The Future Of Work Podcast With Jacob Morgan | Futurist | Workplace | Careers | Employee Experience & Engagement |

Ravi Saligram is the President & CEO of Newell Brands a global manufacturer, marketer, and distributor of consumer and commercial products. The company has 30,000 employees and it’s brands include a lot of household names such as Sharpie, Rubbermaid, Paper-Mate, Crock-Pot, and Coleman. Ravi has been the CEO at Newell Brands for 2 years now, and looking back at when he first arrived he says the company was in the throes of a turnaround and in the middle of a merger. So he had a huge undertaking from day one. He shares that there were a fair number of integration issues, employee turmoil, and bringing two cultures together was challenging.  After the merger the company had around 110,000 skews,49 ERP systems, thousands of apps, 400 websites, and thousands of legal entities. And all of these had to be chipped away at, as it was just way too complex and unnecessary.  It was a lot of work, but Ravi says it has been an amazing journey. As a new CEO coming into a company with so many things happening where do yo

You can be a 37 times better leader than you are now, and it won’t require a crazy massive transformation. All you have to do is improve yourself 1% a day. By the end of the year, you will be 37 times better. And this doesn't just apply to leadership, this can apply to anything. It means taking 10 to 15 minutes a day to watch or listen to something new to learn a new skill. It means recognizing an employee for the hard work they’ve been doing. It means spending time with someone who doesn't look like you, act like you, think like you, behave like you, or even believe in the same things you believe. It means saying “I don't know” during a team meeting to embrace humility and vulnerability. It means having a conversation with somebody and truly listening to them, not just hearing them. That's what 1% a day looks like. Being a better leader doesn't have to be hard. Improving anything doesn't have to be hard. --------------- There are 6 trends that are transforming leadership forever do you know what they are and

Taylor Smith is the co-founder and CEO of Blueboard, the world’s leading experiential rewards and recognition platform that helps companies celebrate their employees. The company was founded in 2014 and they currently have 150 employees around the world.  Employee experience and recognition has been at the forefront of conversations in the business world for a while now, but it’s never been more important than this past year and a half. And one company that is helping leaders around the world find better ways to recognize, celebrate, and reward employees is Blueboard.  A different way to recognize and reward employees For many companies the way that they show appreciation to employees is through company-wide awards, swag like mugs and shirts, and gift cards. And while all of these things are good, it may not be what employees most want or need.  As Taylor shares, “People show up to work every day and what do they do? They're spending all their time and their energy, and they're giving it to their company, rig

What defines an entrepreneur is what they do when they are told “NO”. Entrepreneurs get more competitive when they get rejected. They don’t shrivel away or cower in the corner and quit. They want to know what they did wrong and why they were told no. They learn from the experience, improve on their failures, and move forward. To them, failure is never the end of the journey. This mindset is what separates entrepreneurs from everyone else. ------------ This episode is sponsored by my friends over at Perceptyx Perceptyx helps enterprises get a clear picture of their employee experience with a continuous listening and people analytics platform aligned to key business goals. With the industry’s largest portfolio of survey types – including engagement, DE&I, lifecycle, 360 feedback, pulse, and more – now you can see not only what’s going on today, but how to move forward tomorrow with insights and prescriptive actions for every level of the organization. Given our unique blend of technology, domain expertis

Cameron Herald is the bestselling author of several books including Meetings Suck and Vivid Vision: A Remarkable Tool for Aligning Your Business Around a Shared Vision of the Future. He is the former COO of 1-800-Got-Junk and in the six years he was in that position he brought the company from $2 million to $106 million in annual revenue and the company was named the #2 company in Canada people wanted to work for. Cameron is also known as the CEO Whisperer and he has coached a lot of leaders around the world. When it comes to looking for a coach, Cameron says leaders have to know what they are looking for because, “the world's littered with coaches right now. And you have to be very careful and understand what it is you're selecting.” Cameron focuses on the entrepreneurial operations, execution, and culture space. He teaches CEOs how to build world-class company cultures in order to propel growth. He compares business coaches with sports coaches and says just as you would have different coaches for strength,

Empathy is one of the cornerstones of leadership. The first thing that you need to do to practice empathy is take a step back and learn to listen. Don’t respond too quickly, take time to digest and process the information. The next step is to be aware of your emotions. Research shows that to practice empathy, you either need to be in a neutral state or the same state as the person who is coming to you. The last technique is taking the opposite perspective. Try to take the other person's perspective and argue against yourself a little bit. Try to challenge your initial assumptions. Practicing empathy will greatly improve your leadership and the employee experience in your organization. ------------ This episode is sponsored by my friends over at Perceptyx Perceptyx helps enterprises get a clear picture of their employee experience with a continuous listening and people analytics platform aligned to key business goals. With the industry’s largest portfolio of survey types – including engagement, DE&I, lif

Jason Redman is a Retired Navy SEAL Lieutenant, motivational speaker, and the bestselling author of Overcome: Crush Adversity With The Leadership Techniques Of America’s Toughest Warriors. Jason grew up in a family that was very patriotic and enjoyed serving their country, so he heard about the military early on and from about the age of 12 he knew he wanted to do special operations. There was something about the Navy SEALs and the fact that it is the hardest training in the entire U.S. military that piqued Jason’s interest. People told him he would never make it, but that just pushed him even more to reach that goal. After he graduated high school he headed to Boot Camp. “SEAL training is legendary and it's difficult. And it's been that way from the very beginning all the way back in World War II. And interestingly enough, it's pretty much maintained the core of what that training was back then. And even today, SEAL training has a 75%- 80% failure rate. So attrition rate, almost 80% of the people that start

Ever wonder why I tell stories in the talks I give? When someone asks me how I got involved with the future of work, I could give statistics and say, “13% of employees around the world are engaged and I had bad jobs working for other people, and now I'm doing what I'm doing.” Or… I can tell my coffee story where my excitement for being called to the corner office of a CEO was crushed by a cup of Starbucks … Which one do you think has more impact? When you think about great communicators, one thing they all have in common is storytelling. People have been telling stories since the dawn of time. It's why when you were a kid, you wanted your parents to read you a story before bed. It's why your kids now want you to read them a story before a bed. We all love stories. It’s just part of being human. ------------ This episode is sponsored by my friends over at Perceptyx Perceptyx helps enterprises get a clear picture of their employee experience with a continuous listening and people analytics platform aligned to

Simon Mainwaring is the bestselling author of We First and Lead With We: The Business Revolution That Will Save Our Future, which comes out in November. He is the founder & CEO of We First, Inc. and he was a finalist for Global Australian of the Year in 2015. Simon’s first book came about after the global economic meltdown when he heard a speech from Bill Gates from the World Economic Forum. Bill Gates talked about how the private sector needed to play a bigger role in social change and that really hit home with Simon. He wrote his first book, We First: How Brands and Consumers Use Social Media to Build a Better World, to help companies rethink their strategies and practice capitalism in a way that produces profit but also benefits the planet and communities around the world. What is the future of work As Simon shares, prior to covid we had defined separation between work and life, but since the pandemic that line has dissolved. Work has infused our life and life has infused our work. We are now seeing pe

Jobs aren’t like keys--You don’t just lose them, they get taken away from you. Some people are worried about losing their jobs to technology, but what really happens is that their jobs get taken away because of technology. There are two ways this can happen. The first way is if the company consciously decides it wants to replace humans with robots and that it no longer wants humans running the organization. Thankfully, what we’ve been seeing is the opposite. We see organizations like Accenture that automated 10,000 jobs but didn't lose a single person. They upskilled all of their employees. The second way is if you let AI take your job. This happens if you just watch the world change and do nothing. You have to become a perpetual learner. You have to learn how to learn. You need to be able to apply those things frequently and do it quickly. You need to future-proof yourself. You can't rely on companies and educational institutions to teach you everything you need to know to be successful. ------------ This e

Keith Ferrazzi is the bestselling author of multiple books including Leading Without Authority, Never Eat Alone, and his newest book, Competing in the New World of Work. He is also the Chairman of Ferrazzi Greenlight and it’s Research Institute. Keith and the co-authors of Competing in the New World of Work conducted a huge research project to find out how organizations around the world were reacting to changes happening because of the pandemic. He says, “What we were looking to capture was a methodology and a roadmap on how the best and brightest leaders and organizations were reinventing their companies, reinventing their leadership style, reinventing their workplace, during the pandemic, in a way that would be sustainable, to allow us to meet the incredibly new volatile world that we live in.” This research resulted in the book and a methodology, called radical adaptability, that looks at four elements of leadership that are crucial for this new world of work. The radical adaptability framework There are f

Self-serving employees are those who are typically just in it for themselves. They don't care who they have to step on or what they need to do to climb the corporate ladder. There are a few ways to figure out who amongst your employees are self-serving: They are always blaming other people. A self-serving person will always try to make other people look bad to make themselves look good. They always take control of meetings. There's always one person who wants their voice to be heard, "My opinion is right, your opinion is wrong.” They are too competitive. Competition is great, but if you’ll do anything to win, like lying or cheating, then it’s taking it too far. If you have someone like this, no one will want to be a part of your team or organization. This episode is sponsored by Perceptyx. Perceptyx helps enterprises get a clear picture of their employee experience with a continuous listening and people analytics platform aligned to key business goals. With the industry’s largest portfolio of survey types – i

Lorenzo Simonelli is the Chairman, President, and CEO of Baker Hughes, a $20 billion energy technology company with 60,000 employees in 120 countries around the world. Prior to Baker Hughes Lorenzo served as President and CEO of GE Transportation, CFO of the Americas for GE Consumer & Industrial, and General Manager, Product Management for GE Appliances, Lighting, Electrical Distribution, and Motors. It is a very different experience for leaders today than it was decades ago. With the advent of social media, sites like Glassdoor, Smartphones, etc...everything they do and say is out there for the world to see and they are constantly scrutinized and analyzed. As Lorenzo shares, unlike in the past, the role of a leader now is 24/7. He is aware of the constant feedback and analysis and says he is a humble person and he tries to do the right thing on an ongoing basis. He treats people with respect and leads in a genuine way. And so when people critique him it doesn’t get to him as much, because he is comfort

Does your leader have a growth mindset or a fixed mindset? There are a few ways you can find out. Leaders who have a fixed mindset place a very high priority on looking smart. They believe people can't change. If you work for a manager or a leader who doesn't believe in embracing vulnerability or admitting that they don't know something, your boss has a fixed mindset. On the other hand, if you work for a manager or a leader who believes in getting feedback and encourages learning, experimenting, and curiosity, your boss has a growth mindset. Imagine being under constant pressure at work every day and feeling that every word that comes out of your mouth has to be correct. That's a horrible kind of culture to be in. This is why leaders need a growth mindset. Now more than ever we need to take a step back to define what it means to be a leader and what great leadership looks like. But this isn’t easy to do. In fact, many business leaders struggle with this. You cannot become and build what you don't define. In t

Mike Capone is the CEO of Qlik, a business intelligence company that provides end-to-end cloud data integration and data analytics solutions for organizations around the world. Mike leads a team of over 2,600 people around the world.  Mike’s experience as a leader started at the age of 24 when he was working in IT and he says he was totally unprepared for it. At the time he had no training, no experience, and he found it very intimidating at first. But with time, advice, and on the job learning he figured things out.  He says that his progression from an entry level leader to being the CEO leading over 2,600 people came about because of hard work, a willingness to volunteer for the hard jobs, and the ability to help others be successful.  The things that made a difference in Mike’s career Jamie Dimon, the Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, is a leader that Mike really respects and someone that he has watched for a long time. In an interview Jamie shared that when it comes to success, there is no substitute f

There used to be a time where graduating from school was enough for you to be successful in life and in work. And when you worked for a company, it too, would teach you everything you needed to know. But today, that’s no longer the case. Today, you can't rely on educational institutions and companies to teach you everything you need to know to be successful. You need to be more accountable over your personal and professional development. You need to learn how to learn. Especially in this rapidly changing world of work, you’ll likely need to reinvent yourself multiple times during the course of your career. What do you do to keep learning? Now more than ever we need to take a step back to define what it means to be a leader and what great leadership looks like. But this isn’t easy to do. In fact, many business leaders struggle with this. You cannot become and build what you don't define. In the PDF you will get a framework you can follow and also see how some of the world’s top CEOs define leadership. Click he

Martin Moore is the author of the upcoming book, No Bullsh!t Leadership, and the host of the podcast with the same name which has been downloaded more than 1.4 million times and has listeners in over 70 countries. He is also the former CEO of CS Energy and he currently runs Your CEO Mentor with his daughter, Emma. Martin wrote his book because there are so many books out on the market that teach desirable attributes that leaders should have, but he didn’t find anything out there that shows leaders how to actually implement these ideas. He wanted to create a practical guide that would help leaders figure out how to be more transparent, how to be expert communicators, how to deal with conflict, etc… As Martin has witnessed personally there are a lot of leaders out there who attend training programs and they come back motivated and inspired by all of the things they have learned, but when they get back to work nothing has actually changed. So they think they are doing better because of the new knowledge they ha

Business is very much like the game of chess. We need to prepare for a lot of different scenarios. We do this in our personal lives all the time. When we think about buying a house or having a kid, we think through everything--what's going to happen to the property value? What should my child study when they grow up? I wonder who they're going to marry? We like to think about different scenarios. But for some reason in business, we don't think about different scenarios, we only think about one scenario. We need to do a better job of thinking of multiple business scenarios and preparing for all of them. (This is a clip of my conversation with Vicente Fox, former president of Mexico) Now more than ever we need to take a step back to define what it means to be a leader and what great leadership looks like. But this isn’t easy to do. In fact, many business leaders struggle with this. You cannot become and build what you don't define. In the PDF you will get a framework you can follow and also see how some of the

Oisin Hanrahan is the CEO of Angi, the parent company of Angie’s List, HomeAdvisor, and Handy. He is actually the co-founder and former CEO of Handy before it was acquired by Angi, and now he leads the $8 billion company with around 5,000 employees. When he was just 19 years old he founded a real estate company in Budapest and ran that for 6 years. Later on he came to the US and attended Harvard Business School, but he and his Handy co-founder both dropped out to launch the business in 2012. Oisin truly enjoys the CEO role. As he shares, “I relish the opportunity to set the culture, to set the values, to really think about how we're recruiting people, how we're rewarding them, how we're recognizing them. And I think that that's something that I really enjoy, you know, it's something that I really like to get into.” And he wants everyone on his team to love their job as much as he loves his. Oisin has a bi-weekly meeting with new team members and during the meeting he sits down with them and he talks about the

Great leaders are amazing communicators. But with all the technology out there, how do you know what platform to use for each message, and how to effectively use that medium? Here are a series of questions to think about when you are trying to decide how to communicate effectively. 1-What is the message you are trying to convey? Consider what you want other people to take away and how they should feel after receiving your message. 2-Who is receiving the message? Communicating with one person is different than communicating with an entire team, just like talking to new employees is different than talking to employees who have been at the company for years. 3-Do you need feedback? If you want some kind of feedback, a personal meeting might be your way to go. Urgent concerns or clarifications might require speaking up in a meeting and asking your question. 4-What is the culture of your audience? Different tools, technologies, or customs that work in your part of the world might not work somewhere else. Understan