Coaching for Leaders

Tiffani Bova: The Experience Mindset Tiffani Bova is the global customer growth and innovation evangelist at Salesforce, and The Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Growth IQ. Over the past two decades, she has led large revenue-producing divisions at businesses ranging from start-ups to the Fortune 500. As a Research Fellow at Gartner, her cutting-edge insights helped Microsoft, Cisco, Salesforce, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Oracle, and many other prominent companies expand their market share and grow their revenues. She has been named one of the Top 50 business thinkers in the world by Thinkers50 twice and she's the host of the podcast What’s Next! with Tiffani Bova. She is the author of The Experience Mindset: Changing the Way You Think About Growth*. While many organizations espouse that employees are their greatest asset, most senior leaders prioritize customer needs above all else. Data clearly shows that balancing great employee experience along with a quality customer experience drives better results. In this conversation, Tiffani and I discuss the mindset and initial steps that leaders can take to improve the experience for both employees and customers. Key Points In recent decades, we’ve been in the mindset of customer-first. Today, the biggest threat to organizations is worker unhappiness. While almost every organization espouses the importance of employees, few executive leaders can identify who “owns” the employee experience in their organization. In contrast, almost every organization has a clearly defined customer experience owner. Proper investments in technology are often an obstacle to an ideal employee experience. Getting better at this means that senior leaders in human resources, information technology, and customer experience must work together to help impact line up with intention. Three starting points for better employee experience are: reviewing data for customer experience and compare it to the trends for employee experience, utilizing employee advisory boards for a voice in emerging strategy, and reviewing employee survey results to determine what findings have been addressed. Getting better at balancing customer experience and employee experience means moving away from an expert’s mindset and towards a beginner’s mindset. Resources Mentioned The Experience Mindset: Changing the Way You Think About Growth* by Tiffani Bova Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes How to Discover What People Want, with Tiziana Casciaro (episode 565) Gallup’s Insights on Addressing Unhappiness, with Jon Clifton (episode 601) How to Solve the Toughest Problems, with Wendy Smith (episode 612) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Seth Godin: The Song of Significance Seth Godin is the author of 21 international bestsellers that have changed the way people think about work. His books have been translated into 38 languages. Seth writes one of the most popular marketing blogs in the world, and two of his TED talks are among the most popular of all time. He is the founder of the altMBA, the social media pioneer Squidoo, and Yoyodyne, one of the first internet companies. His blog is at seths.blog and his newest book is The Song of Significance: A New Manifesto for Teams*. Seth says that the foundation of all real skills is the confidence and permission to talk to each another. No place is that more apparent than in our meetings. On this episode, Seth returns to help us move towards meetings of significance. Key Points The song of significance is about work that matters, being part of something bigger than each one of us, and doing things we’re proud of. Many organizations and leaders hold meetings, but they are often reports and lectures. Meetings of significance are conversations. Despite knowing the critical important of conversations, we tend to resist them in our roles. Our work is to begin those conversations. Start with agreement on what a meeting is how we do work that matters through it. The problem is rarely with Zoom. The problem is how you show up to facilitate the meeting. Create the culture you need to serve people well by setting the tone for it. You have more power than you think. Resources Mentioned The Song of Significance: A New Manifesto for Teams* by Seth Godin Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes Five Steps to Hold People Accountable, with Jonathan Raymond (episode 306) The Way to Have Conversations That Matter, with Celeste Headlee (episode 344) How to Lead Meetings That Get Results, with Mamie Kanfer Stewart (episode 358) How to Use Power Responsibly, with Vanessa Bohns (episode 551) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Gladys McGarey: The Well-Lived Life Gladys McGarey is 102 years old and a still-practicing doctor. Recognized as a pioneer of the allopathic and holistic medical movements, she is also a founding diplomat of the American Board of Holistic Medicine. She is the cofounder and past president of the American Holistic Medical Association, as well as the cofounder of the Academy of Parapsychology and Medicine and the founder of The International Academy of Clinical Hypnosis. Gladys lives and works in Scottsdale, Arizona, where for many years she shared a medical practice with her daughter. She currently has a medical consulting practice, maintains a healthy diet, and enjoys a good piece of cake every now and then. She has spoken at TEDx and is the author of The Well-Lived Life: A 102-Year Old Doctor's Six Secrets to Health and Happiness at Any Age*. Our efforts in leadership development, personal growth, or getting better at anything, are all about starting. In this conversation, Gladys and I discuss the critical nature of movement in our lives and work. We also explore how to identify where to start and why it’s more about beginning that finishing. Key Points All life needs to move. If we're not moving, we can't function. Stuckness is an illusion. If we know what to look for, movement is all around us and within us. A flashlight in the dark can only see a few steps ahead — but that’s enough to move in the right direction and begin seeing more. Look for the trickle around the dam. Noticing where movement already is will often be the starting point to go further. Doctors don’t heal patients, only patients can heal themselves. Pay attention to beginning instead of finishing. Resources Mentioned The Well-Lived Life: A 102-Year Old Doctor's Six Secrets to Health and Happiness at Any Age* by Gladys McGarey Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes How to Tame Your Inner Critic, with Tara Mohr (episode 232) Leadership Means You Go First, with Keith Ferrazzi (episode 488) How to Make Progress When Starting Something New, with Michael Bungay Stanier (episode 562) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Jeremy Utley: Ideaflow Jeremy Utley is the Director of Executive Education at the Stanford d.school, and an Adjunct Professor at Stanford’s School of Engineering, where he has earned multiple favorite professor distinctions from graduate programs. He co-teaches two celebrated courses, Leading Disruptive Innovation (d.leadership) and LaunchPad, which focus on creating real-world impact with the tools of design & innovation. He is also on the teaching teams of d.org, an organizational design course, and Transformative Design, a course that turns the tools of design onto graduate students’ lives. One of the most prodigious collaborators at the d.school, Jeremy has taught alongside the likes of Lecrae, Dan Ariely, Laszlo Bock, and Greg McKeown. He is the author along with Perry Klebahn of Ideaflow: The Only Business Metric That Matters. Brainstorming sessions often emerge to address a problem requiring new ideas or innovation. However, the way many of us approach brainstorming vastly limits what’s possible for our teams and organizations. In this conversation, Jeremy and I discuss where leaders go wrong and some of the most helpful mindsets and tactics to do better. Key Points We tend to like cognitive closure. That often stops us from moving forward more substantially during brainstorming. The Idea Ratio shows that 2000 ideas are needed for every one idea that goes to market. Most teams and organizations vastly underestimate this. Set the expectation that brainstorming is a process, not a single event. That will help you surface vastly more useful ideas. Gather initial suggestions before a session to avoid favoring extroverts and early anchoring on what’s said initially. A useful way to make this is ask the language, “How might we…?” Warm-up exercises can substantially help put team members in the right mindset for creativity, especially for those with busy schedules moving between contexts. Resources Mentioned Ideaflow: The Only Business Metric That Matters by Jeremy Utley and Perry Klebahn Jeremy Utley's website Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes How to Be Present, with Dan O’Connor (episode 399) The Way to Nurture New Ideas, with Safi Bahcall (episode 418) How to Build an Invincible Company, with Alex Osterwalder (episode 470) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Donald Miller: How to Grow Your Small Business Donald Miller is The New York Times bestselling author of Building a StoryBrand and Business Made Simple. He has helped thousands of businesses grow with his powerful framework. In 2010, Don started the business he’d always dreamed of. Although his business was doing ok, he quickly realized it wasn’t what he thought it would be. Everything depended on him, and he was drowning in the mundane day-to-day. For years, his business struggled to produce dependable, predictable results. Over years of fits and false starts, Don grew his business from nothing to nearly $20 million. In the end, he realized there were six key parts of a business, and if they were managed well, the business would fly far and fast. He’s captured those lessons in his book How to Grow Your Small Business: A 6-Step Plan to Help Your Business Take Off*. A huge percentage of businesses fail before they have any significant success. One key trigger is failure to market the business effectively. In this conversation Donald and I discuss how to power the marketing engine of your business by using the key elements of the StoryBrand framework. Key Points Most small businesses think more about how their marketing will look rather than what their marketing will say. People are attracted to what helps them survive and thrive…and it helps to communicate those message simply. People buy products and services to solve problems, not because they care that much about the business. The customer is the hero. Never play the hero; always play the guide. People who are insecure talk about themselves. People who are confident talk about others. Talk about yourself only in the context of how it helps the customer. Resources Mentioned How to Grow Your Small Business: A 6-Step Plan to Help Your Business Take Off* by Donald Miller Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes Serve Others Through Marketing, with Seth Godin (episode 381) How Leaders Build, with Guy Raz (episode 491) How to Quit Bad Stuff Faster, with Annie Duke (episode 607) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Brian Feroldi: Financial Statements Explained Simply Brian Feroldi is a financial educator, YouTuber, and author. He has been intensely interested in money, personal finance, and investing ever since he graduated from college. His mission statement is to spread financial wellness. He loves to help other people do better with their money, especially their investments. Brian has written more than 3,000 articles on stocks, investing, and personal finance for The Motley Fool. In 2022, Brian’s book Why Does The Stock Market Go Up? was published. The mission of the book is to demystify the stock market. It was written to explain how the market works in plain English. He's also the co-creator of the course, Financial Statements Explained Simply. Most of us are not accountants, but whether you work in a small business, a large corporation, a non-profit, or a government agency, the numbers define what resources that we have. Being able to understand and speak the language of financial statements is essential for leaders who want to influence decisions. In this episode, Brian and I review how to understand and read one of the most important reports for any organization: the income statement. Key Points A few hours of focus on the fundamentals of financial statement can provide you understanding and influence throughout your career. An income statement (also called a profit and loss statement or P&L) shows revenue, expenses, and profit over a period of time. It’s similar to your personal budget. Revenue minus cost of goods sold is gross profit. Subtracting operation expenses from gross profit give you an organization’s operating income or EBIT (earnings before income and taxes). Depreciation spreads out the cost of tangible assets (equipment, vehicles, buildings) their useful lives. Amortization does the same thing for intangible assets (loans, copyrights, patents). The “bottom line” is literally the bottom line at the end, either net income or net loss. Resources Mentioned Brian Feroldi’s newsletter Financial Statements Explained Simply (course) Related Episodes Improve Your Financial Intelligence, with Joe Knight (episode 244) How to Approach Corporate Budgeting, with Jody Wodrich (episode 355) Dumb Things Smart People Do With Money, with Jill Schlesinger (episode 396) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Kwame Christian: American Negotiation Institute Kwame Christian is a best-selling author, business lawyer, and CEO of the American Negotiation Institute. Following the viral success of his TED talk, Kwame released his best-seller Finding Confidence in Conflict: How to Negotiate Anything and Live Your Best Life back in 2018. He’s also a regular Contributor for Forbes and the host of the number one negotiation podcast in the world, Negotiate Anything, which currently has over 5 million downloads worldwide. Under his leadership, the American Negotiation Institute has coached and trained several Fortune 500 companies on applying the fundamentals of negotiation to corporate success. He's also the author of the book How to Have Difficult Conversations About Race and the creator of Negotiable, an Online Community to Learn to Negotiate Anything. We often think about questions as a way to discover more — but have you also considered how your questions might influence? Kwame Christian and I discuss three key steps in order to persuade better through your intentional questions. Key Points Rapport questions help you make a connection with the other party and establish a baseline for how they communicate. A helpful place to begin on rapport is noticing something that you genuinely admire or are curious about in the other party. When gaining information, start broadly and then pull the thread when the other party leads you down a path. Beware that your role/positions can cause people to say more than they otherwise might. “What would it take?” is often a helpful way to illuminate a path forward. Even if you ultimately are more directive, laying the foundation through questions allows the other party to be heard and understand. Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes These Coaching Questions Get Results, with Michael Bungay Stanier (episode 237) How to Ask Better Questions, with David Marquet (episode 454) The Way Out of Major Conflict, with Amanda Ripley (episode 529) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Henry Cloud: Trust Henry Cloud is an acclaimed leadership expert, clinical psychologist and a New York Times bestselling author. His 45 books, including the iconic Boundaries, have sold nearly 20 million copies worldwide. He has an extensive executive coaching background and experience as a leadership consultant, devoting the majority of his time working with CEOs, leadership teams, and executives to improve performance, leadership skills, and culture. Henry's work has been featured and reviewed by The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, Publisher’s Weekly, Los Angeles Times, and many other publications. Success Magazine named him in the top 25 most influential leaders in personal growth and development, alongside Oprah, Brené Brown, Seth Godin and others. He is a frequent contributor to CNN, Fox News Channel, and other national media outlets. Henry is the author of Trust: Knowing When to Give It, When to Withhold It, How to Earn It, and How to Fix It When It Gets Broken*. When someone betrays your trust, what do you do next? In this conversation, Henry and I explore the five factors of trust and the importance of each one of them in our relationships. Then, we look at the starting point for rebuilding trust after a betrayal, beginning with you and your own support network. Key Points Five factors are key for trust: understanding, motive, ability, character, and track record. Repairing trust is not clean or orderly. The first step is about you, not the person who betrayed you. Leaders who have a support network already in place are better able to take a pause and work through emotion and anger. An authentic apology from someone should articulate the event itself, demonstrate their empathy for how the event felt to you, and appreciate the consequences of their actions. Forgiving someone does not mean you trust them. Resources Mentioned Trust: Knowing When to Give It, When to Withhold It, How to Earn It, and How to Fix It When It Gets Broken* by Henry Cloud Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes The Art of Constructing Apologies, with Sandra Sucher (episode 535) The Path Towards Trusting Relationships, with Edgar Schein and Peter Schein (episode 539) How to Approach a Reorg, with Claire Hughes Johnson (episode 621) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Morra Aarons-Mele: The Anxious Achiever Morra Aarons-Mele is the host of The Anxious Achiever, a top-10 management podcast that helps people rethink the relationship between their mental health and their leadership. Morra founded Women Online and The Mission List, an award-winning digital-consulting firm and influencer marketing company dedicated to social change, in 2010 and sold her business in 2021. She helped Hillary Clinton log on for her first internet chat and has launched digital campaigns for President Obama, Malala Yousafzai, the United Nations, the CDC, and many other leading figures and organizations. She is the author of The Anxious Achiever: Turn Your Biggest Fears into Your Leadership Superpower*. In this conversation, Morra and I discuss some key tactics that help leaders release just a bit of control. Since control is often driven by fear, we can let go of some control by making small shifts in our practices, awareness, and planning. We also explore how to set boundaries that will help us lead in ways that are more helpful to others — and ourselves. Key Points Control is often caused by fear. Optimism can be a bit of an antidote to it. Adopt a practice mindset by making small shifts to endure uncomfortable things. Practice open awareness throughs surrender; the opposite of controlling and micromanaging. Get clear on scheduling, deadlines, longer term career goals. Those provide a healthy illusion of control. Create a distinction between having an emotion and being the emotion. Begin setting boundaries by noticing when you are moving from comfort to discomfort. Resources Mentioned The Anxious Achiever: Turn Your Biggest Fears into Your Leadership Superpower* by Morra Aarons-Mele The Anxious Achiever podcast Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes Four Steps to Get Unstuck and Embrace Change, with Susan David (episode 297) Effective Delegation of Authority, with Hassan Osman (episode 413) Align Your Calendar to What Matters, with Nir Eyal (episode 431) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Jill Schlesinger: The Great Money Reset Jill Schlesinger is an Emmy Award winning Business Analyst for CBS News. She appears on CBS radio and television stations nationwide covering the economy, markets, investing and anything else with a dollar sign. Jill is the host of the Jill on Money podcast and of the nationally syndicated radio show, Jill on Money, which won the 2018 and 2021 Gracie Award for Best National Talk Show. Jill is a frequent speaker on a variety of topics, including macroeconomic, market and demographic trends; workplace issues for women and LGBT employees in financial services; and how to create authentic branding. She is the author of The Dumb Things Smart People Do With Their Money and her most recent book, The Great Money Reset: Change Your Work, Change Your Wealth, Change Your Life*. In this conversation, Jill and I examine the decision-making process that many of us use when considering advanced degrees or certifications. We discuss some of the common missteps that people make in educational investments and identity three key steps that can help us do better. Plus, we encourage leaders to get clear on their goals and outcomes and alternative ways to fund major educational investments. Key Points Every situation is different. Examining your situation is more helpful than relying on an assumption that all educational investments are wise. Identify the precise skills, knowledge, or credential you hope to gain by going back to school and how your career with benefit. Remember that the cost of tuition does not always reflect the full cost such as lost salary or time out of the workforce. Explore cheaper options if they still archive your overall objectives. A cheaper degree from a less prestigious university may meet 95% of the outcomes you want. Consider how your employer may support your educational investments. Some companies will consider sponsoring some of your educational expenses if you make a formal request. Resources Mentioned The Great Money Reset: Change Your Work, Change Your Wealth, Change Your Life* by Jill Schlesinger Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes Four Rules to Get Control of Your Money, with Jesse Mecham (episode 356) Dumb Things Smart People Do With Money, with Jill Schlesinger (episode 396) The Way Into Better Conversations About Wealth, with Kristin Keffeler (episode 606) Seven Steps to Landing Professional Development Funding (MemberCast) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Jonathan Raymond: Good Authority Jonathan spent 20 years building careers in business development and personal growth before realizing he could have the best of both worlds by starting his own company. Now, he uses those skills to advise CEOs and organizational leaders on how to create a people-first culture that drives results. As the founder of Refound, his goal is to provide clients with a partner they can trust and programs that gives managers an experience of how they can make work a better place, one conversation at a time. He’s the author of the book Good Authority: How to Become the Leader Your Team Is Waiting For*. He's also the creator of the Accountability Dial, used daily by many of our members and listeners to open up more healthy dialogue inside of their teams and organizations. It may seem like you’ve had the same conversation about 17 times, but again you have an employee asking you, “Wait? Is this thing we’re talking about supposed to be part of my job?” You again clarify their role, but you’re also thinking in the back of your mind, “Really? We’re having this conversation again?” In this episode, Jonathan and I discuss four questions to ask of yourself — and your employee — to align them with the role. Key Points Mangers often complain that employees do not have clarity on their roles. Separate the role from the person. Depersonalizing the role actually helps you to have a better alignment conversation. What do you want employees to be owning, thinking about, and worrying about? Those are windows into the Soul of the Role. There are three steps to role alignment: defining the role, aligning the role with the employee, and sustaining the dialogue about the role. Four questions that will help you define a role: What is the purpose of this role? What makes someone successful in this role? What are three priorities for this role in the next 90 days? Where are their decision-making rights? Resources Mentioned Refound Academy: Good Authority, Good Alignment, and Good Accountability courses Good Authority: How to Become the Leader Your Team Is Waiting For* by Jonathan Raymond Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes Effective Delegation of Authority, with Hassan Osman (episode 413) How to Balance Care and Accountability When Leading Remotely, with Jonathan Raymond (episode 464) How to Lead and Retain High Performers, with Ruth Gotian (episode 567) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Bonni Stachowiak: Teaching in Higher Ed Bonni is the host of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast, Dean of Teaching and Learning and Professor of Business and Management at Vanguard University, and my life partner. Prior to her academic career, she was a human resources consultant and executive officer for a publicly traded company. Bonni is the author of The Productive Online and Offline Professor: A Practical Guide. Listener Questions Susan asked about assessing the difference between an employee who has addressable gaps in their skills and knowledge versus when they are in over their head. Elizabeth asked our advice on managing a team member who appears over-confident in their abilities…and how to hold them accountable. Steve wondered how we handle household tasks between the two of us in the midst of our busy schedules. Resources Mentioned Analyzing Performance Problems* by Robert Mager and Peter Pipe The Alignment Problem by Brian Christian Wonder Tools by Jeremy Kaplan The Home Edit by Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin Related Episodes The Way to Stop Rescuing People From Their Problems, with Michael Bungay Stanier (episode 284) How to Challenge Directly and Care Personally, with Kim Scott (episode 302) Five Steps to Hold People Accountable, with Jonathan Raymond (episode 306) Finding Joy Through Intentional Choices, with Bonni Stachowiak (episode 417) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Claire Hughes Johnson: Scaling People Claire Hughes Johnson is a corporate officer and advisor for Stripe, a global technology company that builds economic infrastructure for the internet. She previously served as Stripe’s Chief Operating Officer, helping the company grow from fewer than 200 employees to more than 8,000. Prior to Stripe, Claire spent 10 years at Google leading various business teams, including overseeing aspects of Gmail, Google Apps, and consumer operations. She is a board member at Hallmark Cards, The Atlantic, Ameresco, and HubSpot. Claire also serves as a trustee and the current board president of Milton Academy. She is the author of Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building*. You are charged with leading a reorg, but do you know the mindset, actions, and steps to take? In this conversation, Claire and I explore some of the key lessons she’s discovered as an executive leader in a quickly growing enterprise. We discuss the key triggers for a reorg, the three phases of reorganization, and common pitfalls leaders should avoid. Key Points Reorganizations or restructurings and often seen as a sign of a problem, but that's not always the case. Why reorganize? Two triggers: (1) your team structure doesn't match your strategy and/or (2) you have a talent issue. While there are times to go slower, the bias should be to move with haste. Don't leave ice cream on the counter for too long. Be very cautious about creating structure around a single individual. Three phases of a reorg: Phase 0: Decide whether you need a reorg and determine your new structure. Phase 1: Get buy-in from the key people who need to be involved. Phase 2: Create a communications plan and inform all of those affected. Resources Mentioned Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building* by Claire Hughes Johnson Transitions* by William Bridges Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes How to Manage Former Peers, with Tom Henschel (episode 257) Three Steps to Great Career Conversations, with Russ Laraway (episode 370) How to Solve the Toughest Problems, with Wendy Smith (episode 612) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

Sally Helgesen: Rising Together Sally Helgesen has been cited by Forbes as the world’s premier expert on women’s leadership. She is a best-selling author, speaker and leadership coach. She has been named by Thinkers50 as one of the world’s top 20 coaches and ranked number 6 among the world’s thought leaders by Global Gurus. She is the author of several books, including The Female Advantage: Women’s Ways of Leadership and The Female Vision: Women’s Real Power at Work. Her book The Web of Inclusion: A New Architecture for Building Great Organizations, was cited in The Wall Street Journal as one of the best books on leadership of all time and is credited with bringing the language of inclusion into business. She co-authored How Women Rise, with executive coach Marshall Goldsmith, examining the behaviors most likely to get in the way of successful women. Her newest book is Rising Together: How We Can Bridge Divides and Create a More Inclusive Workplace*. When we get triggered, our default response tends to be either venting about it to others or suffering in silence. In this conversation, Sally and I explore how to respond in a more useful way. She invites us to consider being less invested in our initial response, creating an alternative script, and finding a path forward to influence different behavior. Key Points When we get triggered, our tendency is to either vent about it or suffer in silence. Being overly invested in our first response limits our ability to respond better. This is the authenticity trap. Create an alternative, positive script that helps your own mental well-being and precipitates a more helpful action. Whether the alternative script is true or not isn’t the point. The aim is to find the line between not humiliating the other party and also not letting a poor behavior be unaddressed. Wisdom from Sun Tzu: indirection or redirection to disarm an opponent is preferable to the direct engagement of combat. Resources Mentioned Rising Together: How We Can Bridge Divides and Create a More Inclusive Workplace by Sally Helgesen Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes The Way Out of Major Conflict, with Amanda Ripley (episode 529) End Imposter Syndrome in Your Organization, with Jodi-Ann Burey (episode 556) How to Create Inclusive Hiring Practices, with Ruchika Tulshyan (episode 589) How to Respond Better When Challenged, with Dolly Chugh (episode 615) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Kathy Fiddler: TidalHealth Kathy Fiddler is the Vice President of Population Health for TidalHealth, a non-profit two hospital health care system on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. She has been instrumental in building community programs supporting improved access to healthcare services on the lower shore. Kathy is a registered nurse and a retired Major in the United States Air Force Reserve. She served for 26 years in the US and abroad and supported Operation Restore Hope, Operation Desert Storm, and Operation Enduring Freedom. She is also a lifetime member of the Reserve Officers Association and a board member for the United Way of the Lower Eastern Shore. In 2019, she was recognized as one of the Top 100 Women in Maryland. She's also an alum of the Coaching for Leaders Academy. In this conversation, Kathy and I discuss her career growth over time from mostly clinical and operational work to leading at the executive level. We explore how being intentional about surrounding oneself with a diverse set of voices helps to both build confidence and surface better outcomes. Finally, we look at how working through discomfort in service of others can help us to make the world better through our work. Key Points The work of a leader is very different than the operational and technical work most of us did earlier in our careers. Having a smaller meeting before a larger meeting can help a more introverted leader engage in the way they want. We sometimes sell ourselves short by concluding we won’t add value. By leaning into that discomfort, we find it’s often the case that others struggle with similar fears. Shifting from having the right answers to asking the right questions will help a leader to uncover what may have been unsaid that’s critical. Finding communities of other leaders helps you to find the diversity of perspective to support you building your own confidence. Related Episodes Create Margin Through Intentional Leadership, with Amy McPherson (episode 429) Personal Leadership is a Journey, with Michal Holliday (episode 436) Lead Best by Being You, with Elena Kornoff (episode 474) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Adi Ignatius: Harvard Business Review Adi Ignatius is Editor in Chief of the Harvard Business Review Group, where he oversees the editorial activities of Harvard Business Review, hbr.org, and HBR’s book-publishing unit. Prior to joining Harvard Business Review in 2009, he was the No. 2 editor at TIME. He is the editor of two books: President Obama: The Path to the White House and Prisoner of the State: The Secret Diaries of Premier Zhao Ziyang. Both made The New York Times Bestseller List. Adi lived and worked for nearly 20 years overseas. He was Editor of Time’s Asian edition and earlier served as Beijing Bureau Chief and Moscow Bureau Chief for The Wall Street Journal. He is also host of the HBR Channel. It is the 100th anniversary of Harvard Business Review. Should leaders and organizations take a stand on current events, politics, or causes? Adi and I discuss this tough question in detail. While the answer will be different for every leader, we invite you to begin thinking about how you might approach this in your work. Key Points The traditional advice of “Don’t talk about politics and religion” is still the norm in some places, but increasingly leaders and being more vocal. Silence used to be the default. Silence now many send a message that leaders and organizations don't intend to convey. While every leader needs to decide how they will navigate this, beware your feelings of certainty. Resources Mentioned Harvard Business Review Related Episodes Start With Why, with Simon Sinek (episode 223) Handling a Difficult Stakeholder, with Nick Timiraos (episode 581) How to Begin Difficult Conversations About Race, with Kwame Christian (episode 594) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Carol Kauffman: Real-Time Leadership Carol Kauffman is an international leader in the field of coaching and has more than 40,000 hours of practice. Her clients are C-level leaders and their teams or elite athletes and creatives. She was shortlisted by Thinkers 50 as one of the top eight coaches around the globe for her thought leadership, entrepreneurial spirit, and contribution to coaching best practices. She is a founding member of the Marshall Goldsmith 100 Coaches and ranked the number one leadership coach in the world. She founded the Institute of Coaching with a $2 million gift from the Harnisch Foundation. Carol is an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, a visiting professor at Henley Business School, and a senior leadership adviser at Egon Zehnder. At Harvard she launched the annual Coaching in Leadership and Healthcare Conference, one of the school's most highly attended events. Her professional development program, Leader as Coach, won Harvard’s inaugural Program Award for Culture of Excellence in Mentoring and has been rolled out throughout the United States. She was also the founding editor-in-chief of Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research, and Practice. Carol is co-author with David Noble of Real-Time Leadership: Find Your Winning Moves When the Stakes are High*. In this conversation, Carol and I explore the mindsets and tactics that are helpful when taking on a new, big leadership role. We discuss how vision, resolution, scope, and altitude play a key role in your success early on. Plus, we invite listeners to consider the importance of peer relationships and recognizing how others see you as your role begins. Key Points Having the right altitude often means looking much more broadly at the organization and moving past a subconscious bias towards your old role or department. The “subject matter expert trap” is a common one. Your awareness will help you avoid it — or recognize it faster. Good peer relationships are one of the strongest predicators of success in a new role. Make time to build these critical connections. Learning to accept recognition is a key competency for an executive leader. Treat it as you would receiving any kind of gift. Have an enterprise mindset and remember that people perceive you as representing the organization vs. just yourself. Thinking like the entity can help you show up in the way you intend. Resources Mentioned Real-Time Leadership: Find Your Winning Moves When the Stakes are High* by Carol Kauffman and David Noble Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes How to Manage Former Peers, with Tom Henschel (episode 257) How to Nail a Job Transition, with Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (episode 555) How to Genuinely Show Up for Others, with Marshall Goldsmith (episode 590) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Joe Hart: Take Command Joe Hart began his career as a practicing attorney. After taking a Dale Carnegie Course, Joe reassessed his career path and future, ultimately leaving the practice of law, going to work for a top real estate company, and then founding an innovative e-learning company and serving as president of health and wellness company. In 2015, Joe was named president and CEO of Dale Carnegie. The CEO Forum Group named Joe as one of twelve transformative leaders, giving him the Transformative CEO Leadership Award in the category of the People. He is the host of a top global podcast, Take Command: A Dale Carnegie Podcast, and he speaks around the world on topics such as leadership, resilience, and innovation. He is the author with Michael Crom of Take Command: Find Your Inner Strength, Build Enduring Relationships, and Live the Life You Want*. In this conversation, Joe and I explore how to discover another person’s values through meaningful conversation. We examine three types of questions to ask that gradually illuminate what’s important to another person. By knowing what to ask and what to listen for, we can uncover values without asking a more awkward question like, “What are your values?” Key Points Dale Carnegie invited us to, “Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view.” Use three types of questions to frame a conversation that uncovers another person’s values: Examples of factual questions: How did you first find out about…? What keeps you busy during the week? What do you like to do for fun? What hobby or activity holds your interest? Examples of causative questions: What got you interesting in doing this kind of work? How did you get involved in that hobby? What do you like about…? What caused you to enter into this industry? Examples of values-based questions: Tell me about someone who’s had a major impact on your life. If you had to do it over again, what — if anything — would you do differently? Tell me about a turning point in your career. Tell about about something that you look back on as a high point or moment of pride. How did you get through a major challenge in the past? How would you describe your personal philosophy in a sentence or two? Resources Mentioned Take Command: Find Your Inner Strength, Build Enduring Relationships, and Live the Life You Want* by Joe Hart and Michael Crom Related Episodes Three Steps to Great Career Conversations, with Russ Laraway (episode 370) Discover Who You Are, with Hortense le Gentil (episode 459) How to Genuinely Show Up for Others, with Marshall Goldsmith (episode 590) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Dolly Chugh: A More Just Future Dolly Chugh is a social psychologist and management professor at the New York University Stern School of Business where she teaches MBA courses in leadership and management. She was one of six professors chosen from thousands at NYU to receive the Distinguished Teaching Award in 2020 and one of five to receive the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Faculty Award in 2013. She has been named an SPSP Fellow, received the Academy of Management Best Paper award, and been named one of the top 100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics by Ethisphere Magazine. Her first book, The Person You Mean to Be has received rave praise from Adam Grant, Angela Duckworth, Liz Wiseman, Billie Jean King, and many others. She is the author of A More Just Future: Psychological Tools for Reckoning with our Past and Driving Social Change. All of us know that we will be challenged by others. Sometimes how we see ourselves limits what we could do to change our behavior. In this conversation, Dolly and I discuss how we can do better and the mindset and actions that will help us move forward. Key Points There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing. Nostalgia feels good to many of us, but can get in the way of us seeing the “ands” in situations and experiences. When we are challenged, especially in the context of identity, our tendency is either to deny, distance, or dismantle. Feeling of guilt and shame are indicators that there is an opportunity to change. The goal is not to avoid them, but to use them as a starting point for different behavior. Use values affirmations to give you a booster shot to prepare for the inevitable challenges ahead. These affirmations will help you respond in a more healthy way for everyone. Resources Mentioned Dear Good People newsletter by Dolly Chugh TED talk: How to let go of being a "good" person -- and become a better person by Dolly Chugh The Person You Mean to Be* by Dolly Chugh A More Just Future* by Dolly Chugh Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes The Way Managers Can be Champions for Justice, with Minda Harts (episode 552) How to Help People Engage in Growth, with Whitney Johnson (episode 576) How to Solve the Toughest Problems, with Wendy Smith (episode 612) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

Daphne E. Jones: Win When They Say You Won't Daphne E. Jones has 30 years of experience in general management and executive level roles at IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Hospira, and General Electric but began her career as a secretary. At GE, she served as Senior Vice President for Future of Work, Senior Vice President & Chief Information Officer for Product Engineering, Imaging, and Ultrasound, and as Senior Executive & Chief Information Officer for Global Services, all of which composed a $13 billion segment of GE Healthcare. She serves on the board of directors for AMN Healthcare, Inc., Barnes Group Inc., and Masonite International Corp. She is the recipient of numerous domestic and international awards and recently started a company that teaches leaders how to prepare to serve on boards. She is the author of Win When They Say You Won't: Break Through Barriers and Keep Leveling Up Your Success*. In this conversation, Daphne invites us to look at ourselves through the lens of a product, just as others will view us. We discuss the three critical elements of how stakeholders view you. Plus, Daphne and I explore the steps you can take to improve how you’re perceived through the different lenses that stakeholders see us through. Key Points Stakeholders are crucial for your success and it’s helpful for you to view yourself in their eyes (and yours) as a product. Three elements are key: performance is doing your job well, image is how people describe you, and exposure is who knows you. When you get radio silence in the context of happenings inside of your organization, that’s an indicator you are underexposed. Caution: you can also be overexposed. Map your stakeholders in the context of their influence in your work and their interest in how it support their own objectives. Mentors will make suggestions of things you should try. Find the part that will work for you and move on the advice. Resources Mentioned Win When They Say You Won't: Break Through Barriers and Keep Leveling Up Your Success* by Daphne E. Jones To receive a free workbook, send receipt of your book purchase to daphne@daphneejones.com Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes How to Deal with Opponents and Adversaries, with Peter Block (episode 328) What You Gain By Sponsoring People, with Julia Taylor Kennedy (episode 398) How to Support Women of Color, with Minda Harts (episode 506) The Art of Mentoring Well, with Robert Lefkowitz (episode 599) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

Jennifer Garvey Berger: Unleashing Your Complexity Genius Jennifer believes that leadership is one of the most vital renewable resources in the world. She designs and teaches leadership programs, coaches senior teams, and supports new ways of thinking about strategy and people. In her three highly acclaimed books, Unlocking Leadership Mindtraps, Simple Habits for Complex Times (co-authored with Keith Johnston), and Changing on the Job, she builds on deep theoretical knowledge to offer practical ways to make leaders’ work more meaningful and their lives more fun. She has worked with senior leaders in the private, non-profit, and government sectors around the world with organizations like Novartis, Google, KPMG, Intel, Microsoft, Wikimedia, and the New Zealand Department of Conservation. Jennifer also supports executives one-on-one as a leadership coach. Over the last decade, she has developed the Growth Edge Coaching approach. She supports clients to find their current growing edge and then make choices about how they want to develop. She teaches coaches around the world transformational and developmental coaching approaches in her Growth Edge Coaching certification series. Jennifer speaks at leadership and coaching conferences, and she offers courses for coaches at universities all over the world. She is the co-author with Carolyn Coughlin of Unleash Your Complexity Genius: Growing Your Inner Capacity to Lead*. In this conversation, Jennifer and I discuss the reality that most of us don’t like uncertainty. That makes experimenting with new ideas and actions in complex environments very challenging. We uncover several practices that can help us benefit from experimentation in the midst of complexity and grow from these experiences. Key Points Complicated situations are hard, but have a clear answer (such as how to send humans to the moon). In contract, complex situations are dynamic; yesterday’s answer may not work tomorrow. Most of us really dislike complexity, to the extent that that people with terminal diseases are happier than those who will likely recover. Step-by-step approaches don’t work in very complex situations. Instead, take action through thoughtful experimentation. When experimenting, release your attachment to outcomes. Lean into humility and don’t shy away from endings. Putting end dates on experiments helps us move forward — and sometimes remove what isn’t working. Resources Mentioned Unleash Your Complexity Genius: Growing Your Inner Capacity to Lead* by Jennifer Garvey Berger and Carolyn Coughlin Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes Essentials of Adult Development, with Mindy Danna (episode 273) How to Pivot Quickly, with Steve Blank (episode 476) Help Your Brain Learn, with Lisa Feldman Barrett (episode 513) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

Wendy Smith: Both/And Thinking Wendy Smith is the Dana J. Johnson Professor of Management and faculty director of the Women’s Leadership Initiative at the Lerner College of Business and Economics, University of Delaware. She earned her PhD in organizational behavior at Harvard Business School, where she began her intensive research on strategic paradoxes—how leaders and senior teams effectively respond to contradictory, yet interdependent demands. She has received the Web of Science Highly Cited Research Award for being among the 1 percent most-cited researchers in her field and received the Decade Award from the Academy of Management Review for the most cited paper in the past 10 years. Her work has been published in such journals as Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Harvard Business Review, Organization Science, and Management Science. She has taught at the University of Delaware, Harvard, and Wharton while helping senior leaders and middle managers all over the world address issues of interpersonal dynamics, team performance, organizational change, and innovation. She is the author with Marianne Lewis of Both/And Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Toughest Problems. In this episode, Wendy and I discuss the dangers of either/or thinking and how that tendency limits our effectiveness. We explore how to shift to both/and thinking in order to resolve the most challenging problems. Plus, we share key tactics that will help us do this in more practical ways. Key Points Framing a decision as an either/or will often minimize short-term anxiety, but limits creative and innovative long-term possibilities. While easy to see both/and opportunities for others, we’re likely to approach things as either/or when it’s ourselves. An outside perspective from someone who’s not emotionally connected is helpful. Changing the question we are asking is the most powerful to navigate paradoxes. Moving up a level when facing tough decisions can help us see the big picture. Consider shifting from “making a choice” to “choosing” in order to lead us towards better outcomes. Resources Mentioned Both/And Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Toughest Problems* by Wendy Smith and Marianne Lewis Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes How to Ask Better Questions, with David Marquet (episode 454) How to Win the Long Game When the Short-Term Seems Bleak, with Dorie Clark (episode 550) The Leadership Struggles We See, with Muriel Wilkins (episode 559) How to Quit Bad Stuff Faster, with Annie Duke (episode 607) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

Jorge Alzate Jorge Alzate is a senior R&D manager at PepsiCo, an active leader in Toastmasters, and an alum of the Coaching for Leaders Academy. In this conversation, Jorge and I discuss what brought him to the podcast, how he utilized the Academy to help his career move forward, and the critical nature of courage for leadership growth. Key Points One action a day (the blue marbles for Jorge) is the way to create a new habit that can develops into a skill. Accountability is key to move us forward, even if it does not feel comfortable in the moment. Courage is the ability to act in spite of fear — and almost always necessary before confidence. Resources Mentioned Feel the Fear...and Do It Anyway* by Susan Jeffers Winning Conditions: How to Achieve the Professional Success You Deserve by Managing the Details That Matter* by Christine Hofbeck Related Episodes Leadership Through Consistency, with Joseph Getuno (episode 490) How to Build Confidence, with Katy Milkman (episode 533) How to Protect Your Confidence, with Nate Zinsser (episode 573) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

Patrick Lencioni: The 6 Types of Working Genius Patrick Lencioni is founder and president of The Table Group, a firm dedicated to protecting human dignity in the world of work, personal development, and faith. Pat’s passion for organizations and teams is reflected in his writing, speaking, executive consulting, and most recently his three podcasts, At the Table with Patrick Lencioni, The Working Genius Podcast, and The Simple Reminder. Pat is the author of twelve best-selling books with over seven million copies sold. After twenty years in print, his classic book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team remains a weekly fixture on national best-seller lists. He has been featured in numerous publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, USA Today, Inc. magazine, and Chief Executive magazine. He is the author of The 6 Types of Working Genius: A Better Way to Understand Your Gifts, Your Frustrations, and Your Team. Many of us have heard the invitation from Jim Collin’s book Good to Great to get the right people on the bus. But once the right people are on the bus, how to do you find the right seat for each person? On this episode, Pat and I discuss how to utilize the Working Genius model to find the right work for the right team members. Key Points When addressing burnout, the type of work someone does is more significant than the volume of work. Three stages of work are present for almost every team: ideation, activation, and implementation. A cup of coffee in an excellent thermos can stay hot an entire day — that’s true of us when we’re aligned with our working geniuses. Finding the right work for a team member is far easier than finding the right person culturally. Before you look elsewhere, be sure they are in the right seat. To fill gaps in your team’s geniuses, you can hire, borrow, or find people where competence will suffice for now. Resist the temptation to immediately jump to hiring. Resources Mentioned The 6 Types of Working Genius assessment The 6 Types of Working Genius: A Better Way to Understand Your Gifts, Your Frustrations, and Your Team by Patrick Lencioni Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes How to Get the Ideal Team Player, with Patrick Lencioni (episode 301) How to Lead an Offsite, with Tom Henschel (episode 377) The Mindset Leaders Need to Address Burnout, with Christina Maslach (episode 609) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

Ram Charan: Leading Through Inflation Ram Charan is a bestselling author, teacher, and world-renowned advisor to CEOs and other business leaders of some of the world’s best-known companies. His work is often behind the scenes and focused on highly sensitive and fate-making issues. Fortune magazine published a profile of Ram in which it called him “the most influential consultant alive.” His book Execution, lauded for its practicality, spent more than 150 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Ram’s energetic, interactive teaching style has won him several awards, including from GE’s famous Crotonville Institute and Northwestern. Ram was elected a Distinguished Fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources and was named one of the most influential people in corporate governance and the board room by Directorship magazine. He has served on the Blue Ribbon Commission on Corporate Governance and serves or has served on a dozen boards in the U.S., Brazil, China, India, Canada, and Dubai. He is the author with Geri Willigan of Leading Through Inflation: And Recession And Stagflation. In this conversation, Ram and I explore the changing macroeconomic environment and what leaders can do to address it. We discuss the importance of managing cash well and how pricing decisions can be made effectively. Plus, we discuss the critical nature of partnerships throughout the supply chain — and where the opportunities may be in the midst of challenge. Key Points Inflation consumes cash. Cash management is the number one risk to an organization during this time. The way to get ahead of the curve is to be predictive vs. reactive. This may be a time the existing business model needs to change. Inflation creates an illusion of growth. It’s important to adjust for this in all reporting and planning. Work with all sides of the value chain. Help customers deal with rising costs while also working closely with suppliers. Regular communication is essential. Smaller, regular price adjustments are better than less frequent, larger increases. Resist the temptation to offer less for the same price. Resources Mentioned Leading Through Inflation: And Recession And Stagflation* by Ram Charan and Geri Willigan. Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes Improve Your Financial Intelligence, with Joe Knight (episode 244) How to Approach Corporate Budgeting, with Jody Wodrich (episode 355) How to Multiply Your Impact, with Liz Wiseman (episode 554) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

Christina Maslach: The Burnout Challenge Christina Maslach is the pioneer of research on job burnout, producing the standard assessment tool called the Maslach Burnout Inventory, award-winning articles, and several books, beginning with Burnout: The Cost of Caring, in 1982. Her research achievements over the past five decades have led to multiple awards from the National Academy of Sciences, Western Psychological Association, Society for Personality and Social Psychology, and many others. Christina has received awards for her outstanding teaching, including USA Professor of the Year in 1997. She has been a Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley since 1971. Christina is now a core researcher at the Healthy Workplaces Center, at Berkeley, and the author along with Michael Leiter of The Burnout Challenge: Managing People's Relationships With Their Jobs*. In this conversation, Christina and I address the reality that burnout is often perceived as an issue with just the individual. We explore how leaders can begin to look at the larger picture: context, culture, and management, in order to address burnout more proactively. We discuss key mindsets that will help and a few tactics that almost every leader can use to get started. Key Points The canary in the coal mine is an indicator of a problem, not the source of it. Our tendency is to focus on the person (the figure) and to miss all the context and environment factors (the ground). Burnout is first and foremost a management issue. “Fixing” the person should not be the focus — instead, get curious about where there is a mismatch. Instead of focusing on what’s wrong with the person, shift to what may be wrong in the relationship between the person and situation. Ensure you have a plan for communicated survey results. If you’d done surveys previously, share those results and also the actions the organization had taken before engaging in more surveys. Resources Mentioned The Burnout Challenge: Managing People's Relationships With Their Jobs* by Christina Maslach and Michael Leiter Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes Gallup Findings on the Changing Nature of Work, with Jim Harter (episode 409) How to Reduce Burnout, with Jennifer Moss (episode 561) How to Compare Yourself to Others, with Mollie West Duffy (episode 582) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

Annie Duke: Quit Annie Duke is an author, corporate speaker, and consultant in the decision-making space, as well as Special Partner focused on Decision Science at First Round Capital Partners, a seed stage venture fund. Her previous book, Thinking in Bets, is a national bestseller. As a former professional poker player, she has won more than $4 million in tournament poker. During her career, Annie won a World Series of Poker bracelet and is the only woman to have won the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions and the NBC National Poker Heads-Up Championship. She retired from the game in 2012. Prior to becoming a professional poker player, she was awarded a National Science Foundation Fellowship to study Cognitive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Annie is the co-founder of The Alliance for Decision Education, a non-profit whose mission is to improve lives by empowering students through decision skills education. She is a member of the National Board of After-School All-Stars and the Board of Directors of the Franklin Institute. She also serves on the board of the Renew Democracy Initiative. Annie is the author of Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away*. We’ve all heard the lie that, “Winners never quit and quitters never win.” In reality, one of the best practices to develop is how to recognize more quickly when you should quit something that’s not working. In this conversation, Annie and I discuss how to set kill criteria for yourself and frame goals in more helpful ways to know when quitting is the best answer. Key Points Kenny Rogers was right; professional poker players know that a big part of success is quitting approximately 75% of the time. “Quit while you’re ahead” is often poor advice since we tend to quit too early when good things are happening. On the contrary, we tend to quit too late when we’ve accumulated sunk cost. Determine kill criteria in advance when you’re not as likely to be swayed by the emotions of the moment. The best criteria contain both a state and a date. Find someone who loves you but doesn’t care about your feelings. Trust and permission are essential to open up these kinds of conversations. Effective goals include at least one “unless…” Resources Mentioned Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away* by Annie Duke Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes How to Pivot Quickly, with Steve Blank (episode 476) The Way to Make Better Decisions, with Annie Duke (episode 499) How to Build Confidence, with Katy Milkman (episode 533) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

Kristin Keffeler: The Myth of the Silver Spoon Kristin Keffeler is a thought leader and consultant at the forefront of a global shift in family wealth advising, known as Wealth 3.0. She guides affluent and enterprising families, the rising generation, and the professionals who support them in embracing the positive power of wealth, aligning their vision with their impact. As the founder of Illumination360, she specializes in human motivation and behavioral change, family dynamics, family governance, rising generation education and development, and intergenerational collaboration. She is the Dean of Positive Psychology for the Purposeful Planning Institute, sits on the Board of Advisors for the Bailey Program for Family Enterprise at the University of Denver, is a faculty member with the Ultra-High Net Worth Institute, a certified trainer with 21/64, a national nonprofit for advancing multigenerational philanthropy, and is the co-founder of Beneficiary Bootcamp. She is the author of The Myth of the Silver Spoon: Navigating Family Wealth & Creating an Impactful Life*. In this conversation, Kristin and I discuss a reality that’s true for almost every leader: whether we have wealth ourselves, almost all of us interact with wealthy people. We explore some of the myths of wealth to understand the psychological challenges that wealth often brings. Plus, we learn from what works (and doesn’t) for wealthy families so that we can have better conversations about wealth in our own families. Key Points While wealth brings resources, it also brings psychological challenges for many people with wealth. More money doesn't equal happiness. Small inheritances can increase happiness, but large ones do not. Many people with wealth find close relationships a bit of a struggle. While our perception may be that the most wealthy are selfish and greedy, more often individuals (especially next generations) tend to under-identify with family wealth. Ground decisions in values that align with a vision of thriving. There’s a huge difference in the next generation having a little bit of ownership in a financial event vs. not having any ownership. Resources Mentioned The Myth of the Silver Spoon: Navigating Family Wealth & Creating an Impactful Life* by Kristin Keffeler Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes How to Reduce Drama With Kids, with Tina Payne Bryson (episode 310) Dumb Things Smart People Do With Money, with Jill Schlesinger (episode 396) The Way to Build Wealth, with Chris Hogan (episode 502) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

Ian Morgan Cron: The Road Back to You Ian Morgan Cron is a bestselling author, speaker, trained psychotherapist, songwriter, and Episcopal priest, but he may be best known for popularizing the Enneagram. The Enneagram is a personality typing system identifying nine types of people and how they relate to one another and the world. His popular Enneagram book, The Road Back to You* gave fresh language and interest in this assessment. Ian enjoys sharing about the Enneagram with audiences of all sizes because of its power for igniting personal growth, and how it can enrich our personal and professional lives. His newest book The Story of You* helps people go a step further, using Enneagram wisdom to uncover and rewrite our own false narratives so we can live life more fully. In this conversation, Ian and I look at the core aspects of the Enneagram model and how it can help us understand ourselves better so we can also support others more effectively. We highlight the nine Enneagram types and their key traits and distinctions. Then, we discuss how the first steps leaders might take in order to start raising their own self-awareness. Key Points Too often we believe that how we see the world is “normal” instead of recognizing that there are many normal ways to see the world. Personality is like the rooms of our home. We have a favorite room but we still use all the other rooms when its appropriate. The 9 Enneagram Types The Perfectionist - Ethical, dedicated and reliable, they are motivated by a desire to live the right way, improve the world, and avoid fault and blame. The Helper - Warm, caring and giving, they are motivated by a need to be loved and needed, and to avoid acknowledging their own needs. The Performer (or Achiever) - Success-oriented, image-conscious and wired for productivity, they are motivated by a need to be (or appear to be) successful and to avoid failure. The Romantic (or Individualist) - Creative, sensitive and moody, they are motivated by a need to be understood, experience their oversized feelings and avoid being ordinary. The Investigator - Analytical, detached and private, they are motivated by a need to gain knowledge, conserve energy and avoid relying on others. The Loyalist - Committed, practical and witty, they are worst-case-scenario thinkers who are motivated by fear and the need for security. The Enthusiast - Fun, spontaneous and adventurous, they are motivated by a need to be happy, to plan stimulating experiences and to avoid pain. The Challenger - Commanding, intense and confrontational, they are motivated by a need to be strong and avoid feeling weak or vulnerable. The Peacemaker - Pleasant, laid back and accommodating, they are motivated by a need to keep the peace, merge with others and avoid conflict. Resources Mentioned The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery* by Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile The Story of You: An Enneagram Journey to Becoming Your True Self* by Ian Morgan Cron Take the Integrative Enneagram iEQ9 Typology Institute Enneagram courses Related Episodes Enhance Your Self-Awareness, with Daniel Goleman (episode 353) The Way to Be More Self-Aware, with Tasha Eurich (episode 442) Discover Who You Are, with Hortense le Gentil (episode 459) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

Gustavo Razzetti: Remote Not Distant Gustavo Razzetti is the CEO and founder of Fearless Culture, a culture design consultancy that helps teams do the best work of their lives. For more than 20 years, he has helped leaders from Fortune 500s, startups, nonprofits, and everything in between. He is also the creator of the Culture Design Canvas, a framework used by thousands of teams and organizations across the world to map, assess, and design their culture. In addition to his consulting work, Gustavo regularly speaks with leaders and teams about culture change, teamwork, and hybrid workplaces. He is the author of four books on culture change. His most recent book is Remote Not Distant: Design a Company Culture That Will Help You Thrive in a Hybrid Workplace*. In this conversation, Gustavo and I explore the critical nature of trust for building belonging on hybrid and remote teams. We examine the principles of psychological safety and how this matters just as much in digital collaboration. Perhaps most importantly, we look at several tactics to open up trust that will help us pave the ways towards team belonging. Key Points Hybrid work environments have the potential to be the best of both words, but in some places it is now worse. Trust is between individuals. Psychological safety is about how safe we feel with a team. It’s helpful to think of building psychological safety like climbing a ladder. Ironically, the higher you go on the ladder, the safer you feel taking risks. Welcoming questions such as “What's your superpower?” and “What's your kryptonite?” can be useful starting points for building trust. Metaphors are often a powerful way to entire into more complex, emotional discussion without feeling unsafe. Resources Mentioned Remote Not Distant: Design a Company Culture That Will Help You Thrive in a Hybrid Workplace* by Gustavo Razzetti Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes How to Create Team Guidelines, with Susan Gerke (episode 192) How to Build Psychological Safety, with Amy Edmondson (episode 404) How to Engage Remote Teams, with Tsedal Neeley (episode 537) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.