Podcast appearances and mentions of tiffani bova

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova. I'm thrilled to welcome you back to a series I did with my dear friend, Roger Martin. He's the author of the amazing book, Playing to Win. In this episode, we're rethinking Warren Buffett's "moat" metaphor for competitive advantage.   THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…leaders, entrepreneurs, strategists, and innovators who want to build a sustainable competitive advantage instead of competing in a race to the bottom.   TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…most companies think about competitive advantage as something static, or what Warren Buffett famously coined the "moat" that protects the business from competitors. But Roger argues that this metaphor falls short in this day and age and introduces a more dynamic way to think about strategy: moving through "rooms" ahead of competitors. Roger explores why the best companies stay curious, how customer observation leads to innovation, why benchmarking can actually hurt differentiation, and how asking different questions is often the foundation of breakthrough growth.   KEY TAKEAWAYS: Competitive advantage must evolve constantly, it can't stay static. Customer observation often reveals opportunities data alone misses. Benchmarking competitors too closely can limit innovation. Sustainable growth comes from continuously moving to the "next room."   WHAT I LOVE MOST…Roger's perspective that competitive advantage is about continually evolving faster than your competitors. His "rooms" metaphor is such a powerful way to visualize innovation, customer learning, and staying ahead by asking smarter questions over time.   Running Time: 30:44   Subscribe on iTunes     Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X    Find Roger Online: LinkedIn Website   Show Summary on Substack

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova. I'm thrilled to welcome you back to a series I did with my dear friend, Roger Martin. He's the author of the amazing book, Playing to Win. In this episode, we discuss how your current actions impact your strategy.   THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…leaders, executives, entrepreneurs, and teams trying to improve results without getting stuck chasing the "perfect" strategy.   TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…whether you claim it or not, you already have a strategy. It's reflected in the choices you're making every day. In this episode, Roger and Tiffani unpack one of the biggest misconceptions in business: the belief that strategy is something you create from scratch during a planning session. Roger explains that every company already has a strategy because every organization is making choices about investments, hiring, marketing, products, customers, and priorities. The real question is whether those choices are producing the results you want.   KEY TAKEAWAYS… Your current results are the outcome of the strategic choices you've already made. Strategy fails when leaders expect immediate results from long-term decisions. Chasing the "perfect strategy" often delays meaningful progress. Betterment comes from continuously improving the biggest problems first. Writing down assumptions helps leaders evaluate whether a strategy is truly working over time.   WHAT I LOVE MOST…Roger's emphasis on "betterment" over perfection. Instead of trying to engineer one flawless strategy that solves everything forever, he encourages leaders to continuously improve the choices creating the biggest pain points.   Running Time: 27:38   Subscribe on iTunes     Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X    Find Roger Online: LinkedIn Website   Show Summary on Substack  

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.    I'm thrilled to welcome Cheryl Strauss Einhorn, author, decision strategist, and creator of The Area Method. Her new book, The Human Edge, really challenges a core assumption we're all making right now that more technology automatically leads to better outcomes. What I love about her work is that it's not anti-AI, it's pro-human. She gives us a framework to think more clearly, challenge what we're seeing, and ultimately make decisions with more confidence and intention. Because at the end of the day, the question isn't whether we'll use AI, it is whether we will lead it or it will lead us.    THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…anyone using AI in their work and wondering how to make better decisions without losing their human edge.   TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…AI can make you faster but it doesn't automatically make you better. Cheryl breaks down why decision-making, not technology, is the true competitive advantage. While AI can accelerate research, generate ideas, and even mirror your voice, it lacks context, judgment, and an understanding of what truly matters to you. Cheryl introduces the concept of "strategic stops" which are intentional moments to reflect, question assumptions, and ensure you're solving the right problem in the first place.   KEY TAKEAWAYS… AI is only as good as the context you give it. Without that critical piece, you risk getting answers that sound right but aren't useful. Strategic pauses ("friction") improve decisions by helping you question assumptions and refine your thinking. AI can reinforce bias or limit perspective if you don't actively challenge its outputs. The most important decisions still require human judgment especially when stakes are high and outcomes are uncertain. The future belongs to strong decision-makers, not just companies with the best AI tools.   WHAT I LOVE MOST…Cheryl's perspective that AI isn't replacing thinking but is actually demanding better thinking. The idea that we're all "chief deciders" in our own lives is a powerful reminder: no matter how advanced the technology gets, the responsibility to think critically is still ours.   Running Time: 25:56   Subscribe on iTunes    Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X    Find Cheryl Online: LinkedIn Website   Cheryl's Book: The Human Edge: Smarter Decisions in the Age of AI

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova. I'm thrilled to welcome you back to a series I did with my dear friend, Roger Martin. He's the author of the amazing book, Playing to Win. In this episode, we discuss the concept of what would have to be true for something to be a good idea.   THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…anyone frustrated by endless debates who wants a smarter way to make strategic decisions.   TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…most teams get stuck arguing about what's true when the better question is what would have to be true. In this conversation, Roger reframes one of the most common breakdowns in strategy: teams debating data, context, and "facts" without ever moving forward. Instead of trying to prove what's true today, he introduces a more powerful approach, working backward from a future outcome and asking what conditions must exist for it to succeed.   KEY TAKEAWAYS… "What would have to be true" shifts teams from arguing about data to aligning on logic. Strong strategies often make something true that isn't true yet. Breaking goals into assumptions exposes whether a plan is realistic or wishful thinking.   WHAT I LOVE MOST…the idea that strategy isn't about proving you're right, it's about testing whether your thinking holds up. When you shift from "this is true" to "what would have to be true," the conversation changes completely. It removes ego, surfaces assumptions, and forces clarity.    Running Time: 27:35   Subscribe on iTunes     Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X    Find Roger Online: LinkedIn Website   Show Summary on Substack

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova. I'm thrilled to welcome you back to a series I did with my dear friend, Roger Martin. He's the author of the amazing book, Playing to Win. In this episode, we discuss how being too busy sabotages your strategy.    THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…leaders and high-performers who feel constantly busy (or burned out) and want a more strategic way to manage their time and energy.   TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…being busy isn't a badge of honor. It's often a signal that your personal strategy isn't working. In this episode, Roger reframes busyness as a strategic failure, not a productivity win. If you're constantly overwhelmed, it likely means you haven't clearly defined where to focus your time, how to create the most value, and what to stop doing.   KEY TAKEAWAYS… Constant busyness is often a sign of a weak or unclear personal strategy. You have fixed capacity so where you spend your time matters more than how much you work. Strategy is as much about what you don't do as what you do. Subtracting low-value work is the fastest way to create more impact. Investing time upfront (in people, systems, and planning) pays off long-term.   WHAT I LOVE MOST…the emphasis on subtraction over addition.So many people think the path to more impact is doing more but Roger shows that the real leverage comes from removing what doesn't matter and doubling down on what does.   Running Time: 25:36   Subscribe on iTunes     Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X    Find Roger Online: LinkedIn Website   Show Summary on Substack

Erin Gertner, vice president of the Partner Organization and SMB sales at Cisco Canada The Cisco 360 Partner Program launched in January after roughly eighteen months of co-development with the partner community. It represents one of the most significant overhauls to Cisco’s channel model in more than two decades – replacing the Gold/Silver tier structure with architecture-specific “Preferred” designations, consolidating multiple incentive programs into the new Cisco Partner Incentive, and fundamentally shifting how partner value is measured, from transaction volume toward capability depth and lifecycle engagement. Three months in, Erin Gertner, vice president of the Partner Organization and SMB Sales for Cisco Canada, says the Canadian response has exceeded internal expectations – including on metrics Cisco had set internal targets around, like the percentage of partners achieving Preferred status. The surprise wasn’t just the numbers. Partners, she says, have been telling Cisco they appreciate the accountability around technical certifications. The Partner Value Index requirement to maintain certification levels gave partner leadership internal cover to prioritize training investments they already knew they needed to make. On the end of Gold: Gertner acknowledges the market education challenge, but argues Preferred is actually a more accurate signal than Gold ever was – since Gold could historically be earned through volume in a single area, while Preferred reflects genuine architectural depth. On the incentive shift: the current structure remains 90% weighted toward the “land” motion, with 5% each for adopt and renew. The rebalancing is coming, the timeline isn’t confirmed, and Gertner’s advice to partners is consistent: start building adoption and managed services practices now, because it takes years, and waiting for the incentives to change is waiting too long. Read Full Transcript Hello and welcome to In The Channel from ChannelBuzz.ca, bringing news and information to the Canadian IT channel community for the last sixteen years. I’m Robert Dutt, editor of ChannelBuzz.ca, and as always, your host for the show. Cisco’s 360 Partner Program was a long time coming. Eighteen months of co-development with partners, significant changes to how Cisco recognizes, rewards, and incentivizes its channel, including the end of the Gold designation that partners have built their brands around for more than two decades. The program launched in January and we’re now at roughly the three-month mark, which means it’s a good time to ask: how’s it actually going? Erin Gertner is vice president of the Partner Organization and SMB Sales for Cisco Canada, and she was closely involved in rolling 360 out to the Canadian market. We get into what surprised her most about how Canadian partners have responded – and some of the feedback wasn’t what she expected. We talk about what the end of Gold actually means for partners who built their reputation around it, where the incentive math is landing, and what the shift towards rewarding capability depth and lifecycle engagement looks like in practice for partners of all sizes. There’s also a practical question at the heart of this. If you’re a Canadian partner who’s still figuring out how to position yourself in the new program, what should you be doing right now? Let’s get right into it. My chat with Erin Gertner. ROBERT DUTT: Erin, thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it. ERIN GERTNER: Thank you for having me. ROBERT DUTT: 360, the partner program – long awaited, rolled out I’m going to say eighteen months or so ago, but has been live now for a quarter. How’s it going? What surprised you on the upside, and what’s been harder in getting the program out there than you expected? ERIN GERTNER: Yeah, it was a long eighteen months, but I’m glad we did it that way. I was telling somebody yesterday, I think we very intentionally took the hard road on evolving our partner program. As you’re well aware, our previous partner program had been in place for over twenty years, and was very beloved by our partners. And candidly, it was wildly profitable for many of them. So I think there was a lot of angst in the machine around changes, but there came a time where we really did have to go out and evolve our program as the market has changed. So we intentionally took the harder road, which was to co-innovate the program with our partners, versus us creating a program and pushing it out to the partner community. Early days, we got a ton of feedback from partners. We certainly made a few mistakes, but I really do think we did a great job listening to feedback from the partners and making adjustments where necessary. Obviously, the Canadian market is quite different from my peers in the US, as an example – same thing as EMEA and APJC. And it’s hard to make a program that fits for everybody. But I do think we’ve done a good job of creating a model, and having the ability to adjust a model that takes care of the majority of our partners. What surprised me the most was: we tried to take a really strategic approach in Canada. As I said to my team, my biggest fear at the end of this is that we have partners who say “I wasn’t ready” or “I didn’t know.” And we really operated with that in mind. So our goal was to have the majority of our partner community as ready as they possibly could be, earning either the same, if not more, with us. We did workshops with all of our partners. We enabled our distributors. We spent a really long time sitting in front of our partner community, helping them understand what investments they would need to make to be successful, as well as what would be the payoff on those investments. Some of the asks around training and other elements of the program did require investment from the partners. So we wanted to make sure we could demonstrate to them that there was a strong outcome – that there was profit to be made should they make those investments alongside us. The thing that actually surprised me the most is that our partner community in Canada is in very good shape in terms of being able to earn with us in the future. We had some metrics and some targets that we aspired to – a certain percentage of our partners achieving Preferred, for example – and we were able to exceed those metrics. But actually, the thing that surprised me the most is that a lot of our partners came back to us and said, “I like the accountability you have around our technical capabilities, because a lot of this does center around getting Black Belts, as an example.” And one individual said to us, “Behind the curtains, I don’t know if our team was spending as much time as they needed to on training and maintaining our certification levels. And this has really compelled our team to ensure that they are certified in all the right technologies, and we’re having better conversations with customers.” So I thought there would be a little more noise in the machine, and there certainly was at different points – we made those adjustments along the way – but the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive from the Canadian community. I think the team did a really good job of making sure we were hand-in-hand with our partners, because their success is so critical to us. We know if they’re not making money with us, they have choices in the market and they won’t continue to lead with Cisco. ROBERT DUTT: So to that point – CRN in the States surveyed partners heading into the launch and found about 40% were positive, about the same number were in the wait-and-see camp, and very few – I think it was about 7% – were actively unhappy with the way things were looking going into 360. Now that the program’s live and partners have actually had a chance to see their PVI and the incentives and how it all looks to them, have you seen the mood trend in Canada? Have you started to see those wait-and-sees move toward the positive camp, or what are you seeing in terms of that momentum? ERIN GERTNER: I mean, I think our big partners were sort of a no-brainer. A lot of them had a lot of the skills, depth, and capability that were going to be required to get them into Preferred in all the categories. So a few of them grumbled early on because they had to do a little bit more training and enablement, but they quickly hit the thresholds and they’re all in good shape. What we’ve actually seen is our distributors took a really strategic approach to our two-tier partners, and they’ve been running a lot of workshops and working hand-in-hand with some of our smaller partners. And we’ve actually seen quite a few new partners come on board because they have the ability to be specialized in certain architectures. For example, we’ve been recruiting more security partners, and the distis have done a great job of working alongside those security partners to help get them up and running. Because a piece of feedback we used to hear in our old program was: “It’s really hard to earn with you because we don’t want to be a network reseller. That’s not interesting for us. We’re a pure-play security partner and we’d like to continue to be a pure-play security partner. And just because it fits for you, it doesn’t fit for me.” I think this evolution of the program has allowed partners who are pure-play security partners, or great data centre partners, to come on board and start earning rebate pretty quickly, as well as get the designation so customers know that they are deeply skilled and deeply qualified in that particular architecture. ROBERT DUTT: From your comments a bit earlier, it sounds like partners who you expected to be hitting Preferred are hitting Preferred, and in some cases folks who you maybe weren’t expecting to hit Preferred are hitting Preferred – which is a nice little bonus. But as PVI becomes the engine of the new model, do you find that Canadian partners are generally landing where they expected? ERIN GERTNER: Yeah, for the most part. We do have a few partners who do a lot of business with us but are smaller – just have a few employees – and they’re very critical to our business because they serve some small subsegment of the public sector, for example. Those are the corner cases that we’ve been taking back to our global team, and they’ve provided some flexibility in how we treat those partners. Because again, when we looked at our partner landscape, we wanted to make sure everybody who plays a critical role in how we deliver our business for Cisco Canada was taken care of. For the most part, the program has fit the good majority of our partners in the Canadian landscape. For the ones where there are exceptions, or where the program doesn’t make full sense, we’ve been working with them in the background to try to figure out: can we help make an investment, or can we look at treating some of those partners in a bit of a different way to make sure they’re going to be successful with Cisco and continue to earn with Cisco? So some of that is still underway, even though the program has already launched. We’re still continuing to tweak it and take feedback. ROBERT DUTT: VIP was for so long the thing that partners watched most closely – the best indicator of where Cisco thinks we should be pointed. How is CPI, the Cisco Partner Incentive, actually landing now that it’s out there? Before launch, I think anytime you switch something like that, there’s always going to be the “what if we used to get X millions in rebates and now we get half of that?” Now that it’s live, how’s the math working out? And do you find partners are generally at least at parity with where they were with VIP? ERIN GERTNER: We haven’t gotten to a point where we’ve given anybody a check yet, because we’re still in the infancy of the program. But all the feedback I’ve heard from partners so far – and we have a few partners who sit on our advisory board, so they were early in testing out those calculators and have a really good sense of where they’re going to land – the majority of those partners have said they’re tracking to the same or better from a profitability perspective. Again, to your point around VIP, it’s always very clear where we’re leaning in and where we’re trying to go as a company based on the back-end rebates and the accelerators that follow alongside that. So I think our partners do have a good understanding of where they need to focus and what the outcome will be of that focus. So far the feedback has been very positive from the calculator, but I guess we shall see in a few months from now. ROBERT DUTT: Let’s talk about the end of Gold. It was such a standard for such a long time. It was well understood by partners and I think it was well understood by customers. Longview was one of the first Canadian partners to achieve Preferred in all five of the architectures, but they still flagged some concern with the fact that there’s not an easy way to signal that multi-architecture depth the same way that Gold used to in one easy packaging. For a Canadian partner that’s kind of built their brand around Gold or included that in their messaging, what’s the practical guidance in positioning their expertise to their customers now, especially looking across architectures? ERIN GERTNER: I think you said part of it in the question, right? The fact that they are the first, and that they are Preferred in all the categories, is actually better than Gold. I was talking about this to somebody yesterday. What is interesting about Gold – and I was actually on the sales side of our business for the majority of my career – there was always this perception that if you were a Gold partner, you were great at everything. And that was a market perception for a really long time. When in fact, when you pulled back the covers, you could be a Gold partner just by selling a lot of one thing. So we’ve actually embarked on a marketing campaign that’s been live for a few months now – I think you probably heard about it at Partner Summit – talking about some of the change in our branding. Now when customers are evaluating our partners, or when our account teams are evaluating when to bring in partners, the fact that it’s very clear which partners have the right expertise, the ones who have made the right investments and who’ve got really deep technical depth – that’s now very clear with Preferred status versus what used to be Gold. I think we still have some market education to do around what it means to be Preferred and the amount of investment that partners need to make to get into Preferred status in each of those architectures. There was quite a bit of chatter at some of the advisory boards about Gold going away and what they felt that meant to their business and their market. But I actually like where this program has gone because their expertise is very clear now, which wasn’t the case with Gold. ROBERT DUTT: Gold did have this great market perception of being good at everything. It was easy to capture in kind of one word, one concept. But your point there then is that it’s easier with Preferred to express where you’re good and the breadth of that. That’s an interesting takeaway for partners. The philosophy in the program has shifted even more so than in the previous shift – away from rewarding transaction volume, towards rewarding capability depth and lifecycle engagement. Sounds great conceptually, and I understand why it’s important, but for a partner whose business model has been built around those big infrastructure deals and landing them, what does that transition look like in practice? Is there a smooth ramp to getting that worked into the business, or is there potentially a cliff here?ERIN GERTNER: So it’s a multi-year journey to getting to a true place where our incentive programs are going to be aligned to full lifecycle. The intent of the program is to work with partners to build those skills and capabilities around lifecycle, adoption, managed services, and all the other things we’re asking them to build. But we know for some partners that is a multi-year journey, and that’s okay. When we look at our back-end rebate structure, we are taking a slower approach. On the surface, we’re asking partners to do all these things with us and come along for the ride – but we are still incenting them very heavily on hardware resale in the near term. We want to make sure they have a very clear path and that they do understand that we’re evolving the business and we’re evolving the way we incent for good reasons. We need to do that. Adoption – especially as software continues to be a larger portion of our overall business – and lifecycle becomes even more critical over time, as well as the renewal business. But we aren’t just flipping a switch. The intent of this program was never to punish, and it was never meant to save Cisco money. We talked a lot about how partners are so critical to our success – we want to make sure they are continuing to be very profitable with us. So we’re trying to take them on a longer-term journey and we’re not trying to make it hurt. ROBERT DUTT: The engagement metrics right now are sitting at 90% land and 5% each to adopt and renew. I think Tim Coogan has said that that will shift over time as the market dictates, but how fast do you see that coming? Should partners be building those adopt-and-renew muscles now in anticipation of the bigger shift, or is there still some runway there? ERIN GERTNER: I would say we need to get started now. Some of those certifications take a year or two, and building those practices – for partners who have historically sold hardware, building out an adoption practice – I mean, we did it, and it took us a couple of years to get that up and running. So building out those practices is really critical for partners. What’s interesting about this program is that we had partners asking us to shift away from paying solely on hardware, because they were saying, “You’re asking us to go out and do all this extra work with customers to help them deliver the outcomes they’re looking for. We should be incentivized around that as well.” So I would say: get started now. I don’t think I can speak to when our back-end programs are going to shift more to adoption and renew, because nobody has shared that with me. I’m not sure we even know – I think we want to see where our partners are on the journey. But I would say get started now. Get yourself in a place where that makes sense. And candidly, you’re going to yield better outcomes from your customers and better renewal rates if you’ve got a great practice around that. I was talking to a partner a few weeks ago who said, “We love the whole adoption motion. It has us having conversations we’ve never had with customers, and we’re much closer to the executives at our customer base because we’re talking about use cases and talking about whether we’re seeing success or whether we need to pivot. We’re having quarterly touchpoints and QBRs talking about whether or not what we sold them is working and they’re seeing value from it.” So I think it’s a good motion for partners to build regardless. It will drive a different level of engagement and conversation with their customers. When we’re going to fully incentivize around it, I’m not entirely sure – but I know it’s coming. Be ready, start building that expertise now. There’s hopefully limited downside to doing so. ROBERT DUTT: One of the things that analysts have noted about the program change is that it’s really a bet on skills first – that partner value is measured by what you can do, not how much you sell. That’s a big cultural shift, not just a programmatic one. Acknowledging that there are going to be some partners who are maybe a little bit behind the curve, and some who are ahead of you saying “what took you so long?” – how far along are Canadian partners in making that mental shift themselves? ERIN GERTNER: I can feel [they’re] pretty far along. I think it was a bit of a shock early on because we never had any accountability in our programs around maintaining certification levels and technical depth. But our best partners have great technical expertise and a really strong understanding of our solutions and what they can deliver to customers. And as I said earlier, some of the feedback we’re getting from partners is, “I’m glad you’re doing this – it’s holding us accountable to making sure we’re staying on top of the solutions.” Our portfolio has moved so quickly over the last couple of years. Our best partners are the ones who have great understanding of the technology and what it can deliver. So I think early on there was a little hesitation from some partners around that, but the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive in the last little while. ROBERT DUTT: Let’s talk about SMB. The Canadian channel in market skews toward small and mid-size, and this happens to roll into your line of work as well. I’m seeing two different takes on what 360 means for smaller partners. Tiffani Bova from Futurum warned that smaller or resource-constrained partners may be sort of specialized out of the ecosystem. But Cisco’s analysis with Techaisle argues that 360 dismantles the bias toward big partners. Those are two very different reads. I’m curious what you’re seeing in the market in Canada and what’s closer to the truth in practice. ERIN GERTNER: It’s so funny when you ask – we were joking about this yesterday on a call. When you ask one set of partners, they’ll say 360 was created for the big partners. And then you ask another set of partners, they’ll say 360 was created for the small partners. So it was really created for everybody. I think the distis have done a really good job of leaning in with some of our SMB partners and helping them figure out where they want to play and what they need to do to be successful. They also have a lot that they can bring to bear to some of the smaller partners – for example, they’ve got a really good EA practice, and they can help augment some of those skill sets that are required for the SMB partner. So if there is an SMB partner out there that wants to work with us, distis are really well equipped to help them get on board. And we’ve also got some incentives, programs, and specializations that are offered specifically for the SMB market. Still, a good majority of our business happens with our big partners, but also through that two-tier channel and distribution. And we need those partners to be successful alongside us. We’ve made a lot of investments to ensure that’s the case. Is it going to be perfect for everybody? Maybe, maybe not. But we certainly did craft the program to make sure that SMB would have an equal chance at success. ROBERT DUTT: One of the big promises of 360 is that managed services is now treated as a standard earning motion rather than kind of an exception to the rules. How’s that landing? Are you seeing Canadian MSPs that have their operational maturity and lifecycle engagement reflected in PVI, or is there still friction to be resolved there? ERIN GERTNER: I think it looks a little bit different, but we actually are seeing a lot of our partners go out and build Cisco Partner-Powered managed services, which I love. Due to the shift in 360, I was working with a partner a few weeks ago who’s building out a managed Meraki practice, and we’re also seeing a lot of partners starting to build up managed security with us as well. Going through the certifications can be a little bit cumbersome, but we’ve also made quite a few investments in our partners to help ease some of that transition – especially partners who are building really great, highly relevant managed services for SMBs or for any customer base. We’re trying to offset the cost or do what we can to help them through that journey, because I know in some instances it is a heavy lift. But the focus around managed services has actually been really good. Partners are getting thoughtful around where they can deliver value to their customer base, where there’s opportunity, and they’re coming to us proactively to build, which I love. ROBERT DUTT: One of the neat things about the program is the fact that Meraki CMNA and CMSS certifications now actually count towards Black Belt, and that’s an important part of the program. CMNA, CMSS – it feels like a big deal for SMB-focused partners. Are you seeing Canadian partners taking advantage of that pathway and getting represented better because they have those certifications? ERIN GERTNER: Again, everybody’s path looks a little bit different. I was just working with a small partner who’s going out and getting his CCNA and getting himself certified so he can improve his PVI score. And that’s been awesome. Having more technical people at our partners who know a lot about Cisco has been an interesting journey for them. He was sort of grumbling a little bit at the beginning doing it, and then he said [it was rewarding [? – unclear in audio**]], being able to have a little more depth to conversations when he’s sitting in front of a customer. So we’re seeing partners take all different types of paths to get to where they need to be from a certification perspective. But again, it is certainly holding them accountable and encouraging them to get more technical depth and capability into their organization, which ultimately will serve the customer better over time. ROBERT DUTT: The Secure AI Infrastructure specialization drove three times the enrollment of any previous specialization, from what I’ve read. What does that tell you about where partner investment is heading? Is there a risk that everyone rushes toward AI and neglects the bread-and-butter networking and security competencies? Or are we pretty much so well entrenched there that there’s the opportunity to build into the next thing and still defend the home base? ERIN GERTNER: I keep saying to partners: there’s no AI without a network. And when we left Partner Summit, I had three partners come up and say to me, “That was my biggest aha moment of this whole thing.” Even if you’re not selling Cisco servers – which we encourage them all to do – whatever you’re doing is built on the foundation of a secure network. So I love that people are gravitating more toward AI, because it does pull through. If I go back to the days of IP telephony, we used to joke when I was in the field, if somebody bought a phone, it pulled through PoE ports – I think AI is going to be the same opportunity for a lot of our partners. It’s going to pull through observability, it’s going to pull through security, it’s going to pull through networking. So I almost think those things very much go hand in hand together, versus standing on their own and being autonomous. ROBERT DUTT: Finally, if you’re a Canadian partner listening to this and you’ve been in the program and getting used to it for coming up on a quarter now – what’s the one thing you should be doing right now to position yourself as the program matures? What’s the one thing you can differentiate yourself by year end? ERIN GERTNER: That’s a great question. I think it’s going to end up being a few things. One: make sure you have a good understanding of the program and how it works. Because again, it was intended to make sure our partners are making money working with Cisco. Profitability is number one for us in the channel. We value our partners so much. I have a partner who always jokes, “The thing I love about working with Cisco is you guys always ask us about our profitability” – and we really do care deeply and immensely about the profitability of our partners. So to your point around VIP, you can always sort of tell where Cisco is going. I hope all of our partners have a pretty good understanding of where we are going – and if you don’t, reach out to us directly or to our distributors. If you follow the bouncing ball on that one, make sure you are leading with a secure networking conversation, and make sure whoever you’re working with has a lot of depth and knowledge in how to leverage the program and how to work within the confines of it. Go out there and be loud and proud of where you are with your PVI score and where you are focusing from an architecture perspective. We love that there’s a really large breadth of partners who are good at many things, or really good at one or two things – and that works for us. Again, if you need help to be successful, reach out to our teams, because we love working with our channel partners. ROBERT DUTT: All right. Erin, thanks for taking the time, and congratulations on getting the program out there, getting it launched, getting it established. Good luck on quarter two and beyond. ERIN GERTNER: Thank you. Thank you for the conversation. I really enjoyed that. ROBERT DUTT:There you have it – Erin Gertner from Cisco Canada. I’d like to thank Erin for her time on this one. A few things worth sitting with. The feedback from the Canadian partner community has apparently been more positive than even Cisco expected – including partners who said they actually appreciated being held accountable to their certification levels because it gave them internal cover to make the training investments they knew they should have been making anyway. That’s a more honest answer than most vendor channel chiefs would volunteer. The other thing I’d keep in mind: the incentive structure is still heavily weighted toward hardware resale in the near term – 90% land, 5% adopt, 5% renew. But Erin was pretty clear that the shift towards adoption and managed services is coming. The timeline just isn’t set. Her advice was simple: start building those muscles now, because it takes a couple of years to get an adoption practice up and running. Don’t wait till the incentives force your hand. If you’re enjoying the In The Channel podcast, you can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and most podcast directories. Follow, subscribe, leave a rating and review if you’re feeling generous – it all helps. Until next time, I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca, and I’ll see you in the channel.

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.    I'm thrilled to welcome Dr. Vivienne Ming to the show. She's a theoretical neuroscientist, AI expert, and what she calls a "professional mad scientist for the public good." She's also fabulous in person and one of my go-tos whenever I have a question about these topics because her work challenges the idea that we should compete with machines and instead pushes us to become more human, not less.    THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…anyone trying to understand how to stay relevant in an AI-driven world and how to use technology to become more human, not less.   TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…we've spent the last decade building AI that can operate without us, but that may be the wrong goal entirely. Vivienne challenges the dominant narrative around artificial intelligence, arguing that the real opportunity isn't automation or efficiency, it's hybrid intelligence. The most powerful outcomes happen when humans and machines work together, not when one replaces the other.   KEY TAKEAWAYS… AI alone is powerful, but human + AI ("hybrid intelligence") is the most effective combination for solving complex problems. The real differentiator in an AI world is your ability to explore unknown, messy, "ill-posed" problems. Using AI to challenge your thinking—not replace it—leads to better outcomes and deeper insights.   WHAT I LOVE MOST…the idea that AI shouldn't make life easier, it should make your thinking better. The people who win in this new world aren't the ones who automate everything… they're the ones who stay deeply engaged, ask better questions, and use AI as a thought partner.   Running Time: 37:22   Subscribe on iTunes    Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X    Find Vivienne Online: LinkedIn Website   Vivienne's Book: Robot-Proof: When Machines Have all the Answers, Build Better People

The structural shift facing MSPs is the rapid movement from the traditional “model era” to the “orchestration era,” driven by accelerated adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and changing vendor enablement programs. This transition is fueled by companies such as Salesforce and technology directions from hyperscalers, with emerging research from the Futurum Group indicating that AI is not only enabling automation but also redefining service delivery models and expanding the roles required from channel partners. Vendors are continually accelerating product and service updates—cited as multiple releases per year—which is shortening adoption cycles and pressuring MSPs to adapt at a speed not previously required. Primary evidence centers on the introduction of the “Frontier partner” concept, which refers to AI-first, outcome-driven service organizations moving beyond hours-for-dollars into models focused on deep technical co-development with clients. According to research referenced by Tiffani Bova, 85% of MSPs expect AI consulting to be a top growth driver. However, there is a documented gap between expectation and execution, with adoption lagging despite broad anticipation. The episode highlights that small businesses may adopt AI more quickly than large enterprises due to operational flexibility, but both MSPs and clients face substantial risk if internal skills, governance, and data practices do not keep pace. Supporting developments include ongoing commoditization of standardized IT support, as self-healing technologies and direct vendor intervention decrease the margins associated with legacy break-fix and support models. The episode also points to the increasing importance of data quality, governance, and sovereignty as core requirements for realizing value from AI tools. New operational hazards arise around energy consumption for compute, increased complexity from multi-vendor agent orchestration, and persistent risks linked to security governance as clients independently adopt AI solutions—sometimes beyond the reach of MSP controls. Operationally, these shifts increase vendor dependency and drive up the need for continual skills renewal within MSP organizations. Pricing for traditional services faces compression, placing more emphasis on adding value layers such as data orchestration, AI-driven workflow optimization, and governance consulting. Service providers are exposed to heightened contract risk when AI outcomes diverge from human oversight, and are required to implement new governance practices to manage data quality and security concerns. The key risk is that lagging adaptation could convert opportunity into obsolescence, particularly as both vendors and clients accelerate their pace of change. Supported by: ScalePadZero Networks  

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova. I'm thrilled to welcome you back to a series I did with my dear friend, Roger Martin. He's the author of the amazing book, Playing to Win. In this episode, we discuss whether OKRs, or Objectives and Key Results, actually help you win or whether they're masquerading as strategy.   THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…leaders and operators who are frustrated with OKRs, unclear metrics, or goals that feel disconnected from reality and want a smarter way to connect strategy to execution.   TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…we often treat OKRs like a magic solution, but according to Roger, they're only as good as the strategy behind them. Too many organizations jump straight from setting big goals (the "O") to measuring results (the "KR") without doing the hard work in between. That missing middle—where to play, how to win, and what capabilities are required—is what actually makes goals achievable.   KEY TAKEAWAYS… OKRs fail when there's no strategy connecting the objective to the results. Measurement helps but not everything that matters can be measured. The "middle three boxes" (where to play, how to win, capabilities) determine success. Many OKRs are unrealistic because they're based on assumptions, not strategy. When goals aren't achievable, adjust the strategy or reset the goal.   WHAT I LOVE MOST…Roger's reminder that metrics don't create outcomes but strategy does. This is such an important shift, especially for teams stuck chasing numbers that were never grounded in reality.   Running Time: 25:36 Subscribe on iTunes     Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X    Find Roger Online: LinkedIn Website   Show Summary on Substack

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.    I'm thrilled for this show for so many reasons. Today's guest has spent his career challenging how we think about people at work, what drives performance, what builds great teams and what actually helps people thrive. Marcus Buckingham is a New York Times bestselling author and a friend and one of the original pioneers of the strength movement. And now in his new book, Design Love In, he takes that thinking even further, arguing that love, when designed intentionally into how we lead and operate, is one of the most powerful forces in business.   THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…leaders, managers, and individuals who want to better understand what drives high performance and how to build roles and teams around what people naturally do best.   TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…We've been taught to focus on improving our weaknesses but that approach is fundamentally flawed. In this conversation, Marcus explains why excellence comes from doubling down on strengths, not fixing what's broken. He shares how organizations can unlock performance by designing roles around what people love to do, why engagement surveys often miss the mark, and how leaders can create environments where individuals thrive by doing more of what energizes them.   KEY TAKEAWAYS: People grow most when they invest in what they naturally do best. High performance comes from aligning work with what energizes individuals. Traditional feedback and engagement systems often overlook individual strengths. Great leaders focus on outcomes while allowing flexibility in how work gets done.   WHAT I LOVE MOST…Marcus' reminder that excellence isn't built by fixing weaknesses but by understanding and using your strengths every day. It's a simple shift, but it completely changes how we think about performance.   Running Time: 40:16   Subscribe on iTunes    Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X    Find Marcus Online: LinkedIn Buckingham Institute   Marcus' Book: Design Love In: How to Unleash the Most Powerful Force in Business

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.    This week's guest is someone whose work has shaped how millions of people think about their work, their strengths, and their lives. Tom Rath is a #1 New York Times bestselling author whose books, including Strengths Finder 2.0, have sold more than 10 million copies worldwide and transformed how organizations develop talent. For more than two decades, Tom has studied what helps people thrive at work and in life from strengths and wellbeing to leadership and meaning. His latest book, What's the Point? explores one of the most important questions we can ask: how do we turn purpose into something we actually live every day?    THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…anyone who wants to do more meaningful work, lead with intention, and better align their strengths with how they show up every day.   TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…80% of us go through our lives not doing what we're best at and that disconnect has a massive impact on our energy, engagement, and overall well-being. In this conversation, Tom challenges the idea that success comes from fixing weaknesses and instead makes the case for investing in what you naturally do best. He breaks down how leaders can create environments where people thrive, why well-being and performance are more connected than most organizations realize, and how small, intentional shifts can help you get more out of your work and your life.   KEY TAKEAWAYS: Your greatest opportunity for growth comes from investing in your natural strengths, not fixing every weakness. Well-being is directly tied to performance, decision-making, and long-term success. People do their best work when they feel energized, not just productive. Leaders play a critical role in helping others discover and use what they do best.   WHAT I LOVE MOST…Tom's reminder that doing your best work isn't about pushing harder, it's about aligning what you do every day with what naturally gives you energy and purpose.   Running Time: 28:55   Subscribe on iTunes    Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X    Find Tom Online: LinkedIn Website   Tom's Book: What's the Point? Turning Purpose Into Your Daily Superpower

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.   This week, I'm super excited to have Jon McNeill on the show. Jon's resume reads like a playbook. He was appointed by Elon Musk as president of Tesla after an introduction from Meta's Sheryl Sandberg. During his tenure, he helped scale revenue from $2 billion to $20 billion in 30 months. He later served as CEO of Lyft doubling revenue and leading the company's IPO. Today he co-founds and scales companies at DVx Ventures where he has launched 12 ventures and delivered 6x return to investors. His leadership experience spans every stage of growth, founder, CEO, board member at GM, Lululemon, and CrossFit. He also collaborated with historian Walter Isaacson to write The Algorithm, the first book written by any of Elon's direct reports.   THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…leaders, executives, and founders who want to scale innovation and speed without burning out their teams. If you've ever wondered how Tesla moved faster than traditional companies or how to build high-performing teams under extreme pressure, this episode will change how you think about leadership at scale.   TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…hypergrowth doesn't happen by chance. Jon shares the leadership principles and operating systems that allowed Tesla to scale quickly and consistently. In this conversation, he explains why innovation isn't just about smart ideas but about simplifying processes, removing friction, and giving teams the clarity and focus to execute at high intensity. He also shares why great leaders know where to get involved and where to step back, and how to build cultures where people feel empowered to solve big problems.   KEY TAKEAWAYS: Hypergrowth succeeds when leaders simplify processes and remove unnecessary friction. High-performing teams operate like "special forces," focused on the right problems during core hours. Leaders scale by knowing which decisions require their involvement and which they can delegate. Speed and performance don't come from working more hours, they come from working smarter. WHAT I LOVE MOST…Jon's reminder that breakthrough results come from designing the system, not burning out people. His story shows that you can move fast, scale big, and innovate without sacrificing clarity, focus, or humanity.   Running Time: 38:59   Subscribe on iTunes    Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X    Find Jon Online: LinkedIn   Jon's Book: The Algorithm: The Hypergrowth Formula That Transformed Tesla, Lululemon, General Motors, and SpaceX 

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova. I'm thrilled to welcome you back to a series I did with my dear friend, Roger Martin. He's the author of the amazing book, Playing to Win. In this episode, we discuss what makes a great strategist.   THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…leaders, strategists, and executives who want to strengthen their strategic thinking and better understand what separates great strategists from good planners.   TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…great strategy doesn't come from intellectual brilliance alone. Roger says the best strategists develop a mindset rooted in humility, curiosity, and practice. In this episode, Roger makes the case that great strategy starts with a deep understanding of customers and evolves through experimentation in complex systems.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Strategy should begin with a deep understanding of customers and their needs. Overreliance on data analytics can limit creativity and strategic thinking. Data should inform judgment, not replace it. Great strategists invent the future rather than simply extrapolating from the past.   WHAT I LOVE MOST…Roger's reminder that strategy is a skill anybody can learn. Even leaders like A. G. Lafley became great strategists through years of experimentation and learning. It's a powerful reminder that anyone can get better at strategy with practice.   Running Time: 25:51 Subscribe on iTunes     Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X    Find Roger Online: LinkedIn Website   Show Summary on Substack

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.    This week, I have the pleasure of welcoming Claude Silver to the show. She is on a mission to revolutionize leadership talent and workplace culture. She is the world's first Chief Heart Officer at VaynerX and partners with CEO Gary Vaynerchuk to drive their success. Claude has earned Campaign's U.S. Female Frontier Award and Adweek's Changing the Game Award. She is also the author of the new book, Be Yourself at Work.    THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…leaders who want to build high-performing teams without sacrificing humanity.    TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…in this conversation, Claude shares why she believes AI should enhance human potential and not replace it. She explains why burnout is often a leadership system's problem rather than a personal failure. And she challenges managers to create cultures where people feel safe enough to speak up, honest enough to name their imposters, and supported enough to grow.   KEY TAKEAWAYS: AI should enhance human capability while preserving meaningful human connection. Emotional fluency allows leaders to choose their response instead of reacting impulsively. Energy management matters more than time management in preventing burnout. Psychological safety creates the conditions for belonging and high performance. Leaders scale culture by modeling self-awareness and vulnerability first.   WHAT I LOVE MOST…Claude reframes leadership as something deeply personal before it's organizational. You can't build belonging for others if you haven't built awareness in yourself. Her reminder that "you are the CEO of you" feels especially powerful in a world that's moving faster than ever.   Running Time: 26:15   Subscribe on iTunes    Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X    Find Claude Online: Website LinkedIn   Claude's Book: Be Yourself at Work: The Groundbreaking Power of Showing Up, Standing Out, and Leading from the Heart

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.  This week, I'm really excited to have Dr. Linda Hill back on the show. She's a top-ranked thinker on Thinker's 50 List and the Wallace Brett Donnan Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Linda doesn't just study leadership; she studies the chemistry of how humans actually get big things done together. She's the co-author of the management Bible, as I like to say, Collective Genius, and the viral HBR hit, Why Great Innovations Fail to Scale. She has a new book coming out called Genius at Scale.  THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…leaders who want to build organizations where innovation isn't left to chance but is built into how people work together every day. TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…innovation doesn't happen because you hire a few creative people or run a brainstorming session. According to Linda, real innovation results from disciplined leadership and intentional culture-building. In this conversation, Linda shares what leaders often get wrong about creativity, how to foster productive disagreement without chaos, and why collaboration, experimentation, and learning must be embedded into the system.  Key Takeaways: Innovation requires disciplined leadership, not just creative talent or good ideas. Collective genius emerges when leaders cultivate both safety and accountability. Productive conflict strengthens ideas when it is structured and purposeful. Experimentation must be normalized to enable continuous learning. Culture determines whether innovation thrives or stalls. WHAT I LOVE MOST…I love Linda's perspective that innovation is not about having all the answers as a leader, it's about building the conditions where great answers can emerge from the group. This shifts the role of leadership from being the smartest person in the room to being the architect of the environment where smart thinking can happen. Running Time: 31:02 Subscribe on iTunes Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X Find Linda Online: LinkedIn Linda's Book: Genius at Scale: How Great Leaders Drive Innovation

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.    This week, I'm thrilled to welcome Daniel Coyle to the show. He has spent the last two decades acting as a performance detective for some of the most elite organizations on the planet. While you may know him as the New York Times bestselling author of The Talent Code and The Culture Code, Dan's real work happens in the trenches. He served as a special advisor to the Cleveland Guardians. And work closely with Navy SEAL teams, Google, and top soccer academies to decode one simple question: why do some groups click while others crumble? He specializes in micro behaviors and the tiny repeatable signals that turn a group of talented individuals into a flourishing ecosystem.    THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR… leaders who want their teams to truly click. This conversation will shift how you think about performance, connection, and culture.   TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…we tend to believe that if you put talented people together, you'll automatically get a talented team. Daniel challenges that assumption. He says what actually determines whether a group flourishes isn't just individual ability, it's what happens in the space between people. Through real-life examples, Daniel shows the key ingredients to a flourishing team.    Key Takeaways: Talented individuals do not automatically create high-performing teams. Status management kills creativity, speed, and collaboration. The best leaders create space for agency and shared ownership. Questions build connection faster than answers do.  Flourishing combines performance with meaning and human energy.   WHAT I LOVE MOST…Daniel reframes leadership as creating moments where people feel they matter both as individuals and as contributors to something bigger. That simple shift from managing performance to cultivating meaning changes everything.   Running Time: 28:26   Subscribe on iTunes    Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X    Find Daniel Online: LinkedIn Website   Daniel's Book: Flourish: The Art of Building Meaning, Joy, and Fulfillment

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.    I'm thrilled to welcome you back to a series I did with my dear friend, Roger Martin. He's the author of the amazing book, Playing to Win. In this episode, we dissect the difference between strategy and planning.    THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…leaders who want to sharpen their thinking and make better strategic choices. If you're responsible for direction, decisions, or results, this conversation will challenge how you think about strategy.   TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…in this episode, Roger makes the case that real strategy is about making choices and accepting the trade-offs that come with them. He explains why too many organizations avoid hard decisions, how that avoidance weakens execution, and what it actually takes to build a coherent, winning strategy.    Key Takeaways: Strategy requires making clear, deliberate choices about where to play and how to win. Avoiding trade-offs leads to diluted focus and mediocre results. A strong strategy aligns resources, decisions, and behaviors around a single direction. Leaders must be willing to say no in order to build something truly differentiated. Execution improves dramatically when strategic choices are clearly understood.   WHAT I LOVE MOST…Roger's insistence that strategy isn't complicated but it's uncomfortable. The real challenge isn't intelligence or frameworks; it's the willingness to commit to choices and live with the consequences. That reframes leadership in such a practical, grounded way.   Running Time: 25:39 Subscribe on iTunes     Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X    Find Roger Online: LinkedIn Website   Show Summary on Substack

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.    I'm thrilled to welcome you back to a series I did with my dear friend, Roger Martin. He's the author of the amazing book, Playing to Win, and together, we're exploring the true meaning of strategy and how it's often misunderstood or misapplied in business today.   THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…CEOs, strategy leaders, and executives who want a clearer, more disciplined way to think about strategy. If you've ever questioned whether your strategy is actually driving customer behavior, this episode is for you.   TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…in this conversation, Roger revisits the most common ways organizations misunderstand strategy and explains why those misunderstandings persist. He walks through what real strategy requires, why execution often fails even when teams are aligned, and how leaders can move beyond planning frameworks to make decisions that actually lead to winning.   KEY TAKEAWAYS… Strategy succeeds only when choices reinforce one another and point toward a clear outcome. Many organizations confuse strategy with planning, which leads to activity without impact. Customer behavior is the ultimate test of whether a strategy is working. Poor strategic outcomes are often the result of incomplete or misaligned choices. Strong strategy requires leaders to be explicit about what they will and will not do.   WHAT I LOVE MOST…I love how Roger cuts through the noise and insists that strategy isn't mysterious, it's just demanding. His clarity around choice, discipline, and customer behavior challenges leaders to stop hiding behind complexity and start owning the real decisions required to win.   Running Time: 26:59   Subscribe on iTunes     Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X    Find Roger Online: LinkedIn Website   Show Summary on Substack

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.    This week, I'm excited to welcome Serin Silva to the show. She is a strategic advisor to women founders, CEOs, and leadership teams. She led integration communications for eight acquisitions in a single year at a billion-dollar telecom, helping bring Oracle's first CRM and human capital management platforms to market. She launched the original MSNBC digital brand for Microsoft, and drove strategy for an early food delivery robot long before it was cool. She led five restructures and turnarounds for mid-sized companies, doubled revenue for mid-market tech firms, and delivered 150% business increase in eight months by forcing the right business and mindset pivots, which is why I wanted her to join today.    THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…anyone feeling exhausted by trying to "push" alignment instead of creating it.   TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…drawing from her experience leading impressive acquisitions and product launches, Serin explains how leaders can shift from managing "by spreadsheet" to leading with human understanding. She discusses why high achievers often burn themselves out, how asking better questions changes outcomes, and what it really takes to guide people through change without losing momentum or yourself.   Key Takeaways: Leading change works best when leaders prioritize emotional alignment, not just operational efficiency. Asking better questions requires discipline, curiosity, and a willingness to challenge assumptions respectfully. Most resistance at work is emotional, even when it shows up as rational debate. Removing emotion from decision-making frameworks can unlock stalled progress and clarity.   WHAT I LOVE MOST…Serin's honesty about learning to temper her fire without losing it. Her insight that growth often comes from separating self-worth from outcomes is a powerful reminder for driven leaders who care deeply about their work.   Running Time: 29:20   Subscribe on iTunes    Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X    Find Serin Online: LinkedIn Website

JP Elliott: Future of HR JP Elliott has decades of experience as a Talent and HR executive at companies like DICK’S Sporting Goods, McAfee, and Lenovo. He's seen the challenges HR professionals face in growing their careers and increasing their impact. He is the host of the Future of HR podcast and on a mission to help HR professionals increase their business impact and accelerate their careers. Leadership looks a little different if you head up a support role: human resources, IT, marketing, or finance. Often, we hear the term “business partner” used to describe what these leaders should be aiming for. In this conversation, JP and I explore how to shift from simply a “business partner” to a value creator. Key Points You’re not just an HR leader. You’re a business leader with HR expertise. Think like a CEO even if you're in HR. Do this to be moving beyond an execution-only mindset. Design talent strategies based on the future, not on the past. Build systems that reward outcomes, not bureaucracy. Build talent strategies that differentiate your business. Forecast leadership needs 3-5 years out and build a pipeline for critical roles. Four questions that CEOs are asking: Are we focused on the right strategic imperatives? Are we operating effectively and efficiently? Are we optimizing our business model to create competitive advantage? Do we have a plan for sustainable and profitable growth? Resources Mentioned Future of HR podcast by JP Elliott Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes How to Start Managing Up, with Tom Henschel (episode 433) How to Solve the Toughest Problems, with Wendy Smith (episode 612) The Mindset to Help Your Organization Grow, with Tiffani Bova (episode 633) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.    This week I have the honor of welcoming Ashley Herd to the show. She is a former Chief People Officer and General Counsel who has trained over a quarter of a million managers through LinkedIn Learning and live corporate trainings. Ashley built Manager Method after leading HR in legal teams at McKinsey, Yum! Brands and Modern Luxury. She has a new book out called The Manager Method.   THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…new managers, experienced leaders, and anyone responsible for developing people who wants a more practical, human way to manage performance. If you've ever struggled with giving feedback, felt unsure how much autonomy to give your team, or questioned whether traditional performance reviews actually work, this episode will feel especially relevant.   TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…most managers aren't failing because they don't care,  they're failing because they were never taught how to manage. In this episode, Ashley breaks down why so many well-intentioned leaders fall into patterns like avoiding feedback, overcorrecting, or defaulting to vague autonomy. She introduces a more structured, honest approach to management. We talk about why people actually want feedback, how AI is changing (and exposing) broken performance processes, and what managers can do differently to help their teams thrive.   KEY TAKEAWAYS… Most managers are promoted for performance rather than trained for leadership, creating gaps in expectations and feedback. Autonomy without structure often leaves employees feeling uncertain rather than empowered. Avoiding feedback is usually driven by good intentions, but it ultimately limits growth and trust. Consistent, direct feedback helps people feel respected, supported, and clear about where they stand.   WHAT I LOVE MOST…I loved Ashley's honest take on how good intentions often lead managers astray. Her insight that people don't need perfection but rather clarity reframes feedback as an act of respect, not criticism. It's a powerful reminder that strong management isn't about control or charisma, but about creating the conditions where people know where they stand and how to grow.   Running Time: 28:57   Subscribe on iTunes    Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X    Find Ashley Online: LinkedIn Website   Ashley's Book: The Manager Method: A Practical Framework to Lead, Support, and Get Results

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.    This week I have the pleasure of welcoming from Australia, John Dwyer, also known as JD. He is a direct response customer attraction expert who thinks way outside the box. His marketing consultancy business is called the Institute of Wow and JD's mantra is that one's marketing needs to wow prospects. I'm sure you all understand exactly why I invited him to our show but dive into what you should be doing to grow and build a successful business in 2026.   THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…leaders, founders, and marketers who want to stand out in crowded markets and create real customer loyalty without relying on gimmicks or short-term tactics.   TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…most companies say they care about customers—but very few design their business around them. In this episode, we explore what actually separates brands people remember from those they forget. John challenges leaders to rethink how they show up for customers, arguing that sustainable success comes from intentional experiences, not louder marketing.   KEY TAKEAWAYS… How small, thoughtful actions can create disproportionate brand impact. The difference between being visible and being memorable. How leaders can embed customer-first thinking into everyday decisions.   WHAT I LOVE MOST…I loved John's reminder that meaningful differentiation doesn't come from copying what others are doing—it comes from truly understanding your customer and being willing to act on that insight. His perspective reinforces that growth isn't about chasing trends, but about committing to experiences that people actually care about.   Running Time: 30:47   Subscribe on iTunes     Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X    Find John Online: LinkedIn Website

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.    I'm thrilled to welcome Patrick Ledin, PhD, bestselling author and renowned leadership expert at Franklin Covey's Leadership and Culture Practice. He's teamed up with the amazing and legendary author, James Patterson, for their bold new book, Disrupt Everything—and Win, which we dive into in this show.    THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…anyone feeling overwhelmed by constant change. If you're a leader, manager, or professional navigating disruption (from technology shifts to career uncertainty), this conversation will help you rethink what disruption actually means and how to work with it rather than fight it.   TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…disruption isn't just something that happens to us — it's something we can choose how to respond to. Drawing on years of research and hundreds of interviews, Patrick explains why winning in disruption isn't about chasing constant change or having all the answers. It's about clarity, purpose, and knowing when to lean into change and when to intentionally choose stability.   KEY TAKEAWAYS: Disruption doesn't always mean blowing things up, sometimes saying no to change is the most disruptive move you can make The difference between micro disruptions and major life-altering ones and why both can shape your path. How reframing fear around technology and AI can turn uncertainty into opportunity rather than threat.   WHAT I LOVE MOST…Patrick's reminder that leaders don't have to carry disruption alone. You don't need every skill, every answer, or every instinct perfectly calibrated. You just need the self-awareness to know what you bring to the table and the confidence to invite others in.    Running Time: 28:27   Subscribe on iTunes     Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X    Find Patrick Online: LinkedIn   Patrick's Book: Disrupt Everything—and Win

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.   As we approach the end of the year, I'm pausing to look back and celebrate all of the wonderful guests that I had the honor of speaking to on the show. And based on your feedback, many of these guests resonated with you as well so we're giving you another chance to revisit the stories, insights, and lessons you loved most in 2025!   This week, I'm excited to highlight an episode with Tasha Eurich.   Tasha is an organizational psychologist, leadership researcher and bestselling author known for her ability to blend science and real-world insight. Her TED Talks have garnered over 10 million views. She has been named one of the world's top three most influential coaches, the Changemaker of the Decade, and one of the top 30 Emerging Management Thinkers by Thinkers50. Her latest book, Shatterproof, combines cutting-edge research with a powerful personal narrative to offer a transformative roadmap for navigating uncertainty and building true mental toughness.    THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…leaders, professionals, and high achievers who are pushing themselves to keep going in a chaotic world and wondering why it's not working anymore.    TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…we've been taught to push harder when things get tough, but what if that's not the solution? In this conversation, Tasha returns to the podcast to discuss why traditional resilience practices may no longer be sufficient. Drawing on new research from her book Shatterproof, she introduces a powerful roadmap for navigating constant chaos without burning out. If you've ever hit your "resilience ceiling" or felt stuck in hustle culture with nothing to show for it, this conversation will help you reframe how to thrive without self-gaslighting or grinding yourself into the ground.    KEY TAKEAWAYS…  Why "grit gaslighting" is holding many high performers back  What the "resilience ceiling" is and how to know when you've hit it  The difference between pushing through and truly becoming shatterproof  Three core human needs that must be met in order to thrive    WHAT I LOVE MOST…Tasha's insight that "resilient people push through while ignoring their needs, but shatterproof people harness their challenges to meet them." That reframing is a game-changer.    Running Time: 29:16      Subscribe on iTunes       Find Tiffani Online:  LinkedIn  Facebook  X      Find Tasha Online:  LinkedIn  Instagram  YouTube    Tasha's Book:  Shatterproof: How to Thrive in a World of Constant Chaos (And Why Resilience Alone Isn't Enough)    Resilience Quiz:  https://resilience-quiz.com/  

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova. As we approach the end of the year, I'm pausing to look back and celebrate all of the wonderful guests that I had the honor of speaking to on the show. And based on your feedback, many of these guests resonated with you as well so we're giving you another chance to revisit the stories, insights, and lessons you loved most in 2025!   This week, I'm excited to highlight an episode with Steve Lucas.   Steve is a seasoned executive with nearly 30 years of experience in enterprise software leadership. As the CEO of Boomi, he spearheads efforts to connect the world through a transformative technology platform. Previously, he was the CEO of Marketo and iCIMS. At Marketo, he transformed the company's sales, marketing, and product strategies, culminating in its 2018 acquisition by Adobe. At iCIMS, he introduced the Talent Cloud, enabling 40% of the Fortune 100 to hire millions of employees annually. Earlier roles included senior executive positions at Adobe, SAP, Salesforce, and BusinessObjects.      THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…business leaders navigating digital transformation, especially those eager to understand how AI will reshape organizations.  TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…it's easy to get swept up in the hype around AI, but what does transformation actually look like in practice? Steve explores the dramatic shift AI is bringing to enterprise software, from the rise of AI agents to the decline of traditional user interfaces. He shares how businesses can prepare for an agentic future where success will depend on collaboration between humans and AI.  KEY TAKEAWAYS:  - Human resistance to change is often about trust and not capability  - AI won't replace humans but augment them (if we allow it)  - Leaders should focus less on tools and more on the business outcomes they unlock    WHAT I LOVE MOST… Steve's reminder that in a world full of hype and disruption, trust is still the currency that matters most. No matter how powerful AI becomes, if people don't trust it—or the companies using it—it won't deliver value.    Running Time: 28:44      Subscribe on iTunes       Find Tiffani Online:  LinkedIn  Facebook  X      Find Steve Online:  LinkedIn    Steve's Book:  Digital Impact: The Human Element of AI-Driven Transformation 

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.   As we approach the end of the year, I'm pausing to look back and celebrate all of the wonderful guests that I had the honor of speaking to on the show. And based on your feedback, many of these guests resonated with you as well so we're giving you another chance to revisit the stories, insights, and lessons you loved most in 2025!   This week, I'm excited to highlight an episode with Seth Godin.   Seth is a dear friend who I met in 2001 through his book Purple Cow, which is one of my all-time favorite books. Along the way, Seth has always been a great supporter of me and my career. Today, I'm eager to discuss Seth's latest book, This Is Strategy: Make Better Plans.    THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…anyone who wants a fresh perspective on leadership and strategy.      TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…strategy isn't a lofty document or annual exercise. It's a compass guiding every decision you make. Seth challenges the conventional idea of strategy as static and instead frames it as a dynamic, iterative process of becoming. He shares nuggets of wisdom from his new book, which he says is a love letter for the people he cares about.     KEY TAKEAWAYS…  - Fear is often the thing that holds people back from making bold decisions.  - False proxies, like easy-to-measure but irrelevant metrics, can misguide your focus.  - The best leaders inspire action by focusing on the "why" behind their strategies.    WHAT I LOVE MOST…Seth's thoughts on practical empathy. He says it's easy to become attached to something because you've worked hard on it. Practical empathy is understanding your audience and imagining what they need, even if that means reinventing your offerings. It's a call to lead with both courage and care.     Running Time: 29:45    Subscribe on iTunes    Find Tiffani Online:  LinkedIn  Facebook       Find Seth Online:  Website   LinkedIn   Seth's Book:   The Corporate Startup 

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.    I'm excited to welcome Lynn Smith to the show this week. She is a media and communications expert who helps high-level leaders turn pressure into presence. A former anchor for NBC News, MSNBC, and CNN Headline News, she now coaches Fortune 500 executives, thought leaders, and entrepreneurs to become magnetic communicators.    THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…anyone who wants to communicate with more confidence. If you've ever felt held back by self-doubt, overthinking, or fear of saying the wrong thing, this episode will give you the tools to move forward.   TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…most people think communication is about what you say, but it's really about how you show up. In this conversation, Lynn breaks down the biggest barrier standing between leaders and effective communication: fear. Fear of being judged, misunderstood, or getting it wrong. Lynn shares how to manage that internal narrative, build a magnetic presence, and communicate with clarity in high-pressure environments.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Your presence speaks before you do.  Communication isn't about words, it's the package the words come in.  Clarity is a leader's superpower. Before any big communication moment, ask: What do I want my audience to think and feel after hearing me? You are a walking billboard for your brand. Every meeting, Zoom call, or hallway interaction signals who you are and how you lead.   WHAT I LOVE MOST…Lynn's reminder that fear is universal, even for people at the very top. She works with wildly successful CEOs and executives, and yet the biggest hurdle she sees isn't capability or content, it's the internal voice telling them they're not ready, not good enough, or one mistake away from failing. It's an empowering reframing: fear isn't a flaw, it's something you can work with and ultimately turn into an advantage.   Running Time: 35:24   Subscribe on iTunes     Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X    Find Lynn Online: LinkedIn   Lynn's Book: Just Keep Going

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.      This week I am excited to share a replay of a conversation I had with Mitch Lowe. Mitch was one of the early pioneers in the movie rental industry opening video rental stores in the early 1980's. In the late 90's Mitch joined Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings at Netflix as the video industry expert and led many of the partnerships that drove new subscribers to join Netflix. Mitch left Netflix in 2003 after a very successful IPO and joined the business development team at McDonalds Ventures to build a DVD evening machine business called Redbox. Mitch served as its COO and President for 8 years, growing the company from $36k in first-year revenue to over $1.5B in revenue 8 years later. Today Mitch invests in startups and gives inspirational speeches around the world to corporations, conferences, and students.    THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR… executives, managers, founders of small and large organizations – anyone looking to hear from someone who has been part of one of the biggest disruption stories in the new digital age.   TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE… Mitch shares his proven experience and tips on how to become more innovative and disruptive in your own organization. What should you do and when? Mitch shares how you can identify a need on the frontlines of your customer base and use that data to create a company that truly addresses that need.   WHAT I LOVE MOST… I get to chat with an innovator whose work I covered in my own book, and I love the concept of the order and sequence in which you do things! Mitch gives you actionable items you can implement Monday Morning to start making that progress.   Running time: 32:48    Subscribe on iTunes    Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X   Find Mitch Online: LinkedIn Website

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.    I'm excited to welcome Richard Fain to the show this week. He served as Royal Caribbean Group CEO for over three decades, leading its transformation from a small Norwegian company with three ships that held just over 700 passengers each into one of the world's largest and most profitable cruise lines with over 60 ships, including Icon of the Seas, the world's largest that carries 7,600 passengers and costs $2 billion to build. He is here to talk about his amazing book, Delivering the Wow: Culture as Catalyst for Lasting Success.    THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…anyone leading teams or organizations who wants to understand how culture drives lasting success.    TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…culture isn't about slogans on the wall, it's about the daily choices that shape how people feel about their work. In this episode, Richard Fain shares how he built a company culture that transformed cruising into an unforgettable experience for both guests and employees. From connecting employee bonuses to engagement metrics to turning feedback into a continuous improvement engine, Richard's insights show how culture can truly become your greatest competitive advantage.   KEY TAKEAWAYS: You don't inherit a great culture; you create it by reinforcing the right behaviors every day. When people care about their work, they perform better—and that passion becomes contagious. Real-time insights from customers and employees turn good companies into great ones.   WHAT I LOVE MOST…Richard's reminder that culture is self-sustaining when people genuinely care. You can't mandate engagement. It grows naturally when individuals see their impact, feel heard, and take pride in creating "wow" moments for others.   Running Time: 31:30   Subscribe on iTunes     Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X    Find Richard Online: LinkedIn   Richard's Book: Delivering the Wow: Culture as Catalyst for Lasting Success

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.    I'm thrilled to welcome Phil Gilbert to the show today. He is IBM's former General Manager of Design, where he helped transform one of the most traditional companies in the world into a global design thinking powerhouse. In his new book, Irresistible Change, he pulls back the curtain on how he did it.   THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…leaders and innovators who want to spark meaningful change in their organizations. If you're trying to turn great ideas into action and scale creativity across teams, this episode will challenge how you think about transformation.   TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…change is inevitable but how you lead it determines whether your organization thrives or stalls. Phil shares how he helped one of the most traditional companies in the world reinvent itself from the inside out. In this conversation, Phil explains how to build a culture that listens instead of dictates, why mandates fail, and how "every day is a prototype" when you're leading transformation.   KEY TAKEAWAYS: Transformation succeeds when it's treated like a product, not a mandate. Sustainable change starts with small, willing teams that create momentum. Design thinking isn't about becoming a designer, it's about empathy and experimentation. Culture drives outcomes more than any single tool or technology. Every day and every idea is a prototype for what's next.   WHAT I LOVE MOST…Phil's reminder that meaningful change doesn't come from top-down directives. It comes from people who are empowered to experiment, collaborate, and learn.    Running Time: 28:23   Subscribe on iTunes     Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X    Find Phil Online: LinkedIn Website   Phil's Book: Irresistible Change: A Blueprint for Earning Buy-In and Breakout Success

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.     This week, I'm looking back on a conversation I shared with Adam Kingl. Adam is an author and keynote speaker who educates future leaders on culture, purpose, team dynamics, the future of work, creativity, strategic innovation, management innovation, and the generational paradigms of work and leadership. He is Adjunct Faculty at Ashridge – Hult International Business School. He was the Regional Managing Director, Europe, for Duke Corporate Education and the Executive Director of Thought Leadership and Learning Solutions for London Business School.     THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…managers, leaders, CEOs, entrepreneurs, and anyone recruiting and/or managing young professionals!   TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…for the first time in history, there are five generations of workers in the workforce. How you recruit, manage, enable, and retain new generations of workers is critical to the success of your organization. Without happy employees, you won't have happy customers. Adam helps us navigate this most critical frontier, focusing on Gen Y.   WHAT I LOVE MOST…hearing what Gen Y thinks, thinking about how we invest in talent moving forward, and even how we handle losing and rehiring talent in the future!   Running time: 33:38    Subscribe on iTunes    Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X   Find Adam Online: LinkedIn X  Adam's Website   Adam's Book: Next Generation Leadership

We're re-releasing our very first episode of 2025 for a special reason - author Tiffani Bova was keynote speaker at this week's Grand Summit Conference in Seattle!  When Colin and I discussed "The Experience Mindset" at the start of this year, we had no idea she'd soon be joining us to explore our conference theme: "The Intersection of Leadership & Technology." Her insights on how Customer Experience and Employee Experience are intricately intertwined made this the perfect way to kick off the Summit, examining why companies that excel in both areas achieve true growth and success.Today's Podcast is brought to you by PaintScout. 

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.    This week, I'm joined by Goldie Chan, who has been called the Oprah of LinkedIn. When LinkedIn first launched its native video, Goldie began posting daily short videos and has built one of the platform's longest-running video series. Goldie's videos feature a mix of personal branding and storytelling, thoughtful advice and generous spotlights on others. She's a storyteller, strategist, and a generous voice in the creator community. And now she's helping a whole new audience with her latest book, Personal Branding for Introverts, which comes out in October 2025. We're diving into how you can build influence quietly, confidently, on your own terms.   THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…anyone looking to grow their influence or build a personal brand, especially if you identify as an introvert or ambivert.   TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…you don't have to be the loudest voice in the room to have influence. Goldie Chan built a thriving community and career by showing that consistency, curiosity, and authenticity can be more powerful than volume. In this conversation, she shares how introverts can thrive in spaces that often reward extroversion.   KEY TAKEAWAYS: The real secret to personal branding isn't noise, it's consistency and credibility. Influence doesn't require extroversion, but it does require self-awareness and clarity. Strategic silence can be a leader's superpower in meetings and creative discussions. Confidence often starts with physical presence. Goldie shares some practical tips.   WHAT I LOVE MOST…Goldie's reminder that credibility doesn't come from being everywhere. It comes from being yourself consistently. Her story demonstrates that authenticity and quiet confidence can be just as powerful as a bold approach.   Running Time: 27:53   Subscribe on iTunes     Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X    Find Goldie Online: LinkedIn Website   Goldie's Book:  Personal Branding for Introverts

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.    This week, I'm honored to have a fellow Thinker50 on the show with me. Ranjay Gulati is a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School. His pioneering work focuses on unlocking organizational and individual potential, embracing courage, nurturing purpose-driven leaders, driving growth, and transforming businesses. He is a management scholar and he holds a PhD from Harvard University and a Master's degree from MIT. He is the author of Deep Purpose, which was published in 2022. And now he has a new book out called How to Be Bold.   THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…anyone who wants to live and lead with more courage, even in the presence of fear.    TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…have you ever wondered why some people seem naturally fearless while others freeze up in the face of uncertainty? Believe it or not, courage isn't something you're born with. It's something anybody can learn. In this episode, Ranjay draws on research and stories from his new book to share practical ways anyone can build support systems that strengthen courage and reframe fear as a signal for growth, not retreat.   KEY TAKEAWAYS: Fear comes from uncertainty and a loss of control, which is a very normal, human feeling. You can “act your way into knowing” by taking small, deliberate steps forward. Support networks (moral, emotional, and informational) help you move through fear. The key to courage is purpose. It gives fear direction and meaning.   WHAT I LOVE MOST…Ranjay's reminder that courage is a decision and not a personality trait. You don't have to wait to “feel ready” before taking action. The act of moving forward, even one small step at a time, is what builds boldness.   Running Time: 29:41   Subscribe on iTunes     Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X    Find Ranjay Online: LinkedIn Website   Ranjay's Book: How to Be Bold

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.    This week, I'm joined by Robert Glazer. Robert is a #1 Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and international bestselling author, TEDx speaker, and the founder of Acceleration Partners, a $50M global partner marketing agency known for its award-winning culture. He is also the creator of Friday Forward, a weekly inspirational newsletter read by over 200,000 professionals in 60+ countries. And he has a new book out called The Compass Within.   THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…leaders, founders, and professionals who want to align their decisions with their core values and lead with greater clarity and authenticity.   TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…in fast-moving and uncertain times, it's easy to get pulled in different directions. Robert Glazer believes the antidote is grounding yourself in your values. Your "compass within" not only guides your personal and professional choices but also determines how you lead, build trust, and shape culture. By knowing what truly drives you, you'll make better decisions, connect more deeply with others, and avoid environments that drain your energy.   KEY TAKEAWAYS… Your values act as a blueprint for better decisions at work and in life. Leaders unconsciously lead from their values—knowing them makes you more effective. High-performing teams thrive when individuals share and honor their core values. Self-awareness is the foundation for authentic leadership and sustainable growth.   WHAT I LOVE MOST…Robert's reminder that many of us only realize our values when they're crossed—what he calls the “electric fence test.” By identifying them earlier, we can make intentional choices that help us thrive instead of simply reacting when something feels wrong.   Running Time: 24:25   Subscribe on iTunes     Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X    Find Robert Online: LinkedIn Website   Robert's Book: The Compass Within: A Little Story About the Values That Guide Us   The Six Core Values Questions

Imagine having a thriving organization where your employees are as satisfied as your customers - sounds perfect, doesn't it? In this episode, Doing CX Right host Stacy Sherman and Tiffani Bova, Global Customer Growth and Innovation Evangelist at Salesforce discuss the secret formula of high-performing organizations and the employee-customer experience balance. You'll learn about the "Experience Mindset," the role of tech in customer experience, the unintended consquences of employee experience and advice to professionals who are starting to build and advancing their leadership skills.  Learn more about gaining a competitive edge through an experience mindset at    Book time with Stacy . 

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.     This week, I'm reflecting on a conversation I had a while back with the delightful and purpose-driven Raj Sisodia. Raj is the FW Olin Distinguished Professor of Global Business and Whole Foods Market Research Scholar in Conscious Capitalism at Babson College, and Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of Conscious Capitalism Inc. He has a Ph. D. in Marketing from Columbia University and has published eleven books. He was named one of “Ten Outstanding Trailblazers of 2010” by Good Business International, and one of the “Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior” by Trust Across America for 2010 and 2011. He is on the Board of Directors at The Container Store and a trustee of Conscious Capitalism Inc.    THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…people searching for their personal purpose in the work they do each day.   TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…in this episode, Raj uncovers the unmet need for conscious capitalism in contemporary business. We discuss ethics in business and marketing, purpose, value, and true happiness. This is not something mutually exclusive from business and capitalism, but the way Raj explains it, something that is vitally a part of the business ecosystem and indispensable to building a worthwhile and successful brand.   WHAT I LOVE MOST…Raj's journey from marketing to uncovering a true passion that seeks to make business more conscientious, impactful and valuable to society.   Running time: 30:08   Subscribe on iTunes    Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X   Find Raj Online: LinkedIn Website   Raj's Books: The Healing Organization Conscious Capitalism Field Guide Firms of Endearment Everybody Matters  

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.    This week, I'm joined by Mark Crowley. Mark is a best-selling author with 25 years in the competitive financial services industry. He rose to national roles, earning Leader of the Year for his emotionally connected, heart-and-mind balanced approach that drove exceptional performance and employee growth. His book, Lead from the Heart, which I love and highly recommend, disrupted conventional management with research proving that traditional methods undermine employee experience. Now taught in 11 universities, it ignited a global movement for humane leadership. In his latest book, The Power of Employee Wellbeing, he advances this vision even further.    THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…leaders, managers, and executives who want to unlock better performance by focusing on employee well-being.    TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…too many organizations still approach leadership as a numbers game, chasing productivity with surveys, perks, or technology. Mark Crowley challenges that thinking, showing why true performance stems from how people feel at work. When leaders prioritize well-being—through connection, trust, and emotional awareness—they create teams that are not only more engaged but also more productive.    KEY TAKEAWAYS: Traditional engagement surveys are outdated. Pulse surveys give faster, more actionable insights. Managers must create space for genuine human connection, especially in hybrid or remote teams. Accountability matters, and leaders who ignore feedback are unlikely to receive it again.    WHAT I LOVE MOST…Mark reframes leadership around a simple but overlooked truth: people's feelings fuel their performance. I love his reminder that when leaders invest in genuine care and connection, they unlock a new depth of commitment and energy.   Running Time: 26:27   Subscribe on iTunes     Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X    Find Mark Online: LinkedIn Website   Mark's Book:  The Power of Employee Well-Being: Move Beyond Engagement to Build Flourishing Teams

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.    This week, I'm joined by Vanessa Druscat. Vanessa is an associate professor at the Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics at the University of New Hampshire. As an internationally recognized leadership and team performance expert, she advises leaders and teams at over a dozen Fortune 500 and Fortune Global 500 companies. She has a new book out called The Emotionally Intelligent Team.   THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…anybody who wants to unlock stronger collaboration, cohesion, and performance in their organizations by building emotionally intelligent teams.   TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…teams don't thrive just because the right people are in the room. They thrive when leaders create the conditions for connection, trust, and continuous improvement. In this conversation, Vanessa Druskat shares what decades of research reveal about emotionally intelligent teams and discusses how to transform a group of individuals into a high-performing, collaborative team.    KEY TAKEAWAYS… Teams perform better when leaders address core emotional needs like belonging and recognition. High-performing teams take time to really know one another, beyond just titles and roles. Every voice matters and innovation often comes from unexpected perspectives. Leaders don't need to have all the answers but they do need to ask the right questions and listen.   WHAT I LOVE MOST…Vanessa's reminder that emotionally intelligent teams aren't just “nicer” to work in, they're more effective. Taking time to build connection and belonging is a performance multiplier.   Running Time: 30:57   Subscribe on iTunes     Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X    Find Vanessa Online: LinkedIn Website   Vanessa's Book: The Emotionally Intelligent Team: Building Collaborative Groups that Outperform the Rest

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.     This week, I'm reflecting on a conversation I had a while back with world-famous juggler, Michael Gelb. Michael is the world's leading authority on the application of genius thinking to personal and organizational development. He is the author of 16 books including How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci, Innovate Like Edison and Discover Your Genius. Michael's books have been translated into 25 languages and have sold more than one million copies.      THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR… anyone and everyone wanting to approach life with genius and mastery.   TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE… Michael Gelb breaks down how we too can think like innovation master and genius, Leonardo Da Vinci. It is a conceptual roadmap that is sure to change how you approach work and life. Confidence and a desire to find the beauty of truth will change how you approach and learn from failure and continue to feed your curiosity. Moreover, as a world-famous juggler, Michael also shares how we can keep multiple balls in the air ourselves, and how we can solve problems quickly and efficiently.   WHAT I LOVE MOST… Michael's motto of maintaining the curiosity of a child with the focus of a grown-up.   Running Time: 30:57   Subscribe on iTunes   Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X   Find Michael Online: LinkedIn Michael's Website Healing Leader Website

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.     This week, I'm reflecting on a conversation I shared with Adam Zeitsiff a while back. Adam is the President  & CEO of Gold's Gym - one of the world's most recognizable and iconic brands. Gold's Gym serves over 3 million people daily with more than 700 locations across 23 different countries on 6 continents. Having previously served as the company's CIO and SVP of Brand Innovation from 2016-2018, Adam was enticed back to lead the evolution and global resurgence of Gold's Gym in early 2019. Adam spearheads brand innovation offerings, including AMP by Gold's Gym, the company's digital fitness app, as well as a variety of new and innovative fitness concepts.   THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…anyone looking to build engagement, innovate with purpose, or simply loves Gold's Gym.   TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…it's all about innovating and looking forward while still staying true to your mission and your identity. Gold's Gym seeks to extend its brand and keep users and clients engaged. But, how do you keep clients and users engaged? Adam breaks it down and discusses choice, personalization, and community.   WHAT I LOVE MOST…it's so exciting to talk to someone who is the keeper of such an iconic brand. This chat is all about helping you get strong both personally and professionally!   Running Time: 29:49   Subscribe on iTunes   Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X   Find Adam Online: LinkedIn

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.    This week, I'm excited to welcome Meredith Schmidt, who recently joined me on my LinkedIn Live show and is my first ever Salesforce guest. She is the EVP and GM of Revenue Cloud. She's responsible for creating products to manage the product-to-cash lifecycle and end-to-end revenue management.    THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…business leaders and anyone trying to align customer experience with financial results.   TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…running a business today means balancing growth with customer trust. Meredith Schmidt shares how her career leading revenue operations at Salesforce shaped her belief that finance isn't just about numbers, it's about enabling great customer experiences. From simplifying processes to removing friction, she explains why financial leaders have to think like customer champions if they want to drive sustainable success.   KEY TAKEAWAYS: Simplifying processes creates trust and unlocks growth. Strong revenue operations require alignment across sales, finance, and customer success. The best leaders make complexity feel simple for employees and for customers.   WHAT I LOVE MOST… Meredith's perspective that finance can be a driver of customer loyalty, not just a back-office function. By putting the customer at the center of revenue decisions, she shows how leaders can fuel both trust and growth.   Running Time: 26:03   Subscribe on iTunes     Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X    Find Meredith Online: LinkedIn

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.     This week, I'm reflecting on a conversation I shared with Ron Tite a while back. Ron is a best-selling author, entrepreneur, speaker and investor. He has been an award-winning advertising writer and Creative Director for some of the world's most respected brands. He is Founder and CEO of Church+State, an agency that unifies content and advertising for global brands and media companies. He has written for television, a children's book, a hit play and an award-winning comedy book. He was the Executive Producer & Host of the award-winning comedy show, Monkey Toast and now hosts the podcast The Coup.     THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…brands looking for unique ways to build trust and talk about your purpose in an authentic and focused way.    TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…Ron gives us his insightful and humorous take on building brands. He talks about using humor and creativity to deliver insight, investing your time and creative energy in the “original.” Every brand and organization should have a belief that goes beyond product; a belief that provides purpose. Once you have that, you must do something actionable that reinforces that purpose, and if that purpose is truly sincere and essential to your brand, it will be worth talking about....So, talk about it!    WHAT I LOVE MOST…Ron talks about seizing the attention of customers and employees by staying curious, staying passionate, and building that authentic trust with a twist of humor.   Running Time: 30:57   Subscribe on iTunes   Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X   Find Ron Online: LinkedIn YouTube   Ron's Books:  Everyone's An Artist (or At Least They Should Be) Think. Do. Say.

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.    This week, I'm joined by Dr. Klaus Kleinfeld, who is the only leader to have successfully served as CEO of two Fortune 500 giants on different continents: Alcoa in the US and Siemens in Germany. With a nearly forty-year career spanning multiple industries, from established businesses to tech startups, he has advised US presidents and global leaders across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. As the founder of K2 Elevation, he invests in North American and European tech and biotech firms. And he also has a book out called Leading to Thrive.    THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…anyone who wants to become a more effective leader, whether you're running a global enterprise, leading a small team, or gearing up to start your own business.   TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…it's easy to think leadership is about having all the answers but Klaus Kleinfeld would say say it's really about curiosity, connection, and energy management. Drawing on decades of experience, Klaus shares actionable insights for leading with clarity and intent in any business environment.   KEY TAKEAWAYS… Klaus encourages leaders to see fear as “false expectations appearing real” and dissect it before it holds you back. Getting frontline insights directly from customers can help to avoid losing critical information in translation. The goal should be to build high-performance teams where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.   WHAT I LOVE MOST…Klaus's reminder that great leadership isn't about titles or politics, it's about investing your energy where it matters most, staying connected to the people you serve, and never losing sight of your purpose.   Running Time: 27:25   Subscribe on iTunes     Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X    Find Klaus Online: Website LinkedIn   Klaus' Book: Leading to Thrive: Mastering Strategies for Sustainable Success in Business and Life

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.    This week, I'm joined by John Maxwell, someone who truly needs no introduction in the world of leadership. For over five decades, John has been teaching, writing, and inspiring leaders around the world. From his 5 Levels of Leadership to his 100+ books translated into 50 languages, he has shaped how millions think about what it means to lead well. But what I most admire about John, outside of the fact that he's a great guy, is that he doesn't just talk about leadership, he lives it. Whether working with Fortune 500 CEOs, young entrepreneurs or communities in need, he believes leadership is about one thing: adding value to others.   THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…anyone who wants to be more intentional in their growth as a leader. Whether you're a CEO, founder, people manager, or just stepping into leadership, this episode is a must-listen.   TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…being put into a leadership position doesn't always mean you've been prepared to lead. In this candid conversation, John explains why too many leaders are handed bigger roles without the support or mentoring they need to succeed and how to change that. We discuss what makes leadership truly effective, the importance of intentional growth, and how to build a stronger leadership bench within your organization. If you're thinking about how to make sure your leadership legacy includes more than just your own success, John's wisdom will stick with you.   KEY TAKEAWAYS… Great leaders invest in their people, not just themselves. Consistency is the secret to long-term success and it compounds over time. Don't waste energy trying to fix your weaknesses. Instead, double down on your strengths. If you don't have a mentor, create one through books, podcasts, or intentional practice.   WHAT I LOVE MOST…John's reminder that leadership isn't about “me first” but about adding value to others. It's not your journey alone.    Running Time: 30:13    Subscribe on iTunes     Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X    Find John Online: Website LinkedIn Instagram  

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.  This week, I have one of my dear friends joining us. Tasha Eurich is an organizational psychologist, leadership researcher and bestselling author known for her ability to blend science and real-world insight. Her TED Talks have garnered over 10 million views. She has been named one of the world's top three most influential coaches, the Changemaker of the Decade, and one of the top 30 Emerging Management Thinkers by Thinkers50. Her latest book, Shatterproof, combines cutting-edge research with a powerful personal narrative to offer a transformative roadmap for navigating uncertainty and building true mental toughness. THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…leaders, professionals, and high achievers who are pushing themselves to keep going in a chaotic world and wondering why it's not working anymore. TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…we've been taught to push harder when things get tough, but what if that's not the solution? In this conversation, Tasha returns to the podcast to discuss why traditional resilience practices may no longer be sufficient. Drawing on new research from her book Shatterproof, she introduces a powerful roadmap for navigating constant chaos without burning out. If you've ever hit your “resilience ceiling” or felt stuck in hustle culture with nothing to show for it, this conversation will help you reframe how to thrive without self-gaslighting or grinding yourself into the ground. KEY TAKEAWAYS… Why “grit gaslighting” is holding many high performers back What the “resilience ceiling” is and how to know when you've hit it The difference between pushing through and truly becoming shatterproof Three core human needs that must be met in order to thrive WHAT I LOVE MOST…Tasha's insight that “resilient people push through while ignoring their needs, but shatterproof people harness their challenges to meet them.” That reframing is a game-changer. Running Time: 29:16 Subscribe on iTunes  Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X   Find Tasha Online: LinkedIn Instagram YouTube Tasha's Book:  Shatterproof: How to Thrive in a World of Constant Chaos (And Why Resilience Alone Isn't Enough) Resilience Quiz: https://resilience-quiz.com/

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.    This week I'm eager to revisit a conversation with Kara Swisher. Kara is the co-founder and editor-at-large of Recode, producer and host of the Recode Decode and Pivot podcasts, and co-executive producer of the Code Conference series. She also has a special series on MSNBC called Revolution on the impact of technology on work, society, and more. Kara is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times and the author of “aol.com: How Steve Case Beat Bill Gates, Nailed the Netheads and Made Millions in the War for the Web.”     THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…anyone who wants to hear a no-holds-barred conversation about the state of Silicon Valley, what the next generation of Unicorns might look like and what VCs want, what they need, and what they should be paying attention to.    TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…Kara discusses the role of AI and automation moving forward and the onus that will be placed on employees to reskill. In this new job market, creativity and problem-solving will be more important than ever before. Kara rounds out this episode with what trust looks like in the new tech economy, the role of regulators moving forward, and the importance of ethical thinking in new technologies in an industry that is facing a crisis of privacy.   WHAT I LOVE MOST…Kara is out having the tough conversations, fighting the good fight every day and staying engaged and aware as technology evolves in our society.   Running Time: 27:38   Subscribe on iTunes   Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X   Find Kara Online: Facebook Instagram X    Kara's Podcast:  Recode Decode

Success isn't about being loud; it's about being clear on who you are and doing the work to back it up. In this episode, I sit down with Tiffani Bova, the Chief Growth Evangelist at Salesforce, Wall Street Journal bestselling author, and master of sales, strategy, and innovation. She shares how to identify your unique superpower, double down on your strengths, and strategically fill the gaps as you scale. We also talk about the realities of leadership, how to prep like a pro for speaking gigs, and why finding your superpower might look a lot more practical than you think. Remember, you don't need to do it all, you just need to do what only YOU can do, and do it well. In This Episode, You Will Learn How to double down on what you do best. What it means to “hone your craft” in business and life. How to stay grounded when you're constantly performing at a high level. What most speakers and executives get wrong about credibility. Habits that top speakers do differently to prep for the stage. Why your superpower is probably the thing you've been downplaying. The best career advice Tiffani ever received. Resources + Links Learn more about Tiffani HERE! Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at shopify.com/monahan Download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine Learning at NetSuite.com/MONAHAN. Want to do more and spend less like Uber, 8x8, and Databricks Mosaic? Take a free test drive of OCI at oracle.com/MONAHAN. Get 10% off your first Mitopure order at timeline.com/CONFIDENCE. Get 15% off your first order when you use code CONFIDENCE15 at checkout at jennikayne.com. Call my digital clone at 201-897-2553!  Visit heathermonahan.com Sign up for my mailing list: heathermonahan.com/mailing-list/  Overcome Your Villains is Available NOW! Order here: https://overcomeyourvillains.com  If you haven't yet, get my first book Confidence Creator Follow Heather on Instagram & LinkedIn Tiffani on Instagram & LinkedIn

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.    I'm thrilled to have two guests with me this week. The first is Adam Brotman. He is the co-founder and co-CEO of the strategic consultancy Forum3. He was the inaugural Chief Digital Officer at Starbucks, where he played a pivotal role in launching the company's renowned mobile payment and loyalty platform. His leadership extended to strategic roles at J. Crew, MOD Pizza and Ruby Tuesday, showcasing his expertise in digital transformation and consumer engagement. We're also joined by Andy Sack, who is the co-founder and co-CEO of Forum3. He brings more than 20 years of entrepreneurial and investment experience in high tech and finance to this role. As the founder and managing partner of Keen Capital, he focused on blockchain ventures. In addition, he is a former advisor to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Andy's successful track record includes leading tech stars in Seattle and selling multiple technology companies to giants such as Microsoft and the New York Times Digital.    THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR… anyone trying to figure out how AI will impact their work and business.   TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…the pace of AI advancement is exponential, as most of us have seen firsthand. AI isn't just about driving efficiency or cutting costs but about reimagining how businesses operate, how decisions are made, and how leadership itself evolves. In this conversation, Adam and Andy share how the rise of agentic AI will impact every layer of a business and why ignoring it isn't an option.   KEY TAKEAWAYS… Being “AI-first” means rethinking decision-making, not just speeding it up. The best AI playbooks involve experimentation, not perfection. The most effective leaders of this day and age will learn to manage both people and AI.   WHAT I LOVE MOST… I love the reminder that this shift isn't just about technology, it's about leadership. Being future-ready means embracing experimentation, staying curious, and helping your teams navigate change with clarity and responsibility.   Running Time: 32:11   Subscribe on iTunes   Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X   Find Andy Online: LinkedIn    Find Adam Online: LinkedIn    Adam and Andy's Podcast AI First with Adam and Andy   Adam and Andy's Book: AI First: The Playbook for a Future-Proof Business and Brand

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.    I'm super excited to welcome Matt Dixon to the show. He is a Founding Partner at DCM Insights, a global training and advisory firm, and a leading expert in business development and client experience. He's a frequent contributor to HBR and an author of bestselling books, including The Effortless Experience, The Jolt Effect, and his most famous, The Challenger Sale which was a #1 Amazon and Wall Street Journal bestseller. We crossed paths in the CEB Gartner days and I'm just thrilled to have him back here today to talk about a new book he co-authored, The Activator Advantage.    THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…leaders, consultants, and business developers looking to stand out in a more competitive market.   TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…strong client relationships and quality work used to be enough to maintain loyalty, but not anymore. As buying behaviors shift and competition increases, leaders need a new approach. Matt shares what sets today's top rainmakers apart: they're not just experts, they're activators—people who proactively offer insights, open doors, and create value long before the deal is signed.    KEY TAKEAWAYS… Great work alone no longer guarantees client loyalty. Activators are winning by being proactive connectors, not passive experts. Trusted advisors often box out colleagues and limit firm-wide growth. Internal collaboration makes client relationships more resilient.   WHAT I LOVE MOST…Matt's insight that rainmakers of the past relied on reputation but today's leaders build trust by sharing value before the sale even starts.   Running Time: 28:00    Subscribe on iTunes     Find Tiffani Online: LinkedIn Facebook X    Find Matt Online: LinkedIn   Matt's Book: The Activator Advantage: What Today's Rainmakers Do Differently