Great Leadership With Jacob Morgan

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

 

(Music by Ronald Jenkees)

Direct download: Harry_Kraemer_on_2015-03-24_DONE.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 6:16pm PDT

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

 

(Music by Ronald Jenkees)

Direct download: herminia_ibarra_Podcast_Done.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 8:38pm PDT

I’m very excited to share this week’s episode of The Future of Work podcast. I interview Rita McGrath, Professor at Columbia Business School, author, speaker and consultant. Rita has been featured in many business publications and is quoted frequently by the press. Her most recent book is “The End of Competitive Advantage – How to Keep Your Strategy Moving as Fast as Your Business.” I believe this podcast will prove to be a very good overview for people that are interested in management and innovation, and how they are evolving and changing. Rita is on the front line of these events because she not only teaches on this, but she works with a lot of organizations. We talk about venture capital and funding in the Bay Area and what is going on with what I like to call “Pinocchio’s Island,” and how innovation is changing. We look at the competitive advantage, which is particularly fascinating because it is something that has been and is still taught in many of our schools. And, it comes up time and again in conversations around management and leadership. Rita has a completely counter-intuitive approach, which is that competitive advantage is actually… dead. She introduces several new concepts and methods for organizations to sustain their strategy, and to scale and sustain innovation. Different aspects of the future of work also are explored including the freelancer economy and more. We wrap up with Rita sharing her advice to organizations— and individuals as well — who are looking to adapt to the changes that we are seeing. Tune in and don’t miss this Future of Work podcast. 

 

(Music by Ronald Jenkees)

Direct download: Podcast_Rita_Gunther__McGrath_Done.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 5:55pm PDT

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

 

(Music by Ronald Jenkees)

Direct download: Pat_Wadors_DONE.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 8:07am PDT

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