The WFH Show

#14 – David Zinger, Professional Speaker and Employee Engagement Expert

Nikki’s guest is David Zinger, a leading employee engagement speaker, educator, and community builder. David has over 24,000 hours’ experience working in employee engagement in over eight countries and has taught education and counselling at the University of Manitoba for over 20 years. Among many topics, David talks about how to make well-being and employee engagement programs authentic. And, drawing on his background in psychology, he discusses workplace place anxiety and the complexity and ambiguity facing leaders striving to create safe workplaces during the current climate. If you want to hear from one of the industry's best, this is the episode for you! Check out the video podcast here: https://youtu.be/C0bc6r5z_jM [https://youtu.be/C0bc6r5z_jM]

#13 – Mark Simpson, Vice President of Legendary People at Texas Roadhouse

Nikki’s guest is Mark Simpson, Vice President of Legendary People at the Texas Roadhouse restaurant chain, which has 56,00 employees at 563 locations, plus their support center (HQ). Stressing the importance of flexibility and communication, Mark has helped his team achieve some incredible things since the start of COVID, like handling a 600% increase in takeout business. And there have been no layoffs or pay cuts (except some executives taking voluntary cuts) - so you know they’re doing something right!  Mark also talks about the importance of transparency and how recognition and appreciation are more important than ever. If you’re in the food service industry you’ll definitely want to hear Mark’s many great insights and tips! Watch the video podcast: https://youtu.be/KG89f3LFUCU

#12 – Jackie Kindall, CEO at Kindall Evolve Consulting

Nikki’s guest is Jackie Kindall, CEO of Kindall Evolve Consulting, which provides, executive coaching, leadership development programs, and organizational consulting. Jackie tells us that we need to realize that we are experiencing massive change and that we should be aware of the accompanying emotions and be gentle with ourselves and others. She says that appreciation and recognition are especially important at this time, adding that it is important to understand how your team members like to be recognized (publicly or privately for example). Looking ahead to returning to “normal,” Jackie says we must realize that some people will be fearful so we must take that into account and acknowledge that it’s okay to not be okay. Listen to the podcast for the rest of Jackie’s great insights and tips.

#11 – Angie Duong, Manager, People & Culture at Avanti

Nikki’s guest is Angie Duong, Manager, People and Culture at Avanti Software Inc., makers of cloud-based, HR solutions that help to recruit manage and retain employees. During COVID-19, Angie has been busy facilitating ways to be sure her team stays connected. These include increasing the cadence of CEO-led “all hands on deck” meetings (often focusing on gratitude), and innovative activities like “5 in 5,” a cool activity where people use five slides and talk about themselves for five minutes. Great idea! Angie and her team have been pleased to see the viability of hiring people virtually (Avanti hasn’t stopped hiring in the WFH era) as well as conducting successful virtual training sessions. Angie says Avanti plans to carry over many of these new practices and activities once things get back to “normal.” Listen to the podcast to get more great tips from Angie. Watch the video podcast: https://youtu.be/nj8ZsjYXd-Q

#10 – Kevin Kruse, Founder + CEO at LEADx

Nikki’s guest is Kevin Kruse, author of several books and a contributor to Business Week, Fast Company, Business Insider and Forbes. He is also the founder and CEO of LEADx.org, a next generation AI-powered leadership development and management training company. Kevin tells us how AI can help us – and our managers – be aware of our personality type which in turn can guide us to better, customized WFH strategies. He notes that managers should be less concerned that people are working too little at home, but rather too much – which can lead to burn out. He also tells us how important recognition is, and suggests that since we are missing physical interactions around the office, companies should use systems (like Kudos, for example😉) that take “take the friction out of recognition” for remote team members. Watch the Video Podcast: https://youtu.be/lhGX4Wr1UxA