Thought Sparks

The original Gotham Girl herself, Joanne Wilson, and I get into a great conversation!  You can listen in while we talk about her varied interests, how NYC will come back, the insanity that has been venture capital in this past decade, how women can re-imagine their careers and so much more.  One of my favorite quips she reported was to her husband, well known venture capitalist Fred Wilson, "How did you get to be Fred Wilson? I was supposed to be Fred Wilson!"

Globally recognized leadership scholar Linda Hill is the author of well regarded business books "Being the Boss" and "Collective Genius." She's been interviewing leaders about how they are navigating the COVID-19 crisis and will share her insights with us.

Even in the midst of a pandemic, we have to be thoughtful about our next career moves, what kinds of support we'll need to take our next step and what being ambitious - especially for women - really means. Join me and Shellye Archambeau, author of the forthcoming book "Unapologetically Ambitious" in what I know will be an empowering and informative conversation.

MOSTRA MENOIn this #fridayfiresidechat​ @Sally Helgesen recounts aspects of @Francis Hesselbein's leadership style.  Showing junior people how to handle a tricky call from the @NewYorkTimes, trusting associates to resolve differences on their own, avoiding becoming an #advicemonster​, all part of the #webofinclusion​ that women leaders have historically created.

Roger Martin, one of the world’s most highly acclaimed thinkers, is an unsurpassed master at navigating intellectual polarities. His new book, “When More Is Not Better” explains how our systems designed to drive economic optimization are ultimately highly dangerous – and what we should be doing instead. We’ll be talking about the book, about Roger’s approach to developing strategies (hint: don’t spend a lot of money before spending some imagination) and whatever else he’d like to discuss.

"America," said Peter Georgescu, "is the star of my life's story."  And, worried that his grandchildren may not have that America, in which "I became the best Peter Georgescu I could be," he has written a fiery manifesto in "Capitalists Arise!"  The book takes us through the painful path of inequality and warns that if we don't heal the middle class, we'll end up with blood in the streets or a society in which we'll need bulletproof cars.  In this Fireside Chat, Peter describes his journey from essentially house arrest in Romania to become the Chairman of Young and Rubican. We discuss potential remedies and how people who live in a bubble can be oblivious to what is going on right under their noses. We should all be paying attention!

A visionary leader from a rather surprising place, Paul LeBlanc has presided over the dramatic transformation of Southern New Hampshire University and shown many skeptics that it is possible to reinvent our institutions.  From a sleepy school with a few thousand on-campus students experiencing their "coming of age" years, to a national powerhouse of around 135,000 enrolees, LeBlanc has been a beacon for rethinking what Higher Ed is all about.  In this #FridayFiresideChat​ we chat about his vision, which is that access to high quality, affordable education is still crucial for social mobility.  For many of SNHU's adult learners, the "job" they want to get done is to get a credential as fast as possible because they are by and large stuck. And even worse, some 80% have some course credits, and even student debt, but no degree.  Our conversation covered the changes taking place in higher education and how it is likely to change to become less of an industrial age relic and more forward looking.  One inspiring idea that I took away was Pauls' observation that every time the United States has had a major catastrophe, like the one we are going through now, we have reinvented higher education for the better.  Let's hope this black swan moment has a similar next step.  Enjoy listening to one of the most thoughtful strategists in the world of higher education today.

TED phenomenon and author of the book "Powerful," Patty McCord, the founding talent leader at Netflix, will be joining me for a Friday fireside chat. We'll talk about why so many things we believe about HR are just plain wrong, what people should be thinking about with respect to their talent today and how to create the context that releases the power of high performing teams.

Victoria Montgomery-Brown has a new book out - "Digital Goddess" which tells a no-holds-barred history of her abandoning her nice, safe, corporate job and hurtling into the world of entrepreneurship.  The book is full of stories that are honest, often funny and really illuminating for anyone who has ever wanted to follow their dreams and start a business.  From getting arrested just as you were about to launch (as it turns out, a politically motivated and trumped-up charge), to how picking a business partner is like getting married, to actually getting married (as it happens, at City Hall), to battling depression and axiety and even to what it's like to date as a CEO, the book is a treasure trove.  We talk about some of those stories and more in this recording of our Friday Fireside Chat.  Have a listen! Screen reader support enabled.

Rita Gunther McGrath is a best-selling author, a sought-after speaker, and a longtime professor at Columbia Business School. Rita is one of the world’s top experts on innovation and growth and is one of the most regularly published authors in the Harvard Business Review. She is consistently ranked among the top 10 management thinkers in the world and was ranked #1 for strategy by Thinkers50. Rita is the author of the best-selling The End of Competitive Advantage (Harvard Business Review Press, 2013). Her new book is Seeing Around Corners: How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019).