Archives

Guest: Monique Jefferson

Season: 9   Episode: 4

Are you a hybrid leader yet?

That’s what today’s work world demands. Most workers prefer work from home. Others prefer to be in the office. Still others like hybrid work: a combination of both. In this episode in our Connex Partners Executive Insights series, we ask—How do you lead people with such opposing preferences? And how do you accommodate the breadth of diversity in the workforce?

Monique Jefferson says the answer lies in being intentional. The Chief People Officer of NYC’s Community Preservation Corporation successfully guides her leaders into intentionality and inclusivity. Done well, your team will have purpose, passion, and perspective…all of which lead to greater morale and loyalty. She shares her methods with host Maureen Metcalf.

Here’s what Monique and Maureen cover:

• The path to being an intentional leader in today’s hybrid work environment;
• Why flexibility ranks higher than compensation in importance to today’s workers; and
• The Three Ps, and their importance to your team…and you .

Other episodes you’ll enjoy:

• The New Role of Leadership in a Hybrid Workplace – with Greg Moran
• Five Trends to Know: Leadership in 2023 – with Christopher Washington
• Recruiting & Retaining Diverse Executives – with Eric Douglas Keene

Guest: Reta Jo Lewis

Season: 9   Episode: 6

“It’s not just about the the betterment of you and your family. It’s about the betterment of the community.”

That is one of the core values that helped guide Reta Jo Lewis through an eventful leadership journey, culminating in her current role as president and chair of the board of the Export Import Bank of the United States — the first African American to accomplish this. She is a passionate advocate for women in entrepreneurship and has a long history of working in politics and law.

In this episode, she shares more about her amazing leadership path (including time with Nelson Mandela), and how that can help you in your own career journey.

Here’s what Reta Jo and host Maureen Metcalf cover:

1. The importance of feeling you’re working for something bigger than just yourself;
2. Having confidence that the skills and knowledge you have now prepared you for your next career opportunity; and
3. Why forging a network and relationships with peers, mentors, and role models is so important to developing as a leader.

Other episodes you’ll enjoy:

– ShEquity: A Refugee’s Path to Empowering Women & Their Businesses – with Pauline Koelbl

– Empowering Women for the Prosperity of Nations – with Amanda Ellise & Augusto Lopez-Claros

– Winning in the Face of Adversity: Overcoming Challenge with Grace – with Joyce Beatty & Doug McCollough

Guest: Carolyn Buck Luce

Season: 9   Episode: 7

Live an epic life.

That’s the goal Carolyn Buck Luce advises you to have. In this episode, she shares ways to make that happen…and how that path started for her.

Eight year old Carolyn Buck Luce was inspired by John F. Kennedy’s call to service, and decided to take responsibility for answering it even though she was only in elementary school. She created her first Decade Game, a plan for the next ten years of her life. Despite the pre-internet turmoil of the 1960s, she was determined to follow her purpose and make a difference in the world. She used the Decade Game to understand the power of leadership and the importance of courage, vulnerability, and trust. And, critically, she observed that women give away much of their power – not just in the board room, but beginning as children in primary school.

That served to motivate her even more. Carolyn continues her mission, and still uses her Decade Game in her journey to becoming an organizational shaman inspiring humans to live epic lives.

Here’s what Carolyn and Maureen cover:

1. What, exactly, the Decade Game is – and how to play it;
2. Why truly courageous leaders use their power for good; and
3. The importance of having purpose.

Other episodes you’ll enjoy:

– Leading with Care and Purpose with Raj Sisodia & Sudhanshu Palsule

– Storydoers: Leaders with Higher Purposes with Ty Montague

– Finding Meaning, Joy, & Purpose in What You Do with Paul Gibbons

Guest: Sharon Melnick

Season: 9   Episode: 8

Pushy. Manipulative. Lofty.

We have a lot of negative views for powerful leaders – but that’s not what real power is about. When a leader is in their power, they raise everyone around them. It’s the difference between simply having power, and being IN your power.

With her latest book, In Your Power, Sharon Melnick explores the ways women leaders, in particular, both grow and leak their power. She discusses those, as well as how turning down an invitation to the White House led to her epiphany about giving away your personal power, in this episode.

Here’s what Sharon and Maureen cover:

• How and why we can redefine power as a force for good;
• The three ways in which we’re not in our power; and
• How burnout results not just from overwork, but from being underpowered, too.

Other episodes you’ll enjoy:

– The Women’s Power Playbook with Carolyn Buck Luce

– ShEquity: A Refugee’s Path to Empowering Women with Pauline Koelbl

– Power, Charisma, & Hormones: Science Studies Leadership with John Antonakis

Guests: Mark Palmer & Eddie Moore

Season: 9   Episode: 9

Forget about future ready; you’re not ready for now!

Most leaders operate at a disadvantage: they don’t have a formal blueprint of their organization. Yet organizational design is vital if you want to be ready for whatever the future brings to your business. From your supply chain to internal communications, organizational design is far, far more than an org chart. In this episode, guests Eddie Moore and Mark Palmer explain how absolutely vital design is in making your business future-ready!

Here’s what Mark, Eddie, and Maureen cover:

1. What organizational design really is;
2. How succession planning is built in to the very fabric of design; and
3. The many ways org design future-proofs your team.

Other episodes you’ll enjoy:

– The Essentials of Theory U with Otto Scharmer

– Hiring in the Great Resignation: Developing Your Culture, Communications, and Pipeline in a Crisis with Michelle Sanchez-Bickley

– Leading with Care and Purpose with Raj Sisodia & Sudhanshu Palsule

Guest: Anne Klibanski

Season: 9   Episode: 10

Healthcare begins and ends in the home. At least, it should: you’re more likely to heal a bit faster and your outlook tends to be brighter at home instead of a hospital. Further, COVID revealed and amplified medical staff burnout and other issues already brewing in our healthcare system.

It’s overwhelming for most healthcare leaders, but our guest – Dr. Anne Klibanski – tackles these issues head-on. The president and CEO of Mass General Brigham, she and her team created, and continue to develop, groundbreaking solutions for their hospitals…and, more importantly, their patients. In this episode, Anne shares those solutions and the challenges they present for leaders with host Maureen Metcalf.

Here’s what Anne and Maureen cover:

1. The lack of patient beds and other resources COVID made clear (but remain today);

1. What healthcare leaders can do to resolve those issues; and

1. Why the old status quo for American healthcare won’t work anymore, along with the newer, better methods Mass General Brigham is creating and using.

Other episodes you’ll enjoy:

• High Performance Medicine: Healthcare & Innovation with Brian Ferguson
• Innovative Leadership for the Healthcare Industry – with Neil Grunberg
• (Hospital) Hiring in the Great Resignation – with Michelle Sanchez-Bickley

Guest: Betsy Myers

Season: 9   Episode: 11

We may gripe about the pandemic, but it gave us one very positive change for women in the workplace: flexibility. It also highlighted for everyone that old-school leadership won’t cut it anymore. Betsy Myers says head and heart leadership is the model for today’s leaders. It fuses data-driven strategies and decisiveness with qualities such as warmth, compassion, empathy, and collaboration. In short, the head sets the purpose for an organization, but the heart engages your people to follow and bring their best selves to the team.  Here’s what Betsy covers with host Maureen Metcalf:

1. Change is inevitable…so successful leaders embrace it;
2. The impacts of holding on to an old-school leadership style (and why it’s the #1 cause of leadership failure!); and
3. What Head-and-Heart Leadership really means.

Other episodes you’ll enjoy:

– Epic! The Women’s Power Playbook – with Carolyn Buck Luce

– ShEquity: A Refugee’s Path to Empowering Women & Their Businesses – with Pauline Koelbl

– Empowering Women for the Prosperity of Nations – with Amanda Ellis & Augusto Lopez-Claros

Guests: Brenda Hampel & Erika Lamont

Season: 9   Episodes: 12

More than 40% of new leaders fail within 18 months. Why?

Don’t blame the leader; look at the organization instead! Most organizations don’t onboard a new leader well, if at all. They assume a person’s success at one company will automatically transfer to theirs – but there are far too many variables at play to bank on that. Instead, an onboarding plan that goes beyond HR protocols and benefits sign-up is necessary: a plan that considers company culture, history, team dynamics…even quality of life differences if the new leader is coming from out of town!

Brenda Hampel and Erika Lamont of Connect the Dots share tips, tricks, and outright wisdom from years of experience helping organizations maximize the success of their new leaders.

Here’s what Brenda, Erika, and host Maureen Metcalf cover:

1. The three main components of a good onboarding plan;

1. Why overlooking help with personal transitions – including spouse and children – is a key reason for new leaders leaving your organization; and

1. Why how you handled your workforce during the COVID pandemic is the ultimate litmus test for a leader considering your job offer.

Other episodes you’ll enjoy:

• Hiring for Keeps: The Rise of Recruiter.com – with Evan Sohn
• A Cure for Toxic Leadership – with Raj Subrameyer
• Hiring in the Great Resignation – with Michelle Sanchez-Bickley

Guest: Tara McGowan

Season: 9   Episode: 13

Misinformation and disinformation have become the lifeblood of social media – even some cable channels hungry for ratings. But, as a leader, you need hard facts and straight information.

How did we get here, and what can you do to find the good data your decisions need? Tara McGowan, founder and publisher of Courier Newsroom, notes that propaganda and disinformation have always existed…but social media’s algorithms have amplified it exponentially, creating hard echo chambers that can be hard for truth to get through. And, she says, that puts not just your business at risk, but democracy itself. Fortunately, she has some solutions!

Here’s what Tara and host Maureen Metcalf cover:

• How social media algorithms work – and revolutionized the spread of misinformation;
• Ways leaders can recognize disinformation and halt its spread; and
• 3) Simple steps we can all take to be media literate.

Other episodes you’ll enjoy:

• You Are Enough, You Are Worthy: Leadership Lessons for Women with Besty Myers
• – Hot Topics: A Prime Minister’s Perspective with Kim Campbell
• – Democracy: Are We a Brittle Twig or Supple Bamboo? with Matt Qvortrup

Guest: Dr. Ciela Hartanov

Season: 9   Episode: 14

Change is accelerating. Volatility continues unabated. And no business is immune. What’s a leader to do?

Develop foresight and become future-ready, of course!  Ciela Hartanov joins us in this episode to detail her practical process for developing foresight. As a futurist, she’s developed many tools for probing potential paths’ future outcomes. She’s distilled those tools into her foresight process. That, in turn, helps leaders adapt their mindsets, enabling them to make their organizations future ready.

Here’s what Ciela and host Maureen Metcalf cover:

1. The definition of foresight, and what it means for businesses;
2. How future-ready capabilities increase profitability and growth potential; and
3. Questioning whether organizations really need a C.E.O. at the top.

Other episodes you’ll enjoy:

• Uncharted: How to Map the Future Together with Margaret Heffernan
• Finding Peace When in Conflict – with Lord John Alderdice (excerpt of full interview referenced by Maureen in today’s podcast)
• Opportunity in Uncertainty – with Dr. Ciela Hartanov (her first appearance on our show!)