In this compelling episode, you’ll hear La’Wana Harris share timely thoughts about her new book, Diversity Beyond Lip Service. She explains how she works with leaders to help them become aware of their own biases and how to make conscious choices that mitigate bias in order to embrace diversity. Harris defines diversity as the full spectrum of human indifference including race, gender, and sexual orientation. But she also points out other differentiators such as cultural elements, position or role status, privilege, and physical abilities that limit inclusion. La’Wana’s executive coach experience has provided many opportunities for her to work with people to first build their awareness of biases, then do the self-work to move forward with actions that have a positive impact. She encourages us to commit to courageous actions and speak up when we see someone being marginalized. The action is to not ignore what you are observing; instead, practice awareness, point out the discrepancy, and be part of the solution. This is the only way to move beyond supporting diversity only through lip service. It takes a long-term commitment to action. Diversity is an issue that must be addressed, and now is the time. “There are no extra people—every single person has inherent value and it is a huge disservice to ourselves and others not to mine for the greatness in everyone. We must help others become their best selves and fully appreciate the beauty in our diversity,” explains Harris. For more information on La’Wana Harris, go to lawanaharris.com or find her on LinkedIn.

In this episode, Mark Johnson describes a method for putting visionary thinking and processes into place so that any organization can take advantage of disruptive innovation. As business models change at an ever-increasing rate and the world becomes noisier, the tendency for most organizations is to hunker down and deal with the here and now. But it is important to get past the pull of the present and plan for five to ten years in the future.

In this episode you’ll hear Joel Peterson, chairman of JetBlue Airways, discuss the difference between an entrepreneur and an entrepreneurial leader. In his latest book, Entrepreneurial Leadership: The Art of Launching New Ventures, Inspiring Others, and Running Stuff, Peterson explains that leaders who want to make a lasting impact must learn to launch new initiatives, inspire others, and champion innovative approaches. In short, these leaders require a new set of skills.

Judd Hoekstra, coauthor of Who Killed Change, explains why up to 70 percent of change efforts fail. Research indicates there are several predictive reasons why change fails, and Hoekstra explains how to navigate through the process successfully. He also describes three of the five stages of concern that people experience during a change initiative.

“If leaders know that showing gratitude and appreciating the work of their employees is important, why aren’t they doing it consistently?” asks Adrian Gostick, organizational culture expert and cofounder of The Culture Works. In this episode, hear Gostick talk about research his company conducted with more than one million employees that confirms the strong relationship between employee recognition and employee engagement. He explores the myths that are holding people back in his latest book, Leading with Gratitude, coauthored with Chester Elton.

Hear motivation expert Susan Fowler describe the three basic needs that are essential to optimal motivation: choice, connection, and competence. She explains we all need to create these three needs in our lives in order to thrive. Creating the basic need of choice can be as simple as recognizing that we have a choice. Have you ever wished you didn’t have to go to work in the morning? That is a choice point. When that happens, ask yourself what would happen if you didn’t go to work—what would you lose? Then ask yourself what you would learn and contribute if you did go to work. Thinking about those things will help you plan and understand that you do have a choice. Fowler recommends that at the end of each day we ask ourselves which choices made us happy and which ones didn’t. This simple process makes us more aware that we do have choices, and it helps us look at consequences to ensure we make better decisions in the future. The need of connection is tied closely to values. If you say family is your number one value but you spend 80 hours a week working and missing family events, or if you say health is a value but you don’t eat right or exercise, you might need to take a closer look at your values. The choices we make are true indicators of our values—so if we don’t know what your values are, we’ll have trouble creating connection in our lives. Defining our values is the first step toward creating connection. The third basic need is competence. This isn’t necessarily about mastery; it’s about learning and growing every day. Everyone wants to feel effective at managing professional and personal activities, but mastery doesn’t happen overnight. Developing competence is about making progress. The most important takeaway is that we can control the quality of our lives by controlling the quality of our motivation through the creation of choice, connection, and competence. For more about Susan Fowler, go to www.susanfowler.com.

A finite game has known players, fixed rules, and a clear end point, like baseball. But with infinite games such as business or politics, the players come and go, the rules are changeable, and there is no defined end point. There are no winners or losers in an infinite game—there is only ahead or behind.

In this episode, Craig Weber explains how strong communication skills can build healthy work environments and increase leadership effectiveness. “The first step is awareness. People need to be aware of how they react to others during conversations,” explains Weber. Once people have this awareness, they can be more thoughtful about their responses and help conversations move along in a positive way. The second step is to embrace a new way of thinking. Many people let their ego get in the way during conversations when they want to prove they are right. That isn’t helpful. The purpose of a conversation is to get a clear understanding of an issue with the goal of working together to make good decisions and move forward. To do that, you must develop a mindset of learning. The third step is learning the skills of candor and curiosity. Candor involves being able to state your opinion clearly and explain the thinking behind it. Curiosity is about testing your opinions or theories with others to learn about blind spots or inaccuracies in your thought process. It also involves the ability to inquire and gain clarity about comments or opinions from others. Weber suggests creating a personal plan to work on specific areas of your communication skills. Be aware of your behaviors, approach every conversation with a learning mindset, and then practice the skills of candor and curiosity. Weber wants everyone to realize they have the power to make a difference both at work and at home by simply improving their communication skills.  For more information about Craig Weber, go to https://www.weberconsultinggroup.net/conversational-capacity.

Jennifer Brown says most of us are not aware of the variety of forms bias can take. The most important thing is to start having discussions about diversity and unconscious bias so every leader can begin their journey toward becoming an inclusive leader.

Marcus Buckingham, author of 'Nine Lies About Work,' shares insights on debunking common assumptions in the workplace. He challenges ideas such as people caring which company they work for, the best plan winning, and the need for feedback. He emphasizes the importance of embracing individual uniqueness and finding love in work rather than seeking work-life balance.