CEO Daily Brief with Dr. Jessica Kriegel

In today's episode: Power changes people; it reinforces worth and self-esteem, but most people in corporate jobs begin to identify with the power of their title. Three key points to avoid the power trap: Leadership is about service, not status. Delegate. Leadership means empowering others to take ownership of their work. Listen and remain open-minded. Seek different perspectives and avoid echo cha...

In today's episode: Angry workers are taking their complaints to company website comment sections. Some companies are responding by shutting down the comments. Silencing complains doesn't make them go away; if anything, it just makes make things worse. If employees don't feel heard by their employers, they'll find somebody willing to listen: whether that's media, union organizers, or competitors....

In today's episode from Schwab Network: The above-average December jobs report is a direct reaction to the election. Uncertainty was bad for business. We know what a Trump administration will mean for regulation and markets, so companies can strategize accordingly. It's still a tale of two job markets: the hourly and the salaried. It may be hard to get a job as a marketing executive, but there are...

In today's episode: To succeed in working with different cultures, you have to leave opinions and politics at the door. But nearly everybody wants to move in the right direction--whatever that means for them. Companies coming from the outside a culture can find creative ways to succeed that are appropriate for the culture in question. Culture Leaders Daily is a daily, five-minute podcast for CEOs...

In today's episode: There's been a 2% increase in workforce productivity, which businesses are celebrating. We're going to see that number continue to rise. We're going to continue automating repetitive physical jobs as well as office jobs like advertising and marketing--which means higher unemployment as those jobs are eliminated. Some unions--like the Longshoremen--will use their leverage oppose...

In today's episode: No, Mark Zuckerberg isn't joining the show--but he's removing fact-checking from Facebook. Over time, news has gotten less and less reliable; that makes it easier for people to believe in conspiracies and doubt even stories that are true. People read headlines, not articles. Those headlines and articles are often written by AI these days. All of these are dangerous signs for th...

Dr. Guy Diedrich, Senior Vice President and the Global Innovation Officer at Cisco, shares his story as a key player in global digitization and the future of technology education. He discusses the power of shared vulnerability to build trust across organizations and cultures, the importance of core values in business, and Cisco’s role in bringing people across the globe into the digital age. What...

In today's episode: Trust is "the lubricant of efficient markets." It allows businesses to work together quickly without constantly watching their own backs. Trust is built by shared, symmetric vulnerability. When one side of an agreement shows vulnerability, the other side can build trust with a reciprocal gesture. Cisco's model is to do what it does best--connection-related technology--while tea...

In today's episode: Most generational dynamics are stereotypes, not hard science. No generation has a monopoly on any trait. Our pre-existing beliefs shape our interactions, which often causes us to reinforce our priors. These biases lead to dysfunction in the workplace; they're both unfounded and unproductive. Culture Leaders Daily is a daily, five-minute podcast for CEOs where we dissect the wee...

In today's episode from Merit Street: The next wave of AI--agentic AI--is going to cause job losses, at least in the short term. Adapting to an AI-focused future is crucial. One tactic is to become an expert on how AI can improve your duties and your organization, establishing yourself as valuable to the company. Culture Leaders Daily is a daily, five-minute podcast for CEOs where we dissect the w...

In today's episode from Jessica's appearance on NBC: California Governor Gavin Newsom has announced the state is removing the college degree requirement for 30,000 state jobs--which follows what many private employers are already doing. A college degree signifies that someone got certain grades in certain classes, but employers have begun to realize that most training gets done on-the-job anyway....

In today's episode: Rising childcare costs have a huge impact on single parents in the workforce (80% of whom are women). They're forced to be less flexible in the workplace in order to support family needs, which means a tougher time climbing the corporate ladder. Diverse populations create higher levels of performance. We should be subsidizing childcare to retain the highest level of talent. Man...

In today's episode: After the pandemic hit, 87% of Yelp's employees said they preferred working at home. When offices opened, they were less than 1% occupied. Following the data, the company decided to stay remote-first as a sign of trust in their employees--a trust that goes both ways. We're seeing a lot of return-to-office mandates as we head into 2025, but it's not clear whether the mandates ar...

In today's episode from Jessica's appearance on NBC: The gender wage gap is expanding. That's partly due to discrimination, and partly due to the price of childcare. When companies don't subsidize childcare, it often becomes unaffordable. Women are usually the ones who leave the workforce to take care of their families. Companies that offer greater flexibility and childcare subsidies create divers...

Carmen Amara, Chief People Officer at Yelp, shares her journey into HR, emphasizing the importance of finding purpose in work and creating a people-first culture. She discusses the power of storytelling, Yelp's shift to remote work, and the role of empathy in leadership, and she debunks myths about HR--particularly the misconception that one must choose between profit and people. What is Your Why?...

In today's episode: The world is getting less stable, between wars abroad, the possibilities of tariffs at home, and weird stuff like the drones. World events impact employees. Whether leaders care about employee well-being or pure productivity, action is still necessary. Bottom line: check in on your teams. If you don't listen to your people, somebody else will. Culture Leaders Daily is a daily,...

In today's episode: Change can seem hard, but it can also provide purpose--and that purpose can make the process fun. The science shows that an adaptive leadership mindset is the most effective in the face of change. Strategy is easy to change, but that's often just a few words on a slide. Changing a mindset is a company-wide endeavor, but aligning it with strategy can lead to a huge boost in prof...

In today's episode, some more key workplace trends to watch for 2025, featuring Peter Miscovich at JLL: Digital talent, magnetism and workforce upskilling. The integration of digital and AI technologies at scale. Flexible and high-quality buildings and locations, plus human-centric workplace experiences. The necessity of sustainable, resilient strategies to mitigate the risks of climate change. An...

In today's episode: Steve Pruett identifies "growth cycles" in his career--periods that encompass a structure of "Go, Assess, Identify, and Next" In the Go phase, we build things and cover ground. Then we Assess how we feel, Identify pros and cons, and figure out where we might want to head Next. These cycles aren't hard boundaries--they can happen faster in the early-career phase, and might inclu...

In today's episode: In the era of Big Data, large companies often have a variety of technology systems and data sets that can't speak with each other directly. It falls to smaller, more agile companies to build technologies that integrate and translate between these various systems. The arrangement gives those smaller companies a lot of power; their products are necessary to "unleash" multimillion...

In today's episode from Jessica's appearance on NBC: A new Gallup poll shows half of working women report being stressed a lot of the day, compared to 39% of working men. 42% of working women say their job had a negative impact on their mental health over the last six months. Women face significant pressure to deliver results for work and also shoulder much of the work for raising families. That d...

In today's episode from Jessica's appearance on NBC: Employees are feeling detached from their work at all levels, from the frontline to executive leadership. Part of the problem is systemic, but another problem is widespread below-the-line thinking: playing the blame game instead of taking accountability. Those feeling detached should be asking themselves four questions: What's going on? What abo...

In today's episode, we look at Jessica's 2025 workplace culture trends that you should be paying attention to: Trump Administration Uncertainty. AI-powered empathy. The end of work-from-home. Bye-bye, middle managers. Rebellion against traditional "ping-pong table" culture initiatives. Culture Leaders Daily is a daily, five-minute podcast for CEOs where we dissect the week's biggest news, unpack h...

In today's episode: Executives often fear sharing information with employees for fear of causing panic. Honesty is appreciated, even when it comes with bad news. When hard times cause tough decisions, it helps to know why they're being made. Employees are the ones executing strategic plans. Bringing them into the planning process means more insight. Executives don't need to have the answers; they...

In today's episode: A leader needs to know their own "why"--their fundamental motivation. Is it service? Influence? Impact? This prime mover might change over time, and the act of choosing may actually reinforce it. Like a clear purpose for an organization, a personal prime mover helps leaders make strategic decisions and ignore the noise. Culture Leaders Daily is a daily, five-minute podcast for...