Lead From the Heart

In an economy marked by downsizing, offshoring and an accelerated deployment of robots and automation technology, fears around the future of our work and careers abound. But according to New Yorker Magazine writer and co-founder of NPR’s Planet Money podcast, Adam Davidson, we needn’t be so gloomy. Tied to extensive research that went into the writing of his new book, “The Passion Economy: The New Rules For Thriving In The Twenty-First Century,” Davidson says the emerging economy offers new ways of making money, fresh paths toward professional fulfillment and unprecedented opportunities for curious, ambitious individuals to combine the things they love with their careers. The key is we must have the courage and commitment to pivot away from jobs and businesses we know will soon be automated – or out-competed by low-cost Asian firms – and apply our own unique skills, talents and interests to work that cannot be commoditized. “For most of the 20th Century, the safest, most lucrative strategy was to be much like others as possible,” says Davidson. “In the 21st Century, the best strategy is to be fully yourself and to highlight your differences to everyone else.  That’s where the money is.” As we discuss with Adan in this podcast, his book is filled with stories of people whose successful reinvention provides the rest of us with the transformative hope that we can actually thrive as we never have before. As you’ll hear, there are new ground rules for success in business. Once you know what these are, you’ll have a roadmap for excelling in the world in a way that won’t just earn you a good living, it will also make your heart sing. Whether you have an ear for understanding how to personally thrive in the new economy – or for successfully leading your team or organization to continued success – Davidson provides highly inspiring and informative tales of people who’ve already mastered the “Passion Economy.” The post Adam Davidson: The New Rules for Thriving In The Twenty-First Century appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

Some of the greatest business innovations of our time were first proposed by other companies, but summarily rejected: *** Polaroid (now gone) invented the digital camera – and then ditched it in the belief it couldn’t make money. *** Engineers at cell-phone maker, Nokia, proposed a device that had all the functionality of the I-Phone – three years before Apple made it one of the most successful products in history. *** Blockbuster Video once sat atop the video rental business and had thousands of stores and millions of customers. But its unwillingness to alter its business model allowed Netflix to disrupt the industry and send Blockbuster into bankruptcy. In the real world of business, new ideas get dismissed all the time by leaders who instinctively judge them to be “crazy,” “too costly” or out of line with conventional wisdom. Nevertheless, other companies find ways to nurture, protect and patiently develop new ideas until they become competitive advantages – even breakthrough & disruptive innovations. In his new Wall Street Journal bestseller, “Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries,” podcast guest Safi Bahcall brilliantly (not hyperbole) explains what behaviors differentiate organizations that repeatedly birth new ideas – ones that often change the world or at least ensure their business endures – from the ones that unwittingly resist any change to the status quo.  At a time when just about every business is ripe for some kind of disruption, Bahcall’s insights represent rather timely and essential leadership knowhow. Microsoft founder, Bill Gates picked “Loonshots” one of his must reads for 2019.  Authors Malcolm Gladwell, Daniel Pink, Adam Grant and Susan Cain named it one of the “two most groundbreaking non-fiction reads of the season.” Bloomberg Magazine says Loonshots was the “most recommended book of the year by CEOs + entrepreneurs!” A “loonshot” is a widely dismissed idea whose champions are often seen as crazy. And using examples from past loonshots (like radar, the internet, Pixar movies et al), Bahcall joins us on this podcast to explain the unique mindset & key behaviors of people & teams who ensured they all became real. A massively informative conversation! The post Safi Bahcall: How To Nurture Crazy Ideas Into Breakthrough Innovations appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

For decades, the commonly accepted purpose of a corporation (or any company for that matter) has been to ensure the interests of shareholders always came first. But today, we’ve finally reached a point where most leaders realize that a “profits over people” philosophy has proven to be an entirely unsustainable way to run a business. Amongst its many great harms, it’s produced record low employee engagement across the globe, massive wealth inequality, increasing numbers of people living paycheck-to-paycheck – and a stunning spike in depression, anxiety & other stress related health problems. In light of these dire trends, the Business Roundtable, an association of 181 of America’s top CEOs, recently committed to more fairly supporting the needs of all their other stakeholders – their customers, employees and communities. But because their pledge is light on details, timelines and accountability – the urgency to make a truly meaningful and timely pivot remains in question. In their new book, “The Healing Organization: Awakening the Conscience of Business To Help Save The World,” Conscious Capitalism pioneers, Raj Sidsodia & Michael Gelb assert that no more time can be wasted. We’ve not only reached an inflection point where bold leadership action must be taken, they’re convinced our companies must be reinvented and remade into “healing forces.” “In Search Of Excellence” author, Tom Peters passionately recommended Raj and Michael’s work – and Michael joins us on the podcast to share stories of well-known companies like Shake Shack, Hyatt Hotels and Kind Bars who’ve already earned profound loyalty and profits by operating in ways that inherently “heal” their employees, customers and communities. Each of these businesses embody what’s become the new formula for organizational success. In a world that urgently needs healing on many levels, a movement to reinvent capitalism so it serves the needs of all constituencies already has great momentum. Listen in to hear what motivated so many top CEOs to create healing organizations – and how individual managers like you can play a meaningful role in making it happen in yours. The post Michael Gelb: The Emerging New Formula For Organizational Success appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

We musn’t fool ourselves into believing that the majority of the world’s workplace managers have bought into the idea that caring deeply about people is essential to leadership success. Metrics on job satisfaction, employee well-being and, of course, engagement continue to reflect an attitude about leadership that’s anything but caring. Truth be told, many of us still believe caring is equivalent to soft management.  Deep down, we remain convinced that our leadership power is compromised whenever employees feel they have a personal connection with their boss. So, we steer clear of it. For anyone who privately holds these feelings – or needs more proof that caring deeply for your people won’t massively backfire – this podcast episode is for you. At some of the top technology firms throughout Silicon Valley, Kim Scott repeatedly proved that relating personally to employees establishes the trust and respect that’s needed for leaders to not just set higher standards of performance, but to consistently meet them. Kim worked as an executive coach at both Twitter and Dropbox and was a training executive at both Google and Apple. She developed the “Managing At Apple” class that became the foundation for her best-selling book, Radical Candor.  There’s a false dichotomy in the belief that managers have a choice between being a pushover softy, or a fear-inspiring jerk. The best managers know not to trip over these binary choices – they intentionally build great relationships while concurrently driving for results. As we discuss with Kim, Radical Candor is about caring personally while also challenging directly.  It’s about soliciting criticism to improve one’s own leadership effectiveness and it’s also about providing guidance that helps other people grow. Ultimately, It focuses on praise but doesn’t shy away from criticism.  The goal of managing this way is to help leaders love their work and the people they work with.  Oh, and let’s not forget achieving great things in the process. Listen in to learn the leadership practices many of the worlds’ top companies now embrace.  In our language, it’s a masterful balance between mind and heart. As of February, 2023, this is the third most downloaded episode of the podcast series. The post Kim Scott: Leading With Radical Candor appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

We live in a society today that’s obsessed with early achievement, whether it’s getting perfect SAT scores, gaining acceptance into an Ivy League school or landing an amazing job at Google or Facebook – or better yet – creating a start-up with the potential to be the next Twitter or Instagram. We see software coders become millionaires or billionaires before age thirty and think we’re failing if we’re not one of them. But in his new highly researched book, Late Bloomers: The Power of Patience in a World Obsessed with Early Achievement, Forbes Magazine publisher, Rich Karlgaard says we’re worshiping at the wrong alter. The premise that early blooming is necessary for lifelong success is simply and massively flawed.  The truth is most of us aren’t prodigies who explode out of the gates in life. Instead, we discover our passions and talents over time – and so we’re unwise to benchmark our career success to that of rare early bloomers. Karlgaard was himself a late achiever. Self-described as having been “lucky” to attend Stanford University, he held low-paying jobs for several years after graduation before discovering his passion for writing & journalism. He was 44-years-old before becoming Forbes’ publisher. The good news for all of us is that there’s a scientific explanation for why so many of us bloom later in life. The executive function of our brains doesn’t mature until age twenty-five. And we actually experience multiple periods of growth in our lives – into our 40’s, 50’s and 60’s – when we fully cultivate traits like curiosity, insight, compassion and wisdom. There’s tremendous evidence that shows parents today are pressuring their kids into high achievement out of fear they’ll otherwise be left behind in life. And we’re also led to believe that as our workers age, their abilities wane. But as you’ll hear Karlgaard explain in this fascinating podcast, our focus on early success is both harmful and misguided. Human potential is far greater than we ever imagined – and it’s often maximized far later than we may ever believed possible. The truth is we’re all works in progress, and we all continue to expand as we age.  And for all the leaders about to listen in, this new mindset means everyone on your team has a far greater upside for future success than you might ever have imagined.   The post Rich Karlgaard: Forbes Magazine Publisher Says “Hail To The Late Bloomer,” Which Is Most Of Us appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

Many of us believe that our emotions are a distraction to success in life – and that they upend our ability to make sound decisions. When it comes to leading and managing people, we carry over these same beliefs; we’re convinced making any kind of emotional connection with our employees will only hijack our effectiveness and undermine our team’s performance. But according to Marc Brackett, founder of Yale University’s Center for Emotional Intelligence, and author of the new book, “Permission To Feel,” this understanding is entirely flawed. Despite what most of us were taught, emotions play an enormous – and positive role – in helping us make important choices, build good relationships & motivate the performance of others. Up until the 1980’s, most psychologists believed that emotions were only extraneous noise whose static interfered with human effectiveness.  But recent science, including the work Brackett has done himself, proves most human behavior is motivated by feelings and emotions whether we’re aware of it or not. In his words, “emotions give people purpose, priority, and focus to our thinking. They tell us what to do with knowledge that our senses deliver. They motivate us to act.”  Tied to the understanding that feelings and emotions drive human behavior (both ours and of the people we manage), Brackett believes all of us (leaders especially) are wise to become “emotion scientists.” Across over 5,000 US schools so far, for example, he’s taught educators how to recognize their emotions, identify their cause, name them, express them to others – and regulate them. And students at these schools are being taught the exact same skills. And while Brackett is deeply invested in making today’s children highly emotionally intelligent, he believes every workplace manager would be wise to cultivate the same expertise: the ability to understand and manage one’s own emotions, while being able to discern what people around them are feeling as well. “Do you know the one thing that keeps me up at night,” Brackett asks. “How my employees feel. That should haunt the sleep of every CEO, supervisor, manager and boss in the world. It’s the prime determinant of virtually everything that will happen in an organization.” This, of course, is not common understanding in business even though it’s a cornerstone idea of the “Lead From The Heart” leadership philosophy.  Marc Brackett joins us for a great reason: his work provides profound confirmation that the heart is more often the driver of employee engagement than the mind. As of February, 2023, this is the fifth most downloaded episode of the podcast series. The post Marc Brackett: Yale’s Chief Emotion Scientist Unlocks Your Leadership Potential appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

It wasn’t all that long ago when tech giants like AOL, Yahoo and Blackberry seemed immortal. Today, of course, we remember them only as fallen giants – a fate Microsoft appeared to be headed toward less than a decade ago. That Microsoft was able to fully revive itself when other first-generation technology innovators couldn’t begs the big leadership questions: “What did they do differently – what can we learn from their successful reinvention?” It turns out Microsoft made many brilliant and extremely courageous moves. In just five years, the company transformed itself from has-been status into one of the most valuable companies in the world. How they accomplished this is the focus of a new case study from London Business School professor, Herminia Ibarra, and her colleague Adam Jones. And Herminia joins us on the podcast to discuss her remarkable conclusions. A large part of the credit for restoring Microsoft’s luster and value is owed to the selection of Satya Nadella as the company’s CEO. Nadella replaced his long-time predecessor, Steve Balmer, and boldly moved away from company’s legacy product set – a decision that required tens of thousands of employees to fundamentally change how they did their jobs. In a nutshell, Nadella’s big shift was to fully reinvent his company’s culture – an inherently hard thing to do when you’ve got well over 100,000 employees working all over the world.  And he was also willing to take many strategic risks. As we discuss with Herminia, Microsoft is proof-positive that very large organizations can indeed reinvent themselves – but to do so, they need leaders who are willing to dismantle outdated and entrenched cultures while also embracing leadership practices that are far more supportive to human well-being and thriving. Herminia Ibarra is the Charles Handy Professor of Organizational Behavior at the London Business School. She previously served on the faculties at INSEAD and at the Harvard Business School. An authority on leadership and career development, Thinker 50 ranks Ibarra among the top management thinkers in the world. She is the author of best-selling books including “Act Like A Leader, Think Like A Leader” and “Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies For Reinventing Your Career.” She writes regularly for the Harvard Business Review as well as business publications like the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. A native of Cuba, Ibarra received her M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University where she was a National Science Fellow. She joins us from London, England. As of February, 2023, this is the second most downloaded episode of the podcast series. The post Herminia Ibarra: How A New Mindset And A Massive Culture Change Made Microsoft Number One Again appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

It’s an irrefutable truth that trust is on a serious decline. And all the key pillars of society are affected. The RAND Corporation recently reported that trust in government, the media – even in our businesses and workplaces – “has reached a lower absolute level than ever before.” And they warned that such a lack of trust inherently undermines the way we operate in the world. Deep down we all know that trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. And it’s the foundational principle that sustains all relationships. And we also know that no one can be an effective leader without trust. As leadership legend Warren Bettis put it, “Leadership without mutual trust is a contradiction in terms.”  If there’s any good news coming out regarding trust, it’s Pew Research’s finding that 9-in-10 people believe the problem is fixable. Said another way, it’s clear most of us really want to see trust restored. To that end, podcast guest, Stephen M. R. Covey, is one of the world’s experts on the topic of trust.  A Harvard MBA, he’s the author of The Speed of Trust – a New York Times bestseller that has sold over 2 million copies.  And in this discussion, he passionately shares the most effective ways leaders can both establish & sustain trusting relationships, especially with their teams & colleagues. Covey had an especially interesting upbringing – his father was the author of “The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People,” one of the Top 50 best-selling books of all-time. And the conversation begins with Stephen candidly explaining what it took for him to emerge from his father’s shadow, and to find his own place and identity in the world. As Stephen explains, that journey profoundly influenced his great interest in trust, & to the discovery that trust actually yields a huge upside in business. In his words, “when trust is low in any relationship, it places a hidden “tax” on every transaction. Every communication, every interaction, every strategy, every decision is taxed, bringing speed down & sending costs up. Conversely, when people operate with high trust, they’re rewarded with a “dividend.” And that dividend acts as performance multiplier which accelerates the speed of communications, interactions, & decisions – and consistently yields far greater success. Recent Gallup research shows that employee engagement is at least twelve times greater when people feel they work for a boss they trust.  Listen in as Stephen rather inspiringly explains how that kind of trust gets built.    The post Stephen M.R. Covey: Leadership & The “Speed Of Trust” appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

Bill Campbell is a Silicon Valley legend. Following a career leading sales & marketing at Apple – & as CEO of Intuit – he spent nearly two decades coaching a “Who’s Who” list of world-changing executives. The list included Apple founder, Steve Jobs, Google founders, Sergei Brin and Larry Page. Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg, former Twitter CEO, Dick Costolo, former Google Chairman Eric Schmidt – even former United States Vice President Al Gore. In his new book, “Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook Of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell, long-time Google SVP – & co-author – Jonathan Rosenberg, says Campbell instinctively knew how to elevate the performance of people (including already highly successful people) not to mention the organizations they led. In this highly informative discussion with Jonathan, we learn that Bill Campbell was neither a data-junky nor a technology wiz.  What he brought to an overtly brain-driven work culture was “heart.”  He understood people & how to make them feel valued. He taught them how to build & sustain trust, how to get star employees to embrace a “team first” mindset – & how to effectively coach others. After Bill Campbell passed away in 2016, Google distilled his coaching principles, & made them an essential part of the organizations’ leadership development curriculum. Google now wants to leverage Campbell’s brilliance by teaching its managers to become great coaches to their own employees. As you’ll soon hear, the practices, philosophy & spirit that made Bill Campbell an extraordinary coach in Silicon Valley are fully relevant to all organizations  where human beings work. In other words, his coaching brilliance can become your coaching brilliance. The post Jonathan Rosenberg: Why Bill Campbell Was The Greatest Executive Coach The World’s Ever Known appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

Esther Wojcicki knows what it takes to raise successful children. Her daughter, Susan, is the CEO of YouTube. Janet is professor of Pediatrics at the UC San Francisco Medical School (and A Fulbright scholar). And Anne is co-founder & CEO of DNA testing company 23andMe. If any of us were to guess how Esther influenced all three of her daughters to become so high-achieving, the logical leap would be to assume she had to have been the ultimate “tiger mom:” perfectionistic, unrelenting and intensely focused on having her kids win at all costs. But, of course, Esther wouldn’t be a guest on this podcast were any of those assumptions to be true. What is true is that Esther trusted her own uncommon instincts on what lessons would produce successful adults; and she intentionally imbued her children with a deep appreciation for five key values:  Trust,” “Respect,” “Independence,” “Collaboration” and “Kindness.” Based upon “soft” values like these, Esther might rightfully be regarded as more of a “panda mom” in her approach to child-rearing. Virtues like aren’t widely believed to be the ones that lead to success moreover super-stardom. But it wasn’t just her three daughters who soared under Esther’s curriculum.  For 36 years, she influenced countless students to excel in their lives as a journalism teacher at Palo Alto high school – where she recently was named California’s “Teacher of the Year.” The big question we have for Esther on this podcast is “Could these very same values have a similar impact when it comes to managing people in the workplace?”  “Is it possible that these same five values hold their charge into adult-life too – and that leaders who adopt them will experience great performance from their employees in return?” Tapping into everything she wrote in her new best-selling book,“How To Raise Successful People: Simple Lessons For Radical Results,” Esther brilliantly shares a philosophy that transcends teaching.  It’s a mindset that has profound implications for management, and one that intentionally emphasizes heart. The post Esther Wojcicki: How To Raise Successful People appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.