Somasegar traveled from India to the US for his advanced degrees and ended up joining Microsoft for an illustrious 27-year career. Now he’s a venture capitalist. In this first of two episodes, he talks with us about his journey and his thoughts on leadership.
Common wisdom is that the first promotion from individual contributor to leader is the hardest. But it's the second promotion that is the true turning point in a leadership career.
The series on communication continues with the focus on listening. We examine why careful examination of the echo of a leader’s message can help not only make the team more effective but diagnose communication problems. This is Echolocation.
The series on communication continues with a look at why saying something once is never enough. Even a few times is insufficient. The key to successful leadership is a clear, consistent, and frequently expressed vision. This is: Repeat After Me.
Tod Nielsen is a multi-time CEO who heads the ERP company FinancialForce. His journey is one of ever-increasing responsibility all the way to the corner office. In this episode we explore his growth and leading through adversity, like the dot com bust and the pandemic.
Laura Butler is much more than just the first female Technical Fellow at Microsoft. She is a smart, thoughtful, and accomplished leader. In this conversation we talk leadership, especially as a woman, and her latest passion: investing in people.
The corporate C-suite, with all its many Chiefs, has become crowded and unwieldy. Along with this has come some pretty crass pandering. This episode tracks the evolution of the executive offices over the last four centuries in this Suite Story.
Michael Kennedy’s experience leading finance operations around the world has served him well as the CFO of the Muscular Dystrophy Association, especially during a global pandemic. We talk being a change agent, international leadership, and vision in finance.
The goal of creating a meritocracy seems admirable. But as Michael Sandel points out, it’s unobtainable, and working to get there creates a culture that is corrosive and divisive. We explore why merit is so hard to assign. Be careful with that Merit Badge.
Brenda Leaks is developing the next generation of leaders. She does much of that by being an outstanding leader herself. Her op-ed in the Seattle Times on race and equity was a powerful example. In our conversation we discuss how you can lead on those topics too.
Sweating the details isn’t always about dollars and cents. It’s often the little changes a leader can make that improve life for their team. Even if it costs just a dime. They can add up to make a huge difference. This episode is about Every Little Thing.
What do you do after you help Amazon grow by over 26,000 percent? You move on to the audacious goal of getting a billion people reading. In this conversation with David Risher CEO and co-founder of Worldreader we talk about leading in the world of non-profits.