Leading Up: The Work Shift

In our final episode of Leading Up’s sixth season, host Alan Todd passes the mic to Udemy CMO Genefa Murphy. Genefa’s conversation with Ian James, Managing Director of McLaren Electric Racing & Team Principal of NEOM McLaren Formula E & Extreme E Teams, centers around how leaders on and off the racetrack can use ideas from McLaren’s culture of excellence to improve their teams’ performance. Listen...

Stepping into leadership is challenging, particularly at the early stage of a career. And tomorrow’s leaders are stepping into the most generationally diverse workforce in history, and thus stepping into a world with new dynamics and challenges. This week on Leading Up With Udemy, we are revisiting a conversation with Lindsey Pollak. She gives advice on what makes an effective leader, how communic...

Modesty, while a virtue, is sometimes taken too far when it comes to speaking up and promoting yourself at work. Society has conditioned women and people of color, in particular, to underestimate themselves in modesty’s name. This week on Leading Up With Udemy, we are revisiting a conversation with Yvell Stanford. She speaks about teaching people to believe in themselves, advocate for themselves,...

Stanley McChrystal, General (Ret), Chairman, and CEO of McChrystal Group, knows a lot about what it means to transform a group of ordinary people into a highly calibrated, responsive, and skilled team. The former commander of the US Joint Special Operations Command joins host Alan Todd to discuss the importance of skills training and how the principles of military leadership translate to the priva...

Mark Edwards spent over 25 years as the chief music critic for London’s Sunday Times, so he knows how to capture an audience’s attention. And his new book, “Best Story Wins,” is all about using the ideas of storytelling to communicate better in business. He joins host Alan Todd to dig into what makes a good story, and what your favorite movie might have to teach you about getting ahead at work. Le...

Starbucks VP of Learning, Leadership, and Cultural Experiences Brandon Carson has witnessed first-hand how different company cultures impact the way teams work together. From his work at major companies like Walmart, Delta, Home Depot, and now the Seattle-based coffee giant, Carson illustrates his own leadership philosophies of unlocking his team’s potential and coaching them to be their best selv...

Deb Tees, Director of Talent & Organizational Capability for Rotary and Mission Systems at Lockheed Martin, has taken a circuitous route to her current position: she has prioritized lateral moves and learning about the breadth of her organization and industry over simply climbing a corporate ladder. She joins Alan Todd to talk about what she’s learned, and how she’s handled culture and adapting to...

Dr. Genefa Murphy, Chief Marketing Officer at Udemy, hasn’t always been a marketer: she spent time in academia and also worked in product. Her path has taken her through a variety of leadership and individual contributor roles, and she credits this varied experience as being crucial to her success.  In this conversation with Alan Todd, Genefa digs into her leadership principles and shares advice w...

Dr. Roger L. Martin, named the world’s foremost management thinker by Thinkers50 in 2017, is one of the few leadership thinkers to successfully marry theory and practice in the field. He joined host Alan Todd to dig into the difference between having a plan and an integrated strategy, and how listeners can adopt the Playing to Win framework to make strategic decisions about their own careers. Lear...

Alan Todd sits down with Dr. Jeffrey Pfeffer of the Stanford Graduate School of Business to talk about one of the last remaining “dirty words” of business: power. From this rousing discussion of Pfeffer’s research and his latest book, 7 Rules of Power, listeners will learn the steps they can take immediately to develop their own ability to influence others at work and advance in their careers. Lea...

Dr. Barbara Kellerman is a Fellow and Founding Executive Director at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership, and she’s dedicated to the study of leadership — focusing on the good and the bad. Through her study of leadership on the world stage, Barbara has gleaned insights that can be used by leaders — and, crucially, followers — in the corporate sphere.  Through this interview,...

In our first episode of Leading Up’s sixth season, Alan Todd sits down with Dr. Frances X. Frei of Harvard Business School. Frances’s new book with her wife and research partner Anne Morriss is called Move Fast and Fix Things, and she walks Alan through the steps every organization or team must take before they can realize explosive growth. Listeners will take away valuable lessons about building...

Who are you as a leader? This is the critically important question we revisit on this week’s podcast episode. Our podcast guest, Lisa Dahms, encourages all of her new managers to reflect on this question, as it can help them lead authentically, purposefully, and effectively. Dahms is the Global Head of People Development IT at TUI Group, one of the world’s leading tourism companies based in Hanove...

Everyone is looking to drive innovation, retain employees, and create a healthy workplace culture. Inclusive Leadership can provide solutions for these challenges and more. This week on Leading Up With Udemy, we are revisiting a conversation with Stefanie Johnson. She offers tips on running more inclusive meetings, creating an effective DEI strategy, and how inclusivity can help bring employees ba...

Neda Schlictman, Managing Director & Chief Learning Officer - Leadership and Human Potential at Deloitte, has spent her career in learning, first as a teacher and then in adult development. She joins Alan Todd to go deep into how her firm thinks about human potential, GenAI, and supporting younger generations’ desires for meaningful work. Learn more about Udemy Business at https://bit.ly/udemy-pod...

Nick Craig, President of the Core Leadership Institute, has spent his professional life dedicated to helping others step into their purpose to become better leaders and human beings. He joins Alan Todd to dig into some examples of purpose statements and what you can achieve when you are connected to what you’re meant to be doing. Learn more about Udemy Business at https://bit.ly/udemy-podcast.

Udemy Chief Product Officer Prasad Raje has been at the forefront of many technological shifts in his career, from the dawn of the internet, when content transmission became free and lightning-fast, to the latest revolution in content creation and synthesis. He joins Alan Todd to explore how we got to the cusp of the generative AI revolution, and how knowledge workers have an opportunity to radica...

Social psychologist and generational expert Jean Twenge has written nearly half a dozen books about the psychological profile of young people — first Millennials, and now Gen Z. In her new book, Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents – and What They Mean for America’s Future, Twenge seeks to define generational differences by highlighting the majo...

Curiosity expert Scott Shigeoka, author of SEEK: How Curiosity Can Transform Your Life and Change the World, has spent years researching curiosity’s impact on our social connections and empathy.  He joins Alan Todd to dig into the difference between deep and shallow curiosity, and how keeping an open mind and a spirit of intellectual humility can make you and your team feel more connected. Learn m...

New York Times bestselling author Lindsey Pollak is an expert on helping Millennials and Gen Z navigate the workforce. Her books, including Becoming the Boss and The Remix: How to Lead and Succeed in the Multigenerational Workplace, offer a roadmap for both seasoned and emerging leaders to tackle difficult conversations and succeed in a management role.  Through Pollak’s conversation with Alan Tod...

Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman at legendary ad firm Ogilvy UK, knows how to make a bit of magic in business. His book Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life encourages a new way of thinking, using context, clever messaging, and exploratory thinking to solve problems that are ordinarily approached logically. In this conversation between Sutherland...

Over the course of his multi-decade career, legendary author and speaker Gary Hamel wrote the book on many aspects of modern management. So when he explains that bureaucracy is stifling all kinds of human potential in the workplace, organizations and leaders should take note. Hamel joined Alan Todd to unpack the history of bureaucracy and some of the ideas behind his book Humanocracy. Plus, he mak...

You’ve likely heard of Carol Dweck’s research on growth mindset and fixed mindset for individuals. But the research that went into social psychologist Mary C. Murphy’s new book, Cultures of Growth, proves that the mindset or culture of an organization can make a huge impact on its output and innovation. Dr. Murphy joins Alan Todd to dig into the key differences between a Culture of Growth and a Cu...

What if navigating big changes in your personal life or business wasn’t a cause for distress? If you view change as a neutral phenomenon, rather than something negative that’s happening to you, you may be better equipped to manage it.  Brad Stulberg, bestselling author of Master of Change and The Practice of Groundedness and adjunct professor at the University of Michigan, joins Alan Todd for an i...

While we prepare new episodes for 2024, we’re sharing an episode from our friends at Fixable, a TED podcast hosted by leadership coaches Anne Morriss and Frances Frei, who dive into their area of expertise: trust. Frances recounts the time when she was brought in to help Uber fix their huge trust breakdown. Using Uber as a case study, they explain the three pillars of trust – authenticity, empathy...