Professor of Marketing at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, Dr. Marcus Collins, believes culture is the most powerful vehicle for influencing human behavior.

In his words, “if you want to get people to move, there’s no vehicle more powerful or influential than culture. Full stop. Culture is how we inspire people to act. Culture implies social forces – both subtle & over – that govern the beliefs and behaviors of every-day life.”

Suffice to say, many organizations, & their leaders, pay little attention to crafting & reinforcing their own workplace cultures – & unwittingly allow unproductive & even counter-productive behaviors & practices to take hold. Consequently, our discussion with Marcus is focused on how leaders can purposely re-invigorate & even reinvent their cultures to derive the greatest performance outcomes.

Marcus Collins is a rather impressive person.  Amazon named his new book, “For the Culture: The Power Behind What We Buy, What We Do, & Who We Want to Be” one of the “Best Books of the Year So Far In 2023.”

He was recently named to the Thinkers50 & Deloitte class of 2023 Radar List of 30 thinkers with the ideas most likely to shape the future. And before becoming a professor, he led social media marketing at the cutting-edge advertising agency, Translation, owned by Jay-Z & Beyonce. He later became the head of strategy at the Wieden+Kennedy agency in New York where he led the successful launch of the Brooklyn Nets NBA team & campaigns for Nike & Apple.

Marcus holds a doctorate in marketing from Temple University where he studied social contagion & meaning-making. He received an MBA with an emphasis on strategic brand marketing from the University of Michigan, where he also earned his undergraduate degree in Material Science Engineering.

And, not surprisingly, one big theme of this episode is that we don’t persuade people through their intellect, we do it through their hearts.

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Many of the world’s wisdom traditions teach that we humans all have a core purpose – a gift uniquely assigned to us by the universe. Eastern religions call this “dharma,” and we also know it as “an inner calling.”

What’s intriguing about this idea is that we know so many people are unhappy in their jobs. And, even after many of us have achieved some sense of career success, wealth and status in our lives, we find they’re not accompanied by “inner” feelings of success – i.e. joy, fulfillment and well-being.

According to Harvard Medical School visiting scholar, Suneel Gupta, “people are achieving more than ever before, and getting no greater sense of fulfillment in their every-day lives. We’ve compartmentalized work and well-being and ignored the fact that both are essential for sustained success. We’ve assumed that outer success leads to inner well-being–despite history showing us that this has never been the case.”

In his new bestseller, “Every Day Dharma: 8 Essential Practices For Finding Success & Joy In What You Do” Gupta says that each of us has a personal essence – unique talents and activities that make us feel passionate, energetic and fully aligned to the what we were put here to do. And it’s not only incumbent upon each of us to clarify what experiences in life make our own hearts sing, helping others discover theirs has become an essential leadership practice.

In the Gospel of Thomas, it’s written that “if we bring forth what is within us, that thing will save us. If we don’t, it will destroy us.” This means, of course, that living a fully fulfilled and meaningful life demands that we first discover who we truly are at our core – and then go and put our true selves out in the world.

Suneel Gupta joins us to discuss what our lives could be like if we found ways for everyone to live a more purposeful life.  It’s a discussion too often overlooked in our workplaces — and it’s especially timely and enlightening.

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As an entrepreneur and CEO, Ron Shaich has had one truly remarkable career.

He’s the founder and former chairman and CEO of Panera Bread, a groundbreaking restaurant brand that today has more than 2,400 bakery cafés, 120,000 employees – and nearly $6 billion in annual sales.

Under Shaich’s leadership, for multiple years, Panera generated annualized returns of over 25 percent, and in the same period, delivered a total shareholder return forty-four times better than the S&P 500. In 2017, he sold the business he created thirty-seven years earlier for $7.5 billion.

In his new book (destined to be a bestseller), “Know What Matters: Lessons From A Lifetime Of Transformations,” Shaich reveals with honesty and candor what it’s like to live the entrepreneurial life and to run a large corporation – not just the highs but also the lows.

In his book – the focus of the podcast discussion – Shaich reveals many attributes and philosophies that distinguish his leadership process:

For obvious reasons, an episode not to be missed!

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Frances Frei (left) is a tenured professor at the Harvard Business School, and two years ago, was an extraordinary guest on this podcast when we discussed her brilliant understanding on how to build, retain and restore trust.

Listeners should note that she also gave a remarkable TED Talk on trust that shouldn’t be missed.

Frances returns to the podcast to discuss a wonderful new book that she & her (also brilliant) life & professional partner, Anne Morriss, have written. Unlike Meta CEO, Marc Zuckerberg, who once urged his organization to “move fast and break things,” Frei & Morriss prove to be more sensible & enlightened in asserting that a swift implementation of change needn’t be accompanied by a lot of wreckage & harm (to people especially) as Zuckerberg previously assumed.

Frei and Morriss are speed freaks – meaning they think all change initiatives have a far better chance of succeeding when implemented with true urgency – but also believe the best leaders can not only handle the speed, they can do so while while making their organizations—employees, customers, & shareholders—even stronger.

Their new book is cleverly called, “Move Fast And Fix Things,” and features five essential steps to implementing change that require no tradeoffs between speed & excellence:

As many of our podcast listeners continue to seek guidance on how to make their organizations (& leaders) more caring & humane, we asked Anne and Frances to come prepared to apply their methodology to this very problem. It might be the most comprehensive guidance you’ve ever received on how to implement the “Lead From The Heart” philosophy at your workplace.

Listen in to two creative thinkers who also happen to be a lot of fun to spend time with.

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Our drive to create change, have impact & solve problems all comes from emotional energy. Who we become – how dynamic & powerful we are as people & leaders – depends upon our learning to work with this energy.

Leaders may feel as if they don’t control this energy, that it’s just a product of the world around them & the forces bearing down on them. But that’s just not the case.

A through-line of this podcast is the thesis that we humans are nowhere near the rational beings we’ve long believed we were. Science has proven that feelings & emotions hold profound sway over our choices & decisions – a truth that applies to the people we lead & manage just as much as to ourselves.

Dr. Julia DiGangi is a practicing neuropsychologist & the author of “Energy Rising: The Neuroscience of Leading With Emotional Power.”  She joins us to discuss how emotions shape our worldview & ultimately, our behavior. Positive emotions make us all feel worthy, confident, strong, significant, strong & important. Negative emotions – like anxiety, fear, worry, anger & disappointment – give us pain & make us suffer.

If positive emotions enable our best performance & negative emotions undermine it, Dr. DiGangi says we must consciously reflect upon our own emotional experiences & realize they are the primary force that impacts how we affect other people. And most leaders greatly underestimate the power & influence they have by mindfully harnessing their emotional energy.

One of Dr. DiGangi’s key assertions is that our leadership effectiveness is fully dependent upon our ability to use emotional energy to successfully lead ourselves – & the sad truth is most of us tend to deplete our own power by doubting our own value & worth, & by not remaining true to ourselves. 

Magnetic leadership is when other people follow us because they are attracted to the power of our example. This episode is dedicated to reminding you of your great value as a person so – in your role as a leader – you can go on to remind others of theirs.

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What comes to mind when you think about failure – specifically, a failure of your own?

Intellectually, we may all agree that failures are great teachers, but deep down the idea of failing at anything in life tends to produce some distressing emotions & feelings. The truth is, most of us (try as we will) would just assume not ever fail.

According to Harvard Business School professor, Amy Edmondson, we’ve always tended to think of failure as being the opposite of success – an erroneous belief that inherently influences many a workplace leader to avoid failing at all costs. It also influences managers to punish employee failures.

In her speeches to business groups, Edmondson often asks audiences, “What percentage of the failures in your organization do you think are blameworthy?

Then she asks, “How many of the failures get treated as blameworthy?”

The answer is consistently 70-to-90 percent.

In her new book, “Right Kind Of Wrong: The Science Of Failing Well,” Edmondson posits that failure actually can work in our favor – & that workplace leaders need a reframe on all the good that can come from “failing well.”

As a Ph.D. student at Harvard, Edmondson was assigned to a research project at a nearby hospital. The thesis she sought to prove was that the more cohesive, trusting and collaborative a team was, the fewer mistakes they would make when treating patients.

But when she learned that the most unified teams actually made more mistakes compared to other less interdependent teams, she was initially confused, distressed – & feared she had failed. That is until she discovered that teams anchored on mutual trust simply disclosed more of their errors in order to learn from them and improve.

While Edmondson at first believed her “failed” thesis was an academic embarrassment, ironically, her determination as a researcher led her to understand the importance of psychological safety (in this case, feeling safe to openly acknowledge failures) in the workplace – what’s gone on to become her life’s work.

In this podcast, Amy explains how we can minimize unproductive failure while also maximizing what we gain from flubs of all stripes. She shares how we and our organizations can embrace our human fallibility, learn exactly when failure is our friend, and prevent most of it when it is not.

NOTE:  This is the third time Edmondson has been a guest on this podcast and her episode, “Why Psychological Safety Breeds Exceptionally High Performing Teams” is the #1 most downloaded episode in our entire series. When COVID first hit in 2020 – and people were first deployed to their homes to work – we asked if she would do a special podcast episode dedicated to helping managers maneuver in a very stressful and ambiguous moment. Edmondson immediately agreed.  With over 110 episodes produced so far, we’ve never had a more generous and brilliant guest.

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In what might seem to be the least likely workplace imaginable to implement this, automaker BMW now has five generations of people working under one roof in their factories collaborating & contributing their unique skills and perspectives.

If, by chance, you’re wondering how older workers could possibly keep up with the rigorous demands of building cars on an assembly line, you may be missing one of the most important societal trends of the moment: people today aren’t just living longer than ever, they’re remaining healthy & capable of working many years beyond the traditional retirement age of 65.

For the first time in human history, eight defined generations now live together side by side, from Alphas to the Greatest Generation by way of Boomers, Gen-X, Millennials & more. And, until now, these generational labels have only served to pigeonhole people & define their presumed limitations.

In his new book, “The Perennials, The Megatrends Creating A Postgenerational Society,” Wharton Business School management professor & assistant dean, Mauro Guillen, argues that the idea of a linear life of compartmentalized stages (i.e. from birth to childhood to adulthood to retirement) is no longer appropriate, & that concepts like retirement prove to do more harm than good.

He’s proposing an alternative: a post-generational workforce of “perennials,” where older people are encouraged to work well into their 70s alongside their younger colleagues. Guillen rejects the idea that older people are too set in their ways to adapt, & points to evidence showing that, when given the opportunity, they can use their experience & maturity to add value to any business wise enough to hold on to them.

Guiilen stresses that educational institutions should also be willing to embrace older students, since there’s a necessity for continual re-skilling to accommodate new technologies & trends. And, older people who remain in the workforce offer huge marketing opportunities for companies looking to expand their product lines in everything from cosmetics to cars.

He also acknowledges that all this will require a new mindset – & enlightened leadership – in our workplaces. Younger people must be shown the upsides of accepting older people at work even while they themselves grapple with the idea of lifelong learning. Equally, older people need to accept that change, both technological & social, will be a constant in their lives. This won’t be easy, but the upside is that many more people will have the opportunity to lead lives that are personally rewarding & socially fulfilling.

How can all this work? That’s the core focus of this podcast. This is also Guillen’s second time being a guest – three years ago he joined us to discuss his Wall Street Journal Bestseller, 2030: How Today’s Biggest Trends Will Collide and Reshape the Future of Everything.

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Very few people know their life’s purpose at an early age, but as a young college student, Ed Catmull started dreaming of making the world’s first computer animated movie. He went on to nurture that dream by earning a Ph.D. in Computer Science before forging a partnership with George Lucas (of Star Wars fame) that led to his founding Pixar Animation Studios with Apple founder, Steve Jobs & John Lasseter.

In 1995, Pixar ultimately fulfilled Catmull’s dream by releasing “Toy Story,” & in the nearly three decades since, Pixar has dominated the world of animation, giving us such beloved films as “Finding Nemo,” “The Incredibles,” “Up,” “Inside Out” – & racking up 18 Academy Awards in the process.

Anyone who has seen a Pixar movie knows they all share a brilliant formula: joyous storytelling, inventive plots & characters that touch our hearts. But the essential ingredient in “Toy Story’s” success – & in the twenty-five films that followed – was the unique culture that Catmull (as CEO) & his colleagues built that uniquely nurtured the creative process & defied traditional leadership convention.

In our conversation, we explore how Catmull & his team introduced psychological safety (long before it was a thing) as a means to ensuring the film directors received critical yet caring feedback on their work – & how pursuing excellence as an organizational value led to the production of so many remarkable movies – animated or otherwise.

Perhaps no person on the planet than Catmull spent more years working with Steve Jobs, & this podcast also explores how Jobs greatly evolved as a leader. Before Ed Catmull retired in 2019, he was President of Disney Animation and Pixar – two of the most innovative companies on the planet.

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What makes for a happy life? A good life?

In 1938, Harvard University researchers launched what’s now become the longest in-depth longitudinal study of human life ever done. The Harvard Study of Adult Development has followed the lives of two generations of individuals, from the same families, for nearly 85 years. 

And the conclusion from all these decades of inquiry is that human thriving, & even longevity, are predicated on having meaningful connection with others. In other words, the stronger our relationships, the more likely we are to live happy, satisfying & flourishing lives.

Dr. Robert Waldinger is the fourth director in the history of the Harvard Study, & he’s recently co-written the global bestseller, The Good Life: Lessons From The World’s Longest Scientific Study Of Happiness. His TED Talk about the Harvard Study, “What Makes a Good Life,” has been viewed 42 million times & is one of the ten most-watched TED talks ever.

Dr. Robert Waldinger is also a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School & is a practicing psychiatrist & psychoanalyst. He is a Zen master (Roshi) and teaches meditation all around the world….

While we’re all conditioned to believe that money buys happiness – & that a focus on material needs leads to the good life – Waldinger’s work proves that relationships in all forms: friendships, romantic partnerships, families, coworkers, tennis partners, book club members et al, is what truly characterizes a joyful & healthier life.

Inherently, this also means that having fewer friends & daily human interactions is directly harmful to well-being. In fact, the US Centers For Disease Control has found that having fewer social relationships (characterized by social isolation & loneliness) is associated with a 29% greater risk of heart disease & a 32% increased risk of stroke.

In an era where studies show most people today have only three-to-five close friends – & are often working alone, away from other people – a deprivation of steady connection may actually be harming us.

In our conversation with Dr. Waldinger, we explore ways of maximizing the benefits we gain from the brief interactions we have with other people most days (what he calls, “social fitness”). And he weighs in on remote working in one of the most provocative ways you’ve ever heard.

In truth, real human connection only occurs in our hearts (not in our brains), so this is a particularly important topic & guest for the “Lead From The Heart” podcast – not to mention its listeners.

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Seemingly overnight, the COVID pandemic caused a massive societal transformation — a structural change in how and where people work and live. And while we may be hearing that CEOs is general still have dreams of having all of their employees back in the office five days a week as they once did, the truth is that nothing is going back to normal.

Perhaps because it’s long been uncertain as to whether or not remote working would endure, organizations have yet to fully embrace the new reality and adapt their leadership practices accordingly. In other words, they’ve yet to master managing people who work in the office some days and in the office on others. And, in many cases, they’ve failed to give employees clear direction on expectations.

By all important measures – engagement, well-being and employee retention – the evidence is clear that most people today are poorly managed. Employee engagement has fallen to a seven-year low, just 20% of workers feel strongly connected to their organization’s culture – and turnover (at least in the US) has set records for two consecutive years.

To punctuate all of this, Microsoft’s Chief Human Resource Officer, Kathleen Hogan wrote an article titled, “We Are Experiencing A Global Human Energy Crisis.” Her assertion was that workers everywhere have become highly dispirited by traditional leadership practices and that companies are suffering for it as a result.

In fortuitous timing, Gallup has been ahead of the curve in identifying all the pivots organizations need to make at this important inflection point, and we’ve invited Jim Harter – Gallup’s long-time Chief Scientist and founder of the firm’s longstanding engagement and well-being studies – to be our first three-time guest.

Along with Gallup Chairman, Jim Clifton, Harter has just written “Culture Shock: An Unstoppable Force Has Changed How We Work And Live. Gallup’s Solution To The Biggest Issue Of Our Time,” a book that will be published in late May.

How do we solve society’s energy crisis? How to companies re-engage their people and ensure they feel a greater connection to its mission and people? How can managers ensure their employees with hybrid working schedules remain highly productive?  These are just some of the important leadership questions we discuss in this invaluable episode.

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