Future Ready Leadership With Jacob Morgan

Bad leadership doesn’t just hurt engagement. It can literally hurt people. Studies show that working under a poor leader is one of the leading causes of stress, contributing to health issues like cardiovascular disease. On the other hand, great leaders don’t just make work enjoyable. They shape culture, values, and even society itself. In today’s Leadership Spark, I explore why leadership matters more than ever and what it will tak...

What does it take to lead 800,000 employees across nearly 10,000 hotels into the future of work? In this episode of Future Ready Leadership, I speak with Ty Breland, CHRO of Marriott International, about how the company is building a workforce strategy that is tech-enabled but human-centered. Ty explains why technology should automate tasks but create more space for authentic human connection, how Marriott is using AI and workforce...

Work is supposed to be human, but too often it feels like the opposite. For decades, we’ve built organizations on outdated assumptions: managers as “slave drivers,” employees as “cogs,” and work itself as “drudgery.” No wonder so many people feel disconnected. In today’s Leadership Spark, I break down what employee experience really means and why it’s the foundation of the future of work. We start by unpacking the basic concept of ...

Leadership may come with titles, pay, and freedom, but it also demands sacrifice, and too often, leaders forget this truth. When they do, organizations slip into coddling cultures, unclear values, and employees unprepared for the realities of work. In this episode, Patrick Lencioni, CEO of The Table Group and bestselling author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and Working Genius, breaks down what leadership really requires and wh...

What makes vulnerability in leadership powerful, but also dangerous? Leaders often confuse vulnerability with simply admitting mistakes or showing emotions. But without the right foundation, being “open” can backfire, leaving you looking weak or incompetent instead of inspiring trust. In today’s Leadership Spark, the spotlight is on the eight attributes of vulnerable leaders, distilled from my conversations with over 100 global CEO...

What does it really take to reach the top of an organization? Beyond the glossy titles and corner offices lies a culture of sacrifice, long hours, and relentless client demands that shape modern leadership. In this episode, we sit down with Pat Tomlinson, CEO of Mercer, to explore the realities of work culture, the growing “996” trend of long hours, and the sacrifices it takes to rise to senior leadership. Pat shares candid reflect...

We often talk about employee engagement, but before that comes something deeper: experience itself. Just like we invest our own time and money into personal experiences that create lasting memories, employees evaluate their organizations through the experiences they have at work. The problem? For over a century, companies have designed work as if humans were robots—linear, rigid, process-driven, and void of humanity. From definitio...

AI is shaping the future of work, no doubt, but are organizations truly ready to harness its full potential? Beyond the hype, leaders are grappling with challenges around AI adoption, cultural resistance, and the fear of losing human judgment in the process. What do leaders need to know about balancing AI’s promise with its pitfalls? In this episode, Peter Mahoney, Chief Commercial Officer at GoTo (formerl...

What if your leadership skills were truly borderless? Could you step into any culture, any team, anywhere in the world—and still thrive? That’s the challenge and opportunity of developing a Global Citizen mindset, one of the most crucial traits for leaders today. In today’s Leadership Spark, I share why the Global Citizen mindset is a non-negotiable skill for modern leaders. I tell the story of a remarkable CEO who defied cultural ...

In business and in life, the most dangerous risk you can take is avoiding risk altogether. Whether it’s leading a team, making strategic investments, or navigating unpredictable markets, risk is always present, yet most leaders misunderstand how to harness it. In this episode, Jim McCormick, best-selling author (The First Time Manager, The Power of Risk) and founder of the Research Institute of Risk Intelligence, shares lessons fro...

The way we manage people today is built on ideas from over 100 years ago—ideas designed for factory floors, not modern workplaces. Management was originally created to enforce control, standardize behavior, and ensure compliance. Engagement, empowerment, and innovation? None of those were part of the equation. And yet, many organizations still operate with that outdated playbook, whether they admit it or not. In today’s Leadership ...

Why do we struggle with conflict even when we know it's important? In today’s polarized and high-stakes workplace, leaders are more afraid than ever to say the wrong thing or engage in tough conversations. But avoiding conflict doesn’t protect relationships, it slowly breaks them. In this episode, Bob Bordone, Senior Fellow at Harvard Law School, shares why conflict isn’t something to fear, but something to practice and turn into a...

If aliens landed on Earth and observed how we work, they’d probably be baffled. We spend most of our lives doing this thing called “work,” yet so many people feel unfulfilled, undervalued, and stuck in roles that don’t inspire them. It’s even baked into our language. Look up synonyms for “employee,” “manager,” or “work” and you’ll find words like cog, zookeeper, and drudgery. Something’s clearly broken. But the good news? It’s star...

Why are so many employees entering the workforce unsure of themselves, lacking confidence, and not quite ready to thrive? And with AI automating more tasks by the day, what should leaders actually be focusing on to future-proof their people? The world is flooded with information at the speed of light, yet starved of real connection and human skills. So how do we bridge the growing gap between soft skills and hard results? In this e...

What if your employee perks are actually backfiring… making people disengage faster, not stay longer? The way we attract and retain talent is overdue for a serious reset. In today's Leadership Spark, we dive into why the traditional employer-employee relationship is broken and what leaders must change to stay relevant. You’ll learn how outdated recruitment practices no longer work in a world where candidates interview you just as m...

So much of what holds leaders back isn’t strategy or skill. It’s the invisible mindset traps we don’t even realize we’re stuck in. Most leadership challenges are created by unconscious patterns running the show beneath the surface. In this episode, we dig into what it really takes to break those patterns with Diana Chapman, executive coach and co-author of The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership. We explore how leaders unknowing...

What if your office is making people miserable… and you don’t even see it? We now live in a world of hybrid work. The spaces we work in, the technology we use, and the culture we experience shape us more than we realize. If you’re still only focusing on tasks and performance while ignoring the environments that make or break engagement, you’re already falling behind. In today’s Leadership Spark, we uncover the three hidden forces d...

AI is moving faster than any of us can keep up. Every week brings a new tool, every month a new disruption, and leaders everywhere are left scrambling to understand what this means for their people, their culture, and their future. In this episode, I sit down with Charlotte Eaton, Chief People Officer at Arm—the company powering almost every smartphone on the planet—to explore how AI is fundamentally transforming the workplace. We ...

The world of work is changing faster than ever! Globalization, mobility, millennials, technology, and new behaviors are transforming how we lead. In today's Leadership Spark episode, I break down these five trends reshaping work and reveal why they’re forcing every manager to become a better leader. I explore how these shifts are making traditional management obsolete, why people no longer need to work for your company, and what it...