Great Leadership With Jacob Morgan

A few months back while I was doing a keynote in Mumbai, I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. N.S. Rajan. Dr. Rajan is the author of a new book, Quote Me if You Can, as well as Group Chief Human Resources Officer and a member of the Group Executive Council of Tata. The Tata group is comprised of 100 companies with over 600,000 employees globally. It is one of the largest organizations in the world with companies offering a broad range of services and commodities. Each company has body and mind of its own, with Tata being the soul.  

 

As Group CHRO, Dr. Rajan works with the CHRO in every company in the Tata group, providing critical leadership and spearheading diversity initiatives. He believes in putting the effort forth to create more effective and better leaders with a concept similar to servant based leadership. While managers focus on the task to be completed, the process to complete it, and supervising a set of people to get there, the leaders role is more ambiguous. They must envision, set new directions, and inspire and value their team. To be a leader, it is absolutely essential to listen to people and understand their needs. 

 

The secret of leadership: 

Those who rule must serve, those who serve will rule. – Dr. N. S. Rajan 

 

Leaders at Tata follow a parenting model. They aren’t intrusive but rather lend a helping hand in a positive way.  Leaders have to learn to exercise power prudently, and to combine passion and compassion. Leadership is evolving due to the changes of the world, such as downturns in economy and technological advances. Organizations must continue to adhere to their values as leadership evolves - considering ethics when promoting or creating leaders, as well as experience and competence.  

 

What you will learn in this episode: 

  • How leadership is changing 
  • The role of leaders 
  • How millennial leaders are different 
  • Diversity in leadership 
  • Important skills and qualities of a good leader 
  • Trends shaping the future of leadership 
  • How leadership has changed over the past few years 
  • Shared vision 

Links From The Episode:

Dr. N.S. Rajan On Twitter 

 

(Music by Ronald Jenkees)

Direct download: Rajan20NS20Podcast_DONE.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 7:20pm PDT

When you are leading one of the world's largest organizations with hundreds of thousands of employees you need a unique vision to succeed. Jeff Smith, the Chief Intelligence Officer at IBM, has two major missions as CIO. First, to enable a productive work environment and second, to lead the deployment of an agile culture throughout the company. Jeff recently filled me in on the concept of an agile enterprise and how it is shaping the way we work.
 
With the world changing at such a fast pace, organizations and employees must be agile by continuously adapting to situations, addressing problems, and reevaulating progress. This is important for leadership, collaboration, and delivery practices to allow organizations in any industry and of any size to be more successful. Non-agile enterprises run with a fixed plan as though things won't change when we all know that there is no certainty in life! So when a problem arises, the plan is ruined versus an agile enterprise that can adjust the sails to go with the flow.
 
The main benefits to creating an agile enterprise are broader based skills and increased engagement. Employees have more autonomy and purpose which drives engagement. It is necessary to have a supportive mechanism to transform into an agile enterprise. At IBM, they have an academy with 30 courses that are individual and team based. They also have agile coaches that help put concepts into place. The role of technology is central in an agile enterprise. IBM has it's own social network and a strong search environment. Collective intelligence is valued as it will always outweigh individual insights. According to Jeff, a fundamental piece of creating a high performing culture is people learning from each other.
 
It is time to consider what is working well in your organization. What methods can you put in place to develop an agile enterprise?
 
 
What you will learn in this episode:
 
What is an agile enterprise
How to establish an agile enterprise
Course correction
Collective intelligence 
Simplification of IT
Work environments
Retrospective
 

Links From The Episode:

Jeff Smith on LinkedIn

IBM.com

(Music by Ronald Jenkees)
Direct download: Jeff20Smith20Podcast_DONE.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 7:01pm PDT

This week we are discussing the past and future of jobs and paychecks with Dr. Lawrence “Larry” Mishel. Larry has been a labor market economist for 30 years and is now the President of The Economic Policy Institute, a Washington based think tank. EPI is focusing on how our current economy is affecting low and middle income Americans, what policies are needed to restore the middle class, and how to generate robust wage growth for everyone so they experience a growing standard of living.

With a PhD in economics, Larry is increasingly concerned with trends regarding wage stagnation – he believes the preeminent economic challenge of our time is to overcome wage stagnation. The wages and benefits of nearly all workers haven’t grown in 12 years! This affects all workers, even those that are highly skilled. The hourly wages and benefits of the median worker have only grown around 9% since 1979!

Larry also disagrees with many articles that claim the freelancer economy is large and rapidly growing. Numbers actually show that the population of independent contractors is declining.  Numbers also show that many freelancers are using their gigs as supplementary income because the wages from their primary job are not increasing relative to the cost of living. One of the notions of the Future of Work should be the ability to support one’s self with your regular job. It’s possible that a lot of the angst in the country comes from economic insecurity and we could help ease that problem with improved wage policies!

What you will learn about in this episode:

  • Wage Stagnation
  • Robots and automation
  • Discrepancies in numbers surrounding the freelancer economy
  • How politics and unions affect wages
  • The skills gap
  • Challenges around worker classification

Links From The Episode:

Larry Mishel On Twitter 

EPI.org 

(Music by Ronald Jenkees)

Direct download: Larry_Mishel_Podcast_DONE.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 8:02pm PDT

Today, we welcome Julien Smith, cofounder and CEO of Breather, to discuss the factors that are disrupting the idea of traditional office spaces. Julien and I explore how trends, pricing, real estate, and technology are shaping the evolution of physical work places. Julien authored three books on marketing while working from the internet, without an office for about 10 years. As a freelancer with no place to go for work every day, he saw the potential for a totally separate, individualized work space that can be unlocked with your phone.

Breather was born… a network of well designed, comfortable but professional small meeting rooms and office spaces. Now there are 100 units across 5 cities. These units generally reside in larger office buildings and can be rented daily, weekly, or just once! They serve as an effective space to be on your own or meet with a small group to brainstorm, rehearse, etc. Many people use Breather spaces when they are traveling or need the use of an outside office. Some users don’t have an office at all and prefer Breather spaces to working from home or from a coffee shop.

With so many aspects of work rapidly changing, spaces must evolve as well. Physical space has a dramatic effect on employee experience. In this podcast, Julien and I discuss why the demand for this type of office space is increasing and how it will complement traditional work spaces, making experiences better.

What you will learn in this episode

  • How the office space is changing
  • Trends in office space
  • Office Space Pricing
  • Commercial Real Estate
  • How the on demand economy is shaping office space
  • Advice for both employees and management
  • The role of technology in the office space of the future

 

Links from the episode

Breather.com

Julien Smith on Twitter

(Music by Ronald Jenkees)

Direct download: Julien_Podcast_DONE.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 8:07pm PDT

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