Leadership
Matthew Harrington
Election Reflection: When Does a Vision Become ...

Reflecting on the recent election, the Harris campaign's lack of a clear and compelling vision became evident in contrast to Trump’s well-communicated stance, making it challenging for voters to see her future for America. Drawing from the change formula, a successful campaign requires acknowledging dissatisfaction, defining a visionary goal, and setting clear steps toward achieving it—elements that were more apparent in Obama’s 2008 campaign, where “hope and change” aligned with voters' aspirations and activated widespread engagement. Ultimately, the Harris campaign's struggles highlight the need for leaders to craft a vision that resonates powerfully and unites people around a shared purpose, as fear alone can often overshadow hope if it lacks sufficient clarity and preparation.

Election Reflection: When Does a Vision Become Lost—or Was It Never Realized in the First Place?
Leadership
Matthew Harrington
Lincoln’s Leadership: A Blueprint for Resilient ...

As Election Day 2024 nears, reflecting on Abraham Lincoln’s legacy offers valuable insights into adaptive leadership, resilience, and unity. Known for his humility, conviction, and strategic flexibility, Lincoln showed how true leaders use disruptions to inspire lasting change. This election, we can look to Lincoln’s example of courage and empathy, guiding us to face challenges boldly and strive for a united future.

Lincoln’s Leadership: A Blueprint for Resilient Leadership Beyond Election Day
People, Leadership
Matthew Harrington
Navigating Conflict in the Workplace: The ...

Conflict at work is inevitable, but with the right tools, it can become an opportunity for growth. In this post we explore how leaders can guide teams through conflict by understanding how the brain processes emotions through the downstairs, middle room, and upstairs functions of the brain.

Navigating Conflict in the Workplace: The Downstairs, Middle Room and Upstairs of Resolution
Culture, People
Matthew Harrington
Belief-Behavior Conversations In Action: How ...

Belief-behavior conversations, as we discussed in our e-book: Revitalize and Retain Staff, aim to address the root causes behind actions, rather than merely correcting surface-level behavior. Pixar’s leadership used this approach to facilitate open, meaningful dialogues, helping the team uncover the underlying beliefs fueling their actions. Once these beliefs were identified, leaders guided team members toward reframing them, creating lasting behavioral change.

Belief-Behavior Conversations In Action: How Pixar Transformed Team Dynamics and Communication
People, Leadership, Culture
Matthew Harrington
Leadership Growth Lattice in Action: How ...

Discover how LinkedIn transformed employee growth and retention with the Leadership Growth Lattice, a modern alternative to traditional career ladders. By encouraging skill development, cross-functional teamwork, mentorship, volunteerism, and alignment with personal life goals, LinkedIn fostered a culture of continuous learning and flexibility. This holistic approach empowered employees, reduced turnover, and fueled innovation, positioning LinkedIn as a top employer in the competitive tech industry.

Leadership Growth Lattice in Action: How LinkedIn Embraced Holistic Employee Development to Drive Retention and Innovation
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XPollination (Ep. 20) - Millennials and Talent Development

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XPollination (Ep. 20) - Millennials and Talent Development

Today we have special guest Bruce Tulgan, bestselling author of It's Okay to Be the Boss, Not Everyone Gets a Trophy and his most recent book, Bridging the Soft Skills Gap, joining us for our 20th episode. Bruce is internationally recognized as the leading expert on young people in the workplace and one of the leading experts on leadership and management. Bruce has worked with tens of thousands of leaders and managers in hundreds of organizations ranging from Aetna to Wal-Mart; from the Army to the YMCA.  Bruce was named by Management Today as one of the few contemporary figures to stand out as a “management guru.” Bruce also lectures at the Yale Graduate School of Management and writes articles for many different associations including TRAINING magazine and the Huffington Post.  Before founding his company, RainmakerThinking in 1993, Bruce practiced law at the Wall Street firm of Carter, Ledyard & Milburn.

Perhaps We Don’t Have a Generational Problem?

Perhaps We Don’t Have a Generational Problem?

In the past year I have seen growing discontent with the focus on generations either in media, training or general discussions.  “Why do we talk so much about the generations, especially the Millennials,” many people have begun to ask.  Or I’ve heard, “This is a sham, another way to put complex people into simplified boxes.”  I can’t say I completely disagree with these arguments.  People are amazingly complex with many beliefs, different personalities and various values.

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Millennials with Matt Episode 5: Why Millennials Are Vital To Your Workplace!

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Millennials with Matt Episode 5: Why Millennials Are Vital To Your Workplace!

Generational specialist Matt Harrington discusses key reasons why the Millennial generation (1980-2001) are necessary and vital to our current workplace including the ability to handle a VUCA world, demanding a more nimble and agile organization and their ability to be social sharers of your company.

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XPollination (Ep. 19) - Millennial Grit and Resilience

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XPollination (Ep. 19) - Millennial Grit and Resilience

As a dynamic consultant, coach, and educator, Sarah Scala has over 15 years of experience in supporting organization development, leadership, and change management for diverse organizations. She is passionate about creating solutions that strengthen interpersonal skills and support change with individuals, teams, and organizations.

We met when Sarah was giving a presentation on “Sustaining Success through Mindfulness, Optimism, Resilience and Grit.”  I was especially interested around the topic of resilience and grit and how Millennials fit into the equation.  Do we have resilience and grit as a generation?  Most older generations would argue that these core elements are lacking in this generation?  Can we build grit and resilience? 

So we invited Sarah onto the show to discuss with us a bit more about resilience, grit and success.  

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Millennials with Matt Episode 4: Becoming an 'Adaptive Coach' Through Situational Leadership

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Millennials with Matt Episode 4: Becoming an 'Adaptive Coach' Through Situational Leadership

What does it take as a manager to start to create a healthy and vibrant relationship with your younger workers?  Generational expert Matt Harrington talks about becoming the 'Adaptive Coach' and utilizing Blanchard's Situational Leadership model to understand how every employee evolves.

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XPollination (Ep. 18) - Special Guest Dan Schawbel LIVE from the #VTSHRM15 Conference

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XPollination (Ep. 18) - Special Guest Dan Schawbel LIVE from the #VTSHRM15 Conference

XPollination was asked by the conference committee at #VTSHRM15 to do an exclusive interview with nationally-renowned Millennial speaker, Dan Schawbel. Dan Schawbel is the Founder of WorkplaceTrends.com, a research and advisory membership service for forward-thinking HR professionals, as well as the Managing Partner of Millennial Branding, a Gen Y research and consulting firm. Dan is the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Promote Yourself: The New Rules For Career Success (St. Martin’s Press) and the #1 international bestselling book, Me 2.0: 4 Steps to Building Your Future

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XPollination (Ep. 17) - Millennial Women

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XPollination (Ep. 17) - Millennial Women

XPollination was live from the 15th Annual SHRM Vermont State Conference for this special edition of the podcast.  This year the conference is titled, HRevolution: Change Tomorrow Today.  What better way to talk about changing tomorrow today then to discuss the young, game-changing professionals themselves, the Millennials.  I’ll be presenting at this conference shortly after the podcast at 3pm, but I also noticed another group of individuals presenting on Millennials with a unique twist – and this obviously peaked my interest!  The two women I have joining me for XPollination are Jessica Sabick of Vermont Energy Investment Corp. and Lindsey Lathrop-Ryan of Change the Story VT, and both have just finished their presentation on Attracting and Retaining Millennial Women to Your Company. We'll take a deeper dive into their presentation and the topic of Millennial women.

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Millennials with Matt Episode 3: Growing Millennials' Careers With a Leadership Lattice

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Millennials with Matt Episode 3: Growing Millennials' Careers With a Leadership Lattice

A leadership lattice, unlike a leadership ladder, looks to expand a young professional's leadership capability by using a cross-section of many leadership opportunities both in and outside of work. Millennial expert Matt Harrington talks about how a good coach or manager is constantly building a leadership lattice with their Millennial workers to provide maximum retention and growth potential.

NEWS: Social Learning and Technology in the New Workplace Will Be The Focus of Harrington’s Talk With The Hudson-Mohawk Association for Talent Development

NEWS: Social Learning and Technology in the New Workplace Will Be The Focus of Harrington’s Talk With The Hudson-Mohawk Association for Talent Development

On Friday, September 18th at 8:00am the Hudson-Mohawk Chapter of the Association for Talent Development (formerly American Society for Training and Development) will host Matt Harrington, author, trainer and speaker at an event that focuses on organizational learning and preparing for the new “social” worker.  

XPollination (Ep. 16) - Millennials and Branding

XPollination (Ep. 16) - Millennials and Branding

Special guest Jacques Bastien: Millennial Marketer, Hustlepreneur, Professor, Speaker, Writer, Designer, Founder of boogie, Breadcrumbs, and Authenpic is joining us today on another edition of XPollination.  The founder of boogie (boogie.nyc), a disruptive social media and viral marketing agency helping brands engage with Millennials through photos, videos, music and conversations, Jacques has offices in Albany NY, Brooklyn NY and Los Angeles, CA .  He is also a partner/investor/founder at a few others startups, including Cased Up (casedup.co), Breadcrumbs (trybreadcrumbs.com), Authenpic (authenpicapp.com), and What The Fee (whatthefee.co).

Jacques’s passion is in technology, startups, entrepreneurship, fashion, and social media. He runs a blog called hustlepreneur.co to help inspire, motivate and educate other young entrepreneurs. He is currently writing a book with my wife about young relationships. This book will feature stories from their relationship.

Jacques was the featured speaker this week at Startup Grind, which is powered by Google for entrepreneurs, as an up and coming young entrepreneur to watch.