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Networking, negotiating, communicating, leading, career planning—all skills critical to your career success. But did anyone ever teach you these skills? Mark Herschberg, author and instructor at MIT, joins Maureen to discuss his book The Career Toolkit: Essential Skills for Success That No One Taught You. He will share practical ideas from his book and his thoughts on leadership that will help you master these vital skills.

BCI’s Distinguished Sales Leader Series: This is part 2 featuring Marcela Pineros and Joe DiDonato. They joined the show to focus on the shift to using data science to drive our decisions in the areas of hiring, training, coaching, and onboarding and to share how data can help pinpoint areas that need to be addressed at a more granular level, and how that shift in thinking can help you raise your sales team’s revenue and profit contributions in a drastically shorter period of time.

Customers today expect the brands they deal with to deliver outstanding and seamless digital experiences. If your brand is failing to thrive, you need to take what is core to your value proposition and adapt it, perhaps significantly, for a world filled with customers who have digital at the center of their lifestyle. Howard Tiersky joins Maureen to discuss his experiences in assisting large organizations in winning digital customers.

AnneMarie Hayek joins Maureen to share about her new book, Generation We. In this book, she joins forces with thousands of Zs to tell their powerful story—one that impacts all of us. From new ideas on capitalism, politics, and climate change to education, gender, race, and work, AnneMarie explains how Gen Z thinks, what they envision, and why we should be hopeful. Zs are not naïve idealists. They’re hardened realists with a bold vision for how we can transition, re-create, and progress. Generation We is your invitation to see the future they will create as it’s unfolding.

In today’s episode of BCI’s Distinguished Sales Leader Series, we’re going to focus on the shift to using data science to drive our decisions in the areas of hiring, training, coaching, and onboarding. Marcela Pineros and Joe DiDonato join the show today to share how data can help pinpoint areas that need to be addressed at a more granular level, and how that shift in thinking can help you raise your sales team’s revenue and profit contributions in a drastically shorter period of time.

You have a Yes! that aligns your purpose and unique contributions with the impact you can generate and the experience you can have, which is yours to choose. Your Yes! always generates net-positive value and your No! always generates net-negative value—your choice. Jim Ritchie-Dunham joins Maureen to explain the science behind our Yes!

In the past, to move up the corporate ladder and succeed at the top, you simply had to set goals, motivate the troops, delegate to underlings, and groom a successor. Now, if they are leading a team chances are that they are managing a kaleidoscope of people from a variety of cultures, across a range of ages, all of whom are wired together 24/7. These changing demographics and structures have led to a seismic shift in terms of the tools needed to successfully manage and grow within a company: charisma and strategic thinking abilities now matter less than qualities such as vulnerability and relatability. Jeffrey Hull joins the show to discuss the research he has done on the art and science of leadership in a changing world that is featured in his book, Flex.

The COVID pandemic crushed sales for many businesses...but not at AVI Systems. When building a world-class sales team, an organization needs to implement a formal sales process proven to improve sales performance. This formal sales process is like the back office for sales. Joe DiDonato (BCI) and Don Mastro (AVI Systems) join host Maureen Metcalf to discuss their experiences, as well as the case study they wrote about what Don did to get his AVI Systems team through the pandemic -- and then skyrocket sales. This is part 2 of a 2-part series.

Sophisticated assessments, data, and software are giving CEOs and managers within any organization or industry detailed insights into human behavior. As CEO of The Predictive Index, Mike Zani has witnessed firsthand how the application of data and science can impact, and completely change, the way we function in our professional lives. In his new book, THE SCIENCE OF DREAM TEAMS: How Talent Optimization Can Drive Engagement, Productivity, and Happiness, Zani details a data-driven approach to talent strategy that makes hiring, motivating, and managing people more efficient and effective than ever. Mike joins the show to share his research on how to build a dream team.

The COVID pandemic crushed sales for many businesses...but not at AVI Systems. When building a world-class sales team, an organization needs to implement a formal sales process proven to improve sales performance. This formal sales process is like the back office for sales. Joe DiDonato (BCI) and Don Mastro (AVI Systems) join host Maureen Metcalf to discuss their experiences, as well as the case study they wrote about what Don did to get his AVI Systems team through the pandemic -- and then skyrocket sales.

Conversations about meaning and purpose at work are very old and very new. Spirituality proves a lens for those discussions. Workplace spirituality helps us understand issues such as fulfillment, engagement, purpose, leadership, and more. However, it also increases worries about values conflicts and how well organizations handle that. Paul Gibbons joins me today to discuss the spirituality of work and leadership for leaders and organizations.

As the second part of this interview, the discussion with Allison Duquette of CampusLogic and Joe DiDonato of Baker Communication continues with Maureen, going deeper into the ways Allison integrated assessments in both her current sales team, selection of sales managers, and new hires. Assessment tools boost the efficacy of hiring the right candidate for the job...yet most managers still hire by gut feeling. That’s a mistake Allison overcame, and in so doing, learned assessments can make the difference between firing someone, and figuring out where they can thrive.

To be competitive in business over the next decade, it will not only be necessary to optimize the body for physical and mental health purposes, but it will additionally be necessary to ensure that cognitive optimization is also a major focus. The human today is simply not equipped to handle the deluge of data that is coming nor the constant upskilling requirements that are inevitable. Dr. JJ Walcutt joins Maureen to share about Accelerate, a program that gets businesses starting on the right track toward building a culture of brain health, growth, and effectiveness.

Assessments can provide fresh insights into the strengths of your top sales performers -- and ways to build those strengths in the rest of your team. Joe DiDonato of Baker Communications Inc. and Allison Duquette of CampusLogic discuss with Maureen the real-world use of assessment tools with the sales team...along with the refreshing surprises encountered along the way! This is the debut of a special sales-team-focused miniseries, the Distinguished Sales Leader, co-produced by the Innovative Leadership Institute and Baker Communications Incorporated.

Change is now a constant in all organizations. Is there a way to make it easier? Jake Jacobs joins the show to discuss his new book and how leaders can use the concept of leverage to achieve faster, easier, better results related to all change work they are doing in their organizations -- at the individual, team, or organizational levels. He will share practical actions leaders can take to achieve these much sought-after, but seldom accomplished goals.

The leadership journey can be a challenging one with unseen challenges that ruin reputations. Skilled people can be left wondering what went wrong if they don’t have effective sponsorship. These challenges are even more pronounced for underrepresented people in leadership roles. Ricky Robinson and Keith Powell of C-Certs will talk about the importance of having a sponsor and of being sponsor-ready.

In The Self Help Book: 6 Practical Ways to Never Stop Growing, author and coach Jared Graybeal outlines six practical ways to live a life of constant growth while avoiding stagnation or burnout. Confidence. Competence. Clarity. Character. Connections. Commitment. This short, insightful guide is filled with inspiration and encouragement and is designed to give you the perspective you’re looking for, no matter what’s going on in your life. Jared joins the show to discuss his new book and how listeners can begin to be reenergized to never stop growing.

Emerging Industries often lend a new twist on businesses, they allow the opportunity to relook at old practices and can lead to innovation in the business sector. James joins the show to discuss his recent venture into an emerging industry and how looking at an emerging industry can provide new challenges as well as possibilities in new solutions.

Several of the Innovative Leadership Institute’s certified facilitators joined the show to share how they have taken the concepts that they learned from a 9-month program and applied them to their business functions. Tom Grote and Christoph Hinske joined Maureen to discuss how they have extended the program content and built a values-based systems mapping that helped shape both of their professional and personal journeys.

We see lots of articles on the future of work but little about the future of leadership. As work changes, leadership must also change to ensure organizations can meet their objectives. It is essential for leaders to innovate how they lead to keep pace, but what does that mean? Greg Moran joins the show to explore the changes leaders need to make in how they think about and perform the essential work of leadership.