Innovating Leadership: Co-Creating Our Future - Archive

S4-Ep34: Accelerating Change: DevOps, Agile, Lean, and Culture of Innovation

Guest: Guru Vasudeva
Guru builds on prior interviews discussing agility, lean and a culture of learning. During this show he discusses how DevOps is transforming the pace of development at Nationwide IT, continuously improving the company’s competitive advantage while meeting consumer demands. Guru shares real-life experiences of leading this transformation across several application development and maintenance efforts, while highlighting the integration of Agile and Lean practices and the importance of lean leadership. During this conversation Maureen and Guru explore the implications of using the Dev Ops methodology, in conjunction with others to accelerate the rate of change and how the organization must respond. It means people's jobs will change - including IT people who are doing their work differently. They explore how Nationwide is preparing people for significant changes in their work yet at the same time focusing on sustaining jobs for those committed to personal growth.

S4-Ep33: Top Leadership Trends in 2018 and beyond

Guest: Christopher Washington
Each year Maureen publishes a synthesis of the interviews she hosted and discuss the main themes she is hearing in the past year as well as in her consulting work with senior executives around the world. She has now completed more than 150 interviews. This interview is a synthesis of what she is taking away as key themes for leaders and executives to focus on for 2018 – 2022. This is a rolling synthesis, she will update it again in 2019 with new themes. Christopher Washington, PhD, hosts this show and discusses what he is seeing as a board member of Global Ties and EVP/CEO of Urbana University. The goal of this conversation is that listeners have a clearer understanding of the global leadership trends and what they might do personally to prepare themselves and their organizations to respond.

S4-Ep32: A CIO Story of Leadership: Maria Urani - NetJets

Guest: Maria Urani
Leaders follow many paths to success – in a time of varying role models for exceptional leadership, Maria talks about how she developed over her career. She shares her values, her path to CIO, role models and the art of leadership. Many people develop visions but living them is the art. Maria talks about how she puts her values into action to create a positive workplace, great results and strong successors. She shares: 1. Her passion and how it connects to her work 2. the art of leadership 3. her path to leadership - career is lattice more than a ladder 4. her role models - actual and virtual 5. the value of inverted mentoring 6. the role of empowerment in IT transformation at NetJets She shares her insights and career journey with passion and wisdom.

S4-Ep31: Empowerment: A Significant Key to Engagement and Results

Guest: Linda Patten
Empowerment is foundational to employee engagement. We have been talking about it for over a decade and yet, many leaders are unclear about how to use it and still maintain accountability and responsibility to drive results. During this interview, Linda and Maureen will talk about empowerment basics then move into the nuances of how to empower people to drive better results rather than abdicating responsibility. This has been a long term question of balance for many leaders. During the discussion, we will explore: 1) How do you define empowerment? 2) Why is empowering others such a key skill in leadership and growing a movement? 3) How does empowerment help us navigate an environment subjected to significant change and disruption? 4) What makes empowering others such a challenge for the leader? Why do leaders fail to empower others? 6) What are the essential skills needed to empower others? 8) What are 3 key tips to empowerment?

S4-Ep30: Conscious Capitalism: Business Accelerator

Guest: Mark Kovacevich
In a time where more people are questioning capitalism as a concept and our younger work force is demanding an opportunity to bring purpose and meaning into their work, we want to explore how this is happening successfully in profitable organizations. Mark talks about what he has done to bring successful capitalism and consciousness together to build a business that is both profitable and socially conscious. He shares his journey and company success along with details about what conscious capitalism looks like in his company, Improving. We discuss the following questions? 1. How does conscious capitalism work in an actual company? 2. What was the value you anticipated when you took this journey? 3. Have you gotten the results you anticipated? 4. What did you need to change about yourself and the organization to realize that value? Not only does conscious capitalism offer an avenue to improve profitability, it is an avenue to attract and retain talented people!

S4-Ep29: Outdoor Adventures: A School for Leadership and Discovery

Guest: Ken Wylie
The most advanced and effective leaders have evolved as much as they have developed. That evolution is often fueled by challenges and disorienting dilemmas. We leave our comfort zones and move into areas where we are not the most skilled. This can mean we relinquish our leadership roles and follow others. Some of the most innovative leaders are known for their unconventional activities. These range from performing in rock bands to extreme sports to attending festivals like "Burning Man". They move out of their regular surroundings and face challenges. They push physical, emotional and often spiritual boundaries. Attendees are rumored to include Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Group and Larry Paige, Co-Founder of Google. Why? Adventure, getting out of your comfort zone and taking what you learn from these adventures back into your leadership mindset and behaviors enables evolution. Ken talks about his adventures and what he has learned about himself and building leaders.

S4-Ep26: Changing the Way We Think About Work

Guest: Eric Termuende
Eric’s mission is to change the way we think about work. His message: there will be less of a talent gap, communications gap, and age gap in the workplace as we rethink the human technology interface and manage how we think about one another and behave with one another. A recent HBR article indicates the nearly 50% of employees reported being lonely and that loneliness shortened our lives by the equivalent of smoking 15 cigarettes a day. The price we pay for speed, convenience, and even efficiency is a trade-off – not a saving. The time we save by not having that face-to-face conversation is costing relationships, friendships, and even basic understanding of who we’re working with. Eric will discuss an antidote that balances savings and relationships. This means rethinking belonging and how we navigate topics like employee engagement in remote and distributed environments. Eric will also discuss the conversations he has had on this topic with World Economic Forum.
 

S4-Ep25: ICONIC ADVANTAGE: Don’t Chase the New, Innovate the Old

Guest: Soon Yu
This interview focuses on Iconic franchises. Iconic franchises tend to be significantly more profitable than standard ones. They’re also far more resilient in the face of market fluctuations. But you can’t create an iconic property overnight. Iconic Advantage is a compound effect that you earn after a period of deliberate and sustained commitment. The effect is stronger over time. So, the only way to start is to choose to become iconic. An Iconic Advantage strategy is for companies that want to establish market leadership by becoming the standard-bearer in their market. This is about focusing your efforts in the right places. It means instead of just chasing shiny new objects, you focus on innovating the old—where your existing strengths lie. Iconic Advantage involves over indexing your efforts on your iconic properties. On the flip side, it also means that you reduce your focus on properties with low potential. You need to put your energy and resources in the right place.

S4-Ep24: Social Enterprise: A Key Foundation to Meeting Nonprofit Mission

Guest: Charles Gehring
A key element of community success is the work that happens at the intersection of business, nonprofit government, and community organizations that allow the improve the health and living conditions for vulnerable members of society. Chuck Gehring, CEO of LifeCare Alliance, talks about his work to run one of the only agencies in the country that takes all applicants without a waiting list. Nonprofits are turning to social enterprise, combining profits made in the for profit arm of an organization to the work of the nonprofit arm of the organization. Life Care Alliance meets half of its funding needs from social enterprise. The services they deliver save the state approximately $70,000 per year per service recipient based on their "Meals on Wheels" program and other services. The meals are delivered by volunteers, many from local corporations. Volunteering gives companies the opportunity to build stronger teams and allow employees to see the impact they are making directly.
 

S4-Ep23: Leveraging Technology to Deepen Human Performance

Guest: Brian Ferguson
The greatest story of the 21st century is not technology, but how technology will be used as a tool for deepening the levels of human potential. Brian talks about his work leveraging the most proven performers, time-honored principles and cutting-edge technology to develop unique performance solutions for a wide range of “arenas” – from medicine to agriculture. He will discuss the following questions? 1. Why has "innovation" become such a buzzword in recent years? 2. What trends are you focusing on and how do they impact organizations and leaders? 3. What is the archetype of a leader who is effective in a world of dramatic change and dynamism? 4. Why is "human potential" such a powerful concept in today's global environment? 5. What challenges do all modern leaders face? 6. What is the most important trait of today's leaders? 7. What are "The First Principles of High Performance" 8. How does technology serve leaders and make for more high performing teams? What is singularity?