The Gartner Talent Angle

Using findings from her two books — "Collective Genius" and "Being the Boss" — Harvard Business School professor Linda Hill, reflects on the elements of leadership that produce innovation. She argues for a view of leaders as social architects, tasked with building cultures and capabilities necessary for their teams to do their best and most creative work. For organizations looking to learn from her leadership playbook, she counsels focusing on creative abrasion, creative agility and creative resolution.

*This excerpt was taken from our 2020 interview. Few of us work in roles designed to our personal specifications. In his new book Personalization at Work: How HR Can Use Job Crafting to Drive Performance, Engagement and Wellbeing , Rob Baker argues that employees thrive when allowed to craft their roles to fit their strengths. Baker provides HR leaders and professionals with tools and guidance to create workplace environments that empower employees to customize their jobs to meet their needs.

While technology such as instant messaging and videoconferencing have driven digital productivity, leaders and managers are struggling to effectively communicate with their teams using these tools. Entrepreneur Joe Freed joins the Gartner Talent Angle to share how technologies will reduce cognitive load and enhance culture initiatives. He also shares seven markers of digital interactions to assess the health of your organizational culture in the hybrid world. Joe Freed is the Co-founder and CEO of Cultivate, a technology company providing a leadership development platform for the digital workforce. He has led several startups focused on online learning and HR technology, and lectures at UC Berkeley Extension.

*This excerpt was taken from our 2020 interview. Culture change efforts often yield little more than a survey assessing current culture followed by ineffective action steps to achieve change. On this episode of the Gartner Talent Angle, Kathleen Hogan, Microsoft's Chief People Officer, shares how Microsoft not only incites culture change, but also how they foster a growth mindset to ensure employees are comfortable learning and failing in order to grow.

In this Gartner Talent Angle podcast, labor market expert Martha Ross explores how non-college-educated talent can excel at organizations with the right on-the-job learning opportunities. She offers tactics for organizations seeking to diversify their recruitment strategies and improve sourcing of underrepresented talent. Martha Ross is a senior fellow at the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program. Ross researches and writes about workers and the labor market, with a focus on low-wage and underemployed workers, the education and employment experiences of 18- to 24-year-olds, pathways to good jobs for young adults, and COVID-19's disproportionate impact on these talent segments. She has a master's degree from the University of Chicago's School of Social Service Administration and a bachelor's degree from Colorado College.

*This excerpt was taken from our 2020 interview. In his book Experimentation Works: The Surprising Power of Business Experiments, Stefan Thomke shares that bright ideas and decisive actions alone do not create innovation. Instead, innovation depends on a culture of experimentation which values the science of testing. By stripping big ideas into hypotheses to test what does and doesn't work, organizations are better positioned to establish a competitive edge and generate strong financial returns.

Hear Jeff Kavanaugh, author of The Live Enterprise, discuss how to transform your organization into an ever-evolving, continuously learning industry leader. He provides a clear path to transform large and complex businesses into agile ecosystems that evolve with changing market needs.

*This episode is an excerpt taken from our 2020 interview. The power of preventative thinking is one that is underutilized by organizations and individuals alike; a shortcoming which perpetuates reactive, rather than proactive, solutions. This according to Dan Heath, author of Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen. In his book, Heath makes the case for an upstream mindset — arguing that this approach can effectively surface solutions to seemingly intractable problems by highlighting early warning indicators.

Eliza VanCort, organizational consultant and author, argues that more women should unapologetically exercise power in their communication and leadership styles. In her book, "A Woman's Guide to Claiming Space: Stand Tall. Raise Your Voice. Be Heard.," she offers relevant research, concrete strategies and actionable tools for women to claim space with courage, empathy and conviction. VanCort urges women to push through their fears and engage in behaviors that better position them to lead and be heard.

*This episode is an excerpt taken from our 2020 interview. In this episode of The Talent Angle podcast, Alden Mills, author of Unstoppable Teams: The 4 Essential Actions of High-Performance Leadership, discusses his C.A.R.E.-based leadership framework. Mills shares how HR and business leaders can overcome personal barriers and build teams that are motivated by factors greater than themselves.

Ram Charan, business advisor and author, introduces a new leadership thinking approach to help executives exploit shifts in their business landscapes. In the book "The Phoenix Encounter Method," he and his co-authors — Ian Woodward, V. "Paddy" Padmanabhan and Sameer Hasija — offer a methodology to use change as a catalyst for transformation. According to Charan, leaders can adopt this new mental frame by: developing a nuanced understanding of their operating environments; pressure-testing options for legacy business and innovation; and leveraging new competencies and emerging technologies for business growth.

*This episode is an excerpt taken from our 2019 interview. Conflict resolution can seem like a daunting task, especially when previous attempts have failed. In this episode of the Talent Angle, Dr. Jennifer Goldman-Wetzler, author of Optimal Outcomes: Free Yourself from Conflict at Work, at Home and in Life discusses practical approaches to both resolve and free yourself from conflict. By applying these practices, you will not only learn to observe complex situations with greater clarity, but ultimately achieve your optimal outcome.

On this episode of the Gartner Talent Angle podcast, trust expert Rachel Botsman defines trust as the currency of interaction. She argues that trust has implications for how organizations can relate to their employees and customers, especially in a virtual world. Botsman joined the podcast to discuss the changing landscape of trust and to share how leaders can put trust into action to drive better outcomes. Rachel Botsman is a lecturer at Oxford University and an expert on trust. She is the author of "What's Mine is Yours" and "Who Can You Trust?". Botsman's TED talks have been viewed more than five million times, and she hosts the podcast series "Trust Issues."

*This spotlight contains an excerpt from our 2019 interview. Marc Effron, author of 8 Steps to High Performance: Focus on What You Can Change (Ignore the Rest), joins the Talent Angle to discuss how to cut through the noise and boost workplace performance. He shares what behavioral changes and practical steps employees can take to improve performance and deliver outstanding results.

Marissa King, professor at the Yale School of Management, makes the case for the power of professional and personal networks. In her book "Social Chemistry: Decoding Patterns of Human Connection," she explores the different dimensions along which human connections are made, introducing three styles of network connection — expansionist, broker and convener. She offers practical tips and guidance for organizations looking to help their employees cultivate stronger professional ties.

*This episode is a shortened excerpt of a previous interview. To prepare for the future, organizations should focus on the prospective workforce currently in or entering college. Bob Moesta joins the Talent Angle to discuss how students "hire" colleges to prepare and qualify them for future jobs, with the majority of graduates, however, leaving unprepared to join the workforce. Tune in to this week's episode to hear how your organization should not only consider changing education requirements when hiring, but also empower current and future employees to make more productive higher-education decisions. Bob Moesta is the president and co-founder of The ReWired Group and an adjunct lecturer at The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. In the 1990s, Bob was a co-creator of the "Jobs-To-Be-Done" Theory. He has contributed to the launch of more than 3,500 new products and services in almost every industry.

In this episode of the Talent Angle, Janet Stovall, senior client strategist at the NeuroLeadership Institute, discusses the strategies organizations can apply to elevate inclusion as a key business priority. She shares how to better define diversity, articulate its value, and hold individual leaders accountable for inclusion outcomes. Janet Stovall is a senior client strategist at the NeuroLeadership Institute, where she helps companies implement diversity, equity and inclusion practices. Her work addresses systemic racism, focuses on understanding the value of diversity, and offers straightforward, objective solutions to unlock that value. Her TED talk challenging business to get serious about inclusion has nearly 2 million views. Prior to joining NLI, Stovall was Senior Director, Social Impact and The UPS Foundation, and also served as UPS's DE&I communications lead.

*This episode is a shortened excerpt of a previous interview. Expressing employee appreciation has been linked to increases in job satisfaction, engagement and retention, however, gratitude remains vastly underutilized by managers and executives. On this episode of the Talent Angle, Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton offer tips and guidance from their forthcoming book—Leading with Gratitude: Eight Leadership Practices for Extraordinary Business Results—on how to enhance effectiveness by incorporating gratitude into your leadership style.

In this episode, Horst Schulze, founder and former COO of The Ritz Carlton Hotel Company, discusses how a strong vision for the entire stakeholder ecosystem, not just shareholders, leads to excellence. He shares his views on talent management, strategy execution, leadership, customer service and employee engagement.

*This spotlight is an excerpt from our 2019 interview. Today's rapidly-changing market conditions are challenging our legacy ways of working and upending organizations that were designed for stability. Dave Ulrich, author of Reinventing the Organization, joins the Talent Angle to discuss how progressive companies are looking outward--to their networks, partners, and marketplace--to radically reinvent themselves.

Productivity expert Bob Pozen joins the podcast to discuss his latest book, "Remote, Inc.". He argues that employees should see themselves as owners of their own business of one and see their managers as clients. He also gives advice for how to make meetings and day-to-day work more effective. Bob Pozen is a Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management and a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. He is a former president of Fidelity Investments and executive chairman of MFS Investment Management. He has extensive experience in business, government and journalism. He is the co-author of "Remote, Inc.: How to Thrive at Work...Wherever You Are" and author of "Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours".

*This episode is an excerpt of the original interview. The best leaders don't just cope with stress, they repurpose it into happiness. Sean Webb, author of Mind Hacking Happiness, tells us how. On this episode of the Talent Angle, Sean Webb shares how to identify and avoid personal stress triggers to boost happiness and lead through high-stress situations.

Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO of Coursera, discusses the importance of reskilling amidst disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic. He shares the skilling trends Coursera has observed as a growing number of employees have moved to virtual environments and explains why learning can be a powerful driver of employee engagement.

Zvi Band, author of Success Is in Your Sphere, believes nothing is more powerful than relationships in your professional life. Listen to learn how to establish meaningful personal connections and deepen your relationship with people who will make a difference in your career. Zvi Band is the co-founder of Contactually, a relationship-centric business that powers millions of relationships, and author of Success Is in Your Sphere: Leverage the Power of Relationships to Achieve Your Business Goals. Beyond his work and writing, Zvi serves as a proponent of entrepreneurship in Washington DC, founding DC Tech Meet Up and advises early-stage startups. He's been named a Finalist for Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year and is a three-time Washingtonian Tech Titan. He received his B.S. in Computer Science and Economics from the University of Maryland.

Erin Meyer, professor at INSEAD business school, argues that long-held beliefs about culture are failing its corporate adherents. In the book, "No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention," she and her co-author — Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings — detail the Netflix way, exploring lessons gleaned from the company's successes and failures. For organizations looking to follow the Netflix playbook, she counsels focusing on high performance, top pay, limited rules and radical candor.

*This spotlight is an excerpt from our 2019 interview. New technologies are fundamentally changing how firms connect with their customers than ever before. Listen to Christian Terwiesch, co-author of Connected Strategy: Building Continuous Customer Relationships for Competitive Advantage, share four pathways to designing a connected strategy that builds continuous relationships with customers, clients and employees.

Companies have become entangled in their own internal issues caused by invisible red tape. Tune in to this episode of the Talent Angle to hear Martin Lindstrom, author of The Ministry of Common Sense, as he provides a practical five-step approach to ridding our organizations of the bureaucratic bottlenecks and red tape that plague every office by infusing greater empathy into the workplace.

In this episode of the Talent Angle podcast, executive and author Deanna Mulligan discusses the role that reskilling can and should play in the future of work. Mulligan shares insights from her book "Hire Purpose: How Smart Companies Can Close the Skills Gap" to highlight the importance of corporate education in digital business transformation and explain why organizations need to create a culture of lifelong learning for their employees. Deanna Mulligan is the former CEO of the Guardian Life Insurance Company of America and the author of "Hire Purpose: How Smart Companies Can Close the Skills Gap." In 2019, Fortune named Mulligan one of the "50 Most Powerful Women in Business." She holds degrees from the University of Nebraska and the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

*This Spotlight is an excerpt from our full interview in 2019. Tune in to this episode of the Talent Angle to hear Gartner's own Jaime Roca and Sari Wilde share insights from their new book, "The Connector Manager." Learn how providing targeted feedback while connecting employees to those who are better suited to address their needs not only increases employee engagement, but triples the likelihood that they will be high performers.

As we approach the end of 2020, we are re-releasing your favorite podcast from this year. Please enjoy our conversation with Kathleen Hogan, Microsoft's Chief People Officer, as she shares how Microsoft not only incites culture change, but also how they foster a growth mindset to ensure employees are comfortable learning and failing in order to grow.

Organizations obsess over predictions and forecasting, but the only certainty there is about the future is uncertainty. In this Talent Angle podcast interview, Margaret Heffernan, author of "Uncharted: How to Navigate the Future," explores how to operate with agility in times of uncertainty; arguing that the events with the greatest impact on complex systems — whether organizations or humanity — are often unpredictable. To better prepare for future uncertainty, she urges leaders and their employees to solicit the viewpoints of those around them for a holistic understanding of decisions and their consequences.

*This spotlight is an excerpt from our 2019 interview. Rebels are generally seen as troublemakers whose decisions create chaos in our personal lives and workplaces. However, what if we saw these unconventional outlooks and rule-breaking decisions as constructive rather than destructive? Tune in to this episode to hear Francesca Gino, Tandon Family Professor of Business Administration in the Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit at Harvard Business School and author of "Rebel Talent: Why it Pays to Break the Rules at Work and in Life" discuss how can we challenge the status quo in both our work and personal lives to drive positive change.

In this episode of the Talent Angle, author Jonah Berger discusses his book, The Catalyst, and offers an approach to changing people's minds. He argues that we are in an era of entrenched beliefs, so convincing others or pushing them in a direction has become ineffective. Instead, one should identify the key factors that cause resistance and overcome them by eliminating obstacles, reducing friction, and removing roadblocks. Berger identifies the five key barriers that inhibit change and explains how to reduce them based on his research and underlying psychology behind each barrier.

Are your employees a cost or an investment? How can your company design and manage operations in a way that satisfies customers, employees, and investors? Join us to hear Zeynep Ton, adjunct associate professor in the operations management group at MIT Sloan School of Management and the author of The Good Jobs Strategy: How the Smartest Companies Invest in Employees to Lower Costs & Boost Profits, discuss how operational excellence and treating your employees like an investment leads to great employee experiences. Zeynep Ton is an adjunct associate professor in the operations management group at MIT Sloan School of Management and the author of The Good Jobs Strategy: How the Smartest Companies Invest in Employees to Lower Costs & Boost Profits. Before MIT Sloan, she spent seven years on the faculty at Harvard Business School. Ton's research explores how organizations can design and manage their operations in a way that satisfies employees, customers, and investors simultaneously. *This spotlight is an excerpt from our 2019 interview.

In this Talent Angle episode, Anil Lewis, executive director for Blindness Initiatives at the National Federation of the Blind, explains how organizations can create inclusive environments for employees with disabilities. He offers guidance on recruitment and development strategies for differently-abled talent and dispels stereotypes about employees with disabilities. Lewis draws on both his personal and professional experiences to urge organizations to create equal opportunities for the development and growth of employees with disabilities. Anil Lewis is the executive director for Blindness Initiatives at the National Federation of the Blind, where he formerly served as the Director of Advocacy and Policy. Lewis became blind at the age of 25, while a student at Georgia State University. Shortly after graduating, he became a job development and placement specialist for blind clients. He later served as president of the Statewide Independent Living Council of Georgia and as the founding chairman of the board of directors of the Disability Law and Policy Center of Georgia.

*This spotlight is an excerpt from our 2019 interview. What do Ralph Lauren, Larry Ellison, Julian Robertson and Bill Walsh all have in common? Certainly all of them are known for being successful, but there's one thing that distinguishes these superbosses from their peers: the ability to groom talent. Listen to Sydney Finkelstein, award-winning professor at Dartmouth College, share secrets of how exceptional leaders manage and the types of people strategies they employ.

In this episode of the Talent Angle, author and entrepreneur Christiane Lemieux argues that friction, inefficiencies that slow processes in both business model and organizational design, is hurting most organizations. In her book Frictionless: Why the Future of Everything will be Fast, Fluid, and Made Just for You, she profiles entrepreneurs and organizations that have eliminated friction to improve customer and employee experience. Lemieux also discusses how friction in our personal and professional lives prevent us from becoming more productive. Christiane Lemieux is a serial entrepreneur, former Executive Creative Director at Wayfair, and author of three books. She operates and designs her lifestyle brand, Lemieux et Cie, and she is a frequent contributor to Architectural Digest and other design media. She is a graduate of Parsons School of Design and Queen's University in Canada.

What happens when your workplace is exposed to incivility? What should you do if you are the target of this hostility and aggression? Tune in to this episode of the Talent Angle to hear Christine Porath, Professor at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, teach you how to navigate incivility in the workplace and enhance your own influence and effectiveness through simple acts of civility and respect. Christine Porath is a tenured professor at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business. She's the author of Mastering Civility: A Manifesto for the Workplace and co-author of The Cost of Bad Behavior. Christine is a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review, and has written articles for New York Times, Wall Street Journal, McKinsey Quarterly, and Washington Post. She frequently delivers talks and has taught in various Executive programs at Harvard, Georgetown, and USC. Prior to her position at Georgetown, she was a faculty member at University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business. This spotlight is an excerpt from our 2019 interview with Christine Porath.

Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Chief Talent Scientist at Manpower Group, argues many of our leaders are incompetent. Chamorro-Premuzic believes this is largely due to humans' inability to distinguish between confidence and competence — that is, how capable we think an individual is, compared to how capable they actually are. In this Talent Angle podcast interview, he explores why ineffective leaders are so often elevated, arguing that our judgment is too easily clouded by charisma and charm. For organizations looking to advance more effective leaders, he makes the case for promoting competence, humility and integrity.

Discover the patterns that govern behavior at your organization. Gabriel Weinberg, CEO of DuckDuckGo and author of Super Thinking, joins the Talent Angle to explain how and when to leverage the mental models that accelerate effective decision-making for employees and business leaders alike. Gabriel Weinberg is the CEO & Founder of DuckDuckGo, the Internet privacy company and private search engine. He holds a B.S. with honors from MIT in Physics and an M.S. from the MIT Technology and Policy Program. Weinberg is also the co-author of Traction.

Businesses across industries and geographies are facing disruption on multiple fronts — economic turmoil, employee activism, regulatory uncertainty. In this Talent Angle podcast episode, Andrew Barnes, author of "The 4 Day Week," argues that success in this environment calls for businesses to embrace new ways of working which are rooted in flexibility. Barnes shares his company's journey to designing a shorter workweek for employees and urges other organizations to abandon what he views as an entrenched anachronism, the 5-day workweek.

*This spotlight is an excerpt from our 2019 interview. A self-proclaimed late bloomer, Rich peaked later in life, never letting his mediocre academic grades at Stanford stop him from discovering his passions and future career path. Listen to Forbes Editor Rich Karlgaard discuss the unique strengths of late bloomers in today's fast-changing world.

In the wake of recent killings of Black Americans, Ben & Jerry's put out a sharply-worded statement, which garnered social media attention for its strong condemnation of racial inequality and injustice. In this Talent Angle podcast interview, Chris Miller, global head of activism at Ben & Jerry's, shares the company's history of social activism and discusses how it's been uniquely positioned to effect global change. He also makes the case for corporate advocacy, urging organizations to have clarity in their beliefs and to speak out for their values.

The greatest teams in sports history had one thing in common: a captain with an unconventional set of skills and tendencies. Listen to this episode to discover the core qualities of the Captain Class -- from extreme emotional control to tactical aggression and the courage to stand apart.

Generational expert Jason Dorsey discusses the implications of a growing Gen Z workforce in his book "Zconomy", co-authored with Denise Villa, CEO of The Center for Generational Kinetics. He explains how global events influenced Gen Z's expectations as consumers and employees, and how employers can meet those expectations. Dorsey shares his and Villa's research on Gen Z's preferences for onboarding, feedback, recognition and compensation. Jason Dorsey is an author, keynote speaker, and researcher. He is president of The Center for Generational Kinetics, a generational speaking, research, and strategic consulting firm with clients from many industries. He is a three-time company founder and author of Y-Size Your Business, which details ways to improve Millennial performance.

*This spotlight is an excerpt from our 2019 interview. Want to become a world-class CHRO? Roberto di Bernardini, Head of Global Human Resources and board member of CHRO Global Leadership Board, presents the global standards of the CHRO role, backed by the world's leading experts CHROs and most distinguished CHROs.

Bureaucracy kills innovation. So say Michele Zanini and Gary Hamel in their book "Humanocracy: Creating Organizations as Amazing as the People Inside Them." They argue that relying on outdated processes and capabilities, legacy systems and hierarchical decision-making hamstring growth and stifle workforce success. To overcome these challenges, they also provide practical guidance to create organizations that deliver business results and better serve the people inside them.

Progressive organizations lead with their people strategies to shape business outcomes. Daniel Marsili, co-chair for the CHRO Global Leadership Board and Chief Human Resources Officer at Colgate-Palmolive Company, provides practical guidance for HR leaders to more effectively create, execute and align a people strategy that drives performance.

Amazon's presence in consumers' lives is seemingly inescapable, though whether—and for how long— this hold will last is unclear. In his book, Bezonomics: How Amazon is Changing Our Lives and What the World's Best Companies Are Learning From It, author Brian Dumaine explores just that. In doing so, he offers an insightful portrait of Jeff Bezos and the sprawling enterprise he's built, as well as tips for businesses to compete in this digital age.

Disruptive technologies have upended existing business operating models, are threatening jobs at unprecedented pace and scale, and are bringing whole industries into question. All of this change is creating a new social contract between employers and employees. Listen to Abbe Luersman, the CHRO for Ahold Delhaize and a member of Gartner's CHRO Global Leadership Board, discuss how organizations can prepare for new labor market realities. Abbe Luersman serves as Co-Chair for the CHRO Global Leadership Board, a network of HR executives working with Gartner to share best practices and influence cutting-edge thinking to guide the next generation of HR leaders. She is also Ahold Delhaize's Chief HR Officer and a member of its Executive Committee. She is responsible for Global Human Resources, including Talent and Diversity; Leadership and Development; Organizational Effectiveness and Design; and Total Rewards.