The Gartner Talent Angle

Being a good leader requires understanding how your actions affect others' motivation and mental state. Christine Comaford, entrepreneur and bestselling author of Power Your Tribe: Create Resilient Teams in Turbulent Times, breaks down the neuroscience of effective leadership to a level that you don't need a Ph.D. to understand.

*This is a 20 minute excerpt from our 2016 conversation with Roselinde Torres

Roselinde Torres distills down the characteristics of leaders who are thriving, what they do differently and the preparation practices that enable people to grow to their potential.

Roselinde Torres is a senior leader in the People & Organization practice at The Boston Consulting Group and has served as the first global head of BCG's leadership topic. In addition, she has been a member of the firm's Americas Leadership team.

What is it like to work for Uber as its new head of diversity after holding the same post for Hillary Clinton's campaign?

Bernard Coleman shares his insights based on his experiences as the Head of Diversity and Inclusion for Uber and Hillary Clinton's campaign. "Diversity in isolation is not effective - to be successful it must always be paired with inclusion," says Coleman. Meaningful D&I efforts requires engaging with others and navigating different perspectives to build lasting solutions.

As the Chief People Officer at Microsoft, Kathleen Hogan is responsible for the company's cultural transformation. She joins us to talk about how Microsoft is using a technique called "Screening In" to drive cultural change through diversity. Hogan is new to the HR function, but not to talent management. Previously she was vice president of Microsoft Services, a team dedicated to helping businesses and consumers maximize the value of their investment in Microsoft technologies. Hogan has also served as corporate vice president of Customer Service and Support, responsible for the strategy and delivery of consumer and commercial technical support and customer service for Microsoft products and services.

*This spotlight episode is excerpted from our 1 hour interview with Kathleen in 2016

Are there professional ways to dealing with complainers in the workplace?

Complaining is like bad breath - you notice it when it comes out of someone else's mouth, but not when it comes out of your own. Needless to say it happens all the time. Will Bowen, author of A Complaint Free World, shares five ways to identify chronic complaining when it slips out and how to silence those complaints with easy-to-remember solutions in this episode of the Talent Angle.

For a deeper look into combatting complaints, check out Will Bowen's newly published E-book titled G.R.I.P.E. - How to Identify and Stop Complaints, available for free at https://www.dropbox.com/s/dbwvc5kwy5z4yme/GRIPE%20-%20How%20to%20Identify%20and%20Stop%20Complaints%20MASTER.pdf?dl=0

For generations, we have focused on the individual drivers of success: passion, hard work, talent, and luck. But today, success is increasingly dependent on how we interact with others. Through his research, Adam Grant argues that at work, most people operate as either takers, matchers, or givers. Whereas takers strive to get as much as possible from others and matchers aim to trade evenly, givers are the rare breed of people who contribute to others without expecting anything in return. Using his own pioneering research as Wharton's youngest tenured professor, Grant shows that these styles have a surprising impact on success. Although some givers get exploited and burn out, the rest achieve extraordinary results across a wide range of industries.

*This podcast was excerpted from our original season one podcast on Originals and Give and Take

Is it possible for businesses to simultaneously drive social impact, innovation, and financial returns all at the same time?

More than ever, employees are making their career and purchasing decisions based on a company's purpose and societal impact. In this episode of the Talent Angle, Wendy Woods, Senior Partner and Global Leader of BCG's Social Impact Practice, discusses how companies that strive for Total Societal Impact can achieve positive returns in their brand, engagement, PR, and the long-term sustainability of their business models.

Where does great culture come from? How do you build and sustain it in your group, or strengthen a culture that needs fixing?

Daniel Coyle, author of The Culture Code, joins the Talent Angle to discuss what makes some of the world's most successful organizations tick - including Pixar, the San Antonio Spurs, and U.S. Navy's SEAL Team Six. Coyle offers specific strategies to help you trigger learning, spark collaboration, build trust, and drive positive change to ultimately unlock the hidden potential of teams.

Learn how to design your life through the same techniques that innovators use to design products and new technology. Dave Evans, Stanford Lecturer and New York Times best-selling co-author of Designing Your Life, talks to us about following your passions in life, and how you can design a process to figure out what will ultimately make you satisfied and happy.

Dave holds a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford. While en route to biomedical engineering, Evans accepted an invitation to work for Apple, where he led product marketing for the mouse team and introduced laser printing to the masses. When Dave's boss at Apple left to start Electronic Arts, Dave joined as the company's first VP of Talent, dedicated to making "software worthy of the minds that use it."

Dave holds a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford and a graduate diploma in contemplative Spirituality form San Francisco Theological Seminary.

Lack of Agility is the kiss of death. It is no secret that large, mature organizations can struggle to innovate. But Michael Arena, Chief Talent Officer at General Motors, argues that even the most bureaucratic organizations can make innovation and adaptability a part of their DNA. Listen to this episode of the Talent Angle to learn how to create an Adaptive Space, where you can enable novel and creative ideas to flow freely into and throughout your company.

Discover the role you play in your own network and where you can interact most effectively by taking the following 20-minute network assessment or by visiting https://www.adaptivespace.net/assessment

To learn more about how you can foster connections among people, ideas, information, and resources check out Michael's new book, Adaptive Space: How GM and Other Companies are Positively Disrupting Themselves and Transforming into Agile Organizations.