Imagination Beyond the Struggle of Life

Do you feel compelled to work? Is your work difficult to stop thinking about? Are you upset if you have to miss a day of work? Do you tend to work beyond the actual requirements of your job? If so, you might be a workaholic–and so are almost half of U.S workers. Our guest today is Malissa Clark, author of Never Not Working: Why the Always-On Culture is Bad for Business–and How to Fix it. Malissa is an associate professor of industrial and organizational psychology at the University of Georgia, where she has been on faculty since 2013, and she joined us for a deep conversation all about workaholism–what it is, why it matters, and what we can do about it. If you care at all about your work and your life, this is simply an episode you can’t miss. 

Links and Other Information

Malissa's book, Never Not Working: https://www.amazon.com/Never-Not-Working-Always-Business/dp/1647825091 

Malissa Clark’s website: https://www.malissaclark.com/ 

Malissa Clark on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/malissa-clark-0387991a/ 

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Love them or hate them, meetings are everywhere. But we really do need good meetings for teams and organizations to work. Steven Rogelberg is the world’s top evidence-based expert on meetings. He’s the author of the 2019 hit book The Surprising Science of Meetings and more recently, he wrote and published a new book, Glad We Met: The Art and Science of 1:1 Meetings. It’s a fascinating and useful look at how we can truly use intentional, thoughtful one-on-one meetings to create stronger relationships, better workplaces, and maybe even a better world. Tune in for this wonderful, jam-packed conversation with the one and only Steven Rogelberg. 

Links and Other Information

Glad We Met: The Art and Science of 1:1 Meetings - https://www.amazon.com/Glad-We-Met-Science-Meetings/dp/0197641873

The Surprising Science of Meetings - https://www.amazon.com/Surprising-Science-Meetings-Lead-Performance/dp/0190689218 

Steven Rogelberg’s website - https://www.stevenrogelberg.com/ 

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This episode is about loneliness--but it's also about so much more. The bigger issue has to do with building connections with each other and within a society that so often feels fragmented. So we do tackle loneliness in this episode, but building connections is the big theme of what we discuss. It’s a topic that we see as absolutely critical for the flourishing of everyone both as individuals and as a society. Tune in for a thought-provoking and at-times rather passionate discussion of loneliness and building connections for a better life.

As always, please subscribe, share this episode with a friend or on social media, and give us a great rating or review wherever you listen if you think we deserve it. 

Links and Other Information

This Deadly Condition Affects One in Four People (article by Ben about loneliness): https://benbaran.substack.com/p/this-deadly-condition-affects-one

How One Man Convinced 200 Ku Klux Klan Members To Give Up Their Robes: https://www.npr.org/2017/08/20/544861933/how-one-man-convinced-200-ku-klux-klan-members-to-give-up-their-robes

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Suzanne Lucas is the "Evil HR Lady." After a decade in corporate HR, she embarked on a new mission to enhance the world of work for all. She coaches and trains HR departments, speaks around the world, and is the mastermind behind the Evil HR Lady group on Facebook, which has become a community of more than 31,000 HR professionals. In this episode, we talked about the state of HR, the dangers of the idea and practice of “bringing your whole self to work,” and the value of improv comedy for developing leadership skills. Stay tuned to hear Chris and I try a bit of improv in this thought-provoking and fun episode with Suzanne Lucas.

Links and Other Information

All episodes plus MUCH more: Elevating What Works

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More from Suzanne Lucas:

• Blog/website: https://www.evilhrlady.org/ 

• Evil HR Lady Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/evilhrlady

• Suzanne on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzannemlucas/ 

What does it really take to be an effective senior leader? Beyond just getting promoted, what is it about people at higher levels that helps them genuinely succeed in those roles? In this episode, we explore:

• What skills people need to lead at different levels

• Paths toward gaining those skills, for both high-potential professionals and people currently in leadership roles

• Implications for people who want to lead at high levels, for those leaders themselves, and for organizations

Links and Other Information

All episodes plus MUCH more: Elevating What Works on Substack

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Day, D. V., Riggio, R. E., Tan, S. J., & Conger, J. A. (2021). Advancing the science of 21st-century leadership development: Theory, research, and practice. The Leadership Quarterly, 32(5), 101557. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S104898432100062X?

Kragt, D., & Day, D. V. (2020). Predicting leadership competency development and promotion among high-potential executives: The role of leader identity. Frontiers in psychology, 11, 1816.  https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01816/full 

Miscenko, D., Guenter, H., & Day, D. V. (2017). Am I a leader? Examining leader identity development over time. The Leadership Quarterly, 28(5), 605-620. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1048984317300437?

Mumford, T. V., Campion, M. A., & Morgeson, F. P. (2007). The leadership skills strataplex: Leadership skill requirements across organizational levels. The leadership quarterly, 18(2), 154-166. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1048984307000069?

Sam Paustian-Underdahl is the Mary Tilley Bessemer Associate Professor of Business Administration in the Department of Management at Florida State University's College of Business, and we were honored to have her join us for a fantastic conversation about women, work, and why this topic matters. Sam’s research, which we discuss along with other related topics, focuses on gender and diversity in organizations, the work-family interface, and leadership, in the context of work and organizations. We explored the idea of the playing field of the workplace, how gender fits into it, and implications for all of us, including leaders and organizations. 

Links and Other Information

Sam's faculty webpage, LinkedIn profile

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Who are YOU, really? In this episode, Ben and Chris explore how "real" you should be at work and in other social circles, including: 

• The benefits and potential pitfall of authenticity

• How authenticity plays out in groups and organizations

• Implications for all of us, for leaders, and for organizations

Links and Other Information

Lehman, D. W., O’Connor, K., Kovács, B., & Newman, G. E. (2019). Authenticity. Academy of Management Annals, 13(1), 1-42. https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/annals.2017.0047 

Why Brutal Honesty is Often a Brutal Mistake: https://www.elevatingwhatworks.com/p/why-brutal-honesty-is-often-a-brutal

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It's common to hear people describe their work organizations as a "family." And that description is often made as a proud statement, as if to imply that an organization should operate or feel like a family. But that's problematic, as we discuss in this episode. Specifically, we explore:

• Why our use of metaphors for organization matters
• How the way in which we talk about things can create or reinforce cultural norms
• Why “family” is a problematic way to think about your work organization
• Implications for people, leaders, and organizations

Links and other information

Örtenblad, A., Putnam, L. L., & Trehan, K. (2016). Beyond Morgan’s eight metaphors: Adding to and developing organization theory. Human Relations, 69(4), 875-889. Click here

Gareth Morgan’s seminal book, Images of Organization

Harvard Business Review article by Joshua Luna, “The Toxic Effects of Branding Your Workplace a ‘Family’” 

Article by David Burkus: “Why a company is not a family — and how companies can bond with their employees instead”

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Shonna Waters and Brodie Riordan recently wrote a book all about coaching called The Coaching Shift, and in it, they explain and describe coaching from an evidence-based perspective. Both Shonna and Brodie are industrial and organizational psychologists, and they teach coaching together at Georgetown University. Shonna is also an executive at BetterUp, where she works to scale human transformation, and Brodie manages her own coaching and consulting practice, Ocular, while executive coaching with The Boda Group. They joined us for a wonderful conversation about The Coaching Shift, in which we talked about what coaching is, how it works, and what it can do for people, leaders, and organizations.

Links and Other Information

Shonna and Brodie’s book, The Coaching Shift

Shonna: LinkedIn, Twitter

Brodie: LinkedIn, Twitter 

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Whether it’s coping with unqualified people being promoted, working hard only to be rewarded with more hard work, supervisors getting away with being rude, or something else–we’ve all been there. Unfairness is common in life and at work, and our perceptions of fairness really matter. In this episode, we discuss: 

• Different types of “justice” or fairness in organizations
• Outcomes of fair and unfair treatment
• Implications for people, leaders, and organizations. 

Links and Other Information

Sherf, E. N., Venkataramani, V., & Gajendran, R. S. (2019). Too busy to be fair? The effect of workload and rewards on managers’ justice rule adherence. Academy of Management Journal, 62(2), 469-502. Link to article and a summary

Cropanzano, R., Bowen, D. E., & Gilliland, S. W. (2007). The management of organizational justice. Academy of Management Perspectives, 21(4), 34-48. Click here 

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