Talking Talent

You probably know the words “apprentice” and “apprenticeships.” However, what do you really know about the critical role they’ve played in the transfer of skills and capabilities across centuries? In this episode David and Angela explore apprenticeships, when they began, the role they’ve played in human evolution (ever wondered why the Neanderthals died out and modern humans became the dominant life species?), and their critical role in helping individuals learn and develop, organizations thrive and society at large flourish.

In the making of this episode we learned quite a bit ourselves. We were helped in this effort by experts in the field. Thanks to Esta Bigler, Director Labor and Employment Law Program at Cornell University, ILR School.  Esta provided us with a rich overview of apprenticeships specifically in New York State. Esta also generously opened her network to us and introduced us to a number of  the people from whom you’ll hearing in this episode.

Thanks also to Jane Thompson, Director of Apprenticeships for the New York State Department of Labor. Jane helped us understand about registered apprenticeship programs and the New York State’s Department of Labor’s role in working with organizations to help them register and establish certified apprenticeship programs.

We started our recording by talking to Dr. Rudolph Bell, who among his many talents, is a Distinguished Professor at Rutgers University, an expert in Italian civilization and culture from the Middle Ages to the present. We were especially keen to get his insights on apprenticeships as a factor during the European Renaissance. Dr. Rudolph Bell is the author of multiple books including How To Do It: Guides To Good Living For Renaissance Italians. 

We spent time talking to Martha Ponge. Martha serves as the Director of Apprenticeship for the Manufacturers Association of Central New York (MACNY) and represents the statewide alliance of manufacturing associations who make up the NYS Manufacturers Intermediary Apprenticeship Program, MIAP.  She was joined by her colleague Laury Ferguson. Laury is the Associate Director of Apprenticeships with MACNY, where she works with manufacturers as well as educational institutions. Both women bring a real passion to their work.

We also spoke with someone who had been through an apprenticeship program and could share her lived experience. Tamara Rivera is a council representative for the New York City District Council of carpenters. In that role Tammy works in the organizing department, which is now called area standards. However, long before this Tammy herself was an apprentice carpenter where she learned her trade.

If you are interested in learning more, here are some sources and resources.

Bait & Switch Intro: The Story of Grandparents - Senior Citizens As The Key To Civilization & The Evolution of Grandparents

Linkage to how we learn, learning from watching others: 

Jiro Dreams of Sushi - Documentary Movie

How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It Happens - 

Manufacturing Industry Producing More With Less People

https://www.urban.org/events/policy-matters-reflections-past-and-future-apprenticeship?fbclid=IwAR0sFIJUbdvjI60l4HKYgDKkXMyeJnDp2j_MeyL0cgcFUYGuQsnLka3UuOo

https://www.econtalk.org/robert-lerman-on-apprenticeships/?fbclid=IwAR24Ql9PegTTLadq-x0PwMueFIln8NrIoLOFovzcHcCKK8r00Vsk4CR7z-M

Economist Robert Lerman of the Urban Institute talks about apprenticeships with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Lerman argues that apprenticeships--a combination of work experience and classroom learning--have the potential to expand opportunities for young people who don't want to attend college. https://www.apprenticeship.gov/

Ripped From The Headlines: What You (& The Mets) Can Learn From Headhunters

What can organizations do to better vet candidates? Why are organizations seemingly constantly blindsided by post hiring scandals? We look at this through the recent story regarding the fired New York Mets General Manager Jared Porter. 

What does the “just like me” bias have to do with these recurring issues? How does the lack of diversity within industries make abuse more likely?

https://reflectionsonbaseball.com/ambushed-mets-face-unsettling-and-complex-front-office-decisions/ - Why Jared Porter is just the “poster boy” for an ongoing problem in baseball (and other sports?)

https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/ny-jared-porter-sexual-harassment-20210119-r556mbcwrvfadjypc7otbnkc3a-story.html - Baseball cannot be surprised by Jared Porter

https://sports.yahoo.com/former-mets-manager-mickey-callaway-accused-of-unrelenting-lewd-behavior-toward-women-in-media-020746255.html - Mickey Callaway

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/01/20/sports/mets-firing-gm-jared-porter-reveals-an-ongoing-hole-mlbs-vetting-process/ - Alderson talks Porter’s vetting process

https://www.wsj.com/articles/incoming-premier-league-chief-resigns-following-allegations-11575052379#:~:text=Joshua%20Robinson,-Biography&text=The%20newly%20appointed%20chief%20executive,toward%20a%20female%20former%20employee. - David Pemsel dismissed as Premier League CEO prior to even taking the role due to sending sexual explict 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/jaguars/2021/02/11/jacksonville-jaguars-hire-chris-doyle-ex-iowa-coach-accused-racism/6723057002/ - Chris Doyle Hired By Jacksonville Jaguars

The Future of Work with Todd Cherches 

In Season One of Talking Talent, David and Angela discussed The Future of Work. That conversation focused on the changing nature of work and the impact that change will have on education, the role of cities, our political systems and what capabilities will be prized and those that will have less importance. David and Angela promised that this would just be the start of a series of conversations that would continue in Season Two, with guests who would bring insight about specific aspects of not only how work is changing but how it will change society and us.

Spoiler alert! Since that episode in Season One we have been living with a global pandemic. Businesses and other organizations that wanted and needed function have taken actions that have accelerated our race to that future state of work.

This new episode features guest Todd Cherches. Todd Cherches is the CEO and the co-founder of BigBlueGumball, which is a New York City based management and leadership consulting, training and executive coaching firm. In addition, he's a TEDx speaker and a two-time award winning adjunct professor of leadership at the NYU School of Professional Studies. And he's a lecturer on leadership at Columbia University. He is also the author of the recently released book, VisuaLeadership, Leveraging the Power of Visual Thinking, in Leadership and in Life. 

According to Todd, we've been talking about a “Vuca” world for  years -  Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous. However, because of the pandemic, everything's gotten expedited by at least five years. So the things that we have been slowly, methodically planning and talking about are now here. Specifically people working from home and leveraging technology and video and living on Zoom or similar platforms. All of those things that seemed wildly futuristic when we saw them in cartoons such as robots, artificial intelligence, all of these things are here now.

In a VUCA world leaders need to do the opposite. So what does the idea of “opposite” evoke? The opposite of volatile is calm. As Todd says, “In a world of volatility as leaders, we need to create a sense of calmness. Now, we may be in panic mode, there's a sense of urgency, we don't know what's going on. But how do we calm people down? Because there's a difference between urgency and panic.”

Listen in to hear more of Todd’s ideas as he also talks about how being a Visual Leader will help leaders lead more effectively now ans in the future..

WEBSITE:

www.toddcherches.com

TEDx TALK:

“The Power of Visual Thinking”

BOOK:

VisuaLeadership: Leveraging the Power of Visual Thinking in Leadership and in Life

(Post Hill Press/Simon & Schuster, May 2020)

The best current English striker Harry Kane just might finish his career as the greatest striker in Premier League history. However, his career path has not been one long coronation towards greatness. On today’s podcast we look back on the beginnings of Harry Kane’s soccer journey, how contingent his opportunities were, and what we can learn about talent identification through an analysis of what almost went wrong for Harry Kane. 

NOTE: Episode was recorded in November 2020 after Harry Kane scored his 150th Premier League goal. Since Harry has scored another 5 goals and his ex-coach Mauricio Pochettino has been appointed as Paris Saint-Germain.

The Rise of Harry Kane - First team breakthrough 

The Fall & Rise of Harry Kane - Why anointing youth players is a fools game

Leicester City Fans Labast Harry Kane - Foul language incoming

We ended 2020 by looking back at 2020. We start the New Year, 2021, by looking ahead and more specifically by looking ahead to what the Future of Work holds in store.

We had this conversation with no less a leading expert than Paul Miller, CEO and Founder of the Digital Workplace Group (DWG), rated by the Financial Times in 2020 as one of the UK’s leading management consultancies in digital transformation. On January 14th, only a week after we drop this episode, Paul will be releasing his latest book Nature of Work: The new story of work for a living age. Co-written with his Digital Workplace Group colleague, Shimrit Janes, Director of Knowledge, the book is already receiving lots of pre-publication praise!

Paul’s previous books include The Digital Renaissance of Work: Delivering digital workplaces fit for the future’ (co-authored with Elizabeth Marsh), which was shortlisted for the Management Book of the Year 2016 Award. Before that Paul’s book, ‘The Digital Workplace: How technology is liberating work’, helped popularize and explain the term “digital workplace”.

Paul Miller

Paul Miller is a business and social entrepreneur. Paul has given many inspirational talks on the digital future of work, for audiences at Microsoft, IKEA, Google, Accenture, Harvard Business Review, Cisco, European Commission, IMF, Adobe and Oxford University. He hosts the Digital Workplace Impact podcast. 

Paul hosted the pioneering internet radio show Digital Workplace Live and is Executive Producer of the 24-hour global digital experience Digital Workplace 24. Prior to founding DWG, Paul was Founder and CEO of a communications company The Empowerment Group; Publisher and Editor of social and digital innovation magazine “Wave”; and, in pre-internet days, co-founder of the Ideas Café salon. He lives in the Cotswolds in the UK and is a keen tennis player and long-time yoga practitioner.

Connect with Paul on Twitter: @paulmillersays

Join us as we look back on our Talent in the Time of a Pandemic conversations from this past year. What has transpired since then? What did we get right and what did we underestimate? Also we’ll give you a sneak preview of what we will be releasing early in 2021 and what our listeners will learn about The Future of Work from some experts in the field.

In today's episode we look at adaptability and resilience through the story of three individuals and also an organization. Although the stories are different in many ways, we find similarities in the skills used that led to adaptability and strengthened resilience. Those skills and capabilities are relevant today as we all must adjust to ever-changing circumstances; the good news is that these skills can be learned and acquired.

Forged in Crisis: The Making of Five Courageous Leaders by Nancy Koehn

Endurance by Alfred Lansing

Chelsea B. “Sully” Sullenberger, III

Captain Sully (video of Sully describing the incident) 

Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters by Captain Chelsea B Sullenberger III

Washington Post article by Gillian Brockell on Witold Pilecki

The Volunteer: The True Story of the Resistance Hero Who Infiltrated Auschwitz by Jack Fairweather

The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery by Witold Pilecki

Netflix: How a DVD Rental Company Changed the Way We Spend Our Free Time 

That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea by Marc Randolph

No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer

When & How To Do A Career Pivot or Change

Herminia Ibarra, Charles Handy Professor of Organizational Behavior at London Business School.

Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career by Herminia Ibarra

Strong and Weak Ties: Why Weak Ties Matter

Why Every Employee Should Be Building Weak Ties at Work

Weak Ties Matter

Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived Joyful Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans

Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein

Destination Unstoppable by Maureen Electa Monte

If you’re interested in learning more about my course “How to Do a Career Pivot or Change” please drop me a note at angela@thescalpellogroup.com

Beth Bengtson, Founder/CEO

Beth Bengtson is the Founder/CEO of the nonprofit Working for Women (W4W). She has more than 20 years of experience working with both marketing agencies and client side for Fortune 500 companies, small businesses and not-for-profits. Her focus has been to help organizations evolve through purpose-driven marketing, communications and business practices. She brings her enthusiasm for facilitating change, teaching, and her understanding of how to empower organizations to every engagement.

In creating W4W, Beth combines two key passions: believing that businesses can play an important role in supporting their larger communities, and her dedication to women’s empowerment. W4W started out of her own frustration in running a business that sought to support organizations geared to creating opportunities for underserved women. She lacked time and staff to ensure that her company was supporting the right organizations in the right ways, and she imagined that other companies were facing the same predicament.

How do we determine who is the most valuable contributor to our team when we all do different jobs? Who gets the bonus at the end of the year? How do we make sure that everyone valuable on the team feels that their value is honored? We explore these questions through the story of the Trojan War and the Ajax Dilemma.

The origin story of the Trojan War - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrdiwdVQkto

The Ajax Dilemma by Paul Woodruff

Paul Woodruff talking about The Ajax Dilemma

Untapped Talent: Individuals With A Criminal Record

Show Notes

Links & Resources From The Episode:

Cornell Justice and Employment Initiative 

The Cornell Prison Education Program

Article on the benefits to companies and government budgets from employing the formerly incarcerated: (https://www.inc.com/peter-economy/from-incarceration-to-employment-how-hiring-formerly-incarcerated-people-can-give-your-business-an-edge.html) & ACLU Paper (https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/060917-trone-reportweb_0.pdf) 

An Employers Guide toCompliance with New York Correction Law Article 23-A

The Fortune Society

The Marshall Project

Vera Institute of Justice

The Rand Study on the effectiveness of correctional education

https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/outofwork.html

Pete Leonard “I Have A Bean” - https://www.faithdrivenentrepreneur.org/pete-leonard-of-i-have-a-bean

Jails to Jobs

The Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison

Sean Pica, Executive Director

The Work Opportunity Tax Credit

Urban Institute’s Justice Policy Center’s studies on employment after prison 

Loyalty and higher retention rates (https://www.inc.com/peter-economy/from-incarceration-to-employment-how-hiring-formerly-incarcerated-people-can-give-your-business-an-edge.html)

Our Guests On This Episode:

Rahson Johnson

Rahson Johnson goes above and beyond to positively impact youth and his community, utilizing his lived experience and his compassionate heart to inspire and support hundreds of youth and adults.

At the age of 16, Rahson was sentenced to serve 23-60 years in prison, leaving his neighborhood of Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn for the remainder of his teen and early adult years, only to return just months before his 40th birthday. While incarcerated, books became Rahson’s family. He not only completed his high school coursework, but went on to receive a bachelor’s degree in behavioral science and a Master of Professional Studies in urban ministry. He also took advantage of opportunities to begin working with young people facing issues similar to the ones he experienced. While incarcerated, Rahson became a Youth Counselor with the Youth Assistance Program, an intervention program that brings kids to prisons, where he coached and educated young people on gang violence prevention, harm reduction, and sex education. While fulfilling, Rahson felt limited by his ability to only meet with these young people for a single 2-3 hour visit, and wondered how much more could be accomplished if they were able to establish genuine connections with the youth. Rahson realized he had more to offer.

Less than a year after his release from prison, Rahson began working with the Crown Heights Community Mediation Center, now known as Neighbors in Action. In his current role as Youth Programs Coordinator, Rahson works with a team to engage young people in afterschool activities, summer employment, and other enrichment programming though school and community-based workshops and groups, internships, and on-site activities. These initiatives focus on leadership development, social justice and media literacy, antiviolence, community mobilization, social-emotional learning, and college and career readiness.

As part of NIA’s Arts to End Violence initiative, which engages young people in conversations about art as a tool for personal healing and community change, Rahson has led workshops across Brooklyn and Manhattan. He is also a lead facilitator for three NIA site-based afterschool programs: Youth Organizing to Save Our Streets (YO S.O.S.), which trains young people who have been exposed to violence to become peer educators and community organizers, Justice Community Plus, which connects young adults with work-readiness opportunities, and the Alumni Youth Advisory Council, a new initiative spearheaded by Rahson, which supports further engagement and leadership development for young people, declaring that “emotional safety is the more important piece for me.”

Selfless in sharing himself and his own experiences, Rahson leads with kindness and integrity and amplifies Neighbors in Action’s anti-violence message with grace and passion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMi23Hz2rUo

Babita Patel is a freelance humanitarian photographer documenting social impact issues around the world. Her work has appeared on ABC, Al Jazeera, HBO, MSNBC, NY1 and PBS; featured in Forbes, The Guardian, The Marshall Project, The New York Times, Slate and The Washington Post; and exhibited in multiple countries.

She is the founder of KIOO Project, an NGO that advances gender equality across the globe by teaching photography to girls who, in turn, teach photography to boys.

In 2020, Babita debuted her first book, Breaking Out in Prison, which introduces 15 men who were locked out of society long before they were locked up — men who got an education inside Sing Sing Correctional Facility, and used it to break out of the cradle-to-prison pipeline. Today, they are role models for young men in their communities as they are credible messengers for at-risk youth, pushing them towards different opportunities over incarceration. The book puts a human face on effective solutions to ending the epidemic of mass incarceration in America today.

Esta Bigler Director, Labor and Employment Law Programs

Esta R. Bigler, Esq., is Director of Cornell University ILR’s Labor and Employment Law Program, the Criminal Justice and Employment Initiative, and the Cornell Project for Records Assistance. Ms. Bigler uses her extensive background in labor and employment law to convene conferences and forums studying current and emerging legal issues impacting employment, with the goal of influencing legislation and public policy decisions. A major focus of her work is the use of criminal records as a screening device for employment, the impact of employment on reducing recidivism, employer attitudes toward hiring people with criminal records, and the collateral consequences of incarceration.

Talent in the Time of a Pandemic - Part 3

What Organizations are Doing to Remain Essential and Help Their Employees and the Community

Organizations today are looking to see how they can either become or remain an essential part of the current economy while keeping staff employed and helping the community. It’s not a small “ask” and a number of companies are demonstrating real creativity in rethinking their product offerings, if not their business.

Join David and Angela as they look at both the challenges and the opportunities through the following lens:

They also discuss how doing the right thing for your employees, the business and the community is ultimately the right thing to do for your brand and your business future.

https://wck.org/chefsforamerica

AB InBev Making Hand Sanitizer

Three Proactive Response Strategies to COVID-19 Business Challengeshttps://www.gallup.com/workplace/308210/evolving-covid-responses-world-largest-companies.aspxLego’s Face Masks

Telling an employee that he or she no longer has a job with your organization is never an easy conversation. Especially when that loss of a job is due to financial or other business concerns beyond the employee’s control, it news no one wants to give and no one wants to get. 

However, for those times when there is no other choice but to furlough or layoff an employee, how can you do it in the most thoughtful, helpful and compassionate way possible? How can you let go of your own feelings of discomfort or fear and focus on the individual being impacted?

Join David and Angela as they discuss five things to keep in mind as you prepare for, and then have, that challenging conversation. Because no matter if this is your first time having the conversation, your fifth or your fiftieth, you have the opportunity to treat the person impacted with respect and dignity. In doing so you can help them feel seen and appreciated during a particularly difficult time.

Five Crucial Points to Remember When You Need to Lay Off or Furlough a Team Member

Elyse joins us today to discuss her story of learning to showcase her talent and how to help others do the same. Elyse Kaplan, Vice President of Business Development for Delmay Corporation, shares how a critical conversation changed how she thinks about talent in a fundamental way. 

Today we're excited to share Beth Rivera's Three Minutes or Less on Talent.  Beth, a friend and former colleague, is the head of HR for the eCommerce company Uncommon Goods. Learn why rather than a dreaded event, Beth believes that performance conversations can be about "reflection and celebration.

A quick return from our hiatus for a bonus episode of Talking Talent.

What does leadership look like during this time of crisis? What are the opportunities to identify talent in your organization? How can organizations strengthen their relationships with employees, clients and vendors? Lastly, what can you do during this time to strengthen yourself and your business? 

As we reviewed the topics we had explored in Season 1 of Talking Talent we realized there was one we hadn’t yet tackled: creativity and talent.  So we are excited to bring Season 1 of Talking Talent to a close with Walter Bernard and Milton Glaser discussing their new book Mag Men: Fifty Years of Making Magazines. After more than fifty years of revolutionizing the look of magazine journalism they both had a lot to say about  collaboration and creativity, bringing the right talent together and why some collaborations work better than others. Walter and Milton also talk about working with people you like, the role of risk-taking, and why the quality of paying attention is key to creativity in every field.

Pre-Order The Book: Mag Men: Fifty Years of Making Magazines

Find Us At:

Website: Talkingtalent.org

Twitter: @TalkingTalent1

LinkedIn: Angela Scalpello

Email: talkingtalentpodcast@gmail.com

Facebook Group: Talking Talent

Work, how we define it, who does it, in what setting and leveraging what capabilities, has dramatically changed over time. In fact, given the rapidity of change a number of people currently alive have witnessed the change from the industrial age to the information age. Today they are also participants, whether willingly or not, in what is being called the Fourth Industrial Revolution and also the Augmented Age.  

David and Angela talk about the changing nature of work and the impact that change will have on education, the role of cities, our political systems and what capabilities will be prized and what will have less importance. This conversation is the start of a series of conversations that will continue next season when we bring in individuals with insight into specific aspects of not only how work is changing but how it will change society and us.

Find Us At:

Website: Talkingtalent.org

Twitter: @TalkingTalent1

LinkedIn: Angela Scalpello

Email: talkingtalentpodcast@gmail.com

Facebook Group: Talking Talent

Listen in to hear Alexandra Salas, Bpeace Program Director share her stories of how identification and assessment happens in these Bpeace programs. And learn how you can get involved too.

When Bpeace was founded in 2002, its mission was to help grow businesses in countries impacted by violence. The idea was that the path to peace was lined with jobs. Helping to grow small to medium size businesses meant that these businesses could increase revenues, and grow jobs. In turn these jobs could lift employees, the lives of their families and the communities in which they live. 

The Bpeace model unites high-quality and targeted consulting by volunteers, called “Skillanthropists” with promising local job creators, whom they call Fast Runners. Therefore the identification and selection of the Fast Runner participant organizations is critical.  How does Bpeace identify and assess potential?  How does Bpeace marry process and relationship evaluation in making the right choice?  What factors differentiate companies that make the screening “cut?” And when those selected companies go through the program, how does Bpeace ensure what they define as “ROI” or return on involvement for both the member companies and the Skillanthropists?  And although this work happens in places like El Salvador, Guatemala and Lebanon, the lessons resonate for all of us who identify and assess talent, whether that is for a job, a high-potential program or some other investment or opportunity.

Find Us At:

Website: Talkingtalent.org

Twitter: @TalkingTalent1

LinkedIn: Angela Scalpello

Email: talkingtalentpodcast@gmail.com

Facebook Group: Talking Talent

Listen to our conversation with Maribeth Fox, casting director for Laura Rosenthal Casting.  Maribeth shares with our listeners how she makes the talent "match" and how she chooses among actors for the right fit for the part. She also shares how she gives feedback after auditions or call backs, a critical piece of anyone's life who manages talent and performance.

Although not many of us get to cast Jay-Z's music video for Smile or the upcoming Modern Love series for Amazon, most of us are charged with finding talent for our organizations, sports teams and otherwise.

Listen in for a behind-the-scenes look at how a talent pro finds and chooses the right person for the right role. You might be surprised at how many of Maribeth's ideas and techniques you can adopt.

Find Us At:

Website: Talkingtalent.org

Twitter: @TalkingTalent1

LinkedIn: Angela Scalpello

Email: talkingtalentpodcast@gmail.com

Facebook Group: Talking Talent

If the goal is to learn something new or get better at what you already know, then why does so much of the time and financial investment in learning and development programs not pay off?  We talk to Ian Klein, Vice President, Solution Architect at Hemsley Fraser Group, about his perspective on what  has the most impact in helping individuals acquire new skills and actually change behavior. We also explore the role of the manager and coaching, and the part refreshers and reminders play in the overall process. So before you invest another half-day or more as well as significant money in a training program, listen to what an expert in developing and delivering engaging live, virtual, digital and blended learning programs has to say about making learning “stick.”

Find Us At:

Website: Talkingtalent.org

Twitter: @TalkingTalent1

LinkedIn: Angela Scalpello

Email: talkingtalentpodcast@gmail.com

Facebook Group: Talking Talent

Open positions that need to be filled are a given in any organization. Employees move on voluntarily, are asked to leave, get promoted, retire or the organization creates a new role. The question then becomes whether to look internally for a candidate or to bring in someone from outside the organization. 

The choice, and the circumstances surrounding that choice are much more nuanced than might first appear to be the case. Therefore, we look at what the research suggests as well as actual examples from the business and sports world. We share stories of some of the successes of each choice as well as some of the failures, pulling out the lessons from which our listeners can learn. We also point out some of the contextual clues that can inform and guide which decision is likely the best at that specific time. 

Find Us At:

Website: Talkingtalent.org

Twitter: @TalkingTalent1

LinkedIn: Angela Scalpello

Email: talkingtalentpodcast@gmail.com

Facebook Group: Talking Talent

How does an individual handle being thrust into a position of leadership? What are the first steps they ought to take in order to be successful? We talk with Dr. Steven F. Lawson, Professor Emeritus, Rutgers University about the dramatic story of Lyndon B. Johnson’s ascendancy to the presidency after the assassination of JFK on November 22nd, 1963.  What can we learn from Johnson’s successes and what were the pitfalls that we can avoid if we find ourselves in the role of unexpected leader?

SOUND QUALITY WARNING - Our apologies for the sound quality on this episode as there were technical issues when recording the interview.

Find Us At:

Website: Talkingtalent.org

Twitter: @TalkingTalent1

LinkedIn: Angela Scalpello

Email: talkingtalentpodcast@gmail.com

Facebook Group: Talking Talent

Part 2 where best-selling author Annie McKee talks to Angela about how creating an environment where employees can be happy at work is what actually keeps them.  Annie shares with us the importance of a sense of purpose and the chance to do something bigger than themselves. And although Annie acknowledges that while people need and deserve to paid fairly, the benefits of monetary rewards are outweighed by other factors, many of which we can influence ourselves.

Annie McKee is a best-selling author and an executive leadership coach who works with organizations on top team development and cultural change. 

Find Us At:

Website: Talkingtalent.org

Twitter: @TalkingTalent1

LinkedIn: Angela Scalpello

Email: talkingtalentpodcast@gmail.com

Facebook Group: Talking Talent

Conversation with Annie McKee, author of How to Be Happy at Work 

Why do so many organizations look to financial incentive plans and rewards as a way to retain talent when the overwhelming research indicates that it creates a short-term effect and not much more?  Are there better ways to increase the “stickiness” of employees to their organizations.

Listen to this two-part series about talent retention. Part 1 David and Angela discuss the concept of rewards and their limitations.  They unpick the premise that you can incent and retain people with money. They look at why organizations continue to do that even in the face of evidence and experience that it doesn’t work and in fact often backfires.

Find Us At:

Website: Talkingtalent.org

Twitter: @TalkingTalent1

LinkedIn: Angela Scalpello

Email: talkingtalentpodcast@gmail.com

Facebook Group: Talking Talent

Politics exists in any organization as all of us no matter what our team or organizational composition compete for limited resources. How do you know when politics how become toxic and is impeding the organization’s success? We speak with Nancy Halpern, founder of Political IQ, about how to diagnose the political dynamic within your organization and how to create a healthy environment within your team. Learn how to recast politics as strategic alliances that advance the business. 

Nancy Halpern’s website

MIT Team Behaviors Study

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni 

Nonviolent Communication theory and practice

Find Us At:

Website: Talkingtalent.org

Twitter: @TalkingTalent1

LinkedIn: Angela Scalpello

Email: talkingtalentpodcast@gmail.com

Facebook Group: Talking Talent

Are there skills, mindsets, and environmental settings that enhance learning to such a degree that they ought to be thought of as prerequisites? Join us as we talk to best selling author Doug Lemov about talent development and what we can do to create the best learning environment possible. This is not just for coaches and teachers as anyone that has to work in a collaborative setting can learn a tremendous amount about improving the feedback they give one another. Doug details important aspects of effective feedback such as how we can be specific in our praise, like Steve Kerr illustrates in his pep talk to Stephen Curry, and how to create a culture where feedback is more likely to be received positively. 

Doug’s books:

Teach Like a Champion 2.0 62 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College

Practice Perfect: 42 Rules for Getting Better at Getting Better

Reading Reconsidered: A Practical Guide to Rigorous Literacy Instruction

The Coach's Guide to Teaching

Doug’s website

Doug’s blogs

Learn more about the late Coach John Wooden at his website

Doug’s blog post on the Philadelphia Union 

An article and video of Stephen Curry’s pep talk to Steve Kerr.

Everyone knows that on the 3rd down, Bill Walsh is going to run the “counter tray to the right.” Build your team around their strengths.

Arjen Robben’s most familiar move discussed here

Find Us At:

Website: Talkingtalent.org

Twitter: @TalkingTalent1

LinkedIn: Angela Scalpello

Email: talkingtalentpodcast@gmail.com

Facebook Group: Talking Talent

Why do some extraordinarily talented individuals go unnoticed and uncultivated for years? How does our talent identification and selection systems affect the discovery of talent? David Foy & Angela Scalpello examine this issue through the story of Susan Boyle. Learn how biases, both internalized and external, about what talent looks like can become a significant limiting factor.

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Website: Talkingtalent.org

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