Your Working Life With Caroline Dowd-higgins

After graduating from Boston’s Emerson College in 1985, Tom headed west to work in the film and television industry. In Hollywood, he honed his writing skills through the trials and tribulations of episodic TV, animated series, screenplay options, and game shows for over two decades. When the feast or famine lifestyle of a Hollywood Writer became too sporadic for his maturing life (He had grown to enjoy eating two to three times a day – every day), he took a job at a call center to make ends meet. After his first day on the phones, his manager asked him to stop.  He was terrible at the entry-level position. Tom got easily frazzled, had no focus, and was simply in the wrong role. But rather than look to another company to find his niche, Tom looked inward to learn more about himself and the industry that didn’t want him. Tom leveraged his findings to change himself and the work environments he occupied. Climbing the corporate ladder one rung at a time, Tom evolved into an innovative leader with a proven track

Alison Fragle episode:  Distances by Beat Mekanik (source: Free Music Archive) (CC BY)    ALISON FRAGALE, PhD Speaker. Professor. Compulsive Organizer. Website www.alisonfragale.com Newsletter alisonfragale.substack.com ALISON FRAGALE is the Mary Farley Ames Lee Distinguished Scholar of Organizational Behavior at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina. Her scholarship has been published in the most prestigious academic journals in her field, and featured in prominent media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Financial Times, Boston Globe, and Inc. She is the author of the book, Likeable Badass: How Women Get the Success They Deserve, published by Penguin Random House on September 3, 2024. A sought-after keynote speaker and trusted advisor, she lives in Chicago with her family. Questions/topics to discuss: What is the difference between power and status? Why is status more important? What is the definition of a Likeable Badass and why is it the ke

Lori Rosenkopf is the Simon and Midge Palley Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. As Vice Dean for Entrepreneurship, she serves as Wharton’s faculty director for Venture Lab, Penn’s home for student entrepreneurs, and also their San Francisco campus. In a prior role as Vice Dean of Wharton’s Undergraduate Division, she introduced a new curriculum and developed experiential classwork in the tech sector. For over thirty years, Rosenkopf has taught entrepreneurship and management of technology to more than 20,000 high schoolers, undergraduates, MBAs, and executives, connecting these learners to many of the most entrepreneurial alumni at Wharton and Penn through treks, panels, and classes. Rosenkopf was named a Best Undergraduate Professor by Poets and Quants, and has received multiple awards for her teaching, including Wharton’s prestigious David Hauck Award for Distinguished Teaching. Rosenkopf has published more than thirty articles on technological communities and social network

Abby Davisson episode:  Quickening by malictusmusic (source: Free Music Archive) (CC BY)  Abby Davisson is an author, speaker, and award-winning leader obsessed with holistic decision-making (the kind that takes multiple bottom lines into account). After spending two decades making change from within existing organizations, she launched her own, focused on helping leaders make smart choices for lasting success in work and life. The book she co-wrote with Stanford Professor and labor economist Myra Strober, Money and Love: An Intelligent Roadmap for Life's Biggest Decisions, was called “brilliant” by professional poker player Annie Duke; named a top business book of 2023; and is required reading at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. Prior to launching the Money and Love Institute®, Abby’s professional experience included strategy-focused roles in the public, private, and non-profit sectors, including a decade at Gap Inc. where she led the Gap Foundation and co-founded the company’s employee resource

Distances by Beat Mekanik, via Free Music Archive (CC BY)    Wes Adams is the CEO of SV Consulting Group. He partners with Fortune 500s and scaling companies to develop high-impact leaders and design operating structures that support high performing teams. He is also a positive psychology researcher at the University of Pennsylvania where he studies the leadership practices and organizational structures that help employees thrive. He lives in Atlanta, GA.  LinkedIn  Website   Tamara Myles is a speaker, author, professor, and entrepreneur specializing in the science of human flourishing at work. She helps leaders and organizations like Microsoft, KPMG, and MassMutual unlock the power of meaningful work to drive peak performance, innovation, and resilience. A faculty member at Boston College and a researcher and instructor at the University of Pennsylvania, Tamara’s work challenges assumptions about work, showing that when leaders make work meaningful, they create thriving teams and lasting impact. She lives

Karen Freeman is Chief Product Officer at DCM Insights and one of the authors of the Activator research published in Harvard Business Review, titled "What Today's Rainmakers Do Differently."  That article was named one of HBR’s top 10 reads of 2025. At DCMi, she is one of the global faculty and responsible for the company’s training products and diagnostics.  She has delivered the Activator research and training programs across the globe to clients in the legal, consulting, accounting, and talent advisory sectors. Before joining DCMi, Karen was head of digital & analytics learning for generalist consultants at McKinsey & Company. She led a team upskilling roughly 17,000 consultants globally in topics including advanced analytics modeling, leading digital transformations, and agile methodology. Prior to McKinsey, Karen spent 13 years at Corporate Executive Board (CEB) in research and learning & development roles. There, she led three best practice membership organizations, developing insights, advi

Mark Fava episode:      Liberosis (Instrumental) by Nihilore, via Free Music Archive (CC BY)    Mark C. Fava is an author, retired Navy officer, and an aviation lawyer. He currently works as a Vice president at The Boeing Company. Fava flew as a Naval Flight Officer and Mission Commander in the P-3 Orion, accumulating more than 3,000 flight hours, tracking Soviet submarines during the Cold War. He retired in 2015 from the Navy Reserve as a Captain.  He has led a national aviation law practice at a major law firm. From 2001 to 2004, he worked as the Chief Operations Attorney for Delta Air Lines. He began his legal career as a federal judicial law clerk in Charleston. His first book Lessons from the Admiral, Naval Wisdom and Sea Stories for Leaders, was published in January 2025 and is an Amazon Bestseller. He is an entertaining speaker and lecturer.

Kweilin Ellingrud episode:      Glass Structures by Unheard Music Concepts, via Free Music Archive (CC BY)    Kweilin Ellingrud is McKinsey's Chief Diversity Officer and a director of the McKinsey Global Institute, based in Minneapolis. As a senior partner at McKinsey, she has led research on the topics of gender equality, racial equity, generative AI, the future of work, and global competitiveness. She also serves clients in financial services across strategy and operational transformations. She is the co-author of THE BROKEN RUNG: When the Career Ladder Breaks for Women--and How They Can Succeed in Spite of It, with fellow McKinsey senior partners Lareina Yee and María del Mar Martínez. Book Promo: The broken rung is more pervasive than the glass ceiling in holding women back from career success. Three McKinsey senior partners offer strategies for overcoming it and fulfilling your potential. Women around the world do extremely well when it comes to their education. They graduate at higher rates than me

Steve is a visual artist whose work has been displayed in numerous galleries, juried exhibitions, and prestigious corporate art spaces. He’s planning on transitioning to full-time artist from managing the creative side of a web design firm he founded 25 years ago. Previously, Steve had engaged in numerous careers: media training, tech journalism, book writing (he penned more than 50 solo titles and collaborations, including a million-copy, bestselling parenting book). He was also the founder of a successful ad agency and founder of numerous ill-conceived small businesses that failed miserably. Prior to striking out on his own, Steve had intended to become an academic in the field of ancient Chinese science and technology. But after receiving his masters in East Asian studies from Harvard, he decided that academia was not for him. From the outside, his professional life seems to be a maze of disparate paths; from the inside, it’s all logical stepping stones.  Topics: What I’ve Learned from 50+ years of Making

  Anjali Sharma The music used in this episode is Upstream Color by Mark Wilson X Source: Free Music Archive (CC BY)    Website: https://narrative.com.sg/storytelling/blog/author/anjali/ Anjali Sharma is the founder of Narrative: The Business of Stories and is one of the most sought-after keynote speakers trusted by international brands seeking guidance on finding, developing, and using their stories to make a dynamic change happen. Sharma works with private and government organizations to determine what their individual and unique business challenges are, and by incorporating story skills, she crafts individualized solutions to help solve those challenges. She is based in Singapore.   Anjali Sharma introduces leaders and ambitious influencers to the Who, Why and How of strategic storytelling in business, enabling them bring about change and drive corporate success by telling exactly the right story in the right way.   Book: Strategic Storytelling: Why Some Stories Drive Your Success at Wo

  Website: https://secure.ice/?https://www.crushyourmoneygoals.com/ BERNADETTE JOY isn’t just another financial expert—she is a passionate advocate for financial literacy and empowerment and a sought-after financial coach and speaker. Having paid off $300,000 in debt by age 37 she is a living testament to the power of smart money habits having achieved a net worth of $1 million in her 30s as a first-generation Filipina-American. Bernadette’s story is proof that anyone can take control of their finances and thrive. Since launching Crush Your Money Goals® in 2020, she has impacted thousands of people nationwide, offering down-to-earth financial education that’s both fun and relatable. Bernadettes has been featured in Forbes, on CNBC, ACCESS Hollywood, Good Morning America, Publishers Weekly, and recognized as one of The 25 Most Influential New Voices of Money, Now with CRUSH Your Money Goals, she’s making financial education more accessible, actionable and enjoyable than ever before. Book promo: Financial coach

Jacqueline Carter is an international partner and leads Potential Project in North America. She has worked across industries with top companies including Cisco, Disney, Accenture, Kimberly-Clark, and Royal Bank of Canada to navigate the challenges of leadership and successfully implement complex changes for large organizations. She is the coauthor, with Rasmus Hougaard, of Compassionate Leadership and The Mind of the Leader. Book: More Human: How the Power of AI Can Transform the Way You Lead by Jacqueline Carter and Rasmus Hougaard (NOTE: co-author)  AI has the potential to transform leadership and business—or to lead us toward an automated and uninspiring work experience. Which will it be? Humans have always been good at inventing tools that change the way we live and work, but not always good at adapting to those changes. The internet has given us instant access to gigabytes of data and yet has made us more distracted. Social media has enabled constant connection to our networks and yet it can also alienat

  Melody Wilding:  The music used in this episode is Simulator by Scanglobe Source: Free Music Archive (CC BY-NC-SA)   MANAGING UP: How To Get What You Need from the People in Charge By Melody Wilding   An indispensable guide to navigating power dynamics, building effective relationships with higher-ups, and earning more authority, freedom, and confidence at work—from one of today’s “most innovative career coaches” (Insider).  Do you feel vulnerable to the whims of your boss, peers, or internal politics, pushing through each day with a nagging undercurrent of anxiety? Maybe you’re micromanaged, interrupted in meetings, saddled with busy work, or overlooked for career opportunities. But what if you could subtly teach those above you to value your ideas and treat you with respect—without ever changing your job title? Human behavior professor and award-winning executive career coach Melody Wilding has helped thousands of clients advocate for their needs at work while navigating the minefield of office

Dr. Rosalind Chow is a professor of Organizational Behavior and Theory at the Tepper School of Business, and also affiliated with the Social and Decision Sciences group at Dietrich College. Her research, teaching, and writing focus on how we all participate in social systems in ways that have implications for the maintenance or attenuation of inequitable outcomes.  She currently serves as the faculty director for CLIMB, offered through the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University in partnership with Deloitte. CLIMB focuses on preparing Black and Latino professionals for leadership positions in the accounting industry. Prior to CLIMB, she served as the founding faculty director for the Executive Leadership Academy, an executive leadership program addressing the challenges facing the advancement of Black leaders in the Pittsburgh region.  She holds a BA in Psychology from Columbia University, and a PhD in Organizational Behavior from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. THE DOORS YOU CAN OPE

The music used in this episode is Keeping Score by Independent Music Licensing Collective (IMLC) Source: Free Music Archive (CC BY-NC-ND)   In her 18 years at Google, Jenny Wood grew from entry-level to executive, and she most recently led a large operations team that helped drive billions in revenue per year. In 2021, she started a passion project within Google called Own Your Career, which grew to one of the largest career development programs in Google’s history. Through the program she founded, she has trained tens of thousands of people on: acing a job search, building relationships, personal branding, effective email writing, landing the right mentor, maximizing workplace influence, and most importantly, increasing confidence. Jenny’s writing has been featured in Harvard Business Review, Entrepreneur, Inc., and Forbes. She is an FAA-licensed private pilot, a daily hiker, an improv student, a tap dancer, and a zucchini bread connoisseur. She lives in Boulder, Colorado with her two young children and her

Sabina Nawaz episode: The music used in this episode was Sweeping Broomstick by Jangwa from Free Music Archive (CC BY)  YOU’RE THE BOSS: Become the Manager You Want to Be (and Others Need)   Sabina Nawaz is an elite executive coach who advises C-level executives and teams at Fortune 500 corporations, government agencies, nonprofits, and academic institutions around the world. Sabina gives dozens of keynotes, seminars, and conferences each year and teaches faculty at Northeastern and Drexel Universities.  During her fourteen-year tenure at Microsoft, she went from managing software development teams to leading the company’s executive development and succession planning efforts for over 11,000 managers and nearly a thousand executives, advising Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer directly.  She has written for and been featured in Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, NBC, Nasdaq, and MarketWatch.  Millions of managers in today’s global economy—16 million in the U.S. alon

  Jennifer Moss episode:  The music used in this episode was Senility by Jangwa from Free Music Archive (CC BY)    Jennifer Moss specializes in future-focused leadership development, expertly balancing employee well-being with performance. As an award-winning writer and internationally acclaimed keynote speaker, she specializes in transforming workplace culture using data-driven leadership strategies. Her book, The Burnout Epidemic tackled employee burnout and was among Thinkers50's "10 Best New Management Books for 2022."   Book: WHY ARE WE HERE: Creating a Work Culture Everyone Wants by Jennifer Moss (Jan) Website: https://www.jennifer-moss.com/why-are-we-here-book Questions/topics for discussion: 1.     Your title asks a big, existential question - what is its significance and how does it relate to worker sentiment today?     2.     Your previous books covered happiness at work and then the burnout epidemic at work. What is the thread that connects these three topics? They relate to health, happines

  The music used in this episode was Hurt by Unheard Music Concepts from Free Music Archive (CC BY)  Website: https://www.theconflictdocs.com/Home Book: HOW TO GET ALONG WITH ANYONE: The Playbook for Predicting and Preventing Conflict at Work and at Home by John Eliot and Jim Guinn The average American worker spends 156 hours a year engaged in moderate-to-intense workplace conflict, and managers spend twenty-six percent of their time addressing and resolving conflicts on their teams. It doesn’t have to be this way. Drs. John Eliot and Jim Guinn have three decades of experience building and facilitating team chemistry for Fortune 500 companies, professional sports franchises, schools, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and families. Eliot and Guinn discovered that people respond to conflict in one of five ways: avoid, compete, analyze, collaborate, or accommodate. If you can predict how someone will behave in a given circumstance, you can formulate a game plan. The secret is knowing which of the f

Deborah Perry Piscione is cofounder of the Work3 Institute, an AI and Web3 advisory firm. She is also a Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and innovation and future-of-work thought leader. She is the author of multiple books, including the New York Times bestseller Secrets of Silicon Valley. She was previously a staffer in the U.S. Congress and at the White House, and she served as an on-air commentator on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News.  Website: https://work3.me/book/  Book: EMPLOYMENT IS DEAD: How Disruptive Technologies Are Revolutionizing the Way We Work by Deborah Perry Piscione, Josh Drean (Jan) Book promo: With disruptive technologies on the horizon, traditional employment models are becoming outdated. How will your organization adapt to the evolving landscape of work? Business is on the cusp of a profound transformation. Conventional work models are failing to adapt to the evolving needs and expectations of the modern workforce. Simultaneously, the emergence of disruptive technologies

LEAD WELL: 5 Mindsets to Engage, Retain, and Inspire Your TeamBy Paula Davis A holistic, research-backed framework that helps leaders design healthier team cultures to unlock high-performance and increase well-being intelligence at work. In the wake of the pandemic and on the cusp of the generative AI revolution, the world of work has undergone a seismic shift. Chronic stress, burnout, and employee disengagement have reached crisis levels, and leaders are struggling to keep their teams motivated and inspired amid relentless change and uncertainty. Conventional management approaches are no longer sufficient, demanding a new leadership framework to address the root causes of these challenges. To meet this moment, Lead Well: 5 Mindsets to Engage, Retain, and Inspire Your Team provides a timely and practical blueprint for a new era of leadership. Drawing on extensive research and workshops with thousands of leaders, Paula Davis, founder and CEO of the Stress & Resilience Institute and author of Beating B