Explore every episode of People Business w/ O'Brien McMahon
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Pub. Date
Title
Duration
08 Feb 2022
Healing Corporate Trauma w/ Laura Aiken
01:02:42
Laura Aiken is a Consultant and Coach on a mission to end Corporate Trauma. She founded Thrive Leadership to help companies build cultures of resilience and inclusion that help their people thrive. Laura is also a registered yoga teacher and leads transformational retreats around the world where she helps leaders build self-awareness, empathy, and resilience.
(4:28) - Origin story for Thrive Leadership. (7:56) - Laura’s personal burnout experience. (10:38) - How do you define stress? (15:59) - What’s the difference between stress and trauma? (22:33) - Power dynamics at work & corporate trauma. (26:49) - Understanding flow. (32:04) - How should we be thinking about resilience? (34:52) - Meditation and mindfulness as resilience tools. (40:23) - What does Thrive help build resilience? (43:15) - What’s the difference between striving and thriving? (46:57) - How do we keep our edge while letting go of the outcome? (55:36) - What are you sick of talking about? (56:08) - What would you like people to know about corporate trauma and corporate burnout? (57:53) - What does a work environment look like when people are thriving? (59:11) - What is the purpose of business? (1:00:28) - Where can people find you?
15 Feb 2022
Everyone Deserves Access w/ Jo Marini
00:54:13
Jo Marini is the CEO of Mother Superior, a venture foundry focused on bringing VC money and support to underrepresented entrepreneurs. The wheels in her head began turning during her MBA when she found out that 98% of VC investment goes to well-connected white men. Jo quickly realized that women, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, individuals over 60, and disabled people barely figure in the stats. Mother Superior is setting out to share the wealth, be it through knowledge, time, skills, or money.
Time Codes: (2:30) - The origin of Mother Superior. (4:41) - What was it about your MBA program that made it non-traditional? (8:42) - What do the people who come to Mother Superior look like? (10:36) - The importance of making things personal. (12:55) - What types of ideas are your clients trying to bring into the world? (15:03) - What is a social impact venture? (15:58) - Do you have any examples of how businesses structure themselves for social impact? (17:48) - What is a common good agreement? (21:13) - How should people be thinking about their impact? (24:12) - What’s the criticism you’re facing in your work? (25:37) - What are the big friction points you see holding people back from investing in Mother Superior? (29:14) - Implementing true systemic change. (33:21) - Do you have any examples of how your operating systems ripples out to create businesses that run in different ways? (36:26) - Working within constraints. (39:01) - Do the founders you work with come to you wanting to work within your constraints or are they just looking for a path to the market? (39:47) - Where Mother Superior is headed in the future. (43:07) - What are you most excited to be talking about? (44:11) - What are you sick of talking about? (45:07) - What do you mean by “accessing the world”? (52:15) - What is the purpose of business?
22 Feb 2022
Setting the House Rules w/ Jen Alessandra
00:58:27
Jen Alessandra is the Chief People Officer at FrontDoor. Starting in 2019, she guided the company through a rapid and complete transformation into a virtual-first workforce while preserving their strong, adaptable, and action-oriented culture. She is an expert in all aspects of people strategy, including learning, DEI, engagement, and more. In this conversation, Jen explains how FrontDoor built its people strategy from the ground up (pun intended).
Quote - “Small minds discuss people. Average minds discuss events. Great minds discuss ideas.” - Elanor Roosevelt
Time Codes:
(3:29) - Jen’s origin story in HR Leadership. (4:20) - What initially drew you to Social Work? (6:17) - What did you learn from Social Work about setting emotional boundaries? (8:35) - What is the role of HR? (10:34) - What are the principles you use to keep people motivated? (12:23) - How do you scale individual attention? (14:16) - How did you create a common language across the organization? (17:20) - How do you structure your pulse surveys? (20:17) - What have you learned from studying the future of the workforce? (22:09) - Thoughts on creating a culture. (23:22) - Creating time boundaries when piloting programs. (24:18) - How have you managed the ongoing uncertainty of Covid-19? (26:18) - The importance of slowing down to speed up. (28:39) - Setting boundaries at work during the pandemic. (30:11) - Do you have any rituals for disconnecting? (31:51) - Integrating psychology and behavior science in HR. (34:51) - What have you learned about communication that has surprised you? (36:02) - How do you hold the line when it comes to accountability and performance? (38:21) - How are you communicating OKRs? (Objectives and Key Results) (41:19) - Balancing how much a company defines guidelines and roles. (46:20) - What do you believe about people or business that might be contrarian? (47:12) - Helping people receive hard feedback. (48:44) - What are you sick of talking about? (50:29) - What aren’t people talking about enough? (55:26) - What is the purpose of business? (57:16) - Wrap up and final thoughts.
01 Mar 2022
Caring For Others w/ Dr. Paul Spradley
01:07:42
Dr. Paul Spradley is a Certified Diversity Practitioner and the current Vice President of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for Dollar Bank where he supports their ongoing commitment to an inclusive culture across the Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia markets. Prior to joining Dollar Bank, Paul started the Diversity and Inclusion training firm, Care Based Leadership which is now being led by his wife, Dr. Jessica Spradley.
Time Codes: (3:26) - Paul’s background and journey into DE&I (8:13) - What were your preconceived notions about working in the inner-city? (17:44) - Cognitive dissonance in dealing with harsh realities. (21:15) - Does equality have to feel like a takeaway from those who've had it good? (24:19) - The importance of word choice (ex. "white supremacy"). (29:25) - How can people of all colors come together and ultimately win? (37:59) - Reversing the growing selfishness of society. (48:08) - Why would a company care about DEI? (50:31) - What is a Diversity Officer’s role? (53:29) - Where are companies making mistakes when implementing this work? (55:11) - What do you believe about people or business that might be contrarian? (57:49) - What are you sick of talking about? (1:01:44) - Is there a country out there that’s a great example of a multicultural society? (1:03:13) - What is the purpose of business?
08 Mar 2022
Starting the Conversation w/ Marion Abrams
00:58:24
Marion Abrams is a podcasting coach & consultant with deep experience in podcasting and content creation. She co-created Spartan Race’s official podcast, Spartan Up (now boasting over 35 million views & downloads) and has worked on a range of projects from social media advisor on a gubernatorial campaign, to creating the documentary film Flood Bound, to directing TV ads for Vermont Lottery. On her podcast, Grounded Content, she explores what drives customer actions, and where the lines are between persuasion and manipulation.
Time Codes: (3:20) - Should everyone be their own content creator? When does it not make sense? (6:29) - How did you come to be an expert on content creation? (9:13) - Thoughts on being a jack-of-all-trades vs. having a niche. (13:15) - What is Mad Motion? (20:04) - How does someone determine a good resource from a bad one? (23:16) - How did you learn to be effective in podcasting? (28:27) - What advice do you have for someone dealing with the angst of starting to build a presence online? (31:21) - Showing different parts of the same persona online. (33:00) - Exercises to help people find their voice. (36:01) - How should we think about aligning ourselves as people with the business content we put out? (38:38) - What’s the process for finding out the best way to craft a person’s message? (42:14) - Marion’s 5 P’s (51:15) - Do you have any contrarian beliefs? (53:29) - What are you most sick of talking about? (54:18) - What are you most excited to be talking about? (54:47) - What is the purpose of business? (55:59) - Wrap up and find out how to find Marion.
15 Mar 2022
The Great Reckoning w/ Jason Lauritsen
00:55:19
Jason Lauritsen is transforming management as a keynote speaker, trainer, and author. He liberates managers from outdated and inhumane practices so they can cultivate human potential at work and improve people’s lives. Jason’s advice and teachings are informed by decades of experience as an entrepreneur, corporate executive, and employee engagement researcher. He also spent several years leading the Best Places to Work program for an HR technology company, where he gained deep insight into some of the best workplaces in the world.
(3:02) - How would you describe the state of work today? (4:20) - What’s your origin story? (6:32) - What is the “hot mess” we’ve all been living and working in? (10:11) - Where are we going with the future of work? (17:47) - How do we balance the “we” and the “me” aspect of work? (27:33) - The hierarchy of employee needs. (32:07) - Creating clarity around values. (40:12) - How do you see companies shifting effectively (and ineffectively) right now? (45:40) - Why should we care about any of this in the first place? (49:33) - What is the purpose of business? (52:52) - Where can people engage with you?
22 Mar 2022
Why They Buy w/ Kristin Zhivago
00:57:39
Kristin Zhivago is President of Zhivago Partners, a digital marketing management company. She is an expert on the customer’s buying process and has spent years as a revenue coach, teaching CEOs and entrepreneurs how to sell more by understanding what their customers want to buy and how they want to buy it. She is the author of the 5-star book, Roadmap to Revenue: How to Sell the Way Your Customers Want to Buy, named one of the top sales and marketing books by Forbes.
(2:48) - What is it like to wake up alone in the middle of the ocean? (11:40) - How does one become a Revenue Coach? (15:01) - How have you used your method to determine your own strengths and weaknesses? (17:45) - How does this work apply to a department selling their work internally? (26:04) - Are there core principles that people are looking for when they buy? (30:44) - Do you find that the desires, concerns, and questions are the same from clients who buy from one specific company? (32:37) - What are the base characteristics needed to lump someone into a buyer group? (33:53) - What advice do you have to get through to people who are dealing with burnout and may not want to talk to you? (41:35) - What mistakes are you seeing people in your field make? (42:48) - How often do you find that people can’t articulate why they do or don’t buy? (49:03) - What are you sick of talking about? (50:31) - What are you most excited to be talking about? (53:02) - Why is the word “love” such a hang-up? (55:25) - What is the purpose of business? (56:07) - Where can people find you?
29 Mar 2022
Hosting Dinner Parties & Building Successful Careers w/ Scott Miller
01:03:53
Scott Miller is a business leader, author, and podcast host as well as Senior Advisor to FranklinCovey. If that name rings a bell, it’s because their founder, Steven Covey, wrote the book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Scott’s books include Management Mess to Leadership Success, Everyone Deserves a Great Manager, and Master Mentors, among others. On his podcast, On Leadership with Scott Miller, he interviews expert guests like Adam Grant, James Clear, and General Stanley McChrystal, among others on what it takes to lead.
(3:35) - Scott’s famed dinner parties: The guests, the purpose, the format and the layout. (19:02) - Scott’s Origin story working for Franklin Covey. (22:01) - How did working for a leadership development company help you develop as a leader? (32:49) - Having a path for yourself, your people and working to retain talent. (38:29) - Identifying your personal values. (43:10) - Values fluctuate very little, but the expression of those values can fluctuate greatly over time. (45:48) - How do you think about work-life balance? (49:28) - How do leaders help their teams set and keep boundaries? (53:07) - Being on the best team vs. Being the best on the team. (1:00:49) - What is the purpose of business? (1:02:22) - Where can people learn more about you?
05 Apr 2022
Getting to the Truth & Building High Performers w/ Jim Connolly
01:01:55
Jim Connolly is Founder & CEO of ILR, LLC (www.IndustryLeadingResults.com), an organizational behavior consulting practice. Jim’s expertise in human behavior and organizational process helps companies hire the right talent and close the gap between performance and results. He has worked with over a hundred companies and completed more than 2,700 behavioral interviews. He has honed a process that can tell you today what you’ll know about an employee six months after you hire them. He is highly skilled at completing an in-depth analysis of a person’s qualifications, strengths, and character.
(3:10) - What is the difference between a Doctorate and a PhD? (4:59) - What field are you getting your Doctorate in? (6:07) - What are the problems are you solving for companies? (8:07) - Are there people who are programmed to be explorers and those who are not? (10:15) - Jim’s work in Change Management. (13:45) - What are the best practices for behavioral interviewing? (35:43) - How should employers be thinking about developing their people? (39:29) - Can you build average people into high-performers? (43:11) - How do you think about "drive" as a personality trait? (46:54) - What’s the right way to think about training people to become high performers? (57:39) - What is the purpose of business?
12 Apr 2022
Flourishing Every Day w/ Michael Balchan
01:04:08
Michael Balchan is the Co-Creator and a Founding Partner of Heroic, a social training platform built to change the world by helping you be the best, most Heroic version of yourself. A Harvard Graduate who studied Psychology and Economics, Michael spent ten years in finance and then launched a private coaching practice working with corporate executives, elite athletes, and startup leadership teams. As President of Heroic’s sister company and personal development platform Optimize Coach, he helped launch and lead the program, which serves more than 5,500+ people from 95+ countries. Michael regularly teaches personal growth, positive psychology, peak performance, habit creation, wellness, relationships, and leadership.
Time Codes: (2:59) - What does it mean to flourish? (6:25) - What role are you trying to play in flourishing? (10:25) - Targeted Thinking, Morgan Housel, & John Wooden. (20:11) - O’Brien’s wedding: Something will go wrong. (26:07) - Stimulus & response. (28:21) - Combating stress that drains your focus. (38:24) - Building confidence. (42:03) -The importance of energy management. (51:34) - Social Media & technology addiction. (1:01:44) - Final thoughts.
19 Apr 2022
The Entrepreneur's Attorney w/ Tricia Meyer
00:52:04
Tricia Meyer is the Founder and Managing Attorney of Meyer Law, one of the fastest-growing law firms in the United States. Meyer helps entrepreneurs and technology companies from startups to large corporations, Shark Tank contestants to companies gracing the Inc. 500. Tricia has been named on the Forbes Next 1000 list, is one of the Most Influential Female Lawyers in Chicago according to Crain’s Chicago Business, and has been recognized as a top 10 technology lawyer. As an entrepreneur, attorney, and mother to a large family Tricia has a unique perspective. In this conversation, we cover a little bit of everything, including legal pitfalls, advice for entrepreneurs, and how to blend the chaos of work and family life.
(3:02) - Tricia’s background starting her own business and positioning it as a tech company. (9:32) - How much of your time in law school is spent on contracts and the way laws work vs. negotiation and strategy? (13:30) - How should decision-makers and business leaders approach their attorneys? (14:52) - Where can there be great partnerships between business leaders and attorneys outside of contracts? (17:03) - What is your approach to negotiations? (18:28) - What’s your husband’s background in entrepreneurship and how did you both get onto this career path? (20:48) - What were the conversations like when you decided to start your first business together? (24:13) - What do you believe about business that is controversial? (29:27) - Was there something about your childhood that instilled your work ethic and confidence? How do you foster that within your own team? (34:10) - How do you think about the balance of building your businesses and raising a large family? (39:16) - Setting boundaries and being able to say “no.” (42:43) - How do you think about sacrifice, when it comes to work and family? (47:17) - What are you sick of talking about? (48:15) - What are you most excited to be talking about? (49:25) - What aren’t people talking about enough? (50:30) - What is the purpose of business?
26 Apr 2022
Building Brand Loyalty w/ Skot Waldron
00:51:38
Skot Waldron helps businesses and business leaders market and communicate with their internal customers; their employees. With 20+ years in brand development, Skot has turned his focus from external to internal as he applies the lessons of great branding to the employee experience. He has worked with large companies like Royal Caribbean, The Coca Cola Company, and JP Morgan Chase as well as small businesses and entrepreneurs in one-on-one coaching. In this conversation, Skot outlines the steps to his process and gives listeners ideas for identifying and improving their culture and brand.
(3:27) - Skot’s origin story. (4:58) - How do you define marketing and branding? (6:08) - Is brand synonymous with reputation? (9:02) - Where do you start with clients to begin creating internal branding and marketing? (13:25) - What happens when clients get negative feedback about themselves? (15:51) - How hard or easy is it for groups to hear negative feedback from you? (18:20) - What do some “ah-ha” moments look like? (20:55) - How do you define leadership communication? (24:40) - What coaching do you give to someone who needs to be better at "pulling"? (34:56) - What coaching do you give to someone who needs to be better at "pushing"? (50:11) - How can people get in touch with you?
(3:26) - What is hype? (5:42) - When did hype become something you wanted to dedicate your career to? (8:59) - How should the everyday person be thinking about hype? (12:26) - How does someone find the right audience for their message? (15:06) - “Make war, not love.” (20:22) - How does someone pick fights if they don't like conflict? (23:43) - Do you have exercises for this? (24:57) - “Create your own secret society.” (31:27) - Re-thinking how you network. (44:42) - What type of language resonates most with people? (49:37) - How can people add theatricality to a business setting? (55:28) - Michael’s take on the phrase “Under-promise & Over-deliver.” (1:04:10) - Where can people find you?
10 May 2022
Data Drive DEI w/ Laura McGee
00:55:54
Laura McGee is the founder and CEO of Diversio, a people analytics company that uses artificial intelligence to help organizations become more inclusive. With offices in Toronto, New York, and London, Diversio was recognized by Fast Company as a “World Changing Idea: Data and AI” in 2021. Prior to Diversio, Laura was a consultant at McKinsey & Company with a focus on economic growth. She was named a Top 25 Women of Influence in 2017 and holds multiple Board positions, including Global Citizen, University of Waterloo, Ted Rogers School of Management, and ArcTern Ventures.
(3:15) - What brought you to DEI work? (6:18) - What does it mean to use AI to read data? (8:31) - Do you have an example of this algorithm being used in practice? (10:00) - How do you filter between issues from employees that stem from home vs. those that stem from the workplace? (13:17) - Diversio’s survey techniques and data trends. (15:12) - How do you identify the things a client needs to do well? (18:47) - How do you effectively implement pilot programs? (22:31) - What does the deliverable look like that a client sees when you go through a survey? (24:56) - What have been some of the biggest surprises you’ve seen doing this work? (28:07) - Are most of the issues you see caused purposefully or due to ignorance? (32:25) - What types of disabilities or mental illness are you seeing as being included the least in the workplace? (35:11) - What recommendations are you making for employers when it comes to mental health? (37:04) - What is neurodiversity? (37:33) - How do you respond to someone saying that there are simply too many sub-groups to effectively affirm everyone’s differences and still effectively run a business? (40:23) - Open source solutions for people who are motivated to start this work (42:34) - What were the conversations like when deciding to open source your work? (45:34) - What are the biggest hurdles you see companies facing even with all this data in hand? (46:44) - How are companies effectively implementing your feedback and solutions? (47:34) - Why would companies use this tool as a risk assessment? (50:12) - What are you sick of talking about? (52:23) - What are you most excited to be talking about? (53:11) - What do you think people are not talking enough about? (53:46) - What is the purpose of business?
17 May 2022
Remote Done Right w/ Liam Martin
01:15:45
Liam Martin believes we have corrupted "work from home" and turned it into "living at work". He wants to correct those mistakes and help companies run remote the right way. Liam is a serial entrepreneur who runs Time Doctor and Staff.com — one of the most popular time tracking and productivity software platforms in use by top brands today. He is also a co-organizer of the world's largest remote work conference — Running Remote — and has a book out by the same name, helping business leaders put these practices in place in their organizations.
(3:25) - Liam’s thesis for Remote Work. (6:05) - Why do you believe remote work is a viable option and what are the rules for a good remote working environment? (12:27) - Turning “working from home” into “living at work.” (14:04) - How did you learn how to set boundaries for Remote Work? (17:12) - Remote Work’s impact on the Great Resignation (21:46) - What is the role of teams coming together in person? (25:34) - What is different about management in an asynchronous organization vs. on-site? (36:35) - The open-source aspect of asynchronous management. (40:10) - What personality types would struggle with remote work? (44:00) - How can we build relationships without being face to face with people? (49:41) - How are you training your people? (1:01:39) - Is there any struggle in the asynchronous model when a team member works with people outside the organization? (1:10:58) - What is the purpose of business? (1:14:14) - Where can people find and engage with you?
24 May 2022
World Class Leaders w/ Andrea Petrone
01:02:09
Andrea Petrone is an Executive Coach, Strategic Advisor, Facilitator, and Speaker. He helps CEOs and other C-Suite leaders in the mid-market to drive growth and performance by leading change, building transformational teams, and designing winning strategies.
Before launching his advisory firm, Andrea held C-suite executive roles for more than 20 yrs at the international level. He worked in six countries and three continents primarily in the Oil and Energy, Industrial, and Consulting sectors.
Andrea hosts the popular podcast "The World Class Leaders Show" where he and his guests deconstruct the success of high-performance leaders, share their stories and teach the most effective strategies to move from average to greatness. Andrea is originally Italian and he lives in London, UK.
Time Codes: (3:10) - What are the misconceptions about Executive Coaching? (5:55) - What questions do you get from leaders when you first engage with them? (8:44) - How many frameworks do you deploy in your work? (9:58) - Could you give an example of one of your frameworks? (15:25) - How are your clients held accountable? (20:22) - How do you get leaders to open up to the fact that they have weaknesses? (26:16) - Do you have any methods for easing someone’s ego? (30:17) - Where do you start when working with teams? (36:59) - What are some great methods for assessing teams? (41:50) - What have you found to be best practices for creating an environment of psychological safety? (49:07) - What do you notice are the biggest differences in how teams and leaders operate around the world? (53:51) - What lessons have you learned in doing your podcast? (59:11) - What is the purpose of business? (1:00:10) - How can people engage with you online?
07 Jun 2022
Great Ideas Float to the Surface w/ Amanda Greenberg
00:56:31
Amanda Greenberg is the CEO and Co-Founder of Balloon, a platform that unlocks ideas, insights, and feedback by eliminating groupthink and amplifying unheard voices. Prior to founding Balloon, she served as a public health researcher in Washington, D.C., where she developed behavior change campaigns for the EPA and CDC under then-Vice President Joe Biden. Amanda is an expert in the barriers to true collaboration and how groups can get past them to make better decisions.
(2:42) - Why are groups making worse decisions than they think? (4:57) - What is the standard group decision-making process? (7:26) - What is Balloon? (10:10) - Can you define how you run a flight asynchronously? (11:46) - Are these flights just for brainstorming or is there a longer use case? (15:36) - Is there an option for anonymity in the feedback that goes to leaders? (17:33) - What are some of the most frequent or most impactful biases you see? (22:46) - What are your thoughts on the power of gut feeling vs. group collaboration? (26:33) - How does the extra “question clarification” part of sessions get built into a flight? (28:36) - How have you built out templates for starting conversations? (32:54) - Do you have examples of what this new way of working looks like? (35:40) - Is there a certain personality type that doesn’t do well with Balloon? (38:29) - What have you learned about creativity from your research? (43:46) - When do we get to come together and for what purpose as remote workers? (48:25) - Is there anything Balloon offers to help people test out ideas or pilots? (50:58) - What are you sick of talking about? (52:52) - What interests you the most within your work? (54:19) - What is the purpose of business? (55:05) - How can people learn more about Balloon?
14 Jun 2022
Parental Leave Leadership w/ Amy Beacom & Sue Campbell
00:59:45
Dr. Amy Beacom is the Founder and CEO of the Center for Parental Leave Leadership. She and Sue Campbell, along with the rest of their team, are on a mission to improve parental leave in America by coaching companies on how best to navigate this trying time. In a time when workplaces are adapting to a more human-centered approach, they offer relevant lessons on co-authorship and servant leadership.
(4:26) - Why would you choose parental leave as a career path? (9:54) - O’Brien’s interest in Parental Leave. (15:39) - The history of Parental Leave (19:42) - Where are we today with Parental Leave? (27:12) - How do you advise companies on improving their PL policies? (33:48) - If managers had really strong soft-skill training, how much would parental leave training be needed? (38:40) - How do you help build empathy in managers? (46:49) - What are best practices for touch points while someone is out on leave? (51:37) - What are you sick of talking about? (53:38) - What is the purpose of business? (57:54) - Where can people find and engage with you?
21 Jun 2022
The Power of Small Groups w/ Randy Haykin
01:01:42
Randy is a coach, serial entrepreneur, angel investor, vintner, and philanthropist who lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area. He coaches CEOs around the country and was a former lead coach with Vistage, where he built and led a group of 16 CEOs. In 2013, Randy founded the philanthropic venture The Gratitude Network, a leadership development organization supporting the world’s most dynamic and innovative nonprofit leaders and organizations impacting the lives of children in the areas of Education, Health and Well-Being, and Children’s Rights.
(3:30) - Randy’s backstory on becoming a coach for CEOs. (5:07) - When you think of a CEO, what image comes to your mind? (7:12) - What percent of CEOs would you say are self-reflective individuals? (10:00) - What are the common challenges you see CEO’s facing today? (13:42) - Are CEOs really bought in and committed to DE&I rather than just seeing it as a trend to keep up with? (16:26) - Where do you start when you begin working with a CEO? (20:16) - How do you walk someone through goal setting? (28:04) - Do you see the people you work with naturally understanding and gravitating to your methods? (32:39) - Could you outline your 4 C’s framework? (37:14) - How did you set up The Gratitude Network? (42:36) - The value of doing a Cohort group. (48:30) - Why did you choose the word Gratitude? (51:36) - What advice do you have for people to craft something meaningful in their lives? (56:17) - How do you do a good job when you have a lot of jobs? (1:00:38) - Wrap up
28 Jun 2022
Think Like a Futurist w/ Rebecca Ryan
01:09:38
Rebecca Ryan is a noted futurist, economist, best-selling author, and entrepreneur. She is the founder of NEXT Generation Consulting through which she partners with private and public sector leaders across the country. Looking a generation ahead, she outlines strategies in urban planning, economic development, and workforce development to ensure communities are well equipped for future trends and challenges. Rebecca is a graduate of Drake University with a certificate in Strategic Foresight from the University of Houston. She is on the Executive Committee of the global Association of Professional Futurists.
(3:00) - What is a futurist, and what does your work look like? (6:30) - Are there any other ways you try to simplify your work? (10:38) - How do you know which weak signals to pay attention to? (12:58) - What is your process for scanning all of this data and information in your futurist work? (16:35) - What are the mechanics for predicting the future? (21:35) - What does a project look like that a business might bring you in for? (27:09) - Do you have an example of a project that you’ve done? (29:29) - How do you sit with a group to help them shake up their point of view? (34:35) - What are some of the common biases you see getting in the way of corporate decision-making? (37:47) - What’s the best way for people to practice breaking their biases? (42:32) - A real-world example from O'Brien's life. (50:26) - How do you advise people to think about Black Swans? (57:37) - The Strategy Paradox. (1:01:01) - What trends are you paying attention to when it comes to human resources? (1:04:46) - What is the purpose of business? (1:06:04) - How can people find and engage with you online?
12 Jul 2022
Lessons Learned w/ Chris McMahon
01:04:42
For our 100th episode, we have a special guest. Chris McMahon is the owner of McMahon Ford in Norwalk, CT. He was O'Brien's first boss, his first sales leader, and has been a lifelong mentor. He's also O'Brien's father. He joins the show to talk about the lessons he's learned over his career as a salesperson, manager, and business owner.
Time Codes:
(0:58) - Introducing Episode #100 (2:22) - Chris’ background and career beginnings. (6:21) - Have car dealers always had a bad reputation? (8:18) - What did you learn about sales in your first job with a dealership? (16:36) - What was your experience like as a sales/general manager? (24:35) - How did you become an owner? (26:21) - What did you learn from your business mentors? (30:40) - What led you to leave a great opportunity to chase a riskier one? (34:59) - Did your mentors ever discuss their business philosophies? (37:00) - Taking over one of the worst-performing dealerships in the state. (38:12) - What was your experience like venturing out on your own? (42:06) - How did you lead through tough times in the business? (51:31) - What did you hope to teach your children by having them work at the dealership? (1:02:03) - What is the purpose of business?
19 Jul 2022
When Everything but the Mission Needs to Change w/ Meetup CEO David Siegel
01:08:54
David Siegel is the CEO of Meetup, the largest platform for finding and building local communities. He has 25 years of experience as a technology and digital media executive leading organizations through innovative product development, rapid revenue growth, and digital traffic acceleration. Prior to joining Meetup, David was CEO of Investopedia and before that, President of Seeking Alpha. He is an adjunct professor at Columbia University, teaching strategic planning and entrepreneurship. He is the author of Decide & Conquer: 44 Decisions That Make or Break All Leaders and hosts the podcast Keep Connected, which is dedicated to the power of community.
(4:02) - When did your core principles become clear to you? (9:44) - Have you done anything since writing the book to apply your values day-to-day? (12:35) - Writing and reflecting on your career journey to help you grow. (14:54) - Interviewing for a leadership role. (19:23) - How do you deal with the fear that comes with a new leadership role? (21:56) - What is a process plan versus a business plan? (25:42) - What are the different frameworks you use and why are they important? (30:19) - Why was moving fast so important to you? (37:28) - WarTime & PeaceTime CEOs. (45:55) - How do you create luck? (49:01) - What are some examples of decisions you’ve made that led to doors opening or doors closing? (57:38) - How do you create a successful community? (1:04:08) - What is the purpose of business?
26 Jul 2022
Developing the Team w/ Ryan McCrea
00:59:16
Ryan McCrea is passionate about helping others own their career. He is currently the Head of Career Development at Atlassian, leading development and mobility programs for a growing global technology company with more than 7,000 employees. Prior to Atlassian, Ryan was Vice President and Manager of Talent Development at Commerce Bank where he built their corporate-wide professional development program from scratch.
Time Codes: (2:49) - How does one become a Learning & Development Leader? (4:16) - What drew you to this aspect within HR? (4:59) - How have you developed your knowledge base? (6:38) - Where does a company start to develop its internal training? (10:10) - How do you get buy-in from organizational leaders? (12:13) - What skills have you developed to have an impact in your role? (14:06) - What do you see as the staples of being a good marketer? (17:28) - How do you structure learning environments? (21:26) - What are you seeing when it comes to attention spans in employees? (24:56) - Do you consider yourself a niche expert or a jack-of-all-trades? (31:41) - Do you have an example of using the Agile framework for building programs? (36:42) - What is a Scrum Master? (37:53) - Is part of Agile breaking the entire process down into micro-steps? (39:27) - How do you build recovery into your processes? (41:52) - What’s the right way to roll out a Pilot? (45:28) - How do you test and demonstrate ROI? (48:54) - Where do you see leadership changing? (56:53) - What is the purpose of business? (58:13) - Where can people connect with you?
02 Aug 2022
Finding Your Power & Overcoming Exclusion w/ Francine Parham
00:56:32
Francine Parham is a career expert focused on female leadership and the advancement of women and women of color into positions of leadership and authority in the workplace. Having spent two decades in the corporate sector advancing to the position of global vice president in two Fortune 500 companies (General Electric and Johnson & Johnson), Francine understands the importance of having the right skills (explicit and implicit) for career success. Francine’s experience being one of few Black women at her level resulted in her founding Francine Parham & Co.
(3:09) - Francine’s origin story. (5:15) - Does your work shore up skills gaps or opportunities gaps? (8:14) - What are the pieces of an organization’s infrastructure that are creating boundaries for certain groups of people? (15:38) - How should a leader be thinking in a way that allows for growing their business but also closing opportunity gaps? (19:14) - What should people’s goals be when seeking to improve their DEI? (24:58) - How would you guide a client to deal with blowback from groups not selected for focus on advancement? (29:38) - What are your goals for your book? (36:26) - How should aspiring professionals think about power in a corporate environment? (41:51) - Do you have an example of how two companies have valued different things? (52:32) - What is the purpose of business? (55:18) - Wrap up.
Time Codes: (4:25) - What prompted you to write a book? (6:35) - What are the biggest misconceptions from first-time leaders in organizations? (9:30) - What changes do new leaders need to make as they step into these roles? (11:24) - Do you have tips for organizing your priorities? (14:28) - How should leaders change how they think about their place in the bigger picture of an organization? (20:09) - Can you speak to what it means to prove yourself as a new leader? (29:04) - How should a new leader deal with mistakes they make? (33:29) - How should leaders react when their team makes a mistake? (36:57) - If you don’t have formal coaches or mentors, how should leaders build mentoring into their practices? (43:19) - Do you see younger millennials struggling with interpersonal communication? (45:55) - Do you have any tips for improving communication skills? (50:16) - How often do you see imposter syndrome? (56:55) - Why would success scare someone? (1:02:23) - What is the purpose of business? (1:04:31) - Wrap up.
16 Aug 2022
Reach Your Peak w/ Bryan Gillette
01:02:35
Bryan Gillette is a former Silicon Valley human resource executive, founder of his own leadership consulting business, and amateur ultra-endurance athlete. He has ridden his bike across the United States and run 205 miles around Lake Tahoe. After interviewing 100 leaders on how they reach their peak and from his own experience in both roles, he wrote EPIC Performance: Lessons from 100 Executives and Endurance Athletes on Reaching Your Peak. In his speaking engagements and podcast interviews, he talks about the key aspects to push oneself and one’s team further.
(3:04) - What is an "ultra" and why would anyone run that far? (5:33) - What is your day job? (6:42) - How do you coach clients to pick their goals? How do you pick your goals? (9:02) - Do you have any exercises for thinking about values? (15:53) - How do you help clients prioritize their goals? (18:53) - How do you get your clients to their starting line? (25:34) - How do you get people to stick to their stretch goals? (33:07) - Overcoming the pull to quit when you're tired. (41:08) - How does training for a marathon translate to business goals? (48:22) - What are you sick of talking about? (52:08) - What aren’t people talking enough about when it comes to performance? (55:19) - What is the purpose of life?
(2:42) - What is the origin story for Pavilion? (10:02) - What makes a good dinner club? (19:01) - Did you get any feedback from the group on what they valued the most? (20:23) - How do you think about the value you bring as a member of a community and the value you will be getting from the community? (27:16) - Was there an inflection point in your career that led you to operate this way? (37:31) - What more can you share with us about your forthcoming book? (40:07) - What are you sick of talking about? (44:53) - What is the purpose of business? (46:15) - Final thoughts.
30 Aug 2022
Life's a Stage w/ Billie Shepard
00:49:12
Billie Shepard has been a professional actor and coach for over forty years. Through Billie Shepard & Associates, she leverages her acting experience and unique training methods to transform corporate speakers into influential leaders. This includes both in-person and virtual presentation skills, both of which are crucial in today’s business environment. She presents her methods in her book The Billie Shepard Presentation Method.
Time Codes: (2:29) - What makes a good actor? (6:22) - How do you define intention? (11:13) - How do you coach business people to set their intentions? (20:19) - What’s the difference between being honest and truthful? (24:18) - How do you coach people to find the right energy for a presentation? (28:35) - What are the simplest exercises someone can do to get their body engaged without drawing too much attention to themselves? (36:27) - How do improv skills relate to business presentations? (44:12) - When you think about your work, what are you sick of talking about? (45:26) - What aren’t people paying enough attention to? (45:57) - What is the purpose of business? (47:58) - Where is the best place for people to find and engage with you?
13 Sep 2022
Get Your Mind Right w/ Kevin Bailey
00:47:32
Kevin Bailey is the founder and CEO of Dreamfuel, a company that helps high-performers and their teams get the mental edge they need to exceed their goals and fuel the long game.
Time Codes:
(1:50) - What is the Dream Fuel origin story? (5:18) - How do you define mindset? (6:38) - What’s the difference between emotions and feelings? (14:52) - Mindset and mental performance in corporate athletes (19:53) - How do you monitor your vitality? (21:40) - Where can someone get started in improving their performance? (24:58) - What are the right and wrong ways to meditate? (32:23) - What is visualization? (37:59) - Where is the line between visualization and manifesting? (40:37) - When is the best time to visualize? (43:19) - How do you help your clients make this part of their identity? (44:44) - What are you sick of talking about? (45:53) - What is the purpose of business?
15 Sep 2022
Bonus Episode: Warrior Rising
00:31:16
In this special episode, Andy Riise returns to the podcast joined by retired Navy SEAL Jon Macaskill and retired Green Beret Jason Van Camp. Andy (Army) and Jon (Navy) are competing in a half ironman to raise awareness (and money) for Warrior Rising, a nonprofit helping veterans become entrepreneurs. The military-to-civilian transition can be tough and Warrior Rising is arming those who served with the skills they need to build a business and serve their communities.
If you enjoy this episode, I hope you will join the People Business team in donating to their efforts. Click the link to get in on the fun and support your favorite service branch: https://www.warriorrising.org/armyvnavy2022/
Time Codes:
(2:11) - Introductions: Andy & John (6:55) - Where is the overlap between mindfulness and mental toughness? (8:36) - Introductions: Jason Van Camp (9:49) - What was the genesis for starting Warrior Rising? (12:35) - What is the challenge and how did it come to be? (19:26) - How did you reorient your life around such a massive challenge like this? (22:14) - How do you help veterans understand the consistency required to build a business?(24:34) - How do you think about friendly competition and striking the balance between community and competitiveness? (26:41) - What are some other specifics of the challenge and how Warrior Rising is helping veterans?
20 Sep 2022
Remote First w/ Iwo Szapar
00:38:28
Iwo Szapar is the Co-founder and CEO of Remote-how, the world's leading marketplace with remote & hybrid work experts. Since 2017, he has advised 600+ companies (including Walmart, ING Bank, and Microsoft) to help them optimize their distributed workforce. As a remote work expert, he co-created "Remote-how Academy," - the world's first certification program for remote teams, and co-hosts the annual Remote Future Summit. Iwo wrote the book "Remote Work Is The Way - a guide to making the most of our office-optional future," and was featured in Forbes, BBC, and Business Insider.
Time Codes: (2:34) - What’s your origin story with remote working? (6:23) - Do you have a specific definition for Remote Work? (9:31) - How should leaders considering remote work be thinking about culture and aspects of a business that are really built with in-person interactions? (16:43) - Is there jealousy or animosity between employees when there are roles that absolutely require you to be in person? (20:23) - What needs to change in a company that has previously not been remote-first? (29:03) - Who do you see being accountable for making the shift to remote-first within a company? (31:04) - What results are you seeing from companies who are testing out a 4-day workweek model? (33:42) - Does better measurement mean we need better project management software? (35:59) - What is the purpose of business? (36:40) - Where can people get in touch with you?
27 Sep 2022
Using AI at Work w/ Kavita Ganesan
00:47:41
Kavita Ganesan is the founder of Opinosis Analytics and an AI strategist, educator, and consultant. The author of A Business Case for AI, Kavita educates and advises businesses of all sizes, from Fortune 500 to small businesses, on better ways to utilize artificial intelligence in their work.
Topics: (1:50) - How do you define Artificial Intelligence? (3:51) - What is the goal of AI? (4:39) - Where are we today with what AI can and cannot do? (6:32) - Where do you see businesses begin to implement AI? (10:13) - Is it reasonable to fear that AI will automate out people’s jobs? (12:20) - How are the best companies upskilling their employees now that they have more time for productivity? (15:08) - What mistakes do companies make when implementing AI? (17:04) - How do you monitor and test programs? (18:12) - How do you advise companies on potential biases within AI code? (21:55) - How difficult is it to implement AI into a workflow? (25:36) - Do you see AI systems being used for external or internal use? (26:21) - Who do you see owning AI decisions? (27:28) - What are the costs of creating an AI system for a company? (29:45) - How did you get into the AI space? (32:13) - What’s being built today that we will see in the next 15 years? (36:34) - How do you feel about machines becoming as intelligent as humans? (38:37) - How do you see companies dealing with the ethical challenges of AI? (42:26) - What are you sick of talking about? (43:46) - What are you most excited about? (44:30) - What is the purpose of business? (45:54) - Where can people find you?
04 Oct 2022
How We Learn w/ Teri Hart
00:50:47
What do you mean learning styles aren't real? Teri Hart is a corporate learning executive with 25+ years of experience in learning and development at top companies. She is also the author of Hardwired to Learn: Leveraging the Self-Sustaining Power of Lifelong Learning. In this conversation, Teri dispels myths about how people learn and shares practical ways individuals can learn better and companies can better educate their people.
(1:46) - What does it mean to be a lifelong learner? (3:36) - What portion of the population that you see are proactive in learning? (6:28) - What are some of the most common myths surrounding learning? (9:29) - What do you mean that there are no learning styles? (13:07) - How much of the sentiment that we stop learning as adults are just us not wanting to look stupid, or do something hard? (18:45) - How do you cultivate a culture of curiosity and vulnerability? (22:04) - How do you coach people to recognize they’ve been closed off? Is it possible to spark their intrinsic motivation? (28:59) - What is the process for learning? (34:56) - How would you define someone’s purpose? (40:19) - What are some learning hacks that you’ve developed?
11 Oct 2022
Influencing Those Around You w/ Melina Palmer
01:03:04
Melina Palmer is an applied behavioral economist with a passion for helping leaders understand what behavioral economics is and how it can be applied to help the world communicate more effectively. Her award-winning podcast, Brainy Business, has downloads in over 170 countries and she teaches applied behavioral economics through the Human Behavior Lab at Texas A&M University. She has written two books, including the newly released WhatYour Employees Needs and Can't Tell You: Adapting to Change with the Science of Behavioral Economics.
(2:29) - What is behavioral economics and how did you come to work in this industry? (11:28) - How do you see companies using B.E. and where are we in the adoption curve? (14:57) - How do you think about Design Thinking in relation to B.E.? (19:27) - Why did you base your book on change? (24:42)- How people respond to change and a conversation on biases. (40:30) - What do you see as the most common mistakes employers are making when helping their teams through change? (45:02) - Are successful companies helping their teams create better habits in some way? (54:06) - “The Accusation Audit” (58:30) - What are you sick of talking about? (1:00:14) - What are you most excited to be talking about? (1:01:14) - What is the purpose of business?
18 Oct 2022
Scaling Successfully w/ Andrew Bartlow
00:59:18
Andrew Bartlow leads Series B Consulting, through which he helps businesses articulate their people strategy, accelerate their growth, and navigate rapid change. Additionally, he founded the People Leader Accelerator, the preeminent development program for startup HR leaders. He is also the co-author of Scaling for Success: People Priorities for High-Growth Organizations. Andrew has 25 years of Human Resources and Talent Management experience at organizations across various sizes, maturity stages, and industries.
(1:50) - How did you get into your line of work? (3:21) - What are the different Organizational Structures you see and how do you advise folks on which is the best fit for them? (8:05) - Do you have examples of problems being solved that end up creating problems further down the road? (13:37) - Total Chaos vs. Total OKR. (16:52) - What are some best practices from a human capital standpoint to celebrate team members who transition out of an organization? (22:36) - What are Spans and Layers? (26:09) - Is there a ‘max’ for Span? (27:29) - How do you advise companies to think about The Power of 150? (31:40) - How often do you see strong leadership teams pausing to assess the business? (35:09) - When it comes to defining roles do you see any best practices being used? (42:25) - What makes a good hiring process? (44:20) - How are you seeing organizations broaden the pipeline in which they’re getting candidates? (46:52) - “We learn best when we learn less.” (49:00) - Where do you see the best and worst ROI from Learning and Development initiatives? (56:09) - What is the purpose of business? (57:41) - How can people get in contact with you?
25 Oct 2022
We Are All Biased w/ Michele Ruiz
00:57:26
Michele Ruiz is an entrepreneur, award-winning broadcast journalist, author, public speaker, and former Los Angeles news anchor for KNBC-TV. She is co-founder and CEO of BiasSync, a SaaS technology company that helps organizations identify and eliminate biases in the workplace.
(3:00) - What is BiasSync? (7:13) - What do you say to people who may get a bit defensive when talking about biases and stereotypes? (17:15) - Can you speak to the concept of ingroup vs. outgroup bias? (24:04) - Are we trying to get rid of our biases altogether or are we just trying to manage them? (34:27) - How do you see political bias showing up in the workplace? (39:25) - Is there a balance to a true microaggression and someone being overly sensitive? (47:25) - What else can organizations be doing to help facilitate conversations around political biases in the workplace? (50:48) - What are you sick of talking about when it comes to bias? (51:15) - Is there anything you see people getting continually wrong in your world? (52:38) - What are you most excited to be talking about? (54:05) - What is the purpose of business? (54:41) - Do you have any final comments?
01 Nov 2022
Harnessing Randomness & Innovation w/ Frans Johannson
00:58:57
Frans Johansson has inspired readers and audiences worldwide with his ideas on leadership and success, diversity, and innovation. He is the Founder and CEO of The Medici Group, an enterprise solutions firm that empowers organizations to leverage diversity and inclusion to build and sustain high-performing teams. Frans is also the author of two books – “The Medici Effect” and “The Click Moment” – the former of which has been translated into 21 different languages and has become the definitive book on how diversity and inclusion drive innovation. Raised in Sweden by his African-American/Cherokee mother and Swedish father, Johansson has lived all his life at the intersection.
Topics: (2:47) - Can you reconcile your statement that success is random as well as saying the harder you work the more successful you become? (9:32) - How should we think about randomness so that we can use it to our advantage? (14:25) - How do you advise people to get comfortable with potentially “killing your darlings”? (19:16) - How did you get turned on Medici? (23:07) - How do you help others think about creating intersections for themselves? (26:50) - How do people practice this in a way that it becomes a habit? (35:13) - Is it better to follow things that are interesting to you, or distill down the principles of what your looking for in order to find things that may be cross-functional? (41:49) - How do you encourage organizations to have conversations around innovation and change? (52:31) - Where do groups get the most stuck when doing this work? (55:44) - What is your favorite intersection story? (57:17) - Where can people find you online?
08 Nov 2022
Create Your Own Secret Society w/ Michael F Schein
00:28:17
Michael F. Schein returns to the podcast to talk about his experience building a "secret society", a term from his book The Hype Handbook: 12 Indispensable Success Secrets From the World’s Greatest Propagandists, Self-Promoters, Cult Leaders, Mischief Makers, and Boundary Breakers. Michael shares practical advice everyday people can use to build a network that works for them, elevating their status and increasing their odds of success.
(2:01) - Creating secret societies. (8:48) - How can the average person start to gain access to powerful people? (16:09) - Finding people who are incredibly smart, but are not the folks everyone thinks to contact.
15 Nov 2022
Life A.F. w/ Kay Allison
00:58:38
Kay Allison has been living alcohol-free since 1999. In that time, through her company Juicy A.F., she has helped hundreds of women face their struggles with alcohol and come out the other side living amazing lives. Alcohol dominates our social functions at work, from happy hours to holiday parties. For those who feel like they might need help curbing their drinking, no matter the reason and with no need for labels, Kay is here to help.
(2:57) - What is Juicy AF and how did it come to be?(4:39) - What was it for you that made you give yourself an honest assessment about your drinking? (7:31) - Had you done any reflective work leading up to this realization that you wanted to get sober? (12:03) - What does it mean to be an alcoholic? (13:48) - What are the ways to approach someone you think has an issue with drinking? (17:23) - What trends are you seeing as far as alcohol consumption goes? (19:45) - How do you help people get rid of the excuses they give themselves to continue drinking? (24:58) - What are the effects of alcohol on the body? (29:38) - How does Juicy AF help people through the anxiety of wanting to quit drinking? (34:54) - What are the ways you see companies starting to minimize alcohol in their social events? (37:21) - How do you help clients step out of their comfort zones in social activities? (40:37) - Are there any other hang ups for people wanting to experiment with being alcohol-free? (47:16) - How do you coach clients to get to a place of more abundance and acceptance? (55:55) - Where can people find you and your program? (56:43) - Where would you direct men who are interested in this?
29 Nov 2022
Let Me Tell You a Story w/ Reena Kansal
00:49:38
Reena Kansal is a Story Facilitator and Chief Operating Officer at Leadership StoryLab, a training company that helps business professionals connect with their audience. Have you ever sat through a boring presentation? Or worse, have you ever given one where you could tell the audience was barely staying awake? If so, Reena can help.
Time Codes: (1:13) - What is Leadership Story Lab and what kind of work do you do? (2:20) - What was the catalyst that made storytelling sexy? (3:10) - How do you define Storytelling? (4:11) - What are the elements of Story that cause people to take action? (5:32) - What are the misconceptions that people have about Storytelling? (7:36) - What’s a better example you’ve seen of someone introducing themselves through a story? (9:59) - How should people think about Story length? (13:43) - What are the other important elements of a Story? (15:54) - What type of language should we be using in Story? (19:44) - Are there any other techniques to storytelling that listeners can add to their toolbox? (24:48) - How do you coach clients on word choice? (30:50) - How do we start practicing Storytelling? (38:14) - What surprises people the most as they begin this work? (39:52) - Do you see people overdoing it in the beginning? (42:05) - Do you have any exercises to help build metaphors and analogies? (42:57) - What are you sick of talking about? (43:26) - What do you get most excited about in your work? (47:17) - Where can people find and engage with you?
06 Dec 2022
Developing Great Teams w/ Mike Goldman
00:56:15
Mike Goldman is an award-winning leadership team coach and the #1 Amazon bestselling author of two books, Breakthrough Leadership Team and Performance Breakthrough. In this conversation, Mike shares what it takes to build and lead a high-performing team.
(1:27) - How do you define what makes a good team? (3:02) - How important is the top leader? (4:51) - What is your assessment of the top leader when you walk into an organization? (9:27) - How do you coach clients who may not be lifelong learners? (14:59) - How can leaders or team members ensure that individuals are held accountable? (21:31) - What are the 6 pillars of a leadership team? (22:53) - What does Self-Leadership look like? (25:01) - Do you have any exercises to help people with their focus? (28:38) - What’s the balance of finding the right people for a team? (33:43) - Is setting and living out values part of the execution pillar? (40:31) - How do you think about team structure? (46:45) - Do you find that some teams need to cut down on size? (49:31) - What advice do you have for people onboarding to a new team? (52:05) - What is the purpose of business?
13 Dec 2022
Bringing Purpose to Your Life w/ Jeff Lovell
00:53:23
Jeff Lovell is a coach on authentic living. He created The Great Life Project to help successful founders and executives who are good at work be great at life.
Time Codes: (2:19) - How did you get into coaching and what is the work that you do? (5:43) - What are the issues that most people come to you with? (7:16) - What is the role of a pastor and how does that influence the work you do now? (9:26) - What do people get wrong about pastors? (11:19) - How have you built the skill of having conversations with people at their most authentic level? (13:38) - How do you know when to sit back and let things happen, and when someone needs a fire lit underneath them? (16:53) - Where do you start with a new client? (18:51) - Are there any (20:02) - How do you help someone figure out what their big purpose is? (28:52) - Should we all aspire to a life of helping others? (34:39) - How do you coach clients through self-deception? (42:32) - How does someone know whether they should be talking to a coach or a therapist? (46:46) - What do you believe about people or businesses that might be contrarian? (47:56) - What are you sick of talking about? (51:02) - What is the purpose of life? (51:52) - Where can people find you online?
10 Jan 2023
The Talent Landscape w/ Tim Schumm
00:39:10
Tim Schumm is the Founder and President of Lucas James Talent Partners, an On-Demand RPO (Recruiting Process Outsourcing) firm that is a cost-effective alternative to the traditional staffing agency model. Tim has been in recruiting for 16 years and is a frequent speaker on topics related to talent acquisition, leadership, and how the labor market affects corporate strategy. He was also a Chicago Crain’s 40 Under 40 recipient. In this conversation, Tim shares his perspective on the talent market as it stands today and where we might be going headed into 2023.
Time Codes: (2:47) - Can you walk us through 2022 from a recruiting and retention standpoint? (6:31) - What’s the environment like today compared to the past year of burnout, quiet quitting, and hyper-wage inflation? (10:58) - Do you see companies evolving their job descriptions with the growing lack of laborers? (18:19) - In your experience, what percentage of employers are starting to get creative with finding talent? (20:29) - How do you see companies successfully pitching themselves to candidates for virtual roles? (23:14) - How do you see companies getting creative as far as going into talent pools they wouldn’t have considered before? (24:39) - Do you see companies investing in Learning and Development? (31:00) - Are there any other signals in the world you’re paying attention to? (33:55) - What else is important for HR leaders to think about going into the new year? (36:48) - What is Lucas James Talent Partners and where can people find you online?
17 Jan 2023
Redesigning Work w/ Marc Giannettino
01:05:37
Marc Giannettino is the Vice President of Service Delivery at WNDYR, an organization designing the future of work. He joins the show to discuss how he and his team are helping companies redesign the way work gets done.
(2:31) - Who are you? What is WNDYR? (3:51) - What makes this moment in time so good for doing this work? (6:02) - Why is the ‘how’ so important? (8:22) - What do you see people wanting from work? (9:49) - What does a lack of trust look like? (12:03) - Where do you start with a company when they approach you for help? (17:48) - What are the biggest pain points you see today? (21:18) - How do you quantify work capacity? (28:01) - How do you set up the design process? (30:32) - How often is work so linear that it can be captured in a flow? (33:49) - What do you say to people who would rather work with less systemization? (43:23) - How can we factor in the employee experience so they enjoy the way work gets done? (48:29) - How do we implement the right level of organizational discipline? (1:00:11) - At which point do small, iterative changes become obsolete? (1:01:44) - what surprises clients the most when they get to the end of this work? (1:03:09) - What is the purpose of business? (1:03:35) - Where can you be found to engage in this work?
24 Jan 2023
Blowing the Whistle w/ Adam Waytz
00:55:27
Adam Waytz is a psychologist and a professor of Management & Organizations at The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He uses methods from social psychology and cognitive neuroscience to study processes related to ethics, intergroup processes, and the psychological consequences of technology. In this conversation, he shares a detailed look at why people choose to stand up to bad behavior (and why they don't).
(2:36) - How did you come to study whistleblowing in the first place? (4:36) - How do you define ‘whistleblowing’? (5:57) - Why don’t people report bad behavior? (9:26) - How much backlash to whistleblowers face? (16:09) - With all the risks, why would anyone whistleblow? (17:31) - How do we prime people to speak up more often and how do we create organizations that respond better to these situations? (34:24) - Is there anything people can do to improve their odds of success if they want to speak up? (43:12) - How do leaders and organizations get better at protecting whistleblowers? (45:42) - Is there anything we haven’t talked about that’s important when it comes to whistleblowing? (46:40) - Have you looked at the percentage of false whistleblowing vs. honest whistleblowing? (50:45) - What are you sick of talking about? (51:16) - What do you think people need to be talking more about when it comes to whistleblowing? (54:19) - How can people find out more about what you do?
31 Jan 2023
Gaining Clarity w/ Ann Latham
00:52:16
Ann Latham is the author of The Power of Clarity and founder of the consulting firm Uncommon Clarity®. Her clients represent over 40 industries and range from organizations such as Boeing, Hitachi, and Medtronic to non-profits such as the Public Broadcasting Service, the United Way, and colleges and universities. Ann’s advice has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, Bloomberg, and Forbes.com.
Time Codes: (0:15) - Introduction to Ann Lathan (1:45) - How do you define clarity? (3:29) - How did you become an authority on clarity? (6:08) - What is true clarity? (9:35) - What is a treadmill verb and what are some examples? (10:50) - How do you avoid using words like ‘review’ as hiding spots or stalling places? (14:24) - do you have a recommended pre-meeting process to get everyone on the same page? (17:48) - What is the S.O.A.R. decision-making method? (23:29) - Can you explain ‘wandering in’ and how it relates to decision-making? (28:00) - What does the start of your day look like? (28:57) - Is your approach based on the book “Getting Stuff Done”? (31:48) - What does your tool look like for capturing and organizing the bigger picture? (33:18) - How much time does it take to stay organized? (34:50) - What are the elements that make sifting and organizing more practical? (41:44) - What other tips do you have for reducing distractions? (44:07) - What are you sick of talking about? (46:26) - Would you argue that every business interaction has to be purely focused and objective? (50:56) - How can people find you?
07 Feb 2023
Navigating Better Healthcare w/ Dr. Bipin Mistry
00:48:02
Dr. Bipin Mistry is a board-certified physician and Chief Medical Officer at Alight where he is focused on helping their companies improve the healthcare experience for their employees. In this episode, he discusses the current state of healthcare in the United States, where it's going, and how new approaches are helping people get better outcomes at a lower cost.
Time Codes: (2:31) - What is Alight and what is your role? (4:38) - What is the current state of the healthcare system as you see it and why do costs keep going up? (7:23) - Where are we in making the shift from sick care to health care? (10:10) - Can you define population health management and give an example? (12:47) - Can you define social determinants of health and what is the tie between social determinants of health and population health? (17:01) - How do you create a wave of smart healthcare consumers? (20:06) - What’s next if the consumerism model isn’t driving better care? (21:36) - How do you define ‘navigation’? (26:54) - Is Navigation the portal through which healthcare is accessed? (33:31) - How large of an employee group do you need for this to have an impact on the cost? (38:24) - Is there anything we haven’t covered about Navigation? (40:47) - When it comes to healthcare, what do you believe may be contrary to the masses? (41:38) - What are you sick of talking about? (42:18) - What is the first step toward taking that leap in making healthcare more affordable?
14 Feb 2023
Making the Most of Your Calling w/ Mike Del Ponte
00:57:59
Mike Del Ponte is a serial entrepreneur and CEO coach who has empowered founders to rapidly scale their start-ups to over $3 billion in total valuations. In this conversation, Mike discusses the ways he helps leaders level up and improve both their businesses and their lives.
(1:56) - What exactly is your job and how did you get into this line of work? (4:56) - What was your process for changing identity from being in the priesthood to becoming an entrepreneur? (7:34) - What is the difference between a calling and a desire? (9:41) - When you are coaching someone, what are they paying attention to inside themselves? (15:36) - What does the process look like when starting with a CEO? (18:34) - Do you have an example of what that might be? (21:13) - How do you think about the balance between telling your client the answer vs making the client come up with it? (31:06) - Do you see a lot of new startup CEOs needing coaching or is it just a stereotype? (32:43) - How do you get people comfortable enough to know they need help? (36:25) - How do you help diagnose lynchpin issues in clients? (41:02) - How do you help someone through the stages of making new habits and mindsets stick? (53:40) - What do you think people are getting wrong? (54:52) - What are you most excited about in your work? (55:43) - What is the purpose of business? (56:36) - Where can people engage with you online?
21 Feb 2023
Designing Better Experiences w/ Jenny Sauer-Klein
01:10:52
Jenny Sauer-Klein is the founder and CEO of the Scaling Intimacy School of Experience Design, which trains event leaders to weave connection into the fabric of their events strategically. She is passionate about designing transformational experiences that prioritize connection over content and regularly consults for organizations like Google, Airbnb, Dropbox, and the Haas School of Business. Jenny created Play On Purpose, a video tutorial library with over 80 of her best virtual and in-person team-building games, to support facilitators to confidently engage and connect groups and teams.
(3:28) - What is the Scaling Intimacy School of Experience Design? (5:03) - How did this business originate? (12:02) - What’s the purpose behind putting a client into the story? (13:57) - Are you essentially turning every session into a workshop? (17:40) - Is creating an A to Z framework all you need to do to put them into the story? (19:23) - What other elements should people pay attention to as far as creating a story? (25:19) - What are the best ways to get folks engaged in a session? (34:20) - Is this approach to creating human experiences relevant to any event? (36:02) - How do you define connection? (38:19) - What are the principles of connection? (52:09) - How important is physical space and touch? (1:0:17) - What advice do you have for people to foster better, deeper connections in their lives? (1:07:50) - Do you have any final thoughts?
28 Feb 2023
Preparing for the Future w/ Kim Mauller
00:53:57
Kim Mauller is the Director of Marketing & Insights on the Innovation and Foresight team at Molson Coors. In this episode, Kim discusses the process she and her team use to look into the future and develop products that meet the world’s emerging needs.
(2:12) - What is an innovation and foresight team? (5:47) - How big is your team? (6:39) - What teams do you plug into the most? (9:09) - How did you come into working within foresight and future thinking? (12:05) - How did you learn to see possibilities you might otherwise not have? (20:37) - Are you looking at the world with a really open lens or do you get laser-focused on an audience first? (25:14) - How much history do you read? (30:44) - How do you get such good insights from your customer base? (36:21) - Do you journal? (37:24) - How do you avoid biases? (39:20) - What are other pitfalls you see that will lead people astray in this kind of work? (43:20) - How confident do you need to be to execute a prediction? (47:43) - What are the trends you’re paying attention to now in the world? (52:20) - What are you sick of talking about?
07 Mar 2023
Training is for Dogs, Growth is for Leaders w/ Andrea Butcher
00:53:43
Andrea Butcher, CEO of HRD*, is on a mission to change the world one leader at a time. In this episode, she shares the traits that make great leaders and the ways listeners can improve their leadership abilities.
(1:48) - What is HRD*? What kind of work do you do?
(3:06) - How do you define leadership?
(4:07) - Why do so many people misunderstand the concept of leadership?
(5:17) - Are leaders too ego-centric today?
(6:44) - What kind of work goes into getting secure with yourself?
(9:24) - What are the triggers people should be looking for to recognize a teachable moment?
(13:56) - What’s the difference between a leadership growth program and a leadership training program?
(18:01) - What does repetition look like in a leadership growth cycle?
(20:38) - How many things can one person work on at a time?
(25:04) - How do we create psychological safety with our people?
(28:48) - Where is the line between giving people negative caveats and letting them off the hook?
(31:52) - How do you build a growth opportunity that is both fun and challenging?
(34:14) - What goes into a debrief?
(36:33) - How do you facilitate discussion and energy?
(41:04) - Do you coach people on how to do less?
(41:30) - How do we become more present?
(44:26) - Why does it take 7 years for obstacles to go away?
(47:41) - What are you sick of talking about?
(48:37) - What aren’t people talking enough about?
(50:45) - What is the purpose of business?
14 Mar 2023
Architecting a Successful Organization w/ Juliana Stancampiano
00:56:51
Juliana Stancampiano went from customer to CEO of Oxygen, a people and sales enablement consulting company. She is the author of Radical Outcomes: How to Create Extraordinary Teams that Get Tangible Results.
(2:13) - What is Oxygen and how did you come to be the owner? (7:40) - What did you see that tipped you off that the company was not living up to its values? (12:43) - Is it weird that people feel shame or guilt around the idea of making money? (15:11) - How do you weigh situations where values are competing? (17:44) - What does the word ‘process’ mean to you? (20:00) - Can you give an example of how your COO turned your working style into a working process? (22:31) - Do you want to share anything else about your book? (23:09) - What is the difference between process and architecture? (24:58) - Where would somebody start on the architecture path? (28:05) - Why the difference between training and learning? (31:25) - Do your clients show their employees your architecture plans? (32:17) - What makes your training unique and do you make it unique for each client? (34:33) - How do you turn “e-learning” into an online "experience"? (37:12) - How easy or hard is it to get customers to see the value in your approach? (40:18) - How do you help people through the mental process? (47:04) - Do you do anything for yourself or your team to foster more abundance? (49:44) - What are you sick of talking about? (51:11) - What are you most excited to be talking about? (54:15) - What is the purpose of business?
21 Mar 2023
The Power of Tiny Thunder w/ Sue Rice
01:06:42
Sue Rice is a long-time marketing strategist, professional copywriter, and international communications expert. She is the author of Tiny Thunder: Irresistible Messaging for an Overwhelmed World. In this episode, Sue shares her method of metaphoric storytelling for grabbing attention and driving action.
(3:59) - How did you become a storyteller? (5:24) -What role do you see stories playing in everyday life? (6:53) - What role do you see ‘story’ playing in work? (11:23) - How should we be thinking about storytelling? (15:18) - What is a metaphor? (20:08) - What makes a great metaphor? (24:08) - How important are the visuals and how should people be thinking about the visuals when communicating? (29:36) - Should we be thinking about whether our story could bring up negative impressions? (36:38) - What emotions should we try to elicit with our stories? (41:39) - How can people use an email to grab attention quickly? (44:34) - What does it mean to join the conversation vs. interrupt it? (52:45) - How do you transition from personal to business communication?
28 Mar 2023
Tough Conversations w/ David Wood
00:44:41
David Wood has spent over 20 years coaching thousands of entrepreneurs and leaders across 15 countries on how to do what matters, get there faster, and be extraordinary. He is the author of Mouse in the Room: Because the Elephant isn't Alone, a book about naming and overcoming the small voices we all have inside that keep us from connection, confidence, and self-expression. In this conversation, David shares the power of tough conversations and offers best practices to help listeners have these conversations successfully.
(1:31) - Introducing David. (2:38) - How did you come to make difficult conversations a focus of your work? (13:16) - What tips do you have for someone to start a difficult conversation? (17:35) - How do you broach a difficult subject with another person without triggering negative emotions? (28:00) - Have you had people use the tough conversation worksheet in real conversations? (33:32) - How do you handle it when the other person gets negative or emotional?
04 Apr 2023
Building a Healthy Business w/ Dr. Richard Safeer
00:47:42
Dr. Richard Safeer is the Chief Medical Director of Employee Health and Well-Being @ Johns Hopkins Medicine. He works to help leaders understand how to build cultures of health in their own organizations. He holds faculty appointments in both the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Bloomberg School of Public Health. His book, A Cure for the Common Company: A Well-Being Prescription for a Happier, Healthier, and More Resilient Workforce outlines a process companies and leaders can use to improve health across their own organizations.
(1:44) - Introducing Dr. Safeer. (3:05) - What does it mean for an individual to be healthy? (4:19) - What does it mean for an organization to be healthy? (5:37) - Is it an employer’s responsibility to cultivate a healthy company? (7:02) - What do you mean by taking a cultural approach? (8:12) - What is a subculture? (13:17) - How does this relate to subcultures? (14:20) - What makes a positive or a negative subculture? (16:07) - Where does one start when trying to influence subcultures? (18:35) - What are the types of things I should be looking for in healthy or unhealthy subcultures? (25:31) - What is 4-7-8 breathing? (28:15) - What role does mental health play here? (31:27) - How important is 'connection' in relation to health and what does it look like in healthy organizations? (34:07) - Is socialization at work driven mostly by extroverted leaders? (37:21) - How should a leader approach changes that are needed? (42:31) - How do we start moving culture in a healthy direction?
18 Apr 2023
Improving Population Health w/ Todd Hlasney
00:58:52
Todd Hlasney is the Director of Health Risk Solutions at Lockton where he and his team help companies build wellness programs that improve health and lower cost. In this episode, Todd shares best practices, how to make data actionable, and the ways to approach different segments of your employee base.
(2:21) - Introducing Todd Hlasney (3:28) - What is population health? (4:25) - Are the terms wellness and wellbeing interchangeable? (6:45) - Why would employers take responsibility for the health of their employees? (8:17) - Where does wellness start to be impactful for a company? (11:29) - What are the types of health risks you are looking for and what are the interventions? (14:47) - What kind of ROI metrics, from a dollar standpoint, are you seeing and what are employers doing to get it? (18:23) - Is your group looking at blanketing across the 23-25% and creating strategies or are you getting hyper-specific on the high-cost claims? (24:55) - What are chronic conditions and what happens when you start to stack them? (27:19) - Can you explain "gaps in care" and how companies can close them? (30:31) - What does it look like in practice to get people to change their behavior? (33:29) - Is it fair to say that executive leadership drives the culture of the whole organization? (39:09) - Is there a way to get leadership on board with building up the company culture? (41:13) - Have you ever seen leadership roll out programs by using it only themselves first? (46:27) - What questions should employers be asking in order to build these programs? (50:26) - What are you sick of talking about? (52:19) - What are you most excited to be talking about?
02 May 2023
Recovering From the Marathons of Life w/ Dr. Sunitha Chandy
00:53:43
Dr. Sunitha Chandy, Licensed Clinical Psychologist and Founder of Artesian Collaborative, returns to the show to talk about ways we can recover after expending all of our energy and resilience running life's great marathons (for example, coming out of a global pandemic).
(1:33) Meet Dr. Sunitha Chandy (2:23) Emerging from the pandemic was a marathon, not a sprint (O’Brien’s experience) (4:30) Some people were struggling before the pandemic (5:43) How do we get back to baseline after something like a pandemic? (6:47) How was it for Dr. Chandy getting back to her first big event post-COVID? (7:18) What are our physiological needs, and how did the pandemic help us learn those limits? (9:05) What do grit and resiliency look like in the current circumstance? (10:34) What if I am not up to doing more hard things? (11:11) Self-reflection and self-doubt about our own grittiness during the pandemic (12:46) How do we refill the “resiliency tank”? (16:44) Ice bath/sauna; physical/mental reset (ask O’Brien for more details) (20:39) How can we reconnect with friends in a meaningful way? (23:23) What can we communicate intentionally with people we care about? (24:26) People are feeling disconnected (27:22) When is it time to stop ruminating and start pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone? (29:49) The importance of play
16 May 2023
Building a Committed Team w/ Andy Bass
00:53:50
Dr Andy Bass is the founder and principal of BassClusker Consulting. He works with leaders of successful businesses who are acutely aware of the rapid pace of change in the world. Andy specializes in getting them ahead of the change and bringing their people with them, and he does it in a very unusual way based on finding and using their Hidden Resources – strengths they and their people already have but are overlooking.
(1:36) - Welcoming Andy Bass (1:56) - What kind of work do you do and how did you come to be doing it? (4:32) - How do you motivate groups of people? (6:45) - What is the difference between motivation and commitment? (13:12) - What was the exercise like to draw their commitment out? (14:58) - Do you then ask people if you’re on track with what you have put in for their head bubbles? (16:07) - Where does the communication need to come from to work? (17:34) - How does the CEO model connect to this? (18:32) - Can you tell us why you consider leaders as educators? (23:31) - What would it look like to create curiosity in a business setting? (28:17) - Does curiosity naturally flow toward exploration? (31:06) - As a leader or leadership team is our task to guide the curiosity flow until it’s taken ownership of? (32:30) - Are there any areas people get wrong when they start to implement this? (35:26) - Do we join in the blame culture or do we focus on solutions? (36:34) - How do military veterans handle situations differently? (42:27) - Can you talk to the philosophy of what works and using what you have amidst limited resources? (51:52) - Anything else you’d like to share?
30 May 2023
The Work Better Project w/ Rebecca Ryan & Libby Castro
00:59:42
Professional Futurist Rebecca Ryan returns to the podcast and brings with her Libby Castro, Founder and Principal at LP/w Design Studios. The two have joined forces to create the Work Better Project, a community geared towards redesigning the what, where, and how of work. Mentioned in this Episode:
(1:37) - Welcoming Rebecca and Libby (1:59) - What is the Work Better Project and how did you come to work together? (4:56) - How would you define the Work Better Project itself? (10:07) - What signals are you paying attention to regarding work? (15:33) - Libby, what signals are you paying attention to? (17:45) - Have you seen mental health impacting the way we work? (22:00) - How should we be prepared for sudden change and also how to avoid denial when change is slow? (26:46) - Do you have a structure for how you do Think Week? (28:29) - When faced with impending change, where do you start in the design process? (30:26) - Do you talk about design thinking principles? (34:03) - How do you help organizations think through the way they’re actually working? (40:39) - How do we repurpose space? What are some alternate/radical options? (50:10) - Do you have any good exercises for getting brain storms going? (55:41) - What is your goal for this project? (57:44) - What’s the purpose of work?
13 Jun 2023
The Psychological Safety Playbook w/ Karolin Helbig & Minette Norman
00:54:11
When Minette Norman and Karolin Helbig heard about psychological safety, they knew it could have a big impact on their workplaces. But they struggled to find guidance on how to put the principles of psychological safety into practice. Like all good self-starters, they decided to write the book they wished they'd had. In this episode, we dive into that book, The Psychological Safety Playbook: Lead More Powerfully by Being More Human.
Time Codes: (2:09) - Welcoming Karolin and Minette (2:39) - What is psychological safety and what is it not? (6:24) - What are the big mistakes leaders make? (9:38) - What are the tips and tricks to foster better collaboration? (13:21) - What does it mean to be vulnerable as a business leader? (15:58) - Where is the line between ‘I don’t know’ and negligence? (20:10) - How do you make the environment comfortable even if you’re rejecting ideas? (28:06) - How do you help people through the psychological discomfort of hearing ideas they don’t like? (34:57) - What do you do when someone fails and you have to take corrective action? How do you communicate frustration productively? (37:21) - How do you vent frustration? (42:52) - How do we encourage people to open and loosen up and share more bravely? (45:06) - What adjustments have you seen leaders have to make in this environment? (47:01) - Are these principles effective cross-culturally? (52:07) - What’s the purpose of business?
27 Jun 2023
Growing People Without Promotions w/ Gustavo Serbiá
01:07:58
Gustavo Serbiá is the Head of Human Resources at Hair Cuttery, a retail hair salon with 5,000+ employees across 10 states. In this episode, we talk about the challenges of leading a workforce with few promotion opportunities. Gustavo shares lessons on how they recruit, develop talent, and help people grow inside and outside the organization.
Time Codes: (0:45) - Introducing Gustavo (2:11) - Who are you? What’s your role? And where do you work? (2:56) - What does the workforce look like? (4:01) - Where would you rank Hair Cuttery from a wage standpoint? (5:56) - What about the racial demographic? (6:43) - What is the age demographic? (7:13) - What is the entry-level like? (8:59) - From a recruiting standpoint, how do you stand out in a retail environment? (13:32) - What is the compensation threshold? (21:09) - Who’s having the compensation conversation? (24:05) - Are you developing sales skills in your people? (27:06) - How are you encouraging stylists to think about the proactive side of bringing people in? (32:27) - How are you teaching the proper training and principles in the development process? (52:25) - How do you handle people who have goals that can’t be met in Hair Cuttery?
11 Jul 2023
Developing Mental Toughness w/ Sean Bacon
01:02:24
Sean Bacon is a Canadian Armed Forces veteran who served 12 years as a Paratrooper and as an instructor at the Canadian Forces Military Police Academy. During that time, Sean developed a system of training that psychologically and physically prepared both soldiers and police to thrive in some of the worst situations the world has to offer. His company, Dynamic Shift, leverages his experience to work with business leaders to develop and sustain mental toughness, leadership, and team development in competitive environments.
(1:48) - Welcoming Sean (2:06) - What does it mean to be mentally tough? (3:16) - Does mental toughness mean we have to be extreme? (5:32) - Is it something we can tap into at any time or does it need to be developed? (6:48) - What are some ways you suggest people begin to learn mental toughness? (9:00) - How do we inspire people to want to develop it? (10:50) - How do we find the balance between pick ourselves up and asking for help? (14:51) - With your military background how do they create team mental toughness? (16:54) - Is that culling out people that don’t fit or developing it with people that you have or a combination of the two? (19:26) - How do you advise business leaders to reach the subcultures of their organizations and teach them this? (22:00) - Do you find that people when presented with higher standards and culture want it and will turn to it?
25 Jul 2023
Lessons in Corporate Giving w/ Skye White
00:55:42
Skye White is a Vice President at Deed, a workplace giving platform. She joins the show to talk about the different ways companies provide giving opportunities to their employees and the reasons why you may or may not want to consider doing the same.
(1:55) - How do you define what you do? (3:40) - What feedback are you getting from employees about what they’re getting out of this kind of work? (5:28) - Are you seeing employees want to make a change with the work they’re doing? (8:23) - How many companies are offering ways to have an impact on the community? (12:15) - How do you see organizations selecting causes to support? (14:24) - What makes a ‘pillar’? (16:02) - How do organizations do that while keeping from investing in things they don’t agree with? (19:53) - Are companies that are giving or volunteering allowing it to be branded to the company name? (22:27) - What are best practices when it comes to corporate giving of dollars? (24:18) - What are best practices around establishing volunteer time? (27:06) - What’s the standard as far as how many volunteer days companies are giving people?] (30:47) - What are good starter volunteer activities? (32:48) - What are the common pitfalls companies make when getting into this? (35:25) - Are there any other mistakes you see companies making? (37:44) - What are the detractors to ESG saying as to why this kind of work isn’t what a company would want? (40:12) - How do you see companies tracking the impact of these efforts?
08 Aug 2023
The Ultimate Guide to Executive Assistants and Creating Leverage w/ Bonnie Low-Kramen
00:59:53
For twenty-five years, Bonnie Low-Kramen worked as the personal assistant to Oscar-winner Olympia Dukakis. Now she writes, coaches, and speaks to audiences of business leaders and assistants, helping them each make the most of this powerful relationship.
(2:14) - Introducing Bonnie (3:11) - Are we talking about administrative professionals or executive assistants? Are there differences? (5:02) - How has this type of work evolved over time? (9:57) - How do you think of the virtual assistant in the scheme of things? (12:35) - How do I know when it’s time to hire an assistant? (18:26) - How do I evaluate and assistant in an interview? (21:51) - What advice do you have for someone applying for an assistant job? (28:04) - What do you call the person who hires the assistant? (30:24) - What are the best practices for onboarding? (38:24) - How often do you suggest one on ones? (42:18) - What do you say to the people who aren’t comfortable giving up control? (44:36) - What are the best practices for giving feedback? (50:50) - What does development look like in this profession? (53:58) - What advice do you have to make sure the system works when the assistant steps away? (56:58) - What advice do you have for the single assistant?
22 Aug 2023
Venture-Backed People Strategy w/ Jim Conti
01:00:27
Jim Conti is the Talent Partner at Hyde Park Venture Partners. In this role, Jim provides strategic talent support and consulting to the firm's portfolio of companies. In this conversation, we talk about how to build a people strategy in a lean, fast-paced environment and the lessons he's learned from working across a venture-backed portfolio of companies.
(2:19) - Introducing Jim Conti (2:35) - What is Hyde Park Ventures and what is your role there? (6:01) - What does the firm look for when making an investment? (16:44) - What are the common misconceptions leaders have that you have to help with right from the start? (22:19) - What advice do you have for leaders who are looking to build a team? What are the ways you should be evaluating the talent? (31:30) - How do you advise leadership teams to build trust with their people? (35:40) - Is it good to bring our ‘whole self’ to work or not so much? (44:16) - How do you recruit good people when you don’t have money or stability to offer? (47:57) - What do you say to someone who says we’ve just lost out on a great candidate? (50:04) - Is slowing down and making the workplace human-centered something HR does? (56:11) - How are you seeing companies evolve the funnels they’re using to get different types of talent? (59:39) - What, in your mind, is the purpose of business?
05 Sep 2023
Experience Design 101 w/ Mat Duerden
01:09:07
Mat Duerden is a Professor of Experience Design and Management in the Marriott School of Business at Brigham Young University. He is the co-author of the book Designing Experiences. He joins the show to talk about the elements of experience design and the framework anyone can use to enhance the experiences they plan for themselves and others.
(2:28) - How does one get into experience design? (6:02) - Why is experience so important? (9:07) - What’s the scope of the experience design? (16:50) - Where does somebody start with this? What are the first steps? (23:32) - Can you talk about what the anticipation phase of the experience is? (27:03) - What are some good threshold moments? (32:46) - What are the six experience gate elements? (37:07) - Is there anything you would add to the ‘blocking’ element? (41:36) - What are the best ways to bring people together in a group for an experience? (50:15) - What is the reflection phase and why is it so important? (1:02:08) - What words of wisdom do you have for someone who’s planned out this experience and things go wrong? (1:09:34) - How can people integrate this into their daily lives?
12 Sep 2023
Speaking Assertively w/ Lisa Kleiman
00:52:06
Lisa Kleiman is the principal and founder of Speaktopia, a public speaking coaching and training organization. She has held management and consulting positions at Fortune 500 companies and has served as a faculty member at Boise State University for over 15 years teaching undergraduate and graduate English and Business & Managerial Communication courses. Lisa is the author of several books, journals, and other publications including You Got This: Everything You Need to Master Authentic Public Speaking (2019) and Public Speaking Journal (2021).
Listen to previous episodes of People Business with Derek Gaunt and Gary Noeser to learn what professional negotiators can teach us
Time Codes:
(2:00) - How does one become a communication coach? (6:35) - What is passive communication? What is aggressive communication? And what is assertive communication? (10:39) - People don't necessarily communicate one way all the time do they? (12:18) - Can you talk about direct and indirect speaking? (14:13) - Where do you begin when someone wants to become a more assertive speaker? (16:31) - How do we get better self-awareness around how we are perceived by others? (19:58) - How can you help with the fear of what seems like aggressiveness but is really assertiveness? (23:11) - How would you suggest I handle a situation where I need to be direct and appropriate? (26:34) - What happens if the person reacts poorly? (31:11) - What do we do when an aggressive speaker comes to us? (33:31) - What are things people can say when somebody is mean to them? (35:41) - How do you deal with someone who has a passive style? (40:04) - How do you repair a situation when someone has gone too far? (42:02) - Do you have any exercises to help people to move into a more assertive direction? (49:52) - Anything we didn't cover or that you'd like to share?
19 Sep 2023
Positive Influence w/ Brian Smith
00:51:43
Brian Smith is the Founder and Managing Partner of IA Business Advisors, a consulting and coaching company, and co-author of The I In Team book series. He joins the show to talk about influence.
(1:59) - What is influence? (2:51) - How did you come to be an expert in influence? What was it that interested you? (5:55) - When did you start to get interested in this? (6:58) - What is an individual advantage? (8:27) - How do we identify our advantages and what do we do with them? (11:22) - What does the exercise to go inward and deeper look like? (20:29) - What is your journaling like? (21:29) - What would the titles be on those composition books be? (22:30) - What do you write in your morning and evening journals? (24:09) - Is there a special reason you review a journal or is it just when you feel like it? (25:00) - Has it changed your writing knowing your daughter’s going to be reading it? (27:12) - What have you gained from journaling? (32:22) - What advice do you have to find the balance between proving yourself and staying authentic? (36:28) - What’s “The Anatomy of Peace” about? (38:09) - What are the differences and similarities between advantages and privileges? (41:57) - How do we build accountability to ourselves? (43:29) - What does it look like in your organization? (45:44) - What are the biggest differences your new partner has found between your method and a more conventional one? (47:56) - What are you sick of talking about? (48:57) - What are you most excited to be talking about? (50:21) - What is the purpose of business?
26 Sep 2023
Navigating Life’s Disruptions w/ Linda Rossetti
00:54:43
Linda Rossetti is a business leader, Harvard MBA, and pioneering researcher who has dedicated her career to advancing our understanding of personal and organizational transformation. She is the author of two books, Dancing with Disruption and Women & Transition. She also hosts a podcast called Destination Unknown.
(1:39) - Welcoming Linda (2:14) - What is the difference between a disruption, a change, and a transformation? (9:47) - Can happy events be disruptions? (15:33) - What happens to us when we face a disruption? (23:26) - Can you tell people how they can let go more easily? (28:16) - How does somebody know that their voice is buried and other voices have been piled on them? (39:07) - Reframing emotions (51:34) - Can you talk about what choice patterns are?
03 Oct 2023
Buying & Selling a Business w/ Jim Suprenant
00:56:11
Jim Suprenant is the Senior Managing Partner at Guggenheim Partners. A career investment banker, Jim joins the show to discuss the ins and outs of buying and selling businesses.
(1:48) - Welcoming Jim. (2:12) - What is an investment banker? (6:41) - If I want to sell my business where would I go to find buyers? (10:34) - How do I think about pricing my company? (13:01) - What is an example of constraints an investor would put in to make it harder to turn a profit? (14:21) - How much does the people side of a business weigh into what the price will be for that business? (18:19) - How should sellers think about cutting as much from the business as they can and how do buyers vet to make sure the business they’re buying hasn’t just been gutted? (22:01) - How many companies understand this before you work with them and how many default to a scarcity mindset? (33:02) - How do you manage the human side of a transaction? (35:10) - How do you evaluate a leadership team? (38:21) - How can HR become stronger in these transactions? (39:55) - How often do you see HR having a prominent seat at the table? (42:40) - What are the best practices for making sure from that date forward you have the best odds for success? (48:45) - What are the things that kill deals right at the end? (51:22) - Do you see management teams when they’re closer to the finish line manage their business ‘not to lose’? (52:59) - What are you sick of talking about? (53:40) - What are you hoping to hear more talk about? (56:18) - What is the purpose of business?
10 Oct 2023
Employee Anthropology w/ Gina Fong
01:04:42
As a clinical assistant professor in the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, Gina Fong teaches Ethnographic Customer Insights. She was voted "Professor of the Year" by Kellogg's 2023 graduating class. In this conversation, we discuss how her work translates to understanding and improving the employee experience.
Time Codes: (2:01) - Welcoming Gina. (2:12) - What is a consumer anthropologist and what is ethnographic research? (4:10) - Is it fair to say employee anthropology would be a way to apply some of the ethnographic skillset as well? (5:19) - How is ethnography different than the way employees may be surveyed today? (7:54) - What are we looking to learn versus what can’t we learn from ethnographic research? (9:49) - Is there a best practice approach or do you cycle through both options? (12:51) - What are the basics of how to conduct ethnographic research? (18:53) - How do we become better observers? (22:02) - How do we improve our ability to inquire? (23:12) - Is it a myth to help people who are struggling to think of a couple options? (26:15) - What are the actual steps to doing the research? (27:42) - What would be the better research objective (30:02) - Are there any other steps we haven’t covered yet? (32:18) - Have you ever taken improv classes? (40:43) - Do you share your subcultures with students? (43:09) - What are the best ways to keep bias from this type of research? (48:16) - What are the other final steps? (50:28) - How do you help people go deeper when you’re asking questions of them? (54:49) - How do you think about being in the environment changes the environment? (56:18) - Is asking ‘why’ questions, as opposed to ‘what’ or ‘how’ something you do? (57:11) - How can leaders in a business start to practice this? (1:00:26) - How do we get better at giving gifts?
17 Oct 2023
The Psychology of Money (and Creating Healthy Habits) w/ Meghaan Lurtz
01:00:44
Dr. Meghaan Lurtz is a Professor at Kansas State University where she teaches courses for the Advanced Financial Planning Certificate Program, a lecturer at Columbia University where she teaches Financial Psychology, an undergraduate adjunct professor through the University of Maryland system in their CFP program, and a writer and Senior Research Associate with Kitces.com, a financial planning blog. She is also a past president of the Financial Therapy Association.
Time Codes: (2:09) - Welcoming Meghaan. (2:29) - What is the Financial Therapy Association? (5:05) - Where are we in the spectrum of how we think about money? (13:14) - Why are we so bad with money? (19:40) - Who do we call when we have psychological money questions? (23:27) - Is there a right mindset for money? (26:36) - How do we start to identify our own issues with money? (38:34) - Do you have recommendations to help people with shame around money? (45:12) - What are some tips you can offer to get on the path and stay on the path to dealing with money shame? (53:58) - What are you sick of talking about? (55:28) - What are you most excited to talk about? (58:46) - What is the purpose of money?
24 Oct 2023
Changing My Mind on Employee Recognition w/ Meisha-ann Martin
00:54:15
Meisha-ann Martin is the Senior Director, People Analytics & Research at Workhuman. She has a PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and has spent almost twenty years as a researcher and practitioner on topics like recognition, wellness, inclusion and psychological safety. In this episode, we talk about employee recognition programs and adjust some of O'Brien's preconceived notions.
Timecodes: (2:20) - Welcoming Meisha-ann (3:05) - What is Workhuman? (4:31) - Why is a company like Workhuman needed in the first place? (6:22) - What is an employee recognition program? (8:02) - Why are we so bad at this? (9:10 ) - What is the power of saying ‘thank you’? (11:03) - The things you acknowledge are the things you reinforce so if you want to see more of something complimenting people gets it done. Is it that simple? (13:29) - Practical tips for showing gratitude (15:07) - What do you say to nay-sayers who say it’s just about checking off boxes and going through the motions to say the culture is working? (18:50) - How do you balance the line between showing gratitude but not expecting people to over-extend themselves? (21:14) - What does the data look like? (23:45) - Do you have examples of clients who have improved business outcomes and how they’ve demonstrated that? (25:42) - How drastic are the results for this? (27:22 ) - How do you see bias play out in this? (34:03) - How do we think about money in tying money to these programs? (36:41) - How do we avoid bias while still giving managers the ability to adjust compensation? (37:48 ) - Do you see a difference between written recognition and spoken recognition? (41:20) - What do you see in the research from people who say they don’t like public recognition? (44:03) - Do you find feedback has more of an impact in a one-on-one or group setting? (45:20) - What do you say to someone who thinks this is too much work? (47:44) - Can you share some examples of how you’ve made changes with this in your personal life? (50:41) - Anything else we haven’t covered regarding recognition? (52:42) - What is the purpose of business?
31 Oct 2023
Better Relationships, Better Business w/ Megan Lally
00:58:23
Megan Lally is the CEO at Highdive, an award-winning advertising firm working with clients like Jeep, Rocket Mortgage, State Farm, Lay's, Beam Suntory. She was recognized in AdAge’s “40 Under 40” list. In this conversation, she shares how Highdive creates better work by focusing on the relationships employees have with each other and with their clients.
Mentioned in this Episode:
High Dive: https://highdiveus.com/
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni: https://www.amazon.com/Five-Dysfunctions-Team-Leadership-Fable/dp/0787960756
Brene Brown on Vulnerability (TED Talk): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCvmsMzlF7o
The Medici Effect by Frans Johansson: https://www.amazon.com/Medici-Effect-Preface-Discussion-Guide/dp/1633692949
Frans Johansson on People Business: https://peoplebusinesspodcast.com/fransjohannson/
Timestamps: (2:20) - Welcoming Megan (2:52) - What is High Dive and how did it come to be? (4:47) - What makes a good relationship? (6:57) - What were the conversations like among the six people who founded High Dive at the beginning? (9:05) - Do you have any stories about how you came up with your mission and values? (14:04) - How do you work through disagreements? (17:41) - What do you do when someone behaves in a way that is detrimental to the relationship? (19:48) - Do you coach your people on how to have difficult conversations? (27:46) - How do you balance collaboration with clients and being the experts in the room? (38:13) - What is the process for onboarding new employees into your culture? (43:40) - What have you learned about continuing in a hybrid environment? (47:17) - What’s been the employees' reaction to keeping work and vacation separate? (54:54) - What tips do you have that lead to better creative outcomes?
07 Nov 2023
Staying Agile & In The Game w/ Pamela Meyer
00:51:38
Pamela Meyer is a leading Agile Innovation expert who works with leaders, teams, and organizations that need to be more agile and innovative to compete in a rapidly changing world. She is the author of five books on agility, innovation, and learning, including her newest book, Staying in the Game: Leading and Learning with Agility for a Dynamic Future as well as The Agility Shift: Creating Agile and Effective Leaders, Teams and Organizations and From Workplace to Playspace: Innovating, Learning and Changing Through Dynamic Engagement.
Timestamps: (2:32) - Introducing Pamela and her work. (3:38) - Why did you write “Staying In The Game” and what is it about? (6:48) - What is a "game"? How should we think about our life in terms of games, and how do we know what game we are actually playing? (8:22) - What are the four ‘P’s? (10:15) - If we aren’t feeling purpose or passion in our career should we find another "game"? (12:15) - How do you take something that's working in one area and transfer it to other areas of your life? (15:55) - How do we balance the hard work and suffering it takes to reach a goal with happiness? (21:47) - How do you think about deciding between "how do I embrace the struggle?" versus "it’s time to move on"? (26:40) - How do we continue to play the game that makes us money while also loosening its grip on us so we can enjoy it? (29:03) - What does it mean to be agile? (29:58) - How does somebody self-assess their agility? (31:30) - Where do we start to improve our agility? (35:44) - Why is slowing down important to agility? (38:06) - Can you talk about the four different kinds of reflection? (43:40) - How do we move from self-confidence to self-awareness? (49:42) - What is the purpose of business?
14 Nov 2023
How to Ask if Someone Needs Help w/ Cece Sykes
00:57:19
Cece Sykes, LCSW, ACSW, is a consultant and senior trainer with the Internal Family Systems Institute where she specializes in trauma and addiction and educates therapists internationally on how to apply the IFS therapy model to addictive processes. In this episode, she shares ways concerned bosses, colleagues, and friends can broach the subject of addiction to help people get the care they need.
Timestamps: (2:52) - Welcoming Cece. (4:32) - What terminology should we use instead of ‘addiction’? (6:18) - Is addiction a disease we can cure or is it with us all the time? (9:13) - What’s a good frame of mind to be in when you have a conversation about addiction with someone? (11:43) - What’s the right way to approach a conversation when something is off with a person? (23:16) - How should someone prepare for this conversation? (24:47) - How do you do this as a therapist when you don’t have people giving you information or examples of negative behavior? (33:40) - Is it fair to say people who are struggling with an addictive process are in some way seeking balance? (36:28) - If someone is struggling and wants help would finding a specialist in Internal Family Systems be a good starting point? (36:43) - How can someone evaluate themselves to know when they’re losing control? (39:40) - What can we do to stop the cycle? (43:50) - How does somebody work through stopping a behavior? (47:19) - What’s the best way to help someone recognize they’re under pressure and need help? (49:43) - Can you talk about how to strike a balance between empathy and having boundaries? (54:42) - Is there anything else we haven’t covered that you think is important?
28 Nov 2023
The Holy Shift w/ Dan Michelson
01:01:18
Dan Michelson is the CEO of InCommon and author of Holy Shift! Moving Your Company Forward to the Future of Work. In addition to his work at InCommon, he is an Adjunct Professor at the Quinlan School of Business at Loyola University. In this conversation, Dan talks about historical shifts that have rocked the workplace and how what we are going through now is just the next wave (one we all need to recognize and adapt to).
Timestamps (1:51) - Welcoming Dan (2:52) - What shift are you seeing in the workplace? (11:13) - What did you learn from studying past pandemics? (14:45) - What happens after a big change? (19:48) - How do you readjust and recalibrate your view of the world quickly? (26:07) - How do you teach others to adjust quickly? (31:52) - Do you have a practice for reflecting on how you see the world? (37:25) - How do we create a more human-centric approach to business? (39:50) - How do we foster connection? (46:07) - How can you orchestrate a struggle to bring everyone together in the workplace? (52:06) - What percentage of the population has this agile/shift skill set? (1:00:00) - What is the purpose of business? (1:00:58) - Is there anything you can share to direct us to what you’re doing?
05 Dec 2023
Win the Relationship, Not the Deal w/ Casey Jacox
00:56:38
Casey Jacox is the founder of Winning The Relationship, LLC, a consulting firm providing executive sales leadership and coaching. He is also the author of a book by the same name and host of The Quarterback DadCast, a podcast that offers stories, advice, and wisdom for fathers looking to improve their leadership skills and emotional intelligence. In this episode, he shares the importance of relationships and what it means to "win the relationship, not the deal".
Timestamps: (1:34) - Welcoming Casey (2:30) - Who are you and what do you do? (7:11) - Why is your book titled “Win the Relationship, Not the Deal”? (12:11) - Where do we start when building relationships? (14:20) - How do you think about rapport and what makes a good question? (18:45) - Do you have any stories of when it doesn’t work and how you bring it back? (23:17) - Have you always been quick on your feet? (27:55) - What advice do you have for learning to think on your feet? (32:57) - How long does it take to build relationships? (37:42) - What do you say to people who feel like that’s forced? (43:55) - How do you feel about the hustle culture? (47:24) - How do you balance between hustling and taking care of yourself? (50:25) - What is your process for gaining clarity? (56:15) - Is there anything else you’d like to share?
12 Dec 2023
The Philosopher Manager w/ Paul LaLonde
00:59:50
Paul A. LaLonde, SHRM-CP, CCAP is a deliberate HR pro, who believes philosophy is a difference-making pursuit in business and life. Paul serves as the VP of People & Culture for CEDA of Cook County in Chicago. CEDA is one of the largest Community Action Agencies in the Country. Paul has won numerous awards including the HR Today MVP Award for his blog HR Philosopher. He is also a bestselling author of the book People Fusion: Best Practices to Build and Retain a Strong Team.
The Tao of Strategy by L. J. Bourgeois, Serge Eygenson, Kanokrat Namasondhi (book): https://a.co/d/bcvtVIl
Timestamps: (1:44) - Welcoming Paul (2:15) - What is philosophy to you? (6:16) - How did you come to philosophy originally? (8:37) - What types of philosophy have you studied the most and which do you think are most relevant to business leaders today? (14:28) - Can you explain the Philosopher Manager concept? (16:41) - Where do people start and what are the basic principles of the Philosopher Manager? (25:13) - What does it mean to lead yourself? (27:28) - What does your journaling practice look like? (28:56) - Will you take a quote or a line and break down what it means to you? (31:05) - What does the personal reflection look like when you don’t act as you think you should have? (40:05) - How do you use philosophy when making decisions? (42:10) - Is there anything you’ve learned from philosophy that's helped you communicate better? (47:11) - What changes have you made in your personal life based on these philosophies? (55:01) - Where is the best place for the newcomer to start? (57:14) - What is the purpose of business?
16 Jan 2024
High Performance Professionals w/ Kendra Brodin
01:02:33
Kendra Brodin is the Founder and CEO of EsquireWell, a lawyer well-being and professional development company providing consulting, training, and the EsquireWell Academy, a cutting-edge online learning community, to help lawyers be happier, healthier, and more successful. Before founding her company, Kendra was Chief Attorney Development Officer at a large national law firm where she managed firm-wide lawyer training and development as well as well-being initiatives. In this episode, we talk about the performance expectations placed on attorneys and what they (or professionals in any industry) can do to be at our best in a demanding environment.
(1:44) - Welcoming Kendra (2:01) - What do you do and how did you come to be doing that work? (5:26) - Is it safe to say that this conversation is not just limited to corporate attorneys but to all who think about the workplace as performance? (6:39) - What are the demands placed on attorneys? (10:48) - What are the traits required to navigate the legal field at a high level? (15:35) - What are good ways people can start to do this work and recognize the impact of their emotions? (22:23) - Can we do this on our own? Are there any exercises to start to do this? (40:01) - Is discussing these "soft" emotional matters a distraction? (42:31) - How do you think about grit and mental toughness? (46:53) - How do you help clients determine where they are in the spectrum and whether they need to hang in there or stop and take a break? (50:43) - What does good recovery look like? (1:00:08) - Is there anything you’d like to add to sum up our conversation?
23 Jan 2024
Getting Past "US vs THEM" w/ Laura Kriska
01:02:26
Laura Kriska is an expert on cross-cultural relations with more than thirty years of experience bridging gaps in diverse workplaces. She has worked with Fortune 500 companies on four continents, helping thousands of professionals build trust across Us vs. Them differences based on nationality, ethnicity, race, religion, age, or any factor of identity. Her WE-Building framework provides practical and actionable insights for creating a more inclusive and productive world.
Bonus! Twelve Hours' Sleep by Twelve Weeks Old (baby sleep training book): https://a.co/d/aklrwro
Timestamps:
(2:16) - Welcoming Laura (3:15) - Why are we so afraid of those who are different than us and how do you see that showing up in the workplace? (5:03) - Can you give us a little bit about your background that led you into this field? (10:10) - What’s your response to the attitude of ‘let’s buck up and move on’ in relation to that kind of situation? (16:44) - Are microaggressions real or no? (21:45) - How can we 'reframe' some group identities we may hold? (29:25) - How do we do this in corporate environments? (35:19) - How do we open ourselves to embrace new and diverse situations? (43:02) - Are there ways to do this that don’t fall into 'tokenism'? (48:56) - How can leaders harness truly improve communication among various groups? (50:29) - What do we really have to get at to be bridging these connections? (55:49) - Do you have any suggestions for business leaders on how to make room for nuance and allow difference of opinion to exist? (1:00:21) - Laura invites us all to WE-build
30 Jan 2024
Global Benefits Management w/ Shannon Boyle
00:57:19
Shannon is the Practice Leader of Lockton's Global People Solutions team in the United States where she works with multinational companies, helping them organize and manage their global benefits programs.
(2:14) - Welcoming Shannon. (2:54) - How did you get into global benefits? (4:59) - How should a leader think about rewards and benefits globally? (7:20) - When does it make sense to bring global benefits oversight in-house and when is it better to keep it with a global PEO model? (8:20) - Are there good global payroll companies? (12:24) - Can you talk about the variety of benefits from country to country? (16:01) - Where do you start when consulting with a new client? (23:16) - Are companies looking for equality or equity when it comes to benefits across the globe? (25:58) - What is the state of wellness or well-being programs around the world? (31:17) - How should employers think about managing small and large populations under the same umbrella? (34:01) - Has EAP utilization changed around the world? (38:42) - What are best practices for avoiding cross-cultural mistakes? (39:54) - Can you define "governance" when it comes to managing global benefits? (42:32) - How can leaders tap into the local market while keeping decision-making centralized? (44:35) - What types of benefits are available to Expats? (49:16) - What is multi-national pooling? (51:50) - How is Lockton approaching global benefits differently than competitors?
06 Feb 2024
Presenting With Presence w/ Brad Karsh
00:50:41
Brad is the Founder and CEO of JB Training Solutions. An accomplished public speaker and executive coach, Brad has been featured on CNN, CNBC, and Dr. Phil, and has been quoted in: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Fortune, and USA Today among many others. Brad is also the author of three business books including the critically acclaimed Manager 3.0: A Millennial’s Guide to Rewriting the Rules of Management. Brad presents annually at the SHRM National Conference and was ranked #1 out of more than 200 speakers.
(2:11) - Welcoming Brad. (4:06) - How did you go from advertising to running a training and development company? (7:57) - How did you hone your ability to command attention? (11:30) - What was the process for improving your speaking ability? (15:48) - How do you balance the best possible you with the authentic you? (20:27) - Can you talk about different styles for different scenarios? (24:21) - How do you think about language? (31:15) - How have you built your ability to tell stories and connect with other people? (33:10) - How did you become the guy who thinks in stories? (37:45) - Do you have examples of how to bring these subjects to life? (45:06) - Is there anything we haven’t covered? (49:25) - Where can people find you and JB Training Solutions if they want more of this in their lives?
13 Feb 2024
Performance Mindset w/ Jon McGraw
01:04:29
Jon McGraw co-founded Vision Pursue (VP) after it’s principles radically shifted his mindset, performance, and overall life experience. He’s since guided and assisted in the successful application of these principles inside hundreds of corporate teams and sports franchises. He’s a sought after keynote speaker, workshop facilitator, and Performance Mindset trainer. Before VP, Jon played 10 years in the NFL plus completed business management and entrepreneurship programs at Harvard Business School and Wharton Business School.
(2:13) - Welcoming Jon (2:54) - How did you get into brain science and mental performance as a profession? (4:48) - Can you talk about the different components of brain productivity and brain healing? (6:32) - When you shift to a more conscious response what do you see in the brain from a health perspective? (7:59) - What have you seen with your own brain scans? (11:45) - What do you think meditation would have done for you while you were playing football? (13:03) - What do you mean by “hard drivers especially need to use meditation techniques?” (17:51) – Does our society have an unnatural focus on “purpose?” (24:06) - What are your recommendations to keep the loose, playful mentality when we need to make money? (27:30) - What does the shift from analytical to experiential brain? (36:12) - How do you help people keep the big vision and be present in the same moment? (38:34) - How do we attach dopamine to things it wouldn’t normally be attached to? (43:13) - What do you do when that negative voice comes back? (49:03) - How does your work help people stay on task and not need the dopamine rush of escape activities? (53:27) - How do we assess the emotion we’re feeling and how do we find a healthier path for it? (57:16) - What would you recommend as a place to start? (1:01:02) - What is power breathing? (1:02:57) - Where can people reach you?
20 Feb 2024
Radical Empathy w/ Erin Diehl
01:00:44
Erin Diehl is a Business Improv Edutainer, Failfluencer, and Professional Zoombie. Through a series of unrelated dares, Erin created improve it!, a unique professional development company that pushes others to laugh, learn, play, and grow. Her new book, I See You: A Leader's Guide to Energizing Your Team Through Radical Empathy, has paired her eighteen years of leadership experience with her improv-honed sense of humor to create a mindset shift for busy, stressed-out leaders. Using laughter, positivity, and empathy, Erin will take you on a journey of self-exploration to discover a newfound sense of self-love and inner peace that translates into improved leadership performance.
Mentioned on the Show:
I See You: A Leader's Guide to Energizing Your Team Through Radical Empathy (book): https://a.co/d/7USky6M
(1:54) - Welcoming Erin. (3:32) - What is this book, I See You, and why did you decide to write it? (8:05) - What does “life is an energy management problem” mean? (10:20) - How did you get that internal energy? (13:15) - What does energy correction look like? (16:26) - How did you come up with this process? (28:29) - Can you talk about self-limiting beliefs? (41:49) - Why is “if you love what you do you’ll never work a day in your life” B.S.? (45:02) - What advice do you have for people who want to embrace Radical Empathy and feel stuck? (59:14) - A final message for the audience.
27 Feb 2024
Designing Learning for Behavior Change w/ Julie Dirksen
01:05:38
Julie Dirksen is the author of the books Design For How People Learn and Talk to the Elephant: Design Learning for Behavior Change. She is a learning strategy consultant with a focus on incorporating behavioral science into learning interventions. She’s been an adjunct faculty member at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and is a Learning Guild Guildmaster.
Mentioned on the Show:
Talk to the Elephant: Design Learning for Behavior Change (book): https://a.co/d/hYJTByT
(2:04) - Welcoming Julie (3:58) - Do adults and kids learn differently? (8:00) - Can you explain the title of your book ‘Talk to the Elephant’? (18:34) - How does delayed gratification play into corporate training? (26:53) - How do you feel about the concept of experiential learning? (31:18) - How do you see people using augmented reality and virtual reality in the workplace? (41:29) - Can you talk about what is extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivation? (49:49) - Can you talk about what is the difference between individual and group behavior change? (1:03:20) - Where can people find you if they want to learn more about this? (1:04:16) - What suggestions would you give people to start implementing instructional design?
12 Mar 2024
Go Big or Go Home w/ Diana Kander
00:54:38
A serial entrepreneur who entered the United States as a refugee from Ukraine at the age of 8, Diana had launched and sold millions of dollars worth of products and services by her early thirties. Today, she is an innovation consultant, leadership development keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling author whose books have been taught in over 100 universities. And her parents would like you to know that her sister is a doctor. Diana is the author of Go Big or Go Home.
Timestamps: (2:11) - Welcoming Diana. (3:02) - How does one become an innovation consultant? (3:44) - What is most misunderstood about innovation? (6:51) - How do you limit your capacity so you have flex time? (9:52) - What are examples of your "impossible tasks"? (13:03) - What makes a person or a pitch memorable? (15:22) - Can you talk about the level of research you do to prepare for a pitch? (16:37) - Is that different than the old school build rapport? (20:49) - How do you balance technical knowledge with relationship building? (22:49) - What are tips to build trust in high-stakes situations? (25:04) - What do you say to people who say these methods are cheesy? (29:01) - How do you avoid starting a meeting by telling them about yourself? (31:18) - What does it mean to take people on a journey with your pitch? (33:23) - How important is it to have a global overarching theme? (34:06) - How do you think about losses? (36:03) - How do you think about surprise and how important is it? (37:41) - Can you give examples of ways you’ve used surprise? (39:16) - Why are 3D objects important? (42:04) - Is it correct to say you need to be both thoughtful and vulnerable to make it a successful pitch? (44:04) - How do you keep this fresh without burning out? (45:28) - How do you guide people through resistance to the GO BIG OR GO HOME method? (45:59) - What do you say to the person who thinks they’re not creative? (48:49) - How do you apply these principles in your personal life? (50:08) - Remember: you want to pitch something that is unique. (53:43) - Where can people reach you?
05 Mar 2024
EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT: Designing Work for Humans: A People Business Summit
00:22:16
In this special episode, O'Brien and past guest Jason Lauritsen announce a unique in-person event for People Business listeners who lead HR.
Designing Work for Humans: A People Business Summit will take place in Chicago on June 3rd and 4th, teaching HR leaders design skills they can use in their organizations to solve pressing business problems while making work better for the humans who work there.
This will be a project-based learning environment, meaning it will be immersive and hands-on, giving attendees a chance to practice what they are learning in real-time and with real-world applications.
We are partnering with Embarc, a Chicago-based nonprofit helping underserved students across 20+ schools by designing experiences that show them all the city (and the world) has to offer. Check out Embarc's mission here: https://embarcchicago.org/
If you are an HR leader who wants to be a better internal consultant to your executive team, who wants to help your organization face an uncertain future, who wants to improve the lives of your employees... this is the event for you.
19 Mar 2024
Never Not Working w/ Malissa Clark
01:03:22
Malissa Clark is an Associate Professor of Industrial-Organizational Psychology at the University of Georgia and Director of the Healthy Work Lab. She is the author of Never Not Working: Why the Always-On Culture Is Bad for Business—and How to Fix It.
(2:03) - Welcoming Malissa. (2:24) - How did you come to study workaholism? (3:41) - How do you define workaholism? (10:48) - How much of workaholism is about the action work versus how you feel about the work? (13:21) - It’s normal for achievement to take a lot of sacrifice. Don't we have to be workaholics to succeed? (15:31) - What is "introjected motivation"? (19:43) - How can we determine the difference between interjected and intrinsic motivation? (24:05) - What impact does workaholism have on your health and relationships? (28:46) - How influential are our phones and technology in fostering workaholism? (31:08) - Can you explain what "working light" is? (32:47) - Why is working light bad? (34:47) - How do we break the cycle of responsiveness? (48:05) - How do we let go of the guilt of not being productive? (49:18) - What’s an example of a mastery experience? (54:34) - Can you dispel the myth of needing employees to be workaholics for a company to succeed? (1:00:49) - What one or two things someone struggling with workaholism should do to start?
26 Mar 2024
Combatting Ageism & Utilizing All Your Talent w/ Patti Temple Rocks
00:54:31
Patti Temple Rocks is the author of I’m Not Done: It’s Time to Talk About Ageism in the Workplace, which was ranked as one of the 9 books Every Professional Should Read in 2019 by INC Magazine. Kirkus Reviews said, “Rocks writes succinctly but convincingly about the proliferation of age bias and its damaging, insidious, and demoralizing effects on businesses and employees alike.” She recently released a second edition called I’m STILL Not Done because of the impact she saw the pandemic have on older workers and the way they are treated.
(2:15) - Welcoming Patti. (2:58) - What is Ageism? (4:06) - Has Ageism always been a problem? (7:00) - Do you have examples of how this shows up differently for people? (9:21) - How does Ageism show up differently for men and women? (17:10) - Don’t people get less creative as they get older? (22:17) - Why should employers care about ageism? (26:26) - What do you think of the reasoning that the cost of the business requires it to replace older employees with younger ones? (35:51) - How do we blend having difficult conversations and providing opportunities for young people? (42:40) - What are things you see employers doing to get creative around retirement? (46:20) - Are you not a fan of mandatory retirement? (47:48) - Can you talk about mixing up social events? (50:52) - Patti's final message.
02 Apr 2024
The Evolution of Work w/ Brent Kedzierski
00:38:16
Brent Kedzierski is a sought-after keynote speaker and a leader of connected-worker ecosystems at Hexagon, an international data company working in industries from oil and gas to AI and manufacturing. He is focused on improving the human condition at work and creating a seamless collaboration between humans and machines. Brent has been involved in human performance trends in significant government and commercial industries, including the Department of Defense, executive and judicial branches of the US Government, aviation, healthcare, and nuclear industries.
(2:05) - Welcoming Brent (2:43) - What is your take on the state of employment these days? (12:59) - Why should companies invest in people skills (soft skills) for their employees, especially if those skills are transferrable to other employers? (20:17) - What are "cobotics"? (24:37) - What recommendations do you have for business leaders today to prepare for the transformation from our current work setting to a work setting with generative AI? (27:58) - What are the key traits from organizations that do training on new technology or business processes well? (35:22) - What in your mind is the purpose of business?
09 Apr 2024
Improving Manager/Employee Relations w/ Secchi Founders Mike White & Ken DeBauche
00:55:21
Mike White and Ken DeBauche are Co-Founders of Secchi, an employee relationship management tool for manufacturing, healthcare, and other shift work environments. In this conversation, they share how the lessons they learned working in these environments influence how they are now trying to make work better for both leaders and employees.
(2:38) - Introducing Mike and Ken and the Secchi origin story. (8:28) - Can you talk about the "Us vs. Them" dynamics often associated with manufacturing and warehouse environments? (11:57) - How do you see health care issues translating into a warehouse environment?(17:02) - How do you start skill building for supervisors to encourage them to adopt this new system? (21:17) - In what format are the employees getting the recognition? (23:42) - How do you get the supervisors to adopt recognition? (26:30) - What other elements allow employers to influence their supervisors and front-line workers? (30:51) - How do you reward employee points? (38:18) - What other elements managers and supervisors are tracking with your systems? (41:40) - What does a goal look like for these employees? (52:36) - Where can people find out more about Secchi?
16 Apr 2024
The Human Side of Finance: What Makes a Great CFO w/ Pinky Raina
00:57:34
Pinky is the Chief Financial Officer of Ideal Industries, a ~$400M manufacturing company with a global footprint. She leads several enterprise-wise transformation initiatives, enabling the company’s business model to adapt to changing market conditions and disruptive market forces. In her prior role as the CFO & COO at U.S. Soccer, Pinky led the organization through its challenges in a highly-visible media environment, including the Women's National Team Equal Pay Litigation. She was central to the company's most significant commercial, legal, operational, and financial events. In this conversation, she talks about what it means to be a strategic CFO and how she thinks about the human aspects of leading finance.
(1:49) - Welcome Pinky! (2:39) - What is a CFO’s job? (4:15) - What does "accelerating value creation" mean to you? (5:56) - What makes a good CFO? (8:10) - Do your peers have the same mindset you do? (9:48) - How handicapped are you working for a public company? (11:29) - Why do public company executives care about short-term market changes? (13:43) - Why is there a 3-5 year turnover rate for CEOs? (15:40) - How did you develop your mindset? (16:47) - How do you coach the people on your team? (22:03) - What’s your mindset and what types of things are you looking for as a CFO? (29:42) - Are you verbalizing your plan to your team on day one? (32:40) - Who do you use as resources to help you navigate onboarding? (34:08) - Can you talk about how you partnered with HR in onboarding? (36:34) - Can you tell how you came to be in HR? (39:28) - What surprised you the most about taking on an HR role? (40:10) - What did you learn from your HR experience? (43:26) - How do you plan succession roles? (48:50) - As a CFO how do you think about talent and leadership development? (55:04) - Do you have any final thoughts you’d like to share?
23 Apr 2024
Building Community & Personal Brands That Connect w/ Dr. Anna Stumpf
01:00:43
With a career spanning leadership roles in the world's largest company, influential positions in education teaching personal branding and marketing, and a deep understanding of the professional services industry and HR, Dr. Anna Stumpf brings a unique perspective to coaching professionals and organizations through transformative growth. She joins the show to talk about how successful leaders and companies are building community and brands that connect.
(2:04) - Welcoming Anna (3:12) - Who are you? What’s your background? What are you doing now? (11:09) - Can you talk about how important emotional intelligence is to marketing? (14:54) - Has marketing always been about community? (21:35) - What have you seen as far as companies using marketing for recruiting? (35:28) - How are you seeing leaders brand themselves successfully? (41:12) - How important is it to have a personal brand? (59:45) - Where can people find you if they want to connect?
30 Apr 2024
Brad Karsh Returns! How to Build a Learning & Development Curriculum
00:09:20
Brad Karsh, founder of JB Training Solutions, returns for a short bonus discussion about developing training programs for companies.
(1:01) Welcoming Brad back to the show (1:59) How should a company think about a training curriculum? (3:16) Brad explains how to use a needs analysis at a mid-sized company (4:35) Examples of how to teach hard skills internally (7:45) How can companies work with you?
07 May 2024
Disabilities at Work w/ Lori Becker
01:01:10
Lori Becker is the Chief Executive Officer of the Starkloff Disability Institute (SDI). In her role, Lori oversees the organization’s efforts to advance inclusion, access, and equity for people with disabilities in all aspects of society, and especially the workforce. As a leader with a disability herself, Lori is passionate about diversity and inclusion and was named a Diverse Business Leader in 2019 by the St. Louis Business Journal.
(2:28) - Welcoming Lori. (3:02) - What is Starkloff and how did you come to be associated with it? (5:22) - Walk us through the history of disability law. (14:34) - What does the range of disabilities look like? (18:41) - How do you think about your work when it comes to this broad spectrum of disabilities? (20:39) - What are the three levels of disability employment? (26:30) - What are your thoughts on the language and stigma people use when talking about disabilities? (41:59) - How can leaders mitigate employees from abusing certain accommodations? (48:24) - What is inspiration porn? (57:33) - Where do you recommend a new employer to get started with this?
14 May 2024
Difficult Workplace Conversations Made Easy w/ Paul Falcone
00:52:52
Paul Falcone is a bestselling author and top-rated presenter and storyteller specializing in workplace leadership development, communication, and talent management, including effective hiring, performance achievement, employee accountability, and workplace ethics. Drawing from his years of experience as head of HR for Nickelodeon, head of international HR for Paramount Pictures, and head of HR operations for NBCU’s prime time and late-night lineups, Paul knows how to entertain and train meaningful concepts for quick and easy adaptation and implementation.
(2:24 ) - Welcoming Paul (2:56) - Can you give us the background on your career? (3:54) - What made you want to write books? (6:03) - What was your process of writing and working at the same time? (10:04) - What is it about “101 Tough Conversations” that readers resonate with (24:10) - How can leaders develop a practice of tough conversations so that people get regular feedback? (36:26) - What does it mean to be a good coach as a leader? (40:25) - How do you guide someone into a new skill they’ve never done before? (49:09)v- What is leadership offense? (51:21) - Where can people find you if they want to get in contact?
21 May 2024
The Art of Facilitation w/ Myriam Hadnes
00:59:41
With a PhD in Behavioral Economics and a Master's in Sociology, Myriam Hadnes combines academic knowledge with practical experience in group collaboration and facilitation. She is the host of the "workshops work" podcast, where she engages in weekly conversations with global facilitation experts. She has also built NeverDoneBefore (NDB), a global online community of facilitators who share a common goal: to spark fresh trends in group collaboration. With her business workshops.work, Myriam follows the vision to create an ecosystem for facilitators, helping them to leverage the impact of their work through community, collaboration, and co-creation.
(2:47) - Welcoming Myriam. (3:38) - What is facilitation? What’s the difference between facilitation and hosting? (7:40) - What are some of the skills that go into navigating the group dynamic to where you want it to go? (9:14) - Is this similar to what a coach does? (17:25) - What are the misconceptions of facilitation? (21:01) - What goes into creating a safe environment for facilitation? (24:46) - Where’s the line between being relaxed and being careless? (28:29) - What guidance do you have for those who want to facilitate and also participate? (32:12) - Do you have examples of the leader bringing in a different facilitator? (38:42) - How do we know as a facilitator when to orchestrate and when to be spontaneous? (44:24) - Is there anything we missed that’s foundational to what it means to facilitate? (48:09) - How can we have to better, deeper conversations faster? (55:15) - Can you share one or two things from your Never Done Before community that have blown your mind? (57:47) - Where can people find you and your work?
04 Jun 2024
Hardiness & Getting Stronger Through Adversity w/ Dr. Steven Stein
00:56:44
Dr. Steven Stein is a clinical psychologist and the founder and executive chair of Multi-Health Systems (MHS), a leading assessment and behavior analytics company. He is a former chair of the Psychology Foundation of Canada, former President of the Psychology Foundation of Canada, and has helped lead several other prominent organizations. He teaches at the Directors College of Canada. He is also the author of several books, including "Hardiness", which formed the basis for this conversation.
Mentioned on the Show:
Hardiness: Making Stress Work for You to Achieve Your Life Goals (Steve’s book): https://a.co/d/cLpKwyQ
(1:51) - Welcoming Steve (2:14) - What is ‘Hardiness’? (3:42) - What are the differences in some of the words for mental toughness and where does ‘hardiness’ fit in? (7:08) - Is there such a thing as good stress and bad stress? (8:58) - Where’s the line where stress becomes trauma? (10:53) - How much does your mindset help your physiology during stress? (12:08) - What is the difference between positive energy and negative energy? (13:32) - Why is avoiding stress counter-productive? (14:42) - Why is commitment often the first place for stress? (15:34) - What does helping people with commitment look like? (17:05) - As an example, what are some of your commitments? (20:10) - What do you say to people who struggle to find one particular purpose? (25:04) - Why is hate not a good fuel for hardiness? (28:30) - Can you talk to us about Challenge? (31:38) - Are Challenge and Control interrelated? (32:45) - How do you change people's perspective on Challenge? (39:15) - Does control mean I have to figure out how to control everything in my life? (40:59) - How have you gotten more comfortable letting things go? (43:32) - How do you instill hardiness in other people? (45:54) - What are signs that someone should take the ADHD assessment? (47:30) - What was the most interesting thing you learned about psychopaths? (48:35) - What’s the difference between a psychopath and a sociopath? (51:14) - What goes into creating an assessment for a reality TV show cast? (53:38) - How did you come to do the assessment work? (54:54) - Did you assess former President Trump? (55:45) - Where can people find you and engage in this work?
11 Jun 2024
Telling Your Story Internally w/ Danielle Krischik
01:01:59
Danielle Krischik is the Chief Communication Officer at Knight Agency, an internal branding agency that helps companies connect to and tell their unique stories to help attract and retain talent. In this conversation, she explains how to surface your unique stories, connect them to your mission, and create an environment that speaks to people.
(2:49) - Welcoming Danielle. (3:20) - What is Knight Agency? (4:10) - What is purpose and performance work? (4:55) - What’s the main difference between internal marketing/branding vs. external marketing/branding? (6:32) - How and where are clients using this work? (8:23) - Can you give us examples of where your communications are used internally that drive retention? (11:34) - What does an engagement look like with a new client? (16:10) - What makes a good second and third-level question during discovery? (22:12) - How do you drive attention to personal stories so everybody in the business feels connected? (26:23) - What makes a good story? (30:52) - Do you agree that the more elements of storytelling like metaphor and analogy we use with people the more it creates an emotional connection? (46:00) - How do you help clients match their behaviors with the narrative? (49:52) - How do you help people find their authentic way to express their story in the larger narrative? (54:00) - How do companies make this work last? (59:01) - Where can people engage with you and your work?
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