The Future Of Work Podcast With Jacob Morgan | Futurist | Workplace | Careers | Employee Experience & Engagement |

Why are so many employees entering the workforce unsure of themselves, lacking confidence, and not quite ready to thrive? And with AI automating more tasks by the day, what should leaders actually be focusing on to future-proof their people? The world is flooded with information at the speed of light, yet starved of real connection and human skills. So how do we bridge the growing gap between soft skills and hard results? In this episode, Joe Hart, President and CEO of Dale Carnegie, joins us to unpack how to future-proof your workforce by re-centering on timeless human principles like empathy, trust, and communication. We explore why emotional and social intelligence, not technical expertise, will define leadership success in an AI-powered world. You’ll learn how to better understand and lead across generations by shifting from judgment to curiosity, why building confidence and connection should be at the heart of your talent strategy, and why real growth starts with personal responsibility. Plus, we dive in

What if your employee perks are actually backfiring… making people disengage faster, not stay longer? The way we attract and retain talent is overdue for a serious reset. In today's Leadership Spark, we dive into why the traditional employer-employee relationship is broken and what leaders must change to stay relevant. You’ll learn how outdated recruitment practices no longer work in a world where candidates interview you just as much as you interview them. We also unpack why engagement initiatives like free lunches or yoga classes, aren’t fixing anything long-term, and how companies end up trapped in a cycle of quick-fix perks that fail to build a lasting connection. You’ll discover the real reason behind declining engagement scores, the hidden trap of the “hedonic treadmill,” and why the next evolution of leadership is about building genuine experiences, not selling false promises.   ________________ Start your day with the world’s top leaders by joining thousands of others at Great Leadership on Substack.

So much of what holds leaders back isn’t strategy or skill. It’s the invisible mindset traps we don’t even realize we’re stuck in. Most leadership challenges are created by unconscious patterns running the show beneath the surface. In this episode, we dig into what it really takes to break those patterns with Diana Chapman, executive coach and co-author of The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership. We explore how leaders unknowingly operate from fear instead of trust, how ego-driven patterns around control, approval, and security quietly sabotage progress, and why taking radical responsibility is a game-changer. Diana also breaks down the Drama Triangle—the victim, villain, and hero roles we slip into—and reveals how to break free from reactivity and drama to lead with more clarity and presence. We unpack why addiction to comfort and being right can quietly derail your leadership impact, and explore the dangers of greed in leadership, and what it really means to show up in a state of trust and curiosity.   _

What if your office is making people miserable… and you don’t even see it? We now live in a world of hybrid work. The spaces we work in, the technology we use, and the culture we experience shape us more than we realize. If you’re still only focusing on tasks and performance while ignoring the environments that make or break engagement, you’re already falling behind. In today’s Leadership Spark, we uncover the three hidden forces driving employee experience: physical space, technology, and corporate culture. You’ll hear how these environments impact mental health, motivation, and performance, and what you can do to fix the silent culture killers draining your people. This episode will also show you why corporate culture is really the side effects of working at your company, and why modern leaders must see themselves as the front line of human connection, not just task management.   ________________ Start your day with the world’s top leaders by joining thousands of others at Great Leadership on Substack. Just

AI is moving faster than any of us can keep up. Every week brings a new tool, every month a new disruption, and leaders everywhere are left scrambling to understand what this means for their people, their culture, and their future. In this episode, I sit down with Charlotte Eaton, Chief People Officer at Arm—the company powering almost every smartphone on the planet—to explore how AI is fundamentally transforming the workplace. We discuss the skyrocketing demand for AI talent, how companies like Arm are rolling out AI tools across their workforce, and the growing pressure on leaders to stay ahead of rapid technological shifts. Charlotte shares insights on building an AI-ready culture, the risks of outsourcing human thinking to machines, and how leadership mindsets must evolve to thrive in this new era. We also explore the future of work, from the rise of AI co-pilots and system-based thinking to changing views on education, hiring, and organizational design. If you’re struggling to make sense of AI’s rapid ta

The world of work is changing faster than ever! Globalization, mobility, millennials, technology, and new behaviors are transforming how we lead. In today's Leadership Spark episode, I break down these five trends reshaping work and reveal why they’re forcing every manager to become a better leader. I explore how these shifts are making traditional management obsolete, why people no longer need to work for your company, and what it takes to create an environment where they want to. Get ready to rethink your leadership approach to attract and inspire top talent in today’s competitive job market. This is an episode you can’t miss.   ________________ Start your day with the world’s top leaders by joining thousands of others at Great Leadership on Substack. Just enter your email: ⁠⁠https://greatleadership.substack.com/

Most leaders avoid tough conversations out of fear—of seeming harsh, being misunderstood, or facing backlash. But the conversations we dodge are often the key to growth, accountability, and psychological safety. In this episode, Paul Falcone, bestselling author & former CHRO of Nickelodeon Animation, breaks down how leaders can approach tough conversations with clarity, confidence, and compassion. Paul introduces powerful frameworks like the “Performance vs. Conduct” model and the “iron hand with a velvet glove” approach to help leaders hold people accountable without alienating them. He explains why career development and respect in the workplace go hand in hand—and how to deliver feedback that actually builds trust instead of breaking it. We also discuss the delicate balance between psychological safety and high standards, the risks of having too much sensitivity in today’s workplace, and how values-based leadership is quickly becoming a CEO-level priority. Paul shares real-world strategies like quarter

What can a world chess champion teach us about the future of work? More than you think. Just like Magnus Carlsen challenged convention to become the greatest player in history, leaders today need to rethink everything about how we work, lead, and build organizations. This episode explores why challenging convention is no longer optional. We unpack the five trends reshaping work—new employee behaviors, exponential technology growth, a millennial-majority workforce, mobility, and globalization—and why clinging to outdated assumptions is a losing strategy. From redefining what it means to be a manager or employee to understanding the Josh’s of the world who thrive without traditional paths, we learn that the future belongs to leaders who aren’t afraid to question norms, rethink structure, and design organizations people actually want to be part of.   ________________ Start your day with the world’s top leaders by joining thousands of others at Great Leadership on Substack. Just enter your email: ⁠⁠https://greatl

Great ideas often die, not because they’re wrong, but because no one knows how to influence others to act on them. In leading today’s complex organizations, it’s not enough to be right. The real challenge for leaders is getting people to change behavior, and stay changed. In this episode, we sit down with Joseph Grenny, co-author of Crucial Conversations and one of the world’s leading experts on influence and behavior change, to unpack the science and strategy behind lasting behavior change using his powerful Six Sources of Influence framework. We explore the difference between persuasion and true influence, why most change efforts fail, and how even well-intentioned leaders often rely on the wrong tools—like incentives or policies—when they should be focusing on motivation, social systems, and structural design. Joseph shares real-world stories, including how The Other Side Academy transformed the lives of former felons without a single failed drug test in over a decade. We also look at corporate examples, s

Most leaders manage culture with dashboards that measure what's easy, not what's true. In this episode of Leadership Spark, KeyAnna Schmiedl, Chief Human Experience Officer at Workhuman, challenges leaders to stop relying on outdated engagement scores and start looking at what really drives culture: recognition. She explains why traditional HR data misses the lived employee experience and how recognition moments reveal the hidden influencers, team dynamics, and unspoken values shaping your organization every day. KeyAnna unpacks how recognition isn’t just a feel-good perk, but a source of human intelligence that shows who’s thriving, who’s struggling, and where your culture is strongest or weakest. Learn how to stop leading with rear-view metrics and start using recognition data to shape your culture in real time. ________________ This episode is sponsored by Workhuman: AI without purpose doesn’t serve people. It’s why many companies have tried, and few have succeeded. Workhuman is one of them. With the groun

The future of work is changing, and we can't afford to have our leaders evolve backward by sticking to outdated leadership styles. It's high time for a major upgrade because this new era of work won't wait for you to catch up. In this three-part episode, we explore what it takes to thrive at the highest levels of leadership across three urgent dimensions: executive readiness, AI fluency, and hybrid work strategy. We begin with Mark Thompson, world’s #1 CEO coach and author of CEO Ready, who shares what it really takes to step into the top seat: mastering leadership languages, building trust with your boss, and aligning ambition with the real demands of executive life. Then we dive into the age of AI with Dr. Michael Chui, Senior Fellow at McKinsey and QuantumBlack AI, who explains how agentic AI is reshaping leadership itself—from decision-making and team structure to the rising need for leaders who can manage machines as skillfully as people. Finally, we turn to the workplace of the future with Stanford Prof

The real game of the future of work is how to unstuck yourself from the past. As the workplace keeps changing, new expectations are reshaping what it means to work, manage, and lead. But instead of preparing, many organizations are just reacting to challenges, caught off guard by the shifts they should've seen coming. So what’s behind this disruption? In today's Leadership Spark, we break down the five trends driving the future of work: new behaviors, technology, the rise of millennials, mobility, and globalization. These fundamental shifts are already changing how we attract talent, design jobs, and build cultures. If you're still leading with a 20th-century playbook in a 21st-century world, it’s time to upgrade. Explore the trends, the real stories behind them, and what you need to do right now to stay ahead in this episode. ________________ This episode is sponsored by Workhuman: AI without purpose doesn’t serve people. It’s why many companies have tried, and few have succeeded. Workhuman is one of them. W

We’ve built a world where products appear with a click and groceries restock like clockwork...until they don’t. When the pandemic hit, it wasn’t just shelves that went empty, it was our illusions of a stable, efficient global supply chain that collapsed. And it wasn’t a freak accident, it was decades in the making. In this episode, we sit down with Peter Goodman, Global Economic Correspondent for The New York Times and bestselling author of How the World Ran Out of Everything: Inside the Global Supply Chain. Peter brings a deep, behind-the-scenes look at how global trade works, and what happens when it doesn’t. We unpack the hidden risks and questionable logic behind decades of offshoring, our blind devotion to just-in-time inventory, and a relentless pursuit of shareholder maximization at the expense of resilience. Peter covers the untold story behind what went wrong during the pandemic and why it could happen again, why we became too dependent on China, and how consulting firms and shareholder obsession mad

What does real employee recognition look like, and why do so many leaders still get it wrong? In today’s Leadership Spark, I explore how one emotional moment completely changed a leader’s definition of what it means to acknowledge and value your people. We talk about the silent cost of unspoken appreciation, why recognition should never be a top-down policy, and how small, authentic gestures can create lasting cultural change. If you think saying “thank you” is optional, you’ll change your mind after hearing this episode. ________________ This episode is sponsored by Workhuman: AI without purpose doesn’t serve people. It’s why many companies have tried, and few have succeeded. Workhuman is one of them. With the groundbreaking release of Human Intelligence, Workhuman combines AI with real recognition data to help leaders do right by their people, and their organization. It’s how you spot burnout before it leads to turnover. Or discover hidden strengths before they’re overlooked. It’s how you build a culture th

Is college still worth it? As tuition rises and dropout rates soar, the big question everyone’s asking is: how do we prepare young people for a future we can’t predict? In this episode, Dr. Robert McMahan, President of Kettering University, unpacks the evolving crisis in higher education and what it truly means to prepare students for the future. He sheds light on the rise of “adulting” classes as a symptom of a larger issue: students entering college without essential life skills. Dr. Robert gives us a peek into Kettering University's integrated experiential model, where students rotate between 12 weeks in class and 12 weeks in cooperative placement roles at real companies—not internships, but embedded work. We also look into why traditional four-year universities are struggling, facing declining public trust, overcapacity, and the looming demographic cliff, and how new learning models and market disruptions are forcing a much-needed reimagining of higher education. Dr. McMahan emphasizes that future-proofin

Imagine waking up one day and realizing the world changed, but you didn’t. That’s what it’s like for many organizations today, stuck on a decades-long train ride, speeding ahead without ever looking out the window. The future of work isn’t coming. It’s already here, and most companies are still running on definitions of “work,” “manager,” and “employee” that feel more like satire than strategy. Work sucks for too many people, and it doesn’t have to. In today's Leadership Spark, we break down the five major trends transforming work as we know it: evolving behaviors, shifting demographics, globalization, mobility, and accelerating tech. As we step into the future of work, organizations must get off the train, look up, and start designing work that actually works for humans. ________________ This episode is sponsored by Workhuman: Don't you hate how every HR company out there says they are powered by AI? The truth is most difficult if it's just fluff. Human Intelligence™ from Workhuman is one of the few solution

AI is the most powerful tool humanity has ever created. Yet, it’s also a black box we barely understand. How do we build the future of work with a system that can make decisions, take actions, and sometimes… make it up as it goes? In today's episode, Babak Hodjat, CTO of AI at Cognizant, joins us to uncover the truth and the hype behind today’s most powerful AI technologies. We explore the evolution of agentic AI, multi-agentic platforms, and how organizations like Cognizant are already using AI agents to streamline RFPs, HR systems, and even intranet interactions. Babak exposes the promise and pitfalls of large language models, breaks down AI hallucinations, and debates whether AI truly "understands" anything or just predicts the next word. We also unpack the difference between AI and algorithms, the current capabilities (and limits) of generative AI, and address the ongoing challenge of AI trust, ethics, and resilience in real-world business contexts. Expect mind-blowing stories about AI agents threatening

Chief Human Resources Officers (CHROs) are now responsible for shaping the future of work. But to do that, you can’t stay in the HR box. To HR leaders, it's time to stop thinking of yourself as administrators and start showing up as architects of human transformation. The new world of work operates on an entirely new playbook, we can't keep putting band-aids on outdated systems. We must start reimagining work itself. In today's Leadership Spark, we're rethinking the outdated ideas about work, engagement, and the role of HR in shaping the future. We explore why perks don’t create real employee experience, how employer branding often masks the truth about our workplaces, and what it takes to move from managing people to truly transforming how we work. ________________ This episode is sponsored by Workhuman: Don't you hate how every HR company out there says they are powered by AI? The truth is most difficult if it's just fluff. Human Intelligence™ from Workhuman is one of the few solutions that actually uses AI

The workplace is evolving, but not without friction. AI, culture, and leadership expectations are colliding, and while some leaders scramble to keep up, others are creating environments that feel more like day spas than places of work. How do you lead with kindness while still setting high expectations? In this episode of Future Ready Leadership, I spoke with KeyAnna Schmiedl, Chief Human Experience Officer at Workhuman, about what it really takes to evolve workplace culture and leadership in a time of rapid change. We explored the current state of AI and its role in supporting, not replacing the human element at work. KeyAnna sheds light on the shift from compliance-focused HR to human experience-focused leadership, and how organizations can avoid the trap of over-accommodation and instead focus on clarity, accountability, and human-centered leadership. We discussed the misapplication of psychological safety, the dangers of therapy language, the importance of building resilience and critical thinking, and wh

We’ve misunderstood what it really means to lead with vulnerability. Organizations are falling into a dangerous trap of glorifying vulnerability without pairing it with accountability. That's why workplace cultures that enable excuses, not growth, exist. In this episode, we explore why vulnerability at work has gone too far, and how it’s being misused as a shield from accountability. We draw a sharp line between simply being vulnerable and leading with vulnerability, which means owning your gaps and showing what you’re doing to grow. When vulnerability lacks follow-through, it creates a culture of entitlement instead of growth. With all the changes happening fast in the modern world of work, leaders can't afford to not course-correct. It's time to redefine what vulnerability should look like at work. ________________ This episode is sponsored by Workhuman: Don't you hate how every HR company out there says they are powered by AI? The truth is most difficult if it's just fluff. Human Intelligence™ from Workhum