8 - Diversity, Efficiency, And Effectiveness With Pymetrics' Frida Polli Masters Of Employee Development podcast

43:51

Your host, Mike Acker, talks with Jeff Cohen of C-Level Roundtable. Jeff Cohen created C-level Roundtable in 2001 to bring a unique blend of state-of-the-art behavioral coaching, driven by his practical business, leadership, and academic experience. To learn more about Jeff's work, visit https://www.clevelroundtable.com/ If you'd like to be a guest on Masters Of Employee Development, click HERE…

Masters Of Employee Development

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20 - Internships Abroad with Absolute Internship's Fredrik Van Huynh 35:27

3 years ago35:27

35:27

Your host, Mike Acker, talks with Fredrik Van Huynh of Absolute Internship. Absolute Internship has formed into a leading international internship program. They enable university students and graduates to develop their career aspirations across the globe. To learn more about Fredrik's work, visit https://absoluteinternship.com/…

Masters Of Employee Development

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19 - Elbow to Elbow with Green Apple Consulting's Lisa Mitchell 35:56

3 years ago35:56

35:56

Your host, Mike Acker, talks with Lisa Mitchell of Green Apple Consulting. Green Apple Consulting helps Talent Management Leaders embed talent programs that drive results and elevate organizational culture. They support you through transformational coaching, consulting, and training for you and the companies you serve. To learn more about Lisa's work, visit https://www.greenappleconsulting.ca/…

Masters Of Employee Development

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18 - Building Trust in Your Network with Oﬃcium Labs' Jonathan Shroyer 28:52

3 years ago28:52

28:52

It's the little things that count… especially when running a growing organization. If you want to make your organization the best it can be, you need to be sure that everyone is happy and growing. After all, your business will only succeed when everyone feels supported and has the tools they need to do their job. They are more likely to take ownership of their assigned tasks and feel valued by the company that way. In this episode of Masters of Employee Development, Mike interviews Jonathan Shroyer, a highly regarded serial entrepreneur, who explains team-building and development, establishing trust within your network, and the need to be within a network of people who're different from you. He also speaks about the importance of expectation-setting and how it can help you avoid overwhelm as a leader. Listen in! EPISODE 18 SUMMARY & HIGHLIGHTS What are the things you want for your team? 01:38 Development is one of the significant points to consider when building a team – how do you mold your team members into leaders tomorrow? It is less about the goals, responsibilities, and deliverables and more about their growth. What can you do to develop your team members into leaders? 02:49 1. Start with a listening tour. Understand your people, their talents, and assess how you can help them become successful. Take an inventory of the opportunities you can offer them. 03:25 2. Look out for individuals who aren’t being appreciated well. Try to find natural, non-contrived opportunities to give them appreciation. 03:46 3. Share your leadership story. This way, people can know how you think about the future. How do you go from being an individual contributor to a company owner? 06:05 Growing into a company requires you to identify your key audience. Understand what your customers need and find out how to serve them better. It is also equally important to ensure your employees’ welfare. Make sure they’re motivated and that you’re addressing any concerns they have in a timely manner. Why is it important to set expectations before joining a new organization? 08:13 As a leader especially, you need to understand that you’re not an individual contributor. You’re responsible for driving alignment to the vision and managing the people who will contribute to it. Your role is to bring people together to work on the vision and not march ahead alone. Setting expectations will ensure you’re not constantly tempted to single-handedly contribute or get something done for namesake. How do you make yourself available to your employees to help them grow? 16:54 It all comes down to a balance of execution and development. Surround yourself with people who could aid in your journey, different from you; cultivate meaningful relationships. Be the master o your network. What is the concept of concentric circles of trust? 21:51 By concentric circles of trust, we mean concentric levels of trust. People in the next higher circle as you are your immediate companions. There’s bidirectional communication in a concentric circle network. KEY QUOTES: 5:24-5:37 “if you want to achieve something in a year or two years, you need to write it down. It doesn't have to be a complex plan. [...] You could write a one-pager of what you want to achieve in the next couple years, at least you've written it down.” 11:57-12:17 “I think the cool thing about the listening tour is I have a different viewpoint on development than a lot of leaders. I don't think it's my responsibility to develop people. It's my responsibility to create an environment, a culture where people feel like they can dream about their future, try to imagine what it is.” 24:38-24:47 “How you become a master of development is by identifying your concentric circles connected to the network and make sure bi-directional value is happening throughout the network.” CONNECT WITH JONATHAN SHROYER LinkedIn | Twitter | Website CONNECT WITH MIKE Website…

Masters Of Employee Development

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17 - Global Innovative Alcohol Company with Phusion Proejcts' Jeff Wright 21:18

3 years ago21:18

21:18

Your host, Mike Acker, talks with Jeff Wright of Phusion Projects. Innovation and disruption are in their DNA at Phusion. They understand consumers as category agnostic and pursue flavor, brand, and functional benefits above all else. To learn more about Jeff's work, visit https://phusionprojects.com/…

Masters Of Employee Development

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16 - Executive Presence with iExcelerate's Kimberly Gerber 46:06

3 years ago46:06

46:06

Your host, Mike Acker, talks with Kimberly Gerber of iExcelerate. iExcelerate is a leadership and communication incubator. They develop confident, strategic leaders and high-performing executive teams that build inspiring cultures and deliver profitable results. To learn more about Kimberly's work, visit https://www.iexcelerate.com/…

Masters Of Employee Development

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15 - Enabling Personal Transformation with Canadian Management Centre's Tania Cervoni 41:56

3 years ago41:56

41:56

Your host, Mike Acker, talks with Tania Cervoni of the Canadian Management Centre. With 20 years of experience in education, training facilitation, coaching, and organizational development, Tania excels at identifying and developing the potential in individuals and teams. To learn more about Tania's work, visit https://cmcoutperform.com/…

Masters Of Employee Development

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14 - Trained Virtual Staff with Virtual Worker Now's Jonathon Kendall 37:57

3 years ago37:57

37:57

Your host, Mike Acker, talks with Jonathon Kendall of Virtual Worker Now. Virtual Worker Now is a massive team of world-class experts from all around the globe. Specializing in 9 skill sets, VWN Specialists know how to make businesses work better, scale faster, and make more money. To learn more about Jonathon's work, visit https://virtualworkernow.com/…

Masters Of Employee Development

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13 - Hybrid Workspace with Powell Software's Anthony McGinnis 35:28

3 years ago35:28

35:28

Your host, Mike Acker, talks with Anthony McGinnis of Powell Software. Powell Software helps companies meet the challenges of the hybrid workplace, with a digital workplace built for everyone and accessible to everyone. They improve the employee experience, helping companies write their own “future of work” by leveraging the talent of their entire workforce. To learn more about Anthony's work, visit https://powell-software.com/…

Masters Of Employee Development

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12 - Head of People Operations with Credly's Brittany Storie 39:24

3 years ago39:24

39:24

What is the one thing that makes your employees want to grow with you in your organization? Research shows that value alignment is one of the many factors that define employee satisfaction in an organization. Are your employees aligned with your organizational values? Do they have the curiosity humility to lead forward? In this episode of Masters of Employee Development, Mike interviews Brittany from Credly. Brittany explains the importance of values and learning in an organization and the steps organizations can take to ensure employee satisfaction and growth. You’ll know why employees are best motivated to stay in your company when they’re in for their personal development. Tune in to the conversation to learn more! EPISODE 14 SUMMARY & HIGHLIGHTS What must you do to lead, listen, coach, and develop with curiosity? 11:30 To lead, listen, coach, and develop with curiosity, you need to leave your ego at the door. Step into any situation knowing that there will be other people in the room with strengths better than yours. You will have to hire people, even on your team and your direct reports, who are more talented than you. How do you assess if a company’s culture is enhancing or clashing? 13:29 Discover if your goals and vision are in alignment. Are you and your team working towards the same goal? Are you able to enhance or broaden the skills of your team members? How do you find humility in an individual? 19:05 Knowing a person’s motivations, the hierarchy of needs, and “why” could help you assess their humility component. We all have a previous history that leads us forward in life. As a leader, one must create an emotionally safe environment for people so they can open up and share their dreams and insecurities. What systems does Brittany’s company have in place to ensure continuous learning and development? How is it implemented there? 26:31 Brittany shares that her company encourages continuous learning by providing financial benefits for their employees to do that. They also have a culture that promotes open conversations about goals and motivations between employees and leaders. They help their employees find an alignment of their dreams with the companies. Why is it good for people to be in service for their personal development? 32:52 When you’re in service for your own personal development, you adapt to any change and challenge quickly because you want to grow along with your company. You’ll also have to be accountable, own your mistakes, and learn the mechanics of the company properly, which can only happen if you’re in there for your personal development too. Brittany’s best advice for you. 37:14 You don’t need a college degree to become a true professional. Skills-based hiring is the future. The leaders of tomorrow will only look for candidates and who have the skills, motivation, curiosity needed to move forward in their careers with the company. They should care about the organizational mission and need to invest their time to help you move forward in the organization. KEY QUOTES: 12:13 - 12:38 “You need to be looking for culture enhancements, you need to look for Team enhancements, you need to hire people who are smarter than you who can challenge you in different ways who can challenge you to be a better leader, and can help you get the job done, the best thing that you can do as a leader is to get rid of the blockers that are going to stop and stifle your direct reports and your teams from being able to do their job well.” 23:09 - 23:17 “Humility means I don't have all the answers, we don't have all of the answers, (but) we have to keep our eyes wide open. And we have to be lifelong learners.” 37:14 - 37:28 “A lack of a college degree is not a red flag. But organizations that require things like a college degree, may have signs of a bigger red flag within (them).” RESOURCES MENTIONED ON THE PODCAST ● Podcast: Masters of scale with Reed Hoffman ● Podcast: How I built this by Guy Rock ● Book: Radical Candor by Kim Scott CONNECT WITH MIKE Website…

Masters Of Employee Development

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11 - Remote Visual Assistance Software with Help Lightening's Gary York 42:18

3 years ago42:18

42:18

Your host, Mike Acker, talks with Gary York of Help Lightning. Help Lightning provides remote visual assistance software to hundreds of companies, across a variety of industries, with more than 60,000 users in over 90 countries. To learn more about Gary's work, visit https://helplightning.com/

Masters Of Employee Development

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10 - Leading the Digital Credential Movement with Credly's Jonathan Finkelman 44:40

3 years ago44:40

44:40

Your host, Mike Acker, talks with Jonathan Finkelman of Credly. To create a world where every person can achieve their full potential based on their verified skills, Credly helps organizations make better decisions based on trusted information about what people know and can do. To learn more about Jonathan's works, visit https://info.credly.com/…

Masters Of Employee Development

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9 - Better Human Capital Decisions with Credibly's Jonathan Finkelstein 44:40

3 years ago44:40

44:40

If you want to build a successful and sustainable company, you know that employee engagement and retention are critical. One of the ways to think about keeping employees engaged is to encourage them to chase things that they're really passionate about. Helping them chart their own growth path is also highly beneficial for any company, as you get to work with people passionate about their job. In today’s episode, Mike is joined by Jonathan Finkelstein, CEO of Credibly, a company that helps organizations make better human capital decisions based on an individual’s unique skillset. Jonathan and Mike talk about many areas of employee development, including assisting them to discover how to grow into a role other than that of a manager, encouraging learning, paying them what they’re truly worth, and helping them unlock their true potential. Tune in to learn more about being an efficient and welcoming leader. EPISODE 10 SUMMARY & HIGHLIGHTS What are the challenges to developing leadership in today’s times? 13:42 The most significant leadership challenge is going from a startup to a complete growth mode or having a more established company do digital transformation. A leader cannot continually work on the same challenges. They need to solve one entirely or proceed with the next at once. And that happens through technology, people, or partner support. What are some of the things that keep people from passing on their legos to others? 16:25 The first thing is constraints on time. It takes time to invest in doing something better, and when there’s a lot going on, you cannot imagine adding more to your plate simultaneously. The second thing is knowing when to put something on the side or saying that good enough is good enough. Talk to me a little bit about your leadership pipeline. 18:41 I believe that not everyone wants to be a manager ultimately. That's not the only sign of success and growth. You can be a leader without managing people. In our leadership pipeline, we see individual definitions of professional growth and success. At our company, we have managers meet their team every week, and represent people who either are or have just become managers at the company. We have a lot of people who are first-time managers who didn't have management experience before they joined the company. What are your growth goals for people who don’t want to become managers in the future? 24:03 Firstly, you can't assume anything about any one person. I believe the best way to understand what somebody considers success and growth is to talk to them and check in regularly. We try to understand what happiness means to every person. The other thing is, when you open up new roles, don't just look at the immediate team where that new role is opening, but look at other parts of the company that are going to benefit from it. What is your criteria for hiring new employees? 28:12 We try to break the mold from traditional hiring practices. We believe people are super-reliant on resumes and referrals -- the two primary ways to hire better and think it's supercritical not to go back to the same tried and tested waters because that leads to stagnation. What do you train your people on? 33:41 We help people unlock their true potential in their own teams. We try to elevate and amplify their potential. A lot of our weekly meetings are dedicated to a training or learning topic where we're either sharing our best practices or using our network to develop our teams. We provide professional development stipends to every member of the team to seek advice or figure their path, which in turn brings those new skills back to the company. What is your closing advice for our listeners? 43:01 I’d advise charting your own path, collecting skills and experiences, and then giving yourself the time to find mentors or leaders or learning materials that can help you draw valuable connections. Don't be daunted by the fact that sometimes things don't connect. KEY QUOTES: 3:50-4:12 “Traditionally, human capital has been a really difficult thing to wrap our heads around -- How do you quantify or describe someone's skills? How do you take two people who've done the same learning experience, and allow each of them to have the sense of empowerment that comes from describing those skills in a way that can be trusted? Our approach has been well, let's not leave it to the individual to describe their own skills.” 8:03-8:22 “I think everyone should be able to tell their full story and get credit for what they know and can do. And there's a lot more opportunity, waiting for a very large pool of qualified talent that usually gets summarily dismissed at the top of hiring funnels, because people rely on outdated and proxies, and often ones that have a lot of systemic bias built into them.” 11:44-12:10 “When people see in a leader someone who has that drive, who has that emotional intelligence, the ability to communicate, they recognize that they too can chart their own path. It doesn't mean you have to break completely new ground, but you can look for inspiration and people who found alternative ways to to achieve professional goals and to it to the extent people are interested to be leaders.” 17:48-18:05 “The more you do it, but just like just like when working out or exercising, if you haven't been doing it for a while or at all and you you're just reading getting onto the treadmill or doing that run or or doing that yoga, you do it for a couple of times you get up the courage and the will to do it.” 26:54-26:57 “I think people do their best work when it comes from them.” 31:19-31:40 “We have a very inefficient system when it comes to how human capital moves around today. And I think the number one reason is that people are self reporting, and everyone has their own self assessment of how good they are. And there's a place for that and telling your story matters, but you should tell the story based on sound, credible and trusted and consistent information.” 39:12-39:25 “I personally believe that if you're not giving yourself time to refresh your mind, to take your mind off work for an appropriate length of time, iIf you're not changing your scenery, it's hard to see the world in a fresh way.” RESOURCED MENTIONED ON THE PODCAST ● Episode 07: Masters of Employee Development (with Tony Smith) CONNECT WITH JONATHAN LinkedIn | Website CONNECT WITH MIKE Website…

Masters Of Employee Development

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8 - Diversity, Efficiency, and Effectiveness with Pymetrics' Frida Polli 51:46

3 years ago51:46

51:46

Your host, Mike Acker talks with Frida Polli, CEO, and Founder of Pymetrics. A platform that helps companies build the workforce of the future, using behavioral science and audited AI technology, resulting in more diverse teams and more efficient processes. In this episode, you'll hear about cognitive brain function, data science, cultural values, and more! To learn more about Pymetrics, visit https://www.pymetrics.ai/ If you'd like to be a guest on the Masters of Employee Development podcast, click HERE…

Masters Of Employee Development

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7 - Gather, Decide, and Act with Restaurant 365's Tony Smith 28:39

4 years ago28:39