DesuckifyWork®

You know who’s a good example for us at work? Jesus. Yes, that Jesus. It doesn’t matter if you’re Christian or a believer of any kind. Jesus wore his heart on his sleeve—and that’s something we need to do more of at work. But wait, aren’t we supposed to check out emotions at the office door? Isn’t being emotional a liability as a leader? Well, the guy who inspired the world’s largest religion may...

“More balls than most.” Those are the big, bold, embossed words on the black box Tom Hicks received from his grandmother. This was several years ago, when he was having some challenges in his life. Inside the box was a 3 ball juggling kit, which included a pamphlet titled, “A Short Course in Life Enhancement.” Okay. You had me at balls. Now I’m really curious. How in the world does juggling enhanc...

“Jobs are just a silly phase work is going through.”This is a quote from Rishad Tobaccowala , this week’s guest on the DesuckifyWork® podcast. I love the quote—because it reframes what we’re all experiencing right now in a provocative way. Work and jobs are uncoupling—the stable nine to five is becoming a hodgepodge of freelance, gig work and side hustles. It’s how we work now and the trend is acc...

Jamie Gutfreund came on the show a few months back and said she would like to get rid of HR entirely. I get it. Everyone has had experiences with HR that’ve been less than stellar. Today, I speak with someone who brings a different POV. Philip Suba has worked in HR for years and believes in it, deeply. But it has to be done right. What does right look like? You need to really understand the busine...

What song reminds you of 6th grade? Which one makes you feel invincible? What song got you through a hard breakup? Which one do you play after a miserable day at work? These are the questions Shaka Mitchell asks in his Come Together Music Project . It’s helped people with opposing political views have a civil conversation about hard topics like immigration, abortion and racism. Surely it can help...

Today is my birthday. The big 5-6. Not a particularly interesting age but I’m grateful for every turn around the sun. To celebrate the day, I’m sharing a clip from a recent guest appearance on Regina Larko ‘s amazing Lead With Your Voice podcast. Regina is a wonderfully empathetic and encouraging podcast coach who helped me find my voice when I started my show a few years back. And she is a genero...

If you run a company, work culture isn’t a part of your job. It is your job. Everything else, performance, profit, innovation, execution, is downstream from the culture you intentionally create every day. It’s a hard job. But it’s the one you signed up for. What grade would you give yourself? What do you think your team would say? I spoke with Kyle Johnston , Jacky Northgrave and Kianna Miller fro...

Humans are a messy species. And that’s awesome. Every drop of joy, meaning, purpose, love, hope and creativity comes from that messiness. AI creates slop. We’re sloppy, which leads to works of genius. So what kind of work do we want to be doing? That’s the question Steve Chavez and I dig into during this week’s DesuckifyWork® podcast. Steve is the Chief Creative Officer at Buntin , an ad agency in...

Can we talk? I feel like we can’t, actually. At least not at work. We can make word noises out of our faces but most of it is overly polite, passive aggressive, aggressive/aggressive, or corporate gobbledegook. It’s ridiculous, really. Yet another way our workplaces are distinctly not human. That’s why I brought Michael Lee onto this week’s DesuckifyWork® podcast. He’s all about making work more p...

Work sucks less when trust is more than just a word on a company website. Trust is at an all time low—from corporations to government to media—our faith in our foundational institutions is flimsier than ever. Add AI to the mix and it’s a wonder we believe anything, ever. We expect people to just show up at work and functional normally in the face of all this? It’s crazy. And if you look around and...

Work sucks less when talking about mental health becomes as boring as talking about going to the dentist. When it’s just another thing. Like that show everyone’s watching. The game last night. Or that new laundry detergent that really does make your whites 20 percent whiter. When it’s fully normalized and casualized. That’s what Paul MacFarlane wants. A return guest on the DesuckifyWork® Podcast,...

Work sucks less when we realize unity does not require uniformity. A cohesive culture means everything at work. But it doesn’t mean everyone needs to show up in the same way. In fact, it’s way better when we don’t. A shared mission? Yes. And the only way to achieve it is if you invite everyone to bring the stuff that makes them interesting to the table. Neil Ghosh has made it his mission to help m...

How often do you feel like an actual human being at work? LIke someone who is valued, seen, appreciated and respected. Like a full 3-D person with emotions, quirks, brilliance, cofusion, crankiness and all the other stuff that makes us, us. My guess is not often enough. Workplaces are often the most inhuman places we experience in our lives. Because somehow we got the idea that this is the way to...

Quick, picture an org chart. Blocks filled with names and lines drawn from the top execs all the way down to the most junior team members. Now imagine flipping that chart on its head. CEO at the bottom, supporting everyone above them. Feels a lot better, right? This is the world Joe Palm and Mike Moss would like to create. And they’ve written a book to help make it happen— Practical Servant Leader...

Is being a TSA agent your dream job? Probably not, especially right now. But imagine being that agent and doing everything in your power to make every moment fun and joyful. You’re energetic, playful, cracking jokes and generally making a normally agonizing experience more pleasant and fun. Now imagine your boss comes over and rips you a new one for daring to have fun on the job. Suddenly your who...

The problem: The attention (addiction) economy is killing us. The way to solve it: Moving to a trust-based economy The world we could be creating: One where it doesn’t feel like we’re slaves to a system nobody actually wants How we can create it: 🐱 Step away from the algorithm once in a while🐱 Notice things, wonder, be curious🐱 Give attention instead of demanding it🐱 Shift from coercive funnel...

The world is on fire. AI is coming to replace all of us. Trust is at an all time low. Good news? That’s the premise of a new book co-written by James Patterson (yes, that James Patterson) and Patrick Leddin , today’s guest on the DesuckifyWork® podcast. The book is called Disrupt Everything and Win . And it’s basically a how to manual for the wacky world we’re living in right now. It starts with t...

If you were designing a workplace, would it look like the one you’re in now? Stop laughing. Okay, now that we’ve calmed down, what’s your answer? How would you set up your teams? How would the work flow, ideally? What kinds of training (remember training?) and learning opportunities would be provided? Put simply, what would the user experience look like? This is the question David Greene is answer...

The conversation was so nice we had to have it twice. It took two recording sessions for Sheri Zevenbergen and I to nail down this week’s DesuckifyWork® podcast episode. Thanks to some technical difficulties. But it was so worth it. Sheri is coach, podcast host and delightful bundle of energy and insight. With a clear vision for how we can live a life that matters. It’s all about the dash. You kno...

People suck sometimes. All of us. Especially at work. Our humanity narrows. We turn into strange creatures who speak in acronyms, buzzwords and status updates. And we wonder why it’s all so hard. We made it that way. And we can unmake it. By becoming more relatable. Rachel DeAlto —author, speaker and former relationship expert on “Married at First Sight”—wrote a whole book about it. Two, actually....

A company that makes, installs and maintains piping systems in some of the hottest and most challenging environments in the world has created a work culture that should inspire any of us who work in less hazardous spaces. I spoke with Andrew Goodwin, president of Professional Piping Systems on this week’s DesuckifyWork® podcast. People love working for this company. Retention is high, career growt...

Who are you on your best day? What about your worst? Be honest. Brad Farris , engineer turned leadership coach, took me through this exercise on this week’s DesuckifyWork® podcast. And it’s pretty wild. Here are my results: Best Day: CuriousLovingEnergeticCompassionate Worst Day: Closed MindedStubbornCrankyShut Down What’s fascinating is how much the two sides relate to each other. curious vs. clo...

The idea that corporate jobs aren’t physically taxing is a myth. In many cases they are literally killing us. In almost all, they are taking an often invisible toll on our bodies, creating illness and injury through repeated assaults on our nervous systems. Ridiculous timelines, insane expectations, ever-changing market pressures, unstable economic forces. It’s a lot. “Hey, at least I’m not out th...

Don’t get status reports from your team. Get soul reports. That’s the takeaway from this week’s DesuckifyWork podcast with Carin Knoop . Carin is a wonderful writer and the Executive Director of the Case Research & Writing Group at Harvard Business School. We talked about the importance of mental health at work and how managers and leaders need a whole new set of skills to deal with the issues so...

Be careful what you wish for. You may aspire to an executive job, maybe even the C-suite. And there’s certainly a lot of good that can come with that kind of role. But it ain’t all sunshine and roses. That’s certainly been the experience for Erica Rooney , this week’s guest on the DesuckifyWork® Podcast. Erica is an author, speaker, coach and fractional CPO who spent years climbing the corporate l...