Coaching for Leaders

Jennifer Garvey Berger: Changing on the Job Jennifer Garvey Berger is cofounder and CEO of Cultivating Leadership, a consultancy that serves executives and teams in the private, non-profit, and government sectors. Her clients include Google, Microsoft, Novartis, Wikipedia, and Oxfam International. She is the author of four leadership books, including now in it’s second edition, Changing on the Job: How Leaders Become Courageous, Wise, and Steady in an Anxious World*. We often think about feedback as something we give to someone else. What if, in addition to that, feedback is an opportunity for both parties to learn and grow. In this conversation, Jennifer and I explore how this can open a door to some of the best leadership work we do. Key Points If we view feedback as only giving our truth to someone else, we’ve missed a huge opportunity for growth. Start by separating what happened from the interpretation of what happened. Get curious about your own response: what made you react so strongly? Talk it out. You have to welcome someone else into your thinking if you’re going to really learn. Invite in how the other person sees the situation. Consider saying, “I’m really interested in what this looked like from your perspective.” The process of unwinding what you hear is the good work of leadership and some the best work you can do. Build a solution together. Resources Mentioned Changing on the Job: How Leaders Become Courageous, Wise, and Steady in an Anxious World* by Jennifer Garvey Berger Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes Essentials of Adult Development, with Mindy Danna (episode 273) How to Give Feedback, with Russ Laraway (episode 583) How to Lead Better Through Complexity, with Jennifer Garvey Berger (episode 613) Production Credit Coaching for Leaders is edited by Andrew Kroeger. Production support is provided by Sierra Priest. Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Anne Chow: Lead Bigger Anne Chow was the CEO of AT&T Business and the first woman of color CEO in AT&T’s 140+ year history, responsible for leading a $35B global operating unit of over 35,000 people. She was named to Fortune’s Most Powerful Women in Business twice and today serves on a number of boards, including FranklinCovey, 3M, and CSX. She is the author of Lead Bigger: The Transformative Power of Inclusion. We all know the importance of values, but it’s often hard to know where to begin when clarifying them with a team. In this conversation, Anne and I explore how to align on values that support a great culture and move towards a vision. Key Points Values and ideologies are distinct. Leading bigger means honoring diverse ideologies while aligning on core values. Bigger leaders have the courage to admit and cite situations where they fall short. When asking people to craft values, invite them to start by individually considering their personal values. When discussing values as a group, highlight both the common agreements and also the outlying ideas. Leaders must ultimately decide which values best embody the culture and vision of their organization. Bring in different stakeholders to do a gut check on whether the values are legitimate. Measure behaviors against values and review and update values and metrics regularly. Resources Mentioned Lead Bigger: The Transformative Power of Inclusion by Anne Chow Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes How to Create Team Guidelines, with Susan Gerke (episode 192) How to Discover What Others Value, with Joe Hart (episode 616) How to Prevent a Team From Repeating Mistakes, with Robert “Cujo” Teschner (episode 660) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Karthik Ramanna: The Age of Outrage Karthik Ramanna is a professor of business and public policy at the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government, where he has served as director of one of the world’s most diverse leadership programs. Previously a professor at Harvard Business School, he studies how organizations and leaders build trust with stakeholders. He is the author of The Age of Outrage: How to Lead in a Polarized World. In a lot of ways, leadership is better than it was a generation ago. One way that it isn’t better? Figuring out how to lead effectively in an increasingly polarized world. In this conversation, Karthik and I explore what leaders can do to turn down the temperature on outrage. Key Points We tend to frame effective leadership as heroic. In times of outrage, the virtue of temperance becomes essential. A leader will never fully address the demands made of them, regardless of how well they act. Even when a leader resolves problems, they will be viewed as part of the problem. Anticipate times of outrage and create spaces that calm people physically and help them connect with each other. Establish rules of engagement outside moments of outrage so that you have a starting point. Create pre-arranged workgroups that can help illuminate a path forward for the larger organization. Resources Mentioned The Age of Outrage: How to Lead in a Polarized World by Karthik Ramanna Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes How to Create Team Guidelines, with Susan Gerke (episode 192) The Way Out of Major Conflict, with Amanda Ripley (episode 529) Three Practices for Thriving in Negotiations, with William Ury (episode 669) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

David De Cremer: The AI-Savvy Leader David De Cremer is the Dunton Family Dean of the D'Amore-McKim School of Business and professor of management and technology at Northeastern University. He's also an affiliated faculty member at the Institute for Experiential AI at Northeastern University and an affiliated researcher at the Center for Collective Intelligence at MIT. His newest book is titled The AI-Savvy Leader: Nine Ways to Take Back Control and Make AI Work*. We’ve all heard the warnings that AI is going to take our jobs. That’s certainly a possibility in the long term, but the story emerging, at least for now, is looking a little different. In this episode, David and I discuss how leaders can use AI to augment, not replace, human intelligence. Key Points AI is substantially different than prior digital transformations, and adoption efforts are failing at alarming rates. Instead of leading, too often leaders are being too deferential to data and analytics teams. Your expertise is exactly what your organization needs to deploy AI successfully. Leaders who learn the fundamentals of AI will play an essential role in narrating dialogue between the technology experts and everyone else. Get just enough foundational knowledge with statistics and modeling to communicate with the data and analytics folks better. Resources Mentioned The AI-Savvy Leader: Nine Ways to Take Back Control and Make AI Work* by David De Cremer Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes How to Solve the Toughest Problems, with Wendy Smith (episode 612) How to Begin Leading Through Continuous Change, with David Rogers (episode 649) Principles for Using AI at Work, with Ethan Mollick (episode 674) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.