Lead From the Heart

As we near the two-year anniversary of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the occasion merits some acknowledgment. The stress, strain, fear & ambiguity we’ve all endured as a result of this ordeal is truly incomparable to any other time in our lives. And even more remarkable is the fact that, no matter where people live in the world, we’ve all had the exact same experience. You may have noticed during this time of great uncertainty that some people appear to be at their wits’ end as a new virus variant appears – & the prospect of a return to normal life is once again snuffed out. We’re seeing more displays of disagreeableness, argumentativeness & anger in society – and all of this confrontational behavior reflects people who’ve grown unable to cope with life as it is today. They simply don’t know what to do with their feelings & are acting out. But something else is true. There are also people who have handled the challenges of the pandemic masterfully. They don’t become unmoored by every news report, they’re not drawn into petty arguments & they routinely manage their emotions successfully. What these people are is grounded. They have a deeper connection to their authentic selves which allows them to remain centered & balanced regardless of what the universe throws their way – & they see the big picture which is that our perceived control over life’s outcomes has always been an illusion. This episode is devoted to better understanding the mindset, tools & practices of people who are deeply grounded – essential knowledge for life & leadership. And our guest is Brad Stulberg, author of the new bestseller, The Practice of Groundedness. To be grounded is to possess a firm & unwavering foundation, a resolute sense of self from which deep & enduring success can flow. It’s the ideal state-of-being from which to operate in the world, & the focus of our entire conversation is on how you can attain it. PS: In the podcast, Mark mentions a new article he wrote for Fast Company Magazine. Here’s the link to it: https://bit.ly/31npe4N The post Brad Stulberg: Remaining Grounded When The Future Is Uncertain appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

Longtime Wharton business and law school professor, G. Richard Shell, joins us to do double duty. It was Shell whom Wharton specifically chose to reinvent its entire MBA program curriculum, & our first objective in asking him to be a guest was to explain why one of America’s top ranked business schools intentionally became more humanistic? When we think of business schools in the past – and Wharton especially – we recall students being taught arcane accounting and quantitative analysis techniques exclusively, & virtually nothing on how to successfully manage human beings in the workplace. It’s no wonder so many companies over the past few decades have been quick to lay off workers whenever financial performance lagged. Their top managers were only trained to focus on numbers, not on people. So, our first objective for this episode is to give you an insider’s view into the future of leadership development, in hopes you’ll gain a deeper awareness on how you might seek to further grow your own managerial skill-set for the future. There’s a clear reason Wharton has evolved in what it believes comprises a comprehensive MBA education. And Shell is also a very successful author whose new book, The Conscience Code: Lead With Your Values & Advance Your Career tackles a truly challenging workplace dilemma: How to speak up for your values when you observe or experience unethical behavior at work. According to research Shell cites in his book, 40% of US workers witness unethical or illegal conduct on the job in any given year. And 25% report feeling pressured by their own bosses to behave unethically or even illegally. Here are some real-world examples that Wharton School, MBA students have experienced in their young careers: A fast-track colleague elbows their way up the corporate ladder by faking sales reports. An entrepreneur boss asks employees to lie to would-be investors. A team leader is a serial sexual harasser. The question in all of these scenarios is what should you do in response? According to Shell, few people have ever been trained or prepared to deal with this unsavory part of professional life – and when they do occur, they’re faced with the gut-wrenching choice: do they “go along to get along” or risk their job by speaking up for what they know is right? We all know how we should behave in these kinds of situations, but not necessarily how to maneuver in ways that will allow us to speak our conscience without having to face severe career consequences. So, the second part of our conversation is focused on how you can recognize when these conflicts might be coming, know how to spot them, and learn how to skillfully resolve them. This is an episode that taps the wisdom and profound knowledge of one of the Wharton Business Schools’ longest tenured, and most revered professors. The post G. Richard Shell: How To Stand Up For Your Values At Work Without Paying A Dear Price appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

We’ve all been frustrated by people who were difficult, angry & arbitrary. And we’ve all had hard-to-please bosses not to mention work colleagues who consistently got under our skin. It’s easy to point the finger at people who push our buttons – & judge them harshly. But what if there were something about our own psychology that unconsciously influenced how we reacted – & that made us more sensitive to certain people & their behaviors? What if some people trigger us because we have a blind spot to what motivates our own actions & responses to other people? These are the questions London based psychotherapist Naomi Shragai (Shra-Guy) poses in her new global bestseller, ”The Man Who Mistook His Job For His Life, How To Thrive While Leaving Your Emotional Baggage Behind,” & her work is so interesting, we asked her to provide some free counseling as our podcast guest. Few of us recognize this, but every working day we replay & re-enact conflicts, dynamics & relationships from our past. We spend eighteen or more formative years living with our family & building our personality, & some of that experience unconsciously plays a huge role in how we interact with people we work with. For example, we might be driven to please a demanding boss without realizing it’s really our never-satisfied father whose approval we’re seeking. Without any awareness, we act on repressed experiences rather than actual realities – & this behavior is very often the source of confusion & often friction at work. While Shragai very much wants us all to discover the childhood influences that still unwittingly hold sway over as adults, she also points out that what is true for us is true for all. Everyone around us is unwittingly operating out of their childhood selves when it comes to work. We’re are all trapped in our own upbringings & the patterns of behavior we learned while growing up. And this can at times lead us to misinterpreting people along with situations we’re in. The leadership win that comes from listening to this episode will be profound not only because you’ll come away with greater understanding of your own behavior at work, but also because you’ll learn better ways of navigating situations with your bosses, employees & peers who previously might have triggered a negative reaction. Shragai’s wisdom will prove invaluable & she summarizes our discussion – not to mention her book – this way: “If you want to understand your colleague’s irrational behavior, you must first understand your own.” The post Naomi Shragai: To Understand Your Colleague’s Irrational Behavior, You Must First Understand Your Own. appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

The key benefits of working remotely are clear to all of us. Not having to commute into an office every day frees us up to get more sleep, spend more time with family & get in regular work-outs in. And left alone most of the day – separate from attending a lot of ZOOM calls – we can focus on our work & be more productive. While all this sounds great, there are some hidden downsides of working remotely that are essential for workers & managers alike to understand. And much of them have to do with the science which shows human beings are hard-wired to thrive by connecting frequently with other people face-to-face. And that means the loss of true connection we get during the 8-10 hours we work alone each day has the potential to do us long term harm. Our guest for this episode is Jon Levy. He’s a behavioral scientist whose new book, “You’re Invited: The Art and Science of Cultivating Relationships” is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal & USA Today bestseller. Brigham Young research has found that the most important predictor of living a long life is “social integration” – meaning how many people we connect with every day. And a brand-new University of Chicago study confirms it’s the routine interactions we have with many people, including with our work colleagues, the dry cleaner, people at yoga class, etcetera that contribute to human well-being. The interesting conclusion is that people who have frequent interactions with others throughout the day – even when these experiences are especially brief or inconsequential – experience far less depression & better mental health. As you’ll hear Jon say in this episode, the “great super power” for people working on remote teams is the sense that they belong & matter personally. Consequently, it’s absolutely essential that workplace managers are intentional is fostering that “belonging.” And much of the discussion features highly informed ways of accomplishing this. Another great challenge of working remotely is our compromised ability to build meaningful connections with people when we see them less frequently or not at all. And Jon has unique perspective on how we might achieve this both personally & professionally. He’s famous for creating what he calls “influencer dinners.” As part of an unusual social experiment, he began inviting people from widely disparate backgrounds to his home for dinners. But the twist was that those whom he invited did all the cooking – & they didn’t learn anyone else’s identity or occupation until they sat down to eat. And the goal of these gatherings, was not to network, but to build meaningful & lasting relationships We cover a lot of ground in this episode & the insight you’ll hear will prove invaluable especially if you dream of working remotely most of the time or manage a remote working team. The post Jon Levy: Why A Sense Of Belonging Is Essential To The Well Being Of People Who Work Remotely appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

One of the recurring themes of our podcast series is the idea that society largely believes that all human cognition occurs in our brains & ignores the emerging science which proves human intelligence is distributed throughout our bodies – including even in our hearts. When we’re faced with a big problem or challenge, we’re urged to use our heads to figure out a solution – even though feelings that emanate from outside the brain can provide additional & valuable insight & lead us to achieving far more informed decisions. As tapping into intelligence that transcends the brain proves to be a profoundly important skill in maneuvering & succeeding in life & leadership, this episode is intended to be a clinic for introducing you to methods of enhancing your own personal intelligence in ways you may never have known existed. And it’s based on the work of our guest, acclaimed science writer, Annie Murphy Paul, whose new book, “The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside The Brain” was just named by Amazon as one of the best books of 2021 so far. Daniel Pink, Adam Grant, Susan Cain & Malcolm Gladwell – as part of their “Next Big Idea Club” – have also named it one of their favorite books of the year. We’re all used to hearing that the brain operates just like a computer – & we’ve all been told that the brain is like a muscle that gets stronger with rigorous use. But in recent years, IQ scores have actually stopped rising or have even dropped in several major countries. And brain stimulating exercises have shown mediocre results so far. The implication is that the brain in our heads may already be operating at or near optimal capacity. But what Paul’s research proves is that the mind doesn’t stop at the standard demarcations of skin & skull. And the truth is humanity has achieved its most impressive feats by thinking outside of the brain: by extending the brain’s power with resources borrowed from the body, other people & the material world. Studies even show that top performers don’t really do it all in their heads; they achieve their superior results by integrating internal & external resources. What you’re about to hear is by no means a dry science class. Instead, it’s a discussion with a marvelous conversationalist who explains how you can use sensations in your body to make more sound decisions, how moving your body in certain ways will help you think more intelligently, & why our brains & bodies are designed to perform optimally outdoors. When we intentionally cultivate the capacity to think outside the brain, a new world of possibility opens up – & we gain access to reserves of intuition, memory, attention & motivation that aren’t available to the naked brain. Thinking outside the brain isn’t a skill we’ve intentionally been taught at school or work, but it’s one that we all can acquire. And you’re about to learn how in ways I hope will deeply inspire you & elevate your performance in all aspects of your life. The post Annie Murphy Paul: The Key To Superior Performance Lies In Thinking Outside The Brain appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

Are you a manager, coach, or teacher who aims to help other people make meaningful change in their lives? Are you someone who’s currently struggling to kick-start change in your own? If you are either of these – or both – this episode will introduce you to state-of-the-art methods that will take you from where you are to where you really want to be. Award-winning Wharton Professor Katy Milkman has devoted her career to studying behavior change – and her new book, “How To Change: The Science Of Getting From Where You Are To Where You Are Meant To Be” has just been named one of Amazon’s “Best Books of 2021 So Far.” Daniel Pink, Adam Grant, Susan Cain and Malcolm Gladwell – as part of their “Next Big Idea Club” – have also named it one of their favorite books of the year. Milkman, who also teaches at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, says that change comes most readily when we understand what’s standing between us and success – and then tailor our solution to that roadblock. If we want to work out more but find exercise difficult and boring, for example, downloading a goal-setting app probably won’t help. But by reframing our idea of working out so that it becomes a source of pleasure for us instead of a chore, we inherently turn an uphill battle into a downhill one. There’s a lot of research which shows that we humans tend to be over-confident about how easy it is to be self-disciplined. It’s why we buy expensive gym memberships and register for online classes we’ll never complete. We mysteriously think the “future me” will be able to make good choices, and ignore that, too often, the “present me” succumbs to temptation. There are many common reasons people struggle with making desired changes including procrastination, impulsivity, forgetfulness and laziness – and in our discussion, Milkman shares strategic methods for identifying and overcoming all of these barriers – many of which will surprise you. The overriding theme of this episode in how you can leverage new scientific discoveries to stack the deck in your favor when implementing change. And these are the same tools you can use to help others around you succeed in making their desired changes as well. The post Katy Milkman: The Science Of Getting From Where You Are To Where You Are Meant To Be appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates recently said that every leader in the world must read “Lights Out: Pride, Delusion and the Fall of General Electric.” Written by two masterful Wall Street Journal reporters, Tom Gryta and Ted Mann, it’s an astonishingly true tale of how GE went from being one of the world’s sustainably great companies to nearly going under due to stunning failures of leadership at the top of the organization. As Gates himself wrote in a blog about the book, “General Electric is a mythical corporation.” It was founded in 1892, by innovator Thomas Edison & financier J.P. Morgan, & famously went on to make appliances, light bulbs, diesel trains & jet plane engines for generations. “We bring good things to life” was GE’s longstanding brand motto, & for over a century, it was one of the world’s most trusted & admired companies. In fact, just twenty years ago, GE was the largest, most powerful company in the world worth over $600 billion. Even its CEO at that time, the legendary Jack Welch – who later wrote five bestselling books on leadership – was held up in the media, & in business, as being one of the greatest corporate chief executives of all time. But as Gryta & Mann inform us, it turns out that the word “mythic” is the perfect word to describe GE. The corporation came crashing to Earth in one of the greatest downfalls in business history – largely as a result of either flawed or questionably ethical leadership practices of Welch & his hand-picked successor Jeffrey Immelt. While Wall Street long admired Jack Welch for consistently ensuring that GE met its quarterly earnings projections, GE’s own Board of Directors failed to ever look under the hood – or provide any oversight at all. As one Board member said, “Our job is simply to applaud.” This lack of proper scrutiny allowed Welch to use accounting tricks and deception to ensure GE met its earnings targets quarter after quarter for years. And his successor, Jeff Immelt had his own leadership flaws: a penchant for not just ignoring bad news – but for punishing executives who offered alternative views or tried to warn him of potential problems – & an ego-driven demand to be given the royal treatment everywhere he went. GE’s experience is a cautionary tale for all leaders to absorb. It’s share price has fallen nearly 80% from where it was 20 years ago. In 2018, GE was dropped from the Dow Jones Industrial Average after being a continuous member since 1907. And as the company has struggled to remain a going concern, tens of thousands more GE employees have since lost their jobs. So what are the most essential lessons to be learned from Jack Welch, Jeff Immelt and General Electric’s tragic downfall?  Listen in for the answers! The post Tom Gryta & Ted Mann: The Leadership Failures Of Two CEOs Who Steered GE Into Its Tragic Fall appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

All of us are seeking greater self-knowledge, & Maria Konnikova found it through poker – literally by challenging herself to become a champion of the game despite never having played it before. And she succeeded. In less than two years, she mastered the fiercely competitive game of Texas Hold’em poker, became an international poker champion & won over $300,000 in tournament earnings. And as a skilled writer for the New Yorker Magazine, she chronicled her experience in her New York Times bestseller, The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win.” But this was no fluke. Konnikova is a Harvard graduate & earned a PhD in psychology at Columbia University. From that starting point she approached Erik Seidel, Poker Hall of Fame inductee & winner of tens of millions of dollars in earnings, & persuaded him to be her mentor. And under Seidel’s tutelage, she learned to better read, not just her opponents but, far more importantly, herself. She discovered how to identify what tilted her into an emotional state that got in the way of her making good decisions, & how to get to a place where she could accept luck for what it was, & what it wasn’t. In lessons we can use ourselves – in life & in leadership – poker taught Konnikova greater emotional & physical regulation, tolerance for risk & uncertainty, more intelligent decision-making, a grasp of the intertwined roles of chance & skill, & sheer confidence. As she explains, “this book isn’t about how to play poker. It’s about how to play the world.” As all of us learned in a very palpable way since 2020, our control over events is mostly an illusion. Really bad situations will come our way, but our triumphs result when we focus on how we play them – not on the outcomes. Mastery over life’s ambiguity & setbacks is a high-level achievement, & Konnikova’s truly uncommon achievement yields many invaluable lessons from which all of us can benefit & grow. No bluff. This is the final episode of our season and our hope is it leaves you wanting more. The post Maria Konnikova: Poker As A Guide To Life, Luck & Decision Making appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

“Burnout” may be one of the most talked about workplace topics these days, & for good reason. According to a recent survey of people in over 40 countries published in the Harvard Business Review, 90% of respondents said their work lives were getting worse during the pandemic – & more than 60% felt they were experiencing burnout often or very often. And while it’s easy to blame COVID for all the distress, the truth is a high incidence of employee burnout had already emerged long before the pandemic began – all around the world. According to the World Health Organization, burnout is characterized by feelings of chronic stress at work that go unmanaged. And left unaddressed for very long, burnout can have very serious consequences for an individual’s mental health, & is a risk factor for depression, substance abuse & even suicide. But despite all the harm overly-demanding & overly-stressful workplaces can have on employee well-being, the most common approach companies have employed to defeat burnout so far amounts to providing mindfulness classes & subscriptions to meditation apps. And these, most of us have already discovered, have failed to address the underlying root problem, or solve what’s now become a global epidemic. No company or leader should place their hopes in the idea that the end of the pandemic will somehow miraculously restore employee well-being & thriving. What they need instead is a science-based understanding of both the causes & remedies of burnout – exactly the focus of this podcast episode. Paula Davis, is the author of the new book, “Beating Burnout at Work: Why Teams Hold the Secret to Well-Being and Resilience” – one that provides actionable strategies for leaders to use in creating cultures which promote resilience, well-being & inherently reduce employee burnout.  And cohesive teams, it turns out, just happen to be one of the most powerful remedies to burnout there is. After seven years of practicing law, Paula melted down under the pressures of her job & quit. She opened up a bakery & was accepted to a pastry school in New York City. After quickly realizing she’d made a colossal career move, she returned to her old job where, predictably, the stress returned immediately & she ended up in the emergency room, twice. Paula finally quit for good, but this time devoted herself to researching the causes & solutions for burnout. She went on to earn a master’s degree in applied positive psychology from the University of Pennsylvania – and as part of her post-graduate training, she was selected to be part of the UPenn faculty where she taught resilience skills to soldiers as part of the Army’s Comprehensive Soldier & Family Fitness program. The UPenn team has since trained these practices to more than 40,000 soldiers & their family members. Whether you’re interested in learning how to prevent yourself from burning out, whether you’re interested in learning how to prevent your employees from burning out – or both – Paula Davis has acquired the road map & insight you really need. The post Paula Davis: Strong Teams Are The Secret To Beating Employee Burnout appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

Hubert Joly is the former CEO of Best Buy – a large American electronics retailer – who orchestrated his company’s spectacular turnaround by changing the rules of executive management. His uncommon philosophy was to pursue a noble purpose, put people at the center of his business, create an environment where every employee could blossom, & treat profit as an outcome, not the goal. And for anyone reading this who fears bringing the heart into leadership is a guaranteed way to undermine financial success, Best Buy’s stock price went from $10 per share to nearly $100 per share during his tenure. In the coming days, Joly will publish his first book, “The Heart of Business: Leadership Principles for the Next Era of Capitalism.” Co-written by Caroline Lambert, it not only details the intentionally humane managerial practices Joly employed at Best Buy, but also describes a managerial journey that transformed his leadership philosophy. Trained by McKinsey to focus on the numbers, not on people, Joly later experienced some personal life setbacks in the midst of an ascendant career that influenced him to take a deeper look at his values & methods.  Partly professional, partly spiritual, Joly’s evolution inevitably convinced him that nurturing & supporting employees – rather than squeezing & exploiting them – represented a far more enlightened path of leadership. The Harvard Business Review named Joly one of the world’s top 100 CEOs, Barron’s named him one of the 30 top CEOs in the world & Glassdoor named him one of the top 10 CEOs in America. He is a knight in the French Legion of Honor and the French National Order or Merit. And he’s now a guest lecturer at the Harvard Business School. When Joly became Best Buy’s CEO, it was unclear if the company would survive. But his leadership practices proved to inspire a massive turnaround, largely because of their impact on his employees – human beings. We’re honored that our podcast is his first stop in promoting his wonderful new book. And you will be delighted to hear him describe the practices of a CEO we should all wish the entire world of business would now emulate. This episode happens to be one of Mark’s all-time favorites. There’s great energy in it, so get ready to be inspired! The post Hubert Joly: The CEO Who Transformed “Best Buy” By Leading From His Heart And Mind appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.