Future Ready Leadership With Jacob Morgan

Latest Episodes:

How Chipotle is Investing in Their People Jan 20, 2020

Show notes

Marissa Andrada is the Chief People Officer at Chipotle, a very popular restaurant chain with 2,500 restaurants and 80,000 employees. Prior to Chipotle Marissa had led HR for companies such as Starbucks, Kate Spade, GameStop, Red Bull, and Universal Studios.

Marissa has seen quite a few changes in HR over the past 10-20 years. One of the biggest changes she mentioned is a shift in leadership. Purpose, vision, and values have been around in theory for awhile, but it wasn't until recently that companies took these words from something on a poster in the hallway to something that companies actually live out through leadership. And employees can tell when leaders are actually living out what they talk about in company meetings or if it is all just talk.

When it comes to tenure in restaurants, a lot of times employees are coming and going frequently. Although Marissa shares that tenure at Chipotle has increased, she also says they understand that not everyone will stay at the company long term, and that's OK.

Marissa says, "We've introduced so many new things that I believe are just leading edge for restaurant and retail, and we believe that, for example, debt-free degrees, we believe that first and foremost, that we are investing in and creating future leaders for Chipotle and for our restaurants, and ultimately the company. And if not, we're creating future leaders for the world. I think there's a responsibility that companies have especially one as large as ours is not only to do well, but also to do good in the world. And so that's how I answer that question like that's why we do it."

Chipotle has also moved away from the traditional annual performance review. They now have what they call a 4x4 conversation, which is a meeting that happens four times a year (at least) where managers ask employees four questions. The four questions are:

What are your most significant accomplishments since we last met?
What are the most important things you will focus on before we meet next?
What obstacles are you encountering right now?
What can I do better or differently as your manager to support you?

Marissa shares, "It's interesting when we first introduced the first 4x4 conversation, we just said, "Have a conversation," and people were freaking out going, "Where's the form? What do I fill out?" And then at the year end, they're like, "Where's my form? What do I fill out?" And we just kind of said, "Hey, we're all learning this together. At minimum, we want you to have this conversation. If you feel like documenting it, do it." And so that was what we did at the Restaurant Support Center. But then for our crew members, what we created was just kind of a template to walk through those four questions. But it also helped people to understand, "Hey, here's what I'm held accountable for," but it's not a traditional performance review form. It's really highly customized for that employee. And so that we have a different spin on that and that it's in a very Chipotle way and not a traditional performance review."

What you will learn:

What first drew Marissa to HR
How they scale their values and culture across 80,000 people
What Marissa is most excited about regarding People Experience at Chipotle in 2020
The unique way they approach performance reviews
Some specific mindsets and skills they look for in potential leaders
How new employees get onboarded at Chipotle

Are You Finding Time To Be Curious Jan 16, 2020

Show notes

If you're like most people, you often get caught up in your work and personal life. You're busy every day with new activities, goals, and the mundane tasks of work and life. It can be hard to find time to be curious when you're busy with all your other activities.

But curiosity is vital to our creativity and success. Curiosity allows us to solve problems, uncover opportunities, and have fun. It's the curious people who shape the future.

So how can we balance our daily lives with the need to be curious? It comes down to making time to be curious. For most people, it takes real effort to set aside our daily tasks and allow our minds to wander and think of new possibilities. Here are five ways to make time to be curious.

Schedule it in. The most basic tactic is to simply schedule time to be curious. If it's on your calendar, you're more likely to actually do it. Scheduling in curiosity time can come in many forms, from giving yourself a few minutes to step away from your responsibilities to finding a new hobby or creative outlet. You don't have to block out hours at a time—even just a 15-minute block can make a difference. And the more you schedule time to be curious, the more you'll find yourself naturally becoming more curious.
Watch or read something new. Get out of your rut and watch a new movie or show you wouldn't typically watch. Find a documentary, TED Talk, or podcast on a subject you know nothing about. Read a book in a genre you don't typically read or a non-fiction book about something completely new. Let your mind ask questions as you read and wonder about the things you see.
Let your mind wander. Give yourself time to simply relax and let your mind be free. For some people this means meditation, while others let their mind wander while they spend time outside or exercise. Forget your to-do list and let your thoughts go wherever they want. Take time to dig deep and really think about things and different possibilities. You might find yourself on a completely new thought or question than where you originally began.
Explore with a partner. You might need the buddy system to become more curious. If you're afraid to step outside of your comfort zone, try doing it with a friend. Find a new hobby or explore somewhere new together. Even just walking in someone else's shoes can open your mind to new perspectives and curious possibilities.
Talk to new people. Most of us fall into the trap of simply searching online when we have a question, getting the answer, and moving on. Instead, try talking to new people. Find someone who is an expert or who can answer your questions and have a real conversation with them. You'll likely go beyond where your internet search would have taken you. Talk to people wherever you go, listen to their ideas, and think of things from their point of view.

People are naturally curious, but those tendencies often get squashed and replaced by to-do lists and busyness. Finding time to tap into your natural curiosity and building the skill can drive your personal creativity and innovation and help you create the future of work.

How Leaders Can See Around Corners Jan 13, 2020

Show notes

Rita McGrath is a professor at Columbia Business School and author of the new book, Seeing Around Corners: How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen. She was also recently ranked #5 on the Thinkers50 list for her work in strategy, innovation, and entrepreneurship and for being a champion of harnessing disruptive influences for competitive advantage.

What does it actually mean to see around corners? Rita says it's not about predicting the future, because predictions are hard, but it is about paying attention to signals. She says, "it's more about expanding your range of possibilities that you're considering, and then really being prepared to challenge your own assumptions. And I think that's really where the seeing around corners part is so valuable, because if you think about it, any business grows up with a set of assumptions about what's possible and what's not. And what an inflection point does is it really changes the nature of those assumptions."

Companies have to be able to pay attention to possible disruptions that could affect the way they do business. But what tends to happen is companies get comfortable doing the same thing and they think as long as it is working now, it will continue to work in the future. Companies such as Blockbuster and Toys R Us didn't pay attention to signals all around that would have allowed them to adapt with the times and because they failed to pay attention they are no longer around.

Rita explains that the way to keep a lookout for inflection points is to think of a disaster scenario that would have a huge impact on your company and then work backwards from that "time zero event" to see if it has merit. For example, for someone working at a business school an example of a scenario would be students lose interest and employers don't really care about business degrees. So the time zero event could be 50% of all existing business programs shut down, working backwards what would have to happen for that to take place?

And by looking at all the evidence you can figure out either this is not a likely scenario at all so just forget about it, or it is a very real possibility so what can I do to shift my strategy.

So what can you start doing now to improve your ability to "see around corners"? Rita says, "I think the first thing is this idea of the edges, that you really need to embed ways of learning about what's happening, that isn't right in front of you, that's farther out. Go to conferences that aren't directly related to what you do, maybe take a training course. Today, you can learn almost anything in 10 minutes a day on YouTube, and that's really interesting. I read a lot. I actually... One of the reasons I really like my Twitter feed, and to some extent, LinkedIn, is a lot of the people that I interact with introduce me to sources I wouldn't necessarily have run across on my own. And I think that's another kind of interesting practice. I would say, this takes time. Now, it doesn't take huge amounts of time, but if you're spending every waking moment nose to the grindstone, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, you're much more vulnerable to missing things than if you give yourself a little bit of that imagination space."

What you will learn:

What it means to see around corners
Why leaders struggle to see around corners
How to spot inflection points and avoid downfalls in business
Real life examples of companies who survived disruption
How is the role of CEO going to change in the next 5-10 years

Why All Leaders Must be Coaches And Mentors Jan 08, 2020

Show notes

As AI and automation grow, employees are concerned for their job security. Adding to that fact is uncertainty about the unknown future of work and what it will take to succeed over the next decade and beyond.

There are lots of ideas of what it will take to future-proof your career, but the simplest and best thing you can do is this: be a coach and mentor.

All leaders should be coaches and mentors, but it's not just limited to leaders. Employees at all levels can find people to coach and mentor, either at work or outside of work. A coach is different from a traditional boss. A coach gives honest feedback to their mentee, pushes them, unlocks their potential, and removes obstacles from their path. In fact, the ultimate goal of a coach or mentor is to make the person they're mentoring more successful than them.

This isn't how it's always been. It used to be that leaders and managers sat at the top of organizations and pushed down anyone with talent who threatened their success. Today, we're seeing more leaders embrace the coaching and mentoring philosophy. And it's the best thing they could do for their careers.

As technology becomes more prevalent and starts to automate tasks and take over parts of our companies, what helps us stand out the most is our ability to be human. A machine will never be able to coach or mentor as well as a human, which means coaches and mentors will have a role in any organization. Every company would love to have an employee, no matter if they are a junior associate or a top executive, who cares about people enough to help them on their way and bring them to greater success. All it takes is a human who wants to help others.

The future of work is uncertain and can be scary at times. But the need to be human and help other people will always exist. If you want to future-proof your career, start by finding someone to coach or mentor.

How to Make Work Meaningful Jan 06, 2020

Show notes

Tom Rath is a bestselling author and researcher who has spent the past two decades studying how work can improve human health and well-being. He has written several books, his newest one comes out in February and it is titled, Life's Great Question: Discover How You Contribute to the World.

Tom set out to write this book as a result of his personal reflections over the last several years. He says, "I've really been personally reflecting on, given my own health challenges and threats and my mortality, what are the most important things for people to get focused on? In particular, most of my writing and research is focused on that nexus of people and organizations, and how can we help people to lead better lives through the organizations that they're a part of? And one thing I've observed after 20 years of, kind of following this area is that we're often so quick to look inward and think about self-development and our own brand and how we can improve personally, and the more I have studied these topics, my big takeaway is that we can get more done and life is less stressful and more liberating when we find real concrete ways to focus almost all of our energies on the contribution we're making to other people"

The book addresses topics such as how to separate our identity from our job title, why following our dreams is not always the best approach, and the things teams need to address in order to be effective.

One thing Tom has observed over the years is that the relationship between organizations and employees is broken. Why? Mostly because the basic structure of organizations today is outdated and ineffective for the modern age. It no longer suffices to bribe employees to work with monetary rewards, people today want more than that. They want purpose and meaning in the work that they do. They want to feel that they are contributing something to the organization and the world.

As Tom shares, "I think the question is how quickly can we get to a place where each of us as individuals and organizations start to say, "Are we producing people who are better off when they go home at night?" They're healthier and they're more financially secured, that does matter. They have better relationships with their family members because they chose to be a part of this organization."

But this isn't just up to the organizations to fix, individuals have a role as well. "Each of us has the responsibility to make sure that we're not tolerating a job or a work that's making our lives worse at the end of the day than we were when we showed up in the morning. And we need to start to ask some of those critical questions, ask the people around us, ask your best friend or your spouse, "Do you think I'm a better person because I'm doing this job right now versus where I was a year ago?" And sometimes they can help hold up a mirror where we need it as well."

What you will learn:

Why Tom first started writing, even though it is not what he originally planned on doing
How he approaches his day to day work and life
What's wrong with the employee-organization relationship and how do we fix it?
Advice for leaders who want to be role models
How to discover what you contribute to the world
Why following your passions and dreams is not the best approach

Learning How To Say No Is An Invaluable Skill Jan 01, 2020

Show notes

Like most people, I'm constantly bombarded with requests from other people in both my personal and professional lives. I'm asked to meet friends for coffee, attend a conference, conduct an interview, answer questions for someone — the list goes on and on.

I used to say yes to everything because I didn't want to miss out on making a new connection. But over time, I felt myself becoming exhausted and depleted. I could never meet my own goals because I was spending all of my time helping other people. So I started saying no. It was difficult at first, but I learned that in order to see my own professional and personal success, I had to invest time in myself. When you say no, you're really saying yes to something you want to do. Something for yourself that gives you purpose and meaning.

As we become more connected with new technology, we'll be even more inundated with requests. Learning how to say no is one of the most valuable things we can learn. You don't need to be rude, but you also need to stand up for yourself. Here are three tips for saying no:

Set boundaries

Think of the most important things that you want to protect. Be selfish. If you really want to write a book or start a new business, decide from the beginning that you'll say no to anything that gets in the way of those goals. With pre-determined boundaries, you don't have to think about every offer but can quickly say yes or no.

Be firm

Don't say maybe if you really want to say no. Be firm in your response and don't leave the door open for the possibility that you might change your mind.

Don't offer an explanation

Don't feel like you have to give an excuse or explain yourself. Offering an explanation leaves the door open to saying yes in the future. If you feel you have to add something after saying no, give an alternative like introducing the person to someone else who could help.

Learning how to say no is an invaluable skill for both your career and personal life. With practice, you can start saying no and start saying yes to yourself.

How this CEO Leads a Team of 56,000 Dec 30, 2019

Show notes

Dan Helfrich is the Chairman and CEO of Deloitte Consulting, where he has worked for over 20 years. Although he had always wanted to be a sportscaster, once he graduated from Georgetown University, he had a choice between broadcasting and consulting and he ended up choosing consulting. And that choice has led him to where he is now, which is leading a team of 56,000 people.

Dan is very passionate about diversity and inclusion, which seems to be at the center of a lot of conversations today inside of organizations. Dan says, "I actually think some are talking about it as a theme, and I think that's wrong. Diversity and inclusion is an imperative, not a management fad, and not something to pay lip service to. And what we're doing is, we are putting diversity and inclusion, and I view those as related concepts, but that have distinct elements to them. We're putting that at the center of everything we do, we're striving for increasing the representation of our teams on a ton of dimensions, in terms of gender, and in terms of race, and in terms of sexual orientation, and in terms of veterans, and in terms of parents."

So how does he make sure that diversity and inclusion is part of the DNA of an organization with a team of 56,000 people? First of all, Deloitte puts all of their leaders through unconcious bias training. Also, at the end of every meeting Dan personally asks two questions to the group--how can this team be more diverse and how can this team be more inclusive?

As Dan shares, "No team is ever diverse enough, and no environment is ever inclusive enough. And so, opening the conversation to that set of topics unleashes a whole lot of great thinking and a whole lot of dialogue that creates comfort level in an organization about talking about things like race, and talking about things like different ages in the workplace, and what that means, and what the implications are. And that, I have found to be incredibly powerful."

His suggestion to leaders or even individuals inside of organizations is to ask questions and be curious. He says we need to be vulnerable and we should always seek to improve ourselves and our cultural awareness.

As a CEO Dan sees himself as a "captain". He says, "I've played competitive sports my whole life, and there's many different ways that I see people showing up as the chief executive of an organization. The way I view it is, I've been bestowed a responsibility by a group of peers. And the best captains aren't necessarily the best players. They have leadership characteristics to coalesce and make the team perform at an optimal way, but there are superstars on my team that are way better than me at a bunch of different... A bunch of different dimensions of being a consultant. And I show up as a captain, knowing that I get the privilege to lead a group of peers, but I never forget that I'm serving that group of peers, and that's how I think of the role."

What you will learn:

How Dan leads a team of 56,000
How to candidly talk about diversity and inclusion inside your organization
What makes a great leader
How Dan makes tough choices
Examples of how Dan has used empathy in his career
How Dan fosters an environment of inclusion with the large number of individuals on his team

You Shouldn't Have A Typical Day; Here's Why Dec 25, 2019

Show notes

What does a typical day look like for you?

It's a question I've asked of hundreds of CEOs and top business leaders around the world. They almost always tell me the same thing: they don't have a typical day. Every day is full of different activities and meetings. If you want to follow in the footsteps of some of the most successful business leaders, avoid having a typical day. These people still have habits and commonalities throughout their days, but they avoid falling into the routine of doing the same mundane things every day. Avoiding a typical day can make you more creative and energized, which is good for your sanity and the success of your business.

So how do you avoid having a typical day? Here are five tips:

Get out of the office. It's easy to fall into the same routine when you're in the same place all day, every day. Get out of the office and take your work on the road. Work from home or a coffee shop or even a communal workspace in your building. Visit customers and distributors. Take your team for an off-site meeting. Changing your scenery can change your mood and outlook.
Find a hobby. Try to find time every day to pursue a hobby. Having something to look forward to after work can motivate you to try something different at work. The hobby can be anything from cooking to exercising to basket weaving. Hobbies break up the monotonous schedule and get your creative juices flowing.
Avoid screens. One of the quickest ways to get sucked into a mundane routine is to spend all day looking at a screen. In our connected world, it may seem impossible to put your phone, tablet, and computer away, but it can be a good exercise in creative thinking that pushes you outside your regular day. Give your mind a break and spend screen-free time talking with people in person and seeing other parts of the business.
Talk to new people. Open your mind to new ideas and people. Invite a new co-worker out for coffee or just swing by the desk of someone you usually only communicate with via email. Face-to-face communication builds relationships and expands your network beyond just the people you see every day.
Change your schedule. Try mixing up your day by changing your schedule. Even small changes, like waking up 15 minutes earlier to run or read before work, can be a nudge to get out of your routine. If you normally do something after work, try doing it before work. Change your weekly meeting time, stay up late, or take a longer lunch break. These small changes can propel your day to something new.

Avoiding a typical day can get you out of a rut and help you be more connected and creative. These five simple steps can move your typical day to an unexpected and unique, atypical day.

How the CEO of Ketchum Leads by Example Dec 23, 2019

Show notes

Barri Rafferty is the President and CEO of Ketchum, a leading global public relations firm serving clients in over 70 countries. Ketchum has been named PR Agency of the Year and the winner of an unprecedented three consecutive Campaign of the Year Awards.

She became the first female CEO of a top-five global public relations firm at the beginning of 2018. In total, she has worked for Ketchum for 24 years. When asked what her leadership style is, Barri says, "My goal is to bring out the best in the people that work for me. So I feel like as a leader, I'm very much of a coach. I go... I move really fast, so I have to trust the people around me. And I really encourage us to all collaborate and work together. We have a lot of debate on... Any leadership team I ever have, I always think if people aren't debating and pushing back on me and there's not a few raised voices, or curse words every now and then, that it's probably not a good thing, right? We've gotta get in it, but we lock arms when we get out. And I also think I am a very nurturing leader too in a lot of ways. I still write birthday and anniversary cards, do personal gifts for the holidays"

As a leader Barri believes that communication is crucial. Having open, honest communication between employees and leaders really makes a difference in the culture of an organization. One of the ways she listens to her employees is through Glint Pulse surveys that take place three times per year at Ketchum. These surveys allow her to see what issues matter to employees and one issue they are focusing on currently is workplace flexibility.

In order to fully embrace this flexibility Barri understands it is important to make employees know it is available and allow them to take advantage of it without feeling bad about it. They have implemented flex February where everyone shares pictures of where they are working remotely on the company's social media. They also believe in "Leaving Loudly" which means that instead of trying to sneak out or be quiet about leaving early due to a doctor's appointment, child's recital, family event, etc...you should tell people and feel good about it.

Diversity and inclusion is also very important to Barri and her team at Ketchum, especially as they are helping organizations create a message and reach potential clients. So they are working hard to make sure they have diversity in age, race, gender, location, political views, backgrounds, etc…

When asked to give advice to anyone looking to be a better leader, Barri says, "I would say build a style that's authentic to you, right? I think if you have to put on one persona at home, and one persona at work, it's hard to be an authentic leader. So if you can build it from your personality, some of us are introverts, some of us are more introverts some are more expressive, some are more amiable, right, you have to start with that foundation and then build around it the leadership skills, but if you can show up at work as a leader true to your core, I think you're gonna be a better leader, no matter what."

What you will learn:

How to build confidence as a leader
How Barri keeps up with the fast pace of change
A look at how the company fully embraces workplace flexibility
How Ketchum is removing bias from the hiring process
How Barri describes her leadership style
A look at how Ketchum upskills and trains employees

We All Have The Power To Shape Our Employee Experience Dec 18, 2019

Show notes

Employee experience is the next big battleground for organizations. It's crucial for building a place where people want to come to work because they are engaged and satisfied, not just because they have to be there. Many people think that employee experience is determined by executives, but in reality, it is something employees at all levels can control and shape.

A few decades ago, employees didn't have any power. If they were frustrated with something at work, their only choice was to go home and complain to family and friends because they could make any real changes. But today's world is different, and employees now have the power to shape their own work experiences. It doesn't matter if you're an entry level employee, mid-level manager, or executive. Here are five things you can do to shape your employee experience:

Talk to your manager. Have open and honest conversations with your manager about what you like about your experience and what you want to change. Don't just complain; come with a solution. If you want to have more regular performance reviews, come prepared with a schedule and set time for regular feedback.
Let your voice be heard. Speak up at work to make real change. Many organizations send out employee surveys to measure engagement and get suggestions. Respond to those surveys with thoughtful comments and share your ideas at focus groups and town hall meetings.

Volunteer. Get involved in your company by joining employee feedback groups or beta testing groups. Put yourself in a position to learn more about the company and share your ideas with the change-makers.

Use social media. Social media has given employees more power than ever before. Websites like Glassdoor allow employees to leave reviews and comments about their companies, and many organizations pay attention to what employees are saying. Use social media to share your experience and include suggestions for improvement.

Rally co-workers. If you want to see a change in your experience, chances are your co-workers do as well. If you have a great idea, run it by your co-workers and see who you can get on board. Your voice is more powerful with more people behind it, so use your collaborative thinking to gain traction for change.

Don't just complain about what you want to change at work; take the steps to make real change. Employee experience isn't about the organization designing an experience for you, it's about you designing an experience with your organization.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Future Ready Leadership With Jacob Morgan

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected