Work And Life With Stew Friedman

Phil Mirvis is Senior Research Fellow at both the Global Network on Corporate Citizenship and the Babson Social Innovation Lab. He is an organizational psychologist whose research and private practice concerns large-scale organizational change, the character of the workforce and workplace, and the role of business in society.  Phil is a regular contributor to academic and professional journals, and he has authored or edited twelve books, including the acclaimed study of the national mood, The Cynical Americans, and a study of corporate human resource investments, Building the Competitive Workforce. His latest work, with Brad Googins, is The New Business of Business: Innovation for a Better World. He’s led public and corporate seminars all over the world, addressed leading university faculties and professional groups, and lectured in over 50 nations. Stew and Phil talk about the increasing importance of social innovation in today’s workplace. Phil describes the four types of social innovation strategies t

Aron Ain is Chairman and CEO of Kronos, named by Fortune and Great Place to Work as one of the 20 best places to work in technology for the second year in a row, and author of Work Inspired: How to Build an Organization Where Everyone Loves to Work. Since becoming CEO in 2005, Aron and his team have focused on employee engagement as a growth strategy and have seen worldwide employee engagement scores go up dramatically and revenue nearly triple. With more than 35,000 organizations using Kronos solutions in 100+ countries, Kronos is a leading global provider of workforce management and human capital management cloud solutions.Aron was the inaugural recipient of the “Ray Stata Leadership and Innovation Award” from the Massachusetts High Technology Council, and was recognized as “CEO of the Year” by the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council, and as “Entrepreneur of the Year” by Ernst & Young. He has been profiled by The New York Times about “The Incalculable Value of a Good Boss” and was featured in Ha

Bob Glazer is the CEO of Acceleration Partners, a global performance marketing agency, and the Founder and Chairman of Brandcycle.  He’s also an alum of the University of the University of Pennsylvania. Under Bob’s leadership, Acceleration Partners has become a recognized global leader in the affiliate marketing industry, receiving numerous industry and company culture awards, including Glassdoor’s Employees’ Choice Awards, Ad Age’s Best Place to Work, Entrepreneur’s Top Company Culture, Inc. Magazine’s Best Place to Work, Great Place to Work, Fortune’s Best Small & Medium Workplaces, and Boston Globe’s Top Workplaces. Bob was also ranked #2 in Glassdoor’s list of Top CEOs of Small and Medium Companies in the US. He is a past recipient of the Boston Business Journal “40 under 40” award and the author of the international bestseller, Performance Partnerships. He publishes a weekly newsletter, Friday Forward featuring all sorts of ideas for building capacity. His next book, Elevate: Push Beyond Your Li

Paul Rupert is the Founder and CEO of Rupert Organizational Design as well as CEO of the advocacy start-up  Respectful Exits, a company promoting the rights of aging workers by improving retirement options.  Paul spent fifteen years building innovative San Francisco nonprofit organizations in areas such as healthcare, legal services, publishing, and addiction treatment. He joined New Ways to Work, San Francisco’s flexible work think-tank, in 1986 to promote flexible work in major corporations.  In 2000 he opened his own firm in Washington, DC, Rupert Organizational Design, where he developed customized initiatives for 100 major clients that integrate online guidance and training for all forms of flexible work, including Phased Retirement. His client list ranges from Aetna, Amgen, and the IMF to PNC Bank, Sodexo, and Xerox. Paul and Stew discuss the various ways in which those nearing the old standard age of retirement can continue to add significant value to their employers and the costs to or

Marc Freedman is the President and CEO of encore.org and is one of the nation’s leading experts on the longevity revolution. Under his leadership, encore.org has helped spark a growing movement to tap the talent and experience of people past midlife as a human resource for solving our most vexing social problems. He is also a member of the Wall Street Journal’s “Experts” panel and the author of several books including Retiring with Confidence for the Genius and The Big Shift: Navigating the New Stage Beyond Midlife. Freedman co-founded, with AARP,  Experience Corps to mobilize people over 50 to improve the school performance and prospects of low-income elementary school students in 22 U.S. cities. He also spearheaded the creation of the Encore Fellowships program, a one-year internship for grownups helping individuals translate their midlife skills into second acts focused on social impact, and the Purpose Prize (now run by AARP), which has an annual $100,000 prize for social entrepreneurs in the second

Daniel Goleman is an internationally known psychologist and author of the worldwide bestseller Emotional Intelligence. More recently he is co-author of Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain and Body. A frequent speaker to businesses of all kinds and sizes, Goleman has worked with leaders around the globe, examining the way social and emotional competencies impact the bottom-line. His articles in the Harvard Business Review are among the most frequently requested reprints of all time. The Focused Leader won the 2013 HBR McKinsey Award for best article of the year. Goleman has been ranked among the 25 most influential business leaders by several business publications, including TIME and The Wall Street Journal. Apart from his writing on emotional intelligence, Goleman has written books on self-deception, creativity, transparency, meditation, social and emotional learning, eco-literacy, and the ecological crisis.Daniel and Stew talk about the many ways in which meditation reaps

Katherine Milkman is the Evan C. Thompson Endowed Term Chair for Excellence in Teaching and Professor of Operations, Information, and Decisions at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. She holds a secondary appointment in the Perelman School of Medicine. And she is the co-director of the Behavior Change for Good Initiative.  Professor Milkman specializes in the study of self-control failures and how to improve self-control by using big data to glean insights that can help us all.   Her undergraduate degree from Princeton University is in Operations Research and Financial Engineering and a her Ph.D. is from Harvard University’s joint program in Computer Science and Business. Poets and Quants named her one the top 40 business school professors under 40 and she was a finalist for the Thinkers 50 2017 Radar Thinker, among many other awards and accolades. She publishes in leading social science journals as well as in the popular press.Katy explains how we can limit tempta

Dr. Benoit Dube is an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine, Associate Vice Provost, and the inaugural Chief Wellness Officer at the University of Pennsylvania.  Indeed, he’s the first in the Ivy League to hold such a position, which is, in itself, a response to the urgent mental health issues facing college campuses. Dr. Dube is a core member of the University Life team, directing wellness initiatives across the University and overseeing a new division of Student Wellness Services that includes the Offices of Alcohol and Other Drug Program Initiatives, Campus Health, Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), Penn Violence Prevention, and the Student Health Service. He began at Penn in 1997 as a Resident and is now an Attending Physician at the Hospital of the U. of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, and Pennsylvania Hospital. He received a Provost’s Award for Teaching Excellence in 2011, earned an M.D. from the University of Montreal in 1997, and

Kathryn Sollmann is a flexwork and financial security expert and author of the book Ambition Redefined: Why the Corner Office Doesn't Work for Every Woman & What to Do Instead. A mother of two daughters, Kathryn has worked non-stop since age 16 in many flexible ways. In 2002, she co-founded the Women@Work Network, one of the first companies focused on helping women return to the workforce, and she has led many compelling events that show women alternatives to the full-time, traditional corporate grind.  A frequent media resource, Kathryn’s views on women, work, and financial security have appeared in The Financial Times, the New York Times, Working Mother, and many others. Her award-winning blog, 9 Lives for Women, is read by women around the globe.Kathryn and Stew talk about the reasons why it’s essential for women to stay in the workforce instead of off-ramping when family pressures encroach on work. Kathryn is a strong advocate of women ensuring their own financial security by staying in the workp

Professor James Pawelski and his wife Suzann Pileggi Pawelski are co-authors of Happy Together: Using the Science of Positive Psychology to Build Love That Lasts. James is Professor of Practice and Director of Education in the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania, where he co-founded the world's first Master of Applied Positive Psychology Program with Martin Seligman in 2005. In collaboration with Penn’s Campaign for Wellness, he is launching a new interdisciplinary undergraduate course called “The Pursuit of Happiness” to help students learn how to increase their well-being. Suzie is a freelance writer and well-being consultant specializing in the science of happiness and its effects on health and relationships. Her 2010 Scientific American Mind cover story, "The Happy Couple," was selected for inclusion in three special issues of the magazine and became the catalyst their book! Together, Suzie and James give Romance and Research™ workshops around the world. She pens a popular blog fo

Dan Schawbel is a partner and research director at Future Workplace, an HR advisory and research firm, and the Founder of both Millennial Branding and WorkplaceTrends.com.  His third business book is Back to Human: How Great Leaders Create Connection in the Age of Isolation. Dan is bestselling author of two previous books: Promote Yourself and Me 2.0.    He’s conducted dozens of research studies and interviewed over 2,000 of the world’s most successful people, including Warren Buffett, Anthony Bourdain, Jessica Alba, will.i.am, and Michael Bloomberg. He has been recognized on lists of fascinating, high-impact thought leaders, like Inc.’s and Forbes’ “30 Under 30” and many others .Dan and Stew talk about the use and abuse of technology. They explore how technology’s promise as a vehicle for connectivity hasn’t been fully realized because it paradoxically produces loneliness.  For instance, remote workers are harder to retain; they tend to be less committed to their organizations becaus

Tom Gardner is CEO of The Motley Fool, a company he co-founded with his brother, David, in 1993.  In 2014 and 2015, Glassdoor ranked The Motley Fool the #1 place to work in the U.S. for companies with between 250-1000 employees. Gardner strives to create an environment at work where their employees have autonomy and where there are as few as possible mandates from the top; an environment where everyone can thrive.  The Motley Fool allows employees to select some of their personal benefits (like haircuts) in addition to the standard healthcare and 401K package. They offer employees $200 as an incentive to ask for a raise. Tom is lead advisor on Motley Fool One -- the company's all-access service. He manages The Everlasting Portfolio, which committed to holding every investment for more than five years, and to date has beaten the market soundly since its inception. Tom is a graduate of Brown University.In this episode, Stew and Tom talk about why most of us are not taught about the basics of financial

Jason is Co-Founder and CEO of Basecamp, a Chicago-based software company known for its innovative approach to work. He’s just released his third business book, It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work. Jason is a long-time proponent of keeping companies profitable, lean, and manageable. He believes in businesses -- not startups -- and that the only successful approach to business is a calm one. He and his co-founder are also the other of two other books, REWORK and REMOTE, and Jason also writes Inc.'s monthly Get Real column. Stew and Jason talk about the many ways Jason has been able to have a profitable company without having his employees work more than 8-hour days, without having them work on nights or weekends, and without their taking “fakations” during which work interrupts. He eschews meetings, keeps teams small, and enables his employees to have uninterrupted time for thinking so they can actually get work done while at work without unnecessary meetings, calls, and check-ins. Jason advocates for a calm a

Erin Owen, author of Refuel Recharge and Re-energize: Your Guide to Taking Back Control of Your Time and Energy, joined Total Leadership’s client services team in 2005. She earned her MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and her graduate certificate in International Studies from the Hopkins-Nanjing Center in Nanjing, China. She holds a B.A. in Chinese Studies from Grinnell and certification in Health Coaching from the internationally recognized Institute for Integrative Nutrition in Manhattan, where Drs. Deepak Chopra, Andrew Weil, and Neil Barnard are faculty members. Drawing on over two decades of experience ranging from organizational change management consulting to leadership coaching, Erin has consulted with and coached hundreds of entrepreneurs, business leaders, C-suite teams, and private individuals from more than 15 countries in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. She takes a unique East-meets-West approach to helping clients more effectively mana

Shaun Francis is Chair and CEO of Medcan and he’s author of a recently released book entitled Eat, Move, Think: The Path to a Healthier, Stronger, Happier You. He was a student in Stew’s very first Total Leadership class for Executive MBAs at Wharton. Medcan is a global leader in assessing their clients’ overall well-being and inspiring them to live well for life. It’s routinely recognized for as one of Canada’s Best Managed Companies. Shaun graduated from the United States Naval Academy after he was nominated by President Reagan to attend as a Canadian. He received the military’s highest recognition for a civilian, The Canadian Forces medallion for Distinguished Service, for his work on behalf of veterans. He’s received an honorary doctorate and countless other awards. Shaun co-led an expedition to the summit of Island Peak, adjacent to Mount Everest, with 12 injured Canadian, soldiers raising funds the True Patriot Love Foundation, which Shaun chairs. Stew and Shaun talk about the importance of our physical

Ben Feder is President of International Partnerships for the U. S. for Tencent, the Chinese internet titan that owns WeChat. Previously, Ben was CEO of Take Two Interactive, publisher of Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto. He’s the author of Take Off Your Shoes: One Man’s Journey from the Boardroom to Bali and Back, a tale of his journey of self-discovery when he left corporate America, unplugged, and took his family to live in Bali for a year. Stew and Ben talk about priorities in our lives and how to keep them foremost in our minds. They talk about legacy and what that might mean for how we live our lives every day. They discuss the importance of realizing, hard as it may be to see, that we all have choices -- even if we don’t have the option to chuck it all and move to a Pacific island for a long stretch -- and that it’s essential to make conscious, deliberate decisions about what we do with our precious time on earth. Ben describes the benefits of mindfulness, yoga, and a practice of inquiry, or cha

Sally Thornton is founder and CEO of Forshay, a company that focuses on how people can do their best work through executivhttp://forshay.com/e recruiting, project-based work, and improving the system of work through increased diversity, inclusion, and belonging. Sally launched WorkLab in 2015, a design thinking community of action committed to making work better, based on her work with Stanford's "Redesigning and Redefining Work" project. She lectures regularly at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business as well as UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business. She also serves on the Advisory Council of Stanford’s Clayman Institute for Gender Research. Sally and Stew discuss the future of work, which will be more fluid, less focused on a job and more on both the work itself and on results. They discuss the importance of social support at work for enabling people to thrive in all parts of their lives. Sally offers valuable tips on how to harness technology so that it is not a distracting and intrusive force in our lives

Johann Berlin, CEO of TLEX Institute (which stands for Transformational Leadership for Excellence) specializes in working with CEOs, companies and corporate teams to improve their connections to each other through techniques that promote mental clarity — some that you’ll recognize if you practice yoga. He says better mental clarity — it’s often called mindfulness — is needed to process the constant flow of information we receive, to navigate challenges, and to handle stress. Johann focuses on adaptive leadership and stress management. He works with organizations to transform their cultures, starting with the individual. Stew and Johann talk about proven methods for managing the stress of our 24/7 technologically-connected world and how his organization brings these ideas and tools to companies around the world. Johann talks about how he learned these methods in his childhood and he describes research on the many psychological and physiological benefits of conscious breathing, mindfulness, connecting with natu

Erica Dhawan is Founder and CEO of Cotential, an organization that works to maximize the power of connection in the workplace and beyond. Their services include training programs, speakers, and tools for businesses to leverage their potential connections. Erica attended the Wharton School as well as MIT and Harvard University. She was named by Thinkers50 as “The Oprah of Management Ideas” and co-authored the bestseller Get Big Things Done: The Power of Connectional Intelligence. Erica thinks workplaces should be more connected. In this conversation with Stew she provides examples of millennials who have used social media to connect and improve productivity. Millennials have shown great leadership in creating informal networks online. Erica describes how this new way of working has disrupted some traditional industries. She discusses the rise of informal networks and social movements as a result of our growing connectivity and how these interactions spur innovative thinking and inspire courageous change See ac

Francesca Gino is a behavioral scientist and the Tandon Family Professor of Business Administration in the Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit at Harvard Business School. She’s been honored as one of the world’s Top 40 Business Professors under 40 and one of the world’s 50 most influential management thinkers. She’s the author of the Sidetracked and Rebel Talent: Why It Pays to Break the Rules at Work and in Life. Francesca and Stew discuss the five key talents of rebels -- they demonstrate novelty, curiosity, perspective-taking, authenticity and diversity. Stew and Francesca talk about overcoming resistance to embracing rebelliousness, some common misconceptions about rebels, and how to cultivate rebelliousness in your children. Francesca reviews her research on how rebels’ questioning and curiosity is good for business, productivity, and engagement. She responds to a couple of great questions from listeners who called in to the radio show. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.