Inside Job

"I don't want to be a jerk, but …" This is a phrase we've said both at work and in our personal lives. At this point, it's become a default phrase in our vocabularies, and we're guessing the same goes for you. On the Inside Job podcast this week, we're diving into why we call ourselves a jerk for doing things that really aren't that bad, whether or not we're actually being a jerk when we stand up...

Eric Johnson, Nayla BahriShould we really leave our emotions at the door? The inspiration for this week's episode comes from one of Nayla's clients who feels angry and frustrated after a recent merger and feels like she can't take those emotions into the workplace. At the end of the day, work is personal. So, we want to take a deep dive into the topic of sharing your feelings at work in case you'v...

Is a lack of clarity costing you dearly? This week's topic is one of Eric's favorites. It's something that's been brought up a fair amount on the podcast while discussing other things, but we want to make it the focal point now. Specifically, we want to dig into what we mean by clarity, how to generate better clarity for yourself and others, and what might be the obstacle to asking for or offering...

A "hostile" chat about dried fruit kicks off our episode this week and leads us into a conversation about difficult discussions. We know from our experiences with our coaching clients, that many of you are likely either avoiding having a difficult conversation or are unsure how to go about having the conversation. We want to help you overcome whatever is holding you back from finally having that d...

What do you do when your new hire seems like a perfect fit during the hiring process but it's clear it's not working out when they get into the role? Or, you put all your eggs into the career track basket you thought would get you promoted, but you find yourself plateauing? Or, you've invested significant resources into launching a new product and the reception is underwhelming? We all like to thi...

Horror movie franchises, Florida State University's 2024 football season, and prioritization might seem like they have nothing in common, but the connection leads us into our discussion this week about how to feel okay if you find your priorities changing. When we set long-term career goals for ourselves, we might find that our priorities have changed by the time we see those realized. Do you owe...

Are you lazy if you don't hustle? Are you going to burn out more quickly or easily if you do try to hustle? Ask any seasoned professional what they think of their younger counterparts and you'll almost certainly hear about how they don't work as hard or put in as much effort as people used to. Do a Google search for the word "hustle" and you'll see item after item talking about how hustle culture...

Was your career path your choice or someone else's? If it wasn't entirely your choice, is it too late to change things? Even though this episode is being released in September, we recorded it while the Olympics were still going, and we think the athletes participating in the games are a great example of our topic for this episode. They personify exactly what can happen when you ignore the other vo...

Welcome back to the Inside Job podcast! After taking our first break in four years of doing this podcast, we're feeling equal parts rusty and excited to get back into the swing of things. And we're grateful you're here with us to experience both. Part of the reason we decided to take that break was the feeling of burnout we were reaching. Now that we've been away for two and a half months, we want...

Summer is around the corner and that brings us to an announcement relating to the podcast. Take a listen to this quick episode to find out why we're taking a break after not missing a week in over four years, what we'll be doing over the coming months, what we hope you can learn from our break, how you can stay in touch with us, and when you can expect to get new episodes of the podcast. Listen in...

In one of our recent debriefs of how things are going with our coaching practices, we realized at least two sessions in the span of one week focused on the theme of it's not me, it's you when it comes to our clients dealing with the leadership teams at their organizations. We've all thought someone else was responsible for things going wrong, negative feedback we've received, deadlines getting mis...

Even though we only just met our guest for the first time a few weeks ago, we've quickly discovered we have a lot in common and knew we just had to have him join us on the podcast. Jeff Wetzler has been on a quarter-century quest to transform learning opportunities. Blending a unique set of leadership experiences in the fields of business and education, he's pursued this quest as a management cons...

Have you ever thought to yourself, "This job would be so much better if it weren't for the people?" When one of Eric's clients jokingly said this in a recent discussion, they shared a laugh about it. However, Eric later realized it's not only something he hears often from his clients, but something he's also said himself in the past. We thought it would be a good idea to dig deeper into this senti...

We're delighted today to be joined by a guest who is going to help demystify the world of executive search and recruiting. This is an area that we hear from you guys about with questions all the time, and it's an area that we honestly feel we could use a little more education in as well. Tory Clarke is a Founder and Managing Partner of Bridge Partners, a retained executive search firm. UK-born Tor...

Is it possible to change someone's perspective of you? If so, how do you do it? Nayla's recently had conversations with several clients about changing other people's perceptions of us and we've realized this comes up a lot in our coaching practices so it's time we covered it on the show. Nayla even gets vulnerable and shares an example of feedback she received early in her career that she avoided...

We're pleased to be joined today by Lesley Jane Seymour who's going to be talking to us about the concept of reinventing yourself. Lesley has been the Editor-in-Chief of multiple magazines including More, Marie Claire, and Redbook. When her illustrious career in the magazine world came to an end, she was forced to reinvent herself. Lesley has since turned her reinvention story into a company calle...

None of us are immune to feeling angry, but do we express it in a healthy and constructive way that minimizes the negative impact on those we work with? A recent experience with one of Eric's clients has led to us tackling the topic of anger in the workplace from not just one angle, but two on this week's episode of the podcast. Not only did this client's experience inspire this episode, but it al...

Ever since our conversation last week with Maricella Herrera, we've been talking nonstop amongst ourselves and those around us about what can be learned as a result of making big decisions in our lives; more specifically the decision to quit our job. As part of these conversations, we realized our clients frequently express a fantasy about quitting their jobs. So, today, we want to explore where t...

Nayla's former student and current friend, Maricella Herrera, joins us on the podcast this week to chat about her experience quitting a job and what she's learned interviewing people on her podcast called, Sh*t I Just Quit My Job . Maricella is also a strategy consultant and advisor for mission-driven companies who has more than fifteen years of experience building communities. Lately, she's been...

It's our nature to want to feel irreplaceable and that can bring up some complicated emotions whenever we hear how our former departments or organizations are holding up after we vacate a role. In fact, a recent experience with one of Eric's clients where the workplace fell apart after she was promoted to a new role is what inspired him to suggest this week's topic to Nayla. The realization that N...

We know you'll find this shocking, but Eric has some strong opinions on this week's topic, and it might even lead to a rant or two. A recent meeting with the owner of his son's racing team inspired this episode where we're diving into what you do when you feel like you're not being heard. This is something we've all dealt with in the workplace… likely more than once. So, take a few minutes to list...

In this week's episode of the Inside Job podcast, we're building off an interesting experience Eric had recently with a LinkedIn post where he shared an article about how to get a resume past applicant tracking systems that did not go the way he anticipated. In fact, the response to that post has us both reflecting on what we think it means to be a good professional citizen. If you're wondering th...

The latest Green Day album kicks off our conversation today about expectations. If something fails to meet our expectations, that doesn't always mean we set them too high, we need to lower them in the future, or we need to overcompensate to make easier for others to meet our expectations. What it might mean instead is that we need to change how we think about our expectations and that, of course,...

It's been a little while since we've taken listener questions, but we've received a few here lately that were really good, so we wanted to take the time to answer two of them on the show this week. The first question is something that Nayla recently had some personal experience with when she spent about six weeks helping to care for her ailing mother, and the other question is something we've all...

Do you have ghosts of work past? No, we're not talking about the kind of ghost that comes to you covered in chains and leads you around in your old-timey nightshirt trying to get you to be less of a jerk. Our ghosts are people, events, locations, behaviors, feelings, etc. that we associate with previous jobs or careers that show up for us long after we physically leave them behind. These ghosts of...