A recent study showed that 2/3 of US workers are disengaged and that number is close to 80% worldwide. This may be, in part, because we are living in a ½ virtual and a ½ face-to-face world. Nick Morgan is a communication coach and author. Nick and Kevin talk about his most recent book, Can You Hear Me? How to connect with people in a virtual world. Body language is important for communication, so what happens when you are working with folks around the globe? Nick explains that communication is an emotional exchange and delves into why online connections are fragile.
Jeffrey Gitomer is the King of Sales and New York Times bestselling author. In his latest book, Truthful Living, Jeffrey compiled, edited and annotated the lectures of Napoleon Hill. He joins Kevin to talk about his access to original course notes and why he thinks Hill’s lessons are more bankable today than they were 100 years ago. He shares Hill’s foundational wisdom and challenges us to think about what we aren’t doing.
In this episode, I am really practicing what I preach by being personally vulnerable and sharing some valuable lessons that leaders can learn when they open themselves up to others and are truly vulnerable.
Legendary service drives business. Legendary service is CONSISTENTLY delivering so your customers come back; both internal and external. Kevin sits down with Vicki Halsey, co- author of Legendary Service Legendary Service: The Key Is to Care, with Ken Blanchard and Kathy Cuff, to discuss connecting with each other to do our best possible work. She challenges us to listen to understand and ask ourselves what a 9 or 10 rating looks like for our customer. You have the power to serve at the highest level.
Despite all our “friends”, “followers” and “users”, we are feeling more isolated than ever. Radha Agrawal calls this “community confusion,” Radha is the author of BELONG: Find Your People, Create Community, and Live a More Connected Life. She chats with Kevin about leadership, gentle self-awareness and community. She believes leaders need to cultivate their personal communities beyond business. When leaders find support, they create connections (both personal and within their teams), which studies show are our key to happiness, fulfillment, and success.
When most people think about “balance”, they think about it in relation to work and life: work/life balance. And while I am going to discuss this in this episode, it’s not where I am going to start. Instead, I’m starting with a bicycle analogy.
Less than ½ of organizations say they have a consistent understanding of what strategy is and have a common language for it. Today Kevin and bestselling author on strategy Rich Horwath, most recently of STRATEGYMAN VS. THE ANTI-STRATEGY SQUAD, chat about how leaders can build their team's strategic capabilities. He believes that many managers are not maximizing the potential in their organization because they are not looking at insights. Everyone can think strategically, and we need to use this power to impact the bottom line.
Understanding your point of view is a launching point to becoming more emotionally intelligent, thereby building better relationships. Guy Harris is part of the Kevin Eikenberry team as a coach and master trainer and co-author of From Bud to Boss. Prior to becoming a trainer and coach, Guy served as a Nuclear Engineering Officer in the U.S. Navy Submarine Force. What he came to discover was that all his technical training did not prepare him to deal with humans. People were more complex than submarines AND if he wanted to make a greater impact he needed to work with others. He joins Kevin, in part, to discuss team building, relationships, and personality testing. Tests, such as DISC, should be used as a tool to build self-awareness, which is a stepping stone to becoming a better leader.
I’ve found that almost all of the successful people that I know, have met or even have read about have at least this one thing in common:
They have a positive perspective.
And while this can mean that they are sometimes optimists, it isn’t necessarily the same thing.
There are 10 positive emotions and when you express them, you open your mind to greater learning and better relationships. Scientifically, positive emotion expands our mental capabilities. Lisa Zigarmi is an organizational psychologist and leadership coach working with Fortune 500 companies and author of #Positivity at Work. Lisa and Kevin discuss positive psychology, esp. as it related to leadership. Leaders can create a culture for their people to flourish by simply helping them find meaning in their work as it relates to their team, their division, and the organization. She feels that emotion needs to be legitimized in the workplace and leaders need to make space for people to express emotion. When we forbid feelings, we see only part of the picture. Leaving them out of decision-making, judgment and interaction is not only impossible, but it’s also imprudent. Discrediting feelings in business blocks access to growth, meaning making and sustainable results.
Chris Dyer is the founder of G2 and the author of The Power of Company Culture. He joins Kevin to discuss lessons learned on his path to founding his own company. Chris has spent years researching what drives profits and productivity in a variety of corporations. He recognized that many leaders were intentional about NOT doing certain things. You need to know your limitations (and ask for help) and leverage your strengths.
It is my personal belief and a major organizational philosophy of ours that you cannot be a successful leader over a long period of time without having an OTHERS Focus.
And when I use this term, the topic often turns to Servant Leadership – are they one and the same?
Check out today’s episode to find out what Servant Leadership really means and how your focus can truly change your results and your life.
Five generations are in the workplace today and 40% of Americans have a boss younger than they are. What does this all mean for those of us closer to retirement? What are you going to do in the second stage of your career? Chip Conley is the author of Wisdom @ Work: The Making of a Modern Elder and Airbnb Strategic Advisor for Hospitality and Leadership. Chip and Kevin discuss a fast-changing workplace due to technology and the youth of today have the benefit of being “digital natives”. With that said, wisdom can be shared. Throughout the rapid change, we still remember that the need to understand humans is timeless. Chip tells us what it means to be a modern elder and capitalize on the qualities gained through experience, like good judgment and emotional intelligence.
Culture. Is it the current buzzword? How important is it to your organization? Karen Jaw-Madson is the principal of Co.-Design of Work Experience and author of Culture Your Culture: Innovating Experiences @Work. She was frustrated by all the talk surrounding the importance of culture yet found that most organizations did not have an intentional process to create their culture. She shares with Kevin the journey to create the book and how she purposely did not want it filled with case studies. She explains the Design of Work Experience and through this framework leaders, teams, and employees across the board can create a culture to fit their context.