115: Seeking a Rational Path to Happiness with Clinical Psychologist Dr. Ellen Kenner

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115: Seeking a Rational Path to Happiness with Clinical Psychologist Dr. Ellen Kenner

Dr. Ellen Kenner isn’t the first guest on The TalentGrow Show to argue that selfishness, properly understood, is essential to happiness and career success, but she offers her own unique insights into the subject from the perspective of psychology. Dr. Kenner is a licensed clinical psychologist and the host of a radio talk-show, The Rational Basis of Happiness, and she joins Halelly in this episode to share her advice to those seeking a path that will make them happy, or those seeking happiness in the path they’re already on. “Don’t put yourself in the shadows of your own life,” she warns, discussing with Halelly why selflessness is a recipe for disaster both in the workplace and in your personal life. Listen to hear Ellen’s advice for getting out of an unsatisfactory career, dealing with abusive bosses, carving out a life and career you love even if it leads you down an unconventional path, and more. Plus, discover what Ellen means by “rational happiness,” and how that concept can help you in all of your pursuits! Listen and don’t forget to share with others.

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99: Selfish For Success -- Embracing Your Self-Interest as a Leader with Dr. Steve Orma

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99: Selfish For Success -- Embracing Your Self-Interest as a Leader with Dr. Steve Orma

Selfishness is a word that typically connotes serving oneself at the expense of others. But Dr. Steve Orma, clinical psychologist and host of the Selfish For Success podcast, explains why this definition is a dangerous package-deal that vilifies a healthy concern for one’s own self-interest. The result? Guilt and internal conflict. On this episode of The TalentGrow Show, Halelly and Steve discuss how leaders are negatively impacted by this cultural stigma against selfishness and what steps you can take to upgrade your leadership effectiveness by embracing your self-interest. How much responsibility should you take on as a leader and how much should you leave to your team? What makes a leader respected? What should you do if you start to feel that you’re not on the right career path? Listen to get Dr. Orma’s take on these questions and more. Plus, learn the crucial difference between serving others and being subservient and how that knowledge can impact your success as a leader. Give this a listen and share with others in your network!

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73: How to become a better leader by using Polarity Thinking with Laura Mendelow

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73: How to become a better leader by using Polarity Thinking with Laura Mendelow

As leaders we are sometimes stumped by seemingly opposing pulls and blind to the downsides of our actions and intentions. Leadership coach Laura Mendelow explains how the concept of Polarity Thinking along with a helpful Polarity Map can help us manage the conflicting goals we often feel tugging on us in opposite directions as leaders. Plus, polarity thinking gives us a positive and constructive way to boost our strengths and manage our weaknesses. On this fun and interesting episode of the TalentGrow Show, Laura shares some great examples and actionable advice for creating balance and increasing your effectiveness as a leader. Learn how to use polarity thinking to discover and overcome your greatest challenges, such as balancing the need to connect with your team and avoiding feeling burned out. Listen now and share with others who could benefit from this shift in thinking about leadership!

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70: Creating White Space in the Workplace: Building Your Team’s Productivity with Juliet Funt

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70: Creating White Space in the Workplace: Building Your Team’s Productivity with Juliet Funt

As a leader, you should always be looking for ways to boost the productivity of your team. On this episode of the TalentGrow Show, Halelly Azulay interviews consultant and speaker Juliet Funt about productivity-enhancing ideas and techniques, especially the concept of “white space.” Did you know that the financial costs of not having white space are about a million dollars of annual waste per 50 people in a team? That’s right, which means you should be thinking about finding ways to create white space in your workplace today! Listen now to learn some great practices for creating and using white space, get advice for overcoming what Juliet calls the “thieves of productivity,” and actionable steps that you can take today to boost the productivity of your team!

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Ep068: Understanding emotional intelligence and the “cocktail of behaviors” with Hile Rutledge

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Ep068: Understanding emotional intelligence and the “cocktail of behaviors” with Hile Rutledge

Did you know that EQ (emotional intelligence quotient) is actually a better predictor of workplace success than IQ? It’s true, and in today’s episode of the TalentGrow Show with Halelly Azulay, the fascinating subject of emotional intelligence is brightly illuminated by one of the world’s foremost trainers in EQ assessment tools and models: Hile Rutledge. Our discussion centers around one of the best EQ models out there—The Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i)—and how you can understand it to improve your own EQ. Take a listen to find out what the “cocktail of behaviors” is, which EQ-i element is most associated with leadership, what improves self-regard more positively than anything else, as well as an actionable tip aimed at getting you out of your “bubble”. In fact, Hile urges you to do it as soon as you can and we both agree it might actually change the world if more of us did it!

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Ep058: The 6 Roots of Healthy Leadership with Global CEO Advisor Bob Rosen

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Ep058: The 6 Roots of Healthy Leadership with Global CEO Advisor Bob Rosen

At the foundation of being a transformational leader is first and foremost being a healthy human being. This is the conclusion Bob Rosen, a Global CEO Advisor and author of Grounded: How Leaders Stay Rooted in an Uncertain World, came to after working with thousands of leaders around the world. According to Bob, every leader—regardless of whether they’re an entrepreneur, a leader in the middle of an organization, or a top executive—has to be personally rooted in 6 areas in order to be successful in our disruptive and constantly-changing world. In today’s episode of the TalentGrow Show with Halelly Azulay, Bob thoroughly explains what these 6 roots are, what the 6 corresponding disruptors every leader has to grapple with are, and provides not one but three actionable leadership tips (with specific examples, too)! This is a great episode for getting a global, 20,000-foot view of what great leadership looks like. We hope you give it a listen—and remember to subscribe and share!

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Ep055: How to solve problems faster, make better decisions, and get projects finished with targeted thinking tactics from Jean Moroney

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Ep055: How to solve problems faster, make better decisions, and get projects finished with targeted thinking tactics from Jean Moroney

In this episode of the TalentGrow Show, Jean Moroney, president of Thinking Directions, shares some of her best insights on the psychology of thinking—and explains how you can apply them to your own success. She provides an in-depth answer to the question, “what’s the best way to think on your feet?”, offers advice on how to become more authentic, and shares a powerful exercise for better problem solving. Jean’s insights and techniques are easily actionable but extremely effective. I hope you give them a try and share this episode with others who could also benefit from them!

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Ep037: How to make better, faster decisions with Jeff Annello

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Ep037: How to make better, faster decisions with Jeff Annello

Lots of people struggle with making good decisions. It’s an important skill to build, especially if you lead others (or aspire to), but there are many obstacles to good decision making. Writer, researcher, and thinker Jeff Annello of the popular Farnam Street website and newsletter talks to Halelly Azulay, host of the TalentGrow Show, about how to become better at making effective and efficient decisions. They discuss the role of mental models, intuition, and thinking errors and biases in decision making and how to become more aware of and fight against these biases. What specifically is important for leaders to know to make better decisions and help their teams to improve their decision quality. Finally, Jeff gives a very actionable tip that you can implement immediately to begin ratcheting up your own decision making skills. Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a rating and review on iTunes and share this episode with others who could also benefit!

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Ep034: How to be a Great People Manager – Learn from One Manager’s Leadership Development Quest with Jeremy Epstein

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Ep034: How to be a Great People Manager – Learn from One Manager’s Leadership Development Quest with Jeremy Epstein

Jeremy Epstein is not a leadership expert – he’s a marketing expert (and a great one at that). He is a real-life, in-the-trenches leader who has embarked on a self-development journey to become a better people manager. He has chosen a very unique approach to both how he is sourcing advice and in sharing his journey. And in this fast-moving, robust conversation with The TalentGrow Show’s host Halelly Azulay, Jeremy shares his approach and some of his insights that have been yielding spectacular results in his own leadership development journey, in the hopes of inspiring you to do the same. You’ll get more than inspiration, though – you’ll get really specific, actionable ideas and advice for how to take your own people management and leadership skills to the next level! Take a listen now!

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Ep25: How to be a more engaging communicator

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Ep25: How to be a more engaging communicator

In this solo episode, Halelly Azulay shares seven ways that you can be a more engaging communicator. This episode will help you improve your communication success in every kind of interaction, whether at work, at home, or anywhere else. There are lots of actionable tips and ideas that will help you be magnetic and compelling to those you speak with. These can help anyone, from the most awkward or shy to those who were born with a high charisma level, take their communication skills to the next level.

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Ep23: How to bring creativity to business with Michelle James

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Ep23: How to bring creativity to business with Michelle James

Michelle James bridges creativity and business. She helps leaders rediscover their creativity and apply it in the workplace. In this fast-paced conversation between Michelle and Halelly Azulay, host of the TalentGrow Show, they discuss the path to generating new ways of thinking about your challenges by tapping into your creativity as a leader, team member, and for organizations as a whole. Michelle shares the importance of balancing discomfort with safety, the infusion of improv theater principles into leadership, and how to cultivate more creative employees. She provides a great action tip for reevaluating some of your assumptions and even offers two great free resources to the listeners that can help them bring more of their creativity to work.

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Ep19: 3 leadership lessons I learned from my first year of podcasting: The TalentGrow Show’s 2015 Year in Review

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Ep19: 3 leadership lessons I learned from my first year of podcasting: The TalentGrow Show’s 2015 Year in Review

As I wrap up my first year of podcasting on The TalentGrow Show, I look back and shares my story of how the podcast got started and the three biggest leadership lessons I have learned that can apply to any leader as they think about their goals and their work. I get up-close-and-personal and share the behind the scenes stories, fears, concerns, hopes, and dreams I have experienced as a newbie podcaster and suggest lessons that you can immediately apply and benefit from. I also make a personal request for a couple of tiny, quick favors at the end - will you be one of the listeners who will grant me these easy wishes? Listen, enjoy, respond, and share!

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Ep18: Accelerate your career and build better relationships: How to be a world-class connector of people and ideas like Michael D. Simmons

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Ep18: Accelerate your career and build better relationships: How to be a world-class connector of people and ideas like Michael D. Simmons

Connecting online can be both more or less authentic, depending on your approach. But in the 21st Century, we have many new opportunities to connect with more and different people in a different way than ever before because of how we can create content online. We can leverage these opportunities to share more of ourselves, to be more thoughtful about how we share about ourselves, and build amazing connections and networks. In this episode, Halelly Azulay chats with Michael D. Simmons, an award-winning serial entrepreneur, best-selling author and internationally-acclaimed speaker who is a world-class connector of people and ideas who loves to research, synthesize, and share ideas about building relationships in the 21st century. We also talk about how contexts collide online, creating new challenges for managing our personal brands and calling on us to become more holistic and authentic so that we’re not trying to put up a front or share the wrong things in the wrong contexts. Michael also shares the fascinating concept of the “expert generalist” or “broker” as a massively effective way for professionals to accelerate their career success (by 65%!) and increase their own learning and the value they offer to their employers, employees, and clients. With so many people focusing on being seen as a specialist or expert, this counter-intuitive approach can be a powerful one to consider tapping into.

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Ep17: Two easy gratitude exercises that will make you happier

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Ep17: Two easy gratitude exercises that will make you happier

This week in the U.S. we celebrate Thanksgiving. Therefore, the TalentGrow Show episode this week is a special one all about gratitude. Did you know that studies show that people who practice mindful gratitude (like keeping a gratitude journal) are 25% happier? In this shorter solo episode, I will teach you how to try keeping a gratitude journal and writing a gratitude letter. These are just two examples of many kinds of habits that you can develop to become more grateful and, as a result, actually become happier.

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