Episodes

But according to long-time Stanford Business School leadership professor, Deborah Gruenfeld, while power makes human beings act on their best and worst instincts, research shows people are consistently rewarded when they use their power in the service of others. In her new book, “Acting With Power: Why We Are More Powerful Than We Believe,” Gruenfeld says how we use power is really defined by the role we are playing at any given time. “To use power well,” she says, “we need to take each role se...

It’s been said that “sight is a faculty, but seeing is an art,” and New York University social psychology professor, Emily Balcetis, fully concurs. In her new book, “Clearer, Closer, Better: How Successful People See the World” she says highly successful people tend to view the world differently – and the good news is that the “art” they apply to visual perception can be taught & learned. When it comes to setting and meeting goals, for example, we may see (quite literally) our plans, progress a...

At 32 years old, Doug Conant was fired from his job as Marketing Director for Parker Brothers Toy and Game Company – and he never saw it coming. Stunned, hurt, indignant, angry and humiliated, Conant nevertheless wasted no time working on a rebound. On the same day he was let go, he met with an outplacement counselor whose profound influence changed his life. Neil McKenna taught Conant to look forward, not back – and gave him assignments of self-discovery that helped Conant transcend his job los...

Can you recall the last time you tried to talk to someone about a personal, political or work issue and quickly discovered their view of the situation was entirely different than yours? How’d that work out for you? If words like “strained,” “painful,” “awful” or “never again,” come to mind – you have company. Acknowledging that we’re living in a highly polarized world these days – many of us have simply come to decide that engaging in any kind of disagreement is no longer worth it. Consequentl...

If you’ve ever felt unseen, under-estimated or unfairly passed over in your career, this podcast provides all the remedies you’ll need to ensure you never feel that way again! While we’d all like to believe our career growth will always be the result of a reliable meritocracy, the truth is our success at work is rarely just about the quality of our ideas, credentials, skills, or effort. According to preeminent Harvard Business School professor, Laura Huang, how well we progress in our careers ...

In an economy marked by downsizing, offshoring and an accelerated deployment of robots and automation technology, fears around the future of our work and careers abound. But according to New Yorker Magazine writer and co-founder of NPR’s Planet Money podcast, Adam Davidson, we needn’t be so gloomy. Tied to extensive research that went into the writing of his new book, “The Passion Economy: The New Rules For Thriving In The Twenty-First Century,” Davidson says the emerging economy offers new wa...

Some of the greatest business innovations of our time were first proposed by other companies, but summarily rejected: *** Polaroid (now gone) invented the digital camera – and then ditched it in the belief it couldn’t make money. *** Engineers at cell-phone maker, Nokia, proposed a device that had all the functionality of the I-Phone – three years before Apple made it one of the most successful products in history. *** Blockbuster Video once sat atop the video rental business and had thousands...

For decades, the commonly accepted purpose of a corporation (or any company for that matter) has been to ensure the interests of shareholders always came first. But today, we’ve finally reached a point where most leaders realize that a “profits over people” philosophy has proven to be an entirely unsustainable way to run a business. Amongst its many great harms, it’s produced record low employee engagement across the globe, massive wealth inequality, increasing numbers of people living paycheck...

We musn’t fool ourselves into believing that the majority of the world’s workplace managers have bought into the idea that caring deeply about people is essential to leadership success. Metrics on job satisfaction, employee well-being and, of course, engagement continue to reflect an attitude about leadership that’s anything but caring. Truth be told, many of us still believe caring is equivalent to soft management. Deep down, we remain convinced that our leadership power is compromised wheneve...

We live in a society today that’s obsessed with early achievement, whether it’s getting perfect SAT scores, gaining acceptance into an Ivy League school or landing an amazing job at Google or Facebook – or better yet – creating a start-up with the potential to be the next Twitter or Instagram. We see software coders become millionaires or billionaires before age thirty and think we’re failing if we’re not one of them. But in his new highly researched book, Late Bloomers: The Power of Patience i...

Many of us believe that our emotions are a distraction to success in life – and that they upend our ability to make sound decisions. When it comes to leading and managing people, we carry over these same beliefs; we’re convinced making any kind of emotional connection with our employees will only hijack our effectiveness and undermine our team’s performance. But according to Marc Brackett, founder of Yale University’s Center for Emotional Intelligence, and author of the new book, “Permission To...

It wasn’t all that long ago when tech giants like AOL, Yahoo and Blackberry seemed immortal. Today, of course, we remember them only as fallen giants – a fate Microsoft appeared to be headed toward less than a decade ago. That Microsoft was able to fully revive itself when other first-generation technology innovators couldn’t begs the big leadership questions: “What did they do differently – what can we learn from their successful reinvention?” It turns out Microsoft made many brilliant and ext...

It’s an irrefutable truth that trust is on a serious decline. And all the key pillars of society are affected. The RAND Corporation recently reported that trust in government, the media – even in our businesses and workplaces – “has reached a lower absolute level than ever before.” And they warned that such a lack of trust inherently undermines the way we operate in the world. Deep down we all know that trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. A...

Bill Campbell is a Silicon Valley legend. Following a career leading sales & marketing at Apple – & as CEO of Intuit – he spent nearly two decades coaching a “Who’s Who” list of world-changing executives. The list included Apple founder, Steve Jobs, Google founders, Sergei Brin and Larry Page. Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg, former Twitter CEO, Dick Costolo, former Google Chairman Eric Schmidt – even former United States Vice President Al Gore. In his new book, “Trillion Dollar Coach: The Le...

Esther Wojcicki knows what it takes to raise successful children. Her daughter, Susan, is the CEO of YouTube. Janet is professor of Pediatrics at the UC San Francisco Medical School (and A Fulbright scholar). And Anne is co-founder & CEO of DNA testing company 23andMe. If any of us were to guess how Esther influenced all three of her daughters to become so high-achieving, the logical leap would be to assume she had to have been the ultimate “tiger mom:” perfectionistic, unrelenting and intensely...

When researchers tell us employee engagement is especially low, they’re almost always referring to American businesses. But as distressing as engagement is in the United States, the truth is it’s far worse in Europe and the UK – a fact this podcast is dedicated to exploring. Just a few days before this interview with Dan Cable, professor of Organizational Behavior at the London Business School, the London Times reported statistics that might be laughable were they not true: Research shows 1-in...

Pick up any business magazine today, and it won’t take you long to find an article that features the phrase, “according to Gallup research.” And whether that article is about workplace management, the future of work or how to most effectively lead a team of millennials, the studies to which the author will be referring are almost always the work Dr. Jim Harter. For over 30 years, he’s led Gallup’s management research which includes over 1,000 workplace effectiveness studies – not to mention thei...

Over a span of only a couple of decades, we’ve witnessed entire industries get wiped out by digital disruption – advances in technology that have decimated traditional business models while ushering in new & previously unimaginable ways of delivering the same service. Very often, the innovators had never been previously seen as being either a threat or a competitor – until it was far too late. Harmed in the process have been book stores, music stores, video rental businesses, taxi cab owners – ...

In their new best-selling book, “Nine Lies About Work,” co-authors Marcus Buckingham (“First Break All The Rules”) & Cisco’s Director of Leadership, Ashley Goodall prove that many of the basic truths we’ve long believed about work are actually lies. As examples of our faulty assumptions, we believe the best people are well-rounded & that employees crave feedback. We think strategic planning is essential & that an organization’s culture is key to its success. But as we discuss in this enlighten...

Gallup research shows 75% of people quit their jobs in response to a bad manager. 65% of Americans say they’d rather change their boss than get a pay raise. Global surveys report a staggering 70% of employees aren’t engaged at work – and only 4% of these employees had anything nice to say about their bosses. The obvious conclusion from these facts is that most people across the world experience incompetent leadership – and suffer from it – every single day. And while we presume there’s been an i...

When we consider the future of our careers, most of us fully realize that the only way we can ensure our continued relevance & viability is by learning & growing. We know we have a need to get increasingly better at our existing jobs while, at the same time, preparing ourselves to do entirely new things. And given the many challenges we already have on our plates, most of us feel oppressed & overwhelmed by these demands. It would therefore be especially helpful if we had informed guidance on ho...

Harvard Business School professor, Amy Edmondson, is one of the world’s top experts on building highly cohesive, cooperative and productive teams. And much of her expertise comes from her decades of research into “Psychological Safety,” recently confirmed by Google to be the single most important quality found in all super-achieving groups. Simply put, psychological safety means that people work in environments where they feel comfortable expressing & being themselves. They know they can speak ...

We all know the primary reason companies go into business is to make money. But is it possible for organizations to thrive financially while also doing good in the world? USC Marshall School of Business Professor Emeritus, Jim O’Toole spent ten years researching companies that were founded with the uncommon ambition of driving profits – while also caring about the well-being of employees, customers & communities. This podcast is devoted to exploring all of the leadership lessons O’Toole acquire...

There’s a longstanding taboo against displaying emotions in the workplace – and it’s based on the idea that we make our best business decisions when we keep feelings and intuition out of the mix. But the time has come for us to directly question these longstanding beliefs about human effectiveness – and challenge the notion that any of us has ever really possessed the ability to shut down our emotions at the turn of a switch – and operate our lives with pure rationality. The truth of the matte...