We're All in This Together

Today’s guest, Melissa Daimler, is someone I’ve known for 15 years. She knows a ton about the coaching world because she was the very first employee of Coach University, which is one of the top coach training schools in the world. She moved from New York City, where she ran her own very successful coaching business and arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area in time for the dot-com boom.

Melissa’s desire to be part of a team led her to the Epylon Corporation, as their Director of People. She then moved to Adobe where she spent 10 years in various HR and Talent roles.  Four and a half years ago she took a job at Twitter as their Head of Learning and Organizational Development. She sits on the board of the Association for Talent Development and she’s written articles for  the Harvard Business Review. 

What does Bring Your Whole Self to Work Mean to Melissa?

Melissa has always been interested in how to use work as an opportunity to grow and learn. Throughout her non-traditional career journey, she has had both great and not so great managers who taught her who she wanted to be and who she didn’t want to be as a leader and at work. The managers she was inspired by used their jobs to become better. They also made sure the people on their teams were also growing and learning all the time.

The Joys of Team Membership

Melissa says she has always been attracted to the system piece of people, looking at where people are today and how to move them to the next level.  After coaching for several years, she desired to be part of a team again and moved back into the system. She felt that if she understood a company it would help her to coach people better. She took over Adobe’s learning organization when there were 4,ooo people in the company and when she left, 10 years later, Adobe had over 10,000 employees.    

Twitter

While working at Adobe, a recruiter called her and asked her if she wanted to build something from scratch. She loves jumping into things that are exciting and scary so she accepted the position to build out the learning team at Twitter. She says it was a different world at the beginning, she learned how to be crafty and strategic at the same time and she leveraged her tribe. In all of the chaos, there are three things she has always stayed true to 1. Taking care of herself 2. Taking care of her team 3. Taking care of the business.

Melissa accepts challenges as learning opportunities. She says that one of the great things about Twitter is that you don’t have to ask for permission to re-evaluate, re-imagine or to be innovative. One of her current projects is re-imagining feedback to figure out what people truly want. The goal is to help leaders shift from the traditional every 6-month review to ongoing learning every day.  During open conversations, a person can give feedback without starting with the phrase “So, I’d like to give you a little feedback.” Open, honest communication based on the trust which exists inside the relationship.

Generational Differences

Melissa says she sees more similarities than differences within generations but that maybe Millennials say what the Gen X-ers were thinking but didn’t have had the courage to say. Millennials are voicing what everybody wants and Millennials want what all people want, which is to align themselves with a company that has a meaningful mission and to know that an opportunity for growth exists.

Melissa says she doesn’t want to be one of those people who are falling behind in technology, so she asks a lot of questions. She shares her goals with her team so they can provide feedback to her as part of her ongoing learning philosophy. When asked about what advice she would give to her younger self she says “I would tell myself to speak up more and share my point of view.”

Resources:

Mike Robbins Website

Mike Robbins on Facebook

Mike Robbins on Twitter

Mike Robbins Speaker Page

Melissa Daimler on Twitter

Harvard Business Review - Melissa Daimler Articles

My guest on this podcast episode, Matthew Luhn, worked for over twenty years at Pixar - helping create the stories for some of the most successful animated films in history: including Toy Story, Monsters Inc.,
Cars, UP, and Finding Nemo. 

Today, he is a keynote speaker and consultant to some of most influential businesses and brands in the world like Apple, Charles Schwab, Google, Adidas, Disney and many others.  These companies contact him when they want to know how to inspire creativity and innovation internally as well as how to make better connections with their customers. Matthew’s unique story creation experience with Pixar, Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), and The Simpsons, along with his anybody can succeed attitude, make his “Story for Business” seminars and workshops a sought after experience.    

Fostering Creativity 

With his father’s encouragement, Matthew attended the California Institute of the Arts instead of running the family’s popular toy store business. His father exposed him to obscure animation festivals and enriched him with a “there is no such thing as failing” attitude. At CalArts, he focused on learning everything he could. His first-year final was a short film, which got the attention of the creators of the Simpsons. They offered him a job as an animator but while working there he realized what he really loved was making people feel something. So, he went back to CalArts to study story creation.

His second student film caught the interest a small company named Pixar. He had seen some of Pixar’s animated shorts and was anxious to say yes to a job offer from them working on what was going to be with the first CGI feature-length animated movie, Toy Story. At the time, he did not realize he had agreed to a job as an animator even though his heart was in story creation. Disney decided to put the project on hold for a few months, so Matthew started freelancing doing storyboard work. When Pixar contacted him again they offered him a position on the story team and he never looked back.      

How the Power of Story is Helping Businesses

Matthew is enjoying this second chapter of his life story by sharing his experience. He shares the tips and techniques of creating a great story with marketing organizations who benefit by using a story to make their customers feel something. Business leaders use his teachings to create a culture which inspires creativity and innovation and how to use collected data to make better connections with their audiences.   

Creative Business Culture

Matthew learned a lot working on the Simpsons and at ILM in the early part of his career, and, of course, being at Pixar for over 20 years.  He says that in those environments, they didn’t set out to create a “creative culture” per se, they just allowed people to be themselves, have fun, and create - without too much pressure or stress.  He believes that some of the things his dad taught him as a kid are the key elements in allowing creativity to flow organically in business.   

What does Bring Your Whole Self to Work Mean to Matthew?

Matthew says that being true to himself and the people he works while knowing that it is ok to fail is what bringing your whole self to work means to him.

Quote

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”- Steve Jobs

Resources:

Mike Robbins Website

Mike Robbins on Facebook

Mike Robbins on Twitter

Mike Robbins Speaker Page

Matthew Luhn Story

Matthew Luhn on Twitter

My guest today, Bob Andrews, is someone I’ve known for many years.  He is a dear friend and someone I greatly appreciate.  Bob has had an interesting career - working as a teacher, then as a retail store manager, and ultimately building his career in the field of Human Resources.  He was the head HR for Jamba Juice and held various HR jobs at Gap Inc.  Bob is now working for himself, doing something he has always felt passionate about - executive and leadership coaching.

What does Bring Your Whole Self to Work Mean to Bob?

Bob says the phrase “Bring Your Whole Self to Work” pushes a few of his buttons. He has been challenged by bringing his whole self at work throughout his career and has worked with others who struggle with being fully themselves and with showing up fully at work.

As an example, early in Bob’s career he completed a survey answering each question the way he imagined a strong leader would. He answered in the voice of the person he wanted to be instead of who he really was. Then, after 25 years of experience, Bob took the same survey again. This time, he answered straight from his heart and found that many of the answers he gave were the opposite of his previous results.

Moving Past the Fear

After years of paperwork and excel spreadsheets, Bob recognized that he wasn’t being true to himself or his work. He realized the part of Human Resources he loved was working with executives and leadership teams. In order to do this, he would need to create an executive coaching business of his own. He felt a tinge of fear in that being himself wouldn’t be good enough, that he wasn’t prepared to go out on his own and it wouldn’t pay enough to cover the cost of his lifestyle. Eventually, the business world evolved and started putting additional resources into talent development and talent management and Bob started working at Gap Inc. as an Internal Executive Coach, which then springboarded him to his current coaching business.

How Are Leaders Creating a Thriving Culture of Authenticity in the Workplace?

Bob says leaders who take care of themselves through holistic practices make better leaders and better communicators. Listening to employees with empathy is a common trait of successful leaders in today’s workplace. They allow space for others to breathe and learn to humanize their roles.

Quote

“Fear is just excitement without the breath.” - Fritz Perls

Resources:

Mike Robbins Website

Mike Robbins on Facebook

Mike Robbins on Twitter

Mike Robbins Speaker Page

Bob Andrews on LinkedIn

Michael Bungay Stanier is my guest on this week’s episode of my podcast. He is the author of many books including Do More Great Work and, his latest, The Coaching Habit. Michael’s company, Box of Crayons, help organizations to do less good work and more great work.

What does Bring Your Whole Self to Work Mean to Michael?

Michael references the insights in the book The Dark Side of the Light Chasers by Debbie Ford and how the ‘I Am That’ process allows a person to acknowledge all that they are and show up as their whole person. He says there is something about understanding how you are different in this world and doubling down on what makes you unique. 

Embracing Discomfort

Balancing tension is hard. There is a fine line between strategy and guessing. Michael says to experiment in a way that limits risks is the way forward. He observes that most people don’t wrestle long enough with questions and they will generally default to safety.

An Inspiring Project

In Michael’s book, Do More Great Work, he advocates having a great work project. A project a person can pour all of their creativity, energy and resources into. He knew he had to have a project of his own. He wanted to have a bold impact and considered what was the cheapest unit of change at a global level. He brought thought leaders and other intriguing people together to write articles on how to access great work. And, then along with The Domino Project and Seth Godin, he published End Malaria a book which, when purchased, sends a donation to Malaria No More to purchase mosquito nets for families in need.

Keeping Things in Perspective

Michael believes that we sometimes take ourselves a bit too seriously, which ends up stressing us out and burdening us with unnecessary pressure.  He thinks we should embrace all of who we are, even and especially the stuff that’s weird about us.  This frees us up to do more great work and to not be so attached to the outcome.

Quotes

“I’d rather be whole than be good.”- Carl Jung

“When you argue with reality, you lose, but only 100% of the time.” - Byron Katie

“Take my advice. I’m not using it.” - David J. Henderhan

Resources:

Mike Robbins Website

Mike Robbins on Facebook

Mike Robbins on Twitter

Mike Robbins Speaker Page

Box of Crayons

Michael Bungay Stanier Books

Michael Bungay Stanier is my guest on this week’s episode of my podcast. He is the author of many books including Do More Great Work and, his latest, The Coaching Habit. Michael’s company, Box of Crayons, help organizations to do less good work and more great work.

What does Bring Your Whole Self to Work Mean to Michael?

Michael references the insights in the book The Dark Side of the Light Chasers by Debbie Ford and how the ‘I Am That’ process allows a person to acknowledge all that they are and show up as their whole person. He says there is something about understanding how you are different in this world and doubling down on what makes you unique. 

Embracing Discomfort

Balancing tension is hard. There is a fine line between strategy and guessing. Michael says to experiment in a way that limits risks is the way forward. He observes that most people don’t wrestle long enough with questions and they will generally default to safety.

An Inspiring Project

In Michael’s book, Do More Great Work, he advocates having a great work project. A project a person can pour all of their creativity, energy and resources into. He knew he had to have a project of his own. He wanted to have a bold impact and considered what was the cheapest unit of change at a global level. He brought thought leaders and other intriguing people together to write articles on how to access great work. And, then along with The Domino Project and Seth Godin, he published End Malaria a book which, when purchased, sends a donation to Malaria No More to purchase mosquito nets for families in need.

Keeping Things in Perspective

Michael believes that we sometimes take ourselves a bit too seriously, which ends up stressing us out and burdening us with unnecessary pressure.  He thinks we should embrace all of who we are, even and especially the stuff that’s weird about us.  This frees us up to do more great work and to not be so attached to the outcome.

Quotes

“I’d rather be whole than be good.”- Carl Jung

“When you argue with reality, you lose, but only 100% of the time.” - Byron Katie

“Take my advice. I’m not using it.” - David J. Henderhan

Resources:

Mike Robbins Website

Mike Robbins on Facebook

Mike Robbins on Twitter

Mike Robbins Speaker Page

Box of Crayons

Michael Bungay Stanier Books

Today I’m speaking with my friend, Eric Severson. Eric has been working and studying the field of Human Resources for over 25 years. He spent many of those years at Gap Inc., which is where we met.  At Gap Inc., he served as the co-CHRO in charge of global enterprise talent strategy and operations. 

He is a leader who works to create culture and support the growth of talent.  In 2014, Eric was appointed by the US Commerce Secretary to be a part of the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE). The organization's initiatives include looking at how to create organizations where people can bring their whole selves to work and be successful. They also focus on how organizations and corporations can be positive influences in society at large.

Resources:

Mike Robbins Website

Mike Robbins on Facebook

Mike Robbins on Twitter

Mike Robbins Speaker Page

Eric Severson on Twitter

CHREATE

National Advisory Council on Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Today I’m speaking with my friend Dr. Dacher Keltner, a professor at UC Berkeley who is also the co-founder and faculty director of the UC Berkeley Greater Good Science Center. He is a renowned expert in the biological and evolutionary origins of human emotions and he studies awe, compassion, beauty and love. He just wrote a new book, The Power Paradox, and has also authored two previous books, Born to Be Good:The Science of a Meaningful Life and The Compassion Instinct.

The Greater Good Science Center 

The Greater Good Science Center began in 2001, as print magazine, with the intention of bringing peace and well-being to people. It has since become a place people go to for acquiring knowledge and learning how to put that knowledge into practice. The center capitalizes on core ethical ideas in our data-driven society.

A talk at Stanford led to an exciting opportunity for Dacher to partner with Facebook. The result of their partnership was the modification of Facebook’s approach and platform, which gave users the ability to be kinder and more compassionate when engaging with each other on Facebook. According to Dacher, “Social interaction is a fundamental challenge in today’s world.”

The Power Paradox

Today’s workplace is collaborative so the soft skills of leadership have become more important. Dacher teaches managers to build a culture of gratitude and respect. He shows leaders how to gain and keep power by doing good things for people. Service and humility are the last levels of great leadership. The more humble a leader is the more people will trust and follow them, yet power often leads people to do just the opposite.

Acts of Gratitude

Acts of gratitude help to build cooperative teams, and the small stuff leaders do matters enormously in an organization. If a person is in a position of power, their actions ripple through social networks. The actions and emotions that leaders bring to work can influence the mood of the entire company.   

The “We” Generation of Sharing

Dacher interacts with students every day in his role as a professor and he believes this new generation is going to be amazing. They are more interested in the environment and the far reaches of the world than they are in buying a home or a car.

What does Bringing Your Whole Self to Work Mean to Dacher?

It’s about being open and listening to everybody who comes your way. To be open, to hear, to respect and to dignify is Dacher’s first goal.

Resources:

Mike Robbins Website

Mike Robbins on Facebook

Mike Robbins on Twitter

Mike Robbins Speaker Page

The Greater Good Science Center of UC Berkeley

Greater Good Science Center on Twitter
The Power Paradox

Today I’m speaking with my friend Dr. Dacher Keltner, a professor at UC Berkeley who is also the co-founder and faculty director of the UC Berkeley Greater Good Science Center. He is a renowned expert in the biological and evolutionary origins of human emotions and he studies awe, compassion, beauty and love. He just wrote a new book, The Power Paradox, and has also authored two previous books, Born to Be Good:The Science of a Meaningful Life and The Compassion Instinct.

The Greater Good Science Center 

The Greater Good Science Center began in 2001, as print magazine, with the intention of bringing peace and well-being to people. It has since become a place people go to for acquiring knowledge and learning how to put that knowledge into practice. The center capitalizes on core ethical ideas in our data-driven society.

A talk at Stanford led to an exciting opportunity for Dacher to partner with Facebook. The result of their partnership was the modification of Facebook’s approach and platform, which gave users the ability to be kinder and more compassionate when engaging with each other on Facebook. According to Dacher, “Social interaction is a fundamental challenge in today’s world.”

The Power Paradox

Today’s workplace is collaborative so the soft skills of leadership have become more important. Dacher teaches managers to build a culture of gratitude and respect. He shows leaders how to gain and keep power by doing good things for people. Service and humility are the last levels of great leadership. The more humble a leader is the more people will trust and follow them, yet power often leads people to do just the opposite.

Acts of Gratitude

Acts of gratitude help to build cooperative teams, and the small stuff leaders do matters enormously in an organization. If a person is in a position of power, their actions ripple through social networks. The actions and emotions that leaders bring to work can influence the mood of the entire company.   

The “We” Generation of Sharing

Dacher interacts with students every day in his role as a professor and he believes this new generation is going to be amazing. They are more interested in the environment and the far reaches of the world than they are in buying a home or a car.

What does Bringing Your Whole Self to Work Mean to Dacher?

It’s about being open and listening to everybody who comes your way. To be open, to hear, to respect and to dignify is Dacher’s first goal.

Resources:

Mike Robbins Website

Mike Robbins on Facebook

Mike Robbins on Twitter

Mike Robbins Speaker Page

The Greater Good Science Center of UC Berkeley

Greater Good Science Center on Twitter
The Power Paradox

This is the very first episode of my new Bring Your Whole Self to Work Podcast. I really wanted to do something special for this first show and was so excited that my friend, the amazing Chip Conley, agreed to join me. 

What I Know About Chip Conley

Chip is a business leader, a thought leader, and a person I respect and admire a great deal. At 26, he started the Joie de Vivre – which became the second largest boutique hotel company in the world.  He sold the company back in 2010. Chip is the author of four books with a fifth one on the way and for the past 38 months he has worked as a mentor to the founders of Airbnb and a leader within the company as they’ve grown exponentially. He is a true renaissance man of life, business and of personal growth. 

The Courage to Walk Down the Entrepreneurial Path

Chip remembers the advice from the Whole Earth Catalog, which was to “start cheap, stay small and stay local”. This advice allowed him to make mistakes and modify appropriately. Chip figured that if he had to shut everything down at 29 he would still have time to do something else.

What does Bring Your Whole Self to Work Mean to Chip

Potting your own personal plant in an orchard where it is most likely to grow and understanding what your innate talents and gifts are. These are the first steps to bringing your whole self to work. By gaining self-awareness you will gain clarity and know whether or not the company you are running or working for is a good fit for you.

Chip realized he has a natural aptitude for recognizing what is and what is not working in design and a gift for serving people. The hotel business is all about serving people so he bought a motel in a not-so-nice neighborhood and he started Joie de Vivre (The Joy of Life, in French). It’s a business name and a mission statement all rolled up in one. And, it was then that he became the style-minded, big-hearted, boutique entrepreneur. Fast forward 25 years and he was running the second largest boutique hotel chain in the world. All because he brought his whole self to work.

Democratising Culture Through Ambassadors

The good news about the hotel name no one could pronounce was that new employees could be taught about the name and the mission. He and his team created the Joie de Vivre symbol. It is a heart with 4-points or arteries, leading to the core missions of the organization. Employees were empowered to make a change if one of the arteries was not flowing properly. Chip democratized the culture by creating cultural ambassadors for each hotel. They were front-line employees who were elected by their fellow workers to serve in this position. This democratization worked so well that Joie de Vivre was voted as the second best place to work in the San Francisco Bay Area. Second only to Google.

The Whole Self is Everything

Chip says there are two things you can do to bring your whole self to work after a difficult time, and they are: 1) Divorce yourself from work for a little while to process everything that is going on, or 2) Feel you can be authentic and vulnerable enough to share with others in the workplace. Holding something back takes a lot of energy. The process of unleashing it frees up a lot of space in your mind and emotional space in your heart. It allows people to rally around you. If you feel you must hide things you are probably not doing your best at work.

Chip’s Forthcoming Book - Modern Elder

Chip gives us a glimpse of the experiences he is drawing from in order to create his next book, Modern Elder. Working with Airbnb has given him a new perspective on the digital society and the intergenerational transfer of wisdom in humans.  Those of us who are a bit older have some important things to teach the younger generations.  And, the younger generations have some important things to teach their elders at the same time.

Inspirational Quotes:

“Be yourself, everyone else is taken.” - Oscar Wilde

“The person you spend the most time with is yourself. Therefore you owe it to yourself to be both an interesting and happy person.” - Unknown

“My life is my message.” - Gandhi

Resources:

Mike Robbins Website

Mike Robbins on Facebook

Mike Robbins on Twitter

Mike Robbins Speaker

Chip Conley Website

Chip Conley on Twitter

Chip Conley’s Books:

● The Rebel Rules: Daring to Be Yourself in Business

● Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow

● Emotional Equations

So, why am I doing this new podcast? Well, during my 15 years of speaking, writing and coaching I’ve gotten to know some incredible business leaders, thought leaders and other fascinating people. As I started to work on my next book, Bring Your Whole Self to Work, I decided I wanted to interview some of these folks as research for the book.  Then I decided it would be cool to record these conversations and share them with others.  So, that was the inspiration for this podcast.

I want to learn about the twists and turns in their careers – their ups, downs, insights, challenges, inspirations, and more What has allowed them to bring all of who they are to their work? What makes this challenging? What have been the benefits of this in terms of their success and fulfillment.

I’m also curious about the things that entrepreneurs and business leaders do to consciously create a culture of authenticity, innovation, and creativity in their organizations.  How do they make it safe and conducive for people to bring all of who they are to work?

I’m excited about this new podcast, looking forward to these conversations, and hope that we all get to learn, share, and grow in the process…and to challenge ourselves to bring even more of who we are to the work that we do.

Resources:

www.mike-robbins.com

https://www.facebook.com/mikerobbinspage/

https://twitter.com/mikedrobbins

http://mike-robbins.com/speaking/