How you feel about human nature tells you everything you need to know about leadership.

If you think human nature has stayed constant over the years, you’ll find great value in the words of Socrates, Confucius, Jesus, Shakespeare and Sarah Breedlove (the first self-made black woman millionaire in the US).

If you think human nature has evolved over time, you’ll see little point in the wisdom of the past and constantly seek out new thinking to guide your approach.

Richard Battle falls firmly into the first camp. And he’s written several books—including his latest, AmeriCANS Who Made America!, spotlighting past wisdom for our present and future benefit. And we talked about a bunch of it on this week’s podcast.

🐱 How his great-great grandmother’s 100+ year old table showed him that our actions today can influence folks in the next century.

🐱 How a four-minute radio interview in the back office of a car dealership helped a man grieving the loss of his daughter.

🐱 How an early “dead end job” can teach our future self more about leadership than most modern day “gurus.”

In fact, I can’t help but wonder if most gurus take advantage of those who believe in an ever-changing human nature, shellacking ancient wisdom with buzzwords and bullet points for easy consumption.

No buzzwords here. Just a fresh look at some old-school truths that can help us lead better right now.

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Welcome to the DesuckifyWork® podcast. The show where we cut through the BS and find ways to make work more fun, more human and less ridiculous. All of which makes your business more profitable, by the way.

(If you enjoy this one, please like, share, rate, review or subscribe to the podcast.)

Let the desuckifying begin.

——

You can follow Richard on LinkedIn. And check out his site at RichardBattle.com where you can learn more about each of his 12 books.

If you enjoyed the conversation and would like to help your teams bring their absolute best to work, I invite you to schedule a free half-hour discovery session. Type “meow” in the calendar invite and I’ll also send you a free DesuckifyWork® t-shirt!

Bye, everyone!

——

Bonus question from Richard to our audience:Where do you want to be at the end of your work life? And are you taking steps to get there?

If you’d like to watch this episode on YouTube, please click here.

Should we get rid of HR?

That’s the bold suggestion put forth by Jamie Gutfreund, this week’s guest on the DesuckifyWork® podcast.

Why get rid of it? Because it’s become a fear-based function that stifles creativity, prevents honest conversations and enforces a “referee” culture that treats team members like children vs. adults who are capable of sorting through hard stuff on their own.

What would be build in its place? Great question. Jamie and I explore that and more during our conversation. We touch on:

🐱 Generational differences at work

🐱 What real psychological safety looks like

🐱 How to balance different levels of ambition within a team, including how those folks are compensated

🐱 The influence of the creator economy on how we work and get our messages out to the world

🐱 The role of executive leadership in driving culture and how no HR initiative can overcome the tone set by the C-suite

The main takeaway? Let’s be adults and let’s get out of own way already.

Sounds pretty freakin’ awesome to me. Who’s in?

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Welcome to the DesuckifyWork® podcast. The show where we cut through the BS and find ways to make work more fun, more human and less ridiculous. All of which makes your business more profitable, by the way.

(If you enjoy this one, please like, share, rate, review or subscribe to the podcast.)

Let the desuckifying begin.

——

You can follow Jamie on LinkedIn. And check out her column in Forbes about the creator economy.

If you enjoyed the conversation and would like to help your teams bring their absolute best to work, I invite you to schedule a free half-hour discovery session. Type “meow” in the calendar invite and I’ll also send you a free DesuckifyWork® t-shirt!

Bye, everyone!

——

Bonus question from Jamie to our audience:Why do we judge people in the workplace solely on their state of ambition? Are we saying that everyone has to be equally ambitious? What if I just want to go to work till five o’clock and I’m okay being compensated and rewarded based on those expectations?

If you’d like to watch this episode on YouTube, please click here.

Here’s what you’re admitting when you don’t develop your talent.

🐱 You’re admitting you don’t expect people to hang around very long.

🐱 You’re admitting you’re willing to let people just figure crap out on the job no matter how long it takes or how many mistakes get made.

🐱 You’re admitting that there’s nothing special about the work you do—any schmo off the street can jump in and deliver on day one.

🐱 You’re admitting you’re unaware of the cost of people figuring crap out on the job. Or the cost of high turnover. Or the cost of having an undifferentiated, commoditized work product.

🐱 You’re admitting that any messaging you have on your site or internally around building a strong culture is performative BS.

Karen Crane knows a thing or fifty about talent development. She is a coach and talent consultant who spent years helping ad agencies build award-winning teams.

And she and I share a frustration that so many agencies fall short in this area. F*ck around a find out seems to be the most popular training methodology.

And it’s a damn shame because the industry is filled with smart, clever problem solvers who are capable of designing a thousand ways to help people grow in their careers.

But… we’re too busy, it’s too expensive, clients are so demanding…. blah, blah, blah.

Sure. Yes. Understood.

Those are the exact reasons you need to do it. So you’re less busy on nonsense work and focused more on work that matters. So you get paid more, because you work on higher value projects. So your clients are happier, because your teams are delivering work at a level they never even thought was possible.

That’s what happens when you develop your talent.

Admit it: sounds totally worth it, right?

Welcome to the DesuckifyWork® podcast. The show where we cut through the BS and find ways to make work more fun, more human and less ridiculous. All of which makes your business more profitable, by the way.

(If you enjoy this one, please like, share, rate, review or subscribe to the podcast.)

Let the desuckifying begin.

You can follow Karen on LinkedIn. And check out her site at coachkarencrane.com and her Substack newsletter at karencrane.substack.com. They’re both filled with awesome stuff.

If you enjoyed the conversation and would like to help your teams bring their absolute best to work, I invite you to schedule a free half-hour discovery session. Type “meow” in the calendar invite and I’ll also send you a free DesuckifyWork® t-shirt!

Bye, everyone!

Bonus question from Karen to our audience:What does a desuckified workplace look like? What do you need to be unsuckified at work?

If you’d like to watch this episode on YouTube, please click here.

Imagine if we were more civil at work.

Not more polite. Politeness is BS. Civil. From the Latin, Civitas. Meaning citizen. A well-functioning member of society.

Societies work when we have hard conversations. When we bring a shared respect for our common humanity. When we’re willing to offend. And be offended.

This is not where we are right now. As a society or at work.

We avoid the hard conversations. We substitute through-our-teeth agreement for respect. We turn offense into passive aggression.

Layer that in with a culture that rewards a near-constant state of navel gazing and the results aren’t pretty.

Lexi Hudson knows we can do better. And she wrote a book, “The Soul of Civility: Timeless Principles to Heal Society and Ourselves” that tells us how.

It’s not about following a rigid set of rules. It’s about leaning into time-tested wisdom that has been at the center of great societal advances, from Ancient Greece to the modern civil rights movement.

Lexi’s translation for today’s world?

Be less like Larry David, angling for every scrap of ego-fuel we can find no matter the cost to others.

Be more like her grandmother, Margaret. A magnanimous soul, self-composed, generous, other-oriented and real.

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Welcome to the DesuckifyWork® podcast. The show where we cut through the BS and find ways to make work more fun, more human and less ridiculous. All of which makes your business more profitable, by the way. Today’s episode is a part of the ProHuman Series, in partnership with the ProHuman Foundation, where Lexi is an advisor.

(If you enjoy this one, please like, share, rate, review or subscribe to the podcast.)

Let the desuckifying begin.

You can follow Lexi on LinkedIn. And check out her Substack newsletter at civic-renaissance.com, an ongoing conversation on the power of civility to help us create the good life.

If you enjoyed the conversation and would like to help your teams bring their absolute best to work, I invite you to schedule a free half-hour discovery session. Type “meow” in the calendar invite and I’ll also send you a free DesuckifyWork® t-shirt!

Bye, everyone!

Bonus question from Lexi to our audience:What are the kinds of incivility that people are experiencing in the workplace right now and to what extent has that to do with being online and not in person in recent years?

If you’d like to watch this episode on YouTube, please click here.

Radical Moderation.

Sounds like an oxymoron. But it’s actually a way we can save our world and our workplaces from whatever the hell it is we’re all going through right now.

We’re in a low trust, high volatility time. And it affects everything. From the most horrific news headlines to the way we relate to the person in the desk across from us. Our armor is up. Which isn’t exactly conducive to conversation or collaboration.

Lauren Hall is an author, speaker, professor, university administrator and coiner of the “radical moderation” term. We talked on this week’s podcast about how embracing this mindset can help us connect more deeply with everyone in our lives.

It starts with avoiding binary thinking. Life is lived in the gray, no matter what your social media algorithms try to tell you.

From there, we need to understand issues in their full complexity.

To do that, we need to be curious and humble, especially when we’re confronted with ideas we don’t like.

Lauren gives one of the most incredible examples of someone who chose to embrace those ideals—Darryl Davis. A black man who has spoken with dozens of KKK members and influenced many to renounce their white supremacist views. His story is remarkable.

I don’t expect most of us to live up to the model of someone like Daryl. But man, wouldn’t the world be a better place if we tried?

Welcome to the DesuckifyWork® podcast. The show where we cut through the BS and find ways to make work more fun, more human and less ridiculous. All of which makes your business more profitable, by the way. Today’s episode is a part of the ProHuman Series, in partnership with the Prohuman Foundation where Lauren is an advisor.

(If you enjoy this one, please like, share, rate, review or subscribe to the podcast.)

Let the desuckifying begin.

You can follow Lauren on LinkedIn. And check out her Substack, The Radical Moderate’s Guide to Life (Lauren Hall). It’s the perfect antidote to our click-bait riddled feeds.

If you enjoyed the conversation and would like to help your teams bring their absolute best to work, I invite you to schedule a free half-hour discovery session. Type “meow” in the calendar invite and I’ll also send you a free DesuckifyWork® t-shirt!

Bye, everyone!

Bonus question from Lauren to our audience:Are you happy with the politics that we have now? Do you feel as though what's happening is serving our communities?

If you’d like to watch this episode on YouTube, please click here.

Raise your hand if you’ve ever had a terrible boss.

Nice, I see lots of hands. Great.

Now raise your hand if you’ve ever been a terrible boss.

If your hand isn’t still up, you’re lying to yourself.

The moment we start leading others, we start finding ways to be bad at it. Not because we suck. Because we’re human. And this is how we learn.

F*ck around a find out, right?

Mita Mallick would like all of us to find out more quickly. Yes, we’re going to be crappy at times. But she’s done a lot of work to define our most craptastic tendencies so we can recognize them and stop doing them sooner.

I could’ve used Mita’s wisdom many times in my own career. Like that time I told a person on my team I didn’t really care for their design style. Ugh.

Her new book, “The Devil Emails at Midnight: What Good Leaders Can Learn from Bad Bosses,” outlines the (lucky) 13 types of bad bosses. So we can stop being most of them and start being who our teams need us to be.

Here are a few. Do you recognize any of these in yourself?

🙀 "Medusa": Screaming, public humiliation, throwing objects🙀 "The Napper": Disengaged, falling asleep in meetings🙀 "Tony Soprano": Career-threatening, talent-hoarding🙀 "The Cheerleader": Toxic positivity, unrealistic expectations

Mita even talks about her own experience as a “terrible” boss and what she’s learned since then. My impression? I think she’d make a great boss. I know she was an amazing guest.

Let the desuckifying begin. Here’s Mita.

Welcome to the DesuckifyWork podcast. The show where we cut through the BS and find ways to make work more fun, more human and less ridiculous. All of which makes your business more profitable, by the way.

(If you enjoy this one, please like, share, rate, review or subscribe to the podcast.)

Let the desuckifying begin.

You can follow Mita on LinkedIn. And check out her site, where you can learn about all the cool work she’s doing and find a link to pre-order her book, “The Devil Emails at Midnight”, which launches in September 30th.

If you enjoyed the conversation and would like to help your teams bring their absolute best to work, I invite you to schedule a free half-hour discovery session. Type “meow” in the calendar invite and I’ll also send you a free DesuckifyWork® t-shirt!

Bye, everyone!

Bonus question from Mita to our audience:Are you willing to admit when you've been a bad boss, if you're honest?

If you’d like to watch the episode on YouTube, please click here.

Is therapy culture destroying us?

Pushing us to analyze every moment as a potential trauma. Turning minor slights into rage and sadness. Making us feel good about feeling bad all the time.

Fred Luskin has a different idea. Forgiveness. He’s been studying it for over 30 years and the biggest takeaway? We can deal with 99% of the crap that comes our way. Feel the feeling, sure. Do some self soothing… vent to a friend, go for a run, eat a cookie. But then forgive and move on.

Resentment is an addiction. Fred should know. He held onto resentment from a painful experience for years until his wife told him “it ain’t that pleasant living with you.” Fred found a way to forgive what happened and turned that energy into the Stanford Forgiveness Project, doing research on methods to help others forgive.

Forgiveness is a gift to yourself. A decision to take ownership of how you feel and refuse to let the behavior of others drag you down.

Imagine if we took this advice at work. Letting the petty BS slide and allowing ourselves to truly connect with people. We’re all dicks sometimes. Let’s own that and do cool s**t together.

This is what emotional intelligence looks like. And it’s the thing that will keep us human as AI does whatever the hell it’s gonna do.

You wanna get mad about it? Feel free. But don’t hold onto that feeling for too long. It’ll ruin you.

As Fred says, “take the blinders off and realize what a gift life is.”

I couldn’t agree more.

Welcome to the DesuckifyWork podcast. The show where we cut through the BS and find ways to make work more fun, more human and less ridiculous. All of which makes your business more profitable, by the way. Today’s episode is a part of the ProHuman Series, in partnership with the ProHuman Foundation, where Fred is an advisor.

(If you enjoy this one, please like, share, rate, review or subscribe to the podcast.)

Let the desuckifying begin.

You can follow Fred on LinkedIn. And check out his site at fredluskin.com where you can learn more about his books, including “The Forgive for Good Recovery Workbook.”

If you enjoyed the conversation and would like to help your teams bring their absolute best to work, I invite you to schedule a free half-hour discovery session. Type “meow” in the calendar invite and I’ll also send you a free DesuckifyWork® t-shirt!

Bye, everyone!

Bonus question from Fred to our audience:How can you take the blinders off your life so that you stop taking so much of the good in your life for granted?

If you’d like to watch the episode on YouTube, please click here.

The best work I’ve ever done started with laughter.

Laughing at the boss’s indecisiveness.

Laughing at our friend whooping our butts at Koosh basketball and walking away with a wad of ones that would make a stripper blush.

Laughing at the dog farting in our office.

Laughter is like creatine for your productivity muscles. I once laughed so hard I threw my back out and went on a months-long script writing binge high on Icy Hot fumes.

Laughter is the greatest thing ever. And yet most of our workplaces are sterile, saccharine and stupefying.

Or, as my guest Rob Feld says on this week’s podcast episode, “they’re not human environments.” Rob is a filmmaker whose latest project Jesters and Fools brings humor to the often-touchy topic of political polarization. It’s freakin’ fantastic.

And Rob’s right about our workplaces—too many are simply not human. How can we possibly laugh in a such an environment? How can we create or connect to the truths that lead to interesting new things? How can we see our co-workers as fellow juicy meat bags filled with interesting (and different!) points of view?

The truth is, too often, we don’t. We don’t see each other as people, but as obstacles to getting what we want. We try to steamroll our thoughts through the system instead of coming back to the one human thing that has brought us together since the first caveman drew a stick figure rabbi and priest walking into a bar.

Laughter. It’s not just medicine. It’s crack for collaboration. And corporate profits. Yet for some reason, we’ve decided we don’t want that.

I do. Rob does. What about you?

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Welcome to the DesuckifyWork podcast. The show where we cut through the BS and find ways to make work more fun, more human and less ridiculous. All of which makes your business more profitable, by the way. Today’s episode is a part of the ProHuman Series, in partnership with the ProHuman Foundation, where Rob is an advisor.

(If you enjoy this one, please like, share, rate, review or subscribe to the podcast.)

Let the desuckifying begin.

——

You can learn more about Rob’s movie at jestersandfools.com. And check out his site at gothamarts.com.

If you enjoyed the conversation and would like to help your teams bring their absolute best to work, I invite you to schedule a free half-hour discovery session. Type “meow” in the calendar invite and I’ll also send you a free DesuckifyWork® t-shirt!

Bye, everyone!

——

Bonus question from Rob to our audience:Do you think you could find more humor in life's annoyances than you currently do?

To watch the episode on YouTube, please click here.