Working On Purpose

We all know that work can be and often is … stressful. The demands placed on each of us to perform at our best and achieve the impossible are every day demands that will likely only continue to escalate over the course of our careers. And yet we’re still mere beings with emotions, hopes, dreams, and needs that come with our talents. We get hurt when we get passed over for the promotion we so think we’ve earned. We can develop stress-induced ulcers because of our strained relationships with our colleagues and boss. And sometimes horrible atrocities occur in the workplace – as when a colleague commits suicide or a workplace shooter surfaces. In short, the workplace can induce tremendous traumatic stress and oftentimes on levels we don’t ever register. In this episode, we talk with a professional whose made it her mission to provide an integrative healing approach to companies and individuals across the globe.

Many of today’s fathers in their 20s, 30s, and 40s are doing about half (and sometimes more) of what mothers once did: driving children; assembling their breakfasts, lunches, and dinners; handling their late-night wake-ups; helping out with homework, and more. They are balancing school events with work and business travel, and in some cases finding themselves emotionally torn when they can’t be in two places at once. In short, men are feeling the same tensions and emotions as fathers as women have been for quite some time. But not every boss is aware of this increasingly common phenomenon. According to Care@Work, 87% of working fathers want to be more involved with the family’s daily routine, and work/life balance is twice as important to today’s fathers as it was to their own fathers, says the study. Perhaps, soon, this “working fathers” phrase or an appropriate replacement, will and should come into vogue.

Do you often feel defeated in your never-ending list of things to do in a day and wonder how you can possibly push through another day, let alone a week or month? Do you wish you could find some magic elixir that snaps you out of paralyzing inaction or ineffective performance? In this episode, Shawn Anderson shares a few things he’s learned about how to “go the extra mile” and how doing so can give us access through accountability toward personal transformation that allows us to realize our most precious and previously untapped dreams. And all starting with simply getting off to a better start, every day.

“We work too much, sleep too little, love with half a heart, and wonder why we are unhappy and unhealthy,” says Dr. Arthur Ciaramicoli. Is this modern day’s inevitable life dilemma? The good news is it doesn’t have to be. Effectively employing empathy has a surprising number of benefits, including lowering everyday stress levels and encouraging deeper, more meaningful connection between people. In the realm of work, great leaders using empathy can better tease out the potential in others by listening and learning who they are and what they could do. In this episode, we talk about the debilitating effects of stress, how we can rid ourselves of old negative stories about ourselves, and how performance addiction can really derail us, among several other compelling topics.

The baby boomer generation (born 1946-1964) is in a financial crisis. Most boomers do not have enough money saved for retirement, and want to continue working in any event. In his new book, BOOMER REINVENTION: How to Create Your Dream Career Over 50, career coach John Tarnoff lays out a proven methodology of 5 key steps and 23 actionable strategies to give boomers the resources and confidence they need to keep working. This “second act” career can be not only a financially successful one, but a personally fulfilling one as well. In this episode, we pick up from a previous interview as John shares insights on how to begin a career reinvention, and the reinvention experiences of some of the boomers profiled in his book. Whether you’re in need of a career reinvention yourself or perfectly content where you are, John’s witty and humorous style help us all stay positively focused on the world of work and all it can mean for us.

Most of us spend a good part of the day talking – but are we really holding meaningful conversations that yield the results we want? Probably not. Why no? In part, everyone has a variable level of skill in communicating. Also, consider the myriad of dynamics that influence conversational effectiveness such as conversation styles, emotion, assumptions, intent, context, tone, tempo and reactive brain functions. In this episode, we talk with a communication expert about eight principles that influence every conversation we have, and how having real conversations build relationships, create a platform of mutual respect, and get us the results we want – at work and at home.

For many, finding the time and energy needed to successfully maintain our well-being can prove to be a real challenge, especially for those that must capitulate to America’s fast-paced work culture. With only 24 hours in a day there always seems to be something competing for our time. This is especially true in small to mid-size enterprises, where taking time for renewal can come at the cost of neglecting commitments at work. Happily, more and more companies are learning it is in their best interest to provide wellness programs to their employees that help facilitate their access to a healthier lifestyle. In this episode, we talk with workplace wellness expert Dr. Mike Rucker about how companies are using effective workplace wellness strategies, as well as cover the ins and outs of what makes these types of programs successful.

Navigating one’s career and ever learning is part and parcel of today’s competitive work place. No one can afford to stay idle. You are constantly challenged to create value for your organization while at the same time differentiating yourself from the pack. What’s your strategy for staying ahead and managing how you are perceived by others? What’s your brand? Strong leaders become known for their leadership brand and what can be counted on from them. Once established, a leader can leverage his or her brand to accomplish extraordinary results both inside and outside the organization. In this episode, you will hear from a career coach who helps professionals understand the value of creating a unique brand. He will guide you through a process that will help you be intentional when managing your brand perception.

Founding and developing a successful business over the last 22 years in publishing is admirable in and of itself. But Milli Brown has done something beyond what many other publishers have managed. Not only is she still standing when traditional publishers have gone out of business - she’s also helped disrupt the industry toward employing a “relationship approach” and allowing authors to retain the rights over their own work. In this episode, we talk with Milli about how she got started in the publishing business, the journey she’s taken to stay relevant and strong in the industry, and how she works with authors to help them share their messages and market to reading audiences.

The 3 Dimensions of Emotions is a new way to understand emotional intelligence and find your relational “sweet spot”– the dynamic intersection of power, love, and mindfulness. Human reactivity is the source of most of our interpersonal problems and pain. The 3 Dimensions of Emotions introduces the concept of working the triangle, a unique practice that provides a compelling yet practical road map that can help you move from painful reactivity to productive pro-activity in your relationships. And it works just as successfully for a CEO of a Fortune 500 company as it does for a parent struggling to communicate with a teenager.

What can we learn when life serves up enormous challenges that bring us to our knees? How we respond to extraordinary circumstances is often the difference between being overtaken by the event or rising to a higher level of functioning. The same is of course true for our experiences at work across the course of our careers. After living large and enjoying a rare view from the top, Todd Lamense has had the opportunity to experience some exceptional things in life – like building a successful company and then being subsequently fired from it, along with a long list of other incredibly challenging life events. In this episode, we discuss some of those life experiences that helped make Todd who he is, some of the key lessons he’s learned along the way about life and work, and how negativity can be eliminated in the workplace.

Following a youthful fascination with outer space and what lies beyond the stars launched Robert (Bob) Benkowski into his first career as a senior engineer working for McDonnell Douglas in the Space Station Project Office at NASA, Johnson Space Center. Serendipity would catapult his career into medicine and inform his curiosity and ability to consider many intriguing questions, such as, how are the fields of aerospace and life sciences medicine related and support each other? What can we learn from NASA’s research on human physiology and what does it mean to our lives today? What critical considerations need to be made in developing implantable blood pumps and artificial hearts? And where does artificial intelligence and robotics meet and for what benefit in future medicine? All these questions and more are the subject of this episode as Bob Benkowski narrates in crisp detail his life-long love and dedication to the fields of science and medicine.

Helping startup companies and new executives for existing companies to make sense of the Human Resource technology terrain is John Sumser’s specialty. And he’s been at it for years. John travels relentlessly in an attempt to understand the HRTech landscape as it blossoms and grows. His firm HRExaminer aims to provide an up-to-date, cutting edge point of view designed to make their audience think. They publish reports and regular updates. They examine the state of the art in HRTech and report back to their audience. After all, it's the experience of the technology that drives and shapes the experience of the job and the work people do.

The holiday season is a special time to celebrate what we appreciate about our lives and the people in them, show grace and humility in whatever way our spirituality guides us, and allow ourselves to be swept away by the mystical wonder of the time. For many of us, the season ushers in a precious time to reflect, give thanks, and help others. And sometimes we see in ourselves and others rare and perhaps even fleeting moments when we transcend ourselves to a higher level of being and service to others who may not otherwise be known to us. This magical power of the season can cascade and inform the entirety of our lives, if only for the moment and sometimes, if we’re really blessed, for a lifetime. In this episode, the host shares a heartfelt conversation about the beauty and wonder of Christmas with Santa Claus, while also broadcasting via Facebook LiveStream.

With the ever-changing landscape of the global marketplace and how business gets done, we are hard-pressed to look into a crystal ball and try to predict the future. Yet doing so is a useful exercise if only to cast our thinking and planning into a future state and transcend today’s day to day functions and comparative limited state. A well-crafted approach to consider our future would be to include the vantage point of experts who have spent considerable time and focus on studying and contributing to their industry. Since so much of what makes the world and business go ‘round revolves around the key resource of people, and as we near the end of 2016 and cast our gaze on the New Year, this episode features a Human Resource and Recruiting expert and futurist who will share his vision for the workplace as far as 2025, along with some of the key recruiting and human resource and changes in how the field uses technology.

Executives today are constantly challenged to promote innovation within their organizations while entirely transforming them to higher levels of operation, often in tumultuous times and in highly scrutinized environments. Such is the experience of this episode’s guest. Attempting to recreate the first meeting between Paola Saibene and the host, this episode showcases her executive experience and some of her proudest moments of her leadership career, which is full of colorful examples that tested her creativity, perseverance, and competence. Paola will share career highlights from her 15 years of successfully implementing cybersecurity, by utilizing a holistic ecosystem, that cuts cost dramatically and galvanizes the workforce to adopt the strategic initiatives of the organization, through purposeful and meaningful engagement. Her experience is specialized in advancing and progressing environments that have the tightest constraints, face enormous challenges and have strong limitations.

College students and their families often spend a small fortune investing in education, with the intention of giving the loved one a good start and base on which to launch a successful career. Yet, having a clear career path and strategic approach to building a college curriculum and career plan is lacking for many college-bound students. Worse, many soon-to-graduate seniors still have no idea what kind of work they might ideally pursue, despite graduating with a major. Employing the advice and counsel from a youth career coach is a direction more and more families are using to give their youth the best start to their lives they can. In this episode, we talk with a business and leadership professional who focuses on helping youth and college students make informed choices and intentionally set the direction of their careers, right from the start.

Many young and more seasoned pepole seek a field of work that has a convenient path to entry. That is, they had limited exposure to options, or a family member or friend were employed in a particular field and soon enough find themselves just following suit. Today, many people reinvent themselves and pursue entirely different fields later in life. And then there are the seemingly few and precious minority who discover early on in their lives exactly what they wanted to do for a living in elementary school or earlier. As it were, the host crossed paths with an extraordinary young man, extremely articulate, and something of “an old soul.” In speaking with him about his plans for the future, he boldly indicated he planned to pursue an acting career and had been firm in this plan since at least age 11. Exhilarating to hear! Perhaps both my youth and adult listening audiences can learn a thing or two from this young man about how to identify what we really want to be when we grow up?

Today’s commerce takes place in an international marketplace, and many executives leading the largest Fortune 500 companies have lived and worked across the globe. Their business acumen is informed by a multi-cultural, multi-lingual set of experiences that contributes to their problem solving, operational effectiveness, and innovation initiatives. Recently, after leadership roles in several other Brazilian companies, Mr. Guimaraes invested in a steel structure manufacturing company in Minhas Gerais, Brazil, and then contributed his talents to grow and improve quality, productivity and the leadership of the staff. Some 30 years ago, he turned his career focus on technology, came to the United States, began a career in Information Technology and founded and ran a technology company from Dallas, Texas. We’ll hear about his dual-country adventures in business, what he’s learned about how and why culture matters, and the differences in how he led between countries and across his career.

We live in an “app-driven” world, fueled by brimming creativity and innovation. Technology is everywhere, the world continues its march toward increased digitization, and as a global society we are ever more dependent on our gadgets to get us through our day and keep us productive at work. But are we really making the best use of technology that we could? Are the companies we work in and run making the most prudent use of technology to fuel innovation, reduce monotonous tasks, and empower employees to contribute their highest talents? In this episode, we talk with Rackspace’s Chief Digital Officer to learn his own personal secrets for using technology productively, how he supports his customers to achieve their ideal customer experience, and his thoughts about where the future of technology is headed.