Geeks Geezers And Googlization Podcast

Success will not be measured the same way in the New Normal as it was just a few months ago. Hopefully that’s a good thing. Recovering from the pandemic stronger and better will require more grace, more compassion, more empathy, more humanity, according to our guest Julie Ann Sullivan. From interviews with over 60 C-Suite leaders and conversations with hundreds more who created thriving cultures and workplaces, she discovered four attributes these leaders all have in common. She published them in her new book Catalysts of Culture. (You’ll need to listen and/or read the book to learn what they are.) An important read before the pandemic crisis, it’s now an essential leadership guide for a successful reopening and relaunch of business in Age of Continuous Certainty.

Business is re-opening and life is anything but normal. The past has been decoupled from the present and future. HR practices and processes that used to work don’t work the same way. Even if they do work, getting things takes longer with social distancing and other new safety and security precautions. Many companies are headed for an epic fail when they try to source, recruit, hire, and train employees as if life is “normal.” Declan Murphy, CEO of Datalive, believes the new next normal problems will be solved by the rapid digitization of HR.  Listen as he describes how his company is taking “the robot out of the human” by saving time and improving candidate and employee experience.

Chances are that between emails, Zoom, Slack, text, and even phone, you’ve sent an important message to your employees that was missed or ignored. The information spigot is open. More than 560 billion emails are sent each year. One hundred billion of them are sent to employees. Communication is flowing full throttle but a lot of it falls on deaf ears. Cutting through all this noise is hard, even in normal times. So what is it that you need to do differently for your messages to be heard above all the noise?  We’ve got the CEO of Guide Spark Keith Kitani, a corporate communication strategy expert, on our show today.  And he’s ready to share answers to and new findings from his company’s research about corporate communication in the age of uncertainty.

Brianna Shelko is a Millennial. But you’d never guess she belongs to the generation that’s been called Trophy Kids, spoiled brats, self-centered, digital addicts...and that’s only what we can print! Simply mentioning  the “M” word brings groans and sighs. Her generation gets blamed for everything that’s wrong with ...well just about everything.  Well, Brianna shatters the Millennial myth. At 26 years old, she’s the CEO of a social media marketing company PLUS 14 additional revenue streams! She’s articulate, savvy, entrepreneurial and one of millions of young people who doesn’t fit the Millennial mold. She’s also our guest on this episode of Geeks, Geezers, and Googlization! 

A funny thing happened on the road to tomorrow. The SHIFT hit our plans! Now that the pandemic curve is flattening, our focus shifts to re-opening America (or the world for that matter.) What will “normal” look like? How long will it take to get “back-to-normal? For many, near-term survival is top-of-mind. Others are thinking forward, seeking to rebuild themselves and get a headstart on the next chapter of our lives. No matter the path you choose, one thing is certain: the road to recovery will be an exponential curve.  Which industries might lead to our recovery? What jobs will be in demand? Will technology lead the way? How will we balance the need for technology with the value for human life, for security, for privacy, for well-being? With all the new guidelines and conditions coming out about what it will take to reopen for business, might companies discover that work-from-home productivity is better than when employees go to work?

Is there anyone on this planet that would question that navigating the pandemic has been disruptive, uncomfortable, stressful, and downright confusing? It’s no surprise then that we’re all chomping at the bit to reopen for business. Unfortunately, this road back-to-normal will be anything but usual. For starters, our leaders seem to be making up the playbook as we go. Everyone is fighting above their weight class. Few businesses and people can afford to make any mistakes. And the next step you take will thrust you into the Age of Unusual Uncertainty. What steps must you take to ensure that you lead and navigate through this next chapter of your life successfully? For advice that matters, we reached out to Mike Clarke, representing Gallup - one of the world’s most respected analytics and advisory firm. Buckle up. This is one of those podcasts that you’ll be relistening, quoting, and sharing often. During the show, a few FREE resources were mentioned. Here are the links: Gallup COVID-19 Resources. Click here.

Eventually, the COVID-19 crisis will pass. Management will reach for its playbook for getting back to normal. Unfortunately this time, there is no playbook. There is no modern-day parallel. This pandemic triggered one of the biggest economic shocks in history and a world of uncertainty. All of us will need to get comfortable with things being different, for living in a constant state of disruption. That requires a new playbook. The time to start writing it is now. You can't wait for the "all-clear" signal because it's not coming. When you reopen your doors for business, a significant number of employees will be anxious, stressed, and fearful. Many may be grieving or experiencing varying degrees of PTSD. What is your plan to re-board, re-assimilate, re-engage and re-synchonize your workers when the coast is clear? Without such a plan you may be replacing one crisis with another. To help get you started we invited two experts to the show.  First, we’ve got Bo Mitchell who has spent his entire adult life dealing

The Shift just got real! The Covid-19 pandemic turned the theoretical exponential curve into a very personal experience. The lines between sci-fi and reality blurred almost overnight. Welcome to the age of the new normal, where uncertainty and ambiguity are constants. Fortunately, the pandemic will pass but the changes it forced are more permanent and transformational. Each one of us is being challenged to think and act differently. The door behind is locked and sealed. The-way-it-was is written in the history books. What’s the best way to adapt, get back on your feet, and prepare for future success: Shift your mindset. Mike Smith from Hiring Stage Inc joins us.

To say the shift hit work plans this week would be a gross understatement. Thanks to the Covid-19 response, millions of people without warning began working from home - or not working at all. But despite the threat of massive layoffs hanging over the heads of millions of workers, many industries (healthcare, distribution, transportation) are hiring like crazy. Unfortunately, social distancing makes the traditional interview impractical and nearly impossible. Welcome video interviewing. Has its time come? Will video interviews become the new normal? What are the best practices?  How should you select the best platform and technology for your company? To answer these questions and more, we invited  Phil Strazzulla from Select Software Reviews, an HR technology research company, to join the show.

Our health and wellbeing are being severely tested. Personal stress levels are in overdrive, or as we like to say on Geeks Geezers and Googlization, the SHIFT is hitting a lot of plans. Just minutes before this episode, WHO declared Covid-19 a pandemic. The stock market fell into bear territory. More conferences and events were canceled and many schools announced they were closing. With everyone’s business and personal plans susceptible to disruption, it’s no wonder our stress levels are skyrocketing.  So we decided the best advice we could offer would be to stop and take a deep breath. The timing was perfect because today’s guest happened to be Joe Burton, CEO of Whil, a company founded in 2014 to fight the global stress epidemic. As a mindfulness advocate and author of Creating Mindful Leaders, Joe leaves you with practical skills you can use immediately to power down, even if for only 5 minutes. Most importantly, he offers hope that no matter what is happening in our lives, mindfulness can help each of us

There’s a lot of things your company can’t control and the coronavirus is just one of them. But how you respond should be at the tip of your tongue. According to our guest, crisis communication expert Bill Coletti, “Plan now like your company’s reputation depends on it because it does.” According to Coletti (via way of Seth Godin), your reputation is no more than what people expect you to do next. What you say and do (or don’t do ) to calm employee fears and ease customer concerns may have long-term implications, even when you have no control over the actual event. How can you prevent a moment of crisis from evolving into a media “shift” show? How do you balance messages of "the sky is falling" with caution and optimism? How do you take a crisis like the Covid-19 and shape and protect your reputation going forward? Reputation management is what we’re talking about on this week’s episode of Geeks Geezers and Googlization.

A job candidate should walk away from the recruitment experience feeling good, even if rejected. But despite billions of dollars invested in HR technology and countless human hours spent working on improvement, many candidates walk away disappointed, resentful, and even angry. According to The Talent Boards 2019 Research report, candidate resentment has increased 40 percent since 2016. That should be horrifying news since resentment means 71% of rejected candidates will tell their inner circle and one-third will publicly shame you on social media.  That’s not just bad for HR but bad for the brand, bad for the business, and bad for the bottom line. To better understand the state of candidate experience 2020 and how some companies are responding, converting resentful detractors into a positive relationship and referral partners, listen to two of the leading experts on talent acquisition and candidate experience: The Talent Board’s Kevin Grossman and CareerXRoad’s Gerry Crispin.

Do you get your best ideas standing in the shower or when you wake up a few minutes early? Or how about a “hunch” that something good or bad is going to happen but have no facts to back it up? They don’t happen by accident! It’s time to say “Yes” to intuition, the ability to see the unknown clearly, see things you missed that are literally standing right in front of you. For some of you, intuition might seem like hocus pocus. But neuroscience research says otherwise. Listen to our guest Arupa Tesolin, author of Ting: The Surprising Power of Intuition to Transform Work & Innovate, and learn how you can transform, grow, and innovate your life by harnessing the transformative power of intuition.

Companies spend billions of dollars trying to get the best of their people. They coach, mentor, and train and yet talent shortages grow and employee engagement sinks. To find out what’s missing we went straight to Heartstyles experts Mara and Stephen Klemich. For nearly two decades they’ve been researching why people do what they do and too often don't live up to their potential. Along the way they discovered four universal principles that drive our effective and ineffective behaviors and have been on a personal mission to help companies help employees to become better versions of themselves. And in an oddball strategy that is working, they put the L-word back in the C-Suite: Love!  Whether you’re interested in growing talent or just becoming a “better me,” this episode is a must-listen. As a special bonus, learn how you can complete a FREE Heartsyles Indicator survey. Make sure you check out their new book too: Above the Line: Living and Leading with Heart.

It just doesn’t get any wilder than this triple play of odd HR topics: phishing, Civil War, and job descriptions. But as it turns out, lessons learned from the Civil War can be applied to modern day workforce challenges such as cybersecurity, recruitment, and retention. To help make this connection between the battlefield of Gettysburg and HR, cyber-security specialist and Civil War enthusiast Clinton Eppleman, from Morefield Communications, joins us. You don’t want to miss the part when he shares how job descriptions may expose your business to dangerous phishing attacks. It’s just mind-blowing. That tip alone is well worth the listen.

Kobe, Shaq, Bono, Sting, Madonna, Cher are celebrities recognized by one name. A less famous but no less extraordinary individual was also recognized in the entrepreneurial and business community by one name - Clay. The father of disruptive innovation Clayton Christensen died last week so we decided to dedicate this week’s show to him.  In 1997, Clay published what The Economist calls one of the six most important business books ever written. “The Innovator’s Dilemma." We interview 2 business leaders, Carlos Castelan from The Navio Group and Chris Howard from Callahan & Associates, whose personal and professional lives have been deeply impacted by Clay’s wisdom, teachings, guidance, and the way he chose to live his life.

“People may be a company’s most valuable asset” but they don’t appear on a company’s balance sheet as an asset. They are, however, captured on the income statement as an expense. That is in sharp contrast to how HR values people. This contrast between quantifying the worth of people vs expressing appreciation couldn’t be more remarkable. Bridging this gap and finding a correlation between employee worth and appreciation has become the mission and passion of our guest, valuation expert Dave Bookbinder.  Dave believes “The value of a business is a function of how well the financial capital and the intellectual capital are managed by the human capital. You'd better get the human capital part right.” Dave is the author of The New ROI and host of Behind the Numbers.

Three in 5 HR leaders believe if the HR function doesn’t modernize, it may become irrelevant, according to a recent KPMG survey. The word “modernize” seems like a safe word. It resonates with HR and management because it infers you can talk about innovation, make incremental changes, and not rock the boat. But what if modernization requires disruption, transformation on the grandest scale, not just innovation? Can HR step up this time, take a big gulp, and help burn the boats? For answers and guidance to these questions, we turned to Charlene Li, one of the finest, creative minds in business today, and author of the new book, The Disruption Mindset.

With so many organizations challenged to grow and become more productive and innovative, maximizing each employee’s “bandwidth” is imperative. That oftentimes seems is easier said than done. So on this episode, we sat down with someone who has figured it out, Milos Kovac, a Honeywell Aeronautical Engineer turned Innovation Mind Coach.  Fortunately for the rest of us, Milos learned that you don't need to be a rocket scientist to help others unleash their human potential.  But as Milos shared, “You can’t remodel your kitchen by painting the outside of your house.”  It starts on the inside, with our belief systems. Has Milos unlocked the breakthrough businesses and individuals have been looking for?  You better believe it. Listen now.  

With the unemployment rate at historic lows, quit rates near all-times, and a stock market on fire, business leaders are anxious about the hiring outlook 2020. Will job creation continue? Will 2020 become déjà vu all over again when it comes to hiring top talent? Or will unemployment rates swell under the weight of an impeachment and 2020 presidential election?  For answers to these questions, we turned to ITR Economics President Alan Beaulieu. (Hint: he’s bullish on growth.) While that’s good news for most of us, it could continue to put pressure on business growth plans. To hear more about how the economy and employment will fare against the background of politics, tariffs, and a presidential election, listen now. And don’t miss our forecast about 2020 workforce trends including empathy, HR technology, and candidate experience.