Future Ready Leadership With Jacob Morgan

Great ideas often die, not because they’re wrong, but because no one knows how to influence others to act on them. In leading today’s complex organizations, it’s not enough to be right. The real challenge for leaders is getting people to change behavior, and stay changed. In this episode, we sit down with Joseph Grenny, co-author of Crucial Conversations and one of the world’s leading experts on influence and behavior change, to un...

Most leaders manage culture with dashboards that measure what's easy, not what's true. In this episode of Leadership Spark, KeyAnna Schmiedl, Chief Human Experience Officer at Workhuman, challenges leaders to stop relying on outdated engagement scores and start looking at what really drives culture: recognition. She explains why traditional HR data misses the lived employee experience and how recognition moments reveal the hidden i...

The future of work is changing, and we can't afford to have our leaders evolve backward by sticking to outdated leadership styles. It's high time for a major upgrade because this new era of work won't wait for you to catch up. In this three-part episode, we explore what it takes to thrive at the highest levels of leadership across three urgent dimensions: executive readiness, AI fluency, and hybrid work strategy. We begin with Mark...

The real game of the future of work is how to unstuck yourself from the past. As the workplace keeps changing, new expectations are reshaping what it means to work, manage, and lead. But instead of preparing, many organizations are just reacting to challenges, caught off guard by the shifts they should've seen coming. So what’s behind this disruption? In today's Leadership Spark, we break down the five trends driving the future of ...

We’ve built a world where products appear with a click and groceries restock like clockwork...until they don’t. When the pandemic hit, it wasn’t just shelves that went empty, it was our illusions of a stable, efficient global supply chain that collapsed. And it wasn’t a freak accident, it was decades in the making. In this episode, we sit down with Peter Goodman, Global Economic Correspondent for The New York Times and bestselling ...

What does real employee recognition look like, and why do so many leaders still get it wrong? In today’s Leadership Spark, I explore how one emotional moment completely changed a leader’s definition of what it means to acknowledge and value your people. We talk about the silent cost of unspoken appreciation, why recognition should never be a top-down policy, and how small, authentic gestures can create lasting cultural change. If y...

Is college still worth it? As tuition rises and dropout rates soar, the big question everyone’s asking is: how do we prepare young people for a future we can’t predict? In this episode, Dr. Robert McMahan, President of Kettering University, unpacks the evolving crisis in higher education and what it truly means to prepare students for the future. He sheds light on the rise of “adulting” classes as a symptom of a larger issue: stude...

Imagine waking up one day and realizing the world changed, but you didn’t. That’s what it’s like for many organizations today, stuck on a decades-long train ride, speeding ahead without ever looking out the window. The future of work isn’t coming. It’s already here, and most companies are still running on definitions of “work,” “manager,” and “employee” that feel more like satire than strategy. Work sucks for too many people, and i...

AI is the most powerful tool humanity has ever created. Yet, it’s also a black box we barely understand. How do we build the future of work with a system that can make decisions, take actions, and sometimes… make it up as it goes? In today's episode, Babak Hodjat, CTO of AI at Cognizant, joins us to uncover the truth and the hype behind today’s most powerful AI technologies. We explore the evolution of agentic AI, multi-agentic pla...

Chief Human Resources Officers (CHROs) are now responsible for shaping the future of work. But to do that, you can’t stay in the HR box. To HR leaders, it's time to stop thinking of yourself as administrators and start showing up as architects of human transformation. The new world of work operates on an entirely new playbook, we can't keep putting band-aids on outdated systems. We must start reimagining work itself. In today's Lea...

The workplace is evolving, but not without friction. AI, culture, and leadership expectations are colliding, and while some leaders scramble to keep up, others are creating environments that feel more like day spas than places of work. How do you lead with kindness while still setting high expectations? In this episode of Future Ready Leadership, I spoke with KeyAnna Schmiedl, Chief Human Experience Officer at Workhuman, about what...

We’ve misunderstood what it really means to lead with vulnerability. Organizations are falling into a dangerous trap of glorifying vulnerability without pairing it with accountability. That's why workplace cultures that enable excuses, not growth, exist. In this episode, we explore why vulnerability at work has gone too far, and how it’s being misused as a shield from accountability. We draw a sharp line between simply being vulner...

AI is a double-edged sword—boosting capabilities while amplifying risks if used carelessly. Every leader today is racing to understand how AI will impact their business. So, how can you protect your organization? In this episode, Steve Schmidt, SVP and Chief Security Officer at Amazon, breaks down the real risks at the intersection of AI, cybersecurity, and leadership. Steve shares why the biggest cybersecurity threats aren’t just ...

Too often, vulnerability at work is misunderstood as either oversharing or a sign of weakness. What many leaders overlook is how it can be their superpower if used the right way. In this episode, we explore how to lead with vulnerability without losing your leadership edge by pairing your openness with intention and direction. We discuss the “vulnerable leader equation,” a reminder that showing emotion or imperfection isn’t weaknes...

CHROs, your role has never been more vital or more complex. AI, shifting politics, hybrid work, and evolving employee expectations, have taken the front seat in today's world of work. The future says you’re no longer just managing HR, you’re redefining the workplace itself. That’s exactly why I launched Future of Work Leaders, a supportive global community built specifically for CHROs who are ready to move beyond tradi...

Leading a business with 100,000 employees and $84 billion in revenue isn’t for the faint of heart. Every executive talks about culture and results, but few have done it at this scale. So how do you lead without losing your soul? In this episode, Chris Nicholas, President and CEO of Sam’s Club, pulls back the curtain on what leadership really looks like when the stakes are massive. He shares why purpose and grit—not ego—are the foun...

We’ve all had the experience of working for a bad leader, the kind that drains your energy, stifles your motivation, and makes Monday mornings feel like a dreadful chore. But great leaders do the opposite. And in a world evolving faster than ever, we can’t afford to leave leadership to chance. In today’s Leadership Spark, we’ll tackle two big questions: Will the leader of 2030 be different from today’s leader? And if so, how? Backe...

The rules of leadership have changed, but most leaders didn't get the memo. We’re leading in a time of constant disruption, fractured teams, and AI eating away at every corner of the workplace. It’s no longer enough to rely on outdated mindsets, old leadership playbooks, and hoping for the best. In this episode, we explore what real future-ready leadership looks like. Navy SEAL and leadership coach Rich Diviney shares why it’s not ...

We often think of employee experience as a checklist: better offices, better technology, better perks. But we’ve been missing the bigger picture all along. In today’s Leadership Spark, we dive deep into how employee experience has fundamentally evolved, and why it's now the most powerful lever leaders have to shape trust, loyalty, and performance at work. Drawing on research from 252 organizations and insights from 150 senior execu...