Melanie Rosenwasser, Chief People Officer at Dropbox, joined us on The Modern People Leader. We discussed Dropbox’s virtual-first model, how they measure its success, and the three types of in-person gatherings they organize.

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This episode was brought to you by Great Place To Work®. Learn more at http://greatplacetowork.com/mpl.

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(0:41) Good news stories

(6:00) Melanie's career journey

(9:18) What Dropbox does and why it's a great place to work

(12:04) The importance of flexibility in Dropbox's virtual-first model

(13:11) Key elements for success in a virtual first environment

(19:39) The role of data and research in shaping Dropbox's work model

(23:05) Insights from Dropbox's research on remote work

(24:00) Building trust and culture in a remote-first environment

(27:01) Challenges and learnings from remote work at Dropbox

(30:30) The importance of in-person gatherings for remote teams

(37:52) Offsite modalities and their impact on team collaboration

(41:02) Experimenting with AI and its impact on the future of work

(46:15) Predictions for the future of work

(52:01) Rapid fire questions

(55:11) One word or phrase close

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Brené Brown, professor, author, and podcast host, joined us on The Modern People Leader.

We discussed her experience as a leader, the concept of metacognition, and the leadership skill of creating space between stimulus and response.

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Go get your tickets for MPL Live using our 50% off discount code, MPL-LIVE-50. Don't miss out—get your ticket now! 

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This episode was brought to you by Great Place To Work®. Learn more at http://greatplacetowork.com/mpl.

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(1:35) Good news stories

(3:45) Brené’s story

(19:49) Every day is leg day as a leader

(25:47) Metacognition

(28:25) Creating the space between stimulus and response

(44:08) The challenges of implementing a four-day workweek

(47:00) Rapid fire questions exploring leadership and the future of work

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Tracy Letzerich, Vice President of People at Wheel, joined us on The Modern People Leader.

We discussed why feedback is the lifeblood of organizational progress, why Wheel is ditching the annual performance review, and why every manager should start keeping feedback journals with their team.

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This episode was brought to you by Great Place To Work®. Download their Employee Retention Report here.

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(0:45) Good news stories

(3:52) Great Place to Work’s research on RTO mandates.

(5:05) Tracy’s story: Nontraditional HR path and becoming VP of People at Wheel.

(9:00) Why do some business solutions work and others fail? It boils down to the people.

(13:42) What does Wheel do?

(15:39) Tracy’s passion for feedback in organizations.

(17:23) What does it mean to have a culture of feedback?

(18:29) Was there something in the data or personal observation that led to the focus on feedback?

(19:52) Tracy's journey at Wheel and the need for a new feedback model.

(21:59) Feedback culture is an ongoing journey.

(24:16) Balancing informal and formal feedback.

(25:16) Building relationships in a remote world.

(27:48) Role modeling feedback behaviors.

(29:23) Rethinking the one on one: The Feedback journal.

(31:32) Direct reports should own the one on one.

(33:01) The challenges of being a manager today.

(35:57) The journey to pay transparency at Wheel.

(38:18) Resistance to change around the annual review.

(39:30) Replacing the annual review with continuous feedback.

(41:04) The importance of training and ongoing support for feedback.

(43:09) Accountability in feedback culture.

(44:22) Performance map as an alternative to the annual review.

(45:01) Integrating feedback and compensation.

(47:45) Rapid fire questions.

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Greg Hill, Chief People Officer at Exos, joined us on The Modern People Leader.

We discussed Exos' Readiness Culture Code, how they measured the success of their four-day workweek experiment, and the difference between productivity and effectiveness.

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This episode was brought to you by Great Place To Work®. Learn more at http://greatplacetowork.com/mpl.

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(7:32) From Upstate New York to Chief People Officer at Exos

(11:44) The Readiness Culture Code Explained

(16:13) Flexibility and Recovery: The Four-Day Work Week

(24:45) Discussing CEO Meetings and Competitive Talent Challenges

(25:01) Tech Industry Challenges Post-COVID

(25:41) Discussion with Nick Bloom on the Four-Day Work Week

(27:24) Sales Performance and Net Promoter Scores (NPS) During the Pilot

(29:13) Positive Outcomes of the Pilot

(32:05) Tailoring Hybrid Work Solutions to Different Organizations

(34:03) Tie-Ins with Return-to-Office or Hybrid Programs

(36:19) Advice for Smaller Companies and Designing Structured Experiments

(43:17) Future Study on Quiet Quitting

(45:00) Measuring Performance and Productivity

(47:24) Talent Management in a Changing World

(51:36) Regional Directors and Cultural Norms

(52:26) Accountability at the Peer Level

(53:15) High-Performance Culture and Its Articulation

(56:00) Output Expectations Across Teams

(57:04) Generative AI: Enhancing vs. Replacing Human Input

(1:01:02) Call to Action for HR Leaders

(1:03:07) Personal Engagement in Workplace Transformation

(1:05:01) Magic Wand Fix for HR Problems

(1:06:33) Guest Recommendation: Todd McCarty

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Vanesa Cotlar (VP, People & Culture, PolicyMe) and Melanie Naranjo (VP, People, Ethena) joined us on The Modern People Leader.

We discussed the three questions every manager should be asking themselves about their direct reports, why setting expectations with new hires can go a long way in improving performance, and how to create a common language for employees around performance.

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This episode was brought to you by Great Place To Work®. Learn more at greatplacetowork.com/mpl.

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(1:29) Good news stories

(8:43) What’s new with Vanesa and Melanie

(12:55) Why performance management is a hot topic right now

(19:43) The 3 questions Ethena managers ask themselves about direct reports

(21:40) Expectation setting with new hires during the first 90 days

(31:47) Handling performance conversations

(36:18) Create a common language for employees around performance

(39:30) The percentage of managers effectively managing performance

(45:39) What happens when your current team isn’t the right team to get you to the next level

(51:18) Great Place To Work’s research on RTO mandates

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Larry McAlister, Head of Digital Transformation at Nutanix, joined us on The Modern People Leader.

We discussed what transformation looks like, the importance of defining it for your organization, and the difference between mere tinkering and true transformation.

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This episode was brought to you by Great Place To Work®. Learn more at greatplacetowork.com/mpl.

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(1:22) Good news stories

(4:03) Great Place To Work’s research on RTO mandates

(5:41) Going from CHRO roles to the Head of Digital Transformation 

(9:02) What he does as a Head of Digital Transformation

(10:20) What Nutanix does

(10:59) Why we should be jealous he gets to work at Nutanix

(13:45) What is transformation?

(16:04) You need an enablement strategy for new HR tech

(18:00) Get very specific about what transformation means to your company

(20:00) Tinkering versus transformation

(23:07) Tell people the truth about the change that’s coming

(27:20) Generative AI & Microsoft Co-Pilot

(38:55) The only reason there's still humans in Talent Acquisition

(42:50) Why he wrote The Power to Transform

(45:13) You are a technologist

(46:56) Rapid fire questions

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Nick Bloom, Stanford Economist & Co-Founder of wfhresearch.com, joined us on The Modern People Leader.

We talked about the state of WFH, managing in a hybrid environment, the four versions of the 4-day workweek, and what’s coming next for Nick.

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This episode was brought to you by Great Place to Work®. Download their latest research on ⁠Return-to-Office Mandates here⁠.

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(1:13) Good news stories

(3:47) Great Place To Work’s research on RTO mandates

(5:05) Nick’s story

(7:24) HR is now the center of action

(10:15) Work from home data points

(16:48) The benefits of being in office

(21:04) Is it career limiting to be fully remote when the rest of your team is hybrid?

(24:24) Managing in a hybrid environment

(29:03) The four versions of the 4-day workweek

(31:24) How far away are we from the magic version of the 4-day workweek?

(39:30) Nick’s predictions for the next 10-15 years

(44:40) The weird and wonderful things Nick is researching next

(48:16) Rapid fire questions

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Hebba Youssef, Founder & Creator of I Hate it Here & Chief People Officer at Workweek, joined us on The Modern People Leader.

We talked about the work they're doing to elevate their managers to the next level, why the CEO and Chief People Officer dynamic is challenging, and whether there has been scope creep for the CPO role.

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This episode was brought to you by Great Place to Work®. Download their latest research on Return-to-Office Mandates here.

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2:36 Good news stories

10:26 Your thirties

14:04 Hebba’s story

21:49 Balancing Dual Roles: CPO and Content Creator

25:42 What Hebba dislikes most about being a creator

27:30 Maturing as a company is painful

31:09 Getting managers to the next level

33:14 Friday manager trainings at Workweek

39:20 Changing the mindset of leaders to want to change

45:45 Why the CEO and Chief People Officer dynamic is difficult

48:53 Your CEO needs a professional coach and a therapist

54:24 Is the scope of the CPO role getting too big?

57:56 The piece of HR that Hebba would give away

59:11 Rapid fire questions

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Erin Thomas, VP, Head of Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging at Upwork, joined us on The Modern People Leader.

We talked about how her team is leveraging data in their DEI work, why you need high utility DEI programs, and she shared a couple examples from the last year at Upwork.

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This episode was brought to you by Great Place to Work. Learn more at greatplacetowork.com/mpl.

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1:11 Good news stories

05:22 Erin’s Journey to becoming the VP of DIB at Upwork

07:32 Where DEI efforts can go wrong

14:11 The polarization of DEI

16:50 Key ingredients of DEIB work in 2024

19:09 The Importance of Data in DEI

25:10 The GlowUp community at Upwork

30:00 DIBs programs VS the DEI work that has to be deeply integrated into the business

35:04 Using AI to improve feedback quality for people of color

41:13 Exploring Generative AI in DEI

46:12 Making DEI work fun

51:31 Rapid Fire Questions

55:03 Future of Work and DEI

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