David Fairhurst is the Chief People Officer at McDonald’s. Prior to joining McDonald's in 2005, Fairhurst held senior roles at H J Heinz, SmithKline Beecham and Tesco. For four consecutive years (2008-2011) he was voted the UK's 'Most Influential HR Practitioner' by readers of HR Magazine and in 2012 was awarded the magazine’s first ever Lifetime Achievement Award for an HR practitioner.

McDonald's is the world's leading global food service retailer who, including franchisees, employs more than 1.9 million people, in 35,000 locations serving approximately 60 million customers in more than 100 countries each day. More than 80% of McDonald's restaurants worldwide are owned and operated by independent local business men and women.

McDonald’s is known for its operational excellence. They see this as a ‘3-legged stool’ made up by the suppliers, the franchisees and the company.

McDonald’s is often a first job of many workers. Their focus on training has provided an amazing legacy of alumni employees to the restaurant. Fairhurst talks about the ‘workforce cliff’. This is the point where the workforce supply and demand converges – the number of babies born versus deaths.   In the US it will occur in 2020. With that in mind, the idea of a multigenerational employee group is even more interesting and practical. He explains that research has shown that in restaurants where there are a large age range of workers, there is a positive culture.

What do companies need from their employees? This may vary across sectors but it is a good question to ask. McDonald’s has determined three things that they need from their employees, calling these the ‘3 C’s’.

1. Competence
2. Confidence
3. Commitment

McDonald’s also has looked at what employees value in their workplace. They found it to be what they call the ‘3 F’s’.

1. Family – work/life balance
2. Flexibility – if family emergencies come up, can the company handle it?
3. Future – ways can you make me more employable or valuable

The real power in knowing these things is when you can get these to merge. Fusing the needs of the company with the needs of the employees can produce great results.

McDonald’s drives change across its global company by looking at 4 things. First is transforming the culture of their system – the customer is the center and then, by definition, also the employee

Secondly, strengthening the talent management process. They want a robust talent pipeline

Thirdly, making sure they have the right leaders with the right capabilities in the right structures to ensure they can meet current and future trend. And lastly, they are constantly seeking to strengthen their access to people.

These are continuous and do not stop in their goal to lead and not follow. The opportunities are endless but when you take a little insight, it can create a massive impact - when you have 1.9 million employees.

Fairhurst’s advice for others is to, “Stop worrying about what you do not have control over. Get sleep and pour over what you can do. The differences you make today will get you noticed.”

What you will learn in this episode:

• How David Fairhurst got to this point in his career
• What is McDonald’s Velocity Growth plan
• Why it is important for McDonald’s to make a transformation
• Challenges McDonald’s has had to overcome
• The impact of AI and automation on their restaurants
• Fairhursts advice to leaders, managers and employees
• The role of a multigenerational workforce
• What is the ‘workforce cliff’?
• What Uber and McDonald’s have in common
• Why is all-day breakfast a big deal for McDonald’s?

Kim Scott is the New York Bestselling Author of a new book, Radical Candor: Be a Kickass Boss without Losing Your Humanity  Kim is also the co-founder of Candor, Inc and co-host of the podcast Radical Candor. She led AdSense, YouTube, and Doubleclick Online Sales and Operations at Google and then joined Apple to develop and teach a leadership seminar. Kim has been a CEO coach at Dropbox, Qualtrics, Twitter, and several other tech companies

Radical Candor is demonstrated when one cares personally for someone and also challenges them directly.  Great bosses can be source of growth and joy. It is evident that they care about you. They will also tell things that you need to hear. The framework consists of four points:

1. Radical Candor – praise and then criticize
2. Obnoxious Aggression – when you challenge but don’t care (praise that doesn’t seem sincere or criticism that isn’t delivered kindly)
3. Manipulative insincerity – when you neither care nor challenge (non-specific praise or criticism that is not clear)
4. Ruinous Empathy – compassion without providing honest feedback

How does Radical Candor contribute to an employee experience? It will give you a witness to your life and it will help you grow in the way you want to grow. When you are doing great work, you want it recognized, when you mess up, someone will let you know. 

Scott gives four steps on how to get to Radical Candor. First, come up with a go-to question. People don’t want to tell you so it’s difficult. Think of a question. For example: Is there anything I could do or stop doing that would make it easier to work with me? Whatever question works for you - figure out how to ask it

Second, embrace the discomfort. The only way to get the feedback is to make it more uncomfortable for them not to answer. So – after you ask the question – shut your mouth…count to 6…

Third,listen with the intent to understand - not to justify or respond. You cannot be defensive or you will not get any more feedback in the future from that person.

And finally, reward the candor. Give them a reward for telling you – if you agree with the feedback, fix the problem. And then tell the person and thank them for helping you. If you disagree, first of all focus on what you can agree with…then say I want to follow up in a few days. Then explain why you disagree. Sometimes the only reward is a fuller discussion of why you disagree.

Scott says some of the most common mistakes are showing employees care but not challenging them directly (Ruinous Empathy), getting so busy we fail to show we care personally or challenge directly and just flatter people – (Manipulative Insincerity), being reluctant to have ‘getting to know you’ conversations – these are the basis for the beginning of caring, and criticizing the feedback.

Do you have a ‘bad boss’? No matter how terrible your boss is, you can be a good boss. You don’t need to imitate yours. You can create a good micro culture.

Start

Kim Scott is the New York Bestselling Author of a new book, Radical Candor: Be a Kickass Boss without Losing Your Humanity  Kim is also the co-founder of Candor, Inc and co-host of the podcast Radical Candor. She led AdSense, YouTube, and Doubleclick Online Sales and Operations at Google and then joined Apple to develop and teach a leadership seminar. Kim has been a CEO coach at Dropbox, Qualtrics, Twitter, and several other tech companies

Radical Candor is demonstrated when one cares personally for someone and also challenges them directly.  Great bosses can be source of growth and joy. It is evident that they care about you. They will also tell things that you need to hear. The framework consists of four points:

1. Radical Candor – praise and then criticize
2. Obnoxious Aggression – when you challenge but don’t care (praise that doesn’t seem sincere or criticism that isn’t delivered kindly)
3. Manipulative insincerity – when you neither care nor challenge (non-specific praise or criticism that is not clear)
4. Ruinous Empathy – compassion without providing honest feedback

How does Radical Candor contribute to an employee experience? It will give you a witness to your life and it will help you grow in the way you want to grow. When you are doing great work, you want it recognized, when you mess up, someone will let you know. 

Scott gives four steps on how to get to Radical Candor. First, come up with a go-to question. People don’t want to tell you so it’s difficult. Think of a question. For example: Is there anything I could do or stop doing that would make it easier to work with me? Whatever question works for you - figure out how to ask it

Second, embrace the discomfort. The only way to get the feedback is to make it more uncomfortable for them not to answer. So – after you ask the question – shut your mouth…count to 6…

Third,listen with the intent to understand - not to justify or respond. You cannot be defensive or you will not get any more feedback in the future from that person.

And finally, reward the candor. Give them a reward for telling you – if you agree with the feedback, fix the problem. And then tell the person and thank them for helping you. If you disagree, first of all focus on what you can agree with…then say I want to follow up in a few days. Then explain why you disagree. Sometimes the only reward is a fuller discussion of why you disagree.

Scott says some of the most common mistakes are showing employees care but not challenging them directly (Ruinous Empathy), getting so busy we fail to show we care personally or challenge directly and just flatter people – (Manipulative Insincerity), being reluctant to have ‘getting to know you’ conversations – these are the basis for the beginning of caring, and criticizing the feedback.

Do you have a ‘bad boss’? No matter how terrible your boss is, you can be a good boss. You don’t need to imitate yours. You can create a good micro culture.

Start by soliciting feedback and understanding what would make your boss’ job better. Ask if you can provide some criticize. If you can - create this culture with your own team - and then work with your boss to create it.

If you can’t get to the point where you can get radical candor with your boss – if you can’t criticize your boss, you might want to start to look for a new job.

What You Will Learn In This Episode

• Do leaders need to find a purpose for their employees or is it the responsibility of the employees to find purpose in their work?
• What makes a good employee?
• Is it possible to learn to have career conversations?
• Efficient workplace practice ideas
• Why Kim Scott wrote her book
• Examples of bad bosses and good bosses
• How to have Radical Candor

by soliciting feedback and understanding what would make your boss’ job better. Ask if you can provide some criticize. If you can - create this culture with your own team - and then work with your boss to create it.

If you can’t get to the point where you can get radical candor with your boss – if you can’t criticize your boss, you might want to start to look for a new job.

Things you will learn:

• Do leaders need to find a purpose for their employees or is it the responsibility of the employees to find purpose in their work?
• What makes a good employee?
• Is it possible to learn to have career conversations?
• Efficient workplace practice ideas
• Why Kim Scott wrote her book
• Examples of bad bosses and good bosses
• How to have Radical Candor

Anindya Ghose is the Professor of IT and Business Analytics at NYU and the author of TAP: Unlocking the Mobile Economy.  He is a Professor of IT and a Professor of Marketing, at New York University's Leonard N. Stern School of Business. He is also the Director of the Center for Business Analytics at NYU Stern. In 2014 he was named by Poets & Quants as one of the “top 40 outstanding business school professors under 40 in the world” and by Analytics Week as one of the “top 200 thought leaders in Big Data and Business Analytics”.

The Mobile Economy is any transaction that occurs on a smart phone or tablet. It is currently more than 3 trillion dollars of the world’s economy – or 4.2% of the world’s GDP.  So we are only scratching the tip of the iceberg.

Technology has changed the way companies can interact with consumers. Location accuracy came out about 10 years ago. At that point in time, people’s location could be pin-pointed within 200-300 meters (~1000 feet). Now, the latest smart phones can locate the user within 5 feet. This information opens the door for many uses.

Beyond the retail use, the Mobile Economy touches other industries such as banking, healthcare and construction.  Using wearable sensors, workers walking and working patterns can help reshape where workstations should be or even how to design exits or entrances in busy airports.

There are nine forces shaping the Mobile Economy. The first is context which looks at what the customer is thinking. There is also location, time, and weather. Saliency, or the ranking of your product, is also critical.  Some other forces that come into play are crowdedness, trajectory, social dynamics and tech mix.

The next generation which includes smart homes and cars are closer than we think.  In 2 – 3 years they will include refrigerators that remind you to pick up the groceries on the way home from work.  The smart phone will become the remote control for all of your appliances and devices.

Ghose has found four behavior contradictions… people say they:

1. Seek to be spontaneous but really they value certainty
2. Find ads annoying but really they fear being left out, so they want ads
3. Desire choice and freedom but too many choices and they get overwhelmed
4. Want to protect their personal freedom but will use their personal data as currency to get things they want

Ghose’s advice for organizations is if you want to succeed in the Mobile Economy then you have to win the consumer’s trust.  You must act as a ‘butler’ not as a ‘creepy stalker’ and you must notify and ask for consent.

His advice for consumers is to embrace the world of messaging and ads. If you do, you will receive lower prices and more targeted messages. If you don’t, you will receive more spam and random messaging with higher prices.

What you will learn in this episode:

• What is the Mobile Economy?
• Why write a book about the Mobile Economy when the mobile phone has been around for a long time
• The role smart phones will play in the future
• How brick and mortar stores track consumers movements…and why
• Privacy in the Mobile Economy
• How the Mobile Economy is being used to help the healthcare industry
• The 9 forces on the company side that are shaping the mobile economy
• The 4 behavior contradictions on the consumer side

Today my guest is Archana Singh, the EVP and Chief Human Resource Officer at John Wiley and Sons Publishing. Join us as we talk about what transformations Wiley is going through, why these transformations are important, how to create a sense of purpose for your employees and much more.

Today’s guest is Archana Singh the EVP and Chief Human Resource Officer at John Wiley and Sons Publishing. John Wiley was founded in 1807, and amazingly over 200 years later they are still going strong. They currently focus on business books, research and journal publishing with sizeable work around digital assets and learning, assessments and educational technology services, as well.

Wiley is found in 60 locations across 40 different countries, employing 5000 people. There has been significant growth in the last 15 years with a blending of digital and traditional higher education publishing.

How has worked changed?

1. There is more ownership as an employee of what is worked upon. Therefore, as an organization, how do we harness that? There is an increase need for us to understand this.

2. Everyone is seeking flexibility. How do we get our organizations to move to a more outcome based, rather than time driven focus? How do we change our dialogs to provide this flexibility?

3. People’s minds are more fragmented – they have so many things to do and worry about. How do we – as organizations – get the productivity that is needed? How do we harness this to create advantage for our organization?

What is the role of an employee?

Three things:

1. Employees want employers to care and encourage connectedness

2. They also wonder how they can participate in shaping the organization. They want to make an impact.

3. They also question - am I employable and am I learning enough? They want to feel they are being relevant - both internally and externally

Singh gives advice to companies looking to reinvent themselves. She says, to begin visualize what your mission is and where you want to be. Where do you want to be at the end of one year? In 5 years? She also states it is important to engage people and to hear what they think. Encourage employee participation and use a joint approach to identify what matters.

What you will learn in this episode:

* Initiatives going on at Wiley to continue to transform a company over 200 years old.

* What organizations can consider to transform their physical space without a budget

* The role of the mission statement on company culture

* Ideas of how to create a sense of purpose among your employees.

* Singh’s advice to companies who are looking to reinvent themselves

* How work has evolved

Quotes:

* Our true north is life-long learners - whether it is a researcher or a student - and they guide us in what we do

* There is an increased need for us to understand how to tap into this freelance energy.

* Every small thing we do is more important than ‘big bang’ programs.

Today’s conversation is with Dr. Jody Foster, author of The Schmuck in My Office and a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry. Our discussion centers around dealing with difficult people at work and learning to look for the reasons behind their annoying behaviors.

Dr. Jody Foster is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Vice Chair for Clinical Operations in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania Health System and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Pennsylvania Hospital. She attained her MBA, with a concentration in finance, from the Wharton School. She is also the author of the recently released book, The Schmuck in My Office

Dr. Foster was involved in forming a program to deal with disruptive physicians which became publically offered due to interest in resolving the same issues in other settings outside of the medical field. After the program became public, Dr. Foster was approached to write the book to share the program’s main ideas to the general public.

We all have traits that make us who we are. None of these are problematic by themselves, however when we allow these traits to interfere with our work or our relationships with coworkers, they can become an issue. In Dr. Foster’s book she lists out 10 types of traits that are often observed and can become disruptive to a workplace if they get out of control:

1. Narcissus – their ego fills the room
2. Venus Flytrap – their initial appeal may draw you in, but anger later surfaces
3. Swindler – the rule breaker
4. Bean counter – the controlling micro manager
5. Distracted – has real difficulty in time management, frequently has unfinished projects
6. Mr. Hyde – someone who struggles with an addiction problem, one that was not apparent when hired but then another ‘person showed up’
7. The Lost – one who is experiencing cognitive issues, and who is getting sloppy
8. Robotic – one might say they were a ‘person on the spectrum’ – very little social skills
9. Eccentric – the person has odd or magical belief patterns - the beliefs are ‘strange’
10. Suspicious – thinks that there are conspiracies, looks over their shoulder

Dr. Foster states that the most common are those titled, narcissus. They may demonstrate behaviors that seem like they feel entitled, seek attention and exaggerate their accomplishments.

One key way to deal with them is to attempt to understand them. It may be that the person has a low and fragile self esteem. They may be afraid to be found smaller than average, in some way. They also may not realize they are dominating the conversation – they are used to controlling the conversation and they may not even have full realization they are doing it. Giving some positive feedback and acknowledging their story may be helpful.

Dr. Foster says, “You want to find a culture that is right for you.” It could also be that the disruptive person is working in the wrong setting for their personality type. Sometimes a worker that is labeled as disruptive is actually just in the wrong workplace culture. “What is considered disruptive to one person may be attractive to another”, states Dr. Foster.

Dr. Foster gives tips for dealing with difficult people. First of all, she says, you have to accept the fact that people don’t want to be disruptive. It is important for us to work to understand the people around us. We also have to understand that what is disruptive in one culture may not be disruptive in another. You should try to call out disruptive behavior when you see it, waiting just causes hard feelings to build up to the point of anger.

You should take a step back and examine why a certain behavior is bothering you, in some instances it could be because you see something in a person that is a trait you don’t like in yourself. Another tip Dr. Foster gives is, if the other person doesn’t see a problem then you have to set limits. And finally, ask the question, ‘Am I the schmuck in the office’? Are you going from place to place and continuing to ‘see the same issues’? If you are, you could be the problem.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• Tips for organizations for dealing with ‘schmucks’
• Personal life ‘schmucks’
• If you aren’t happy in your job why it might be time to do some reflection!
• Why Dr. Foster wrote her book
• What are the 10 types of people and how can you identify them
• How can we get to a point where we can understand the truth behind someone’s actions
• Real life examples of how to deal with others
• What roles does the environment play vs. the individual