Guest: Dr. Gleb Tsipursky Many CEOs and executives insisting on staff returning to the office full time are making decisions based on myths about hybrid work. The truth may surprise them – and you! Dr. Gleb Tsipursky busts those myths with hard data and direct experience with 23+ organizations. The bottom line: for the majority of “office” workers, hybrid work benefits both wellbeing and productivity. With mental health concerns at an all time high world-wide, that’s a message more employers sho...
May 17, 2023•43 min•Season 9Ep. 21
Guest: Laura Fuentes Joy, learning, friendship: that’s how Laura Fuentes believes the ideal workplace should be. When she arrived at Hilton, Laura found a culture and leadership team that was thinking along the same lines. Since then, she’s been instrumental in guiding the growth of that culture into one of inclusion, wellness, growth, and purpose – the four pillars of Hilton. It’s just one way Laura and Hilton commit to the well-being of Hilton’s employees. The goal: make Thrive at Hilton somet...
May 09, 2023•49 min•Season 9Ep. 20
Guest: Kvon Tucker If there’s one key thing that’s common to all effective leadership theories, it’s this: leadership is all about relationships. Kvon Tucker distilled this through both academic scholarship and real-world experience at Netflix, Google, and Amazon. Those companies remain high-performing outliers because of their unique leadership culture, and an emphasis on relationships (and writing!) are key. Losing sight of that leads to more than just sterile numbers on morale, low engagement...
May 03, 2023•36 min•Season 9Ep. 19
Guest: Will O’Brien & Dave DuBose The labor shortage is not going away. Workers are more transient, looking for better pay, plus Amazon, Walmart, and other large online retailers are continuing to drive up competition for distribution center (DC) employees. So, most DC operators resort to wage increases and retention bonuses as the quick solution to this really challenging people problem. Will O'Brien and Dave DuBose joins the show to share the better answer, which is a set of more robust so...
Apr 30, 2023•45 min•Season 5Ep. 32
Guest: Greg Moran Odds are Artificial Intelligence isn’t going to replace you at work. It’s going to join you. Greg Moran sees AI integrating much the same way breakthrough technologies always have. It will help us be more efficient, and help leaders make better decisions. Of course, it’s not all rasterized rainbows and Unix unicorns; to thrive, people will have to be able and willing to continually learn new skills and processes. In short, the obsessively curious will rise to the top. Greg shar...
Apr 26, 2023•51 min•Season 9Ep. 18
Guest: Ann Mukherjee Ann Mukherjee’s life is one of complete inspiration, both personally and professionally. Her mother was killed by a drunk driver when Ann was just 14; as an adult, she endured alcohol related violence. Yet today, she leads the second largest wine and spirits company in the world. Far from a contradiction, it’s a calling – one which sees not just customers and ROI, but caring and ROR (Return on Responsibility). The two are intertwined; even as Pernod Ricard promotes safe, res...
Apr 19, 2023•40 min•Season 9Ep. 17
Guest: Paul Austin You never know where the next big breakthrough in leadership research will come, so we’re going to sporadically feature outlier ideas, research from the fringe. Today is our first foray, as we investigate the role psychedelics can play in leadership development. Struggling with the dichotomy of legality and morality, Paul Austin found himself on an unexpected journey of self-discovery – a journey that led him to establish Third Wave, a platform dedicated to using psychedelics ...
Apr 12, 2023•52 min•Season 9Ep. 16
Guest: Mike McLellan Supply chain disruptions: they’ve been at the top of the list for leaders’ anxiety in nearly every sector for years. Will it ever get better? Yes – if you’ve learned lessons from COVID and other supply chain disrupters. That’s the advice Mike McLellan has for leaders. A vice president of operations for DHL Supply Chain, Mike discusses the innovations DHL and others are implementing: from rapid responses to exoskeletons for warehouse workers. If your organization relies on su...
Apr 05, 2023•40 min•Season 9Ep. 15
Guest: Dr. Ciela Hartanov Change is accelerating. Volatility continues unabated. And no business is immune. What’s a leader to do? Develop foresight and become future-ready, of course! Ciela Hartanov joins us in this episode to detail her practical process for developing foresight. As a futurist, she’s developed many tools for probing potential paths’ future outcomes. She’s distilled those tools into her foresight process. That, in turn, helps leaders adapt their mindsets, enabling them to make ...
Mar 30, 2023•56 min•Season 9Ep. 14
Guest: Tara McGowan Misinformation and disinformation have become the lifeblood of social media – even some cable channels hungry for ratings. But, as a leader, you need hard facts and straight information. How did we get here, and what can you do to find the good data your decisions need? Tara McGowan, founder and publisher of Courier Newsroom , notes that propaganda and disinformation have always existed…but social media’s algorithms have amplified it exponentially, creating hard echo chambers...
Mar 22, 2023•58 min•Season 9Ep. 13
Guests: Brenda Hampel & Erika Lamont More than 40% of new leaders fail within 18 months. Why? Don’t blame the leader; look at the organization instead! Most organizations don’t onboard a new leader well, if at all. They assume a person’s success at one company will automatically transfer to theirs – but there are far too many variables at play to bank on that. Instead, an onboarding plan that goes beyond HR protocols and benefits sign-up is necessary: a plan that considers company culture, h...
Mar 18, 2023•46 min•Season 9Ep. 12
Guest: Betsy Myers, former Senior White House Advisor We may gripe about the pandemic, but it gave us one very positive change for women in the workplace: flexibility. It also highlighted for everyone that old-school leadership won’t cut it anymore. Betsy Myers says head and heart leadership is the model for today’s leaders. It fuses data-driven strategies and decisiveness with qualities such as warmth, compassion, empathy, and collaboration. In short, the head sets the purpose for an organizati...
Mar 15, 2023•49 min•Season 9Ep. 11
Guest: Anne Klibanski Healthcare begins and ends in the home. At least, it should: you’re more likely to heal a bit faster and your outlook tends to be brighter at home instead of a hospital. Further, COVID revealed and amplified medical staff burnout and other issues already brewing in our healthcare system. It’s overwhelming for most healthcare leaders, but our guest – Dr. Anne Klibanski – tackles these issues head-on. The president and CEO of Mass General Brigham , she and her team created, a...
Mar 07, 2023•59 min•Season 9Ep. 10
Guests: Mark Palmer & Eddie Moore Forget about future ready; you’re not ready for now! Most leaders operate at a disadvantage: they don’t have a formal blueprint of their organization. Yet organizational design is vital if you want to be ready for whatever the future brings to your business. From your supply chain to internal communications, organizational design is far, far more than an org chart. In this episode, guests Eddie Moore and Mark Palmer explain how absolutely vital design is in ...
Mar 01, 2023•50 min•Season 9Ep. 9
Guest: Sharon Melnick Pushy. Manipulative. Lofty. We have a lot of negative views for powerful leaders – but that’s not what real power is about. When a leader is in their power, they raise everyone around them. It’s the difference between simply having power, and being IN your power. With her latest book, In Your Power , Sharon Melnick explores the ways women leaders, in particular, both grow and leak their power. She discusses those, as well as how turning down an invitation to the White House...
Feb 22, 2023•50 min•Season 9Ep. 8
Guest: Carolyn Buck Luce Live an epic life. That’s the goal Carolyn Buck Luce advises you to have. In this episode, she shares ways to make that happen…and how that path started for her. Eight year old Carolyn Buck Luce was inspired by John F. Kennedy's call to service, and decided to take responsibility for answering it even though she was only in elementary school. She created her first Decade Game, a plan for the next ten years of her life. Despite the pre-internet turmoil of the 1960s, she w...
Feb 15, 2023•49 min•Season 9Ep. 7
Guest: Reta Jo Lewis "It's not just about the the betterment of you and your family. It's about the betterment of the community." That is one of the core values that helped guide Reta Jo Lewis through an eventful leadership journey, culminating in her current role as president and chair of the board of the Export Import Bank of the United States — the first African American to accomplish this. She is a passionate advocate for women in entrepreneurship and has a long history of working in politic...
Feb 08, 2023•50 min•Season 9Ep. 6
Guest: Henry Mintzberg There’s a lot of chaos for leaders to deal with, and it’s been pushing us out of balance for decades. Henry Mintzberg has had enough. Enough of the imbalance that is destroying our democracies, our planet, and ourselves. Enough of the pendulum politics of left and right, as well as the leadership paralysis in the political center. The world we live in needs a form of radical renewal unprecedented in the human experience. But Henry doesn’t complain: he crafts solutions. In ...
Feb 03, 2023•45 min•Season 6Ep. 3
Guests: Raj Sisodia & Sudhanshu Palsule In this episode, Raj Sisodia and Sudhanshu Palsule explore the power of conscious leadership. With Conscious Capitalism, this can inspire a higher purpose for businesses, transcending the old Industrial Era story of profit-driven motives. The world has changed dramatically, but our leadership and business models have yet to catch up. United in their belief that business can be a force of good, they share their research and personal journeys as they for...
Feb 01, 2023•54 min•Season 9Ep. 5
Guest: Monique Jefferson Are you a hybrid leader yet? That’s what today’s work world demands. Most workers prefer work from home. Others prefer to be in the office. Still others like hybrid work: a combination of both. In this episode in our Connex Partners Executive Insights series, we ask—How do you lead people with such opposing preferences? And how do you accommodate the breadth of diversity in the workforce? Monique Jefferson says the answer lies in being intentional. The Chief People Offic...
Jan 25, 2023•56 min•Season 9Ep. 4
Guest: James Brenza By their very nature, emerging industries (such as EVs, private spaceships, and cannabis) present unique leadership challenges – and opportunities – rarely encountered in long-established businesses. In addition to general entrepreneurism, you’re creating something new for the marketplace…and forging the team to shepherd it. Emerging industries often lend a new twist on old businesses: they allow the opportunity to relook at established practices, sparking innovation in the b...
Jan 22, 2023•49 min•Season 8Ep. 31
Guest: Janet Fouts We recognize the many layers of stress we are under day-to-day. Those stresses are very real – and often increase as we move up the leadership ladder. That stress has consequences, both physical and mental. What can we do? Janet Fouts has distilled some very simple tools that can help us be less reactive and more responsive to what life throws at us. They’re based on her deep dive into mindfulness as she dealt with the extreme stress of working as a full time digital marketer ...
Jan 21, 2023•48 min•Season 7Ep. 38
Guest: Jacob Morgan There has been a lot written about leadership for the present day, but the world is changing quickly. What worked in the past won’t work in the future – so how do we prepare leaders who can successfully navigate and guide us through the next decade and beyond? What’s required of leaders, even the types of leaders we need, is in flux. So what can a struggling leader do now ? Jacob Morgan wondered, as well, so he interviewed over 140 CEOs, then partnered with LinkedIn to survey...
Jan 20, 2023•43 min•Season 7Ep. 2
Guest: Greg Moran When young companies scale their business, there are many challenges…some obvious, and some no one talks about. Greg Moran joins the show for a discussion about the topics that are often avoided. Some have even been considered taboo! We’ll learn about back-office processes and tooling, hiring and diversity, space: culture and people, keeping the value chain in balance, pricing and value creation, establishing ESG processes, and minimizing distraction. It’s a primer for entrepre...
Jan 19, 2023•56 min•Season 8Ep. 2
Guests: Neil Grunberg & Ira Chaleff “He who cannot be a good follower, cannot be a good leader.” Aristotle shared that wisdom over 2,000 years ago, but today we chafe at being labeled a follower. Yet, as Ira Chaleff and Neil Grunberg point out, if no one is following, then no one can be leading, either! Followership is critical in any organization. Think of followership and leadership as a yin and yang: each of us needs to be good at both of them, and each of us needs to know when to play wh...
Jan 18, 2023•44 min•Season 9Ep. 3
Guest: Alice Yoo LeClair Contrary to old-school management beliefs, having a work-best-friend boosts productivity. Having an entire work community? That boosts a lot of people’s productivity, morale, even longevity with the organization. Best of all, the communities you foster at work don’t need to be work-related to have these effects: gamers, Trekkies, and football fanatics in your workplace all benefit. So how does an HR leader drive community building within their organization? Does remote w...
Jan 17, 2023•56 min•Season 8Ep. 4
Guest: Rebecca Heiss From our archives, a special show about our hidden biases. We all have bias. In various forms, it’s built into our brains. But implicit bias creates a disadvantage for leaders and their organizations. Dr. Rebecca Heiss has studied bias extensively, and shares what implicit bias is and how it impacts each of us. As leaders, we need to understand and manage implicit biases because they impact our hiring choices, promotion and succession decisions, company policies—even how clo...
Jan 16, 2023•41 min•Season 3Ep. 47
Guest: Michelle Sanchez-Bickley Amidst the Great Resignation, exceptional organizations are still retaining their top employees, and recruiting new staff. Renown Health is one of them. In the second of our Connex Executive Insights series, Michelle Sanchez-Bickley of Renown Health joins Maureen Metcalf to discuss the challenges of the Great Resignation for HR departments. It’s particularly challenging in the health care sector; the strains of COVID on our medical system put particular pressure o...
Jan 14, 2023•57 min•Season 8Ep. 8
Guest: Pauline Koelbl Surviving life as a refugee is one thing. To turn that life into a mission to empower other women is quite another. That’s exactly what Pauline Koelbl did. Escaping the war in Rwanda, she found herself a homeless refugee. Eventually, Pauline found a home in Tucson, Arizona. More importantly, she found mentoring and support there – and now “pays it forward” as the founder and managing director of ShEquity, and investment firm providing capital and other resources to women-le...
Jan 13, 2023•51 min•Season 8Ep. 10
Guest: Chris Nolan Does your world feel chaotic, unpredictable – lunging beyond your understanding or control? You’re not alone: in fact, the US military felt the same, and created the concept of VUCA to maintain a defensive edge. The good news: you can readily apply VUCA to your organization to maintain YOUR defensive edge! In this episode, Emmy award-winning filmmaker Chris Nolan reveals the power of storytelling to help leaders navigate the rapidly accelerating VUCA Max world. It’s an inspiri...
Jan 11, 2023•52 min•Season 9Ep. 2
