Modern Mentor

917. Lots of teams have quietly stopped being teams. They're capable people sprinting in their own directions, connected by a reporting line and little else. Rachel Cooke explains why that fragmentation is lonely for people and expensive for the organization, and offers four ways to put the team back together: a shared winning aspiration, forums for deciding together, smarter use of one-on-one...

916. Getting better at AI isn't a technology problem. It's a work design problem. Drawing on a corporate "digital transformation" that never quite landed, Rachel Cooke explains why skill without structure has nothing to hold onto. She then walks through four questions that build that structure: what you're trying to win, whether your tools and guardrails match your expectatio...

915. Your team missed the deadline, and the reasons are starting to sound like excuses. The instinct is to push harder: tighter check-ins, a firmer performance conversation, more pressure applied in the same direction. But the fastest move and the most useful move are rarely the same one. In this episode, Rachel Cooke walks through five self-directed questions she uses with coaching clients whose...

914. How do you get ready for your year-end review? And should you be starting now? Most of us reduce our professional story to the obvious stuff – titles, job descriptions, the big projects – and lose the truest evidence of how we actually work. Borrowing a page from college-admissions expert Sara Harberson, Rachel walks through five moves to uncover your fuller professional story, with enough ti...

913. When something's broken at work, we reach for the big fix — the reorg, the new tool, the strategy overhaul. But ask people to describe their perfect coffee and they'll say rich, dark, bold. Put a cup in front of them and they reach for weak and milky. Rachel Cooke applies that same gap to work, where what's holding you back usually isn't strategy. It's the thousand small snags you've stopped...

 912. Your boss used to have answers. Now they've got questions. It feels destabilizing - but Rachel makes the case that this is the opening of a lifetime. When certainty disappears, the old rules about who has the answers go with it. Four bold moves for a moment that's wide open. Modern Mentor is a Quick and Dirty Tips Podcast , hosted by Rachel Cooke! Find more from Rachel at LeadAboveNoise...

911. You can spend an entire day on video calls and still not have one real conversation. The connection that used to come free with the office doesn't come free anymore. After a trip to California wine country, Rachel Cooke found herself fixated less on the wine than on the village each winery had built around itself, and on what that says about connection in a remote, global, AI-driven workplace...

910. What do you do when there's no template for the career you want, no obvious next step, and no one waiting to hand you the opportunity? Comedian, actor, and writer Billy Eichner built his entire career by refusing to wait to be chosen. In this conversation, he and Rachel Cooke get into how you bet on yourself when the path doesn't exist yet, how to keep going through constant rejection without...

909. Your strategy is sound. Your people are talented. Everyone's working harder than ever. So why aren't the results showing up? Rachel makes the case that when work breaks down, we inspect the people when we should be inspecting the work - and shares four questions that reveal the hidden friction quietly taxing your team. Modern Mentor is a Quick and Dirty Tips Podcast , hosted by Rachel Cooke!...

On a road trip, tackling a summer cleanup, or just catching up on podcasts? QDT has you covered with Summer Saturday encores from your favorite shows. See the full Summer Saturday lineup on Spotify and enjoy this episode, which first aired in September 2020. Episode 616 - Burnout is more than just a feeling—untamed, it can pose a real medical risk. Dr. Greg Hammer, an intensive care physician, Sta...

697. We get a lot of mixed messaging when it comes to managing the tension between speed and efficiency. We need to be sure—to have the data, to have done the research and the analysis before deciding or implementing. But also, we need to be agile, move quickly, test-and-learn, and not fall into analysis-paralysis. How do we find the middle ground? Modern Mentor is a Quick and Dirty Tips Podcast ,...

On a road trip, tackling a summer cleanup, or just catching up on podcasts? QDT has you covered with Summer Saturday encores from your favorite shows. See the full Summer Saturday lineup on Spotify and enjoy this episode, which first aired in February 2020. Episode 582 : Saying "no" is actually makes you more successful at work. These essential strategies will help you set workplace boundaries wit...

909. Blake Mycoskie built TOMS into a $600 million brand and gave away more than 100 million pairs of shoes — then fell into a seven-year battle with clinical depression after selling the company. He talks with Rachel Cooke about why outward success never made him feel like enough , the limiting belief that drove him for decades, and the small, everyday practices — not the dramatic interventions —...

On a road trip, tackling a summer cleanup, or just catching up on podcasts? QDT has you covered with Summer Saturday encores from your favorite shows. See the full Summer Saturday lineup on Spotify and enjoy this episode, which first aired in April 2020. Episode 594: In times of crisis, negative thoughts lurk around every corner. Use these techniques to rediscover your optimism and bump up your pr...

907. When should your team reflect on what went wrong, and when should you just move on? Rachel Cooke uses Ted Lasso's "be a goldfish" mantra to unpack the balance between looking back and looking ahead, then shares five questions—three that mine the past, two that aim at the future—to help your team do both intentionally.  Modern Mentor is a Quick and Dirty Tips Podcast , hosted by Rachel Co...

On a road trip, tackling a summer cleanup, or just catching up on podcasts? QDT has you covered with Summer Saturday encores from your favorite shows. See the full Summer Saturday lineup on Spotify and enjoy this episode, which first aired in Jne 2021. Episode 654: Greg McKeown, bestselling author of Essentialism and Effortless , joins the Modern Mentor podcast to share his wisdom on making things...

906. Leaders are frustrated that teams aren't delivering. Teams are exhausted and hitting walls. And the instinct is to pull harder. But the real work is finding the knots leadership has inadvertently tied, and undoing them one at a time. In this episode, Rachel talks about the unsexy work that actually unlocks speed. Modern Mentor is a Quick and Dirty Tips Podcast , hosted by Rachel Cooke! Find m...

Summer Saturdays: Best of QDT Encore Episode : This episode originally aired January 2020. 581. Running all-out all the time is the sure path to burnout. Productivity happens when you know how to use your energy wisely. Modern Mentor is a Quick and Dirty Tips Podcast , hosted by Rachel Cooke! Have a question for Modern Mentor? Email: modernmentor@quickanddirtytips.com   Discover more from Mod...

905. Everyone's maxxing something now. Their sleep, their skin, their fiber, even their jawline. But underneath the ring lights, each of these trends is quietly teaching a real principle about getting better at something. This week, Rachel Cooke builds the trend nobody's named yet, successmaxxing, by stealing the smartest lesson from five maxxing trends and pointing it straight at your career. Mod...

904. Most of us define productivity as doing more, faster — but when budgets shrink and the path forward gets murky, speed turns into a liability. Rachel shares five ways to boost your productivity during uncertain times, including how to make faster decisions, avoid duplicating work your team's already doing, and judge your choices by your process instead of the outcome — a trap that poker pro an...

903. Most teams have mastered pushing hard. Some are even getting better at rest. But there's a third thing — the active recovery phase — that almost no one is protecting time for, and it's the one that turns raw effort into real capability. Rachel introduces the Breathing Room: a standing block on the calendar built not for output, but for reflection, after-action reviews, and solving hard proble...

902. We already know what's slowing us down at work — too many priorities, meetings that go nowhere, no space to experiment, and processes that create drag on everything. So why aren't we fixing any of it? Rachel breaks down why we stay frozen on problems we could actually solve, and how to find the one move between all and nothing that finally gets things moving.  Modern Mentor is a Quick an...

Can small habit changes really lead to a more productive, focused, and happy life? They can! Author and podcaster Jeff Sanders's shares his secrets to forming habits that lead to success. Encore Episode: Episode 598 originally aired May 2020 Modern Mentor is a Quick and Dirty Tips Podcast , hosted by Rachel Cooke! Have a question for Modern Mentor? Email: modernmentor@quickanddirtytips.com  ...

901. Three challenges showing up in organizations everywhere right now. Rachel shares what she's hearing, what she's designing, and what's actually helping teams move. Modern Mentor is a Quick and Dirty Tips Podcast , hosted by Rachel Cooke! Find more from Rachel at LeadAboveNoise.com . Have a question for Modern Mentor? Email: modernmentor@quickanddirtytips.com   Discover more from Modern Me...

Not every job is a perfect fit, but that doesn't mean you can't love the one you're with. Your job can be a whole lot more than just a means to a paycheck. Encore Episode: This episode originally aired in February of 2020. Check out all the Quick and Dirty Tips shows: www.quickanddirtytips.com/podcasts JOIN THE CONVERSATION: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/modern-mentor-podcast/ Newslet...