Work And Life With Stew Friedman

Robert Glazer is CEO of Acceleration Partners, a global performance marketing agency, and the author of Elevate: Push Beyond Your Limits and Unlock Success in Yourself and Others.  Under Bob’s leadership, Acceleration Partners has become a recognized global leader in the affiliate marketing industry, receiving numerous industry and company culture awards. Bob was ranked #2 in Glassdoor’s list of Top CEOs of Small and Medium Companies in the US. He publishes a weekly inspirational newsletter, Friday Forward, and is the host of The Elevate Podcast. Stew and Bob talk about how the intensity and stress of Bob’s early experiences as an entrepreneur and father brought him to the brink of breakdown and compelled him to find creative methods for strengthening his capacity to lead.  His relentless curiosity about the challenges of leadership in his life has resulted in his finding his voice as a business philosopher, expressed in his weekly Friday Forward essays. In his book Elevate -- and in this podc

Brian Scudamore is the Founder and CEO of O2E Brands—a company with four successful home service brands under that banner, including 1-800-Got-Junk?; WOW 1 Day Painting; You Move Me; and Shack Shine.  He’s the author of WTF (Willing to Fail): How Failure Can Be Your Key to Success. Brian learned the ins and outs of business by running his own.  He has learned that creating the right culture at work, valuing your employees, and treating your customers well is critical to achieving business results; a great idea is not enough.Stew and Brian talk about the value of having a vision, a painted picture of the future; about Brian’s successes and his failures; and about the lessons he’s learned on the importance of people at work and, most of all, on how crucial it is to learn from one’s experiences -- especially failures -- by actively, intentionally reflecting on what happened and why it happened as it did.  The not-so-secret ingredient in Brian’s philosophy is just that: learning doesn’t happen by m

Megan McNealy is the author of Reinvent the Wheel: How Top Leaders Leverage Well-Being for Success. Megan is an award-winning, 20+ year First Vice President and Wealth Management Advisor at one of the largest financial firms in the world. She aims to serve those who strive for exceptional wellness and success and to change the pervasive workplace belief that it's challenging to be well and do well. Stew and Megan talk about her hard-won realization, following a serious illness, that she needed to care for herself in order to survive and how she discovered, along the way, that well-being is a driver of business success.  She describes the path she took and how she came to conceptualize the essential practices for caring for mind, body, and spirit. Megan provides enlightening examples of these practices drawn from her research on the real lives of fascinating, successful executives.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Monique Valcour is an executive coach with expertise in careers, work-life integration, human resource management, and practices that support well-being and performance in organizations. She holds a doctorate from Cornell University in Organizational Behavior and and a Masters in Education from Harvard University.  Formerly, she was a Professor of Management at EDHEC Business School in Nice, France and also served on the faculty of the Carroll School of Management at Boston College.   Stew and Monique talk about the importance of continual learning -- outside of school and outside of the classroom -- to build and maintain a sustainable career. They discuss how your own life is a laboratory and you need to reflect on what’s working and what’s not and make adjustments. They talk about the importance of capitalizing on small wins to create a cycle of continued development and growth. And they emphasize that the foundation is you; and you need to work on understanding yourself, your strengths,

Amy Westervelt is the author of Forget Having it All: How America Messed up Motherhood and How to Fix It; the founder of the Critical Frequency podcast network, the host of the podcast, Drilled; and an award-winning print and audio journalist. She contributes often to The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post, and many other outlets.  For her pioneering and fearless journalism on environmental and gender issues, she’s won an Edward R. Murrow Award, a Folio Award, a Rachel Carson Award. As the head of Critical Frequency, she has executive produced more than a dozen podcasts, including her own show Drilled -- the first ever true-crime style podcast to examine the creation of climate denial. In this episode Stew and Amy talk about the historical roots of the conditions that have made life difficult for mothers in America, particularly how the nuclear family evolved and the impact that social structure has on mothers and fathers today.   Amy describes the central challenges we

Jeff Sonnenfeld is the senior associate dean of leadership programs, the Lester Crown Professor in the Practice of Management for the Yale School of Management, and founder and president of the Chief Executive Leadership Institute, a nonprofit educational and research institute focused on CEO leadership and corporate governance. Previously he was on the faculty at Emory’s Guizueta Business School and Harvard Business School. Sonnenfeld's research has been published in 100 scholarly articles which appeared in the leading academic journals in management, and his work is regularly cited by the general media in outlets including BusinessWeek, Fortune, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, as well as PBS, where he is a regular commentator for FORTUNE and CNBC. He has also authored eight books, including The Hero's Farewell, an award-winning study of CEO succession, and another best seller, Firing Back, a study on leadership resilience in the face of adversity. BusinessWeek listed him as one of th

Debra Schafer is an independent educational consultant and coach with a particular expertise. She is Founder and CEO of Education Navigation, which she started after more than 20 years of management experience in human resources, work/life integration, and marketing communications and 15 years of special education consulting, coaching, and advocacy experience. Debra is an advocate for students K - college graduation who have been diagnosed with ADHD, autism spectrum disorders, other mental health issues and learning differences. She works with parents as well as within business organizations with their Human Resources departments and directly with executives to help educate them not only about regulations but also about how to develop realistic strategies and plans for managing work/life integration when you have a child with special needs or when you have an employee grappling with how to navigate these two worlds.In this episode, Stew, who is a parent of a special needs child, and Debra discuss how, as an H

ennifer Petriglieri is an Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD and the author of Couples That Work: How Dual-Career Couples Can Thrive In Love and Work. Jennifer’s award-winning research and teaching focus on identity, leadership, and career development. She is particularly interested in how people’s close relationships shape who they become professionally and personally, and how moments of uncertainty and crisis make us who we are.Jennifer was shortlisted for the Thinkers50 New Thinker and Talent awards and named one of the world’s best 40 business school professors under 40 by Poets & Quants. Jennifer earned a PhD in Organisational Behaviour from INSEAD. She also holds an MBA from IMD, Switzerland, and a BSc in genetics from Nottingham University, UK. Prior to joining INSEAD, she was a Post-Doctoral Fellow of Organisational Behaviour at the Harvard Business School.In this episode, Stew and Jennifer discuss the three key choice points that couples face, moments that challenge them to

Michael Kimmel is a Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at Stony Brook University, where he is also the Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities.  Kimmel is a leading authority on masculinity and gender, and author of numerous books on manhood including Angry White Men as well as Manhood in America: A Cultural History, and his bestseller, Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men. Kimmel served as an expert witness for the U.S. Department of Justice in the VMI and Citadel cases. He has consulted with all the Ministries for Gender Equality in the Nordic countries, and was the first man to deliver the International Women’s Day lecture at the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, the European Commission, and the European Space Agency.Stew and Michael have a conversation about the history of feminism, the changing social and economic forces that shape gender roles, the way boys are raised in our culture, and what it means to be a man. They also

Gopi Kallayil is Chief Evangelist for Brand Marketing at Google and author of The Happy Human and  The Internet to the Inner-Net: Five Ways to Reset Your Connection and Live a Conscious Life.  Gopi works with Google’s sales teams and customers to help grow customer brands through digital marketing.  Before joining Google, Gopi was on the management team of two Silicon Valley venture-funded startups. While a consultant with McKinsey & Co., he worked on engagements helping the management teams of large corporations improve business performance and maximize revenues. He has led large IT projects for global corporations in India, China, and the US. Gopi earned his Bachelor’s degree in electronics engineering from the National Institute of Technology in India and MBAs from Wharton and the Indian Institute of Management. He is an avid yoga practitioner, triathlete, public speaker, global traveler, and Burning Man devotee. He has spoken at TEDx, Renaissance Weekend, The World Peace Festival a

Chris Marvin is the principal for Marvin Strategies, a strategic communications firm that constructs narratives to change minds and solve social issues. He served for seven years as a U.S. Army officer and Black Hawk helicopter pilot and is a combat-wounded veteran of the war in Afghanistan. Chris relies on professional experience that combines military service, entrepreneurship, and social innovation. He has led multiple efforts to create large-scale cultural change through collaboration between nonprofits, government, foundations, media, and corporations.  Chris founded the Got Your 6 campaign to advocate for accurate portrayals of military veterans in film, television, and popular media.  Check out the podcast he’s produced, Reclaiming Patriotism on Crooked Media; his PBS documentary short, Almost Sunrise; and his work with Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action.  Chris holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from the Wharton School at the Univers

Alexis Smith and Pamela Carlton are co-authors of a research project called Making the Invisible Visible. Alexis Smith is an Associate Professor of Management at the Spears School of Business at Oklahoma State University. Her research areas span workplace issues such as gender and diversity, as well as bias and discrimination.  In 2003 Pamela Carlton retired as a Managing Director and Associate Director of US Equity Research at JPMorgan Chase. She is a corporate attorney with degrees from Williams College, Yale Law School, and the Yale School of Management. Pam is President of Springboard—Partners in Cross Cultural Leadership, an organizational consulting firm that assesses organizations for an inclusive culture, designs interventions, and provides independent advisory services. Springboard produced the groundbreaking report Black Women Executives Research Initiative. Pam co-founded the Everest Project, a research initiative focused on leading change and innovation that produced The Eve of Change: Women

Andrew Stern co-leads the Learning & Development team at Squarespace in New York City. Prior to joining Squarespace in June 2018, Andrew held several roles on Bloomberg's Talent Development team and worked as a human capital consultant at Deloitte. He serves on the advisory boards of Own The Room and GenHERation. Andrew graduated cum laude from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a concentration in Organizational Effectiveness. He is an officer of the Wharton Alumni Club of New York.In this episode, Stew and Andrew (who was Stew’s student at Wharton) discuss what millennials want from their employers and how Squarespace is responding with cool programs and practices that attract and retain millennial talent. Andrew describes benefits that go beyond what he calls “world-class health care insurance,” such as the organization’s commitment to providing each employee with two fully comped websites they can use for their own outside businesses or other interests. Andrew talks abo

Eric Orts is the Guardsmark Professor at the Wharton School.  He’s a Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics with a secondary appointment in Management. He’s also Faculty Director of the Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership. Eric’s current research includes a forthcoming article on Senate Democracy: Our Lockean Paradox and How to Solve It in the American University Law Review and a another, co-authored with Amy Sepinwall, on Collective Rights and the Court in the Washington University Law Review.  He’s completing a book for Oxford University Press on Rethinking the Firm, an interdisciplinary sequel to his Business Persons:  A Legal Theory of the Firm.  And he has ongoing research projects on financial regulation and economic inequality and theories of democracy and the business firm.  He’s also the author of The Moral Responsibility of Firms.In this episode, Stew and Eric discuss the real and present danger of climate change and the reality that we currently have the

Madonna Harrington Meyer is a professor of sociology and Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor of Teaching Excellence at the Maxwell School of Public Affairs at Syracuse University. She is a senior research associate at the Center for Policy Research and faculty affiliate at the Aging Studies Institute at Syracuse University. Madonna is the author of the 2014 book Grandmothers at Work: Juggling Families and Jobs, winner of the Gerontological Society of America’s Kalish Book Award. And she’s the co-editor of Grandparenting in the United States (2016) and of Market Friendly or Family Friendly? The State and Gender Inequality in Old Age (2007), which also won the Gerontological Society of America’s Kalish Book Award. She has published over 50 scholarly articles in leading journals and her research has been reported in the New York Times, Boston Globe, and other leading periodicals. In 2016 she was named winner of the American Sociological Association (ASA) Section on Aging and the Life Course (SALC) Matilda

Emily Oster is Professor of Economics at Brown University and a mom of two. She has written two parent's guides to the chaos and frequent misinformation that often occurs in the early years of parenthood. She addresses, and often debunks, myths on breast feeding, sleep training, language acquisition, and more. In both her books --  Cribsheet: A Data-Driven Guide to Better, More Relaxed Parenting, from Birth to Preschool and Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom is Wrong and What You Really Need to Know -- she aims to create a world of more relaxed pregnant women and parents.  She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University.In this episode, Stew and Emily discuss the state of the research on parenting and how much of can result in one-size-fits-all recommendations that may not be accurate or useful for individual children, parents, and families.  In describing the source of inspiration for her books on parenting, Emily explains her journey from her first pregnancy throug

Kimberly Ramalho is Vice President of Communications and Public Affairs, Rotary and Mission Systems, at Lockheed Martin. She is a strategic communications executive with 25 years of experience developing programs that deliver high return on investment, motivate employees, and increase business awareness and demand. Kimberly is actively involved in diversity and inclusion initiatives at Lockheed Martin, and she serves as executive chair of the corporation’s Women’s Impact Network.  She was honored with the 2019 Alice Paul Equality Award for Empowerment. In this episode, Stew and Kimberly discuss the importance of valuing and respecting everyone in the organization, how to make such empathy real, and the benefits that a diverse workforce brings directly to the company and to customers.  Kimberly describes the ways that Lockheed Martin is taking a systematic, proactive approach to helping all employees understand the perspective of others through training and highly engaged support from CEO Marily

Josh Davis received his bachelor’s from Brown University and his doctorate from Columbia University. He is the director of research for the NeuroLeadership Institute (NLI), a global institute dedicated to synthesizing scientific research and guiding its use in the business and leadership fields. Josh produced a wonderful book in which he shares this wisdom: Two Awesome Hours: Science-Based Strategies to Harness Your Best Time and Get Your Most Important Work Done.  Josh talks with Stew about strategies for creating the best conditions for two hours of extraordinary productivity each and every day in order to avoid feeling overwhelmed and, instead, to be more efficient, effective, and productive, with more of your attention available for the non-work sides of life.  Among the useful strategies Stew and Josh discuss are stepping back to see the whole picture of a situation before acting and the power of daydreaming to increase creativity.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out

Christie Smith, Ph.D., is Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion at Apple. Previously she was Managing Principal for Deloitte Consulting’s West Division where she was also the most senior diversity partner leading the Deloitte University Leadership Centers for Inclusion and Community Impact. She has decades of experience building and leading high performing teams and she’s a known expert in the field of Human Resources and Inclusion. Kenji Yoshino, a Rhodes Scholar, is the Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law at New York University School of Law and the Director of the Center for Diversity Inclusion and Belonging.  He was formerly the Guido Calabresi Professor of Law at Yale Law School. He’s written several groundbreaking books, including Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights.  This episode begins with Stew and Christie discussing some common struggles experienced by LGBT individuals in the workplace. Christie explains how she dealt with these issues in the be

Scott Behson is a professor of management at Fairleigh Dickinson University. He is author of The Working Dad’s Survival Guide: How to Succeed at Work and at Home.    This practical volume provides useful advice and encouragement for working fathers, helping them to achieve success in their careers while being the involved, loving dads they want to be. Scott writes the popular blog, Fathers, Work, and Family, dedicated to helping working fathers and encouraging more supportive workplaces. Scott has won Teacher of the Year award and he’s a nationally-recognized scholar in the work and family field, having earned numerous research awards.Stew and Scott discuss the stigmas, the work and life conflicts, and the unique challenges fathers face in the workplace.  They talk about steps working dads can take to increase their autonomy and freedom, for the benefit of both their careers and their families. Scott offers helpful guidance on how to approach managers about paternity leave, create a more