Podcasts – Page 20

LinkedIn’s Pat Wadors Talks About Finding the Right People

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (35.9MB)

Pat Wadors is the Chief Human Resources Officer at LinkedIn. Since 2013, in addition to hiring, retaining and inspiring top talent, Pat is responsible for all employee-related HR programs, including compensation and benefits, and performance management. She came to LinkedIn from Plantronics, where she was Senior Vice President of Human Resources. From August 2011 until August 2012, Pat also served as the HR Executive Advisor to Twitter. Previously, Pat held senior leadership positions at Yahoo!, Align Technologies, Applied Materials, Merck Pharmaceutical, Viacom International, and Calvin Klein Cosmetics. She holds a BS in Business Administration from Ramapo College, with a major in Human Resources Management and a minor in Psychology.

Next week’s guest Larry Robertson, Founder, Lighthouse Consulting.

Lolly Daskal and the Leadership Gap

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (31.4MB)

As we open the second quarter of the Year of the Peer, we do so as a member of the C-Suite Radio family. To get us started, we are joined by Lolly Daskal.

Lolly Daskal is a best-selling author and one of the most sought-after executive leadership coaches in the world. Her extensive expertise spans 14 countries, six languages and hundreds of companies. As founder and CEO of Lead From Within, her proprietary leadership program serves as a catalyst for leaders who want to enhance their performance and make a meaningful difference in their companies and in the world. Lolly’s proprietary insights are the subject of her new book, The Leadership Gap: What Gets Between You and Your Greatness.

Lolly was designated a Top-50 Leadership and Management Expert by Inc. magazine, and Huffington Post honored her with the title of The Most Inspiring Woman in the World.

Next week’s guest, LinkedIn Chief Human Resources Officer, Pat Wadors.

Year of the Peer Joins C-Suite Radio Family and Announces Q2 Schedule

C-Suite Radio Chairman, Jeffrey Hayzlett recently welcomed Year of the Peer with Leo Bottary to the C-Suite Radio family, “Leo leads conversations about leadership, collaboration, and our future, that you just won’t get anywhere else. If you’re a leader of any organization at any level, or you want to be one someday, this show is for you.”

I couldn’t be happier than to share this journey with C-Suite Radio! For 50 weeks, I’ve committed to invite some of the best minds in the world to share their insights, stories, and recommendations about how we can work together more effectively – to seek common ground and see one another for our special gifts rather than our differences. I am so appreciative of the guests who appeared on the show in Q1. Here’s the guest lineup for Q2!

April 6 Lolly Daskal, Founder, Lead From Within

13 Pat Wadors, CHRO LinkedIn

20 Larry Robertson, Founder Lighthouse Consulting

27 Sekou Andrews, Poetic Voice

May 4 Paul Michelman, MIT Sloan Management Review

11 Marian Salzman, CEO Havas PR, US

18 Ryan Foland, Managing Partner, InfluenceTree

25 Gini Dietrich, CEO Arment-Dietrich

June 1 Leo Bottary & Randy Cantrell (Year of the Peer Update)

8 Jeffrey Hayzlett, Chairman, C-Suite Holdings, LLC

15 Christina L. Martini, Partner at DLA Piper LLP (US)

22 Scott Mordell, CEO, YPO

29 Jimmy LeBlanc/Perry Stagg, Louisiana Department of Corrections

This podcast is one of several initiatives designed to encourage leaders everywhere to collaborate more effectively. Enjoy!

About C-Suite Radio:

C-Suite Radio is the premier source of the world’s leading business podcasts for C-Suite leaders and business executives, featuring shows covering a range of topics, including sales, marketing, leadership, social media, finance, and management. C-Suite radio features premium content from top thought leaders, designed to increase knowledge, deepen understanding, and build skills to enhance readers’ personal and professional lives. Visit C-Suite Radio online and follow them on Facebook and Twitter. For more information, visit http://www.c-suiteradio.com.

UConn Women’s Basketball: 9,923 #AndCounting

Friday night, I was on a Delta flight from JFK to San Diego, where I took advantage of the free satellite tv to watch the women’s college basketball semi-final games from the Final Four in Dallas. I was especially interested in the second game between Mississippi State and the University of Connecticut. UConn has become even more famous this year for having won 111 consecutive basketball games. And after losing three seniors, who were the top three picks in the WNBA last year, this would have been a rebuilding year for any other program in America; yet, UConn was back to the Final Four – streak intact and on the doorstep of winning its fifth straight national title.

While I enjoyed the streak as much as any UConn fan, I was far more impressed by the team culture that makes such a streak possible – one that doesn’t measure itself against its opponents so much as set its own standard of excellence. One that inspires a relentless commitment to getting better each and every day. I’m not sure when it started, but the hashtag #AndCounting took on a life of its own once UConn broke its own record (90) for consecutive NCAA basketball wins (men or women), and with each win thereafter, it was always noted, for example, as 100 #AndCounting, etc.

The prevailing thinking across the country, and especially for UConn fans, was that this team showed no signs of losing, and if they didn’t lose this year, everything points to their being even better next year. ESPN’s Kara Lawson speculated that because of this, 200 consecutive wins wasn’t out of the question. But as head coach Geno Auriemma warned everyone time and time again, all streaks come to an end. Unfortunately for UConn, it ended on Friday night with a buzzer beater in overtime.

The winning streak and program’s 11 national championships are great headlines, but they aren’t the story. The story and the lessons the coaching staff and these young women have to teach all of us lie in the team’s culture. The streak that I believe matters most to the coaching staff, and should matter most to the players, is the number of consecutive days they add to perpetuating a winning culture and honoring the players who came before them. In fairness, during many interviews I watched throughout the season, the players talked about this quite a bit. They don’t focus on the result; they focus on what makes the result possible.

To that end, I’ve created a new UConn streak. Let’s call it the UConn culture streak. I’ll mark its beginning as January 31, 1990 – the day the UConn women’s basketball team played its first game at the then new Gampel Pavilion. The following year, the team would advance to its first Final Four, and in 1995, go on to win its first national championship. The rest is history. As of today, its culture streak is 9,923 days #AndCounting. Congratulations to UConn on a wonderful season and for showing all of us what commitment to excellence and teamwork is all about.

Bri Seeley and Thaís Sky: Talk About Un-Networking!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 38:02 — 34.9MB)

Our guests today are Bri Seeley and Thaís Sky, founders of The Amplify Collective, based in Los Angeles. As life coaches, writers, speakers, and entrepreneurs, they founded the company because even after Bri had lived in LA for 4 years and after Thaís had been there for a year, they were struggling to make authentic connections in the city while working to get their businesses off the ground. Desperate for the connection of an authentic, tight-knit community of women, Bri and Thaís created a sisterhood for themselves and countless others -—not to trade business cards and false platitudes, but to communicate, collaborate, and support one another on a deeper level.

Next week’s guest: Renowned leadership coach and best-selling author, Lolly Daskal.

Stuck in the shallow end of the pool?

If you’re trying to get your entire body wet, staying in the shallow end of the pool isn’t going to get the job done, no matter how long you stand there. Nor will showing up to participate in your CEO or executive peer advisory group without being completely open and willing to be vulnerable about issues pertaining to your life and your business. If you go into it halfway, you’ll never realize the full benefits that come with being a group member.

Since late last year, I’ve been conducting workshops with peer advisory groups across the country, working with CEOs, small business owners, and other senior leaders. During these workshops, I essentially facilitate a group self-evaluation using the five factors from The Power of Peers: How the Company You Keep Drives Leadership, Growth & Success. From there, we develop an action plan for driving even higher group performance. (I also encourage the group members to facilitate a very similar exercise with the teams back at their companies).

The five factors or conditions we found to be common to high performing groups and teams include: 1) selecting the right people, 2) having an environment of mutual respect and trust (one that makes personal vulnerability possible), 3) fostering valuable group/team interaction, 4) inspiring a belief in the power of peer-to-peer accountability, and 5) having servant leadership that cultivates the other four factors.

When it comes to peer advisory groups, members typically score “the group” high when it comes to creating and sustaining an environment of mutual respect and trust. They understand that without it, nothing else in possible. What some members admit, however, in a moment of self-reflection, is that just because the water is warm and inviting, doesn’t mean they aren’t more comfortable in the shallow end of the pool.

For those members, I would say three things:

1) Cut yourself a break. At least you’re in the pool. At least you’re part of a peer advisory group and on the path toward going deeper.

2) Growing as a leader and as a person involves stepping outside your comfort zone once in awhile.

3) Take it one step at a time. Challenge yourself to reveal a little bit more of who you are during each and every meeting. Follow the lead of those who are more comfortable talking about sensitive issues and see the value they receive from having deep exchanges versus surface ones. Notice how much easier it is to identify the root cause of a challenge when someone is being completely open in describing it.

Stand alone in the shallow end and you’re far more likely to drown there than if you go to the deep end. Why? Because your members are in the deep end waiting for you, and they would never let that happen.

Leon Shapiro on The 1 Year Anniversary of The Power of Peers

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (33.4MB)

Leon Shapiro is the coauthor of The Power of Peers: How the Company You Keep Drives Leadership, Growth & Success and a director at The Advisory Board Company, a global research, technology and consulting firm that partners with more than 200,000 leaders in 4,100 organizations across health care and higher education. He also is the former CEO of Vistage Worldwide, an organization that assembles and facilitates peer advisory groups for CEOs and business leaders in the U.S and around the world.

Next week’s guests: Bri Seeley and Thais Sky, co-founders of The Amplify Collective.

Peer-to-Peer Snow Removal

Talking about the value of our peers in business and in life can be entertaining as well as informative. Enjoy this short video and then tell me that who you surround yourself with doesn’t matter! 😉

A Simple Idea, but Not a Small One

Later this week, I look forward to having my coauthor Leon Shapiro join me as my guest on the Year of the Peer Podcast with Leo Bottary, as we mark the one-year anniversary of the launch of The Power of Peers: How the Company You Keep Drives Leadership, Growth & Success. When I think back to how much we were anticipating the release of the book, it’s hard to believe how quickly the time has passed.

Leon will share much of what he’s experienced over the past 12 months during our upcoming conversation. For me, it’s been the learning experience of a lifetime. I’ve enjoyed the privilege of speaking to business leaders, scholars, and students, both here in the U.S. and abroad, sharing key concepts from the book and being fascinated by countless stories that people, from all walks of life, have shared with me about the power of peer in their lives. No matter where we live, none of us achieves anything entirely on our own.

In the end, we wrote the book because when you look at the positive difference peers and peer groups have made in the lives of CEOs and business leaders all across the world and then realize how few of them avail themselves of this powerful resource, it’s hard to square.

How could something that is so simple and works so well, be so underutilized? In a world where, all too often, we don’t give peer influence a second thought, what if we did? What if we could transform peer influence into peer advantage by simply being more selective, strategic and structured about how we engage those around us? The good news is we don’t have to guess. We know what happens, and I believe if more people reached out to one another more positively and purposefully more often, the world would be a better place.

That’s what makes every minute I spend writing a blog post, preparing for a podcast interview, or speaking to a live audience so worthwhile. Who we surround ourselves with matters. With a little effort, we can make it matter even more.

It’s not unlike the premise of Drew Dudley’s famous TED Talk, where he described leadership, not as an ominous concept, but as making a difference in the lives of those around us, one person at a time. He closed by saying, “It’s a simple idea, but I don’t think it’s a small one.”

He’s right.

Linda Darling-Hammond: Learning How to Learn Together

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 37:19 — 34.2MB)

Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond is the Charles E. Ducommun Emeritus Professor of Education at Stanford University. Last year, she became the founding president for the Learning Policy Institute, which conducts and communicates independent, high quality research to improve education policy and practice.

In 2008, she served as director of President Obama’s education policy transition team. Among Darling-Hammond’s more than 500 publications are The Flat World and Education: How America’s Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future (winner of the coveted 2012 Grawemeyer Award in Education). Her most recent books include Getting Teacher Evaluation Right: What Really Matters for Effectiveness and Improvement (2013) and Beyond the Bubble Test: How Performance Assessments Support 21st Century Learning (2014).

Next week’s guest: Leon Shapiro, coauthor of The Power of Peers: How the Company You Keep Drives Leadership, Growth & Success.