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

I’ve had the privilege of speaking with around 500 leaders over the years on The Future of Work Podcast and I have really learned a lot from each one. On the show, they share tips, advice, lessons they’ve learned, as well as an inside look at what it’s like to lead their organization.  This past year really brought a lot of challenges for every single leader around the world. We had to learn how to adjust to a pandemic, how to address social injustices, how to lead virtually and much more. My guests really shared a lot of inspiration, motivation, as well as realistic advice for listeners.  Even though all of the interviews were great and informative, I have a few favorites that I really enjoyed. And from those episodes I have compiled 15 leadership lessons that are crucial for leaders to learn in order to succeed in the future.  Leading by example: Arthur Blank, co-founder The Home Depot Arthur Blank is the co-founder of the Home Depot, which today has a market cap of over $300 billion and they have over 400,

Culture is usually the hardest thing for organizations to figure out. It’s something you can’t see or touch. Culture is how employees feel working for the organization. I’ll never forget the story of when President Kennedy visited NASA Space Center. In the middle of his tour, he saw a man walking down the hall with a mop and a bucket. President Kennedy stopped the tour and went over to the man and said, “Hi, I'm President Kennedy. What do you do here?” And the man said: “I helped put a man on the moon.” This is the type of culture they had in NASA, and it’s something every company should have. The type of culture you have in your organization greatly impacts the employee experience.

Kathy Mazzarella is the Chairman, President, and CEO at Graybar, a wholesale distribution company that’s been around for 151 years. The company has around 8,700 employees and $7.5 billion in revenue. She has been with the company for 41 years and has been president for 9 of those years. Kathy Mazzarella has a great story of how she first started at the company she now leads as Chairman, President, and CEO. When she was 19 years old she decided she didn’t want to go into medicine anymore so she dropped out of college, where she had a full scholarship, and moved back home with her parents. It only took about three days before both she and her parents came to the mutual conclusion that Kathy needed to get a job and move out. So she set up an interview with a company called Genentech where she was applying to do some research work. But on the day of the interview she got lost and had to ask for directions. She just happened to walk into Graybar to ask someone at the front desk for directions and the woman asked K

The world of work has changed a lot.  We live in a world of uncertainty where employee tenure is no longer a thing. The best way to navigate this world is to be a super perpetual learner.  That means constantly learning new things at a rapid pace and applying those things on a regular basis.  You need to keep up with the pace of change or you will be left behind.

Aaron Cooper is the Interim CEO at Groupon, an online marketplace with around 4,000 employees globally. Prior to that he had worked in several other roles at Groupon including president of North America, Chief Marketing Officer, head of Global Travel, Head of North America Services and Head of North America Goods. Before Groupon Aaron held a lot of marketing and leadership positions at Orbitz and optionsXpress and he held consulting roles at AOL and PwC. Aaron Cooper, who recently moved into the role of interim CEO at Groupon, says his recipe for success has been working across many different industries and in very diverse roles. These experiences have given him the skills and mindsets he needs to be the best leader he can be. He says it has been incredibly important for his career that he’s been able to work in finance, marketing, brand marketing, and general management across industries such as travel, retail, finance, and internet. He has worked with companies who were very successful and growing and he’s

You can start being an intrapreneur now! When most people think of an entrepreneur, they think of an individual who went off on their own to start a successful business. But being an entrepreneur can also be applicable inside of your organization--it’s called being an intrapreneur. One of the things that make entrepreneurs unique is their ability to push through obstacles and challenges that come their way. Entrepreneurs are also big dreamers. They understand failures and move on to the next obstacle. Entrepreneurs also have vision. They have a very clear picture in their minds of what they want to do and the problem they want to solve. Entrepreneurs are also extremely self-driven, they have an internal fire that's always pushing them, and they don't need somebody to tell them what to do. You can have all of these qualities even if you work inside an organization. Thinking like an entrepreneur will have a significant impact on your career and on your life.

Shellye Archambeau is the former CEO of MetricStream, a Silicon Valley based governance, risk, and compliance software company, and the author of the new book, Unapologetically Ambitious: Take Risks, Break Barriers, and Create Success on Your Own Terms. She also serves on the boards of Verizon, Nordstrom, Roper Technologies, and Okta. Under her leadership MetricStream was recognized for growth and innovation over the years and was named in the top 10 of the Deloitte Technology Fast 50. Shellye was named the second most influential African American in IT by Business Insider. She was ranked one of the “100 Most Influential Business Leaders in America” by Newsmax and she received the NCWIT Symons Innovator Award from the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT). Shellye Archambeau is no stranger to roadblocks and barriers. All throughout her career she has encountered them. But one thing she learned early on was that life is not fair, you’re not always going to have an easy time. The good n

People are always reluctant to change. It’s human nature. But if you want your team to adapt to new technologies, there is something you can do. To get your team to embrace new technology, you have to educate them. It's not just about giving them the tools or training them how to use it--it’s about helping them understand why and how these technologies will improve how they work. Change is hard. There will be a learning curve. But I promise you, if you get through that learning curve, you’ll absolutely see the benefits.

Melissa Smith is the CEO of Wex Inc. a provider of payment processing and information management services in the US, Canada, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. They have around 5,000 employees and under Melissa’s leadership the company has gone from $50 million to $1.7 billion in revenue. Melissa began at Wex Inc. in 1997 as a senior financial analyst and she worked her way up to being CFO and then President of the Americas before becoming CEO.  A lot of things in the world have been changed by Covid-19. The way organizations operate, the way employees connect with one another, and even the way leaders have to lead. Melissa Smith, the CEO of Wex Inc., who is responsible for around 5,000 employees around the world says connecting with her people is more important now than ever before. And one important way she does that is through recognizing her people for what they do. She takes time to send handwritten notes to employees who have been promoted, or who have gone above and beyond in a project, or who

Being self-aware is one of the most important skills to have as a leader. It will help you identify your weaknesses and work on them. How do you know if you’re self-aware? There are a couple of signs.

Kate Johnson is President of Microsoft US, a $45 billion division  including all of Microsoft’s solutions, services, and support revenues across public and private sectors in the United States. Kate is responsible for a team of 10,000 people and she is currently very involved in Microsoft’s culture journey led by CEO Satya Nadella. Prior to Microsoft Kate served as the Chief Commercial Officer for GE Digital. She has held several key senior leadership roles at GE, Oracle, Red Hat, and Deloitte Consulting. With the chaotic state of the world right now we need leaders who are courageous and empathetic. One leader who truly understands how to lead with both courage and empathy in these challenging times is Kate Johnson, the President of Microsoft US. Leaders can’t just stay where they are comfortable anymore, they have to be willing to take a risk and own all the consequences. They have to be open, transparent, and vulnerable. They have a deep understanding of their people and their customers. When the CEO of Mi

Self-awareness is one of the most important things to have as a leader. An effective way to practice self-awareness is to know what others think of you. Other people's opinions of you are often very different from your opinion of yourself. You need to encourage people to give you constructive feedback. But you can’t just call people up and ask what they think of you. Once you collect this information, you can compare it to your list of how you think about yourself. This will help you assess yourself and improve on the areas you are struggling with. This episode of Future of Work is supported by Teamistry, a podcast that tells the stories of teams who work together in new and unexpected ways… to beat the odds. Each episode tells a unique story and provides practical lessons for your team and your business. I got a sneak peek of season 2 and was immediately sucked in with its documentary-style narration, details about stories I thought I knew but didn’t, and practical lessons that I was able to apply to my busi

Carrie Birkhofer is President and CEO of Bay Federal Credit Union, a non profit financial cooperative with 225 employees. She’s been the CEO there for 25 years and under her leadership the credit union has grown from $70 million to $1.4 billion in assets. This year has brought on a lot of challenges for leaders in every industry. Some leaders have struggled and even failed. Others have really embraced change in order to help their people get through these tough times. One CEO that has really used the current challenges to make her organization even better is Carrie Birkhofer, President and CEO of Bay Federal Credit Union. Even before the pandemic she knew the importance of putting people first. Carrie was one of the CEOs I interviewed for my book, The Future Leader and during the interview she said the following, “I meet employees the first hour on the first day they start at the Credit Union. New employees are welcomed as a group and when new hires start together, I’m there. I greet them, I welcome them, and

Improving your strengths and working on your weaknesses is not as hard as people think. When I was younger and was trying to make decisions in my life, whether it was who I wanted to date, where I wanted to live, or even the company I wanted to apply for, my dad would always say, "Jacob, take out a piece of paper, fold it in half and write down the pros and cons on each side of the paper." What you can also do with this exercise is to replace the pros and cons column with strengths and weaknesses. This is a great way to assess yourself and find out what areas you need to work on. Of course, this only works if you are completely honest with yourself. As you learn new things and try to work on your weaknesses, these things are going to change. If you do this exercise on a regular basis, you’ll become very self-aware of what your strengths and weaknesses actually are. It's a very simple practice that can make a big difference. This episode of Future of Work is supported by Teamistry, a podcast that tells the sto

Michael Watkins is the Professor of Leadership and Organizational Change at the IMD Business School and the co-founder of Genesis Advisors, a global leadership development consultancy based in Boston where he coaches C-level executives of global organizations. He is also the author of 11 books including the international bestseller, The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter. Michael was recently ranked among the top 50 management thinkers globally by Thinkers50. Previously he was an adjunct professor at INSEAD and an associate professor at the Harvard Business School and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. We all go through periods of transition. Whether it is a change in a role at work or moving to a different company or even going through a new season in your personal life, transitions are a part of life. For leaders transitions are critical, and if they are not handled correctly the results can be disastrous. Michael’s book, The First 90 Days, looks

To be successful in the future of work, leaders must have a growth mindset. One way to identify if a person has a fixed mindset or a growth mindset is by how they tackle problems. For example, if you have a fixed mindset, when you run into a challenge or are faced with a roadblock, you try to tackle it the same way over and over. When those attempts don't work, you get frustrated and quit. But when you have a growth mindset, you find a way to get better to solve the problem. You understand that what you were doing didn’t work and that you need to learn a new skill to overcome the obstacle. If you're able to embrace this concept of a growth mindset, you’ll become much more valuable as a leader inside your organization. This episode of Future of Work is supported by Teamistry, a podcast that tells the stories of teams who work together in new and unexpected ways… to beat the odds. Each episode tells a unique story and provides practical lessons for your team and your business. I got a sneak peek of season 2 and

The way we work is changing.  It’s not going to stop changing anytime soon, in fact the change is only going to speed up.  Organizations have made progress in adapting for the future of work, but we still have a long way to go.  In my book, The Future of Work, I laid out 14 principles of the future organization. And while that book was released back in 2014, these principles are still very relevant for organizations today and we have a lot of work to do in each one of these areas in order to succeed in the next decade and beyond. So let’s take a deeper look at each one of these 14 principles. Globally distributed with smaller teams We have been seeing organizations move away from having all of their employees located in a few corporate offices to having employees spread out all over the world. This allows teams to be smaller and more agile.  It also opens up a wider pool of talent for organizations then we have seen in the past. Proximity to the corporate headquarters is no longer an issue. This is an excitin

People analytics is crucial to creating great experiences.  I was once speaking overseas to a large organization that was very interested in investing in employee experiences.  The Chief HR Officer said that the average tenure in the organization was eight to ten years. I told him that was great and asked him why that was, but he said he didn't know.  He also said, “When people do leave the company, they always leave at the two-year mark.” But when I asked what happened at the two-year mark, he said he didn’t know.   Without people analytics, you don’t have data. And data is what helps you truly know your people.  Look at the data you already have about your people--engagement data, salary data, geographic data, demographic and background data, performance review data, etc. You have a lot of ways to find data and learn about your employees.  This episode is sponsored by Teamistry, a podcast by Atlassian. Check them out at http://bit.ly/fowatlassian  

We are facing a leadership crisis today. The world of work is changing, which means we need a different type of leader to guide our people and organizations to success.  The old ways won’t work anymore.  In my newest book, The Future Leader, I interviewed over 140 CEOs from around the world to get their view of how leadership is changing, what it’s going to look like in the future, and what we need to do now to be future-ready leaders.  One thing was clear in all of their responses, what has worked in the past will not work in the future. We need a new kind of leader. Leadership can no longer be based solely on confidence, seniority, the ability to make money for the company, acting like you know it all, etc... Another thing that I found in my research for the book was the lack of leadership training inside of organizations. Most people become leaders in their mid to late 20s, but most leaders have admitted that they didn’t receive formal training until they were in their late 30s and early 40s. That means th

The Covid-19 pandemic has hit a lot of organizations hard in a way that they might never recover. Some of these organizations have chosen to let thousands of employees go just to make their numbers better. And it got me thinking, what if organizations couldn’t fire people when the company didn’t meet its numbers? Would they be able to come up with creative solutions to keep those people employed? Would they do things differently? Cutting employees should always be the company’s last resort. Employees are the greatest asset of organizations around the world.