Lead From the Heart

  In the post-COVID era we now live in, warnings about our lack of social connection – largely the result of habits we developed during the pandemic, and the new normal of working remotely – have become far more frequent. But what’s the real harm in having fewer in-person interactions with other people – especially with work colleagues? Many of us think we’re doing just fine spending time with partners, children and close friends. Is this a false alarm? In a groundbreaking study, science writer David Robson explored the importance of social connection, and has just written the bestseller, “The Laws of Connection: The Scientific Secrets of Building a Strong Social Network.” And, Robson concluded that social connection is as crucial for our health and happiness as having a balanced diet and regular exercise. It not only reduces the risk of stroke, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s but also enhances creativity and adds years to our lifespan. A previous podcast guest, London Business School’s Herminia Ibarra, stressed that because we human beings are “lazy and narcissistic,” we’re far less likely to further develop our social network today unless we literally run into people – experiences which sadly occur far less often today. So, in his book, Robson explores evidence-based strategies for enhancing our social connections (he’s landed on 13 different principles many discussed in our conversation), and strongly emphasizes that the most informed workplace leaders are already investing much time and effort cultivating connection for people on their team – and not just because doing so will elevate their individual well-being, but explicitly because doing so will elevate the team’s overall performance. Please don’t miss this conversation.  David’s book has been spotlighted by the Wall Street Journal and was just named a “Next Big Idea Must Read Pick” by Adam Grant, Malcolm Gladwell, Susan Cain, and Daniel Pink. The post David Robson: The Scientific Secrets To Rebuilding A Strong Social Network appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

    Research shows that people consistently overestimate their ability to make accurate inferences about what other people are thinking & feeling in any given moment. In actuality, our success in “reading” other people proves to be no better than a coin flip! But because we’re all so solidly convinced that we’re uniquely skilled at deducing what’s going on inside of people’s minds and hearts, we often go on to make wrong assumptions that end up getting us into trouble – assessments that easily could be avoided were we to take just one important step: Ask people what they are thinking & feeling.  Get confirmation from them directly. Jeff Wetzler is an expert in learning & leadership & invites us to unlock hidden insights by mastering the art of asking. His book, “Ask: Tap Into The Hidden Wisdom Of People Around You For Unexpected Breakthroughs In Leadership & Life” provides a practical guide to tap into the the experience, knowledge & wisdom of people around us. Harvard Business School’s Amy Edmondson wrote the book’s Foreword, & rightfully gave it very high praise. In this episode, we discuss all of Wetzler’s Five Key Steps: Choose Curiosity: Cultivate genuine interest in what others think, feel, and know. Curiosity fuels new discoveries and unexpected connections. Make it Safe: Create an environment where people feel comfortable sharing hard truths. Safety encourages honesty. Pose Quality Questions: Uncover what truly matters to others. The right questions unlock wisdom. Listen to Learn: Truly hear what others are saying. Active listening reveals essential insights. Reflect & Reconnect: Translate conversations into meaningful actions. In a rapidly changing world, where AI is now replacing various skills, our ability to learn from & connect with our fellow human beings remains crucial. “Ask” equips us with an everyday superpower – one that enhances not only our personal lives but also our teams, organizations & society at large. “Asking” great questions has become an essential leadership skill.  Listen in as Jeff shares his awesome expertise & guidance on how you can become a master yourself.  We suspect you’ll also note how remarkably thoughtful he is when answering all the questions he’s “asked!” The post Jeff Wetzler: Unleashing the Power of Asking appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

  Matt Beane is a researcher & professor in the Technology Management Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara – & the author of the new bestseller, “The Skill Code: How To Save Human Ability In An Age Of Intelligent Machines.” In his book, Beane delves into the critical challenge of maintaining valuable skills in a world increasingly filled with AI & robots – & warns that younger workers especially are already falling behind in their skill development, a real crisis in the making. Beane emphasizes that the most valuable skills all of us have acquired were developed through working with older experts who knew more than we do. This underscores that fact that while formal learning provides conceptual knowledge, real mastery comes from hands-on experience gained from working side-by-side with skilled mentors. But, in business’s aggressive pursuit of productivity through AI & robots today, junior workers are often now separated from experts. And they’re no longer building the knowledge & skills they’ll need in order to progress in their careers. In this episode, we discuss how AI is disrupting the traditional process that ordinarily ensures junior workers learn directly from more senior experts, & how organizations – & each of us – can navigate these complexities, & leverage AI to enhance our own productivity, innovation & skill development. As you’ll hear, Beane says many of his professorial colleagues prohibit their students from using AI when they’re preparing class assignments. Find out what he has his students doing instead – his guidance holds profound advice for you as well. The post Matt Beane: How AI Is Already Changing Our Workplaces appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

    John Mackey is the visionary founder of Whole Foods Market which today employs 90,000 people, has 500 stores in America, the UK & Canada & generates $22 billion in annual sales. Mackey started the well-known natural foods grocery chain 44 years ago in Austin, Texas – & a few years ago sold it to Amazon which operates it today. John has just published what amounts to an autobiography – & it’s really the story of how a college dropout had the vision to launch an organic foods store just as consciousness about what people wanted to put in their bodies was radically shifting. In his highly entertaining new book, The Whole Story: Adventures in Love, Life, and Capitalism, Mackey not only describes his journey in building Whole Foods from the ground up – & leading it as CEO for four decades – he describes a leadership philosophy that remains extraordinarily uncommon in business today. He all but coined the term, “conscious leadership” which essentially considers purpose, people & the planet in running a business. His philosophy isn’t sentimental, but rather is a commitment to the well-being of all stakeholders: employees, customers, suppliers, the environment – and, oh yes, shareholders. Throughout his book, Mackey repeatedly stresses that he is a highly competitive capitalist.  But his leadership philosophy is tied to a spiritual understanding that virtues like trust, empathy, care, authenticity, integrity – even love – produce far better outcomes than traditional leadership practices ever could. In reviewing his book recently, the Wall Street Journal – not surprisingly – called John Mackey “peculiar” as a business CEO. Notably, they also went on to say “the world could use more of his kind.” In what proved to be a moving & inspiring conversation, we asked Mackey to reflect upon all he’s learned on successfully leading human beings in the workplace, not to mention his views on maintaining personal & employee well-being. We didn’t let him go until he shared his feelings on how Amazon changed Whole Food’s culture after he left. His answer is likely to surprise you & enlighten you! The post John Mackey: Capitalism With A Conscience appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

    According to the most recent statistics, 42 percent of the global workforce feels burned out at work today – a higher percentage than before or during the COVID pandemic. The World Health Organization defines burnout as work related stress that produces feelings of exhaustion, negativity & cynicism related to a person’s job & an overall lack of engagement. One consistent theme of this podcast is that taking steps to support employee well-being has become an essential leadership practice simply because how people feel at work, & about their work, proves to play an enormous role in their productivity. In her uber-bestselling book, “Do Nothing: How To Break Away From Overworking, Overdoing & Underliving,” journalist Celeste Headlee suggests much of our stress may be self-imposed. It’s our relentless drive to be productive that ultimately undermines our well-being. Ironically, our constant focus on producing is really a false efficiency given the harm it does to our mental and physical health. Headlee’s prescription to anyone who’s ever experienced burnout is perhaps counterintuitive. She encourages us to embrace moments of idleness, rest, and reflection. By taking time for ourselves without an agenda or profit motive, she says, we can redefine what truly matters. Headlee’s book draws from history, neuroscience, social science, & even paleontology to challenge long-held assumptions about work, time use & hard work. It reveals that many of our habits are harmful & developed relatively recently in human history, which means they can all be broken. In this conversation, we explore our our obsession with productivity and discuss ways of achieving a much healthier balance between doing and being. These include prioritizing rest, leisure, and investing time in meaningful connections. Surprising to some, by following Celeste’s guidance, you’ll actually end up achieving more. If you’re interested in learning how you can better thrive in life – and in how you can support your own team’s flourishing, please listen in! The post Celeste Headlee: From Overwork To Well-Being: A New Path appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

  Marshall Goldsmith is one of the top executive coaches in the world. He was a pioneer in the use of 360-degree feedback which involves gathering input from peers, subordinates, and supervisors to assess a manager’s impact and effectiveness. His approach to coaching emphasizes self-awareness, behavioral change and constant improvement.  And he has personally coached over 200 global CEOs in various industries. Marshall is also a New York Times bestselling author of several influential books on leadership, personal development, and behavior change including, “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There,” “Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts” and “The Earned Life: Lose Regret, Choose Fulfillment.” During his career, he was also a professor of management practice at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business. Marshall is only the second person we’ve ever invited to be a guest on this podcast three times (Amy Edmondson is the first), and this time it’s on the occasion of his 75th birthday. This specific discussion focuses on identifying the most important wisdom he’s acquired in his life – with respect to what matters most in coaching, workplace leadership, work-life balance, spirituality – and living a meaningful and fulfilling life. Over six years, Marshall Goldsmith has been one of our most popular guests. In this this episode we ask him to share insights he’s gained from a truly remarkable career – some of which may prove life changing for you! The post Marshall Goldsmith: At 75, Sharing Wisdom On Coaching, Leadership & Living A Meaningful Life appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

  In our every day experience at work, we attend innumerable events – team meetings, orientations, employee recognition events, etc.) – that all have the potential to become really tedious & uninspiring simply because they feel routine & therefore joyless. But there’s an extremely powerful way of reinvigorating these kinds of events & making them truly meaningful to people. According to Harvard Business School professor, Michael Norton, adding rituals “can convert ordinary acts from black & white to technicolor.”  Rituals are symbolic actions or ceremonies that hold special meaning within a team & help create a shared identity amongst everyone on it. When teammates participate in consistent rituals, they end up feeling more united to a common purpose, values & each other. In his new bestseller, “The Ritual Effect: From Habit to Ritual, Harness the Surprising Power of Everyday Actions,” Norton stresses that rituals are a powerful tool for leaders to use in fostering team bonds & connection. Starting every team meeting with the same brief ritual, for example, or awarding the identical prize to employees whenever they attain a certain right-of-passage, proves to have a powerful effect on engagement & even motivation. That’s because rituals reinforce positive behaviors. When teams celebrate achievements or recognize individual efforts in the exact same way every month, people on the team will work very hard to ensure their own performance is called out & honored. In this wildly informative discussion, Norton brilliantly explains why rituals so often yield deep meaning for people. And he shares several specific examples of the kinds of rituals workplace managers would be highly enlightened to introduce to their teams! The post Michael Norton: How Rituals Can Transform Your Team’s Connection, Happiness & Performance appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

  Saul Perlmutter, Nobel Laureate 2011 for Physics, in his office. There’s a lot that’s remarkable about the new book, Third Millennium Thinking: Creating Sense in a World of Nonsense, starting with the fact that one of its three co-authors is a Nobel laureate who earned the Nobel prize in physics for discovering the accelerating expansion of the universe. One might imagine that UC Berkeley professor, Saul Perlmutter could have written this book on his own, but instead, he intentionally collaborated with two people way outside of his own discipline: John Campbell – a philosophy professor at Berkeley – and Robert MacCoun – a social psychologist and law professor Stanford University. Before working together on their book, the authors teamed up in developing a wildly popular UC Berkeley course, designed to teach students how to better understand the world and make informed decisions in an era of uncertainty and overwhelming data. It emphasizes how processes used in the practice of science can provide widely-applicable tools for approaching individual and collective decision-making. One of Perlmutter’s gifts is his ability to simplify complex ideas and, in this conversation, he explains why every decision we make as leaders is really a bet – we’re rarely guaranteed that our choices will be the right ones – and why despite the fact that uncertainty makes us all really nervous and uncomfortable, we can use it in a way that allows us to have strong confidence in what we’re doing. Yes, that’s a paradox – but what did you expect from a guest like this? Saul Perlmutter is brilliant and relatable – and he shares some wonderful disciplines you can put to immediate use. The post Saul Perlmutter: How To Make Smarter Judgments & Wiser Decisions appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

    Nearly two decades ago, Stanford University psychologist, Carol Dweck, introduced the groundbreaking idea that human flourishing can be dramatically influenced by how we think about our talents & abilities. In her classic book, “Mindset: The New Psychology Of Success,” she taught us that some people have a general belief that their talents and intelligence are predetermined, & largely unalterable (hence, “fixed mindset”), while others believe their talents & abilities can indeed be nurtured and developed (hence, “growth mindset”). Dweck’s research proved that people who believe that their abilities are fixed are much less likely to flourish than those with a growth mindset – people who do believe that abilities can be developed. In her new bestseller, Cultures Of Growth: How The New Science Of Mindset Can Transform Individuals, Teams & Organizations, Mary C. Murphy, a social psychologist at both Stanford and Indiana Universities, shows that mindset transcends individuals. A growth mindset culture can transform any group, team, or classroom to reach breakthroughs while also helping each person achieve their potential. When Dweck’s book was just being published, Murphy was her graduate student earning her Ph.D. And it was then that Murphy observed that that “mindset” transcends individuals. Her thesis was that a growth mindset culture could transform any group, team, or classroom to reach breakthroughs while also helping people individually achieve their full potential. Working with Dweck, & later independently, Murphy spent a decade researching & then proving that organizations & teams which are geared toward growth mindsets, have huge performance upsides. She found they inspire deeper learning, spark collaboration, spur innovation & build the trust necessary for risk-taking and inclusion. They’re also more likely to achieve top results. As we discuss in this episode, Microsoft was the first company to apply “Growth Mindset” thinking to its overall leadership philosophy and culture.  And, because of their great success they went on to have tied to this thinking, they’re by no means the last. Listen in to learn how you can create a culture of growth within your own team and organization – & how to build a workplace where everyone can thrive and achieve their potential, both individually and together. PS: Murphy’s research finds that people are infinitely more excited to work at companies that foster a culture of growth – and that translates into them being more loyal, more engaged and more productive. The post Mary C. Murphy: How A Culture Of Growth Can Transform Your Team appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

  As a professor in NYU’s prestigious Stern School of Business, Alison Taylor spends a lot of time with the next generation of business leaders. In her new best seller, “Higher Ground: How Business Can Do the Right Thing in a Turbulent World,” she tells us that her MBA students are not hoping to have careers working for ethical companies. They now expect to. For decades, organizations largely committed themselves to doing whatever was legally allowable to maximize shareholder value – a singular focus that’s proving to be no longer viable. Taylor’s book easily could have been titled, “How Business Can Do the Right Thing in a Turbulent World,” because while shareholders remain unrelenting in pressuring companies to drive stock prices higher and higher, other stakeholders – customers and employees, especially – have significantly elevated their expectations of companies over issues like diversity and inclusion, fair treatment of workers, impacts on the environment, transparency and social responsibility. Taylor’s book (the focus of this episode) shows leaders how businesses can navigate this messy paradigm shift, build trust, and achieve long-term strategic advantage in our turbulent world. And she argues, the starting point is for companies to gain new and greater clarity around their purpose saying, “a healthy organizational culture has never been a better source of strategic advantage.” Because society itself is so divided, however, Taylor says companies can no longer hope to be all things to all people. The only realistic approach today is to define who they are – and who they aren’t – and then attract the stakeholders who want to align themselves accordingly. In this rather timely conversation, we discuss why respect for employees is now the most important principle in organizational leadership, why transparency is a managerial essential – and why so many workplace managers are stressed out about the contradictory pressures on driving performance and supporting employee well-being. The post Alison Taylor: How Leadership Can Find “Higher Ground” appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.