

The expression, “emotional intelligence” is seamlessly embedded into our common vernacular – but it was Daniel Goleman’s groundbreaking book a quarter century ago that first coined the idea & brought it to a mass audience. In his #1 bestseller “Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ” Goleman revolutionized how we think about human intelligence. Along with Rutgers University psychology professor Cary Cherniss, Goleman has just taken a fresh look at how emotional intelligence has e...

Workplace managers are often told to define their leadership purpose & authentic self, & that this personal introspection & self-reflection will guide their leadership journey. But research on how adults actually learn shows that the logical sequence – “think, then act” – is reversed in a personal change process such as what’s involved with becoming a leader. In other words, we only increase our self-knowledge in the process of making changes. We try something new and then observe the results – ...

Michael Gervais is a high-performance psychologist who has helped some of the world’s most successful athletes overcome mental & emotional obstacles on their way to excelling in their sports. He was on the sidelines when the Seattle Seahawks won a Super Bowl, when beach volleyball players Kerri Walsh & Misty-May Treanor won Olympic gold – & when daredevil, Felix Baumgartner set a skydiving world record for the highest-ever free fall. In his new bestseller, “The First Rule Of Mastery: Stop Worryi...

Professor of Marketing at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, Dr. Marcus Collins, believes culture is the most powerful vehicle for influencing human behavior. In his words, “if you want to get people to move, there’s no vehicle more powerful or influential than culture. Full stop. Culture is how we inspire people to act. Culture implies social forces – both subtle & over – that govern the beliefs and behaviors of every-day life.” Suffice to say, many organizations, & their lea...

Many of the world’s wisdom traditions teach that we humans all have a core purpose – a gift uniquely assigned to us by the universe. Eastern religions call this “dharma,” and we also know it as “an inner calling.” What’s intriguing about this idea is that we know so many people are unhappy in their jobs. And, even after many of us have achieved some sense of career success, wealth and status in our lives, we find they’re not accompanied by “inner” feelings of success – i.e. joy, fulfillment and...

As an entrepreneur and CEO, Ron Shaich has had one truly remarkable career. He’s the founder and former chairman and CEO of Panera Bread, a groundbreaking restaurant brand that today has more than 2,400 bakery cafés, 120,000 employees – and nearly $6 billion in annual sales. Under Shaich’s leadership, for multiple years, Panera generated annualized returns of over 25 percent, and in the same period, delivered a total shareholder return forty-four times better than the S&P 500. In 2017, he sold t...