Lead From The Heart Podcast

In 2017, when ride-sharing company, UBER got into serious trouble due to its highly toxic & unethical culture (you’ll recall, founder Travis Kalanick was inevitably forced out), the company turned to Harvard Business School professor, Frances Frie to help restore stakeholder trust. After completing that work, Frei went on to deeply research the topic of “trust:” How to establish it, sustain it and even re-build it.  And she later shared her findings in a TED talk that’s now been viewed nearly five million times. Frei's new book, Unleashed: The Unapologetic Leader’s Guide To Empowering Everyone Around You,” is being published this week. This podcast provides a distillation of Frei’s work on trust including a not-to-be-missed discussion of the three components we human beings demand of one another before we trust them. What makes this episode so additionally compelling is Frei’s remarkable blend of intellect and compassion. As you’ll hear, she reveals both an extraordinary mind and an extraordinary heart.

Who isn’t impressed by a highly confident person? Confident applicants are more likely to be hired, & self-assured politicians are more likely to be elected.  Because we believe it produces a winning edge, we all strive to be self-confident. But surprising, extensive & eye-opening research by U.C. Berkeley business school professor, Don Moore, finds that while some confidence is good, overconfidence is quite often a leadership derailleur. In fact, no problem of judgment & decision making is more prevalent & more potentially catastrophic than over-confidence. In Moore’s words, “self-help books & motivational speakers tell us that the more confident we are, the better. But this way of thinking can lead to enormous trouble.” In this podcast, we discuss Moore’s brand-new book, Perfectly Confident, which marries the best psychological &economic studies to explain exactly what confidence is, when it can be helpful, & when it can be destructive in our lives.  In Moore’s words, “decades of

According to long-time Wharton Business School professor, Stewart Friedman, one reason business has a legacy of having so many poor leaders is because it’s only fairly recently that companies have placed a premium on leadership development. In fact, only in the past several years have top MBA programs begun to put leadership training on par with their traditional financial curriculum elements. In this comprehensive & highly informative discussion, Friedman explains why business schools mostly ignored leadership for decades, & shares how world events effectively forced them to begin teaching more humane managerial practices.  As we slowly emerge from the COVID-crisis, the experience that millions of people around the globe are having in working from home will have permanently changing them. One key outcome of this is that organizational leadership will need to quickly pivot and begin to authentically care about people not just as employees, but also with respect to how their work affects the other key

How To Lead In Times Of Crisis: Erik Larson is the author of six New York Times bestselling books including "The Devil In The White City" a National Book Award finalist. His new book, "The Splendid & The Vile" ranks #1 on both the NY Times & Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. "The Splendid & The Vile" focuses on Winston Churchill’s first year as England’s Prime Minister (80 years ago), "the year in which Churchill became Churchill, the cigar-smoking bulldog we all know, when he made all of his famous speeches & showed the world what courage & leadership look like.” And by demonstrating extraordinary courage, hope, candor, optimism & inspiration (all qualities of the heart), Winston Churchill not only earned a spot as one of the most renowned leaders of all-time, he stands as the greatest leader ever in a time of crisis. And at a time of our own 21st Century crisis, when leaders around the world are seeking guidance on how to act, Erik Larson couldn’t be a more timely or informed voi

The Time To Make Employees As Important As Shareholders Is Now! For decades, businesses have deferred to the interests of shareholders above and beyond the interests of all other stakeholders -- most especially employees. And according to London Business School finance professor, Alex Edmans, shareholders have long been conditioned to believe that the value any company produces is a fixed pie – and so the only way for them to retain the largest slice of the pie is to ensure the size of the pie all other stakeholders get remains small.  This mindset has meant that shareholders see every dollar spent on workers as dollars taken away from them. But in his new, inspiring & wonderfully researched book, “Grow The Pie, How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose And Profit,” Edmans introduces a far more enlightened, innovative & remarkably timely mindset – the idea that the size of company pies are not fixed after all.  “And when all members of organizations work together, bound by a common purpose and focused

A Special Edition Of The Podcast! With the Coronavirus pandemic having us indefinitely confined to our homes, working away from our colleagues & offices, home-schooling our kids – & still accountable for getting work done – most people are feeling stressed, anxious & fearful. And, on top of all that, many of us are responsible for managing teams of people. With so many challenges to face at once, the big question most leaders now are asking themselves is "What are the most meaningful things I can do right now that will not only ensure my most important goals get met, but that I also sufficiently support the overall well-being of my people at the same time?Joining Mark in a truly powerful discussion on this question is Harvard Business School professor, Amy Edmondson. One of the top leadership thinkers in the world, her uncommon wisdom and guidance will help you make the very best out of this truly ambiguous and challenging time in history.

In her new book, “Acting With Power: Why We Are More Powerful Than We Believe,” long-time Stanford Business School leadership professor, Deborah Gruenfeld says how we use power is really defined by the role we are playing at any given time: “To use power well, we need to take each role seriously & choose how to play it. We must recognize that our roles change, behaviors that make us successful in one role won’t necessarily be effective in a different role. Our default mode might actually make waves.” At Stanford, Gruenfeld teaches a highly popular class that draws on the craft of acting & the science of psychology to help students learn how to play all of their roles effectively. This course – along with twenty-five years of researching power – is the basis for her book. It’s also the focus of this highly provocative podcast discussion. Listen in as Deb Gruenfeld shares her profound wisdom on how to most effectively use power you & how to put it to its best use. For reasons you might not imagine,

Tapping into rigorous research & cutting-edge discoveries in vision science, New York University psychology professor, Emily Balcetis, shares four powerful visual tactics that highly successful people have proven to use to set and, most importantly, meet their goals.  In a podcast packed with uncommon insight, she explains how to use these tactics to your full advantage & in what situations each one is best applied. We discuss her new book, “Clearer, Closer, Better: How Successful People See the World” which is an "Amazon #1 New Release" just this week. It was also chosen as one of the "20 Books All Leaders Should Read In 2020" by the World Economic Forum & by Wharton Professor/Author, Adam Grant.

In one of the most compelling & inspiring discussions in this podcast’s history, Doug Conant, former CEO of the Campbell Soup Company, President of Nabisco and Chairman of Avon Products, vividly describes how he felt after being fired from a senior position early in his career. But the discussion quickly pivots; Conant shares the brilliant guidance he was given which not only helped him quickly rebound, but also helped propel him into having a truly remarkable C-Suite career. Initially, Conant might strike you as the classic demanding, direct and hard-charging chief executive. But what's revealed through the course of our discussion is a leader who deeply cares about people -- & someone who believes that organizations can no longer excel unless managers at every level show their employees respect, appreciation -- even love. Doug Conant might just be the greatest representative of the "Lead From The Heart" ideal ever to be a featured guest. And he joins us to discuss his new book, “The Blueprint: 6 Pra

Can you recall the last time you tried to talk to someone about a personal, political or work issue and quickly discovered their view of the situation was entirely different than yours? How’d that work out for you? If words like “strained,” “painful,” “awful” or “never again,” come to mind – you have company. Acknowledging […] The post Buster Benson: Mastering The Art Of Productive Disagreement appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

If you’ve ever felt unseen, under-estimated or unfairly passed over in your career,  this podcast provides all the remedies you’ll need to ensure you never feel that way again! While we’d all like to believe our career growth will always be the result of a reliable meritocracy, the truth is our success at work is […] The post Laura Huang: Four Powerful Ways To Create A Winning EDGE appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

In an economy marked by downsizing, offshoring and an accelerated deployment of robots and automation technology, fears around the future of our work and careers abound. But according to New Yorker Magazine writer and co-founder of NPR’s Planet Money podcast, Adam Davidson, we needn’t be so gloomy. Tied to extensive research that went into the writing of […] The post Adam Davidson: The New Rules for Thriving In The Twenty-First Century appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

Some of the greatest business innovations of our time were first proposed by other companies, but summarily rejected: *** Polaroid (now gone) invented the digital camera – and then ditched it in the belief it couldn’t make money. *** Engineers at cell-phone maker, Nokia, proposed a device that had all the functionality of the I-Phone – […] The post Safi Bahcall: How To Nurture Crazy Ideas Into Breakthrough Innovations appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

For decades, the commonly accepted purpose of a corporation (or any company for that matter) has been to ensure the interests of shareholders always came first. But today, we’ve finally reached a point where most leaders realize that a “profits over people” philosophy has proven to be an entirely unsustainable way to run a business. Amongst […] The post Michael Gelb: The Emerging New Formula For Organizational Success appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

We musn’t fool ourselves into believing that the majority of the world’s workplace managers have bought into the idea that caring deeply about people is essential to leadership success. Metrics on job satisfaction, employee well-being and, of course, engagement continue to reflect an attitude about leadership that’s anything but caring. Truth be told, many of […] The post Kim Scott: Leading With Radical Candor appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

We live in a society today that’s obsessed with early achievement, whether it’s getting perfect SAT scores, gaining acceptance into an Ivy League school or landing an amazing job at Google or Facebook – or better yet – creating a start-up with the potential to be the next Twitter or Instagram. We see software coders […] The post Rich Karlgaard: Forbes Magazine Publisher Says “Hail To The Late Bloomer,” Which Is Most Of Us appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

Many of us believe that our emotions are a distraction to success in life – and that they upend our ability to make sound decisions. When it comes to leading and managing people, we carry over these same beliefs; we’re convinced making any kind of emotional connection with our employees will only hijack our effectiveness and […] The post Marc Brackett: Yale’s Chief Emotion Scientist Unlocks Your Leadership Potential appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

It wasn’t all that long ago when tech giants like AOL, Yahoo and Blackberry seemed immortal. Today, of course, we remember them only as fallen giants – a fate Microsoft appeared to be headed toward less than a decade ago. That Microsoft was able to fully revive itself when other first-generation technology innovators couldn’t begs […] The post Herminia Ibarra: How A New Mindset And A Massive Culture Change Made Microsoft Number One Again appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

It’s an irrefutable truth that trust is on a serious decline. And all the key pillars of society are affected. The RAND Corporation recently reported that trust in government, the media – even in our businesses and workplaces – “has reached a lower absolute level than ever before.” And they warned that such a lack […] The post Stephen M.R. Covey: Leadership & The “Speed Of Trust” appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.

Bill Campbell is a Silicon Valley legend. Following a career leading sales & marketing at Apple – & as CEO of Intuit – he spent nearly two decades coaching a “Who’s Who” list of world-changing executives. The list included Apple founder, Steve Jobs, Google founders, Sergei Brin and Larry Page. Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg, former […] The post Jonathan Rosenberg: Why Bill Campbell Was The Greatest Executive Coach The World’s Ever Known appeared first on Mark C. Crowley.