Work That Matters Podcast

It's popular belief that we can find equilibrium in our personal and professional lives. The demands on our time just don't allow for this to be possible. There has to be a better choice. In this episode, I interview Wharton Business School professor Stew Friedman. We explore concepts that will help you better navigate an integrated life and avoid the misleading belief that balance can be found between work and life. 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.

"We can be deceived by false signals sent from our brain," claims leadership expert Tanveer Naseer. These false signals when it's related to our leadership lead us to believe one thing, but those thoughts aren't based in reality. This is leadership vertigo. And it happens all too often, misleading well-intentioned leaders astray. In this episode, you'll learn how to minimize the likelihood of leadership vertigo, the principles to address it when it occurs. 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.

As the cliche; goes, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results. This can be said about how we view the role of management in organizations. We want to change how we manage or lead, but I don't believe the pace of needed changes is keeping up with what employees, or stakeholders, want and expect. We can't continue to rely on 20th century management practices in the 21st century and expect the workplace to improve. In this episode Chuck Blakeman author of Why Employees Are Always a Bad Idea: and Other Business Diseases of the Industrial guides us through where we need to shift our practices to be in line with what he calls the Participation Age. This is a fascinating interview that’s sure to challenge some of your beliefs about business today. 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.

The pursuit of a rich, fulfilling life and work needs to be meaningful to you. Yet the day-to-day responsibilities can distract you from living a life you love. This episodes guest, is with author, event producer, and life changer Ben Arment. Ben's book, Dream Year, is a must read for anyone who wants to live a life of purpose. In this interview Ben and I talk about scaling barriers to asking for a life you love, doing work that matters, and other topics designed to inspire you to be in action towards leaping from a job you hate to a life you love. 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.

Being a manager, or boss, is not easy. Managers need to balance their workload and inspire their team to do their best work. It takes patience, tenacity, grit, even humor to juggle the demands of being the boss. So, I thought it was important to take time to look at what makes a great boss. I invited author and consultant Gary Magenta, VP of Root. Root is a boutique consultancy that focuses on “strategy execution through people.”® They do phenomenal work in helping organizations set strategy through highly engaging practices. In this interview, Gary and I use his book The Unbossy Boss to explore the elements to being a better boss that unlocks the potential in people. We’ll discuss the key secret to being a great boss. Be sure to listen for the secret. We unveil it at the beginning of the interview.  Share your questions or suggestions for future guests by emailing Shawn at shawn [at] switchandshift [dot] com. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a rating and comment.  On

Growth as a leader is a continuous process. You never arrive as a leader fully informed and done with your development. The most influential leaders, in the long run, are those who continually position themselves to learn. This pursuit of results is marked by a constant inquiry of who we are, who we need to become and who we need to stop being. With this in mind, I asked executive coach, Bill Bliss to join the show. Bill has a new book out Success in the C-Suite: Top Seven Strategies for Extraordinary Achievement. Share your questions or suggestions for future guests by emailing Shawn at shawn [at] switchandshift [dot] com. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a rating and comment. On to the show.

Happiness in the workplace is a hot topic right now. In large part because businesses have not created the conditions to help employees do their best work. While happiness, or other positive states, is important, it's only part of the equation for success. Psychologist and scientist Todd Kashdan has researched the benefits of the dark sides of our moods and personalities. Todd believes we need to tap into both our positive and dark side to drive success and achieve greater fulfillment. We've got a great interview lined up. Grab something to take notes. More great wisdom coming your way. Share your questions or suggestions for future guests by emailing Shawn at shawn [at] switchandshift [dot] com. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a rating and comment. On to the show.

How much time do you spend working? How much time is left to do other things important to you besides work? In America, we are notorious for working more and taking less vacation. Yet in today's world where we are constantly connected, more people and organizations are sharing research that the impact on us is not positive. If you're overworked and want to do something about changing that, then be sure to listen to what my guest has to say. In this episode, I interview Dr. Greg Marcus who is a recovering workaholic. Dr. Greg Marcus has written a timely book called Busting Your Corporate Idol. Greg helps people get control of their overworked lives. Share your questions or suggestions for future guests by emailing Shawn at shawn [at] switchandshift [dot] com. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a rating and comment. On to the show.

If you are interested in being remarkable in your work, then you'll want to listen to this interview with speaker and entrepreneur John Spence. John covers in a short period of time some killer insights from using social media to get sales and referrals to the influence of culture on a business. Along the way you'll learn the three things to build a world class career. Grab something to take notes with. More great wisdom coming your way. Share your questions or suggestions for future guests by emailing Shawn at shawn [at] switchandshift [dot] com. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a rating and comment. On to the show.

If you're like me you've had moments when you wish you could redo an interaction with a colleague. Perhaps words were spoken that weakened the relationship. In this episode of Work That Matters, I'm talking with John Stoker. Founder and President of DialogueWORKS. John is also the author of the book Overcoming Fake Talk. In this episode were going to talk about how to have real conversations that build relationships and get results. Get ready to take notes. More great wisdom coming your way. Share your questions or suggestions for future guests by emailing Shawn at shawn [at] switchandshift [dot] com. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a rating and comment. On to the show.

Leadership takes guts. Leadership is about motivating and inspiring people, playing safe won't cut it. What are the elements of bold and gutsy leadership? I talk with author, educator and leadership guru, John Baldoni about this very question.

Tim Ferris may advocate a 4 hour work week, but let's get real. Most of us spend 1/3 or more of our life working. As leaders it's our role to help make work be a positive contribution to our lives and that of our employees. Culture plays a significant role in shaping the quality of the work experience. Today we're going to explore various dimensions of culture and what you can do to make the 1/3 I mentioned earlier a more inspiring, transformative experience. I'm talking with author, musician, consultant Chris Edmonds. His new book is The Culture Engine: A Framework for Driving Results, Inspiring Your Employees, and Transforming Your Workplace. We'll explore some themes on culture in our conversation today.

Do you remember a time when you weren't interrupted by the buzz of your smartphone? Chirp from an incoming Tweet or email? There's a large portion of us who recalls a less distracting time. Regardless, though, of your age, do you wonder what your life would be like with less technology-driven distractions? My guest today is Michael Harris, author of The End of Absence. We're going to explore the impacts of a lack of distractions in our lives and what opportunities are available to us to reclaim what we've lost in a world of constant connection.

Social technology has boldly revealed something we have known about human nature that is invaluable to business. We have learned that connection, networks of people can use their collective voice to transform how we work together, how we make change. In this interview, authors Ted Coine; and Mark Babbitt reveal what the implications of The Social Age are to businesses and to humanity. Get ready to take notes. More great wisdom coming your way.

How effective are you when you multi-task? What would your colleagues say if you asked them? And what about time to reflect? When was the last time you had time to think about your next move on a project? Or the day's interactions? Or the big picture? In today's mobile-enabled world where we're reachable anywhere, I think we are losing site of the benefits of unplugging and thinking. To guide us through this discussion is author and entrepreneur Daniel Forrester. Daniel Forrester is the Founder and CEO of THRUUE. Daniel is the author of Consider: Harnessing the Power of Reflective Thinking in Your Organization.

We all face leadership challenges. They are what shape our leadership actions. To make extraordinary things happen in your organization or within your team, you need to be willing to accept the challenges of leadership and find ways to constantly grow. It is with great honor and excitement that I introduce today's guest—Jim Kouzes. Jim is the co-author of the seminal leadership book, The Leadership Challenge.

The best places to work create a positive work experience. But to make that happen requires intentional acts of leadership and purposeful evolution of the culture. To talk about creating a positive work experience, I talk with young entrepreneur and growth manager at Office Vibe, Jacob Shriar. Check out OfficeVibe.com to learn how they can help you create the culture and climate you want for your company and team.

We need businesses that don't suck—suck the life, purpose, desire, aspirations out of its people. Today's episode we're looking at a different way to conduct business that doesn't suck. We'll explore how to evolve your business from a top-down, command-and-control mindset. We'll look at how holacracy can help with this evolution. To help inform this conversation, this episodes guest is Brian Robertson. Brian is with HolacracyOne and is a seasoned entrepreneur and organization builder, and a recovering CEO. He holds no fancy titles and wields no special powers, so he can show up as just another partner doing his part to support something he cares about. 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.

Meetings are where productivity goes to die. We hop on our hamster wheel and run from meeting to meeting, getting little to nothing accomplished for our time invested. It's an unsustainable business practice that sucks joy out of the workplace. My guests today are two people whom I've admired for years - Dick and Emily Axelrod. In this episode we're going to explore how to revolutionize meetings and save yourself and others from hellish meetings. 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.

It's not every day we get the opportunity to learn how the world sees us. Imagine the opportunities this insight would provide. Well, now you have the opportunity with what Sally Hogshead calls the Fascination Advantage. It's an assessment that reveals how the world sees you. In this interview Sally and I explore the positive influence understanding the outcomes of the Fascination Advantage provides. Take the assessment for free—a benefit just for Work That Matters listeners. Visit www.HowtheWorldSeesYou.com/You. Enter the code SandS. This offer is good only through August 20, 2014. 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.