Future Ready Leadership With Jacob Morgan

Diversity and inclusion are not the same thing. But although they are very different, both are crucial to the success of any organization. Diversity is simply having a mix of people from different backgrounds, genders, religions, cultures, and ethnicities inside your organization. On the other hand, inclusion is making those people feel like they belong. Research shows that diversity and inclusion lead to more ideas, better products and services for customers, and improved innovation and productivity. Diversity and inclusion is something every organization around the world needs, and it's going to start with you demanding it inside your company. --------------------------- Whether you have 50 or 1,000 employees, Namely HR helps you maintain a great experience for the entire employee lifecycle. They offer onboarding, performance management, intuitive benefits enrollment, and much more - all on one connected platform. Learn more about making the switch to Namely by going to Namely.com today! Get the latest insights on the Future of Work, Leadership and employee experience through my daily newsletter at futureofworknewsletter.com Let's connect on social! Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobmorgan8 Instagram: https://instagram.com/jacobmorgan8 Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jacobm Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FuturistJacob

Colin Bryar is the co-author of the bestselling book Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets From Inside Amazon. He's also the co-founder of Working Backwards LLC and he is the former VP of Amazon. He started working at Amazon four years after the company started and he was there for 12 years, working very closely with Jeff Bezos. Colin says it was a fantastic experience working at Amazon and during his time there they were inventing and creating a lot of the products we know today like Amazon Prime, Kindle, and Fulfillment by Amazon. The management team that Colin was a part of was also working on building processes within Amazon so that the company could scale 10 and 100x. He says, "I learned a ton about not only what it what it's like to take an idea on a whiteboard and turn it into a household name, but also how to create simple processes that work across a number of different types of organizations to build in your company and grow fast while we're remaining nimble and true to your roots." What was Amazon like in the early days When Colin was working at Amazon there were only around 500 people working at the company and 100 people in the corporate area. They had two fulfillment centers in customer service. The company now has over 1.3 million employees. Colin says in the early days it was a very intense environment and their mantra was get big fast. They very quickly went from a single category retailer, selling books, to multiple categories. They expanded into the UK, Germany, Japan and France very quickly. And because they were growing so rapidly in such a short period of time the company relied a lot on individual heroic efforts to save the day. There would be days where so many orders would come in that everyone would have to pitch in to get them out in time. "We quickly had to figure out we were facing the same growing pains that any fast growing company has, and we're trying to figure out how and when to layer in process, because we knew that doesn't scale, you know, there are only 168 hours in the week. And you can't work any more than that. You also have to sleep and eat and go home and spend time with your family. So we knew that we'd have to change the way we operated in order to continue to grow as fast as we were." What does working backwards mean and how is the process used inside Amazon Amazon has a lot of processes that are unique and quite a few of them were created back when Colin was working there. These processes are all part of something that Amazon calls working backwards, which is where Colin got the title of his book. Working backwards is how they vet ideas and see if they are worth moving forward with. It's really about starting from the customer experience and then working backwards from that. One of these processes is called PRFAQ, which stands for press release frequently asked questions. So when any employee inside of Amazon has a new idea they have to create one of these, and it is a six page paper. You start with a one page press release that clearly defines the customer problem you are trying to solve and it lays out exactly what your solution is. And then the paper is convincing the customer why they should adopt and use this solution and how it will make their life easier. Once someone creates a PRFAQ they present it to a team of senior leaders who will look over the document, maybe all in the same room together or maybe in different locations virtually, and after taking 20 minutes to look it over in silence they make comments on the idea and ask questions. The reason behind adopting this method was, as Colin shares, "A SWOT analysis--strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats--is a typical type of tool. That's a skills forward approach. We did that up until about 2003-2004. And we realized that we were not, we were forgetting the customer, too often. So the customer is not with us on that journey. And so Jeff said, we want to make sure the customer from the very beginning of an idea is with us on that journey to see if we could turn that idea into a product or feature that we're building." And a lot of ideas go through this process and don't make it to the light of day. Some ideas can be tweaked or reworked and become reality, but some just don't work out. What happens if an idea fails at Amazon No matter what company you work for there are always going to be failures that happen. But how leaders deal with failure is different. Colin says there are two types of failures. One type is when you have a well thought out, well executed idea but it didn't resonate with customers after it went to market. The other type of failure is in the execution of the product. The product was built, but there were a lot of defects or it was a sloppy execution before it even got out to the customer. But Jeff Bezos has created a culture where failures are not only acceptable, they are celebrated. He understands that the bigger the company gets, the bigger the failures may be since they are thinking bigger and experimenting with new things. When failure happens inside of Amazon they do take time to look back at what happened to figure out what they could have done differently. What things can they change that can ensure that doesn't happen again. They use their failures to get better and improve for the future. --------------------------- Whether you have 50 or 1,000 employees, Namely HR helps you maintain a great experience for the entire employee lifecycle. They offer onboarding, performance management, intuitive benefits enrollment, and much more - all on one connected platform. Learn more about making the switch to Namely by going to Namely.com today! Get the latest insights on the Future of Work, Leadership and employee experience through my daily newsletter at futureofworknewsletter.com Let's connect on social!Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobmorgan8 Instagram: https://instagram.com/jacobmorgan8 Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jacobm Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FuturistJacob

Leaders are constantly worried about taking a side. They are always afraid that they might upset their customers or employees. They don't want other people to disagree with them. But that's not the big fear we should have. We should be more afraid of people not knowing what we believe in to begin with. Especially now with what we're seeing in this new world of work, you can't afford to not take a stance. You need to step up and take a stand, because that's what employees care about. That's what they value. There's nothing worse as a leader than for your people to not know what you stand for and not know what you care about. There are 6 trends that are transforming leadership forever do you know what they are and are you ready for them? Download the PDF to learn what these 6 trends are and what you should be doing about each one of them. These are crucial for your leadership and career development in the future of work! Get the latest insights on the Future of Work, Leadership and employee experience through my daily newsletter at futureofworknewsletter.com Let's connect on social!Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobmorgan8 Instagram: https://instagram.com/jacobmorgan8 Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jacobm Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FuturistJacob

Ravi Saligram is the President & CEO of Newell Brands a global manufacturer, marketer, and distributor of consumer and commercial products. The company has 30,000 employees and it's brands include a lot of household names such as Sharpie, Rubbermaid, Paper-Mate, Crock-Pot, and Coleman. Ravi has been the CEO at Newell Brands for 2 years now, and looking back at when he first arrived he says the company was in the throes of a turnaround and in the middle of a merger. So he had a huge undertaking from day one. He shares that there were a fair number of integration issues, employee turmoil, and bringing two cultures together was challenging. After the merger the company had around 110,000 skews,49 ERP systems, thousands of apps, 400 websites, and thousands of legal entities. And all of these had to be chipped away at, as it was just way too complex and unnecessary. It was a lot of work, but Ravi says it has been an amazing journey. As a new CEO coming into a company with so many things happening where do you even start? Ravi's first 100 days as CEO of Newell Brands When he first came to the company Ravi knew that it was his job to stabilize the company and get employees aligned on a new purpose and excited to move forward. This situation could seem very intimidating to a lot of leaders. Ravi took his experience as CEO of two other companies, Ritchie Brothers and OfficeMax, into his time at Newell Brands and he began his time at each company in the same way. He shares he always starts with a listening tour, and at Newell his listening tour lasted 100 days. He went around to employees up and down the company in different parts of the world and asked them questions. He would ask things like, what's going well, what's not going well, if you were me and you had this position what would you change in the company, etc...And then he would just listen. He would take notes and look for themes and patterns in the responses he was getting. But he didn't stop there. He also spoke with customers, he looked at what people were saying about the company on social media, he looked at Glassdoor and the reasons why employees had left before he became CEO, and he spoke with stakeholders and shareholders to get their take on things. "So even though we had a turnaround plan, I needed to do the listening tour to validate is this the right direction. And I felt it was, but I also felt what needed most was to uplift our people to really give them hope, to give them a direction, give them a noble purpose, and say, what are we all about? Because I think you want to bring out the best in your people. And the power of what I would say is, if you're 10 employees, you want one plus one plus one, not to equal 10, but to equal 100. How do you take 30,000 employees and make the power exponentially rise to 300,000? So that is what I think leaders have to really bring out. It's not about their being the best. It is about bringing out the best in their people and taking it up to an exponential basis." And now, 2 years after he started at the company, things have really improved. Even with the pandemic they grew their organic sales by 6% in the first year and in the first half of this year it's gone up 23%. They also were able to take the 110,000+ skews and get them down to 47,000 and they are working to get that down to 30,000 by 2022. They have also reduced 85% of the apps and they went from 49 ERP systems to 2 ERP systems for 90% of their sales. Ravi also has a 92% approval rating on Glassdoor, so clearly his listening tour really worked. "I think a lot of it has been really getting a culture which is focusing on the people, looking at people as our solution, not our problem. And galvanizing them to help solve these problems and pointing them and aligning them." Ravi's "no jerk" philosophy Starting back at one of his first jobs Ravi felt it was important to create a world where good people finish first, as opposed to last. And that has definitely impacted his leadership style. His "no jerk" philosophy to him means you treat your people with compassion and care. You don't write nasty emails, you don't respond to people without intentionally thinking about how you are coming across, and you try to interact with everyone using empathy and kindness. Ravi says, "Over time, as I've gotten older, I really feel it's important that people want to work with people that they like, and that they respect. And because we spend so much time at work, those relationships are very important. And when you look at attrition and people leaving companies, usually they leave the boss rather than the company. And now I think it's really important, whether you're a manager or a supervisor, or an executive, that we're constantly reinforcing this message." If Ravi becomes aware of a leader or an employee at the organization who is not treating others kindly and with respect he says the first step is to try to coach them to do better. A lot of times they don't realize how they are coming across to others. It's also crucial, he says, to give constant feedback and to do 360s. But if the person chooses not to change or improve, then they need to find somewhere else where they are better suited. "In our company, at Newell, we talk about truth, transparency, teamwork. And for me that teamwork is so critical. I am very big on people who are all about the company as a whole and their team as a whole, and not about just themselves. If they're all about themselves, I get a little impatient. So at some point, you may have to take them out and I have done that many times." How to create a safe space for all employees to voice their point of view These days it can be challenging to balance being open, honest, and transparent when some people are so quick to come after you if they don't agree. But finding that balance is important. Ravi says it is important to talk to your employees and know what they care about, so you can take that into account. As a leader you need to be open and honest, but you also don't want to create polarization within the company. He says, "As a leader our jobs, leaders need to unite, harmonize, align, because at the end of the day, you're in the business of serving consumers, rather than having politics. So you do want people to be able to express themselves. But there's also express themselves in the context of the culture you have in your company, because different companies have different cultures, and what may be acceptable in one company may not be acceptable in another." It is up to leaders to unify everyone inside the organization, no matter what their beliefs are. And if they witness someone trying to cancel someone else because of a belief, it is up to leaders to intervene and get both sides to listen to each other. People need to be able to listen to each other, they don't have to agree with each other, but they have to at least listen. Ravi wants diverse opinions, ideas, and thoughts inside of his organization. So instead of silencing issues, he thinks it is important to debate them, get all sides out in the open and have everyone reasonably listen to each other's thoughts. At the end of the day it's about what is best for the company as a whole. He is also a big believer in employee resource groups or affinity groups. Inside of Newell they have groups for LGTBQ, women, veterans, black employees, etc...And you don't have to directly identify with the group in order to be a part of it, each group welcomes anyone because it creates allies for the people in that group. These groups are safe spaces where people can come together and discuss topics and inform people who may not know what other people may be going through. "I spend a lot of time on, rather than talking about the divisions, how do you unite people on a common purpose, a noble purpose for the company? So that the purpose is far bigger than any individual, even bigger than the CEO, or the board, or the shareholders--that's everlasting." How to bring the best out of your people In Ravi's experience in leadership across many industries, he says the key to unlocking your people's potential is humility and suppressing your own ego. It's also about balancing the long-term and short-term goals of the company and, as he shares, "Over communicate and be transparent, be truthful. Don't treat employees like babies, make employees part of the solution and don't treat them like they're the problem. And then I always say, use the word we, don't say I, we, because you can never do anything by yourself." --------------- There are 6 trends that are transforming leadership forever do you know what they are and are you ready for them? Download the PDF to learn what these 6 trends are and what you should be doing about each one of them. These are crucial for your leadership and career development in the future of work! Get the latest insights on the Future of Work, Leadership and employee experience through my daily newsletter at futureofworknewsletter.com Let's connect on social! Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobmorgan8 Instagram: https://instagram.com/jacobmorgan8 Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jacobm Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FuturistJacob

You can be a 37 times better leader than you are now, and it won't require a crazy massive transformation. All you have to do is improve yourself 1% a day. By the end of the year, you will be 37 times better. And this doesn't just apply to leadership, this can apply to anything. It means taking 10 to 15 minutes a day to watch or listen to something new to learn a new skill. It means recognizing an employee for the hard work they've been doing. It means spending time with someone who doesn't look like you, act like you, think like you, behave like you, or even believe in the same things you believe. It means saying "I don't know" during a team meeting to embrace humility and vulnerability. It means having a conversation with somebody and truly listening to them, not just hearing them. That's what 1% a day looks like. Being a better leader doesn't have to be hard. Improving anything doesn't have to be hard. --------------- There are 6 trends that are transforming leadership forever do you know what they are and are you ready for them? Download the PDF to learn what these 6 trends are and what you should be doing about each one of them. These are crucial for your leadership and career development in the future of work! ------------ Are you prepared for the Great Resignation? With the candidate-driven market heating up, you don't want to lose your top talent from a lack of meaningful recognition. Learn how meaningful employee recognition improves employee retention with this free guide! Get the latest insights on the Future of Work, Leadership and employee experience through my daily newsletter at futureofworknewsletter.com Let's connect on social!Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobmorgan8 Instagram: https://instagram.com/jacobmorgan8 Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jacobm Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FuturistJacob

Taylor Smith is the co-founder and CEO of Blueboard, the world's leading experiential rewards and recognition platform that helps companies celebrate their employees. The company was founded in 2014 and they currently have 150 employees around the world. Employee experience and recognition has been at the forefront of conversations in the business world for a while now, but it's never been more important than this past year and a half. And one company that is helping leaders around the world find better ways to recognize, celebrate, and reward employees is Blueboard. A different way to recognize and reward employees For many companies the way that they show appreciation to employees is through company-wide awards, swag like mugs and shirts, and gift cards. And while all of these things are good, it may not be what employees most want or need. As Taylor shares, "People show up to work every day and what do they do? They're spending all their time and their energy, and they're giving it to their company, right. And a lot of us, you know, we'll work on long projects, we'll throw our lives into our work, because we're proud of it. But that often isn't reciprocated from our company." Taylor and the Blueboard co-founder, Kevin, actually came up with the idea because of something that happened to Taylor while working for Accenture. At one point while working for the company Taylor was given a high visibility role working with the CFO of a large company. And during this project he really drove himself into the ground--he was working 80-90 hours a week, flying to Dallas every week for three months, he ate all his meals at the company cafeteria, and he wasn't sleeping much. He put everything he had into that project. And at the end of the project, Taylor's manager called Taylor into his office and told him he had done an amazing job on the project and he wanted to recognize the work he put in and he handed Taylor a $500 gift card. It was a very well-intentioned gift and it was not a trivial amount of money, but in the moment it didn't feel good to Taylor. Just considering all of the time and effort he put into the work and all of the time he spent away from home and his girlfriend, analytically thinking about it, it kind of made it feel that his time was worth $1.12 an hour to his employer. Talking the whole situation over with Kevin when it happened Kevin asked Taylor what would have made him feel rewarded, what would have made him feel appreciated. After thinking about it Taylor said it would have been nice had his manager said, you have been spending a lot of time away from home and away from your girlfriend, here are some vouchers for you both to go for a couples massage this weekend to relax and recharge. And that is when the idea for Blueboard was born. They realized that it made sense to use actual experiences and gifts of time to reward employees, but that in order to do that a leader would have to spend a lot of time figuring out the best thing to give, and then searching for local businesses who provide that service, and then purchase it, etc..And most leaders don't have extra time to do all of that. So they wanted to provide a service to leaders so that the process would be easy for them and rewarding for employees. --------------- There are 6 trends that are transforming leadership forever do you know what they are and are you ready for them? Download the PDF to learn what these 6 trends are and what you should be doing about each one of them. These are crucial for your leadership and career development in the future of work! --------------- The biggest trend Taylor is paying attention to One of the biggest things that Taylor and his team have noticed over the past year and a half is something that was already getting attention, but it increased during the pandemic and that is employee wellbeing. With most people working virtually, we have more people bringing their whole selves to work than ever before. We used to have a clear separation between work and personal life, that is no longer possible. Companies are wrestling with how to support their people's well-being not just at work, but outside of work because they are so connected. We have to see all of the different facets of our people--they are not just employees, they are parents, spouses, significant others, and family members. They have hobbies and interests, they have hopes and dreams. It dramatically changes your people programs when you start looking at your people as individuals who want and need different things. Will we go back to the office? There has been a lot of discussion over the last several months about whether or not people will return to work in the office, or if most companies will continue to work remotely. Taylor is very interested to see how long it takes people to go back to work and what the whole transition period will look like. He believes that most companies will go with a hybrid form of work--some in-person and some remote--instead of going with one extreme or the other. And while working remotely comes with convenience and flexibility, there is also value in connecting face to face with coworkers. "We could and should be more connected people than ever, but we feel more alone and isolated than ever. And to me going to a fully remote workforce is going to lead us further down that path, and I just don't think people realize that right now." At Blueboard, even before the pandemic they had four day work days in the office and work from home Wednesdays. Employees were able to go to appointments or run errands or do housework on Wednesdays to break up their work day and accomplish things they wouldn't be able to in the office. Why rewarding employees with experiences is so meaningful Blueboard has a lot of options for employees to choose from when they are rewarded by a leader--some are big, kind of crazy ideas like sandboarding in Morocco or chasing the northern lights in Iceland and some are small, but impactful like taking a course in a language you want to learn or training to become a yoga teacher or a one-hour surfing class. There are so many things in life that a person might be interested in, but they just don't have the time or the resources to take the first step. So being able to start that journey because you are being recognized for your hard work is powerful. "We see hundreds of people a week doing things that represent one step towards something they've always wanted to do, whether that's taking a cooking class because they've always wanted to learn how to make pasta or they're taking a boxing class because that's the first step towards them getting in shape. Blueboard can represent just a small nudge and step in someone's life, that is then taking a big step in terms of who they are as a person. And at the end of the day, their company is the one that made that happen, how powerful and awesome is that? So that's why I love what we're doing." ------------ Are you prepared for the Great Resignation? With the candidate-driven market heating up, you don't want to lose your top talent from a lack of meaningful recognition. Learn how meaningful employee recognition improves employee retention with this free guide! Get the latest insights on the Future of Work, Leadership and employee experience through my daily newsletter at futureofworknewsletter.com Let's connect on social!Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobmorgan8 Instagram: https://instagram.com/jacobmorgan8 Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jacobm Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FuturistJacob

What defines an entrepreneur is what they do when they are told "NO". Entrepreneurs get more competitive when they get rejected. They don't shrivel away or cower in the corner and quit. They want to know what they did wrong and why they were told no. They learn from the experience, improve on their failures, and move forward. To them, failure is never the end of the journey. This mindset is what separates entrepreneurs from everyone else. ------------ This episode is sponsored by my friends over at Perceptyx Perceptyx helps enterprises get a clear picture of their employee experience with a continuous listening and people analytics platform aligned to key business goals. With the industry's largest portfolio of survey types – including engagement, DE&I, lifecycle, 360 feedback, pulse, and more – now you can see not only what's going on today, but how to move forward tomorrow with insights and prescriptive actions for every level of the organization. Given our unique blend of technology, domain expertise, and 'above and beyond' customer service, only Perceptyx makes all this possible. It's why 30% of the Fortune 100 already rely on Perceptyx and why 95% of the organizations stay with us year after year. Learn more or request a personal demo today at www.perceptyx.com ---------- Now more than ever we need to take a step back to define what it means to be a leader and what great leadership looks like. But this isn't easy to do. In fact, many business leaders struggle with this. You cannot become and build what you don't define. In the PDF you will get a framework you can follow and also see how some of the world's top CEOs define leadership. Click here to get the PDF. Get the latest insights on the Future of Work, Leadership and employee experience through my daily newsletter at futureofworknewsletter.com Let's connect on social!Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobmorgan8 Instagram: https://instagram.com/jacobmorgan8 Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jacobm Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FuturistJacob

Cameron Herald is the bestselling author of several books including Meetings Suck and Vivid Vision: A Remarkable Tool for Aligning Your Business Around a Shared Vision of the Future. He is the former COO of 1-800-Got-Junk and in the six years he was in that position he brought the company from $2 million to $106 million in annual revenue and the company was named the #2 company in Canada people wanted to work for. Cameron is also known as the CEO Whisperer and he has coached a lot of leaders around the world. When it comes to looking for a coach, Cameron says leaders have to know what they are looking for because, "the world's littered with coaches right now. And you have to be very careful and understand what it is you're selecting." Cameron focuses on the entrepreneurial operations, execution, and culture space. He teaches CEOs how to build world-class company cultures in order to propel growth. He compares business coaches with sports coaches and says just as you would have different coaches for strength, conditioning, mindset, health, etc...there are also different coaches for business-related skills and techniques. So make sure you know what you want to work on and seek out someone specifically coaching in that area. What is vivid vision and why is it so important for every leader When Cameron is working with a leader, he always starts with a concept called vivid vision. He has the leader lean out three years into the future and has them describe all aspects of their company as if they had traveled in a time machine and were walking around their company three years in the future--the culture, the technology, the operations, the marketing, etc… "I'm trying to get the CEO to visualize the company in its finished state. And then we can reverse engineer every sentence to figure out what to do to make each sentence come true. And then, much like building a home where you build the foundation, and you put up the walls, and then you put in the electrical and the plumbing, and then you put in the drywall, there's a formula for building out a business, in the same way you start with the foundational building blocks, and you grow from there. Many entrepreneurs get distracted by the big shiny object, right? Some, they just read something in a book, they want to do it now. But they forget about building the core basis of the business first." Why three years? Just looking one year out, there wouldn't be enough change, it would be pretty similar to the present moment. And more than three years can be too far out to really wrap your head around, and too far out to really take seriously and get excited about. The vivid vision is the CEOs responsibility to create, roll it out, and get other people to buy into it. "If the CEO is very clear on where we're going, other people can figure out the plan to help make that come true." Or for those people who don't buy into the vision, they can see that the company is not a good fit for them and they can find someplace that works better for them. What is the relationship between CEO and COO Cameron uses an analogy of building a home when talking about the relationship between the CEO and COO. The CEO is the homeowner who wants to build the home and the COO is the general contractor that is hired to take the homeowner's ideas and make the vision come true. "So the COO's job is to take the vivid vision from the entrepreneur, the CEO, and start crafting the plan and the team and the operational bench to then execute on that vision and make that happen. The COO's job is to reverse engineer the dream or the goals of the CEO." As Cameron points out a good COO is trying to get more done with less people, faster. They try to make the business run more efficiently, they try to increase revenue per employee, and optimize processes. Whereas a CEO doesn't spend so much time thinking about those types of things. --------------- There are 6 trends that are transforming leadership forever do you know what they are and are you ready for them? Download the PDF to learn what these 6 trends are and what you should be doing about each one of them. These are crucial for your leadership and career development in the future of work! --------------- What is a Mind Map and how can leaders use them A Mind Map is a tool that people use to visualize tasks, words, concepts or items that relate to a central concept or subject. When it comes to creating a vivid vision you can use a Mind Map by writing vivid vision in the middle of the page and then draw off a few branches. Each branch will represent something like family, fitness, friends, fun, faith/spirituality, and travel, then you jot down ideas for each branch. For example, for the travel branch you might want to write that you want to live in different cities or live abroad or you want to learn a new language. For your family branch you might want to travel with them or make sure they get out of the house each day or learn a new skill together. And as you keep jotting down ideas it becomes a spider web of ideas. "That's the way I like planning things. It's the way I like visualizing a company or a business. Whenever I have a new project or a new idea, I tend to start with a mind map and then I take all of those ideas and I build them out into lists of bullet points. And then I just prioritize the bullet points and I just start executing off those. You know, if you were doing a mind map of your home, and we're going to build a home, well what might it look like? How much should it cost? What types of rooms are we going to have? How will the rooms be laid out? So you start describing it and then it gives you some basis for thinking through things." What happens if there are people who don't agree with your vivid vision? Cameron gave an example of a CEO he worked with in Vancouver who went through Cameron's program and had created his vivid vision. He had an offsite day for all 100 employees at the company and at the end of the day he read his vision off to the employees. After reading out his entire vision he told them there are probably 15% of you who hate what you just heard, and that's okay. But now you know that this is the right time for you to quit and look for another company that you are excited about because this is where we are going in the future. About six weeks later 12% of his company had quit. A year and a half later that leader's company was ranked as the #2 company in British Columbia to work for. So not everyone will buy into your vision, but that just means that the company is not a good fit for them and it is their choice to buy into it or leave. It is better to be open and honest about where the company is going and have some people quit then to make it a mystery and have all employees confused about where the company is going. "There's people at Microsoft that would hate working at Google, I've been to both their head offices, they're extraordinarily different. They're as different as like a raspberry and a banana. You know, both are fruits. I happen to hate bananas, I happen to like raspberries. Now, you can't say I don't like fruit, I just don't like bananas. So you need to decide: do I like what they're offering? And if you're not clear on what they're offering, you really want to find out. You also really want to be clear on the vision of the organization. Right? Where are they going? Do I want to be a part of that journey? Or would I rather be a part of a different journey?" ------------ This episode is sponsored by my friends over at Perceptyx Perceptyx helps enterprises get a clear picture of their employee experience with a continuous listening and people analytics platform aligned to key business goals. With the industry's largest portfolio of survey types – including engagement, DE&I, lifecycle, 360 feedback, pulse, and more – now you can see not only what's going on today, but how to move forward tomorrow with insights and prescriptive actions for every level of the organization. Given our unique blend of technology, domain expertise, and 'above and beyond' customer service, only Perceptyx makes all this possible. It's why 30% of the Fortune 100 already rely on Perceptyx and why 95% of the organizations stay with us year after year. Learn more or request a personal demo today at www.perceptyx.com Get the latest insights on the Future of Work, Leadership and employee experience through my daily newsletter at futureofworknewsletter.com Let's connect on social!Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobmorgan8 Instagram: https://instagram.com/jacobmorgan8 Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jacobm Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FuturistJacob

Empathy is one of the cornerstones of leadership. The first thing that you need to do to practice empathy is take a step back and learn to listen. Don't respond too quickly, take time to digest and process the information. The next step is to be aware of your emotions. Research shows that to practice empathy, you either need to be in a neutral state or the same state as the person who is coming to you. The last technique is taking the opposite perspective. Try to take the other person's perspective and argue against yourself a little bit. Try to challenge your initial assumptions. Practicing empathy will greatly improve your leadership and the employee experience in your organization. ------------ This episode is sponsored by my friends over at Perceptyx Perceptyx helps enterprises get a clear picture of their employee experience with a continuous listening and people analytics platform aligned to key business goals. With the industry's largest portfolio of survey types – including engagement, DE&I, lifecycle, 360 feedback, pulse, and more – now you can see not only what's going on today, but how to move forward tomorrow with insights and prescriptive actions for every level of the organization. Given our unique blend of technology, domain expertise, and 'above and beyond' customer service, only Perceptyx makes all this possible. It's why 30% of the Fortune 100 already rely on Perceptyx and why 95% of the organizations stay with us year after year. Learn more or request a personal demo today at www.perceptyx.com ---------- Now more than ever we need to take a step back to define what it means to be a leader and what great leadership looks like. But this isn't easy to do. In fact, many business leaders struggle with this. You cannot become and build what you don't define. In the PDF you will get a framework you can follow and also see how some of the world's top CEOs define leadership. Click here to get the PDF. Get the latest insights on the Future of Work, Leadership and employee experience through my daily newsletter at futureofworknewsletter.com Let's connect on social!Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobmorgan8 Instagram: https://instagram.com/jacobmorgan8 Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jacobm Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FuturistJacob

Jason Redman is a Retired Navy SEAL Lieutenant, motivational speaker, and the bestselling author of Overcome: Crush Adversity With The Leadership Techniques Of America's Toughest Warriors. Jason grew up in a family that was very patriotic and enjoyed serving their country, so he heard about the military early on and from about the age of 12 he knew he wanted to do special operations. There was something about the Navy SEALs and the fact that it is the hardest training in the entire U.S. military that piqued Jason's interest. People told him he would never make it, but that just pushed him even more to reach that goal. After he graduated high school he headed to Boot Camp. "SEAL training is legendary and it's difficult. And it's been that way from the very beginning all the way back in World War II. And interestingly enough, it's pretty much maintained the core of what that training was back then. And even today, SEAL training has a 75%- 80% failure rate. So attrition rate, almost 80% of the people that start SEAL training, don't make it through the majority of it, you know, don't make it because obviously, they quit. But then there's a large amount that don't make it for medical reasons. And then performance reasons, academic reasons. All these things play into a guy's ability to make it through training. And it is legendary in its difficulty." How Jason's near-death experience led him to his current career Back in September 2007 Jason was part of a SEAL Assault Group in Iraq. It was a pretty volatile time in the war and they were conducting missions almost every night. On September 12 they got word that a senior Al-Qaeda leader was going to be in a specific location at a specific time and Jason's team launched a mission to go after that individual. But what they didn't know was they were walking into a very well executed Al-Qaeda ambush and Jason and his team were shot by multiple machine guns. Jason was shot eight times in his elbow and his face. His jaw was shattered, all the bones above one of his eyes were broken, he was severely injured and knocked out. His teammates continued to fight and got him out of there and he was sent to a hospital in the U.S. Jason remembers that in the beginning he was so overwhelmed. Doctors were giving him a ton of information about his injuries and treatment, at one point they thought they might need to amputate his arm, he was being fed by a stomach tube. He thought for sure his career was over and didn't know where he would go next. People would come visit him and they would talk about other people they saw throughout the hospital and what a shame it was, what a pity that we send them off to war and they come back broken and they'll never be the same. And Jason had a realization hearing those comments. He didn't want to be a victim and feel sorry for himself--he had been through tough times before and overcame them and he knew he had a choice. We all have a choice when faced with hard times--whether you are a salesperson, a doctor, a police officer, etc...humans are humans and we have a choice in how we react to situations in our lives. So he put a sign up on his door that said, "Attention to all who enter here, if you're coming in this room to feel sadness or sorrow, don't bother. The wounds I received, I got in a job that I love, doing it for people that I love, defending the freedom of a country that I deeply love. I will make a full recovery. What is full? That's the absolute utmost, physically. I have the ability to recover, and then I'm going to push that about 20% further through sheer mental tenacity. This room you're about to enter is a room of fun, optimism, and intense rapid regrowth. And if you're not prepared for that, go elsewhere." He wrote that sign for himself, he knew in his time of darkness he needed to have a mission statement that he could focus on when he wanted to quit or was feeling down. It wasn't an easy journey, just because he made that statement doesn't mean everything was better from that moment forward. He had surgery setbacks, days of intense pain, infections, etc… But he always thought back to those words and pushed forward. In life, Jason says, you have to understand what your values are and what your mission is. That's what has to drive you forward. Jason's three rules of leadership While we can't control everything, we do have choices in life, no matter what role we are in. Jason teaches three rules of leadership when he gives his talks. He says it starts with rule number one, which is 70% of leadership is how you lead yourself. It's about your self-discipline, how you build structure in your life, how you build repetition and processes to get things done, how you are balanced as a leader. Leading others usually happens before you ever open your mouth. Rule number two is to lead others. After you are leading yourself and you know what your mission & values are, you can start leading others. It is important that you build trust, communicate clearly, and always stay on course. Rule number three is lead always. No matter what you are facing in life, as a leader you have to realize that you are leading. People are going to look to you as their example, so you have to step up and lead regardless of what you go through in life. --------------- There are 6 trends that are transforming leadership forever do you know what they are and are you ready for them? Download the PDF to learn what these 6 trends are and what you should be doing about each one of them. These are crucial for your leadership and career development in the future of work! --------------- Can resilience and overcoming adversity be taught? Jason has gone through a lot in his life and no matter what he keeps pushing forward and maintains a positive attitude. Leaders inside of organizations today need to have this type of mindset in order to overcome all of the challenges and hurdles that come along with this fast-paced, new world of work. But can this mindset be taught? While some people do have a higher level of resilience within themselves than others, Jason says it is something that can be taught and improved. It's taught through doing hard things. You have to get out of your comfort zone on a regular basis. If you are afraid of speaking in public, join Toastmasters. If you are afraid of heights, jump out of a plane. "Why? Because it forces you out of your comfort zone. And that's what builds your resiliency and your overcome muscles. I'll tell you what I try and tell people all the time, you cannot just click a switch and turn on an overcome mindset in a crisis. If you've never built one, it just won't happen. I don't care how much you read. I don't care how much you think you know about it. If you have not done some hard things in your life and built your overcome resiliency muscles, it won't happen." The three Ps--how Jason stays focused on his goals One important part of leading yourself is having goals and building a structure that helps you stay focused on them. Jason has created the three Ps that help him stay on track and focused on his long-term goals. Narrowing it down to these three areas helps him move the needle forward a bit day by day instead of having huge lofty goals that seem way out of reach. His three Ps are: One physical goal--For Jason this is always about getting at least one workout in a day. But this could be any kind of physical goal. Maybe you want to do Yoga, or go for a walk outside, or play a team sport. One personal goal--To make sure he still takes time out to do something for himself Jason sets one personal goal a day. This could be having dinner with his family or calling his mom or balancing his personal finances. One professional goal--Every day he sets a professional goal to help him move his business forward. As a leader working on these things daily helps you lead yourself which in turn helps you lead others better. Jason says as a leader you should be an example of a good communicator, a good family member, an example of taking care of yourself physically and mentally, etc… "All these things are critical components of leadership, that if you're not doing them, if you are telling your people they need to have balance with their family, but you're not showing that, then they're going to slide out of that also, because that's how we learn. We emulate our leaders. And we value what our leaders feel is important." ------------ This episode is sponsored by my friends over at Perceptyx Perceptyx helps enterprises get a clear picture of their employee experience with a continuous listening and people analytics platform aligned to key business goals. With the industry's largest portfolio of survey types – including engagement, DE&I, lifecycle, 360 feedback, pulse, and more – now you can see not only what's going on today, but how to move forward tomorrow with insights and prescriptive actions for every level of the organization. Given our unique blend of technology, domain expertise, and 'above and beyond' customer service, only Perceptyx makes all this possible. It's why 30% of the Fortune 100 already rely on Perceptyx and why 95% of the organizations stay with us year after year. Learn more or request a personal demo today at www.perceptyx.com Get the latest insights on the Future of Work, Leadership and employee experience through my daily newsletter at futureofworknewsletter.com Let's connect on social!Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobmorgan8 Instagram: https://instagram.com/jacobmorgan8 Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jacobm Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FuturistJacob