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

Nathan Rawlins is the Chief Marketing Officer of Lucid, a software company with around 1000 employees that designs online visual collaboration applications. Its products are utilized in over 180 countries by more than 30 million users worldwide.  Lucid's online applications bring people together over the web from anywhere in the world to work together on a shared canvas.  Nathan joined Lucid in 2017 as the CMO to show the world the benefits of working visually. Prior to joining Lucid, Nathan led worldwide marketing activities for Puppet and helped scale Jive through an IPO as he directed product marketing and brand. Lucid was named Best Led Companies in 2021 by Inc. Magazine and was named Best Workplace in Technology by Fortune for a second consecutive year.  I have known Nathan for many years. We were reminiscing about how software has changed communication and collaboration for people over the years.  The shift has been to social ways of communication more so than collaboration. Communication has evolved pr

Here are my 5 best pieces of career advice for young people.

Bob Chapman is the CEO of Barry-Wehmiller, a global supplier of manufacturing technology and services with over 12,000 employees. Bob was named the #3 CEO in the world by Inc. Magazine and Barry-Wehmiller is studied by business schools and organizations around the world because of their unique culture and Bob’s truly human leadership style.  I have had the pleasure of speaking with Bob on many occasions. I had him on the podcast back in 2015, I interviewed him for my book, The Future Leader, and I interviewed him for my online leadership course. Bob truly cares about his people and he feels personally responsible for every single one of them.  He is passionate about truly human leadership, but that hasn’t always been the case. When he first started his career, he led in a more traditional way and stuck to what he learned throughout his MBA journey. But Bob says he had three revelations back in 1997 that “awakened his senses to a higher calling in business”.  --------------------------- There are 6 trends that

You need to view working at your company just like being in a relationship. Whenever you're in a relationship, you're inevitably presented with a choice. Do you keep the relationship going? Is it something that you turn into a long-term relationship? If you decide you want to fight for that relationship, then you have to fight like hell to make it work. Are you going to overcome the obstacles and work on the problems you're faced with? Then you have to do everything you can. Working for an organization is the exact same thing. Are you going to try to make things work? Or are you going to jump ship? Whether you are in a personal or a professional relationship, it is the same thing. You need to decide if it's a relationship worth fighting for. And if it is, fight like hell to make it work. --------------------------- This episode is sponsored by Workplace from Meta. Whatever you bring to work to help you be you, Workplace celebrates it. Our familiar features help everyone work together in new ways. To make your

I recently shared an image on LinkedIn on the evolution of the employee, and it went bonkers; like it went completely viral. It became the most popular thing that I have ever shared on LinkedIn. It's fascinating because this is something I wrote about in 2014 and the whole concept was looking at how employees are changing and how the idea of employees is changing. And even though I wrote about it in 2014, it was manifesting slower--than Covid hit, and suddenly, this became a reality. It’s important to go through this evolution so that you can understand what you need to do as a leader, what you need to do as an organization, or even what you need to be doing and thinking about it as an individual contributor. In the past, employees were working nine to five and we’ve had an evolution towards working anytime. The idea of working nine to five and setting 32 or 40 hours a week is a concept that is probably almost 100 years old. And why are the hours after five o'clock designated for personal time? I think techno

Are you an implementer or an owner? According to Kate Johnson, president of Microsoft U.S., an implementer is somebody who takes somebody else's vision and actions and implements it. Implementers typically give the accountability and responsibility to somebody else. An owner is somebody who sets the vision and course of action. They provide clarity on the outcome and how a team or organization can achieve that outcome. Owners also take on the accountability and their responsibility without passing it off to someone else. If you want to become an owner at your organization, you need to be more accountable for driving change. Volunteer for the tough projects that nobody else wants to take on. Be more humble and vulnerable when it comes to making mistakes and learning from them. And think of where you can create value inside of your organization and as a part of your team. Implementers keep the ship running. But owners change the world. We need both, which one are you?   --------------------------- This episode

As 2021 ends, I wanted to look back at some of the best leadership advice we heard from our guests over the last year and a half. I interview around 50 guests every year, and I've had the privilege of speaking with many great leaders around the world; these are some of my favorite conversations.  I have picked out some short clips from my interviews with five past guests. These leaders have brought their companies & their people through the pandemic and all the changes that came with it, and they have continued to thrive despite all the challenges they faced. I hope you enjoy looking back at parts of these conversations and the lessons we can learn from these leaders.  Mark Lashier is the CEO of CPChem, a company that produces petrochemicals and plastics with 5,000 employees worldwide. Chevron owns 50% of the company, and Phillips owns 50%. Mark has served in leadership roles at Chevron Phillips Chemical and Phillips Petroleum for three decades.  Mark explains that being an effective leader entails buildi

I was able to witness first-hand the difference between empathy and sympathy. Before COVID, I spoke at a lot of events. I had the opportunity to speak at two financial institutions several months apart. When I went to the first company, I saw one of the executives get approached by a new employee. She introduced herself and told the executive that she was really nervous. She was given big responsibilities and didn’t know if she could handle it. The senior leader said, “I’m sorry you feel that way, but don’t worry about it, I’m sure you will be fine.” A couple of months later, I went to the second financial institution and the same thing happened. A new employee approached a senior leader and told him that she was nervous and not sure she could do the job. The senior leader said, “I remember feeling the same way when I first started working here.” Then he told her all the things he did to overcome those fears and ended the conversation with, “If you ever need any help, please come to me directly.” This is what

Celeste Headlee is an award-winning journalist, bestselling author, and speaker. Her TEDx talk has over 26 million views. Her books include Do Nothing: How to Break Away From Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving and Speaking of Race: Why Everyone Needs to Talk About Race--And How To Do It.  Celeste is a 25-year veteran of public broadcasting. She was a host on NPR and she has also been on PBS and PRI. And during this time in her career she really started researching and figuring out how to have better conversations and how to interview well, that’s when she realized most people are not good at informal conversations--especially difficult ones on topics such as race and politics.  She gave a TED Talk on that topic and it went viral so she wrote a book on the same theme titled, We Need To Talk: How To Have Conversations That Matter. The TED Talk really changed her life and led her down the career path she is on today. Why we struggle to truly rest There is a quote from Bertand Russell that Celeste included i

Do you have rules that you abide by? Not long ago, I had the opportunity to speak with Mark Randolph, co-founder and first CEO of Netflix. According to Mark, there are eight rules for success that his dad created, which he follows every day: Do at least 10% more than you’re asked. There's no substitute for hard work. ✅Never present your opinions as facts. ✅Be courteous to people both up and down. ✅Don't knock others, don't complain, don't whine about stuff. ✅Don't be afraid to make decisions when you have the facts on which you can make those decisions. ✅Quantify whenever and wherever possible. You can't improve something if you don't measure it. ✅Be open-minded, but also be skeptical. ✅Be prompt. Never show up late. --------------------------- This episode is sponsored by Workplace from Facebook. Whatever you bring to work to help you be you, Workplace celebrates it. Our familiar features help everyone work together in new ways. To make your place of work a great place to work, visit workplace.com/human Get

Daniel Goleman is an internationally known psychologist and a science journalist, he is, in fact, known as the father of emotional intelligence. He’s also the bestselling author of several books including Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ and Primal Leadership: Unleashing the Power of Emotional Intelligence. Emotional Intelligence was named one of the 25 Most Influential Business Management Books by Time Magazine and Daniel has been listed among the most influential business thinkers by The Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal. What is emotional intelligence? Daniel says it is a competence, a workplace ability, that makes you stand out from others and there’s a set of around a dozen competencies within the domain of emotional intelligence including empathy, adaptability, being able to stay positive, being able to inspire others, and keeping your eye on a goal without getting distracted. Why is EQ critical for leaders and can it be learned As Daniel shares, “everything is a combina

Are you a good listener? There are 6 levels of being a great listener according to Zenger Folkman. The first level of being a listener is being able to create a safe environment where people feel like they can talk to you. The second level is being able to avoid distractions like your phone or computer when you are talking to someone. The third level is seeking to genuinely understand what the other person is saying. The fourth level is paying attention to the non-verbal cues and body language of the person you are talking to. The fifth level is being able to show empathy. That means understanding the emotional component of the conversation and putting yourself in the other person's shoes. And the sixth level is the ability to make the conversation feel collaborative by asking questions to learn more about the topic. If you really want to be a great listener, you need to practice these levels of listening. --------------------------- Whether you have 50 or 1,000 employees, Namely HR helps you maintain a great

Our guest this week is Walter Robb, the former co-CEO of Whole Foods. Back in 1978, Walter started a store and in 1991 it was bought by John Mackey and it became store number 12 for Whole Foods. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for Union Square Hospitality Group, The Container Store, FoodMaven, and HeatGenie. He’s also an investor, mentor, and advisor. Finding your passion Walter found his passion when reading Adelle Davis and books from other early nutritionists and that’s when he started making his own bread. He knew he wanted to contribute to the world and he believed that this could be the way he would do it. And that’s when he started his store.  As Walter shares, finding your passion is an individual journey that every person has to take. And it can be tough because it is easy to feel outside pressure from parents, family, or friends around what they think you should be doing with your life, but you will never be able to be satisfied until you are doing something that you love and care abou

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 insi

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.” Wha

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 m

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 yo

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

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, rig

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 expertis