Lead From the Heart

Most books about time management are written as guides to creating the perfect schedule or productivity method for cranking through as many items on our to-do list as we possibly can. Even when those methods work, they somehow still leave us feeling stressed & overwhelmed, paddling frantically against a current whose strength we can never match. The fundamental problem is that none of the typical time management books address the very grim fact that our lives on planet earth are woefully brief – & so managing to clear out all our e-mails every day no longer holds up as being one of our most essential accomplishments once we confront how absurdly, terrifyingly, insultingly short life really is. Oliver Burkeman is an award-winning writer for the Guardian, who one day did the math most of us would rather avoid. If we live until we’re 80, all we get are four thousand weeks. In his new uber-selling book, “Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management For Mortals,” Burkeman asserts that given the relatively short time frame of even the longest life, time management should be everyone’s most pressing concern. “Arguably,” he points out, “time management is all life is.” Formerly obsessed with finding the best ways of getting more accomplished every day, Burkeman found (just as we have) that none of the productivity hacks he learned truly lived up to their promises. And so he turned his focus to ways of getting the most out of life tied to one’s personal dreams, aspirations & purpose. And that led him to asking some rather pointed questions about how we unwittingly squander so much of the precious time we have: Why do we seem to crave distraction from the things we want to do the most? Why do we imagine we’ll someday reach a state of productivity perfection, with nothing left on our to-do lists? How many of us delay a creative project by telling ourselves “I’ll start when I have more time. I’m just too busy right now? Burkeman provides the sobering & insightful answers to all these questions, but his book – the focus of this entire podcast – was really written to urge us to (not morbidly) keep the idea of our mortality always present in our minds, as doing so will steadily influence us to be far more courageous in living the life we really desire. In a moment when all of us are deeply pondering the purpose & meaning of our lives, Burkeman’s insights couldn’t have arrived at a better time! The post Oliver Burkeman:Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management For Mortals appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

Named by Forbes Magazine as one of “10 Must-Read Career & Leadership Books For 2022,” Roger Martin’s A New Way To Think: Your Guide To Superior Management informs us that our collective leadership thinking must stop centering around the organization & begin centering around human value. Martin is Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management where he previously served as its Dean. Throughout a career of advising CEOs at some of the world’s most successful companies, Martin noted that almost every executive he talked to had a “model” – a framework or way of thinking that guided their strategy & activities. But these models tended to become automatic, so much so that when one didn’t work, the typical response was just to apply it again – with greater enthusiasm. In our discussion, Martin shares numerous examples of leaders doubling-down on their strategy instead of reconsidering their plan itself. So ingrained are our processes & approaches to managing our workplaces that we seldom step back & assess whether our methodologies need re-thinking. We just add more fuel to the way we’ve always done things. As one example, in an Ernst & Young survey, 81% of executives said they believe data should be at the heart of all decision-making. And while MBA programs have been trying to turn management into a science for the past 6 decades, Martin argues that data implies certainty – something no leader can every rely on. “Creating great choices requires imagination rather than data,” he says. “A purely scientific approach to business decision making has serious limitations.” At a time when managers the world over are seeking to attract and retain great people, Roger Martin joins us to share uncommon advice that’s predicated on the idea that it’s time to re-think leadership from the bottom up. The post Roger Martin: It’s Time For Leaders To Embrace A New Way Of Thinking appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

The country where people live the longest is Japan where they’ve long had a rich tradition of respecting and honoring older people. In America, & throughout the West, we have especially negative views on aging, & almost treat getting older as being shameful. In her new book, “Breaking The Age Code: How Your Beliefs About Aging Determine How Long And Well you Live,” Yale social psychologist, Becca Levy, tells us that the expectation that aging means decay is actually a major reason it so often does – our negative view of aging is literally killing us. Levy’s remarkable & rigorous research proves that, on average, people with the most positive views of aging outlive those with the most negative views by 7 ½ years – an extraordinary 10% of current life expectancy. There’s a proverb that says, “as a man thinketh in his heart, so he is.” And Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius made essentially the same conclusion two millennia ago when saying, “we become what we think about.” In her book, Levy shows that in memory tests, people with positive age beliefs allowed them to outperform their peers with negative age beliefs by 30%. Levy argues that because our views of ageing are often so negative in the West, our media continues to reinforce them by stereotypically presenting older people as doddering, forgetful, slow & confused. And this plays out in our workplaces where Levy says, “ageism is the most widespread & socially accepted prejudice today.” Levy’s research shows there’s little evidence that people become less useful as they age – nor is there any proof that older people are more resistant to change than people much younger. When he was 14 years old, Paul McCartney imagined his life at age 64 and his famous song about it wondered if he’d still be valued in his “old” age. In 2022, McCartney will turn 80 & he not only still fills large stadiums, he performs for three straight hours. Noting all of us are aging every day, Becca Levy urges us to start re-framing getting older as an experience that doesn’t automatically mean poor health or unsound mind.  “It’s time we all embrace ‘age positivity,’ she says, & explaining all the reasons why is the focus of this wonderful discussion. The post Becca Levy: It’s Our View Of Aging That’s What’s Really Old appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

Dr. Marshall Goldsmith is routinely ranked as one of the top executive coaches in the world – & the Thinkers50 organization named him the #1 leadership thinker in the world – twice. A former Professor of Management Practice at the Dartmouth Tuck School of Business, he’s the author or editor of 41 books, which have sold 2.5 million copies. His books, “Triggers” & “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There,” have both been recognized by Amazon as being in the top 100 books ever written in their field. His new book, “The Earned Life: Lose Regret, Choose Fulfillment,” was published today. In a very special edition of the podcast, Marshall shares story after story of luminaries he has coached & helped to excel over his 40+ year career. And the stories are rich because they reveal priceless wisdom he’s acquired that will benefit leaders at every stage of their career. We recorded this podcast late last Friday night – & had persistent technical problems that delayed us.  At one point, it seemed we would have to cancel. But as the unflappable Buddhist that he is, Marshall patiently waited for the issues to be resolved, & then acted as if time were no issue. The result is a conversation you’ll want to savor & ponder. As CBS’s John Dickerson has said, “for anyone who wishes to align their efforts with a life of meaning, Marshall Goldsmith is a fabulous companion, guide, & cheerleader.” The post Marshall Goldsmith: A Coaching Legend’s Wisdom For Living A Fulfilling Life appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

Few business topics arouse more skepticism than the notion of corporate purpose – & for good reason. Too many companies have deployed purpose as a promotional vehicle to make themselves feel virtuous & look good to the outside world. The insincerity behind efforts like these are, of course, easily spotted by both outsiders & insiders (employees most importantly) leading them to feeling jaded – & to losing trust in the management team that attempted the deception. Despite all the harm that past efforts at establishing organizational purpose have caused, Harvard Business School professor, Ranjay Gulati, believes the time has come for companies to try again – this time with a sincere commitment. He argues that the pursuit of profits without purpose is no longer a sustainable business model. And in his new bestseller, “Deep Purpose,” he says “the road to high performance, for both individuals and companies, depends on deepening our connection to enduring & essential human values. He adds, “purpose isn’t a ‘nice-to-have’ in the business world anymore. It’s a ‘must-have.’ As Gulati argues, a deeper engagement with purpose holds the key not merely to the well-being of individual companies but also to humanity’s future. With capitalism under siege & relatively low levels of trust in business, purpose can serve as a radically new operating system for the enterprise, enhancing performance while also delivering meaningful benefits to society. It’s the kind of inspired thinking that businesses—& the rest of us—urgently need. Tapping into extensive research, Ranjay Gulati shows how companies can embed purpose much more deeply than they currently do, delivering impressive performance benefits that reward customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, & communities alike. To get purpose right, leaders must fundamentally change not only how they execute it but also how they conceive of & relate to it. They must practice what Gulati calls deep purpose, furthering each organization’s reason for being more intensely, thoughtfully, & comprehensively than ever before. Is accomplishing this in most companies even possible?  Will top CEOs take these ideas seriously?  Listen in as Ranjay explains why every business’s survival will be at stake if they don’t. The post Ranjay Gulati: Why Purpose Is The Heart And Soul Of High Performance Teams appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

For over twenty-five years, Marcus Buckingham has been one of the world’s leading researchers on human performance, especially in our workplaces. He is the New York Times bestselling author or co-author of ten books, including the business classic, “First, Break All the Rules” in addition to, “Now, Discover Your Strengths” & “Nine Lies About Work.” You probably know that Marcus is a highly analytical, data-driven trend evaluator who left his mark at Gallup. Yet, ironically, his rigorous study has landed on a conclusion many of us might accurately say needed no deep-dive at all: Love, which is the most powerful of all human emotions – the source of our creativity, collaboration, insight, & excellence – has been systematically drained from our work lives. And, It’s time we brought love back in. We’ve all heard the adage, “Do what you love.” But how many of us has fully discovered what we really do love doing most, what fully engages us & makes us thrive? And, how many of us get to bring our full, messy, unique, weird & amazing selves to our jobs instead of being expected to conform & tamp down our individual & personal expression? The release of Marcus’s new book, “Love And Work” coincides with the publishing of this podcast, & during our conversation, we not only discuss the many uncommon & creative ways we can unleash our true individual selves, we dig into the relevance of employee engagement in the post-COVID era (spoiler alert: it’s more important than ever), & why workplace leadership demands a complete reinvention in order to foster love, respect, appreciation – the things all of us are needing & wanting in our work experience today. As I hope you’ve come to expect, this is another stunning, insightful & unusual conversation that is sure to enrich you in many unexpected ways. The post Marcus Buckingham: Why Love And Work Are Inextricable appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

“Regrets, I’ve had a few. But then again, too few to mention.” These famous lyrics from Frank Sinatra’s classic song, “My Way,” assert the idea that it’s very easy to recover & move on from the bad choices we make in life. But in 2020, Daniel Pink launched the “World Regret Survey,” & asked 15,000 people in 105 countries, “How often do you look back on life & wish you had done things differently? And 81 percent of the respondents said regret is at least an occasional part of their lives with one-in-five saying they feel regret all the time. Just one percent said they never lament their past. While letting ourselves be overwhelmed & even immobilized by regret is unquestionably bad for us, in his new bestseller, “The Power Of Regret,” Pink says repressing our regrets consigns us to making the same mistakes again & again. In his words “the trick is to not banish our bad feelings, but to acknowledge & use them for learning & improvement.” When we think about regrets, they usually fall into one of four core areas: “Foundation Regrets:” We regret not getting enough education or for not having made better choices about preparing for our future. “If only I’d done the work.” “Boldness Regrets:” Looking back, we see ourselves as having played it safe or not seizing on opportunities when they presented themselves. “If only I’d taken that risk?” “Moral Regrets:” We remember hurting another person by a betrayal of some kind. “If only I’d done the right thing.” “Connection Regrets:” The largest category of regrets arise from relationships that have come undone or that remain incomplete. “If only I’d reached out.” Through his research, Pink has discovered that – as long as we’re willing to look at them & re-experience the pain of them – we can remedy a lot of our regrets, heal them & benefit from them: “If we reckon with our regrets properly, they can sharpen our decisions & improve our future performance.” In this truly wonderful discussion, Daniel shares many informed ways we can optimize our regrets & vault ourselves forward to a happier, more productive & principled life. The truth is that life is a journey full of pleasures & pains, To live it well & fully means learning from every bit of it, including the mistakes, & moving forward. The legendary Daniel Pink shows us how to accomplish just that. The post Daniel Pink: The Surprising Power Of Regret appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

A lot of us would like to become more influential because – all boiled down – influence is the ability to create change, direct resources & move hearts & minds. But when we think about the tactics we’ve seen other people use to influence people, we use words like sneaky, manipulative & coercive to describe them. So, this episode is devoted to introducing you to ways to grow your influence in truly profound ways – but also in ways that aren’t just powerful, they’re deeply ethical. Zoe Chance is a professor at the Yale School of Management who earned her doctorate at the Harvard Business School. She once managed a $200 million segment of the Barbie doll brand at Mattel, but today teaches the most popular class at Yale called “Mastering Influence & Persuasion.” And she’s just published a book that’s become an immediate bestseller, “Influence Is Your Superpower: The Science of Winning Hearts, Sparking Change, and Making Good Things Happen.” Becoming more influential – being able to communicate better – is, of course, a huge leadership power. Yet most of us lean into facts & figures to persuade others not knowing that few humans are ever moved by this approach. Another myth about influence is our belief that asking people for more will make them dislike us – thereby making us less influential. As one of the many revelations Zoe shares in her book, “people who ask for what they want get better grades, more raises & promotions & bigger job opportunities.” One of the primary & recurring themes of this podcast is that we humans aren’t the rational beings we pride ourselves to be; most of the time, the choices & actions we take are motivated by our feelings & emotions, not through analysis. And research Zoe cites shows as much as 95% of our decisions & behavior are influenced by what she calls ‘the gator,” our instinctual decision-making process that lurks below our conscious awareness & is always prepared for immediate action. Especially for highly analytical people, this fact is hard to accept. This means it’s really just a small percentage of time that any of us really slows things down, applies great concentration – & employs what Zoe calls the “judge” that deliberates & carefully weighs all the evidence. Knowing that all of us are highly influenced by what we feel versus by what we think is a foundational idea of Zoe’s book. And, in this conversation, Zoe Chance conveys a truly enlightened understanding of humanity, & what really influences people to act. One of the great take-aways from this episode is Zoe’s explanation of the “Magic Leadership Question.” It may be the greatest piece of practical influence wisdom you’ve ever heard! So listen in for that – and to hear a management professor who isn’t just brilliant, she’s uncommonly kind, thoughtful and a really wonderful person.  She’s also a master of persuasion as you might imagine! The post Zoe Chance: How To Make Influence Your Superpower appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

There are many disciplines outside of workplace management that can elevate our leadership effectiveness, & tapping into the experiences & insights of highly creative & accomplished people is one great way of skinning that cat. This is especially true when you have a guest who has interviewed over 400 of the world’s most creative people – & who happens to be one of the most inventive people on the planet herself. Debbie Millman is an author, educator, brand strategist & Chief Marketing Officer at Sterling Brands, where she has worked with over 200 of the world’s largest brands. Fast Company magazine named her one of the most creative people in business & one of the most influential designers working today. She’s also the host of the Design Matters podcast, one of the longest running shows of its kind that’s been downloaded at least 30 million times. Design Matters is a show about how the most creative people invent their lives. And one consistent theme that’s emerged is that no matter how talented & hard working they all are, they’ve had to overcome often monumental setbacks & hardships in order to succeed. No one gets off easy is a helpful reminder for us all. Debbie has a new book out called “Why Design Matters: Conversations With The World’s Most Creative People,” which features many of her most interesting interviews. Amongst the luminaries she’s had sit down with her are Brené Brown, Seth Godin, Simon Sinek, Krista Tipppett, Ira Glass, David Byrne, Malcolm Gladwell, Cheryl Strayed, Anna Lamott, Adam Grant & Daniel Pink. After producing 80 episodes of my own podcast, I can tell you I’ve been fully transformed by all I’ve learned from my guests. And I invited Debbie to join us full-knowing in advance that the wisdom she’s gleaned from her five times as many conversations would be invaluable for you to hear. And, as it turns out, Debbie has some rather sage insights on leadership to share as well. The post Debbie Millman: Wisdom From The World’s Most Creative People appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

2,500 years ago, Greek philosopher, Heraclitus famously observed that “there is nothing permanent in life except change.” And anyone who’s lived just a few years on our planet knows old Heraclitus was speaking truth. Despite our intellectual acceptance of the ancient sage’s observation, we humans tend to strongly resist & even reject change – something many a workplace leader has come to discover when they’ve tried to alter a policy, introduce a new system or move a team in a new direction. David Schonthal – award winning professor of Innovation & Entrepreneurship at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management – is the co-author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller, “The Human Element: Overcoming The Resistance That Awaits New Ideas.” And his brilliant insight is that what most marketers, innovators, leaders, activists, & anyone else in the business of creating change, operate on the same deep assumption. It is the belief that the best (& perhaps only) way to convince people to embrace a new idea is to heighten the appeal of the idea itself. They try to put more “fuel” on the benefits of the change instead of investigating – & even anticipating – the psychological & emotional reasons why people are reluctant to support the change or even entirely resist it. A word we’re all going to hear more often this year is “friction.” David introduces it to describe what often inhibits successful change initiatives – & he asserts that there are four key “frictions” that operate against innovation & change. We humans like to stick with what we know – even when we know it limits us. We follow the path of least resistance & seek to minimize effort. We often feel emotionally threatened by requests to change our behavior. And we have a very strong impulse to resist when we feel change is being imposed upon us. Of course, David has developed uncommon remedies to all four of these “frictions” & this episode is devoted to introducing them. As a special feature, at the end of the podcast, Mark asks David to explain how he would use all of his research & knowledge to successfully overcome resistance to implementing the change in organizations that we all desire: to break away from our traditional leadership practices once & for all, & introduce a “Lead From The Heart” philosophy. His response provides a blueprint for all workplace managers to follow. The post David Schonthal: How To Overcome The Resistance That Always Awaits New Ideas appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.