Lead From the Heart

Who isn’t impressed by a highly confident person?  Confident applicants are more likely to be hired, & self-assured politicians are more likely to be elected. Because we believe it produces a winning edge, we all strive to be self-confident. In fact, a surge of confidence can feel fantastic. It offers us a rush of energy – & feelings of invincibility – that help propel us in those moments of adversity when we’re called upon to be courageous & decisive. But surprising, extensive & eye-opening research by U.C. Berkeley business school professor, Don Moore, finds that while some confidence is good, overconfidence is often a leadership derailleur. In fact, no problem of judgment & decision making is more prevalent and more potentially catastrophic than over-confidence.  In Moore’s words, “self-help books & motivational speakers tell us that the more confident we are, the better. But this way of thinking can lead to enormous trouble.” Over-confidence has been blamed for the sinking of the Titanic, the loss of two space shuttles, the sub-prime crisis & the nuclear accident at Chernobyl. Despite what we may commonly have accepted as truth, there are huge risks to being over-confident. In this podcast, we discuss Moore’s brand-new book, Perfectly Confident, which marries the best psychological & economic studies to explain exactly what confidence is, when it can be helpful, & when it can be destructive in our lives.  A theme throughout the discussion is that human nature guides us to seek out information which confirms our already held beliefs. Too few of us naturally ask ourselves, “How might I be wrong?” or “Is my hypothesis true?” But just by considering that we might be wrong, we open the door to listening to people who disagree with us and to gaining information that we not only lack – but that could influence us into making far better choices. Disconfirming our own beliefs & convictions is difficult for most humans, but Moore’s book – & this conversation – explore the most effective ways for us to maneuver.  And as you’ll hear Moore explain, instead of attempting to pick a winner in the competition between over-confidence & under-confidence, we’re wisest to pursue “the middle way.” The post Don Moore: The Mindset You Need For Making The Best Life Choices appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

What percentage of people would say they’ve ever had a really great boss? In an ideal world, most of us could recall a long list of past and present managers who fit the bill. But we know highly caring & supportive managers remain rare in most workplaces. As evidenced by consistently low employee engagement scores around the globe – & record high turnover leading up to the COVID pandemic – the signs are everywhere that too few managers possess an ability to inspire people while concurrently driving performance. According to long-time Wharton Business School emeritus professor, Stewart Friedman, one reason business has a legacy of having so many poor leaders is because it’s only fairly recently that companies placed a premium on leadership development. In fact, only in the past several years have top MBA programs begun to put leadership training on par with traditional curriculum elements. This means many people who graduated from elite universities, & are now at the top of the ladder at major organizations, had an education that emphasized accounting, financial analysis, marketing & operations – but provided only a cursory exposure to ethics, trust & human motivation. In this truly wonderful conversation, Friedman describes why business schools mostly ignored leadership for decades, & shares how world events effectively forced them to begin teaching more humane managerial practices. As we slowly emerge from the COVID-crisis, the experience that millions of people around the globe are having in working from home will have permanently changed them. One key outcome of this is that organizational leadership will need to quickly pivot and begin to authentically care about people not just as employees, but also with respect to how their work experience affects all the other important aspects of their lives. With the exception of two years spent running Ford Motor Company’s leadership development program, Friedman has been at Wharton since 1984. He’s the founder of his school’s leadership development program in addition to its “Work/Life Integration Project. He’s also the author of “Total Leadership: Be A Better Leader, Have A Richer Life” & co-author of the brand new, “Parents Who Lead.” As genuine of a human being as it gets, Stew Friedman has amassed a truly comprehensive understanding of personal and workplace leadership – and graciously shares much of that knowledge here. The post Stewart Friedman: Be a Better Leader And Have a Richer Life appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

Author Erik Larson has written six New York Times bestselling books including “The Devil In The White City,” a National Book Award finalist. On the day we recorded this podcast, his new book, “The Splendid And The Vile” ranked as the number-one work of nonfiction on both the New York Times & Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. The Splendid And The Vile focuses on Sir Winston Churchill’s first year as England’s Prime Minister (exactly eighty-years ago) – “the year in which Churchill became Churchill, the cigar-smoking bulldog we all know, when he made all of his famous speeches and showed the world what courage and leadership look like.” The central question at the time – almost exactly eighty-years ago – was whether the British people could endure a ferocious assault by the full-force of the German army. And as England went on to suffer fifty-seven consecutive days of merciless bombings that killed 45,000 citizens including nearly 6,000 children, Churchill’s leadership not only proved to sustain human spirits – it ensured his country’s remarkable victory. By demonstrating extraordinary courage, hope, candor, optimism and inspiration (all qualities of the heart), Winston Churchill not only earned a spot as one of the most renowned leaders of all-time, he stands perhaps as the greatest leader ever in a time of crisis. While Erik Larson openly admits that he didn’t specifically set out to write a book on leadership, The Splendid And The Vile proves to be one. And, if you’ve ever read any of Larson’s extraordinary books, you know his writing is clear and articulate – and that he’s masterful story-teller. And as you listen to him bring Churchill to life in this podcast, you’ll hear these very same gifts shine through. At a time of our own, twenty-first century, crisis, when leaders around the world are seeking guidance on how to act, Erik Larson couldn’t be a more timely or informed voice.  Larson is also convinced that Churchill’s crisis-leadership practices are learnable and absorbable: Were we to adopt the behaviors that made Churchill great, we ourselves can be great as well. Promise yourself you’ll make time to listen in – it’s Leading From The Heart at its best! The post Erik Larson: Why Winston Churchill Is The Greatest Crisis Leader Of All Time appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

Now Is The Time To Make Employees As Important As Shareholders: For decades, businesses have deferred to the interests of shareholders above and beyond the interests of all other stakeholders – most especially employees. And according to London Business School finance professor, Alex Edmans, shareholders have long been conditioned to believe that the value any company produces is a fixed pie – and so the only way for them to retain the largest slice of the pie is to ensure the size of the pie all other stakeholders get remains small.  This mindset has meant that shareholders have seen every dollar spent on workers as dollars taken away from them. But in his new, inspiring & wonderfully researched book, “Grow The Pie, How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose And Profit,” Alex introduces a far more enlightened & innovative mindset – the idea that the size of company pies are not fixed after all.  “And when all members of an organization work together, bound by a common purpose and focused on the long term, they actually create shared value in a way that enlarges the slices of everyone – shareholders, workers, customers, suppliers, the environment, communities and taxpayers.” It’s by no means surprising that Alex is the one to be introducing a new leadership paradigm, nor that it’s this timely. The COVID-19 crisis has quickly revealed cracks in the business models of many companies. And with all of us having time to reflect on the current effectiveness of workplace leadership, the idea that employees & other stakeholders are a drag on shareholder returns has surely proved indefensible. As you’ll discover as you listen, Alex is an extraordinary thinker.  A graduate of Oxford University & a Fulbright Scholar while earning PhD in Finance from MIT’s Sloan school, he became one of the youngest professors to ever earn tenure at the Wharton Business School. He’s spoken at Davos and on the TED stage. In an extraordinarily energetic conversation (thanks to Alex),  Edmans introduces the most current thinking on the future of workplace leadership –  a vision that emphasizes the idea that when employees fare well, shareholders do even better than before. Prepare to be wowed, informed & amazed!  And that’s no overstatement! We’re also extremely grateful that Alex is launching his new book with us. The post Alex Edmans: The Choice Between People & Profits Is A False Dichotomy appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

A Special Podcast! In the new era of remote working – forced upon at least a third of the world’s working population in just the past few weeks – all of our lives have been disrupted. The Coronavirus pandemic has us indefinitely confined to our homes, working away from our colleagues and offices – and attempting to home-school our children – all at the same time. Most of our routines have been upended making grief, fear and anxiety the dominant emotions of the day. And for a lot of us, we’re needing to navigate through all of this while at the same time managing and leading a team of people. Because of all of the sudden and significant disruption to our “business as usual” work lives, a lot of us are wondering how to best maneuver.  Specifically, we’re asking ourselves: What are the most meaningful things we can do right now that will not only ensure our most important work gets done, but that we also sufficiently support the overall well-being of our people at the same time? Just a few days ago, Mark went on Twitter and asked his 137,000 connections there if it would be helpful to have a special podcast episode specifically devoted to dealing with the myriad stresses we’re all facing. The overwhelming response, was “yes.” Our special guest for this episode is Harvard Business School professor, Amy Edmondson – one of the world’s experts on psychological and emotional safety – and who, for the first time in her own career, is teaching undergraduate, MBA and Ph.D. business students remotely. Like many universities, Harvard announced that students will not return to campus this semester – quite a loss for those completing their education this year and graduating. Even formal graduation ceremonies won’t be held this year. In the especially compelling conversation, Amy speaks candidly about how her students are feeling and responding to all the disruption. And much of the conversation is devoted to addressing the biggest challenges workplace managers – all remote workers, really — can most effectively respond to them. Towards the end of the conversation, Amy acknowledges a truth many of us would prefer to not consider: “We don’t really know what will happen next.” But having someone with Amy Edmonson’s wisdom in intellect to guide us on how to adapt to whatever comes our way next couldn’t come at a better time.  This is also Amy’s second appearance on the podcast. Her first episode is one of the most downloaded of the nearly 50 Lead From The Heart podcasts produced so far. The post Amy Edmondson: How To Lead & Succeed When The Future Is Uncertain appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

Deborah Gruenfeld, a leadership professor at Stanford and author, dives into the dynamics of power in human interactions. She shares how using power to uplift others leads to better outcomes, contrasting it with self-serving behaviors. Their chat also touches on navigating imposter syndrome, maintaining authenticity, and ethical leadership practices. Gruenfeld emphasizes the transformative potential of self-acceptance and the importance of trust in teams, advocating for a communal approach to leadership.

It’s been said that “sight is a faculty, but seeing is an art,” and New York University social psychology professor, Emily Balcetis, fully concurs. In her new book, “Clearer, Closer, Better: How Successful People See the World” she says highly successful people tend to view the world differently – and the good news is that the “art” they apply to visual perception can be taught & learned. When it comes to setting and meeting goals, for example, we may see (quite literally) our plans, progress and potential in the wrong ways. We may inadvertently perceive ourselves as being closer or further from the end depending on our frame of reference. Or we may unwittingly handicap ourselves by focusing too much on the big picture or, at other times, the granular details. Tapping into rigorous research and cutting-edge discoveries in vision science, Balcetis shares four powerful yet largely untapped visual tactics that successful people masterfully use to set and meet their ambitions – and explains how to use them to your full advantage depending upon the situations you’re in. Balcetis’s work has special application to leadership and management because it calls out the moments where narrowing one’s focus can provide critical perspective – not to mention those times where widening that view will help us identify needed course corrections. The key is knowing where to direct our attention in any given moment – because that knowledge can help us see the possibilities in life that we might otherwise completely miss. Emily earned her Ph.D from Cornell University and has lectured at Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, Berkeley, and the University of Chicago. Her TEDx New York talk has been viewed 3.8 million times. Her book was just published as an Amazon “#1 New Release.”  It was also chosen as one of the “20 Books All Leaders Should Read In 2020″ by Wharton Professor, Adam Grant and the World Economic Forum. The post Emily Balcetis: How Successful People See the World appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

At 32 years old, Doug Conant was fired from his job as Marketing Director for Parker Brothers Toy and Game Company – and he never saw it coming. Stunned, hurt, indignant, angry and humiliated, Conant nevertheless wasted no time working on a rebound. On the same day he was let go, he met with an outplacement counselor whose profound influence changed his life. Neil McKenna taught Conant to look forward, not back – and gave him assignments of self-discovery that helped Conant transcend his job loss and go on to have a truly remarkable career.  Over the following decades, he would become CEO of the Campbell Soup Company, President of Nabisco and Chairman of Avon Products. In one of the most compelling and inspiring discussions in this podcast’s history, Conant not only explains the process by which he readied himself for his next senior leadership role, but also the highly uncommon approaches he took to restoring employee engagement and driving great performance in all of the organizations he led. His cornerstone philosophy is that employees will never care about a manager’s agenda if they don’t believe their manager cares about them. So, his uncommon approach to CEO leadership was to “care about his people and only hire managers who cared about their people.” Rather uniquely, Conant has long been a highly committed student of workplace leadership, and his collected wisdom is evident in everything he shares in the podcast. He might also be the greatest representative of the “Lead From The Heart” ideal ever to be a featured guest. It’s highly recommended that you have a notepad near you as you listen in. Doug also discusses his new book, “The Blueprint: 6 Practical Steps To Lift Your Leadership To New Heights,” being published in March. The post Doug Conant: A Top CEO’s Blueprint For Leadership Success appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

Can you recall the last time you tried to talk to someone about a personal, political or work issue and quickly discovered their view of the situation was entirely different than yours? How’d that work out for you? If words like “strained,” “painful,” “awful” or “never again,” come to mind – you have company. Acknowledging that we’re living in a highly polarized world these days – many of us have simply come to decide that engaging in any kind of disagreement is no longer worth it. Consequently, we go out of our way to avoid conversations with people when we anticipate it could lead to conflict, raised voices or even ruined relationships. The problem with these pain avoidance tactics, however, is that we actually need disagreements in order to keep our relationships with others healthy. Famous marriage researcher, Dr. John Gottmann says any relationship without a conflict is a relationship without communication. And any relationship without good communication is destined to fail. Science even finds that people are happier – and groups are higher functioning – when the flow of necessary disagreements is open and they have a chance to be heard. So how then can we make our disputes and wrangling with other people more successful?  How can we maneuver through an argument with our partner, challenge the performance of an employee, or generally disagree with anyone in our life more productively? Former Amazon, Twitter, & Slack executive Buster Benson has just written an especially clever, highly accessible and wonderfully practical guide that teaches the very skills we all need. And he joins us on this podcast to discuss that new best-seller, “Why Are We Yelling? The Art Of Productive Disagreement. While there’s no question some conflicts in life can be ugly, knowing how to diffuse an emotional charge – and to turn disagreements into productive interactions – is a profound leadership power & skill to possess.  Listen in to begin your essential and incredibly timely education! The post Buster Benson: Mastering The Art Of Productive Disagreement appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

If you’ve ever felt unseen, under-estimated or unfairly passed over in your career,  this podcast provides all the remedies you’ll need to ensure you never feel that way again! While we’d all like to believe our career growth will always be the result of a reliable meritocracy, the truth is our success at work is rarely just about the quality of our ideas, credentials, skills, or effort. According to preeminent Harvard Business School professor, Laura Huang, how well we progress in our careers really hinges on how effective we are in shaping other people’s perceptions – of our strengths and of our flaws. “It’s about creating our own edge by confronting the factors that seem like shortcomings & turning them into assets that make others take notice.” In this highly energetic & deeply informative conversation, we discuss Laura’s new book “Edge: Turning Adversity Into Advantage,” & dive into four powerful ways her extensive research proves we can & should create our own unique & powerful edge. The underlying (and hard) truth of Laura’s message is that none of us can afford to wait for other people to make fair decisions on our behalf. So, creating a compelling edge for ourselves is a proactively positive & wise way to succeed in an imperfect system. Success is about knowing who you are, and using that knowledge unapologetically and strategically. Laura’s book – & our discussion of it – will teach you how to find your unique edge & keep it sharp. We’re honored that Laura joins us just as her book is being published – this is her first podcast to launch the work! The post Laura Huang: Four Powerful Ways To Create A Winning EDGE appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.