The Gartner Talent Angle

*This Spotlight is an excerpt from our full interview in 2019. Tune in to this episode of the Talent Angle to hear Gartner's own Jaime Roca and Sari Wilde share insights from their new book, "The Connector Manager." Learn how providing targeted feedback while connecting employees to those who are better suited to address their needs not only increases employee engagement, but triples the likelihood that they will be high performers.

As we approach the end of 2020, we are re-releasing your favorite podcast from this year. Please enjoy our conversation with Kathleen Hogan, Microsoft's Chief People Officer, as she shares how Microsoft not only incites culture change, but also how they foster a growth mindset to ensure employees are comfortable learning and failing in order to grow.

Organizations obsess over predictions and forecasting, but the only certainty there is about the future is uncertainty. In this Talent Angle podcast interview, Margaret Heffernan, author of "Uncharted: How to Navigate the Future," explores how to operate with agility in times of uncertainty; arguing that the events with the greatest impact on complex systems — whether organizations or humanity — are often unpredictable. To better prepare for future uncertainty, she urges leaders and their employees to solicit the viewpoints of those around them for a holistic understanding of decisions and their consequences.

*This spotlight is an excerpt from our 2019 interview. Rebels are generally seen as troublemakers whose decisions create chaos in our personal lives and workplaces. However, what if we saw these unconventional outlooks and rule-breaking decisions as constructive rather than destructive? Tune in to this episode to hear Francesca Gino, Tandon Family Professor of Business Administration in the Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit at Harvard Business School and author of "Rebel Talent: Why it Pays to Break the Rules at Work and in Life" discuss how can we challenge the status quo in both our work and personal lives to drive positive change.

In this episode of the Talent Angle, author Jonah Berger discusses his book, The Catalyst, and offers an approach to changing people's minds. He argues that we are in an era of entrenched beliefs, so convincing others or pushing them in a direction has become ineffective. Instead, one should identify the key factors that cause resistance and overcome them by eliminating obstacles, reducing friction, and removing roadblocks. Berger identifies the five key barriers that inhibit change and explains how to reduce them based on his research and underlying psychology behind each barrier.

Zeynep Ton is an adjunct associate professor in the operations management group at MIT Sloan School of Management and the author of The Good Jobs Strategy: How the Smartest Companies Invest in Employees to Lower Costs & Boost Profits. Before MIT Sloan, she spent seven years on the faculty at Harvard Business School. Ton's research explores how organizations can design and manage their operations in a way that satisfies employees, customers, and investors simultaneously.

In this Talent Angle episode, Anil Lewis, executive director for Blindness Initiatives at the National Federation of the Blind, explains how organizations can create inclusive environments for employees with disabilities. He offers guidance on recruitment and development strategies for differently-abled talent and dispels stereotypes about employees with disabilities. Lewis draws on both his personal and professional experiences to urge organizations to create equal opportunities for the development and growth of employees with disabilities.

Anil Lewis is the executive director for Blindness Initiatives at the National Federation of the Blind, where he formerly served as the Director of Advocacy and Policy. Lewis became blind at the age of 25, while a student at Georgia State University. Shortly after graduating, he became a job development and placement specialist for blind clients. He later served as president of the Statewide Independent Living Council of Georgia and as the founding chairman of the board of directors of the Disability Law and Policy Center of Georgia.

*This spotlight is an excerpt from our 2019 interview. What do Ralph Lauren, Larry Ellison, Julian Robertson and Bill Walsh all have in common? Certainly all of them are known for being successful, but there's one thing that distinguishes these superbosses from their peers: the ability to groom talent. Listen to Sydney Finkelstein, award-winning professor at Dartmouth College, share secrets of how exceptional leaders manage and the types of people strategies they employ.

In this episode of the Talent Angle, author and entrepreneur Christiane Lemieux argues that friction, inefficiencies that slow processes in both business model and organizational design, is hurting most organizations. In her book Frictionless: Why the Future of Everything will be Fast, Fluid, and Made Just for You, she profiles entrepreneurs and organizations that have eliminated friction to improve customer and employee experience. Lemieux also discusses how friction in our personal and professional lives prevent us from becoming more productive.

Christiane Lemieux is a serial entrepreneur, former Executive Creative Director at Wayfair, and author of three books. She operates and designs her lifestyle brand, Lemieux et Cie, and she is a frequent contributor to Architectural Digest and other design media. She is a graduate of Parsons School of Design and Queen's University in Canada.

What happens when your workplace is exposed to incivility? What should you do if you are the target of this hostility and aggression? Tune in to this episode of the Talent Angle to hear Christine Porath, Professor at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, teach you how to navigate incivility in the workplace and enhance your own influence and effectiveness through simple acts of civility and respect.

Christine Porath is a tenured professor at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business. She's the author of Mastering Civility: A Manifesto for the Workplace and co-author of The Cost of Bad Behavior. Christine is a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review, and has written articles for New York Times, Wall Street Journal, McKinsey Quarterly, and Washington Post. She frequently delivers talks and has taught in various Executive programs at Harvard, Georgetown, and USC. Prior to her position at Georgetown, she was a faculty member at University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business.