Melody Wilding is an award-winning executive coach, keynote speaker, and author of Managing Up. Named one of Insider’s “most innovative career coaches,” her clients include CEOs and managers at Google, Amazon, Walmart and JPMorgan Chase, among others. A human behavior professor at Hunter College In New York City, Melody’s work has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and dozens of other media outlets. She is also a contributor to Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Psychology Today and Forbes. In this episode we discuss the following: We’re always teaching people how to treat us. We may be prone to over-apologize. But rather than over-apologize, we can simply say, “Thank you for your patience.” Rather than prefacing a comment with, “I don’t know if this is a good idea,” we can say, “I believe we should try X.” When setting boundaries, rather than just saying, “No” to a request, we can say, “I’m happy to make an exception this time.” Rather than always trying to get to the point, we can share anecdotes and stories that will be much more memorable. To make sure we’re working on things that our managers value, we can ask questions like, “What do you wish you had more time to work on?” or “What could I do to make your job easier right now?”   Connect on Social Media: X: https://twitter.com/nate_meikle LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natemeikle/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nate_meikle/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@nate.meikle

Rebecca Henderson is a professor at Harvard Business School and is 1 of only 25 professors at Harvard given the distinction of University Professor, which is the highest honor a professor can receive at Harvard. She is the author of the book Reimagining Capitalism which explores how the private sector can help build a more sustainable economy. Rebecca is also a research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a fellow of both the British Academy and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She also sits on the boards of several companies, including AMGEN. Rebecca earned a degree in mechanical engineering from MIT and a PhD in business economics from Harvard. In this episode we discuss the following: I love the story Rebecca shared about the book contract she had lined up. She was going to write a book about how we are prone to take on too much stuff, and then she had to cancel the contract because she had taken on too much stuff. Finding the right balance between staying focused and embracing change is a never-ending struggle. Rebecca worked with Nokia, Kodak, and Motorola. All of them were at the cutting edge of technology and poised to dominate the cell phone and camera market. But none could adapt quickly enough to the changing technology. I thought it was fascinating to hear how some firms got superior results to other firms, even though they had the same inputs. The economists hated the finding because the research showed that leadership and management practices could make such a difference. The best firms took care of their people. Here are two of Rebecca's papers: Innovation in the 21st Century: Architectural Change, Purpose, and the Challenges of Our Time Moral Firms? And here is a link to her book website for Reimagining Capitalism.  Connect on Social Media: X: https://twitter.com/nate_meikle LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natemeikle/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nate_meikle/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@nate.meikle

Jon Schmidt is an American piano composer and member of the musical group The Piano Guys, which has more than 2 billion views on YouTube, and more than 7 million subscribers. In this episode we discuss the following: Jon didn’t want to be a musician. But he and his wife adopted the principle of, “Turn your life over to God, and he’ll make more out of it than you’d ever be able to.” And it was that decision that guided Jon back to music. When I asked Jon what he’d say to his kids if they didn’t believe in God, I loved Jon’s response…that he doesn’t think God gets uptight about how we think of him. So whether people believe in an embodied God or just a higher power, it’s the intention to try to make the most of our lives that matters. Connect on Social Media: X: https://twitter.com/nate_meikle LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natemeikle/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nate_meikle/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@nate.meikle

Elaine Lin Hering is a speaker, facilitator, and writer, and she is the author of the USA Today Bestselling book Unlearning Silence. Elaine has taught executive education programs at Harvard, Dartmouth, Tufts, Cal Berkeley, and UCLA and served as a Lecturer at Harvard Law School. And her clients include American Express, Capital One, Google, IBM, Merck, Nike, Salesforce, Shell, Pixar, and the Red Cross. Elaine has B.A.s in Political Science and Music from Cal Berkeley and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. In this episode we discuss the following: Silence is a learned behavior. We’re endlessly influenced by culture and society, so it’s important to question assumptions, and ask ourselves: In what ways do we self-censor and in what ways do we silence others? Just as there is no one best time zone, there is no one best way to speak, to look, to act. We should always seek out data, but remember that it’s not definitive. Connect on Social Media: X: https://twitter.com/nate_meikle LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natemeikle/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nate_meikle/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@nate.meikle

Dr. Anna Lembke is a Stanford Professor and Medical Director of Addiction Medicine at Stanford University’s School of Medicine. Her latest book, Dopamine Nation, is a New York Times bestseller and has been translated into 30 languages. It examines the effects of being surrounded by abundant sources of instant gratification, such as food, social media, gaming, pornography, and drugs. Anna combines the neuroscience of addiction with the wisdom of recovery to explore the problem of compulsive overconsumption in a dopamine-overloaded world. In this episode we discuss the following: Anna learned from her patients in addiction recovery that if they wanted to maintain their recovery, they couldn’t tell a single lie. One of the reasons lying hurts ourselves and others is because it denies us access to reality, which of course makes it more difficult to deal with reality. Radical honesty applies to more aspects of life than we may realize. For example, Anna is able to reduce her anxiety before interviews by being radically honest with herself and remembering that she doesn’t have to be all things to all people, she doesn’t have to be anything more than she already is.   Connect on Social Media: X: https://twitter.com/nate_meikle LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natemeikle/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nate_meikle/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@nate.meikle

Shon Hiatt is a business professor and director of the Business of Energy Transition initiative at the University of Southern California. He researches entrepreneurship, strategy, innovation, and sustainability, with an emphasis in energy and agribusiness. His work has been published in leading academic journals and featured in popular media outlets. Before joining USC, he was a faculty member at Harvard Business School. In this episode we discuss the following: The demand for energy, specifically and surprisingly for coal and petroleum, has never been greater, especially with the growth of energy-intensive data centers that power AI. But each energy source comes with tradeoffs, so the more diversified energy sources countries have, the greater potential for resiliency when shocks hit the system. Estimates indicate that an electric car only becomes less carbon intensive than a combustion engine after it’s been driven for 100,000 miles, in part because dirty energy is often used to charge the batteries, plus mining the material to create the batteries is energy intensive. While nuclear power is quite clean and becoming much safer, it is especially expensive due to regulatory burdens that haven’t been updated with the latest technology. And while wind and solar help meet overall demand, they cannot reliably hit base load demand. As Shon tells his students, the holy grail for energy production balances security, safety, affordability, reliability, and cleanliness. In other words, when it comes to energy policy there are no simple solutions. Only tradeoffs.   Connect on Social Media: X: https://twitter.com/nate_meikle LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natemeikle/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nate_meikle/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@nate.meikle

Teresa Amabile, Professor Emerita, at Harvard Business School, is one of the world’s foremost scholars of creativity. She’s received multiple lifetime achievement awards and is one of the all-time top management scholars by citation count. She’s presented her work at companies and conferences all over the world, including Apple, IDEO, and the World Economic Forum. She is also the author of several books, including her most recent book, Retiring, which examines how people transition to retirement. Originally educated and employed as a chemist, Teresa received her Ph.D. in psychology from Stanford University. I hope you enjoy learning from Teresa Amabile today. In this episode we discuss the following: People have their best days at work, feel the most creative and productive, when they make progress on meaningful work. People transitioning into new life phases, for example, retirement, are at risk of not feeling productive, if their meaningful work comes to an end. After interviewing 120 people, Teresa found that those who successfully transition to new life phases do the following: they take action to align their identities with some sort of structure, they strive to be aware of what’s working, and then they adapt accordingly.   Connect on Social Media: X: https://twitter.com/nate_meikle LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natemeikle/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nate_meikle/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@nate.meikle

Ravin Jesuthasan is a global thought leader, futurist, and bestselling author on the future of work. He has authored six books and over 200 articles including 15 for the Harvard Business Review and the Sloan Management Review. He is a regular presenter at the World Economic Forum and has been featured extensively by CNN, BBC, The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, and Fortune, among others. Ravin is also featured prominently on PBS’s widely acclaimed documentary series The Future of Work. He is a frequent guest lecturer at universities around the world including Caltech, Oxford, Northwestern, NYU, and USC. He is also a facilitator of the executive education programs at Caltech. In this episode we discuss the following: The skills that got us to where we are may not be sufficient to get us to where we want to go, given the rapidly changing world. So, we need to continually upscale or rescale, to prepare ourselves to do something adjacent or something different. For Ravin, the journey of reinvention is his destination. Seek to continually reinvent yourself.   Connect on Social Media: X: https://twitter.com/nate_meikle LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natemeikle/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nate_meikle/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@nate.meikle

Sandra Matz, Professor at Columbia Business School, is a computational social scientist who studies human behavior using Big Data analytics. She was named a Poets & Quants 40 under 40 Business School Professor, and her new book, Mindmasters, explores how algorithms penetrate the most intimate aspects of our psychology. In this episode we discuss the following: We now live in a digital village, where AI can learn so much more about us than we realize. And naturally, this ability can be used to influence us for good or bad.   Pay attention to AI progress. Look out for ways it can help us. But also be on the lookout for how it can harm us.    Connect on Social Media: X: https://twitter.com/nate_meikle LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natemeikle/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nate_meikle/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@nate.meikle  

Sarah Dalton is a partner at Conchie Associates, a consulting firm that uses psychometric assessments to help CEOs and Boards select talented leaders. She is the author of the book, The Five Talents that really Matter, with co-author Barry Conchie. Sarah earned a Masters degree in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from Colorado State University. In this episode we discuss the following: To achieve our potential, it is most effective to focus on areas where we have some natural ability and curiosity. Motivation and hard work can only take us so far. Rather than constantly working on our weaknesses, it is often more effective to harness our strengths.   Connect on Social Media: X: https://twitter.com/nate_meikle LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natemeikle/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nate_meikle/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@nate.meikle