#105—Disruption: Managing Your Career

Whenever I feel stuck or I’m looking for a mentor, career-wise, one of my favorite things to do is to identify people whose careers I really admire, and watch them from afar. I study how they work, what they’ve done and what changes for them over time.

I learned about Whitney Johnson after I read her first book, Dare, Dream, Do. It’s about building dreams for your life, and it has so many useful applications for that time period of transition in your career after becoming a parent when you can dream up what your future life can look like. So, when I reached out and asked her to be on the show, I was floored when she said yes. It’s always a particular joy when you get to connect with someone you’ve watched and learned from for a long time.

Innovation, disruption, and management theory

Whitney is an innovation and disruption theorist, and an executive and performance. She was formerly a Wall Street analyst who also started an investment firm with Harvard’s Clayton Christensen. She’s also a bestselling author of three books, her most recent the book all about building great teams and using the ideas of disruption (both of yourself as well as your process) in Build an A-Team: Play to Their Strengths and Lead Them Up The Learning Curve.

• What the term “disruption” means and why it’s more than a buzzword.
• How pregnancy and parenting are both “disruptive forces” and how that makes them really powerful potential forces for good.
• How pregnancy gives women the opportunity to think strategically
• Her parenting journey—when and how she decided she wanted to be a mother.
• Managing work travel and an intense work schedule with parenting.
• How to hire great people and how to build great teams.
• What to do when you have underperformers on your team, or people who have outgrown a role.

FULL SHOW NOTES

Get the complete show notes with episode quotes, photos, and time stamps at http://www.startuppregnant.com/105.

Whitney Johnson, is an innovation and disruption theorist, executive and performance coach, ​and ​one ​of the world's leading management thinkers, according to Thinkers50​.

• More about Whitney