Interview With Culture Expert Jill Felska

April 29, 2013 Matt Tenney

In this interview,culture expert Jill Felska sheds light on the power of building a great workplace culture.

Here are some highlights:

1:12 – Jill shares her “Why” (she’s a fan of Simon Sinek, too)
3:12 – The power of creating a great workplace culture
5:21 – Example of a business achieving great success as a result of the culture
8:10 – How great cultures attract top talent
10:12 – How to keep the family feel as a business grows
13:04 – Tools for becoming a more effective leader

Jill Felska is a human sparkler – always full of energy and ideas. She is on a personal mission to create a happier, more engaged workforce. An entrepreneur at heart, she is currently running marketing at Path.To. In her next life, she’d love nothing more than to be a professional dancer. That said, she’d settle for a stint on So You Think You Can Dance.

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Great Cultures, Interviews

The Intersection of Compassion and Innovation – Interview with Suz Burroughs

April 21, 2013 Matt Tenney

An interview with innovation and design thinking expert Suz Burroughs, looking at the intersection between compassion, wakefulness, and innovation.

Suz is an independent consultant and a visiting professor of innovation at the Bill Greehey School of Business at St. Mary’s University. Suz is working toward a certification as a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher and developing online emotional intelligence training programs in addition to brand consulting and creative facilitation. While working at Google, Suz was an early member of the Global Innovation Program, worked to create learning experiences for senior leaders, produced online learning programs, and always had at least one social responsibility project going at any time. Connect with Suz at suzburroughs.com.

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Innovation, Interviews

Interview with Kristen Hadeed – Founder and CEO of Student Maid

April 14, 2013 Matt Tenney

Kristen is a great leader who has built an incredible culture at her company – a culture that has resulted in tremendous growth and a retention rate that is 15 times better than the industry average! This whole interview is fantastic, full of gems for anyone in a leadership position.

Below are some highlights:

1:10 – The Student Maid story
2:35 – An overview of the culture that results in a retention rate that is 15 times the industry average
6:15 – Creative ways to increase employee engagement
8:49 – The importance of developing people, even for low skill positions
10:35 – Helping employees develop an ownership mentality
12:39 – Ideas for great communication that builds high levels of trust
20:25 – Kristen’s inspiring view of the essence of leadership

To learn more about Kristen and Student Maid, please visit her website – www.kristenhadeed.com

Great Cultures, Interviews, Servant Leadership

Interview with Chad Paris – Founder and CEO of Parisleaf

March 29, 2013 Matt Tenney

Hi!

This is a video interview with Chad Paris – CEO and CRO (Chief Relationship Officer) of Parisleaf, a socially-conscious design firm. Chad believes authenticity is not the key to success in the workplace, but ground zero for where a successful business model should begin. Practicing authenticity with his colleagues has produced immense results mentally, spiritually, and financially.

Some highlights of the interview include:

4:00 – The company was founded with an social cause in mind. Chad talks about how they plant trees for every order and every social media follower.

8:00 – Chad describes some incredible business outcomes that he attributes to empowering employees, authenticity in the workplace, and focusing his energy on making Parisleaf a fun place to work.

13:05 – Great examples of empowering employees.

20:00 – Some inspiring examples of the effects of a great workplace culture.

Great Cultures, Interviews

The Power of Humility and Listening

March 19, 2013 Matt Tenney

A great example of a young leader transforming his campus by being a humble, servant leader. This story begins at the 11:30 point in the video, lasts for about a minute and continues for a couple minutes more at the 23:00 point.

In addition to Ben’s story, there are many great learning points in this interview with Dr. Stuart Rayfield of Columbus State University in Columbus, GA. She runs the Servant Leadership Program there, and offers some great examples of how students are improving their campus, their satisfaction in life, and their prospects for future employment by applying the principles of servant leadership. Dr. Rayfield is also a great example of humility herself.

Enjoy!

Interviews, Servant Leadership, Student Leaders

Interview with an Inspiring Student Leader – Francisco Ramirez

March 16, 2013 Matt Tenney

This is an interview with an inspiring student leader named Francisco Ramirez, who is devoted to serving others and is out there changing our world both as a great example of a servant leader and as a social entrepreneur.

He was a guest at Stanford the day of the interview. He took a break outside to speak with me.

Enjoy

If you’d like to see the video he mentions of the service project in New Orleans, here’s the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yltT2wZMg-I

Interviews, Student Leaders

Inspiring Story of a Student Leader

February 26, 2013 Matt Tenney

Happy Tuesday!!

This video interview includes a very inspiring story of a college student who was not doing so well and ended up transforming his life, the lives of numerous students and faculty members at his college, and the lives of many people in a city in Uganda. The story begins at the 5:20 mark.

The story is shared by Dr. David Howell, the servant leadership chair at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, who I interviewed recently. There are also plenty of other gems on the essence of great leadership in this interview, so be sure to check out the whole video when you have about 20 minutes. It’s well worth it!