A Call to Lead

In this week's episode of A Call to Lead, I sit down with Bobbi Brown, who started a cosmetics business in her home three decades ago, sold it to Estee Lauder, and stayed on board to build Bobbi Brown Essentials into a billion-dollar global brand. So Bobbi knows how to lead inside a giant corporation and, since she left Estee Lauder and is now back on her own, she is a serial entrepreneur. These days, Bobbi is innovating in the wellness space, with her startup called JustBOBBI, and in the hotel business. Bobbi Brown is a model of constant innovation and reinvention. Here are five key things that my team and I took away from our conversation:1. I like to be able to have an open dialogue. I would call people in and I'd say, "Okay, tell me the truth. What's going on? Why is this not happening the way it's supposed to?...No one's ever gonna get fired over "my bad." They're gonna get fired if they don't tell the truth and they try to cover it up.2. I watch women trying to be heard, and sometimes they're sitting on the edge of their seat and they're talking over. I see the men pushing back and just talking when they need to say something. If the women could visualize that, you could say whatever you need to say, but you need to say it from a sign of strength. Less words, calm down, and just say it. Just don't let those men in suits intimidate you.3. It's the best time to create a business, and now is the time for reinvention.4. When I started the cosmetics company so many years ago, people said, "Why does the world need another cosmetics company?" There's a white space if you have a different idea.5. Stop thinking about it, stop planning for it, stop writing it down, just do it. And if you can't afford it, figure out a way you can.

On this week's episode of A Call to Lead, my guest is Bianna Golodryga. Bianna is the co-anchor of CBS This Morning—and a woman with a fascinating path to success. Bianna was born in Russia, grew up in Texas, and spent her early career as a business news journalist, telling stories about CEOs and world-changing entrepreneurs. Over the years at CNBC, ABC, and now CBS, Bianna has interviewed some of the world's most prominent leaders in government as well as business. She's also a mother of two young children— figuring out, like the rest of us, how to juggle work and family.

Here are five key highlights from this episode of A Call to Lead with Bianna:

4:35 - You have very little to lose when you're 21 or 22. Even if people describe you as annoying, you still might be memorable.

17:06 - Guilt is a useless emotion unless you use it to force change. If you're not going to change anything, let go of the guilt.

22:46 - Doing your homework and being prepared can get you much further than a resume or credentials. You might have graduated from whatever college and received whatever award, but it's the people that are most prepared and work the hardest that most often go the farthest.

26:23 - Seeing a leader set that example—saying "Listen I've got to leave at 3:30 to pick up my kids"—changes everything in the workforce. People want to contribute even more. They're driven to work harder because they appreciate that you're human and share the same challenges as they do.

32:30 - You can be interviewing the CEO of a Fortune 100, the President of the United States, or anyone from any walk of life— but one topic that will get just about anyone to open up is by engaging them as a parent and talking about the dreams they have for their children and how they want their children to view them.

Our new episode of A Call to Lead is my interview with Stacey Cunningham. Stacey started at the New York Stock Exchange as an intern, quit to go to culinary school, did a stint at rival NASDAQ, returned—and rose through the ranks to become the NYSE's first-ever female president. That's an unconventional path to the top job (yes, "president" is the top position at the NYSE), and Stacey is leading the 227-year-old company in unconventional and new ways. She's full of career advice and leadership wisdom.

Here are five things that Stacey said and my team and I found particularly valuable:

1. Leadership and management are not the same thing. So being able to contribute to the path forward doesn't mean I have to have X number of people reporting in to me, so my organization is bigger. 16:43

1. Be yourself. If I can do my job in my own skin, that's much easier. I think society is becoming a little more welcoming to that. 20:20

1. Never waste a hire. Always hire the best player you can get—and someone better than you. 21:21

1. When I think about the skills you have to have as a leader, you don't have to have them all within yourself. You have to have them within your team. 20:52

1. Make sure that you're not such a key critical person that I can't give you an opportunity to go do something new because I can't take you out of the job you're in. 21:55

Make sure you tune into the NYSE's very own podcast, Inside the Ice House! It's full of great conversations with inspiring leaders and I know you'll love it: https://www.theice.com/insights/conversations/inside-the-ice-house

You can learn more by visiting: www.sap.com/acalltolead. Tweet me @JenniferBMorgan and use the hashtag #acalltolead or e-mail us at [email protected].

Today we're bringing you a A Call to Lead Classic—one of my favorite interviews that I've done at Call to Lead at SAP's annual Sapphire Now conference. My guest is Walter Isaacson. Talking with Walter is always head-spinning and enlightening because he is the foremost expert on leaders who also happen to be the world's smartest people. Walter's specialty is geniuses. He's written biographies of Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, and Leonardo da Vinci. He's also a very smart leader himself, having headed CNN, TIME Magazine, and the Aspen Institute. Here are 5 things that Walter said and my team and I found interesting and relatable to all of us as ever-improving leaders:

5:43 - "If you're going to be a disruptor, you have to do like Steve Jobs and occasionally let your reach exceed your grasp."

19:07 - "Making a great product innovation is hard, but what's really hard and important is making the right team who can continue to do innovation." (Steve Jobs, when he was dying, said this to Walter Isaacson.)

25:03 - "The most important talent you need is the ability to see patterns."

25:03 - "If I were talking to somebody coming into a company now, I'd say what are your passions? And I'd hope there'd be three or four or five diverse passions. And then I would say, 'What is the pattern that you've seen by being interested in so many different things?'"

26:49 "Whatever business you're in, you've got to say I'm not in the business of moving lettuce or moving packages or flying metal, [but rather] I'm in the business of applying technology to customer needs."

In this week's A Call to Lead I talk with Simon Sinek. You may know Simon from his TED Talks, which are viral phenoms, or his best-selling books. Start With Why, his first book, is a guide to discovering and honing purpose to help build extraordinary teams. In his upcoming and fifth book, The Infinite Game, Simon explains how to lead in a world where the competition comes and goes, where rules are changeable, and where there is neither a finish line nor definite winners. Simon spoke about playing "the infinite game" as part of a keynote I gave kicking off the year for SAP last month, and in this podcast he talks about that and much more. Here are our team's five takeaways from the episode of A Call to Lead with Simon:

17:39 - To play the infinite game is really hard. Among all the important leadership traits, courage is No. 1. To do the right thing in the face of pressure is hard.

17:39 - Empathy is another critical leadership trait. Our common humanity matters. Whether they're customers or vendors or employees, we're dealing with human beings.

20:55 - Annual evaluations are a thing of the past, and it's not so much what the evaluation says, it's what the trend lines say. If you had a bad evaluation first and second quarter, but third and fourth quarter start to show signs of looking up, that's a good person. You'll want to give that person a shot to keep improving.

24:10 - It's the responsibility of businesses to provide their people and their customers and their vendors a sense of purpose and a cause that we're all advancing - something that's bigger than ourselves, and that's why all of life's blood, sweat, and tears are worth it.

24:48 - Metrics are very important. Metrics help us measure speed and distance. But they don't indicate the end of the game.

This week on A Call To Lead, I talk with one of my favorite leadership philosophers, Frances Frei. Frances is a TED Talk phenomenon, a professor at Harvard Business School, and a former executive at Uber. She's a fount of wisdom on developing great teams, maximizing your own performance, and building trust in a world that's devoid of it. Here are just a few choice insights that Frances shared with me:

15:52 - Learn more than you have to so you can describe topics simply, especially if you're the one tasked with ensuring people understand something difficult. Simplicity is a gift.

17:41 - Want to understand why so many bad things are happening in our world right now? We need to find a way to trust each other again. Most of our challenges stem from a lack of trust.

23:15 - If companies want to compete against the world's best, they need to look at hiring from a much wider pool of talent. It's the diversity that will unleash our excellence. Until recently, everyone has been fishing in a very narrow pond.

35:00 - Don't deny your ego. Find out what it needs, be upfront and explicit about those needs, and work with your team to make sure you get what you need. Everyone has an ego that needs to be nourished.

38:07 - Millennials have an incredible threshold for what they will endure. They're similar to one another, but very different from past generations...and they're exactly what we need right now. And their time for leadership is not in the distant future, it's here now.

We are a new podcast, and that means reviews and ratings mean everything to us. The more ratings, the more likely someone else will tune in. So thank you in advance for leaving one!

Don't forget to check out Frances' TED talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVeq-0dIqpk

On this week's episode of A Call To Lead, I talk with Gary Vaynerchuk, digital marketing expert, social media guru, and one of the most energetic and candid leaders I know. Gary and I talked about everything from staying current in an app world to embracing your shortcomings in order to advance your career—and of course, we talked about building great businesses. Fair warning: Gary's known for using colorful language and this podcast episode was no exception (though tame by his standards!) Here are just a few of the key takeaways:

18:00 - True leadership means: You work for everybody else.

20:00 - A lot of people think positivity is a delusion. Positivity is a strategy.

21:15 - People are grossly underestimating what voice is about to do in our society.

45:00 - Become a practitioner.

49:48 - Truth is on the rise. You can't hide because the Internet won't let you.

We are a new podcast, and that means reviews and ratings mean everything to us. The more ratings, the more likely someone else will tune in. Would mean so much to me if you left one.

In this very first episode of my new podcast A Call to Lead, I talk with Arianna Huffington—serial entrepreneur, Uber board member, author, and leadership expert. Arianna shares her unique perspective on a broad range of subjects, from connecting people (she's a master) to building businesses (she's created many, including Thrive Global) to understanding the zeitgeist. Below are a few highlights from the episode. Enjoy!

6:20 - If we don't continue to learn, we're going to miss where the world is going.

12:18 - To be a risk taker, you can't be looking over your shoulder for approval.

14:30 - Worshipping top performers creates a very toxic culture. No brilliant jerks should be allowed.

26:20 - Human capital is the most important capital of the enterprise.

26:56 - Your job should be challenging and interesting. You must relentlessly prioritize.

If you loved this episode, please leave a rating and a review wherever you listen to podcasts! I want your feedback – what you think, what do you want to hear more or less of, and what we can do to improve this podcast. Let me know!

Announcing a brand new leadership podcast from Jennifer Morgan, President and Executive Board Member at SAP.