Work That Matters Podcast

Managers have a tough job. New research from Root shows that managers are the most neglected employees in the workforce. In this episode, I talk with Tracey Nawrocki, Director of Manager Development at Root. We explore key findings in Root's newest research that show how neglected managers are at work. This isn't a sob story, however. Tracey and I take a solid look at what's going on with how managers are overlooked today and the business implications. Get ready, more great wisdom coming your way.

Much has been written about the war for talent. But what do you do about it? That's the focus of this episode of Work That Matters. I talk with Dr. Stacy Feiner who bring psychological strategies to business owners to help them improve organizational and personal performance. Dr. Feiner will breakdown a framework that has helped her clients win in the war for talent. Get ready, more great wisdom coming your way.

The business world is in constant flux. Demands are high along with expectations. It takes a strong leader to navigate the flux, keep up with demands, and meet or exceed expectations. If the above resonates with you, then you'll get tremendous value from this episode of Work That Matters. Author and consultant John Grinnell talks with me about the importance of self-knowledge for leaders and why it's important in today's work places. We take a deep dive into topics that can truly make a difference, a lasting difference, in your leadership. Get ready, more great wisdom coming your way.

Living a life well examined was something Socrates advocated. It's a way of living that I believe is key to a fulfilling life. Examining life can be difficult to do in this demanding world. It’s easy to put off looking at how to become a better human being when there are so many distractions. In this episode, I talk with Gilt's Heather Fleming about using Agile as a basis for living a life well examined. If you're unfamiliar with Agile then definitely tune in. So get ready to take notes, more great wisdom coming your way.

A business that is conscience is an interesting idea. Conscience businesses do good for those who work in the company and for those whom they serve. It's a topic we're hearing more about these days, as consumers grow weary of corporate greed. CMO of Kodak and author Steven Overman talk about the business implication of doing good. It's a fun discussion. I think you'll enjoy it. Get ready to take notes. More great wisdom coming your way. If you enjoy Work That Matters, please rate the podcast. For show suggestions, please email Shawn Murphy at shawn@switchandshift.com.

By some researchers count, we spend 1/3 of our life working. It consumes much of our lives. So when employees' personal lives are continuously sacrificed because of work spillover, the integration of the two worlds begins to fall apart. In this episode of Work That Matters, I talk with Tracy Brower about her new book Bring Work to Life by Bringing Life to Work. The title alone speaks volumes of the importance of a work/life mix. We'll discuss important topics like abundance and it's role in living an integrated life. Also, we'll explore how the work environment influences our ability to do our best work.

Who doesn't want a positive work experience? It doesn't matter what type of work you do. While working it should be time that is meaningful. Extraordinary workplaces can be elusive. Listen, however, to this episode for insights and ideas that can make a difference for you and your team. I interview psychologist, author and professor Ron Friedman about his new book, The Best Place to Work. Friedman has some counterintuitive and compelling ideas that just may make the difference for those in your workplace. Get ready to take notes. More great wisdom coming your way. If you enjoy Work That Matters, please rate the podcast. For show suggestions, please email Shawn Murphy at shawn@switchandshift.com.

Much has been written about the impact Millennials will have/are having on the workplace. IBM has recently released a study that sheds some new light on this hot topic. I talk with Brand Manager, Bill Grady, of IBM to go through some of the myths, exaggerations and even unfortunate truths about Millennials. Get ready to take notes. More great wisdom coming your way. If you enjoy Work That Matters, please rate the podcast. For show suggestions, please email Shawn Murphy at shawn@switchandshift.com.

I'm apprehensive in using generational labels as it inevitably leads to stereotypes. There is no such thing as a positive stereotype. Stereotypes are short cuts to understanding. The shortcut relies on mass generalizations that prevent true understanding of people. So, in this interview I'm talking with author and consultant Lee Caraher about Millennials or Gen Y. I'll specifically avoid questions that attempt to label Gen Y. Rather, we'll focus on what are the best ways to work with the generation that is changing the way we think and lead people, not just Millennials. Get ready to take notes. More great wisdom coming your way. If you enjoy Work That Matters, please rate the podcast. For show suggestions, please email Shawn Murphy at shawn@switchandshift.com.

Despite the proliferation and integration of technology into our lives, there’s seemingly an increased need for human to human interaction. Businesses that can harness the inherent values of a more human-centered approach to generate value and partner with their employees and stakeholders will have a competitive advantage over those businesses that disregard the human to human mentality. This episodes guest is CEO Bryan Kramer. Bryan is the co-founder of Pure Matter, an award winning brand-marketing agency in Silicon Valley.   He is the author of the delicious manifest Human to Human. Get ready to take notes. More great wisdom coming your way. If you enjoy Work That Matters, please rate the podcast. For show suggestions, please email Shawn Murphy at shawn@switchandshift.com.

For many of you, public speaking is like the opening of Eminem's Lose Yourself: "Palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy." It's a major source of fear. Like anything you fear you can overcome it. Speaking in front of any audience is for many a part of the job. So, how do you overcome fear and anxiety and give a killer presentation? That's what this episode covers. My guest is Matt Abrahams. He is a lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business and Business Partner at Bold Echo, a communication solutions organization. He's also the author of Speaking Up without Freaking Out. Get ready to take notes. More great wisdom coming your way. If you enjoy Work That Matters, please rate the podcast. For show suggestions, please email Shawn Murphy at shawn@switchandshift.com.

Your potential to grow is linked, in part, to how resilient you are. Resilience is getting a lot of attention these days, and for good reason. In today’s demanding world and work realities, resilience is key to doing work that matters. Resilience is also about helping you be your best self in your life. In this episode, award-winning author/speaker Eileen McDargh walks us through her work on resilience and her latest book Your Resiliency GPS. Get ready to take notes. More great wisdom coming your way. If you enjoy Work That Matters, please rate the podcast. For show suggestions, please email Shawn Murphy at shawn@switchandshift.com.

Too often leaders rely on usual suspects—the people they repeatedly turn to for the most important work. Consequently good team members go overlooked. They're hidden. This episode of Work That Matters looks at this phenomenon, the four facets of hidden leadership, and its impact to the business and people. My guest is Scott Edinger of the Edinger Group. Get ready to take notes, more great wisdom coming your way. If you enjoy Work That Matters, please rate the podcast. For show suggestions, please email Shawn Murphy at shawn@switchandshift.com.

Prognosticators have been predicting the future of work for some time. Some take a very futuristic approach envisioning how, when and where robots will take over more of human jobs. While that's fun, some of it I find, frankly, dystopian and unrealistic. To predict the future of anything, those in that field of practice need to account for the role of human spirit. And it's this point that makes me curious about what my guest today sees unfolding in our workplace. Today's guest is Bill Jensen, CEO of the Jensen Group. Bill and his team have produced a new report on the future of work, "Making the Future Work 2015-2020." We explore findings from this new research. Get ready to take notes. More great wisdom coming your way. If you enjoy Work That Matters, please rate the podcast. For show suggestions, please email Shawn Murphy at shawn@switchandshift.com.  

In business it's popular belief that emotions should be left out of the workplace. After all, it's just business. But what if we leveraged our emotions to make great things happen? Well, this is what we're exploring in this episode of Work That Matters. I'm talking with Jackie Barretta, author of Primal Teams: Harnessing the Power of Emotions to Fuel Extraordinary Performance. Jackie and I talk about why it's important to make room for negativity in teams. We'll discuss the role emotions play with creativity. Jackie also has some great insights about emotions and happiness in the workplace. Get ready to take notes, more great wisdom coming your way. If you enjoy Work That Matters, please rate the podcast. For show suggestions, please email Shawn Murphy at shawn@switchandshift.com.

There are those of us leadership thinkers who believe management needs to be reinvented. One doesn't need to look too far for confirmation that management has lots its worth. Consider that dismal engagement and employee satisfaction levels in organizations around the world. In this episode of Work That Matters, writer and management thinker Jurgen Appelo shares his thoughts on what reinvention could look like. We look at points from Jurgen's new book #Workout such as Management 3.0 and the importance of identity to teams. We cram some great conversation into 30 minutes about the evolving nature of management. Enjoy! If you enjoy Work That Matters, please rate the podcast. For show suggestions, please email Shawn Murphy at shawn@switchandshift.com.

In a world where complexity frequently creates more work for us, learning how to do less seems almost impossible. In fact, doing less may seem counterintuitive when we're caught up in the complexities of business. But it's learning to do less better than your competition that can give you an advantage. In this episode I interview retired CEO and author John Bell. He's written a new book Do Less Better: The Power of Strategic Sacrifice in a Complex World. We're going to explore the nuances and needed leadership when doing less is best.

It's no secret that growth is the key to longevity of a business. Yet business owners and its leaders can fall prey to growth killers, limiting and in some cases eliminating the business. Today we're going to zero in on one of the growth killers—tolerating dysfunctional leaders. My guest is Robert Sher. He is published by outlets like Forbes.com and HBR online. He was the founder and CEO of Bentley Publishing Group. He now leads CEO to CEO, a consulting firm focused on coaching midsize company CEOs and their management teams. Robert is also the author of a new book, Mighty Midsize Companies: How Leaders Overcome 7 Silent Growth Killers. In this episode we discuss warning signs of dysfunction, high maintenance leaders, the myths of loyalty, and even the importance of earned trust. Get ready to take notes. More great wisdom coming your way. If you enjoy Work That Matters, please rate the podcast. For show suggestions, please email Shawn Murphy at shawn@switchandshift.com.

A colleague of mine once said this about learning: "When you're ripe you're rotting, when you're green you're growing." My guest today, leadership and learning expert, Liz Wiseman and I are talking about the importance of the learner mindset and its role in doing your best work . . .to do work that matters. We'll be discussing Liz's distinction of rookie smarts and why it's not just for newbies at work, but for all of us—new and experienced. What's more, we'll discuss how a rookie mindset can help us shift into higher performance. If you're a seasoned professional or new in the world of work, you'll want to listen to Liz's insights, especially if you're interested in performing at your peak. Get ready to take notes, more great wisdom coming your way. If you enjoy Work That Matters, please rate the podcast. For show suggestions, please email Shawn Murphy at shawn@switchandshift.com.

One of my favorite companies doing great work that ignites human potential and is profitable in doing so is Luck Companies. Helping lead the way with this incredibly altruistic and yet practical transformation is Mark Fernandes. Mark and Luck Companies focus on this shift through Values-Based leadership ideology and model. How we lead is rooted in what is important to us. What’s important to us is rooted in our values. Unfortunately many of us don't make the time to identify and know what our personal values are. Going one step further, we don't take the time to integrate our values into our leadership actions. In this episode, Mark Fernandes and I discuss how values-based leadership can ignite human potential and generate business value.