Breakthroughs: Smart Strategies for Career/Business Growth – Details, episodes & analysis

Michael Swiatek is on a mission to uplift the lives of the worlds largest minority, people with disabilities, especially those who are legally blind, or have low vision, by enhancing their travel experiences. He’s not only a senior executive with real world success in the airline industry, but is also legally blind himself. His unique life experiences have shaped his outlook and career journey. With a distinguished aviation career, Michael Swiatek has excelled in senior executive roles at prominent global airlines. Currently serving as the Chief Strategy Officer at Abra group, the parent company of Avianca and GOL airlines, he shapes the strategic direction of these airlines, driving profitability and competitiveness in the Americas market. Prior to his current role at Abra group, Swiatek held the position of Chief Strategy and Planning Officer at Avianca, transforming the airlines positioning through alliance formation, network expansion, and corporate planning. He also championed inclusivity as Co-Chair of culture transformation, accessibility, adversity, equity and inclusion, solidifying Avianca‘s reputation as a socially responsible airline. Previously, Michael has held senior roles at several global airlines, including Chief Planning Officer at Indigo airlines, the largest airline in India, Qatar airways as Chief Planning Officer and Air New Zealand, where he served as Director of Strategic Planning. Throughout his career, Michael Swiatek’s strategic acumen and leadership have left an indelible mark on the aviation industry, propelling organizations to new heights. This podcast episode is appropriate for anyone looking for inspiration to overcome obstacles toward success.

Phil Simon is one of the world's leading independent experts on workplace collaboration and technology. He is a frequent keynote speaker and the award-winning author of 14 books, most recently The Nine: The Tectonic Forces Reshaping the Workplace. Phil helps organizations communicate, collaborate, and use technology better. Harvard Business Review, the MIT Sloan Management Review, Wired, NBC, CNBC, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, and The New York Times have featured his contributions. He also hosts the podcast Conversations About Collaboration. This episode spotlights one of them easiest to understand books on tech: Phil Simon breaks down the main forces impacting businesses that today’s leaders will be remiss if they ignore. You could buy Phil’s book. Most anywhere books are sold. Here’s a link to Amazon. The Nine: The Tectonic Forces Reshaping the Workplace (The Future of Work) https://a.co/d/apP4olk

I’m delighted to have Adam Bryant on Breakthroughs today to discuss some key insights from his new book, “The CEO Test: Master the Challenges that Make or Break All Leaders” . ADAM BRYANT is managing director of Merryck & Co., a leadership development and senior executive mentoring firm.  Prior to this role, he was a journalist for 30 years, including at The New York Times, where he created and authored the massively successful “Corner Office” column for which he interviewed more than 600 CEOs and other leaders.  He is the author of two previous books and is the senior adviser to the Rueben Mark Initiative for Organizational Character and Leadership at Columbia University. Adam recently partnered with Kevin Sharer to write a leadership book distinctively different from others applying the breadth and depth of their experiences sharing wisdom that could be applied across industries. Sharer was Chairman/CEO of the biotech company Amgen, where he led its expansion from $1 billion in annual revenues to nearly $16 billion. He spent seven years on the faculty at Harvard Business School and has served on many boards (including Chevron, Unocal, Northrop Grumman, and 3M). He’s a sought-after mentor for CEOs of global companies. In his roles as an executive, director, and mentor, He has been involved with more than 20 successful CEO transitions, and he continues to advise CEOs of global corporations. Kevin is a naval academy graduate and served on to attack nuclear submarines. Leaders at all levels can learn from Adam Bryant and Kevin Sharer as they aim to speed up the learning curve in their new book, THE CEO TEST: Master the Challenges that Make or Break All Leaders (March 2, 2021). If you are an aspiring leader looking for insights from hundreds of veteran CEO’s, this episode is for you! If you find the Adams insights useful, check this out: The CEO Test: Master the Challenges That Make or Break A... https://www.amazon.com/dp/163369951X/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_awdb_imm_Z9H6Y1CAG6DX9ZY9MM1D

In today’s fragile, competitive workplace most everyone could benefit from smart career strategies: In my new podcast, Breakthroughs, I’ll help you get more out of your career and help you achieve dramatic breakthroughs at work. I’ll share strategies to help you; find the right job fit and give you tips to stand out, get hired and get promoted. I’ll also share strategies to build your executive presence and for building motivated and effective teams. You’ll learn leadership skills essential to helping your organization adapt, compete, and succeed in crisis situations and much more. If you have a growth mindset, “Breakthroughs” will help your career soar.

If you have a growth mindset, “Breakthroughs” will help your career soar.

3 Communication Tools for building effective teams: Conversational competence is an important but overlooked skill that can make or break your career. Because so much of our conversation is impersonal and filtered through our many technological devices, it’s not surprising that many of us have lost several aspects in the art of interpersonal communication.If we truly want to have motivated and engaged teams were people want to come to work and contribute we have to recognize the people are motivated when they feel heard and seen. Every manager can do this by using these tips: 1.(Create a Psychologically safe environment) If a company wants to surpass its competitors, it needs to improve how people work together. Over the last decade, Google spent millions of dollars using big data to study what makes a team successful? The researchers found that psychological safety was the most important factor for employee engagement and for a building effective teams. 2. (Listen 80% talk 20%) Surprisingly one of the top communication skills is actually when we’re not talking. The best teams listen to one another, allow equal time for others to talk... 3. Ask open ended questions. Learn why this matters and learn 7 specific open ended questions that will help you build more trust and collaboration not only with your teams but with everyone. If you have a growth mindset, “Breakthroughs” will help your career soar.

This episode is a three-part series. The first segment I’ll share some shocking examples of companies & leaders who failed to cultivate a motivated, innovative team & the heavy cost they paid for it. Segments 2&3 will provide specific strategies to avoid these costly mistakes and benefit from cultivating a motivated, innovative team.

In this segment I’ll share 2 strategies that great leaders have used to cultivate a motivated, innovative team that increases employee engagement &boosts their company’s productivity and bottom line. I’ll give you examples of companies that successfully implemented these strategies and the research to back why these approaches are effective, quoting motivation expert Daniel pink and Dr. Linda Hill. You’ll see that both strategies are realistic and could help your organization achieve greater success.

In this segment I share two strategies to cultivate a motivated, innovative team. We discussed the value of experimentation, exploration and play where the focus is more on coming up with fresh ideas and testing them then on maintaining the status quo. I provide examples of companies that are afforded talented team members to devote time to side projects and how those projects became extremely successful, dramatically increasing the company’s brand recognition & bottom line. I also explain the value of hiring diverse teams; people from different backgrounds and experiences and skills sets as well as different personalities who share a common work ethic and value the company’s mission tend to be the most collaborative. These diverse teams have the most breakthroughs as they avoid “group think”

In this episode I discuss two distinctive types of leadership; power and influence. These two styles are often considered synonymous, as if you have one, it’s assumed you probably have the other. But a closer look at these two forms of leader ship shows they work and wildly different ways. One can spread your influence and the other can lead to your downfall. I show how those power driven who are primarily focused on financial gain and winning at all costs ultimately fail. I contrast this with a concise description of influencer leaders, those who build motivated, engaged teams by investing in their people. The episode reinforces the point that you can develop these behaviors and create a vibrant corporate culture that consistently attracts, engages and retains the best people.