Punk Rock HR

By WRKdefined Podcast NetworkBusiness Careers Management

Punk Rock HR episodes

June 11, 2018013: Leadership Accountability with Vince Molinaro
Has your company tried to implement leadership training that ended up doing absolutely nothing for the leaders or the employees? If so, you’re not alone, and it’s because they’re missing a key component in what makes a great leader: accountability. Today’s guest, Vince Molinaro is an expert on the subject. In fact, he wrote the book on it, The Leadership Contract. He and Laurie talk about the 5 behaviors of accountable leaders and ways to fix a disengaged, broken workforce.
Vince Molinaro is a thought leader and consultant, and author of the fantastic book, The Leadership Contract.
We all have our stories about work and the leadership we experienced, some good and some bad. But some of them are just lukewarm. Dead and dull, the daily grind, even in sectors where the work itself is life-changing. Vince shares the story of his time at a company like that, and the heartbreaking reason why the turnaround his mentor and leader spearheaded ended up failing and the toxicity that was behind a curtain. This experience is what set Vince on his path of thought leadership.
Vince’s former mentor and boss was the epitome of great leadership. Not only did she have what Vince calls leadership ESP, but she also shielded him and the other employees from the toxicity of upper management. All that Vince does, he does in memory of his mentor. She inspired him to work only with truly great leaders.
Is there one, standard definition of what great leadership is, or does it vary from organization to organization? Vince has spent a long time learning and researching that very questions, and what he’s found is that while companies are investing more and more in leadership programs, they aren’t happy with the outcomes. It all comes down to accountability.
Vince shares the 5 behaviors that describe a truly accountable leader: holds others to high standards of performance, is excited about the company and shows that enthusiasm every day, has the courage to tackle tough issues and the courage to have difficult conversations, knows how to cascade and communicate strategy, and one who keeps their eyes truly open.
Laurie points to the chicken and egg problem with trying to find future leaders in a workforce that is largely disengaged. She and Vince talk about the huge opportunities companies have missed and instead have tried foosball tables and cafeterias to increase engagement. For example, focusing on leader engagement sets off a ripple effect throughout the entire company.
Don’t kill the souls of the people who work for you. Please. Do us all a favor and take Vince’s advice on how to get your passion back and become engaged once again in your role as a leader. First of all, you have an obligation to lead. Leadership is a contract (which is why he named his book The Leadership Contract). But you ALSO have an obligation to yourself to fulfill, and that is to ask yourself whether you’re really meant for a leadership role.
Vince brings a measure of optimism to Laurie’s normal cynicism, and he shares his thoughts on how you can fix work for yourself. Yes, the robots are coming. There’s AI. There’s employee disengagement all around. But then there’s YOU. You have a wealth of experience in the trenches, and Vince reveals how you can be the change you hope to see at work and the tremendous opportunities that await you.
The DIY HR Handbook
Wouldn't you love to get your hands on Laurie's no-holds-barred, honest DIY HR Handbook for employees and pros alike? Download it for free!
Links from this episode:
The Leadership Contract
Vince on LinkedIn
39 min
June 11, 2018 014: Leadership Accountability with Vince Molinaro
Has your company tried to implement leadership training that ended up doing absolutely nothing for the leaders or the employees? If so, you’re not alone, and it’s because they’re missing a key component in what makes a great leader: accountability. Today’s guest, Vince Molinaro is an expert on the subject. In fact, he wrote the book on it, The Leadership Contract. He and Laurie talk about the 5 behaviors of accountable leaders and ways to fix a disengaged, broken workforce.
36 min
June 04, 2018012: Gender Equity With Adrienne Murphy, Ph.D.
Chances are you’ve already seen the Gender Equity Iceberg, and today, Laurie talks with Adrienne Murphy, Ph.D., of Dimitry|Murphy & Associates. Adrienne is a wicked smart psychologist, business leader, and consultant who works with professional women to align their jobs with their values. But what’s more is that Adrienne helps these women find their voice, develop their careers, and break through glass ceilings. Even so, her common-sense approach to careers and life can help men, too.
Adrienne doesn’t just believe that work is broken. She has proof. She held a focus group filled with professional women who have opted out of the workforce and instead, spent their time doing ‘meaning-making’ work. These are the types of women, along with first-time professionals, are the focus of Adrienne’s work.
When Adrienne works with these women, she has two primary things to teach. First, your career is an asset, just like your portfolio. Second, if you want to be something more than a director, you need to know yourself. Adrienne explains what she means and gives some great examples of how to do both.
Laurie and Adrienne dig into the layer beneath opting out of the workforce by asking why these women choose to follow a different path, and the reason might surprise you. Naturally, there’s the money, the hierarchy, the inequality, the glass ceiling, but that’s not all. Adrienne believes that it’s also values that clash with one other within a single woman.
It’s not always easy to use your voice when you don’t have words to describe the problems you experience. Adrienne has some powerful advice for you that includes sitting with your feelings for enough time to give them words, and then being mindful of how you communicate them to others.
Have you seen the Gender Equity Iceberg infographic in your social media feeds? (If not, find it here!) Laurie and Adrienne take a closer look at the iceberg theory, from legal to cultural issues, and what to do about them. In addition, the illegal actions that occur won’t go away until the cultural behaviors, those below the waterline on the iceberg, are dealt with as well.
Would you believe that some companies are actually recognizing fathers and their role in parenting by giving them paternity leave? It’s this and a few other heartwarming things Adrienne shares that gives her hope about the future of work.
Speaking of the future of work, Adrienne has an interesting viewpoint of how technology will help people map out their career path. But what is REALLY fascinating is how she believes that women have influenced the workforce in such a way that the traditional hierarchy will give way to project-based organization.
Adrienne has some beautiful words to share around #itdoesnthavetobethisway. You might not be able to make change in your life immediately, but with a plan and an open mind, your life doesn’t have to be this way.
Links from this episode:
Adrienne Murphy
Twitter
Facebook
Website
The Gender Equity Iceberg (Download)
Other links:
Jane Harmon
40 min
June 04, 2018 012: Gender Equity With Adrienne Murphy, Ph.D.
Chances are you’ve already seen the Gender Equity Iceberg, and today, Laurie talks with Adrienne Murphy, Ph.D., of Dimitry|Murphy & Associates. Adrienne is a wicked smart psychologist, business leader, and consultant who works with professional women to align their jobs with their values. But what’s more is that Adrienne helps these women find their voice, develop their careers, and break through glass ceilings. Even so, her common-sense approach to careers and life can help men, too.
37 min
May 28, 2018011: Work Myths with Katrina Kibben
Katrina has a unique way of fixing work. She’s blazed a trail into nearly uncharted territory with an audacious goal: to take high volume, low retention jobs and make them not suck. She’s not afraid of a challenge; one of her clients hires people for split-shifts to work with small children. We love kids, don’t get us wrong. But it’s not always easy to work with a group of someone else’s kids. So, Katrina wants to help people find the right job, not just any job.
It’s not all on the employee to find the right job, which is why Katrina focuses on teaching the employers what that phrase means. Katrina rounds out her list of places that suffer from high turnover rates. Have you ever held one of these jobs? And if you’re the one hiring for these positions, well. You’ll want to take notes.
How does Katrina help these employers? She explains some of the first things she does when she comes in to consult with a company. First among them is taking a psychological profile of the top, most successful, employees in the role.
Katrina draws on her own personal experience when working with her clients, and she makes an ‘on the nose’ observation about how she felt in her various roles. She was needed but not valued. Take a moment and let that sink in. Needed but not valued. Katrina has a unique combination of skills which has landed her in a strange array of jobs, and she shares how, no matter the size of the company, no matter the job title, the day-to-day experience rarely changed. And that’s why she started her own company.
Laurie makes an interesting assertion that employees rarely grow within a company. Instead, they grow by going from one job to another. This is especially true for Katrina; as a consultant, she hops from one situation to another, and in doing so, she’s fixed work for herself. It wasn’t an easy road for her; she was conditioned to the stability of a guaranteed paycheck every month. Her first stint as an entrepreneur didn’t end well, and it wasn’t because of lack of clients. It was because of fear.
Katrina was much more focused for Round 2 of being an entrepreneur. She reveals her mindset and what she did differently this time around, a lesson you can take if you’re ready to break out of your own job and fix work for yourself. Even if your parents were strict military.
If you’re currently struggling in YOUR role, Katrina has some fantastic advice. But to start, you have to answer one question. Are you going to stay or are you ready to leave? Staying at a company where you’re unhappy IS a valid choice, but there’s a very important consideration. If you can’t be honest and transparent about your unhappiness, then you need to leave.
As a manager, keeping your employees motivated and engaged is a constant battle. So is keeping yourself motivated and engaged. Katrina shares WHY retail jobs are so challenging and it all comes down to one thing: the more humans you have to encounter in one day increases the ratio of assholes you deal with. You might think that good jobs don’t exist in retail jobs. But Katrina says that isn’t true, at least for all people.
There is one problem at work that Katrina is currently obsessing over that no one else is even thinking about. It’s the Fallacies of Work, a rote list of do’s and do not’s that somehow still exist from a totally different age, and Katrina smashes every single one of them.
The DIY HR Handbook
Wouldn't you love to get your hands on Laurie's no-holds-barred, honest DIY HR Handbook for employees and pros alike? Download it for free!
Katrina Kibben:
Three Ears Media Blog
Three Ears Media Website
LinkedIn
Twitter
40 min
May 28, 2018 011: Work Myths with Katrina Kibben
Katrina has a unique way of fixing work. She’s blazed a trail into nearly uncharted territory with an audacious goal: to take high volume, low retention jobs and make them not suck. She’s not afraid of a challenge; one of her clients hires people for split-shifts to work with small children. We love kids, don’t get us wrong. But it’s not always easy to work with a group of someone else’s kids. So, Katrina wants to help people find the right job, not just any job.
37 min
May 21, 2018010: How to Be Awesome at Life with Eric Barker
So far no one has challenged Laurie on her premise that work is broken. Until today. Eric Barker is the author of the bestselling book, Barking Up The Wrong Tree, and he believes that issues with managing people and organizing them to accomplish things is a perennial challenge. In fact, he doesn’t believe work is broken because it was never fixed in the first place. Dive in with Laurie and Eric in this stimulating conversation about the state of work.
Eric explains why he doesn’t think work is broken, and it’s because he believes it was never fixed in the first place. From technology changes to cultural changes, work is a perennial problem, and you might be inclined to agree with him on this point.
Aside from loving the title of his book, it was also Laurie's favorite non-fiction book of 2017. She asks him a pointed question about success. There are many misconceptions, so you might want to check your own beliefs about what success at works really means. Is it the quality of work? Is it the quantity? Does success in one department look the same as success in another? What about from one manager to the next, and personality conflicts? Eric tackles these tough topics and more.
Eric shares something EVERY job-searcher should know when they go into an interview. You see, peer pressure isn’t just something that affects teenagers. It affects us at every age, and the most insidious part of it according to Eric is that we don’t even realize it.
What is ‘learned helplessness’ at work? It’s when employees don’t have a sense of agency and felt like they actually could make choices, even exercise a single choice. It turns employees into victims, and Eric gives some very solid steps you can take today to pull yourself up from that position.
Volunteering can change your life. It’s true, but why? Eric and Laurie talk about the different thing you can do, and it’s not just about helping others. It’s about changing your sense of worth and identity. You aren’t your job. You are a person and we, as people, can easily get caught in destructive loops. And don’t worry; you don’t need to volunteer for 50 hours a week. You can do it for as little as 2 hours and feel the effects.
The Venn Diagram of happiness and success definitely overlap, but not completely. Eric and Laurie investigate what it really means when the two overlap, and the tricky areas where they don’t. Does your work environment allow you to do what you do best? Or what if you’re happy with your job but not successful? What’s in store for you when you’re outside of Venn’s sweet spot?
Let’s get one thing straight – if you’re going to fix work, you’ll have to start by fixing yourself. This concept can get VERY woo-woo when you listen to some of the inspirational speakers out there. They think they can make change by ‘whispering a few words’ in your ears. Laurie isn’t big on that. Mindfulness and meditation are good, no doubt, but she and Eric have a deep discussion about what kind of self-help is really needed. By the way… it’s your fault.
You can’t underestimate the importance of relationships in work and life. So much of the unhappiness in the world is caused by loneliness. Eric lays out some scenarios. Do any of these sound familiar to you in your life? If you’re going to invest in anything, invest in relationships.
Find Eric:
Website/Blog
LinkedIn
Barking Up The Wrong Tree Book
The DIY HR Handbook
Wouldn't you love to get your hands on Laurie's no-holds-barred, honest DIY HR Handbook for employees and pros alike? Download it for free!
38 min
May 21, 2018 010: How to Be Awesome at Life with Eric Barker
So far no one has challenged Laurie on her premise that work is broken. Until today. Eric Barker is the author of the bestselling book, Barking Up The Wrong Tree, and he believes that issues with managing people and organizing them to accomplish things is a perennial challenge. In fact, he doesn’t believe work is broken because it was never fixed in the first place. Dive in with Laurie and Eric in this stimulating conversation about the state of work.
35 min
May 14, 2018009: Failed Corporate Diversity Initiatives with Katie Augsburger
What is the future of work? Katie Augsburger is the Founder and Partner of Future Work Design, an organization that wants to smash the patriarchy and decenter whiteness. Okay – before anyone starts bristling about being pushed out, that’s not her intent. Katie has some amazing ideas of how helping those with least access can benefit all employees.
Katie has two answers to the question, ‘How do you fix work?’ The first one is pretty cheeky and involves smashing things, but the second one takes a deeper look at the design of work. But first, she shares a story of walking into a women’s bathroom and finding a row of urinals.
We’re told as women to lean into the systems, but they aren’t built for us. Part of what Katie does is to break systems. She talks about how she doesn’t try to get rid of white men; she’s trying to make room for women. If you haven’t heard of the ‘curbside’ effect, then you need to listen to the analogy.
Using her theory of the curbside effect, she comes into companies with a radically different way of looking at things. How can we put the least advantaged people in the center of the design, and how will that help everyone succeed?
One of the best ways Katie get results is to ask questions. Not the typical questions managers ask quarterly or whatever, but deep reaching questions from the bottom all the way to the top. She talks about how smashing the old system and creating something new has worked out for one of her clients.
Companies tend to hire for skills and tech, but fire for behavior and soft skills. It’s this systematized, procedural way of looking at things that creates problems. But Katie believes it’s the soft skills, the behaviors, that will make or break the systems and processes.
Laurie poses the question: is it harder for companies to hold an open dialogue on gender issues or race issues? Katie and Laurie share their theories on why it’s more difficult to talk about race.
Not every company needs to be smashed. Katie shares a case study of a call center that, despite being an undesirable job, has managed to make THEIR work meaningful and impactful to their employees. Another great company Katie likes is Airbnb, and she reveals why.
Katie wraps up the episode with her approach to smashing the patriarchy and decentralizing whiteness, and it comes from a place of great compassion. She’s not interested in pushing out anyone who is white or male; instead, she wants to make things better for everyone by making it better for those who are great employees but don’t measure up on the outdated yardstick.
Find Katie:
LinkedIn
Website
The DIY HR Handbook
Wouldn't you love to get your hands on Laurie's no-holds-barred, honest DIY HR Handbook for employees and pros alike? Download it for free!
36 min
May 14, 2018 009: Failed Corporate Diversity Initiatives with Katie Augsburger
What is the future of work? Katie Augsburger is the Founder and Partner of Future Work Design, an organization that wants to smash the patriarchy and decenter whiteness. Okay – before anyone starts bristling about being pushed out, that’s not her intent. Katie has some amazing ideas of how helping those with least access can benefit all employees.
33 min

About Punk Rock HR

From the publisher's feed

Welcome to the Punk Rock HR Podcast, hosted by the influential and unconventional Laurie Ruettimann. This podcast breaks away from the traditional constraints of the HR world to bring you candid and compelling conversations with some of the most disruptive and innovative minds in the business. Each episode, Laurie dives deep into critical topics surrounding the real world of work, exploring the modern workplace's nuances, and challenging the status quo of HR.