Meikles & Dimes

By Nate MeikleEducation

Meikles & Dimes episodes

January 02, 2024111: Strengthening Strengths Beats Improving Weaknesses | Joe Folkman
Joe Folkman is co-founder and President of Zenger Folkman, a firm specializing in leadership and organizational development. As one of the nation’s renowned psychometricians, his surveys and assessments utilize a database comprised of over one million assessments on over 80,000 leaders.
Joe’s clients include AT&T, General Motors, General Mills, Wells Fargo, and Yale University, he has published nine books, and his research has been published in the Harvard Business Review, Forbes, and The Wall Street Journal.
Joe holds a doctorate degree in Social and Organizational Psychology, as well as a master’s degree in Organizational Behavior from Brigham Young University.
In this episode we discuss the following:
When people receive feedback about their strengths and weaknesses, they often choose to focus on their weaknesses. But Joe’s research, based on one million assessments of 80,000 leaders, shows that people tend to be better off focusing on their strengths rather than their weaknesses.
To build leadership strengths, such as trying to improve our honesty, it can be helpful to focus on adjacent strength builders such as assertiveness. By improving our assertiveness, we can improve our honesty.
Joe’s research shows that those who rate us are twice as accurate at predicting our strengths and weaknesses as we are.
Steve Jobs had weaknesses, some of which were nearly fatal flaws. But his strengths were so strong, that they more than compensated for his weaknesses in the workplace.

Follow Joe:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JoeFolkman
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-folkman-4766813/
Joe’s HBR Article on Strength Builders
Follow Me:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nate_meikle
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natemeikle/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nate_meikle/
23 min
December 26, 2023110: Jennifer Pahlka, Founder of Code for America
Jennifer Pahlka is the founder of Code for America and the author of Recoding America: Why Government is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better. She has served as U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer under President Obama and on the Defense Innovation Board under Presidents Obama and Trump. She also co-founded United States Digital Response, which helps government meet the needs of the public with volunteer tech support. Jennifer received the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, was named by Wired as one of the 25 people who has most shaped the past 25 years, and her 2012 TED Talk, “Coding a Better Government,” has over 1 million views. Jennifer is a graduate of Yale University.
In this episode we discuss the following:
After backpacking in Asia for a year, and then returning to the states, Jennifer realized that our culture and infrastructure could be different because she had seen different.
People think of government as an “other” and unchangeable. But it’s up to us to make government more aligned to our values.
Lots of people talk about public service as giving back. But Jennifer got more out of public service than she gave, and hopes that we would all spend time in public service.
We need to hold our politicians accountable for not only planting new seeds, but also nurturing the seeds that have already been planted.
David Graeber: “The ultimate hidden truth of the world is that it is something we make and could just as easily make differently.”

Follow Jennifer:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/pahlkadot
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jpahlka/
Follow Me:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nate_meikle
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natemeikle/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nate_meikle/
14 min
December 18, 2023109: Wharton Professor Amy Wrzesniewski | Job Crafting and Creating Meaning
Amy Wrzesniewski, professor at the Wharton School of Pennsylvania, is an award-winning professor who researches how people make meaning of their work. Her research on job crafting examines how people redraw the boundaries of their jobs to change both their work identity and the meaning of the work. Amy’s work has been published in prestigious academic journals as well as mainstream outlets, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Harvard Business Review.
And in 2015 and 2019 Amy won the “Inspiring Yale” Award, voted by students as the most inspiring professor at Yale’s School of Management.
Amy earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Prior to joining the Wharton School, Amy was on faculty at Yale and NYU.
In this episode we discuss the following:
We make a mistake in thinking that certain jobs are meaningful and other jobs are not. However, the meaning is really in the relationship between people and their work, which makes finding meaning a far more personal endeavor.
It’s not just about finding fit. It’s also about creating fit. Just as there is some finite number of people we could build a great life with, there are also some number of jobs or careers we could make our own and find meaning in.
By changing both our perception and behaviors, we can alter the meaning and significance of our jobs.
Whether we view our job as cleaning hospital rooms or as healing people, there is significant flexibility in how we can craft our jobs and derive meaning from our work.
Follow Amy:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/amywrzesniewski
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-wrzesniewski-032229/
Follow Me:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nate_meikle
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natemeikle/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nate_meikle/
24 min
December 11, 2023108: Adam Grant | Inside the Mind of Wharton’s Top-Rated Professor
Adam Grant is Wharton’s top-rated professor (going on 7 straight years) and has been recognized as the world’s #2 most influential management thinker.
Adam is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of 6 books that have sold millions of copies and been translated into 45 languages: Hidden Potential, Think Again, Give and Take, Originals, Option B, and Power Moves. His viral piece on languishing was the most-read New York Times article of 2021.
Adam hosts the TED podcasts Re:Thinking and WorkLife, which have been downloaded over 70 million times. His TED talks on languishing, original thinkers, and givers and takers have over 35 million views.
Adam’s speaking and consulting clients include Google, the NBA, Bridgewater, and the Gates Foundation. He has served on the Defense Innovation Board at the Pentagon, has been honored as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, and has appeared on the television show Billions. He has more than 8 million followers on social media and features new insights in his free monthly newsletter, GRANTED.
Adam was tenured at Wharton while still in his twenties, and has received the Excellence in Teaching Award for every class he has taught. He curates the Next Big Idea Club along with Susan Cain, Malcolm Gladwell, and Dan Pink, as they raise money to provide books for children in under-resourced communities.
Adam earned his Ph.D. in organizational psychology from the University of Michigan, completing it in less than 3 years, and his B.A. from Harvard University, magna cum laude with highest honors and Phi Beta Kappa honors.
In this episode we discuss the following:
Be careful about listening to other people's advice because they can only tell us what's worked for them. Adam learned this lesson accidentally from his mom who told him to not be a professor.
When Adam’s mother advised him to not be a professor, Adam realized how badly he wanted to be a professor by noticing how strongly he pushed back against his mother’s advice.
It’s common for people to think that the best thing they can do for the world is achieve success and then give back. But this is backwards. It’s through helping other people that we often achieve our greatest success.
You don't have to wait until you've accomplished a great deal and accumulated a lot of status, power and wealth before you have something to contribute. Give back now.
Other people’s emails are not your priority. They’re their priority. In other words, your inbox is other people’s priorities. But this also means that emails are an opportunity to do something meaningful for someone else.
Adam’s mentor warned him that the danger of loving his work is that he might end up working all the time. It wasn’t until Adam had a child and was feeling a sense of compulsive workaholism on Saturday mornings, that he was able to step back and recalibrate his priorities.
Sometimes we don’t really appreciate the lessons people share with us until we’ve made the same mistakes they’re warning us about.

Follow Adam:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AdamMGrant
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adammgrant/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adamgrant/
Follow Me:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nate_meikle
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natemeikle/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nate_meikle/
16 min
December 10, 2023107: Sundays with Tozer Episode 4 | Tozer Moves to Japan
Justin Tozer is a math and science prodigy who grew up on a farm where formal education was all but prohibited. Yet, somehow Tozer would make his way to the world’s most prestigious firms, first in Silicon Valley and later in Los Alamos at the world’s preeminent scientific lab.
Yet no professional accomplishment compares to the countless lives Tozer has saved, changed, and enhanced.
In this episode we discuss the following:
The Japanese tool maker who felt responsible for the suicide of an American.
The flat tire that helped Tozer save a young man's life.
How society lets too many young people suffer.

Follow Me:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nate_meikle
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natemeikle/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nate_meikle/
59 min
December 10, 2023106: Sundays with Tozer Episode 3 | Tozer Goes to College
Justin Tozer is a math and science prodigy who grew up on a farm where formal education was all but prohibited. Yet, somehow Tozer would make his way to the world’s most prestigious firms, first in Silicon Valley and later in Los Alamos at the world’s preeminent scientific lab.
Yet no professional accomplishment compares to the countless lives Tozer has saved, changed, and enhanced.
In this episode we discuss the following:
Tozer teaching himself calculus for fun.
Tozer arguing with the financial aid office at BYU because they didn't charge him enough.
Tozer working for 72 hours straight, and later saving a CO2 plant from burning down.
Tozer receiving a mission call to Japan.

Follow Me:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nate_meikle
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natemeikle/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nate_meikle/
52 min
December 10, 2023105: Sundays with Tozer Episode 2 | Middle School, High School, & Religion
Justin Tozer is a math and science prodigy who grew up on a farm where formal education was all but prohibited. Yet, somehow Tozer would make his way to the world’s most prestigious firms, first in Silicon Valley and later in Los Alamos at the world’s preeminent scientific lab.
Yet no professional accomplishment compares to the countless lives Tozer has saved, changed, and enhanced.
In this episode we discuss the following:
Tozer's grade school teacher would constantly bring him broken things to repair.
Not knowing his birthday...only knowing that it was during the second cutting of hay.
Getting paddled in math class for answering too many questions.
First time he used a baseball bat, he hit the ball, let go of the bat and hit his coach in the chest and knocked him down.
Tozer's elementary school teacher still has letters on her fridge that Tozer wrote her.
When Tozer told his counselor he wanted to go to BYU, the counselor asked if he was LDS. Tozer had never had that acronym but thought we was talking about LSD so Tozer responded that he didn’t do drugs.
Tozer was the first person in his grade to be accepted to college.
First time Tozer took the ACT he scored perfect on math and got a 13 in English.

Follow Me:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nate_meikle
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natemeikle/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nate_meikle/
1 hr 9 min
December 04, 2023104: Brad Stulberg | Self-Discipline Versus Self-Compassion
Brad Stulberg is a bestselling author, consultant, executive coach, and adjunct professor at the University of Michigan. Brad regularly contributes to the New York Times, and his work has also been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the Atlantic. In his coaching practice, Brad works with executives, entrepreneurs, physicians, and athletes on their mental skills and overall well-being.
Brad earned both his undergraduate degree and master’s degree from the University of Michigan.
In this episode we discuss the following:
Fierce self-discipline requires fierce self-compassion.
Doing hard things, showing up even when you don’t feel like it, is integral to having meaning and excellence in life. But you’ve got to be kind to yourself too. Because if you’re not kind to yourself, your self-discipline is not going to be sustainable.
Self-discipline takes you to the really hard places and allows you to step into the arena, but if you beat yourself every time you fail, why would you take that risk in the future?
Self-discipline and self-compassion end up getting pitted against each other. But as Brad observes people on the path of excellence, it’s not either or. It’s both and.
Individuals who practice self-compassion are more resilient and tend to work through challenges more skillfully.
“I knew intellectually that I should be self-compassionate, but it wasn’t until I had a severe episode of depression that I realized I wasn’t very kind to myself.”
“I was carrying a lot of self-discipline, but no one really taught me the self-compassion side of the equation. And I had to learn that to get through the depression, because simply showing up is really hard when you’re depressed.”
Self-compassion: “Have your own back.”
Self-care is really community care. All the research on resilience shows that the number one factor of resilience is seeking support and being enmeshed in a circle of belonging and community.
The things that work, work until they get in the way. Self-discipline works until you self-destruct because you’re pushing yourself so hard.
Self-compassion works until you get so soft that you don’t actually start, and every time you feel a little bit off you let those feelings dictate what happens next.
Follow Brad:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BStulberg
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brad-stulberg-009b168b/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bradstulberg/
Follow Me:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nate_meikle
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natemeikle/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nate_meikle/
12 min
November 28, 2023103: Virginia Professor Brian Nosek | From Ruining His Career to Revolutionizing Science
Brian Nosek is a social-cognitive psychologist, professor at the University of Virginia, and co-founder and director of the Center for Open Science. In 2011, Brian and his colleagues launched the Reproducibility Project which would ultimately transform science forever.
In this episode we discuss the following:
Reputation is how people perceive us. But integrity is what we get to choose for ourselves.
We can hold ourselves accountable for our integrity, but when we worry about our reputation, we’re prone to get led astray.
If we try to control our reputation, we’re prone to avoid risk (e.g., we don’t do the things we should do because we might make people mad).
If we try to control our reputation, we may deviate from our values in an attempt to keep other people happy.
We undermine ourselves when we prioritize reputation over integrity.
Our long-term reputation will ultimately derive from our integrity.
You can’t control your reputation. You can control your integrity.
Brian was told he was ruining his career. But by focusing on integrity over reputation, Brian and his colleagues revolutionized science.

Follow Brian:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrianNosek
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-nosek-682b17114/
Follow Me:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nate_meikle
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natemeikle/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nate_meikle/
23 min
November 21, 2023102: Daniel Pink, Author of Drive | Action Creates Motivation
Dan Pink is the author of five New York Times bestsellers, including his latest, The Power of Regret. His other books include the New York Times bestsellers When and A Whole New Mind — as well as the #1 New York Times bestsellers Drive and To Sell is Human. Dan’s books have won multiple awards, have been translated into 42 languages, and have sold millions of copies around the world.
Dan also hosted and produced “Crowd Control,” a TV series on the National Geographic Channel that aired in more than 100 countries. He hosts a popular MasterClass on sales and persuasion, and he appears frequently on NPR, PBS, ABC, CNN, and other TV and radio networks in the US and abroad.
He has been a contributing editor at Fast Company and Wired as well as a business columnist for The Sunday Telegraph. His articles and essays have also appeared in The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, The Atlantic, Slate, and other publications.
Before venturing out on his own 20 years ago, Dan worked in several positions in politics and government, including serving as chief speechwriter to Vice President Al Gore from 1995 to 1997.
He received a BA from Northwestern University and a JD from Yale Law School.
In this episode we discuss the following:
Just get started. So often we want to wait for the perfect time or conditions to do something. But in reality, the best way to find motivation to do things is to just get started.
Acting creates motivation. If you don’t feel like writing, but then you start writing, you will then feel like writing.
Julius Erving: “Being a professional is doing what you love to do, even on the days you don’t feel like doing it.”
“If I decided that I was going to write when I was inspired, I would never write a word.” Instead, I show up in my office, I give myself a word count, and I don’t do anything until I hit that number.
Once I start writing I feel like writing. I wish someone had told me when I was younger that action created motivation. It took me a while to figure that out and put it in practice.
Our intuition reverses the sequence. We think we have to feel a certain way to act, when in fact you can act your way into feelings.
Don’t wait until you feel like doing something to act. Act, and then in most cases, you’ll feel like doing it.
Start with generosity. In almost any interaction you have, lead with generosity. It makes us feel better, and there are also massive returns to us.
If we make our default setting to be generous, we may have to switch off the default for some people, but most people are worthy of our generosity.
Follow Dan:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DanielPink
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielpink/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/danielhpink
Follow Me:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nate_meikle
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natemeikle/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nate_meikle/
17 min

About Meikles & Dimes

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Meikles & Dimes is a podcast dedicated to the simple, practical, and underappreciated. Monologue episodes cover science-based topics in decision-making, health, communication, negotiation, and…