Can we find the fun and the spontaneity in our work? What would it look like if people were willing to use a little playfulness in their job? Ken shares how he uses humor and playfulness with his group, and how these things help to create engagement and develop relationships. Sometimes little things like turning presentation slides into a game of finding little hidden jokes for his Executive Leadership Team.

The more confident the organization is, the safer that they feel, the easier it will be to have fun and express ideas with honesty and humanity. Any job, no matter how great it is, can become monotonous or boring if it doesn't have some spontaneity and joy.

Can we be in competition with each other while also wanting each other to be successful? Want does it take to create a culture that celebrates the pursuit of excellence without the pursuit of the ego?

In this episode, Ken and Seth talk about the value of healthy competition in an organization and the negativity of unhealthy competition. When your sense of success is dependent on the idea that your victory has to come at someone else's cost. As leaders, it's important to recognize that you get the behaviors that you incentivize and if you reward ego-driven, competitive behavior, you will get a culture where people feel like enemies, not rivals.

Learn how to foster a collaborative environment and culture as a leader, and what it takes to encourage rivalries without creating enemies.

Culture is basically just a set of behaviors and expectations that we have for the people in our organization. In this episode, Ken and Seth talk about how you can influence culture and motivate change even in a hybrid situation. When we are aware of the anxiety that we have about whether our teams are actually doing the work, we can get much clearer about the ways that we want to measure and hold people accountable. What do you do to measure success in a culture that believes that you've hired the right people for the right position. The goal is to create a resilient culture and to do that leaders must model behavior that shows self-trust and trust of others without ignoring what isn't working for the team.

What is a leader's job when you get right down to it? Is it just to have meetings and make decisions? Or is it about helping other people be successful? Yes, there are other things that you're expected to do, but your role as a people-leader (no matter what you do for the company) is to help people be successful. Ken and Seth talk about how leaders can see themselves as having the power to lift others up to see themselves as being more successful and to grow.

Leadership isn't always about position power. Often times it's about the ability to influence beyond your sphere of control. In this episode, Ken and Seth talk about the various ways that a leader can influence a culture and bring along peers and management so as to see different perspectives. The more aware you are of what you're trying to say and how people's emotions work, the easier it is to make an impact. Find out more at www.intsnotpersonal.net

This episode is the culmination of the various topics that we've talked about throughout these podcasts, which ultimately leads to a workplace that's more human and more open. When we make it okay for people to surface problems or concerns, then we make it an environment for them to engage with and work through problems or issues that they may have. The greater the psychological safety, the greater the trust. Ken and Seth talk about the norms and expectations that we can create in a team or an organization that allows us to use difficult conversations to become better. Find out more at https://www.itsnotpersonal.net/ or at https://sethrigoletti.com/

What does it take to turn a group of people into a team? There’s a difference between having a group of individuals that work and communicates well together, versus having a group of individuals who have to coordinate and collaborate on a project. In this episode, we talk about how to create a culture of teamwork, trust, and shared purpose. What could we learn about collaborative teamwork from a Jazz band? We all know what the goal is, but we all might interpret how to contribute in our own ways. Find out more about Ken and Seth at https://www.itsnotpersonal.net/ or at https://sethrigoletti.com/its-not-personal/

We all feel self-doubt in our work and especially as leaders, but it's important to recognize that it's never helpful. Self-doubt fundamentally questions the value of who you are, whereas doubt of our ability can sometimes be helpful, doubting that you're enough gets in the way. Whenever we put our value as a human being in doubt, we make it harder for others to trust and work with us. Listen in as Ken and Seth discuss the various ways that we try to hide our weaknesses in order to stay safe, and the power of accepting ourselves fully for who we are. To find out more about Ken and Seth, go to https://www.itsnotpersonal.net/ or https://sethrigoletti.com/

What is different between being sorry and being accountable? Listen to Ken talk about the advice he gives his team about sorry. When we apologize too often, we forget to be accountable for our own actions and instead feel responsible for other people's feelings. Be aware of how you use "Sorry" and the impact it has on those around you. It can steal authority, create a sense of blame, and a distance in the relationship. For more information, you can check us out at itsnotpersonal.net or sethrigoletti.com

The power of story in communication, influence, and collaboration. Ken shares a little bit about how he's used storytelling in his own work as a CIO, and together we talk about how humans are able to better understand information when it's in story form. Just knowing the data isn't enough.

We can also learn how we see ourselves as characters in our own stories, and how difficult it is to see clearly when you're stuck in a victim, villain, hero framework.

We have to put the information within a framework of a story if we want people to be able to absorb it and understand it. For more information, check us out at itsnotpersonal.net or sethrigoletti.com