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Dan Smolen discusses employee experience and future work with Professor Diane Gayeski.

Professor Gayeski teaches Strategic Communications at Ithaca College’s Park School of Communications. What is more, she is a noted thought-leader in employee experience or EX.

In the future of work, EX is a linchpin for people to find and do meaningful work.

In a wide ranging podcast interview, Professor Gayeski:

• Defines employee experience or EX. Starts at 4:07
• Discusses management by objectives (MBO) and the pivot to more talent-driven success outcomes. Starts at 6:49
• Contrasts tangible and intangible assets and their importance in the workplace. Starts at 18:47
• Digs into how members of the Gen Z cohort will approach work. Starts at 22:20
• Describes citizenship behaviors and their benefit to workforce professionals. Starts at 27:10

The connection between employee experience and future work is critical. To that end, Professor Gayeski believes that:

“employee experience has to be very carefully designed so that we don’t get to yet another version of management by objectives cranking out performance.”

About our guest:

Professor Diane Gayeski is Dean Emerita of Ithaca College’s Park School of Communications; currently, she teaches Strategic Communications at the school. Diane earned a Bachelor of Science in Communications from Ithaca College and a Ph.D. in Education and Communications from the University of Maryland. She lives and works in Ithaca, New York.

EPISODE DATE: January 28, 2022

Social media:

– LinkedIn

– Putting employee experience on the balance sheet (October 11, 2021)

– Twitter

– Website

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 50:11 — 69.0MB)

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Dan Smolen discusses a startup parent’s workplace culture fix with entrepreneur and podcaster Sarah K. Peck.

Sarah is the CEO and founder of Start Up Parent and host of the popular Start Up Parent Podcast.

As a former start up executive, and the mom of two young children, Sarah is leading the charge to improve start-up business environments. To that end, she wants start-up enterprises to become as innovative in workplace culture as they are in technological advancement. Sarah truly is impacting the future of work for noble purpose. 

In a wide ranging interview, Sarah:

• Introduces Start Up Parent and its value to workforce professionals. Starts at 4:17
• Recalls her career journey as a start-up executive and chief corporate storyteller. Starts at 5:54
• Discusses how “frenetic” start-ups impede cultural innovation at work. Starts at 8:58
• Offers insight on how to change the narrative to make start-ups a better place for parents to work. Starts at 17:48
• Provides a personal account of being a business professional and mom. Starts at 34:17
• Describes the kinds of questions working parents should ask to further their future work goals. Starts at 43:12

Sarah’s startup parent’s workplace culture fix helps this space become more hospitable.

About our guest:

Sarah K. Peck earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Biology from Denison University and a Masters of Arts in Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning from the University of Pennsylvania. She lives and works outside of New York City.

EPISODE DATE: January 21, 2022

Social media:

– Website

– Start Up Parent Podcast

– LinkedIn

– Instagram

– TikTok

– Twitter

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 45:03 — 61.9MB)

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Dan Smolen discusses Myers Briggs and the Great Resignation with expert Edythe Richards.

As 2022 begins, an estimated 20 million American workers opted for the Great Resignation. With such an unprecedented exit of active workforce members, we wondered about the correlation between Myers Briggs Type Indicators and the Great Resignation.

To help guide us through this critical discussion, we bring back Edythe Richards. Edythe is a world-renowned Myers Briggs expert who helps people discover their Myers Briggs Type. With such insight, people benefit greatly in their lives and careers.

In this episode, Edythe:

• Provides a quick review of the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. Starts at 4:27
• Explains how Myers Briggs insights factor into the Great Resignation. Starts at 6:29
• Offers five factors that motivate people in the Great Resignation. Starts at 12:53
• Discusses the loss of people skill and the need for workplace remediation to create new team leadership outcomes. Starts at 30:50
• Describes how the pandemic changed perceptions of MBTI. Starts at 38:29

Understanding Myers Briggs and the Great Resignation can help people to uncover key career sticking points.

And, among the factors affecting people in the workplace is boredom. Similarly, Edythe says that:

“Boredom is one of the clearest signs that [you are] in a career or a workplace that doesn’t suit your personality.”

About our guest:

Edythe Richards received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Delaware and a Masters of Arts degree in Counseling from Seton Hall University. Her nationally recognized career counseling consultancy, A Top Career, is headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia.

EPISODE DATE: January 14, 2022

Social media:

– Website

– EQ at Work Podcast

– Myers Briggs Question Corner Podcast

– LinkedIn Page

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 8:29 — 11.7MB)

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Dan Smolen says people should use SWOT to focus on career success.

That’s right. The time-honored business management tool, the SWOT analysis, can help careerists to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Getting to blissful work and experiences takes great planning and imagination. And this time-honored business tool can focus our minds on finding and doing meaningful work.

SWOT helps entrepreneurs focus for career success. That is, because, it prepares brands, businesses and themselves for abundant scale. And there is no doubt that SWOT can also help us supercharge our careers.

What are your career strengths?

Perhaps it is strong project management skill? Or maybe it is a strings of sales successes? Whatever they are, list them.

What are your career weaknesses?

Perhaps you lack access to the kind of training you fell will make your career successful. Identify and list them.

What are your career opportunities?

Maybe you seek work in EVs or renewable energy? Dream about them, then list them.

What are your career threats?

Suppose that you are used to working remotely, and you enjoy the experience, but your company leadership wants you back in the co-location? Whatever renders you career threatened, list them on the form.

I’m certain you will find benefit in using SWOT to focus career success. With it, you will establish the foundation for your career empowerment story. With a starting point, you will begin  the first big step in making the work that you do, or hope to do, truly meaningful.

EPISODE DATE: January 7, 2022

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 7:01 — 9.7MB)

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Dan Smolen believes that good health and future work will be informed by pandemic responses.

As 2021 draws to a close, the Omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus has spread like wildfire. And clear to many people now is this: because about a one-third of the nation remains unvaccinated, we will, for the foreseeable future, encounter more Covid variant outbreaks.

Good health and future work are inextricably linked. And that is, because, future variants will impact how and where we work.

We all want good health. And it is among our new year’s wishes to loved ones and friends. But, as a nation we lack the resolve of previous generations to respond to pandemics. Once, we mass vaccinated against Polio Militis and other diseases, thus eradicating them. However, with over 100 million Americans unwilling to vaccinate, we are ensured a future in which Covid becomes endemic.

Our guest earlier this year, infectious disease expert Dr. Rob Citronberg, predicted that annual Covid booster shots are most definitely in our future. And that is, because:

“This [Covid-19] is not going away. In fact, there is no doubt that it is going to become endemic.”

To that end, there are implications for our good health and future work.

Workforce professionals who once may have reliably returned to co-locations will now opt for hybrid workplace venues. How people engage during the workday will change as well. And hiring managers now must learn how to adapt and embrace a new way of engaging with, and leading, people.

During 2021, it took a pandemic turned endemic to turn the future of work present. And in 2022, breathtaking work and workplace changes will happen with all deliberate speed.

Whether you rolled up your sleeves to get Covid jabs or if you resisted, know that your choice fully informed the future of work. And, as a result, we are never going back to a pre-pandemic normal.

EPISODE DATE: December 31, 2021

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:43 — 9.3MB)

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Dan Smolen reflects on the Holiday Season and one tired, burned out workforce.

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate! Have you arrived at the holiday rested or refreshed? Or are you a burned out mess?

According to a recent post on FortuneDaily:

“The physical and emotional exhaustion that turns into workplace burnout doesn’t happen overnight. It’s the result of hundreds of microstressors on the job that ultimately lead to employees hitting the wall, mentally checking out, or even quitting their jobs entirely.”

As the Great Resignation extends, millions of people each month do leave their jobs, often with no new ones to replace them. Thus, one tired, burned out workforce reels.

On the podcast this week, we reflect on a recent tweet authored by organizational psychologist and best-selling author Adam Grant:

“The holidays shouldn’t be a time to recharge. They should be a time to celebrate. If work is exhausting people to the point that they’re using their time off to recover, then you might have a burnout culture.”

EPISODE DATE: December 24, 2021

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:51 — 54.8MB)

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Dan Smolen discovers from Gitlab’s Darren Murph how remote work can work.

As GitLab’s Director of Remote Work, Darren is “the voice in the room” that evangelizes the trailblazing company’s distributed workforce operating model.

What is more, Darren authored The GitLab Remote Work Playbook, which thousands of people around the globe have downloaded.

As 2021 concludes, positive forces of workplace change mean that people can live and work wherever they please.

And as such, Gitlab supports happier professionals who enjoy doing work that is part of the day and not the day.

A 100 percent distributed workforce is central to GitLab’s success.

In this episode, Darren describes:

• His role at Gitlab. Starts at 4:52
• Why GitLab is a 100 percent distributed workforce. Starts at 6:53
• How he and the company found each other and his role materialized. Starts at 8:32
• Opportunities and challenges inherent in framing a value proposition for recruited talent. Starts at 9:54
• The revolutionary aspects of living and working anywhere. Starts at 16:28
• Reengineering relocation to places where people want to live and work. Starts at 29:10
• The localistic benefits to livable communities unleashed by Gitlab’s operating model. Starts at 32:59

Amazing outcomes happen when you allow talent to determine where they live and work. Of that, Darren adds:

“For hundreds of years, we have fit life around the rigid confines of work. But, when you achieve remote work at scale, you can live your life and then fit work into it.”

During 2021, Gitlab became a publicly traded company, tracked under the ticker symbol GTLB.

About our guest:

Quite possibly, Darren Murph is the world’s first Director of Remote Work. He received a Bachelor of Science in Logistics, Materials, and Supply Chain Management from NC State and an MBA from Campbell University. He lives and works in North Carolina.

EPISODE DATE: December 17, 2021

Social media:

– Darren Murph on LinkedIn

– Darren Murph on Twitter

– Living the Remote Dream (Amazon.com book page)

– GitLab Website

– The GitLab Remote Playbook

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:07 — 44.2MB)

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Dan Smolen interviews  Overflow PBC co-founder and CEO Laura Marella on finding success in independent work.

Laura co-founded Overflow PBC to help solo-entrepreneur marketing and strategy professionals succeed.

In 2021, the rise of independent benefitted people who compete for business with large firms and agencies.

As a business accelerator and professional community, Overflow PBC provides independent professionals with specialized tools and resources that they need to compete effectively with big enterprises. What is more, Overflow connects “indies” to a large and growing ecosystem of likeminded people.

Laura describes the brand’s unique value proposition, in people finding success in independent work:

“Instead of being a marketplace of consultants, [we wanted] to create a marketplace for consultants.”

In this episode, Laura:

• Introduces Overflow PBC. Starts at 4:20
• Explains how Overflow PBC members may overcome their skill gaps or cavities. Starts at 13:43
• Describes how a growing sector of independent workers will benefit from the Gig Economy. Starts at 16:16
• Supports her belief in Stakeholder Capitalism. Starts at 20:38
• Recalls how experience as a “corporate escapee” informs her current work as an independent strategist. Starts at 25:20

Overflow PBC is a certified public benefit corporation (b corp) chartered in the State of Delaware. Its founding members are located across the globe. 

People finding success in independent work is a breakthrough story of 2021. And it will impact the future of work for years to come.

About our guest:

Laura Marella received a Bachelor of Science in Communications Management from Ithaca College’s Park School of Communications. During her years in the agency space, Laura gained a national reputation for excellence in multi-cultural marketing. She lives and works in Southern California.

EPISODE DATE: December 10, 2021

Social media:

– Overflow PBC Website

– LinkedIn Page

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 34:43 — 47.7MB)

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Dan Smolen asks Plutoshift’s Prateek Joshi: will artificial intelligence improve future work?

Prateek is the founder and CEO of Plutoshift, a company that uses artificial intelligence or A.I. to make the world a better place.

This we know: artificial intelligence frightens people who fear that robots will take their jobs and paychecks.

And, truth be told, A.I. will soon replace millions of low-skill jobs; it manages many tasks faster and better than people.

But A.I. has no heart; only people can do jobs that require human touch and interaction.

In this episode, Prateek:

• Describes Plutoshift and his role in the company. Starts at 4:03
• Defines artificial intelligence and contrasts it with Machine Learning. Starts at 4:51
• Addresses workforce concerns that A.I. takes jobs away from people. Starts at 9:52
• Illustrates how Plutoshift helps clients involved with providing clean and potable water. Starts at 14:03
• Identifies the training and advanced skill that he seeks in hired talent. Starts at 21:25
• Tells us how, beyond his work, he adds fun and enjoyable activity to each day. Starts at 28:59

In regards to the question, will artificial intelligence will improve future work, Prateek says:

“One of the biggest things that [we look for] is the ability to learn. [Are you] the type of person who has learned how to learn?”

Interview starts at 2:50

About our guest:

Prateek Joshi earned a Bachelor of Technology in Electronics and Communication Engineering from the National Institute of Technology Karnataka and a Masters of Science in Computer Vision from USC. He is the author of numerous books on Artificial Intelligence. Prateek lives and works in Palo Alto, California.

EPISODE DATE: December 3, 2021

Social media:

– LinkedIn

– Twitter

– Plutoshift Website

– Prateek Joshi Website

– Amazon Author Page

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 45:18 — 62.3MB)

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Dan Smolen discovers Raj Subrameyer’s immigrant’s future work story.