The Future of Work

Our very special guest this week is Angie Morgan, former officer in the United States Marine Corps and New York Times best-selling author. Since founding Lead Star, Angie has worked with talented leaders within Fortune 500 companies, small and mid-sized businesses, leading nonprofits, government agencies and respected academic institutions. Listen in as Angie shares the common leadership challenges she has witnessed in the last 20 years that hold back individual careers and organizational success. She also will share her remedy: designing leadership programs that are culturally relevant for her clients and focused on results. Angie is the New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of SPARK: How to Lead Yourself and Others to Greater Success and Leading from the Front. She has written numerous articles on leadership and organizational excellence appearing in a wide variety of publications including Forbes, Fast Company, and SUCCESS. She's been a dynamic guest on CNBC, FOX News, and CNN. Angie also served as the Director of the Center for Creative Leadership's Partner Network, convening and connecting leading consultancies with the Center's innovative thought leadership, research and development solutions. Prior to creating Lead Star, Angie worked for Pfizer and Merck as a sales professional where she had firsthand experience working in business operations. Angie's leadership expertise formed after she graduated from the University of Michigan and served as an officer in the United States Marine Corps. She also holds an MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

What habits or behaviors are most likely to get in the way of successful women and hold them back from reaching their full potential? This week our very special guest is Sally Helgesen, best-selling author, international speaker and leadership coach. Sally's most recent book, How Women Rise, co-authored with legendary executive coach Marshall Goldsmith, examines the behaviors most likely to get in the way of successful women. Sally Helgesen, noted by Forbes as the world's premier expert on women's leadership, is a best-selling author, international speaker and leadership coach. For the last thirty years, Sally's mission has been to help women recognize, articulate and act on their greatest strengths and to help organizations create more inclusive cultures. Previous books include The Female Advantage: Women's Ways of Leading, hailed as a classic and continuously in print since 1990, and The Female Vision: Women's Real Power at Work, which explores how women's strategic insights can strengthen their careers and their organizations. The Web of Inclusion: A New Architecture for Building Great Organizations, was cited in The Wall Street Journal as one of the best books on leadership of all time and is credited with bringing the language of inclusion into business.

Would you like to know how quantum physics and your consciousness can help further your career? Join us this week with special guest Ilona Selke, best-selling author and seminar leader, for this fascinating interview of how to use your multidimensional mind to create an upper edge in your life and career. We will be discussing how to develop greater capacities of your super conscious and subconscious mind, merged with some understandings of the quantum physics principles. You'll come away with some easy to follow step-by-step techniques and a free gift of the LFV LITE APP to keep going after the show! You can apply this wisdom to your business, to your personal life, to create deeper connections with your family and friends, and to increase your very own happiness. Ilona Selke is an international bestselling author of multiple books, a seminar leader, a lecturer, musician and CEO/cofounder of Living from Vision. For over 30+ years, Ilona has inspired thousands of people worldwide to discover the power of their consciousness and create a successful life. Her new book “Dream Big: The Universe Is Listening” offers real-life stories of powerful transformation, insights into the true nature of time space, as well as practical tips anyone can use to shapeshift their lives from the inside out.

What does it take to be an empowered leader, one who translates big visions into big impact? Join us this week with Linda Patten, international speaker and best-selling author, as we explore the elements of successful leadership – not simply commanding or managing, but developing the mindset and skills of influencing, inspiring and motivating others to take their success journey together. Linda Patten is founder of Dare2Lead with Linda, international speaker and best-selling author, talk radio show host on the VoiceAmerica Women's Channel, leadership expert, coach, and trainer. Her life's work is challenging women to dare to lead: whether it is for navigating the often-daunting entrepreneurial world, building strong teams for a thriving business, stepping out of the shadows into the light as a leader of one's life, or learning the leadership skills that will grow the seeds of change into a world-level movement. With 40 years of leadership experience spanning the military (including protocol officer to a 4-star general), corporate, and entrepreneurial arenas, Linda is uniquely qualified to guide women on their journey of self-discovery, skills development, and a charted course toward becoming an extraordinary leader. Her book and 12-step program, The Art of Herding Cats: Leading Teams of Leaders, are rooted in her heartfelt vision to empower women to step out, step up, and step into the kind of leadership that creates positive change in the world. Linda is a gifted communicator who is regularly featured live and online on business panels, interviewed as a leadership expert, and as a popular speaker and seminar leader on topics related to women in business and leadership. She holds an MBA in Organizational Behavior and Leadership, a Certificate in Meeting Management, as well as leadership positions in numerous professional management associations and women's business networking groups.

Coaching is gaining prominence as a key tool to help people grow and improve behavior and performance. In fact, many progressive companies are using coaching to replace the onerous performance management systems of the industrial era that no one loved and virtually did little to improve the performance of many. Our guest, Chris Coffey, is a leading leadership development expert who has made coaching a central part of his development efforts. He has leveraged the Marshall Goldsmith method and created a process that really does help good people become better. He has the facts, because his process measures the impact of coaching on behavior change. Join us as we talk with Chris on this powerful development tool that is taking over the corporate world. Chris Coffey started his career teaching Situational Leadership for Paul Hersey at the Center of Leadership Studies in the early 1980s. He later worked with the consulting firm of Keilty, Goldsmith, Boone and did leadership training at IBM, Warner Lambert, Coke, McKinsey and Company, MetLife and GE. For over 30 years, Chris has been in the leadership development world and has worked with and coached hundreds of key leaders and successful individuals – helping them develop the leadership to become even more effective. Chris's coaching style is direct and well-defined around the Stakeholder Centered Coaching Process he co-developed with Frank Wagner and Marshall Goldsmith. 

Everyone wants to be in Fast Company or Inc. Magazine. They are the contemporary versions of the more traditional business news periodicals. But their secret to success is focusing on start-ups and trends that we all need to be aware of; trends that are really going to make a difference as we move through these turbulent times. Our guest can give us incredible insight into strategies that are proven in the new world of work and trends that we should pay attention to as we move forward. Our special guest this week is Eric Schurenberg, CEO of Mansueto Ventures, the organization responsible for Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. The discussion will be insightful and packed with insights that we can all apply today, including hidden trendsetters that we need to pay attention to. Eric Schurenberg is Editor-in-Chief of Inc. Previously, Eric was Editor-in-Chief of BNET.com and CBSMoneywatch.com for CBS Interactive. The sites together won more than a dozen awards during his tenure. Before CBS, Eric was managing editor of MONEY Magazine, which won the Luce award for service journalism in each of the four years it was eligible. As a writer, he is a winner of a Loeb Award and a National Magazine award. He is a regular commentator on Nightly Business Report on PBS and has been a talking head on CNBC, CNN, Public Radio International, The Today Show and Good Morning America.

For future-focused organizations to succeed in the connected age of networks, a bold approach to leadership is needed. An approach where freedom, trust, and experimentation are not only embraced but encouraged. Unfortunately, while our advancement in technology has equipped us to navigate the disruptive waters of change, our leadership ethos has not. Seth Mattison is on a mission to help redefine the future of leadership. Join us for what will prove to be a lively discussion with Seth Mattison, an Internationally renowned expert and author on workforce trends, generational dynamics, and business strategy. As Co-Founder and Chief Movement Officer of Luminate Labs, Seth advises many of the world's leading brand and organizations on the key shifts happening around talent management, change and innovation, leadership, and the future of work. Seth's ideas have been featured in such publications as The Wall St. Journal, Forbes, The Huffington Post, and The Globe and Mail and was recently named to the Editors' Picks for Speakers to Watch in 2017. For the past decade, Seth has shared his insights with thousands of business leaders around the world and has received accolades from many of the world's best brands including: MasterCard, Johnson and Johnson, Microsoft, Kraft Foods, AT&T, PepsiCo, GE Energy, Cisco, State Farm, Merrill Lynch, Dow, and Disney.

We all want to learn how to lead, but leadership of others has always been more about the others than self. Now some would say that Jack Welch was more about self than others, but that is not true. More people learned invaluable insights from the famed Crotonville  – GE's Leadership Development Center. In fact, more leaders of great Fortune 500 companies were GE Alums. Jack Welch's lessons and perspectives are timeless. Join us on our next show with Dr. Mario Barrett, who is a full-time business Professor at the Jack Welch Management Institute (JWMI). Not only does he have great insights and stories, but he knows how to take the lessons from the past and make them work in today's fast-paced world.  Mario Barrett has over twenty-five years of progressive leadership experience both on active duty in the US Air Force as well as across several industries in the private sector including Fortune 100 companies. Currently, Mario is CEO of The Barrett Center for Leadership Development, LLC, a global leadership and organizational development firm. In addition to his professional work, Mario has authored several bestselling leadership books: Leading from the Inside-Out… and Eleven Leadership Practices that Will Change Your Life. He is also a frequent speaker and blogger on leadership and organizational change issues.

You need business thinking for business success. Additionally, before you go off and acquire a number of new skills, you must ensure that you do not have any of the ‘silent killers of success'. Our guest, Ram Iyer, Founder & CEO of the Business Thinking Institute has done extensive research and knows what behaviors are getting in the way of your success. He is an entrepreneur who learned the hard way and will be sharing his invaluable experience. Join us for this powerful discussion. The Business Thinking Institute is focused on helping individuals become more successful in business – business owners, entrepreneurs, executives, freelancers, employees, people with MBAs and those without. He has a particular interest in helping techies like himself succeed in business. Ram has started four companies and has had successes and failures. He found out the hard way that business success requires ‘business thinking'.  And, he found that one can easily fail in business – as an owner or an employee – because of the ‘silent killers of success' – uncommon common sense. That prompted the founding of the Business Thinking Institute. He has interviewed about 150 business leaders worldwide and hosts the Business Thinking Radio podcast to glean insights and help more people succeed in business.

Do you want to make a lasting and positive impression and perception with people? Get a coach! Coaching is and has always been a method to develop teams and leaders. That's why sports teams have traditionally had coaches and pay them mega bucks to make their team great. But, many organizations mistake giving performance feedback with coaching. Ask anyone if they like getting or giving feedback, and the answer is typically “no.” Coaching, on the other hand, is highly interactive, and in business, usually driven by the coachee, who asks for insights and support. Join us this week with Alisa Cohn, world-renowned coach who was named one of the world's top 100 coaches by Inc. Magazine. Coaching is one of the key tools to help shape you into the best you can be – listen and learn how. Alisa Cohn is an executive coach who works with senior executives and high potential leaders to help them create permanent positive shifts in their leadership impact and the results they achieve. She also works with founder/CEO's of startups and other high growth companies to help them lead for scale. Alisa also speaks to groups on various topics and designs and facilitates offsites for senior teams. Her areas of specialty include: Executive presence; Power, influence and charisma; Decision-making; Corporate politics; Personal mastery. Alisa was named one of the Top 100 Speakers for 2018 by Inc. Magazine. She was selected as one of the Top 10 Coaches by Women's Business, which called her “absolutely brilliant,” and “a super hero.” Alisa was selected by Marshall Goldsmith in his 100 Coaches project.

Many have been challenging the role of Human Resources (HR) in the new workplace, as more technology takes over what HR professionals have traditionally done. The whole entire employee life cycle with an organization is shortening, and there is a trend to managers being more HR savvy. We also now have predictive analytics, digital onboarding and career planning. How do HR practitioners add value in this digital age? We contend they will be needed more than ever, but some of the old industrial and bureaucratic practices of the past must be updated or thrown out all together. This week's show will explore with Neil Reichenberg, the Executive Director of the International Public Management Association for Human Resources (IPMA-HR), who will offer his perspective on the changing role of HR and what HR professionals must do to stay current in an ever-changing field. Neil Reichenberg serves as the chief executive officer of IPMA-HR and is responsible for the overall management of the association. He is in his 38th year with IPMA-HR and his 22nd year as Executive Director. He is a graduate of the University of Maryland and New York Law School.

Is all this talk about AI and robots making your head spin? It is ours. Today things are happening so fast it's hard to know what jobs are in, what are out, and what industries are going to survive. But one thing is for sure – humans will always be a necessity as we move forward into this world of data and technology everywhere. So what can we do as humans to stay relevant in this tsunami of change? We focus on our unique humanness. We are thrilled to have as our guest this week the preeminent Tom Peters, author, professor, and consultant who is best known for his groundbreaking book In Search of Excellence. We will be talking about Peters' latest insights into how the unprecedented digital revolution is driving a profound and deep human revolution. Tom Peters is coauthor of In Search of Excellence—the book that changed the way the world does business, and often tagged as the best business book ever. Seventeen books and thirty-five years later, he's still at the forefront of the “management guru industry” he single-handedly invented. What's new? A lot. As CNN said, “While most business gurus milk the same mantra for all its worth, the one-man brand called Tom Peters is still reinventing himself.” His most recent effort, forthcoming in April 2018, is The Excellence Dividend: Meeting the Tech Tide with Work that Wows and Jobs that Last. Tom's bedrock belief: “Execution is strategy—it's all about the people and the doing, not the talking and the theory.” In November 2017, Tom received the Thinkers50 Lifetime Achievement Award.

The world is moving fast and getting faster. How you build human capacity has to keep up with the changing times and trends. Old methods may still work, but you need to infuse your learning approaches for the new context of the rapid response workplace. Today more than ever you have to co-create and co-curate learning to confront the current reality. This is not a nice to have approach, but an essential one to keep learning relevant. Joining us on this week's show is Nigel Paine, author and consultant with vast experience in learning leadership and technology. Nigel is a change-focused leader with a worldwide reputation and a unique grasp of media, learning and development in the public, private and academic sectors. Nigel Paine has been involved in corporate learning for over twenty years. He was appointed in April 2002 to head up the BBC's Learning and Development operation. Under his leadership, his excellent team transformed the learning function and put it on the corporate map.

It seems like everything these days is being disrupted. Some for good, and some that seem pretty scary. But using disruption to drive innovation and positive transformation can and should be a good thing. After all, we can't be doing the same old thing we were doing years ago and expect to get the same results. The world and business have moved on. Not only do you have to disrupt your organization out of complacency, but you have to disrupt yourself to stay a constant and curious learner. Our guest this week is Whitney Johnson, one of the 50 leading business thinkers in the world (Thinkers50) and expert on disruptive innovation. We will be discussing how to use disruption for the good, not only for your team but also for yourself. Join us for a great show that is sure to be loaded with actionable advice in this sea of what seems like endless change. Recognized as one of the 50 leading business thinkers in the world (Thinkers50), Whitney Johnson is an expert on disruptive innovation and personal disruption; specifically, a framework which she codifies in the critically acclaimed book Disrupt Yourself: Putting the Power of Disruptive Innovation to Work and the upcoming book Build an “A” Team: Play To Their Strengths and Lead Them Up the Learning Curve. (Harvard Business Press, 2018). She is also the author of Dare, Dream, Do: Remarkable Things Happen When You Dare to Dream. She developed her proprietary framework and diagnostics after having cofounded the Disruptive Innovation Fund with Harvard Business School's Clayton Christensen. This framework is complemented by a deep understanding of how executives create and destroy value, having spent nearly a decade as an Institutional Investor ranked equity analyst on Wall Street. In addition to her work as a speaker and advisor, Whitney is one of Marshall Goldsmith's original cohort of 25 for the #100 Coaches Project, is a coach for Harvard Business School's Executive Education program, frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review, is a Linkedin influencer, and hosts the twice-monthly Disrupt Yourself Podcast. You can follow her on Twitter at @johnsonwhitney.

Learning will be a key factor in the 21st century. Making sure we personally are learning and that educators are helping develop the next generation is a challenging task. This is because our models for learning and educating are routed in the 20th Century mindset. Is a 4 year degree necessary when the job market will be so changed by the time you get out? You'll graduate into jobs that don't exist. We need to learn how to learn, how to build relationships, and innovate collectively. These are not things necessarily discussed in today's curriculum. Where should you look to further your education? Join us as we discuss with this week's special guest, Dr. Jim Goodrich, Stoller Distinguished Chair of Business and Dean of the College of Business at Pacific University. Jim Goodrich is currently Dean of the College of Business at Pacific University, where he is responsible for creating a new strategic plan for the College and growing the operation. Prior to this he was Dean of the College of Business and Economics at Cal State Los Angeles, where he was chief academic and administrative officer responsible for strategic management, internal operations, faculty, budgets and external relations. Goodrich has been active in strategic planning and leadership development in higher education as Dean or Associate Dean for the past 20 years. Jim's career also includes accomplishments as a teacher, scholar and consultant. Dr. Goodrich started his teaching at the University of the Pacific in California, where he became a tenured full professor and Director of the Westgate Center for Management Development. Jim has done training and consulting for national and international clients including IBM, Coca-Cola, Lawrence Livermore Labs, Deloitte, the Red Cross and public agencies such as CALTRANS. He has also done executive coaching for the Marshall Goldsmith organization with C-suite executives in multinational firms – as well as innovative leaders of smaller organizations – for many years.

Are we catching up to make Star Wars a reality? Yes we are, according to Vivek Wadhwa, Distinguished Fellow and adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University's College of Engineering. Artificial Intelligence (AI) will change the world forever; and as history teaches us, we can never go back. Join us this week as we discuss the meaning of work when robots can do everything, and we are quickly realizing what seemed like fiction in Star Wars. What will happen to the driver in driverless cars? Vivek Wadhwa argues (and we agree) that AI is changing the dynamics of life and that we are on the verge of solving the “grand challenges of humanity”. It is an exciting time for those who embrace it and a very bumpy one for those who have their heads in the sand. Join us for a lively discussion with Vivek Wadhwa, author and named one of the top 100 global thinkers and top 40 most influential minds in tech by Time Magazine. Vivek Wadhwa is a globally syndicated columnist for The Washington Post and author of The Driver in the Driverless Car: How Our Technology Choices Will Create the Future;  The Immigrant Exodus: Why America Is Losing the Global Race to Capture Entrepreneurial Talent, which was named by The Economist as a Book of the Year of 2012; and of Innovating Women: The Changing Face of Technology, which documents the struggles and triumphs of women. Wadhwa has held appointments at Duke University, Stanford Law School, Harvard Law School, Emory University, and Singularity University.

As we careen into the 21st Century, it is becoming increasingly clear that the traditional tools and techniques of the 20th Century are designed for a bygone era. Gone are hierarchies and traditional talent management tools that served a great purpose in industrial settings, but are not as effective in the fast-paced world of the gig economy and agile organizations. Strategy as we know it is no longer the business power house it used to be. Organizations can be gone by the time they pull together their strategy, yet alone try to implement it. Leadership is much more distributed and project-based than the control-based vertical leadership of the past. Join us in talking about the new shape of the 21st Century workplace and the new tools and approaches that will catapult you and your organization to the forefront. We will be discussing these topics with Michael Chavez, CEO of Duke Corporate Education, who is leading the cutting edge for the work world of the future. Michael's interest and focus is on helping his clients to connect strategy and leadership. In particular, he teaches, facilitates and advises in the areas of leadership and culture, organizational networks, team collaboration, strategy and execution. Michael brings to Duke CE more than 20 years of experience in the fields of executive management, marketing, strategy consulting, and organizational learning and development. He has led projects all over the world and in a variety of industries, including software, pharmaceuticals, consumer products, retail, financial services and media.

A couple of months ago, artificial intelligence and robots seemed like great dinner party discussion, but it has fast become a reality of the world of work. When we published our book last April, there were only a few hotels that were run by robots (a novelty at the time). Fast forward 10 months, and robots and hotels are becoming the norm. The Internet of Things is fast shaping the way we interact with our world, and it is only just beginning. No industry will be left untouched. Industries and careers are transforming before our eyes; and some are rising, and some are falling. How will we survive? Join us with our guest Benjamin Pring, co-leader of Cognizant's Future of Work Center – a global technology organization that helps clients bring the future of work to life today. We will be discussing case studies and strategies to put into action today for success tomorrow.

Robots are taking all the jobs… or are they? The automation economy both destroys and creates jobs, and most of us will be “working side-by-side with robots” in the future. The extension of “man and the machine” is well recognized as the hallmark of the 20th Century. What the 21st Century offers is the integration of humans and the machine.  What does this all mean for us as a race as we go forward? What will work mean, and what will it look like? What kind of jobs will we be doing, and how will be learning? All important questions that will drive this century, which will be the most advanced and profoundly impactful on humanity in history. Join us this week as we talk with J.P. Gownder, VP and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research. We will be discussing the 10 key predictions for the evolution of automation in 2018 that everyone should know and prepare for. J. P. Gownder is a vice president and principal analyst with expertise in devices and platforms. His research covers the role that technology innovations play in the workforce, employee experience, and the adoption of emerging technologies. He leads Forrester's research into the impact artificial intelligence, automation, and robotics have on the future of the economy and the workforce. He also covers virtual and augmented reality, wearable computing, PCs, tablets, mobility, smartphones, and the devices and systems that power retail experiences. He also has expertise in operating systems, software, applications, and the digital platform wars. J. P. holds M.A. and B.A. degrees from Harvard University.

To get work done today and in the future, leaders must embrace technology and the gig economy. Resistance is futile, yet we continue to ignore the technology skills gap, which threatens the future vibrancy of the U.S. economy, workforce development and national security. Who is responsible for creating it? What are the best solutions needed to address it? This week's special guest is Gary Beach, Publisher Emeritus, CIO Magazine, Wall St. Journal journalist, and thought leader, who is an authority on closing the technology skills gap. We will be discussing how technology links to strategy as a business imperative and discuss steps that must be taken to embrace diversity in the technology world. Gary Beach's career spans over three decades in the information technology media business. He has held executive posts at McGraw-Hill on Data Communications, the world's first digital networking magazine, and at International Data Group where he was publisher of Network World (1987), Computerworld (1991) and CIO Magazine (1997). In 1999, he founded of CIO India Magazine. Mr. Beach contributed technology commentaries to National Public Radio's “All Things Considered” and “Morning Edition” programs for four years and appeared regularly for a decade on CNBC's “Squawk Box”, “Squawk on the Street” and “The Closing Bell” programs where he spoke about technology investment and acquisition trends. In August 2013, John Wiley and Sons published Mr. Beach's best-selling book “The U.S. Technology Skills Gap” which critics acclaim the “best contextual history of STEM education written”. In 2014 he began an assignment as a columnist for The Wall Street Journal's CIO Journal where he writes regularly on the topic of technology talent. In 2015, Mr.Beach began work on “The Skills Gap Almanac” which appears on the Twitter platform, and monthly he partners with Oklahoma State University's Institute of Technology to publish the “Skills Gap Misery Index” which measures the pain caused by the skills gap.

Building strategic relationships for agile business results are key for 21st Century results.  In our book, Future-Proof Workplace, we highlight that relationships are one of the key factors for success. They need to be deep, networked, and ever evolving. Relationships enhance innovation and speed. Joining us this week is David Nour, a relationship expert and author of over ten insightful books on how to leverage relationships, will be discussing how to build them and make then last. He has consulted with some of the leading CEO's in the world and has been a key influencer in this area. His most recent book Co-Create is a seminole work for business leaders that is a must-read.  We will be discussing how you as a leader can build deep relationships that accelerate your personal growth and business success. David Nour is a growth strategist, thought leader and global keynote speaker on Relationship Economics®, the concept of the quantifiable value of business relationships. Through his best-selling books, compelling speeches and valuable consulting, Nour demonstrates how relationships are the greatest of-balance-sheet asset any organization possesses, large or small, public or private. He is a popular speaker and delivers over 50 global keynotes a year explaining the hidden assets of relationships, and the art and science of investing in them. He is CEO of The Nour Group, Inc., a consulting firm that advises top global leaders and boards of corporations, associations and academic forums on disruptive innovations to fuel their growth. The Nour Group, Inc., has worked with leading global companies such as Disney, Cisco Systems, Deloitte Consulting, Hilton Worldwide, HP, IBM and more.

When looking to become an employer of choice, or create a learning culture, many look to the corporate sector for innovation, assuming, wrongly, that the public sector is “behind the times.” This couldn't be further from the truth within the State of Tennessee, which is seen as a role model for employee development. Listen as Morag Barrett talks with Dr. Trish Holliday, Assistant Commissioner & Chief Learning Officer for the State of Tennessee, about how the state has transformed their work culture and invested in the development of more than 40,000 employees, ultimately positioning the state as a learning organization. Tennessee was the first state in the country to establish the executive position of Chief Learning Officer (CLO), appointing Dr. Trish Holliday to this role. Trish fosters a culture that promotes engagement, encourages retention, and provides continuous learning and leadership development for all employees, ultimately positioning the state as a learning organization.

Why are some leaders in high-stakes situations and crisis highly effective, while others disappoint, and some utterly fail? What is the difference? Why are some able to not only survive but thrive, even in tumult? The answer is, that high-stakes leaders demonstrate three critical aspects that ensure they perform well in a crisis. The good news is that these three qualities can be strengthened, taught and honed in those who have a thirst to learn. Listen as Dr. Linda Sharkey and Morag Barrett talk with Constance Dierickx about the insights from her new book High-Stakes Leadership, Leading Through Crisis with Courage, Judgment, and Fortitude. You'll learn why leading is high-stakes – and why leaders who don't know they are in high-stakes situations are at the most risk. Why courage, judgment and fortitude are the essential elements needed by leaders. Constance specializes in working with organizations in high-stakes transitions, including mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, CEO succession, strategic change, and crisis. Her clients include AAA, AT&T, Belk, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Cox Enterprises, DIRECTV, IBM, NextGear Capital, Olive Garden, and others. She has advised over 500 executives, on five continents in 28 industries.

How have innovations in technology impacted learning and transformed education? What are the big trends on the horizon in the education industry? Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) is a global learning company focused on creating and delivering solutions that empower educators and improve student outcomes. Rose Else-Mitchell, HMH's Chief Learning Officer, will join us to discuss the future of education in the 21st century. We'll explore how digital innovation is impacting the classroom environment, the power of learning science, and the importance of going beyond the latest trends to use technology to truly enhance the learning experience. Rose joined Houghton Mifflin Harcourt as part of the Company's acquisition of Scholastic's Educational Technology and Services business in May 2015. Now as Chief Learning Officer and EVP, Rose oversees HMH's Efficacy Research, Learning Science and Data Analytics teams, as well as its Teaching and Learning Platforms and best-in-class-class Professional Services business. At Scholastic, Rose was Executive Vice President of K-12 US & Global Product Development, responsible for the company's Ed Tech product strategy and development, including world-class products such as READ 180, MATH 180, System 44, and iRead. Rose has worked as a professional development publisher, for education non-profits, as a television book reviewer, an educational researcher, and a classroom teacher.

How can you future-proof your career for long-term business success? This week we welcome Jill Johnson, president and founder of Johnson Consulting Services. Jill is a sought-after consultant and thought-provoking speaker who shares her insights on the critical market forces and critical skills needed to thrive in today's complex business environment. Jill will share her advice on how to become more strategic in our thinking, better at decision making, and build our confidence for long-term business success. Jill Johnson, president and founder of Johnson Consulting Services, is a management consultant specializing in strategy development. She has personally impacted more than $4 billion worth of business decisions for clients located throughout the United States, as well as in Europe and Asia. Jill is a two-time business hall of fame inductee and has received numerous honors for her business acumen, leadership savvy, mentoring impact, and her entrepreneurial success. She has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Money Magazine, Inc., and Success.

Companies can crash quickly today, as we have learned through social media. They can be up today and down tomorrow. When you scratch the surface, you find that a toxic culture is always a root cause. Typically, these are organizations with leaders who foster fear or turn a blind eye to those that do. Our special guest this week is Tim Kuppler, Director of Culture and Organization Development with Human Synergistics, a premier organization for culture development and change. Listen in as we discuss insights about the past, present and future of culture development and the connections to performance that are not widely understood. Tim Kuppler is Director of Culture and Organization Development with Human Synergistics and Founder of CultureUniversity.com. Human Synergistics is a 40+ year pioneer in the field of workplace culture and home of the most widely used and thoroughly researched culture assessment in the world, the Organizational Culture Inventory® (OCI®). Tim has nearly 20 years of experience in the culture field as a top leader, consultant and educator. He is the author of Build the Culture Advantage, Deliver Sustainable Performance with Clarity and Speed. He co-facilitates the annual Ultimate Culture Conference and collaborates with many top experts and consulting firms in the culture field.

This week we welcome Mark Babbitt, President and Senior Partner of WorqIQ, a consultancy that helps organizations and their leaders improve the experience of work by helping them understand, then raise, their collective level of Workplace Intelligence, or “WQ.” We will discuss the role of Workplace Intelligence (WQ) in future-proofing your organization and creating a great place to work. We will also explore the seven elements of Workplace Intelligence: Organizational Culture and Workplace Climate Transformational Leadership Employee Engagement (Reimagined) Purpose-driven Performance Creating an Optimistic Workplace Social Intelligence Community Building A prolific blogger, Mark's thought leadership can be found on Entrepreneur, Inc., Harvard Business Review and many other outlets. An in-demand speaker, Babbitt was also named to Inc. Magazines Top 100 Leadership Speakers. Mark is co-author of A World Gone Social: How Companies Must Adapt to Survive. (AMACOM, August 2014). Tens of thousands of followers benefit from Babbitt's daily doses of workplace, leadership and social intelligence how-tos on Twitter at @MarkSBabbitt‪.

Our special guest will be Dr. Peter Fuda, a leadership expert who is obsessed with the transformation of leaders, teams and entire organizations. Over the past 15 years, his consulting firm has supported more than 50 cases of large scale business transformation, and more than 1,000 cases of senior executive transformation, in many of the world's leading organizations. In a world where 70% fail, Peter has a success rate above 90%. Dr. Peter Fuda will share strategies on how to make an impact, increase your influence, and transform results. Peter has personally coached 250 CEOs to reach measurably higher levels of effectiveness. He's also a professor of management, best-selling author, documentary film maker, sought after public speaker and a successful entrepreneur in his own right.

We're thrilled to welcome Melissa Risteff – CEO & Co-Founder of Couragion to the show! Founded in 2015, Couragion is generously supported by the National Science Foundation – with an undertaking to improve the awareness and perception of STEM careers and to meaningfully broaden participation in these fields. Couragion strongly believes that career literacy should be integrally woven into education experiences to better inform student choice around pathways and increase retention in real-world career paths.

Independently, culture and brand are powerful, often unsung, business drivers. But when you fuse the two together—when you create an interdependent and mutually-reinforcing relationship between how your organization thinks and acts on the inside and how it is perceived and experienced on the outside—you create new growth that isn't possible by simply cultivating one or the other alone.  If you or your organization is experiencing high turnover or low recruitment success, employee or customer surveys that show lots of room for improvement, or financial performance that is shaky or unpredictable, make sure to join us as we discuss with Denise Lee Yohn, author of FUSION. How Integrating Brand and Culture Powers the World's Greatest Companies, and learn how Brand-culture fusion has the potential to improve the competitiveness and accelerate the growth of any organization, regardless of its size or type. Denise Lee Yohn is the go-to expert on brand-building for national media outlets, an in-demand speaker and consultant, and an influential writer. Denise is the author of the bestselling book What Great Brands Do: The Seven Brand-Building Principles that Separate the Best from the Rest (Jossey-Bass), the e-book Extraordinary Experiences: What Great Retail and Restaurant Brands Do, and the highly anticipated new book FUSION: How Integrating Brand and Culture Powers the World's Greatest Companies (Nicholas Brealey/Hachette Books).

The future-proof workplace requires high-performing teams. In nearly every organization large or small – business, government, non-profit, sports – work gets done by teams, and each team breaks down or succeeds in specific, identifiable and replicable ways. This week, we will discuss what it means to be a Loyalist team. This kind of team has members who ensure each other's success as they work to ensure their own, operate with absolute candor, and value loyalty and authenticity to deliver results, create a healthy work environment, and help companies succeed. Join us as we interview Abby Curnow-Chavez and Rebecca Teasdale, two of the four authors of the book The Loyalist Team: How Trust, Candor, and Authenticity Create Great Organizations. This book was written by the principles of The Trispective Group – Linda Adams, Abby Curnow-Chavez, Audrey Epstein, Rebecca Teasdale (with Jody Berger) introduce tools that allow anyone to get to the heart of why teams break down, identify the weaknesses in their own team, and build a Loyalist Team. The four authors have led the human resources, talent management, leadership development, and organizational effectiveness functions of multiple Fortune 500 companies like Ford Motor Company, PepsiCo, Newmont Mining and Level 3 Communications.

Resilience is a hallmark of great leaders today. In the turbulent times that we live in, leaders must be able to lead through change. They must have self-reliance to deal with chaos, make sense out of confusion, and create clarity of purpose for the path forward. This show will help you learn the keys to create a powerful future for yourself. We will be discussing how to overcome challenges by strengthening resilience. Our guests, Jan Rutherford and Jim Vaselopulos, are leading experts in developing powerful leaders around the world and are co-hosts of The Leadership Podcast. Join us for this what will be a powerful discussion to sharpen your leadership skills! Jan Rutherford has over 25 years of business experience and has held executive roles in business development, marketing, sales, training, product management, and as a CEO. In 2011, Jan founded Self-Reliant Leadership, LLC – a leadership development firm focused on helping leaders and teams develop self-reliance to grow their business through advising, facilitating, coaching, and wilderness expeditions. Jim Vaselopulos is a C-level business advisor with a proven record as a leader, strategist, rainmaker and new business development expert. Jim has been a consultant to many companies across nearly every industry.  As the founder of Rafti Advisors, Inc., Jim helps early stage companies get off on the right foot, growth stage companies push through plateaus and mature companies with strategic shifts and complex challenges.

The digital revolution is upon us opening up new possibilities and careers that didn't exist only decades ago, and it is disrupting traditional businesses. Half of Fortune 500 organizations have been wiped out since 2000. If it wasn't already obvious, we're all in the technology business, resistance is futile. A recent headline stated, “In an age of robots, we are teaching our children to be obsolete.” Our approach to education has barely changed in millennia. However teaching from the lectern, rote learning is not keeping pace with the rapid change in business and the workplace. Join us as we talk with Marquess Lewis from Unicon, a leading provider of technology consulting, services, and support for the education industry. Marquess Lewis is currently CTO with Unicon, Inc. with involvement in learning systems architecture for various clients, operations, architecture, and IT Security and as a member of the Unicon executive team.  Mr. Lewis has over 25 years of experience in complex systems development and operations, delivering SaaS platforms and services supporting millions of customers.  A majority of this experience is in Education, Higher Ed and K12 in the US and in global markets as well.

Part of learning to be a problem solver is being able to ask questions. As Peter Drucker famously said, “The leader of the past knew how to tell. The leader of the future will know how to ask.“ But just asking questions can be misleading because some questions can be controlling and leading others to the answers that the asker wants, and really not used for inquiry. We have found that there is a great link between open non-judgmental questioning and innovation. Our guest this week is Warren Berger, best-selling author, speaker and innovator, who takes questioning to a new level.  We will talk about how the power of questioning can ignite change in our companies, careers, and daily lives.  This is a must listen show!

“Blue sky” thinking is an essential part of innovation and necessary for every organization and leader if they are to stay ahead of trends. But turning that thinking to “green pasture action” can often be a challenge. Helping to align others around the “green pasture actions” requires a great deal of communication and personal commitment on the part of leaders. Leaders need to communicate regularly and consistently to help others see the possibilities and progress. In our experience coaching leaders, they often under-communicate and realize it when it is too late and the rumor mill has set in making it hard to get everyone back on the right track. Leaders don't recognize how much communicating they need to do to make “green pasture actions” reality. We are excited to have Liz Guthridge, author of Lean Communication, speaker, and an experienced change consultant and expert in communications who has been mentored by the leading thinkers in the field. Liz is also deeply steeped in neuroscience and has applied these techniques to the communication process. We will be discussing specifics about how to implement brain-friendly change communication strategies. She will share how to leverage cutting edge software to build collaboration and aid decision-making.  We look forward to having you join a lively and important discussion.

It's estimated that across the globe companies invest more than $50 billion a year teaching leaders how to lead. Deloitte's 2016 Human Capital Study reports that almost a third of organizations have week or very weak leadership pipelines, with 90% of organizations seeing this as a strategic business challenge. The 20th Century models of leadership need to adapt to support the realities of a 21st workforce. How we teach and prepare for leadership at all levels in organizations is key. Join us this Thursday at 5pm ET as we talk with global leadership development expert, and New York Times bestselling author, Courtney Lynch. With more than a decade of experience working with talented leaders within Fortune 500 companies, small and mid-sized businesses, Courtney and the Lead Star team have partnered with organizations to cultivate the leader in all of us.  

Change is afoot with 96% of organizations reported to be in some phase of transformation. Yet the inconvenient truth is that many of these transformation efforts fail to deliver (all) the anticipated benefits. It's time to change how we approach change! Leaders and organizations alike need to adapt or risk becoming obsolete. Join us as we talk with Jesse Jacoby, founder of Emergent Consultants, as we discuss the common pitfalls of change efforts, the critical role of leaders in the change process, and how change practices can become more agile and responsive. Jesse Jacoby is a sought-after management consultant specializing in business transformation and strategic change management. He and his team at Emergent partner with Fortune 500 and mid-market companies to deliver successful people and change strategies across a range of initiatives including technology deployments, cost-cutting, corporate restructuring, and process improvements. Jesse is also the developer of online organizational tools, including Change Accelerator.

Women make up less than 5 percent of the CEOs at S&P 500 companies. Yet, virtually every financial study conducted since the 1980's on the financial performance of companies that have women on their boards and on their executive teams, have shown that sharing leadership with women produces superior financial performance in organizations. There are few, if any, thought leaders who have written specifically to men on how they become more gender-intelligent and what they can and should do to advance women into leadership roles. Join us in our interview of best-selling author Richard Nesbitt to learn the latest steps you can take to advance diversity in the workplace. This is not just for men!  Richard Nesbitt is president and CEO of Global Risk Institute. He is also adjunct professor at the Rotman School of Management of the University of Toronto and chair of the advisory board to its Mind Brain Behaviour Hive.

This week we welcome Dr. Tony O'Driscoll, Global Head of DukeCE Labs and Lecture Fellow at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. This dual-role affords Tony the opportunity to operate at the intersection of cutting-edge academic research in business and the design of groundbreaking development interventions that get leadership ready for what's next. Join us as we talk with Dr. Tony O'Driscoll about the changing model of leadership from the center, how to cultivate a leadership system that is agile, and how leadership development must shift. The world around us is drastically changing, and everyone is feeling it at just about every level of their lives. It just makes sense that in this VUCA world, that the old leadership models just simply don't work anymore. Leaders need to lead from the center. They have to straddle a world that is both complicated and complex, where old ways of thinking about strategy no longer apply. Leaders must know how to navigate the polarities of the work place, and this can only be done from the center – not sitting on the top of a hierarchy that is cumbersome, slow and inefficient.

This week's guest is Lee MJ Elias, the award-winning author of WIN: What Every Team Needs to Know to Create a Championship Culture and Think Like a Fan: Invest in Your Fans So They Invest in You. Teamwork is the time-honored ingredient for success in just about any endeavor, unless you work alone and under a rock. We don't know many people that do though. This show will explore the techniques used in sports by Lee MJ Elias and how they relate to building any team for greatness, no matter where they are and how dispersed they are. We will talk about a step by step approach to building a team to be champions. At the heart of all successful teams is a great culture, but great cultures can quickly be destroyed by favoritism, neglect, lack of respect, and injustice. Organizations and leaders must avoid these elements at all costs to thrive in the 21st Century.

Remember the Palm Pilot? We hate to say we do – but that innovation less than 20 years ago is long gone never to be resurrected. Make sure you are not the palm pilot of tomorrow.  This is the first session of our Future-Proof Workplace show! We have gotten so much great feedback on our best-selling book, that we decided to start a show to discuss all the essential things you need to do to thrive and survive in these tumultuous and often confusing times. Some of the old rules just simply don't apply anymore. On this show we will be discussing strategies, tools and techniques to keep you and your organizations on top of the curve. We have compelling real-world stories from leaders, gurus and other best-selling authors to give you unique and first hand insight into what you need to do today to excel tomorrow.