The Edge of Work

Eric Girard is the CEO of Girard Training Solutions, and a management development expert, and the author of Lead Like a Pro, The Essential Guide For New Managers.During our conversation, Eric spoke about the transition and changes people managers must navigate when moving from individual contributor to people manager, as well as some of the common pitfalls new managers make, and some critical skills all managers must learn, including goal setting, feedback, and coaching.Eric also shared some thoughts on what is different about being a manager in today’s world of work, and why empathy is a superpower each manager can tap into in order to build a great team.Eric’s Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericpgirard/ Eric’s Website: https://www.girardtrainingsolutions.com/Book Website: https://www.gtspress.com/Podcast: https://www.girardtrainingsolutions.com/podcast.html 

Dart Lindsley is the Host of The Work For Humans Podcast, and a People and HR Leader who has spent time at tech companies including Cisco and Google.Through hosting the Work For Humans podcast, he has further shaped an innovative philosophy which can reinvent how we think about work. Instead of treating workers as "inputs to production" Dart believes that we should be treating employees as customers, upholding the importance of understanding their needs, and then designing a product (ex: their job or role) that provides a satisfying work experience.  During our conversation, Dart spoke about his observations of why work is not working, and what we can do to fix it.  He also walks through his concept of thinking of work “as a product” and how by using concepts of product marketing and  design,  the feedback he's received from using this approach, and how managers can reinvent work that actually works for employees, so they can be engaged, fulfilled and do exceptional work.Links:Work For Humans Podcast: https://dartlindsley.com/work-for-humans-podcast/Dart’s Linkedin Page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dart-lindsley/ Like this episode? Let Al know: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itsaldea/

Brian Elliott is a Co-Founder of Future Forum, Co-Author of How The Future Works, and a former VP at Slack. One of the leaders in both researching the future of work and enabling new ways of working, Brian has advised numerous leaders on how to experiment and think differently in order to innovate and lead in this new world of work.During our conversation, Brian spoke about some of his observations about what he’s seen change and evolve in the workplace over the past few years, and some of the challenges that hold leaders back from experimentation in the new world of work. Brian also shared what innovative leaders from companies like Slack, Hubspot, Atlassian, and Cotapaxi are doing differently to embrace this new world of work, as well as his own guidance to how leaders can focus on improving key business goals around productivity and engagement by focusing on better team dynamics and focusing on outcomes rather than outputs. Links:Future Forum & Brian's Book: https://futureforum.com/how-the-future-works/Brian Elliott's Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/belliott/Al's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itsaldea/

Dr. Gabriella Rosen Kellerman is the Chief Innovation Officer for BetterUp Labs, as well as the Co-Author of the book Tomorrowmind: Thriving at Work, Now and In an Uncertain Future. As a psychologist, Gabriella has studied the workplace and works each day in her role to help envision and create a better world of work.During our conversation Gabriella spoke about the history of work back from the hunter-gather days until present day, as well as the challenges that leaders and employees face in navigating a constantly changing and evolving world of work. Drawing on the concepts, research, and ideas, from her book as well as from her work at BetterUp Labs, Gabriella provided us with some ideas about the key skills that leaders and managers should both develop in order to lead effectively in today’s world of work, and how they can help their employees navigate the complexities and uncertainties of a constantly changing workplace, ranging from navigating uncertainty, mattering and purpose, and developing social connection regardless of location.Using the PRISM model, Gabriella also shared five key skills that all employees can develop and use to thrive in today’s world of work so that they can thrive LinksWebsite: https://www.gabriellarosenkellerman.com/Gabriella’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grkellerman/Al’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itsaldea/Book: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Tomorrowmind/Gabriella-Rosen-Kellerman/9781982159764 

Kelly Monahan is the Managing Director at Upwork, and leads their Future of Work research efforts. Having conducted and led future of work research efforts at leading organizations, Kelly has been studying the workplace and how it’s changed and evolved over the years, and is currently leading efforts at Upwork to identify Workplace innovators who are truly thinking and working about the workplace and designing organizations.During our conversation, Kelly spoke about some of her observations about how she has seen the workplace change, and some examples of how companies and leaders have adapted new ways of working and thinking as a result of those changes, ranging from how companies hire, think about work, and design work. Kelly also spoke about some of the research she and her team at Upwork have been doing on generative AI, and some of the key insights as well as future opportunities for how Generative AI can help organizations reimagine how they work, and truly work in new ways. Links:Kelly’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-monahan-ph-d-18879413/Kelly's TED Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23SYB8ZFEEIUpwork Research on Gen AI: https://www.upwork.com/blog/generative-ai-disconnect Productivity-Trust Paradox: https://alsnewsletter.substack.com/p/the-productivity-trust-paradoxDavid Graeber: https://www.vox.com/2018/5/8/17308744/bullshit-jobs-book-david-graeber-occupy-wall-street-karl-marxSlack's Research on Productivity and Trust (Summer 2023): https://slack.com/blog/news/future-of-work-research-summer-2023Discretionary Effort: https://hbr.org/2004/12/the-things-they-do-for-loveAl’s Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itsaldea/

Today’s episode is about the opportunity and importance of designing mentoring programs for employees in today’s changing world of work. Joining me is Emily Goligoski is the SVP of Research at Charter. Drawing on research that Emily and her team at Charter led to evaluate mentoring in the hybrid workplace, Emily shared some of their key findings from the report, including how mentoring is impacted by work style (hybrid, in-person, and remote) how great mentor-pair relationships work, and some of the key characteristics of well run mentoring programs. Emily also shared some of her observations on some of our shortcomings with mentoring programs and how to overcome them, and her ideas for how to build a great mentoring program inside your organization.Links:Emily’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilygoligoski/Charter and Qualtrics’ Research: https://www.charterworks.com/charter-research-mentorship-remote-hybrid/Like this episode? Let Al know → https://www.linkedin.com/in/itsaldea/ 

Adam Hickman is the Vice President of Learning and Org Development at Partners Federal Credit Union, a Walt Disney Company. In addition to this role, Adam is an author and professor and writes and speaks regularly on topics related to management and leadership.During our conversation, Adam dove into some of the changes in the workplace and the implications of those changes (ex: technology) for what companies need out of their people managers so that they can have engaged and productive employees. Adam also shared some of his team’s strategy and approach at his organization around manager effectiveness, the approaches they are taking in redesign the role of the manager and develop good managers, and his own  to recruit and empower effective managers, and some of his own thoughts on how you can create a better world of work through better managers.Links:Adam’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamghickman/Al's Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itsaldea/https://www.hrdconnect.com/2023/04/25/how-to-evolve-and-equip-your-managers-to-buck-the-disengagement-trend/adam-hickman-on-the-shifting-role-of-the-manager/ 

Note: This is a recording from a LinkedIn Live. Dan Nieves works in Global Executive Engagement at Reality Labs at Meta. Over the course of his career, Dan has worked at the intersection of emerging technology, people and the future of work.During this conversation, Dan spoke about how technologies including AR/VR (Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality) are reimagining how we think about work, and shared some examples and ideas for how companies can use emerging technology to truly reimagine and rethink the way they work.LinksDan’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dnieves/Al’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itsaldea/ 

Angela Cheng-Cimini is the Chief Human Resources Officers at Harvard Business Publishing.  As a seasoned HR Leader, Angela is passionate about creating employee experiences that unleash the purpose and potential of each employee.  And critical to that individual employee experience is the role of the manager.  During our conversation, Angela shared her definition of why in today's evolving workplace,  a new employee experience, or  hyper-personalized employee experience is critical to meeting and exceeding employee expectations. She also shared  a number of critical elements of this experience including employee onboarding, career pathing, and pay transparency. Angela also shared why the manager is critical to delivering this employee experience, how she and her team have focused on this at Harvard Business Publishing, and how other leaders can adopt this approach inside their organization.Links: Angela’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angela-cheng-cimini-160890a https://www.td.org/talent-development-leader/is-the-new-employee-experience-here-to-stay https://www.harvardbusiness.org/6-experts-on-the-future-of-leadership/Like this episode? Let Al know → https://www.linkedin.com/in/itsaldea/ 

Muriel Wilkins is an Executive Coach, Managing Partner at a Leadership and Coaching Firm, and the Host of the HBR Podcast Coaching Real Leaders.After graduating from Harvard Business School and pursuing a career to become a CMO, Muriel realized she had other aspirations, and through the guidance of an Executive Coach, decided to become an Executive Coach herself. Now, she runs a successful Executive Coaching Practice, and spends her time coaching executives and sharing her learnings on her podcast, Coaching Real Leaders.During our conversation, Muriel spoke about some of the changes and adaptations she has seen leaders navigate  over the past few years, and how she has seen the desired qualities of leaders change as a result of our changing world of work. She also shared some of her thoughts on what is different about leadership today, why leaders need to embrace complexity, and how we might rethink and reframe leadership for and what we look for from our leaders so that we can create a better world of work. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/murielwilkins/ Podcast: https://hbr.org/2020/12/podcast-coaching-real-leaders Website: https://paravispartners.com/who-we-are/