Want to get better at work? At managing others? Managing yourself? Gayle Allen interviews experts who take your performance to the next level. Each episode features a book with insights to help you achieve your goals.
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If you’re a woman in the workplace, you know the deck is rarely stacked in your favor. For example, promotions are harder to come by. The gender wage gap is real. And power can feel elusive.
Psychology professor and researcher, Alison Fragale, has studied the power problem for decades. What she’s figured out is that the solution lies with status. But, as she argues in her book, Likeable Badass: How Women Get the Success They Deserve, if women shift their focus to cultivating status, they get further ahead in solving the power problem.
Alison Fragale has unlocked the key to achieving greater status in the workplace. And she shares practical tips on how to get started. It’s a book I’ll be recommending to all my friends
Episode Links
Why Status and Now Just Power Determines Workplace Success
Here’s Why Women Don’t Always Support Women
Interview with Vanessa Patrick, The Power of Saying No
The Team
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CM 280: Michael Gervais on Overcoming Our Biggest Fear – Rebroadcast
Sunday, December 1, 2024 • Duration 50:49
There are many good reasons to look to others. For example, you might need expert advice or feedback to improve your performance. But there’s one reason not to, and, that is, to determine your self-worth.
When you look to someone else to define you or tell you how to live your life, you lose a lot. And if you find it hard to believe you’d ever let someone else influence you in those ways, you’d be surprised.
Michael Gervais is a high-performance psychologist who’s worked with elite athletes, artists, and leaders. Through his work, he’s learned that one of the biggest obstacles standing in their way is fear of other people’s opinions. And he’s seen just how crippling those fears can be. That’s why he’s written the book, The First Rule of Mastery: Stop Worrying about What People Think of You.
In talking to Michael, I learned how our biology sets us up to place a lot of weight on other people’s opinions. I also learned how social media is designed to reinforce that fear. Fortunately, Michael shared insights on what to do. I walked away feeling empowered.
Episode Links
Stop Basing Your Self-Worth on Other People’s Opinions
Free Your People from the Need for Social Approval
Build a Great Team on a Relationship-Based Culture, Not the Myth of Family
Interview with Jonathan Rhodes on Getting the Life You Want
The Team
Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here.
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CM 271: Anna Goldfarb on Modern Friendship
Monday, July 29, 2024 • Duration 42:14
We know how important friendships are. At the very least, for our health and well-being. But we also know how hard it gets to make and keep friends over the course of a lifetime, especially as we move, change jobs, and have families.
That’s why Anna Goldfarb’s book, Modern Friendship: How to Nurture Our Most Valued Connections, is so important. We need friendships for good health, and Anna’s book teaches us ways to make, keep, and move on from toxic friends. And she readily shares what to say to build and deepen friendships.
I think it’s a terrific book for understanding how to be a better friend.
Episode Links
Let’s Make This the Golden Age of Friendship
The Secret to Modern Friendship, According to Real Friends
How to Deal with a Friendship Quiet Season
Interview with Kat Vellos
The Team
Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here.
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CM 181: Dan Cable On Unlocking Your Potential
Monday, February 15, 2021 • Duration 53:40
For a good part of my life, I believed that focusing on my weaknesses was the key to achieving success. In fact, I didn't realize how much I'd embraced this way of thinking until I began working with an executive coach.
Soon after we started working together, my coach made an observation I've never forgotten. She said, "Gayle, you're great at pointing out your weaknesses - all the ways you feel you don't measure up - but I never hear you talk about your strengths." That's when I realized how this way of thinking had become my default setting. I had to work hard to change it.
That's why, when I picked up Dan Cable's latest book, Exceptional: Build Your Personal Highlight Reel and Unlock Your Potential, I knew I wanted to have him back on the show. He captured my old way of thinking with his first sentence, "Many of us think the best path to self-improvement is to face the cold truth about ourselves at our worst."
Yet, what Dan quickly points out is that, far from motivating us, this relentless focus on identifying and fixing our weaknesses can create a lot of anxiety, along with feelings of overwhelm, even helplessness. That sounds like a far cry from a path to success, right?
Dan's a Professor of Organizational Behavior at London Business School. Since his last book, Alive at Work, he's been studying what happens when we uncover our strengths through others' eyes, through current and former colleagues, bosses, friends, and family members. Dan's approach is fascinating and his research findings are incredible.
Episode Links
You Need a Personal Highlight Reel by Dan Cable
What You Should Follow Instead of Your Passion by Dan Cable
Stop Sleepwalking through Life by Dan Cable and Mel Bradman
Alive at Work by Dan Cable
Post-traumatic growth
What Job Crafting Looks Like by Jane E. Dutton and Amy Wrzesniewski
Impostor Syndrome
Curious Minds at Work
Learn more about creator and host, Gayle Allen, and producer and editor, Rob Mancabelli, here.
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CM 180: Fred Dust On Making Conversations Better
Monday, February 1, 2021 • Duration 36:19
Meaningful conversations can be a creative lab space. At their best, they're a place to share perspectives and be heard. They can also be a place to stress test new ideas and catch the limits in our thinking.
When conversations work, we gain a stronger connection to the people we work with. We feel like we understand each other better and that we're channeling each other's knowledge and skills to achieve a bigger goal.
Yet these kinds of conversations are far too rare. And I don't think it's intentional. I think it's because we don't know how to design them.
That's what motivated me to read Fred Dust's latest book, Making Conversation: Seven Essential Elements of Meaningful Communication. A former senior partner and global managing director at international design firm, IDEO, Fred's designed these kinds of conversations for hundreds of organizations across multiple industries.
Fred gives us permission to make better conversations a priority, and he shares insights on how to do it effectively.
Episode Links
Where Do Ideas Come From? Fred Dust at Aspen Ideas
Active Listening
Frank Osborn on Brainstorming
Responsive Classroom
The Op Ed Project
Courtney E. Martin
Curious Minds at Work Team
Learn more about creator and host, Gayle Allen, and producer and editor, Rob Mancabelli, here.
Support Curious Minds at Work
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Rating and reviewing the show on iTunes or wherever you subscribe.
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CM 179: Marissa King On Feeling Good About Networking
Monday, January 18, 2021 • Duration 48:23
For most of us, networking is a topic that brings up a lot of strong feelings. And most of those feelings aren't all that positive.
Ultimately, we know we should network. But just thinking about it can make us uncomfortable. In fact, research shows that many of us associate networking with something dirty. On top of that, we feel guilty for not devoting more time to it.
That's why I wanted to interview Marissa King. Author of the book, Social Chemistry: Decoding the Elements of Human Connection, Marissa is Professor of Organizational Behavior at Yale School of Management and an expert on social networks.
Marissa's take on networking is refreshing because she emphasizes the relational aspect. She also provides tools for gauging how we network, so that we can easily see how well our approach is working.
Her discussion of networking and her strategies for how to reframe it more positively help us to walk away without feeling icky. At the same time, her tips inspire us to tend to our professional network the way we would our personal one.
If you're looking for a fresh take on networking, I think you'll enjoy hearing what Marissa has to say.
Episode Links
Shout-out to Heather Cox Richardson for her Letters from an American
Professional Networking Makes People Feel Dirty by Carmen Nobel
Do People Mix at Mixers? by Paul Ingram and Michael W. Morris
Marissa King's site for assessing your networking approach as convener, broker, or expansionist
Self-monitoring
How to Build a Better Social Network and the work of Ronald Burt
Why Do People Gossip? by Sophia Gottfried and the work of Robin Dunbar
Yo-Yo Ma and Silkroad
Homophily
Heidi Roizen
Curious Minds at Work Team
You can learn more about creator and host, Gayle Allen, and producer and editor, Rob Mancabelli, here.
Support Curious Minds at Work
If you're a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to show your support:
Rate and review on iTunes or wherever you subscribe.
Tell a friend, colleague, or family member about the show.
Subscribe so you never miss an episode.
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CM 178: Catherine Sanderson on the Bystander Effect
Monday, January 4, 2021 • Duration 42:08
When challenging situations arise, how do we make the shift from bystander to helper? What are the factors that determine whether or not we take action? And what if helping means disobeying an authority figure?
These are the kinds of questions that made me want to read Catherine Sanderson's latest book, Why We Act: Turning Bystanders into Moral Rebels, and to interview her on the show.
In particular, her discussion of the Milgram Shock Experiment, a study that's always fascinated me, got me thinking more deeply about those pivotal moments when we decide whether or not we're going to speak up or step in, rather than stand by.
For some background, the Milgram Shock Experiment was first conducted in the 1960s by Stanley Milgram, a psychology professor at Yale. He wanted to find out how far people would go in obeying an authority figure when their obedience knowingly caused harm to another person.
In the study, participants delivered an electric shock to a subject they couldn't see. The voltage increased with every wrong answer given. If they refused to administer the shock, a member of the research team - the authority figure - responded with one of four scripted statements.
The electric shocks weren't real, but the participant in the study didn't know that. If they refused to administer the shock, the authority figure would recite one of the four scripted statements, for example, "The experiment requires that you continue," or "You have not other choice but to continue."
Aside from statements like these, the authority figure never forced participants to deliver the shocks. Yet every participant did. Not one refused. Even when the person receiving the shocks sounded out in pain with moans, shouts, even pleas to stop, the participants kept going.
What Catherine talks about in her book, though, are the many participants who wanted to stop. The ones who communicated, at some point along the way, that they didn't want to continue. That's the moment I'm curious about. What would it have taken for them to disobey authority? And what would I have done in that same situation?
Catherine is a professor at Amherst College. She's studied what neuroscientists and psychologists have learned about why we stand by and why we speak up. She's also studied what leaders can do to make it safer for people to speak up, which training programs work best for teaching these skills, and what drives the brave souls who always speak up.
Episode Links
This week's shout-out goes to Emily Levesque, author of the book, The Last Stargazers
Bystander effect
Young Children Show the Bystander Effect in Helping Situations
Social loafing
Kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart
The Pain of Social Rejection
KiVa anti-bullying program
Curious Minds Team
You can learn more about creator and host, Gayle Allen, and producer and editor, Rob Mancabelli, here.
Support Curious Minds
If you're a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to support our work:
Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe.
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CM 177: Julie Shah on the Future of Robots
Monday, December 21, 2020 • Duration 43:10
What will the world look like when we're living and working with robots every day?
Robots work on assembly lines. They zoom around warehouses. And they even fly planes. Most of us aren't surprised to hear these stories anymore. But how will we work with robots when they're driving our cars or delivering our food?
When millions of robots populate our sidewalks, offices, and residential buildings - when they move beyond the factory floor - we'll need to learn how to interact with them, even teach them. Julie Shah, co-author of the book, What to Expect When You're Expecting Robots: The Future of Human-Robot Collaboration, believes we'll need to tap into our ability to create, problem solve, and learn from experience, in order to "transfer those insights to machines and integrate machines into our work and our everyday lives."
She also believes we'll need to think differently about how we design robots and how we gather and share robot data. In particular, she argues that industry and government will need to work more closely together so they can share information on robot performance. This information will help us make rapid improvements, so we can integrate robots more quickly and safely into society. She explains, "The capability of these systems is so dependent on the data used to train them. Being able to share learnings across companies and across an industry is equally important."
Julie Shah is a roboticist who directs the Interactive Robotics Group at MIT, where she is also the associate dean of social and ethic responsibilities of computing.
Episode Links
Inner Workings: Can Robots Make Good Teammates? by Carolyn Beans
Integrating Robots into Team-Oriented Environments by Julie Shah
Don Norman
Three-body problem
You Look Like a Thing and I Love You by Janelle Shane
Affordance
Aviation Safety Reporting System - NASA
MIT Schwarzman College of Computing
Julie Shah's co-author Laura Major
Curious Minds Team
You can learn about creator and host, Gayle Allen, and producer and editor, Rob Mancabelli, here.
Support Curious Minds
If you're a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to support our work:
Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe.
Tell a friend or family member about the show.
Subscribe so you never miss an episode.
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CM 176: Eugenia Cheng on Rethinking Gender
Monday, December 7, 2020 • Duration 53:20
What if mathematics could help us rethink gender equality by questioning how society is structured?
Women are often told that, to succeed, they need to be more. More competitive. More confident. Even more resilient. In other words, women need to fit themselves into environments created mostly by men.
But Eugenia Cheng, author of the book, x + y: A Mathematician's Manifesto for Rethinking Gender, argues that it's not about what women lack but about how society operates. For her, the question is not, "society is like this, how can women become more successful in it?" Instead, it's about asking "why is society like this in the first place?"
Eugenia rejects associating certain traits with traditional, binary gender roles. For example, she doesn't think it's helpful to think of men as more competitive or women as more caring. She disagrees with the notion that there's only one way to achieve success, such as the myth of the resilient individual achiever who's unaffected by criticism. Instead, she argues that we're stronger and more resilient when we "build networks of people to help support [us], rather than just having to be strong all by [ourselves]."
Eugenia Cheng is Scientist in Residence at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and honorary visiting fellow at City University of London. Her previous books include, How to Bake Pi, Beyond Infinity, and The Art of Logic.
Episode Links
Higher-dimensional algebra
Mean, median, mode
Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez
No Contest by Alfie Kohn
Equity: A Mathematician Shares Her Solution by Jory Lerback
Curious Minds Team
You can learn more about creator and host, Gayle Allen, and producer and editor, Rob Mancabelli, here.
Support Curious Minds
If you're a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to support our work:
Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe.
Tell a friend or family member about the show.
Subscribe so you never miss an episode.
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CM 175: Roger Martin on the Efficiency Myth
Monday, November 23, 2020 • Duration 49:29
What's driven our relentless obsession with economic efficiency and who are its winners and losers?
For much of the twentieth century, the U.S. economy benefited most individuals and families, no matter their social class. In recent decades, that's not been the case.
Roger Martin examines this shift in his latest book, When More is Not Better: Overcoming America's Obsession with Economic Efficiency. He shares data indicating that, while the wealthy continue to prosper, the average American family does not.
While Roger is concerned with what lies ahead for these families, he is equally concerned about the future of the U.S. economic system. He says, "What set off the project behind this book is that the median family, who is also the swing voter, is going to give up on capitalism as the system it wants to have run this country."
Professor of Strategic Management, Emeritus, at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, Roger previously served as Dean and Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute. In addition, he's published eleven books, written numerous articles for Harvard Business Review, and has been named the number one management thinker by Thinkers50.
Based on his extensive research and his work with hundreds of companies, Roger believes organizational leaders can change things for the better. In this interview, he shares examples of how companies, like Southwest Airlines, have done just that.
At the same time, Roger discusses how our longstanding model of the U.S. economy as machine got us here. He points out, "It's kind of an accident. We've done some things based on models we thought were good that have gotten us in places we don't like at all."
Episode Links
Why Information Grows by Cesar Hidalgo
The Persona Project
Wassily Leontief
Pareto Distribution
David Ricardo and comparative advantage
Cristiano Rinaldo
Curious Minds Team
You can learn more about creator and host, Gayle Allen, and producer and editor, Rob Mancabelli, here.
Support Curious Minds
If you're a fan of the show, here are three simple things you can do to support our work:
Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe.
Tell a friend or family member about the show.
Subscribe so you never miss an episode.
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