Sparks: How to Balance Risk Management and Compassion in Decision-making

This week’s episode of the Future of Work podcast is with Harry Kraemer, the former CEO of Baxter and now professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management where he teaches management and leadership. Many of you are familiar with Baxter, the large pharmaceutical company that today has just over 60,000 employees around the world. Harry does quite a number of things, one of which is that he is a best-selling author. His second book just came out titled, “Becoming the Best: Build a World-Class Organization Through Values-Based Leadership.” You will recall that in a recent podcast, I spoke with Herminia Ibarra who also wrote a book on leadership. This episode explores leadership from Harry’s perspective. I must say that it was interesting to compare and contrast these two different models and styles of leadership. Of course, Harry and I examine what makes a leader. One of the common themes in Harry’s book is all about “being yourself.” We discuss the four principles of values-based leadership that include humbleness and humility, which Harry believes are very important for leadership. We also talk about how he scales leadership and the importance of corporate culture on leadership. There is a fascinating discourse on employee engagement as well as Harry’s concept called “leading up.” Harry shares some interesting stories and anecdotes from his life and experience as CEO of such a large organization as Baxter. As with every episode of the podcast, we end with his advice for managers, employees and organizations around the world. This is a great podcast episode. I found Harry’s thoughts, views and perspectives quite interesting, and I think you will too. So tune in and listen to this fascinating discussion on values-based leadership!   (Music by Ronald Jenkees)

29 Apr 20151h 10min

In this podcast I continue my exploration of leadership with my interview with Herminia Ibarra. She is a professor at the INSEAD School of Business, one of the top business and management schools in the world, where she teaches leadership. Most of the people I talk to are all pretty much in agreement that there is a leadership crisis within our organizations. We are putting the wrong people in positions of power and we really need to re-think what it means to be a manager and a leader within our organizations. In previous podcasts, I spoke with Barry-Wehmiller CEO Bob Chapman and Rita McGrath, a professor at the Columbia School of Business, about leadership. In this podcast I talk with Herminia about her new book that just came out called “Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader.” This is a very fascinating book, and we talk about a lot of the different concepts contained in it. As you can tell by the title, it’s a bit counter-intuitive. She challenges the common assumption that you should think like a leader and then start to act like a leader. Herminia says you have to act like one first before you start to think like one. In the podcast, we talk about how people can actually become leaders. I get Herminia’s feedback about the concept of management versus leadership, using Whirlpool’s rebranding of their internal job titles to give everyone a leadership title as an example. We also touch on the importance of getting out of your comfort zone, the importance of becoming and building bridges within your organization, and other cool concepts from her book such as authenticity and employee engagement. We cover the idea of outsight instead of insight — basically, redefining your job and thinking about it from an outsider’s perspective. Herminia also touches on the importance of your network and the people you are connected with, which I think this is a huge factor when thinking about leadership. In conjunction, Herminia discusses another theme called the “innovators network dilemma” where she talks about how your network can basically impact a lot of roles and perceptions that you get. This is a must-listen to podcast for anyone thinking of advancing into leadership or management roles; or those looking to become a better, more relevant leader. Listen in and don’t forget to share your thoughts with me!   (Music by Ronald Jenkees)

16 Apr 201555min

In this week’s episode of The Future of Work podcast I talk with Pat Wadors, Senior Vice President of Global Talent Organization at LinkedIn. Pat runs all of talent and Human Resources (HR), and she is pretty much responsible for all of the cool things that you keep hearing about LinkedIn. It is no surprise that Pat was ranked as one of the 2015 top 50 women in technology by the National Diversity Council. And, I’m excited to say that Pat will be one of the speakers at our upcoming Future of Work Forum on April 29th in San Francisco. Pat and I talk about everything from Millenials and how HR is changing to what she is doing to leverage big data and analytics to drive HR decision-making. She also shares some great stories about vulnerability that I think will resonate with any senior leader. Considering that LinkedIn’s workforce has almost doubled during her tenure, you have to assume that Pat is doing some really interesting things to make sure that culture can scale, employee engagement stays high, and that LinkedIn as an organization can succeed. Pat walks us through how LinkedIn is transforming and the challenges she’s facing, and gives us a rare insight into some of the fascinating experiments she’s done and the results she’s seen. Pat shares her sagacious grasp of how to make corporate culture scale, how the role of HR is evolving, and how she sees her role, specifically. Tune in and listen to what has become one of my favorite episodes!   (Music by Ronald Jenkees)

2 Apr 20151h 8min

This episode continues my interview with Bob Chapman, CEO of Barry-Wehmiller Companies, Inc., a manufacturing company with over 8,000 employees. In the last episode we became familiar with Barry-Wehmiller; and how Bob feels personally responsible for every employee that works at his company, how this perspective came about, the justifications and metrics. In this episode we talk about leadership and management. In a very interesting discussion, Bob shares some of the creative and innovative things that he and his company are doing to really create a workplace where people feel fulfilled and engaged — and where they actually want to show up. It is all about his idea of “truly human leadership.” Tune in and listen to Part 2 of this lively discussion!   (Music by Ronald Jenkees)

24 Mars 20151h

With the crisis in leadership and so many employees in the world disengaged, I’m always looking to find organizations that are doing things differently or thinking about leadership differently. This is Part 1 of the future of work podcast featuring Bob Chapman, CEO of Barry-Wehmiller Companies, Inc., a manufacturing company with over 8,000 employees that has shown a growth rate of 16 percent a year compounded over the past 25 years. Bob has a unique approach to leadership whereby he feels personally responsible for every employee that works at his company — a concept that he calls “truly human leadership.” When surveyed, employees described Barry-Wehmiller as “family.” We talk about this idea of truly human leadership, and what Bob and his company are doing differently as far as management and leadership are concerned. We have some very interesting debates and discussions around the concepts that he is implementing, the justifications and metrics he may be using, and more. Bob also shares many interesting and fascinating stories. Enjoy and make sure to tune in for Part 2!   (Music by Ronald Jenkees)

19 Mars 201559min

The world as we know it is becoming more and more connected. But, what will a world look like when devices as small as your watch to as large as a jet engine are all connected to each other and to people? In this episode of the future of work podcast, I speak with Rich Carpenter who is the Chief of Strategy for GE in their Intelligent Platforms division. Rich shares fascinating insight around how connected machines (usually very large machines) and devices are going to impact our economy, our jobs, and our future. He shares several examples and provides some great advice for business leaders and employees alike. Rich also touches on the importance of creating more data scientist jobs at companies around the world. This is definitely an interesting look at what the "industrial internet" is going to look like, we even touch on the possibility of a Skynet-like scenario happening! Listen to learn more!   (Music by Ronald Jenkees)

11 Mars 20151h

Toni Cusumano is a Principal and Technology Sector Human Capital Leader at PwC, and she and her team have been spending a lot of time exploring what the future of work is going to look like. They have created three scenarios or "worlds" that might play out: the orange world, the green world, and the blue world. In this episode of the future of work podcast, Toni shares what the difference between these worlds is and what organizations should be thinking about. We talk about everything from technology and Millennials to talent management and workplace trends. It's definitely an important episode to listen to if you want to know the direction that work is headed in. Tune in to learn more!   (Music by Ronald Jenkees)

4 Mars 201555min

This week’s episode of the future of work podcast is one of my favorites. I talk with Salim Ismail, Founding Executive Director of Singularity University, and co-author of “Exponential Organizations: Why new organizations are ten times better, faster, and cheaper than yours (and what to do about it).” I had a fascinating conversation with Salim covering a lot of topics — jobs and technology to exponential organizations to employee tenure, and more. To sum it up, it’s all about disruption — how do you deal with disruption in this world that we are approaching? Salim describes it best as “you are either the disruptor or you are being disrupted.” Salim provides a very fascinating perspective on what the future of work is going to look like that I’m sure you’re going to enjoy. Listen in and tell me what you think!   (Music by Ronald Jenkees)

25 Feb 20151h 14min