Modern Career

In this episode, Mary talks with Dr. Adam Wright, who works with elite athletes, military, and successful CEOs on strategies for optimal performance. Between changes in the workforce and economy and our health, performing under pressure is more critical than ever. Throughout the episode, Mary and Adam cover key strategies for mental and physical conditioning and how to implement them into busy schedules.

Dr. Adam Wright is an internationally recognized peak performance consultant who specializes in the mental and physical conditioning of elite athletes and performers. Over the past twenty years, he has coached high-level performers and teams across a broad range of fields, including amateur and professional athletes, internationally acclaimed artists, CEO’s and hedge fund executives. He is a peer reviewed author, university lecturer in sport and exercise psychology, and speaker on optimal human performance and positive youth coaching. Adam received his Bachelor’s degree from LaSalle University in Philosophy (Maxima Cum Laude) and his Master’s and Doctoral degrees from Temple University in Kinesiology with a specialization in the Psychology of Movement and an emphasis in Applied Sport and Exercise Psychology.  He is also an ACSM Certified Exercise Physiologist and a NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Coach.

Resources mentioned in this episode

* Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth* Antifragile: Things that Gain From Disorder by Nassim Taleb* The Chimp Paradox: The Mind Management Programme to Help You Achieve Success, Confidence and Happiness by Dr. Steve Peters* Research on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy by Dr. Steven Hayes* Radical Truth and Radical Transparency by Ray Dalio* How to Build Your Personal Resilience by Mary Humiston* 8 Ways To Create Flow According to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

In our Leadership Profile series, Mary sits down with insightful and accomplished leaders from business, technology, and the media to discover their secrets to career success and fulfillment. Next in the series is Adam Bryant, Managing Director for Merryck and former columnist of “Corner Office” at The New York Times.

Listen to other episodes in the Leadership Profile series

Adam Bryant joined Merryck & Co., an executive mentoring firm, as managing director in 2017 after a 30-year career in journalism, including 18 years at The New York Times. In addition to his many roles there as a reporter and editor, he created the weekly “Corner Office” column in 2009, interviewing 525 CEOs and other leaders over a decade, and wrote two books based on the themes that emerged from those interviews.  Since joining Merryck, he has started a popular interview series on LinkedIn with board directors, CEOs and CHROs, and writes a monthly column on leadership for Strategy+Business magazine. His next book, which he is writing with former Amgen CEO Kevin Sharer, is “THE CEO TEST:  Mastering the Challenges that Make or Break All Leaders,” and will be published in Marcy by Harvard Business Review Press. Adam also is the senior adviser to the Reuben Mark Initiative for Organizational Character and Leadership at Columbia University. 

Resources mentioned in this episode

* Books by Adam Bryant* Corner Office at The New York Times

In this episode, Mary sits down with Brian Reinken, a leader in the CEO and Board practices at Egon Zehnder. Brian and Mary discuss important considerations for joining a Board of Directors, how to prepare, increase your visibility, and be selected for board service, and how leaders can open up opportunities to diverse and first-time board members. 

Brian Reinken is a leader in the CEO and Board practices at Egon Zehnder, a preeminent global leadership advisory and search firm. In his 20-year tenure with Egon Zehnder, he has developed deep relationships with CEOs and directors of the world’s leading companies, guiding their CEO, C-suite, and board succession planning. 

He earned a BA in finance from the University of Texas and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He serves on boards himself. He is an advocate for diversity within Egon Zehnder, aimed at developing the next generation of female leaders.

Resources mentioned in this episode

* The Path to the Boardroom from Egon Zehnder

The world of work is changing in profound ways, which means what it takes to navigate a career is different than ever before. In this episode, Mary speaks with Diana Wu David about what it means to have a future proof career and how we can employ a new mindset and behaviors to stay agile in our ever-changing world.

Diana Wu David is the author of Future Proof: Reinventing Work in the Age of Acceleration. Diana teaches in the Columbia Business School’s EMBA Global Asia and the Financial Times Non-Executive Director Diploma. She is a former Financial Times executive, who now works with CEOs and board directors to enhance their leadership agility, influence, collaboration and resilience. She began her career and leadership education as an assistant to Dr. Henry Kissinger.

Resources mentioned in this episode

* Future Proof: Reinventing Work in an Age of Acceleration by Diana Wu David* The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity by Lynda Gratton and Andrew J Scott * What is Disruptive Innovation? By Clayton Christensen* Reinventing Careers by Marshall Goldsmith

In this episode, Mary talks with Debra Corey, author of Build it: The rebel playbook for employee engagement. Leveraging Debra’s Engagement Bridge Model, she and Mary highlight the key ways to take control of your own engagement based on what matters most to you so you can have more impact and fulfillment throughout your whole career.

Debra Corey is a highly experienced and award-winning HR leader, world-class speaker, three-time author, and was recently named one of the top 101 global employee engagement influencers. She’s had a varied career, working for global companies such as Gap Inc., Honeywell, Merlin Entertainments and Reward Gateway, where she’s developed and delivered HR strategies in a rebellious way, pushing the boundaries and challenging the status quo to truly drive employee engagement. In 2019 Debra founded her own company as Chief Pay It Forward Officer, where she’s inspiring and helping others to bring out their inner rebel and drive business change.

Over the course of her career, Debra has been fueling the employee engagement rebelution through a variety of ways, including speaking at events and leading workshops around the world, teaching professional courses and writing. An accomplished author, Debra has published three books, the first one about employee communication strategy and best practice (“Effective HR Communication: A Framework for Communicating HR Programs with Impact”), the second one which talks about why and how to be an engagement rebel (“Build it: A Rebel Playbook for World-Class Employee Engagement”), and her latest book which focuses on company values as a strategic and effective business tool (“Bringing Your Values Out to Play”).

Resources mentioned in this episode

* The Rebel Playbook

In our Leadership Profile series, Mary sits down with insightful and accomplished leaders from business, technology, and the media to discover their secrets to career success and fulfillment.

The first in our Leadership Profile series features Bask Iyer, the Chief Information Officer and Chief Digital Transformation Officer of VMWare, a software company based in Silicon Valley.

Listen to other episodes in the Leadership Profile series

Bas Iyer is the CIO at VMware. He joined VMware in March 2015 and now leads its global information and technology organization, a group that manages critical technology systems supporting the company’s worldwide business operations. In July 2019, Iyer added the responsibility of Chief Digital Transformation Officer. In this role, Iyer serves as a single point of accountability for company-wide, end-to-end operations, systems and tools. In addition, he is responsible for driving collaboration across multiple functions and accelerating the company’s SaaS transformation and M&A integration. From December 2016 to August 2018, he also held the role of chief information officer for Dell Technologies, and from August 2018 to July 2019, he held responsibility of general manager, Edge/IoT for Dell Technologies.

A respected industry veteran, Iyer brings more than 25 years of experience in executing and driving change in traditional Fortune 100 manufacturing companies and Silicon Valley-based high technology firms. Prior to joining VMware, Iyer served as senior vice president and chief information officer at Juniper Networks, where he was responsible for the company’s technology and business operations, which included critical services around business transformation, global business services, IT and real estate, and workplace services. Before joining Juniper Networks, he served as chief information officer at Honeywell, and chief information officer at GlaxoSmithKline Beecham for consumer healthcare research and development, where he was also the company’s e-commerce leader. Iyer holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Annamalai University in India and a master’s degree in computer science from Florida Institute of Technology.

In this episode, Mary sits down with Melissa Hereford to discuss the most successful strategies for negotiating for what you want in your career. Mary and Melissa explore different techniques and negotiation situations in and outside of the workplace, inspiring you to negotiate with greater confidence throughout your career. 

Melissa Hereford is a facilitator, consultant, writer and business coach. She spent 23 years teaching corporate professionals how to have more authentic and connected conversations, to use their voice for change and show up in their lives with intention. She has created and customized programs with one outcome in mind: how to use conversations to get more of what you want while building stronger relationships.

Melissa spent 18 years teaching sales, procurement and internal team members how to negotiate more effectively with industry leader BayGroup International. She designed and delivered programs for Fortune 500 companies, including Cisco, Owens Corning, Honeywell, UPS and many others.

In 2013, Melissa joined Corporate Visions as a Vice President where she created a sales enablement and onboarding program. Melissa provided sales performance coaching to over 60 sales professionals & business development reps nationwide, directly impacting their level of effectiveness in penetrating and growing market share.

Melissa currently facilitates in person and virtual training programs, coaches sales people and teaches corporate professionals to inspire and motivate others with industry leading companies such as VantagePoint Performance, Stand & Deliver and Corporate Visions. She also delivers her own content through a small group coaching program to help people embrace and leverage their natural collaboration skills to be better leaders.

Resources mentioned in this episode

* Free Salary Negotiation Script* What I Learned From 100 Days of Rejection – TED Talk by Jia Jiang* The Confidence Code by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman

In this episode, Mary sits down with Dorie Clark to discuss how we can be proactive in our careers, pivot as needed, and reinvent ourselves towards our greatest success. Throughout the episode, Dorie shares how anyone at any time can reinvent their career to fit their goals and passions by leveraging an entrepreneurial mindset, strengthening their personal brand, and building a network.

Dorie Clark has been named one of the Top 50 business thinkers in the world by Thinkers50 and recognized as the #1 Communication Coach in the world by the Marshall Goldsmith Leading Global Coaches Awards. Dorie is a consultant for clients including Google, Microsoft and The World Bank. She is a keynote speaker, a frequent contributor to HBR and teaches executive education in the business schools at both Duke University and Columbia.  

Dorie is the author of Entrepreneurial You, Reinventing You and Stand Out, which was named the #1 Leadership Book of 2015 by Inc. magazine. A former presidential campaign spokeswoman, Dorie has been described by the New York Times as an “expert at self-reinvention and helping others make changes in their lives.”

Resources mentioned in this episode:

* Entrepreneurial You by Dorie Clark* Reinventing You by Dorie Clark* Stand Out by Dorie Clark* Dorie’s free reinvention self-assessment

In this episode, Mary sits down with Richard Taylor, the VP of Employee Experience at Nasdaq, to discuss strategies for advancing your career from inside a company. In the episode, they’ll cover how to take control of your career, who can help you advance, promotions, unconscious bias, and personal branding. 

Richard Taylor is the VP of Employee Experience at Nasdaq, where he’s intent on transforming people’s relationship with work. His focus is re-imagining everything from company values & culture, leadership, recognition, and careers, elevating the day-to-day work environment and enriching the experience. Prior to Nasdaq, Richard has held HR leadership roles at Palo Alto Networks, LinkedIn, Applied Materials, Reuters, and several startups.

In this episode, we’ll cover the key elements you need to best navigate a career transition in which you are empowered and in control to reach your goals. Whether you’re beginning your career, transitioning industries, or planning for your next leadership role, we’ll provide the skills, knowledge, and strategies you need to get to your next step. Our guest, Ron Carucci, takes us through his framework for launching an ongoing, multifaceted career campaign by looking in, looking out, and looking ahead. Throughout the episode, we’ll give you expert, practical strategies for successfully navigating current and future career transitions.

Ron Carucci is a best-selling author of eight books, including the recent Amazon #1 Rising to Power. Ron is a regular contributor to the Harvard Business Review and Forbes, is a TEDx speaker, and a member of the Marshall Goldsmith MG100 coaches community. His work has been featured in Fortune, CEO Magazine, Inc., BusinessInsider, MSNBC, Business Week, and Smart Business. He is the co-founder and managing director of Navalent, where he helps executives tackle challenges of strategy, organization, and leadership. You can follow him on twitter @RonCarucci.

Resources mentioned in today’s episode:

* The Confidence Code by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman* Entrepreneurial You by Dorie Clark* Give and Take by Adam Grant* Leading Transformation: An Owner’s Manual by Navalent* Rising to Power by Ron Carucci